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MLP-SEMO

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SEMO 2

[ "This is a division of application Ser.", "No. 07/127,138, filed 12/1/87, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,845,537.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a vertical type MOS transistor, a plurality of which may be arranged on a surface of a semiconductor chip so as to yield high density.", "Such a transistor may be used, for example, as part of a cross-point memory cell in a dynamic random access memory (DRAM).", "Until now, very large scale integration (VLSI) in semiconductor devices has been carried out by microscopic techniques.", "However, recently the limit of these microscopic techniques has been reached.", "Accordingly, lithography techniques have been implemented in hopes not only of surpassing this limit, but also of improving the structure of semiconductor devices.", "FIGS. 1 and 2 are a plan view and a cross-sectional view of a cross-point cell proposed as a basic cell of a DRAM in accordance with what has just been discussed.", "The cross-point cell has been disclosed in an article entitled "FAM 19.5: A 4Mb DRAM with Cross-Point Trench Transistor Cell", by Ashwin H. Shah et al.", ", ISSCC 86.", "Feb. 21.", "1986, pp. 268-269 and also in an article entitled "A Trench Transistor Cross-Point DRAM Cell"", "by W. F. Richardson et al.", ", IEDM 85, pp. 714-717.", "In FIG. 1, an n+ diffused region 1 and a poly-Si layer 2 are disposed orthogonally with respect to each other in a plane.", "A trench 3 is located at a cross-point between the diffused region 1 and the layer 2, and a cross-point memory cell is formed in the trench.", "The portion of the diffused region 1 in the vicinity of the memory cell functions as the drain region of a MOS transistor, and the portion of the diffused region 1 located between the drain regions functions as a bit line.", "The portion of the layer 2 located in the vicinity of the memory cell functions as a gate electrode of the transistor, and the portions of the layers 2 located between the gate electrodes function as a word line.", "In FIG. 2, a semiconductor substrate 11 comprises a p+ type substrate 11a and a p type epitaxial layer 11b.", "The trench 3 is formed through the major surface of the epitaxial layer 11b and into the substrate 11a.", "A storage dielectric layer 9 is formed along the side walls and the bottom of the trench 3.", "A poly-Si storage node 8 is put in a bottom portion of the trench 3 and is insulated from the semiconductor substrate 11 by the storage dielectric layer 9.", "The storage node 8, the dielectric layer 9, and the substrate 11a together constitute the capacitor of the cross-point DRAM cell.", "An n-type buried lateral contact 7 is diffused in the epitaxial layer 11b and connected to the upper end of the storage node 8.", "The buried lateral contact 7 functions as the source of MOS transistor in the cross-point cell.", "A gate insulator 6 is formed on the top of the storage node 8, along the side wall of the epitaxial layer 11b facing the trench 3, and on the major surface of the epitaxial layer 11b surrounding the trench 3.", "A gate electrode 10 is formed on the gate insulator 6 located on top of the storage node 8, along the side wall of the epitaxial layer 11b.", "and over the gate insulator 6 surrounding the trench 3.", "The gate electrode 10 is the part of the poly-Si layer 2.", "A diffused region 1 is formed in the major surface of the epitaxial layer 11b surrounding the trench 3.", "Part of the region 1 contacts the gate insulator 6.", "A channel region 5 is formed along the sidewall of the epitaxial layer 11b facing the trench 3 between the diffused region 1 and the buried electrical contact 7.", "A field insulator 4 is formed on the major surface of the epitaxial layer 11b surrounding the diffused layer 1 and part of it contacts the diffused region 1.", "In the above constructed cross-point memory cell, the lengths W 1 and W 2 , as shown in FIG. 1, are 2.6 μm and 3.4 μm.", "Next, the process of the above-described conventional semiconductor memory device with a plurality of cross-point cells will be explained.", "As shown in FIG. 3(a).", "the trench 15 is formed through the major surface of the epitaxial layer 11b and into the substrate 11a for each memory cell region by RIE.", "The field insulator 14 is formed in the major surface of the epitaxial layer 11b surrounding and separating the trenches 15.", "The diffused region 13 is formed by ion injection in the major surface of the epitaxial layer 11b surrounding the trench 15.", "One side of the diffused region 13 contacts the sidewall of the trench 15 and other side contacts a end of the field insulator 14.", "A thin insulating layer 16 is formed on the sidewalls and bottom of the trench 15 and the major surface of the epitaxial layer 11b between the trench 15 and the field insulator 14.", "In FIG. 3(b), a n+ poly-Si layer 17 is put in the trench so as to fill all of the trench 15 within the substrate 11a and part of the trench extending through the epitaxial layer 11b, and then the upper portions of the insulating layer 16 are etched to a point below the level of the poly-Si layer 17.", "As a result, a gap 18 is formed between the poly-Si layer 16 and the epitaxial layer 11b.", "In FIG. 3(c).", "a thin poly-Si layer is deposited on the poly-Si layer 17 to fill the gap 18.", "The remaining thin poly-Si other than that in the gap 18 is removed by an appropriate directional etching method.", "As a result, a buried lateral contact is formed.", "Thus, the capacitor is formed by the poly-Si layer 17, the insulating layer 16 and the substrate 11b.", "In FIG. 3(d).", "a gate insulator 19 is formed on top of the poly-Si layer 17, along the sidewall of the trench 15 within the epitaxial layer 11b, and over the diffused region 13.", "A gate electrode 20 is formed on the gate insulator 19.", "The gate electrode 20 and the word line are formed at the same time, the gate electrode 20 being part of the word line.", "Thus, the MOS transistor is formed by the diffused region 13, the buried lateral contact 21 formed in the previous step, the gate insulator 19 and the gate electrode 20.", "In the above constructed semiconductor memory device, the distance between the top of the poly-Si layer 17 and the diffused region 13 constitutes the channel length of MOS transistor.", "Thus, the etching of the poly-Si layer 17 has to be controlled very accurately.", "Further, the doping of the channel region is remarkably influenced by auto-doping from the under layer during epitaxial growth and diffusion from the under layer during thermal treatment.", "As a result, the uniformity and reproduction of the proper characteristics of the MOS transistor are influenced considerably.", "As the channel region is formed in the wall surface which faces in a different direction, non-uniformity of the threshold voltage of the MOS transistor results.", "Further, as the gap between the poly-Si layer and the epitaxial layer results from the formation of the additional thin poly-Si layer and then the removal of unnecessary portions of the thin poly-Si layer by plasma etching using CF 4 , crystal defects result in the semiconductor surface forming the channel region.", "As a result, the overall characteristic of the MOS transistor is degraded.", "In view of the structure, when the distance between memory cells is shortened in the above semiconductor memory device, the transistor of one cross-point cell may cause charging of the capacitor of an adjacent cross-point cell, resulting in improper operation of the memory.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the foregoing disadvantages, it is one object of the present invention to provide a vertical type MOS transistor having the correct channel length.", "It is a further object of the invention to provide a vertical MOS transistor providing uniformity and reproduction of the appropriate characteristics.", "It is another object of this invention to provide a vertical type MOS transistor which can be formed in a substrate with high density.", "In order to accomplish these and other objects, the vertical type MOS transistor of the invention has a first source-drain region formed selectively in a semiconductor substrate, an insulating layer formed on the major surface of the substrate, a second semiconductor layer formed along the side walls and bottom wall of a trench region which is formed through the major surface of the insulating layer to at least the major surface of the first region, a third semiconductor layer, as a second source-drain region, formed continuously from the upper end of the second layer on the major surface of the insulating layer, a gate insulator formed on the surface of the second layer and third layer and facing at least the trench region, and a gate electrode formed on the gate insulator disposed in at least the trench region.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The present invention now will be described in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: FIG. 1 is a plan view of a conventional cross-point cell;", "FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along a line II--II in FIG. 1;", "FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing each formation step of the conventional cross-point cell;", "FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a vertical MOS transistor in accordance with the present invention;", "FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view showing each step of formation of the vertical MOS transistor in accordance with the present invention;", "FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of a cross-point cell in accordance with the present invention, and FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of another vertical MOS transistor in accordance with the present invention.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT FIG. 4 shows a p-type Si monocrystalline semiconductor substrate 21 having a major surface of the (1,0,0) type.", "A first source-drain region 22 is formed selectively in the major surface of the semiconductor substrate 21 by high density doping of arsenic.", "A 1 μm thick insulating SiO 2 layer 23 also is formed on the major surface of the substrate 21.", "A trench 20 is formed through the major surface of the insulating layer 23 and into the substrate 21 through the center of the first source-drain region 22 by reactive ion etching (RIE).", "The side walls of the trench 20 form a 60° to 90° angle with the major surface of the substrate 21.", "A second monocrystalline Si layer 24 is formed along the side walls and bottom of the trench 20.", "The second layer 24 is grown epitaxially by annealing the amorphous Si layer at about 600° C. A third semiconductor layer 25 is formed by high-density ion implantation of As continuously from the upper end of the second layer 24 on the major surface of the insulating layer 23.", "At this time, the layer 25 is used as a mask.", "On the other hand, during this heat treatment appropriate impurities are diffused in the region 25a just underlying where the gate electrode will be, and so the region 25a becomes a part of a second source-drain region.", "An n-type region 28 is simultaneously formed by diffusing impurities from the first source-drain region 22, so that the region 28 becomes a part of the first source-drain region.", "The part of the second semiconductor layer 24 between the regions 25a and 28 functions as a channel region, and the length of the channel region is the same as the thickness of the insulating layer 23.", "An SiO 2 gate insulator 26 is formed on the second and third layers 24 and 25.", "A poly-Si or silicide gate electrode 27 is formed on the gate insulator disposed in and near the trench 20.", "Next, the steps for producing the above described vertical MOS transistor will be explained.", "First, as shown in FIG. 5(a).", "As is ion-implanted selectively in the major surface of the semiconductor substrate 21 to a concentration of 2×10 5 /cm 2 at 50 keV by a photo-lithographic method, and then the diffused region 22 which is used as the first source-drain region, is formed by heat-treatment.", "The 1 μm thick SiO 2 insulating layer 23 is formed on the major surface of the semiconductor substrate 21 by low pressure chemical vapor deposition (CVD).", "as shown in FIG. 5(b).", "The insulator 23 and the diffused region 22 are simultaneously etched to form the trench 20 having a vertical side wall, as shown in FIG. 5(c).", "The poly-Si layer 29, which constitutes the second and third semiconductor layers, is deposited on all of the major surface of the insulator 23 by low pressure CVD to a thickness of 2000Å, and then Si is ion implanted obliquely in the layer 29 to a concentration of 5×10 15 /cm 2 at 50 keV.", "As a result, the layer 29 is changed to an amorphous-Si layer.", "The heat-treatment is continuously done at 600° C. for 8 hours.", "As a result, the amorphous.", "Si layer 29 located near the side wall of the insulator 23 facing the trench 20 is changed to a monocrystalline Si layer 24, as shown in FIG. 5(d), as the layer 29 grows epitaxially up along the side wall of the insulator 23 to pick up the crystallization of the monocrystalline Si in the diffused region 22.", "Next, as shown in FIG. 5(e).", "material is oxidized in the presence of dry O 2 at 100° C. to form a 200Å thick gate insulation 26 on the layer 29.", "A poly-Si layer which is phosphorous-doped, is deposited on the gate insulator 26 and in the trench 20, and pattern-etched to form a gate electrode 27 on the gate insulator 26 and disposed at least in the trench 20, as shown in FIG. 5(f).", "Arsenic (As) ions are continuously implanted in the semiconductor layer 29 over the gate insulator 26, as shown in FIG. 5(f), so that the surface layer of the semiconductor layer is changed to an n type layer 25.", "As ions, implanted in the layer 25, are diffused in the upper end of the monocrystalline Si layer 24 by heat-treating, and the resulting diffused region 25a becomes a part of second source-drain region.", "Arsenic ions, which are in the first source-drain region 22, similarly, are diffused in the bottom of the monocrystalline Si layer 24 by this heat-treating and the resulting diffused region 28 also becomes a part of the first source-drain region 22.", "As a result, the channel region of the MOS transistor is the layer 24 between the diffused regions 25a and 28, and the length of the channel region is the same as the thickness of the insulator 23.", "In the vertical MOS transistor thus produced, the length of the channel is determined by the thickness of the insulator 23, and is not influenced by the depth of the trench 20.", "Accordingly, the characteristic of the transistor is not influenced by any unevenness of etching in formation of the trench 20.", "For example, when the transistor as shown in FIG. 4 and the transistor as shown in FIG. 5(f) are compared, the trenches have different depths, but if the thicknesses of both insulators are the same, the length of both channels are the same and the characteristics of both transistors are the same without being influenced by the depth of the trench.", "In other words, since the characteristic of the transistor is not influenced by the depth of the trench, and it is easier to control the thickness of the insulator 23, the uniformity and reproducibility of the characteristics of the vertical MOS transistor are most satisfactory.", "On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 4 and FIG. 5(f), the vertical MOS transistor in accordance with the invention is the kind of SOI (silicon on insulator) device which makes the under face of the transistor the side wall of the insulator 23 facing the trench 20.", "Accordingly, the vertical MOS transistor in accordance with the invention has a characteristic that the electric isolation between the adjoining transistors is certain because of the isolation provided by the insulator 23.", "And if the vertical MOS transistor in accordance with the invention is used as a switching transistor of memory cell of dynamic RAM (Random Access Memory), a high density DRAM is possible.", "FIG. 6 shows a cross-sectional view of the memory cell of a DRAM comprising a plurality of vertical MOS transistors in accordance with the invention.", "In FIG. 6, similar elements are similarly numbered as in FIG. 4. Referring to FIG. 6, a semiconductor substrate 21 has a P+ type substrate 21a and P- type epitaxial layer 21b.", "A capacitor of a cross-point memory cell is mainly formed in the substrate 21a, and the first source-drain region 22 is formed in the epitaxial layer 21b just on the capacitor region.", "One electrode of the capacitor includes the substrate 21a, and the other electrode of the capacitor includes n+ type poly-Si which is buried in the trench formed in the semiconductor substrate 21.", "The dielectric layer 16 is formed along the side walls and bottom of the trench between the substrate 21a and the poly-Si 17.", "FIG. 7 shows a cross-sectional view of another vertical MOS transistor in accordance with the invention.", "In FIG. 7, similar elements are similarly numbered as in FIG. 4. The only difference between both embodiments as shown in FIG. 4 and 7 is whether the region in which the transistor is formed is all or part of the wall of the trench.", "In the above embodiments, the trench 20 is a hole, but it may be a groove.", "Also, the angle which the side walls of this trench make with the substrate 21 may be 60° to 90°.", "Also, the gate electrode 27 may be silicide instead of poly-Si.", "Thus, what is specifically described as presently preferred is not intended to limit the scope of the invention.", "Rather, the invention is to be measured by the appended claims which follow immediately." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an attachment structure of a slide rail cover to a vehicle body, and more particularly to an attachment structure of a slide rail cover to a vehicle body which can improve the fitting precision and facilitate the assembly of the slide rail cover to the vehicle body.", "Description of the Related Art For example, as shown in FIG. 9, there exists a case where an attachment portion 2 provided at an upper portion of a fender panel 1 is fixed to a front pillar 3 with a screw 4 and an attachment portion 5 provided at a lower portion of the fender panel 1 is fixed to a side sill 6 with a bolt 7 (refer to JP-A-10-67341).", "Thus, in a case where a vehicle body part such as the fender panel 1 is fixed directly to locations of the vehicle body such as the front pillar 3 and the side sill 6 which are positioned with a certain precision, a required fitting precision can be attained after the attachment of the fender panel 1 to those locations.", "Incidentally, in a vehicle having a slide door, there exists a case where a slide rail cover is fixed to cover an opening in a slide rail fixed to a side of a vehicle body.", "When attempting to attach the slide rail cover to the vehicle body via the slide rail in order to secure a sliding space for a slide arm, an attachment error of the slide rail to the vehicle body and an attachment error of the slide rail cover to the slide rail are added, and as a result, serve to enhance a fitting error between the vehicle body and the slide rail cover, whereby the external appearance quality is damaged.", "To cope with the problem, the attachment precision of the slide rail to the vehicle body and the attachment precision of the slide rail cover to the slide rail need to be set strictly, and this increases the number of man hours in management of the production of vehicles.", "Thus, there is caused a problem that the strict management of attachment of the slide rail cover to the slide rail increases the production costs in the end.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION To cope with the problem, an object of the invention is to provide an attachment structure of a slide rail cover to a vehicle body which can facilitate the production and assembly of respective components such as vehicle body, slide rail, slide rail cover while maintaining the fitting precision.", "With a view to attaining the object, according to an aspect of the invention, there is provided an attachment structure of a slide rail cover (for example, a slide rail cover 15 in an embodiment) for covering a slide rail (for example, a slide rail 14 in the embodiment) attached to a side of a vehicle body from the outside of the vehicle body, wherein a slide rail attachment portion (for example, a slide rail attachment hole 38 in the embodiment) and a vehicle body attachment portion (for example, an attachment hole 44 and a through hole 63 in the embodiment) are provided on a main body cover (for example, a main body cover 35 in the embodiment), the slide rail attachment portion being adapted to support the main body cover with rigidity, and the vehicle body attachment portion being adapted to fix the position of the main body cover in vertical and horizontal directions, and in that the position of at least one of the vehicle body attachment portion and the slide rail attachment portion is fixed in a forward or rearward direction of the main body cover.", "Thus, according to the construction, since the main body cover only has to be supported with rigidity by the slide rail attachment portion of the main body cover so that the main body cover does not move loosely when touched, there is no need to strictly set the attachment precision of the slide rail to the vehicle body.", "In addition, the vehicle body attachment portion the main body cover is fixed directly to the vehicle body which provides the fitting precision to thereby facilitate the fixing of the position of the main body cover in vertical and horizontal directions.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a partial perspective view of a rear part of a vehicle body according to an embodiment of the invention;", "FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along the line A—A in FIG. 1;", "FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along the line B—B in FIG. 2;", "FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along the line C—C in FIG. 3;", "FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along the line D—D in FIG. 4;", "FIG. 6 is an exploded perspective view of a portion of the vehicle body which is in the vicinity of a slide rail cover;", "FIG. 7 is a sectional view taken along the line E—E in FIG. 6;", "FIG. 8 is a side view of the rear part of the vehicle body according to the embodiment of the invention;", "and FIG. 9 is a perspective view of a related art.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the invention will be described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.", "FIG. 1 is a partial perspective view of a rear part of a vehicle body, and FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along the line A—A in FIG. 1 .", "In FIG. 1, a slide door 10 is provided at a portion on a left-hand side of the vehicle body in such a manner as to be opened and closed, and a slide door opening 11 in the portion on the left-hand side of the vehicle is designed to be closed and opened by the slide door 10 .", "A slide rail 14 is attached to a rear fender panel 12 provided rearward of the slide door opening 11 in such a manner as to extend in a longitudinal direction above a rear wheel arch portion 13 , and this slide rail 14 is designed to be covered by a slide rail cover 15 .", "To be specific, as shown in FIG. 2, the rear fender panel 12 is constituted by an outer panel 16 and an inner panel 17 .", "A slide rail receiving portion 19 is provided to extend in a longitudinal direction above the rear wheel arch portion 13 by recessing a general surface 18 of the outer panel 16 in a direction toward the interior of a passenger compartment, and an attachment plane 20 is formed at a bottom portion of the slide rail receiving portion 19 along the longitudinal direction.", "Then, attachment holes 21 for the slide rail 14 are formed in the attachment plane 20 at three locations (shown in FIGS. 1 and 6 ), and the slide rail 14 is fixed at the attachment holes 21 with bolts 22 .", "In addition, a backing member 23 serving as a nut member is provided on a back side of the outer panel 16 .", "An arm 25 is provided on the slide door 10 via an attachment bracket 24 .", "This arm 25 is a member having a crank-like cross section which includes a horizontal portion 26 which extends from the attachment bracket 24 , a vertical portion 27 which extends upwardly from an end portion of the horizontal portion 26 and a roller installing portion 28 which extends horizontally further from the vertical portion 27 , and a horizontal roller 29 is rollingly installed at an upper portion of the roller installing portion 28 , while a vertical roller 30 is rollingly installed at a lower portion of the roller installing portion 28 .", "In addition, the arm 25 is rotatably supported on a vertical shaft relative to the attachment bracket 24 , and the slide rail 14 is intruded into the passenger compartment on the slide door opening 11 side, whereby the slide door 10 can fit in the slide door opening 11 when it is closed.", "The slide rail 14 is provided with a guide portion 31 for the horizontal roller 29 at an upper portion and a guide portion 32 for the vertical roller 30 at a lower portion thereof and is constructed such as to guide the horizontal roller 29 and the vertical roller 30 to thereby allow the movement of the slide door 10 in the longitudinal directions.", "Then, the slide rail cover 15 is fixed to an upper wall of the guide portion 31 for covering the slide rail 14 so that the slide rail 14 cannot be seen from the outside.", "The slide rail cover 15 has a main body cover 35 which is constructed by seaming together an outer cover 33 and an inner cover 34 .", "Then, a bracket 36 for fixing the main body cover 35 is fixed to the upper wall of the slide rail 14 .", "The bracket 36 is provided with an attachment plane 37 for supporting the inner cover 34 of the main body cover 35 , and the inner cover 34 of the main body cover 35 is designed to be brought into press abutment with the attachment plane 37 via a fixing block 71 which is fixed to a bolt 39 .", "Here, an elongate hole portion 40 which extends to the rear is formed in a slide rail attachment hole (shown in FIG. 6) 38 , whereby the slide rail attachment hole 38 is formed into a key hole configuration.", "When a head portion 71 a of the fixing block 71 is caused to slide to the rear with the head portion 71 a of the fixing block 71 being passed through the slide rail attachment hole 38 , a groove portion 71 b of the head portion 71 a is allowed to move along the elongate hole portion 40 .", "In addition, the elongate hole portion 40 is formed with certain margins in the vertical and horizontal directions relative to the groove portion 71 b. Consequently, the main body cover 35 is fixed in a state in which the position of the main body cover 35 is substantially fixed relative to the slide rail 14 in the horizontal direction by the attachment plane 37 of the bracket 36 , and the slide rail attachment hole 38 can allow the longitudinal movement of the main body cover 35 relative to the head portion 71 a of the fixing block 71 by the elongate hole portion 40 , whereby the main body cover 35 can be supported with rigidity to the slide rail attachment holes 38 such that the main body cover 35 does not move loosely when touched.", "As shown in FIGS. 3 to 5 , the slide rail cover 15 is attached to the outer panel 16 of the rear fender panel 12 .", "FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along the line B—B in FIG. 2, FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along the line C—C in FIG. 3, and FIG. 5 is an explanatory view comprising an enlarged sectional view of a reinforcing member taken along the line D—D in FIG. 4 .", "and views of an attachment hole and a clip which will be described later.", "The reinforcing member 41 is attached to the inner cover 34 of the slide rail cover 15 .", "As also shown in FIG. 5, a flat attachment seat 42 is formed on the reinforcing member 41 and an attachment hole 44 for a clip 43 is formed in the attachment seat 42 .", "Formed continuously in the attachment hole 44 are an elongate hole portion 46 adapted to lock on the head portion 45 of the clip 43 and a pass-through portion 47 for receiving the head portion 45 of the clip 43 , whereby the attachment hole 44 is formed into a key hole configuration.", "The longitudinal movement of the slide rail cover 15 relative to the rear fender panel 12 is permitted by this elongate hole portion 46 .", "A flange portion 49 between the head portion 45 of the clip 43 and a locking portion 48 of the clip 43 is set such that a distance S between the flange portion 49 and the head portion 45 aligns with the thickness of the reinforcing member 41 , and the diameter of a shaft portion 50 of the clip 43 is designed to align with the width D of the elongate hole portion 46 and fix the main body cover in the lateral direction.", "Consequently, the main body cover 35 is fixed in a state in which the position of the main body cover 35 is easily fixed in the horizontal direction to the outer panel 16 of the rear fender panel 12 when the attachment seat 42 is brought into abutment with the flange portion 49 of the clip 43 , and in a state in which the position of the main body cover 35 is easily fixed relative to the outer panel 16 of the rear fender 12 in the vertical directions when the shaft portion 50 of the clip 43 is received in the elongate hole portion 46 in the attachment hole 44 of the clip 43 .", "Next, referring to FIGS. 6 and 7, the slide rail cover 15 and peripheral members around the periphery of the rear fender panel 12 to which the slide rail cover 15 is fixed will be described.", "FIG. 6 is an exploded perspective view of a portion around the slide rail cover of the vehicle body, and FIG. 7 is a sectional view taken along the line E—E in FIG. 6 .", "In the figures, as has been described before, the slide rail receiving portion 19 is formed in the outer panel 16 of the rear fender panel 12 , and the attachment holes 21 for the side rail 14 are formed in the attachment plane 20 of the bottom portion of the slide rail receiving portion 19 at the three positions.", "In addition, inclined planes which incline outwardly from the attachment plane 20 are provided above and below the attachment plane 20 in the slide rail receiving portion 19 , and locking holes 52 in which the locking portion 48 of the clip 43 is locked are formed in the upper inclined plane 51 at two positions thereof in such a manner as to be oriented in the lateral direction.", "A flange 53 facing to the rear is formed along a rear edge of the outer panel 16 .", "Attachment holes 56 for machine screws 55 for a rear combination lamp 54 are formed in an upper portion of the flange 53 at two positions, and attachment members 59 into which machine screws 58 for a bumper spacer 57 are screwed are attached to a lower portion of the flange 53 at two positions.", "The main body cover 35 of the slide rail cover 15 is designed to form a gap C of a certain space along the longitudinal direction between an upper edge of the main body cover 35 and a ridge L between the inclined plane 51 and the general plane 18 when the main body cover 35 is attached to the outer panel 16 of the rear fender panel 12 .", "In addition, a lower edge of the main body cover 35 is cut out from a front end to a position just before a rear end thereof as a relief 60 to permit the longitudinal movement of the arm 25 of the slide door 10 .", "An attachment piece 61 to the bumper spacer 57 is provided at a rear edge of the main body cover 35 , which attachment piece 61 is oriented in the lateral direction, and a through hole 63 for a bolt 62 is formed in the attachment piece 61 .", "The main body cover 35 of the slide rail cover 15 can be attached to the rear fender panel 12 in a condition Where the position of the main body cover 35 can be fixed in the longitudinal directions by passing the bolt 62 through the through hole 63 to be fixed in an attachment hole 64 in the bumper spacer 57 .", "The slide rail attachment holes 38 are formed at two positions in the inner cover 34 which constitutes a back side of the main body cover 35 , and the attachment holes 44 for the clips 43 are also formed in the inner cover 34 at two positions which are situated above the slide rail attachment holes 38 .", "Here, both the elongate hole portions 40 of the slide rail attachment holes 38 and the elongate hole portions 46 of the attachment holes 44 for the clips 43 are formed to extend to the rear.", "The bumper spacer 57 is a member made of resin and having a substantially L-shaped configuration and is formed in such a manner as to surround a lower corner portion of the outer panel 16 of the rear fender panel 12 from the outside.", "Formed in an upper portion of a side of the bumper spacer 57 is the attachment hole 64 for the bolt 62 which corresponds to the through hole 63 in the attachment piece 61 on the slide rail cover 15 , and formed at a front part of the bumper spacer 57 is an attachment wall 67 which is brought into abutment with a front flange 66 of a rear bumper 65 from the front and which extends in the lateral direction.", "As shown in FIG. 7, through holes 68 for machine screws 58 are formed in the attachment wall 67 in such a manner as to align with the attachment members 59 provided on the flange portion 53 of the outer panel 16 of the rear fender panel 12 , and pawls 70 are also provided on the attachment wall 67 which are adapted to lock in engagement holes 69 in the front flange 66 of the rear bumper 65 .", "Next, with reference to FIG. 6, installing procedures for the respective members will be described.", "The bumper spacer 57 is fixed to the outer panel 16 of the rear fender panel 12 with the machine screws 58 , 58 .", "Next, the locking portions 48 of the clips 43 , 43 are left locked in the locking holes 52 , 52 in the outer panel 16 of the rear fender 12 .", "Then, the main body cover 35 is pressed against the outer panel 16 of the rear fender panel 12 by aligning the pass-through portions 47 , 47 of the attachment holes 44 , 44 in the main body cover 35 with the head portions 45 of the clips 43 , 43 and aligning the attachment holes 38 , 38 in the main body cover 35 with the head portion 71 a of the fixing block 71 on the slide rail 14 side.", "In this state, a difference in level between the general plane 18 of the outer panel 16 of the rear fender panel 12 and an upper flat portion 35 a of the main body cover 35 can be eliminated.", "Then, when the main body cover 35 is moved forward, the shaft portion 50 of the clip 43 is guided along the elongate hole portion 46 in the attachment hole 44 , and the groove portion 71 b of the head portion 71 a of the fixing block 71 is guided by the elongate hole portion 40 in the slide rail attachment hole 38 .", "Furthermore the bolt 62 is passed through the through hole 63 in the attachment piece 61 of the main body cover 35 so as to be fixed in the attachment hole 64 in the bumper spacer 57 , whereby the main body cover 35 of the slide rail cover 15 is fixed to the rear fender panel 12 with the position of the main body cover 35 being fixed in the rearward direction.", "This allows the gap C of a certain space to be formed along the longitudinal direction between the upper edge of the main body cover 35 and the ridge L. Then, the front flange 66 of the rear bumper 65 is pushed in between the bumper spacer 57 and the outer panel 16 of the rear fender panel 12 so that the engagement holes 69 in the rear bumper 65 are locked by the pawls 70 on the bumper spacer 57 , whereby the rear bumper 65 is attached to the bumper spacer 57 .", "Finally, the rear combination lamp 54 is fastened with the machine screws 55 in the attachment holes 56 of the flange portion 53 , so that the rear combination lamp 54 is fixed to the outer panel 16 of the rear fender panel 12 .", "Consequently, as shown in FIG. 8, the gap C between the outer panel 16 of the rear fender 12 and the main body cover 35 is secured to maintain the certain space, whereby the outer edge of the rear combination lamp 54 and the outer edge of the inverted L-shaped configuration of the rear bumper 65 can maintain the certain gap relative to the outer panel 16 to secure a required fitting precision, whereby the external appearance quality can be improved.", "According to the embodiment, since the slide rail attachment holes 38 in the main body cover 35 only have to maintain the rigidity, the attachment precision of the slide rail 14 to the outer panel 16 of the rear fender panel 12 does not have to be strict, and only the rigidity is set such that the slide rail 14 and the outer panel 16 are dislocated from each other.", "Consequently, since the mounting precision does not have to be strict to the vertical and horizontal directions, the production and assembly of the respective components such as the rear fender panel 12 , the slide rail 14 and the main body cover 35 can be facilitated.", "In addition, since the main body cover 35 can be fixed to the rear fender panel 12 which required fitting precision in the state in which the position of the main body cover 35 is fixed in the vertical directions by positioning the elongate hole portions 46 in the attachment holes 44 at the shaft portions 50 of the clips 43 , as well as in the horizontal directions by allowing the reinforce into member 41 to abut with the flange portions 49 of the clips 43 , the fixation of the main body cover 35 to the rear fender panel 12 of the vehicle body is facilitated with good precision.", "Consequently, in a case where the slide rail cover 15 is fixed to the vehicle body via the slide rail 14 which is a separate component, as has been described above, the production can be simplified, the attachment efficiency can be improved and a sufficient fitting precision relative to the vehicle body can be secured.", "In addition, the invention is not limited to the embodiment that has been described heretofore.", "For example, while the invention has been described as the position of the main body cover 35 being fixed in the longitudinal direction by fixing the through hole 63 which is the vehicle body attachment portion, the slide rail attachment holes 38 , which are the slide rail attachment portion, may function to fix the position of the main body cover 35 in the vertical and horizontal directions of the vehicle body.", "In addition, the main body cover may be directly fixed to the vehicle body without the bumper spacer 57 being interposed there between.", "Thus, as has been described heretofore, according to the aspect of the invention, since the slide rail attachment portion of the main body cover only has to function to provide the required rigidity, the attachment precision of the slide rail to the vehicle body does not have to be set strictly, and therefore, there is provided an advantage that the production and assembly, and attachment of the respective components such as the slide rail and the cover can be facilitated by an extent such that the attachment precision does not have to be managed strictly.", "In addition, since the main body cover can be directly fixed to the vehicle body which requires the certain fitting precision with the position thereof being fixed in the vertical and horizontal directions, the attachment of the main body cover to the vehicle body with good precision can be facilitated.", "Consequently, in a case where the slide rail cover 15 is attached to the vehicle body via the slide rail 14 which is a separate component, as has been described above, the production can be simplified, the attachment efficiency can be improved and a sufficient fitting precision relative to the vehicle body can be secured.", "Furthermore, since the main body cover is held by the slide rail attachment portion with rigidity and the fitting precision is attained by the vehicle attachment portion, there is provided an advantage that the vehicle attachment portion can be made smaller in size by an extent such that the portion does not have to be provided with the holding function." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] 1.", "Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a multi-chip package structure, particularly to a multi-chip package structure having a sub-package.", "[0003] 2.", "Description of the Related Art [0004] The requirement of high density, high performance and precise cost control of an electronic product speeds up the developments of System On a Chip (SOC) and System In a Package (SIP).", "The mostly used package technique is Multi-Chip Module (MCM), which integrates the chips having different functions, such as microprocessors, memories, logic elements, optical ICs and capacitors, and replaces the prior art of disposing individual packages on one circuit board.", "[0005] FIGS. 1 and 2 show the perspective and cross-sectional views of a conventional Multi-Chip Module package structure, respectively.", "The conventional Multi-Chip Module package structure 10 comprises a first substrate 11 , a first package structure 12 , a second package structure 13 and a plurality of first solder balls 14 .", "[0006] The first substrate 11 has a top surface 111 and a bottom surface 112 .", "The first solder balls 14 are formed on the bottom surface 112 of the first substrate 11 .", "The first package structure 12 comprises a first chip 121 , a plurality of first wires 122 and a first molding compound 123 .", "The first chip 121 is adhered to the top surface 111 of the first substrate 11 , and is electrically connected to the first substrate 11 by utilizing the first wires 122 .", "The first molding compound 123 encapsulates the first chip 121 , the first wires 122 and part of the top surface 111 of the first substrate 11 .", "[0007] The second package structure 13 comprises a second substrate 131 , a second chip 132 , a plurality of second wires 133 , a second molding compound 134 and a plurality of second solder balls 135 .", "The second substrate 131 has a top surface 1311 and a bottom surface 1312 .", "The second chip 132 is adhered to the top surface 1311 of the second substrate 131 , and is electrically connected to the second substrate 131 by utilizing the second wires 133 .", "The second molding compound 134 encapsulates the second chip 132 , the second wires 133 and part of the top surface 1311 of the second substrate 131 .", "The second solder balls 135 are formed on the bottom surface 1312 of the second substrate 131 .", "The second package structure 13 is attached to the top surface 111 of the first substrate 11 by surface mounting that utilizes the second solder balls 135 after the second package structure 13 itself has been packaged.", "[0008] In the conventional Multi-Chip Module package structure 10 , the first chip 121 is a microprocessor chip, and the second chip 132 is a memory chip.", "Because different memory chips have different sizes and different amounts of I/O pins, it is necessary to redesign signal-transmitting path when the microprocessor chip is integrated with different memory chips, which increases the manufacture cost and extends the research time.", "Additionally, in the conventional Multi-Chip Module package structure 10 , the first package structure 12 and the second package structure 13 are disposed in parallel relationship, which occupies a relative large area.", "[0009] Consequently, there is an existing need for a novel and improved multi-chip package structure to solve the above-mentioned problem.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0010] One objective of the present invention is to provide a package structure having a sub-package therein.", "The package structure of the present invention is formed by stacking so as to avoid the shortcoming of large area caused by parallel arrangement of a plurality of conventional package structures.", "[0011] Another objective of the present invention is to provide a package structure having a sub-package therein.", "The sub-package is a package that has been tested, and is integrated into the package structure of the present invention as a Known-Good Die (KGD).", "The manufacture cost of the package structure of the present invention is reduced because package test is cheaper and easier than Known-Good Die test.", "[0012] Another objective of the present invention is to provide a package structure having a sub-package therein.", "The package structure of the present invention has at least two chips;", "therefore, there is no need to redesign the signal-transmitting path between the chips.", "[0013] Yet another objective of the present invention is to provide a multi-chip package structure comprising a first substrate, a first chip, a sub-package and a first molding compound.", "[0014] The first substrate has a top surface and a bottom surface.", "The first chip is attached to the top surface of the first substrate and is electrically connected to the first substrate.", "[0015] The sub-package has a top surface and a bottom surface, wherein the bottom surface of the sub-package is attached to the first chip.", "The sub-package includes a second substrate, a second chip and a second molding compound.", "The second substrate has a top surface and a bottom surface and is electrically connected to the first chip.", "The second chip is attached to the bottom surface of the second substrate and is electrically connected to the second substrate.", "The second molding compound is used for encapsulating the second chip and part of the bottom surface of the second substrate.", "[0016] The first molding compound is used for encapsulating the first chip, the sub-package and the top surface of the first substrate.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0017] FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a conventional Multi-Chip Module package structure;", "[0018] FIG. 2 shows a cross-sectional view of a conventional Multi-Chip Module package structure;", "[0019] FIG. 3 shows a cross sectional view of a multi-chip package structure according to the first embodiment of the present invention;", "[0020] FIG. 4 shows a cross sectional view of a multi-chip package structure according to the second embodiment of the present invention;", "[0021] FIG. 5 shows a cross sectional view of a multi-chip package structure according to the third embodiment of the present invention;", "[0022] FIG. 6 shows a cross sectional view of a multi-chip package structure according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention;", "[0023] FIG. 7 shows a cross sectional view of a multi-chip package structure according to the fifth embodiment of the present invention;", "[0024] FIG. 8 shows a cross sectional view of a multi-chip package structure according to the sixth embodiment of the present invention;", "[0025] FIG. 9 shows a cross sectional view of a second type of sub-package according to the present invention;", "[0026] FIG. 10 shows a cross sectional view of a third type of sub-package according to the present invention;", "[0027] FIG. 11 shows a cross sectional view of a multi-chip package structure according to the seventh embodiment of the present invention;", "[0028] FIG. 12 shows a cross sectional view of a fifth type of sub-package according to the present invention;", "[0029] FIG. 13 shows a cross sectional view of a sixth type of sub-package according to the present invention;", "[0030] FIG. 14 shows a cross sectional view of a seventh type of sub-package according to the present invention;", "[0031] FIG. 15 shows a cross sectional view of a multi-chip package structure according to the eighth embodiment of the present invention;", "[0032] FIG. 16 shows a cross sectional view of a multi-chip package structure according to the ninth embodiment of the present invention;", "and [0033] FIG. 17 shows a cross sectional view of a multi-chip package structure according to the tenth embodiment of the present invention.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0034] FIG. 3 shows a cross sectional view of a multi-chip package structure according to the first embodiment of the present invention.", "The multi-chip package structure 20 A of the embodiment comprises a first substrate 21 , a first chip 22 , a plurality of first wires 23 , a sub-package 24 , a plurality of third wires 25 , a first molding compound 26 and a plurality of solder balls 27 .", "[0035] The first substrate 21 has a top surface 211 and a bottom surface 212 .", "The first chip 22 is attached to the top surface 211 of the first substrate 21 and is electrically connected to the first substrate 21 by utilizing the first wires 23 .", "It is to be noted that if the first chip 22 is attached to the first substrate 21 by flip-chip, there is no need to dispose the first wires 23 .", "[0036] The sub-package 24 has a top surface 241 and a bottom surface 242 .", "The bottom surface 242 of the sub-package 24 is attached to the first chip 22 by utilizing adhesive glue.", "The sub-package 24 includes a second substrate 243 , a second chip 244 , a plurality of second wires 245 and a second molding compound 246 .", "[0037] The second substrate 243 has a top surface 2431 and a bottom surface 2432 and is electrically connected to the first chip 22 by utilizing the third wires 25 or electrically connected to the first substrate 21 by utilizing the third wires 25 (not shown).", "The second chip 244 is attached to the top surface 2431 of the second substrate 243 and is electrically connected to the second substrate 243 by utilizing the second wires 245 .", "The second molding compound 246 is used for encapsulating the second chip 244 and part of the top surface 2431 of the second substrate 243 .", "It is to be noted that the second molding compound 246 does not cover the entire top surface 2431 of the second substrate 243 .", "There are a plurality of pads (not shown) disposed on the portion of the top surface 2431 of the second substrate 243 that is not covered by the second molding compound 246 so as to be electrically connected to the third wires 25 .", "[0038] The sub-package 24 is selected from a group consisting of Land Grid Array (LGA) package, Quad Flat Non-leaded (QFN) package, Small Outline Non-leaded (SON) package and Chip On Film package.", "In this embodiment, the sub-package 24 is a Land Grid Array package whose bottom surface 2432 has a plurality of landing pads for testing.", "Therefore, the sub-package 24 is adhered to the first chip 22 after being tested so as to raise the yield rate of the multi-chip package structure 20 A. [0039] The first molding compound 26 is used for encapsulating the first chip 22 , the sub-package 24 , the first wires 23 , the third wires 25 and the top surface 211 of the first substrate 21 .", "The solder balls 27 are formed on the bottom surface 212 of the first substrate 21 so as to be electrically connected to an outer circuit.", "[0040] The first chip 22 and the second chip 244 may be optical chip, logic chip, microprocessor chip or memory chip.", "In this embodiment, the first chip 22 is a microprocessor chip, and the second chip 244 is a memory chip.", "[0041] FIG. 4 shows a cross sectional view of a multi-chip package structure according to the second embodiment of the present invention.", "The multi-chip package structure 20 B of the embodiment is substantially equal to that of the first embodiment, except that a heat spreader 28 is added to the embodiment.", "The heat spreader 28 comprises a heat spreader body 281 and a supporting portion 282 , wherein the supporting portion 282 extends outwardly and downwardly from the heat spreader body 281 so as to support the heat spreader body 281 .", "The top surface of the heat spreader body 281 is exposed to the air after being encapsulated so as to increase heat dissipation efficiency.", "[0042] FIG. 5 shows a cross sectional view of a multi-chip package structure according to the third embodiment of the present invention.", "The multi-chip package structure 20 C of the embodiment is substantially equal to that of the first embodiment, except that the first chip 22 and the sub-package 24 are transposed.", "That is, the first chip 22 is disposed on the top surface 241 of the sub-package 24 , and the bottom surface 242 of the sub-package 24 is adhered to the top surface 211 of the first substrate 21 .", "Additionally, in this embodiment, the third wires 25 electrically connect the top surface 2431 of the second substrate 243 and the top surface 211 of the first substrate 21 .", "Alternatively, the third wires 25 may electrically connect the first chip 22 and the first substrate 21 , or the third wires 25 may electrically connect the first chip 22 and the second substrate 243 .", "[0043] FIG. 6 shows a cross sectional view of a multi-chip package structure according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention.", "The multi-chip package structure 30 A of the embodiment comprises a first substrate 31 , a first chip 32 , a plurality of first wires 33 , a sub-package 34 , a plurality of third wires 35 , a first molding compound 36 , a plurality of solder balls 37 , a third chip 38 and a plurality of fourth wires 39 .", "[0044] The first substrate 31 has a top surface 311 and a bottom surface 312 .", "The first chip 32 is attached to the top surface 311 of the first substrate 31 and is electrically connected to the first substrate 31 by utilizing the first wires 33 .", "It is to be noted that if the first chip 32 is attached to the first substrate 31 by flip-chip, there is no need to dispose the first wires 33 .", "[0045] The sub-package 34 has a top surface 341 and a bottom surface 342 .", "The bottom surface 342 of the sub-package 34 is attached to the first chip 32 by utilizing adhesive glue.", "The sub-package 34 includes a second substrate 343 , a second chip 344 , a plurality of second wires 345 and a second molding compound 346 .", "[0046] The second substrate 343 has a top surface 3431 and a bottom surface 3432 and is electrically connected to the first chip 32 by utilizing the third wires 35 .", "The second chip 344 is attached to the top surface 3431 of the second substrate 343 and is electrically connected to the second substrate 343 by utilizing the second wires 345 .", "The second molding compound 346 is used for encapsulating the second chip 344 and part of the top surface 3431 of the second substrate 343 .", "It is to be noted that the second molding compound 346 does not cover the entire top surface 3431 of the second substrate 343 .", "There are a plurality of pads (not shown) disposed on the portion of the top surface 3431 of the second substrate 343 that is not covered by the second molding compound 346 so as to be electrically connected to the third wires 35 .", "[0047] The sub-package 34 is selected from a group consisting of Land Grid Array (LGA) package, Quad Flat Non-leaded (QFN) package, Small Outline Non-leaded (SON) package and Chip On Film package.", "In this embodiment, the sub-package 34 is a Land Grid Array package whose bottom surface 3432 has a plurality of landing pads for testing.", "Therefore, the sub-package 34 is adhered to the first chip 32 after being tested so as to raise the yield rate of the multi-chip package structure 30 A. [0048] The third chip 38 is attached to the top surface 341 of the sub-package 34 and is electrically connected to the first substrate 31 by utilizing the fourth wires 39 or is electrically connected to the first chip 32 by utilizing the fifth wires 391 .", "[0049] The first molding compound 36 is used for encapsulating the first chip 32 , the sub-package 34 , the first wires 33 , the third wires 35 , the third chip 38 , the fourth wires 39 and the top surface 311 of the first substrate 31 .", "The solder balls 37 are formed on the bottom surface 312 of the first substrate 31 so as to be electrically connected to an outer circuit.", "[0050] The first chip 32 , the second chip 344 and the third chip 38 may be optical chip, logic chip, microprocessor chip or memory chip.", "In this embodiment, the first chip 32 is a microprocessor chip, the second chip 344 is a memory chip and the third chip 38 is another microprocessor chip.", "[0051] FIG. 7 shows a cross sectional view of a multi-chip package structure according to the fifth embodiment of the present invention.", "The multi-chip package structure 30 B of the embodiment is substantially equal to that of the fourth embodiment, except that the third chip 38 is disposed is between the first chip 32 and the sub-package 34 .", "That is, the first chip 32 is attached to the top surface 311 of the first substrate 31 , the third chip 38 is attached to the first chip 32 , and the bottom surface 342 of the sub-package 34 is adhered to the third chip 38 .", "[0052] In this embodiment, the first wires 33 electrically connect the first chip 32 and the first substrate 31 .", "The second wires 345 electrically connect the second chip 344 and the second substrate 343 .", "The third wires 35 electrically connect the second substrate 343 and the first chip 32 .", "The fourth wires 392 electrically connect the second substrate 343 and the third chip 38 .", "The fifth wires 391 electrically connect the first chip 32 and the third chip 38 .", "[0053] FIG. 8 shows a cross sectional view of a multi-chip package structure according to the sixth embodiment of the present invention.", "The multi-chip package structure 30 C of the embodiment is substantially equal to that of the fourth embodiment, except that the first chip 32 and the third chip 38 are both disposed above the sub-package 34 .", "That is, the bottom surface 342 of the sub-package 34 is adhered to the top surface 311 of the first substrate 31 , the first chip 32 is attached to the top surface 341 of the sub-package 34 , and the third chip 38 is attached to the first chip 32 .", "[0054] In this embodiment, the first wires 33 electrically connect the first chip 32 and the first substrate 31 .", "The second wires 345 electrically connect the second chip 344 and the second substrate 343 .", "The third wires 35 electrically connect the first substrate 31 and the second substrate 343 .", "The fourth wires 392 electrically connect the first substrate 31 and the third chip 38 .", "The fifth wires 391 electrically connect the first chip 32 and the third chip 38 .", "[0055] FIG. 9 shows a cross sectional view of a second type of sub-package according to the present invention.", "In above-mentioned embodiment, the sub-packages 24 ( FIG. 3 ), 34 ( FIG. 6 ) are first type of sub-package, wherein the second chips 244 ( FIG. 3 ), 344 ( FIG. 6 ) are attached to the top surface of the second substrate 243 ( FIG. 3 ), 343 ( FIG. 6 ).", "In FIG. 9 , the sub-package is a second type of sub-package 40 A that has a top surface 401 and a bottom surface 402 , and further comprises a second substrate 41 , a second chip 42 , a plurality of second wires 43 and a second molding compound 44 .", "[0056] The second substrate 41 has a top surface 411 , a bottom surface 412 and an opening 45 .", "The second chip 42 is disposed in the opening 45 and is electrically connected to the second substrate 41 by utilizing the second wires 43 .", "The second molding compound 44 is used for encapsulating the second chip 42 and part of the top surface 411 of the second substrate 41 .", "It is to be noted that the second molding compound 44 does not cover the entire top surface 411 of the second substrate 41 .", "There are at least one finger pad 46 and at least one test pad 47 disposed on the portion of the second substrate 41 that is not covered by the second molding compound 44 .", "The finger pad 46 is used for being electrically connected to a wire, and the test pad 47 is used for testing.", "In this embodiment, the finger pad 46 is disposed on the top surface 411 of the second substrate 41 , and the test pad 47 is disposed on the bottom surface 412 of the second substrate 41 .", "[0057] FIG. 10 shows a cross sectional view of a third type of sub-package according to the present invention.", "The sub-package 40 B of the embodiment is substantially equal to the second type of sub-package 40 A of FIG. 9 , except that the finger pad 46 and the test pad 47 are both disposed on the top surface 411 of the second substrate 41 in this embodiment.", "[0058] FIG. 11 shows a cross sectional view of a multi-chip package structure according to the seventh embodiment of the present invention.", "[0059] The multi-chip package structure 20 D of the embodiment is substantially equal to that of the first embodiment of FIG. 3 , except that the sub-package 24 of the embodiment is inverted.", "Accordingly, the top surface 2431 of the second substrate 243 is the top surface of the sub-package, the bottom surface of the second molding compound 346 is the bottom surface of the sub-package, and the second chip 244 is attached to the bottom surface 2432 of the second substrate 243 .", "The sub-package 24 of the embodiment is defined as a fourth type of sub-package 24 .", "[0060] FIG. 12 shows a cross sectional view of a fifth type of sub-package according to the present invention.", "The fifth type of sub-package 50 A has a top surface 501 and a bottom surface 502 , and further comprises a second substrate 51 , a second chip 52 , a plurality of second wires 53 and a second molding compound 54 .", "[0061] The second substrate 51 has a top surface 511 , a bottom surface 512 and an opening 55 .", "The second chip 52 is disposed in the opening 55 and is electrically connected to the second substrate 51 by utilizing the second wires 53 .", "The second molding compound 54 is used for encapsulating the second chip 52 and part of the bottom surface 512 of the second substrate 51 .", "There are at least one finger pad 56 and at least one test pad 57 disposed on the portion of the second substrate 51 that is not covered by the second molding compound 54 .", "The finger pad 56 is used for being electrically connected to a wire, and the test pad 57 is used for testing.", "In this embodiment, the finger pad 56 is disposed on the top surface 511 of the second substrate 51 , and the test pad 57 is disposed on the bottom surface 512 of the second substrate 51 .", "[0062] FIG. 13 shows a cross sectional view of a sixth type of sub-package according to the present invention.", "The sub-package 50 B of the embodiment is substantially equal to the fifth type of sub-package 50 A of FIG. 12 , except that the finger pad 56 and the test pad 57 are both disposed on the top surface 511 of the second substrate 51 in this embodiment.", "[0063] FIG. 14 shows a cross sectional view of a seventh type of sub-package according to the present invention.", "The sub-package 50 C of the embodiment is substantially equal to the sixth type of sub-package 50 B of FIG. 13 , except that the finger pad 56 is disposed on the bottom surface 512 of the second substrate 51 , and the test pad 57 is disposed on the top surface 511 of the second substrate 51 .", "[0064] FIG. 15 shows a cross sectional view of a multi-chip package structure according to the eighth embodiment of the present invention.", "The multi-chip package structure 60 of the embodiment comprises a first sub-package 61 , a second sub-package 62 , a third substrate 63 , a third molding compound 64 , a plurality of third wires 65 , a plurality of fourth wires 66 and a plurality of solder balls 67 .", "[0065] The third substrate 63 has a top surface 631 and a bottom surface 632 .", "The third molding compound 64 is used for encapsulating the first sub-package 61 , the second sub-package 62 and the top surface 631 of the third substrate 63 .", "The third wires 65 electrically connect the third substrate 63 and the first sub-package 61 .", "The fourth wires 66 electrically connect the third substrate 63 and the second sub-package 62 .", "The solder balls 67 are formed on the bottom surface 632 of the third substrate 63 .", "[0066] The first sub-package 61 has a top surface 611 and a bottom surface 612 , and further comprises a first substrate 613 , a first chip 614 , a first molding compound 615 and a plurality of first wires 616 .", "The first substrate 613 has a top surface 6131 and a bottom surface 6132 .", "The first chip 614 is electrically connected to the first substrate 613 by utilizing the first wires 616 .", "The first molding compound 615 has a top surface and a second surface, and is used for encapsulating the first chip 614 and the first substrate 613 .", "[0067] The second sub-package 62 has a top surface 621 and a bottom surface 622 , and further comprises a second substrate 623 , a second chip 624 , a second molding compound 625 and a plurality of second wires 626 .", "The second substrate 623 has a top surface 6231 and a bottom surface 6232 .", "The second chip 624 is electrically connected to the second substrate 623 by utilizing the second wires 626 .", "The second molding compound 625 has a top surface and a second surface, and is used for encapsulating the second chip 624 and the second substrate 623 .", "[0068] In the first sub-package 61 of this embodiment, the first chip 614 is attached to the top surface 6131 of the first substrate 613 directly, and in the second sub-package 62 , the second chip 624 is attached to the top surface 6231 of the second substrate 623 directly.", "However, it is understood that the first sub-package 61 or the second sub-package 62 can be replaced by the second type of sub-package 40 A shown in FIG. 9 or the third type of sub-package 40 B shown in FIG. 10 .", "[0069] In this embodiment, the first sub-package 61 and the second sub-package 62 are stacked.", "However, it is understood that the multi-chip package structure 60 can further comprise a third chip that may be disposed above the second sub-package 62 , between the first sub-package 61 and the second sub-package 62 , or between the first sub-package 61 and the third substrate 63 .", "[0070] FIG. 16 shows a cross sectional view of a multi-chip package structure according to the ninth embodiment of the present invention.", "The multi-chip package structure 60 B of the embodiment is substantially equal to that of the eighth embodiment of FIG. 15 , except that the sub-package 62 of this embodiment is inverted.", "It is understood that the first sub-package 61 may also be inverted.", "[0071] In the second sub-package 62 of this embodiment, the second chip 624 is attached to the bottom surface 6232 of the second substrate 623 directly.", "However, it is understood that the inverse second sub-package 62 can be replaced by the fifth type of sub-package 50 A shown in FIG. 12 , the sixth type of sub-package 50 B shown in FIG. 13 , or the seventh type of sub-package 50 C shown in FIG. 14 .", "[0072] In this embodiment, the first sub-package 61 and the second sub-package 62 are stacked.", "However, it is understood that the multi-chip package structure 60 can further comprise a third chip that may be disposed above the second sub-package 62 , between the first sub-package 61 and the second sub-package 62 , or between the first sub-package 61 and the third substrate 63 .", "[0073] FIG. 17 shows a cross sectional view of a multi-chip package structure according to the tenth embodiment of the present invention.", "The multi-chip package structure 30 D of the embodiment is substantially the same as that of the sixth embodiment of FIG. 8 , except that the sub-package 34 of this embodiment is inverted.", "[0074] The multi-chip package structure 30 D of the embodiment comprises a first substrate 31 , a first chip 32 , a plurality of first wires 33 , a sub-package 34 , a plurality of third wires 35 , a first molding compound 36 , a plurality of solder balls 37 , a third chip 38 , a plurality of fourth wires 39 and a plurality of fifth wires 391 .", "[0075] The first substrate 31 has a top-surface 311 and a bottom surface 312 .", "The bottom surface 342 of the sub-package 34 is attached to the top surface 311 of the first substrate 31 by utilizing adhesive glue.", "The sub-package 34 includes a second substrate 343 , a second chip 344 , a plurality of second wires 345 and a second molding compound 346 .", "[0076] The second substrate 343 has a top surface 3431 and a bottom surface 3432 and is electrically connected to the first substrate 31 by utilizing the third wires 35 .", "The second chip 344 is attached to the bottom surface 3433 of the second substrate 343 and is electrically connected to the second substrate 343 by utilizing the second wires 345 .", "The second molding compound 346 is used for encapsulating the second chip 344 and part of the bottom surface 3432 of the second substrate 343 .", "[0077] The first chip 32 is attached to the top surface 3411 of the sub-package 34 and is electrically connected to the first substrate 31 by utilizing the first wires 33 .", "The third chip 38 is attached to the first chip 32 and is electrically connected to the first substrate 31 by utilizing the fourth wires 392 or is electrically connected to the first chip 32 by utilizing the fifth wires 391 .", "[0078] The first molding compound 36 is used for encapsulating the first chip 32 , the sub-package 34 , the first wires 33 , the third wires 35 , the third chip 38 , the fourth wires 39 , the fifth wires 391 and the top surface 311 of the first substrate 31 .", "The solder balls 37 are formed on the bottom surface 312 of the first substrate 31 so as to be electrically connected to an outer circuit.", "[0079] While several embodiments of the present invention have been illustrated and described, various modifications and improvements can be made by those skilled in the art.", "The embodiments of the present invention are therefore described in an illustrative but not restrictive sense.", "It is intended that the present invention may not be limited to the particular forms as illustrated, and that all modifications which maintain the spirit and scope of the present invention are within the scope as defined in the appended claims." ]

[ "FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001] The invention relates to the determination of a unique biomarker pentylfuran and to its use to test for fungal and bacterial pathogens, including Aspergillus fumigatus in an individual or from a culture using analysis of breath/air samples.", "BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION [0002] All micro-organisms produce by-products as a result of their normal metabolism.", "The ability of different organisms to metabolise different substrates in order to satisfy their energy and nutritional requirements is fundamental to laboratory microbiology, and forms the basis of many rapid-identification tests.", "The metabolites produced by a single species can vary widely, depending upon the growth substrate, conditions (temperature, oxygen availability), and the age of the culture itself.", "[0003] Amongst the many large primary and secondary metabolites produced by microbes, some organic substances are formed which readily volatilise at low temperatures.", "Microbial volatile organic compounds (MVOCs) have been studied extensively in agriculture and food production, as some MVOCs have important health and economic implications in these fields.", "For example, some MVOCs have been associated with spoilage in stored crops and foodstuffs, where they may be responsible for tainted, “off”", "flavours, discolouring of products, or toxicity.", "Profiles of MVOCs are increasingly being found to be unique to the species or strain level.", "[0004] Invasive aspergillosis is one of the most problematic infections due to difficulties of diagnosis and treatment.", "Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) have the potential to improve the specificity and sensitivity of diagnosis of this and other infections.", "It would be useful to identify a unique biomarker of Aspergillus species, particularly Aspergillus fumigatus , in the headspace gas of in vitro cultures and to detect the marker from breath samples of infected or colonised patients.", "OBJECT OF THE INVENTION [0005] It is an object of the invention to provide a biomarker to detect bacterial and/or fungal pathogens such as Aspergillus fumigatus in a biosample or at least to provide the public with a useful choice.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0006] The invention provides the biomarker, pentylfuran for the use in bio analysis of microorganisms such as fungal and bacterial pathogens.", "In particular, the invention provides the use of the biomarker pentylfuran to detect fungal species, more particularly, Aspergillus species in a biosample.", "[0007] More particularly the invention provides the use of the biomarker pentylfuran to detect Aspergillus fumigatus in a biosample.", "[0008] The biosample is preferably a gaseous biological source.", "[0009] The biosample may, most preferably, be the headspace gas of an in vitro culture or a breath sample of a patient, or another biosample such as a sputum sample.", "[0010] In particular, the invention provides the use of the biomarker pentylfuran, in the bio analysis of microorganisms in a gaseous bio sample from breath of an animal, including a human.", "[0011] Other micro organisms such as Aspergillus flavus, Haemophilus influenza and Pseudomonas aeruginosa may also be detected.", "The biosample is preferably a breath sample.", "Preferably the biomarker is 2-pentylfuran.", "However it could be 3-pentylfuran.", "[0012] The invention provides a method of detecting Aspergillus in a patient comprising: (a) obtaining a biosample from the breath of the patient;", "(b) analysing the biosample for the presence of pentylfuran;", "and (c) determining whether Aspergillus is present in the breath sample.", "[0016] The invention also provides a method of detecting Aspergillus species in an in vitro culture comprising: a. obtaining a biosample from the headspace gas of the in vitro culture;", "b. analysing the biosample for the presence of pentylfuran;", "and c. determining whether Aspergillus is present in the in vitro culture.", "[0020] The invention also provides the use of a biomarker pentylfuran in the detection of Aspergillus fumigatus from a breath sample of an animal or from an air sample from a culture [0021] The Aspergillus species is preferably Aspergillus fumigatus.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0022] FIG. 1 shows a chest CT scan of a patient with multiple foci of air space opacity surrounded by hyperdense material.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0023] The invention will now be described, by way of example only.", "[0024] Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectroscopy (GC-MS) combined with Solid Phase Micro Extraction (SPME) was used to identify pentylfuran as a specific biomarker of A. fumigatus from cultures.", "Four litre breath samples were collected from patients with Cystic Fibrosis, with or without colonisation of A. fumigatus and other pathogens, and healthy volunteers.", "Breath samples were semi-quantitatively analysed by SPME/GC-MS for presence or absence of pentylfuran.", "[0025] A total of 21 individuals were tested.", "Pentylfuran was detected from breath samples of 4/4 patients with CF and A. fumigatus colonisation, 3/7 patients with CF and no microbiological evidence of A. fumigatus and 0/10 healthy control individuals.", "Materials and Methods Strains and Culture Conditions [0026] Clinical isolates of Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus fumigatus, Candida albicans, Mucor racemosus, Fusarium solani , and Cryptococcus neoformans were used in these experiments.", "[0027] Organisms were grown on blood agar within 100 ml sterile glass vials stoppered with airtight aluminium caps incorporating a teflon-coated rubber septum.", "Strain Preparation.", "[0028] Strains were grown for 72 hours on blood agar plates, then, in the case of yeast species, a sterile loop of culture was removed from the plate and transferred to 5 mL of sterile water.", "For filamentous fungal strains, spores were harvested from the plate with sterile water containing 0.05% Tween.", "Five hundred microlitres of this suspension was introduced to the sealed culture vial by injecting through the septum onto the medium.", "[0029] Cultures were maintained at 37° C. for 5 days.", "Vials were flushed with 100 ml purified dry air once every approximately 12 hours.", "Detection of Pentylfuran by GC-MS, Calibration and Standardisation [0030] Calibration curves of headspace gas analysis of serial aqueous dilutions of pentylfuran were plotted.", "The resulting calibration curve proved to be linear in the range 1-50 pg.", "Patient Demographics [0031] Four participants with cystic fibrosis and Aspergillus colonisation, 6 patients with CF and no Aspergillus colonisation, and 10 control individuals meeting the inclusion criteria for the study were identified.", "Relevant demographic and clinical data are shown in table 2.", "Solid-Phase Micro Extraction (SPME Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS).", "[0032] A comprehensive literature review was performed, and a database of all reported MVOCs from Aspergillus species was created, which included the compound isolated, species and strain, culture medium and conditions, and analysis method.", "Headspace gases of strains cultured as described above were subjected to SPME/GC-MS analysis.", "Sample Preparation [0033] The conditioned SPME fibre was exposed into culture vials for 10 minutes and then desorbed directly in the injection port for 5 minutes.", "GC/MS Parameters [0034] The temperatures of the injector, ion trap, manifold and transfer line were 250, 200, 60 and 250° C. respectively.", "The oven program commenced at 50° C. for 2 minutes and was raised to 250° C. at a rate of 10° C./min.", "at which temperature it was maintained for a further 2 minutes.", "Helium flow was set at a constant rate of 1.2 mL/min.", "The split vent was opened to a ratio of 1:50 after 1 minute.", "Fragmentation was performed in the EI-mode as full scan which gave additional certainty.", "Further MS/MS fragmentation could be used to further increase sensitivity.", "Calibration and Semi-Quantification [0035] Fifty microlitres of diluted pentylfuran solutions in methanol were deposited into 20 mL headspace vials.", "The final calibration was made up as total amounts in the headspace vials containing 1, 5, 10 and 50 pg, respectively.", "The fibre was exposed into the headspace vials for 5 min using the Combi-PAL autosampler.", "Patient Selection [0036] Patients enrolled on the study included individuals with cystic fibrosis (CF) colonised chronically with aspergillus , patients with CF not colonised with aspergillus , and healthy control individuals.", "Ethical approval for the study was obtained from the local ethics committee, and participants gave their informed consent to take part in the study.", "Inclusion criteria for patients to act as “positives”", "(colonised with Aspergillus ) were a history of positive culture for A. fumigatus from lower respiratory tract specimens (sputum, BAL, tracheal aspirate, or cough swab in cases where sputum had not been made available to the microbiology laboratory).", "Patients needed to have a minimum of three positive results within the past 12 months, and ideally one from within 1 month of testing.", "Patients were excluded from the study if they were currently undergoing treatment with itraconazole for ABPA.", "[0037] Patients in the cystic fibrosis “uncolonised”", "group were selected if they had no current or past history of positive culture results for Aspergillus as described above, and no clinical evidence of aspergillus colonisation.", "Healthy control individuals were recruited from laboratory staff.", "These participants were asked to complete a questionnaire which served to give information concerning any recent antibiotic use or evidence of respiratory or urinary tract infection.", "Any participants not meeting these criteria were excluded from the study.", "Breath Sampling [0038] Breath samples were collected into a 4L tedlar bag, which incorporated a valve, disposable mouthpiece and septum that could be pierced for sampling.", "Samples were collected by asking participants to exhale through the mouth into the bag until full.", "The valve in the bag was then closed, and samples transported immediately to the laboratory for testing.", "Analysis of Breath Samples by GC-MS [0039] Breath samples were analysed by GC-MS for presence and quantity of pentylfuran as described for cultures above.", "The conditioned SPME fibre was exposed into the collection bags for 48 h and then desorbed directly in the injection port for 5 minutes.", "Results [0040] Detection of Pentylfuran from Laboratory Cultures.", "[0041] The results for testing of laboratory strains for the presence of pentylfuran are given in Table 1.", "[0000] TABLE 1 Results of screening fungal and bacterial isolates by GC-MS for presence of pentylfuran.", "Organism Source pentylfuran A. flavus Clinical (ear swab) nd A. flavus Clinical (ear swab) nd A. niger Environmental xx A. niger Environmental xx F. oxysporum Environmental x M. racemosus Clinical (sinus biopsy) x C. albicans Clinical (urine) x C. albicans Clinical (urine) x A. fumigatus Clinical (lung biopsy) xx A. fumigatus Clinical (sputum) xx A. fumigatus Clinical (sputum) xx A. fumigatus Clinical (BAL) xx A. fumigatus Clinical (sputum) xx A. fumigatus Clinical (sputum) xx A. fumigatus Clinical (sputum) xx A. fumigatus Clinical (sputum) xxx A. fumigatus Clinical (sputum) xx A. fumigatus Clinical (ear swab) xx A. fumigatus Environmental xx A. fumigatus Environmental xx A. fumigatus Environmental xx A. fumigatus Environmental xxx A. fumigatus Environmental xxx A. fumigatus Environmental xxx A. fumigatus Environmental xxx A. fumigatus Environmental xxx A. fumigatus Environmental xx A. fumigatus Environmental xx H. influenzae Clinical (sputum) x B. cepacia Clinical (sputum) x Ps.", "aeruginosa Clinical (sputum) x Ps.", "aeruginosa Clinical (sputum) x S. aureus Clinical (sputum) nd S. aureus Clinical (sputum) nd Source: Spt;", "sputum, BAL;", "bronchoalveolar lavage.", "pentylfuran: nd;", "not detected;", "x: low/trace levels, xx;", "moderate levels;", "xxx;", "high levels.", "Analysis of Breath Samples for Presence of Pentylfuran [0042] Four litre breath samples were assayed for the presence and quantity of pentylfuran.", "Results are shown in table 2, along with relevant clinical and microbiological data.", "[0000] TABLE 2 Demographic and microbiological data of patients enrolled in the study, and results of testing breath by SPME/GC-MS for presence and quantity of pentylfuran.", "“ Aspergillus colonisation”", "refers to colonisation with Aspergillus fumigatus only.", "Organisms shown in bold are those shown to produce trace levels of pentylfuran..", "Other organisms isolated by culture of respiratory samples is shown.", "Organisms shown in bold are known producers of pentylfuran.", "Underlying S. S. M. 2-pentyl ID Age Sex disease aureus pneumoniae catarrhalis furan (pg) CF + 12 20 F CF + + + 7 aspergillus 16 20 F CF + + + 3 9 5 F CF + + 7 30 M CF + + 5 CF, no 10 7 M CF + + + 10 aspergillus 11 7 M CF + + + nd 17 19 M CF + + 2 19 9 M CF + nd 20 7 M CF + + nd 21 7 M CF + + + 9 22 8 M CF + + nd Normal 18 30 F none nd controls 13 25 F none nd 14 33 M none nd 15 31 M none nd 24 35 M none nd 25 36 M none nd 26 36 M none nd 27 44 M none nd 28 37 M none nd 29 57 M none nd [0043] Pentylfuran was detected on the breath of all (n=4) patients colonised with A. fumigatus .", "Pentylfuran was also detected on breath samples of 3 of 7 patients without evidence of Aspergillus colonisation, but colonisation with other pathogens, including some shown to produce pentylfuran in modest quantities.", "Of the healthy individuals, one of ten subjects showed a trace level of pentylfuran on the breath.", "[0044] The important message from this data set is that healthy, normal individuals appear not to produce pentylfuran (or only at baseline levels), while those with pulmonary colonisation with organisms that produce pentylfuran, do.", "This is the first time that the detection and quantification of a specific microbial metabolite from breath of infected/colonised individuals has been reported.", "[0045] Pentylfuran is a metabolite of Aspergillus fumigatus , and possibly other fungal and bacterial pathogens.", "These in vitro experiments showed that low levels of pentylfuran is produced by A. flavus , as well as Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Haemophilus influenzae , both of which are common colonisers of the lungs of patients with CF.", "[0046] Blood tests for Aspergillus infection are not optimal in that they are prone to sampling error, and may return false-negative results even in cases of proven disseminated infection.", "This may be further compounded by the administration of systemic antifungal therapy.", "Use of Broncho-alveloar lavage (BAL) for diagnostic purposes has had increasing support over recent years, notwithstanding that it is not an ideal procedure to be performing in a neutropenic, and often thrombocytopenic patient.", "However, BAL has the advantage over blood testing in that it allows direct sampling of the site of primary infection.", "Breath testing for metabolites of pathogens resident in the lungs may be viewed in a similar way to BAL, except that it is without the risks associated with BAL.", "The principle of breath testing, like BAL, is a more direct way of sampling the site of primary infection.", "DNA and antigen detection based assays will detect both viable and non-viable fungal cell elements.", "Detection of A. fumigatus metabolites from breath samples would suggest that the organism is metabolically active.", "[0047] The results of this study show that: 1.", "Pentylfuran may be used as a biomarker of Aspergillus fumigatus , from cultures.", "Pentylfuran can be detected from the breath of patients colonised or infected with Aspergillus fumigatus by GC-MS 3.", "Detection of pentylfuran from breath may form the basis of a useful diagnostic test for aspergillus infection.", "Case Report [0051] A 79 year old woman undergoing treatment with dexamethasone and cyclophosphamidefor multiple myeloma suffered an episode of febrile neutropenia (neutrophils 0.5-0.9×10 9 /L) that failed to resolve despite broad spectrum antibiotic therapy.", "A CT of the sinuses showed extensive disease suggestive of Aspergillus and the chest CT showed multiple foci of air space opacity with a surrounding halo of hyperdense material, suggestive of aspergillus infection (arrowed.", "FIG. 1 ).", "A. fumigatus was cultured from the sputum on 2 occasions.", "Nested PCR for A. fumigatus DNA in peripheral blood, and was negative on 6 occasions.", "The patient gave informed consent to participate in the study, and 3-litre breath samples were collected as described above for patients with CF.", "2-pentylfuran was detected (10.1 pg) in the exhaled breath 2 days after the CT scan was performed.", "After treatment with voriconazole for 4 weeks, the lesions in the lungs had reduced in size, the breath test had become negative and aspergillus was no longer culturable from the sputum.", "INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY [0052] The invention will be of use in the medical area, assisting in the detection of microbes and pathogens in patients.", "In particular, the ability to detect Aspergillus species, especially Aspergillus fumigatus will be of use in detecting and hence treatment of the infection caused by the microbe in patients." ]

[ "RELATED APPLICATIONS U.S. Application No. 61/988,102 for this invention was filed on May 2, 2014 which application these inventors claim domestic priority, and which application is incorporated in its entirety.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to photovoltaic arrays and methods of manufacturing photovoltaic arrays.", "More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and a system for the manufacture of power modules for solar arrays that require less time and labor than required for presently known methods and systems.", "Various space craft and man-made satellites utilize photovoltaic (“PV”) arrays for recharging of batteries and/or operation of various systems.", "The PV arrays are a collection of solar cells formed into a unit referred to as a “CIC”", "(solar cell-interconnect-coverglass).", "The completed CICs are assembled into strings which are configured into standard power modules (SPMs).", "The SPMs include interconnected solar cell assemblies, frontside and rearside shielding/coatings, substrate structure, mechanical attachment interfaces, and electrical interconnection interfaces.", "A number of SPMs are thereafter mechanically and electrically connected to create various blanket architecture aspect ratios, allowing for seamless adaptability to a variety of flexible blanket solar array systems.", "SPMs manufactured with the disclosed system and according to the disclosed method may be utilized as building blocks to form an Integrated Modular Blanket Assembly (“IMBA”).", "U.S. Pat. No. 6,555,739 by Kawam describes a known method of manufacturing a photovoltaic array.", "According to this method, a CIC is formed by welding or soldering one or more interconnect members (made of a thin ribbon of silver or similar metal) to the solar cell's top surface metal layer.", "Thereafter, a liquid, translucent silicone adhesive is applied to the solar cell's top surface to bond a layer of doped glass to the cell and interconnect.", "After all of the solar cells have been formed into CICs, the CICs are assembled into strings.", "As further described by Kawam, as part of this assembly process, all of the CICs are placed, one at a time, on an alignment tool or jig, with their glass sides down, interleaving the CICs such that the interconnect member from one CIC is resting on the bottom side of an adjacent CIC.", "The interconnect members are then attached to the bottom side of adjacent CICs by a soldering and/or a welding process.", "After a desired number of CICs have been so arranged and attached to form a string, the string is transferred to a substrate, which embodies the final solar array configuration.", "This transfer process is accomplished by first attaching masking tape or similar non-permanent adhesive to the backside of the string, and transporting the taped string, glass side down, onto a transfer device that is fabricated from a sheet of mylar.", "The transfer device, fabricated from mylar or similar material, allows the array of modules to be handled and lifted into position.", "As the next step, the surface of the substrate to be laminated with the string of solar cells is primed by painting a silane material on the substrate surface.", "As noted by Kawam, the backsides of each of the solar cells are also primed with this material to promote subsequent silicone adhesion.", "A thin layer of liquid silicone adhesive is then applied to the primed substrate.", "While the adhesive is still wet and uncured, the string is quickly set into place atop the adhesive applied to the substrate.", "The string is aligned and individual weights applied to the cells while the adhesive cures, which may take up to a week.", "After curing, excess adhesive is removed from the PV array.", "Kawam notes that the above process was developed in an effort to create a batch process.", "As noted, first the CICs are assembled, then strings are assembled, and then the strings are transferred to substrates to form the PV arrays.", "Kawaam notes this manufacturing process involves the handling of the solar cells during at least four separate operations, which results in excessive cost and cycle time.", "He further notes that the process permits only portions of the assembly to be automated and that this process results in damage to 5% to 8% of the solar cells.", "Kawam directs his attention the need to eliminating the need to solder or weld the interconnects to the solar cells, where his solution is to construct strings by bonding the solar cells and interconnect members to the array surface of a substrate with double-sided and pressure sensitive adhesive, and electrically coupling the interconnect members and end members to the solar cells via a dry electrical contact.", "However, Kawam does not disclose any automated device for the assembly of the strings he discloses.", "He specifically teaches against a single automated method which produces strings with welded interconnects.", "Thus, while there have been some efforts to automate the process, there is not a known system or method which provides for the assembly of an SPM suitable for a space solar array by a single automated device.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides an automated manufacturing system and method for CIC-ing, glassing, stringing, laydown and acceptance testing of interconnected photovoltaic devices to assemble photovoltaic standard power modules for assembly onto an ultra-lightweight photovoltaic flexible blanket (IMBA) for utilization in a space solar array, in both rolled blanket and z-folded configurations.", "The automated manufacturing system disclosed herein provides high performance and repeatable high quality photovoltaic panels/modules at a cost which is significantly lower than the known devices.", "The system comprises the following subassemblies: (1) end effector tools consisting of: SPM tray carrier, adhesive dispenser, preload bar pickup and cell/interconnect vacuum chuck tools;", "(2) enclosure assembly;", "(3) adhesive system assembly;", "(4) carousel system assembly;", "(5) gravity feed system assembly;", "(6) preload stabilizer assembly for glass bonding;", "(7) SPM assembly tray;", "(8) SPM/Kapton substrate bonding tray;", "(9) vacuum manifold interface tray assembly;", "(10) interconnect liner weld assembly;", "(11) cell interconnect reel feeder assembly;", "(12) diode interconnect reel feeder assembly;", "(13) SCARA robotic system;", "(14) integrated circuit inverter/flipper assembly;", "(15) cell or integrated string flipper assembly;", "(16) X-Y-Z welding assembly stage;", "(17) vision and sensor system assembly;", "and (18) interconnect weld strength test stand assembly.", "A method of manufacturing power modules for solar arrays generally comprises the following steps: (1) robotic positioning of diodes, interconnects and busbars onto a SPM stringing tray;", "(2) robotic positioning of bare cells into position adjacent to the diodes, interconnects and busbars to form strings;", "(3) robotic positioning of the front side of the string adjacent to an integral welder and welding the front side of the string;", "(4) robotic placement of cover glass over the cells;", "(5) robotic positioning of a weight assembly on the cover glass to apply a load to maintain the coverglass bond line;", "(6) flipping the string;", "(7) robotic positioning of the string adjacent to the integral welder and welding the back side of the string;", "(8) robotic placement of a kapton substrate over the string.", "Embodiments of the method include: (a) a method of utilizing prefabricated CICs in the fabrication of SPMs;", "(b) a method of utilizing bare cells in the fabrication of SPMS;", "(c) a method of utilizing inverted metamorphic multi-junction (“IMM”) cells in the fabrication of SPMS.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIGS. 1-27 depict an embodiment of the manufacturing system in the process of fabricating an SPM, specifically: FIG. 1 depicts an embodiment of the SCARA robotic system selecting a tool from the end erector tools.", "FIGS. 2-3 depict the robotic system of FIG. 1 selecting a SPM tray carrier tool.", "FIGS. 3-4 depict the carrier gripping tool picking up a SPM assembly tray.", "FIG. 5 depicts the SPM assembly tray being loaded onto an X axis linear motor.", "FIG. 6 depicts the robotic system of FIG. 1 exchanging the SPM carrier tool for a vacuum assisted pickup mechanism.", "FIGS. 7-8 depicts the vacuum assisted pickup mechanism in position to pick up diodes, interconnects and busbars from respective reel feeder assemblies for each component for placement on the SPM assembly tray.", "FIGS. 9-10 depicts diodes, interconnects and busbars as positioned on the SPM assembly tray by the vacuum assisted pickup mechanism.", "FIGS. 11-14 depict bare cells being picked up from a carousel assembly, and placement of the bare cells on the SPM assembly tray.", "FIG. 15 depicts the welder welding the interconnects on the front side of the string.", "FIG. 16 depicts the robotic positioning of an adhesive dispenser for dispensing adhesive onto the cells in preparation of placement of cover glass.", "FIGS. 17-20 depict cover glass member being picked up from the carousel assembly and placed on each cell.", "FIGS. 21-23 depict the robotic positioning of calibrated weights over the coverglass.", "FIG. 24 depicts the external reorientation of the string.", "FIG. 25 depicts the welding of the backside interconnects.", "FIG. 26 depicts the application of the kapton substrate.", "FIG. 27 depicts a competed SPM.", "FIG. 28 depicts an embodiment of the manufacturing system showing the various subassemblies.", "FIG. 29 shows a plan view of the manufacturing system depicted in FIG. 28 .", "FIG. 30 shows an embodiment of a robotic system which may be utilized with the manufacturing system.", "FIG. 31 depicts an embodiment of an X-Y-Z string welding station which may be utilized with embodiments of the invention.", "FIG. 32 depicts a single IC'ing station which may be utilized with embodiments of the present invention to enable the weld qualification and characterization of each welded cell.", "The single IC'ing station consists of a single Y-axis linear motor stage, a Unitek weld head, a power supply, and a weld load cell pull tester.", "FIG. 33 depicts an interconnect weld force tester assembly which may be utilized with the IC'ing station in embodiments of the invention.", "FIG. 34 depicts a cell flipper mechanism which may be utilized with the IC'ing station in embodiments of the invention.", "FIG. 35 depicts an embodiment of a carousel mechanism which may be utilized to house bare cells, cover glass, ICs or CIC's, this embodiment having sufficient storage to manufacture four full-sized 91-cell SPMs. FIG. 36 depicts an embodiment of a SPM stringing vacuum tray assembly, showing, from left to right below the full figure, the SCP interface, vacuum, and assembly trays.", "FIG. 37 depicts an embodiment of a SPM pick-up tool.", "FIG. 38 depicts an embodiment of a preload bar pickup tool.", "FIG. 39 depicts an embodiment of an adhesive dispenser.", "FIG. 40 depicts an embodiment of a cell, interconnect, and diode pick-up tool.", "FIG. 41 depicts an embodiment of the tool stand-off brackets for parking of the various tools during operations.", "FIG. 42 depicts an embodiment of a string flipping assembly which is used external to the manufacturing system for turning an SPM.", "FIG. 43 is a flow chart showing a process for manufacture of CICs to SPMs utilizing embodiments of the disclosed system.", "FIG. 44 is a flow chart showing a process for manufacture of bare cells to SPMs. FIG. 45 is a flow chart showing a process for manufacture of IMM ICs to SPMs. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS Referring now to the Figures, an embodiment of the manufacturing device 10 is depicted in FIGS. 1-27 in the process of fabricating an SPM 500 , shown as completed in FIG. 27 .", "FIGS. 28-29 show, respectively, a perspective view and a plan view of an embodiment of the assembly work station showing the major subassemblies.", "FIGS. 30-41 show close-up views of some of the components of the subassemblies.", "FIG. 42 shows an embodiment of a flipping assembly, used external to the work station, for turning over an SPM which is in the process of being completed.", "FIGS. 43-45 show flow charts for assembling SPMs from, respectively, CIC's, bare cells, and IMM ICs.", "The manufacturing device 10 is configured to process both standard ZTJ/XTJ PV and emerging IMM PV.", "The manufacturing device 10 is also designed to manufacture interconnected cells (CIC's), and fully CIC'd cells (glassed) during periods of SPM fabrication downtime.", "The manufacturing device (also referred to herein as “work station”) 10 may be housed within a safety enclosure 300 , best depicted in FIG. 28 , to protect personnel from the moving assemblies, although certain components, such as reel feeders 302 which provide consumable materials during the manufacturing process, may extend beyond the envelope of the safety enclosure 300 to facilitate the replenishment of the consumable materials.", "For additional safety, an indicator light 304 may extend above the safety enclosure 300 to communicate the operating status of the work station 10 .", "The manufacturing device 10 is configured to assemble bare cells, interconnects, diodes and cover glass into CICs—independently or at string level—to qualified flight standards.", "The manufacturing device provides front and backside welding of CICs and bare cells, controlled dispensation of adhesive onto the front of bare cells, and to accommodate the current, state of the art, ZTJ cell configuration and future PV sizes and technology.", "The possible PV options include, but not limited to, IMM, Super Cell, Microlink and Single Cell per wafer designs.", "The manufacturing device will place and weld CICS, bus-bars and turn-arounds in variable string configurations (length and shape), because of the flexible nature of the utilized robotics and controlling software, including a string design up to seven cells wide and thirteen cells deep.", "The manufacturing device is capable of adhering completed strings to a multitude of substrate materials, such as Kapton with pressure sensitive adhesive, Kapton with dispensed and metered adhesive, and Mylar employing a weak adhesive for transfer to a rigid panel.", "The manufacturing device is capable of performance validation of CICs, strings and SPMs by employing various means of investigating cell, string, or SPM integrity.", "One such means of validation utilizes either InfraRed or the visible spectrum to identify structural issues within the CIC, string or SPM.", "Visual cameras may be utilized to verify the positional accuracy of features within these same assemblies.", "For example, proper diode location, cell spacing, bus-bar and turn-around location, interconnect placement and bonded coverglass tolerance.", "Embodiments of the manufacturing device 10 utilize a robot 120 as a pick-and-place machine.", "An acceptable robot 120 is the Epson SCARA type robot because of its inherent circular work space area and accommodation of conveyor applications.", "The robot utilizes an effector tool interface 122 with pneumatic tool changers to allow the use of a single robot 120 with multiple tools to execute multiple operations.", "The robot 120 will typically have a predetermined “safe position”", "which places the arm 122 of the robot away from all cell, interconnect, SPM and coverglass materials, testing equipment, linear motors and sensors.", "The safe position is, instead, directly over the tool changers and with the Z-axis fully retracted to eliminate possible interference issues with surrounding hardware should a failure occur.", "Robot 120 works in conjunction with a collection of end effector tools, which are necessary to perform all necessary automated tasks within the work station.", "The collection of end effector tools may comprise the following: (1) SPM tray carrier 12 , preload bar pickup 14 , adhesive dispenser 16 , and cell/interconnect vacuum assisted pickup mechanism 18 , which allows the robot 120 to pick up and position diodes, interconnects and busbars onto the SPM assembly tray 400 .", "FIGS. 37-40 depict embodiments of the end effector tools in greater detail.", "FIG. 31 depicts a string welding station 200 which enables loose cells, interconnects, diodes, bus-bars and turnarounds to be welded into fully functional string in situ.", "Following automatic placement of the of these various components by the robot 120 , utilizing vacuum assisted pickup mechanism 18 , X and Y linear motors position the required weld points beneath the weld head 202 .", "X-axis translation of the SPM welding tray may be achieved with a Parker 412LXR Linear Motor Stage.", "Y-axis translation of the weld head may be controlled with a Parker 406LXR Linear Motor Stage.", "The inventors herein have determined that the Unitek 72 weld head unit and the associated UB-25 power supply provide acceptable service for weld head 202 .", "The weld head 202 is mounted to a Z axis linear motor for vertical positioning.", "An acceptable Z axis linear motor is a Parker 404XR 500 mm travel ballscrew stage.", "Weld head 202 and the Z axis linear motor are in turn mounted to the Y axis linear stage.", "An optional, battery powered, absolute encoder may be utilized with both the X and Y linear motors to prevent the possibility of the system losing its positional awareness along its axis should power be lost.", "As depicted in FIG. 32 , an embodiment of the manufacturing device 10 may comprise a single IC'ing station 600 .", "The single IC'ing station 600 takes advantage of the SPM manufacturing down time and allows the weld qualification and characterization of each welded cell.", "The single IC'ing station comprises a single Y-axis linear motor stage, a weld head assembly (Unitek 72 with UB-25 power supply is acceptable), weld load cell pull tester, and a cell flipping mechanism.", "FIG. 33 depicts an interconnect weld force tester assembly 700 .", "The purpose of the weld force tester assembly 700 is to verify that the cell to interconnect weld strength exceeds the applicable standard.", "The weld force tester 700 comprises a single axis ballscrew stage, a cell plate with integrated vacuum, a load cell, a ball slide and rail, and a pneumatic gripper.", "In action, the robot 120 places an cell C onto a vacuum plate 702 with the interconnects positioned off the edge of the plate and on the side of gripper 704 .", "The single axis stage then moves the interconnects between the retracted jaws of the gripper 704 .", "The gripper 704 is actuated and pinches the interconnects to restrain the IC while undergoing in-plane loading.", "The stage 706 moves away from the gripper 704 until a predetermined load is registered on the load cell.", "Upon conclusion of the test, the stage 706 relaxes, the gripper 704 is released and the stage 706 moves back to its original position of the robot 120 may access the IC for the next step in the process.", "FIG. 34 depicts an embodiment of a cell flipper 800 .", "During the IC'ing process, it is necessary to flip the cell C 180 degrees so that the diode may welded onto the back of the cell.", "Cell flipper 800 provides this service.", "Cell flipper utilizes an actuator and a vacuum tray to hold the cell.", "The actuator (which may be a SMC CRJU1-180-M9NWL actuator) has a 180 degree rotary configuration with a hardstop-to-hardstop motion.", "FIG. 34 shows two view of the cell flipper 800 , showing an IC on the vacuum tray with opaque rendering on the left side and as transparent on the right side, so that the underlying vacuum port detail of the interface plate 802 .", "FIG. 35 depicts an embodiment of a carousel 900 to support the various SPMs and individual ICs, and cover glass.", "The embodiment of carousel 900 depicted in FIG. 35 may utilize a Parker RT212 worm drive rotary stage and removable storage cassettes 902 .", "The cassettes may be configured to hold bare cells, cover glass, ICs or CICs.", "For example, the cassettes 902 may hold sufficient components to manufacture four full-sized 91-cell SPMs. Ample clearance is provided to allow the robot end effector tools access to the entire cassette during loading and unloading events.", "Robot 120 may utilize vacuum assisted pickup mechanism 18 for placing each of these components.", "FIG. 36 depicts the various components of SPM assembly tray 400 .", "The SPM assembly tray 400 is utilized to locate and stabilize free cells, interconnects, diodes, busbars and turnarounds during the stringing process.", "Each of these components is deposited onto SPM assembly tray 400 utilizing robot 120 in conjunction with vacuum assisted pickup mechanism 18 .", "The SPM assembly tray 400 comprises three separate plates, which are shown in the figures below the top portion of FIG. 36 .", "These three components are the linear motor interface plate 402 , the vacuum manifold plate 404 , and the string assembly plate 406 .", "The linear motor interface plate 402 bolts directly to the X-axis linear motor and is equipped with locating pins for accurate placement of the vacuum manifold plate 404 .", "The manifold plate 404 is furnished with elbow fittings to enable quick connect/disconnect with the vacuum system.", "The manifold plate 404 is subdivided into channels to permit staged vacuum application and release.", "Staggering the vacuum channel application decreases the overall required vacuum system capacity by limiting the number of air ports exposed to the atmosphere at any given time.", "The manifold plate 404 may also be equipped with locating pins for restraining the stringing tray.", "The stringing tray 406 is perforated in specific locations to hold cells, interconnects, diodes, busbars and turnarounds in place.", "The stringing tray 406 also contains machined locating features for the cells and cover glass to ensure accurate relative placement and repeatability.", "The stringing tray 406 has pins at the ends of all string columns for positioning of the coverglass preload bars 1000 .", "During the CICing process it is necessary to hold the coverglass slides stationary with respect to the ICs.", "In addition to the relative inplane position—governed by machined features in the stringing tray 406 —the bond line thickness between the cells and coverglass is equally critical.", "To achieve accurate bond lines across the entire SPM, a calibrated preload bar 1000 is utilized, which has a low-pressure spring driven, adjustable mechanism.", "Each preload bar 1000 is positioned by utilizing preload bar pickup 14 .", "The preload bars 1000 are delivered via a gravity feed ramp 1002 , which has integrated feed rollers and utilizes actuators, which may be located on either side of the feed ramp.", "After the preload bars 1000 are utilized during the stringing process, following the complete cell adhesive curing, the preload bars 1000 may be replaced by hand on the gravity feed ramp 1002 .", "The last automated step in the SPM manufacturing process is the application of the substrate to the backside of the cells.", "Whether the substrate is bare Kapton, Kapton with pressure sensitive adhesive, or a mylar transfer sheet, the material must be restrained and applied in a controlled manner.", "This is accomplished with bonding platen 1100 depicted in FIG. 26 .", "The bonding platen 1100 has locating holes for registration on pins embedded in the perimeter of the stringing tray 400 .", "FIGS. 43-45 are flow charts showing processes for fabricating SPMs utilizing CICs, bare cells, and IMM ICs using embodiments of the work station 10 disclosed herein.", "FIG. 43 is a flow chart showing a process for manufacture of CICs to SPMs utilizing embodiments of the disclosed system.", "FIG. 44 is a flow chart showing a process for manufacture of bare cells to SPMs. FIG. 45 is a flow chart showing a process for manufacture of IMM ICs to SPMs. While the above is a description of various embodiments of the present invention, further modifications may be employed without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.", "Thus the scope of the invention should not be limited according to these factors, but according to the following appended claims." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to multi-channel neural stimulators, and more particularly to a multi-channel neural stimulator that includes the ability to minimize channel interaction.", "A neural stimulator provides electrical stimulation pulses to selected body tissue or nerves through one or more electrodes for the purpose of providing a desired therapeutic effect, e.g., to relive pain, to treat urinary incontinence, to aid a profoundly deaf person to hear, to treat a disease, or the like.", "A multichannel neural stimulator provides the capability of stimulating multiple tissue sites simultaneously with different levels of stimulation, e.g., with different current pulse amplitudes, applied to each stimulation site.", "Representative neural stimulation systems are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,400,590;", "5,324,316;", "5,571,148;", "5,603,726;", "5,824,022;", "6,308,101;", "and in International Publication WO 02/09808 A1, which patents and publication are incorporated herein by reference.", "When multiple electrodes are stimulated simultaneously, electrical interactions can arise.", "See, e.g., Stickney et al.", ", “Channel Interaction and Speech Processing Strategies for Cochlear Implants”, Univ.", "of Texas at Dallas, House Ear Institute and Insonus Medical, Inc. Joint Presentation Report (Poster Presentation);", "Stickney et al.", "“Electrode Interaction and Speech Intelligibility in Mutlichannel Cochlear Implants”, UC Irvine Department of Otolaryngology (Poster Presentation);", "and Boex, et al.", ", “Electrode interactions in Clarion Subjects”, University Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland (Poster Presentation), which poster presentations are incorporated herein by reference.", "It is generally known that channel interaction can be reduced by decreasing the current levels delivered to each electrode, improving electrode positioning and design, or using signal processing strategies or approaches that stimulate electrodes sequentially.", "The present invention provides another approach for minimizing channel interaction in a multichannel neural stimulator, such as a cochlear implant.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a way of reducing channel interaction in a multichannel neural implant having the ability to stimulate multiple tissue or nerve sites simultaneously.", "Channel interaction is minimized, in accordance with the teachings of the present invention, through measuring or estimating what the channel interaction is or will likely be, and then using that measured or estimated channel interaction to adjust the intensity of the applied stimuli so that, with the channel interaction, the actual stimuli applied to the tissue or nerves is of a desired intensity level.", "In one embodiment, the measured or estimated channel interaction is compiled and saved as a channel interaction matrix.", "The channel interaction matrix is created during a fitting procedure by stimulating one channel at a time while measuring the effects of the stimulation on the neighboring channels.", "The superposition principal is used, as needed, to determine all the terms of the channel interaction matrix.", "The channel interaction matrix, once obtained, advantageously provides all of the information needed to eliminate or minimize channel interaction.", "In a preferred technique, this is done by using the diagonal terms of the channel interaction matrix [CIM] and a desired stimulation current matrix [I D ] to compute a voltage matrix [V] that calculates what the voltage at each stimulation site would be if the desired stimulation currents were applied at each stimulation site.", "Then, the inverse of the channel interaction matrix, [CIM] −1 , and the voltage matrix [V] are used to determine what the required stimulation currents [I R ] at each stimulation site need to be in order to produce, with the occurrence of channel interaction, the desired stimulation currents [I D ].", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The above and other aspects, features and advantages of the present invention will be more apparent from the following more particular description thereof, presented in conjunction with the following drawings wherein: FIG. 1 shows a generalized bock diagram of a neural stimulation system, including an input transducer, a signal processor, an implantable neural stimulator and an electrode array;", "FIG. 2 schematically illustrates two types of electrode arrays that may be used with an implantable neural stimulator, whereby by way of example each electrode array has sixteen individual electrode contacts, and wherein a common or reference electrode contact is provided on the case of the implantable neural stimulator;", "FIG. 3A shows a simplified neural stimulator having three channels through which stimulation waveforms may be applied simultaneously;", "FIG. 3B shows a block diagram of the simplified neural stimulator of FIG. 3A ;", "FIG. 4 illustrates the concept of channel interaction relative to the simplified neural stimulator of FIGS. 3A and 3B ;", "FIGS. 5A , 5 B and 5 C depict how the present invention uses a channel interaction matrix (CIM) to minimize channel interaction in a neural stimulation system having eight channels;", "FIG. 6A is a flow chart that illustrates the main steps associated with minimizing channel interaction in accordance with the present invention;", "FIG. 6B details the steps that may be followed, in one embodiment, in order to carry out step 82 of the process illustrated in FIG. 6A ;", "and FIG. 7 is a graph depicting the inter-electrode nulling obtained using the invention.", "Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding components throughout the several views of the drawings.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The following description is of the best mode presently contemplated for carrying out the invention.", "This description is not to be taken in a limiting sense, but is made merely for the purpose of describing the general principles of the invention.", "The scope of the invention should be determined with reference to the claims.", "Neural stimulation systems may take many forms.", "One form is a cochlear stimulation system.", "A cochlear stimulation system is shown, by way of example, in FIG. 1 .", "The cochlear stimulation system includes an external speech processor portion 10 and an implantable neural stimulator (INS) portion 12 .", "The speech processor portion 10 includes a speech processor (SP) 16 and a microphone 18 .", "The microphone 18 may be connected directly to the SP 16 , or may be coupled to the SP 16 through an appropriate communication link 24 .", "The neural stimulation portion 12 includes an implantable neural stimulator (INS) 21 , and an electrode array 48 .", "The electrode array 48 is adapted to be inserted within the cochlea of a patient.", "The array 48 includes a multiplicity of electrodes, e.g., sixteen electrodes, spaced along its length that are selectively connected to the INS 21 .", "The electrode array 48 may be substantially as shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,819,647, incorporated herein by reference, or U.S. Pat. No. 6,129,753, also incorporated herein by reference.", "Electronic circuitry within the INS 21 allows a specified stimulation current to be applied to selected pairs or groups of the individual electrodes included within the electrode array 48 in accordance with a specified stimulation pattern, defined by the SP 16 .", "(Here, it should be noted, that the “implantable neural stimulator”", "terminology is generic to any neural stimulator system.", "Where, as here, the nerves stimulated by the INS are auditory nerves, the INS may be referred to more particularly as an “implantable cochlear stimulator”, or ICS.) The INS 21 and the SP 14 are linked together electronically through a suitable communications link 14 that allows power and control signals to be sent from the SP 16 to the INS 21 , and that (in some embodiments) allows data and status signals to be sent from the INS 21 to the SP 16 .", "The details of such communication link 14 are not important for purposes of the present invention.", "In some embodiments, i.e., where the INS 21 and electrode array 48 are implanted within the patient, and the SP 16 and microphone 18 are carried externally (non-implanted) by the patient, the link 14 may be realized by an antenna coil in the INS and an external antenna coil coupled to the SP.", "In such embodiment, i.e., when the INS has been implanted, the external antenna is positioned so as to be aligned over the location where the INS is implanted, allowing such coils to be inductively coupled to each other, thereby allowing information (e.g., the magnitude and polarity of a stimulation current) and power to be transmitted from the speech processor 16 to the INS 21 .", "In other embodiments, i.e., where both the SP 16 and the INS 21 are implanted within the patient, the link 14 may be a direct wired connection, or other suitable link, as described, e.g., in U.S. Pat. No. 6,308,101, also incorporated herein by reference.", "The microphone 18 senses acoustic signals and converts such sensed signals to corresponding electrical signals.", "The electrical signals are sent to the SP 16 over a suitable electrical or other link 24 .", "The SP 16 processes these converted acoustic signals in accordance with a selected speech processing strategy in order to generate appropriate control signals for controlling the INS 21 .", "Such control signals specify or define the polarity, magnitude, location (which electrode pair receives the stimulation current), and timing (when the stimulation current is applied to the electrode pair) of the stimulation current that is generated by the INS 21 .", "It is common in the cochlear stimulator art, as well as in most neural stimulation art, to condition the magnitude and polarity of the stimulation current applied to the implanted electrodes of the electrode array 48 in accordance with a specified stimulation strategy.", "Such stimulation strategy involves defining a pattern of stimulation waveforms that are to be applied to the electrodes as controlled electrical currents.", "If multiple electrode pairs exist, as is the case with a multichannel neural stimulator of the type used with the present invention, then the types of stimulation patterns applied to the multiple channels may be conveniently categorized as: (1) simultaneous stimulation patterns, and (2) non-simultaneous stimulation patterns.", "Simultaneous stimulation patterns may be “fully”", "simultaneous or partially simultaneous.", "A fully simultaneous stimulation pattern is one wherein stimulation currents, either analog or pulsatile, are applied to the electrodes of all of the available channels at the same time.", "A partially simultaneous stimulation pattern is one wherein stimulation currents, either analog or pulsatile, are applied to the electrodes of two or more channels, but not necessarily all of the channels, at the same time.", "Examples of each type are given below.", "Analog waveforms used in analog stimulation patterns are typically reconstructed by the generation of continuous short monophasic pulses (samples).", "The sampling rate is selected to be fast enough to allow for proper reconstruction of the temporal details of the signal.", "Current pulses applied in pulsatile stimulation patterns are generally biphasic pulses applied to the electrodes of each channel.", "The biphasic pulse has a magnitude (e.g., amplitude and/or duration) that varies as a function of the sensed acoustic signal.", "(A “biphasic”", "pulse is generally considered as two pulses: a first pulse of one polarity having a specified magnitude, followed immediately, or after a very short delay, by a second pulse of the opposite polarity having the same total charge, which charge is the product of stimulus current times duration of each pulse or phase.) For multichannel cochlear stimulators, it is common to sample the acoustic signal at a rapid rate, and apply a biphasic stimulation pulse in sequence (i.e., non-simultaneously) to each of the pairs of electrodes of each channel in accordance with a specified pattern and cycle time, with the magnitude of the stimulation current being a function of information contained within the sensed acoustic signal at a given (e.g., the most recent) sample time.", "An example of such sequential, non-simultaneous stimulation pattern is a continuous interleaved sampler (CIS) strategy.", "It is important to recognize that in between the two extremes of fully simultaneous stimulation patterns (wherein analog stimulation currents are continuously applied to all channels, e.g., using the Simultaneous Analog Strategy (SAS)) and non-simultaneous pulsatile patterns (wherein biphasic pules are applied in a specified sequence to all channels without time overlap, e.g., using the CIS strategy), there are a great number of other stimulation patterns may be formulated.", "Such other simulation patterns may prove more efficacious for a given patient than either of the SAS or CIS extremes.", "It is also important to realize that the present invention finds primary applicability for use with neural stimulation systems having multiple independent current sources that can be used to independently generate the electrical stimuli applied through the electrodes of the various channels.", "That is, each output channel of a neural stimulator used with the present invention should be capable of being programmed to provide an electrical stimulation pattern at the same time, i.e., simultaneously with, the application of other electrical stimulation patterns to other channels.", "It is the presence of the simultaneous electrical stimulation patterns that gives rise to the interaction between the various channels, and it is this interaction (or the minimization of this interaction) that is the subject of the present invention.", "Turning next to FIG. 2 , there is shown a schematic representation of two types of electrode arrays 48 and 48 ′ that may be used with a neural stimulation system.", "Either type of electrode array 48 or 48 ′ has its proximal end (not shown) connected to an INS 21 .", "This connection enables the current generators within the INS for each channel to apply a current stimulus of a desired amplitude, polarity, duration and repetition rate to be applied to the paired electrode contacts for that channel.", "In one embodiment, the electrode array 48 includes sixteen electrode contacts, identified in FIG. 2 as M 1 , L 1 , M 2 , L 2 , M 3 , L 3 , .", "M 8 , L 8 .", "As seen in FIG. 2 , the electrodes identified as M 1 , M 2 , M 3 , .", "M 8 are on the medial side of the electrode;", "and the electrodes L 1 , L 2 , L 3 , .", "L 8 reside on a lateral side of the electrode.", "The output circuitry within the INS 21 may be configured so as to connect selected pairs of these electrodes to provide bipolar stimulation.", "One form of bipolar stimulation, referred to as radial bipolar, pairs electrode contacts L 1 with M 1 , L 2 with M 2 , and so on, through L 8 with M 8 .", "Another form of bipolar stimulation, referred to as enhanced bipolar, pairs electrode contacts M 1 with L 2 , M 2 with L 3 , M 3 with L 4 , M 4 with L 5 , M 5 with L 6 , M 6 with L 7 , M 7 with L 8 , and M 8 with L 1 .", "Using bipolar electrode coupling, i.e., applying the stimulating electrical pulses through paired electrode contacts that are adjacent each other on the electrode array 48 , provides a more focused stimulation that may be more suitable for certain types of simultaneous stimulation.", "Additionally, a reference or common electrode 58 may comprise an exposed portion of a band on the case of the INS 21 .", "Through use of such reference electrode 58 , it is thus also possible to configure the system for monopolar stimulation.", "In monopolar stimulation, a first channel may pair electrode contact M 1 or L 1 with the reference electrode, a second channel may pair electrode M 2 or L 2 with the reference electrode, and so on, with the eighth channel pairing electrode M 8 or L 8 with the reference electrode.", "Using monopolar electrode coupling, i.e., applying the stimulating electrical pulses through paired electrode contacts that include the distant reference electrode, provides a less focused stimulation, but one which may be more suitable for other types of stimulation.", "Disadvantageously, monopolar stimulation also gives rise to significant channel interaction.", "Therefore, the present invention is particularly useful for neural stimulation systems where monopolar stimulation is employed.", "Additionally, as is known in the art, virtual coupling may also be employed through appropriate mapping of the SP analysis channels with the INS stimulation channels in order to fine tune the position or location where a stimulus excites neural tissue.", "Monopolar, bipolar or virtual coupling may also be used with an electrode array 48 ′, also shown in FIG. 2 .", "The array 48 ′ has all of its electrode contacts along a medical side of the array.", "A typical bipolar coupling will pair electrodes 1 and 2 , 3 and 4 , 5 and 6 , and so on, through 15 and 16 .", "A typical monopolar coupling for the array 48 ′ will pair electrodes 1 , 3 , 5 , .", "15 with the reference electrode 58 ;", "or electrodes 2 , 4 , 6 , .", "16 with the reference electrode 58 .", "With the foregoing as background, the main feature of the present invention—relating to the manner in which channel interaction is minimized—will next be explained in connection with the description of FIGS. 3A , 3 B and 4 .", "FIG. 3A shows a simple implantable neural stimulator 21 ′ having three channels.", "This simplified three-channel neural stimulator 21 ′ will be used to teach the basic principles of the invention.", "It is to be understood however, that these same principles apply to an implantable neural stimulator (INS) having any number of channels, e.g., two to sixteen channels or more.", "Most multichannel nuerostimulators have at least four channels, and may have as many as thirty-two channels.", "Each channel of the INS 21 ′ is connected through suitable conductors carried in lead 56 to respective electrodes E 1 , E 2 or E 3 near the distal end of the lead 56 .", "A functional block diagram that illustrates the circuits contained within the INS 21 ′ is shown in FIG. 3B .", "As seen in FIG. 3B , each electrode E 1 , E 2 , E 3 is connected to a respective current source amplifier A 1 , A 2 , or A 3 .", "These current source amplifiers A 1 , A 2 and A 3 are controlled, in turn, by a control processor 60 .", "A reference electrode 58 , e.g., an electrode located on the case of the INS 21 ′, is also connected to the control processor 60 .", "The control processor 60 has suitable memory circuitry 64 connected thereto.", "Input/output (I/O) circuitry 62 also is coupled to the control processor 60 .", "Such I/O circuitry 62 allows control parameters, programs, or data to be programmed into the processor 60 , or into the memory 64 for use by the processor 60 , so that a desired stimulation function may be carried out by the INS 21 ′.", "The I/O circuitry 62 may take many forms, as is known in the art, in order to form a transcutaneous link through which data may be sent to, or received from, the INS 21 ′ from a location external to the INS 21 ′.", "Examples of such transcutaneous links include radio frequency (RF) links, inductive links, magnetic links, optical links, or direct wire links.", "The INS 21 ′ further includes a suitable power source 66 that provides operating power to all of its circuits, as needed.", "Such power source 66 may take many forms, as is known in the art, such as a primary battery, a rechargeable battery, a supercapacitor, or a power supply driven continuously by an external RF power source.", "In operation, a suitable electrical stimulus is generated by one or more of the amplifiers A 1 , A 2 , or A 3 as controlled by the processor 60 .", "In FIG. 3B , a biphasic stimulus pulse 67 is shown as being present at electrode E 2 .", "A return path for such stimulus pulse 67 may be provided through electrode E 1 or E 3 , or through the reference electrode 58 .", "Turning next to FIG. 4 , the type of channel interaction that is minimized by the present invention is illustrated.", "FIG. 4 assumes a three channel system, C 1 , C 2 , C 3 .", "In order to determine the channel interaction, a stimulus of a known intensity or magnitude is applied to one channel, and the interaction appearing at the other channels as a result of the application of the stimulus is measured on the other channels.", "For example, assume a stimulus of intensity level 3 is applied to the first channel C 1 .", "As this stimulus is applied to C 1 , the magnitude of any pulses appearing on channels C 2 or C 3 is measured.", "As represented in the upper left corner of FIG. 4 , a stimulus applied to C 1 of intensity level 3 causes a corresponding stimulus of intensity level 2 to appear on non-stimulated channel C 2 , and another stimulus of intensity level 1 to appear on non-stimulated channel C 3 .", "Thus, as seen in the example of FIG. 4 , a C 2 stimulus equal to ⅔ of the applied stimulus C 1 appears on non-stimulated channel 2 when a stimulus is applied to C 1 , and a C 3 stimulus equal to ⅓ of the applied stimulus C 1 appears on non-stimulated channel 3 when a stimulus is applied to C 1 .", "The stimulus pulses that appear on the non-stimulated channels in response to a stimulus applied to a stimulated channel represent the type of channel interaction that the present invention seeks to minimize.", "Similarly, as shown in the example of FIG. 4 , a stimulus applied to C 2 of intensity level 3 causes a corresponding stimulus of intensity level 2 to appear on non-stimulated channel C 1 , and another stimulus of intensity level 2 to appear on non-stimulated channel C 3 .", "Thus, a C 1 stimulus equal to ⅔ of the applied stimulus C 2 appears on non-stimulated channel 1 when a stimulus is applied to C 2 , and a C 3 stimulus equal to ⅔ of the applied stimulus C 2 appears on non-stimulated channel 3 when a stimulus is applied to C 2 .", "Likewise, a stimulus applied to C 3 of intensity level 3 causes a corresponding stimulus of intensity level 1 to appear on non-stimulated channel C 1 , and another stimulus of intensity level 2 to appear on non-stimulated channel C 2 .", "That is to say, a C 1 stimulus equal to ⅓ of the applied stimulus C 3 appears on non-stimulated channel 1 when a stimulus is applied to C 3 , and a C 2 stimulus equal to ⅔ of the applied stimulus C 3 appears on non-stimulated channel 2 when a stimulus is applied to C 3 .", "The above channel interactions can be summarized in a channel interaction matrix, or CIM, as depicted on the right side of FIG. 4 .", "The first row of the CIM contains the channel interactions resulting from application of a stimulus to C 1 , the second row contains the channel interactions resulting from application of a stimulus to C 2 , and the third row contains the channel interactions resulting from application of a stimulus to C 3 , where the first column of the matrix corresponds to C 1 , the second column to C 2 , and the third column to C 3 .", "It is the primary purpose of the present invention to minimize the channel interactions occurring on the non-stimulated channels.", "This is done by first stimulating each channel and collecting data from all the non-stimulated electrodes simultaneous with the applied stimulation.", "This data is used to build a matrix of the impedances between the stimulated electrode and the non-stimulated electrodes.", "This matrix of impedances comprises the channel interaction matrix, described above.", "For example, consider an eight channel system.", "The channel interaction matrix, or CIM, is created by measuring the impedance between E 1 and each of the other seven electrodes.", "Such impedance is preferably measured by applying a stimulus of known current I 1 to electrode E 1 and by measuring the resulting voltage that appears at E 2 , E 3 , E 4 .", "E 8 .", "The impedance Z is simply Z=V/I, Thus, the impedance at E 2 resulting from application of current I 1 to E 1 , Z 1 , 2 , is simply Z 1 , 2 = V 2 / I 1 and, in general, the impedance at any electrode Ej (j=1−8) resulting from application of a current of known magnitude to electrode Ei (l=1−8) may be expressed as Zi,j=Vj/Ii.", "The measured impedances may be used to create an impedance matrix, or channel interaction matrix, CIM, as follows: Z1,1 Z1,2 Z1,3 Z1,4 Z1,5 Z1,6 Z1,7 Z1,8 Z2,1 Z2,2 Z2,3 Z2,4 Z2,5 Z2,6 Z2,7 Z2,8 Z3,1 Z3,2 Z3,3 Z3,4 Z3,5 Z3,6 Z3,7 Z3,8 Z4,1 Z4,2 Z4,3 Z4,4 Z4,5 Z4,6 Z4,7 Z4,8 Z5,1 Z5,2 Z5,3 Z5,4 Z5,5 Z5,6 Z5,7 Z5,8 Z6,1 Z6,2 Z6,3 Z6,4 Z6,5 Z6,6 Z6,7 Z6,8 Z7,1 Z7,2 Z7,3 Z7,4 Z7,5 Z7,6 Z7,7 Z7,8 Z8,1 Z8,2 Z8,3 Z8,4 Z8,5 Z8,6 Z8,7 Z8,8 Once the impedance matrix, or channel interaction matrix (CIM) has been created, the channel interaction of the system may be modeled as shown in FIG. 5A .", "(Here, it should be emphasized, that while only eight channels are shown as being present in the CIM, such number is only exemplary.", "The principles taught herein apply to any number of channels in a multichannel neural stimulation system.) In FIG. 5A , the desired stimulation current, l 1 , l 2 , l 3 , .", "l 8 , represents the current that the processor, or equivalent circuit, of the neural stimulation system has determined should be applied through the respective channel to the corresponding electrode E 1 , E 2 , .", "E 8 .", "However, due to channel interaction, the desired current may not be applied through the corresponding electrode because channel interaction may make the current more of less than the desired amount.", "In order to assure that the correct current is applied through the corresponding electrode as determined by the processor, or equivalent circuitry, of the implantable neural stimulator, the present invention determines the voltage [V] that should appear on each electrode if the desired stimulation current [I D ] were applied to the electrode.", "This is done by taking the diagonal terms of the CIM matrix, [CIM D ], and finding the voltage [V] as follows: [ V ]=[ CIM D ]×[ I D ] This process is also illustrated in FIG. 5B for an eight channel system.", "Once the voltage [V] that should result when the correct stimulation currents are applied has been determined, as depicted above and in FIG. 5B , then the required stimulation current [I R ] that will produce that voltage in the presence of the measured channel interaction is determined as follows: [ I R ]=[ CIM ] −1 ×[ V ].", "This process is illustrated in FIG. 5C for an eight channel system.", "Advantageously, the channel interaction matrix [CIM] and its inverse [CIM] −1 need only be determined once, e.g., during a fitting session.", "Once determined, such matrices can be saved and recalled as needed as different required stimulus currents [I R ] are produced in order to respond to the demands of the implantable neural stimulator (INS) to produce a set of desired stimulation currents [I D ] in order to carry out the desired function of the INS.", "Further, as should be evident from the above steps, the steps may be combined in a way that eliminates the need to determine the voltage matrix [V] that should appear when the desired currents are applied through the various channels.", "That is, the steps represented above and in FIGS. 5B and 5C may be combined as: [ I R ]=[ CIM ] −1 ×[ V ] where [ V ]=[ CIM D ]×[ I D ] Substituting the value of [V] into the first equation from the second equation yields: [ I R ]=[ CIM ] −1 ×{[ CIM D ]×[ I D ]}.", "It is thus seen that the present invention provides a method for minimizing channel interaction in a multichannel neural stimulator system, where the multichannel neural stimulation system has a multiplicity of electrodes adapted to interface with body tissue or nerves, and where means are provided for simultaneously applying a stimulus waveform of a desired intensity to selected ones of the multiplicity of electrodes.", "Such method comprises the steps of: (a) applying a stimulus waveform of a known intensity to one of the multiplicity of electrodes;", "and (b) measuring an interaction waveform appearing at any of the other of the multiplicity of electrodes as a result of the stimulus waveform applied in step (a);", "(c) repeating steps (a) and (b) for each of the multiplicity of electrodes;", "(d) creating a channel interaction matrix, [CIM], that defines the interaction waveforms measured in step (b) as a result of the stimulus waveforms, applied in step (a);", "(e) determining the inverse of the channel interaction matrix, [CIM] −1 , created in step (d);", "and thereafter (f) using the inverse of the channel interaction matrix, [CIM] −1 , and a desired stimulation waveform matrix, [I D ], to determine the actual stimulation waveforms [I R ] that must be applied in order to produce, after channel interaction, the desired stimulation waveforms.", "Turning next to FIG. 6A , a flow chart is shown that summarizes the process used by the invention to minimize channel interaction.", "As a first portion of the process, the channel interaction matrix, or CIM (also referred to as the impedance matrix) must be created.", "This is done in steps (or blocks) 70 - 76 of FIG. 6A .", "In a first step, a stimulation pulse, STIM, is applied to one of the electrodes Ei (block 70 ).", "At the same time that the STIM pulse is applied to electrode Ei, the effective interaction pulse that appears on the electrodes other than Ei is measured (block 72 ).", "This process is continued so as to build the CIM (block 74 ), using the superposition principle as required.", "Once the CIM has been created, it is stored (block 76 ).", "Then, the inverse of the CIM is computed and stored (block 78 ).", "Advantageously, the steps required to build the CIM, and to compute its inverse, need only be performed once, e.g., during a fitting session.", "Once the CIM has been created and stored, and its inverse has been determined and stored, such matrices may be used to minimize channel interaction as the implantable neural stimulation (INS) carries out its intended function.", "That is, the INS determines the desired stimulation pulses, STIM, that should be applied to each of the electrodes Ej in accordance with its intended or programmed function (block 80 ).", "The processing circuits within the INS then use the inverse of the CIM to determine the required STIM that needs to be applied to each electrode Ej to produce the desired STIM (block 82 ).", "Then the required STIM pulses are applied to the electrodes Ej through the appropriate channels of the INS (block 83 ).", "A preferred manner for carrying out the steps indicated at blocks 80 , 82 and 83 in FIG. 6A is depicted in more detail in FIG. 6B .", "This involves determining the desired stimulation currents to be applied to the electrode Ej (block 80 a ), and then using the diagonal terms of the CIM to determine the voltage resulting from the desired stimulation currents (block 82 a ).", "That is, [ V ]=[ CIM D ]×[ I D ] where [V] represents the voltage appearing on the electrodes, [CIM D ] represents the diagonal terms of the channel interaction matrix, and [I D ] represents the desired stimulation currents.", "Once the voltage values [V] have been determined, then the required stimulation currents [I R ] needed to produce those voltages are determined using the inverse of the channel interaction matrix [CIM] −1 and the voltage values [V] (block 82 b ).", "Or, as previously indicated, [ I R ]=[ CIM ] −1 ×[ V ].", "Moreover, as previously indicated, the steps indicated at blocks 82 a and 82 b may be combined.", "That is, the required stimulation currents [I R ] may be determined as follows: [ I R ]=[ CIM ] −1 ×{[ CIM D ]×[ I D ]}.", "Once the required stimulation currents have been determined (at block 82 b ), then those required stimulation currents are applied to the tissue (block 83 a ).", "Once applied, a determination is made as to whether the INS is to continue its operation, i.e,.", "whether more stimulation currents need to be applied (block 83 b ).", "If so (YES branch of block 83 b ), then the process repeats by completing the steps set forth at blocks 82 a , 82 b and 83 a .", "If not, e.g., if the INS is to be shut down or placed in a sleep mode, or otherwise turned OFF, then the process ends (NO branch of block 83 b ).", "Using the invention to minimize channel interaction has proven very effective.", "For example, as illustrated in FIG. 7 , significant interelectrode interaction is minimized through use of the invention.", "FIG. 7 shows the voltages appearing on electrodes E 2 through E 15 of a sixteen-electrode neural stimulation system when a current stimulus is applied to electrode E 1 .", "The stimulation is carried out in a monopolar fashion relative to a reference electrode.", "As can be seen in FIG. 7 , without using the invention (“un-adjusted”", "data points in FIG. 7 ), there is significant interaction between the 16 electrodes, with the voltage that appears on electrodes E 2 –E 15 being only about an order of magnitude less (1.00E-01) than the stimulation value applied to electrode E 1 .", "However, when the invention is used (“nulled”", "data points in FIG. 7 ), the interaction between the 16 electrodes is effectively eliminated.", "It should be appreciated that while a preferred INS configuration for practicing the invention involves applying current stimulation pulses to the electrodes, the invention may also be practiced when voltage stimulation pulses are applied to the electrodes.", "While the invention herein disclosed has been described by means of specific embodiments and applications thereof, numerous modifications and variations could be made thereto by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention set forth in the claims." ]

[ "RELATED APPLICATION This application is a continuation-in-part of Ser.", "No. 09/997,789, filed Nov. 30, 2001, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,508,495.", "FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to covered containers.", "It relates more particularly to a latch assembly for releasably retaining a cover to a container.", "The latch assembly is especially advantageous for use on surgical instrument sterilization trays.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION A sterilization tray usually comprises a base container with an open top for holding surgical instruments or other articles.", "The open top of the base container may be closed by a cover which engages over the top of the container.", "Preferably, the cover and/or the base container are perforated so that steam can circulate through the closed container.", "To prevent the cover from becoming disengaged from the base container during handling, means are usually provided for releasably securing the cover to that container.", "Conventionally, the securing means often consist of at least one latch which is usually mounted to one of the base container and cover and which is movable between a locked position wherein the latch engages over the other of the base container and cover, and an unlocked position wherein the latch is released from the other of the base container and cover.", "One such prior latch in widespread use consists of a rolled metal bracket hinged to the edge of the cover and a rolled metal hook pivotally connected to the bracket at a location thereon spaced from the bracket hinge.", "To lock the cover, the hook is swung down so that the hook engages a hole or projection in the base container and then the bracket is swung down to a stable over center position against the cover so that tension is applied to the hook whereupon the hook remains tightly engaged to the base container.", "While that prior cover securement operates satisfactorily in many respects, it is disadvantaged in that if the closed container should be dropped onto a hard surface, the bracket may move away from it's over-center position due to inertia.", "Resultantly, the hook member may become disengaged from the base container thereby allowing the cover to separate from the base container so that the contents of the container can spill onto the floor.", "As an improvement to that over center-type latch arrangement, we developed a safety clasp assembly disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,706,968.", "It comprises a rocker, an axle pivotally connecting the rocker to the container cover and a slider positioned between the axle and the cover.", "The slider is slidable along the cover in a direction perpendicular to the axle between a locked position wherein the slider interfits with the base container and an unlocked position wherein the slider is disengaged from that container.", "When the slider is in its locked position, portions of the rocker and slider interfit preventing movement of the latter.", "In order to move the slider to its unlocked position, the rocker has to be rocked about its axle against a spring bias to disengage the rocker from the slider allowing the latter to move to be moved to its unlocked position.", "While that safety clasp assembly has definite advantages over the then prior art, it also has a few drawbacks.", "More particularly, the container cover has to be modified to form eyes in the container cover to anchor the axle ends of each clasp assembly.", "Also, some people find it difficult to move simultaneously both the rocker and the slider as necessary to release the clasp using only one hand.", "Resultantly, some people have been reluctant to use sterilization trays incorporating such clasp assemblies.", "Accordingly, it would be desirable to be able to provide securing means for reliably releasably securing a cover to a sterilization tray or other base container, which is easy to operate using only one hand, yet does not require modification of the cover or container.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved latch assembly for releasably securing a cover to a sterilization tray or other such base container.", "Another object of the invention is to provide a latch assembly of this type which can be moved between its latched and unlatched positions quite easily only using one hand.", "Another object of the invention is to provide such a latch assembly which is relatively easy and inexpensive to make and to assemble.", "A further object of the invention is to provide a latch assembly of this general type which can be installed on a conventional cover without requiring any appreciable modification of the cover or container.", "A further object of the invention is to provide a latch assembly which signals when it is in its latched and unlatched conditions.", "Other objects will, in part, be obvious and will, in part, appear hereinafter.", "The invention accordingly comprises the features of construction, combination of elements and arrangement of parts which will be exemplified in the following detailed description, and the scope of the invention will be indicated in the claims.", "Briefly, the present latch assembly for securing a cover to a container comprises a base for mounting to the container cover adjacent to an edge thereof, a cover member secured to the base and a slider slidable along a passage between the base and cover member between a latched position wherein a portion of the slider interfits with the container and an unlatched position wherein the slider portion is disengaged from the container.", "A headed spring member interposed between the slider and the base resiliently interfits with holes in the slider to signal when the slider has reached its latched and unlatched positions and to releasably retain the slider at those positions.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS For a fuller understanding of the nature and objects of the invention, reference should be made to the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which: FIG. 1 is a perspective view with parts broken away of an instrument sterilization tray having latch assemblies incorporating the invention;", "FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view on a larger scale showing in greater detail the components of each latch assembly in the FIG. 1 tray;", "FIGS. 3A and 3B are sectional views on a larger scale taken along line 3 A— 3 A of FIG. 1, showing the latch assembly in its latched and unlatched conditions, respectively;", "FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 2 of the components of a second latch embodiment, and FIG. 5 is a sectional view showing the components of the FIG. 4 latch embodiment in their assembled condition.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Refer now to FIG. 1 of the drawings which shows a generally rectangular surgical instrument sterilization tray 10 .", "Tray 10 is composed of a relatively deep base container 12 having a pair of opposite sidewalls 12 a, 12 a and a pair of opposite endwalls 12 b, 12 b. The top of the base container 12 is normally open but may be closed by a cover 14 having a pair of opposite sidewalls 14 a, 14 a, and a pair of opposite endwalls 14 b, 14 b. When cover 14 is seated on container 12 , the cover walls 14 a, 14 b, overlap or interfit with the corresponding container walls 12 a, 12 b. Preferably, container 12 and cover 14 are made of a strong impact-resistant plastic material able to withstand sterilization temperatures.", "Preferably also, the cover and/or the base container is formed with a multiplicity of holes 16 through which steam may circulate when instruments in tray 10 are being sterilized.", "In order to releasably lock cover 14 to container 12 , the tray 10 is provided with a pair of mirror-image latch assemblies shown generally at 20 situated at opposite ends of the tray.", "Latch assemblies 20 lock cover 14 to base container 12 during the sterilization process and during handling.", "However, the assemblies 20 can be released easily by operating room personnel, using only one hand, when it is necessary to remove cover 14 in order to use the sterilized instruments in container 12 .", "Each latch assembly 20 is secured by fasteners 22 to cover 14 near an endwall 14 b thereof and is adapted to releasably interfit with the underlying endwall 12 b of base container 12 when the assembly is in its locked position shown in FIGS. 1 and 3A and to be spaced and disengaged from that container endwall when the assembly is in its unlocked position shown in FIG. 3 B. As best seen in FIG. 2, each assembly 20 comprises four main parts which are stacked one on top of the other.", "More particularly, the assembly includes a base shown generally at 28 which may be an essentially flat, generally rectangular, metal plate formed with a relatively long center segment 28 a which may be raised relative to a pair of opposite end segments 28 b. Fastener holes 32 are present at the four comers of base 28 in segments 28 b and a relatively large, generally rectangular window or hole 34 is present in the raised segment 28 a for reasons that will become apparent.", "The second component of assembly 20 is a spring member shown generally at 36 .", "Member 36 is essentially a thin flat plate preferably of a metal such as spring steel.", "The spring member 36 has more or less the same dimensions as the raised segment 28 a of base 28 .", "Member 36 is also notched to form a pair of generally rectangular, full-width end sections 36 a, 36 a, which bracket a narrower laterally extending section or tab 36 b. When spring member 36 is centered on the raised segment 28 a of base 28 , tab 36 b is cantilevered out over the window or hole 34 in raised segment 28 a. As shown in FIG. 2, for reasons that will become apparent, a raised head or protuberance 38 is formed adjacent to the free edge of tab 36 b. That head may be a blind fastener inserted through tab 36 b or the head may be created by deforming tab 36 b to form a mesa or rib or by adhering, welding or brazing the head to the tab.", "In any event, head or protuberance 38 should be on the side of the spring member 36 facing away from base 28 .", "Still referring to FIG. 2, the third element of latch assembly 20 is a slider shown generally at 42 .", "The illustrated slider is a stamped metal part having a generally rectangular top wall 42 a whose length is comparable to that of the base segment 28 a and whose width is appreciably greater than that segment.", "The slider also includes an integral hook 42 b which extends down from a long edge of top wall 42 a. The hook has one or more legs 42 c extending back parallel to top wall 42 a from a location spaced appreciably below that wall.", "Also, slider 42 is formed with a lip 42 d at the opposite long edge of top wall 42 a. The lip may extend up as shown in solid lines in the drawings or down as shown in phantom in FIG. 3 A. As we shall see, lip 42 d provides a finger grip for operating the latch assembly.", "Positioned more or less midway along the length of top wall 42 a of slider 42 is a is pair of holes or dimples 44 a and 44 b opening to the underside of the slider.", "These holes or dimples are spaced apart laterally on wall 42 a so that when the slider 42 is centered on the spring member 36 , the imaginary line extending between holes or dimples 44 a and 44 b is aligned with the head 38 on spring member 36 .", "The final component of latch assembly 20 is a cover member shown generally at 46 in FIG. 2 .", "Cover member 46 is a stamped metal part having a raised central segment 46 a bracketed by two end segments 46 b. The width of raised segment 46 a is comparable to that of the raised segment 28 a of base 28 .", "However, its length is slightly greater than that of base segment 28 a. As with base 28 , fastener holes 48 are provided at the four corners of cover member 46 in the end segments 46 b thereof.", "When the latch assembly parts shown in FIG. 2 are properly assembled as seen in FIGS. 3A and 3B, they are stacked one above the other such that the holes 48 in the cover member 46 line up with the corresponding holes 32 in the base 28 and such that the spring member tab 36 b overlies the window 34 in the base member.", "During such assembly, the spring member 36 is preferably spot-welded or otherwise secured to base segment 28 a by spot welds 58 (FIG.", "4) to fix the relative positions of those parts.", "Likewise, after cover member 46 is properly aligned with base 28 , those two members may be permanently secured together by spot-welds 49 (FIG.", "1) at end segments 46 b and 28 b. In that completed assembly, the holes 48 in the cover member 46 and the holes 32 in the base 28 are in alignment to receive the fasteners 22 that secure the latch assembly to cover 14 as shown in FIG. 1 .", "Also when the parts are assembled, the spring tab 36 b is deflected downward by the engagement of the head 38 against the underside of the slider so that the head is biased upward.", "The window or hole 34 in base 28 provides clearance for the deflected tab 36 b;", "see FIG. 5 .", "When the latch assembly 20 is in its latched condition shown in FIGS. 1 and 3A, slider 42 is positioned inwardly on the tray cover 14 so that the slider hook 42 b is close enough to the corresponding endwall 12 b of container 12 that the hook leg(s) 42 c project through slot(s) 50 formed in that wall.", "This interfitting engagement of the slider with the container endwall prevents cover 14 from becoming separated from container 12 .", "As noted previously, the head 38 on the spring tab 36 b is biased upwardly against the underside of slider 42 .", "Therefore, when the slider reaches its latched position shown in FIG. 3A, the head 38 snaps into the hole or dimple 44 a in the underside of the slider top wall 42 a thereby providing an audible and tactile signal that the slider is in its latched position.", "Also, the resilient engagement of the head 38 in hole or dimple 44 a releasably retains the slider in its latched position.", "Overtravel of the slider in the latching directing is prevented by the engagement of slider hook 42 b against the adjacent side edge of the base which edge thus functions as a stop.", "To unlock latch assembly 20 in order to remove cover 14 from base container 12 , the operator, using a thumb or finger, exerts an outward force on slider lip 42 d that is sufficiently strong to overcome the bias of spring tab 36 b and dislodge head 38 from hole or dimple 44 a. The outward motion of the slider retracts the hook leg(s) 42 c from slot(s) 50 in the base endwall 12 b as shown in FIG. 3 B. When the slider reaches its unlatched position, the head 38 on spring member 36 will snap into the other hole or dimple 44 b in the underside of the slider top wall 42 a thereby providing an unlatch signal and releasably retaining the slider in its unlatched position.", "Overtravel of the slider beyond that position is prevented by the engagement of lip 42 d against the adjacent side edge of cover member 46 (or base 28 ) which edge thus functions as a stop.", "When all of the components of latch 10 are made of metal as described above, there may be a tendency for the head 38 to wear a track in the underside of slider portion 42 a between holes or depressions 44 a and 44 b after prolonged use of the latch.", "FIGS. 4 and 5 depicted a latch assembly 51 which avoids that potential problem.", "Latch assembly 51 comprises a flat metal base 52 formed with a central window or depression 54 and corner fastening means 56 which in this case are fastener holes 56 a at the forward comers of the base and hooks 56 b at the rear corner thereof which help to secure the latch assembly to the associated tray cover as will be described later.", "Centered on base 52 and secured thereto by spot welds 58 is a flat spring member 62 having a cantilevered tab 62 a overlying the window or depression 54 in the base 52 .", "Tab 62 a is deformed to form a raised rib 64 adjacent to the free end of the tab.", "Latch assembly 51 also includes a slider 72 which is similar to slider 42 except that it has a large rectangular opening 74 in its top wall 72 a in lieu of holes or depressions 44 a, 44 b. Seated in opening 74 is an insert 76 which is shaped like a capitol letter I in that it is formed with a pair of aligned notches 78 a and 78 b between its ends leaving a narrow strip portion 78 c between the notches, all of which define with the edge of the slider opening 54 a pair of holes or recesses in the underside of the slider as a whole.", "Preferably insert 78 is of a relatively rigid plastic material having a low coefficient of friction, such as ultra high molecular weight polyethylene or polytetrafluorethylene.", "The final component of latch assembly 51 is a cover member 82 which is similar to cover member 46 shown in FIG. 2 except that it has corner fastening means 84 in the form of holes 84 a at its front comers and hooks 84 b at its rear comers.", "As with assembly 10 , when cover member 82 is superimposed on, and secured by spot-welds 49 (FIG.", "1) to, the base 52 with slider 72 in between, the fastening means 84 are in register with the similar means 56 on base 52 .", "The latch assembly 51 is secured to the top of tray cover 14 by engaging hooks 56 b, 84 b in slots present in a raised rib R extending around the top of cover 14 as shown in phantom in FIG. 1 .", "Latch assembly 51 operates in the same way as assembly 10 .", "That is, when the slider is in its locked position, the rib 64 on spring tab 62 a engages in the insert notch 78 a and when the slider is in its unlocked position, the rib 64 seats in notch 78 b. When the slider is moving between those two positions as shown in FIG. 5, the rib 64 makes line contact with, and slides along the underside of, the strip portion 78 c between notches 78 a and 78 b, of the plastic insert 78 , the base window 54 providing clearance for the deflected spring member tab 62 a as shown in that figure.", "Due to the relatively large area line contact of rib 64 with the low friction insert 78 , there is minimal wear of the insert due to the repetitive sliding motion of the slider 72 .", "Of course it is also possible to make slider 72 in its entirety (as well as, perhaps, the other latch components) of a strong low friction plastic material such as polyphenyl sulphone, in which case the insert 78 would be integrated right into the slider;", "i.e., the notches 78 a, 78 b would be formed as holes or depressions in the plastic slider 72 .", "The latch assemblies described herein are composed of a minimum number of parts which are easy and inexpensive to make in quantity.", "Therefore, the assembly should not appreciably increase the overall cost of the sterilization tray on which it is installed.", "Furthermore, such installation does not require any alteration in the basic design of the tray to accommodate the assembly.", "It will thus be seen that the objects set forth above, among those made apparent from the preceding description, are efficiently attained.", "Also, certain changes may be made in the above construction without departing from the scope of the invention.", "For example, the holes 34 , 44 a and 44 b could be depressions instead of through holes and still fulfill their stated purposes.", "Also, the hook 42 b of each assembly could just as well engage under a projection or ledge on the corresponding container endwall 12 b. Therefore, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.", "It is also to be understood that the following claims are intended to cover all of the generic and specific features of the invention described herein." ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] The present application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 11/164,260, filed Nov. 16, 2005, the entire disclosure of which is expressly incorporated herein by reference.", "STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT [0002] Not Applicable REFERENCE TO A “SEQUENCE LISTING”", "[0003] Not applicable.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0004] 1.", "Field of the Invention [0005] The present invention relates generally to shutter assemblies and more particularly to a photographic-type shutter that relies on electromagnetic forces to open and close and which is, in one embodiment, self-damping to reduce impact and rebound when the shutter is opened or closed.", "[0006] 2.", "Description of Related Art [0007] Electrically operated lens shutters used in various types of photographic and laboratory equipment are well known in the art.", "Lens shutters especially adapted for high speed opening and closing can operate in fractions of a second.", "An open/close cycle can take place in 30-40 milliseconds or less and repeated cycles at frequencies of 30 cycles per second are common.", "[0008] Lens shutters generally are of two types.", "In one type, a so-called “guillotine”", "shutter has one or two thin, metal blades or leaves arranged to cover a lens opening.", "Pivot connections allow each blade to swing between a closed position where the blades cover the lens opening and an open position where the blades are drawn aside from the lens opening.", "[0009] In a second type of shutter a plurality of pivotally mounted blades, usually five, is arranged around the lens opening.", "Each blade is connected to a rotatable drive ring.", "In the operation of these shutters, the rotation of the drive ring in one direction causes the blades to swing in unison to an open position.", "Counter rotation of the ring swings the blades to a closed position over the lens opening after exposure.", "Generally a linear electric motor is used to activate the shutter.", "When activated, the linear motor pulls on a lever arm that rotates the drive ring to open the shutter.", "To close the shutter the motor is deactivated and a spring causes the counter rotation of the drive ring to close the shutter.", "As noted above, shutters of this sort can cycle open and close 30 times per second.", "[0010] It is common in both types of shutters to provide a shock absorber or damper that absorbs the impact as the blades are pivoted between the open and closed positions.", "In this respect, reference is made to various U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,595,553;", "3,664,251 and 6,652,165 the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.", "As disclosed in these references, the shock absorber operates to stop the shutter blade very rapidly, yet softly and without damage.", "There also is little or no bounce as the shutter first is snapped open by the linear electric motor and then is snapped closed by the spring when the motor is deenergized.", "[0011] In some applications, however, it is desirable to hold the shutter open for an extended period to prolong the exposure time.", "In these cases it has been the practice to keep the motor activated for the duration of the exposure in order to hold the shutter open against the bias of the spring urging the shutter to a closed opposition.", "[0012] Maintaining power to the coil of a linear electric motor for an extended period has its drawbacks due mainly to the resulting generation of heat.", "If not dissipated, the heat could adversely affect the alignment of the optics, cause image distortion and shorten the life of the motor and other heat sensitive components of the shutter system.", "A fan, heat sink or heat dissipating fins that normally can solve a heat-generating problem are not appropriate in many applications.", "For example fans are of little use if the shutter is located in a vacuum environment.", "In military and space exploration applications weight may be an issue so the use of any additional component such as a heat sink or heat radiating fins is not appropriate.", "Reference is made to U.S. Ser.", "No. 11/099,744, as disclosing a shutter assembly that is bi-stable in that it allows the shutter to remain open or closed for long periods without generating excessive heat.", "[0013] In some applications space also is a limitation.", "Space limitations particularly in the region of the shutter opening dictate the parameters of size and placement of apparatus for holding the shutter open.", "For example, components placed near the shutter opening must have a relatively low profile so as not to interfere with the cone angle of the light passing through the open shutter.", "Space limitations also complicate the substitution of one shutter assembly for another as in changing shutter size while maintaining the same base structure.", "[0014] As noted above, most prior art shutter assemblies mechanically couple a linear electric motor to the shutter for opening and closing the lens opening.", "For proper operation, particularly at high speeds, the mechanical linkage must be precisely made and the movement of the linkage must be dampened.", "To applicant's knowledge elimination of a damper system entirely has not been attempted or if attempted, has not been commercially successful.", "[0015] Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an operating system for a rotary shutter that eliminates the need for a mechanical linkage between an actuator and the shutter to open and close the shutter.", "[0016] Another object of the present invention is to provide is to provide a rotary shutter having an electromagnetic operating system.", "[0017] A further object of the present invention is to provide a method of operating a rotary shutter utilizing electromagnetic energy for opening and closing the shutter.", "BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0018] In the present invention a shutter operating system is provided that depends on electromagnetic energy to operate shutter blades so that direct mechanical linkage between a drive motor and the shutter blades reduced or is eliminated entirely.", "In this respect the present invention utilizes a permanent magnet and solenoid system to operate the shutter blade wherein the movement of the magnet causes the shutter blade to move between an open and a closed position over a lens opening.", "In one embodiment of the invention a single permanent magnet is moved between a pair of spaced coils by selectively energizing first one coil then the other.", "The movement of the magnet results in the opening and closing of the shutter.", "In this respect the magnet may be attached directly to a shutter blade or in the case of a rotary shutter, the magnet is attached to a drive ring that in turn is mechanically coupled to the shutter blades.", "[0019] In a preferred embodiment, there are two permanent magnets associated with the shutter blades and there are two fixed coils, one associated with each magnet.", "The space between the coils is slightly greater than the spacing between the magnets so that if one of the coils is aligned with its associated magnet, the other coil is slightly off set in an outboard direction from its associated magnet.", "With this arrangement energizing the aligned magnet acts to repel or push away its associated magnet towards the other coil.", "This moves the shutter blades for example to an open position and also moves the second magnet towards its associated coil.", "Proper directional movement is assisted by energizing the second solenoid to attract its associated permanent magnet.", "[0020] As the second magnet approaches the second coil it is attracted to the core of the second coil.", "The movement of the second magnet then is arrested when its magnetic field captures the core of the second coil.", "This holds the position of the shutter even after power to both solenoids is cut off.", "[0021] To swing the shutter blades in the opposite direction, the second coil is energized with a reversed polarity to repel or push away the second magnet.", "This moves the shutter blades in the opposite direction or towards a closed position and at the same time the first magnet is moved towards its associated coil.", "Proper directional movement is assisted by energizing the first coil with a reversed polarity so it acts to attract its associated permanent magnet.", "[0022] As noted above, there is no physical connection between the fixed coils that actuate the shutter and the magnets that cause the shutter blades to move.", "Accordingly the actuator is mechanically isolated from the shutter blades if the permanent magnets are connected directly to the shutter blades.", "In cases where the magnets are attached to a drive ring, the number of critical mechanical linkage members is reduced.", "Also there is no mechanical impacting at the end of travel as the shutter blades open and close so the system is self-damping.", "Instead the magnetic field of each permanent magnet, as it captures the core of each coil, attenuates the motion of any rebound of the permanent magnet without mechanical damping as it fixes the position of the shutter blades.", "This does not preclude however the use of a mechanical damper in association with the magnetic damping.", "[0023] Accordingly, the present invention may be characterized in one aspect thereof by a shutter having an isolated actuator comprising: [0024] a) a shutter blade movable over a shutter opening to open and close a shutter opening;", "[0025] b) a first control element mechanically connected to the shutter blade, the control element responsive to a magnetic field to move the shutter blade between a shutter open and a shutter closed position;", "and [0026] c) a second control element mechanically isolated from the first control element selectively generating the magnetic field.", "[0027] In its method aspect the present invention is a method for operating a shutter comprising: [0028] a) operatively connecting a permanent magnet to a movable shutter blade movable between a shutter open and a shutter closed position;", "[0029] b) mounting an electric coil at a fixed position relative to the permanent magnet mechanically isolated from the permanent magnet;", "and [0030] c) selectively energizing the electric coil so the magnet is alternatively repelled and attracted thereby moving the shutter blade between the open and closed positions.", "[0031] In an additional exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, a method of controlling a plurality of shutter blades activated by a solenoid to move the plurality of shutter blades between an open position and a closed position includes reducing an electrical signal applied to the solenoid while the plurality of shutter blades is in transit between the open position and the closed position.", "[0032] In still another exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, a method of controlling a plurality of shutter blades includes moving a permanent magnet from a position adjacent to a first solenoid to a position adjacent to a second solenoid, moving the plurality of shutter blades between an open position and a closed position in response to movement of the permanent magnet, and applying an electrical signal to at least one of the first and second solenoids, while the plurality of shutter blades is in transit between the open and closed positions, to reduce a rate at which the permanent magnet moves.", "[0033] In yet another exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, a method of controlling a plurality of shutter blades includes selectively energizing at least one of a first solenoid and a second solenoid to magnetically decelerate the plurality of shutter blades while the plurality of shutter blades is in transit between an open position and a closed position.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING(S) [0034] FIG. 1 is a plan view of the shutter showing a base plate with components supported by the base plate removed;", "[0035] FIG. 2 is a view of a portion of FIG. 1 on an enlarged scale with portions broken away;", "[0036] FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken generally along lines 3 - 3 of FIG. 1 ;", "[0037] FIG. 4 is a sectional view similar to FIG. 3 only showing the shutter in the open position;", "[0038] FIG. 5 is a view similar to FIG. 3 only showing another embodiment of the invention;", "and [0039] FIG. 6 is a view similar to FIG. 3 showing still another embodiment of the invention.", "[0040] FIG. 7 is a sectional view similar to FIG. 3 only showing another embodiment of the invention with the shutter in a closed position;", "[0041] FIG. 8 is a sectional view similar to FIG. 7 only showing the shutter of FIG. 7 in the open position;", "[0042] FIG. 9 is a plan view of still another embodiment of the invention showing the shutter in a closed position;", "[0043] FIG. 10 is a view on a larger scale taken along lines 10 - 10 of FIG. 9 ;", "[0044] FIG. 11 is a plan view showing the shutter of FIG. 9 in an open position;", "and [0045] FIG. 12 is a view on a larger scale taken along lines 12 - 12 of FIG. 11 .", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0046] Referring to the drawings, FIG. 1 shows a shutter of the present invention generally indicated at 10 , employing the self-damping activation system.", "The shutter is a type that can be used in any photographic, scientific or calibration application that requires one or more cycles of opening and closing of a shutter opening by driving one or more shutter blade across the opening.", "In such systems it is common to provide a shock absorber or damper that absorbs the impact as the blades move, usually by pivoting, between the open and closed positions.", "In this respect, reference is made to various U.S. Patents including U.S. Pat. No. 3,595,553;", "No. 3,664,251 and No. 6,652,165 the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.", "[0047] The shutter includes a base plate 12 having a shutter opening 14 .", "The shutter opening is open and closed by moving a plurality of shutter blades 16 (usually five) in a pivoting action across the shutter opening.", "In prior art shutters the shutter blades are operated by a linear motor mounted to the base plate.", "The motor acts through a mechanical linkage to rotate a driver plate wherein the rotation of the driver plate in a to and fro motion acts to open and close the shutter blades.", "Also mounted to the base plate in the prior art is a damping system that acts as a shock absorber to stop the shutter blade very rapidly, yet softly and without damage.", "The damping system also produces little or no bounce as the shutter first is snapped open by the action of the linear electric motor and then is snapped closed by a spring mechanism.", "[0048] The present invention also makes use of a conventional drive ring 18 , a portion of which is seen in FIG. 1 through an elongated opening 20 in the base plate.", "Carried by the base plate are spaced solenoids 22 , 24 .", "The solenoids are positioned over the elongated opening 20 for purposes set out hereinbelow.", "[0049] As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 , the drive ring 18 has an opening 26 that aligns with the shutter opening 14 .", "Extending from the drive ring are pins 28 .", "These pins extend into a corresponding cam slot 30 formed in each of the shutter blades.", "With this arrangement, the rotation of the drive ring to and fro about an axis 33 that aligns with the axis of the lens opening will cause the shutter blades to pivot between open and closed positions.", "[0050] Extending from the drive ring 18 and through the opening 26 in the base plate are a pair of posts 32 , 34 .", "These posts together with other components described thus far are all formed of a non-magnetic material such as stainless steel.", "However, supported on each post 32 , 34 is a permanent magnet 36 , 38 respectively.", "The permanent magnets 36 , 38 are each associated with one of the solenoids 22 , 24 respectively.", "[0051] As best seen in FIG. 2 , the spacing between magnets 36 , 38 is slightly less than the spacing between their associated solenoids 22 , 24 .", "Accordingly, when the permanent magnet 38 is in axial alignment with the core of its associated solenoid 24 , the permanent magnet 36 is inboard of its solenoid 22 .", "This difference in spacing is equal to the throw required to move the shutter blades between an open and a closed position.", "[0052] In operation and with the shutter in the closed position as shown in FIGS. 1 , 2 and 3 with the solenoids not energized, the permanent magnet 38 is attracted to the core of the solenoid 24 by magnetic attraction and aligns with the axis of the solenoid core.", "The second magnet 36 is far enough away from its associated solenoid 22 that the attractive force between the two is not enough to overcome the attraction between the magnet 38 and the core of the solenoid 24 .", "Thus, even with no power applied to either coil, the shutter is stable and is locked in a closed position.", "[0053] To open the shutter, a control 40 operates to energize both solenoids.", "Solenoid 24 is energized with a polarity that repels magnet 38 while the solenoid 22 is energized with a polarity that attracts its associated magnet 36 .", "The combination of the repelling action between the solenoid 24 /permanent magnet 38 and the attraction between the solenoid 22 /permanent magnet 36 propels the drive ring 28 in a shutter opening direction.", "When the magnet 36 comes into alignment with the core of its associated solenoid 22 the motion of the drive ring is arrested and stopped so as to lock the shutter blades in an open position as shown in FIG. 4 .", "[0054] Deenergizing both solenoids will allow the shutter blades to remain in an open position until the current applied to the solenoids is reversed to reverse the polarity of the solenoids.", "Accordingly, to close the shutter blades control 40 is operated to energized solenoid 22 with a polarity that repels magnet 36 while the solenoid 24 is energized with a polarity that attracts its associated magnet 38 .", "The combination of the repelling action between the solenoid 22 /permanent magnet 36 and the attraction between the solenoid 24 /permanent magnet 34 propels the drive ring 28 in the opposite and shutter closing direction.", "When the magnet 38 comes into alignment with the core of its associated solenoid 24 the motion of the drive ring is arrested and stopped so as to lock the shutter blades in an open position.", "[0055] Delaying the reversal of the current will allow the shutter to remain in the open position for the time of the delay.", "Conversely, reversing the current soon after opening will cause the shutter to open and close quickly.", "[0056] As noted above, the attraction between a magnet and the core of its associated solenoid arrests the motion of the drive ring and the magnets stops in axial alignment with the core of the solenoid due to magnetic attraction.", "For example, if on opening the inertia of the system carries the magnet 36 slightly beyond the core of its associated solenoid 22 , the magnetic attraction between the magnet 36 and the core of the solenoid 22 will pull the two back into alignment.", "In this fashion the motion of the drive ring is arrested and damped without a mechanical damper and the shutter is stable and locked in both the open and closed positions.", "[0057] In the embodiment of FIGS. 1-4 two permanent magnets and two solenoids are used and the control 40 acts to reverse the current applied to the solenoids to open and close the shutter.", "In this embodiment the shutter blades are stable in both the open and closed positions when the solenoids are not energized and there is no mechanical damper or stop, that is contacted during opening or closing to absorb the impact produced by the shutter blades on opening and closing.", "The embodiment of FIG. 5 utilizes a single solenoid and a single permanent magnet.", "[0058] In this respect FIG. 5 shows a single magnet 50 carried by a post 52 , which in turn is connected to the drive ring 18 .", "A single solenoid 54 has its axis off set from the magnet 50 .", "When no current is applied to the solenoid by the control 40 , the natural magnetic attraction between the core of the solenoid 54 and the magnet 50 pulls the magnet toward the solenoid core.", "This holds the magnet and therefore the drive ring 18 at one end of its path of travel representing the shutter closed position.", "In the closed position shown, the end of the path of travel either can be defined by the engagement of the post 52 with one end of the opening 20 through the base plate 12 as shown, or by a mechanical damper (not shown).", "[0059] To open the shutter, the controller 40 energizes the solenoid 54 to produce a polarity that is the same as that of the permanent magnet 50 .", "Accordingly the magnet 50 is repelled away from the solenoid 54 .", "Repelling the magnet causes the drive plate 18 to rotate to a shutter open position.", "When the controller 40 removes current from the solenoid the magnetic attraction between the magnet 50 and the core of the solenoid 54 returns the drive ring to the shutter closed position.", "[0060] This embodiment is primarily useful in situations where the shutter is open only for a short period or where several rapid cycles are desired.", "This is because holding the shutter open requires either that the solenoid stay energized or a mechanical latching mechanism be employed.", "Also the timing of both applying a current to the solenoid and cutting off power may be such as to prevent the shutter blades from over opening or over closing so that no mechanical damper is required.", "For example, on opening, the power to the solenoid may be cut off prior to the shutter blades being at the full open position so as to allow the inertia of the blades to move them to the full open position and not beyond.", "Conversely, as the shutter is closing, the solenoid can be energized to repel the magnet prior to the time that the shutter blades reach the full closed position.", "[0061] Still another embodiment is illustrated in FIG. 6 .", "This embodiment utilizes two permanent magnets and two solenoids but eliminates the need to reverse the polarity of the solenoids as in the embodiment of FIGS. 3 and 4 .", "FIG. 6 also illustrates that the magnets 60 , 62 can be disposed to either side of the centerline 63 of the shutter opening 14 instead of on the same side as shown in the previous embodiments.", "[0062] In the FIG. 6 embodiment one of the magnets indicated at 60 is slightly offset from the core of its associated solenoid 64 whereas the magnet 62 is separated from the core of its associated solenoid 66 by a greater distance.", "With the shutter blades 16 in a closed position the distance between magnet 62 and solenoid 66 is too great to overcome the attraction of the magnet 60 to the core of solenoid 64 so the shutter remains stable and in the closed position with no power supplied to either coil.", "[0063] To open the shutter blades, current is applied only to solenoid 64 so as to produce a polarity in the solenoid that acts to repel the magnet.", "The desired direction of motion is induced by the offset so the magnet 60 moves to the position shown in dotted line.", "This rotates the drive plate to pivot the shutter blades to an open position.", "Once the magnet 60 is repelled away, it is too far from the core of its associated solenoid 64 to be pulled back by magnetic attraction when current to the solenoid 64 is shut off.", "[0064] As the drive plate rotates, it carries the magnet 62 closer to its associated solenoid 66 until it reaches the dotted line position, which is the end of travel.", "In this position the magnet 62 is held to the core of its associated solenoid 66 by magnetic attraction and the shutter blades remain locked in the open position even when no power is applied to either solenoid.", "[0065] To close the shutter and return the shutter blades to the FIG. 6 position power is applied to solenoid 66 to produce a polarity that repels the magnet 62 so as to move it back to the solid line position.", "This also moves the magnet 60 back to its solid line position where it is held by magnetic attraction to the core of its associated solenoid 64 .", "[0066] While the embodiment of FIG. 6 uses an electromagnetic force to open and close a rotary shutter, it is not preferred as the system would require a mechanical damping system.", "[0067] Still another embodiment is illustrated in FIGS. 7 and 8 .", "This embodiment uses one permanent magnet 78 and two solenoids 82 , 84 together with two mechanical dampers 74 , 76 that engage the permanent magnet 78 at the open and closed ends of its range of travel.", "[0068] In the FIG. 7 embodiment, in which the shutter is shown closed, the magnet indicated at 78 is resting against the stop surface of a damper 76 .", "Associated solenoid 84 is offset from the rest position of the magnet 78 so that the magnetic field created by the solenoid 84 continues to attract the magnet 78 in its rest position.", "[0069] An opposing damper 74 is disposed in a corresponding position relative to the position of the magnet 78 when the shutter is in the open position as shown in FIG. 8 .", "In the open position, the magnet 78 rests against a stop surface of the damper 74 and the associated solenoid 82 is positioned so that when energized it continues to attract the magnet 78 causing it to come to a stop resting against the stop surface of the damper 74 .", "The second solenoid 82 is positioned so that the magnetic field created by the solenoid 82 continues to attract the magnet 78 causing it to move into a position resting against the stop surface of the damper 74 .", "[0070] Referring again to FIG. 7 , to open the shutter blades, current is applied to the solenoid 84 to create a field that repels the magnet 78 while substantially simultaneously, current is applied to the solenoid 82 to create a magnetic field that attracts the magnet 78 .", "It will be understood that while applying current to both solenoids 82 , 84 substantially simultaneously provides an effective opening action, it isn't necessary that the currents be applied simultaneously.", "For example, current could be applied first to solenoid 84 to create a repelling magnetic field and then subsequently, as the magnet 78 moves towards the other damper 74 , current could then be applied to the solenoid 82 to create an attracting magnetic field.", "The current to solenoid 84 could either be maintained or cut off depending on the characteristics of the opening motion desired.", "Engergizing both solenoids 82 , 84 creates the largest force on the magnet 78 while sequentially energizing the solenoids or in the alternative energizing only one of the solenoids to either attract or repel the magnet 78 , provides less force to the drive ring 18 .", "In addition, the current to the solenoids 82 , 84 can be modulated to control the movement of the magnet 78 between the shutter open and shutter-closed positions.", "For example, pulses of varying width could be applied to the two solenoids 82 , 84 , the polarity of the current applied to the solenoids 82 , 84 could be reversed at various points during the movement of the magnet 78 to either accelerate the magnet 78 or decelerate the magnet 78 , or the movement of the magnet 78 could be controlled so as to, for example, increase the size of the shutter opening 14 linearly over time or according to any other desired characteristic.", "[0071] While the embodiment of the invention shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 shows a single set of solenoids 82 , 84 and a single magnet 78 , multiple magnets and multiple pairs of solenoids may be coupled to the drive ring 18 at various radial positions around the shutter opening.", "Using multiple sets of solenoids and magnets reduces the amount of current that must be applied to each solenoid to generate the same force on the drive ring 18 .", "[0072] It will also be appreciated that while the embodiment shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 shows a set of solenoids 82 , 84 associated with a single magnet 78 , variations on this arrangement can also be employed.", "For example, multiple magnets can be provided at radially spaced positions around the shutter opening 14 and one solenoid 82 or 84 can be associated with each magnet 78 .", "In one example, solenoid 82 could be associated with the first magnet and solenoid 84 associated with the second magnet.", "Since the magnets are mechanically coupled by the drive plate, a multiplicity of arrangements can be contemplated.", "[0073] Similarly, it is not necessary that the dampers be physically associated with the magnet or with the magnet that is driven.", "Any of the dampers known to those skilled in the art could be coupled to the drive ring at a location remote from the magnet and solenoids and still provide effective damping action.", "[0074] Another embodiment of the invention is shown in FIGS. 9 , 10 , 11 , and 12 .", "Referring first to FIG. 9 , a shutter in accordance with this invention is illustrated in a top plan view.", "Shutter 10 includes a base plate 12 , a shutter opening 14 and a plurality of shutter blades 16 .", "A pair of solenoids 22 and 24 are arranged on the base plate in radially spaced apart locations on opposite sides of the shutter opening 14 .", "As may be more clearly seen in FIG. 10 which is a section taken a long line 10 - 10 of FIG. 9 , first and second magnets 60 and 62 are coupled to a drive ring 18 which is in turn coupled to the shutter blades 16 .", "Magnets 60 and 62 are mounted on the drive ring in oppositely pulled configurations, that is to say, the north pole of magnets 60 is on top while the north pole of magnets 62 is on the bottom, or vice versa.", "[0075] Solenoid 24 includes a core 25 of magnetic material such as a ferrous material surrounded by a coil 27 wound on a bobbin 29 .", "Preferably, in this and the other embodiments, core 25 is made from a material with a low coercive force such as M6 grain oriented 3.3% silicon steel, manufactured by Magnetic Metals of Camden N.J. under the trademark Microsil, to allow the coil 27 to quickly revert to an unmagnetized state when the coil is deenergized and to allow the coil to switch polarity relatively rapidly from one magnetic orientation to the other while retaining only minimal residual magnetism.", "By applying a signal of appropriate polarity to coil 27 , core 25 can be temporarily forced to assume a magnetic state in which the North Pole is either on the top or on the bottom depending on the polarity of the signal.", "For example, if magnet 60 is arranged with its north pole up, and solenoid 24 is energized so that its north pole is on the bottom, core 25 will repel magnets 60 and attract magnet 62 .", "This is the configuration shown in FIG. 10 .", "This arrangement causes the magnets 60 and 62 to drive the drive ring from the position shown in FIG. 10 to the position shown in FIG. 12 .", "This arrangement uses both the attractive and repulsive forces existing between solenoid 24 and magnets 60 and 62 to move the drive ring and to move the shutter from the closed position shown in FIG. 9 to the open position shown in FIG. 11 .", "Once the shutter reaches the configuration shown in FIG. 12 , power is removed from solenoid 24 .", "Because core 25 is made from magnetic material, magnet 62 is attracted to core 24 even when the core is not energized and this maintains the shutter in the open position.", "[0076] To move the shutter from the open position shown in FIGS. 11 and 12 to the closed position shown in FIGS. 9 and 10 , the solenoid is energized so that its south pole is on the bottom.", "This repells magnet 62 and simultaneously attracts magnet 60 thereby rotating the base plate to the position shown in FIG. 10 and closing the shutter.", "When the magnet sizing signal is removed from coil 27 , magnet 60 continues to be attracted to core 25 and this holds the shutter in the closed position.", "[0077] To move from the open position shown in FIG. 12 to the closed position shown in FIG. 10 , a signal is applied to solenoid 24 that is opposite in polarity from the signal just discussed.", "This causes core 25 to be temporarily magnetized [0078] Optionally, a second solenoid 22 and a second pair of magnets can be provided for increasing the force on the base plate and thereby increasing the speed at which the shutter opens and closes, or decreasing the power that must be applied to the coil to produce the same opening/closing speed as can be produced by a single coil.", "[0079] Preferably, the shutter 10 is provided with a damper 70 .", "The damper 70 includes a slot 72 formed in the base plate 12 through which a pin 73 a projects upwardly.", "The slot is preferably provided with damping material such as a ring 75 surrounding the slot, or blocks of energy absorbing plastic or similar material at the ends of the slot.", "Examples of suitable damping material are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,652,165.", "The damper increases the life cycle of the shutter by softening the shock that would otherwise occur as a solenoid moves to shutter from the fully open to the fully closed position.", "In addition, the damper quiets the shutter which may be important in certain applications.", "[0080] The damper may be arranged in a variety of ways.", "While it is possible for the shutter blades themselves to be directly coupled to the damping system if the shutter blades are relatively sturdy, this is presently not preferred if the shutter blades are very thin and susceptible to damage on impact.", "Preferably, the damper is separate from the solenoid actuator and from the magnets as shown in FIGS. 9 through 12 .", "[0081] Alternatively, the damper may be arranged to directly engage the magnets.", "The configuration of the damper would be substantially the same as the configuration shown in FIGS. 9 and 11 but the damper 75 would be arranged with respect to one or both of the magnets 60 and 62 , to provide the same sort of damping action provided with respect to pin 73 in FIGS. 9 and 11 .", "[0082] As another alternative, the damper may be arranged to dampen motion between the base plate and the drive ring.", "[0083] Preferably, in all arrangements of the damper, the damper material is arranged to engage the magnet or pin at a position at least slightly before the position that the magnet or pin would reach if the damper were not present.", "This ensures that the damper controls the end position rather than the combination of the magnet and solenoid controlling the end position.", "It also ensures that when the magnet is retained in his position by virtue of the magnetic force between the magnet and the solenoid core, that position is fixed by the damper and known in advance.", "[0084] Accordingly, it should be appreciated that the present invention accomplishes its intended objects in that it provides an operating system for a shutter that eliminates the need for a mechanical linkage to open and close the shutter.", "It also provides a shutter that is opened and closed by an electromagnetically driven operating system and which, in at least one embodiment eliminates the need for mechanical damping." ]

[ "FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to metallurgy and mechanical engineering fields and more specifically to the development of methods that improve service life and durability of machine parts, particularly of turbine components for power production and transport industry, and primarily of aircraft engine gas turbine blades and vanes, by means of modification in protective coating technology.", "BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION Many machine parts have to operate under heavy working load and variable temperature in aggressive environment, which results in their deterioration and calls for protective coating to be applied on such parts.", "In the field of transport industry and power turbine construction and, particularly, gas turbine manufacturing the surface protection of parts is the most critical.", "Gas turbine units (GTU) are applied widely in the state-of-the-art technology: aircraft and helicopter's engines, marine gas turbine engines (GTE), power GTU and gas compressor units (GCU).", "Turbine blades are the major parts that determine reliability, economy in use and the service life of such GTU.", "Such blades operate under very severe conditions: at elevated temperatures, under considerable fatigue and thermal loads, and in aggressive gas flows containing oxygen, sulfur, vanadium oxides and other chemically-active elements.", "Some blades may have internal passages, which are prone to oxidization, especially if made of currently employed high temperature superalloys with low content of chromium.", "During use, the coating undergoes cracking, flaking, diffusion dispersal, corrosion and erosion attack, and the chemical and phase compositions change in the surface layers.", "As a result, durability of blade decreases and such blades have to be laid off.", "Turbine blades are manufactured of expensive superalloys by employing a complicated technology, for instance, oriented crystallization or monocrystal casting, so their price is extremely high.", "Therefore, protective coating technologies, which improve durability and service life of such blades, provide great economical benefits and significant technical advantages.", "Well-known are the protective coating methods, when aluminide coatings or Me—Cr—Al—Y coatings are applied on superalloys (U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,542,530;", "3,544,348;", "3,918,139;", "3,961,098;", "3,928,026;", "3,993,454;", "4,000,507;", "4,132,816;", "4,034,142);", "aluminide coatings alloyed with noble metals Pt, Ro, Pd (U.S. Pat. No. 3,819,338);", "the method for protection of gas turbine blades from high temperature corrosion (Russian Federation Patent No. 2033474), which includes vacuum deposition of two layers: a Me—Cr—Al—Y layer and a layer of aluminum-based alloy, with subsequent vacuum annealing.", "Diffusion methods for powder and gas vapor deposition are known to create aluminum intermetallic coatings, which, while having quite high heat-resistance, at the same time possess low resistance to thermal stresses and to corrosion in the chemically aggressive environment of combustion materials.", "Coatings alloyed with noble metals are expensive and their use is not always economically sound.", "Slip powder technologies can not provide coatings, which would be uniform in thickness, and the density of such coatings is not sufficient.", "Aluminide coatings, too, have high thermal conductivity and insufficient correlation between linear expansion coefficients in oxide ceramics layers.", "Frequently occurring fault with multi-layer coatings of Me—Cr—Al—Y and their modifications is that they do not provide long enough service life of a machine component either due to insufficient heat-resistance or as a result of flaking and corrosion of the coating during use.", "One has to face really serious problems at the stage of preparing the surface of superalloy-made components for coating by vacuum plasma deposition in order to obtain high adhesion of the coating with the substrate metal.", "U.S. Pat. No. 4,080,486 describes a coating method by diffusion powder deposition of aluminide onto the surfaces of components, following the deposition of vacuum plasma Me—Cr—Al—Y coating.", "This patent neither fully uses all means to offer maximum resistance to gas corrosion, nor provides protection for internal passages of cooled cavities.", "European patent EP 0-897-996A describes a complex coating for heat-resistant nickel- or cobalt-based alloy matrixes, which, for instance, would be used for gas turbine engine blades.", "The said patented coating comprises a MeCrAlY type of compound, wherein Me is the element selected from the group consisting of iron, nickel and cobalt.", "The said coating is subjected to aluminizing by means of gaseous phase diffusion saturation, and also includes the formation of a diffusion aluminide coating over the MeCrAlY system on the outer surfaces and deposition of an aluminide coating on the internal surfaces of a coated component, both with and without platinum bondcoat applied.", "The said method is the closest to the proposed invention, however, it leaves room for further improvement of resistance to flaking and erosion, for enhancing thermal fatigue characteristics of coated alloys and for improvement of sulfur corrosion resistance.", "Also known is Russian Federation Patent No. 2073742 that describes a method for protecting coating composed of multi-component Ni—Cr—Al—Ta—Y alloy with subsequent chrome aluminizing by powder technique and quenching after retention in vacuum furnace at 1200° C. Even with this method, there is still an opportunity to further improve performance characteristics of coatings and durability of coated parts.", "Russian Federation Patent No. 2113538 describes repetitive pulse ion plasma treatment of parts and a device for such treatment, which incorporates an arrangement for continuous plasma generation, and the radiation doze is controlled by altering the repetition rate and pulse duration and by varying the source/part gap.", "This patent does not cover the issues of coating formation nor does it address the capabilities of patented device to improve the coating technology.", "Russian Federation Patent No. 2029796 describes a method for a combined ion-plasma treatment, which implies surface treatment of parts, in particular, high-speed steel plates, by directed flow of particles.", "This directed flow is meant to provide partial destruction of brittle passivating phases in the surface, which affords better adhesion between the coating and substrate material.", "The present invention is to address the problem of durability and reliability of machine components, particularly, parts made of iron-, nickel and cobalt-based superalloys with complex high-temperature protective coating, and, more specifically, to cover modifications of complex protective coating methods developed for such parts, especially for gas turbine blades and vanes.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a technique of coating deposition on iron-, nickel- and cobalt-based superalloy surfaces of machine parts.", "The aforesaid coating is comprised of a plurality of microlayers of various purpose and thickness: microlayers with high heat-resisting characteristics;", "microlayers with high plasticity;", "barrier microlayers that prevent coating components from diffusion into substrate and inter-layers;", "microlayers that ensure strong bonding between the coating and substrate and between different microlayers;", "corrosion-resistance microlayers;", "heat-barrier microlayers that help decrease temperature of the matrix superalloy.", "Some microlayers perform a few functions simultaneously.", "For instance, intermetallic layers serve as suppliers of components into the outer zone in order to recover the depleted oxide phases, such as aluminum oxide, and at the same time serve to prevent diffusion into internal layers and the superalloy substrate.", "The method claimed involves deposition of the following basic microlayers: 1—(IM) intermetallic microlayers of the type Me 1 Me 2 , Me 1 (Me 2 ) 3 , wherein Me 1 represents Ni, Co, Fe, and Me 2 represents Al, Ti, Zr, Cr, and microlayers of solid solutions based thereon;", "2—(TM) Transitional microlayers resulted from ion implantation of elements selected from the group consisting of inert gases, carbon, chromium, aluminum, silicon and of elements from the IIIB Group (SC Y, La) and IVB Group (Ti, Zr, HF);", "3—(MCA) microlayers of many-component condensed alloys of the types (Co,Ni)—Cr—Al—Y and Al—Cr—Si, Ni—Ni—Y, Al—Ni—Si—Y;", "4—(OL) oxide layers consisting of ZrO2, Y2O3, MgO, Al2O3, Al 2 O 3 , CaO and spinels of the said oxides.", "It is a further object to provide a technique of complex many-layer coating deposition and to improve durability of machine parts by combination and concurrent use of diffusion, vacuum-plasma, electron beam, ion implanting and annealing in the controlled atmospheres technologies.", "The essence of the proposed method is that the most effective combination of microlayers is selected, and deposition is carried out simultaneously or consecutively with ion implantation of selected elements into the surface layers.", "That makes it possible to obtain protective coatings with a better set of performance characteristics and to considerably improve durability of parts, especially gas turbine blades and vanes currently in use.", "It is a further object of the present invention to claim arrangements for deposition of many-layer protective coatings on machine parts, particularly, on gas turbine blades.", "These arrangements enable control over ion energy thus providing a capability to carry out several operations (e.g. cleaning, sputtering, etching, deposition and implantation) in one plant, which is able to keep up high quality of surface preparation and to retain a high degree of surface finish.", "Diffusion metallization by gas circulation method and a heat treatment in controlled atmospheres provide protection of surfaces, which are hard to reach, from oxidization and gas corrosion, and help form the optimal composition and structure of oxide phases.", "To achieve the aforementioned objects, complex protective coatings are deposited that consist of many layers, with the composition, structure and properties of coating phases being modified by ion implantation and additional thermal treatments.", "During ion plasma deposition the coating components are deposited onto the surface of a part while the part is being rotated in a special chamber.", "At each certain moment of time there are new layers of condensed materials formed on the surface, which thickness is comparable with the depth of ion implantation normally obtained at industrial facilities.", "Therefore, the depth of modified zone depends on deposition conditions and ion implantation parameters.", "As a result, when implantation and the coating deposition are carried out concurrently, the accompanying effects are more pronounced as compared to the case when the two processes run in sequence.", "Deposition conditions and ion implantation parameters are selected, based on the requirements to the desired performances of different constituting microlayers and to the coating as a whole.", "The number of microlayers in a many-layer coating is determined by the operation conditions in which a specific coated machine part is to be used and can vary from 3 to 300, and the thickness of individual microlayer ranges from 0.01 up to 300 microns.", "The order of the plurality of microlayers and the thickness of microlayer are selected depending on the purpose and replacement life of the coated part.", "Diffusion zones can be formed between the microlayers either as a result of coating deposition or during annealing or further use.", "Embodiments of the present invention utilize surface impregnation technologies, i.e. diffusion metallization, via gaseous phases or by powder technique, and coating machines for many-layer coating deposition are equipped with ion implanters;", "furnace equipment with controlled atmospheres is used to form the said diffusion zones and oxide layers.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 / 2 .", "Flow chart for MAP-1 coating machine with ion implantation FIG. 2 / 2 .", "Schematic of a complex coating on an aircraft engine blade made of superalloy, with air-cooled passages: 1.", "(SA) a superalloy;", "(TM1) a transitional modified microlayer;", "(MCA) a microlayer of many-component condensed alloy;", "(TM2) a transitional implanted microlayer;", "(IM) an intermetallic microlayer;", "(TM3) a transitional implanted microlayer;", "(OL) an oxide layer;", "(TM4) an outer modified layer of oxides.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION FIG. 1 / 2 shows a schematic of the ion plasma deposition machine combined with ion implanting facility.", "The machine contains an ion plasma deposition chamber with a rotating table on which the part to be coated is mounted, an inert/non-inert gas feed system monitored to feed the gas atmosphere into the ion plasma deposition chamber, a monitoring system of ion sputtering and coating deposition, and a temperature monitoring device.", "An ion source is mounted in the lid of the working chamber, which produces ions of inert and reacting gases (such as nitrogen, acetylene, methane, diborane, and oxygen) for corresponding implantation by ions of an inert gas (argon, neon).", "To achieve this, the source is equipped with a self-contained feed monitoring system of gas mixture supply.", "Besides, the implanter has a source of metal ions.", "The implanter is mounted in the lid in such a way that the flow of high-energy ions be directed onto the surface of part to be coated, with the part being rotated by means of a planetary train.", "The implanter is installed so that there is a special gate that protects the ion source from unwanted coating components sputtered during ion plasma deposition.", "As an example, modified industrial MAP-1 plants were used as coating machines for many-component alloy deposition and ion implantation;", "and HHB6.6-based equipment was used to deposit transitional layers and to carry out ion agitation by inert gases.", "The HHB6.6 type of plants were equipped with ion sources with a non-heating cathode, with accelerated voltage ranging between 10–40 kV and the ion beam cross-section of 100 cm 2 at a beam current of 10–75 mA.", "Diffusion metallization is carried out by gas circulating coating deposition or by powder technique.", "Various number, composition and thickness of microlayers constituting the full coating can be reached by altering the conditions of diffusion metallization (i.e. time, composition of diffusing elements, temperature and saturation conditions) or by changing the operation mode of ion plasma sputtering and ion implantation (temperature-time relationship, energy and composition of plasma, and ion implantation parameters).", "By the term “microlayer”, in this specification and claims, is meant a layer of pure metal, multiple-component metal alloy, or a combination of several metals, i.e. intermetallic compounds or complex compounds of the said metals with non-metals.", "The said microlayers of metals or said alloys or metal/non-metal compounds are deposited by means of deposition of ions or neutral particles under an appropriate atmosphere.", "A single microlayer should be deposited to a desired thickness, preferably 0.01–100 microns.", "The total number of microlayers depends on the specific operation conditions of a machine part to be coated and ranges from 3 to 300.", "The microlayer may be an essentially discrete layer distinct from the adjacent substrate or microlayers previously deposited;", "or it may be a mixture therewith.", "Intermetallic microlayers (IM) have a phase composition as Me 1 Me 2 —(β) and Me 1 (Me 2 ) 3 —(γ 1 ), solid solutions—(γ), where M 1 represents nickel, cobalt and iron, and Me 2 represents aluminum, titanium and other alloying components.", "The said microlayers are deposited onto the iron-, cobalt- or nickel-based superalloy matrix or onto a coating layer previously produced by ion-plasma deposition, electron-beam sputtering or implantation, by means of diffusion metallization or by ion-plasma sputtering and annealing.", "In the preferred embodiments, diffusion metallization is carried out via gas vapor deposition, for instance, by gas circulation coating (aluminizing, chrome aluminizing, silicon aluminizing, boron aluminizing, and zirconium aluminizing).", "Intermetallic microlayers (IM) in an alternative embodiment are obtained by means of combining ion plasma sputtering of an alloy of appropriate composition with diffusion annealing in the controlled atmosphere.", "Transitional microlayers (TM) are formed as a result of ion implantation with neutral gas, carbon, chromium, silicon, or metals selected from the Group IIIB-IVB (Sc, Y, La, Ti, Zr, Hf) or a combination thereof.", "In an alternative embodiment, transitional microlayers (TM) are obtained by ion plasma deposition of said metals on the prepared surface and by ion treatment, when the surface is bombarded by the particles of inert gas, carbon or oxygen.", "Microlayers of many-component condensed alloys (MCA) such as, for instance, alloys of the type Ni—Cr—Al—Y, Ni—Co—Cr—Al—Y, Al—Cr—Si—Ni—Y, Al—Si—Ni—B, are deposited in an ion-plasma deposition plant or electron-beam equipment.", "One or more microlayers of complex coating is subjected to ion implantation in order to create a better bonding between microlayers and improve performance characteristics of coating.", "As this takes place, compounds are being formed, which are characterized by stronger bonding force between their components, and new compounds are being created, which existence is not in keeping with the equilibrium diagrams, and structural changes occur in some individual microlayers and in the whole coating as well.", "Such creation of new compounds occurs in parallel with the flaw formation processes, when superdispersed and amorphous structures are formed and structural transitions take place, which result in the formation of denser packing arrangements, for instance, from BCC into FCC and HCP structures.", "Precipitates of metal/non-metal and intermetallic compounds are formed at the radiation doses exceeding 10 16 ion/cm 2 , and are quite stable and characterized with strong atomic bonding.", "Implanting with such elements as yttrium, lanthanum, scandium and hafnium hinders the oxide film flaking, slows the oxidization rate and improves adhesion between the oxides and metal.", "The concentration of implanted element is considerably higher in the thin surface layer as compared to that in the case of bulk alloying, therefore the properties of surface coating differ considerably from the properties of alloys of the said components.", "For instance, alloying the bulk metal with yttrium, lanthanum or other rare-earth elements would impair its strength and plasticity, while the surface alloying positively influences its resistance to gas corrosion without detrimental effect on the strength characteristics.", "Further stage of coating deposition is gas-plasma deposition by slip casting or electron-beam evaporation of heat-reflecting ceramics layer which can, for instance, be made of zirconium oxide stabilized with yttrium.", "Another operation of coating deposition is annealing in a controlled atmosphere or in vacuum at a certain residual pressure of oxygen in the chamber in order that diffusion zones be formed in the coating and an oxide layer of optimal structure and composition be produced in the surface.", "Yet another operation is high-energy ion treatment by means of an implanter, during which high energy flows of an inert gas, oxygen or elements selected from the group of lanthanum, yttrium, zirconium and magnesium are used immediately upon completion of the thermal and chemicothermal treatments of parts in order to carry out modification of the surface layer and optimization of the residual stress level.", "For parts operating at a working temperature of 800–900° C. in the environment of a comparatively low corrosiveness of combustion materials, it is possible to utilize simple aluminide coatings obtained by ion-plasma deposition or by diffusion metallization with surface modification to be carried out both of the superalloy surface prior to metallization and of the coating after deposition.", "In some other embodiments it is necessary to apply coatings consisting of many-component alloys (MCA) of the type nickel-cobalt-chromium-aluminum-yttrium, with modification of the superalloy surface being conducted prior to coating deposition and modification of the coating following the coating deposition.", "In an alternative embodiment a combination of processes employs technologies of gas circulation coating deposition and ion-plasma deposition arrangements equipped with ion implanters.", "That makes it possible to provide protection of both internal passages of air-cooled blades and outer surfaces of parts, by means of creating in the surface of nickel-cobalt-chromium-aluminum-yttrium coating a nickel- and aluminum-based intermetallic layer of high resistance to oxidization.", "As this occurs, the resistance of such coating is improved due to adhesive layers formed at the coating/substrate boundary and due to elements implanted into various microlayers, which improves performance characteristics of the coating.", "In one of the embodiments, ion-plasma deposition of a many-component condensed alloy is envisioned along with modification by means of ion implantation into microlayers combined with diffusion metallization by making an aluminum and nickel intermetallic layer doped with chromium and silicon and further electron-beam or gas-thermal deposition of thermal resisting ceramics.", "Such complex coating contains a plurality of various microlayers.", "Firstly, a barrier microlayer, for instance, chromium or hafnium carbides, is deposited onto the superalloy substrate by means of ion-plasma sputtering, which serves as a barrier to diffusion of coating elements into the substrate superalloy and of alloy components into the coating.", "Then an intermetallic layer is deposited by means of, for instance, ion-plasma sputtering of aluminum-based alloy of Ni—Cr—Al—Y and yttrium implantation is carried out simultaneously.", "Further, a many-component alloy of Ni—Cr—Al—Y is deposited and upon yet another implantation with yttrium the part is subjected to diffusion metallization by aluminizing or silicon aluminizing via gas circulating evaporation.", "The said technique affords protection to the internal air-cooled passages and improves heat- and corrosion-resistance of outer surfaces of parts.", "Further on, the outer surfaces are coated with oxide layers, for instance, zirconium oxides stabilized with yttrium oxides to improve their resistance to phase transformations.", "The next treatment is annealing in vacuum and yttrium implanting to form a dense oxide film on the surface, which improves heat-resistance and corrosion resistance of the coated part and, at the same time, reduces internal stresses in the coating.", "In another embodiment a condensed many-component alloy was deposited on the high-temperature alloy and then all the aforementioned procedure were carried out.", "To achieve the aforementioned objects of the invention, a part made of high-temperature alloy is placed in a vacuum plasma deposition chamber after previous cleaning and degreasing.", "It is established that under the effect high-energy particle flows incident on a metal surface, various processes take place: thermal activation and atomic migration, desorption, displacements of atoms in the crystal lattice, enhancing of cohesive and adhesive forces, implantation, sputtering, electronic excitation, etc.", "In the preferred embodiments, preparation of surface implies not only the processes of desorption and etching but also surface modification by means of ion-implanted doping and ion agitation.", "Therefore, the coating method claimed involves each or, at least, some of the following stages below: (1)—ion cleaning of a surface;", "(2)—heating up to a given temperature;", "(3)—ion implantation with elements selected of the group consisting of argon, carbon, chromium, III-IVB with the purpose of surface modification and improving adhesion between the coating and substrate;", "(4)—ion-plasma deposition of a microlayer consisting of elements selected from the Group IIIB, IVB, VIB;", "(5)—ion agitation of a metal microlayer with high-energy argon ions;", "(6)—a many-component condensed alloy microlayer deposition;", "(7)—implantation of the said microlayer with elements selected from the Group IIIB-IVB;", "(8)—diffusion metallization with elements selected from the group containing aluminum, silicon, nickel, chromium, zirconium, titanium, separately or in a combination thereof;", "(9)—annealing in vacuum or in a controlled atmosphere;", "(10)—ion implantation treatment with argon, oxygen and elements selected from the Group IIIB.", "FIG. 2 / 2 shows a schematic for one of the embodiments of the complex protective coating obtained by the said technology.", "An alternative embodiment of the present invention involves deposition a ceramics layer on the said coating in order that a thermal barrier be made to reduce working temperature of the substrate material.", "Making a strong transitional layer, which can serve as a bonding between the ceramics thermal-barrier layer and the metal corrosion-resistant layer, is quite a complicated task of material engineering.", "In the present invention, this task is solved by creation of a transitional adhesive zone formed by implanted elements selected from the Group IIIB-IVB with the surface layer coating materials.", "Such transitional zone is made by depositing a thin metal layer of the said metals in a controlled atmosphere, followed by ion implantation or ion agitation.", "Ion implantation is carried out by means of radiation of high-energy ions of the said metals into the coating surface;", "and ion agitation is performed via radiation with inert gas ions of a thin layer of one of the said metals.", "Also possible is a combination of the aforementioned processes of ion implantation and agitation, or implantation with oxygen after the deposition of a thin layer of the said metals.", "Heat-shielding oxide layers were deposited by means of gas-plasma, electron-beam or slip casting deposition of zirconium oxides stabilized with yttrium oxides or other ceramics materials.", "Comparative analysis has proved that the proposed inventive schemes of technology are in keeping with the criteria of patentability and are unique in terms of solving the aforementioned tasks.", "The combination of features claimed has not been revealed in the field of invention, nor has it been identified in the relative interdisciplinary engineering fields.", "The result achieved in the preferred embodiments is not a mere summary of technologies already applied but makes it possible to produce effects of improved heat-resistance, better thermal fatigue characteristics and corrosion resistance, which considerably exceed the parameters and characteristics obtained by employing the well-known engineering solutions.", "Following are the technology embodiments, which were performed during deposition of coating on aircraft gas turbine blades in various sequence;", "shown also are the test results of high temperature tests, thermal fatigue tests and heat-resistance tests run in the environment of high speed flows of liquid fuel combustion materials.", "Coating Deposition Embodiments No. 1. KR-111 Coating.", "The coating was deposited on ZS6K alloy blade following the stages below: 1.", "Surface cleaning (abrasive cleaning, washing, degreasing, drying) 2.", "Placement into an ion-plasma deposition chamber equipped with an ion source 3.", "Ion cleaning 4.", "Deposition of a zirconium microlayer of 0.1–0.5 microns 5.", "Ion implantation with argon 6.", "Placement into an ion-plasma deposition chamber equipped with an ion source for deposition of aluminide microlayer of 50–60 microns in thickness 7.", "Placement into an ion-plasma deposition chamber equipped with an ion source for deposition of zirconium microlayer of 2–5 microns in thickness 8.", "Ion implantation with argon 9.", "Annealing in vacuum of 10 2 Pa at a temperature of 1050° C. for 60 minutes No. 2 Coating KR-112 The coating was deposited on ZS6K alloy blade following the stages below: 1.", "Surface cleaning (liquid abrasive cleaning, washing, ultrasound bath, degreasing, drying);", "Placement of a part to be coated into a commercial MAP-1 equipment with an ion source;", "Ion cleaning of surface at a voltage U=250–280V and an ion current of 40 A and a current of vacuum arc of 400–750 A, for 3–10 min;", "Ion implantation with lanthanum La (U-10–40 kV, J=5–20 mA, D=1.10 17 cm −2 );", "Deposition of a condensed coating of Ni—Co(20)-Cr(18)-Al(12)-Y(0.5)% weight of 40–50 microns in thickness;", "Ion implanation with La;", "Gas circulation chromium aluminizing (a layer of 20–30 microns);", "Ion implantation with lanthanum;", "Annealing in vacuum of 10 −2 Pa at a temperature of 1050° C. for 60 minutes;", "10.", "Ion implantation with lanthanum.", "No. 3. Coating KR-113 The coating was deposited on ZS6K alloy blade following the stages below: 1.", "Pre-cleaning, ion cleaning, implantation with argon;", "Ion-plasma deposition of chromium carbide to a thickness of 1–2 microns;", "Ion agitation with argon (U=30–40 kV, J=10–20 mA, D=1.10 17 cm −2 );", "Deposition of a condensed coating microlayer of Ni—Co(20)-Cr(18)-Al(12)-Y(0.6)% weight of 40–50 microns in thickness;", "Argon implantation of the said MCA microlayer;", "Gas circulation silicon aluminizing (a layer of 30–40 microns);", "Argon implantation of the said intermetallic layer;", "Annealing at a temperature of 1050° C.;", "Argon implantation.", "No. 4. Coating KR-114 The coating was deposited on ZS6K alloy blade following the stages below: 1.", "Surface cleaning, washing and drying as in the embodiment designated as No. 2;", "Lanthanum implantation;", "Deposition of a NiCo28Cr10Al12Y0.2 alloy to a thickness of 40 microns;", "Lanthanum implantation;", "Deposition of a many-component alloy of Al12Si1.5Y to a thickness of 20 microns;", "Lanthanum implantation;", "Annealing in argon;", "Argon implantation.", "No. 5. Coating KR-115 The coating was deposited on ZS6K alloy blade following the stages below: 1.", "Surface cleaning, washing and drying as in the embodiment designated as No. 2;", "Argon implantation;", "Deposition of a NiCo20Cr18Al14Y1.0 alloy to a thickness of 40 microns;", "Hafnium implantation;", "Deposition of a many-component alloy of Al10Si8Ni7Y0.8;", "Hafnium implantation;", "Annealing in argon;", "Argon implantation.", "No. 6. Coating KR-116 The coating was deposited on ZS6K alloy blade following the stages below: 1.", "Surface cleaning, washing and drying as in the embodiment designated as No. 2;", "Deposition of zirconium;", "Ion agitation with argon;", "Gas circulating aluminizing to a thickness of 20 microns;", "Argon implantation;", "Deposition of a many-component NiCo20Cr18Al12Y0.6 alloy to a thickness of 30 microns;", "Argon implantation;", "Deposition of a many-component alloy of AlSi14Y1.5 to a thickness of 15 microns;", "Argon implantation;", "10.", "Annealing in argon;", "11.", "Argon implantation.", "No. 7. Coating KR-117 The coating was deposited on ZS6K alloy blade following the technology stages below: 1.", "Surface cleaning, washing and drying as in the embodiment designated as No. 2;", "Scandium deposition;", "Ion agitation with argon;", "Deposition of a NiCo24Cr18Al12Y0.6 alloy to a thickness of 30 microns;", "Argon implantation;", "Gas circulating aluminizing;", "Argon implantation;", "Annealing in vacuum of 10 −2 Pa at 1050° C. for 1 hr;", "Argon implantation.", "No. 8. Coating KR-118 The coating was deposited on ZS6K alloy blade following the technology stages below: 1.", "Surface cleaning, washing and drying as in the embodiment designated as No. 2;", "Scandium deposition;", "Ion agitation with argon;", "Gas circulating chromium aluminizing to a thickness of 20 microns;", "Scandium deposition;", "Ion agitation with argon;", "Deposition of a MCA NiCo20Cr18Al12Y0.5 alloy to a thickness of 40 microns;", "Gas circulating chromium aluminizing to a thickness of 20 microns;", "Argon implantation.", "No. 9. Coating KR-119 The coating was deposited on ZS6K alloy blade following the technology stages below: 1.", "Surface cleaning, washing and drying as in the embodiment designated as No. 2;", "Zirconium deposition;", "Ion agitation with argon;", "Gas circulating chromium aluminizing to a thickness of 20 microns;", "Ion agitation with argon;", "Deposition of a many-component CoCr28Ni30Al10Y0.3 alloy to a thickness of 50 microns;", "Zirconium deposition;", "Argon implantation;", "Annealing in argon;", "10.", "Argon implantation.", "No. 10.", "Coating KR-120 The coating was deposited on ZS6K alloy blade following the technology stages below: 1.", "Surface cleaning, washing and drying as in the embodiment designated as No. 2;", "Zirconium deposition to a thickness of 1–5 microns;", "Ion agitation with argon;", "Deposition of a many-component NiCo20Cr28Al10Y0.3 alloy to a thickness of 60 microns;", "Zirconium deposition;", "Ion agitation with argon;", "Annealing in argon;", "Argon implantation.", "No. 11.", "Coating KR-121 The coating was deposited on ZS6K alloy blade following the technology stages below: 1.", "Surface cleaning, washing and drying as in the embodiment designated as No. 2;", "Argon implantation;", "Gas circulating chromium aluminizing to a thickness of 50 microns;", "Ion etching;", "Argon implantation;", "Deposition of a many-component AlSi8Ni8Zr2.5 alloy to a thickness of 30 microns;", "Argon implantation;", "Annealing in argon;", "Argon implantation.", "No. 12.", "Coating KR-122 The coating was deposited on ZS6K alloy blade following the technology stages below: 1.", "Surface cleaning, washing and drying as in the embodiment designated as No. 2;", "Deposition of a ceramics layer of ZrO 2 Y 2 O 3 by electron-beam method to a thickness of 40 microns;", "Yttrium implantation;", "Annealing in vacuum of 10 −2 Pa at a temperature of 1050° C. for 1 hr;", "Argon implantation;", "Deposition of a many-component NiCr18Al12Y0.3 alloy to a thickness of 40 microns;", "Argon implantation;", "Gas circulating chromium aluminizing to a thickness of 30 microns;", "Argon implantation.", "10.", "Deposition of a ceramics layer of ZrO 2 Y 2 O 3 by electron-beam method to a thickness of 40 microns;", "11.", "Yttrium implantation and annealing in vacuum.", "Table 1 gives test results for serial (1-aluminized and 2-ion-plasma coating of Ni—CO—Cr—Al—Y) coatings as compared to the results for coatings per present invention.", "(Heat-resistance tests, corrosion tests and thermal fatigue tests) TABLE 1 Thermal fatigue Heat-resistance Corrosion resistance ***N = No. Coating *Δm = mg/cm 2 **t = hrs of cycles 1.", "Al 1.50–1.70 120–150 300–320 2.", "MeCrAlY 1.80–2.20 500–600 580–630 3.", "MeCrAlY + Al 1.12–1.34 840–900 700–740 4.", "KR-111 1.10–1.20 450–500 400–410 5.", "KR-112 0.50–0.85 1150–1180 960–1020 6.", "KR-113 0.46–0.62 1170–1190 1020–1100 7.", "KR-114 0.44–0.61 1200–1210 1060–1120 8.", "KR-115 0.58–0.64 920–930 890–940 9.", "KR-116 0.42–0.48 1280–1310 1020–1040 10.", "KR-117 0.55–0.70 1080–1120 980–1010 11.", "KR-118 0.50–0.54 960–990 960–970 12.", "KR-119 0.47–0.52 980–1100 970–990 13.", "KR-120 0.45–0.80 1100–1110 940–960 14.", "KR-121 0.48–0.54 1100–1120 970–1010 15.", "KR-122 0.26–0.38 — 800–1020 16.", "Kr-123 0.30–0.34 980–1040 760–780 *Tests for heat-resistance were carried out at 1200° C. Δm = mg/cm 2 **Corrosion tests were carried out following a crucible method of testing in a melted Na2SO4 + 25% NaCl at 900° C., durability measured in hours ***Thermal fatigue tests were carried out, with the thermal cycle being 1200–200° C., time of cycle being 200 sec." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] (a) Technical Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a displaying tray, and in particular, to a tray which comprises a plurality of plates and a main frame, wherein the tray can be extended.", "The present invention employs a plurality of magnetic components mounted to the related structure of the tray.", "[0003] (b) Description of the Prior Art [0004] Conventional tray has a plurality of layers and these layers are usually fixed which cannot be extended to display with more articles.", "Some conventional trays make use of magnetic components on the structure but it is only limited to the door structure.", "[0005] Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a magnetic fast extendable tray for displaying which not only mitigate the above drawbacks but also provides a layer display capacity.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0006] Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a magnetic fast extendable tray for displaying having a top hood, an upper sliding mount, a main frame and a plurality of plates characterized in that the top hood connected to the upper sliding mount and the top hood having a blocking plate to urge the downward depressing of the sliding mount;", "the sliding mount is a hollow frame structure having a top end connected to the top hood and the main body of the mount is positioned within the hollow body of the main frame which attracts to each other by way of magnetic attraction, the sliding mount is provided with a distance allowing upper and down sliding, and each bottom face of the sliding mount has a corresponding magnetic component, and each plate is also provided with a magnetic component to provide repulsion;", "the main frame is a hollow body having a top portion mounted with the sliding mount and having a magnetic component to attract the magnetic component at the sliding mount, each of the face of the main frame is mounted with a railing slot for the insertion of the plates and the corners of the main frame is provided with notches which can place articles;", "and the plate is provided with magnetic component to attract with corresponding magnetic components at the sliding mount, and each plate is also provided with notches and a linking arm to connect with the main frame.", "[0007] Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a magnetic fast extendable tray for displaying, wherein each of the displaying plate can be extended at the same time.", "[0008] Still another object of the present invention is to provide a magnetic fast extendable tray for displaying, wherein the number of plates can be increased or decreased depending on the configuration of the main frame.", "[0009] Yet a further object of the present invention is to provide a magnetic fast extendable tray for displaying, wherein the installation of the tray does not require tools or other supplementary devices.", "[0010] The foregoing object and summary provide only a brief introduction to the present invention.", "To fully appreciate these and other objects of the present invention as well as the invention itself, all of which will become apparent to those skilled in the art, the following detailed description of the invention and the claims should be read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.", "Throughout the specification and drawings identical reference numerals refer to identical or similar parts.", "[0011] Many other advantages and features of the present invention will become manifest to those versed in the art upon making reference to the detailed description and the accompanying sheets of drawings in which a preferred structural embodiment incorporating the principles of the present invention is shown by way of illustrative example.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0012] FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a preferred embodiment in accordance with the present invention.", "[0013] FIG. 2 is a perspective exploded view showing each component in accordance with the present invention.", "[0014] FIG. 3 is a schematic sectional view of the present invention.", "[0015] FIG. 4 is a schematic view showing the mounting of magnetic components to the corresponding main frame of the magnetic component in accordance with the present invention.", "[0016] FIG. 5 is a schematic view showing mounting of two magnetic components onto the main frame of the magnetic component of the present invention.", "[0017] FIG. 6 is a schematic view showing the extension of the tray in accordance with the present invention.", "[0018] FIG. 7 is a perspective view after extension in accordance with the present invention.", "[0019] FIG. 8 is a top view of another preferred embodiment of the present invention.", "[0020] FIG. 9 is a top view of a further preferred embodiment in accordance with the present invention.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT [0021] The following descriptions are of exemplary embodiments only, and are not intended to limit the scope, applicability or configuration of the invention in any way.", "Rather, the following description provides a convenient illustration for implementing exemplary embodiments of the invention.", "Various changes to the described embodiments may be made in the function and arrangement of the elements described without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.", "[0022] Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2 , the main body of the tray in accordance with the present invention comprises a hood 1 , an upper sliding mount 2 , a main frame 3 and a plurality of plates 4 .", "As shown in FIG. 1 , it is a preferred configuration of the tray in accordance with the present invention.", "The hood 1 is connected to the sliding mount 2 and the blocking plate 11 at the hood 1 is used an urging function when the sliding mount 2 is depressed.", "The hood 1 can be mounted with lighting device.", "[0023] As shown in FIG. 2 , the upper sliding mount 2 is a hollow frame structure having a top end connected to the hood 1 so that the entire sliding mount 2 is positioned within the hollow body of the main frame 3 .", "There are magnetic components 21 , 31 on the sliding mount 2 and the main frame 3 and are attracted to each other.", "The top portion of the sliding mount 2 is provided with sufficient distance to allow movement.", "The upper section of the sliding mount 2 and the main frame 3 are attracted by way of magnetic components 21 , 31 at corresponding positions.", "When the sliding mount 2 is inserted into the hollow body of the main frame 3 , it is positioned by the attraction force of the magnet components.", "When the sliding mount 2 is depressed, the magnetic component 21 will not move away from the main frame 3 , as shown in FIG. 4 .", "Thus there are corresponding magnetic component 22 positioned at the plate 4 and the middle section of the plate 4 is provided with a magnetic component 41 to repel magnetic component 23 , as shown in FIG. 3 .", "[0024] As shown in FIG. 2 , the number of plates depends on the shape of the main frame 3 , for instance FIG. 8 (triangular) and FIG. 9 (hexagonal).", "The plate 4 and the main frame 3 are attached together.", "The plate 4 can be either in extended form or in a closing form When the sliding mount 2 is depressed to move, the magnetic component 22 will move and repel the magnetic component 23 so that the plate 4 is pushed away, as shown in FIG. 7 .", "[0025] Each plate 4 is provided with notch 42 when it is extended, and the top and middle position of the plate 4 is a lining arm 43 which is pivotally connected to the main frame 3 such that the plate 4 is extended about the linking arm 43 .", "[0026] As shown in FIG. 2 , the main frame 3 has a rotating disc 30 at the bottom of the frame 3 and is also provided with magnetic component 31 .", "The main frame 3 is provided with railing slot 32 corresponding to the linking arm 43 for the storage of the linking arm 43 .", "Each corner of the main frame 3 is provided with rows of notches 33 which is in horizontal position with that of the notches 42 of the plate, as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 .", "[0027] It will be understood that each of the elements described above, or two or more together may also find a useful application in other types of methods differing from the type described above.", "[0028] While certain novel features of this invention have been shown and described and are pointed out in the annexed claim, it is not intended to be limited to the details above, since it will be understood that various omissions, modifications, substitutions and changes in the forms and details of the device illustrated and in its operation can be made by those skilled in the art without departing in any way from the spirit of the present invention." ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/006,979, filed Jun. 3, 2014, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.", "FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention is generally directed toward a device for monitoring and transmitting grain moisture and temperature levels within a grain storage facility.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] Grain monitoring devices are used to monitor grain temperature and moisture levels within a grain storage facility.", "These levels must be monitored because the grain can spoil and be wasted if stored at the wrong conditions.", "The devices that are currently available require individuals to climb inside the grain storage facility and physically monitor the temperature and moisture levels.", "It is common for individuals become victims of grain entrapment and to suffocate while working inside a grain storage facility making measuring the temperature and moisture levels a costly and time consuming activity.", "[0004] The devices known in the art have sensors and communicate data to a central data storage system via a cellular network or long range radio frequency data transmission.", "Alerts and alarms can be transmitted electronically to users via email, SMS text, or automated phone messages.", "Another such device comprises a system for remotely reporting the level of grain loaded into a grain trailer, wherein periodic samples can be drawn of the flowing material and wirelessly transmitted form the sample device to a computer used with sensor strips.", "These devices, however, do not utilize a sensor with a transmitter that can monitor and synthesize the moisture and temperature of the grain and wirelessly transmit the collected data to smart mobile devices.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0005] The presently disclosed device is a grain monitoring system designed to monitor temperature and moisture levels of grain within a grain storage facility and transmit the collected data to a smart mobile device.", "The device comprises an interior sensor contained within a rod-shaped enclosure.", "The sensor reads, records, synthesizes, and reports the grain temperature and moisture levels at two different sensing depths multiple times throughout the day.", "The radio transmitter on the opposite end of the enclosure transmits a signal to an exterior base which then sends radio transmissions to a Wi-fi hub.", "Application software then allows wireless reporting to smart mobile devices, including but not limited to, phones and pads.", "Further, the network can be upgraded to include cloud reporting and cellular messaging.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0006] Further advantages of the invention will become apparent by reference to the detailed description of preferred embodiments when considered in conjunction with the drawings: [0007] FIG. 1 depicts a perspective view of the interior sensor.", "[0008] FIG. 2 depicts another perspective view of the interior sensor.", "[0009] FIG. 3 depicts a perspective view of the first transmitter.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0010] The following detailed description is presented to enable any person skilled in the art to make and use the invention.", "For purposes of explanation, specific details are set forth to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention.", "However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that these specific details are not required to practice the invention.", "Descriptions of specific applications are provided only as representative examples.", "Various modifications to the preferred embodiments will be readily apparent to one skilled in the art, and the general principles defined herein may be applied to other embodiments and applications without departing from the scope of the invention.", "The present invention is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown, but is to be accorded the widest possible scope consistent with the principles and features disclosed herein.", "[0011] The invention claimed herein allows an individual to monitor the temperature and moisture levels of grain in a grain storage facility without having to physically climb into the grain storage facility to monitor the levels.", "Furthermore, it does not require transmission to a computer before wirelessly transmitting the data to an end user.", "[0012] The disclosed device comprises an interior sensor 1 , an exterior base, and a Wi-fi hub for transmitting the data collected from the interior sensor 1 [0013] The interior sensor 1 further comprises a battery, electronic moisture sensing modules 2 , and a first radio transmitter.", "The interior programmable sensor is simple to use and operate.", "As shown in FIG. 1 , the interior sensor 1 is contained within a rod-shaped enclosure 3 that is inserted into the grain within the storage facility.", "Said interior sensor 1 reads, records, reports and synthesizes grain temperature moisture content.", "Further, the claimed invention allows a user of the device to choose between two different sensing depths selectable from one, two or three meters.", "The interior sensor 1 can record the temperature and moisture levels multiple times per day and report minimum, maximum and average levels for each day.", "[0014] The preferred embodiment of the rod-shaped enclosure 3 comprises a stainless steel rod with properties for increased durability and corrosion resistance.", "[0015] In another embodiment, the interior sensor 1 measures and reports temperature and moisture levels of the grain with 2% accuracy and repeatability as high as 0.5% (preliminary).", "[0016] As shown in FIG. 2 , additional features of the interior sensor 1 include threaded couplings 4 , a sensor housing 5 , and an abbreviated tube 6 .", "[0017] In another potential embodiment, the interior sensor 1 includes a point 7 at the first end wherein said end is inserted into the grain storage facility to monitor the moisture and temperature of the grain.", "Hollow threaded couplings 4 allow electrical wires to pass through the rod-shaped enclosure 3 .", "The cylindrical sensor housing 5 contains gaps 8 to allow moisture into said rod.", "Further, an abbreviated tube 6 allows for the length of the rod to vary.", "[0018] Other potential embodiments of the abbreviated tube 6 may include lengths of three, six, nine, or twelve feet in length.", "[0019] In another embodiment, the interior sensor 1 also includes a stop disc 9 is located at the second end of the rod-shaped enclosure 2 which is perpendicular to said rod.", "When the rod-shaped enclosure 3 is inserted into the grain, the stop disc 9 disables the rod-shaped enclosure 3 from being inserted any farther into the grain.", "[0020] Preferably, the interior sensor battery has greater than a one year battery life with battery condition reporting.", "[0021] The first radio transmitter transmits the collected data via radio frequency from an antennae to an exterior base located on the outside of the grain storage facility.", "[0022] A potential embodiment of the first radio transmitter, it is housed in a tri-lobe case 10 with a cover 11 as shown in FIG. 3 .", "The tri-lobe case 10 and cover 11 is located above the stop disc 9 .", "[0023] The exterior base comprising a battery, wireless receiver, and second radio transmitter.", "The data is transmitted via radio frequency from the exterior base to a Wi-fi hub.", "One storage facility out of numerous facilities within a seven mile line of sight radius contains a Wi-fi hub which then transmits the data wirelessly via application software to a smart mobile device, including without limitation, phones and pads.", "[0024] A potential embodiment of the Wi-fi hub has a solar powered battery with a life of greater than one year.", "[0025] In another potential embodiment of the Wi-fi hub, the data transmission is via cloud reporting.", "The connection to the interne may also be through a cellular connection.", "[0026] The terms “comprising,” “including,” and “having,” as used in the claims and specification herein, shall be considered as indicating an open group that may include other elements not specified.", "The terms “a,” “an,” and the singular forms of words shall be taken to include the plural form of the same words, such that the terms mean that one or more of something is provided.", "The term “one”", "or “single”", "may be used to indicate that one and only one of something is intended.", "Similarly, other specific integer values, such as “two,” may be used when a specific number of things is intended.", "The terms “preferably,” “preferred,” “prefer,” “optionally,” “may,” and similar terms are used to indicate that an item, condition or step being referred to is an optional (not required) feature of the invention.", "[0027] The invention has been described with reference to various specific and preferred embodiments and techniques.", "However, it should be understood that many variations and modifications may be made while remaining within the spirit and scope of the invention.", "It will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that methods, devices, device elements, materials, procedures and techniques other than those specifically described herein can be applied to the practice of the invention as broadly disclosed herein without resort to undue experimentation.", "All art-known functional equivalents of methods, devices, device elements, materials, procedures and techniques described herein are intended to be encompassed by this invention.", "Whenever a range is disclosed, all subranges and individual values are intended to be encompassed.", "This invention is not to be limited by the embodiments disclosed, including any shown in the drawings or exemplified in the specification, which are given by way of example and not of limitation.", "[0028] While the invention has been described with respect to a limited number of embodiments, those skilled in the art, having benefit of this disclosure, will appreciate that other embodiments can be devised which do not depart from the scope of the invention as disclosed herein.", "Accordingly, the scope of the invention should be limited only by the attached claims.", "[0029] All references throughout this application, for example patent documents including issued or granted patents or equivalents, patent application publications, and non-patent literature documents or other source material, are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties, as though individually incorporated by reference, to the extent each reference is at least partially not inconsistent with the disclosure in the present application (for example, a reference that is partially inconsistent is incorporated by reference except for the partially inconsistent portion of the reference)." ]

[ "CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] The present application is a continuation of application Ser.", "No. 11/072,980, filed Mar. 4, 2005, which claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) to Provisional Application Ser.", "No. 60/563,067, Filed: Apr. 16, 2004 and Provisional Application Ser.", "No. 60/613,305, Filed: Sep. 27, 2004 and claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(a) to Great Britain Patent Application No. 0405103.3, Filed: 6 Mar. 2004 and Great Britain Patent Application No. 0420217.2, Filed: 11 Sep. 2004.", "All applications are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties.", "FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The invention relates to the use of gene therapy in the treatment of aseptic loosening of orthopaedic prostheses.", "In particular, it discloses methods of refixing such prostheses without open revision surgery.", "BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION [0003] Approximately 1 million total hip replacement (total hip arthroplasty) operations are carried out world-wide annually, with more than 120,000 of these undertaken in the USA, and about 35,000 in England alone (NIH Consensus Statement, 1994;", "NHS Review 1996).", "This is likely to increase to approximately 3 million worldwide per annum within the next decade.", "Hip replacements are very often performed in elderly patients and, amongst this group, loosening of one or both components of the prosthesis, resulting in severe mobility restriction, occurs within 15 years in about a third of patients.", "Where prosthetic loosening occurs, patients'", "experience increased pain and walking difficulty and have a higher risk of dislocations and pathological fractures.", "Within 10 years, approximately 10% of all patients require revision surgery, which has a high rate of complications and failure (Hellman et al, 1999).", "[0004] The most common cause of implant failure is aseptic loosening as a result of particulate-induced osteolysis.", "Wear particles, such as particles of polyethylene, polymethylmethacrylate, titanium, cobalt chrome or ceramic debris, depending on the type of prosthesis, stimulate an inflammatory response termed periprosthetic osteolysis (Goldring et al, 1986).", "The phagocytosis of wear particles by macrophages activates them, leading to secretion of the inflammatory cytokines IL-1, TNF-α, and IL-6.", "The resulting chronic inflammatory response eventually produces a pseudomembrane of granulomatous ‘interface tissue’ including activated macrophages, fibroblasts, giant cells and osteoclasts, similar to the pannus characteristic of arthritic joints.", "The end result of this complex inflammatory and proliferative foreign body response is osteoclast-mediated resorption of bone, leading to loosening of one or both components of the prosthetic implant.", "Prostheses for total hip arthroplasty consist of two components.", "An artificial socket, or acetabular component, is located in a prepared cavity in the acetabulum of the pelvis.", "This articulates with a femoral component comprising a ball attached to a process, which is introduced into a prepared cavity in the medulla of the femur.", "Many variations of both components exist, and they may be retained with or without cements.", "[0005] Aseptic loosening eventually leads to an unacceptable degree of pain, immobility or walking difficulties and instability, with a higher risk of dislocations and pathological fractures.", "In some patients revision surgery may be undertaken to remove the inflammatory tissue and replace the prosthesis.", "However, revision surgery is very expensive and has a high morbidity and mortality rate, especially in elderly patients (who are in the majority).", "In patients with cardiac insufficiency revision surgery often has major complications such as myocardial failure or coronary artery disease (Strehle et al, 2000).", "Many patients are not eligible for revision surgery because the risk of mortality is considered to be too high.", "There is no alternative treatment for such patients, who are then wheelchair-bound.", "The clinical need for a less traumatic alternative to revision surgery for treatment of loosened prostheses is therefore clear.", "At present experimental approaches to this problem are preventative rather than therapeutic.", "One such preventative approach to controlling aseptic loosening involves the use of bisphosphonate compounds, especially alendronate, as either a systemic medication or as a component of a cement used to fix such prostheses (U.S. Pat. No. 5,972,913, WO 96/39107, Shanbhag et al, 1997, Leung et al, 1999).", "However, although bisphosphonates are known to produce an increase in skeletal bone density, they have not been shown to have a significant effect in treating rheumatoid arthritis, which shares many similar pathological features with periprosthetic osteolysis, nor on periprosthetic osteolysis itself (Ralston et al, 1989;", "Eggelmeijer et al, 1996;", "Ulrich-Vinther, 2002).", "It thus remains to be seen whether bisphosphonates have a useful role to play in the prevention of aseptic loosening.", "[0006] In an attempt to prevent osteoclast-mediated periprosthetic bone resorption directly, an alternative preventative approach involves gene therapy (reviewed in Wooley and Schwarz, 2004), using an osteoclast inhibitory protein, osteoprotegerin, delivered by means of adeno-associated virus vector has been described (Ulrich-Vinther, 2002).", "Osteoprotegerin is a competitive inhibitor of an osteoclast differentiation factor, receptor activator of nuclear factor κB ligand (RANKL), which binds to a receptor expressed on the surface of macrophage-derived osteoclast precursor cells, known as receptor activator of nuclear factor κB (RANK).", "RANKL is secreted by osteoblasts, stromal cells and activated T cells at an early stage of the inflammatory response initiated by macrophage phagocytosis of wear particles (Teitelbaum, 2000).", "Binding of RANKL to RANK leads to activation of osteoclast precursor cells, differentiation, and stimulation of bone resorption.", "Binding of RANK by osteoprotegerin fails to activate the osteoclast precursor cells with the result that osteoprotegerin competitively inhibits RANKL.", "[0007] Ulrich-Vinther et al used a recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV) vector to express osteoprotegerin and inhibit titanium particle-induced resorption in a mouse calvarial resorption model.", "Titanium particles were implanted on the calvaria (bones of the vault of the skull) and the vector administered by intramuscular injection into the quadriceps.", "The inhibitory effect of the osteoprotegerin was therefore systemic, with detectable increases in serum levels, and this appeared to be successful in inhibiting the experimental titanium-induced osteoclastogenesis and bone resorption seen in the untreated controls.", "Although interesting, it remains to be seen whether this model will form the basis of a viable preventative for clinical periprosthetic osteolysis.", "Even if effective, it is unclear what long-term systemic effects prolonged elevations in serum osteoprotegerin levels might have.", "For example, such a strategy would need to demonstrate a lack of deleterious effects on normal osteoclast function in bone remodelling.", "[0008] There remains a need for effective treatments for the common and debilitating condition of periprosthetic osteolysis and its resultant aseptic loosening.", "[0009] One approach to preferentially killing pathological cells, most widely used for treating cancer, is to introduce a gene into the target cells that encodes an enzyme capable of converting a prodrug of relatively low toxicity into a potent cytotoxic drug.", "Systemic administration of the prodrug is then tolerated since it is only converted into the toxic derivative locally, for example in a tumour, by cells expressing the prodrug-converting enzyme.", "This approach is known as gene-directed enzyme prodrug therapy (GDEPT), or when the gene is delivered by means of a recombinant viral vector, virus-directed prodrug therapy (VDEPT) (McNeish et al, 1997).", "[0010] An example of an enzyme/prodrug system is nitroreductase and the aziridinyl prodrug CB1954 (5-(aziridin-1-yl)-2,4-dinitrobenzamide) (Knox et a/1988).", "Following the observation that the Walker rat carcinoma cell line was particularly sensitive to CB1954, it was shown that this was due to the expression of the rat nitroreductase DT diaphorase.", "However, since CB 1954 is a poor substrate for the human form of this enzyme, human tumour cells are far less sensitive to CB1954.", "GDEPT was conceived as a way of introducing a suitable nitroreductase, preferably with greater activity against CB1954, in order to sensitise targeted cells.", "The Escherichia coli nitroreductase (EC1.6[.", "].99.7, alternatively known as the oxygen-insensitive NAD(P)H nitroreductase or dihydropteridine reductase, and often abbreviated to NTR) encoded by the NFSB gene (alternatively known as NFNB, NFSI, or DPRA) has been widely used for this purpose (Reviewed in Grove et al, 1999).", "The NFSB-encoded nitroreductase (NTR) is a homodimer that binds two flavin mononucleotide (FMN) cofactor molecules.", "Using NADH or NADPH as an electron donor, and bound FMN as a reduced intermediate, NTR reduces one or other of the two nitro-groups of CB 1954 to give either the highly toxic 4-hydroxylamine derivative or the relatively non-toxic 2-hydroxylamine.", "Within cells, 5-(aziridin-1-yl)-4-hydroxylamino-2-nitrobenzamide, probably via a further toxic metabolite, becomes very genotoxic (Knox et al, 1991).", "The exact nature of the lesion caused is unclear, but is unlike that caused by other agents.", "A particularly high rate of inter-strand cross-linking occurs and the lesions seem to be poorly repaired, with the result that CB 1954 is an exceptionally affective anti-tumour agent (Friedlos et al, 1992).", "[0011] The aim of GDEPT is to obtain efficient conversion of a prodrug such as CB1954 in target cells in order to kill not only NTR-expressing cells but also bystander tumour cells that may not have been successfully transfected or transduced.", "[0012] Another enzyme-prodrug system used in this way is that of a cytochrome P450 as a prodrug-converting enzyme and acetaminophen as the prodrug, as described in international application WO 00/40271 (incorporated herein in its entirety).", "A number of cytochrome P450 enzymes, naturally expressed in the liver (for example CYP1A2, CYP 2E1 and CYP3A4) are capable of converting acetaminophen into a highly cytotoxic metabolite, N-acetylbenzoquinoneimine (NABQI).", "This system has been proposed for a variety of clinical applications, especially in the field of cancer therapy.", "Cytochrome P450 enzymes are also capable of activating several conventional cytotoxic prodrugs, for example cyclophosphamide and ifosfamide (Chen and Waxman, 2002).", "[0013] A number of other enzyme-prodrug systems are widely used, including HSV thymidine kinase and ganciclovir (Moolten, 1986), cytosine deaminase and 5-fluorocytosine (Mullen et al, 1992).", "[0014] Goossens et al (1999) describe a viral gene therapy approach to infect and kill isolated cultured synovial cells in vitro, and to kill pannus tissue in a monkey collagen-induced arthritis model in which inflamed joints are induced by collagen injections.", "Inflamed joints in such animals contain a hyperplastic tissue resulting from the chronic inflammation termed pannus.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0015] As used herein: [0016] “Cell-type selective”", "means;", "facilitating expression preferentially in a limited range of tissues.", "Preferably, such expression is substantially limited to a single tissue or cell type.", "[0017] An “operably-linked promoter”", "is one in a substantially adjacent cis-relationship, wherein said promoter directs expression of the operably-linked element.", "[0018] “Periprosthetic”", "relates to the space surrounding any part of an implanted prosthesis [0019] “Periprosthetic osteolysis”", "is synonymous with “aseptic loosening”", "and relates to any progressive loosening of an implanted prosthesis not associated with frank infection or trauma.", "[0020] “Interface tissue”", "is synonymous with “osteolytic membrane”", "and means inflammatory tissue in the periprosthetic space round an implanted prosthesis, implicated in periprosthetic osteolysis.", "[0021] “Prosthesis”", "or “Orthopaedic implant”", "as herein used means any material or device surgically implanted into a bony structure of an animal or human.", "[0022] An aim of the invention is to provide a non-surgical alternative to revision surgery for treatment of loosened prostheses that destroys interface tissue (and the cells within it that are involved in the inflammatory processes and bone resorption) and allows the implant to be recemented.", "[0023] The invention seeks to achieve this by using an enzyme-prodrug therapy strategy using a gene therapy vector to deliver a prodrug-converting enzyme to cells in the interface tissue, thus sensitising them to a particular prodrug.", "Administration of the prodrug leads to its conversion to an active cytotoxic drug in the target cells, killing the interface tissue.", "Release of active cytotoxic drug from lysed interface cells may also kill neighbouring interface or inflammatory cells (‘bystander’ killing), which is advantageous in that cells that have escaped direct vector delivery (by transduction, for viral vectors, or transfection for non-viral vectors) are also eliminated.", "[0024] In one strategy, a viral vector carrying nucleic acid encoding the enzyme is injected into the intra-articular space, and the prodrug subsequently administered through a small drill hole, which can also be used to inject cement to refix the prosthesis in situ.", "Alternatively, the prodrug may be administered by intra-articular injection.", "Arthrography has shown that the interface tissue forms a continuous closed compartment around the loosened prosthesis, which allows a high local concentration of both vector and prodrug to be achieved with very low risk of systemic escape.", "The concept thus offers more favourable circumstances in terms of both efficacy and safety than intra-tumoral injection in cancer patients, a procedure with which there is considerable clinical experience.", "In the case at least of adenoviral vectors, it may be preferable to remove existing fluid in the intra-articular/periprosthetic space before introducing the vectors, to reduce the possibility of neutralising antibodies in the fluid inactivating the vector and preventing satisfactory levels of transduction.", "[0025] Preferably, following introduction of the prodrug and consequent killing of cells of the interface tissue, said tissue is removed.", "This may be aided by the introduction of, either simultaneous with, or subsequent to, introduction of the prodrug, one or more enzymes capable of digesting extracellular components of the interface tissue, such as collagenase, elastase or hyaluronidase, matrix metalloproteases or cathepsins.", "[0026] Other compounds useful for this purpose include the chelating agents EDTA (Ethylenediamine-N,N,N′,N′-tetra-acetic acid) and EGTA (Ethylene glycol-bis-(2-aminoethyl)-N,N,N′,N′-tetraacetic acid).", "Such treatment digests and loosens the interface tissue, such that it may be flushed out through a suitable drill hole or via a wide bore needle introduced into the intra-articular space.", "[0027] The fully loosened and debrided implant is then recemented, to solidly reattach all loosened components and restore a fully functional prosthetic joint.", "[0028] Alternatively, especially with prodrugs such as acetaminophen with very low systemic toxicity, the vector encoding the prodrug converting enzyme (such as cytochrome P450) may be injected locally, so that only cells within the interface tissue/joint compartment are transduced, whilst the prodrug is subsequently administered systemically.", "[0029] In one aspect of the invention, the approach is to kill cells resident in the interface tissue, irrespective of their type.", "In practice, the predominant cells are fibroblasts responsible for producing the extracellular matrix proteins of which much of the tissue is comprised, and cells of the monocyte/macrophage lineage responsible for inflammatory effects.", "In this case, the expression of the enzyme encoded by the vector is controlled by a strong non-cell type specific promoter, providing high level expression in a variety of cell and tissue types, such as the cytomegalovirus early/immediate promoter and the cytotoxic effect is limited to cells of the interface tissue by the physical constraints of the space into which the vector and/or prodrug are injected.", "The normal cells of most concern from the safety viewpoint are the osteoblasts responsible for bone regeneration.", "In most instances, and with most gene delivery vectors, these cells are inaccessible to vector injected into the periprosthetic space, hence are not transduced or transfected, do not express the prodrug converting enzyme even with a non-cell type specific promoter, and are therefore not killed upon subsequent administration of the prodrug.", "[0030] Examples of such non-cell specific promoters include: cytomegalovirus immediate/early promoter, Rous sarcoma virus long terminal repeat (RSV LTR), murine leukaemia virus LTR, simian virus 40 (SV40) early or late promoters, herpes simplex virus (HSV) thymidine kinase (tk) promoter, actin or ubiquitin promoters.", "[0031] In some circumstances it may be advantageous to achieve more selective cell killing, in which case the enzyme encoded by the vector may be expressed under the control of a tissue- or cell type-selective promoter.", "Use of such a promoter permits selective killing of cells of particular lineages, such as fibroblasts, cells of the monocyte/macrophage lineage or, more specifically, cells of a particular phenotype, such as osteoclast precursor cells, or fully differentiated osteoclasts.", "[0032] Examples of promoters suitable for preferentially expressing a gene, such as a gene encoding a prodrug-converting enzyme, in cells of the monocyte/macrophage lineage include, c-fes and CD68.", "Promoters characterised by containing one or more binding sites for the transcription factor PU[.", "].1 are generally suitable (Greaves and Gordon, 2002).", "[0033] Promoters suitable for expressing a gene preferentially in osteoclasts or osteoclast precursors include the tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP) promoter, the RANK promoter and the cathepsin K promoter.", "Promoters characterised by containing one or more binding sites (E-boxes, containing the consensus binding sequences 5′-CA( T / G )GTG) for microphthalmia transcription factor family (MITF, TFE3, TFEB and TFEC), optionally also containing binding sites for the transcription factor PU[.", "].1 are generally suitable (Motyckova et al, 2001;", "Mansky et al, 2002, Greaves and Gordon, 2002).", "[0034] By the use of such specific promoters, expression of the enzyme may be restricted to particular target cells, such as those responsible for laying down of extracellular matrix proteins such as collagen (fibroblasts), those responsible for secreting inflammatory cytokines (such as macrophages) or those responsible directly for bone resorption (osteoclasts), whilst protecting other cell types (such as osteoblasts, responsible for depositing new bone).", "[0035] The various possible combinations of local administration of vector and/or prodrug with or without tissue-selective expression allow non-surgical treatment of loosened prostheses and recementation of the implant, overcoming limitations in the prior art methods aimed at preventing periprosthetic loosening by systemic administration of compounds such as bisphosphonates, or of systemic expression of highly bioactive molecules such as osteoprotegerin.", "[0036] Accordingly, the invention provides an isolated polynucleotide encoding an enzyme capable of converting a prodrug into an active cytotoxic compound, expression of the enzyme being controlled by an operably-linked promoter that gives substantially cell type-selective expression.", "Preferably expression is restricted to cells of the monocyte/macrophage lineage.", "Preferred examples such promoters include the promoters of such genes as c-fes, and CD68.", "Promoters characterised by containing one or more binding sites for the transcription factor PU[.", "].1 are generally suitable.", "[0037] Alternatively, expression is restricted to fibroblasts.", "[0038] More preferably expression is restricted to osteoclasts or osteoclast precursors.", "Amongst suitable promoters providing such expression are those naturally functionally linked to genes such as tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP), receptor activator of nuclear factor κB (RANK) and cathepsin K. Promoters characterised by containing one or more binding sites (E-boxes, containing the consensus binding sequences 5′-CA( T / G )GTG) for microphthalmia transcription factor family (MITF, TFE3, TFEB and TFEC), optionally also containing binding sites for the transcription factor PU[.", "].1 are generally suitable.", "[0039] Preferably, the enzyme encoded is a nitroreductase, preferably a nitroreductase suitable for the activation of the prodrug CB1954 (5-(aziridin-1-yl)-2,4-dinitrobenzamide).", "Alternatively, it a cytochrome P450.", "Other suitable enzyme/prodrug systems include HSV thymidine kinase and ganciclovir (Moolten, 1986), cytosine deaminase and 5-fluorocytosine (Mullen et al, 1992).", "[0040] In another aspect, the invention provides a vector comprising said polynucleotide.", "The vector may be any vector capable of transferring DNA to a cell.", "Preferably, the vector is an integrating vector or an episomal vector.", "[0041] Preferred integrating vectors include recombinant retroviral vectors.", "A recombinant retroviral vector will include DNA of at least a portion of a retroviral genome which portion is capable of infecting the target cells.", "The term “infection”", "is used to mean the process by which a virus transfers genetic material to its host or target cell.", "Preferably, the retrovirus used in the construction of a vector of the invention is also rendered replication-defective to remove the effect of viral replication on the target cells.", "In such cases, the replication-defective viral genome can be packaged by a helper virus in accordance with conventional techniques.", "Generally, any retrovirus meeting the above criteria of infectivity and capability of functional gene transfer can be employed in the practice of the invention.", "Lentiviral vectors are especially preferred.", "[0042] Suitable retroviral vectors include but are not limited to pLJ, pZip, pWe and pEM, well known to those of skill in the art.", "Suitable packaging virus lines for replication-defective retroviruses include, for example, ΨCrip, ΨCre, Ψ2 and ΨAm.", "[0043] Other vectors useful in the present invention include adenovirus, adeno-associated virus, SV40 virus, vaccinia virus, HSV and poxvirus vectors.", "A preferred episomal vector is the adenovirus.", "Adenovirus vectors are well known to those skilled in the art and have been used to deliver genes to numerous cell types, including airway epithelium, skeletal muscle, liver, brain and skin (Hitt et al, 1997;", "Anderson, 1998).", "[0044] A further preferred vector is the adeno-associated (AAV) vector.", "MV vectors are well known to those skilled in the art and have been used to stably transduce human T-lymphocytes, fibroblasts, nasal polyp, skeletal muscle, brain, erythroid and haematopoietic stem cells for gene therapy applications (Philip et al.", ", 1994;", "Russell et al.", ", 1994;", "Flotte et al.", ", 1993;", "Walsh et al.", ", 1994;", "Miller et al.", ", 1994;", "Emerson, 1996).", "International Patent Application WO 91/18088 describes specific AAV based vectors.", "[0045] Other preferred episomal vectors include transient non-replicating episomal vectors and self-replicating episomal vectors with functions derived from viral origins of replication such as those from EBV, human papovavirus (BK) and BPV-1.", "Such integrating and episomal vectors are well known to those skilled in the art and are fully described in the body of literature well known to those skilled in the art.", "In particular, suitable episomal vectors are described in WO98/07876.", "[0046] Mammalian artificial chromosomes can also be used as vectors in the present invention.", "The use of mammalian artificial chromosomes is discussed by Calos (1996).", "[0047] In a further preferred embodiment, the vector of the present invention is a plasmid.", "The plasmid may be a non-replicating, non-integrating plasmid.", "[0048] The term “plasmid”", "as used herein refers to any nucleic acid encoding an expressible gene and includes linear or circular nucleic acids and double or single stranded nucleic acids.", "The nucleic acid can be DNA or RNA and may comprise modified nucleotides or ribonucleotides, and may be chemically modified by such means as methylation or the inclusion of protecting groups or cap- or tail structures.", "[0049] A non-replicating, non-integrating plasmid is a nucleic acid which when transfected into a host cell does not replicate and does not specifically integrate into the host cell's genome (i.e. does not integrate at high frequencies and does not integrate at specific sites).", "[0050] Replicating plasmids can be identified using standard assays including the standard replication assay of Ustav and Stenlund (1991).", "[0051] The present invention also provides a host cell transfected with the isolated polynucleotide or vector comprising such a polynucleotide of the present invention.", "The host cell may be any eukaryotic cell.", "Preferably it is a mammalian cell.", "More preferably, it is a human cell and, most preferably, it is an autologous cell derived from the patient and transfected or transduced either in vivo or ex vivo.", "[0052] Numerous techniques are known and are useful according to the invention for delivering the vectors described herein to cells, including the use of nucleic acid condensing agents, electroporation, complexing with asbestos, polybrene, DEAE cellulose, Dextran, liposomes, cationic liposomes, lipopolyamines, polyornithine, particle bombardment and direct microinjection (reviewed by Kucherlapati and Skoultchi, 1984;", "Keown et al.", ", 1990;", "Weir, 1999;", "Nishikawa and Huang, 2001).", "[0053] A vector of the invention may be delivered to a host cell non-specifically or specifically (i.e., to a designated subset of host cells) via a viral or non-viral means of delivery.", "Preferred delivery methods of viral origin include viral particle-producing packaging cell lines as transfection recipients for the vector of the present invention into which viral packaging signals have been engineered, such as those of adenovirus, herpes viruses and papovaviruses.", "Preferred non-viral based gene delivery means and methods may also be used in the invention and include direct naked nucleic acid injection, nucleic acid condensing peptides and non-peptides, cationic liposomes and encapsulation in liposomes.", "[0054] The direct delivery of vector into tissue has been described and some, mostly short-term, gene expression has been achieved.", "Direct delivery of vector into thyroid (Sikes et al.", ", 1994) melanoma (Vile et al.", ", 1993), skin (Hengge et al.", ", 1995), liver (Hickman et al.", ", 1994) and after exposure of airway epithelium (Meyer et al.", ", 1995) is clearly described in the prior art.", "Direct DNA injection into muscle has been shown to give longer-term expression (Wolff et al.", ", 1990).", "[0055] Various peptides derived from the amino acid sequences of viral envelope proteins have been used in gene transfer when co-administered with polylysine DNA complexes (Plank et al.", ", 1994;", "Trubetskoy et al.", ", 1992;", "WO 91/17773;", "WO 92/19287) and Mack et al.", ", (1994) suggest that co-condensation of polylysine conjugates with cationic lipids can lead to improvement in gene transfer efficiency.", "International Patent Application WO 95/02698 discloses the use of viral components to attempt to increase the efficiency of cationic lipid gene transfer.", "[0056] Nucleic acid condensing agents useful in the invention include spermine, spermine derivatives, histones, cationic peptides, cationic non-peptides such as polyethyleneimine (PEI) and polylysine.", "‘Spermine derivatives’ refers to analogues and derivatives of spermine and include compounds as set forth in International Patent Application WO 93/18759 (published Sep. 30, 1993).", "[0057] Disulphide bonds have been used to link the peptidic components of a delivery vehicle (Cotten et al.", ", 1992);", "see also Trubetskoy et al.", "(supra).", "[0058] Delivery vehicles for delivery of DNA constructs to cells are known in the art and include DNA/poly-cation complexes which are specific for a cell surface receptor, as described in, for example, Wu and Wu, 1988;", "Wilson et al.", ", 1992;", "and U.S. Pat. No. 5,166,320.", "[0059] Delivery of a vector according to the invention is contemplated using nucleic acid condensing peptides.", "Nucleic acid condensing peptides, which are particularly useful for condensing the vector and delivering the vector to a cell, are described in International Patent Application WO 96/41606.", "Functional groups may be bound to peptides useful for delivery of a vector according to the invention, as described in WO 96/41606.", "These functional groups may include a ligand that targets a specific cell-type such as a monoclonal antibody, insulin, transferrin, asialoglycoprotein, or a sugar.", "The ligand thus may target cells in a non-specific manner or in a specific manner that is restricted with respect to cell type.", "[0060] The functional groups also may comprise a lipid, such as palmitoyl, oleyl, or stearoyl;", "a neutral hydrophilic polymer such as polyethylene glycol (PEG), or polyvinylpyrrolidine (PVP);", "a fusogenic peptide such as the HA peptide of influenza virus;", "or a recombinase or an integrase.", "The functional group also may comprise an intracellular trafficking protein such as a nuclear localisation sequence (NLS), an endosome escape signal such as a membrane disruptive peptide, or a signal directing a protein directly to the cytoplasm.", "[0061] The invention provides a pharmaceutical composition comprising the isolated polynucleotide, vector or host cell of the invention as described, and a pharmaceutically acceptable excipient, carrier, diluent or buffer.", "[0062] In another aspect, the invention provides a product comprising a combination of the isolated polynucleotide, vector or host cell of the invention as described, and a prodrug capable of being converted into an active cytotoxic compound by the enzyme encoded by said nucleotide or vector, or expressed by the host cell, as a combined medicament for simultaneous, separate or sequential use in the treatment of aseptic loosening of orthopaedic implants, such as prostheses used for total hip arthroplasty.", "The loosening may be of the acetabular component or the femoral component, or both.", "The invention is not restricted to prostheses of the hip, but may be applied to any intraosseous implant where aseptic loosening may occur.", "Accordingly its use for prostheses used in arthroplasty of the knee, elbow, shoulder, or any other joint of the skeleton is specifically envisaged.", "[0063] Such use need not be restricted to human use.", "The method is equally applicable to loosening of prostheses of animal joints, in particular horses and dogs.", "[0064] Preferably, the enzyme of such a product is a nitroreductase, more preferably a nitroreductase suitable for activation of CB1954.", "Most preferably, the prodrug is CB1954.", "[0065] Alternatively, the enzyme is a cytochrome P450 of a type herein described.", "Most preferably the prodrug is acetaminophen.", "[0066] In a further aspect of the invention, the use of a product comprising a combination of at least one vector, which comprises an isolated polynucleotide encoding an enzyme capable of converting a prodrug into an active cytotoxic compound, expression of the enzyme being controlled by an operably-linked promoter;", "and a prodrug capable of being converted into an active cytotoxic compound by said enzyme, for the manufacture of a combined medicament for simultaneous, separate or sequential use in the treatment of aseptic loosening of orthopaedic implants is provided.", "[0067] The promoter controlling expression of the prodrug-converting enzyme may be a non-cell type specific promoter.", "Preferably, said promoter gives high levels of expression in a variety of tissues and cell types.", "More preferably it is selected from at least one of the following;", "the CMV immediate/early promoter, RSV LTR), murine leukaemia virus LTR, SV40 early or late promoters, HSV tk promoter.", "In a further preferred embodiment it is the human cytomegalovirus immediate/early promoter.", "Alternatively, it is the mouse cytomegalovirus immediate/early promoter.", "[0068] In an alternative preferred product for use in the manufacture of a combined medicament for simultaneous, separate or sequential use in the treatment of aseptic loosening of orthopaedic implants, expression of the enzyme is controlled by an operably-linked promoter, which provides substantially cell-type specific expression.", "[0069] More preferably expression is restricted to cells of the monocyte/macrophage lineage or fibroblasts, in which case the promoter may be naturally linked to a gene selectively expressed in cells of one of these lineages, as described above.", "[0070] Most preferably expression is restricted to osteoclasts or osteoclast precursors, as described above.", "[0071] Preferably, the enzyme is a nitroreductase, and most preferably a nitroreductase suitable for activating CB1954.", "In this case it is preferred that the prodrug is CB1954.", "[0072] Alternatively, the enzyme may be a cytochrome P450 as herein described.", "In this case it is preferred that the prodrug is acetaminophen.", "Alternatively, it may be a conventional cytotoxic, especially cyclophosphamide or ifosfamide.", "[0073] A further aspect of the invention provides a method of treating aseptic loosening of orthopaedic implants comprising administering to a patient a vector encoding an enzyme capable of converting a prodrug into an active cytotoxic compound, allowing the expression of said enzyme in target cells, and administering a suitable prodrug.", "[0074] As will be appreciated by those of skill in the art, dosages are determined by clearly understood clinical parameters.", "However, it is preferred that the viral dose per joint treated is between 10 5 and 10 12 pfu, more preferably between 10 6 and 10 12 pfu, further preferably between 10 7 and 10 12 pfu and most preferably between 10 9 and 10 12 pfu.", "Similarly, the dose of prodrug is dependent on clinical parameters.", "In the case of CB1954, it is preferred that the dose should be between 5 and 40 mg m −2 , preferably between 5 and 30 mg m −2 , further preferably between 10 and 25 mg m −2 , more preferably between 15 and 25 mg m −2 , and most preferably 24 mg m −2 given by intra-articular injection.", "[0075] It is preferred that viral vectors are not co-administered with an iodine-containing contrast medium, since such media can inhibit viral transduction of target cells.", "Where the injection is to be directed by with arthroscopic visualisation, it is preferred that an air arthrogram is performed, or a contrast medium that does not inhibit viral transduction is used.", "[0076] Preferably, the vector is administered by intra-articular or periprosthetic injection.", "[0077] It is also preferred that the prodrug is administered by intra-articular or periprosthetic injection.", "Alternatively, the prodrug may be administered systemically, more preferably parenterally.", "However some prodrugs, particularly acetaminophen, may be administered orally.", "[0078] In one preferred embodiment, expression of the prodrug-converting enzyme is controlled by a promoter that provides non-cell type specific expression.", "In this case expression is not restricted to a particular tissue or cell type.", "As described herein, it is preferred that such promoters give high levels of expression in a variety of cell types.", "Examples of suitable promoters include the cytomegalovirus immediate/early promoter, Rous sarcoma virus long terminal repeat (RSV LTR), murine leukaemia virus LTR, simian virus 40 (SV40) early or late promoters, herpes simplex virus (HSV) thymidine kinase (tk) promoter [0079] In an alternative preferred embodiment, expression of the prodrug converting enzyme is controlled by a promoter that provides substantially cell-type specific expression.", "Preferably, this is substantially restricted to cells of the monocyte/macrophage lineage.", "Suitable promoters are described herein.", "Alternatively, it is restricted to expression in fibroblasts.", "More preferably, it is substantially restricted to osteoclasts or osteoclast precursors.", "Suitable and preferred promoters include the TRAP, RANK, and cathepsin K promoters.", "[0080] As herein described preferred prodrug converting enzymes include nitroreductases, particularly those suitable for activating CB1954, and cytochrome P450 enzymes, particularly those most suitable for activating acetaminophen to NABQI.", "Preferred prodrugs accordingly include CB1954 and acetaminophen.", "However, in the case of cytochrome P450 enzymes, conventional cytotoxic prodrugs such as cyclophosphamide are also suitable.", "[0081] In a further aspect of the invention, an isolated polynucleotide, or vector comprising such a polynucleotide or host cell comprising either, may encode, or express, a protein or peptide that is directly toxic to cells.", "In this case, no prodrug administration is required.", "Because of the self-contained nature of the joint/periprosthetic space surrounded by the interface tissue, it is possible to introduce vectors into this pathological space so that cells therein are transfected or transduced, causing them to express toxic products.", "Among the toxins that could be encoded and used in this way are ricin, abrin, diphtheria toxin, Pseudomonas exotoxin, DNase, RNase and botulinum toxin.", "[0082] Preferably, the expression of such directly toxic molecules is under the control of a promoter providing substantially cell-type specific expression as herein described.", "In this way, expression of the toxin is restricted to target cells defined both by the physical constraints of the space into which the vector is introduced and the phenotype of the cells transfected or transduced.", "In this way, fibroblasts, or inflammatory cells such as activated cells of the monocyte/macrophage lineage, or specific cells such as osteoclasts and their precursors directly responsible for bone resorption, are targeted.", "[0083] Accordingly, an isolated polynucleotide encoding a toxic peptide or protein is provided, wherein expression of the toxin is controlled by a promoter providing substantially cell-type specific expression.", "Preferably, this expression is restricted to cells of the monocyte/macrophage lineage.", "Alternatively, expression is restricted to fibroblasts.", "More preferably, expression is restricted to osteoclasts and osteoclast precursor cells.", "As described herein, suitable and preferred promoters include the c-fes and CD68 promoters to provide macrophage-specific expression and the TRAP, RANK and cathepsin K promoters to provide osteoclast-specific expression.", "Suitable and preferred toxins encoded include ricin, abrin, diphtheria toxin, Pseudomonas exotoxin, DNase, RNase and botulinum toxin.", "[0084] Also provided is a vector comprising said polynucleotide and a host cell comprising either, and a pharmaceutical composition comprising an isolated polynucleotide or a vector as herein described, and a pharmaceutically acceptable excipient, carrier, diluent or buffer.", "[0085] In a further embodiment is provided a product comprising an isolated polynucleotide, vector or host cell encoding or expressing a toxic peptide or protein as herein described, as a medication for the treatment of aseptic loosening of orthopaedic implants.", "Said expression may be under the control of a non-cell type specific promoter giving high levels of expression in cells of a variety of types.", "Preferably, said expression is controlled by a promoter providing substantially cell-type specific expression as herein described.", "[0086] Also provided is the use of such products in the manufacture of a medicament for the treatment of aseptic loosening of orthopaedic implants.", "[0087] In a further aspect is provided a kit for treatment of aseptic loosening of orthopaedic implants comprising: a) An isolated polynucleotide or vector encoding an enzyme capable of converting a prodrug into an active cytotoxic compound, expression of which enzyme being controlled by an operably-linked promoter, in a pharmaceutically acceptable buffer;", "b) A prodrug capable of being converted into an active cytotoxic compound by said enzyme, in a pharmaceutically acceptable buffer;", "c) An tissue-digesting solution comprising at least one enzyme selected from the list consisting of collagenase, elastase, hyaluronidase, in a pharmaceutically acceptable buffer;", "and/or a chelator such as EDTA, EGTA etc.", "d) A cement suitable for the refixation of said orthopaedic implant.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES [0092] FIG. 1 depicts aseptic loosening of a hip prosthesis.", "A is a radiograph of loosened prosthesis in situ.", "B is an arthrogram of a hip joint with a loosened prosthesis.", "The contrast medium is injected into the joint space under fluoroscopic guidance.", "The picture shows that a part of the area around the prosthesis (periprosthetic space) is filled with contrast medium.", "This proves that the prosthesis is loose in that area.", "C shows a schematic representation of a hip joint with a loosened prosthesis.", "The gray area indicates the joint space, which is continuous with the periprosthetic space.", "When injecting a fluid into the joint space, this will spread through the area which is marked gray in the image.", "[0093] FIG. 2 shows the killing effect of infection with nitroreductase-encoding adenoviral vectors and subsequent exposure to the prodrug CB1954 at the concentrations shown on interface cells from tissue taken from two revision surgery patients as described in Example 3.", "FIG. 2 a shows data from patient LI003 P3 and FIG. 2 b shows data from patient LI002 P4.", "[0094] FIG. 3 shows the results of X-Gal staining of samples of intact interface tissue taken from patient L1014 infected with various doses of a Lac Z-encoding adenoviral vector, as described in Example 4.", "[0095] The numbered wells contain tissue treated as follows: [0000] 1.", "Noninfected interface tissue 2.", "Interface tissue+3.6×10 4 pfu Ad.", "CMV.", "LacZ 3.", "Interface tissue+3.6×10 5 pfu Ad.", "CMV.", "LacZ 4.", "Interface tissue+3.6×10 6 pfu Ad.", "CMV.", "LacZ 5.", "Interface tissue+3.6×10 7 pfu Ad.", "CMV.", "LacZ 6.", "Interface tissue+3.6×10 8 pfu Ad.", "CMV.", "LacZ 7.", "Interface tissue+3.6×10 9 pfu Ad.", "CMV.", "LacZ [0096] FIG. 4 shows transduction of interface cells following incubation with six different concentrations of Ad.", "CMV.", "LacZ (0, 25, 50, 100, 200 and 400 pfu/cell).", "After three days, cells were fixed and stained with X-gal reaction mix.", "The percentage of transduced (blue) cells was counted.", "The figure shows the means and standard deviations of 12 independent experiments.", "[0097] FIG. 5 shows the lack of toxicity of iotrolan (Isovist) contrast medium on interface cells.", "Interface cells were exposed to contrast medium (iotrolan) for 4 hours.", "After 3 days of cell culturing viability of the cells was measured (n=12).", "[0098] FIG. 6 shows the effect of iotrolan on HAdV5-transduction of interface cells.", "Cells were exposed to different concentrations of Ad.", "CMV.", "LacZ: ((▴) 0 pfu/cell, (▪) 25 pfu/cell;", "() 100 pfu/cell;", "(♦) 200 pfu/cell.", "(n=4)) and contrast medium for four hours, after which the cells were fixed and stained with X-gal.", "Percentage of transduced cells was determined by counting blue cells.", "[0099] FIG. 7 shows pre-(A) and post-injection (B) images from Patient 1 showing an increased cement mass in the greater trochanteric region.", "[0100] FIG. 8 shows pre-(A) and post-injection (B) images from Patient 2.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0101] The following examples are meant to illustrate the invention and do not limit it in any way.", "Persons of ordinary skill in the art will recognize modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.", "Example 1 Procedure for Treatment with CTL102(Ad5-NTR and CB1954) Materials [0102] The drug product, CTL102 injection, is a sterile, clear or virtually clear, aqueous liquid solution containing CTL102 virions at a nominal mean potency of 2×10 11 particles ml −1 , buffered at pH 7.4.", "[0103] CB1954 is formulated as a sterile solution in solvent (N-methylpyrrolidone: polyethylene glycol, 2:7 v/v with 17.8 mg CB1954 ml −1 ).", "Just prior to use, the prodrug in solvent is diluted in sterile saline to a maximum final CB1954 concentration of 5 mg ml −1 .", "[0104] To stabilise the prosthesis, low viscosity bone cement (Simplex® P with tobramycin from Howmedica Inc, Rutherford, N.J., USA) is used.", "This radiopaque bone cement is a mixture of a liquid monomer component (2 ml 97.4% methylmethacrylate, 2.6% N,N-dimethyl-p-toluidine, 75 ppm hydroquinone) and a polymer powder (6 g polymethylmethacrylate, 30 g methylmethacrylate-styrene copolymer, 4 g barium sulphate, 1 g tobramycin sulphate).", "The components are vacuum mixed (0.9 bar, 1 minute) immediately before use.", "[0105] For arthrography, Hexabrix 320 (ioxaglate sodium meglumine, Guerbet, Roissy Charles de Gaulle Cedex, France) contrast medium is used.", "Procedure [0106] Following careful flushing of the joint to remove synovial fluid and inflammatory exudate that may contain neutralising anti-adenovirus antibodies, 3×10 9 pfu CTL102 is injected intra-articularly resulting in delivery of vector to cells throughout the periprosthetic space.", "After 48 hours, to allow transduction of target cells and expression of the nitroreductase transgene, CB1954 (at a dosage of 24 mg m −2 ) is injected intra-articularly.", "To assure free access of CTL 102 and CB 1954 to the periprosthetic space it is preferred that patients are selected who have an arthrogram that shows contrast medium around the prosthesis.", "It is likely, therefore, that patients will usually undergo three arthrographies (one to assure access of contrast medium, one to inject the viral vector, and one to inject the CB 1954 prodrug).", "[0107] In some circumstances after a number of days dead interface tissue may be removed by flushing or physical debridement, as appropriate.", "When the interface tissue is successfully diminished the prosthesis is refixated.", "To re-anchor the prosthesis to the bone, cement is injected in the periprosthetic space.", "For the flushing of the periprosthetic space and injection of the cement a number of holes are drilled through the bone into the periprosthetic space.", "This depends on the design of the prosthesis used.", "In many common designs, four is the minimum, because three holes are necessary for the femoral component to fixate in 3D space and one is necessary to fixate the acetabulum.", "As the bone biopsies are rather painful and the bone cannot be anaesthetised locally, these procedures are performed under general or spinal anaesthesia.", "Example 2 Production of CTL102 (Ad5-NTR) Materials and Methods [0108] CTL102 was constructed as described in Djeha et al (2001) by homologous recombination in PerC6 helper cells.", "The cells were transfected at 90% confluence with an equimolar mixture of the transfer vector pTX0375 and the backbone vector pPS1160 complexed with Lipofectamine transfection reagent (Life Technologies).", "[0109] pTX0375 was constructed in two stages: (i) the CMV promoter/enhancer fused to the NTR gene was excised from pTX0340 as a 1.5-kb BamHI-partial BgIII fragment and cloned into the unique BamHI site of pSW107, which is a pBluescript-based vector (Stratagene) that contains the human b-globin IVS II fused to the human complement 2 gene polyadenylation sequence adjacent to the BamHI site.", "A plasmid, pTX0374, which contains the CMV.", "NTR fragment in the required orientation, was identified by PCR using the T3 primer (5′-ATTAACCCTCAC-TAAAG-3′) which anneals to the CMV promoter/enhancer, and an NTR primer, ECN2 (5′-TCTGCTCGGCCTGTTCC-3′).", "(ii) The complete NTR expression cassette was excised from pTX0374 as a 2.5-kb SpeI fragment and cloned into the unique SpeI site of the E1-deleted adenovirus transfer vector pPS1128 in a left-to-right orientation with respect to Ad5 sequences.", "pPS1128 is a pUC19-based plasmid that contains Ad5 sequences from the left-hand ITR to nucleotides (nt.) 359 fused to NT 3525-10589.", "[0110] pPS1160 was constructed by PacI linearisation of pPS1128, ligation with a PacI-compatible adaptor (5′-TACATCTAGATAAT-3′+5′-P-TTATCTAGAT-GTA-3′) containing an XbaI site, followed by XbaI digestion to release a 7-kb XbaI fragment containing Ad5 sequences 3524-10589.", "This was then cloned into XbaI-linearised pPS1022, a pUC19-based plasmid containing Ad5 sequences from nt.", "10589 to the right-hand ITR but lacking NT 28592 to 30470 (E3 region).", "Recombinants containing the fragment in the required orientation were identified by PCR using primers flanking the XbaI site at 10589 (rightward, 5′-TCGAGTCAAATACGTAGTCGT-3′;", "leftward, 5′-TGTTTCCGGAGGAATTTGCAA-3′).", "A plasmid, pPS1160/18, was confirmed to contain a single copy of the XbaI fragment (pPS1160/18) by HindIII and PstI digestion.", "[0111] Transfected PerC6 cells were harvested following the appearance of extensive CPE (about 7-9 days after transfection) and recombinant virus released by three freeze-thaw cycles in infection medium (DMEM, 1% FCS, 2 mM MgCl 2 ).", "After two rounds of plaque purification on PerC6 cells the viruses were grown to large scale and purified by CsCl density centrifugation.", "Banded virus was dialysed against an excess of storage buffer (10 mM Tris, pH 7.4, 140 mM NaCl, 5 mM KCl, 0.6 mM Na 2 HPO 4 , 0.9 mM CaCl 2 , 0.5 mM MgCl 2 , and 5% sucrose), snap-frozen in aliquots in liquid nitrogen, and stored at −280° C. Particle concentrations were determined using the BCA Protein Assay Reagent (Pierce, Rockford, Ill.) and the conversion factor 1 mg/ml=3.4×10 12 virus particles/ml.", "Infectious titres were determined by plaque assay.", "Genomic DNA was isolated from banded adenovirus by digestion with proteinase K/SDS, phenol-chloroform extraction, and ethanol precipitation and characterised by restriction digestion.", "Example 3 Killing of Interface Tissue from Patients with CTL102 and CB1954 [0112] In order to demonstrate the feasibility of using a virally delivered enzyme-prodrug system to kill interface cells, cells taken from two patients during revision surgery were cultured in vitro, incubated with CTL102 at a range of MOIs and subsequently exposed to CB1954.", "Cell viability was then determined using a metabolic activity assay.", "Method Interface Tissue Samples [0113] For all experiments described, interface cells were used.", "Interface tissue was removed from the periprosthetic space during revision-surgery by an orthopedic surgeon and collected in sterile phosphate buffered saline (PBS).", "Connective tissue and fat were removed thoroughly and the interface tissue was digested for at least two hours at 37° C. using collagenase 1A (1 mg/ml;", "Sigma, St Louis, Mo.", ", USA).", "Cells were then harvested by filtering the tissue/collagenase substance through a 200 μm filter (NPBI, Emmer-Compascuum, The Netherlands).", "The cells were cultured in 75 cm 2 flasks (Celistar, Greiner, Alphen aan de Rijn, The Netherlands) with Iscove's modified Dulbecco's medium (IMDM;", "Biowitthaker, Verviers, Belgium), supplemented with glutamax (GibcoBRL, Paisley, UK), penicillin and streptomycin (Boehringer Mannheim, Germany), and 10% fetal calf serum (FCS;", "GibcoBRL, Paisley, UK) at 37° C. and 5% CO 2 .", "[0114] Before each experiment interface cells were detached from the flasks using 0.25% trypsin (GibcoBRL, Paisley, UK).", "The cells were counted in a bürker counter and death cells were excluded by trypan blue.", "Cells were seeded in a 96 wells-plate (flat bottom) at a density of 5,000 cells per well.", "Cells were incubated overnight to allow attachment to the bottom.", "Before each experiment the wells were washed twice with IMDM.", "For the experiments passage 2 to 4 interface cells were used.", "Light microscopy indicated that more than 95% of the cells were interface cells.", "Transduction and Cell Killing Assay Protocol [0115] Day 0: Interface cells from 2 patients were seeded at 5000 cells/well in IMDM (10% FCS) in 96 wells plates, 100 μl per well.", "[0116] Day 1: Cells were infected with CTL102 (or diluent) at 0, 1, 5, 25, 100, 200 IU/cell in IMDM (10% FCS), 50 μl per well.", "[0117] Day 2: Cells were washed twice with in IMDM (10% FCS), hereafter cells were incubated for 2 hr or 24 hr with CB1954 (or vehicle) at 0, 0.1, 0.5, 1, 5 and 50 μM in IMDM (10% FCS, 10% HS), 50 μl per well.", "[0118] Day 2/3: Cells were washed once with IMDM (10% FCS) and then incubated in IMDM (10% FCS, 10% HS), 5 μl per well.", "[0119] Day 4: Photographs were taken.", "Medium was refreshed with IMDM (10% FCS), 10 μl WST reagent (Roche) was added and the plates were incubated for 2 hr.", "Hereafter the absorbance at 415 nm was measured.", "Results [0120] As shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B , virus and CB1954-dose dependent killing was observed for cells from both patients.", "Importantly, efficient (90%) killing was observed with virus and CB1954 doses (200 virus pfu/cell and a CB1954 concentration of 50 μM) that is readily achievable in the clinic.", "[0121] These results demonstrate that interface cells can be transduced by an HAdV-5-vector and killed by the NTR/CB1954 approach.", "Human adenovirus 5 is capable of infecting a broad range of dividing and non-dividing human cells including fibroblasts and macrophages (Djeha et al, 2001).", "[0122] Killing of cells by GDEPT has been studied before in various cell lines, using various approaches.", "The NTR/CB1954 approach is attractive for clinical evaluation for several reasons: (1) it generates a toxic agent that can kill both dividing and non-dividing cells, (2) induction of cell death occurs by a p53-independent mechanism, and (3) CB1954 is well-tolerated in man (Djeha et al, 2001).", "Cell killing by the NTR/CB1954 approach has been proved effective in a variety of human cancer cells (Chung-Faye et al, 2001;", "Bilsland et al, 2003, Green et al, 2003;", "McNeish et al, 1998;", "Shibata et al, 2002;", "Weedon et al, 2000;", "Wilson et al, 2002), but has not previously been studied in synovial or interface cells.", "The current study shows that interface cells can be effectively killed by the NTR/CB1954 approach.", "[0123] For the current study passage 2 to 4 interface cells were used.", "These passages were used to maximally reduce culture artefacts.", "On the one hand, in very low passages (0 and 1) there is a risk for presence of contaminating cells (especially macrophages), which decreases with higher passages.", "On the other hand, at higher passages the risk of substantial in vitro alteration/growth selection exists (especially at passages higher than 4) (Zimmerman et al, 2001).", "In the current study, cultured interface cells of different patients were used.", "For the interpretation of the results the data of all patients were pooled.", "However, it must be noted that individual differences in transducibility were observed.", "Example 4 Efficient Infection of Intact Interface Tissue with Adenovirus Vectors [0124] The experiment outlined in Example 3 confirmed that cultured interface cells are Ad5-infectable.", "However, when a cell is present within an intact tissue, access of the virus to the cell surface may be prevented, for instance by the extracellular matrix and by the low rate of virus diffusion through the extracellular space.", "In view of this, the infectability of fresh intact interface tissue was examined using a LacZ-expressing adenovirus and Xgal staining of LacZ-expressing tissue.", "Using this approach, a virus dose-dependent increase in gene expression was observed, with strong levels of gene expression with the two highest virus doses tested ( FIG. 3 ).", "Method [0125] Interface tissue (LI014) was obtained from a revision operation of the hip of a rheumatoid arthritis patient.", "The tissue was cut in 7 pieces and the pieces were put in 10 ml round bottom tubes.", "Different concentrations of Ad.", "CMV.", "LacZ (0, 3.6×10 4 , 3.6×10 5 , 3.6×10 6 , 3.6×10 7 , 3.6×10 8 , 3.6×10 9 pfu) in 200 μl IMDM/10% FCS were added.", "The tissues were incubated at 37° C. for 2 hours, the tubes were shaken every 10 to 15 minutes.", "Hereafter 5 ml IMDM/10% FCS was added and after an overnight incubation the tissues were rinsed 3× with PBS and subsequently put in 5 ml Xgal colouring solution and incubated for 3.5 hours at 37° C. The tissues were rinsed 3× with PBS and fixed in 10% formalin.", "Results [0126] The tissues with the highest added amounts of Ad.", "CMV.", "LacZ have areas of dark blue staining, which is evident down to an infection at 3.6×10 7 pfu Ad.", "CMV.", "LacZ.", "Demonstrating that infection of cells in intact interface tissue is effective.", "[0127] Embedded paraffin sections of the tissues were examined microscopically and the presence of stained, infected cells was confirmed.", "Example 5 Transduction of Interface Tissue and Effect of Contrast Medium [0128] To test further the susceptibility of interface cells to human adenovirus 5 (HAdV-5)-based vectors, primary cultures of interface cells were exposed to the HAdV-5 vector Ad.", "CMV.", "LacZ.", "Twenty-four hours post-infection the cells were stained with X-gal solution for β-galactosidase reporter gene expression.", "The transduction efficiency increased with increasing vector concentration.", "At 400 plaque forming units/cell the percentage of cells expressing the reporter gene was 88% (sd 4.0) ( FIG. 4 ).", "Thus HAdV-5 vectors can transduce interface cells.", "Materials and Methods Adenoviral Vectors [0129] The Ad.", "CMV.", "LacZ (van der Eb et al, 2002) vector is identical to CTL102, but the E. coli lacZ gene replaces the ntr gene.", "Transduction Assays [0130] To study the transducibility of interface cells by HAdV-5, interface cells were infected with Ad.", "CMV.", "LacZ vector (in concentrations of 0, 25, 50, 100, 200, 400 pfu/cell).", "Twenty-four hours post infection the cells were washed twice with IMDM, and cultured for two days.", "Medium was refreshed each day.", "On day three, the monolayer cultures were washed twice with PBS and fixed with 0.2% glutaraldehyde and 2% formaldehyde in PBS for 10 minutes at 4° C. Subsequently cells were washed twice with PBS and stained for β-galactosidase activity in 50 μl of reaction mix (1 mg/ml X-gal (Eurogentec, Seraing, Belgium), 5 mM potassium ferrocyanide, 5 mM potassium ferricyanide, 2 mM MgCl 2 in PBS) for 2 hours at 37° C. The percentage of transduced cells was assessed by counting at least 100 interface cells, using light microscopy.", "All conditions were tested in duplicate.", "Effect of Contrast Medium on Interface Cells [0131] Interface cells were seeded in 96-wells plates.", "Into each well 50 μl of IMDM/20% FCS and 50 μl of a solution containing contrast medium and 0.9% NaCl in various concentrations (0, 12.5, 25, and 50% contrast medium) were added.", "The contrast medium used was the low-osmolarity, nonionic dimer iotrolan (Isovist;", "Schering, Berlin, Germany).", "After four hours of exposure to the contrast medium, the cells were washed twice and incubated in IMDM/10% FCS.", "The cells were cultured for three more days, changing the culture medium every day.", "On day four, cell viability was determined with the WST-1 cell viability assay kit (Roche, Mannheim, Germany) according to the manufacturers protocol.", "[0132] Effect of Contrast Medium on HAdV-5-Transduction of Interface Cells [0133] Interface cells were seeded in 96-wells plates.", "After overnight incubation cells were infected with Ad.", "CMV.", "LacZ (concentrations of 0, 25, 100, and 200 pfu/cell) in IMDM/20% FCS, 50 μl per well.", "Fifty μl Iotrolan (Isovist) in 0.9% NaCl was added in concentrations of 0, 25, 50, and 100%.", "(When diluted in the culture medium these concentrations decreased to 0, 12.5, 25, and 50%.) Four hours after infection, the cells were washed twice with IMDM and incubated for the rest of the day in IMDM/10% FCS at 37° C. and 5% CO 2 .", "The Ad.", "CMV.", "LacZ transduced cells were cultured for three days after removal of the vector and contrast medium.", "Subsequently, the cells were fixed and stained for β-galactasidase activity.", "The transduction rate was assessed as described above.", "Statistical Analysis [0134] A univariate analysis of variance and Spearman's correlation was used to study the interaction between vector and prodrug and between vector and contrast medium and to study the effect of CB1954 on viability of the cells.", "A Mann-Whitney test for independent groups was performed to determine the difference in cell killing between the cells that were exposed to contrast medium and the non-exposed cells.", "In the experiment to study the effect of transient exposure to contrast medium on transduction of HAdV-5-vector Spearman's correlation between contact time and viability and between delay time and viability was tested.", "For all statistical analyses p<0.05 was the level of statistical significance.", "Results Effect of Contrast Medium on Interface Cells [0135] The toxicity of contrast medium (iotrolan) on interface cells was evaluated ( FIG. 5 ).", "Iotrolan does not affect the viability of the cells at any concentration (p=0.563).", "[0136] Adding of contrast medium to the interface cells for four hours does not lead to killing of the cells.", "Effect of Contrast Medium on HAdV-5 Transduction of Interface Cells [0137] The effect of contrast medium (iotrolan) on HAdV5-transduction of interface cells was investigated with Ad.", "CMV.", "LacZ.", "Transducibility of the cells increases with the concentration of HAdV-5 vector.", "However, the contrast medium has restraining influence on the transduction efficiency.", "With higher concentrations of iotrolan, the HAdV-5 vector concentration has less effect on gene transfer efficiency.", "At a contrast medium concentration of 50% none of the cells were transduced ( FIG. 6 ).", "The effect of iotrolan on the transduction is statistically significant (p<0.001).", "Furthermore, differences between cells from different individuals (n=6) have been observed.", "To evaluate the effect of contrast medium on cell killing by NTR/CB1954, the previously described experiment for the efficiency of cell killing was repeated in the presence of contrast medium.", "The results showed that, in the presence of contrast medium, cells are not killed by the NTR/CB1954 approach (results not shown).", "The presence of Hexabrix 320 contrast medium also inhibited viral transduction (data not shown).", "In summary, the results from these experiments demonstrate the incompatibility of viral administration in combination with the administration of two commonly used contrast media.", "This incompatibility may be due to the presence of iodine within the contrast media.", "Screening of all available contrast media may allow determination of a contrast medium compatible with viral transduction.", "[0138] The influence of transient exposure to contrast medium on the transduction of interface cells was investigated.", "Interface cells were exposed to contrast medium for 0 to 120 minutes and the period between washing away of the contrast medium and performing the NTR/CB1954 cell killing approach was varied.", "Cell killing was not correlated with contact time (corr −0.033, p=0.691) or length of period between washing away of the contrast medium and addition of the vector (corr −0.004, p=0.962).", "Killing of cells not exposed to contrast medium and those transiently exposed was equivalent.", "Discussion [0139] In this study the influence of contrast medium on cell killing by NTR/CB1954 was investigated in view of future clinical studies.", "Results show that the contrast medium does not seem to have any influence on the interface cells.", "However, transduction of the cells by an adenoviral vector, in the presence of contrast medium, is almost negligible.", "The adenoviral vector is inactivated by the presence of contrast medium.", "In a putative clinical study the viral vector will be injected in the joint space.", "Normally, contrast medium is used to verify the position of the needle in the joint.", "The results of this study however show that the use of contrast medium in combination with a viral vector is dissuaded.", "Thus, for a clinical study, we propose that alternative methods for the visualization of the needle should be employed such as injection of air to create an “air-arthrogram.”", "[0140] In conclusion, this example shows that interface cells can be killed by the NTR/CB1954 enzyme prodrug approach.", "Example 6 Clinical Outcomes [0141] Data are available from the first two patients from a phase-1 study of 12 patients with a loosened hip experiencing debilitating pain and significant comorbidity.", "On day 1 the vector was injected into the hip joint and the prodrug injected on day 3, as described above.", "On day 10 three holes were drilled in the femur and one in the acetabulum.", "Biopsies are taken from the periprosthetic space and low viscosity cement (Osteopal, Biomet Merck, Sjöbo, Sweden) injected under fluoroscopic guidance.", "[0142] Patient 1 is an 82-year old female with loosening of both hip prostheses, classified ASA IV (mortality risk 20.3%, American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status classification, Saklad, 1941).", "There were no adverse effects from vector injection (3×10 9 particles) and 24 hours post-injection there was no detectable virus shedding.", "Twelve hours after prodrug injection the patient experienced nausea, (WHO grade 1) which was known as a reaction to the prodrug.", "Also hip pain increased, which was anticipated as the initial therapy is intended to cause more loosening.", "16 ml of cement was injected into periprosthetic space (see FIG. 7B ) indicating significant destruction of interface tissue creating a void into which cement could now be introduced.", "The patient was ambulated the day after surgery.", "[0143] At two and four weeks after cement injection the patient had no pain in the treated hip, and was still improving.", "The maximum walking distance had increased from 4-5 metres to 30 metres.", "Subjective walking distance assessed by the patient (0: 0 metres, 100: unlimited walking distance) increased from 4 to 66.", "The patient's pain score (0: no pain, 100: unbearable pain) decreased from 81 preoperatively to 2.", "In addition, she could now sleep on her side without pain, which she had been unable to do for four years.", "In terms of perceived dependency (0: completely dependent on others, 100: completely independent) the score decreased from 95 to 54.", "[0144] Patient 2 is a 72 year old woman with loosening of her left hip prosthesis and an ASA classification of II (mortality risk 2.8%).", "Again, there was no detectable virus shedding 24 hours after vector injection.", "18 ml of cement was injected following a similar procedure ( FIG. 8B ).", "Four weeks post-treatment the pain score had decreased from 43 to 22 (probably reflecting the presence of a post-operative haematoma, requiring 4-5 weeks to resolve).", "Specifically hip joint-related pain disappeared.", "Maximum walking distance increased from 500 to 2000 metres.", "By the 3 month follow-up, the haematoma had completely resolved and pain score had further decreased to 7.", "The patient continues to improve in terms of walking performance and other activities.", "[0145] The current study is the first to use in vivo intra-articular adenoviral mediated gene transfer in a clinical setting.", "The preliminary results suggest that gene therapy and cement injection for hip prosthesis refixation is clinically feasible.", "[0146] All references cited herein are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties.", "REFERENCES [0000] 1.", "Anderson W F (1998) Human gene 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[ "[0001] This application is a continuation of International Application No. PCT/EP2011/064117, filed on Aug. 16, 2011, which claims priority to European (EP) Patent Application No. 10173622.1, filed on Aug. 20, 2010.", "Each of the above-referenced application is expressly incorporated herein by reference to its entirety.", "TECHNICAL FIELD [0002] The present disclosure generally relates to computerized systems and methods for locating at least one object within a predefined cell or location.", "More specifically, and without limitation, the exemplary embodiments described herein relate to location systems that may comprise: at least first and second receivers and first and second transmitters, respectively, including first and second internal clocks, the receivers and transmitters having known locations;", "a transmitter and a receiver, respectively, worn by an object to locate and designed to communicate by means of signal exchanges, of the radio frequency (RF) type, with the receivers and the transmitters;", "electronic circuits designed to compute a position related information of the object based on the signal exchanges;", "and at least two reference transmitters and two reference receivers, respectively, arranged to carry out a calibration operation of the first and second internal clocks.", "[0003] The exemplary embodiments described herein also relate to calibration methods for calibrating receiver and/or transmitter internal clocks in a location system.", "BACKGROUND [0004] Location systems may include, on the one side, long-range location systems, such as GPS, and, on the other hand, short-range systems involving measurements based on radio frequency signalling (e.g., Wi-Fi, ultra wide band signals (UWB), or other technologies (ultrasounds, etc.)).", "[0005] In both types of systems, accurate knowledge of time is of critical importance in order to enable a precise calculation of signal travelling times between different entities of the systems to compute object positions.", "[0006] As far as long-range systems are concerned, they typically comprise a constellation of transmitters having known positions and transmitting signals to a receiver whose position is to be assessed.", "Each transmitter has an internal clock which is synchronized with a master clock the position of which is accurately known.", "Specific calibration methods are provided in order to avoid time drifting of the transmitter internal clocks.", "[0007] As far as short-range systems are concerned, they typically aim at locating an object carrying a transmitter within a predefined geometrical cell, eventually indoors.", "For that purpose, several receivers may be distributed within the cell at precisely known locations.", "However, the receivers have internal clocks which need to be calibrated and which may be subject to time drifting, which may lead to large errors in the determination of tracked object positions.", "[0008] Calibration methods for location systems are known, for implementing both frequency and phase synchronizations.", "[0009] For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 6,882,315 B2 gathers a description of several known location systems and the corresponding calibration methods, with their corresponding drawbacks.", "In order to improve the exposed drawbacks, this patent proposes an object location system carrying out calculations based on times of arrival (TOA) of signals.", "The disclosed system comprises receivers located at know positions and synchronized with a common clock source, as well as a reference transmitter also having a known location and arranged to transmit a timing reference signal.", "This timing reference signal allows a precise determination of TOA of signals transmitted by a tagged object, i.e. an object to be tracked and bearing a transmitter, by determination of the time offset between the receivers.", "[0010] However, such a solution is heavy in terms of hardware to be installed and in terms of installation complexity.", "Indeed, the receivers should preferably be connected to the common clock source by means of cables and a great care has to be taken to ensure that the position of the reference transmitter is accurately known, else large errors may result in the measurements.", "[0011] Another drawback of the above-referenced system resides in the fact that, in case the configuration of the monitored region would have to be changed in a substantial manner, i.e. for instance a receiver would change from a line of sight (LOS) condition to a non line of sight (NLOS) condition with respect to the reference transmitter, the system would have to be re-installed then, with the same requirement of great care.", "[0012] An alternate solution is presented in WO 2007/122394 A1 in which a calibration data is derived from a location signal based on both time difference of arrival (TDOA) and angle of arrival (AOA) of the location signal.", "Thus, there is no need to know the position of the transmitter sending the signal from which the calibration data is extracted.", "However, more antennas are required than in other location systems and the orientation of these antennas is critical in the system installation phase, requiring a great care.", "Furthermore, the corresponding method implies a large initial statistical computation to determine the offsets of the receiver internal clocks, in order to avoid a propagation of a possible initial calculation error in the later location determinations.", "SUMMARY [0013] Consistent with the present disclosure, systems and methods are provided for locating at least one object within a predefined cell or location.", "Embodiments consistent with the present disclosure include computer-implemented location systems and methods for calibrating receiver and/or transmitter internal clocks in a location system.", "[0014] Embodiments of the present disclosure provide accurate location systems requiring few hardware components, as well as less care in installation, with respect to known systems, making these improved location systems particularly flexible and thus well suited for temporary needs, for instance, even in the case of large scale deployable systems.", "[0015] In accordance with certain embodiments, a location system is provided that comprises a support adapted to link at least two reference transmitters and two reference receivers to each other, the support being configured such that it may be set at least in a first calibration configuration in which the at least two reference transmitters and two reference receivers, respectively, have a relative distance with respect to each other which is, a priori, known for the purpose of carrying out a calibration operation.", "[0016] In accordance with certain embodiments, the predefined relative distance may advantageously be constant or, alternately, be adjustable.", "[0017] As known in the art, the time offset of the receivers (or transmitters, in a GPS type system) can be determined on the basis of measurements, the results of which are computed in a system of equations to be solved.", "Thus, as previously mentioned, a reference transmitter may be used having a known position to change an under-determined system of equations into a determined system of equations to be solved, with the corresponding stated drawbacks.", "In accordance with certain embodiments of the present disclosure, reference transmitters (or receivers) may be used of unknown positions which, as such, do not help to solve the corresponding system of equations as far as the number of unknowns is increased.", "However, the fact that the relative distance between the reference transmitters (or receivers) is known allows a decrease of the number of unknowns in the system of equations which may thus become determined under particular conditions.", "[0018] It is important to note that only the relative distance between the two reference transmitters and the two reference receivers, respectively, needs to be known, i.e., their absolute or relative positions do not need to be a priori known.", "[0019] According to an alternative embodiment, the two reference transmitters and the two reference receivers, respectively, may have relative positions with respect to each other which are, a priori, known.", "[0020] For the purpose of defining the relative distance between the two reference transmitters and the two reference receivers, respectively, a support having any suitable form may preferably be provided to link them to each other.", "The support may be rigid or not, but should present at least a calibration configuration in which the two reference transmitters and the two reference receivers, respectively, are linked to each other so that they have a known relative distance between them.", "[0021] In accordance with certain embodiments, the support may have at least a second configuration corresponding to a retracted state for the purpose of being transported more easily.", "Thus, the support may be rigid and have folding or pivoting parts to change from one configuration to another.", "Alternately, the support may be flexible and include a band or the like, for instance, the length of which is known in its extended state.", "[0022] Further, in accordance with certain embodiments, the support may be integral with the two reference transmitters and the two reference receivers, respectively, or the latter may be removable from the support.", "[0023] Apart from the nature of the support and, in addition to the relative distance or relative positions between the two reference transmitters and the two reference receivers, respectively, the orientation (Northing) of the support could be used to get some additional information to solve the system of equations.", "[0024] In accordance with certain embodiments, the location system may further comprise at least a third receiver and a third transmitter, respectively, and be arranged to enable a location determination of the object in at least two dimensions.", "[0025] According to a preferred embodiment, the location system may comprise at least four receivers and four transmitters, respectively, to enable a location determination of the object in at least three dimensions, as well as at least a third reference transmitter and a third reference receiver, respectively, having relative distances with respect to the other two reference transmitters and the other two reference receivers, respectively, which are predefined by construction.", "[0026] In accordance with certain embodiments, the electronic circuits of the location system may be designed so as to carry out a calibration operation by application of an analytical calculation method, for instance based on the method of least squares.", "[0027] The signals generated in the location system may advantageously be in the ultra wide band (UWB) range.", "[0028] The present disclosure also relates to embodiments of a calibration method for a location system, for locating at least one object within a predefined cell.", "The location system may comprise: at least first and second receivers and first and second transmitters, respectively, including first and second internal clocks, the receivers and the transmitters having known locations;", "a transmitter and a receiver, respectively, worn or carried by the object and designed to communicate by means of signal exchanges with the receivers and the transmitters, respectively;", "electronic circuits designed to compute a position related information of the object based on the signal exchanges;", "and at least two reference transmitters and two reference receivers, respectively.", "Further, the calibration method may comprise the steps of: arranging the reference transmitters and the reference receivers within the cell so that they are linked to each other by a support to have a known predefined relative distance;", "carrying out signal exchanges between the first and second receivers and each of the reference transmitters, between the first and second transmitters and each of the reference receivers, respectively;", "programming the electronic circuits so that they compute the signals as received by the first and second receivers, by the reference receivers respectively, by means of an analytical computation method, to carry out a calibration of the first and second internal clocks.", "[0029] Here again, it is important to note that only the relative distance between the two reference transmitters and the two reference receivers, respectively, needs to be known, i.e., their absolute or relative positions do not need to be a priori known.", "[0030] In accordance with certain embodiments, when the location system is arranged to carry out three dimension location measurements, the latter comprising at least four receivers and at least four transmitters, respectively, each of which comprises an internal clock, the calibration method may further comprise the steps of: arranging at least a third reference transmitter and at least a third reference receiver, respectively, within the cell and at predefined relative distances with respect to the other two reference transmitters and with respect to the other two reference receivers respectively;", "carrying out signal exchanges between the receivers and each of the reference transmitters, between the transmitters and each of the reference receivers respectively;", "and programming the electronic circuits so that they compute the signals as received by the receivers and by the reference receivers, respectively, by means of an analytical computation method, to carry out a calibration of the internal clocks.", "[0031] Depending on the number of transmitters and receivers, the configuration of the location system may correspond to an under-determined system of equations.", "In such cases, one or more of the following assumptions may be made when carrying out the above-mentioned programming of the electronic circuits: (i) one of the receiver internal clock and the transmitter internal clock is considered to be a master clock;", "(ii) at least two of the reference transmitters and the reference receivers are synchronized;", "and (iii) at least two of the reference transmitters are located within a given known plane such that they have one coordinate in common (e.g. a known height), this coordinate possibly being known.", "[0032] According to a preferred embodiment, the calibration method according to the present disclosure may be implemented such that the analytical computation to carry out calibration may involve times of arrival (TOA) of signals.", "However, it may further involve AOA or strength of arrival (SOA) of the signals in order to provide more robustness or use less than four receivers.", "[0033] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception and features upon which this disclosure is based may readily be utilized as a basis for designing other structures, methods, and systems for carrying out the several purposes of the present disclosure.", "It is important, therefore, to recognize that the claims should be regarded as including such equivalent constructions insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0034] The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute part of this specification, and together with the description, illustrate and serve to explain the principles of the present disclosure and the exemplary embodiments described herein.", "[0035] FIG. 1 is a general schematic diagram of an illustrative example of a location system structure, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure.", "[0036] FIG. 2 is a detailed schematic diagram of a known location system according to the prior art.", "[0037] FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a location system corresponding to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.", "[0038] FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a location system according to another exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.", "[0039] FIGS. 5 a and 5 b provide two parts of an equation, to be adjoined to read the complete equation for a location system (such as that of FIG. 4 ), in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0040] Reference will now be made in detail to the exemplary embodiments implemented according to the disclosure, the examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings.", "Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts.", "[0041] Embodiments herein include computer-implemented methods, tangible non-transitory computer-readable mediums, and systems.", "The computer-implemented methods may be executed, for example, by at least one processor that receives instructions from a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium.", "Similarly, systems consistent with the present disclosure may include at least one processor and memory, and the memory may be a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium.", "As used herein, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium refers to any type of physical memory on which information or data readable by at least one processor may be stored.", "Examples include random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), volatile memory, nonvolatile memory, hard drives, CD ROMs, DVDs, flash drives, disks, and any other known physical storage medium.", "Singular terms, such as “memory”", "and “computer-readable storage medium,” may additionally refer to multiple structures, such a plurality of memories and/or computer-readable storage mediums.", "As referred to herein, a “memory”", "may comprise any type of computer-readable storage medium unless otherwise specified.", "A computer-readable storage medium may store instructions for execution by at least one processor, including instructions for causing the processor to perform steps or stages consistent with an embodiment herein.", "Additionally, one or more computer-readable storage mediums may be utilized in implementing a computer-implemented method.", "The term “computer-readable storage medium”", "should be understood to include tangible items and exclude carrier waves and transient signals.", "[0042] In the following description, the monitoring of an object having a tag will be described, the tag having the function of a transmitter and, as a consequence, receivers are provided in a monitored region to carry out the position determination of the object.", "However, it should be noted here that location systems consistent with the present disclosure can also be reversed, i.e. the object could carry a receiver while transmitters would be placed at fixed locations, without going beyond the scope of the present disclosure.", "The same remark applies similarly to calibration methods consistent with the present disclosure.", "[0043] FIG. 1 shows a general schematic diagram of an illustrative example of a location system structure.", "[0044] The diagram of FIG. 1 illustrates how a hierarchical topology can be defined to describe the installation of a location system.", "[0045] On the top level, a building is defined which comprises several zones, each of which comprises one or several cells.", "The location system may comprise several buildings without going beyond the scope of the present disclosure.", "In alternative, the location system may also be installed outdoors.", "[0046] Each cell comprises a plurality of receivers arranged to monitor the position of an object carrying a transmitter within the cell.", "This may be carried by employing conventional techniques known in the art.", "[0047] This situation is depicted in more detail on FIG. 2 , where four receivers A, B, C and D are provided to monitor the position of an object carrying a transmitter 1 .", "[0048] In the general case, the transmitter is placed arbitrarily within the cell.", "[0049] Assuming that there is an idealized master clock and that each receiver has its own local internal clock, even though one of these internal clocks may play the role of the master clock, for instance that of the first receiver rxA, distributing its clock to the other receiver clocks rxB, rxC and rxD, the location system may be associated to the following system of equations: [0000] { δ   t rx A =  X rx A - X tx 1  c + t tx 1 - t ⋓ tx 1 rx A δ   t rx B =  X rx B - X tx 1  c + t tx 1 - t ⋓ tx 1 rx B δ   t rx C =  X rx C - X tx 1  c + t tx 1 - t ⋓ tx 1 rx C δ   t rx D =  X rx D - X tx 1  c + t tx 1 - t ⋓ tx 1 rx D ( Equation   1 ) [0050] Where each of δt rx A , δt rx B , δt rx C and δt rx D is the delay between the internal clock of a receiver and the idealized master clock.", "Indeed, even though receiver A is supplying a master clock to all the other receivers, there are still delays to consider in these receivers caused by the length of the cables carrying the clock signal and due to clock signal buffering/amplification electronics.", "[0051] Furthermore, X rx A , X rx B , X rx C and X rx D are the known position coordinates of receivers A, B, C and D respectively and {hacek over (t)} Tx 1 Rx A , {hacek over (t)} Tx 1 Rx B , {hacek over (t)} Tx 1 Rx B and {hacek over (t)} Tx 1 Rx D are the times of arrival (TOA) of the signal emitted by transmitter 1 (tx 1 ) measured at receivers A, B, C and D respectively using their local clock (hence the symbol {hacek over ( )} over the t letter).", "[0052] On the other hand, X tx 1 the unknown absolute position coordinates of transmitter 1 and t tx 1 is the unknown signal transmission time expressed on the idealized master clock.", "C is the constant speed of light to convert from time to distance and vice-versa.", "[0053] For the system of equations in Equation 1, there are 4 equations for 8 unknowns (δt rx A , δt rx B , δt rx C , δt rx D , t tx 1 and X tx 1 =[x tx 1 y tx 1 z tx 1 ] T ), which makes it clearly an under-determined system (i.e. more unknowns than equations).", "[0054] Equation 11 can be further simplified if one considers the idealized master clock to be identical to the clock of receiver 1 which is acting as master clock for the remaining slave receivers.", "With this assumption, Equation 1 gets simplified as follows: [0000] { 0 =  X rx A - X tx 1  c + t tx 1 - t tx 1 rx A δ   t rx B =  X rx B - X tx 1  c + t tx 1 - t ⋓ tx 1 rx B δ   t rx C =  X rx C - X tx 1  c + t tx 1 - t ⋓ tx 1 rx C δ   t rx D =  X rx D - X tx 1  c + t tx 1 - t ⋓ tx 1 rx D ( Equation   2 ) [0055] where the time offset δt rx A is now zero.", "However, the system is still under-determined because there are only 4 equations for 7 unknowns, one less than before because δt rx A has disappeared from the set of equations.", "[0056] It is worth noting, at this stage, that one conventional solution discussed previously consists of positioning the transmitter at a known absolute position within the cell.", "Thus, by doing this, the unknowns are decreased from 7 to 4 and the system of equations may be solved.", "However, this solution presents some drawbacks already discussed and one objective of the present disclosure is to propose an alternate way for the determination of the receiver internal clock offsets.", "[0057] So now, assume a second transmitter 2 (tx 2 ) is also placed within the cell limits at an unknown absolute position, but at a known distance from the previous transmitter 1 (tx 1 ), i.e. the distance between tx 1 and tx 2 is known and equal to d tx 1 /tx 2 .", "[0058] This situation is illustrated on FIG. 3 , where transmitters 1 and 2 are located at arbitrary locations within the cell, their relative distance being however predetermined by construction.", "[0059] The extra set of equations that results from considering the added transmitter is: [0000] { 0 =  X rx A - X tx 2  c + t tx 2 - t tx 2 rx A δ   t rx B =  X rx B - X tx 2  c + t tx 2 - t ⋓ tx 2 rx B δ   t rx C =  X rx C - X tx 2  c + t tx 2 - t ⋓ tx 2 rx C δ   t rx D =  X rx D - X tx 2  c + t tx 2 - t ⋓ tx 2 rx D d tx 1  /  tx 2 =  X tx 1 - X tx 2  ( Equation   3 ) [0060] There are now 5 new equations, which added to the previous 4, make a total of 9 equations.", "However, at the same time, 4 new unknowns have been added, specifically the time of transmission (t tx 2 ) and the absolute position coordinates (x tx 2 =[x tx 2 y tx 2 z tx 2 ] T ) of transmitter 2 , for a total of 11 unknowns.", "The system is still under-determined.", "[0061] Repeating the procedure of placing another transmitter 3 (tx 3 ) at a known distance to the previous two other transmitters, i.e. the distance to transmitter 1 is known (d tx 1 /tx 3 ) as well as the distance to transmitter 2 (d tx 2 /tx 3 ), leads to the situation illustrated in FIG. 4 .", "[0062] An extra set of equations can thus be written: [0000] { 0 =  X rx A - X tx 3  c + t tx 3 - t tx 3 rx A δ   t rx B =  X rx B - X tx 3  c + t tx 3 - t ⋓ tx 3 rx B δ   t rx C =  X rx C - X tx 3  c + t tx 3 - t ⋓ tx 3 rx C δ   t rx D =  X rx D - X tx 3  c + t tx 3 - t ⋓ tx 3 rx D d tx 1 / tx 3 =  X tx 1 - X tx 3  d tx 2 / tx 3 =  X tx 2 - X tx 3  ( Equation   4 ) [0063] As in the previous step, by adding an extra transmitter, the same number of 4 unknowns is added to the system, which are the time of transmission of transmitter 3 (t tx 3 ) and its absolute position coordinates (X tx 3 =[x tx 3 y tx 3 z tx 3 ] T ).", "However, due to the position constraints between transmitters, a total of 6 new equations have been added.", "There is now a total of 15 unknowns and also 15 equations, which is no longer an under-determined system and can be mathematically solved.", "[0064] So, to summarize Equation 5 presents the full set of non-linear equations and Table 1 the unknowns to be determined, as well as the known inputs.", "[0000] { 0 =  X rx A - X tx 1  c + t tx 1 - t tx 1 rx A δ   t rx B =  X rx B - X tx 1  c + t tx 1 - t ⋓ tx 1 rx B δ   t rx C =  X rx C - X tx 1  c + t tx 1 - t ⋓ tx 1 rx C δ   t rx D =  X rx D - X tx 1  c + t tx 1 - t ⋓ tx 1 rx D 0 =  X rx A - X tx 2  c + t tx 2 - t tx 2 rx A δ   t rx B =  X rx B - X tx 2  c + t tx 2 - t ⋓ tx 2 rx B δ   t rx C =  X rx C - X tx 2  c + t tx 2 - t ⋓ tx 2 rx C δ   t rx D =  X rx D - X tx 2  c + t tx 2 - t ⋓ tx 2 rx D 0 =  X rx A - X tx 2  c + t tx 3 - t tx 3 rx A δ   t rx B =  X rx B - X tx 3  c + t tx 3 - t ⋓ tx 3 rx B δ   t rx C =  X rx C - X tx 3  c + t tx 3 - t ⋓ tx 3 rx C δ   t rx D =  X rx D - X tx 3  c + t tx 3 - t ⋓ tx 3 rx D d tx 1 / tx 2 =  X tx 1 - X tx 2  d tx 1 / tx 3 =  X tx 1 - X tx 3  d tx 2 / tx 3 =  X tx 2 - X tx 3  ( Equation   5 ) [0065] Table 1 follows: [0000] Unknowns δt rx B Clock offset of receiver B δt rx C Clock offset of receiver C δt rx D Clock offset of receiver D X tx 1 = [x tx 1 y tx 1 z tx 1 ] T Transmitter 1 absolute position coordinates X tx 2 = [x tx 2 y tx 2 z tx 2 ] T Transmitter 2 absolute position coordinates X tx 3 = [x tx 3 y tx 3 z tx 3 ] T Transmitter 3 absolute position coordinates t tx 1 Transmitter 1 signal transmission time t tx 2 Transmitter 2 signal transmission time t tx 3 Transmitter 3 signal transmission time Measure- {hacek over (t)} tx 1 rx A Measured reception time at receiver ments/ A of signal transmitted by transmitter 1 Known {hacek over (t)} tx 1 rx B Measured reception time at receiver parameters B of signal transmitted by transmitter 1 {hacek over (t)} tx 1 rx C Measured reception time at receiver C of signal transmitted by transmitter 1 {hacek over (t)} tx 1 rx D Measured reception time at receiver D of signal transmitted by transmitter 1 {hacek over (t)} tx 2 rx A Measured reception time at receiver A of signal transmitted by transmitter 2 {hacek over (t)} tx 2 rx B Measured reception time at receiver B of signal transmitted by transmitter 2 {hacek over (t)} tx 2 rx C Measured reception time at receiver C of signal transmitted by transmitter 2 {hacek over (t)} tx 2 rx D Measured reception time at receiver D of signal transmitted by transmitter 2 {hacek over (t)} tx 3 rx A Measured reception time at receiver A of signal transmitted by transmitter 3 {hacek over (t)} tx 3 rx B Measured reception time at receiver B of signal transmitted by transmitter 3 {hacek over (t)} tx 3 rx C Measured reception time at receiver C of signal transmitted by transmitter 3 {hacek over (t)} tx 3 rx D Measured reception time at receiver D of signal transmitted by transmitter 3 X rx A = [x rx A y rx A z rx A ] T Receiver A absolute position coordinates X rx B = [x rx B y rx B z rx B ] T Receiver B absolute position coordinates X rx C = [x rx C y rx C z rx C ] T Receiver C absolute position coordinates X rx D = [x rx D y rx D z rx D ] T Receiver D absolute position coordinates d tx 1 /tx 2 Known distance between transmitters 1 and 2 d tx 1 /tx 3 Known distance between transmitters 1 and 3 d tx 2 /tx 3 Known distance between transmitters 2 and 3 C Speed of light [0066] Through the method of least squares (LSQ), for instance, this system of non-linear equations can be solved as more measurements are received (i.e. by extending the calibration procedure to several minutes) to improve the estimation of the unknowns.", "[0067] However, to use LSQ, the equations need to be first linearized around a first guess of the solution.", "The LSQ then estimates the adjustments to be introduced to this solution until it minimizes the sum of the squared difference between the measurements and predicted measurements using the estimated solution.", "[0068] The first estimate for the clock offsets of receivers B, C and D can be zero.", "The first estimate for the position of transmitter 1 can be the center of the cell.", "For the remaining transmitters, a first estimate of their positions can be made by respecting the known relative distances between them.", "Finally, the first estimate for the time of transmission for each transmitter can be obtained from the measured time of reception at a certain receiver minus the time of flight of the signal, considering the direct geometric distance between the receivers and the assumed positions of the transmitters.", "[0069] FIGS. 5 a and 5 b , to be read once they are adjoined, depict the linearized set of equation in matrix format, where [0000] R a b =R ab =√{square root over (( x a −x b ) 2 +( y a −y b ) 2 +( z a −z b ) 2 )}{square root over (( x a −x b ) 2 +( y a −y b ) 2 +( z a −z b ) 2 )}{square root over (( x a −x b ) 2 +( y a −y b ) 2 +( z a −z b ) 2 )}.", "[0070] The procedure then may go on as follows: [0071] For each new TOA measurement received, Δt tx ?", "rx ?", "are computed from the difference between the new TOA measurements ({hacek over (t)} tx ?", "rx ?", ") and its prediction [0000] t ^ tx ?", "rx ?", "=  X rx ?", "- X ^ tx ?", " c + t ^ tx ?", "- δ ^   t rx ?", ") .", "[0000] That is Δt tx ?", "rx ?", "={hacek over (t)} tx ?", "rx ?", "−{hacek over (t)} tx ?", "rx ?", "[0072] Similarly, Δd tx ε tx ?", "=d tx ?", "/tx 2 −{circumflex over (d)} tx ?", "/tx ?", ", where [0000] {circumflex over (d)} tx ?", "/tx ?", "=∥{circumflex over (X)} tx ?", "−{circumflex over (X)} tx ?", "[0073] After applying the LSQ formula, the new position estimates for transmitters 1 , 2 and 3 at iteration K are obtained as {circumflex over (x)} tx ?", "K =[{circumflex over (x)} tx ?", "K ŷ tx ?", "K {circumflex over (z)} tx ?", "K ] T ={circumflex over (X)} tx ?", "K-1 +Δ{circumflex over (X)} tx ?", "K , while the receivers'", "clock offsets {circumflex over (δ)}t rx ?", "and transmission times {circumflex over (t)} tx ?", "are obtained directly.", "[0074] Then, the LSQ iteration finishes when there are no TOA measurements or when a certain stopping criterion is reached.", "[0075] It appears from these explanations that the transmitters having known relative positions between each other play the role of reference transmitters for the purpose of calibrating the location system.", "[0076] Further, it is worthy to note here that the explanations which precede relate to an exemplary embodiment and that the scope of the present disclosure is not limited to this specific case.", "[0077] Indeed, these explanations relate to the case where 3D location is to be carried out.", "However, if a person of ordinary skill in the art needs only to carry out a 2D location of objects, for instance, the situation of FIG. 3 would fulfil the required conditions to calibrate the internal clocks of the four receivers A, B, C and D. Indeed, in the case of 2D location, the unknowns are decreased by one per transmitter (its z coordinate) and thus, with the location system comprising four receivers and two transmitters, we have 9 unknowns for 9 equations, corresponding to a determined system of equations.", "[0078] More generally, based on the present disclosure, a person of ordinary skill in the art may consider the following explanations to determine what location system configuration may suit his/her needs.", "[0079] Considering first a 2D location system with M receivers and N reference transmitters (M and N being equal to or greater than one) within a predefined cell, the following initial assumptions may be used: The position of all receivers is known The positions of transmitters are not known.", "[0082] Before deriving the time of flight (TOF) equation for the M receivers and N transmitters it would be more intuitive to start with the case of one transmitter and one receiver.", "[0083] The equation for TOF for one receiver and one transmitter is: [0000] TOF r = ( t r ′ - δ   t r ) - t t = 1 c   X → r - x →  [0084] where t r ′ the time of arrival which is measured by using receiver's local clock and is independent of time of transmission, δt r is clock offset of receiver, t t is a time of transmission of the signal, C is propagation speed of the signal, {right arrow over (X)} r is position co-ordinate of the receiver in 2-Dimensional plane which is known, and {right arrow over (x)} is position co-ordinate of transmitter in 2-Dimensional plane which is unknown.", "[0085] From this equation, it may be observed that in the case of one receiver and one transmitter there are four unknowns: (1) clock offset, (2) time of transmission, and (3)-(4) coordinate of transmitter (x, y).", "[0086] Now we consider a two receivers and one transmitter case which gives one more equation for TOF while the number of unknowns will increase by one due to clock offset of the newly added receiver such that the total number of unknowns is five.", "[0087] If one more transmitter is added, while keeping unchanged the number of receivers, there will be four TOF equations and we add three unknowns (x and y co-ordinates for transmitter and time of transmission).", "[0088] By generalizing this condition, it can be seen that for M receivers and N transmitters there are MN equations and M unknowns for the clock-offset of each receiver, N unknowns for the times of transmission and 2N unknowns for the positions of the transmitters.", "[0089] The number of equations is thus MN, while the number of unknowns is M+3N.", "[0090] To be able to solve these equations, there must be a number of equations equal or greater to the number of unknowns which imply that MN>=M+3N.", "[0091] By considering the cases up to ten receivers and ten transmitters, the difference between the number of equations and the number of unknowns behaves as shown in the following table: [0000] MN − M (number of receivers) (M + 3N) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 N (Number of 1 −3 −3 −3 −3 −3 −3 −3 −3 −3 −3 transmitters) 2 −5 −4 −3 −2 −1 0 1 2 3 4 3 −7 −5 −3 −1 1 3 5 7 9 11 4 −9 −6 −3 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 5 −11 −7 −3 1 5 9 13 17 21 25 6 −13 −8 −3 2 7 12 17 22 27 32 7 −15 −9 −3 3 9 15 21 27 33 39 8 −17 −10 −3 4 11 18 25 32 39 46 9 −19 −11 −3 5 13 21 29 37 45 53 10 −21 −12 −3 6 15 24 33 42 51 60 [0092] In the above table, negative numbers show that the number of unknowns is higher than number of equations.", "When the number of equations is one less than the number of unknowns, they can be solved by considering one clock of the receiver as master clock, for instance.", "[0093] It is possible to find the receiver clock offsets (without any particular assumption) for the following location system configuration: 2 transmitters and at least 6 receivers, 3 transmitters and at least 5 receivers and 4 or more transmitters associated with 4 or ore receivers.", "[0094] Going further, we can consider that one of the receiver internal clock is master clock for all other receiver internal clocks.", "[0095] This implies a decrease of the number of unknowns by 1 and the new condition to fulfil to have a determined system of equations is: MN>=M+3N−1.", "[0096] By considering the cases up to ten receivers and ten transmitters, the difference between the number of equations and the number of unknowns behaves as shown in the amended following table: [0000] MN − M (number of receivers) (M + 3N − 1) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 N (Number of 1 −2 −2 −2 −2 −2 −2 −2 −2 −2 −2 transmitters) 2 −4 −3 −2 −1 0 1 2 3 4 5 3 −6 −4 −2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 4 −8 −5 −2 1 4 7 10 13 16 19 5 −10 −6 −2 2 6 10 14 18 22 26 6 −12 −7 −2 3 8 13 18 23 28 33 7 −14 −8 −2 4 10 16 22 28 34 40 8 −16 −9 −2 5 12 19 26 33 40 47 9 −18 −10 −2 6 14 22 30 38 46 54 10 −20 −11 −2 7 16 25 34 43 52 61 [0097] It appears from this table that a minimum of 3 transmitters combined with 4 receivers leads to a determined set of equations.", "[0098] Going still further, a second case scenario may be considered where there are N transmitters and where the position of each transmitter is known with respect to first transmitter.", "In other words, the relative positions of all N−1 transmitters is known with respect to first transmitter.", "[0099] In such a case, the number of unknowns is N+M+2, while the number of equations is still NM.", "[0100] By considering the cases up to ten receivers and ten transmitters, the difference between the number of equations and the number of unknowns behaves as shown in the amended following table: [0000] MN − M (number of receivers) (M + N + 2) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 N (Number of 1 −3 −3 −3 −3 −3 −3 −3 −3 −3 −3 transmitters) 2 −3 −2 −1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 3 −3 −1 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 4 −3 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 5 −3 1 5 9 13 17 21 25 29 33 6 −3 2 7 12 17 22 27 32 37 42 7 −3 3 9 15 21 27 33 39 45 51 8 −3 4 11 18 25 32 39 46 53 60 9 −3 5 13 21 29 37 45 53 61 69 10 −3 6 15 24 33 42 51 60 69 78 [0101] It appears from this table that a minimum of 3 transmitters combined with 3 receivers leads to a determined set of equations.", "[0102] Another assumption that can be made or condition that can be carried out in the location system is that the time interval between the time of transmission of each transmitter with respect to that of a first transmitter is known.", "For instance, if first transmitter transmits at t0 then second transmitter will transmit at t0+t1, third transmitter at t0+t2 .", "etc where t1, t2, t3 are known.", "Here, only the time of transmission of the first transmitter will be unknown which decreases the total number of unknowns by N−1.", "[0103] In such a case, the number of unknowns is M+2N+1, while the number of equations is still NM.", "[0104] By considering the cases up to ten receivers and ten transmitters, the difference between the number of equations and the number of unknowns behaves as shown in the amended following table: [0000] MN − M (number of receivers) (M + 2N + 1) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 N (Number of 1 −3 −3 −3 −3 −3 −3 −3 −3 −3 −3 transmitters) 2 −4 −3 −2 −1 0 1 2 3 4 5 3 −5 −3 −1 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 4 −6 −3 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 5 −7 −3 1 5 9 13 17 21 25 29 6 −8 −3 2 7 12 17 22 27 32 37 7 −9 −3 3 9 15 21 27 33 39 45 8 −10 −3 4 11 18 25 32 39 46 53 9 −11 −3 5 13 21 29 37 45 53 61 10 −12 −3 6 15 24 33 42 51 60 69 [0105] It appears from this table that, in this case also, a minimum of 3 transmitters combined with 4 receivers leads to a determined set of equations.", "[0106] If considering now a three dimension case, the entire location system is placed in a three dimensional co-ordinate system.", "This scenario is an extension of the preceding two dimensional case by introducing the third co-ordinate for the receivers and transmitters which in turn adds one more unknown (the z co-ordinate) for each transmitter (the positions of receivers being already known).", "[0107] In such a situation, the number of unknowns is M+4N, while the number of equations is still NM.", "[0108] By considering again the cases up to ten receivers and ten transmitters, the difference between the number of equations and the number of unknowns behaves as shown in the amended following table: [0000] MN − M (number of receivers) (M + 2N + 1) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 N (Number 1 −4 −4 −4 −4 −4 −4 −4 −4 −4 −4 of 2 −7 −6 −5 −4 −3 −2 −1 0 1 2 transmitters) 3 −10 −8 −6 −4 −2 0 2 4 6 8 4 −13 −10 −7 −4 −1 2 5 8 11 14 5 −16 −12 −8 −4 0 4 8 12 16 20 6 −19 −14 −9 −4 1 6 11 16 21 26 7 −22 −16 −10 −4 2 8 14 20 26 32 8 −25 −18 −11 −4 3 10 17 24 31 38 9 −28 −20 −12 −4 4 12 20 28 36 44 10 −31 −22 −13 −4 5 14 23 32 41 50 [0109] It appears from this table that a minimum of 3 transmitters combined with 6 receivers leads to a determined set of equations.", "[0110] In accordance with the present disclosure, a system of 3 transmitters combined with 4 receivers could be solved provided that one receiver internal clock is considered as a master clock and all relative distances between transmitters are known.", "Based on the latter explanations regarding the different possible configurations, in particular in the 3D case, it can be deduced that 3 transmitters combined with 3 receivers would lead to a determined system if the relative position—in the location system reference frame—of each transmitter is known with respect to one arbitrarily chosen transmitter (the absolute position of which being unknown).", "Such a solution would thus require less hardware but would imply more care in the installation stage regarding the absolute orientation of the set of transmitters.", "[0111] However, if the relative positions of the transmitters with respect to each other are known in the transmitter local reference frame, their relative distances can be deduced and we have again the situation depicted by Equation 5, without the requirement of special care in the installation stage.", "[0112] The above description corresponds to embodiments of the present disclosure described by way of non-limiting examples.", "In particular, the given exemplary numbers of transmitters and receivers are non-limiting.", "[0113] Further and by way of example, a person of ordinary skill in the art will encounter no particular problem in building a set of transmitters (or receivers in the reversed case scenario) such that their relative distances or positions are known, according to his/her specific needs, without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.", "Indeed, one could provide any kind of support designed so as to receive a plurality of transmitters at known relative distances with respect to each other.", "Preferably, such a support should be portable so as to allow an easy transportation.", "[0114] For the purpose of defining the relative distance between the reference transmitters, the reference receivers respectively, a support having any suitable form may preferably be provided to link them to each other.", "Thus, this support may be rigid or not but should present at least a calibration configuration in which the reference transmitters, the reference receivers respectively, are linked to each other so that they have a known relative distance between them.", "[0115] Possibly, the support may have at least a second configuration corresponding to a retracted state for the purpose of being transported more easily.", "Thus, the support may be rigid and have folding or pivoting parts to change from one configuration to another.", "Alternately, the support may be flexible and include a band or the like, for instance, the length of which is known in its extended state.", "[0116] Further, the support may be integral with the reference transmitters, the reference receivers respectively, or the latter may be removable from the support without going beyond the scope of the present invention.", "Based on the present disclosure, a person of ordinary skill in the art may use any suitable attaching element to attach the support to the reference transmitters, the reference receivers respectively, according to his specific needs.", "The support may be removed or not from the reference transmitters, the reference receivers respectively, once the calibration operation has been carried out.", "[0117] As previously noted, only the relative distance between the reference transmitters, the reference receivers respectively, needs to be known, i.e., their absolute or relative positions do not need to be a priori known.", "In addition to the relative distance or relative positions between the reference transmitters, the reference receivers respectively, the orientation (Northing) of the support could be used to get some additional information to solve the system of equations.", "[0118] On the one hand, location systems and calibration methods consistent with the present disclosure, may advantageously suit any number of temporary needs, e.g., to monitor the positions of objects or persons in a temporary fair or exhibition.", "In such cases, the principle of self-calibration according to the present disclosure could be easily repeated, for instance, each time the configuration of the cell would be changed (such like walls which could be displaced within the cell, changing the state of at least one transmitter from LOS to NLOS).", "On the other hand, the calibration transmitter set could remain in place on a permanent basis in order to perform a periodic calibration and avoid any drifting of the clocks over time, without going beyond the scope of the present disclosure.", "[0119] In the preceding paragraphs, various embodiments have been described with reference to the accompanying drawings.", "It will, however, be evident that various modifications and changes may be made thereto, and additional embodiments may be implemented, without departing from the broader scope of the invention as set forth in the claims that follow.", "The specification and drawings are accordingly to be regarded in an illustrative rather than restrictive sense.", "[0120] For example, advantageous results still could be achieved if steps of the disclosed techniques were performed in a different order and/or if components in the disclosed systems were combined in a different manner and/or replaced or supplemented by other components.", "Other implementations are within the scope of the following exemplary claims.", "[0121] Therefore, it is intended that the disclosed embodiments and examples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope of the present disclosure being indicated by the following claims and their equivalents." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] This application is a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/968,370, filed on Oct. 1, 2001.", "[0002] 2.", "Field of Invention [0003] The present invention relates to a method of depositing a metallic film on a substrate using atomic layer deposition (ALD).", "This method uses a carrier gas to deposit a selected source metal on a substrate in a reaction chamber.", "Excess source metal is removed using a pulse of an inert gas such as nitrogen.", "A reducing agent is then pulsed into the reaction chamber followed by a pulse of purge gas such as nitrogen.", "This series of steps is then repeated for other selected source metals of interest, for each layer of source metal that is to be deposited onto the substrate.", "This process may be used for the deposition of conformal seed layers for subsequent electrodeposition of thicker films for microelectronic interconnect applications.", "[0004] 2.", "Description of the Prior Art [0005] Electrodeposition of copper for the fabrication of microelectronic device interconnects has been used in the prior art.", "Prior to electrodeposition or electroplating, a wafer requires a thin layer of copper (Cu) which is known as a seed layer.", "Versions of sputtering have been employed in the prior art to deposit seed layers.", "As the dimensions of microelectronic devices shrink, new ways are needed of depositing a uniform seed layer in high aspect ratio trenches and vias of damascene structures.", "Prior art in the ALD of copper films consists of using a platinum under layer with hydrogen as a reducing agent, or elemental zinc vapor as a reducing agent.", "The copper film produced with these methods has high resistivity, rough texture, and contains large amounts of impurities.", "Hence, these methods are not suitable for microelectronic applications.", "[0006] Chemical vapor deposition techniques have been used to deposit metallic substances, such as copper, on substrates.", "In CVD methods all of the reactants are present in the reaction chamber at a single time.", "In contrast to CVD methods, in ALD methods a single source metal is introduced into a reaction chamber at a given time for deposition.", "The deposition temperatures required for ALD are slightly less than those required for CVD.", "With the advent of nanotechnology, there is an increasing need to develop methods for depositing nanoscale metallic films on substrates for use in producing items such as state of the art microelectronic devices, circuit boards, and architectural coatings.", "[0007] The present invention provides an ALD method for sequentially depositing monolayers of highly conformal, continuous smooth metallic films.", "The thickness of the deposition can be controlled by controlling the number of deposition cycles.", "The chemistry employed for ALD can also be used for CVD of metallic films, where are the chemicals will be introduced to the reaction cell at the same time.", "SUMMARY OF INVENTION [0008] An invention is described for conformally depositing nanoscale metallic films, such as copper, silver, gold, cobalt, or nickel using ALD of selected monolayers.", "Deposition of copper film is currently of significant interest for making interconnects in microelectronic devices because of its low resistivity that results in higher speed and its high resistance to electromigration that enhances its reliability.", "Other applications of copper include circuit board fabrication, catalyst preparation, and architectural coatings.", "[0009] This invention uses a reaction between a reducing agent and a copper compound to produce a high purity, low resistance copper film over a wide range of substrates.", "The copper source can be hydrated (hexafluoroacetylacetonate) copper II (Cu(hfac) 2 .", "XH 2 O) or other copper beta-diketonates.", "These copper compounds can be reduced into metallic copper using a second chemical component that is referred to as a reducing agent.", "Several reducing agents were investigated of which ethanol, isopropanol, and formaldehyde based solution produced bright and shiny copper colored films.", "The formaldehyde based solution (combination of specific percentages of formaldehyde, water and alcohol) produced the best films with resistivites (˜1.72 μΩ-cm) close to bulk values (1.67 μΩ-cm), as shown in FIG. 4, which is of extreme importance for the advanced ultra large scale integration (ULSI) fabrication.", "[0010] A reducing agent and source metal are introduced into the reaction cell that contained the substrate.", "The substrate may be placed on a heated platform that could be heated up to 450° C. [0011] The sources were transported with a carrier gas.", "The reducing agent was transported by a carrier gas that was bubbled through it.", "To transport Cu (hfac) 2 , H 2 was first bubbled through water and then over the Cu compound.", "[0012] The substrates include glass plates and silicon wafers that were coated with (blank or patterned) TaN, TiN, and Ta.", "Best film adhesion was achieved over TaN and Tin at about 300° C. However, at about 350° C., adhesion was excellent on all these substrates.", "Similar method can be adopted for other technologically important metallic thin films.", "[0013] This technique was also utilized to deposit several other metallic films.", "High purity silver films were deposit on glass and Si coated with TaN, TiN, and Ta (patterned and blank) where Ag source was trimethylphosphine (hexafluoroacetylacetonate) Ag(I).", "The reducing agents were again alcohol and formaldehyde based solution, as described above.", "The resistivity of films were about 1.7 μΩ-cm.", "Other metallic films that were similarly deposited include gold using Me 2 Au(hfac) and Me 2 Au(tfac), Pt from hexafluoroacetylacetonate Pt (II), and Co from hexfluoroacetylacetonate Co (III).", "The reducing agents were same mentioned above.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0014] [0014 ]FIG. 1 is a flow diagram of one preferred embodiment of a system suitable for practicing the method of the present invention.", "[0015] [0015 ]FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a first embodiment of the present invention.", "[0016] [0016 ]FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a second embodiment of the present invention.", "[0017] [0017 ]FIG. 4 is a graph depicting resistivity versus thickness for a Cu film applied using a preferred embodiment of the present invention.", "[0018] [0018 ]FIGS. 5 a and 5 b are scanning electron microscope cross sectional views of a Cu film deposited in trenches using a preferred method of the present invention.", "[0019] [0019 ]FIG. 6 is a graph depicting pulsing durations for a preferred embodiment of the present invention.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS [0020] The present invention is directed toward an ALD method of depositing a metallic film on a substrate.", "This invention comprises placing a substrate 12 comprising an upper surface, a lower surface, and silicon in a reaction cell or chamber 14 , wherein at least one of said surfaces is coated with a coating 16 selected from the group consisting of TaN, TiN, Ta, WN, WCN, TaSiN, and TiSiN, as shown in FIG. 1 and in block 10 of FIG. 2. In a preferred embodiment, the coating on the substrate is patterned.", "In one preferred embodiment, the reaction chamber is a Microchemistry F-120 ALD reactor.", "[0021] In one preferred embodiment, the substrate is a silicon wafer.", "In another preferred embodiment, the substrate is a glass plate.", "In another preferred embodiment, the silicon wafers are precoated with a layer of SiO 2 , having a thickness in the range of 5-100 nanometers followed by a six barrier layer comprising Ta, TaN, or TiN having a thickness in the range of 5-100 nanometers.", "In another preferred embodiment, the substrate is placed on a heated platform.", "In another preferred embodiment the substrate is heated to a temperature of at least 150° C. [0022] The invention further comprises injecting a source metal into the reaction chamber or cell through the use of the carrier gas that is bubbled into the reaction chamber during a first pulse.", "In a preferred embodiment, this pulse is 1-20 seconds in duration, as shown in FIG. 1 and in block 20 of FIG. 2. In a preferred embodiment, the carrier gas is bubbled through water into the cell.", "In one preferred embodiment, the substrate is heated to a temperature of at least 210° C. prior to introducing the source metal.", "In a preferred embodiment, a copper source metal was heated to approximately 75° C. [0023] In a preferred embodiment, the carrier gas is an inert gas.", "In another preferred embodiment, the carrier gas is argon.", "In another preferred embodiment, the carrier gas is hydrogen.", "In a preferred embodiment, the reducing agent is selected from a group consisting of alcohols and aldehydes.", "In another preferred embodiment, the reducing agent is selected from the group consisting of ethanol, isopropanol, and formaldehyde.", "[0024] In one preferred embodiment the source metal comprises a copper I (Cu I) or a copper II (Cu II) compound.", "Cu II sources are more thermally stable than Cu I sources and are thus better suited for ALD processes.", "In another preferred embodiment, the source metal comprises a hydrated Cu II compound, or other copper beta-diketonates.", "In another preferred embodiment, the source metal comprises an anhydrous copper compound.", "In another preferred embodiment, the source metal comprises a silver I or a silver II compound.", "In another preferred embodiment, the source metal comprises a silver II compound.", "[0025] An inert gas is then injected into the cell during a second pulse.", "In a preferred embodiment, this pulse is 1-10 seconds in duration as shown in block 30 of FIG. 2. The inert gas pulsing step is used to purge excess source metal.", "In a preferred embodiment, the inert gas is selected from a group consisting of nitrogen, argon and helium.", "[0026] The invention further comprises injecting a reducing agent into the cell during a third pulse.", "In a preferred embodiment, this pulse is 1-10 seconds in duration, as shown in block 40 of FIG. 2. In a preferred embodiment, the reducing agent is in a vapor form.", "The invention further comprises injecting an inert gas into the cell during the a fourth pulse.", "In a preferred embodiment, this pulse is 1-10 seconds in duration, as shown in block 50 of FIG. 2. This inert gas pulse is used to remove excess reducing agent.", "In a preferred embodiment, the inert gas is selected from a group consisting of nitrogen, argon and helium.", "In a preferred embodiment, where the source metal comprises silver, the inert gas of the second and fourth pulsing steps is argon.", "[0027] The above four pulsing steps may be used to deposit one monolayer using the method of the present invention.", "These four steps may be repeated for various selected source metals to deposit subsequent monolayers on the substrate.", "A preferred embodiment of the pulsing steps of the present invention is illustrated in the graph of FIG. 6. [0028] In a preferred embodiment, Cu(hfac) 2 is introduced in a pulse that is 2-3 seconds in duration, carried by H 2 gas that has been bubbled through water.", "This is followed by a pulse of nitrogen gas of approximately one second in duration.", "The nitrogen pulse is used to remove any excess Cu(hfac) 2 and its byproducts.", "In this preferred embodiment, a pulse of reducing agent of approximately one second in duration is then introduced into the reaction chamber, using an H 2 carrier gas.", "The pulse duration can be varied by adjusting the carrier gas flow rate.", "The reducing agent reacts with and reduces cooper oxide to copper.", "In this preferred embodiment, another pulse of nitrogen of approximately one second in duration is then introduced into the reaction chamber to remove excess reducing agent as well as the reducing reaction byproducts.", "Using this method, the film thickness is controlled by repeating this sequence for a desired number of cycles.", "[0029] The present invention is applicable to the electrodeposition of copper films to be used as seed layers.", "FIGS. 5 a and 5 b depict scanning electron microscope cross sectional views of an electrode deposited copper layer entrenches.", "As shown in FIGS. 5 a and 5 b , the deposited copper completely fills these structures leaving no observable voids.", "[0030] The invention is also directed toward a method for etching copper films on a substrate.", "This process is the reverse chemistry of the deposition process invented.", "This method comprises placing a substrate having a temperature in the range of 120° C. to 300° C. and comprising and upper surface, a lower surface, and silicon in a reaction cell where at least one of the surfaces is coated with a copper layer, as shown in block 60 of FIG. 3. [0031] The invention further comprises injecting an oxidizing agent into the cell through the use of a carrier gas for a first pulse of 1-20 seconds duration, as shown in block 70 of FIG. 3. In one preferred embodiment, the oxidizing agent is a gas comprising oxygen.", "In another preferred embodiment the oxidizing agent is water in a gaseous phase.", "[0032] This embodiment of the invention further comprises injecting a nitrogen purge pulse into the cell during a second pulse of 1-10 seconds duration, as shown in block 80 of FIG. 3. A reducing agent is then injected into the cell during a third pulse of 1-10 seconds duration, as shown in block 90 of FIG. 3. In a preferred embodiment, the reducing agent is hydrogen hexafluoroacetylacetonate (H(hfac)).", "[0033] The invention further comprises injecting nitrogen into the cell during a fourth pulse of 1-20 seconds duration, as shown in block 100 of FIG. 3. [0034] The foregoing disclosure and description of the invention are illustrative and explanatory.", "Various changes in the size, shape, and materials, as well as in the details of the illustrative construction may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention." ]

[ "DOMESTIC PRIORITY [0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/259,662 filed Nov. 25, 2015, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.", "BACKGROUND [0002] The present disclosure relates to network security, and to attack protection through validation of transactions.", "[0003] A transaction ledger is a concept that was introduced in the context of decentralized payment systems, such as BITCOIN®, to denote an ordered set of transactions that have been validated or confirmed within the system up to a certain point in time.", "A transaction ledger may include a continuously-growing list of data records, where each data record may include data relating to one transaction.", "Further, encryption and other security measures may be used to secure the transaction ledger from tampering and revision.", "[0004] A blockchain is a distributed database that may be used to maintain a transaction ledger.", "A blockchain may include a number of blocks, each block holding one or more of individual transactions or data records.", "Further, each block may contain a timestamp and a link to a previous block.", "In a typical blockchain network, users may be allowed to connect to the network, send new transactions to it, verify transactions, and create new blocks.", "However, a problem arises with replay attacks compromising the security of such a blockchain network.", "In a replay attack the attacker simply “replays”", "a message that was “eavesdropped”", "on from the network or that the attacker “saw”", "on the Blockchain.", "Such a replay would cause the blockchain validators to include this new transaction in the Blockchain, and thus repeat the result of that transaction without the original creator of the transaction intending this.", "This may be a problem, especially for actual payment systems.", "Accordingly, a need arises for techniques by which such replay attacks may be efficiently resisted, while preserving valid user permissions and privacy in the blockchain network.", "SUMMARY [0005] Embodiments of the present invention may provide techniques by which replay attacks in a blockchain network may be efficiently resisted, while preserving valid user permissions and privacy in the blockchain network.", "[0006] For example, in an embodiment of the present invention, in a network of computer systems, a method of communication may comprise at a user computer system, generating a security value that is to be used only once, generating a message signed with a security certificate and including the security value, and transmitting the message over the network of computer systems.", "[0007] For example, in an embodiment, the security certificate may include information identifying the user computer system and the security value may be generated as a function of a security value included in a previous message.", "The function used to generate the security value may be selected from a group including a counter function, a hash function, and a random function.", "The message may further comprise computer program instructions to be executed to perform at least one function relating to a digital transaction and the method may further comprise at a validator computer system, executing the digital transaction by executing the computer program instructions to perform the at least one function relating to the digital transaction and storing information relating to the executed digital transaction in an order in which the digital transactions were performed.", "The information relating to the executed digital transaction may comprise a security value included in a digital transaction for each of a plurality of user systems.", "The security certificate may not include information identifying the user computer system, the security certificate may have a validity period, and the security value may be generated as a random function.", "The message may further comprise computer program instructions to be executed to perform at least one function relating to a digital transaction and the method may further comprise at a validator computer system, executing the digital transaction by executing the computer program instructions to perform the at least one function relating to the digital transaction and storing information relating to the executed digital transaction including a hash of the security value.", "The method may further comprise resetting the hash of the security value upon expiration of the validity period of the security certificate.", "[0008] For example, in an embodiment of the present invention, a network of computer systems comprising a plurality of computer systems, each computer system comprising a processor, memory accessible by the processor, and computer program instructions stored in the memory, a first computer system comprising computer program instructions executable by the processor to perform generating a security value that is to be used only once, generating a message signed with a security certificate and including the security value, and transmitting the message over the network of computer systems.", "[0009] For example, in an embodiment, the security certificate may include information identifying the user computer system and the security value may be generated as a function of a security value included in a previous message.", "The function used to generate the security value may be selected from a group including a counter function, a hash function, and a random function.", "The message may further comprise computer program instructions to be executed to perform at least one function relating to a digital transaction and a second computer system may comprise computer program instructions executable by the processor to perform executing the digital transaction by executing the computer program instructions to perform the at least one function relating to the digital transaction and storing information relating to the executed digital transaction in an order in which the digital transactions were performed.", "The information relating to the executed digital transaction comprises a security value included in a digital transaction for each of a plurality of user systems.", "The security certificate may not include information identifying the user computer system, the security certificate may have a validity period, and the security value may be generated as a random function.", "The message may further comprise computer program instructions to be executed to perform at least one function relating to a digital transaction and a second computer system may comprise computer program instructions executable by the processor to perform executing the digital transaction by executing the computer program instructions to perform the at least one function relating to the digital transaction and storing information relating to the executed digital transaction including a hash of the security value.", "The network of computer systems may further comprise resetting the hash of the security value upon expiration of the validity period of the security certificate.", "[0010] For example, in an embodiment of the present invention, a computer program product for communicating in a network of computer systems, the computer program product comprising a computer readable medium and computer program instructions stored on the computer readable medium and executable by a processor to perform generating a security value that is to be used only once, generating a message signed with a security certificate and including the security value, and transmitting the message over the network of computer systems.", "[0011] For example, in an embodiment, the security certificate may include information identifying the user computer system and the security value may be generated as a function of a security value included in a previous message.", "The function used to generate the security value may be selected from a group including a counter function, a hash function, and a random function.", "The message may further comprise computer program instructions to be executed to perform at least one function relating to a digital transaction and the computer program product may further comprise computer program instructions to perform executing the digital transaction by executing the computer program instructions to perform the at least one function relating to the digital transaction and storing information relating to the executed digital transaction in an order in which the digital transactions were performed.", "The information relating to the executed digital transaction may comprise a security value included in a digital transaction for each of a plurality of user systems.", "The security certificate may not include information identifying the user computer system, the security certificate may have a validity period, and the security value may be generated as a random function.", "The message may further comprise computer program instructions to be executed to perform at least one function relating to a digital transaction and the computer program product may further comprise computer program instructions to perform at a validator computer system, executing the digital transaction by executing the computer program instructions to perform the at least one function relating to the digital transaction and storing information relating to the executed digital transaction including a hash of the security value.", "The computer program product may further comprise computer program instructions to perform resetting the hash of the security value upon expiration of the validity period of the security certificate.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0012] The present disclosed subject matter will be understood and appreciated more fully from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the drawings in which corresponding or like numerals or characters indicate corresponding or like components.", "Unless indicated otherwise, the drawings provide exemplary embodiments or aspects of the disclosure and do not limit the scope of the disclosure.", "In the drawings: [0013] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a system in which some exemplary embodiments of the disclosed subject matter may be implemented.", "[0014] FIG. 2 is a flow diagram of a process in accordance with some exemplary embodiments of the disclosed subject matter.", "[0015] FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of a process in accordance with some exemplary embodiments of the disclosed subject matter.", "[0016] FIG. 4 is an exemplary format of a message that may be used by some exemplary embodiments of the disclosed subject matter.", "[0017] FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of a process in accordance with some exemplary embodiments of the disclosed subject matter.", "[0018] FIG. 6 is an exemplary format of a message that may be used by some exemplary embodiments of the disclosed subject matter.", "[0019] FIG. 7 is an exemplary format of a message that may be used by some exemplary embodiments of the disclosed subject matter.", "[0020] FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of a process in accordance with some exemplary embodiments of the disclosed subject matter.", "[0021] FIG. 9 is an exemplary format of a message that may be used by some exemplary embodiments of the disclosed subject matter.", "[0022] FIG. 10 is a block diagram of a computerized environment in which the disclosed subject matter may be used, in accordance with some exemplary embodiments of the subject matter.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0023] Turning now to the figures, FIG. 1 illustrates a system 100 in which embodiments of the present invention may be implemented.", "For example, system 100 may include one or more users 102 , one or more validators 104 , and a certificate authority 106 .", "The users 102 , validators 104 and certificate authority 106 , as illustrated, each may comprise one or more processing elements, such as processors, servers, and so forth.", "Furthermore, the systems 100 and each of the aforementioned elements may be adapted to perform the methods as shown in the figures and all their steps.", "[0024] In an embodiment, the system 100 can be a Blockchain network 100 that can include user computer systems (users) 102 submitting transactions, and validator computer systems (validators) 104 executing and validating transactions.", "Transactions 108 submitted 110 by users 104 may be signed by a client certificate 112 , which may be anonymous or which may include that client's identity.", "These certificates may be managed by an identity management infrastructure including certificate authority computer systems (certificate authority) 106 , which may issue 114 user long term certificates that carry these user identities 118 , such as enrollment certificates 116 , and privacy-preserving certificates, such as transaction certificates 120 , that are not linked to their owner's identity.", "Accordingly, for any particular transaction, certificate 112 may be an enrollment certificate 116 , which includes user identity 118 , or transaction certificate 120 , which is anonymous.", "Transactions may be signed by a secret key corresponding to either type of certificate to accommodate user transactional privacy.", "A verification key may be extracted from the certificate 112 , which may be used to verify the signature 122 .", "Typically, there is a consensus protocol in place such that transactions are totally ordered, or ordered in blocks, before they are executed/validated.", "Further, a user 102 may include a nonce 124 in the transaction.", "A nonce is an arbitrary number that may only be used once.", "A nonce is typically a random or pseudo-random number issued in an authentication protocol to ensure that old communications cannot be reused in replay attacks.", "In the case where the user 102 signs the transaction with their enrollment certificate 118 , the nonce 124 may be a function of the nonce that they used in the previous transaction.", "The nonce 124 may be, for example, a counter function or a hash, etc.", "The first number registered as a nonce for a user may also be random.", "In the case where the user 102 signs the transaction with a transaction certificate 120 , the nonce 124 may be random.", "[0025] FIG. 2 is a flowchart diagramming a process 200 , in accordance with some exemplary embodiments of the disclosed subject matter.", "Those skilled in the art will appreciate the method illustrated by the flowchart of FIG. 2 is merely exemplary and that alternate variations may be employed, all in accordance with the present technique.", "FIG. 2 is best viewed in conjunction with FIG. 1 .", "In an exemplary embodiment, a hybrid approach may be used, whereby users 102 may add in the transaction a nonce that is generated in a different manner depending on whether the transaction is anonymous (signed by a transaction certificate 120 ) or not (signed by a long term enrollment certificate 118 ).", "[0026] Process 200 begins with 202 , in which a user 102 initiates a transaction 108 .", "At 204 a user signing with their enrollment certificate 118 may include a nonce 124 in the transaction that is a function of the nonce they used in the previous transaction.", "At 206 , when the transaction is executed, validators 104 store 126 the nonce of the current transaction 108 they parse, as long as it is a function of the previous nonce.", "When the transaction is executed and added to the Blockchain, the transactions are ordered, making this easy to check.", "Accordingly, at the user 102 only the most recently used nonce need be stored, while at the validator 104 , the storage 126 needed is a function O(n), where n is the number of users.", "[0027] At 208 , a user 102 signing with a transaction certificate 120 should include in the transaction a random nonce 124 , which may ensure that two transactions do not result in the same hash.", "At 210 , validators 104 store 130 the hash of this transaction during the validity period of the current transaction certificate.", "Validity periods may expire every fixed time interval as scheduled by the underlying identity management infrastructure, through some signed system messages that the Certificate Authority 106 may advertise through the Blockchain.", "At 212 , validators 104 may receive a message that updates the current validity period ID, then they may reset the log 130 of transaction hashes they have collected for replay attack protection, as replays of older (anonymous) messages would be using expired transaction certificates and would accordingly be excluded from the Blockchain.", "At the user 102 , nothing need be stored, while at the validator 104 , the storage 130 needed is a function O(m) of hash values, where m is the number of transactions per validity period.", "[0028] FIG. 3 is a flowchart diagramming a process 300 , in accordance with some exemplary embodiments of the disclosed subject matter.", "Those skilled in the art will appreciate the method illustrated by the flowchart of FIG. 3 is merely exemplary and that alternate variations may be employed, all in accordance with the present technique.", "FIG. 3 is best viewed in conjunction with FIG. 1 .", "In an exemplary embodiment, some of the transactions that a user submits to the network may have confidentiality constraints with respect to which validators are able to execute the transaction.", "In order to reach consensus over the (encrypted) result of the confidentiality-constraint transactions, validators 104 that are included in the list of validators authorized to execute the transaction may submit through the blockchain their “signed vote”", "on the result.", "[0029] Process 300 begins with 302 , in which a user 102 may initiate a transaction 108 that may include confidentiality constraints with respect to which validators are able to execute the transaction.", "At 304 , validators 104 vote for a transaction, and may add to the signed transaction a sequence number 128 of the transaction they vote for in the total order of transactions.", "For example, if the validator 104 vote corresponds to a confidential transaction with sequence number X, in the total order of transactions, the header of that transaction may include X, or a function of X, such as a hash, etc.", "[0030] At 306 , validators 104 may store an updated version of the confirmed result 132 of this transaction.", "To do this, validators 104 may store a state of the transaction, and further may monitor the following blocks of transactions, for example, T blocks, that may be confirmed.", "During this period hashes 134 of the advertised validator votes may be kept.", "Thus, at 308 , upon receiving a confidential transaction vote from a validator, other validators may consider this transaction if and only if X is above the number of validator 104 responses they still consider, and may reject it otherwise.", "Because X is indicative of the order of the corresponding transactions, validators will be able to distinguish between 1) a vote that is outdated, for which the period for processing votes for that transaction has expired, or a vote that may be a replay of an older vote, and 2) a vote on a future transaction that has not yet been processed or is being processed which should be added to the Blockchain.", "[0031] In an exemplary embodiment, a chain-code may be created and submitted to a blockchain via a deployment transaction.", "An exemplary format of a deployment transaction 400 is shown in FIG. 4 .", "In this example, deployment transaction 400 may include general information 402 , code information 404 , validator information 406 , and user information 408 .", "General information 402 may include a type of the deployment transaction, a confidentiality type, and a nonce.", "Code information 404 may include information on the code to be executed, and may include a number of code-functions.", "Validator information 406 may include information to be used by validators, such as validators 104 , shown in FIG. 1 .", "User information 408 may include information to be used by users, such as users 102 , shown in FIG. 1 .", "[0032] In this example, u C may be the user who submitted the deployment transaction.", "A chain-code may include of a set of functions (function) and their headers (function-hdr).", "A chain-code function may be invoked via an invocation transaction.", "A user, u c may specify a set of validators, v 1 , .", ", v m , which may be denoted by contract validators to execute the chain-code (invocations).", "Each function may be invoked by a set of users u 1 , .", ", u n , which may be called contract users.", "Validator and user enrollment public keys may be accessible to everyone.", "Validators share with an auditor the key K adt .", "In this example, Cert ui may denote the enrollment or transaction certificate of user u i , having the associated keys denoted by (pk ui ,sk ui ), TCert ui may denote a transaction certificate of user u i having the associated keys denoted by (tpk ui ,tsk ui ), and Cert vj may denote the enrollment or transaction certificate of validator v j having the associated keys denoted by (pk vj ,sk vj ).", "For simplicity, the enrollment or transaction encryption/signing keys may be denoted with the same symbol.", "[0033] In this exemplary deployment transaction, there may a common validation threshold for all confidential chain-codes.", "Likewise, the code information 404 may include an ACL, per function, which may include a list of and/or hashes of TCerts of authorized users.", "User information 402 and validator information 406 may include a key K H , which may be used to encrypt headers and/or code, and one or both of a key pair (PK c SK c ), which may be used to pass messages to contract validators 104 .", "The transaction, TCert uc , may be signed by a signature Sig Tcertx 410 of the TCert key of user x. The general information 402 may include a nonce, which may be a random or non-random number added to avoid replay-attacks.", "A user transaction ID uTID 410 , which may be a deterministic function of the transaction, such as a hash, may be used.", "[0034] An example of a process 500 that may be performed after a deployment transaction is issued is shown in FIG. 5 .", "After a deployment transaction is issued, at 502 , the user, u c may submit the deployment transaction to peers (other users 102 ) and validators 104 .", "At 504 , the validators and peers may check the transaction for proper formatting, and give it an order in the total order of transactions, (oTID).", "At 506 , those validators 104 that are in the list of validators may decrypt their message in the transaction, decrypt the code, execute it, if needed, and construct the encrypted result.", "At 508 , validators 104 may add the encrypted result and a message to their auditor in a response to the transaction with reference number oTID, in an encrypted form.", "[0035] An exemplary format of a validator response to a deployment transaction 600 is shown in FIG. 6 .", "In this example, response 600 may include general information 602 , code information 604 , certificate and signature information 606 , and a message to the auditor 608 .", "General information 602 may include information such as oTID, the order ID of the corresponding deployment transaction, which may be instantiated, for example, as a hash, and confidentiality information.", "Code information 604 may include information on the code to be executed, and may include a number of code-functions, such as a response code.", "Certificate and signature information 606 may include Sig Certvi , the signature corresponding to certificate Cert vi .", "Message to the auditor 608 may include msg adt , which may contain a message to the auditors with appropriate key material for auditing to take place.", "[0036] An exemplary format of an invocation transaction 700 is shown in FIG. 7 .", "In this example, invocation transaction 700 may include general information 702 , code information 704 , contract validator information 706 , certificate and signature information 708 , and uTID′ 710 .", "General information 702 may include a type of the invocation transaction, a nonce, a confidentiality type, an identification of the reference transaction, such as oTID/TID/name.", "Code information 704 may include information on the code to be executed, and may include a number of code-functions, a hash of Tcert u ′, which may be a random TCert of the invoker u that is not linked to Tcert u , which may be the TCert of the invoker listed in the deployment transaction, and a proofsig, which may be a proof of common ownership of Tcert u and Tcert u ′.", "Examples of types of proofsigs may include tsk u -tsk u ′, which may be a non-transferrable proof, and Sig Tcertu (*), which may be a transferrable proof.", "Certificate and signature information 706 may include Tcert u ′ and Sig TCertu ′ (*).", "[0037] An example of a process 800 that may be performed after an invocation transaction is issued is shown in FIG. 8 .", "After an invocation transaction is issued, at 802 , the user, u, may submit the invocation transaction to transaction to peers (other users 102 ) and validators 104 .", "At 804 , the validators and peers may check that the transaction is properly formed, and give it an order in the total order of transactions, such as oTID′.", "At 806 , those validators 104 that are in the list of validators of the reference transaction may retrieve the corresponding transaction's keys, decrypt their message 508 of FIG. 5 , in the invocation transaction, decrypt the code 504 of FIG. 5 , execute the code, and construct the encrypted result.", "At 808 , validators 104 may include the encrypted result and message to auditor in a response to the invocation transaction with reference number oTID′ and announce it to the network.", "[0038] An exemplary format of a response to an invocation transaction 900 is shown in FIG. 9 .", "In this example, invocation transaction 900 may include general information 902 , code information 904 , certificate and signature information 906 , and message to auditors 908 .", "General information 902 may include a type of the invocation transaction, a nonce, a confidentiality type, an identification of the reference transaction, such as oTID/TID/name.", "Code information 904 may include information on the code to be executed, and may include a number of code-functions, a hash of Tcert u ′, which may be a random TCert of the invoker u that is not linked to Tcert u , which may be the TCert of the invoker listed in the deployment transaction, and a proofsig, which may be a proof of common ownership of Tcert u and Tcert u ′.", "Examples of types of proofsigs may include tsk u -tsk u ′, which may be a non-transferrable proof, and Sig Tcertu (*), which may be a transferrable proof.", "Certificate and signature information 906 may include Tcert u ′ and Sig TCertu ′ (*).", "[0039] An exemplary block diagram of a computer system 1000 , in which processes involved in the embodiments described herein may be implemented, is shown in FIG. 10 .", "Computer system 1000 is typically a programmed general-purpose computer system, such as an embedded processor, system on a chip, personal computer, workstation, server system, and minicomputer or mainframe computer.", "Computer system 1000 may include one or more processors (CPUs) 1002 A- 1002 N, input/output circuitry 1004 , network adapter 1006 , and memory 1008 .", "CPUs 1002 A- 1002 N may execute program instructions in order to carry out the functions of the present invention.", "Typically, CPUs 1002 A- 1002 N may be one or more microprocessors, such as an INTEL PENTIUM® processor.", "FIG. 10 illustrates an embodiment in which computer system 1000 is implemented as a single multi-processor computer system, in which multiple processors 1002 A- 1002 N share system resources, such as memory 1008 , input/output circuitry 1004 , and network adapter 1006 .", "However, the present invention also contemplates embodiments in which computer system 1000 is implemented as a plurality of networked computer systems, which may be single-processor computer systems, multi-processor computer systems, or a mix thereof.", "[0040] Input/output circuitry 1004 provides the capability to input data to, or output data from, computer system 1000 .", "For example, input/output circuitry may include input devices, such as keyboards, mice, touchpads, trackballs, scanners, analog to digital converters, etc.", ", output devices, such as video adapters, monitors, printers, etc.", ", and input/output devices, such as, modems, etc.", "Network adapter 1006 interfaces device 1000 with a network 1010 .", "Network 1010 may be any public or proprietary LAN or WAN, including, but not limited to the Internet.", "[0041] Memory 1008 stores program instructions that are executed by, and data that are used and processed by, CPU 1002 to perform the functions of computer system 1000 .", "Memory 1008 may include, for example, electronic memory devices, such as random-access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, etc.", ", and electro-mechanical memory, such as magnetic disk drives, tape drives, optical disk drives, etc.", ", which may use an integrated drive electronics (IDE) interface, or a variation or enhancement thereof, such as enhanced IDE (EIDE) or ultra-direct memory access (UDMA), or a small computer system interface (SCSI) based interface, or a variation or enhancement thereof, such as fast-SCSI, wide-SCSI, fast and wide-SCSI, etc.", ", or Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA), or a variation or enhancement thereof, or a fiber channel-arbitrated loop (FC-AL) interface.", "[0042] The contents of memory 1008 vary depending upon the function that computer system 1000 is programmed to perform.", "For example, as shown in FIG. 1 , computer systems may perform a variety of roles in the system, method, and computer program product described herein.", "For example, computer systems may perform one or more roles as users, validators, auditors, and/or identity providers.", "In the example shown in FIG. 10 , exemplary memory contents are shown representing routines for all of these roles.", "However, one of skill in the art would recognize that these routines, along with the memory contents related to those routines, may be included on one system, or may be distributed among a plurality of systems, based on well-known engineering considerations.", "The present invention contemplates any and all such arrangements.", "[0043] In the example shown in FIG. 10 , memory 1008 may include user routines 1010 , validator routines 1012 , certificate authority routines 1014 , transaction data 1016 , and operating system 1024 .", "User routines 1010 may include routines to implement functions utilized by end-user computer systems, such as initiating and processing transactions, generating and/or storing transaction data 1016 , etc.", "Validator routines 1012 may include routines to implement functions utilized by validator computer systems, such as verifying and processing transactions, generating and/or storing transaction data 1016 , generating result information, etc.", "Certificate authority routines 1016 may include routines to implement functions utilized by certificate authority computer systems, such as generating certificates, etc.", "Operating system 1024 provides overall system functionality.", "[0044] As shown in FIG. 10 , the present invention contemplates implementation on a system or systems that provide multi-processor, multi-tasking, multi-process, and/or multi-thread computing, as well as implementation on systems that provide only single processor, single thread computing.", "Multi-processor computing involves performing computing using more than one processor.", "Multi-tasking computing involves performing computing using more than one operating system task.", "A task is an operating system concept that refers to the combination of a program being executed and bookkeeping information used by the operating system.", "Whenever a program is executed, the operating system creates a new task for it.", "The task is like an envelope for the program in that it identifies the program with a task number and attaches other bookkeeping information to it.", "Many operating systems, including Linux, UNIX®, OS/2®, and Windows®, are capable of running many tasks at the same time and are called multitasking operating systems.", "Multi-tasking is the ability of an operating system to execute more than one executable at the same time.", "Each executable is running in its own address space, meaning that the executables have no way to share any of their memory.", "This has advantages, because it is impossible for any program to damage the execution of any of the other programs running on the system.", "However, the programs have no way to exchange any information except through the operating system (or by reading files stored on the file system).", "Multi-process computing is similar to multi-tasking computing, as the terms task and process are often used interchangeably, although some operating systems make a distinction between the two.", "[0045] The present invention may be a system, a method, and/or a computer program product.", "The computer program product may include a computer readable storage medium (or media) having computer readable program instructions thereon for causing a processor to carry out aspects of the present invention.", "[0046] The computer readable storage medium can be a tangible device that can retain and store instructions for use by an instruction execution device.", "The computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but is not limited to, an electronic storage device, a magnetic storage device, an optical storage device, an electromagnetic storage device, a semiconductor storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.", "A non-exhaustive list of more specific examples of the computer readable storage medium includes the following: a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), a static random access memory (SRAM), a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), a digital versatile disk (DVD), a memory stick, a floppy disk, a mechanically encoded device such as punch-cards or raised structures in a groove having instructions recorded thereon, and any suitable combination of the foregoing.", "A computer readable storage medium, as used herein, is not to be construed as being transitory signals per se, such as radio waves or other freely propagating electromagnetic waves, electromagnetic waves propagating through a waveguide or other transmission media (e.g., light pulses passing through a fiber-optic cable), or electrical signals transmitted through a wire.", "[0047] Computer readable program instructions described herein can be downloaded to respective computing/processing devices from a computer readable storage medium or to an external computer or external storage device via a network, for example, the Internet, a local area network, a wide area network and/or a wireless network.", "The network may comprise copper transmission cables, optical transmission fibers, wireless transmission, routers, firewalls, switches, gateway computers, and/or edge servers.", "A network adapter card or network interface in each computing/processing device receives computer readable program instructions from the network and forwards the computer readable program instructions for storage in a computer readable storage medium within the respective computing/processing device.", "[0048] Computer readable program instructions for carrying out operations of the present invention may be assembler instructions, instruction-set-architecture (ISA) instructions, machine instructions, machine dependent instructions, microcode, firmware instructions, state-setting data, or either source code or object code written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including an object oriented programming language such as Smalltalk, C++ or the like, and conventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C”", "programming language or similar programming languages.", "The computer readable program instructions may execute entirely on the user's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer or server.", "In the latter scenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider).", "In some embodiments, electronic circuitry including, for example, programmable logic circuitry, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA), or programmable logic arrays (PLA) may execute the computer readable program instructions by utilizing state information of the computer readable program instructions to personalize the electronic circuitry, in order to perform aspects of the present invention.", "[0049] Aspects of the present invention are described herein with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of the invention.", "It will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer readable program instructions.", "[0050] These computer readable program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.", "These computer readable program instructions may also be stored in a computer readable storage medium that can direct a computer, a programmable data processing apparatus, and/or other devices to function in a particular manner, such that the computer readable storage medium having instructions stored therein comprises an article of manufacture including instructions which implement aspects of the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.", "[0051] The computer readable program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other device to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer, other programmable apparatus or other device to produce a computer implemented process, such that the instructions which execute on the computer, other programmable apparatus, or other device implement the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.", "[0052] The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate the architecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementations of systems, methods, and computer program products according to various embodiments of the present invention.", "In this regard, each block in the flowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portion of instructions, which comprises one or more executable instructions for implementing the specified logical function(s).", "In some alternative implementations, the functions noted in the block may occur out of the order noted in the figures.", "For example, two blocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality involved.", "It will also be noted that each block of the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specified functions or acts or carry out combinations of special purpose hardware and computer instructions.", "[0053] The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention.", "As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an”", "and “the”", "are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.", "It will be further understood that the terms “comprises”", "and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.", "[0054] The corresponding structures, materials, acts, and equivalents of all means or step plus function elements in the claims below are intended to include any structure, material, or act for performing the function in combination with other claimed elements as specifically claimed.", "The description of the present invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the invention in the form disclosed.", "Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention.", "The embodiment was chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and the practical application, and to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the invention for various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] 1.", "Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a CR oscillation circuit, and particularly to a CR oscillation circuit for controlling an oscillation frequency by an outside resistor.", "[0003] This application is a counterpart of Japanese Patent Application, Serial Number 086155/2002, filed on Mar. 26, 2002, the subject matter of which is incorporated herein by reference.", "[0004] 2.", "Description of the Related Art [0005] FIGS. 2 (A) and 2 (B) are respectively diagrams for describing a conventional outside resistor type CR oscillation circuit.", "FIG. 2(A) is a diagram showing a circuit configuration of the conventional CR oscillation circuit, and FIG. 2(B) is a diagram illustrating operation waveforms.", "[0006] As shown in FIG. 2(A), the CR oscillation circuit has inverters 201 , 202 and 203 connected in series between a node N 1 and a node N 3 .", "A capacitor 204 is electrically connected both the node N 1 and a node N 2 .", "The node N 2 is electrically connected both the inverter 202 and the inverter 203 .", "The node N 1 is electrically connected to a terminal 205 for connecting one end of an outside resistor R 1 .", "The node N 3 on the output side of the inverter 203 is electrically connected to a terminal 206 for connecting the other end of the outside resistor R 1 .", "An oscillation signal OUT is outputted from the node N 3 .", "Owing to the electrical connection of the outside resistor R between the terminals 205 and 206 in such a circuit, a feedback circuit is made up of the outside resistor R and the internal capacitor 204 .", "Thus, an oscillation output OUT having a frequency corresponding to the time constant T of these elements is obtained.", "[0007] The operation of the CR oscillation circuit will next be described.", "[0008] Now assume that a source voltage is represented as VDD, threshold voltages of respective inverters are respectively represented as 0.5VDD, and “H”", "and “L”", "of input and output levels are respectively represented as VDD and 0 (=GND) for simplification of description.", "Further, the input impedance of each inverter is assumed to be infinite.", "[0009] When power is turned on at a time t0 in FIG. 2(B), the capacitor 204 is discharged and a voltage V 21 at the node N 1 is assumed to be 0.", "Since the voltage level of the node N 1 is outputted to the node N 2 via the inverters 201 and 202 , a voltage V 22 at the node N 2 results in 0.", "Further, since the voltage V 22 at the node N 2 is inverted by the inverter 203 , a voltage V 23 at the node N 3 becomes VDD.", "[0010] With power-on at the time t0, the capacitor 204 starts to charge via the outside resistor R. Thus, the voltage V 21 at the node N 1 exponentially rises from 0 to VDD according to the time constant T of the capacitor 204 and the outside resistor R. [0011] When the voltage V 21 reaches 0.5VDD at a time t1, the voltage inputted to the inverter 201 exceeds the threshold voltage thereof.", "Thus, the voltage outputted from the inverter 201 reaches 0 and the voltage V 2 on the output side of the inverter 202 changes from 0 to VDD.", "Since, at this time, the voltage charged in the capacitor 204 is 0.5VDD, the voltage V 21 at the node N 1 reaches 1.5VDD.", "On the other hand, the voltage V 23 at the node N 3 on the output side of the inverter 203 results in 0.", "Correspondingly, the voltage V 21 at the node N 1 exponentially decreases from 1.5VDD to 0 according to the time constant T. [0012] When the voltage V 21 decreases to 0.5VDD at a time t2, the input voltage of the inverter 201 reaches less than or equal to its threshold voltage.", "Consequently, the output voltage of the inverter 201 becomes VDD and the voltage V 22 on the output side of the inverter 202 changes from VDD to 0.", "Since, at this time, the voltage charged in the capacitor 204 is 0.5VDD, the voltage V 21 at the node N 1 results in −0.5VDD.", "On the other hand, the voltage V 23 at the node N 3 on the output side of the inverter 203 reaches VDD.", "Correspondingly, the voltage V 21 at the node N 1 exponentially rises from −0.5VDD to VDD according to the time constant T. [0013] When the voltage V 21 increases to 0.5VDD at a time t3, the input voltage of the inverter 201 exceeds its threshold voltage.", "Consequently, the output voltage of the inverter 201 becomes 0 and the voltage V 22 on the output side of the inverter 202 changes from 0 to VDD.", "Since, at this time, the voltage charged in the capacitor 204 is 0.5VDD, the voltage V 21 at the node N 1 results in 1.5VDD.", "On the other hand, the voltage V 23 at the node N 3 on the output side of the inverter 203 reaches 0.", "Correspondingly, the voltage V 21 at the node N 1 exponentially decreases from 1.5VDD to 0 according to the time constant T. [0014] With similar repetitive operations, the respective inverters are subsequently periodically inverted according to the time constant T set by the values of the capacitor 204 and the resistor R, and an oscillation signal OUT having a desired frequency is outputted from the node N 3 .", "[0015] However, the conventional CR oscillation circuit involves the following problems.", "[0016] Although the outside resistor R having a value corresponding to an intended oscillation frequency is electrically connected to the terminals 205 and 206 , such parasitic capacitance Cp as indicated by each dotted line in FIG. 2(A) is contained in an actually-connected outside resistor R. The parasitic capacitance Cp greatly varies according to the state of packaging thereof.", "Also a problem arises in that since the value of the built-in capacitor 204 is relatively small, the influence of each parasitic capacitance Cp increases, thus causing errors in a value at a single test on the outside resistor and an oscillation frequency at its packaging.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0017] A CR oscillation circuit according to the present invention includes an oscillation unit having first through third invertion circuits series-connected between a first node and a second node, a capacitance element provided between the first node and an output terminal of the second inverting circuit, and a switch part for electrically connecting the first and second nodes according to a level of a control voltage;", "a constant current unit for allowing a constant current to flow according to a resistance value of an externally-provided resistive element to thereby supply a constant voltage;", "and a level conversion unit for converting a level of the constant voltage to produce the control voltage.", "[0018] The present invention provides a CR oscillation circuit which reduces an error produced in an oscillation frequency according to the state of packaging of an outside resistor.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0019] While the specification concludes with claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which is regarded as the invention, it is believed that the invention, the objects and features of the invention and further objects, features and advantages thereof will be better understood from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which: [0020] [0020 ]FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram showing a CR oscillation circuit according to an embodiment of the present invention;", "and [0021] [0021 ]FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram showing a conventional CR oscillation circuit and a timing chart thereof.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS [0022] [0022 ]FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram showing a CR oscillation circuit according to an embodiment of the present invention.", "The CR oscillation circuit according to the embodiment of the present invention comprises an oscillation unit 100 , a constant current unit 110 , and a level conversion unit 120 .", "[0023] The oscillation unit 100 comprises nodes N 1 , N 2 and N 3 , inverters 201 , 202 and 203 , a capacitor 204 , and a switch part 101 .", "In the oscillation unit 100 , the switch part 101 has four nodes and electrically connects the third and fourth nodes according to voltage levels applied to the first and second nodes.", "The node N 1 is electrically connected to a fourth node of the switch part 101 , an input terminal of the inverter 201 , and one end of the capacitor 204 .", "An output terminal of the inverter 201 is electrically connected to an input terminal of the inverter 202 , and an output terminal of the inverter 202 is electrically connected to the node N 2 .", "The node N 2 is electrically connected to an input terminal of the inverter 203 and the other end of the capacitor 204 .", "An output terminal of the inverter 203 is electrically connected to the node N 3 .", "The node N 3 is electrically connected to the third node of the switch part 101 .", "The oscillation unit 100 outputs an oscillation signal OUT from the node N 3 .", "[0024] Now, the switch part 101 is a transfer gate, which comprises a P channel MOS transistor (PMOS transistor) 102 , and an N channel MOS transistor(NMOS transistor) 103 .", "The PMOS transistor 102 has a gate electrode electrically connected to the first node of the switch part 101 , a source electrode electrically connected to the third node, and a drain electrode electrically connected to the fourth node.", "The NMOS transistor 103 includes a gate electrode electrically connected to the second node of the switch part 101 , a source electrode electrically connected to the third node, and a drain electrode electrically connected to the fourth node.", "[0025] The constant current unit 110 comprises PMOS transistors 111 and 112 which constitute a current mirror, NMOS transistors 113 and 114 which constitute a current mirror, a terminal 115 , an outside resistive element R 1 , and nodes N 4 and N 5 .", "The constant current unit 110 is capable of controlling a current by the outside resistive element R 1 .", "The PMOS transistor 111 has a gate electrode electrically connected to a gate electrode of the PMOS transistor 112 , a source electrode to which a source voltage VDD is applied, and a drain electrode electrically connected to the node N 5 .", "The PMOS transistor 112 has a gate electrode and a drain electrode electrically connected to the node N 4 , and a source electrode to which the source voltage VDD is applied.", "The NMOS transistor 113 has a gate electrode and a drain electrode electrically connected to the node N 5 , and a source electrode to which a ground voltage GND is applied.", "The NMOS transistor 114 has a gate electrode electrically connected to the gate electrode of the NMOS transistor 113 , a source electrode electrically connected to the terminal 115 , and a drain electrode electrically connected to the node N 4 .", "One end of the resistive element R 1 is electrically connected to the terminal 115 , whereas the other end thereof is electrically connected to the ground voltage GND.", "[0026] Owing to the connection of the outside resistive element R 1 between the terminal 115 and the ground voltage GND in such a constant current unit 110 , a current that flows through the PMOS transistors 111 and 112 and NMOS transistors 113 and 114 , is controlled to a constant value corresponding to the resistance value of the external resistive element R 1 .", "The constant current unit 110 outputs a constant voltage V 1 corresponding to the constant current from the node N 4 .", "[0027] The level conversion unit 120 comprises a node N 6 , a PMOS transistor 121 , and an NMOS transistor 122 .", "The PMOS transistor 121 has a gate electrode electrically connected to the node N 4 , a source electrode to which the source voltage VDD is applied, and a drain electrode electrically connected to the node N 6 .", "The NMOS transistor 122 has a gate electrode and a drain electrode electrically connected to the node N 6 , and a source electrode to which the ground voltage GND is applied.", "The level conversion unit 120 level-converts the voltage V 1 at the node N 4 and outputs a control voltage V 2 from the node N 6 .", "The control voltage V 2 is supplied to the gate electrode of the NMOS transistor 103 (or the second node of the switch part 101 ).", "[0028] The operation of the CR oscillation circuit will be described.", "[0029] When power is applied to the CR oscillation circuit, a constant current corresponding to the resistance value of the outside resistor R 1 flows in the constant current unit 110 .", "Thus, a constant voltage V 1 corresponding to the constant current is outputted to the node N 4 of the constant current unit 110 .", "[0030] The constant voltage V 1 is supplied to the level conversion unit 120 , where it is level-converted.", "The converted control voltage V 2 is outputted from the node N 6 .", "The constant voltage V 1 and the control voltage V 2 are respectively supplied to the gates of the PMOS transistor 102 and NMOS transistor 103 .", "Thus, each of the parallel-connected PMOS transistor 102 and NMOS transistor 103 assumes a constant conducting resistor corresponding to the outside resistor R 1 and operate a feedback resistor with respect to the node N 3 to the node N 1 .", "[0031] On the other hand, oscillating operations carried out by the inverters 201 through 203 , the capacitor 204 , and the PMOS transistor 102 and NMOS transistor 103 are represented as shown in FIG. 2(B).", "[0032] Thus, the CR oscillation circuit according to the present embodiment has the PMOS transistor 102 and NMOS transistor 103 operated as the feedback resistor, the constant current unit 110 for controlling each of the conducting resistors for these PMOS transistor 102 and NMOS transistor 103 by means of the outside resistor R 1 , and the level conversion unit 120 .", "A current that flows in the constant current unit 110 , is not affected by the parasitic capacitance of the outside resistor R 1 .", "Accordingly, an advantageous effect is brought about in that a CR oscillation circuit free of the occurrence of an error in oscillation frequency according to the state of packaging of the outside resistor R 1 is obtained.", "Also an advantageous effect is brought about in that since the PMOS transistor 102 and the NMOS transistor 103 are utilized in combination as a transfer gate type, currents charged into and discharged from the capacitor 204 can be set so as to flow freely in either direction, thereby making it possible to control the oscillation frequency accurately and reliably.", "[0033] Incidentally, the present invention is not limited to the embodiment referred to above.", "Various modifications can be made thereto.", "For example, the following are mentioned as such modifications.", "[0034] (a) The circuit configuration of the constant current unit 110 is not limited to the illustrated one.", "As an alternative to it, one may be used which causes a constant current to flow according to the value of the outside resistor R 1 and outputs a constant voltage V 1 corresponding to the constant current.", "[0035] (b) The circuit configuration of the level conversion unit 120 is not limited to the illustrated one.", "As an alternative to it, one may be used which converts a constant voltage V 1 outputted from the constant current unit 110 to a control voltage V 2 for the NMOS transistor 103 and outputs it.", "[0036] (c) A circuit configuration may be adopted in which the circuits for the constant current unit 110 and the level conversion unit 120 are changed so as to supply the constant voltage V 1 of the constant current unit 110 to the NMOS transistor 103 and supply the control voltage V 2 of the level conversion unit 120 to the PMOS transistor 102 .", "[0037] According to the present invention as described above in detail, a CR oscillation circuit has a feedback resistor using a conducting resistor for each transistor, a constant current circuit for controlling the conducting resistor according to the value of en outside resistor, and a level converting circuit.", "Consequently, an advantageous effect is obtained in that the CR oscillation circuit is not affected by parasitic capacitance of the outside resistor and produces no error in oscillation frequency according to the state of packaging.", "[0038] According to the present invention, a first conductive type MOS transistor in which the value of a conducting resistor is controlled by a constant voltage, and a second conductive type MOS transistor in which the value of a conducting resistor is controlled by a control voltage, are connected in parallel as transistors according to the present invention.", "Consequently, an advantageous effect is obtained in that a more reliable operation can be performed.", "[0039] While the present invention has been described with reference to the illustrative embodiments, this description is not intended to be construed in a limiting sense.", "Various modifications of the illustrative embodiments, as well as other embodiments of the invention, will be apparent to those skilled in the art on reference to this description.", "It is therefore contemplated that the appended claims will cover any such modifications or embodiments as fall within the true scope of the invention." ]

[ "FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001] The present invention is related to a method for the prevention and possibly the treatment of chronic diseases, preferably inflammatory associated chronic diseases that may affect an animal including a man (human), by the administration of a sufficient amount of a (functional) food or feed to the diet of this animal.", "[0002] Inflammation is a complex biological response of vascular tissues to an harmful stimulus.", "Inflammations which run unchecked could lead to a host of diseases, especially acute or chronic diseases, such as hay fever, atherosclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis that are not down-regulated by the body.", "[0003] In chronically inflamed tissues, a stimulus is persistent and therefore, a recruitment of monocytes is maintained.", "Existing macrophages are maintained in place and proliferation of these macrophages is stimulated.", "[0004] Immune system is also often involved with inflammatory disorders demonstrated in both allergic reaction and in some myopathies.", "Furthermore, non-immune diseases with etiological origin in inflammatory process include cancer, atherosclerosis and ischemic heart (Ischemia) disease.", "Other disorders with inflammation include asthma, auto-immune diseases, chronic inflammation, chronic prostatitis, glomerulonephritis, per sensitivities, inflammatory bowel disease, pelvic inflammatory disease, reperfusion injury, rheumatoid arthritis, transplant rejection and vasculitis.", "An allergic reaction formerly known as type 1 hyper sensitivity also the result of an inappropriate immune response triggering inflammation.", "Other hyper sensitivity reactions (type 2 and type 3) are mediated by antibody reactions and induces inflammation by attracting leukocytes, which damage surrounding tissue.", "Inflammatory myopathies are caused by the immune system inappropriately attacking component of muscle leading to site of muscle inflammation.", "They may occur in conjunction with other immune disorders such as systemic sclerosis and including dermatomyositis, polymyositis and inclusion body myositis.", "It is also known that high level of several inflammations relating markers such as IL-6, IL-8 and TNF-alpha are associated with obesity.", "During clinical study, inflammatory related molecule levels were reduced and increased levels of anti inflammatory molecules were detected within 4 weeks after patient began a very low caloric diet.", "Furthermore, the association of systemic inflammation with insulin resistance and atherosclerosis has been also the subject of intensive research.", "[0005] Prolonged inflammation, known as acute or chronic inflammation leads to a progressive shift of the type of cells which are present at the site of inflammation and is characterized by simultaneous destruction and healing of the tissue from the inflammatory process that could lead to chronic diseases, such as obesity, diabetes mellitus, cardio- and cerebrovascular diseases like hypertension or ischemia, auto-immune diseases (including diseases of inflammatory origin like arthritis or lupus), brain diseases (including neuro-degenerative diseases like Alzheimer disease, Parkinson disease, Huntington disease, multiple sclerosis, depression or schizophrenia), asthma, systemic sclerosis, allergies and cancer.", "[0006] Therefore, in the present description, the applicant will use for the same effect, the words “chronic inflammation”, “chronic inflammation associated disease”", "or “inflammatory disorders”", "that constitute a large and related group of disorders which underlies a variety of human diseases.", "[0007] Cholesterol in the animal kingdom has been submitted to an evolutionary selective process, yet it sits and functions in animal cells for hundreds of million years.", "In the 6-million-year-old hominid species, cholesterol accounts for 70 g per 70 kg body weight (0.1% w:w) and is distributed over all organs and tissues through blood circulation.", "[0008] Cholesterol has been evolutionary selected as a unique blood and tissue active component in animals evolving in a wild environment.", "In such a land-based environment, body fats in herbivorous animals are characterized by a ˜1:1 ratio between the two plant essential fatty acids (EFAs), linoleic acid (LA, C18:2ω6) and alpha-linolenic acid (ALA, C18:3ω3).", "[0009] It exists a need especially in the animal population for a reduction of these chronic diseases by a modification of the diet of animals preferably in mammals including the diet of humans.", "[0010] These modifications should lead to a reduction of cholesterol-related chronic diseases for improving the health of animals, especially mammals subjects including human patients and for reducing the development of chronic diseases especially chronic inflammation and chronic inflammation associated diseases or disorders.", "[0011] Verschuren et al.", "indicated that factor other than cholesterol, but diet-related are important for the prevention of heart disease (Serum total cholesterol and long-term coronary heart disease mortality in different cultures.", "Twenty-five-year follow-up of the seven countries study JAMA 1995;", "274: 131-136).", "Moreover, the inventors previously demonstrated that the diets the study of Verschuren have very different ω6 &", "ω3 contents.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0012] The present invention is related to the use of (or to a method of prevention and possibly treatment) which comprises the step of adding to the diet of an animal) a sufficient amount of a (functional) natural (i.e. non genetically modified) food or feed composition inducing in total blood, serum, plasma or yolk of an animal, an HUFAs ω6 of about 25% (with a variance of about 5%) for the manufacture of a medicament to be administrated to this animal for an efficient prevention and possibly an efficient treatment of chronic diseases especially chronic inflammatory associated diseases affecting this animal, being preferably a mammal, including a human.", "[0013] A functional and natural food or feed composition means a composition present in the diet of an animal, preferably a mammal, including a human, which is made of natural ingredients (non genetically modified ingredients obtained from non genetically modified plants or animals).", "Such restriction to natural compound is preferred, because national and European authorities do not accept a presence of genetically modified organisms or their portion in a composition destinated to domestic animals or humans.", "This percentage should be limited to 0.9% according to the European authorities.", "[0014] Furthermore, it exists also an important discussion in human population regarding the drawbacks of genetically modified ingredients, especially genetically modified plants.", "[0015] The food or feed composition according to the invention may comprise different ingredients of animal, vegetal or mineral (salt) origin.", "[0016] Therefore, in the present invention, it is not possible to define the characteristic of the specific composition according to the invention, because it could be made of different ingredients having different ratios of (ω6 and ω3 polyunsaturated) fatty acids, but the mixture of these different ingredients will allow the preparation of a composition which is suitable for the diet of an animal, preferably a mammal, including a human, to induce in total blood, serum, plasma or yolk of the animal an HUFAs ω6% of about 25%, with a possible variance of 5%.", "[0017] However, if the ingredients of such food or feed composition are of animal origin, they have preferably a ratio of ω6:ω3 polyunsaturated fatty acids PUFAs=1:1 with a variance of about 10%, preferably with a variance of about 5%.", "Examples of such ingredients of animal origin are egg, milk, meat, blood, skin, fat, fish, shell fish or a mixture thereof.", "[0018] However, an ingredient comprising a higher concentration of ω3 polyunsaturated fatty acids may be added in order to obtain an efficient balance of ω6 and ω3 fatty acids in the composition.", "[0019] The ingredients of the composition according to the invention could be also of a vegetable origin and may have preferably a ratio of ω6:ω3 essential fatty acids EFAs=1:3 with a variance of about 10%, preferably with a variance of about 5%.", "[0020] Advantageously, these ingredients of vegetable origin are preferably selected from the group consisting of oils, vegetables roots or seeds possibly present in various compositions of vegetable origin, such as bread, paste or cookies.", "The composition may further comprise also suitable amount of carbohydrates, amino-acids (or proteins), anti-oxidants, vitamins and minerals (salt).", "[0021] According to the invention, the inflammatory associated chronic diseases (inflammatory chronic disease or a disease of inflammatory origin) affecting this animal, preferably a mammal, including a human, are selected from the group consisting of obesity, diabetes mellitus, cardio- and cerebro-vascular diseases (atherosclerosis, hypertension, Ischemia) auto-immune diseases (including diseases of inflammatory origin, such as lateral Amyotrophic sclerosis, arthritis or lupus), brain diseases (including neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer disease, Parkinson disease, Huntington's disease, multiple sclerosis, depression or schizophrenia), asthma, systemic sclerosis, allergies and cancer.", "[0022] Another aspect of the present invention is related to a method for the preparation of the functional and natural food or feed composition according to the invention which comprises ingredients of animal and/or vegetable origin.", "This method comprises the step of identifying the percentage of fatty acids in each usual ingredient present in the recipe of the composition, and modifying the recipe of this composition by mixing one or more of these usual ingredients with one or more additional ingredient(s) of animal or vegetable origin to obtain a composition inducing HUFAs ω6 of about 25% (with a variance of about 5%) in total blood, serum, plasma or yolk of an animal preferably by comprising a composition of animal HUFAs ω6 of 25% (with a variance of about 10% or 5%) and of vegetable EFAs ω6 of 25% (with a variance of about 10% or 5%).", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0025] Essential fatty acids (EFAs;", "linoleic acid, LA, C18:2 ω6 and α-linolenic acid ALA, C18:3 ω3) are from vegetable or animal origin, while highly unsaturated fatty acids (HUFAs) are derived by an animal from EFAs (PUFA is the sum of EPA and HUFA).", "[0026] The inventors have identified unexpectedly that an advantageous 25% ω6 in blood total, serum, plasma or yolk.", "HUFAs (%ω6 HUFAs=25) is equivalent to the 1:1 into in serum PUFAs (ω6:ω3-PUFAs=1:1) in an animal, preferably a mammal, including an human and that this equivalence depends neither upon the type of diet (vegans, vegetarians, omnivorous, fish- or meat-based), neither upon the species (human, others mammals or birds), nor upon the latitude on earth where they live and dwell (Poles, Temperate Zones, Tropical and Sub-Tropical Zones, Equator, East, West, Continental).", "[0027] Therefore, it seems that there is an universal rule among biological species on earth that define this percentage of ω6-HUFAs=25 and/or ω6:ω3-PUFAs=1:1 as an ideal blood and/or serum/yolk environment for moderate, cause-effect proportionate, healthy tissue-inflammatory responses to take place.", "Deviating from that gene-compliant standard may lead to chronic inflammation and associated diseases on the long run.", "[0028] The inventors have identified that the proportion of ω6 in blood total highly unsaturated fatty acids (%ω6-HUFAs) is an accurate index of these tissues pro-inflammatory state, on the one hand, of dietary intake of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), on the other hand and to the potentialization of the harmful effect of blood cholesterol.", "25% ω6 in blood total HUFAs appears as an ideal diet-derived safeguard against these tissues inflammations and development of the mentioned chronic diseases.", "[0029] Within diet comprising essential fatty acids, ratios are important, not amounts.", "Essential fatty acids (EFAs) are linoleic acid (LA C18:2 ω6) and alpha-linolenic acid (ALA, C18:3 ω3).", "It is now known that no more than 1% of daily intake energy (DEI) is needed as LA.", "Provided that threshold amount is reached, then a 1:3 ratio of LA:ALA is all what it takes to reach 25% ω6-HUFAs in total blood lipids and, as far as this dietary ω6:ω3-EFAs=1:3 ratio is maintained, an increase in the daily intake of LA will have no effect on the blood proportion of ω6 in total HUFAs.", "As there appears to be no absolute requirement for ω3-HUFAs (and therefore game and fish) in the human's diet, a vegan or a vegetarian diet can be perfectly fine with regards to human needs.", "[0030] However, one must realise that today's modern food environment, loaded with hidden omega-6 fatty acids (LA, AA) does require the omnipresence of compensating ω3-HUFAs.", "This notion of ratios rather than the amount is of importance from a geographic perspective.", "Human populations live under different latitudes where sunshine and fats are differently distributed.", "For instance, cold polar environments favour HUFAs and EFAs, rainy temperatured latitudes favour EFAs and MUFAs (mono unsaturated fatty acids), and sunny tropical and equatorial latitudes favour MUFAs and SAFAs (saturated fatty acids).", "In wild-type environments under these different latitudes, ancient diets provide PUFAs that favour this preferred 25% ω6-HUFAs in total blood lipid and/or the ω6:ω3-PUFAs=1:1 in total serum lipids.", "However, ω6-rich grains and grain-fed livestock, thus not cholesterol and saturated fats, appear as the most single identified health care concern in modern man's diet around the world, including that of modern Inuits, Japanese, and Mediterranean.", "Moreover, those who were the least exposed to dietary PUFAs (Mediterranean zones and below) are also those who are at the highest risk of developing chronic diseases (and also obesity) when fed with ω6 rich modern foods, since this regimen is comparatively poor in ω3, needed to restore the ideal ratio.", "[0031] Furthermore, the inventors have discovered that when applied to modern livestock (poultry), a balanced ratio of essential fatty acids (ω6:ω3 EFAs or PUFAs=1:1) in the animal (bird) body fat translates unexpectedly into a ˜1:3 ratio of ω6 to ω3 in its blood (and yolk of the obtained egg) highly unsaturated fatty acids (ω6:ω3 HUFAs=1:3).", "[0032] It appears that Nature has selected cholesterol as an ideal tissue active component for land-based herbivorous animals complying with the following rules in terms of body fat and blood (yolk) fatty acid distribution (see table 1).", "Concurrently, such body fat and blood (yolk) fatty acid composition, when associated with the right diet-derived balance of essential amino acids, antioxidant vitamins and minerals, must be ideal for circulating lipoproteins (blood cholesterol) and tissue health &", "homeostasis, in land-based herbivorous animal species.", "CHD-Mortality and HUFAs in Man: Epidemiological Studies [0033] Human prospective epidemiological evidence tends to show that the proportion of ω6 in blood total HUFAs is a potentially accurate parameter to estimate the risk of developing chronic diseases (Non-communicable diseases or NCDs), including obesity, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease (CVD), hypertension, stroke, and some type of cancers, that are multigenic and multifactorial), such as exemplified by WEM Lands for coronary heart disease (CHD), and that the preferred proportion of 25% ω6 in blood total HUFAs (ω6:ω3 HUFAs=1:3) is an ideal epidemiologically-derived diet-related make-up in terms of protection against onset and development of such chronic diseases.", "[0034] It is remarkable that the epidemiologically-determined safest blood HUFAs composition in man (25% ω6 HUFAs or ω6:ω3 HUFAs=1:3) is consistent with that naturally established in wild land-based herbivorous animals, and that the latter naturally establishes itself in modern livestock raised on a wild-type plan diet.", "From Nutrition Facts to Nurturing Facts [0035] Epidemiological evidence tends to support the view that Classic Nutrition Facts could be advantageously substituted for Modern Nurturing Facts to show essential rather than the non-essential fat content of the food (see table 2).", "Saturated and mono-unsaturated fats as well as cholesterol are non-essential for man.", "Saturated fats and cholesterol are secondary risk factors for chronic human diseases, whereas essential and highly unsaturated fatty acids determine body tissue composition, health and homeostasis.", "[0036] The contribution of balanced Egg such as described in the European Patent EP128236781 to blood total ω6 HUFAs is calculated from an empirical equation derived by WEM Lands that is available on the US NIH website: http://efaeducation.", "nih.gov/sig/dietbalance.", "html and/or at http://www.", "sbsoft.", "be/columbus-concept-5.", "html [0037] The mathematical model can be used to accurately test a diet or to approximately test a specific food item for its potential contribution to HUFA-related tissue inflammatory status and, in turn, to evaluate the potential risk of developing a chronic disease by keeping on such a diet for a long time or by eating such food item on a regular basis (Table 3).", "[0038] This interactive learning website can also be used to help determine a potentially ideal dietary essential fatty acid distribution that is needed to maintain tissue health and homeostasis.", "In particular, linoleic acid (LA, C18:2 ω6) must be taken into consideration here since saturation of fatty acid physiological pathways leading to endogenous synthesis of eicosanoids (autacoids) in rat and man appears to require less than 1.0% of D.E.I. (22.22 Cal or 2.5 gm) as LA.", "Intakes in excess of that threshold seem to lead to impairment of ω3-HUFAs synthesis and accretion in tissues and organs.", "Computational analysis of US NIH website equation leads to an optimized dietary ratio of plant fats, ie ω6:ω3-EFAs=1:3 (25% ω6-EFA/75% ω3-EFA) which maintains a proportion of 25% ω6 in blood total HUFAs.", "Interestingly, this distribution of essential fats is typical of ubiquitous greens and ancient seeds, such as flax, chia and perilla, on which man and wild-land based herbivorous animals have evolved.", "[0039] ω6-rich grain-extracted table oils were not part of the food chain until Modern Agriculture came into play.", "From the classification obtained in table 3, it appears that most table oils seem to contribute to tissue inflammation and the onset of chronic diseases, so they could not have supported man's inception.", "Only certain Olive Oil (low in linoleic acid), Columbus Oil (described in the Patent Application WO2005/020698 and which is a corrected olive oil), chia, flax and perilla oils tends to composition that is compatible with man's tissue homeostasis.", "Modern meat obtained from livestock fed ω6-rich grains is also inflammatory, because of its high content of animal-derived ω6-HUFAs.", "[0040] Among suitable functional food or feed composition to be used in the present invention, the person skilled in the art may select ocean fatty fishes or food or feed composition comprising them that are balancing foods in a modern type diet.", "Thanks to their high content in ω3-HUFAs, they can help in reducing the pro-inflammatory properties of modern oils &", "fats, and meats.", "[0041] Very important is the fact that dairy products—including full fat milk, butter and cream—are low in essential fatty acids and do not contribute to HUFA-related tissue inflammation, yet they may contribute to increases in the classic TC:HDL and LDL:HDL ratios because of their saturated fatty acids content.", "However, the person skilled in the art may also obtain wild-type milk that present substantially lowered ratios of medium to long chain fatty acids (MCFA: −25%;", "LCFA: +25%).", "Therefore, wild-type dairies all belong to a healthy balanced diet where total fat and energy are kept under control.", "[0042] Last but not least, the person skilled in the art should also take into consideration published and current recommendations for the use of fatty acid composition ((a) Simopoulos A P et al.", ", Essentially of and recommended dietary intakes for ω-6 and ω-3 fatty acids.", "Food Rev International 2000;", "16:113-117;", "(b) Scientific Committee on Food.", "Report on the Revision of Essential Requirements of Infant Formulae and Follow-on Formulae.", "SCF/CS/NUT/IF/65 Final (18 May 2003), EU Commission, Health &", "Consumer Protection Directorate General).", "[0043] Genetically speaking, human beings have not changed over the 10,000 years since the development of modern agriculture.", "Healthy human beings exhibit balanced body fats (ω6:ω3-EFAs=1:1) and/or a low proportion of ω6 in blood total HUFAs (ω6 in HUFAs=25%).", "These compositions can be obtained and maintained through selection of land-based wild-type diets, complying with the same ratios when from animal origin (game, river fish) and in favour of omega-3 fatty acids (ω6:ω3-EFAs=1:3) when from plant origin (leafy vegetables, some seeds &", "nuts).", "[0000] TABLE 1 Hen's body Yolk total Fatty acid (%) fat lipids C16:0 12.90 19.34 C18:0 5.43 9.18 C16:1ω7 2.34 3.17 C18:1ω9 33.92 37.74 C18:2ω6 21.16 13.59 C18:3ω3 21.16 11.69 C20:4ω6 0.04 0.81 C20:5ω3 0.03 0.28 C22:5ω3 0.02 0.43 C22:6ω3 0.04 1.86 ω6:ω3 EFAs ~1:1 — ω6:ω3 HUFAs — ~1:3 ω6:ω3 PUFAs ~1:1 ~1:1 [0000] TABLE 2 CE: Columbus Egg (One 65-g egg);", "D.E.I.: daily energy intake, RDI: recommended daily intake [0000] TABLE 3 Traditional foods as per their predicted potential contribution to tissue inflammation and development of chronic diseases Blood % % % ω6 % ω3 % ω6 Predicted Oils &", "fats LA ALA HUFAs HUFAs HUFAs Risk Sunflower oil 61 0.1 — — 76 +++ Grapeseed oil 68 0.5 — — 76 +++ Corn oil 51 1.0 — — 74 +++ Peanut oil 35 0.1 — — 73 +++ Wheat germ oil 55 7 — — 70 +++ Soybean oil 54 7.5 — — 70 +++ FAO/WHO 11.1 0.92 0.74 0.37 70 +++ 1994 Walnut oil 62 12 — — 68 +++ Olive oil (1) 13 0.6 — — 63 ++ Palm oil 9 0.25 — — 58 ++ Canola oil 20 10 — — 54 ++ Std egg 17.03 0.66 2.03 1.17 50 + Std red meat 22.60 2.66 3.70 1.21 49 + Std white meat 20.64 2.20 5.83 2.26 46 + Olive oil (2) 5 0.6 — — 47 + Columbus oil 7 7 — — 38 0 Col red meat 24.73 21.36 1.96 3.04 32 0 Col white meat 22.02 15.07 4.40 6.68 30 0 Columbus egg 13.59 11.69 0.81 2.57 27 0 Coconut oil 1.5 0.1 — — 25 0 Chia oil 19 64 — — 24 0 Flax oil 15 57.5 — — 22 0 Greek egg 6.10 2.63 2.67 4.10 22 0 Salmon 5.20 5.30 9.80 28.80 20 0 Perilla oil 12.6 63.2 — — 18 − Trout 5.50 6.00 4.", "30 21.20 12 − Full fat milk 3.5 1.0 — — 11 − Mackerel 1.28 0.07 0.37 18.84 2 −− Atlantic herring 0.78 0.04 0.27 7.20 2 −− Pacific herring 0.67 0.07 — 8.11 1 −− [0044] “Predicted HUFA-related Risk”", "(correlated here to the contribution of the food to %ω6 in blood total HUFAs) is calculated from US NTH website http://efaeducation.", "nih.gov/sig/dietbalance1.", "html for an intake of 20 g edible oil, 100-g edible egg (8.4 g total fatty acids), meat &", "fish (4.75 g total fatty acids), and milk (3.8 g total fatty acids) when contributing to a 30% fat-containing diet (2,222 Cal).", "Fatty acid compositional data are from The Lipid Handbook (Gunstone F D, Harwood L L &", "Padley F B, 2 nd Ed), Chapman &", "Hall, 1994, ISBN 0 412 43320 6.", "Data on Chia oil are retrieved from www.", "eatchia.com Greek Ampelistra egg is from Simopouios A P &", "Salem H Jr. N-3 fatty acids in eggs from range-fed Greek chickens.", "N Engl J Med 1989;", "321:1412 (letter).", "FAO/WHO 1994 were recommended standards for infant formula;", "here computing was made for <1 yr of age infant fed 900 ml milk formula daily.", "“Col”", "stands here for Columbus." ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application claims priority to PCT Application No. PCT/EP2014/066812, having a filing date of Aug. 5, 2014, based off of DE Application No. 102013224411.8 having a filing date of Nov. 28, 2013 and DE 102013224156.9, having a filing date of Nov. 26, 2013, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.", "FIELD OF TECHNOLOGY [0002] The following relates to a method for the computer-assisted configuration of an electrical power grid and to a corresponding apparatus and to an electrical power grid.", "BACKGROUND [0003] Electrical power grids comprise a plurality of grid nodes which are connected via power lines and in which electrical energy is produced or from which electrical energy is removed.", "In this case, the grid nodes are often controlled within the scope of proportional control in which the voltage and frequency of the individual nodes and their active power and reactive power which are fed in are set for said nodes.", "A distinction is made between grid-forming producer nodes and grid-supporting producer nodes.", "In a grid-forming producer node, which is also referred to as a voltage-controlled producer node, the amplitude and frequency of the voltage in this node are set within the scope of the proportional control.", "In contrast, in a grid-supporting producer node, which is also referred to as a current-controlled producer node, the active power and reactive power fed in are controlled within the scope of the proportional control.", "[0004] In modern power grids, grid-supporting producer nodes are often regenerative energy production plants which contain power electronics, for example inverters, which are designed only for a particular maximum current.", "In the event of excessive fluctuations in the load in the power grid, the power grid may become unstable on account of current limitation of the grid-supporting producer nodes, which, under certain circumstances, may result in failure of the power grid.", "Consequently, the operation of the grid-supporting producer nodes is generally designed in such a manner that the maximum current is not reached in the event of sudden load changes.", "However, this results in the proportion of energy which is provided via regenerative energy production in the power grid being limited.", "This increases the power production costs since grid-forming producer nodes are increasingly being used for this purpose and are generally conventional generators, for example diesel generators or gas turbines.", "[0005] Only a few approaches relating to how the proportion of regenerative energy production can be increased in a power grid are known from the prior art.", "Document [ 1 ] describes power grids in the form of so-called micro grids having a high proportion of regenerative energy production.", "However, large and overdimensioned electrical energy stores are used as grid-forming nodes in such grids.", "Simulation methods which are used to simulate different load changes in the grid are also known for the purpose of optimizing power grids.", "However, these methods are computationally intensive and can generally provide results only for a small number of possible load changes.", "SUMMARY [0006] An aspect relates to an electrical power grid easily and quickly using a computer-assisted method.", "[0007] The method according to embodiments of the invention is used for the computer-assisted configuration of an electrical power grid.", "In this case, the method can be carried out in advance (off-line) before the power grid is activated.", "The method can likewise be carried out or repeated during operation of the power grid (online).", "The electrical power grid configured using the method comprises a plurality of grid nodes connected via power lines.", "These grid nodes comprise one or more first grid nodes.", "The first grid node(s) provide(s) active power for a load (for example a passive load) in the power grid during operation of the power grid and is/are therefore corresponding producer nodes.", "Depending on the embodiment, the load can occur at one point or at a plurality of points or nodes in the power grid.", "[0008] A respective first grid node is a grid-forming producer node in the power grid, in which the amplitude and frequency of the voltage in this grid node are controlled, on the one hand, on the basis of the reactive power fed in by this grid node or the reactive current fed in by this grid node and, on the other hand, on the basis of the active power fed in by this grid node or the active current fed in by this grid node using a control method and, in particular, using proportional control.", "Such a control method or such proportional control is known per se.", "Within the scope of the proportional control, the amplitude of the voltage is proportional to the reactive power or the reactive current and the frequency of the voltage is proportional to the active power or the active current.", "[0009] In the method according to embodiments of the invention, changes in the active power of the first grid nodes are determined for respective predefined changes in the active power of the load on the basis of a dynamic model of the power grid (that is to say a model which describes the temporal change in relevant variables in the power grid, such as voltages, powers and frequencies).", "In other words, the changes in the active power of the first nodes are described or modeled using a dynamic model of the power grid on the basis of predefined changes in the active power of the load and can therefore be calculated in a computer-assisted manner.", "The model described in document [ 2 ], for example, can be used as the dynamic model of the power grid.", "One preferred variant uses a model which is based on the assumption that the active power and reactive power produced in a grid node are immediately available in every other grid node.", "This model is explained in more detail in the detailed description.", "The assumption just described is equivalent in this case to the assumption of short (negligible) power lines between the grid nodes.", "Another preferred variant uses a model which uses a linearized load flow model.", "[0010] In the method according to embodiments of the invention, the control methods for the respective first grid nodes are adjusted in such a manner that an optimization problem with the aim of operating the power grid in an optimum manner with respect to one or more optimization criteria is solved using the changes in the active power of the first grid nodes determined using the above model.", "Depending on the configuration, these optimization criteria and the aim may be stipulated differently.", "For example, the optimization criteria may be stipulated in such a manner that they result in low operating costs for the power grid.", "In one particularly preferred embodiment, the aim of the optimization problem is for as little of the active power provided for the load as possible to come from the first grid node(s).", "This therefore corresponds to the optimization criterion of providing as little active power as possible by means of the first grid node(s).", "[0011] In one preferred embodiment of the method according to the invention, the grid nodes also comprise one or more second grid nodes which provide active power for the load in the power grid during operation of the power grid, wherein a respective second grid node is a grid-supporting producer node in the form of a regenerative energy production plant in which, on the one hand, the active power fed in by this grid node or the active current fed in by this grid node and, on the other hand, the reactive power fed in by this grid node or the reactive current fed in by this grid node are controlled on the basis of the frequency and amplitude of the voltage in this grid node using a control method and, in particular, using proportional control.", "Such a control method or such proportional control is likewise known per se.", "During proportional control, the active power fed in or the active current fed in is proportional in this case to the frequency of the voltage, and the reactive power fed in or the reactive current fed in is proportional to the amplitude of the voltage.", "Within the scope of this embodiment, changes in the active power of the second grid nodes are also determined for respective predefined changes in the active power of the load on the basis of the dynamic model of the power grid.", "In addition, the control methods for the respective first and second grid nodes are adjusted in such a manner that the optimization problem with the aim of operating the power grid in an optimum manner with respect to one or more optimization criteria is solved using the determined changes in the active power of the first and second grid nodes.", "[0012] The method according to embodiments of the invention is based on the knowledge that the control methods for the producer nodes can be easily parameterized using a suitable dynamic model of the power grid in such a manner that predefined optimization criteria with respect to the operation of the power grid are satisfied.", "In one preferred variant, as much energy as possible is produced in this case in the power grid by means of regenerative energy production plants during optimum operation, thus keeping the power production costs low.", "The method is used, in particular, in a power grid in the form of an island grid in which the grid nodes are not connected to further power grids.", "[0013] In one preferred variant of the method according to the invention, the control method in the grid-forming producer node is proportional control which comprises first proportional control and second proportional control.", "[0014] According to the first proportional control based on a first proportionality factor and a reference active power assigned to the grid-forming producer node and a reference frequency assigned to the power grid, the frequency of the voltage in the grid-forming producer node is preferably stipulated on the basis of the active power fed in by the grid-forming producer node.", "In an alternative variant, according to the first proportional control based on a first proportionality factor and a reference active current assigned to the grid-forming producer node and a reference frequency assigned to the power grid, the frequency of the voltage in the grid-forming producer node is stipulated on the basis of the active current fed in by the grid-forming producer node.", "[0015] According to the second proportional control based on a second proportionality factor and a reference reactive power assigned to the grid-forming producer node and a reference voltage assigned to the grid-forming producer node, the amplitude of the voltage in the grid-forming producer node is preferably stipulated on the basis of the reactive power fed in by the grid-forming producer node.", "In an alternative variant, according to the second proportional control based on a second proportionality factor and a reference reactive current assigned to the grid-forming producer node and a reference voltage assigned to the grid-forming producer node, the amplitude of the voltage in the grid-forming producer node is stipulated on the basis of the reactive current fed in by the grid-forming producer node.", "[0016] In another embodiment, the control method in the grid-supporting producer node is proportional control which comprises third proportional control and fourth proportional control.", "According to the third proportional control based on a third proportionality factor and a reference active power assigned to the grid-supporting producer node and a reference frequency assigned to the power grid, the active power fed in by the grid-supporting producer node is preferably stipulated on the basis of the frequency of the voltage in the grid-supporting producer node.", "In an alternative variant, according to the third proportional control based on a third proportionality factor and a reference active current assigned to the grid-supporting producer node and a reference frequency assigned to the power grid, the active current fed in by the grid-supporting producer node is stipulated on the basis of the frequency of the voltage in the grid-supporting producer node.", "[0017] According to the fourth proportional control based on a fourth proportionality factor and a reference reactive power assigned to the grid-supporting producer node and a reference voltage assigned to the grid-supporting producer node, the reactive power fed in by the grid-supporting producer node is preferably stipulated on the basis of the amplitude of the voltage in the grid-supporting producer node.", "In an alternative variant, according to the fourth proportional control based on a fourth proportionality factor and a reference reactive current assigned to the grid-supporting producer node and a reference voltage assigned to the grid-supporting producer node, the reactive current fed in by the grid-supporting producer node is stipulated on the basis of the amplitude of the voltage in the grid-supporting producer node.", "[0018] In one particularly preferred embodiment, within the scope of adjusting the first and second proportional control and/or the third and fourth proportional control, the first and/or the second proportionality factor and/or the third and/or the fourth proportionality factor and/or the reference active power or the reference active current and/or the reference reactive power or the reference reactive current in the respective first and/or second grid nodes is/are determined.", "These variables are therefore used to adjust or parameterize the proportional control in the grid-forming or grid-supporting grid nodes.", "[0019] In one variant of the invention, the optimization problem generally worded and defined above is minimization of the active power provided by the first grid node(s) under the secondary condition that the changes in the active power of the first and/or second grid nodes (and, in particular, of only the second grid nodes) are limited for the respective predefined changes in the active power of the load, that is to say do not exceed a predefined threshold value.", "[0020] In a further variant, the optimization problem is given by minimization of the changes in the active power of the first and/or second grid nodes for the respective predefined changes in the active power of the load.", "In this case, only the minimization of the changes in the active power of the second grid nodes is preferably included in the optimization problem.", "This limits the magnitude of overshoots into the grid-supporting grid nodes, with the result that these grid nodes can be operated at a higher active power.", "Therefore, more active power is provided by the grid-supporting producer nodes, with the result that the optimization aim defined at the outset, according to which as little of the active power provided for the load as possible comes from the first grid nodes, is achieved.", "[0021] In another variant of the method according to the invention, it is taken into account, as the secondary condition of the optimization problem, that the deviations of the frequencies of the voltages in the grid-forming and/or grid-supporting producer node(s) (in particular only in the grid-forming producer nodes) from a reference frequency assigned to the power grid are limited for the respective predefined changes in the active power of the load and/or the deviations of the amplitudes of the voltages in the grid-forming and/or grid-supporting producer node(s) (in particular only in the grid-forming producer nodes) from a reference voltage assigned to the respective grid-forming and/or grid-supporting producer node are limited for respective predefined changes in the reactive power of the load.", "This embodiment of the invention ensures stable grid operation with a largely constant voltage amplitude and voltage frequency in the grid nodes.", "[0022] In another variant of the method according to embodiments of the invention, in order to determine the changes in the active power of the second grid nodes, a temporal change in the frequency and the amplitude of the voltage in the respective second grid nodes is estimated using a PLL algorithm (PLL=phase-locked loop).", "[0023] In one preferred embodiment, the first grid node(s) comprise(s) one or more electrical energy stores, in particular batteries, and/or one or more electrical generators driven using fossil fuel or regeneratively produced fuel, for example diesel generators, in the power grid configured using the method according to embodiments of the invention.", "In one preferred variant, the second grid nodes are one or more photovoltaic plants and/or wind power plants.", "[0024] In addition to the method described above, embodiments of the invention relates to an apparatus for the computer-assisted configuration of an electrical power grid, wherein the apparatus is set up to carry out the method according to embodiments of the invention or one or more preferred variants of the method according to the invention.", "[0025] In addition, embodiments of the invention relates to an electrical power grid which comprises the apparatus according to embodiments of the invention described above.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION [0026] Some of the embodiments will be described in detail, with reference to the following figures, wherein like designations denote like members, wherein: [0027] FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of a power grid in a form of an island grid in which one embodiment of the method according to the invention is carried out.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0028] The power grid PG shown in FIG. 1 comprises the grid nodes N 1 , N 2 , N 3 , N 4 and N 5 which are connected to one another via power lines PL.", "In this case, the grid nodes N 1 to N 4 are producer nodes, in which case the grid node N 1 is a generator node G in the form of a diesel generator and the grid nodes N 2 , N 3 and N 4 are regenerative energy production plants in the form of photovoltaic plants PV.", "The generator node N 1 is a grid-forming producer node (also referred to as a voltage-controlled producer node), whereas the regenerative energy production plants N 2 to N 4 are grid-supporting producer nodes (also referred to as current-controlled producer nodes).", "These two types of grid nodes differ in terms of their proportional control, as described in more detail further below.", "[0029] The producer nodes N 1 to N 4 provide active power for the passive load L which is present in the grid and, in the exemplary embodiment in FIG. 1 , is represented by a load node N 5 .", "Alternatively, however, the load may also occur at different locations or at a plurality of nodes in the power grid.", "In order to suitably configure or control the power grid, provision is made of a central control unit CO which communicates with the individual nodes, as indicated by dashed lines.", "One embodiment of the method according to the invention is carried out in this control unit.", "In particular, corresponding parameters of the proportional controllers implemented in the nodes are suitably adjusted.", "[0030] According to the variant of the method according to the invention described here, an optimization problem is solved in a computer-assisted manner upon activation of the power grid or if necessary even during operation in order to stipulate parameters of the proportional controllers in such a manner that, in the event of rapid changes in the active power and reactive power of the load, the change in the active and reactive powers of the regenerative producer nodes which is caused thereby is limited and as little of the active power provided for the load as possible is provided by the generator node G. The optimization is carried out on the basis of a model of the power grid which is based on the assumption of short power lines between the grid nodes.", "This model and the corresponding optimization are explained in more detail below.", "If appropriate, a different model of the power grid can also be used, instead of the model described below, to formulate the optimization problem, for example the model described in document [ 2 ].", "[0031] As already mentioned, the model used here is based on the assumption of short power lines, which means that the phase differences between adjacent grid nodes tend toward zero.", "In other words, the model is based on the assumption that the active power and reactive power produced in a grid node of the power grid are available immediately (that is to say instantaneously or without a time delay) in every other grid node of the power grid.", "[0032] In the method described below, the power grid PG in FIG. 1 which comprises a single grid-forming generator node in the form of a diesel generator is taken as a basis.", "However, the method can also be used for a plurality of grid-forming grid nodes, in which case the grid-forming nodes may also be other types of generators (for example gas turbines) or electrical energy stores.", "In addition, the grid-forming producer node, which is specified below by the index M (M=master), may also comprise a plurality of identical units which are operated in a parallel manner, with the result that they are modeled as an aggregated individual producer node.", "[0033] As mentioned, the grid PG in FIG. 1 comprises a plurality of grid-supporting producer nodes which are denoted below using indices i and j, in which case the total number of grid-supporting producer nodes is also specified by the variable N. In this case, more than three of the grid-supporting producer nodes illustrated in FIG. 1 can be provided.", "The grid-supporting producer nodes may also completely or partially be regenerative energy production plants other than photovoltaic plants, for example wind power plants.", "[0034] The passive load L occurring in the power grid is given as follows in the model described here: [0000] P L = U 2 R L ( 1  a ) Q L = U 2 X L ( 1  b ) [0035] In this case, U denotes the voltage amplitude and R L is the non-reactive resistance (or effective resistance) and X L is the reactance of the load L. [0036] With the above assumption of short power lines, the active power and reactive power of the grid-forming producer node M are described by the following equations: [0000] P M =P L −Σ j=1 N P Cj (2a) [0000] Q M =Q L −Σ j=1 N Q Cj (2b) [0037] In this case, P M denotes the active power and Q M denotes the reactive power provided by the grid-forming producer node.", "P Cj is the active power and Q Cj is the reactive power provided by the jth grid-supporting producer node (that is to say the corresponding inverter of the regenerative energy production plant).", "[0038] The grid-forming producer node M in the form of the diesel generator G uses proportional control in which the frequency and the voltage of the diesel generator are set on the basis of the active power and reactive power fed in by this node.", "The proportional control for setting the frequency f(P) and the voltage U(Q) is as follows: [0000] f = f 0 - 1 k M f  ( P M - P M , 0 ) ( 2  c ) U =  U M =  U M , 0 - k M Q  ( Q M - Q M , 0 ) =  U M , 0 - k M Q  ( Q L - ∑ j = 1 N  Q cj - Q M , 0 ) ( 2  d ) [0039] In this case, f and U respectively denote the frequency and voltage for the producer node M. k M f is the (inverse) droop gain for the frequency control and k M Q is the droop gain for the voltage control, in which case these droop gains are proportionality factors in the sense of the claims.", "Furthermore, f 0 corresponds to a reference frequency in the power grid, which represents the rated frequency of the grid (for example 50 Hz).", "In addition, P M,0 is a reference active power, U M,0 is a reference voltage and Q M,0 is a reference reactive power of the proportional control.", "[0040] Alternatively, the grid-forming producer node M can use proportional control in which the frequency and the voltage of the diesel generator are set on the basis of the active current and reactive current fed in by this node.", "The proportional control for setting the frequency f(I PM ) and the voltage U(I QM ) is as follows: [0000] f = f 0 - 1 k M f  ( I PM - I PM , 0 ) ( 2  e ) U = U M = U M , 0 - k M Q  ( I QM - I QM , 0 ) ( 2  f ) [0041] In this case, I PM,0 is the reference active current and I QM,0 is the reference reactive current of the proportional control.", "The variables I PM and I QM denote the active and reactive currents currently being fed in.", "In the further embodiment, only the variant (2c), (2d) is used.", "On account of the approximate equivalences [0000] I PM ≈ P M 3  U N   and   I QM ≈ Q M 3  U N [0000] (U N corresponds to the rated voltage), the following equations can also be used for the case (2e), (2f) by scaling the droop gains k M f and k M Q with the factor √{square root over (3)}U N .", "[0042] It should be noted that the above equation (2c) represents the steady state of the diesel generator.", "Grid-forming diesel generators have a rotating mass with a moment of inertia m and a damping factor D which is very small.", "The rotating mass rotates in sync with the grid frequency f in the steady state.", "In this case, the diesel generator supplies a mechanical power P mech in order to obtain the above steady frequency f according to equation (2c).", "The mechanical power P mech of the diesel generator is given as follows: [0000] P mech =P M,0 −k M f ( f−f 0 ) (2g) [0043] With the known model of the rotating mass and the above equation (2a), the following is obtained therefrom: [0000] m{dot over (f)}+Df=P mech −P M =P M,0 −k M f ( f−f 0 )− P L +Σ j=1 N P Cj (2h) [0044] Since D is negligibly small and {dot over (f)}=0 in the steady state, P mech =P M results therefrom.", "The frequency control of the equation (2c) therefore results in combination with equation (2e).", "[0045] If an electrical energy store is used instead of a diesel generator as the grid-forming producer node, the following equations (2i) and (2j) are used instead of the equations (2c) and (2d) as proportional control: [0000] f=f M =f 0 −k M P ( P M −P M,0 )= f 0 −k M P ( P L −Σ j=1 N ( P Cj )− P M,0 ) (2i) [0000] U=U M =U 0 −k M P ( Q M −Q M,0 )= U 0 −k M P ( Q L −Σ j=1 N ( Q Cj )− Q M,0 ) (2j) [0046] In this case, corresponding droop gains k M P and k M Q and reference values P M,0 , U M,0 and Q M,0 are again stipulated.", "f 0 corresponds to the above reference frequency in the power grid.", "Alternative embodiments with active current and reactive current are [0000] f=f M =f 0 −k M P ( I PM −I PM,0 ) (2k) [0000] U=U M =U M,0 −k M Q ( I QM −I QM,0 ) (2l) [0047] In this case, corresponding reference values I PM,0 and I QM,0 are again stipulated.", "As described above, the equations (2k), (2l) can be used instead of (2i), (2j) if the associated droop gains k M P and k M Q are scaled with the factor √{square root over (3)}U N .", "[0048] In contrast to the grid-forming producer node M, the proportional control for the ith grid-supporting producer node is as follows: [0000] P Ci =P Ci,0 −k Ci P ( f Ci −f 0 ) (3a) [0000] Q Ci =Q Ci,0 −k Ci Q ( U Ci −U Ci,0 ) (3b) [0049] In this case, P Ci is the active power and Q Ci is the reactive power in the ith grid-supporting producer node, which are adjusted on the basis of the frequency f Ci and voltage U Ci in the ith grid-supporting producer node.", "The values P Ci,0 , Q Ci,0 , f 0 , U Ci,0 are again reference points of the proportional control and correspond to a reference active power, a reference reactive power, the reference frequency already defined above and a reference voltage.", "The variables k Ci P , k Ci Q are again droop gains which correspond to the proportionality factors in the sense of the claims.", "[0050] Alternative embodiments are: [0000] I PCi =I PCi,0 −k Ci P ( f Ci −f 0 ) (3c) [0000] I QCi =I QCi,0 −k Ci Q ( U Ci −U Ci,0 ) (3d) [0051] In this case, I PCi is the active current and I QCi is the reactive current in the ith grid-supporting producer node, which are adjusted on the basis of the frequency f Ci and voltage U Ci in the ith grid-supporting producer node.", "The values I PCi,0 , I QCi,0 correspond to a reference active current and a reference reactive current.", "As described above, the equations (3c), (3d) can be used instead of (3a), (3b) if the associated droop gains k Ci P and k Ci Q are scaled with the factor √{square root over (3)}U N .", "[0052] The exemplary embodiment is continued with the variant (3a), (3b).", "[0053] Within the scope of the modeling of the power grid described here, the dynamics of the grid-supporting producer nodes are described by a PLL algorithm which has a low-pass behavior in a first approximation.", "This algorithm estimates the frequency and the voltage in the ith grid-supporting producer node by means of the values f Ci and U Ci as follows: [0000] f .", "Ci = - 1 T Ci f  ( f Ci - f ) ( 3  e ) U .", "Ci = - 1 T Ci U  ( U Ci - U ) ( 3  f ) [0054] In this case, T Ci f , T Ci U denote time constants, the value of which can be suitably stipulated by a person skilled in the art.", "f and U are the frequency and voltage in the grid-forming producer node.", "[0055] Combining the above equations results in the following dynamic model for the active power and the frequency for an island grid containing a single diesel generator as the grid-forming producer node and a plurality of grid-supporting producer nodes: [0000]   t  ( f f C ) = ( - D + k M f m - 1 m  ( k C P ) T ( T C f ) - 1 - diag  ( ( T C f ) - 1 ) )  ( f f C ) + 1 m  ( k M f + 1 T  k C P - 1 1 + 1 T 0 0 0 0 )  ( f 0 P L P M , 0 P C , 0 ) ( 4  a )  ( f f C ) = ( 1 0 0 - diag  ( k C P ) )  ( f f C ) + ( 0 0 0 0 k C P 0 0 I )  ( f 0 P L P M , 0 P C , 0 ) ( 4  b ) [0056] In this case, the vectors in the equations (4a) and (4b) are defined as follows: [0000] f C =vec( f Ci ), k C P =vec( k Ci P ), T C f =vec( T Ci f ), P C =vec( P Ci ), P C,0 =vec( P Ci,0 ) [0000] f C = vec  ( f Ci ) , k C P = vec  ( k Ci P ) , T C f - vec  ( T Ci f ) ,  P C = vec  ( P Ci ) , P C   0 = vec  ( P Ci , 0 ) 1 = vec  ( 1 ) , ( T C f ) - 1 = vec  ( 1 T Ci f ) [0057] Furthermore, the following dynamic model results for the reactive power and the voltage: [0000] U .", "C = - diag  ( ( T C U ) - 1 )  ( I + diag  ( k C Q ) )  U C + ( T C U ) - 1  ( 1 ( k C Q ) T - k M Q k M Q k M Q  1 T )  ( U M , 0 U C , 0 Q L Q M , 0 Q C , 0 ) ( 5  a ) ( U Q C ) = ( - k M Q  ( k C Q ) T - diag  ( k C Q ) )  U C + ( 1 diag  ( k C Q ) - k M Q k M Q k M Q  1 T 0 diag  ( k C Q ) 0 0 I )  ( U M , 0 U C , 0 Q L Q M , 0 Q C , 0 ) ( 5  b ) [0058] In this case, the vectors in the equations (5a) and (5b) are defined as follows: [0000] U C =vec( U Ci ), U C0 =vec( U Ci,0 ), k C Q =vec( k Ci Q ), T C U =vec( T Ci U ), Q C =vec( Q Ci ), Q C,0 =vec( Q Ci,0 ) [0059] The dynamics of the above equations (4a), (4b) and the dynamics of the above equations (5a), (5b) are coupled via the load equations (1a) and (1b) which couple the active power P L and the reactive power Q L of the load to the voltage U. However, it is assumed that the voltage amplitude U changes only marginally, with the result that the two dynamics are independent of one another.", "[0060] On the basis of the above modeling, in the embodiment described here, an optimization problem is solved, according to which the energy production costs of the generator are minimized, that is to say most of the energy for the load L is intended to be produced by the regenerative grid-supporting producer nodes since this energy is considerably more cost-effective than producing the energy by burning fossil fuel.", "In this case, secondary conditions with respect to maximum transients (that is to say maximum temporal changes) of the active power in the grid-supporting producer nodes and with respect to the frequency and the voltage in the grid-forming producer node are taken into account.", "This ensures stable grid operation and also avoids overshoots in the grid-supporting producer nodes when producing the active power.", "[0061] Mathematically, this optimization problem is represented as follows: [0000] min P 0 ,Q 0 ,K P M (6a) [0062] Under the condition of equation (2a) (6b) [0000] ∥ P Ci ( t )∥ ∞ ≦P Ci,max ∀i,∀P L εTP L (6c) [0000] ∥ f ( t )− f 0 ∥ ∞ ≦Δf max ∀P L εTP L (6d) [0000] ∥ U ( t )− U N ∥ ∞ ≦ΔU max ∀Q L εTQ L (6e) [0063] The vectors in the equations are defined as follows: [0000] P 0 =( P M,0 ,P C,0 ) T ,Q 0 =( Q M,0 ,Q C,0 ) T ,K =( k M f ,( kCP ) T ,k M Q ,( k C Q ) T ) T [0064] The variables P Ci,max are upper limits for the active power in the respective grid-supporting producer nodes.", "Furthermore, Δf max is an upper limit for frequency fluctuations and ΔU rna , is an upper limit for voltage fluctuations in the grid-forming producer node.", "U N denotes a predefined rated voltage in the grid-forming producer node.", "TP L is a predefined set of possible load active power trajectories, that is to say a set of predetermined possible temporal changes in the active power of the load, from which it is assumed that these changes can occur in the power grid under consideration.", "In a similar manner, TQ L is a predefined set of possible reactive power trajectories, that is to say a set of predetermined possible temporal changes in the reactive power of the load, from which it is assumed that these changes can occur in the power grid under consideration.", "Furthermore, ∥·∥ ∞ denotes the infinity norm which is known per se and is the absolute maximum for all times t≧0 of the argument in the norm.", "[0065] For the above equation (6a), P M is calculated using equation (2a) in combination with equations (4a) and (4b).", "In this case, the system of differential equations according to equation (4a) is solved and the resulting frequencies f and f c are inserted into equation (4b).", "This then results in P C which is then inserted into the equation (2a).", "The variable P Ci (t) from equation (6c) results from the fact that the system of differential equations according to equation (4a) is solved and the resulting frequencies f and f c are inserted into equation (4b).", "The frequency f(t) from equation (6d) is determined by solving the system of differential equations according to equation (4a).", "The variable U(t) results from the fact that the system of differential equations according to equation (5a) is solved and the resulting voltage U C is inserted into equation (5b).", "[0066] The equation (6c) is used to avoid overshoots in the active powers of the grid-supporting producer nodes, with the result that the inverters in the photovoltaic plants are not damaged or disconnected.", "The equations (6d) and (6e) limit the frequency and voltage deviation in order to ensure stable grid operation and a good voltage quality.", "The optimization problem according to the equations (6a) to (6e) can be solved using methods known per se, for example using an H ∞ , H 2 or l 1 robustness analysis.", "Corresponding algorithms are found in document [3], for example.", "In particular, the above secondary conditions (6c), (6d), (6e) can be reformulated as matrix inequalities, which is likewise described in document [3].", "The algorithms explained there for the conditions (6c), (6d) and (6e) also guarantee internal stability of the power grid with respect to load changes.", "Further secondary conditions may possibly be added, in particular upper and lower limits for elements of the vectors K, P 0 and Q 0 .", "[0067] Overall, suitable values for the proportionality factors and the reference active powers and the reference reactive powers of the proportional controllers in the grid-forming and grid-supporting producer nodes are determined on the basis of the solution to the above optimization problem.", "This achieves optimized energy production with the lowest possible production costs during operation of the power grid.", "In this case, the method can be determined on the basis of an (average) active power and reactive power of the load, for example before activating the power grid.", "The above method may likewise also possibly be used to update corresponding parameters of the proportional controllers in the case of a changing load in the power grid during operation of the power grid.", "[0068] A second exemplary embodiment shows how it is possible to model the power grid having a plurality of grid-forming nodes and without the assumption of short power lines.", "In this case, the starting point is the PG in FIG. 1 , but the producer nodes N 1 , N 2 , N 3 and N 4 are now each a grid-forming generator node in the form of a diesel generator or an energy store.", "The method can also be used for further grid-forming grid nodes in the form of other types of generators or additional grid-supporting nodes.", "[0069] In contrast to the previous exemplary embodiment having negligible power lines, a linearized load flow model is now used to describe the active power and reactive power of the nodes: [0000] P i  ( t ) ≈ ∑ j ∈ N i  ( U iN r ij 2 + x ij 2  ( r ij  ( U i  ( t ) - U j  ( t ) ) + x ij  U jN  ( θ i  ( t ) - θ j  ( t ) ) ) ) ( 7 ) Q i  ( t ) ≈ ∑ j ∈ N i  ( U iN r ij 2 + x ij 2  ( x ij  ( U i  ( t ) - U j  ( t ) ) + r ij  U jN  ( θ i  ( t ) - θ j  ( t ) ) ) ) ( 8 ) [0070] In this case, P i and Q i denote the active power and reactive power fed in by the node i. The power line between the nodes i and j has a resistance r ij and a reactance x ij .", "The voltage amplitudes at the nodes i and j are U i , U j , in which case U iN , U jN denote the rated voltages at the nodes i and j. The voltage phases at the nodes i and j are θ i , θ j .", "For the purpose of illustration, the temporally changeable variables are represented as a function of the time t, while all other variables are constant parameters.", "The set N i denotes all neighboring nodes of node i. [0071] The equations (7) and (8) can also be stated in matrix form: [0000] ( P Q ) = ( diag  ( U iN )  G - diag  ( U iN )  B  diag  ( U iN ) - diag  ( U iN )  B - diag  ( U iN )  G  diag  ( U iN ) )  ( U θ ) [0072] In this case, the vectors and matrices are defined as follows: [0000] θ = vec  ( θ i ) , U = vec  ( U i ) , P = vec  ( P i ) , Q = vec  ( Q i ) .", " G = [ G ij ] ;", "G ij = { ∑ j ∈ N i  r ij r ij 2 + x ij 2 for   i = j - r ij r ij 2 + x ij 2 for   i  j   B = [ B ij ] ;", " B ij = { - ∑ j ∈ N i  x ij r ij 2 + x ij 2 for   i = j + x ij r ij 2 + x ij 2 for   i  j [0073] The voltage phases of the individual nodes can be calculated by integrating the voltage frequencies at the corresponding node.", "The voltage frequencies result for conventional generators from equation (2c) and for energy stores from equation (2h) as follows: [0000] θ .", "i  ( t ) = f 0 - 1 k Mi f  ( P Mi  ( t ) - P Mi , 0 ) ( 2  c ’ ) m i  θ ¨ i  ( t ) + D i  θ .", "i  ( t ) =  P mech  ( t ) - P Mi  ( t ) =  P Mi , 0 - k Mi f  ( θ .", "i  ( t ) - f 0 ) - P Mi  ( t ) ( 2  h ’ ) [0074] In this case, {dot over (θ)} i denotes the frequency at the producer node i. k Mi f is the (inverse) droop gain for the frequency control at the node i, these droop gains being proportionality factors in the sense of the claims.", "Furthermore, f 0 corresponds to a reference frequency in the power grid, which represents the rated frequency of the grid (for example 50 Hz).", "In addition, P Mi,0 is a reference active power.", "The parameters m i and D i describe the moment of inertia and the damping factor of the generator in the node i. [0075] In a similar manner, the dynamics of the voltage amplitude U Mi for the grid-forming nodes i can be described in a similar manner to that in equations (30 and (2d) as follows: [0000] U .", "Mi = - 1 T Mi U  ( U Mi - U Mi , 0 + k Mi Q  ( Q Mi - Q Mi , 0 ) ) ( 2  d ’ ) [0076] In this case, T Mi U denotes a time constant, the value of which can be suitably stipulated by a person skilled in the art.", "k Mi Q is the droop gain for the voltage control, these droop gains being proportionality factors in the sense of the claims.", "Furthermore, U Mi,0 is a reference voltage and Q mi3O is a reference reactive power of the proportional control in the node i. [0077] The dynamic models of the grid-forming nodes (2c′), (2d′), (2h′) can now be coupled to the load nodes (equations (1a) and (1b)) via the linearized load flow equation (7) (in this case, P Mi =P i and Q Mi =Q i ).", "As a result, the following equations are obtained in a similar manner to equations (4a) and (5a) in the previous exemplary embodiment: [0000] diag  ( m i )  θ ¨ + diag  ( D i )  ( θ .", ") + diag  ( k Mi f )  ( θ .", "- f 0  1 ) = P M , 0 - ( diag  ( U iN )  GU - diag  ( UiN )  B  diag  ( UiN )  θ ( 9  a ) diag  ( T Mi U )  U .", "= - U + U M , 0 + diag  ( k Mi Q )  ( Q M , 0 ± ( - diag  ( U iN )  B   U ± diag  ( U iN )  G   diag  ( U iN )  θ ) ) ( 9  b )  ( P Q ) = ( diag  ( U iN )  G - diag  ( U iN )  B  diag  ( U iN ) - diag  ( U iN )  B - diag  ( U iN )  G  diag  ( U iN ) )  ( U θ ) ( 9  c ) [0078] In this case, the vectors and matrices in the equations (9a), (9b) and (9c) are defined as follows: [0000] θ = vec  ( θ i ) , U = vec  ( U i ) , P M , 0 = vec  ( P Mi , 0 ) ,  U M , 0 = vec  ( U Mi , 0 ) , Q M , 0 = vec  ( Q Mi , 0 ) ,  G = [ G ij ] ;", "G ij = { ∑ j ∈ N i  r ij r ij 2 + x ij 2 for   i = j - r ij r ij 2 + x ij 2 for   i  j   B = [ B ij ] ;", " B ij = { - ∑ j ∈ N i  x ij r ij 2 + x ij 2 for   i = j + x ij r ij 2 + x ij 2 for   i  j [0079] In this case, m i =0, D i =0 apply to a grid-forming node to which an energy store is connected, and m i =0, D i =0, k Mi f =0, k Mi Q =0, P Mi =−P Li , T Mi U =0 apply to a load node.", "The resulting system of differential/algebraic equations can be converted by a person skilled in the art into a system of differential equations with an input P L and outputs P and Q. [0080] An optimization problem can now be created in a similar manner to equations (6a) to (6e) with the aid of the dynamic model of the equations (9a) to (9c).", "In this exemplary embodiment, it is assumed that the various grid-forming producer nodes have different operating costs c i per power P Mi fed in.", "The cost vector is therefore c=vec(c i ).", "The resulting optimization problem is therefore [0000] min P 0 ,Q 0 ,K c T P M (10a) [0081] Under the condition of equations (9a) to (9c) (10b) [0000] ∥ P Mi ( t )∥ ∞ ≦P Mi,max ∀i,∀P L εTP L (10c) [0000] ∥ f ( t )− f 0 ∥ ∞ ≦Δf max ∀P L εTP L (10d) [0000] ∥ U ( t )− U N ∥ ∞ ≦ΔU max ∀Q L εTQ L (10e) [0082] Suitable values for the proportionality factors and the reference active powers and the reference reactive powers of the proportional controllers in the grid-forming producer nodes and possibly also in grid-supporting producer nodes can be determined on the basis of the solution to this optimization problem.", "[0083] The embodiments of the method according to the invention described above have a number of advantages.", "In particular, optimized operation of a power grid is easily achieved by means of a simple computer-assisted method which, on the basis of a model of the power grid, calculates suitable values for the proportional controllers of the grid nodes without complicated simulations having to be carried out for this purpose.", "In this case, the operation of the power grid is optimized such that as much energy as possible is provided by regenerative energy sources, but stable grid operation with low voltage and frequency fluctuations is achieved at the same time." ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a continuation of prior application Ser.", "No. 08/947,055 filed Oct. 8, 1997, which issued on U.S. Pat. No. 6,149,947 on Nov. 21, 2000.", "This application claims the benefit of priority, through copendency of prior application Ser.", "No. 07/973,071 filed Nov. 6, 1992;", "The status of which is now abandoned.", "STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT [0002] Not Applicable BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] This application relates to the composition of aqueous oak bark extract, to synthetic compositions containing the key active ingredients of oak bark extract and to the use of such compositions in the treatment of skin cancer and other skin disorders.", "[0004] Oak bark extract has been described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,080,900 which is incorporated herein by reference, for use in the treatment of skin ulcers, particularly decubitus ulcers or bed sores.", "This material in a base of Whitfield's ointment has also been sold under the trade name Bencelok® for use in the treatment of minor skin irritations.", "The amount of oak bark extract in these materials was relatively low, however.", "For example, the Bencelok® preparations have contained from 0.25 to 3% by weight of ash-derived components based upon the total weight of the preparation.", "BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0005] It has now been found that higher concentrations of oak bark extract possess highly useful properties for the treatment of skin cancers, and that lower concentrations of oak bark extract possess additional therapeutic properties not heretofore recognized.", "For example, preparations containing 40-80% oak bark extract are useful in the treatment of acute cancerous skin ulcers.", "In addition, it has now been found that synthetic mixtures containing potassium ions, zinc ions, calcium ions provide many of the same advantageous properties of oak bark extract.", "The inclusion of rubidium ions and sulfate ions is also advantageous for some applications.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0006] Oak bark extract for use in the present invention is prepared from oak bark ash.", "The bark utilized can be from Red Oak ( Quercus rupra L), Black Oak ( Quercus Velutina Lam.).", "Shumerd Oak ( Quercus shumardi i Buckl.), Scarlet Oak ( Quercus coccinea Muenchb.), Willow Oak ( Quercus phellos L.) and other species of the Erythrobalanus group.", "The oak bark is burned to convert it into an ash, which is cooled and screened to provide a powder.", "TABLE 1 Processing Solution (%) Temperature (° C.) Time (hours) 0.25 98 ± 2 1.00 1.00 98 ± 2 2.00 10.00 98 ± 2 8.00 20.50 98 ± 2 12.00 40.00 98 ± 2 18.00 80.00 98 ± 2 21.00 [0007] The ash powder is then poured slowly into boiling water and boiled, with stirring, for a period of time (1.5 to 4 hours) to achieve an intermediate oak bark extract.", "The hot intermediate extract is then filtered to recover a clear filtrate and boiled for an additional period of time to achieve the desired final concentration of oak bark extract.", "During this boiling step, a white precipitate forms which is separated from the oak bark extract and discarded.", "Table 1 shows processing conditions which can be used to prepare oak bark extract of various final Concentrations.", "The solution concentrations are expressed as weight percent of oak bark ash derived material.", "[0008] The oak bark extracts in accordance with the invention are complex mixtures of inorganic materials.", "Further, as is evident from the results of elemental analysis on the various solutions, (See Table 2) the relative amounts of the constituents vary from one concentration to another.", "For example, the 40% solutions (i.e., a solution containing a total of 40% by weight of extracted oak bark materials and 60% by weight water) was found to be highly enriched in rubidium relative to lower concentration solutions.", "[0009] The therapeutic activity of various constituents of oak bark extract has been analyzed with the result that silicon, strontium, barium, manganese, gallium, zirconium and titanium appear to be unnecessary, while therapeutic efficacy has been found for compositions containing just potassium, zinc and calcium ions, in combination with suitable counterions.", "Thus, synthetic formulations containing, by weight of inorganic solids, 10 to 80 parts potassium ions, preferably 30 to 50 parts 0.00001 to 20 parts zinc ions, preferably 1 to 10 parts 0.01 to 10 parts calcium ions, preferably 1 to 5 parts 0 to 40 parts rubidium ions, preferably 1 to 30 parts, and 0 to 5 parts sulfur, in the form of elemental sulfur or sulfate, together with pharmaceutically acceptable counterions (e.g., C L , SO 4 , C0 3 , OH, Br).", "The solution may also contain other inorganic cations, for example, up to 10 parts by weight of inorganic solids of cobalt, copper, iron, manganese, nickel, strontium or aluminum ions, preferably up, to 1 part by weight.", "Further, the composition may include a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier such a water or an ointment or cream base which will result in a therapeutic composition having a pH of from 4 to 7, preferably pH 4.5 to 5.5.", "TABLE 2 CONCENTRATION OF OAK BARK EXTRACT ELEMENT 0.25% 1.00% 10.00% 20.50% 40.00% Hydrogen 13.77% 12.07% 12.15% 11.00% 10.11% Oxygen 86.22% 87.91% 85.55% 84.40% 64.45% Potassium 43541 ppm 0.01% 2.10% 4.50% 25.15% Bromine 0.05 ppm 0.07 ppm 2.00 ppm 2.02 ppm 2.02 ppm Calcium 13.43 ppm 35.67 ppm 99.45 ppm 208.72 ppm 1000.43 ppm Chlorine 24.87 ppm 45.11 ppm 92.50 ppm 185.31 ppm 235.2 ppm Chromium 0.23 ppm 0.55 ppm 1.01 ppm 0.49 ppm 1000.12 ppm Cobalt ND ND 0.08 ppm 0.16 ppm 0.29 ppm Copper ND ND 0.11 ppm 0.33 ppm 0.68 ppm Iron ND ND 0.85 ppm 1.70 ppm 2.12 ppm Lead ND ND 0.23 ppm 0.56 ppm 0.3 ppm Manganese ND ND 0.04 ppm 0.07 ppm 0.07 ppm Nickel ND ND 0.33 ppm 0.66 ppm 2.11 ppm Rubidium 17.25 ppm 42.79 ppm 110.13 ppm 220.60 ppm 1320.23 ppm Strontium ND 0.01 ppm 1.79 ppm 2.99 ppm 3.3 ppm Sulfur 5.45 ppm 30.01 ppm 180.01 ppm 373.40 ppm 421.3 ppm Titanium 0.81 ppm 0.24 ppm 1.79 ppm 3.44 ppm 0.1 ppm Zinc 1.74 ppm 4.78 ppm 8.81 ppm 17.65 ppm 12.3 ppm *ND: not detectable [0010] Oak bark extract or the synthetic mixtures of the invention have been found to provide a variety of beneficial therapeutic properties.", "The therapeutic applications and the concentration of oak bark extract or synthetic mixture by weight of solids are summarized in Table 3.", "TABLE 3 Weight % of Oak Bark Extract Indications 0.25% Fungal, infection, minor infection, insect bites 1.00% Eczema, minor burns, sunburn, poison oak, poison ivy, poison sumac, wound healing 3.00% Pyordermas, dermatitis, pruritic dermatoses, eczema, minor burns, sunburn, poison oak, poison ivy, poison sumac, decubitis ulcers, tropical ulcers, wound healing 5.00% Decubitis, psoriasis 10.00% Psoriasis, impetigo, Kaposi sarcoma, warts, gangrene, ischemic ulcer, keratosis 20.50% Precancerous lesions, basal cell epithelioma, squamous cell carcinoma, keratoacanthoma 40.00% Acute Cancerous ulcers 80.00% Acute Cancerous ulcers [0011] In particular, compositions containing about 20% or more, preferably 30% to 80% and more preferably 40% to 80%, of oak bark extract or a similarly concentrated synthetic mixture according to the invention can be used to treat cancerous and precancerous skin lesions.", "As used herein, the tern cancerous and precancerous skin lesions includes but is not limited to basal cell epithelioma, squamous cell carcinoma, keratoacanthoma.", "[0012] Compositions according to the invention are also useful for treating abrasions and other partial thickness wounds.", "Useful compositions include at least potassium, zinc and calcium ions and may include other ionic components as well as described in Examples 1 and 2.", "The composition is advantageously applied in a cream or ointment base over a period of several days.", "Similar compositions were found to be useful in the treatment of gangrene, impetigo, psoriasis, although longer periods of treatment may be required.", "[0013] While not intending to be bound by any particular mechanism of action, it appears that oak bark extract and synthetic mixtures containing the key ingredients of oak bark extract function to enhance wound healing by providing complexing ions which interact with enzymes such as alkaline phosphatase, carbonic anhydrase, carboxypeptidase, various enhydrogenases, arginase, carnosinase, dehydropeptidase, glycine dipeptidase, histidine deaminase and tripeptidase, oxyloacetic carboxylase and some lecithinases and enolases.", "These enzymes are involved in numerous biosynthetic pathways necessary for wound healing, for example, collagen biosynthesis, and are believed to function with greater efficiency in the presence of the complexing ions.", "EXAMPLE 1 [0014] A synthetic mixture was prepared by combining potassium sulfate (7.50 g), potassium hydroxide (7.65 g), calcium hydroxide (0.05 g), iron sulfate (0.4 mg), Cobaltous bromide (0.1 mg), copper chloride (0.3 mg), zinc sulfate ( 1 .", "2 mg) strontium chloride (0.3 mg) and rubidium sulfate (0.13 mg) in distilled water (59.09 g) and Whitfield's ointment (433.57 g).", "The total amount of synthetic chemicals was 3% in weight.", "The ointment was applied twice daily to three patients with severe abrasions.", "Prior to treatment, abrasions were cleaned with rubbing alcohol.", "All patients showed disappearance of abrasion within five days of treatments.", "EXAMPLE 2 [0015] A synthetic mixture was prepared by combining zinc oxide (2.5 g), calcium hydroxide (2 g), potassium carbonate (3.5 g) and potassium hydroxide (12 g) in distilled water (80 g) and Whitfield's ointment (57 g).", "The total amount of synthetic chemicals was 3% in weight.", "This formulation was used to treat an outpatient with a severe abrasion on his left arm.", "The abrasion was cleaned with rubbing alcohol to remove any contamination.", "The ointment was applied to abrasion twice daily.", "The abrasion healed within 72 hours.", "EXAMPLE 3 [0016] A synthetic mixture was prepared by combining zinc sulfate (2.5 g), calcium hydroxide (2 g), potassium carbonate (3.5 g) and potassium hydroxide (12 g) in distilled water (80 g) and Whitfield's ointment (57 g).", "The total amount of synthetic chemicals was 3% in weight.", "This formulation was used to treat an outpatient with venous stasis.", "The venous stasis was cleaned with a 3% solution of hydrogen peroxide, and pad dried.", "The ointment was applied to venous stasis twice daily.", "Reduction in ulcer size 60-70% within 72 hours was observed.", "Complete granulation within 5 days for ulcers less than 2 cm;", "7 days for ulcers less than 4 cm.", "EXAMPLE 4 [0017] A synthetic mixture was prepared by combining zinc sulfate (2.5 g), calcium hydroxide (2 g) potassium carbonate (3.5 g) and rubidium hydroxide (6 g), potassium hydroxide (6 g) in distilled water (80 g) and Whitfield's ointment (57 g).", "The total amount of synthetic chemicals was 3% in weight.", "This formulation was used to treat an outpatient with laceration.", "The laceration was cleaned with rubbing alcohol and air dried.", "The ointment was applied to the laceration twice daily.", "The laceration reduced it's redness within 4 hours and healed within 72 hours.", "EXAMPLE 5 [0018] A synthetic mixture was prepared by combining potassium hydroxide (6.6 g) rubidium hydroxide (0.4 g), zinc sulfate (0.6 g), sulfur (2 g) and calcium hydroxide (0.1 g) in distilled water (14.55 g) and Whitfield's ointment (72.75 g).", "The total amount of synthetic chemicals was 10% in weight.", "This formulation was used to treat an outpatient with psoriasis in the right arm and right leg.", "The psoriasis was cleaned with rubbing alcohol to remove any contamination.", "The ointment was applied to abrasion twice daily.", "The psoriasis healed in six weeks.", "EXAMPLE 6 [0019] A synthetic mixture was prepared by combining potassium hydroxide (6.6 g), rubidium hydroxide (0.4 g), zinc sulfate (0.6 g), sulfur (2 g) and calcium hydroxide (0.1 g) in distilled water (14.55 g) and Whitfield's ointment (72.75 g).", "The total amount of synthetic chemicals was 10% in weight.", "This formulation was used to treat an outpatient with impetigo at the back.", "The back was thoroughly cleaned with rubbing alcohol to remove any contamination.", "The ointment was applied to impetigo twice daily.", "The impetigo healed in four weeks.", "EXAMPLE 7 [0020] A synthetic mixture was prepared by combining potassium hydroxide (6.6 g), rubidium hydroxide (0.4 g), zinc sulfate (0.6 g), sulfur (2 g) and calcium hydroxide (0.1 g) in distilled water (14.55 g) and Whitfield's ointment (72.75 g).", "The total amount of synthetic chemicals was 10% in weight.", "This formulation was used to treat an outpatient with gangrene in his feet.", "The gangrene was thoroughly cleaned with hydrogen peroxide to remove any contamination.", "The ointment was applied to gangrene twice daily.", "The gangrene healed in six weeks.", "EXAMPLE 8 [0021] A polyethylene-glycol based ointment (105 g) with 10% oak bark extract was prepared from red oak bark extract (20.5%, 100 g) to treat pustules on a patient's face and neck.", "The pustules were cleaned with a 3% saline solution.", "The ointment was then applied to the pustules.", "After 12 hours of treatment, the “angry red face”", "began to fade;", "after 20 hours, the face began to turn normal.", "The pustules never re-occurred.", "EXAMPLE 9 [0022] An aqueous solution containing 80% red oak bark by weight was prepared in accordance with the conditions outlined in Table 1.", "The solution was used to treat a patient with melanoma in the front of his left ear.", "The size of the tumor was as big as a thumbnail.", "At the top of it was a crusty brown.", "The therapy included removal of the exudate by washing the lesions with soap and water and pad dried.", "The solution was applied twice daily to the melanoma.", "After two weeks of treatments, the tumor started to clear up;", "and after an additional two weeks of treatments, the melanoma completely disappeared, leaving only a clean, white-looking spot.", "EXAMPLE 10 [0023] A polyethylene glycol-based ointment (33.33 g) with 30% oak bark extract was prepared from red oak bark extract (40.0%, 100 g) to treat venous stasis of a woman.", "The venous stasis was cleaned with rubbing alcohol.", "Air dried.", "The ointment was applied twice daily over a period of four days, the swelling reduced and the pain subsided.", "EXAMPLE 11 [0024] Two ointments with a concentration of 20% and 50% oak bark extract solution, respectively, were prepared by mixing the 80% red oak extract solution with salicylic acid, benzoic acid and polyethylene glycol.", "The 20% ointment contained lOg red oak extract solution (80%), 103.20 g PEG3350, 156.03 g PEG400, 30.57 g benzoic acid and 10.20 g salicylic acid.", "The 50% ointment contained 10 g red oak extract solution (80%), 20.64 g PEG3350, 31.21 g PEG400, 6.11 g benzoic acid and 2.04 g salicylic acid.", "The 50% ointment was applied twice daily to a patient with Kaposi's sarcoma.", "Prior to application, open lesions were cleaned with 3% hydrogen peroxide.", "A wet dressing was used.", "The size of the sarcoma reduced to a diameter of an inch after one week of treatment.", "The 20% ointment was applied thereafter.", "The patient completely healed in 45 days of treatments.", "EXAMPLE 12 [0025] An ointment with 3% oak bark extract was prepared by mixing 20.5% oak bark extract solution with salicylic acid (19.82 g), benzoic acid (59.41 g), PEG3350 (200.55 g) and PEG400 (303.22 g).", "The ointment was used to treat molds of an HIV-positive patient.", "Ointment was applied twice daily to molds directly.", "Within 3 weeks, molds disappeared.", "EXAMPLE 13 [0026] An ointment with 3% oak bark extract by weight was prepared, by mixing 20.5% oak bark extract solution with salicylic acid (19.82 g), benzoic acid (59.41 g), PEG3350 (200.55 g) and PEG400 (303.22 g).", "The ointment was used to treat molds of an HIV-positive patient.", "Ointment was applied twice daily to molds which were surgically clipped.", "The mold dried up within 48 hours.", "EXAMPLE 14 [0027] A male with six Kaposi's lesions was treated with an ointment containing 100 g 8% oak bark extract solution and 156.25 g polyethylene glycol.", "Ointment was applied twice daily directly over lesions.", "Lesions with sizes larger than one inch reduced their sizes 60% after 36 days of treatments.", "Lesions with sizes less than one-half of an inch healed within a week of treatment.", "EXAMPLE 15 [0028] A polyethylene glycol-based ointment (105 g) contained 10% oak bark extract by weight, prepared from 100 g of 20.5% red oak bark solution, was used to treat a patient suffering from actinic Keratosis.", "The ointment was applied twice daily over a period of four months, by which time the lesions had disappeared.", "EXAMPLE 16 [0029] Five additional synthetic compositions were prepared as follows: (a) Potassium carbonate (10 g), rubidium hydroxide (4 g), zinc sulfate (2.5 g), calcium hydroxide (3.5 g) distilled water (80 g), Whitfield's ointment (57 g).", "(b) Potassium hydroxide (10 g), rubidium hydroxide (4 g), Zinc sulfate (2.5 g), calcium hydroxide (3.5 g), distilled water (80 g), Whitfield's ointment (57 g).", "(c) Potassium carbonate (12 g), rubidium hydroxide (5.5 g), zinc oxide (2.5 g), distilled water (80 g), distilled water (80 g), Whitfield's ointment (57 g).", "(d) potassium carbonate (12 g), rubidium hydroxide (5.5 g), zinc sulfate (2.5 q) distilled water (80 g), Whitfield's ointment (57 g).", "(e) Calcium hydroxide (12 g), rubidium hydroxide (5.5 g), zinc sulfate (2.5 g), distilled water (80 g), Whitfield's ointment (57 g)" ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser.", "No. 10/442,436, filed May 20, 2003, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser.", "No. 09/572,045, filed May 16, 2000, now issued U.S. Pat. No. 6,565,941, which is a divisional of U.S. application Ser.", "No. 08/859,770, filed May 21, 1997, now abandoned, which is a divisional of U.S. application Ser.", "No. 08/790,235, filed Jan. 28, 1997, now issued U.S. Pat. No. 6,261,636, which is a divisional of U.S. application Ser.", "No. 08/286,969, filed Aug. 8, 1994, now issued U.S. Pat. No. 5,633,061.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1.", "Field of the Invention [0003] The present invention teaches an improved flexible medium for a scrolling-type color changer.", "More specifically, the present invention defines a color changer medium with continuously-variable characteristics across its length.", "[0004] 2.", "Background Information [0005] Stage lighting systems project a beam of light which has been colored by a color filter.", "Different ways of coloring the light are known.", "[0006] One way of coloring the light is by using dichroic filters such as taught in U.S. Pat. No. 4,800,474.", "This technique mounts a number of dichroic filters on rotatable color wheels.", "This system needs a large amount of space because the wheels must each have room for many filters to allow enough colors, and there must be room for the wheels to rotate.", "[0007] Another way of coloring the light is by using a scrolling-type color changer such as that shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,126,886, the disclosure of which is herewith incorporated by reference.", "Scrolling color changers move material between two scrolls to provide a desired filtering effect within the light path.", "[0008] A problem occurs in determining how to appropriately change the color across the length of the color media of a scrolling changer.", "U.S. Pat. No. 5,126,886 demonstrates one conventional method of changing the color saturation across the length of the filter.", "A filter material is formed with a baseline saturation.", "A half-tone pattern is located thereon.", "This half-tone pattern provides a filtering effect which can be changed by adjusting the number of patterned elements per unit area.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0009] The present invention goes against this established teaching by providing a continuously-varied color media.", "The color media is formed using a specially designed “Meyer Rod”", "to adjust the thickness of the coating deposited on the film.", "[0010] The ink solution according to this invention has special characteristics of viscosity and evaporation rate.", "The viscosity is controlled such that ink in at least one of the cells flows to the next cell only, and not more than that amount, in the amount of time it takes the ink to dry.", "This forms a continuous coating that varies in thickness along a gradient axis.", "[0011] Thicker coatings provide a more saturated color.", "The thickness of the coating is allowed to vary between cells, but does not vary across the width of the medium.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0012] These and other aspects of the invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompany drawings, wherein: [0013] [0013 ]FIG. 1 shows the layout of the basic scrolling color chamber used to hold the medium made according to the present invention;", "[0014] [0014 ]FIG. 2A- 2 H show various exemplary locations of the two scrolls used according to the present invention to obtain the most important colors;", "[0015] [0015 ]FIG. 3 shows the preferred technique of applying the material to the substrate according to the present invention;", "[0016] [0016 ]FIG. 4 shows a cross-sectional view of the Meyer Rod of FIG. 3 along the line 4 - 4 ;", "[0017] [0017 ]FIG. 5 shows the interim product showing cells of ink on the substrate after the Meyer Rod has passed but before the cells have had time to level;", "and [0018] [0018 ]FIG. 6 shows the final levelled product.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT [0019] [0019 ]FIG. 1 shows a basic scrolling color changer according to the present invention.", "More details about the operation of such a color changer found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,126,886.", "The first media 100 of the color changer extends between roll 101 and roll 102 .", "The second media 104 extends between rolls 105 to 106 .", "The two rolls of either pair ( 101 / 102 and 105 / 106 ) are commonly controlled by gears, e.g., 110 , which allows both rolls to move in synchronism.", "By actuating motor 112 , for example, rolls 101 and 102 can be moved to quickly locate the color changer material to a desired location.", "[0020] The beam of light is shown through location 114 , and adjusted by a combination of the two current positions of the scrolls.", "The color changing capability is obtained by various combinations of the colors in a conventional way.", "[0021] FIGS. 2 A- 2 H show the various ways in which the colors are obtained according to the present invention.", "Scroll 100 is shown at the top of each of FIGS. 2 A- 2 H, and includes portions with varying saturations of yellow at a first end 200 , a clear portion in its center 202 , and varying saturations of magenta at a second end 204 .", "The second scroll 104 also includes magenta at a first end 206 , is clear in its center 208 , and cyan portions at the other end 210 .", "FIG. 2A shows the light beam 212 passing through the two clear portions to obtain a clear light beam 214 .", "FIG. 2B shows how cyan and magenta are combined to obtain blue light beam 220 .", "FIG. 2C shows cyan and clear being combined to obtain cyan light beam 222 .", "FIG. 2D shows cyan and yellow being combined to obtain a green color light beam 224 .", "FIG. 2E shows clear and yellow being combined to obtain a yellow light beam 226 .", "FIG. 2F shows magenta and yellow being combined to obtain red at 228 .", "FIG. 2G shows magenta and clear being combined to obtain magenta 230 , and finally, FIG. 2H shows cyan and magenta being combined to obtain another blue, 232 .", "The scrolls are appropriately positioned to obtain the desired color light.", "[0022] The actual scroll material is formed of a polycarbonate, polyester or polypropylene film coated with a special colored ink.", "The colored ink has controlled evaporation and viscosity characteristics which allows continuous coating.", "For purposes of this specification, the term ink will be used to denote the material which is spread on the polypropylene backing sheet.", "Ink includes dye molecules, which form the color, in a binder which holds the dye molecules in solution, and a solvent.", "The ink binder is typically polyester.", "The dye molecules in the binder gives the material its final color.", "The solvent keeps the ink in a fluid state until the solvent evaporates.", "Therefore, when the solvent evaporates, the remaining dye molecules and binder are completely dried.", "[0023] The polyester binder is in a solvent-based solution.", "The solvent includes Methyl Ethel Keytone (MEX) and Toluene.", "The proportion of MEX to Toluene controls the rate of evaporation and levelling of the coating solution.", "The thickness of the ink on the polyester film controls the saturation of color;", "the thicker the coating, the more saturated the color becomes.", "[0024] Any commercially available ink can be used if the viscosity of the solution and rate of evaporation is controlled.", "The preferred inks used according to the present invention are described herein.", "The ink is applied in cells as described herein, and the viscosity of the ink solution is controlled such that the amount of ink levelling between cells which occurs in the amount of time that it takes the ink to dry, closely matches the distance between cells.", "For at least one of the cells, the amount of ink levelling before ink drying is precisely equal to the distance between cells.", "[0025] The preferred embodiment of the present invention uses a specially-constructed Meyer Rod to apply the ink to the substrate.", "A prior art Meyer Rod used a stainless steel cylindrical rod with a stainless steel wire wrapped-tightly around its circumference from one end to the other end.", "The space between adjacent wires holds ink.", "The amount of the coating deposit depends on the wire diameter or gauge.", "Typically, the coating is applied to the substrate by passing the substrate through a vat of ink solution, and then using different Meyer Rods to squeegee off all but the amount between the wires if the Meyer rod as the film passes by it.", "The space between the wire curvatures allows a specific amount of the solution to remain, and thereby leaves cells of material on the substrate.", "Different wire gauge Meyer Rods leave a different amount of solution on the substrate.", "Each Meyer Rod left a different thickness of material.", "[0026] The present invention uses a Meyer Rod of a special type to spread the ink along the substrate material in a way that it continuously varies along a gradient axis thereof.", "I considered the idea of forming a Meyer Rod with varying diameter wire.", "However, I determined that constructing a Meyer Rod that used a length of wire with changing gauge would not be practical by itself since it would produce a conical rod which got larger as the gauge of the wire increased.", "I therefore decided to machine or precision grind a rod directly from stainless steel, simulating the changing wire curvature, but compensating for the changing radius to end up with a cylindrical form.", "I therefore invented the Meyer Rod which is shown in FIG. 3 with a cross-section along the line 4 - 4 being shown in FIG. 4. [0027] [0027 ]FIG. 4 shows the overall diameter 400 of the rod which stays the same from-its leftmost end 402 to its rightmost end 404 .", "Overall diameter here refers to the diameter of the outermost edge of each section 406 relative to the central axis 401 .", "However, the diameter of the various sections 406 vary from one end to the other.", "Each of the sections 406 is defined by three coordinates: x, y, and r. The origin is, for example, shown at point 408 , in the center of the a smallest section 407 .", "Hence, the section 407 has x, y coordinates 0,0, and a radius r of 0.10.", "The second Meyer Rod section 410 is at position 0.021, 0.001 with a radius 0.011.", "These values are just exemplary, and for a six inch rod, I would start with a radius of 0.025 inch, and increment each successive radius by 0.001 inch.", "[0028] The Meyer Rod operates by allowing ink to remain only in the interstices 412 between two successive Meyer Rod portions, e.g. 410 and 414 .", "As the portions get larger in radius, the amount of ink left by the interstices also gets larger.", "This means that the portions of ink deposited by the Meyer Rod at end 402 are smaller than the portions deposited at the end 404 .", "Each portion of ink left by the area between two successive Meyer Rod sections will be referred to herein as a cell.", "[0029] After the Meyer Rod has passed, the interim product is as shown in FIG. 5. A number of cells of ink remain on substrate 520 .", "Each successive cell is slightly different in volume than the next cell.", "For example, Cell 502 has slightly more volume than cell 500 .", "Of course, FIG. 5 shows an exaggeration of this phenomena.", "[0030] According to the present invention, I select inks which have a viscosity such that the amount of levelling between cells in the time it takes the ink to dry is equal to the levelling necessary for the two largest cells.", "More generally, however, the viscosity must be such that the amount of levelling in the time it takes the ink to dry is equal to the distance be tureen any t-do desired cells Height 600 shows the finally-levelled height at the highest end.", "Therefore, in the amount of time it takes the ink to dry, levelling by an amount of distance shown as 508 , the distance between the highest level 504 and the final height 600 , must occur.", "This may allow some cell-to-cell levelling in the smaller portions such as 500 and 502 .", "However, this trade-off allows all portions to level somewhat, but still to form a material which is thicker at end 600 than it is at 602 .", "It is most important that the cell-to-cell levelling be minimized so that the thickness, and hence color saturation, varies along the gradient axis 604 .", "FIG. 6 shows the portions after levelling.", "[0031] The characteristics of the ink are therefore crucial.", "The viscosity of the ink material is proportional to the solid content, to the dye and to the binder.", "It is also proportional to a ratio between the solids and the binder.", "The binder is typically a polyester material, such as Vitel™.", "I have used two preferred solvents, one of which is a combination of MEK and Toluene.", "The ratio between these two controls the amount of evaporation which occurs.", "I have also used a propylacetate solvent.", "[0032] According to the present invention, the properties of the ink are controlled such that its viscosity is controlled relative to its evaporation time to provide a controlled amount of levelling.", "FIG. 6 shows the finally levelled product.", "In FIG. 6, the discontinuous portions such as 500 and 502 have been smoothed into a continuous portion.", "The height 600 is also shown in FIG. 5. The height 504 of portion 506 must be decreased by an amount 508 to level the final material at the height 600 .", "Therefore, the viscosity of the material must be such that it can level by an amount 508 in the amount of time it takes for the solvent to evaporate.", "Some example formulations are described herein: [0033] YELLOW [0034] The “solids”", "portion of the yellow ink solution have the following make up: [0035] 8.5%—Yellow pigment 83 (C-1.", "#21108) [0036] 91.5%—Binder (Polyester Resin) [0037] The “solvents”", "portion of the yellow ink solution has the following make up: [0038] 1.60%—Ethyl Alcohol [0039] 15.62%—Ethyl Acetate [0040] 21.67%—Toluene [0041] 21.97%—Isopropyl Alcohol [0042] 39.14%—Isopropyl Acetate [0043] The “solids”", "and “solvents”", "are combined in the ratio of: [0044] 25.91%—Solids (pigment/binder) [0045] 174.09%—Solvents [0046] This solution will have a viscosity of 57 seconds measured with 822.", "[0047] CYAN [0048] The “solids”", "portion of the cyan ink solution has the following make up: [0049] 10.1%—Blue 15: 4 (C.", "I. #74160) [0050] 0.1%—Violet 23 (C.", "I. #51319) [0051] 89.8%—Binder (Polyester Resin) [0052] The “solvents”", "portion of the cyan ink solution has the following make up: [0053] 0.26%—Ethyl Alcohol [0054] 0.30%—Ethyl Acetate [0055] 1.73%—Isopropyl Alcohol [0056] 24.63%—Toluene [0057] 73.08%—Isopropyl Acetate [0058] The “solids”", "and “solvents”", "are combined in the ratio of: [0059] 27.55%—Solids (pigment/binder) [0060] 72.45%—Solvents [0061] This solution will have a viscosity of 37 seconds measured with 822.", "[0062] MAGENTA [0063] The “solids”", "portion of the magenta ink solution has the following make up: [0064] 9.6%—Rabine Red (C.", "I. #28620) [0065] 91.4%—Binder (Polyester Resin) [0066] The “solvents”", "portion of the magenta ink solution has the following make up: [0067] 0.24%—Ethyl Alcohol [0068] 0.32%—Ethyl Acetate [0069] 1.54%—Isopropyl Alcohol [0070] 23.50%—Toluene [0071] 74.40%—Isopropyl Acetate [0072] The “solids”", "and “solvents”", "are combined in the ratio of: [0073] 28.30%—Solids (pigment/binder) [0074] 71.70%—Solvents [0075] This solution will have a viscosity of 65 seconds measured with #2Z.", "[0076] Although only a few embodiments have been described in detail above, those having ordinary skill in the art will certainly understand that many modifications are possible in the preferred embodiment without departing from the teachings thereof.", "[0077] All such modifications are intended to be encompassed within the following claims.", "[0078] Although the present invention has been described using a Meyer Rod, it should be understood that other techniques of ink imprintation of a backing material, including but not limited to a gravure cylinder and the like, could also be used for depositing the ink, so long as the ink is applied in cells, and allowed to level between the cells." ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 10/953,318, filed Sep. 29, 2004 now U.S. Pat. No. 7,246,494, which is hereby incorporated in its entirety by reference and is assigned to assignee of the present invention.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This application relates generally to gas turbine engines and, more particularly, to combustors for gas turbine engine.", "At least some known gas turbine engines include a compressor that provides compressed air to a combustor wherein the air is mixed with fuel and ignited for generating hot combustion gases.", "The gases flow downstream to one or more turbines that extract energy therefrom to power the compressor and provide useful work such as to power an aircraft in flight.", "At least some known combustors used in gas turbine engines typically include inner and outer combustion liners joined at their upstream ends by a dome assembly.", "The dome assembly includes an annular spectacle plate or dome plate and a plurality of circumferentially spaced swirler assemblies or cups.", "Fuel is supplied to the dome where it is mixed with air discharged from the swirler assemblies to create a fuel/air mixture that is channeled to the combustor.", "Known combustors include a baffle that is exposed to high temperatures generated during the combustion process, and cooling air passages that channel cooling air to the baffle.", "Known cooling air channels do not regulate a precise air flow to the baffle, but rather, the cooling air is forced through gaps defined between the edges of the dome plate and the baffle.", "In at least one known combustor, the dome assembly is manufactured by a brazing process, wherein the swirler assemblies and baffles are brazed to the dome plate.", "The brazing process may be a time consuming and labor-intensive procedure that may require the use of multiple fixtures and many expensive materials.", "Typically, at least some of the braze joints may be difficult to inspect, and may require considerable rework.", "Moreover, in at least one known combustor dome assembly, repairs are difficult or impossible, in that the repair of a brazed component requires that the dome assembly go through a braze oven which may undesireably cause damage to joints that previously did not require repair.", "BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In one aspect, a method for fabricating a dome assembly for a gas turbine engine combustor is provided.", "The method includes forming an annular dome plate including a plurality of substantially circular eyelets circumferentially spaced thereon, coupling a seal plate to the dome plate at each eyelet such that an opening defined in each seal plate is aligned substantially concentrically with respect to a respective eyelet, coupling a baffle to each seal plate such that an opening defined in each baffle is aligned substantially concentrically with respect to a respective eyelet, and coupling a swirler assembly having an integrally formed swirler and flare cone to each seal plate such that the flare cone extends at least partially through the baffle opening, and such that cooling air may be directed towards the flare cone through openings formed in the assembly.", "In another aspect, a dome assembly for a gas turbine engine combustor is provided that includes at least one swirler assembly that includes a primary swirler and a secondary swirler.", "The secondary swirler is formed integrally with a flare cone, and the secondary swirler includes a cooling circuit formed therein channeling cooling air towards the flare cone.", "In a further aspect, a gas turbine engine is provided.", "The gas turbine engine includes a combustor that includes at least one dome assembly.", "The at least one dome assembly includes at least one swirler assembly including a primary swirler and a secondary swirler.", "The secondary swirler is formed integrally with a flare cone.", "The secondary swirler includes a cooling circuit defined therein for channeling cooling air towards the flare cone.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a gas turbine engine;", "FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a combustor that may be used with the gas turbine engine shown in FIG. 1 ;", "FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a dome plate;", "and FIG. 4 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of the dome assembly shown in FIG. 2 .", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a gas turbine engine 10 including a low pressure compressor 12 , a high pressure compressor 14 , and a combustor 16 .", "Engine 10 also includes a high pressure turbine 18 , and a low pressure turbine 20 arranged in a serial, axial flow relationship.", "Compressor 12 and turbine 20 are coupled by a first shaft 24 , and compressor 14 and turbine 18 are coupled by a second shaft 26 .", "In one embodiment, gas turbine engine 10 is a CF34-3 engine commercially available from General Electric Company, Cincinnati, Ohio.", "In operation, air flows through low pressure compressor 12 from an upstream side 28 of engine 10 .", "Compressed air is supplied from low pressure compressor 12 to high pressure compressor 14 .", "Highly compressed air is then delivered to combustor assembly 16 where it is mixed with fuel and ignited.", "Combustion gases are channeled from combustor 16 to drive turbines 18 and 20 .", "FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a combustor, such as combustor 16 , that may be used with gas turbine engine 10 .", "Combustor 16 includes an inner liner 30 and an outer liner 32 .", "Inner and outer liners 30 and 32 are joined at an upstream end 36 by a dome assembly 40 .", "The cross section shown in FIG. 2 is taken through one of a plurality of swirler assemblies 42 that are mounted on dome assembly 40 .", "A fuel line 44 delivers fuel to a fuel injector (not shown) that supplies fuel to an inlet 46 of swirler assembly 42 .", "Fuel is mixed with air in swirler assembly 42 and the fuel/air mixture is introduced into combustor 16 from an outlet 48 of swirler assembly 42 .", "FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a dome plate 52 that forms a part of dome assembly 40 .", "Dome plate 52 is an annular member having a substantially circular profile.", "Dome plate 52 includes a plurality of openings or eyelets 54 circumferentially spaced between an inner radius R 1 and an outer radius R 2 of dome plate 52 .", "Dome plate 52 has a forward or upstream facing side 56 and an aft or downstream facing side 58 .", "A bushing or seal plate 60 is mounted on dome plate 52 at each eyelet 54 .", "Dome plate 52 also includes an inner circumferential flange 62 and an outer circumferential flange 64 that are used to couple dome assembly 40 to combustor 16 .", "In the exemplary embodiment, dome plate 52 is formed by a stamping operation and seal plate 60 is brazed to dome plate 52 .", "The braze is applied to aft side 58 of dome plate 52 and flows to forward side 56 .", "The braze joint can be visually inspected from forward side 56 to confirm that the braze joint is complete.", "Brazing provides structural strength between dome plate 52 and seal plate 60 .", "FIG. 4 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of dome assembly 40 shown in FIG. 2 .", "Dome assembly 40 includes dome plate 52 with seal plate 60 , swirler assembly 42 , and a baffle 68 .", "Dome plate 52 , seal plate 60 , and baffle 68 are aligned coaxially with an axial centerline 70 of swirler assembly 42 .", "Swirler assembly 42 includes a primary swirler 74 and a secondary swirler 76 .", "Primary swirler 74 includes a body 78 that is generally cylindrical in shape and includes fuel inlet 46 at a forward end 80 .", "Fuel inlet 46 opens into a fuel inlet channel 82 in body 78 .", "Body 78 includes a base 84 and a generally circular flange 86 that extends radially outward from base 84 .", "Flange 86 abuts secondary swirler 76 .", "A plurality of passageways 88 are formed in base 84 .", "Passageways 88 admit air into primary swirler 74 that mixes with fuel and imparts a swirling action to the fuel/air mixture.", "Secondary swirler 76 includes a venturi section 90 from which a substantially circular flange 92 radially extends.", "A retainer ring (not.", "shown) coupled to secondary swirler 76 holds primary swirler 74 in sliding engagement with secondary swirler 76 .", "Some movement is allowed between primary swirler 74 and secondary swirler 76 to facilitate installation of a fuel injector on primary swirler 74 .", "A flare cone section 96 is formed integrally with secondary swirler 76 .", "Flare cone section 96 includes an exit cone 98 , a substantially circular mid section 100 , and a substantially circular flange 102 .", "A plurality of swirler vanes 104 extend between flange 92 and flange 102 .", "Flanges 92 and 102 define a swirler vane channel 106 that circumscribes venturi 90 .", "Swirler vanes 104 are circumferentially spaced around venturi section 90 and are oriented so as to impart a swirling motion to air flowing through swirler vane channel 106 .", "Flare cone section 96 includes a cooling air circuit that directs cooling air against an underside 110 of exit cone 98 .", "Venturi section 90 includes an outer wall 112 and an inner wall 114 that defines an axial flow path 116 that extends through venturi section 90 along axial centerline 70 of swirler assembly 42 .", "Venturi section 90 includes a throat 118 and a venturi exit 120 .", "Throat 118 has a converging-diverging cross sectional profile that extends from a forward facing surface 122 of flange 92 flange to venturi exit 120 .", "Venturi throat 118 has a minimum diameter D 1 .", "Venturi exit 120 extends into a throat 130 of flare cone section 96 .", "Venturi exit 120 has a an outer diameter D 2 that is less than an inner diameter D 3 of throat 130 of flare cone section 96 such that a space 132 circumscribes venturi exit 120 .", "Space 132 is in flow communication with swirler vane channel 106 .", "Exit cone 98 of flare cone 96 includes an inner wall 134 that defines a flare cone flow path 136 that extends along axial centerline 70 of swirler assembly 42 .", "Flow path 136 culminates at swirler exit 48 .", "Exit cone 98 is exposed to a combustion zone (not shown) within combustor 16 .", "Flare cone section 96 is provided with a cooling circuit to cool exit cone 98 .", "Flange 102 includes air holes 140 circumferentially spaced around a perimeter 142 of flange 102 .", "Internal channels 144 cast into flange 102 and mid section 100 route cooling air to delivery holes 146 that direct cooling air to underside 110 of exit cone 98 to cool exit cone 98 and baffle 68 .", "In an alternative embodiment, internal channels 144 are machined into flange 102 and mid section 100 .", "Baffle 68 is generally cylindrical in shape and includes a heat deflecting portion 150 that extends radially outward from an axial portion 152 that is coupled to seal plate 60 .", "In the exemplary embodiment, baffle 68 is welded to seal plate 60 .", "The welded attachment of baffle 68 to seal plate 60 facilitates repair and replacement of baffle 68 .", "Dome assembly 40 is fabricated by first stamping a dome plate 52 that includes a plurality of substantially circular openings or eyelets 54 .", "A seal plate 60 is then brazed to dome plate 52 at each eyelet 54 .", "In the braze operation, braze is applied to an aft side 58 of dome plate 52 .", "Inspection of the braze joint is achieved visually by confirming the presence of braze filler from the forward side 56 of dome plate 52 after the braze heat cycle.", "In the exemplary embodiment, the seal plate-to-dome plate joint is the only brazed joint in dome assembly 40 , which facilitates service and repair and also reduces rework.", "After seal plate 60 is installed, a baffle 68 is coupled to seal plate 60 .", "In the exemplary embodiment, baffle 68 is welded to seal plate 60 .", "Seal plate 60 and baffle 68 are assembled such openings in seal plate 60 and baffle 68 are concentric with eyelets 54 in dome plate 52 .", "Dome assembly 40 is completed by coupling a swirler assembly 42 having an integrally formed flare cone assembly 96 to each seal plate 60 .", "In coupling swirler assembly 42 to seal plate 60 , exit cone 98 of flair cone assembly 96 is passed through openings in eyelet 54 , seal plate 60 , and baffle 68 .", "In the exemplary embodiment, swirler assembly 42 is welded to seal plate 60 .", "During operation, fuel is delivered to inlet 46 of primary swirler 74 .", "The fuel is mixed with air and the fuel/air mixture is channeled downstream through venturi section 90 of secondary swirler 76 .", "Fuel/air mixture exits venturi section 90 and is mixed with swirling air from swirler vane channel 106 .", "Flare cone section 96 receives swirled air from swirler vane channel 106 and a fuel/air mix from venturi section 90 that is discharged into throat 130 of flare cone section 96 .", "The fuel/air mixture is spread radially outward as it exits swirler assembly 42 through exit cone 98 and enters a burning zone within combustor 16 .", "Cooling air is channeled through flange 102 and delivered between baffle 68 and underside 110 of exit cone 98 .", "More specifically, cooling air is routed through channels 144 in flange 102 and directed towards underside 110 of exit cone 98 .", "The above-described dome assembly for a gas turbine engine combustor is cost-effective and reliable.", "The dome assembly is fabricated with only one braze joint which facilitates service and repair and reduces rework during initial assembly.", "The integrity of the braze joint can be visually inspected after a braze oven heat cycle.", "The dome assembly includes a swirler assembly that has an integral flare cone that includes a cooling circuit to cool the flare cone and baffle.", "As a result, the fabrication costs of the dome assembly are reduced while serviceability and reliability are improved.", "Exemplary embodiments of combustor dome assemblies are described above in detail.", "The assemblies are not limited to the specific embodiments described herein, but rather, components of each assembly may be utilized independently and separately from other components described herein.", "Each dome assembly component can also be used in combination with other dome assembly components.", "While the invention has been described in terms of various specific embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that the invention can be practiced with modification within the spirit and scope of the claims." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The Government may own certain rights in the present invention pursuant to the Office of Health and Environmental Research, USDOE and by Cooperative Research and Development Agreement BNL-C-94-21.", "FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention is directed to a method for reducing pyrimidine photoproducts in humans after exposure to ultraviolet radiation.", "BACKGROUND OF THE PRESENT INVENTION The sensitivity of the human skin to the ultraviolet (UV) rays (UVR) of the sun is determined by the amount of the pigment, "melanin,"", "contained within the skin.", "Many individuals with fair or light/white complexions (Skin Types I, II, III) burn because they do not produce sufficient melanin to protect the skin against sunburn.", "Moderately brown to dark skinned persons (Skin Types IV, V, VI) are not entirely protected form the deleterious effects of solar radiation.", "The different Skin Type classifications are characterized as follows: Skin Type I: burns easily (freckles) and never tans;", "Skin Type II: burns easily and tans minimally;", "Skin Type III: burns moderately and tans gradually;", "Skin Type IV: burns minimally and tans well;", "and Skin Types V and VI: tans very well and rarely burns.", "In addition to sunburn, long-term exposure to the sun, particularly for individuals who do not produce sufficient melanin such as Skin Types I, II, III can lead to premature aging of the skin and cutaneous cancer, usually basal cell, squamous cell carcinomas and malignant melanomas.", "Dark skinned persons do develop skin cancer but in small percentages, for example, malignant melanomas may occur in areas of the body where melanin levels are low, such as the palmar surfaces of the hands and plantar surfaces of the feet.", "Conditions such as allergic reactions, coarseness, dryness, mottling, flaccidity and blemishes are also effects of long-term exposure.", "To obviate these detrimental effects, experts in the field have suggested sun protection formulas having various combinations and percentages of chemical, physical and natural sunscreens, with the sun protective factor (SPF) ranging from 2 to 30 (minimal sun protection=2 and maximum sun protection=30).", "Further, melanin precursors (i.e. tyrosine, tyrosinase and 3,4-Dihydroxy Phenylalanine (DOPA)) are included in suntan preparations to stimulate the production of melanin.", "Yet, each year these harmful or life-threatening toxicities are becoming more widespread because the problem still exists for those persons who do not genetically possess sufficient melanocytes (pigment cells) to produce enough melanin.", "The pigment cell colors the skin by injecting melanosomes into keratinocytes.", "The keratinocyte carries pigment to the stratum comeurn where it is shed as melanin dust.", "Melanin provides effective protection against actinic damage of the sun.", "Notably, there exists an increased correlation between skin sensitivity to UV radiation and melanin content.", "The degree of sunburn reaction, prevalence of abnormal photosensitivity and the degenerative (aging) and neoplastic changes are reduced with increasing melanin pigmentation.", "This increased relationship is correlated to the distribution of melanosomes and quantity of melanin in the epidermis.", "The SPF estimates of melanin have been cited as 1.0-4.3 to 5 for Skin Types I through Skin Types V and VI, respectively.", "The photoprotective role of melanin is related to its physical and biochemical properties.", "Melanin (a) scatters and degrades radiation to heat;", "(b) absorbs the radiation and promotes immediate oxidation reaction, and (c) quenches free radicals generated by UV radiation.", "Further, melanin in the human epidermis functions as a stable free radical.", "Because of its polyquinoid nature, melanin acts as an electron exchange polymer and therefore is capable of undergoing immediate photo-oxidation or darkening reaction.", "Melanin quenches the formulation of other types of damaging free radicals in the human epidermis upon exposure to UV radiation.", "Thus melanin serves as a scavenger for damaging non-melanin free radicals which may significantly contribute to its photoprotective role in individuals of Skin Types IV, V and VI.", "The exposure to UV radiation itself produces a phototherapeutic advantage.", "Subsequent to three UV radiation exposures, Skin Types IV, V, VI become less likely to sunburn.", "However, Types I, II, III individuals develop very few melanized melanosomes.", "A melanin filter never develops in the stratum corneum resulting in an absence of melanin dust in the epidermis.", "Therefore, the need exists for the formulation of the topical application of melanin to provide an added amount of melanin in the skin to protect the human skin from the UV rays of the sun.", "Yet, dissolving melanin in solution or otherwise distributing melanin in a mixture suitable for topical application for delivery of melanin into the skin has been a difficult problem in the past.", "This problem was solved with U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,256,403 and 4,806,344.", "The instant invention is significant in that it provides evidence at the molecular level of the effect of shielding of DNA against skin cancer-inducing lesions by sunscreening agents.", "The instant invention, which is directed to a method for reducing pyrimidine photoproducts, uses methods and compositions previously described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,256,403 and 4,806,344 (which include natural sunscreening preparations produced by Frances Christian Gaskin, Inc.);", "however the claimed invention is not limited to using only the sunscreen preparations taught in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,256,403 and 4,806,344 (herein incorporated by reference).", "Briefly, U.S. Pat. No. 4,806,344 teaches a composition and method of dissolving melanin in a composition for the purpose of photoprotection of human skin from exposure to ultraviolet radiation.", "U.S. Pat. No. 5,256,403 teaches a solubilized melanin based compositions.", "The compositions consist of melanin, the active ingredient, and a substance to solubilize the melanin, blended together in a vehicle suitable for topical application.", "The effects on environmental carcinogens, such as the increased levels of UVB in the biosphere resulting from ozone depletion, is a major human health concern.", "The natural sunscreening preparations produced by Frances Christian Gaskin, Inc. provide excellent protection to human skin against increased levels of the highly dangerous carcinogen, UVB.", "This invention is not limited to using sunscreen preparations produced by Frances C. Gaskin, Inc. (FCG) to reduce pyrimidine photoproducts but the inventor does prefer to use the sunscreen preparations as created by Frances C. Gaskin, Inc. to achieve this goal.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 Outline Depicting the Principles of Pyrimidine Dimer Determination by Alkaline Agarose Gel Method.", "FIG. 2 Panel A: Experimental Set-up for Testing FCG SPF #4 in Reducing Pyrimidine Photoproducts in Lambda DNA Using a FS20 Sunscreening Lamp and a Pyrex Dish Filter (See FIG. 3).", "Panel B: Experimental Set-up for Testing FCG SPF #4 and Melanin Plus in Reducing Pyrimidine Photoproducts in 287-mer Exposed to UV Radiation (See FIG. 4).", "FIG. 3 Test of FCG SPF #4 on Lambda DNA Using a FS20 Sunlamp (0.320 mA).", "See Experimental Set-up in Panel A, FIG. 1. Lambda DNA which is approximately 49.5 kilobases in size was used.", "The X-axis represents "Time"", "that Lambda n6 methanol-free DNA was exposed to a standard FS20 Fluorescent Sunscreen Tanning Lamp.", "The Y-axis represents Endonuclease Sensitive Sites (ESS) per mega bases (number of pyrimidine dimers per mega (million) bases).", "FIG. 4 Effects of 254 nm Irradiation on 32P Labelled 287-mer With or Without FCG Sunscreens.", "Do FCG Sunscreens Protect or Reduce Pyrimidine Photoproducts?", "See Panel B, FIG. 1 above for Experimental Set-up.", "1 LANES 1-2 MOLECULAR WEIGHT MARKERS: Lane 1: Molecular Weight Marker Lane 2: Molecular Weight Marker LANES 3-8: NO SUNSCREEN Lane 3: No UV Lane 4: No UV Lane 5: 110 J/m 2 Lane 6: 165 J/m 2 Lane 7: 220 J/m 2 Lane 8: 275 J/m 2 LANES 9-12: SPF #4 (0.005 G/2.5 CM 2 ) Lane 9: No UV Lane 10: 165 J/m 2 Lane 11: 220 J/m 2 Lane 12: 275 J/m 2 LANES 13-17: FCG (1:500 DILUTION OF PURE FCG) Lane 13: No UV Lane 14: 165 J/m 2 Lane 15: 275 Jtm 2 Lane 16: 550 J/m 2 Lane 17: 825 J/m 2 LANES 18-20 MOLECULAR WEIGHT MARKERS: Lane 18: Molecular Weight Marker Lane 19: Molecular Weight Marker Lane 20: Molecular Weight Marker SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION This invention is directed to a method for reducing pyrimidine photoproducts comprising applying an effective amount of melanin to human skin prior to exposure to ultraviolet rays, wherein said melanin is in a vehicle suitable for topical application and measuring the amount of pyrimidine photoproducts as compared to a control sample.", "Another embodiment of this invention is where the vehicle is an ointment, cream or lotion.", "For the purpose of this invention, measuring also means determining, and/or quantifying.", "This invention is also directed to a method for reducing pyrimidine photoproducts comprising applying an effective amount of melanin and solubilizing substance to human skin prior to exposure to ultraviolet rays, wherein said substance for solubilizing melanin is selected from the group consisting of triethanolamine and trypsin, wherein said solubilizing substance is present in an amount sufficient to solubilize the melanin thereby producing melanin solubilized by said substance, wherein said melanin and solubilizing substance is in a vehicle suitable for topical application and measuring the amount of pyrimidine photoproducts as compared to a control sample.", "Another embodiment of this invention is where the vehicle is an ointment, cream or lotion.", "For the purpose of this invention, measuring also means determining, and/or quantifying.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Ultraviolet (UV) radiation in sunlight induces short and long term damages in human skin such as sunburning, wrinkling, premature skin aging and skin cancers.", "Since melanomas arise from human melanocytes, effects of UV on primary human melanocytes are very important.", "Sunscreens protect human skin against UV damage, and melanin is a naturally occurring intracellular sunscreen.", "Melanin can also induce radicals upon exposure to UV, and these radicals may alter the kinds of DNA damage induced by UV exposure.", "Solar radiation induces erythema, skin thickening and cancers in the skin of man.", "DNA is a suspected molecular target for the action of sunlight in damaging human skin.", "A major ultraviolet light-induced photoproduct in DNA is the cyclobutyl pyrimidine dimer formed between adjacent pyrimidines on the same DNA strand.", "Dimers have been implicated in the lethal, mutagenic, and tumorigenic effects of ultraviolet radiation in simple organisms and have been shown to be produced by UVB (290-320 nm) radiation in human skin.", "In addition to their potential intrinsic biological importance, dimers are easily quantitated and provide a useful dosimeter of damage of DNA in situ.", "Melanin-based sunscreen preparations (MELANIN FCG and MELANIN PLUS) have been produced and patented which protect human skin against the deleterious effects of UV (U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,806,344 and 5,256,403).", "These preparations are used in the Examples below to study their effect on pyrimidine dimers and to determine if they reduce pyrimidine photoproducts.", "Procedures have been developed for measuring the frequency and kinds of DNA damages induced by agents such as UV in nanogram quantities of non-radioactive DNA from human cells and skin (Freeman S. E. et al, Quantitation of radiation-, chemical-, or enzyme-induced single strand breaks in nonradioactive DNA by alkaline gel electrophoresis: application to pyrimidine dimers.", "Analyt.", "Biochem.", "158:119-129 (1986);", "Freeman, S. E., et al.", "Pyrimidine dimer formation in human skin, Photochemistry and Photobiology, 46(2):207-212, 1987).", "The method allows detection of pyrimidine dimer levels as low as one per million bases in about 50 nanograms of non-radioactive DNA.", "The protocol is based on (1) the specific and quantitative induction of single strand breaks at dimers sites by UV endonuclease from Micrococcus luteus and (2) separation of the resulting cleaved, single stranded DNA as a function of molecular length by alkaline agarose electrophoresis.", "Thus, the method is sensitive enough to quantify one damage per two million bases for single strand breaks and damages affecting one DNA strand, and to quantify one damage per 100 million bases for double strand breaks.", "Sutherland et al has also developed methods for quantitating survival and mutation, including transformation, of human skin cells (Sutherland, et al, Two dimensional, computer controlled film scanner: quantitation of fluorescence from ethidium bromide stained DNA gels, Nal.", "Biochem.", ", 139:390-399 (1984)).", "These methods have been applied to cultured human skin cells, including fibroblasts, keratinocytes and melanocytes, human skin biopsies and human skin in situ.", "The procedures have also been used to test the effect of sunscreens such as PABA (paraamino benzoic acid) on DNA damage and on cellular transformation of human skin cells.", "Briefly, FIG. 1 describes the principles of pyrimidine dimer determination by the alkaline agarose gel method.", "DNA from skin or in situ (or in culture, in vitro, or in DNA sequences themselves) is exposed to UV radiation and then the DNA is extracted from the skin as described in standard DNA isolation protocols known to a person of ordinary skill in the art.", "DNA occurs in its supercoiled state (double stranded DNA) and pyrimidine dimers result in the DNA from exposing the DNA to UV radiation (pyrimidine dimers are defined as a type of DNA damage which links together two pyrimidines adjacent to each other on the same strand of DNA (i.e. CC, CT, TC, or TT)).", "The DNA is then treated with UV endonuclease (e.g. an endonuclease isolated from Micrococcus luteus) which makes a single strand nick adjacent to each pyrimidine dimer.", "UV endonuclease is prepared by the standard protocol of Carrier et al (Carrier, W. L. Endonuclease from Micrococcus luteus which has activity toward ultraviolet-irradiated DNA: purification and properties, J. Bact.", "102:178-186 (1970).", "The DNA is no longer supercoiled and now appears in its "relaxed"", "circle form.", "The UV endonuclease creates nick adjacent to the dimer and from these nicks the number of Micrococcus luteus UV endonuclease sensitive sites per 1000 bases (ESS/kb) is determined (Sutherland, et al, Two dimensional, computer controlled film scanner: quantitation of fluorescence from ethidium bromide stained DNA gels, Nal.", "Biochem.", ", 139:390-399 (1984)).", "The endonuclease treated or untreated DNA is denatured by treatment with alkali and electrophoresed on an alkaline agarose gel along with molecular weight standard markers.", "After denaturation, the single stranded DNAs are separated according to molecular length by electrophoresis in an alkaline agarose gel.", "The lane on the left of FIG. 1 depicts DNA not treated with UV endonuclease--DNA that contains dimers but was not treated with endonuclease migrates as a higher molecular length band.", "The lane on the right of FIG. 1 depicts the endonuclease treated DNA--the same DNA after UV endonuclease treatment migrates as a heterogeneous, lower molecular length band.", "The alkaline agarose gel protocol is detailed in depth in Freeman et al (Steven E. Freeman, et al.", ", Pyrimidine Dimer Formation in Human Skin, Photochemistry and Photobiology, 46(2): 207-212 (1987) herein incorporated by reference).", "DEFINITIONS For the purpose of this invention, the following terms, words and phrases shall have the following meanings: UV radiation: ultraviolet radiation photoproduct: any change or modification in DNA whereby the change is induced by light or any light source light: any source which includes fluorescence and ultraviolet dose of radiation: Joules/m 2 ;", ""J"", "FCG Sunscreen: SPF #4, Melanin Plus, and Melanin FCG produced by Frances C. Gaskin Inc. UVA radiation: wavelengths between 320-400 nm UVB radiation: wavelengths between 290-320 nm UVC radiation: wavelengths less than 290 nm (narrow band wavelength) DNA "building blocks": Four different nucleotides were found to be the "building blocks"", "in a DNA molecule (adenine, guanine, cytosine and thymine) pyrimidine: Two of the four different building blocks in DNA--either cytosine or thymine pyrimidine dimer: a type of DNA damage which links together two pyrimidines adjacent to each other on the same strand of DNA (i.e. CC, CT, TC, or TT) 6,4 photoproduct or 6,4 pyrimidone: an example of DNA damage whereby two pyrimidines are linked together through a single bond between position 6 on one pyrimidine and position 4 on the second pyrimidine 5,6 photoproduct: also called "cis, syn cyclobutyl pyrimidine dimer (5,6)"--another example of DNA damage whereby two pyrimdines are linked together by a cyclobutyl (4 carbon ring) bond at both the 5 position and the 6 position of the pyrimidines ultraviolet light-induced photoproduct in DNA: a cyclobutyl pyrimidine dimer formed between adjacent pyrimidines on the same DNA strand.", "Cyclobutyl pyrimidine dimers are major photoproducts formed upon irradiation of DNA with ultraviolet light.", "EXAMPLES The following examples are provided so as to enable those of ordinary skill in the art to make the compositions of the invention.", "These examples are not intended to limit the scope of what the inventor regards as the invention.", "Efforts have been made to ensure accuracy with respect to numbers used to characterize the measured conditions;", "however, some experimental errors and deviations may be present.", "EXAMPLE 1 GENERAL METHOD EMPLOYED TO DETERMINE THE NUMBER OF PYRIMIDINE DIMERS FORMED AS A RESULT OF EXPOSURE TO UV RADIATION This Example outlines the general method employed to determine the number of pyrimidine dimers formed as a result of exposure to UV radiation.", "FIG. 1 outlines the principles of pyrimidine dimer determination by the alkaline agarose gel method.", "DNA in situ (in the skin or in culture, in vitro, or in DNA sequences themselves) is exposed to UV radiation and then the DNA is extracted from the skin as described in standard DNA isolation protocols.", "DNA occurs in its supercoiled state (double stranded DNA) and pyrimidine dimers result in the DNA from exposing the DNA to UV radiation (pyrimidine dimers are defined as a type of DNA damage which links together two pyrimidines adjacent to each other on the same strand of DNA (i.e. CC, CT, TC, or TF)).", "The DNA is then treated with UV endonuclease (e.g. isolated from Micrococcus luteus) which makes a single strand nick adjacent to each pyrimidine dimer.", "The DNA is no longer supercoiled and now appears in its "relaxed"", "circle form.", "The UV endonuclease creates the nicks and from these nicks the number of Micrococcus luteus UV endonuclease sensitive sites per 1000 bases (ESSIkb) is determined (Sutherland, et al, Two dimensional, computer controlled film scanner: quantitation of fluorescence from ethidium bromide stained DNA gels, Nal.", "Biochem.", ", 139:390-399 (1984)).", "The endonuclease treated or untreated DNA is denatured by treatment with alkali and electrophoresed on an alkaline agarose gel along with molecular weight standard markers.", "After denaturation, the single stranded DNAs are separated according to molecular length by electrophoresis in an alkaline agarose gel.", "The lane on the left of FIG. 1 depicts DNA not treated with UV endonuclease--DNA that contains dimers but was not treated with endonuclease migrates as a higher molecular length band.", "The lane on the right of FIG. 1 depicts the endonuclease treated DNA--the same DNA after UV endonuclease treatment migrates as a heterogeneous, lower molecular length band when compared to the DNA not treated with endonuclease.", "The alkaline agarose gel protocol is detailed in Freeman et al (Steven E. Freeman, et al.", ", Pyrimidine Dimer Formation in Human Skin, Photochemistry and Photobiology, 46(2):207-212 (1987)--herein incorporated by reference).", "EXAMPLE 2 TEST OF FCG SPF #4 ON LAMBDA DNA USING A FS20 SUNLAMP (0.320 MA) This Example tests the protective effects of FCG SPF #4 sunscreen on Lambda DNA using a FS20 sunlamp (0.320 mA) as the source of ultraviolet light.", "This Example tests whether FCG SPF #4 sunscreen protects lambda DNA from pyrimidine dimer formation thereby reducing the number of pyrimidine photoproducts as a direct result of UV Radiation exposure.", "FIG. 2 (Panel A) depicts the experimental set-up for testing the protection SPF#4 can provide to DNA exposed to UV radiation.", "The Pyrex dish acts a filter to filter out wavelengths less than 290 nm.", "The quartz disk either was or was not coated with the sunscreen ("sunscreen plus"", "or "SS+"", "vs "sunscreen minus"", "or "SS-") and is placed between the filter dish and the DNA droplet.", "The DNA droplet is exposed to UV radiation for a predetermined amount of time which was calculated to induce a specific number of pyrimidine dimers.", "In this Example, alkaline agarose gels are used to determine the number of pyrimidine dimers formed as a result of UV radiation exposure.", "This gel method is described in Example 1 and is only summarized here: Step 1: Irradiated DNA using FS20 Lamp and a Pyrex dish filter.", "Lambda DNA was used in this Example and it is approximately 49.5 kilobases in size.", "The Pyrex dish was used to filter out wavelengths less than 290 nm.", "A quartz disk was placed between the filter and the DNA droplet.", "The quartz disk was either coated with the sunscreen or buffer only.", "Step 2: Samples were removed at different times to obtain different exposure times which equate to a pre-calculated number of induced pyrimidine dimers.", "Step 3: Add MLE (Micrococcus lutues endonuclease) to half of each reaction mixture to create a nick the single stranded DNA next to where the pyrimidine dimer was located.", "The other half of the reaction mixture received only buffer--no MLE).", "Step 4: The DNA was analyzed on an alkaline agarose gel (Freeman S. E., et al, Photochemistry and Photobiology, 46(2):207-212 (1986) and data was plotted as described in FIG. 3. FIG. 3 presents the data obtained from testing the protection of SPF #4 sunscreen on the formation of pyrimidine dimers in lambda DNA.", "The X-axis of FIG. 3 represents "Time"", "that Lambda n6 methanol-free DNA was exposed to a standard FS20 Fluorescent Sunscreen Tanning Lamp (to induce pyrimidine dimers).", "The Y-axis of FIG. 3 represents the number of endonuclease sensitive sites (ESS) per mega bases (number of pyrimidine dimers per mega (million) bases) as described below.", "The results from this experiment indicate that SPF #4 reduced the number of endonuclease sensitive sites thereby reducing the number of induced pyrimidine dimers.", "Thus, SPF#4 reduced the number of photoproducts which resulted from UV radiation exposure and which correlated with the number of induced pyrimidine dimers.", "EXAMPLE 3 GENERAL METHODOLOGY FOR SITE-SPECIFIC LESION QUANTITATION IN UNSHIELDED AND MELANIN FCG SUNSCREEN-PROTECTED DNA Human hazards of solar ultraviolet exposure include sunburn, premature skin aging and skin cancer, and DNA is a primary target for such damages.", "Much is known about the formation and repair of DNA damages at genomic and specific gene levels, but little is known of damage induction and repair at specific DNA sites.", "This Example was designed to evaluate the ability of sunscreening products manufactured by FCG, Inc. to protect against specific DNA damages at the specific nucleotide sequence level.", "Methods have been developed to detect and quantitate such damage formulation, as well as its reduction in the presence of sunscreens.", "The levels of cyclobutyl pyrimidine dimers (lethal, potentially carcinogenic) and pyrimidine (6-4) pyrimidone photoproducts (mutagenic) have been tested, and overall qualitative results indicate that Melanin Plus (Sun Protection Factor 4) and Melanin FCG sunscreening product protects against induction of such damages.", "In general, an oligonucleotide via the standard protocol of polymerase chain reaction ("PCR:"", "a process for amplifying nucleic acid covered by U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,683,195 and 4,683,202).", "For example, a 287-mer was produced which comprises 287 base pairs from T-7 bacteriophage DNA inserted into a plasmid.", "Each 287-mer is labelled at its 3'", "end with P-32 ( 32 P).", "The DNA is then exposed to ultraviolet radiation in order to induce a pyrimidine dimer in the DNA.", "To do this, the DNA is exposed to a fixed amount of ultraviolet radiation (254 nm wavelength) for different pre-determined times.", "The desired end result from the UV radiation exposure for each 287-mer is to induce either no pyrimidine dimers or at most to induce only one pyrimidine dimer.", "In order to determine the time to expose the DNA sequence to, a dose-rate meter is employed ("The Jagger Meter", Jagger, J., A small and inexpensive ultraviolet dose-rate meter useful in biological experiments, Radiat.", "Res.", "14:394-403 (1961)).", "A meter reading from where the DNA sequence is positioned from the source of the radiation is determined (i.e. 111 microamps/sec/m 2 ) and this meter is pre-calibrated against a National Bureau of Standards Lamp.", "The calibration factor for the lamp employed for the instant invention is 22 microamps/sec/m 2 which equates to 1 Joule/sec/m 2 .", "Every second of exposure is equal to 5 Joules;", "thus an exposure time of 110 seconds is equal to 550 Joules.", "After the pre-determined exposure time, a sample of the reaction mixture is removed.", "A portion of this sample is then subjected to UV endonuclease.", "Next, part of the DNA is treated with UV endonuclease (e.g. an endonuclease isolated from Micrococcus luteus) which makes a single strand nick adjacent to each pyrimidine dimer.", "UV endonuclease is prepared by the standard protocol of Carrier et al (Carrier, W. L. Endonuclease from Micrococcus luteus which has activity toward ultraviolet-irradiated DNA: purification and properties, J. Bact.", "102:178-186 (1970);", "See description regarding FIG. 1 above).", "The UV endonuclease creates nick adjacent to the dimer and from these nicks the number of Micrococcus luteus UV endonuclease sensitive sites per 1000 bases (ESS/kb) is determined (Sutherland, et al, Two dimensional, computer controlled film scanner: quantitation of fluorescence from ethidium bromide stained DNA gels, Nal.", "Biochem.", ", 139:390-399 (1984)).", "Thus, if there are any pyrimidine dimers (i.e. CC, CT, TC, or TT) and if the DNA-mer is treated with UV endonuclease then the enzyme will induce or cause a cut in the single strand of DNA adjacent to where the pyrimidine dimer was located.", "The MLE reactions are performed at room temperature for one hour.", "The MLE reactions are stopped after one hour and the samples are stored -20° C. overnight.", "The endonuclease treated or untreated DNA is next subjected to a standard sequencing gel.", "Dye is added to sample, the sample is denatured by heat and then the sample is iced down prior to loading it on the gel.", "The protocols for these gels are standard and known to those skilled in the art but the following is an example of which method that could be used to achieve the same results: the DNA is analyzed on an 8% urea-containing polyacrylamide gel with G+A and C+T Maxam and Gilbert sequencing reactions as markers.", "Each sample is loaded onto this 8% sequencing gel and the gels were then autoradiographed (for approximately 48 hours).", "Bands were cut from the polyacrylamide gels and can be analyzed by the Cerenkov counting method.", "With this method, the data is corrected for multiple cuts within the same DNA fragment as described in Gordon et al (Gordon et al, J. Biol.", "Chem.", "255:12047-12050 (1980)) and the percentage of initial molecules carrying scissions at a specific site were calculated.", "This is described in Brash et al (Brash, et al, Nature, 298:189-192 (1982)).", "The data can be visually analyzed and/or analyzed via a computer.", "In order to visually analyze the gels, the same number of counts per minute (cpms) need to be loaded into each lane.", "The total cpms are calculated for each lane and the cpms per band are also determined.", "The percentage of cpms in each band is calculated and is compared to the total cpms in that lane by dividing the number of cpms per band by the total number of cpms in the lane.", "A computer software program is being developed at Brookhaven National Laboratories for quantitating the cpms per band as compared to the total cpms in each lane.", "Visually, each band can be compared to a comparable and receiving the same amount of Joules.", "Conclusions may be drawn if it is assumed that the same amount of cpms per lane were added to each lane.", "EXAMPLE 4 254 NM IRRADIATION OF P-32 LABELLED 287-MER This Example studied the effects of 254 nm Irradiation had on 32P labelled 287-met with or without FCG sunscreens.", "It attempted to answer the question Do FCG Sunscreens Protect or Reduce Pyrimidine Photoproducts?", "Thus, the purpose of this Example was to determine if either FCG Sunscreen or SPF #4 Sunscreen (Both products are available from Frances C. Gaskin, Inc.) protected DNA from the formation of pyrimidine dimers.", "If the sunscreens protected the DNA then it once can conclude that the sunscreens used reduced the number of pyrimidine photoproducts resulting from UV radiation exposure.", "The protocol employed is presented in Example 3.", "As described in Example 3, a quantitative method for measuring site-specific levels of DNA lesions was used.", "Briefly, defined-sequence oligonucleotides are end-labeled on one strand by PCR using a 32 P-labeled primer.", "The oligonucleotides, either unshielded or protected by a sunscreen, are exposed to narrow band radiation or sunlight, treated with lesion-specific agents to induce a nick at each lesion site, electrophoresed on sequencing gels along with sequence and size standards (Brash and Hazeltine, 1982, Nature, 298:189--Herein incorporated by reference).", "Radioactivity at each position is quantitated using a PhosphorImager.", "Use of the Micrococcus luteus UV endonuclease or T4 endonuclease V allows measurement of kinetics of induction of cyclobutyl pyrimidine dimers including C-C, C-T and T-T at individual sites in the oligonucleotide.", "This method allows determination of quantitative and qualitative changes in the lesion spectrum of DNA protected by sunscreening agents such as Melanin FCG (used interchangeably with "FCG") and SPF #4.", "The experimental set-up for testing FCG SPF #4 and Melanin Plus in reducing pyrimidine photoproducts in 287-met exposed to UV radiation (See FIG. 4) is shown in FIG. 2, Panel B. The chart below presents the experimental details used for this Example.", "As described above, a 287-mer isolated from T-7 bacteriophage was used and the amount of 287-mer per dose 4ul (Column 1).", "Column 2 indicates whether Buffer only or Sunscreen ("SS") was added to each sample.", "Column 3 indicates the desired number of pyrimidine dimers ("Py D") for each sample (e.g. "0.2"", "means "20%"", "which means that there is one pyrimidine dimer per five (5) 287-mers).", "Column 4 is the amount of UV radiation dose (in Joules) which is needed to achieve desired number of pyrimidine dimers per 287-mer pyrimidine dimers in Column 3.", "The figure in Column 4 is pre-calculated such that the UV radiation given will induce the desired number of pyrimidine dimers shown in Column 3.", "Column 5 indicates the amount of UV exposure time, in seconds, to achieve the desired dose shown in Column 4.", "______________________________________ Col.", "5 Col.", "2 Col.", "Time Sun 3 111 Screen Dose Col.", "4 uA (SS) or Py D Dose perCol.", "1 Buffer per Joules secDNA Only molec per m.sup[.", "].2 per m.sup[.", "].2______________________________________NO SUNSCREEN20 ul Buffer 0 04 ul Buffer [.", "].2 110 22 sec4 ul Buffer [.", "].3 165 33 sec4 ul Buffer [.", "].4 220 44 sec4 ul Buffer [.", "].5 275 55 secSPF #44 ul SS [.", "].3x 33 sec4 ul SS [.", "].5x 55 sec4 ul SS 1.0x 110 secFCGMelanin4 ul SS [.", "].3x 33 sec[.", "].4 ul SS [.", "].5x 55 sec4 ul SS 1.0x 110 sec4 ul SS 1.5x 165 sec______________________________________ Continuing from the chart above, the chart below indicates the lane number for the DNA sequencing gel.", "The dose in Joules presented in the second column is the amount of UV radiation (254 nm) needed to induce the desired number of pyrimidine dimers shown in the third column.", "The column labelled "MLE Enz"", "indicates whether the specific gel lane received MLE or buffer only.", "The data from this sequencing gel is shown in FIG. 4. The Joules given per lane is indicated below: LANES 1-2 MOLECULAR WEIGHT MARKERS: Lane 1: Molecular Weight Marker Lane 2: Molecular Weight Marker LANES 3-8: NO SUNSCREEN Lane 3: No UV Lane 4: No UV Lane 5: 110 J/m 2 Lane 6: 165 J/m 2 Lane 7: 220 J/m 2 Lane 8: 275 J/m 2 LANES 9-12: SPF #4 (0.005 G/2.5 CM 2 ) Lane 9: No UV Lane 10: 165 J/m 2 Lane 11: 220 J/m 2 Lane 12: 275 J/m 2 LANES 13-17: FCG (1:500 DILUTION OF PURE FCG) Lane 13: No UV Lane 14: 165 J/m 2 Lane 15: 275 J/m 2 Lane 16: 550 J/m 2 Lane 17: 825 J/m 2 LANES 18-20 MOLECULAR WEIGHT MARKERS: Lane 18: Molecular Weight Marker Lane 19: Molecular Weight Marker Lane 20: Molecular Weight Marker Higher doses were used when the UV radiation had to go through a sunscreen.", "This was done in order to insure that some pyrimidine dimers could be observed.", "The results from this experiment are shown in FIG. 4. The control in lanes 3 and 4 showed no bands migrating under the 287-mer band (indicated with the arrow);", "thus, both UV radiation and endonuclease are essential to observe bands below the 287-mer band.", "In lanes 5-8--NO SUNSCREEN (yes UV and yes endonuclease) smaller bands appeared below the 287-mer band which is indicative of pyrimidine dimers being present.", "In lanes 9-12, the sunscreen SPF #4 was used with higher overall UV doses in Joules as compared to lanes 3-8.", "Note that there are no bands below the 287-mer in Lane 9;", "this is because there was no UV given to that sample and as stated above, both UV radiation and endonuclease are needed to see bands below the 287-mer which indicate the presence of pyrimidine dimers.", "The results with SPF #4 Sunscreen are harder to quantify when comparing the band number and intensity in lane 6 with those in lane 10.", "The SPF #4 data will have to be computer analyzed prior to drawing any conclusions.", "It can be concluded that some UV goes through the SPF #4 sunscreen but how much can not be answered at this time.", "The same general statements apply when comparing the band number and intensity for lane 8 and lane 11.", "FCG Sunscreen was used in lanes 13-17.", "Lane 13 (no UV and yes enzyme) demonstrated what a good control would look like.", "Note that there are no clear bands smaller than the 287-met band.", "Because of the different doses used in these lanes with the FCG sunscreen, lanes 6 (no sunscreen, 165 J) and 14 (FCG sunscreen, 165 J) can be compared, and lanes 8 (no sunscreen, 275 J) and 15 (FCG sunscreen, 275 J) can be compared.", "It is apparent that the intensity of the bands in lane 14 is less than the intensity of the bands in lane 6.", "Also, the intensity of the bands in lane 15 is less than the intensity of the bands in lane 8.", "From this data, one could conclude that if the total number of cpms in 5, 6, 7, or 8 was equal to the cpms in lanes 14-17, then FCG sunscreen does indeed protect the 287-mer from UV induced pyrimidine dimers.", "Thus, FCG can reduce the number of pyrimidine photoproducts as compared to the controls.", "These data will be computer analyzed in order to quantify this data.", "______________________________________ DoseLane Joules UV # Py# 254 nm DIMERS MLE Enz______________________________________ 1 -- -- MW MARKER 2 -- -- MW MARKER 3 0 NONE NONE 4 0 NONE MLE 5 110 J [.", "].2 Py D MLE 6 165 J [.", "].3 Py D MLE 7 220 J [.", "].4 Py D MLE 8 275 J [.", "].5 Py D MLE 9 0 NONE MLE10 165 J [.", "].2X MLE11 275 J [.", "].5X MLE12 550 J 1.0X MLE13 0 NONE MLE14 165 J 33 SEC MLE15 275 J 55 SEC MLE16 550 J 110 SEC MLE17 825 J 165 SEC MLE18 -- MW MARKER19 -- MW MARKER20 -- MW MARKER______________________________________ EXAMPLE 5 UV-PROTECTIVE EFFECTS OF MELANIN PLUS AND MELANIN FCG ON HUMAN SKIN The objective of this example is to use sunscreen compounds manufactured by Frances Christian Gaskin, Inc. to study the effects ultraviolet light has on human skin.", "The above protocols and experiments will be performed on human skin order to quantify the reduction (and protection) of pyrimidine photoproducts as a result of exposure of UV radiation through the sunscreen.", "EXAMPLE 6 UV-PROTECTIVE EFFECTS OF MELANIN PLUS AND MELANIN FCG ON HUMAN SKIN CELLS The objective of this Example is to use sunscreen compounds manufactured by Frances Christian Gaskin, Inc. to study the effects ultraviolet light has on human skin cells in vitro.", "These studies will allow selection and or creation of more efficient sun preparations and may indicate modifications to current preparations for higher efficacy.", "More specifically, this Example is directed to studying the effects of UV in the presence and absence of FCG sunscreens on human cultured cells in vitro, including melanocytes.", "In general, for measurement of DNA damage, cells will be exposed to broad spectrum, or narrow band UVC (wavelengths less than 290 nm), UVB (290-320 nm) or UVA (320-400 nm) [monitored with a spectral radiometer] in the absence or presence of sunscreens at different concentrations.", "The cells will be harvested, the DNA isolated, treated with a lesion-specific agent, electrophoresed, a quantitative electronic image obtained, data stored on an optical disk, and computer-aided analysis carried out to obtain frequency of different kinds of DNA lesions.", "Studying Survival and Mutation Rates Once these results are analyzed, further studies will be performed to study survival and mutation rates (including transformation) as a result of UV exposure of cells in the absence or presence of different levels of sunscreen.", "The cells would then be plated under permissive conditions to determine survival or under non-permissive conditions to select for specific mutations or transformation.", "After incubation allowing for cell growth, the survival, mutation or transformation frequencies would be determined by scoring microscopically either manually or by using electronic imaging and computer-assisted scoring.", "The protective effects on DNA at the molecular level due to the sunscreening preparations will be studied two different ways: (1) Determination of the level of screening of DNA damages by the sunscreens in human skin cells;", "(2) Measurement of the kinds of damages produced by UV in the absence and presence of sunscreens.", "The inventor anticipates that the sunscreen preparations will be effective in shielding DNA in human skin cells against UV.", "EXAMPLE 7 UV-PROTECTIVE EFFECTS OF MELANIN PLUS AND MELANIN FCG ON HUMAN SKIN MODEL SYSTEMS The objective of this Example is to use sunscreen compounds manufactured by Frances Christian Gaskin, Inc. to study the effects ultraviolet light has on human skin model systems.", "The experiments and protocols as described above will be employed in the Example.", "EXAMPLE 8 UV-PROTECTIVE EFFECTS OF MELANIN PLUS AND MELANIN FCG ON HUMAN SKIN IN VIVO The objective of this example is to use sunscreen compounds manufactured by Frances Christian Gaskin, Inc. to study the effects ultraviolet light has on human skin in vivo.", "The experiments and protocols as described above will be employed in the Example.", "EXAMPLE 9 QUANTITATION OF DATA This Example is designed to quantitate the data generated from these experiments.", "Software is being developed to allow accurate quantitation of the data obtained in these experiments.", "Commercially available software only provides crude estimates of lesion levels, thus a reliable computer is needed.", "The level of several pyrimidine dimers and 6-4 photoproducts at different sites in the DNA, and in different sequence contexts, will be determined.", "The level of shielding against such photoproducts will be compared with the degree of protection against erythema.", "REFERENCES The following references may facilitate the understanding or practice of certain aspects of the present invention.", "Inclusion of a reference in this list is not intended to and does not constitute an admission that the reference represents prior art with respect to the present invention.", "Steven E. Freeman, et al.", ", Pyrimidine Dimer Formation in Human Skin, Photochemistry and Photobiology, Vol. 46 (No.", "2): 207-212 (1987).", "Douglas E. Brash &", "William A. Haseltine, UV-induced Mutation Hotspots Occur at DNA Damage Hotspots, Nature, Vol. 298: 189 (1982).", "Gaskin, Composition and Method for Protecting the Skin from UV-Rays, U.S. Pat. No. 5,256,403, Issued Oct. 26, 1993.", "Gaskin, Sun Protectant Composition and Method, U.S. Pat. No. 4,806, 344, Issued Feb. 21, 1989.", "John Clark Sutherland, et al.", ", Unidirectional Pulsed-Field Electrophoresis of Single and Double-Stranded DNA in Agarose Gels;", "Analytical Expressions Relating Mobility and Molecular Length and Their Application in the Measurement of Strand Breaks, Analytical Biochemistry, Volume 162: 511-520 (1987).", "S. E. Freman, et al.", ", Wavelength Dependence of Pyrimidine Dimer Formation in DNA of Human Skin Irradiated in situ with Ultraviolet Light, Proc.", "Nat'l.", "Acad.", "Sci.", "USA Vol. 86: 5605-5609 (1989).", "Steven E. Freeman, et al.", ", Quantitation of Radiation, Chemical or Enzyme-Induced Single Strand Breaks in Nonradioactive DNA by Alkaline Gel Electrophoresis: Application to Pyrimidine Dimers, Analytical Biochemistry, Vol. 158: 119-129 (1986).", "Betsy M. Sutherland and Alice G. Shih, Quantitation of Pyrimidine Dimer Contents of Nonradioactive Deoxyribonucleic Acid by Electrophoresis in Alakaline Ariarose Gels, Biochemistry, Vol. 22: 745-749 (1983).", "John C. Sutherland, et al.", ", Lesion Measurement in Non-Radioactive DNA by Quantitative Gel Electrophoresis, DNA Damage and Repair in Human Tissues, 45-61 (1990).", "10.", "J. C. Sutherland, et al.", ", Quantitative Electronic Imaging of Gel Fluorescence with CCD Cameras: Applications in Molecular Biology, BioTechniques, Vol. 10 (No.", "4): 492-497 (1991).", "11.", "F. E. Quaite, B. M. Sutherland &", "J. C. Sutherland, Action Spectrum for DNA Damage in Alfalfa Lowers Predicted Impact of Ozone Depletion, Nature, Vol. 358: 576-578 (1992).", "12.", "Paula V. Bennett and Betsy M. Sutherland, Quantitative Detection of Single-Copy Genes in Nanogram Samples of Human Genomic DNA, BioTechniques, Vol. 15 (No.", "3): 520-525 (1993).", "13.", "F. E. Quaite, J. C. Sutherland and B. M. Sutherland, Isolation of High-Molecular-Weight Plan DNA for DNA DamaRe Quantitation: Relative Effects of Solar 297 nm UVB and 365 nm Radiation, Plant Molecular Biology, Vol. 24: 475-483 (1994).", "14.", "R. Cadi, et al.", ", Protective Effect of Flavopherol Against Lipid Peroxidation and Experimental UV B-induced Carcinogenesis in the Hairless Mouse, Nouv.", "Dermatol 15.", "J. C. Sutherland, Electronic Imaging of Electrophoretic Gels and Blots, VCH Publishers, 1-42 (1993).", "16.", "Sutherland, et al, Two dimensional, computer controlled film scanner: quantitation of fluorescence from ethidium bromide stained DNA gels, Nal.", "Biochem.", ", 139:390-399 (1984).", "17.", "Carrier, W. L. Endonuclease from Micrococcus luteus which has activity toward ultraviolet-irradiated DNA: purification and properties, J. Bact.", "102:178-186 (1970).", "18.", "Jagger, J., A small and inexpensive ultraviolet dose-rate meter useful in biological experiments, Radiat.", "Res.", "14:394-403 (1961).", "Additional advantages and modifications will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art.", "The invention in its broader aspects is therefore not limited to the specific details or representative examples described.", "Thus, the foregoing description has been directed to particular embodiments of the invention in accordance requirements to the Patent Statues for the purposes of illustration and explanation.", "It will be apparent, however, to those skilled in this art, that many modifications, changes, and variations in the claimed invention, including, but not limited to, compositions, solutions, methods, etc.", "set forth will be possible without departing from the scope and spirit of the claimed invention.", "It is intended that the following claims be interpreted to embrace all such modifications, variations, and changes." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001] The invention relates to a semiconductor module containing an addressing circuit for addressing memory cells of a memory array.", "An amplifier circuit is provided for amplifying a signal read from a memory cell and an input/output circuit is provided for reading data in or from the memory cells.", "A voltage supply circuit supplies an internal voltage to the components.", "A first evaluation circuit is connected to a switching signal and is suitable for outputting a switch-off signal for switching off the voltage supply circuit via an output if the switching signal represents a switch-off signal.", "[0002] Semiconductor memory modules are used in the form of synchronous dynamic random access memories (SDRAMs), for example, for storing a large number of data with a fast access time.", "By way of example, memory cells with capacitors are used to store the data.", "The information is stored in the charge of the storage capacitor of the memory cell.", "Since the charge in the storage capacitor decreases over time, the charge state of the storage capacitor has to be regularly refreshed.", "[0003] Semiconductor memory modules are increasingly used in mobile devices, too, such as e.g. a laptop or a mobile radio device.", "Since the mobile devices themselves usually carry only a limited current capacity, a low current consumption of the semiconductor memory modules is of substantial importance particularly in these applications.", "[0004] A semiconductor module of the generic type that has two evaluation circuits that monitor a switching signal is already known.", "The evaluation circuits switch the internal voltage supply on or off depending on the signal state of the switching signal.", "In this way, it is possible to adapt the functionality of the internal voltage supply circuit to the actual current requirement.", "This procedure affords the advantage that the internal voltage supply circuit consumes less current in the switched-off state than in the switched-on state.", "[0005] Published, Non-Prosecuted German Patent Application DE 4 028 175 A1, corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 5,167,024, discloses an energy management configuration for a portable computer.", "The energy management configuration is provided for managing and distributing the energy which is drawn from a battery and used to supply a central unit, a memory and a plurality of peripheral devices including a user-interactive device.", "The energy management configuration has a control device coupled to the central unit for receiving commands from the central unit and also to the user-interactive device for receiving user inputs.", "The control device is additionally coupled to the battery for controlling the energy distribution between various computer units.", "In order to reduce the current consumption, the clock frequency of an internal clock generator is varied.", "Less current is consumed by prescribing a lower clock frequency.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0006] It is accordingly an object of the invention to provide a semiconductor memory module with a low current consumption that overcomes the above-mentioned disadvantages of the prior art devices of this general type, which has a reduced current consumption.", "[0007] With the foregoing and other objects in view there is provided, in accordance with the invention, a semiconductor memory module.", "The semiconductor memory module containing a memory array having memory cells, an addressing circuit for addressing the memory cells of the memory array, an amplifier circuit connected to the memory cells for amplifying a signal read from the memory cells, an input/output circuit connected to the memory array for reading data to/from the memory cells, a voltage supply circuit providing an internal voltage for components of the semiconductor memory module and having an input, and a first evaluation circuit having an input receiving a switching signal.", "The first evaluation circuit has an output coupled to the voltage supply circuit and outputs a switch-off signal for switching off the voltage supply circuit if the switching signal represents a switch-off state.", "A second evaluation circuit has an input receiving the switching signal.", "The second evaluation circuit has an output connected to the voltage supply circuit.", "The second evaluation circuit receives a voltage made available to the semiconductor memory module from an external voltage source.", "The second evaluation circuit outputs a switch-on signal to the voltage supply circuit if the switching signal represents a switch-on state.", "[0008] One advantage of the invention consists in providing two evaluation circuits, a first evaluation circuit being supplied with current by an internal voltage supply and a second evaluation circuit being supplied with current by an external voltage supply.", "The second evaluation circuit monitors a switch-on signal for the internal voltage supply circuit.", "The first evaluation circuit monitors a switch-off signal for the internal voltage supply circuit.", "If a switch-off signal is identified by the first evaluation circuit, then the first evaluation circuit outputs a switch-off signal for switching off the voltage supply circuit.", "If the second evaluation circuit identifies a switch-on signal for the internal voltage supply circuit, then the second evaluation circuit switches the voltage supply circuit on again.", "As a result, the first evaluation circuit is also supplied with a sufficiently large supply voltage again.", "[0009] The provision of two evaluation circuits makes it possible to optimally adapt the performance and the current consumption of the two evaluation circuits for the two different areas of use and tasks of the two evaluation circuits.", "Consequently, less current is consumed overall by the semiconductor memory module.", "[0010] Preferably, the internal voltage supply circuit is switched off in the event of a deep power down command from the first supervisory circuit.", "In mobile devices, in particular, it is advantageous for the internal voltage supply circuit to be at least partially switched off in the event of an expected operating state in which only a very small current or hardly any current at all is required.", "[0011] In one preferred embodiment, the internal voltage supply circuit is switched on or off only by the first supervisory circuit.", "This provides simplified driving for switching the voltage supply circuit on or off.", "[0012] In a further preferred embodiment, provision is made of an amplifier circuit for receiving and forwarding the switching signal to a supervisory circuit in the second evaluation circuit.", "The output of the supervisory circuit forms the output of the second evaluation circuit.", "In this preferred embodiment, the output of the supervisory circuit is fed back to an input of the amplifier circuit.", "If the supervisory circuit identifies that the internal voltage supply circuit is to be switched off, then the supervisory circuit passes a switch-on signal to the amplifier circuit.", "Thus, the amplifier circuit of the second evaluation circuit is activated only when the internal voltage supply circuit is switched off.", "Consequently, no current is consumed by the amplifier circuit during an active internal voltage supply circuit.", "The current consumption is thus reduced overall.", "[0013] In one preferred embodiment, the first supervisory circuit is configured in the form of an RS flip-flop circuit.", "[0014] In a further preferred embodiment, the evaluation circuit is configured in the form of a second amplifier circuit, a command decoder and a second supervisory circuit.", "The second amplifier circuit is connected to the switching signal, the command decoder is connected to the output of the second amplifier circuit and the second supervisory circuit is connected to the output of the command decoder.", "[0015] In one preferred embodiment, the output of the second supervisory circuit is connected to an input of the first supervisory circuit.", "[0016] A further embodiment of the invention has a common amplifier circuit for the first and second evaluation circuits.", "As a result, overall less space is required on the semiconductor memory module in order to realize the circuit configuration according to the invention.", "[0017] Other features which are considered as characteristic for the invention are set forth in the appended claims.", "[0018] Although the invention is illustrated and described herein as embodied in a semiconductor memory module with low current consumption, it is nevertheless not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention and within the scope and range of equivalents of the claims.", "[0019] The construction and method of operation of the invention, however, together with additional objects and advantages thereof will be best understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawings.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0020] [0020 ]FIG. 1 is a block circuit diagram of an SDRAM semiconductor memory module according to the invention;", "[0021] [0021 ]FIG. 2 is a block circuit diagram of a changeover device for switching an internal voltage supply circuit on or off;", "[0022] [0022 ]FIG. 3 is a block circuit diagram of a second embodiment of the changeover device;", "and [0023] [0023 ]FIG. 4 is a block circuit diagram of a third embodiment of the changeover device.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS [0024] Referring now to the figures of the drawing in detail and first, particularly, to FIG. 1 thereof, there is shown an SDRAM semiconductor memory module 24 .", "However, the invention can be applied to any type of memory modules.", "[0025] [0025 ]FIG. 1 shows a schematic construction of the SDRAM memory module 24 having an addressing circuit 11 , word line decoders 12 , column decoders 13 , amplifier circuits 14 and memory arrays 15 , in which memory cells 16 are disposed in matrix form.", "Furthermore, an input/output circuit 17 is provided, via which data can be read from the memory cells 16 or written to the memory cells 16 .", "Furthermore, a central control unit 18 is provided, which controls the functioning of the individual circuit configurations and provides for a synchronous data stream.", "By prescribing a word line address and a column address, it is possible for an individual memory cell 16 to be addressed and an information item to be written to the addressed memory cell 16 or read from the addressed memory cell.", "In a simple embodiment, a memory cell 16 has a selection transistor and a storage capacitor.", "The charge state of the storage capacitor represents the information stored in the memory cell 16 .", "When an information item is read from the memory cell 16 , the charge state is passed via a bit line to the amplifier circuit 14 .", "For each bit line, the amplifier circuit 14 has an amplifier unit.", "Through the selection of a column line, which is defined by the column address, an amplifier unit 14 is selected and the charge of the selected bit line is thus forwarded to the input/output circuit 17 .", "[0026] The semiconductor memory module furthermore has a terminal pad 1 connected to a changeover device 19 .", "The changeover device 19 is connected to an internal voltage supply circuit 8 , which supplies the circuits of the semiconductor memory module 24 with a supply voltage via supply lines 9 .", "[0027] [0027 ]FIG. 2 shows a first construction of the changeover device 19 .", "The changeover device 19 has a second amplifier circuit 2 , whose input is connected to a terminal pad 1 .", "An output of the second amplifier circuit 2 is connected to an input of a command decoder 3 .", "An output of the command decoder 3 is connected to an input of a second supervisory circuit 4 .", "A second input of the second supervisory circuit 4 is connected to an internal clock.", "An output of the second supervisory circuit 4 is connected to an input of a first supervisory (control) circuit 6 .", "The terminal pad 1 is connected to a non-illustrated control unit.", "[0028] Furthermore, a first amplifier circuit 5 is provided, which is connected to the terminal pad 1 via a first input.", "Moreover, an output of the first amplifier circuit 5 is connected to a second input of the first supervisory circuit 6 .", "The first supervisory circuit 6 is connected to an input of the voltage supply circuit 8 via an output.", "Furthermore, the output of the first supervisory circuit 6 is connected to a second input of the first amplifier circuit 5 .", "The first amplifier circuit 5 is additionally connected to a supply terminal 7 via a supply line.", "The supply terminal 7 serves for the connection of an external voltage supply circuit 21 disposed outside the semiconductor memory module 24 .", "The command decoder 3 has a command input 20 , via which control signals such as e.g. CS, RAS, CAS, WE are passed to the command decoder 3 .", "The control signals serve for controlling the functions of the semiconductor memory module 24 .", "The second amplifier circuit 2 , the command decoder 3 and the second supervisory circuit 4 represent a first evaluation circuit.", "The first amplifier circuit 5 and the supervisory circuit 6 represent a second evaluation circuit.", "The second supervisory circuit 4 is configured in the form of a storage element and a pulse generator.", "The first supervisory circuit 6 is configured in the form of an RS flip-flop.", "[0029] The functioning of the changeover device 19 is explained in more detail below.", "A switching signal is passed to the second and first amplifier circuits 2 , 5 via the terminal pad 1 .", "With the switching signal it is possible to communicate a switch-on or switch-off signal for switching on or switching off the internal voltage supply circuit 8 .", "If the second amplifier circuit 2 receives a switching signal, then the second amplifier circuit 2 forwards an amplified switching signal to the command decoder 3 .", "Preferably, the second amplifier circuit 2 only processes switch-off signals.", "The first amplifier circuit 5 is provided for processing a switch-on signal.", "If a switch-on signal is fed via the bonding pad 1 , then the switch-on signal is detected by the first amplifier circuit 5 , amplified and forwarded to the first supervisory circuit 6 .", "The first supervisory circuit 6 detects that the switch-on signal has been fed and forwards a corresponding switch-on signal to the voltage supply circuit 8 .", "On account of the switch-on signal, the voltage supply circuit 8 is switched into an active state in which the voltage supply circuit 8 makes more power available.", "In a simple embodiment, the voltage supply circuit 8 is switched, by the switch-on signal, from a switched-off state, in which no voltage is made available, into a switched-on state, in which the voltage supply circuit 8 makes a voltage available.", "[0030] In a preferred embodiment, the output signal of the first supervisory circuit 6 is passed to the first amplifier circuit 5 .", "If the first amplifier circuit 5 receives a switch-on signal from the supervisory circuit 6 , then the first amplifier circuit 5 switches off or at least into an operating state with a reduced power consumption.", "[0031] Thus, preferably during the operating mode in which the internal voltage supply circuit provides an internal voltage supply, the first amplifier circuit 5 is operated in a current-saving operating mode.", "In the current-saving mode, less power has to be made available by the external voltage supply circuit 21 .", "Thus, current is saved overall.", "[0032] A switch-off signal for the internal voltage supply circuit 8 is fed to the first amplifier circuit 5 and the second amplifier circuit 2 via the terminal pad 1 , then the second amplifier circuit 2 passes an amplified switch-off signal to the command decoder 3 .", "In addition to the switch-off signal of the second amplifier circuit 2 , the command decoder 3 preferably also evaluates further command signals that are fed via the command input 20 .", "Depending on the comparison between the further command signals and the switch-off signal, the command decoder 3 forwards a switch-off signal to the second supervisory circuit 4 , if the further command signals do not oppose a switch-off of the internal voltage supply circuit 8 .", "In a simple embodiment, the evaluation of the further command signals can be dispensed with.", "This is the case, in particular, when a separate signal indicating a deep power down mode is present in the command decoder 3 .", "[0033] After receiving the switch-off signal, upon the next rising edge of the internal clock signal, the second supervisory circuit 4 passes the switch-off signal to the first supervisory circuit 6 .", "Upon receiving the switch-off signal, the first supervisory circuit 6 forwards a corresponding switch-off signal to the internal voltage supply circuit 8 .", "As a result, the internal voltage supply circuit 8 is switched into an inactive state, in which the internal voltage supply circuit 8 makes less power available or is completely switched off.", "The voltage supply circuit 8 consumes less current in the inactive state.", "At the same time, the first supervisory circuit 6 passes the switch-off signal to the first amplifier circuit 5 .", "[0034] In a simple embodiment illustrated in FIG. 3, the output of the second supervisory circuit 4 is directly connected to a second input of the internal voltage supply circuit 8 and switches off the internal voltage supply circuit 8 itself.", "In this embodiment, the first supervisory circuit 6 is connected by its output to a first input of the internal voltage supply circuit 8 and serves for switching the internal voltage supply circuit 8 into an active state, if a corresponding switch-on signal is fed to the first amplifier circuit 5 via the terminal pad 1 .", "[0035] The embodiment illustrated in FIG. 2 offers a simplified drive circuit, since only one input is required for controlling the internal voltage supply circuit 8 .", "[0036] [0036 ]FIG. 4 shows a further embodiment of the invention, in which the first and second amplifier circuits 5 , 2 are realized in a common amplifier circuit 22 .", "The common amplifier circuit 22 affords the advantage that less space is required on the semiconductor memory module for realizing the two functions of the first and second amplifier circuits 5 , 2 .", "However, a common amplifier circuit 22 is preferably to be supplied with current by the external voltage supply circuit 21 .", "[0037] Depending on the embodiment, it is also possible to provide a further switch 23 , which, by way of example, is controlled by the first and/or second supervisory circuit 6 , 4 and realizes a changeover between an internal and external current supply for the common amplifier circuit 22 .", "The switch 23 is switched in such a way that the common amplifier circuit 22 is supplied with current by the external voltage supply circuit 21 when the internal voltage supply circuit 8 is not active.", "However, if the internal voltage supply circuit 8 is active and supplies a sufficient supply voltage, then the switch 23 is changed over and the common amplifier circuit 22 is supplied with current by the internal voltage supply circuit 8 .", "The common amplifier circuit 22 can also be formed in the circuit configurations of FIGS. 2 and 3." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] 1.", "Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a power supply wiring structure and a designing method of a power supply wiring.", "[0003] 2.", "Description of the Related Art [0004] A semiconductor integrated circuit comprises a greater number of minute wirings such as clock wirings, signal wirings, power supply wirings, etc.", "compared to an ordinary conductive wiring.", "When an electric current is flown into such minute wirings, migration of electrons occurs.", "The migrated electrons urge atoms (for example, copper atoms, aluminum atoms, etc), which forms the wiring, thus causing an atomic depletion (void).", "Such void induces a decrease of a cross sectional area of a wiring film, an increase of the electric current density, and a temperature increase caused by Joule heat.", "More accelerated growth of the void finally comes to break down the wirings.", "Such phenomenon is referred to as electro migration (referred to as EM hereinafter).", "[0005] In the recent semiconductor integrated circuit technology, gate length of transistors constituting a semiconductor integrated circuit is shortened to improve the degree of integration.", "When the degree of the integration is improved in this manner, it is possible to reduce the area of the semiconductor integrated circuit.", "However, the number of operating transistors per unit area is increased thus increasing the consumed electric current per unit area.", "As a result, the electric current density in the power supply wiring is increased and a problem of EM in the power supply wiring becomes significant.", "[0006] In the meantime, the wiring of the semiconductor integrated circuit is formed by electrically connecting multilayer wirings through vias.", "With the same amount of electric current, the EM problem is more significant in the vias than in the wirings.", "This is due to a meteoric failure phenomenon.", "The meteoric failure phenomenon will be described in the followings.", "[0007] In the recent manufacturing procedure of a semiconductor integrated circuit, a great number of vias are concentrated so that there is a swollen part by the vias in an area with a great number of the concentrated vias compared to an area where the vias are not concentrated.", "The density of via numbers per unit wiring is referred to as a via density.", "Due to such swollen part by the vias, the wiring becomes let out and connected to other wirings at the time of forming a wiring which is a layer over the via.", "Such phenomenon is referred to as the meteoric failure phenomenon.", "[0008] The wiring width of the power supply wiring is wider than that of the signal wiring, so that it is possible to form a grater number of vias compared to the case of the signal wiring.", "Thus, in order to avoid the meteoric failure phenomenon, the power supply wiring is designed with the decreased via density.", "However, with this, the cross sectional area of the via is decreased due to a decrease in the via density.", "Thus, the EM problem is more increased.", "[0009] For the EM problem as described above, in the semiconductor integrated circuit, a standard of the allowable electric current density is set and the wirings and vias therein are so constituted that the electric current density falls within the allowable electric current density.", "[0010] However, the recent semiconductor integrated circuit uses a multilayer structure.", "Further, the semiconductor integrated circuit is formed by disposing various cells or blocks as will be described below.", "Specifically, the semiconductor integrated circuit is constituted by disposing various cells or blocks, e.g. logic cells such as an AND circuit and OR circuit with relatively small power consumption, sequence cells such as an FF circuit and a latch circuit, a memory cell such as SRAM with relatively a large power consumption, etc.", "[0011] Because of the structural reasons, there is a locally-declined power consumption of the circuit generated in the semiconductor integrated circuit, resulting in complication of the electric current paths from the power source to the transistor.", "Thus, it becomes difficult to calculate the allowable electric current density of the wiring and the via.", "In addition, it is difficult to specify the section within the semiconductor integrated circuit where the EM becomes an issue.", "[0012] Furthermore, when looking into the blocks of the semiconductor integrated circuit, there raise the following shortcomings.", "That is, even if the EM problem is eliminated in each block, there may have an EM problem when the power supply wiring within the block is a bypass circuit of the power supply wiring for the other high-power-consumption block though there is no EM problem generated in that block, due to the corresponding relation between the bypass circuit and the semiconductor integrated circuit as a whole.", "[0013] Because of the reason described above, when designing the blocks within the semiconductor integrated circuit, it is necessary to design the circuit for excessively supplying power so as not to have the EM problem.", "Furthermore, when designing each block of the semiconductor integrated circuit, used is a designing method in which a power supply wiring area necessary for the block is determined based on the consumed electric current of each block, and the EM problem is not generated if the area of the power supply wiring occupying the block is a prescribed value or more.", "When the block design is carried out by such block designing method, there is an excessive power supply area provided in the designed block.", "As a result, the power supply area of the semiconductor integrated circuit is increased thus hindering the size-reduction of the semiconductor integrated circuit.", "[0014] Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication (JP-A 5-226331) discloses the related art which is directed to coping with the EM problem of the vias in the power supply wiring as described above.", "In the followings, the power supply wiring structure of the related art will be described.", "[0015] FIG. 13A and FIG. 13B illustrate an example of an electric power supply wiring structure of the related art.", "In FIG. 13A , reference numeral 12010 is a first power supply wiring before modification.", "12020 is an original width of the first power supply wiring 12010 .", "12030 is a width of the power supply wiring 12010 after the modification.", "12040 is a wiring extending direction of the first power supply wiring 12010 .", "12050 is a second power supply wiring.", "12060 is a width of the second power supply wiring 12050 .", "12070 is a wiring extending direction of the second power supply wiring 12050 .", "12080 is a first power supply wiring area.", "12090 is a via.", "12100 is a notable power supply wiring part.", "The first power supply wiring 12010 illustrated in the drawings by a broken line is connected to the second power supply wiring 12050 through the via 12090 .", "The via 12090 is disposed in an area where the first power supply wiring 12010 and the second power supply wiring 12050 cross each other.", "The width 12030 of the first power supply wiring 12010 after the modification is formed wider than the width 12060 of the second power supply wiring 12050 .", "[0016] The effect achieved by the structure of the semiconductor integrated circuit as described above will be described in the followings.", "In the semiconductor integrated circuit formed in multiple layers, in the manufacturing procedure thereof, a great number of different masks are stacked many times to be disposed at the same position for forming the wirings and the vias.", "Thus, when stacking the masks at the same position, shift in the masks cause problems, e.g. a short circuit of the wiring between the upper layer wiring and the lower layer wiring, floating of the via, etc.", "[0017] In the related art for overcoming such problems, the first power supply wiring is formed with the modified width 12030 of the first power supply wiring 12010 , which is wider than the width 12020 of the first power supply wiring 12010 before the modification.", "With this, it is possible to prevent a decrease in the yield of the semiconductor integrated circuit even if there is a shift in the position of the via in the manufacturing procedure of the semiconductor integrated circuit.", "[0018] Next, FIG. 13B is a cross sectional view of the notable power supply wiring part 12100 shown in FIG. 13A .", "Reference numeral 12110 is a first power supply wiring 12110 .", "12120 is a height of the first power supply wiring 12110 .", "1230 is a second power supply wiring.", "12140 is a height of the second power supply wiring 12130 .", "12150 is a via.", "12160 is a width of the first power supply wiring 12110 before modification.", "12170 is a width of the first power supply wiring 12110 after modification.", "12180 is a flow direction of the electric current.", "12190 is a width of the second power supply wiring 12130 .", "[0019] For the wirings of the semiconductor integrated circuit, the heights of the wirings are formed to be uniform since it is easier for manufacture.", "Thus, the height 12120 of the first power supply wiring 12110 and the height 12140 of the second power supply wiring are set to be an arbitrary height without any specific reasons.", "Further, since the heights of the wirings are uniform, in a regular state, if the width of the power supply wiring is determined, the resistance of the power supply wiring and the electric current density of the power supply wiring are determined uniquely.", "[0020] The direction 12180 of the electric current flows from the second power supply wiring 12130 towards the first power supply wiring 12110 through the via 12150 .", "In the related art, the width 12160 of the first power supply wiring 12110 before the modification is widened to the proposed width 12170 of the first power supply wiring 12110 .", "By widening the wiring width in this manner, the resistance of the first power supply wiring 12110 is reduced so that still larger amount of the electric current is to be flown.", "[0021] However, there is no increase in the number of the via 12150 .", "Thus, even if the resistance of the first power supply wiring 12110 is reduced, there is no change in the electric current flown to the first power supply wiring 12110 from the second power supply wiring 12140 .", "As described above, in the conventional structure, there is no measure taken for the via 12150 which is a bottleneck in overcoming the EM problem.", "[0022] As is clear from those described above, the conventional structure shown in FIG. 13A and FIG. 13B is aimed at increasing the productivity (increase the yield) of the semiconductor integrated circuit, while an increase in the number of vias for the wiring is only taken as a means for avoiding a shift of the vias in the manufacturing procedure.", "[0023] Next, by referring to FIG. 14A - FIG. 14C , described is a conventional method in which the number of vias for the wiring is increased.", "In FIG. 14A , reference numeral 13010 is a relation between the regularity of the wiring and a general yield.", "13020 is a relation between the regularity of the wiring and the yield when particularly paying attention to the yield related to the via density at the crossing area between the wirings.", "13030 is a relation between the overall yield and the regularity of the wiring.", "[0024] When forming the wires in the semiconductor integrated circuit, by enhancing the regularity of the wirings through taking a measure such as arranging rectangular wirings at equal intervals, etc, for example, manufacture of the semiconductor integrated circuit becomes easy thus improving the productivity (yield) of the semiconductor integrated circuit.", "Thus, when looking at the yield, an increase in the regularity of the wiring improves the yield as can be seen in the relation 13010 between the regularity of the wiring and the yield.", "[0025] However, for the overall yield of the semiconductor integrated circuit, in addition to the yield related to the regularity of the wiring, there is also the yield 13020 related to the via density at the crossing area between the wirings.", "By increasing the via density in the crossing area between the wirings, while the regularity of the wiring becomes deteriorated, the EM problem can be improved.", "For that, the yield is improved.", "[0026] Therefore, when looking at the overall yield of the semiconductor integrated circuit, the overall yield 13030 is determined as a result of the multiplier of both an increase/decrease property 13010 of the ordinary yield related to the regularity of the wiring and an increase/decrease property 13020 paying attention to the via density at the crossing area of the wirings.", "[0027] Further, the number of vias in the wiring will be described by referring to FIG. 14B and FIG. 14C .", "As shown in FIG. 13 and the like, an increase in the number of the vias enables to prevent a shift of the masks.", "However, if the number of the vias in all the wirings is increased in the semiconductor integrated circuit, there cause increases in the capacity of the signal wirings and in the area of the wirings.", "Thus, it is necessary to go with the following relational expressions for the number of vias.", "[0028] Referring to FIG. 14B , in an area where an increase in the area and the wiring capacity is not a problem, the relation can be expressed by a following relational expression: Number of vias=number which causes no problem in manufacturing procedure+α (1) [0029] Next, referring to FIG. 14C , in an area where an increase in the area and the wiring capacity is a problem, the relation can be expressed by a following relational expression: Number of vias<number which causes no problem in manufacturing procedure+α (2) [0030] Based on these, since there are larger areas of the above-mentioned expressions ( 1 ) in the related art, it enables to reduce the possibilities of causing shift of the vias in the semiconductor integrated circuit.", "[0031] Furthermore, as semiconductor integrated circuit designing methods, there are many designing methods in which a desired semiconductor integrated circuit is formed by stacking wirings in a rectangular shape as the wiring shape since it is easier to manufacture.", "[0032] In the semiconductor integrated circuit, EM in the wiring and the via is an issue.", "Particularly, EM is a problem in the power supply wiring, since power is supplied to each transistor of the semiconductor integrated circuit therethrough and also a larger amount of electric current is flown compared to that of the signal wiring.", "Furthermore, in the recent designing method of the semiconductor integrated circuit, the via density is decreased to cope with the meteoric failure phenomenon.", "In addition, due to the substrate structure, when the cross sectional area of the wiring and that of the via being orthogonal to the direction of the electric current are compared, the cross sectional area of the via being orthogonal to the direction of the electric current is smaller than that of the wiring.", "Therefore, the EM problem is significant in the via.", "Further, in the multilayer structure which is used in the recent semiconductor integrated circuit, the electric current paths to the transistors become complicated so that it becomes difficult to cope with the EM by calculating the electric current density of the vias in each wiring layer and stage, which is locally concentrated.", "[0033] In the power supply wiring structure shown in FIG. 13A and FIG. 13B , the wiring width of the power supply wiring where the EM is significant is widened so that the area of the power supply wiring is increased.", "Further, since designs of the power supply wiring and the signal wiring are modified for expanding the power supply wiring after detecting the section where the EM becomes an issue, there requires a great number of complicated steps for modifying the semiconductor integrated circuit.", "Moreover, in the semiconductor integrated circuit shown in FIG. 13B , the width 1219 of the second power supply wiring is simply widened to the still wider width 1217 of the power supply wiring, and there is no measure taken for the via where the EM problem becomes most significant.", "[0034] Further, the number of vias in the power supply wiring structure of the related art corresponds to the shift of the vias caused in the manufacturing procedure of the semiconductor integrated circuit, which is designated in accordance with the expressions (1), (2) when determining the number of the vias in the wirings.", "Thus, it is not possible to cope with the EM problem of the vias when it occurs, thereby deteriorating the productivity (yield) of the semiconductor integrated circuit.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0035] Therefore, a main object of the present invention is to provide a power supply wiring structure which can suppress generation of electro migration.", "[0036] In order to overcome the aforementioned problems, the power supply wiring of the present invention comprises: [0037] a first and a second power supply wirings, which are disposed on different planes to cross each other two-dimensionally;", "[0038] a first via for interlayer-connecting the first and second power supply wirings at a crossing area where the power supply wirings cross each other;", "[0039] an extension wiring which is formed by partially extending at least either the first power supply wiring or the second power supply wiring from the crossing area along a wiring extending direction of the other power supply wiring;", "and [0040] a second via for interlayer-connecting the extension wiring and either the first power supply wiring or the second power supply wiring, which are disposed on a plane different from the extension wiring to face the extension wiring.", "[0041] With the above-described configuration, it is possible to form a power supply wiring with EM resistance by connecting the extension wiring and the power supply wiring using one or more of the second via.", "Thus, in a semiconductor integrated circuit, the number of the first vias which causes an EM problem is specified for applying the power supply wiring stricture of the present invention.", "Thereby, the areas where EM becomes and issue can be reduced thus enabling to shorten the procedure for correcting the EM.", "[0042] Further, in the semiconductor integrated circuit comprising the above-described power supply wiring structure, it is possible to cope with the EM by only modification performed at the crossing areas of both power supply wirings.", "Thus, it is possible to cope with the EM by only a necessary and minimum increase in the power supply wiring area.", "Therefore, it enables to reduce the area of power supply, which is provided for suppressing the EM.", "For this, the size of the semiconductor integrated circuit can be reduced.", "[0043] Furthermore, the inventors of the present invention has found the correlation between a decrease in the yield of the semiconductor integrated circuit by shift of the vias and a decrease in the yield of the semiconductor integrated circuit due to the EM problem of the vias in terms of the overall yield of the semiconductor integrated circuit.", "By overcoming the EM problem through setting the via density to the optimum based on such correlation, the overall yield of the semiconductor integrated circuit can be improved.", "[0044] Moreover, for the via where EM is an issue, the cross sectional area of the via is increased in accordance with the direction of the electric current.", "Thereby, the EM resistance can be further improved.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0045] Other objects of the present invention will become clear from the following description of the preferred embodiments and the appended claims.", "Those skilled in the art will appreciate that there are many other features and advantages of the present invention possible by embodying the present invention.", "[0046] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a semiconductor integrated circuit according to an embodiment of the present invention;", "[0047] FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B are block diagrams for illustrating a designing method of a semiconductor integrated circuit according to another embodiment of the present invention;", "[0048] FIG. 2C is a flowchart for describing the designing method of the semiconductor integrated circuit of the embodiment shown in FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B ;", "[0049] FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a semiconductor integrated circuit according to still another embodiment of the present invention;", "[0050] FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a semiconductor integrated circuit according to yet another embodiment of the present invention;", "[0051] FIG. 5 is a flowchart for describing a designing method of the semiconductor integrated circuit shown in FIG. 4 ;", "[0052] FIG. 6 is block diagram of a semiconductor integrated circuit according to another embodiment of the present invention;", "[0053] FIG. 7 is a flowchart for describing a designing method of the semiconductor integrated circuit shown in FIG. 6 ;", "[0054] FIG. 8A - FIG. 8C are block diagrams of a semiconductor integrated circuit according to still another embodiment of the present invention;", "[0055] FIG. 9 is a flowchart for describing the semiconductor integrated circuit shown in FIG. 8 ;", "[0056] FIG. 10 is a block diagram of a semiconductor integrated circuit according to yet another embodiment of the present invention;", "[0057] FIG. 11 is a flowchart for describing a designing method of the semiconductor integrated circuit shown in FIG. 10 ;", "[0058] FIG. 12 is a block diagram of a semiconductor integrated circuit which comprises the power supply wiring structure of the present invention;", "[0059] FIG. 13A and FIG. 13B are block diagrams of a conventional semiconductor integrated circuit;", "and [0060] FIG. 14A - FIG. 14C are graphs related to the via of the semiconductor integrated circuit, which is found by the inventors of the present invention.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0061] In the followings, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described by referring to the accompanying drawings.", "In the present invention, in order to make the description as simple as possible unless there is any specific reasons, description is provided by referring to a semiconductor integrated circuit with a double-layer structure of the power supply wiring, which comprises a first power supply wiring and a second power supply wiring, wherein the first power supply wiring and the second power supply wiring are electrically connected by a via.", "[0062] An embodiment of the present invention will be described by referring to FIG. 1 .", "[0063] In FIG. 1 , reference numeral 1010 is a first power supply wiring.", "1020 is a wiring extending direction of the first power supply wiring 1010 .", "1030 is a second power supply wiring.", "1040 is a wiring extending direction of the second power supply wiring 1020 .", "1050 is a crossing area of the first power supply wiring 1010 and the second power supply wiring 1030 .", "1060 A is a first via and 1060 B is a second via.", "1070 is an extension wiring.", "[0064] The second power supply wiring 1030 is disposed in a direction orthogonal to the first power supply wiring 1010 .", "The wiring extending direction 1020 of the first power supply wiring 1010 and the wiring extending direction 1040 of the second power supply wiring 1030 are orthogonal to each other.", "[0065] The first power supply wiring 1010 and the second power supply wiring 1030 are wiring layers which are different from each other.", "The extension wiring 1070 is in a shape extended out from the second power supply wiring 1030 , and both wirings 1030 and 1070 are the same wiring layer.", "That is, at the crossing area 1050 where there may have the EM problem, both side or one side (one side in this embodiment) of the second power supply wiring 1030 extends along the wiring extending direction 1020 of the first power supply wiring 1010 , and the extension wiring 1070 is formed with the extended portion of the second power supply wiring 1030 .", "[0066] Although crossing each other at the crossing area 1050 , the first power supply wiring 1010 and the second power supply wiring 1030 are disposed on planes in different heights from each other.", "Between both power supply wirings 1010 and 1030 , an insulating layer (not shown) is disposed for electrically isolating those wirings.", "The first via 1060 A couples the first power supply wiring 1010 and the second power supply wiring 1030 at the crossing area 1050 for achieving interlayer connection.", "The second via 1060 B interlayer-connects the first power supply wire 1010 and the extension wiring 1070 .", "[0067] The effects of the power supply wiring structure with the above-described configuration will be described hereinafter.", "For simplifying the description, the tolerance of via for the EM on a semiconductor integrated circuit to which the power supply wiring structure of the embodiment is applied is assumed to be four or more as the number of vias in each connection part between the first power supply wiring 1010 and the second power supply wiring 1030 .", "[0068] Furthermore, it is assumed that the first via 1060 A is provided between the first power supply wiring 1010 and the second power supply wiring 1030 at the crossing area 1050 , and that two first vias 1060 A are provided for connecting the first power supply wiring 1010 and the second power supply wiring 1030 .", "On this assumption, the number of the vias connecting the first power supply wiring 1010 and the second power supply wiring 1030 becomes less than the tolerance for the EM (the via number of four or more).", "Thus, there may have the EM problem.", "[0069] Thus, the second power supply wiring 1030 is extended on both sides or one side (one side in the embodiment) of the wiring extending direction 1020 of the first power supply wiring for providing the extension wiring 1070 .", "The extension wiring 1070 and the first power supply wiring 1010 are interlayer-connected by the second via 1060 B. [0070] With the configuration as described above, the number of the vias for connecting the first power supply wiring 1010 and the second power supply wiring 1030 can be increased by two through providing the extension wiring 1070 to the second power supply wiring 1030 .", "Thus, the number of the vias for connecting the first power supply wiring 1010 and the second power supply wiring 1030 becomes a total of four.", "Thereby, it enables to attain a semiconductor integrated circuit which comprises the power supply wiring structure capable of avoiding the EM problem.", "[0071] The number of vias, which causes no EM problem, can be obtained by the following expression, where the allowable electric current density of the EM is Imax, the maximum allowable value of the via is Ivia, and the designing margin is α: Number of vias≧ I max/ I via+α (3) [0072] By designing the power supply wiring after setting the number of vias through the expression (3), it is possible to provide the semiconductor integrated circuit having EM resistance.", "[0073] By designing the semiconductor integrated circuit according to the via number calculating expression as described above, even though the regularity of the wiring is deteriorated (complicated) to some extent, it enables to improve the total productivity (yield) of the semiconductor integrated circuit by overcoming the EM problem.", "[0074] By referring to FIG. 2 , described is a method of designing the semiconductor integrated circuit using the power supply wiring structure of FIG. 1 .", "FIG. 2A shows an example of the wiring and the via of the semiconductor integrated circuit, which have the EM problem.", "[0075] In FIG. 2A , reference numeral 2010 is a first power supply wiring.", "2020 is a wiring extending direction of the first power supply wiring 2010 .", "2030 is a second power supply wiring.", "2040 is a wiring extending direction of the second power supply wiring 2030 .", "2050 is a crossing area of the first power supply wiring 2010 and the second power supply wiring 2030 .", "2061 is a first via group comprising four vias, and 2070 is a first via group comprising two vias.", "[0076] For simplifying the description, the tolerance for the EM in the semiconductor integrated circuit is assumed to be four or more in terms of the number of vias used for connecting the first power supply wiring 2010 and the second power supply wiring 2030 .", "[0077] In the configuration of FIG. 2A , EM is not a problem in the crossing area 2050 with the first via group 2061 which comprises four vias, since the number of vias is four.", "However, EM is a problem in the crossing area 2050 with the first via group 2070 which comprises two vias, since the number of vias is two.", "[0078] FIG. 2B shows the power supply wiring structure of the present invention in which the EM problem is overcome in the same structure as that of FIG. 2A .", "In FIG. 2B , reference numeral 2080 is a first power supply wiring.", "2090 is a wiring extending direction of the first power supply wiring 2080 .", "2100 is a second power supply wiring.", "2110 is a wiring extending direction of the second power supply wiring 2100 .", "2120 is a crossing area of the first power supply wiring 2080 and the second power supply wiring 2100 .", "2130 is a first via.", "2140 is an extension wiring.", "2150 is a second via for connecting the first power supply wiring 2080 and the second power supply wiring 2100 .", "[0079] A part of the second power supply wiring 2100 is extended out along the wiring extending direction 2090 of the first power supply wiring 2080 on both side or one side (one side in this embodiment), and the extension wiring 2140 is formed by the extended portion of the second power supply wiring 2100 .", "[0080] In the configuration of FIG. 2B , in the crossing area 2050 where two first vias 2130 for connecting the first power supply wiring 2080 and the second power supply wiring 2100 are provided, two second vias 2140 for connecting the first power supply wiring 2080 and the extension wiring 2140 are additionally disposed.", "Thus, there are four vias in total so that the EM problem is not caused.", "[0081] By referring to FIG. 2C , described is a method for modifying the design of the power supply wiring structure of FIG. 2A to the design of the power supply wiring structure of FIG. 2B .", "First, possibilities of having the EM in the power supply wiring structure of the semiconductor integrated circuit are judged.", "Specifically, the possibilities of having the EM at the respective crossing areas 2050 are determined (a first designing step 2160 ) by judging whether or not the number of the first vias in the crossing area 2050 becomes less than four.", "[0082] Then, the wiring structures of the second power supply wirings 2030 and 2100 in the sections (the crossing areas 2050 and 2120 ) where it is judged to have possibilities of causing EM are design-modified as follows.", "That is, the second power supply wirings 2030 and 2100 in this part (crossing areas 2050 and 2120 ) are extended along the first power supply wiring extending directions 2020 and 2090 so as to provide the extension wiring 2140 (a second designing step 2170 ).", "[0083] Next, the second via 2150 for connecting the formed extension wiring 2140 and the first power supply wiring 2080 is disposed (a third designing step 2180 ).", "[0084] If the first power supply wirings 2010 , 2080 and the second power supply wirings 2030 , 2100 are connected by two first vias 2070 , 2130 , two or more of the second vias 2150 are used to connect the first power supply wiring 2080 and the extension wiring 2140 .", "That is, it is set so that the number of vias, which is the total number of the first vias 2130 in the connecting section between the first power supply wiring 2010 and the second power supply wirings 2030 , 2100 , and the second vias 2150 , becomes the tolerance for the EM or more.", "With this, it is possible to achieve the power supply wiring structure having no EM problem.", "Therefore, the semiconductor integrated circuit with this power supply siring structure becomes excellent in the EM resistance.", "[0085] Another embodiment will be described by referring to FIG. 3 .", "In FIG. 3 , reference numeral 3010 is a first power supply wiring.", "3020 is a wiring extending direction of the first power supply wiring 3010 .", "3030 is a second power supply wiring.", "3040 is a wiring extending direction of the second power supply wiring 3030 .", "3050 is a crossing area of the first power supply wiring 3010 and the second power supply wiring 3030 .", "3060 A is a first via and 3060 B is a second via.", "3070 is an extension wiring.", "The configurations of the first power supply wiring 3010 , the second power supply wiring 3030 , the crossing area 3050 , the first via 3060 A, the second via 3060 B, and the tolerance for EM in the crossing area 3050 are basically the same as those of the above-described embodiment.", "[0086] The extension wiring 3070 and the first power supply wiring 3010 are formed by the same wiring layer with respect to each other.", "The extension wiring 3070 is formed by extending a part of the first power supply wiring 3010 on both sides or one side (one side in this embodiment) of the wiring extending direction 3040 of the second power supply wiring 3030 .", "“Both sides”", "and/or “one side”", "herein indicate the part of the first power supply wiring 3010 along the direction which is almost orthogonal to the wiring extending direction 3040 .", "[0087] The first power supply wiring 3010 is connected to the second power supply wiring 3030 through the first via 3060 A, and connected to the extension wirings 3070 through the second via 3060 B. The number of the first vias 2060 A functioning as an interlayer connecting member in an arbitrary crossing area 3050 is two, which cause the EM problem.", "However, the number of the second vias 3060 B functioning as an interlayer connecting member between the extension wiring 3070 and the second power supply wiring 3030 which are provided continuously in the crossing area is two.", "Thus, in total, the number of the first and second vias 3060 A and 3060 B functioning as the interlayer connecting members in the crossing area 3050 becomes four, which is the number causing no EM problem.", "The example shown in FIG. 3 is an example of the structure where extending directions of the respective extension wirings 2070 are different from each other.", "[0088] Another embodiment will be described by referring to FIG. 4 .", "In FIG. 4 , reference numeral 4010 is a first power supply wiring.", "4020 is a wiring extending direction of the first power supply wiring 4010 .", "4030 is a second power supply wiring.", "4040 is a wiring extending direction of the second power supply wiring 4030 .", "4050 is a crossing area of the first power supply wiring 4010 and the second power supply wiring 4030 .", "4060 A is a first via and 4060 B is a second via.", "4070 and 4080 are extension wirings.", "The configurations of the first power supply wiring 4010 , the second power supply wiring 4030 , the extension wirings 4070 , 4080 , the crossing area 4050 , the first via 4060 A, the second via 4060 B, and the tolerance for EM in the vias are basically the same as those of the above-described embodiment.", "[0089] The extension wiring 4080 and the first power supply wiring 4010 are formed by the same wiring layer with respect to each other.", "The extension wiring 4080 is formed by extending the first power supply wiring 4010 towards the both sides of the second power supply wiring extending direction 4040 .", "[0090] The extension wiring 4070 and the second power supply wiring 4030 are formed by the same wiring layer with respect to each other.", "The extension wiring 4070 is formed by extending the second power supply wiring 4030 towards the both sides of the first power supply wiring extending direction 4020 .", "[0091] The above-described “both sides”", "herein indicates the part of the first power supply wiring 4010 or the second power supply wiring 4030 along the directions which are almost orthogonal to the wiring extending directions 4040 and 4020 .", "[0092] By providing the extension wirings 4070 , 4080 , the interlayer connecting part (crossing area 4050 ) between the first power supply wiring 4010 and the second power supply wiring 4030 is connected by the vias (first and second vias 4060 A, 4060 B) in the number (four or more in this example) which cause no EM problem.", "In this example, the extension wirings 4070 and 4080 are provided in both the first power supply wiring 4010 and the second power supply wiring 4030 .", "[0093] A designing method for modifying the design to the power supply wiring of FIG. 4 will be described by referring to FIG. 5 .", "First, possibilities of having the EM in the power supply wiring structure of the semiconductor integrated circuit are judged.", "In a first step 5010 , the possibilities of causing the EM at the respective crossing areas 4050 are determined by judging whether or not the number of the vias in the crossing area 4050 becomes less than four (the first designing step 5010 ).", "[0094] Then, the wiring structure of the second power supply wirings 4030 in the section (the crossing area 4050 ) where it is judged to have possibilities of causing EM is design-modified as follows.", "That is, the second power supply wiring 4030 in this part (the crossing area 4050 ) is extended along the first power supply wiring extending direction 4020 so as to provide the extension wiring 4070 (a second designing step 5020 ).", "[0095] Then, the second via 4060 B for interlayer-connecting the formed extension wiring 4070 and the first power supply wiring 4010 is disposed (a third designing step 5030 ).", "[0096] Subsequently, the wiring structure of the first power supply wirings 4010 in the section (the crossing area 4050 ) where it is judged to have possibilities of causing EM is design-modified as follows.", "That is, the first power supply wiring 4010 in this part (the crossing area 4050 ) is extended along the second power supply wiring extending direction 4040 so as to provide the extension wiring 4080 (a fourth designing step 5040 ).", "[0097] Then, the second via 4060 B for interlayer-connecting the formed extension wiring 4080 and the second power supply wiring 4030 is disposed (a fifth designing step 5050 ).", "[0098] If the first power supply wiring 4010 and the second power supply wiring 4030 are connected at the connecting part (the crossing area 4050 ) by two of the first vias 4060 A, it is designed so that the total number of the second vias 4060 B connecting the first power supply wiring 4010 to the extension wiring 4070 and the second vias 4060 B connecting the second power supply wiring 4030 to the extension wiring 4080 becomes two or more.", "With, it becomes possible to attain the power supply wiring structure having no EM problem.", "Therefore, the semiconductor integrated circuit comprising this structure comes to have an excellent EM resistance.", "[0099] Another embodiment will be described by referring to FIG. 6 .", "In FIG. 6 , reference numeral 6010 is a first power supply wiring.", "6020 is a wiring extending direction of the first power supply wiring 6010 .", "6030 is one of second power supply wirings and 6040 is the other second power supply wiring.", "6050 is a wiring extending direction of the second power supply wirings 6030 and 6040 .", "6060 is a crossing area of the first power supply wiring 6010 and the second power supply wiring 6030 .", "6070 is a crossing area of the first power supply wiring 6010 and the other second power supply wiring 6040 .", "6080 A is a first via and 6060 B is a second via.", "6090 is a first extension wiring and 6100 is a second extension wiring.", "6110 is an electric current (I) flown in the one second power supply wiring 6030 and 6120 is a branch electric current (I 1 ) flown in the other second power supply wiring 6030 .", "6130 is an electric current (I 2 ) flown in the first extension wiring 6090 and 6140 is an electric current (I 3 ) flown in the second extension wiring 6100 .", "[0100] The first power supply wiring 6010 and the second power supply wirings 6030 , 6040 are wiring layers which are different from each other.", "The one second power supply wiring 6030 and the other second power supply wiring 6040 are the same wiring layer.", "However, both of the power supply wirings 6030 and 6040 are disposed roughly in parallel to each other.", "Furthermore, the second power supply wirings 6030 , 6040 are disposed on a plane different form that of the first power supply wiring 6010 by facing a direction roughly orthogonal to the first power supply wiring 6010 when viewed two-dimensionally.", "Thus, the wiring extending direction 6050 of both second power supply wirings 6030 , 6040 and the wiring extending direction 6020 of the first power supply wiring 6010 are orthogonal to each other.", "[0101] The first extension wiring 6090 is in a shape extended out from the one second power supply wiring 6030 , and both wirings 6030 and 6090 are the same wiring layer.", "That is, in the crossing area 6060 with the possibilities of having the EM problem, the one second power supply wiring 6030 has the other second power supply wiring side extended along the wiring extending direction 6020 of the first power supply wiring 6010 .", "The first extension wiring 6090 is formed by the extended portion of the one second power supply wiring 6030 .", "[0102] The second extension wiring 6100 is in a shape extended out from the other second power supply wiring 6040 , and both wirings 6100 and 6040 are the same wiring layer.", "That is, in the crossing area 6070 with the possibilities of having the EM problem, the other second power supply wiring 6040 has the one second power supply wiring side extended along the wiring extending direction 6020 of the first power supply wiring 6010 .", "The second extension wiring 6100 is formed by the extended portion of the other second power supply wiring 6040 .", "[0103] The one second power supply wiring 6030 and the other second power supply wiring 6040 are disposed on the same plane.", "Although crossing each other at the crossing areas 6060 , 6070 , these second power supply wirings 6030 , 6040 and the first power supply wiring 6010 are disposed on planes whose heights are different from each other.", "The first via 6080 A interlayer-connects the first power supply wiring 6010 and the one second power supply wiring 6030 at the crossing area 6060 , and interlayer-connects the first power supply wiring 6010 and the other second power supply wiring 6040 at the crossing area 6070 .", "Further, the second via 6080 B interlayer-connects the first power supply wiring 6010 and the first extension wiring 6090 , and interlayer-connects the first power supply wiring 6010 and the second extension wiring 6100 .", "[0104] Furthermore, the first extension wiring 6090 and the second extension wiring 6100 are coupled and disposed on the same plane to be connected to each other.", "[0105] In the above-described power supply wiring structure, when the first extension wiring 6090 and the second extension wiring 6100 are electrically isolated, the relation between the electric current (I) flown in the one second power supply wiring 6030 , the branch electric current (I 1 ) flown in the one second power supply wiring 6030 , and the electric current (I 2 ) flown in the first extension wiring 6090 can be expressed by a following expression (4): ( I )=( I 1 )+( I 2 ) (4) [0106] When the first extension wiring 6090 and the second extension wiring 6100 are connected as in the case of this embodiment, the relation between the electric current (I), the branch electric current (I 1 ), the electric current (I 2 ) and the electric current (I 3 ) flown in the second extension wiring 6100 can be expressed by a following expression (5): ( I )=( I 1 )+( I 2 )+( I 3 ) (5) [0107] As evident from a comparison between the expression (4) and the expression (5), the electric current (I 1 ) decreases for the amount of the electric current (I 3 ) flown in the second extension wiring 6100 .", "That is, by connecting the first extension wiring 6090 and the second extension wiring 6100 , the electric current (I 2 ) flown in the first extension wiring 6090 decreases for the amount of the electric current (I 3 ) flown in the second extension wiring 6100 .", "Thus, the electric current density of the first extension wiring 6090 is decreased and, for this, the semiconductor integrated circuit having more EM resistance can be formed.", "[0108] Even in the case where there is an EM problem caused in the other second power supply wiring 6040 , the same effect can be achieved by electrically connecting the first extension wiring 6090 and the second extension wiring 6100 .", "[0109] By referring to FIG. 7 , described is a method of designing a semiconductor integrated circuit with the power supply wiring structure of FIG. 6 .", "[0110] In FIG. 7 , first, a first designing step for judging the possibilities of having EM in each of the crossing areas 6060 , 6070 is carried out in a semiconductor integrated circuit.", "A first designing step 7010 is the same as the first designing step 2160 which is described by referring to FIG. 2C .", "[0111] Next, the wiring structure of the second power supply wirings 6030 in the section (the crossing area 6060 ) where it is judged to have possibilities of causing EM is design-modified as follows.", "That is, the one second power supply wiring 6030 in this part (the crossing area 6060 ) is extended on the other second power supply wiring side along the first power supply wiring extending direction 6020 so as to provide the first extension wiring 6090 (a second designing step 7020 ).", "[0112] Then, the second via 6080 B for interlayer-connecting the formed first extension wiring 6090 and the first power supply wiring 6010 is disposed (a third designing step 7030 ).", "[0113] Subsequently, the wiring structure of the other second power supply wiring 6040 in the section (the crossing area 6070 ) where it is judged to have possibilities of causing EM is design-modified as follows.", "That is, the other second power supply wiring 6040 in this part (the crossing area 6070 ) is extended on the one second power supply wiring side along the first power supply wiring extending direction 6020 so as to provide the second extension wiring 6100 (a fourth designing step 7040 ).", "[0114] Then, the second via 6080 B for interlayer-connecting the formed first extension wiring 6100 and the first power supply wiring 6010 is disposed (a fifth designing step 7050 ).", "[0115] The second and third designing steps 7020 , 7030 and the fourth and fifth designing steps 7040 , 7050 may be carried out in any orders.", "However, if the second power supply wirings 6030 and 6040 are connected to the first power supply wiring 6010 by two first vias 6080 A, respectively, two or more of the second vias 6080 B are used for connecting the first power supply wiring 6010 and the first extension wiring 6090 and for connecting the first power supply wiring 6010 and the second extension wiring 6100 , respectively.", "Specifically, it is set so that the total numbers of the first vias 6080 A at the connecting section between the first power supply wiring 6010 and the one second power supply wiring 6030 and the second vias 6080 B at the connecting section between the first power supply wiring 6010 and the first extension wiring 6090 becomes the tolerance for EM or more.", "Similarly, it is set so that the total number of the first vias 6080 A at the connecting section between the first power supply wiring 6010 and the other second power supply wiring 6040 and the second vias 6080 B at the connecting section between the first power supply wiring 6010 and the second extension wiring 6100 becomes the tolerance for EM or more.", "[0116] At last, the first extension wiring 6090 and the second extension wiring 6100 are coupled to be connected (a sixth designing step 7060 ).", "[0117] With this, it is possible to attain the power supply wiring structure having no EM problem related to the number of connecting vias and also to the electric current density.", "Therefore, the semiconductor integrated circuit comprising this structure comes to have an excellent EM resistance.", "[0118] Another embodiment will be described by referring to FIG. 8A - FIG. 8C .", "In FIG. 8A - FIG. 8C , reference numeral 8052 is a first power supply wiring.", "8020 is a second power supply wiring.", "8030 is an extension wiring.", "The extension wiring 8030 is extended out from the second power supply wiring 8020 .", "8021 is a wiring extending direction of the first power supply wiring 8010 .", "8040 is an angle between the second power supply wiring 8020 and the extension wiring 8030 .", "The angle 8040 is an acute angle.", "This indicates that the first power supply wiring 8052 crosses the second power supply wiring 8020 non-orthogonally and, similarly, the extension wiring 8030 crosses the second power supply wiring 8020 non-orthogonally.", "[0119] Reference numeral 8050 is the base of a right triangle formed between the second power supply wiring 8020 and the extension wiring 8030 .", "8051 is the hypotenuse of the right triangle.", "8060 is a first via which interlayer-connects the extension wiring 8030 and the first power supply wiring 8052 .", "8070 A and 8070 B are second vias which interlayer-connect the extension wiring 8030 and the first power supply wiring 8052 .", "8080 is an electric current path formed on the second power supply wiring 8020 .", "8081 is a first electric current path formed between the second power supply wiring 8020 and the second via 8070 A. 8082 is a second electric current path formed between the second power supply wiring 8020 and the second via 8070 B. 8083 is a third electric current path formed between the second power supply wiring 8020 and the extension wiring 8030 .", "8090 is an electric current condensed part formed between the second power supply wiring 8020 and the extension wiring 8030 .", "8100 is an auxiliary coupling part (hatch part).", "The auxiliary coupling part 8100 extends a part of the extension wiring 8030 to be coupled to the second power supply wiring 8020 .", "[0120] The auxiliary coupling part 8100 is provided to the electric current condensed part 8020 .", "8010 is a prescribed minimum wiring pitch between the extension wiring 8030 and the second power supply wiring 8020 .", "For designing the semiconductor integrated circuit, the minimum wiring pitch 8010 indicates the minimum wiring pitch by which there is no short circuit caused between the extension wiring 8030 and the second power supply wiring 8020 when a prescribed voltage is applied to each wiring.", "[0121] The auxiliary coupling part 8100 is disposed at an acute-angle-side crossing area between the extension wiring 8030 and the second power supply wiring 8020 (the power supply wiring where the extension wiring is provided).", "The auxiliary coupling part 8100 is extended out from the wiring edge of the extension wiring 8030 to be coupled to the wiring edge of the second power supply wiring 8020 .", "The auxiliary coupling part 8100 is in a right triangular shape having the wiring edge of the extension wiring 8030 as the hypotenuse and the wiring edge of the second power supply wiring 8020 as the base.", "The height of the auxiliary coupling part 8100 is set to be in the size (the minimum wiring pitch 8010 ) so that there is no short circuit caused between the extension wiring 8030 and the second power supply wiring 8020 when a prescribed voltage is applied to each wiring.", "[0122] The first power supply wiring 8052 , the second power supply wiring 8020 , and the extension wiring 8030 of this embodiment have the same configurations as those of the first power supply wiring 1010 , the second power supply wiring 1030 , and the extension wiring 1070 , which are described by referring to FIG. 1 .", "However, the extension wiring 8030 and the second power supply wiring 8020 are coupled non-orthogonally (not at an angle of about 90°).", "[0123] In FIG. 8A , the second power supply wiring 8020 and the extension wiring 8030 are the same wiring layer.", "The “same wiring layer”", "means the wirings which are disposed as the same wiring pattern on the same plane.", "That is, the extension wiring 8030 is in a coupled shape which is extended out from the second power supply wiring 8020 , and both wirings 8030 , 8020 are of the same wiring layer.", "The extension wiring 8030 is formed by extending a part of the second power supply wiring 8020 towards the wiring extending direction 8021 of the first power supply wiring 8052 .", "The second power supply wiring 8020 and the extension wiring 8030 are interlayer-connected by the second via 8070 .", "The second power supply wiring 8020 and the first power supply wiring 8052 are interlayer-connected by the first via 8060 .", "[0124] In the wiring structure having the above-described configuration, the electric current (I) in the electric current path 8080 of the second power supply wiring 8020 can be expressed as follows, where, the electric current in the first electric current path 8081 is (I 1 ), the electric current in the second electric current path 8082 is (I 2 ), and the electric current in the third electric current path 8083 is (I 3 ): ( I )=( I 1 )+( I 2 )+( I 3 ) (6) [0125] Here, there is set a point 8080 a at which the second electric current path 8080 between the second via 8070 A and the second power supply wiring 8020 branches.", "With this, the second electric current path 8082 becomes an electric current path for linearly coupling the branch point 8080 a and the second via 8070 A. In the meantime, the third electric current path 8083 becomes an electric current path which couples the branch point 8080 a and the second via 8070 A through the coupled part between the second power supply wiring 8020 and the extension wiring 8030 .", "[0126] Thus, when the lengths of both of the electric current paths 8082 and 8083 are compared, the second electric current path 8082 is shorter than the third electric current path 8083 .", "Because of these reasons, the electric current (I 2 ) flown in the second electric current path 8082 becomes larger than the electric current (I 3 ) flown in the third electric current path 8083 .", "[0127] Similarly, there is set a point 8080 a at which the first electric current path 8081 between the second via 8070 B and the second power supply wiring 9020 branches.", "With this, the first electric current path 8081 becomes an electric current path for linearly coupling the branch point 8080 a and the second via 8070 B. In the meantime, the third electric current path 8083 becomes an electric current path which couples the branch point 8080 a and the second via 8070 B through the coupled part between the second power supply wiring 8020 and the extension wiring 8030 .", "[0128] Thus, when the lengths of both of the electric current paths 8081 and 8083 are compared, the first electric current path 8081 is shorter than the third electric current path 8083 .", "Because of these reasons, the electric current (I 1 ) flown in the first electric current path 8081 becomes larger than the electric current (I 3 ) flown in the third electric current path 8083 .", "[0129] By adopting such relation of the amount of the electric current into the above-described expression (6), it is found that the electric current (I 2 ) of the second electric current path 8082 and the electric current (I 3 ) of the third electric current path 8083 are larger than the electric current (I 1 ) of the first electric current path 8081 .", "Thus, when the second power supply wiring 8020 and the third power supply wiring 8030 are connected by being abutted to each other at an acute angle 8040 , the electric current condensed part 8090 is formed in an area where the electric current (I 2 ) and the electric current (I 3 ) overlap.", "When the electric current condensed part 8090 is formed, it becomes difficult to decrease the EM.", "[0130] Thus, as shown in FIG. 8C , it is assumed that, between the second power supply wiring 8020 and the extension wiring 8030 , there is a right triangle having an edge of the second power supply wiring 8020 on the upper side of the drawing as the base, and edge of the extension wiring 8030 on the lower side of the drawing as one of the hypotenuses, and the minimum wiring pitch 8010 as the other.", "Then, the auxiliary coupling part 8100 is disposed to fill in the area smaller than the assumed right triangle.", "[0131] In the power supply wiring structure described above, it is possible to keep the sufficient minimum wiring pitch 8010 necessary for forming the wiring by proving the auxiliary coupling part 8100 .", "Thus, there is no inconvenience caused such as short circuit, etc.", "in terms of designing.", "Further, since the auxiliary coupling part 8100 is provided, the area of the power supply wiring is increased.", "For this, it enables to avoid concentration of the electric current in the electric current condensed part 8090 .", "That is, the electric current density can be reduced so that the semiconductor integrated circuit having the EM resistance can be formed.", "[0132] By referring to FIG. 9 , described is a method of designing a semiconductor integrated circuit using the power supply wiring structure shown in FIG. 8 .", "In FIG. 9 , first, a first designing step 9010 for judging the possibilities of having EM in each of the power supply wirings 8052 , 8020 , 8030 is carried out in a semiconductor integrated circuit.", "The first designing step 9010 is the same as the first designing step 2160 which is described by referring to FIG. 2C .", "[0133] Then, the wiring structure of the second power supply wirings 8020 in the section (the crossing area) where it is judged to have possibilities of causing EM is design-modified as follows.", "That is, the second power supply wiring 8020 in this part (the crossing area) is extended along the first power supply wiring extending direction 8021 so as to provide the extension wiring 8030 (a second designing step 9020 ).", "[0134] Then, the first and second vias 8070 A, 8070 B for connecting the formed extension wiring 8030 and the first power supply wiring 8052 is disposed (a third designing step 9030 ).", "[0135] Subsequently, the wiring structure of the first power supply wiring 8052 in the section (the crossing area) where it is judged to have possibilities of causing EM is design-modified as follows.", "That is, the first power supply wiring 8052 in this part (the crossing area) is extended along the second power supply wiring extending direction so as to provide the extension wiring (not shown) (a fourth designing step 9040 ).", "[0136] Then, the second via (not shown) for connecting the formed extension wiring and the second power supply wiring 8020 is disposed (a fifth designing step 9050 ).", "[0137] Subsequently, an auxiliary coupling part (not shown) is disposed at a crossing area between the second power supply wiring 8020 and the third power supply wiring 8030 , and at a crossing area between the first power supply wiring 8052 and the fourth power supply wiring (a seventh designing step 9060 ).", "[0138] By performing the above-described semiconductor integrated circuit designing method, it enables to design the semiconductor integrated circuit having the EM resistance.", "[0139] Another embodiment will be described by referring to FIG. 10 .", "This structure is basically the same as the structure shown in FIG. 8A-8C .", "In FIG. 10 , reference numeral 10020 is a second power supply wiring.", "10030 is an extension wiring.", "10010 indicates the wiring isolation pitch between the second power supply wiring 10020 and the third power supply wiring 10030 .", "10060 is a right triangle formed by an area surrounded by the second power supply wiring 10020 , the extension wiring 10030 , and the wiring isolation pitch 10010 .", "The wiring isolation pitch 10010 corresponds to the height of the right triangle 10060 .", "10040 is an interior angle of the right triangle 10060 .", "The interior angle 10040 becomes a crossing angle between the second power supply wiring 10020 and the extension wiring 10030 .", "10050 is the base of the right triangle 10060 .", "The base 10050 is formed by an edge of the second power supply wiring 10020 on the upper side of the drawing.", "10051 is a hypotenuse of the right triangle 10060 .", "The hypotenuse 10051 is formed by an edge of the extension wiring 10030 on the lower side of the drawing.", "10070 is an auxiliary coupling part which is formed by extending a part of the second power supply wiring 10020 towards the extension wiring side.", "The auxiliary coupling part 10070 is in a rectangular shape having the wiring isolation pitch 10010 as the height.", "[0140] By referring to FIG. 11 , described is a method of designing a semiconductor integrated circuit using the power supply wiring structure shown in FIG. 10 .", "In FIG. 11 , first, a first designing step 11010 for judging the possibilities of having EM in each of the power supply wirings 10020 , 10030 , etc.", "is carried out in a semiconductor integrated circuit.", "The first designing step 11010 is the same as the first designing step 2160 which is described by referring to FIG. 2C .", "[0141] Then, the wiring structure of the second power supply wirings 11030 in the section (the crossing area) where it is judged to have possibilities of causing EM is design-modified as follows.", "That is, the second power supply wiring 11020 in this part (the crossing area) is extended along the first power supply wiring extending direction so as to provide the extension wiring 11030 (a second designing step 11020 ).", "[0142] Then, the second via for connecting the formed extension wiring 11030 and the first power supply wiring 11052 is disposed (a third designing step 11030 ).", "[0143] Subsequently, the wiring structure of the first power supply wiring (not shown) in the section (the crossing area) where it is judged to have possibilities of causing EM is design-modified as follows.", "That is, the first power supply wiring in this part (the crossing area) is extended along the second power supply wiring extending direction so as to provide the extension wiring (not shown) (a fourth designing step 11040 ).", "[0144] Then, the second via (not shown) for connecting the formed extension wiring and the second power supply wiring 11020 is disposed (a fifth designing step 11050 ).", "[0145] Next, a rectangular auxiliary coupling part 10070 (not shown), which has the height and the base of the area 10060 of the right triangle as the two sides of the rectangular, is disposed at a crossing area between the second power supply wiring 11020 and the extension wiring 8030 , and at a crossing area between the first power supply wiring 11052 and the extension wiring (an eighth designing step 11060 ).", "[0146] By performing the above-described semiconductor integrated circuit designing method, it enables to design the semiconductor integrated circuit having the EM resistance.", "[0147] Next, a semiconductor integrated circuit comprising the power supply wiring structure of the present invention will be described by referring to FIG. 12 .", "This semiconductor integrated circuit 10010 comprises a plurality of power supply wirings disposed in a lattice form, a semiconductor device 10020 , and pads disposed around the power supply wirings and the semiconductor device.", "To each of the power supply wirings, power supply potential or ground potential is supplied from a power supply pad 10040 , which is one of a plurality of kinds of pads.", "A part 10030 is the power supply wiring structure of the present invention shown in FIG. 1 and he like, in which, at the crossing area of the two power supply wirings, one of the power supply wirings is extended along the extending direction of the other power supply wiring for connecting both power supply wirings by a pressure of via.", "The semiconductor integrated circuit 10020 is a circuit block for achieving a prescribed function, which, although not shown, is electrically connected to the lattice-form power supply wirings and operates by receiving a supply of the power supply potential and the ground potential.", "[0148] The present invention has been described in detail by referring to the most preferred embodiments.", "However, it is not intended to be limited to the preferred embodiments but various combinations and modifications of the components are possible without departing from the sprit and the broad scope of the appended claims." ]

[ "BACKGROUND [0001] 1.", "Field of the Invention [0002] The invention relates to the field of high frequency communications, an in particular to a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor high frequency amplifier.", "[0003] 2.", "Related Art [0004] A differential amplifier is a fundamental electronic circuit that generates an output signal based on the difference between two input signals (a differential input signal).", "The output signal is therefore representative of the magnitude of the difference between the two input signals.", "To reduce costs (which is particularly important for consumer goods such as cellular telephones), differential amplifiers are often implemented using a metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) or complementary MOS (CMOS) process instead of the more expensive bipolar process.", "[0005] FIG. 1 shows a conventional RF MOS differential amplifier 100 .", "MOS differential amplifier 100 includes input terminals 101 - 1 and 101 - 2 , capacitors C 1 _IN, C 2 _IN, and C_GND, NMOS resistors R 1 _SET, R 2 _SET, R 1 _DN, R 2 _DN, and R_BIAS, transistors 111 and 112 , output terminals 102 - 1 and 102 - 2 , and a current source CS 1 .", "[0006] Capacitor C 1 _IN is coupled between input terminal 101 - 1 and the gate of transistor 111 , while capacitor C 2 _IN is coupled between input terminal 101 - 2 and the gate of transistor 112 .", "Capacitors C 1 _IN and C 2 _IN therefore provide DC filtering of input RF signals V_IN + and V_IN − , respectively, which are applied to input terminals 101 - 1 and 101 - 2 , respectively.", "[0007] Meanwhile, resistors R 1 _SET and R 2 _SET (which typically are the same resistance) couple the drains of transistors 111 and 112 , respectively, to an upper supply voltage VDD, while current source CS 1 couples the sources of transistors 111 and 112 to a lower supply voltage VSS.", "Finally, output terminals 102 - 1 and 102 - 2 are connected to the drains of transistors 111 and 112 , respectively.", "[0008] Thus, transistors 111 and 112 are configured as a differential pair.", "Resistors R 1 _DN and R 2 _DN, in conjunction with resistor R_BIAS, provide a desired bias voltage V_BIAS to the gates of transistors 111 and 112 , respectively.", "At the same time, capacitor C_GND provides an AC short between resistors R 1 _DN and R 2 _DN and lower supply voltage VSS, thereby setting the input impedances seen at the sources of transistors 111 and 112 equal to the values of resistors R 1 _DN and R 2 _DN, respectively.", "[0009] The differential input signal V_DIFF(IN) (equal to V_IN + minus V_IN − ) provided to differential amplifier 100 during balanced operations is equal to zero, and a bias current I_BIAS provided by current source CS 1 is equally divided between transistors 111 and 112 (if resistors R 1 _SET and R 2 _SET have equal resistances).", "However, as is known in the art, when differential input signal V_DIFF(IN) is not equal to zero, a differential current I_DIFF flows across transistors 111 and 112 .", "The value of differential current I_DIFF is given by the following: I — DIFF=V — DIFF ( IN )/(1 /g m111 +1/ g m112 ) (1) where g m111 and g m112 are the transconductances of transistors 111 and 112 , respectively.", "[0010] The magnitude of output signals V_OUT + and V_OUT − are then determined by the magnitude of differential current I_DIFF and resistors R 1 _SET and R 2 _SET, respectively.", "For example, output signal V_OUT + is given by the following: V — OUT + =VDD−R 1 — SET (½ I — BIAS+I — DIFF ) (2) Similarly, output signal V_OUT − is given by the following: V — OUT − =VDD−R 2 — SET (½ I — BIAS−I — DIFF ) (3) If resistors R 1 _SET and R 2 _SET are both equal to the same resistance R_SET, equations 2 and 3 can be combined to determine the magnitude of an output differential signal V_DIFF(OUT) (equal to V_OUT + minus V_OUT − ) as follows: V — DIFF ( OUT )=−2 R — SET*I — DIFF (4) Finally, if the transconductances of transistors 111 and 112 are the same (i.e., g m111 =g m112 =gm), equation 1 can be substituted into equation 4, so that the magnitude of output differential signal V_DIFF(OUT) resolves to: V_DIFF ⁢ ( OUT ) = 2 ⁢ R_SET * V_DIFF ⁢ ( IN ) 2 / g m ( 5 ) [0011] Thus, as indicated by equation 5, the gain provided by differential amplifier 100 can be increased by either increasing resistance R_SET (i.e., the resistances of resistors R 1 _SET and R 2 _SET), or by increasing transconductance gm (i.e., by increasing transconductances g m111 and g m112 ).", "[0012] Unfortunately, because of the common-source implementations used in differential amplifier 100 , increasing resistance R_SET and/or increasing transconductance gm can result in undesirable output signal degradation.", "For example, increasing the resistance of resistors R 1 _SET and R 2 _SET can lead to excessive voltage drops between supply voltage VDD and output terminals 102 - 1 and 102 - 2 , respectively, that distort the output signal swing.", "Similarly, increasing transconductances g m111 and g m112 (and possibly increasing bias current I_BIAS) will result in larger current magnitudes through resistors R 1 _SET and R 2 _SET, respectively, which once again can lead to excessive voltage drops.", "[0013] Another problematic issue relates to the fact that increasing the size of resistors R 1 _SET and R 2 _SET and/or increasing current I_BIAS can significantly increase the power consumption of differential amplifier 100 .", "This power inefficiency is generally undesirable, and can be particularly problematic in devices that run off of a self-contained power supply (a battery).", "For example, using amplifier 100 in a cellular telephone to reduce the overall cost of the phone may result in an unacceptable decrease in talk time for that phone.", "[0014] Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a power-efficient, high frequency CMOS differential amplifier.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0015] According to an embodiment of the invention, a high-frequency differential amplifier includes two CMOS inverters and biasing circuitry.", "The CMOS inverters apply a desired gain to a differential input signal based on the transconductance and output impedance values of the transistors making up the inverters.", "Meanwhile, the biasing circuitry applies linear biasing to the CMOS inverters without consuming excessive power.", "[0016] The biasing circuitry provides a DC feedback loop that forces a DC bias voltage to appear at the outputs of the inverters.", "By selecting the DC bias voltage to be between the logic HIGH and LOW output levels of the inverters, the inverters can be forced to operate in their linear region.", "AC signals at the inputs of the inverters will then be amplified by the inverters without distortion (clipping), so long as the amplitudes of the AC signals are not large enough to drive either inverter out of its linear mode of operation.", "[0017] According to an embodiment of the invention, the biasing circuitry includes a reference voltage source and a separate bias circuit for each inverter, with each bias circuit including an operational amplifier (op-amp).", "The op-amp in each bias circuit is connected in a feedback loop between the output and input of one of the inverters, while the reference voltage source provides a reference voltage to the non-inverting input of the op-amp.", "The op-amp therefore adjusts the input voltage of its associated inverter to regulate the output of that inverter to be equal to the reference voltage.", "[0018] This DC control provided by each op-amp ensures that the inverters will operate in their linear regions as long as the input signals are not large enough to push the transistors of the inverters into saturation.", "By setting the reference voltage equal to half of the voltage difference between the upper and lower supply voltages provided to the amplifier, the output range of the amplifier can be maximized.", "[0019] These and other aspects of the invention will be more fully understood in view of the following description of the exemplary embodiments and the drawings thereof.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0020] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a conventional CMOS RF differential amplifier.", "[0021] FIG. 2A is a schematic diagram of a CMOS high-frequency differential amplifier circuit in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.", "[0022] FIG. 2B is a sample graph of the response curve of an inverter, depicting the linear and saturated regions of operation of the inverter.", "[0023] FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a branch of the CMOS high-frequency differential amplifier circuit of FIG. 2A that includes a detail view of a schematic for an operational amplifier in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0024] FIG. 2A shows a high-frequency amplifier circuit 200 in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.", "Amplifier circuit 200 is formed from two branches 200 (A) and 200 (B).", "Branch 200 (A) includes an input terminal 201 (A), an output terminal 202 (A), a CMOS inverter 210 (A), a capacitor C_IN(A), and a bias circuit 220 (A).", "Capacitor C_IN(A) is coupled between input terminal 201 (A) and the input of inverter 210 (A) and provides DC filtering at the input of inverter 210 (A).", "Bias circuit 220 (A) is connected between the output and input of inverter 210 (A).", "[0025] Inverter 210 (A) includes a PMOS transistor M 1 (A) and an NMOS transistor M 2 (A) that are serially coupled between an upper supply voltage VDD and a lower supply voltage (e.g., ground).", "The gate terminals of transistors M 1 (A) and M 2 (A) are connected to form the input of inverter 210 (A), while the drain terminals of transistors M 1 (A) and M 2 (A) are connected to form the output of inverter 210 (A).", "[0026] Branch 200 (B) is substantially similar to branch 200 (A), and includes an input terminal 201 (B), an output terminal 202 (B), a CMOS inverter 210 (B), a capacitor C_IN(B), and a bias circuit 220 (B).", "Capacitor C_IN(B) is coupled between input terminal 201 (B) and the input of inverter 210 (B) and provides DC filtering at the input of inverter 210 (B).", "Bias circuit 220 (B) is connected between the output and input of inverter 210 (B).", "[0027] Inverter 210 (B) includes a PMOS transistor M 1 (B) and an NMOS transistor M 2 (B) that are serially coupled between upper supply voltage VDD and lower supply voltage VSS.", "The gate terminals of transistors M 1 (B) and M 2 (B) are connected to form the input of inverter 210 (B), while the drain terminals of transistors M 1 (B) and M 2 (B) are connected to form the output of inverter 210 (B).", "[0028] Amplifier circuit 200 is coupled to receive a high-frequency input signal V_IN + at input terminal 201 (A) and a high-frequency input signal V_IN− at input terminal 201 (B).", "High-frequency signals V_IN + and V_IN− can, for example, comprise RF signals.", "[0029] Meanwhile, bias circuits 220 (A) and 220 (B) provide linear biasing feedback loops between the outputs and inputs of inverters 210 (A) and 210 (B), respectively.", "In other words, bias circuit 220 (A) provides a DC bias voltage to the input of inverter 210 (A) that forces the nominal output of inverter 210 (A) to a level between upper supply voltage VDD and lower supply voltage VSS, which in turn causes inverter 210 (A) to operate in its linear region.", "Similarly, bias circuit 220 (B) provides a DC bias voltage to the input of inverter 210 (B) that forces the nominal output of inverter 210 (B) to a level between upper supply voltage VDD and lower supply voltage VSS, which in turn causes inverter 210 (B) to operate in its linear region.", "Ideally, the outputs of both inverters 210 (A) and 210 (B) are forced to midway between upper supply voltage VDD and lower supply voltage VSS to allow for maximum output swing.", "[0030] Note that this DC biasing of the outputs of inverters 210 (A) and 210 (B) is common mode for both inverters, and therefore cancels itself out when the outputs of the inverters are taken as a differential output.", "Therefore, blocking capacitors are not required between the outputs of inverters 210 (A) and 210 (B) and output terminals 202 (A) and 202 (B), respectively.", "[0031] FIG. 2B shows an exemplary response curve C for inverters 210 (A) and 210 (B).", "Response curve C consists of two main regions—a saturated region that corresponds to all input voltages less than a lower limit voltage V_DN or greater than an upper limit voltage V_UP, and a linear region that corresponds to all input voltages between voltages V_DN and V_UP.", "Because the normal use of an inverter is to invert a logic LOW or HIGH input signal into a logic HIGH or LOW output signal, respectively, an inverter is generally operated in its saturated region, and will only incidentally pass through its linear region as its output switches between logic LOW (GND) and logic HIGH (VDD).", "[0032] However, the linear biasing provided by bias circuits 220 (A) and 220 (B) forces inverters 210 (A) and 210 (B), respectively, to operate in their linear regions, so that inverters 210 (A) and 210 (B) can be used to provide signal amplification.", "Specifically, the DC bias voltages supplied by bias circuits 220 (A) and 220 (B) force the nominal inverter output voltages (i.e., the voltages at the outputs of the inverters when no AC signal is present) for inverters 210 (A) and 210 (B) to levels between upper supply voltage VDD and lower supply voltage VSS.", "[0033] The outputs of inverters 210 (A) and 210 (B) will therefore swing around this nominal inverter output voltage, thereby ensuring that inverters 210 (A) and 210 (B) provide AC output signals that are proportional to their AC input signals (so long as the AC input signal amplitude does not push inverters 210 (A) and 210 (B) into saturation).", "By setting the nominal inverter output voltage equal to half of the difference between upper supply voltage VDD and lower supply voltage VSS (e.g., if supply voltage VSS is ground, then the nominal inverter output voltage would be VDD/2), the total output swing of differential amplifier 200 can be maximized (i.e., output swing equal to 2*VDD).", "Note that because inverters 210 (A) and 210 (B) do not include any resistive elements, this increased gain does not result in output signal distortion (unlike the results described with respect to conventional differential amplifier 100 shown in FIG. 1 ).", "[0034] Returning to FIG. 2A , according to an embodiment of the invention, bias circuit 220 (A) includes resistors R_IN(A) and R_OUT(A), optional capacitors C 221 (A) and C 222 (A), and an operational amplifier (op-amp) 240 (A).", "Resistor R_IN(A) is connected between the input of inverter 210 (A) and the output of op-amp 240 (A), while resistor R_OUT(A) is connected between the output of inverter 210 (A) and the non-inverting input of op-amp 240 (A).", "Capacitor C 221 (A) is connected between the output of op-amp 240 (A) and ground, while capacitor C 222 (A) is connected between the non-inverting input of op-amp 240 (A) and ground.", "[0035] Similarly, bias circuit 220 (B) includes resistors R_IN(B) and R_OUT(B), optional capacitors C 221 (B) and C 222 (B), and an operational amplifier (op-amp) 240 (B).", "Resistor R_IN(B) is connected between the input of inverter 210 (B) and the output of op-amp 240 (B), while resistor R_OUT(B) is connected between the output of inverter 210 (B) and the non-inverting input of op-amp 240 (B).", "Capacitor C 221 (B) is connected between the output of op-amp 240 (B) and ground, while capacitor C 222 (B) is connected between the non-inverting input of op-amp 240 (B) and ground.", "[0036] Reference voltage source 230 provides a reference voltage V_MID to the inverting inputs of op-amps 240 (A) and 240 (B).", "Meanwhile, the non-inverting inputs of op-amps 240 (A) and 240 (B) receive the outputs of inverters 210 (A) and 210 (B), respectively (via resistors R_OUT(A) and R_OUT(B), respectively).", "If the voltage at the output of inverter 210 (A) is less than reference voltage V_MID, op-amp 240 (A) decreases its output voltage (and hence the voltage provided at the input of inverter 210 (A) via resistor R_IN(A)), thereby raising the output of inverter 210 (A).", "Likewise, if the voltage at the output of inverter 210 (A) is greater than reference voltage V_MID, op-amp 240 (A) increases its output voltage to decrease the output of inverter 210 (A).", "Op-amp 240 (B) regulates the output of inverter 210 (B) in a similar manner.", "[0037] In this manner, op-amps 240 (A) and 240 (B) create DC bias voltages at the inputs of inverters 210 (A) and 210 (B), respectively, such that each inverter has a DC offset voltage at its output that is equal to reference voltage V_MID.", "This DC biasing of the inverter inputs forces inverters 210 (A) and 210 (B) to operate in the linear mode, so that gain can be applied to signals provided to inverters 210 (A) and 210 (B) without distortion (clipping).", "Note that, while reference voltage V_MID can be set to any value between supply voltage VDD and ground (the upper and lower supply voltages), the maximum output range of amplifier circuit 200 will be provided by setting reference voltage V_MID halfway between supply voltage VDD and ground (i.e., V_MID=VDD/2).", "[0038] Note further, that it is desirable that the linear biasing provided by bias circuits 220 (A) and 220 (B) not be affected by (or affect) the AC signal being amplified by amplifier circuit 200 .", "Accordingly, resistors R_IN(A) and R_OUT(A) isolate op-amp 240 (A) from any AC signals that are provided to or generated by inverter 210 (A) by suppressing the bulk of those signals before they reach op-amp 240 (A).", "Meanwhile, optional capacitors C 221 (A) and C 222 (A) can provide a direct path to ground for any AC that does get by resistors R_IN(A) and R_OUT(A), respectively, or is generated by op-amp 240 (A).", "In a similar manner, resistors R_IN(B) and R_OUT(B) and capacitors C 221 (A) and C 222 (B) provide AC isolation for op-amp 240 (B).", "[0039] Practitioners will readily appreciate that because bias circuits 220 (A) and 220 (B) do not include constant bias currents (e.g., currents I_BIAS- 1 and I_BIAS- 2 shown in FIG. 1 ) flowing through large resistive elements (e.g., resistors RD(A) and/or RD(B) shown in FIG. 1 ), the power consumption of amplifier circuit 200 shown in FIG. 2A can be significantly less than the power consumption of conventional amplifier 100 .", "[0040] Furthermore, because of the linear biasing provided by bias circuits 220 (A) and 220 (B), inverters 210 (A) and 210 (B) can both provide a significant amount of gain (while operating in their linear regions).", "For example, the actual gain G provided by inverter 210 (A) is given by the following equation: G =( g m1 +g m2 )*( Ro 1 ||Ro 2 ) (6) where g m1 and g m2 are the transconductances of transistors M 1 (A) and M 2 (A), respectively, and Ro 1 and Ro 2 are the output resistances of transistors M 1 (A) and M 2 (A), respectively.", "[0041] The term “Ro 1 ||Ro 2 ”", "represents the parallel resistance of Ro 1 and Ro 2 , and resolves to the equation: Ro l ||Ro 2 =( Ro 1 *Ro 2 )/( Ro 1 +Ro 2 ) (7) Substituting equation (7) into equation (6) therefore yields a gain equation of: G =( g m1 +g m2 )/( Y 1 +Y 2 ) (8) where Y 1 is equal to 1/Ro 1 and Y 2 is equal to 1/Ro 2 .", "[0042] Note that if transconductances g m1 and g m2 are equal, and if output resistances Ro 1 and Ro 2 are equal, equation 8 resolves to the following: G=g m *Ro (9) where g m =g m1 =g m2 , and Ro=Ro 1 =Ro 2 .", "Gain G is therefore proportional to transconductance g m and output resistance Ro.", "[0043] MOS transconductance g m is given by the following: g m = 2 ⁢ k p ⁢ w l ⁢ I D ( 10 ) where k p is the intrinsic transconductance parameter for the MOS transistor, w/l is the aspect ratio of the transistor, and I D is the drain current.", "Meanwhile, output resistance Ro is given by the following: Ro = 1 λ ⁢ ⁢ I D ( 11 ) where λ is the channel length modulation parameter for the transistor.", "Therefore, by substituting equations 10 and 11 into equation 9, gain G can be expressed by the following: G = 2 ⁢ k p / I D * 1 λ ( 12 ) Thus, as indicated by equation 12, the gain provided by an inverter-based differential amplifier such as shown in FIG. 2A is inversely proportional to drain current, and is therefore not subject to the output distortion associated with common-source based amplifier 100 shown in FIG. 1 .", "[0044] As indicated by equation 10 , in a MOS transistor, the transconductance is proportional to the aspect ratio (width/length) of the gate.", "Therefore, by adjusting the gate dimensions of transistors M 1 (A) and M 2 (A), the gain provided by branch 200 (A) of amplifier circuit 200 can be adjusted.", "For similar reasons, by adjusting the gate dimensions of transistors M 1 (B) and M 2 (B), the gain provided by branch 200 (B) can be adjusted.", "[0045] For example, according to an embodiment of the invention, supply voltage VDD can be 1.8V, reference voltage V_MID can be set to 0.9V, transistors M 1 (A) and M 1 (B) can have aspect ratios of 27/0.35, transistors M 2 (A) and M 2 (B) can have aspect ratios of 21.6/0.35, resistors R_IN(A), R_OUT(A), R_IN(B), and R_OUT(B) can have resistances of 1.5 kΩ each, and capacitors C_IN(A), C_OUT(A), C_IN(B), and C_OUT(B) can have capacitances of 150 fF each.", "Branches 200 (A) and 200 (B) would then provide between 10-15 dB of RF gain each.", "[0046] Note that while branches 200 (A) and 200 (B) shown in FIG. 2A are described as single stages for exemplary purposes, each of branches 200 (A) and 200 (B) can comprise a stage in a series of cascaded amplifier stages, or a predriver for additional amplifier circuitry, as indicated by optional (dotted line) amplifier stage circuitry 290 (A) and 290 (B).", "[0047] FIG. 3 shows a detailed view of branch 200 (A) that depicts a schematic diagram for op-amp 240 (A), according to an embodiment of the invention.", "(A similar op-amp circuit could be used for op-amp 240 (B) in FIG. 2A .) Op-amp 240 (A) includes PMOS transistors M 3 and M 5 , NMOS transistors M 4 , M 6 , M 7 , and M 8 , a current source 241 , a capacitor C_CP, and a resistor R_CP.", "[0048] Transistors M 3 and M 4 are connected in series between supply voltage VDD and transistor M 8 , and transistors M 5 and M 6 are connected in series between supply voltage VDD and transistor M 8 .", "Transistor M 8 is coupled between transistor M 4 and ground, and current source 241 and transistor M 7 are connected in series between supply voltage VDD and ground.", "Finally, capacitor C_CP and resistor R_CP are connected in series between the gate of transistor M 4 and the drain of transistor M 6 .", "[0049] The gate of transistor M 4 forms the non-inverting input of op-amp 240 (A), and is accordingly coupled to the input of inverter 210 (A) via resistor R_OUT(A).", "Meanwhile, the gate of transistor M 6 forms the inverting input of op-amp 240 (A), and is therefore coupled to reference voltage circuit 230 (A).", "And the junction between transistors M 5 and M 6 forms the output of op-amp 240 (A), and is therefore coupled to the input of inverter 210 (A) via resistor R_IN(A).", "[0050] Thus, capacitor C_CP and resistor R_CP are coupled between the non-inverting input and the output of op-amp 240 (A).", "Capacitor C_CP and resistor R_CP form a compensation circuit that improves the stability of op-amp 240 (A) by preventing unwanted oscillations.", "Note that various other op-amp compensation circuits will be readily apparent.", "[0051] The gate and drain of transistor M 7 are shorted, and the gates of transistors M 7 and M 8 are connected to form a current mirror.", "Therefore, a current I_BIAS from current source 241 that is sunk by transistor M 7 is also mirrored by transistor M 8 .", "Therefore, a total current I_BIAS flows through the two branches formed by transistors M 3 and M 4 (first branch) and by transistors M 5 and M 6 (second branch).", "[0052] Meanwhile, the gate and drain of transistor M 3 are shorted, and the gates of transistors M 3 and M 5 are connected to form another current mirror that provides a load for the differential pair formed by transistors M 4 and M 6 .", "When the gate voltages provided to transistors M 4 and M 6 (i.e., the inputs to op-amp 240 (A)) are the same, transistors M 3 and M 5 split the flow of current I_BIAS equally through transistors M 4 and M 6 .", "However, when the gate voltages of transistors M 4 and M 6 are different, transistor M 5 adjusts its drain voltage (i.e., the output of op-amp 240 (A)) in response.", "[0053] For example, if the voltage provided at the gate of transistor M 4 (i.e., the voltage at the output of inverter 210 (A)) is greater than the voltage provided at the gate of transistor M 6 (i.e., reference voltage V_MID), then transistor M 4 is turned on more strongly than transistor M 6 , and the current flow through transistor M 4 increases.", "Since the total current flow through transistors M 4 and M 6 is fixed at current I_BIAS by transistor M 8 , this increase in current flow through transistor M 4 means that the current flow through transistor M 6 must decrease.", "[0054] To provide this current reduction, the drain voltage of transistor M 6 is increased.", "This has the effect of reducing the gate-drain voltage of transistor M 6 , which in turn reduces the current flow through transistor M 6 .", "Meanwhile, this increased drain voltage of transistor M 6 is applied to the input of inverter 210 (A) (via resistor R_IN(A)), thereby driving the voltage at the output of inverter 210 (A) down towards reference voltage V_MID.", "[0055] Similarly, if the voltage provided at the gate of transistor M 4 is less than the voltage provided at the gate of transistor M 6 , then transistor M 4 is turned on less strongly than transistor M 6 , and the current flow through transistor M 4 decreases.", "Therefore, the current flow through transistor M 6 must increase, and the drain voltage of transistor M 6 is decreased to increase the gate-drain voltage of transistor M 6 .", "This decreased drain voltage of transistor M 6 is applied to the input of inverter 210 (A), thereby driving the voltage at the output of inverter 210 (A) up towards reference voltage V_MID.", "[0056] Of course, the circuitry shown for op-amp 240 (A) in FIG. 3 is exemplary only.", "Alternatives may be found in the conventional art.", "[0057] The various embodiments of the structures and methods of this invention that are described above are illustrative only of the principles of this invention and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention to the particular embodiments described.", "For example, capacitors C_IN(A) and C_IN(B) could be removed from differential amplifier 200 in FIG. 2A , thereby enabling amplification of DC input voltages at input terminals 201 (A) and 201 (B).", "Thus, the invention is limited only by the following claims and their equivalents." ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS Cross-reference is made to commonly assigned patent application Ser.", "No. 12/804,439, (TI-67911) entitled “ARRAY ARCHITECTURE FOR REDUCED VOLTAGE, LOW POWER, SINGLE POLY EEPROM”", "filed Jul. 20, 2010, the teachings of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention relate to an Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM) array architecture for a cell having a single polycrystalline silicon gate.", "Contemporary semiconductor integrated circuits typically perform much more complex functions than previous designs.", "Mixed mode circuits performing combined analog, digital, and memory functions are common for many applications.", "At the same time these mixed mode circuits must keep the manufacturing process as simple as possible to reduce cost and improve the process yield.", "A single polycrystalline silicon EEPROM cell of the prior art that may be compatible with existing complementary metal oxide silicon (CMOS) processes is illustrated at FIG. 10 .", "The cell includes complementary floating gates 1012 and 1014 which serve as control gates for respective sense transistors.", "During a read operation, these sense transistors are accessed by read select transistors which connect the sense transistors to bit line (BL) and complementary bit line (BL_) terminals.", "Each cell includes a control circuit 1020 which receives global address and control signals and produces local control signals for the respective cell.", "Programming is accomplished, for example, by driving WR 1 _low, WR_EN 1 high, and WR_EN 2 low.", "In this state, N-channel transistor 1008 is on and N-channel transistor 1010 is off.", "Reference transistors 1004 and 1006 couple low and high signals between respective P-channel and N-channel transistors.", "Responsively, P-channel transistor 1002 is on and P-channel transistor 1000 is off.", "This programs positive charge on floating gate 1012 and negative charge on floating gate 1014 .", "One disadvantage of this cell is that it requires a separate control circuit 1020 for each cell.", "Another disadvantage is that it requires substantial layout area for the complementary floating gates 1012 and 1014 .", "Yet another disadvantage of this cell is that transistors 1004 through 1010 are constructed as large drain-extended transistors indicated by asterisks to preclude punch through at relatively high drain-to-source voltages.", "Other single polycrystalline silicon EEPROM cells of the prior art may be manufactured together with analog and digital circuits on a single integrated circuit.", "Such EEPROM cells permit nonvolatile memory to be formed in mixed mode circuits for many applications.", "Chi et al.", "(U.S. Pat. No. 5,940,324) and Chen et al.", "(U.S. Pat. No. 6,930,002) both developed single polycrystalline silicon EEPROM cells that are programmed by band-to-band tunneling.", "The present inventors have developed an improved array architecture for a single polycrystalline silicon EEPROM cell that offers several advantages over single polycrystalline silicon memory cells of the prior art as will become apparent in the following discussion.", "BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, an Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM) array is disclosed.", "The memory array includes a plurality of memory cells arranged in rows and columns.", "Each memory cell has a switch coupled to receive a first program voltage and a control terminal coupled to receive a first select signal.", "A voltage divider is coupled in series with the switch.", "A sense transistor having a sense control terminal has a current path coupled between an output terminal and a reference terminal.", "A first capacitor has a first terminal coupled to the first switch and a second terminal coupled to the sense control terminal.", "An access transistor having a control terminal coupled to receive a read signal has a current path coupled between the output terminal and a bit line.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a top view of a single polycrystalline silicon gate EEPROM cell that may be used with the present invention;", "FIG. 2 is a cross sectional view of the EEPROM cell of FIG. 1 at the plane A-A′;", "FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing programming a logical zero (program) in the EEPROM cell;", "FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing programming of a logical one (erase) in the EEPROM cell;", "FIG. 5A is a schematic diagram showing stress on an unselected EEPROM cell storing a logical one for V CG =0 V and V TG =−5 V;", "FIG. 5B is a schematic diagram showing stress on an unselected EEPROM cell storing a logical one for V CG =+5 V V TG =0 V;", "FIG. 5C is a schematic diagram showing stress on an unselected EEPROM cell storing a logical zero for V CG =0 V V TG =+5 V;", "FIG. 5D is a schematic diagram showing stress on an unselected EEPROM cell storing a logical zero for V CG =−5 V V TG =0 V;", "FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of an EEPROM cell that may be used with an embodiment of the array architecture of the present invention;", "FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of the array architecture of the present invention;", "FIG. 8A is a schematic diagram of another EEPROM cell that may be used with another embodiment of the array architecture of the present invention;", "FIG. 8B is a program/erase timing diagram illustrating operation of the cell of FIG. 8A ;", "FIG. 9A is a drive circuit that may be used with the memory cell of FIG. 8A to produce the equalization signal (EQ);", "FIG. 9B is a drive circuit that may be used with the memory cell of FIG. 8A to produce the program data (PGMDATA) and complementary program data (PGMDATA_) signals;", "FIG. 9C is another drive circuit that may be used with the memory cell of FIG. 8A to produce the program data (PGMDATA) and complementary program data (PGMDATA_) signals;", "and FIG. 10 is a single polycrystalline EEPROM memory cell of the prior art.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Preferred embodiments of the present invention provide significant advantages over previous memory array architectures using single polycrystalline silicon EEPROM memory cells as will become evident from the following detailed description.", "The present inventors have disclosed a single polycrystalline silicon EEPROM cell in U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 12/462,076, (TI-66531), filed Jul. 28, 2009, and incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.", "The following discussion briefly describes that EEPROM memory cell to provide a more complete understanding of the present invention.", "In the following discussion, P and N are used to indicate semiconductor conductivity type.", "A “+”", "or “−”", "sign after the to conductivity type indicates a relatively high or low doping concentration, respectively, of the semiconductor region.", "Furthermore, the same reference numerals are used in the drawing figures to indicate common circuit elements.", "Referring to FIG. 1 , there is a top view of a single polycrystalline silicon gate (Poly) EEPROM memory cell that may be used with the present invention.", "The cell includes N− isolation regions 120 and 126 .", "These N− isolation regions serve to electrically isolate P− well regions 160 and 162 , respectively, from a P type substrate.", "In operation, they are preferably biased to a positive supply voltage at terminals 100 and 102 .", "A control gate terminal 104 contacts P+ region 140 as well as N+ region 122 , both of which are formed within P− well region 160 .", "A tunnel gate terminal 106 contacts P+ region 142 as well as N+ region 130 , both of which are formed within P− well region 162 .", "A single polycrystalline silicon gate layer 156 overlies a part of both P− well regions and is self aligned with N+ regions 122 and 130 .", "An N-channel sense transistor is formed between the P− well regions 160 and 162 .", "The sense transistor includes drain terminal 108 , source terminal 110 , and control gate 152 .", "The sense transistor operates to indicate the data state of the polycrystalline silicon gate layer 156 as will be explained in detail.", "The polycrystalline silicon gate layer 156 is often referred to as a floating gate, since it is only capacitively coupled and not directly connected to other elements of the memory cell.", "The polycrystalline silicon gate forms one terminal of a control gate capacitor 150 as well as one terminal of a tunnel gate capacitor 154 .", "Referring now to FIG. 2 , there is a cross sectional view of the EEPROM cell of FIG. 1 at the plane A-A′.", "An N+ buried layer 202 together with N− isolation region 120 electrically isolates P− well region 160 from P substrate 210 .", "Likewise, another N+ buried layer 204 together with N− isolation region 126 electrically isolates P− well region 162 from P substrate 210 .", "Shallow trench isolation regions 200 isolate active regions such as control gate capacitor 150 , sense transistor 152 , and tunnel gate capacitor 154 .", "An upper plate of the control gate capacitor is formed by a first part of polycrystalline silicon gate layer 156 .", "A lower plate of the control gate capacitor is formed adjacent the upper plate by P− well region 160 .", "The upper and lower plates are separated by a dielectric region to form the control gate capacitor 150 .", "In a similar manner, an upper plate of the tunnel gate capacitor 154 is formed by a second part of polycrystalline silicon gate layer 156 .", "A lower plate of the tunnel gate capacitor 154 is formed adjacent the upper plate by P− well region 162 .", "The upper and lower plates are separated by a dielectric region to form the tunnel gate capacitor 154 .", "Referring now to FIGS. 3 and 4 , a programming operation of the control gate layer of the memory cell will be explained in detail.", "Numeric voltage values in the following discussion and throughout the instant specification are given by way of example for the purpose of illustration and may vary with different manufacturing processes.", "FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of the memory cell of FIGS. 1-2 .", "N− isolation regions 120 and 126 as well as N+ buried layers 202 and 204 are biased at 5 V throughout the operation.", "A 5 V signal is applied to control gate terminal 104 .", "P+ region 140 is electrically connected to P− well region 160 .", "Thus, P− well region 160 is also at 5 V. The capacitance of control gate capacitor 150 (C CG ) is much larger than the total capacitance (C T ) of tunnel gate capacitor 154 , sense transistor gate 152 (C XTR ), and associated parasitic capacitance.", "The coupling ratio C CG /(C CG +C T +C XTR ) is at least 0.8 and preferably 0.9 or greater.", "The polycrystalline silicon gate layer voltage, therefore, is approximately 4 V to 4.5 V. A −5 V signal is also applied to the tunnel gate terminal 106 .", "P+ region 142 is electrically connected to P− well region 162 which is, therefore, also at −5 V. An inversion layer is formed adjacent a second part of polycrystalline silicon gate layer 156 at the tunnel gate capacitor 154 below the intervening dielectric region.", "This dielectric region is preferably silicon dioxide or other suitable dielectric material as is known in the art.", "N+ region 130 provides a source of electrons for the inversion layer and remains in conductive contact with the inversion layer.", "Thus, a high electric field is generated across the relatively thin dielectric region sufficient to induce Fowler-Nordheim tunneling of electrons from the inversion layer to the polycrystalline silicon gate layer 156 .", "This relatively higher concentration of electrons significantly increases the threshold voltage of sense transistor 152 and renders it nonconductive in a subsequent read operation.", "This EEPROM memory cell offers several advantages over memory cells of the prior art.", "First, the critical electric field necessary for Fowler-Nordheim tunneling is developed by positive and negative voltages of comparable magnitudes.", "This avoids the need to generate a high voltage power supply or to incorporate special high voltage transistors in the manufacturing process.", "Second, programming by Fowler-Nordheim tunneling greatly reduces the power requirement compared to prior art hot carrier generation methods such as avalanche multiplication and band-to-band tunneling.", "Third, Fowler-Nordheim tunneling from the inversion layer to the polycrystalline silicon gate layer 156 provides uniform current density over the entire area of the tunnel gate capacitor 154 .", "Thus, current density is much less than with methods of the prior art where current flow was through a much smaller area.", "Such areas were edge-dependent and determined by overlapping gate and underlying implant regions.", "The reduced programming current density of the present invention greatly increases program/erase cycles and corresponding reliability of the memory cell.", "Referring now to FIG. 4 , an erase operation of the control gate layer of the memory cell will be explained in detail.", "FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of the memory cell of FIGS. 1-2 .", "As previously discussed, N− isolation regions 120 and 126 as well as N+buried layers 202 and 204 are biased at 5 V throughout the operation.", "A −5 V signal is applied to control gate terminal 104 .", "P+ region 140 is electrically connected to P− well region 160 .", "Thus, P− well region 160 is also at −5 V. Due to the coupling ratio of control gate capacitor 150 (C CG ) and the total capacitance (C T ) of tunnel gate capacitor 154 , sense transistor gate 152 , and associated parasitic capacitance the polycrystalline silicon gate layer voltage is approximately −4 V to −4.5 V. The voltage difference across control gate capacitor 150 forms an inversion layer adjacent a first part of polycrystalline silicon gate layer 156 below the intervening dielectric region.", "The inversion layer is electrically connected to N+ region 122 and, therefore, maintains the high coupling ratio between C CG and C T .", "A 5 V signal is also applied to the tunnel gate terminal 106 .", "P+ region 142 is electrically connected to P− well region 162 which is, therefore, also at 5 V. The voltage difference between the polycrystalline silicon gate 156 and the P− well region 162 forms an accumulation region at the lower plate (P− well region 162 ) of tunnel gate capacitor 154 .", "The resulting high electric field generated across the relatively thin dielectric region is sufficient to induce Fowler-Nordheim tunneling of electrons from polycrystalline silicon gate layer 156 to the accumulation region.", "Thus, a relatively lower concentration of electrons significantly decreases the threshold voltage of sense transistor 152 and renders it conductive in a subsequent read operation.", "The previously discussed advantages of the EEPROM memory cell are also present during an erase operation.", "The critical electric field necessary for Fowler-Nordheim tunneling is developed by positive and negative voltages of comparable magnitudes.", "This avoids the need to generate a high voltage power supply or to incorporate special high voltage transistors in the manufacturing process.", "Programming by Fowler-Nordheim tunneling greatly reduces the power requirement compared to prior art hot carrier generation methods such as avalanche multiplication and band-to-band tunneling.", "Finally, Fowler-Nordheim tunneling from the polycrystalline silicon gate layer 156 to the accumulation region provides uniform current density over the entire area of the tunnel gate capacitor 154 .", "Thus, current density is much less than with methods of the prior art where current flow was through a much smaller area.", "Such areas were edge-dependent and determined by overlapping gate and underlying implant regions.", "The reduced programming current density of the present invention greatly increases program/erase cycles and corresponding reliability of the memory cell.", "Turning now to FIGS. 5A-5D , stress on unselected memory cells as in FIGS. 1-2 of a memory array during programming of selected memory cells will be discussed in detail.", "Voltage stress on these unselected memory cells is due to the coupling ratio as previously discussed with regard to FIGS. 3 and 4 .", "In the following discussion it should be understood that this stress may degrade data stored on the unselected memory cells after many programming (or erase) operations are performed on nearby selected memory cells.", "In particular, FIG. 5A is a schematic diagram showing stress on an unselected EEPROM cell storing a logical one for V CG =0 V and V TG =−5 V. By way of example, the floating gate voltage (V FG ) for a logical one is 4 V. When V TG =−5 V for programming a selected memory cell, the unselected memory cell of FIG. 5A has approximately −8.5 V across tunnel gate capacitor 154 .", "This stress causes positive charge loss 500 over many programming or erase operations, which greatly reduces the number of memory program/erase cycles and corresponding reliability of the memory cell.", "Referring to FIG. 5B , there is a schematic diagram showing stress on an unselected EEPROM cell storing a logical one for V CG =+5 V and V TG =0 V. As previously discussed, the floating gate voltage (V FG ) for a logical one is 4 V. When V CG =+5 V for programming a selected memory cell, the unselected memory cell of FIG. 5B has approximately −8.0 V across tunnel gate capacitor 154 .", "This stress will also cause positive charge loss 502 over many programming or erase operations.", "Referring next to FIG. 5C , there is a schematic diagram showing stress on an unselected EEPROM cell storing a logical zero for V CG =0 V and V TG =+5 V. Here, however, the floating gate voltage (V FG ) for a logical zero is −4 V. When V TG =+5 V for programming a selected memory cell, the unselected memory cell of FIG. 5C again has approximately +8.5 V across tunnel gate capacitor 154 .", "This stress causes negative charge loss 504 over many programming or erase operations, which greatly reduces the number of memory program/erase cycles and corresponding reliability of the memory cell.", "Finally, referring to FIG. 5D , there is a schematic diagram showing stress on an unselected EEPROM cell storing a logical zero for V CG =−5 V and V TG =0 V. As previously discussed, the floating gate voltage (V FG ) for a logical zero is −4 V. When V CG =−5 V for programming a selected memory cell, the unselected memory cell of FIG. 5D has approximately 9 V across tunnel gate capacitor 154 .", "This stress will also cause negative charge loss 506 over many programming or erase operations.", "Turning now to FIG. 6 , there is a schematic diagram of an EEPROM memory cell with surrounding circuitry that forms an element of the array architecture of the present invention.", "Recall from the previous discussion regarding FIGS. 5A-5D that stress on unselected memory cells occurs when a selected memory cell on the same tunnel gate lead or the same control gate lead is programmed.", "This stress depends on the voltage applied to the tunnel gate lead or control gate lead as well as the data state of the unselected memory cell.", "According to the present invention, program data lead 606 is selectively connected to tunnel gate lead 106 by switch 602 .", "Likewise, complementary program data lead 608 is selectively connected to control gate lead 104 by switch 604 .", "Both switches 602 and 604 are controlled by row select signal (ROWSEL) applied to lead 600 .", "Both program data leads 606 and 608 are generally perpendicular to the row select signal in the memory array.", "Only a selected cell, therefore, will have programming voltages applied to leads 606 and 608 when switches 602 and 604 are turned on by an active row select signal on lead 600 .", "This advantageously eliminates any stress to unselected memory cells that might degrade stored data states.", "Referring now to FIG. 7 , there is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of the array architecture of the present invention.", "For the purpose of illustration, the memory array includes selected memory cells 730 and 740 , which are already programmed to logical zero and one, respectively.", "The memory array also includes unselected memory cells 750 , 760 , and 770 .", "Memory cells 730 and 740 are connected to row select leads 700 and 702 , which are oriented horizontally through the memory array.", "Memory cell 730 is connected to program data lines 704 and 706 via switches 712 and 714 , respectively.", "Program data lines 704 and 706 are oriented vertically through the memory array and generally perpendicular to row select leads 700 and 702 .", "Memory cell 740 is connected to program data lines 708 and 710 , via switches 722 and 724 , respectively.", "Program data lines 708 and 710 are also oriented vertically through the memory array and generally perpendicular to row select leads 700 and 702 .", "Finally, memory cells 730 and 740 include respective access transistors 716 and 726 to couple their stored data states to respective read bit leads 718 and 728 .", "Unselected memory cells 750 and 760 share the same program data leads as selected memory cells 730 and 740 , respectively.", "The switches of unselected memory cells 750 and 760 , however, share different row select leads from selected memory cells 730 and 740 .", "Thus, the switches of unselected memory cells remain off when selected memory cells 730 and 740 are programmed and are not stressed as previously described with regard to FIGS. 5A-5D .", "Moreover, the control gate and tunnel gate leads of memory cell 750 are connected to ground or a suitable reference voltage by equalization transistors 752 and 754 .", "Likewise, the control gate and tunnel gate leads of memory cell 760 are connected to ground or the suitable reference voltage by equalization transistors 762 and 764 .", "Unselected memory cells 750 and 760 , therefore, are not stressed and their respective data states remain intact when memory cells 730 and 740 are programmed.", "Unselected memory cell 770 shares the same row select leads as selected memory cells 730 and 740 .", "The switches of unselected memory cell 770 , therefore, are on when the switches of selected memory cells 730 and 740 are on.", "The program data leads of unselected memory cell 770 , however, remain at zero volts or a suitable reference voltage.", "The control gate and tunnel gate leads of memory cell 770 , therefore, are not stressed as previously described with regard to FIGS. 5A-5D .", "In a first embodiment of FIG. 7 , the switches of each memory cell are formed from complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) pass gates.", "Each CMOS pass gate is formed from an N-channel transistor in parallel with a P-channel transistor.", "Furthermore, in this first embodiment of the present invention, the voltage swing of the control gates of the switches is the same as the voltage swing on the program data leads (+V P to −V P ), so that the switches of unselected cells are completely off when selected memory cells in the same column are programmed.", "The maximum voltage across the control gate dielectric of the N-channel and P-channel transistors is generally the same as the programming voltage across the tunnel gate dielectric.", "This may be acceptable in some applications where programming time of the memory cells is not critical and some Fowler-Nordheim tunneling through the switch transistors is acceptable.", "In a second embodiment of the present invention, the switch transistors are separately ion implanted to preferentially grow a slightly thicker gate dielectric than that of the tunnel gate capacitors.", "In this second embodiment, programming voltage across tunnel gate capacitors may be safely increased and programming time decreased without damage to the switch transistors.", "Turning now to FIG. 8A , there is a modified memory cell that may be used in a third embodiment of the memory array of FIG. 7 .", "The modified memory cell of FIG. 8A differs from the previously described memory cells of FIG. 7 in three respects.", "First;", "each CMOS pass gate or switch now includes series-connected voltage divider transistors such as transistors 800 and 804 as well as switching transistors 802 and 806 .", "Second, row select signal ROWSEL operates at a reduced voltage swing of 0V to 5V (+V p ).", "Complementary row select signal ROWSEL_ operates at a reduced voltage swing of 0V to −5V (−V P ).", "Third, N-channel transistors 811 and 813 are added to the equalization circuit to hold control gate lead 104 and tunnel gate lead 106 to ground (0 V) when the memory cell is unselected.", "Operation of the modified memory cell of FIG. 8A will now be explained in detail with reference to the program/erase timing diagram of FIG. 8B .", "The left half of the timing diagram ( FIG. 8B ) illustrates operation when the memory cell is on a selected row.", "The memory cell row is selected at time t 0 when ROWSEL is high (0 V), ROWSEL_ is low (0 V), and EQ is low (−5 V).", "In this case, leads TG 106 and CG 104 are driven to −V TN as illustrated by voltage levels 830 and 840 , respectively, by N-channel transistors of the CMOS switches.", "Here and in the following discussion, V TN refers to a threshold voltage of an N-channel transistor and V TP refers to a threshold voltage of a P-channel transistor.", "These values typically range from 1.0 V to 1.5 V in magnitude for this exemplary process technology.", "At time t 1 program data leads PGMDATA and PGMDATA_ of the memory cell column are driven high and low, respectively, to program a positive charge on floating gate 156 .", "At time t 2 , PGMDATA and PGMDATA_ return to 0 V. However, TG is pulled down to +V TP 832 by the P-channel transistor of the CMOS switch.", "Correspondingly, CG is pulled up to −V TN by the N-channel transistor of the CMOS switch.", "Thus, TG and CG follow PGMDATA and PGMDATA_, respectively, but will only reach +V TP or −V TN depending on the previous voltage level of PGMDATA and PGMDATA_.", "At time t 3 program data leads PGMDATA and PGMDATA_ of the memory cell column are driven low and high, respectively, to erase the positive charge on floating gate 156 .", "At time t 4 , PGMDATA and PGMDATA_ return to 0 V. However, TG is pulled up to −V TN 834 by the N-channel transistor of the CMOS switch.", "Correspondingly, CG is pulled down to +V TN 844 by the P-channel transistor of the CMOS switch.", "When any cell is on a selected row and PGMDATA and PGMDATA_ are 0 V, therefore, TG and CG will only reach +V TP or −V TN depending on the previous voltage level of PGMDATA and PGMDATA_.", "This produces a total cell stress equal to a sum of the magnitude of V TP +V TN across the floating gate 156 .", "For normal operating parameters, this is approximately 2.5: V compared to a programming voltage of 10 V. At this level, there is negligible effect on the programmed or erased data state.", "Since ROWSEL and ROWSEL_ are both at 0 V, no more than 5 V appears across any transistor gate oxide of the CMOS switch.", "Furthermore, the gates of N-channel transistors 810 and 812 are at 0 V while the gates of N-channel transistors 811 and 813 are at −5 V. In this state, if V TG is +5 V, transistor 810 acts as a voltage divider so that the common terminal between transistors 810 and 811 is −V TN .", "Likewise, if V CG is +5 V, transistor 812 acts as a voltage divider so that the common terminal between transistors 812 and 813 is −V TN .", "Therefore, no more than 5 V appears across any transistor gate oxide of the equalization circuit.", "Time t 5 and beyond represents a cell on an unselected row and a selected column.", "Here, EQ is high (+5 V), ROWSEL is low (−5 V), and ROWSEL_ is high (+5 V).", "Both CMOS switches are off.", "N-channel transistors 810 - 813 of the equalization circuit are on and drive TG and CG to ground.", "Thus, voltage levels of PGMDATA and PGMDATA_ have no effect on any memory cell in an unselected row.", "In this state, transistors 800 and 804 act as voltage dividers for either a positive or negative voltage of PGMDATA.", "Thus, common terminals between P-channel transistors 800 and 802 or between N-channel transistors 804 and 806 do not exceed a magnitude of V TN or V TP .", "Therefore, no more than 5 V appears across any transistor gate oxide of the CMOS switch for any voltage level of PGMDATA and PGMDATA_.", "Turning now to FIG. 9A , there is a schematic diagram of a drive circuit that may be used with the memory cell of FIG. 8A to produce the equalization (EQ) signal.", "The circuit receives low voltage equalization signal (EQL), which operates between 0 V and +5 V, at the input terminal of inverter 900 .", "The output signal from inverter 900 at lead 922 is applied to the input terminal of inverter 902 as well as the source of P-channel transistor 904 .", "Inverter 902 produces an output signal at lead 924 , which is applied to the source of P-channel transistor 910 .", "Here, inverters 900 and 902 form a data input circuit.", "P-channel transistors 904 and 910 and N-channel transistors 906 and 912 form a voltage divider part of the drive circuit and have their control gates connected to reference or ground terminal 930 .", "Cross-coupled N-channel transistors 908 and 914 have current paths connected in series with N-channel transistors 906 and 912 , respectively.", "The control gate of N-channel transistor 908 is connected to the drain of N-channel transistor 914 .", "Correspondingly, the control gate of N-channel transistor 914 is connected to the drain of N-channel transistor 908 .", "A common source terminal of N-channel transistors 908 and 914 is connected to negative supply voltage terminal 920 .", "Capacitors 905 (C 1 ) and 907 (C 2 ) serve to couple a difference voltage from the output of inverters 900 and 902 , respectively, to the control gates of N-channel transistors 914 and 908 .", "These capacitors are preferably N-channel MOS transistors with common source/drain terminals.", "The equalization output signal (EQ) is taken from lead 926 .", "In operation, a low input level at the input of inverter 900 produces a high level (+5 V) input signal at the source of P-channel transistor 904 and a low level input signal (0 V) at the source of P-channel transistor 910 .", "The control gate terminals of the voltage divider transistors ( 904 , 906 , 910 , and 912 ) are preferably grounded at a reference voltage of 0V.", "Therefore, the maximum steady state positive voltage at the control gate of either of N-channel transistors 908 and 914 is approximately an N-channel threshold voltage below ground (−Vtn).", "In this case, P-channel transistor 904 is on, and P-channel transistor 910 is off.", "Capacitors 905 and 907 respectively couple a difference voltage to the control gates of N-channel transistors 914 and 908 .", "These capacitors are optional but significantly increase the switching speed of the drive circuit.", "Cross coupled N-channel transistors 908 and 914 amplify the applied difference voltage and produce a low level (−5 V) equalization signal (EQ) at lead 926 .", "A transition to a high level input signal at the input of inverter 900 produces a low level (0 V) input signal at the source of P-channel transistor 904 and a high level input signal (+5 V) at the source of P-channel transistor 910 .", "Thus, P-channel transistor 910 is on, and P-channel transistor 904 is off.", "Capacitors 905 and 907 again couple the applied difference voltage to the control gates of N-channel transistors 914 and 908 .", "Cross coupled N-channel transistors 908 and 914 amplify the applied difference voltage and produce a high level (+5 V) equalization signal (EQ) at lead 926 .", "Thus, the drive circuit switches between −5 V and +5 V in response to and input signal (EQL) transition between 0 V and 5 V. Advantageously, the maximum steady voltage across any gate oxide is substantially equal to 5 V plus an N-channel transistor threshold voltage (Vtn) or 60% to 65% of the program voltage (10 V).", "Referring now to FIG. 9B , there is a drive circuit that may be used with the memory cell of FIG. 8A to produce the program data (PGMDATA) and complementary program data (PGMDATA_) signals.", "The left part of the circuit is substantially the same as the previously described drive circuit of FIG. 9A except that the input is active low enable signal EN_.", "The right part of the circuit includes a data input part having a first inverter coupled to receive a low voltage program data signal (PGMDATAL) at lead 940 having a voltage range of preferably 0 V to +5 V. The first inverter produces a complementary signal on lead 942 that is applied to a second inverter to produce a second input signal on lead 944 .", "The first and second input signals are applied to tri state circuit 960 .", "Tri state circuit 960 relays a difference voltage from the data input part to amplifier part 962 .", "Together they produce program data signal PGMDATA and complementary program data signal PGMDATA_ on leads 982 and 980 , respectively.", "In operation, when enable signal EN_ is high the circuit is in tri state mode and the signal on lead 946 is high (+5 V).", "This turns off both P-channel transistors and turns on both N-channel transistors having control gates connected to lead 946 .", "In addition, the signal on lead 950 , having a voltage range of −5 V to +5 V, is also high, thereby turning on both N-channel transistors having control gates connected to lead 950 .", "This couples leads 980 and 982 to ground and holds data signal PGMDATA and complementary program data signal PGMDATA_ at 0 V. Furthermore, when enable signal EN_ is high, the signal on lead 952 is −5 V and the signal on lead 954 is −Vtn or about −1 V to −1.5 V. This turns off both N-channel transistors having control gates connected to lead 952 .", "Correspondingly, both N-channel transistors having gates connected to lead 954 are on, thereby coupling the cross coupled N-channel transistor gates of the amplifier part 962 to −5 V. When enable signal EN_ goes low, the drive circuit of FIG. 9B is enabled.", "Both P-channel transistors of the tri state part 960 are on and apply the difference voltage at leads 942 and 944 to leads 980 and 982 , respectively.", "Correspondingly, the signal on lead 952 is −Vtn and the signal on lead 954 is −5 V. Thus, the difference voltage at leads 980 and 982 is applied to the cross coupled N-channel transistor control gates of the amplifier part 962 .", "In this mode, amplifier part 962 operates as a low-going-high sense amplifier.", "Consequently, one of PGMDATA and PGMDATA_ is driven to +5 V and the other is driven to −5 V in response to the data state of input signal PGMDATAL.", "A significant advantage of this drive circuit is that both the tri state part 960 and the amplifier part 962 employ N-channel voltage divider transistors.", "When the drive circuit is enabled, the N-channel transistors of tri state part 960 with control gates connected to lead 946 act as voltage dividers.", "Their source terminals are no more positive than −Vtn.", "Therefore, neither N-channel transistors having control gates connected to lead 946 nor to lead 950 have more than 5 V across their gate oxide in steady state when there are no related signal transitions.", "Likewise, the N-channel transistors of amplifier part 962 with control gates connected to lead 952 act as voltage dividers so that their source terminals are no more positive than −2Vtn.", "Therefore, none of the N-channel transistors in amplifier part 962 have more than 5 V plus Vtn across their gate oxide in steady state.", "This drive circuit advantageously produces sufficient programming voltage to operate the previously described memory cells but avoids significant stress on corresponding drive circuitry having the same gate oxide thickness.", "Turning now to FIG. 9C , there is another drive circuit that may be used with the memory cell of FIG. 8A to produce the program data (PGMDATA) and complementary program data (PGMDATA_) signals.", "The left part of the circuit, the data input part, and the tri state part 960 are substantially the same as the previously described drive circuit of FIG. 9B .", "Here, however, the control gates of N-channel voltage divider transistors of amplifier part 964 are grounded so their sources are no more positive than one N-channel transistor threshold below ground potential (−Vtn).", "Amplifier part 964 also includes N-channel equalization transistor 956 having a control gate connected to lead 950 and N-channel activation transistor 958 having a control gate connected to lead 952 .", "Operation of the drive circuit when enable signal EN_ is high is substantially the same as previously described with regard to FIG. 9B .", "Here, however, the signal on lead 950 is high (+5 V) so N-channel transistor 956 is on and equalizes the voltage of the cross coupled N-channel transistor control gates to near −Vtn.", "The signal on lead 952 is −5 V so N-channel activation transistor 958 is off.", "When enable signal EN_ goes low, the drive circuit of FIG. 9C is enabled.", "The tri state part 960 applies the difference voltage at leads 942 and 944 to leads 980 and 982 , respectively.", "Correspondingly, the signal on lead 950 goes to −5 V and turns off N-channel equalization transistor 956 .", "The −Vtn signal on lead 952 turns on N-channel activation transistor 958 .", "This amplifies the difference voltage at leads 980 and 982 and operates as a high-going-low sense amplifier.", "Consequently, one of PGMDATA and PGMDATA_ is driven to +5 V and the other is driven to −5 V in response to the data state of input signal PGMDATAL.", "This drive circuit offers substantially the same advantages as previously described with regard to FIG. 9B .", "When the drive circuit is enabled, the N-channel transistors of amplifier part 964 with control gates connected to ground act as voltage dividers so that their source terminals are no more positive than −Vtn.", "Therefore, none of the N-channel transistors in amplifier part 964 have more than 5 V plus Vtn across their gate oxide in steady state.", "This drive circuit advantageously produces sufficient programming voltage to operate the previously described memory cells but avoids stress on corresponding drive circuitry having the same gate oxide thickness.", "Still further, while numerous examples have thus been provided, one skilled in the art should recognize that various modifications, substitutions, or alterations may be made to the described embodiments while still falling with the inventive scope as defined by the following claims.", "For example, inventive concepts of the present invention are readily adapted to alternative designs and voltage levels as would be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art having access to the instant specification.", "For example, previously described drive circuits might be redesigned to employ cross coupled P-channel transistors and P-channel voltage divider transistors rather than cross coupled N-channel transistors and N-channel voltage divider transistors.", "Likewise, BiCMOS processes might mix bipolar and MOS transistors to produce the previously described drive circuits.", "Additionally, programming voltages might range from 0 V to 10 V or from 0 V to −10V rather than from −5V to 5 V. Other combinations will be readily apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art having access to the instant specification." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention is concerned with an anti-locking hydraulic brake system of the type described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,685,747 issued to Belart et al.", "on Aug. 11, 1987 (corresponding to German DE-OS No. 35 02 451).", "To prevent the wheels from locking during deceleration, the anti-lock control will begin to operate in the event of an imminent locking danger.", "For that purpose, the driver or motor is actuated and the brake conduits are blocked so that the brake pedal will remain in its instantaneous position.", "The pressure in the master cylinder now serves to excite a control valve adjusting the pressure on the outlet of the pump to a value proportional to the pressure in the master brake cylinder.", "Through actuation of the inlet and outlet valves, pressure fluid can be supplied to and discharged from the wheel brakes so that the pressure in the wheel brakes is adjusted exactly to a value that avoids wheel locking.", "According to the Belart et.", "al.", "patent, the check valve is hydraulically excited so that the regulated pressure is used as a control pressure for switching the check valve into its blocking position.", "While this solution is generally satisfactory it is possible during a controlled deceleration for the pressure on the outlet of the pump to decrease rapidly.", "This can happen, for example, if the wheels are first decelerated on a road section of a low coefficient of friction and are then decelerated on a road section of a high coefficient of friction.", "When passing from one road section to another, a relatively large amount of fluid pressure is needed in the wheel brakes to adapt to the new friction conditions.", "If the pump fails to supply this amount of pressure fluid, the pressure on the pump outlet will drop causing the check valve to switch back to its open position.", "The required amount of pressure fluid will then be discharged from the master brake cylinder so that the volume thereof is quickly depleted if the described change between friction coefficient surfaces, as described, occurs in a rapid sequence.", "If, in the above-described circumstances, the pressure fluid supply of the pump fails there will no longer be any reserve volume available in the master brake cylinder that would permit an emergency deceleration.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The above described problem is solved by this invention which therefore, includes configuring the brake system so that during a controlled braking the check valve safely remains in the switch condition in which the brake conduit is blocked.", "The inventive arrangement is particularly simple and includes a diaphragm provided in a longitudinal channel within the piston.", "The check valve is actuated by means of a plunger displaced by a ramp on the piston.", "A particularly compact unit is obtained if the locking and control valves as well as the piston are accommodated in a common housing.", "In this way communication between the pressure conduit and the secondary line can be established through a housing channel.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING The invention will be described hereinafter in closer detail with reference to the single figure of accompanying drawing which is a schematic illustration, partly in section, of a preferred embodiment thereof.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION A brake system according to this invention comprises a brake pressure generator 1 including a tandem master cylinder 2 and a vacuum brake force booster 3 coupled between the tandem master cylinder and a brake pedal.", "Sealingly guided in the longitudinal bore of the tandem master cylinder 2 are two pistons, viz.", ", push rod piston 4 and floating piston 5 to thereby form two working chambers 6 and 7.", "By actuating the brake pedal by a force F, the pistons 4 and 5 are displaced to reduce the volume of the working chambers 6 and 7 developing pressure therein.", "This pressure, through brake conduits 8, 9, is transmitted to the wheel brakes 10, 11, 12, 13 of an automotive vehicle.", "These wheel brakes are arranged in pairs relative to one another, for example, the wheel brakes of wheels diagonally opposite one another.", "However, any desired pairing or association may be provided.", "Inserted in each of the brake conduits 8 and 9 is an inlet valve 14 and 15, respectively.", "Each valve 14 and 15 is in the form of a 2-way/2-position valve which is electromagnetically actuated from an electronic control module and is in its normal position, open to permit flow through the brake conduits.", "In addition, the wheel brakes 10, 11, 12 and 13 communicate through a return conduit 18 with a reservoir 19.", "Provided in the return conduit 18 are outlet valves 16 and 17 for controlling flow from the pairs of wheel brakes to the reservoir 19.", "Each of these valves 16 and 17 is in the form of a 2-way/2-position valve electromagnetically actuated from the control module, and is, in its normal position, closed to block flow through the return conduit 18.", "The brake system also includes two pumps 20, 21 actuated by a common electromotor M. The suction sides of pumps 20 and 21 are connected to the reservoir 19 through an intake line 24 and deliver pressure fluid into the discharge lines 22 and 23 respectively.", "The discharge line 22 communicates with the brake conduit B and the discharge line 23 communicates with the brake conduit 9.", "For each brake circuit a combination valve 25,25'", "is provided.", "The two combination valves are of identical design and thus one valve, 25', is shown without reference numerals.", "A description of the combination valves is provided with reference to the combination valve 25.", "The combination valve 25 includes a check valve 26 inserted in the brake conduit 8 between the working chamber 6 and the point where the discharge line 22 terminates with the brake conduit 8.", "It is hydraulically excited as described hereinafter in greater detail.", "Also provided is a check valve 27 inserted in a secondary line 31 between the discharge line 22 and the reservoir 19.", "A control line 30 connects a control chamber 50 forming part of the check valve 27 to the section of the brake conduit 8 between the master brake cylinder 2 and the check valve 26.", "A secondary line 31', similar to line 31, is associated with the combination valve 25'.", "The combination valve 25, also includes a switch piston 28 and a check valve 29.", "The housing 36 of the combination valve 25 includes three bores 32, 33, 34 terminating in the outer faces of the housing 36.", "Each bore is sealed by a closure member 35.", "Sealingly guided in first port 32 is the afore-mentioned switch piston 28.", "Provided on one side of the piston 28 is a chamber 37 and on the other side is a chamber 38.", "These chambers are interconnected through a longitudinal bore 40 formed in the piston 28 and this bore has a diaphragm 41 inserted therein.", "The chamber 37 is in direct communication with the outlet of the pump 20 (via discharge line 22) while the chamber 38 is in communication with the brake conduit 8 through another section of the discharge line 22 into which is inserted the check valve 29.", "The check valve 29 only permits pressure fluid flow from chamber 38 to brake conduit 8 via this another section of the discharge line 22.", "Moreover, from chamber 38, a channel or port 47 branches off to form a section of the secondary line 31.", "Provided in chamber 38 is a spring 39 holding the switch piston 28 in abutment with the closure member 35.", "The central area of the switch piston 28 is formed at its outer periphery with a recess 42 to form an axially extending ramp 43.", "Sealingly guided through a section of bore 33 is a plunger 44 one end of which is in abutment with ramp 43.", "The plunger 44 extends through the valve passage 46 and its other end is in abutment with ball valve 45.", "In the normal position of the piston 28, as shown, the plunger 44 is at the upper end (or large diameter) of the ramp 44 to lift the ball 45 from its associated sealing seat.", "The passageway 46 is thus open so as to enable pressure fluid to flow through the brake conduit 8.", "Inserted in the lower section (as seen in the drawing) of the third bore 34 is a connector 51.", "A control chamber 50 is formed above the connecting piece 51.", "Through the housing channel 30, the control chamber 50 is in communication with the brake conduit 8.", "A chamber below the connector 51 is, on the one hand, in communication with the reservoir 19 through the secondary line 31 and, on the other hand, is in communication with the chamber 38 through a channel 47.", "A pin 49 is sealingly guided through the connector 51 and may be brought into abutment with a ball valve 48 seated on a valve seat on the outlet of the channel 47.", "In the normal position as shown, the pin 49 does not transmit any forces to the ball valve 48 and permits an unhampered flow of pressure fluid from chamber 38 to the secondary line 31.", "Once a pressure has built up in the master cylinder working chamber 6, the same pressure is exerted on pin 49 to force the ball 48 onto its valve seat.", "No pressure fluid flow from chamber 38 into the secondary line 31 will be permitted unless the pressure in the chamber 38 is able to overcome the counter-pressure in the control chamber 50.", "The operation of the system is described hereinafter.", "As previously explained, a pressure can be built up in the master brake cylinder and in the chambers 6 and 7 by actuating the pedal.", "The valve passage 46 of the check valve 26 is open as the piston 28 is held by spring 39 in its normal position.", "The 2-way/2-position valves 14 and 15, are in the open position so that the pressure in the working chambers 6 and 7, is transmitted to the wheel brakes 10, 11, 12, 13.", "During a decelerating (braking ) operation, the rotational pattern of the wheels is constantly monitored to thereby enable an imminent locking danger to be immediately detected.", "The electronic unit (not shown) will now initiate the following steps.", "First, the inlet valves 14 and/or 15 are closed and the outlet valves 16 and/or 17 are opened depending on which wheels are tending to lock.", "The pressure in the wheel brakes decreases so that the wheels tending to lock are able to adequately re-accelerate.", "At the same time, the electromotor M is put into operation to cause pumps 20, 21 to first deliver fluid from the reservoir 19 into the chamber 37.", "Because of the diaphragm 41, the pressure in chamber 37 develops so that the piston 28 is displaced to the left, as shown in the drawing, whereby the ramp 43 causes the plunger 44, to drop downwardly.", "The ball valve 45 now seats on the valve passage 46 and interrupts flow through the brake conduit 8.", "Pressure fluid from the chamber 37 now continues to flow through the diaphragm 41 into the chamber 38 and then flows through the check valve 29 into the brake conduit 8.", "The pressure in the chamber 38 is now adjusted in accordance with the pressure in the control chamber 50.", "Consequently, pressure fluid will permanently flow into the brake conduits B and 9.", "By switching the valves 14, 16 and 15, 17, respectively, the pressure in the wheel brakes can be adjusted so that the wheels do not tend to lock.", "Because of the diaphragm 41, there is a pressure difference between the chambers 37 and 38 as long as the pumps are delivering fluid.", "The piston 28 will, therefore, be in a position to the left of the normal position so that valve 26 is always closed.", "This, in particular, applies to cases where the pressure in chamber 38 temporarily collapses due to an increased pressure fluid requirement from the wheel brakes.", "As long as the pumps are delivering, the check valve 26 is closed.", "Owing to the integrated arrangement in one housing and to the arrangement of the bores, a compact construction is realized so that the combination valve 25 can be readily accommodated in the engine space.", "Thanks to the fact that the bores 34, 33 extend in a direction vertical to the bore 35 it is easy to establish the required pressure fluid channels.", "Upon completion of the control operation, i.e. upon termination of the pressure fluid delivery through the pumps 20, 21, the switch piston 28 returns to its basic position and the pressure in the working chambers 6, 7, is passed unimpededly through the conduits 8 and 9 which are now reopened on to the wheel brakes." ]

[ "TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The invention generally relates to measurement of light, and more particularly to an apparatus for measuring light and a luminaire comprising the apparatus for measuring light.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] It is well known in the art of illumination to combine a number of light emitting diodes (LEDs) with different spectral properties to achieve white light.", "A common way to realize this is e.g. to combine red, blue and green LEDs.", "[0003] In order to retain the white light properly, the optical characteristics of each of the present LEDs should be unchanged.", "However, optical characteristics of a LED vary with temperature, forward current and age.", "[0004] An increased temperature shifts the spectrum of the LED to longer wavelengths, which means that the color of the LED will change.", "Additionally, spectral broadening will occur, which means that the color of the LED will not be as distinct as in a lower temperature.", "Moreover, the light intensity of a LED will decrease with an increased temperature.", "[0005] However, an increased forward current shifts the spectrum of the LED to shorter wavelengths, which means that a contrary change in color will occur.", "Further, the light intensity will increase.", "[0006] Due to aging of the LEDs, a light intensity decrease will occur, as well as a spectral change, which further effects the combined white light.", "[0007] Another aspect is the batch-to-batch variation, which e.g. means that because of manufacturing circumstances the peak wavelength spread and the intensity spread can vary.", "[0008] Hence, in order to provide a proper white light from a white light luminaire comprising a number of LEDs with different spectral properties, the dependencies of temperature, forward current and aging of the LEDs have to be taken into consideration.", "This can be done by introducing a feedback system in the luminaire.", "[0009] The feedback system determines the properties of the light from the LEDs continuously in order to make sure that each type of LED contributes in a correct manner to the combined white light.", "[0010] In order to determine the properties of the light, a light measuring arrangement which is arranged to measure the properties of each type of LED, or preferably each individual LED, is used.", "In order to make the measurement as correct as possible, the influence of surrounding LEDs and ambient light should be as low as possible.", "[0011] Such a solution is presented in US 2003/0030808, in which an LED luminaire which incorporates an array of red, green and blue LEDs and a feedback arrangement to maintain a desired color balance is disclosed.", "A single photodiode or an array of photodiodes is positioned to intercept reflected light from a partially reflecting element placed in the path of the combined output of the LED array.", "Individual colors are measured sequentially by pulsing the LEDs and photodiodes, or by the use of color filters.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0012] In view of the above, an objective of the invention is to provide an apparatus for measuring the light output from an LED, which is less affected by external sources, such as other LEDs, other luminaries and ambient light.", "[0013] Briefly, from one point of view the invention may be described as an apparatus for measuring the light output of an individual LED, wherein the properties of the arrangement reduces the effect of external light without requiring extraordinary behavior of the LEDs, such as pulsing.", "[0014] A first aspect of the invention is an apparatus for measuring light from a first light emitting device located in a first position, comprising a light transmissive device having at least three surfaces: a first surface, a second surface and a third surface;", "and a photo sensor;", "wherein the first surface may be arranged for incoming light from the first position;", "the second surface may be arranged for reflecting incident light within the light transmissive device;", "and the third surface may be arranged such that outgoing light incides onto the photo sensor.", "[0015] Advantageously, the second surface of the light transmissive device may be arranged for reflecting incident light from another position outside said light transmissive device such that said light from said another position incides outside said photo sensor.", "[0016] An advantage with this aspect of the invention is that light from one direction, i.e. the direction in which the first position is situated, is transmitted to the photo sensor, but light coming from other directions are reflected away from the photo sensor.", "This means that the impact of ambient light and other light sources are reduced.", "[0017] In one embodiment of the first aspect the length of the photo sensor may be shorter than the length of the third surface.", "[0018] An advantage with this is that less light will incide directly onto the photo sensor, or in other words that the light impinging on the photo sensor is to a higher extent reflected on the second surface of the light transmissive device before inciding onto the photo sensor.", "This means that the light impinging on the photo sensor is gathered to a higher extent.", "[0019] Another advantage is that ambient light coming in via the first surface and reflected on the third surface, due to a wide angle, and thereafter reflected on the second surface down to the third surface is reduced to a higher extent.", "[0020] In another embodiment of the first aspect, an optical barrier with an opening may be placed between the third surface of the light transmissive device and the photo sensor.", "[0021] The advantages of this embodiment is the same as for having a photo sensor which may be shorter than the length of the third surface.", "[0022] Advantageously, the second surface may be coated with a reflective layer.", "[0023] An advantage of this is that the light is reflected to a higher extent.", "[0024] Further, the reflective layer may be a metal layer, e.g. an aluminum layer.", "[0025] In still another embodiment the apparatus comprise an interference filter for selecting light within a wavelength range, wherein the interference filter may be placed between said third surface of said light transmissive device and said photo sensor.", "[0026] An advantage with this aspect of the invention is that light reflected on the second surface incides onto the third surface more gathered, which means that the angle dependence of the interference filter is reduced.", "[0027] Advantageously, the interference filter is a Fabry-Perot filter.", "[0028] In yet another embodiment the apparatus further comprises an angular limiting structure placed within the light transmissive device.", "[0029] An advantage with this is that the light inciding onto the photo sensor is gathered to an even higher extent.", "[0030] Advantageously, the angular limiting structure is a hemispherical lens structure.", "[0031] In one embodiment the apparatus further comprises an angular limiting structure interference filter placed on the angular limiting structure.", "[0032] Advantageously, the light transmissive device is made of acrylate.", "[0033] Advantageously, the second surface and the third surface form an angle and the first surface is opposite the angle.", "[0034] A second aspect of the invention is a luminaire comprising a light source, an apparatus according to any of the preceding claims for measuring emitted light from said light source, and an electric device for determining whether said measured light is within a predetermined interval.", "[0035] An advantage with this aspect is that changes in the light source may be detected.", "This is very useful in applications where the light requirements are very high, e.g. in a situation where light from a number of LEDs is mixed to white light.", "[0036] In one embodiment the luminaire further comprises a controller for control of said light source based upon said determination made of said electric device.", "[0037] An advantage with this embodiment is that the properties of the light may be controlled in order to fulfill predetermined requirements.", "[0038] Other objectives, features and advantages of the present invention will appear from the following detailed disclosure, from the attached dependent claims as well as from the drawings.", "[0039] Generally, all terms used in the claims are to be interpreted according to their ordinary meaning in the technical field, unless explicitly defined otherwise herein.", "All references to “a/an/the [element, device, component, means, step, etc]”", "are to be interpreted openly as referring to at least one in-stance of said element, device, component, means, step, etc.", ", unless explicitly stated otherwise.", "The steps of any method disclosed herein do not have to be performed in the exact order disclosed, unless explicitly stated.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0040] The above, as well as additional objects, features and advantages of the present invention, will be better understood through the following illustrative and non-limiting detailed description of preferred embodiments of the present invention, with reference to the appended drawings, where the same reference numerals will be used for similar elements, wherein: [0041] FIG. 1 diagrammatically illustrates the general principle of a luminaire comprising a number of LEDs and an apparatus for measuring light.", "[0042] FIG. 2 diagrammatically illustrates the apparatus for measuring light in more detail, and the optical path of light transmitted through the light transmissive device of the arrangement.", "[0043] FIG. 3 diagrammatically illustrates a first embodiment of the present invention.", "[0044] FIG. 4 diagrammatically illustrates a second embodiment of the present invention.", "[0045] FIG. 5 diagrammatically illustrates a third embodiment of the present invention.", "[0046] FIG. 6 diagrammatically illustrates a fourth embodiment of the present invention.", "[0047] FIG. 7 diagrammatically illustrates an angular limiting structure in the form of a hemispherical lens.", "[0048] FIG. 8 diagrammatically illustrates a fifth embodiment of the present invention.", "[0049] FIG. 9 diagrammatically illustrates a sixth embodiment of the present invention.", "[0050] FIG. 10 diagrammatically illustrates a seventh embodiment of the present invention.", "[0051] FIG. 11 diagrammatically illustrates an eighth embodiment of the present invention.", "[0052] FIG. 12 diagrammatically illustrates a luminaire comprising the apparatus for measuring light.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS [0053] In FIG. 1 the general principle of the apparatus 100 for measuring light is illustrated.", "[0054] An apparatus 100 for measuring light from an LED can comprise a light transmissive device 101 and a photo sensor 112 , and advantageously also an interference filter 110 .", "[0055] The light transmissive device 101 is placed on a circuit board 102 and has the shape of a wedge, thus comprising a first, a second and a third surface.", "The third surface of the light transmissive device 101 is directed towards the circuit board, the first surface is directed towards a first LED 104 and the second surface is connecting the first and third surface.", "[0056] The first LED 104 is placed in a first position and is further the light source which is to be measured.", "The light emitted from the first LED 104 incides into the light transmissive device 101 , and is illustrated by a light beam A. [0057] The first position is such that the light emitted from the first LED 104 incides easily into the apparatus 100 , which means that the first position is in front of the first surface of the light transmissive device 101 .", "[0058] A second LED 106 is placed in a second position.", "The light emitted from the second LED 106 is illustrated by a light beam B. [0059] The second position is such that the light emitted from the second LED 106 incides onto the second surface of the light transmissive device 101 and is thereby reflected away from the apparatus 100 .", "[0060] Ambient light or stray light can occur from other light sources, and is illustrated by a light beam C. In the illustrated case the light beam incides onto the second surface and is reflected away from the apparatus 100 .", "[0061] In order to improve the reflectivity of the second surface, the surface can be coated with a metal layer 108 .", "This metal layer can e.g. be an aluminum layer.", "[0062] The second surface does not only reflect outer light, such as the light from the second LED 106 , illustrated as light beam B, or ambient light, illustrated as light beam C, but also light within the light transmissive device 101 , such as the light from the first LED 104 , illustrated as light beam A. [0063] After the light from the first LED 104 , illustrated as light beam A, has been reflected on the second surface it can incide onto the interference filter 110 .", "The purpose of the interference filter is to filter out light with a certain wavelength, such as 520 nm if the first LED 104 is a green LED with wavelength 520 nm.", "The interference filter can e.g. be a Fabry Perot interferometer.", "[0064] Because the light inciding onto the interference filter has come into the light transmissive device 101 via the first surface and has been reflected on the second surface, the interval for the angle of incidence for the light inciding onto the interference filter has become more narrow.", "This will further be described in connection to FIG. 2 .", "[0065] By having light with a more narrow interval of the angle of incidence, the angular dependence of the filter response of the interference filter 110 can be alleviated.", "[0066] After being transmitted through the interference filter 110 the light incides onto a photo sensor 112 , which registers the amount of light.", "[0067] In FIG. 2 the light transmissive device 201 of the apparatus 200 and a first LED 204 are shown in more detail.", "[0068] The light originating from the first LED 204 inciding onto the first surface of the apparatus 200 is exemplified by two different light beams, A 1 and A 2 .", "The light beam A 1 represents the light inciding directly onto the first surface impinging on the second surface with an angle β 1 , and A 2 represents the light inciding near the end of the first surface impinging on the second surface with an angle β 2 .", "[0069] By choosing the angle between the first and third surface, herein referred to as α, the length of the wedge, herein referred to as a, the height of the wedge, herein referred to as h, and the distance between the second surface of the apparatus and the first LED, herein referred to as x, the interval for the angle of incidence onto the interference filter can be adjusted.", "[0070] If the first LED 204 is assumed to be a point source, which an LED essentially is, and the first LED further is assumed to be placed at the middle of the wedge height, the extreme angles of incidence impinging on an interference filter 210 are given by: [0000] arc   tan  ( 2   x h ) - 2   α <", "Θ incidence <", "90 - arc   tan  ( h 2  ( x + a ) ) - 2   α [0071] By choosing the length of the wedge to 10 μm (a=10 μm), the angle between the first and second surface to 44° (α=44°), the distance between the first surface and the first LED to 138 μm (x=138 μm) the variation in the angle of incidence is less than 4°.", "[0000] In FIG. 3 , a first embodiment of the invention is illustrated.", "[0072] In this alternative embodiment of the present invention a photo sensor 312 only covers a part of the length of the third surface of a light transmissive device 301 .", "By only covering a part of the third surface, less light from the first LED will incide direct onto the photo sensor 312 , and less light will first reflect on the third surface and thereafter on the second surface and finally onto the photo sensor 312 .", "[0073] In FIG. 4 , a second embodiment of the invention is illustrated.", "[0074] This embodiment is the same as the first embodiment apart from an interference filter 410 covering a photo sensor 412 .", "[0075] By having the interference filter 410 only light with a predetermined wavelength will be transmitted to the photo sensor 412 .", "[0076] In FIG. 5 , a third embodiment of the invention is illustrated.", "[0077] In this embodiment parts of a photo sensor 512 is covered by an optical barrier 514 .", "This is an alternative to the second embodiment and has the same advantages as the second embodiment illustrated in FIG. 4 .", "[0078] In FIG. 6 , a fourth embodiment of the present invention is illustrated.", "[0079] This embodiment is the same as the third embodiment apart from an interference filter 610 covering a photo sensor 612 .", "[0080] By having the interference filter 610 only light with a predetermined wavelength will be transmitted to the photo sensor 612 .", "[0081] In FIG. 7 , an angular limiting structure 700 in the form of a hemispherical lens structure is illustrated.", "[0082] One of the reasons the light transmissive device is formed as a wedge is because the interval of the angle of incidence for the light impinging onto the photo sensor becomes more narrow.", "An effect of this is that the angular dependency of the interference filter is reduced.", "By introducing an angular limiting structure 700 the angular dependency will be further reduced.", "[0083] On the spherical surface of the hemispherical lens a spherical lens is placed and on the plane surface of the hemispherical lens a photo sensor 712 is placed in the center of the lens.", "With this design only light impinging at a small angle with respect to the spherical surface of the hemispherical lens will reach the photo sensor 712 .", "Preferably, the sensor length is smaller than the diameter of the hemispherical lens.", "[0084] Four exemplified light beams are illustrated;", "D1, D2, D3 and D4.", "[0085] D1 impinges onto the hemispherical lens with an angle of incidence of 0° and at a distance x 1 from the centerline of the hemispherical lens.", "The light beam D 1 refracts when entering the hemispherical lens and impinges at one end of the photo sensor 712 .", "[0086] D2 impinges onto the hemispherical lens with an angle of incidence of 0° at the centerline.", "The light beam continues into the hemispherical lens without refraction and impinges in the middle of the photo sensor 712 .", "[0087] D3 impinges onto the hemispherical lens with an angle of incidence of 30° at a distance x 3 from the centerline.", "The light beam continues into the hemispherical lens without refraction, since the angle of incidence corresponds to the angle of the hemispherical lens at the place of incidence, and impinges in the middle of the photo sensor 712 .", "[0088] D4 impinges onto the hemispherical lens with an angle of incidence of 30° and at a distance x 4 from the centerline.", "Since the angle of incidence does not correspond to the angle of the hemispherical lens at the current point, the light beam is refracted before impinging onto the photo sensor 712 .", "[0089] In FIG. 8 , a fifth embodiment of the present invention is illustrated.", "[0090] The present embodiment is the same as the third embodiment shown in FIG. 5 apart from that an angular limiting structure 816 , here illustrated as a hemispherical lens, is present inside a light transmissive device 801 .", "By having the angular limiting structure 816 present, the angle of incidence of the light impinging onto a photo sensor 812 becomes even more narrow.", "[0091] In FIG. 9 , a sixth embodiment of the present invention is illustrated.", "[0092] The present embodiment is the same as the fifth embodiment illustrated in FIG. 8 apart from that an angular limiting structure interference filter 918 is placed on the surface, situated towards the second surface of the light transmissive device 901 , of the angular limiting structure 916 .", "If the angular limiting structure 916 is a hemispherical lens this surface is the spherical surface of the hemispherical lens.", "[0093] By having the angular limiting structure interference filter 918 , only light having the predetermined wavelength corresponding to the interference filter will be transmitted through the angular limiting structure 916 , which means that light not having the same wavelength as the light source to be measured will, to a high extent, be hindered to pass through the interference filter 916 .", "[0094] In FIG. 10 , an seventh embodiment of the present invention is illustrated.", "[0095] The present embodiment is the same as the fifth embodiment shown in FIG. 8 apart from that an interference filter 1010 is placed between an angular limiting structure 1016 and an photo sensor 1012 .", "[0096] By having the interference filter 1010 placed between an angular limiting structure 1016 and a photo sensor 1012 only light within the predetermined wavelength range corresponding to the interference filter 1010 will be transmitted to the photo sensor 1012 , which means that light not having the same wavelength as the light source to be measured will be hindered to transmit to a high extent.", "[0097] In FIG. 11 , an eighth embodiment of the present invention is illustrated.", "[0098] The present embodiment is a combination of the sixth and seventh embodiments, in such a way that both an angular limiting structure interference filter 1118 as in the sixth embodiment and an interference filter 1110 as in the seventh embodiment are present.", "[0099] By having two interference filters, one before the light enters an angular limiting structure 1116 and one after the light leaves the angular limiting structure 1116 , light not having the same wavelength as the light source will be hindered to impinge on the photo sensor to a higher extent.", "[0100] In FIG. 12 , a luminaire comprising a light source 1200 , an apparatus 1202 according to any of the above mentioned embodiments for measuring light from the light source 1200 , and an electric device 1204 for determining whether the measured light is within a predetermined interval.", "[0101] Further, the luminaire can also comprise a controller 1206 for control of the light source 1200 based upon the determination of the electric device 1204 .", "[0102] The invention has mainly been described above with reference to a few embodiments.", "However, as is readily appreciated by a person skilled in the art, other embodiments than the ones disclosed above are equally possible within the scope of the invention, as defined by the appended patent claims." ]

[ "CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/223,064, by Hassan, “Method of Using Variable Cycle Execution Units in a Programmable Core,” filed Jul. 6, 2009, which is incorporated by reference for all purposes.", "FIELD [0002] The present disclosure relates generally to processors used to control memory access, and more particularly to solid state non-volatile memory controller cores.", "BACKGROUND [0003] Data memory access within a solid state drive can be controlled by a central processing unit (CPU).", "However, the CPU must also contend with software that requires much of its time.", "As a result, the CPU doesn't have as much time to devote to data memory access.", "Furthermore, the memory access can be somewhat time-consuming for CPUs, as the CPU generally controls single lines of data, and confirms each step of the data operation before continuing, all while having to contend with its own software requirements.", "The ultimate result is that the time requirements for data memory access controlled directly by the CPU are relatively high.", "[0004] In some cases, the transfer of data to and from the CPU is accomplished through the use of a second processor referred to as a co-processing unit (CU).", "However, the GPU generally cannot transfer data directly from the relevant memory device to the CPU;", "an intermediary device is usually required.", "Such an intermediary adds to the cost and complexity of the overall drive controller.", "[0005] Conventional CPUs and GPUs also tend to be limited by the construction of their arithmetic logic units (ALUs), which tend to require instructions having a fixed number of cycles.", "The fixed number of cycles is appropriate where Instructions per cycle (IPC) needs to be maximized, but implementing some memory access functions based on fixed cycle instructions can be less than ideal.", "SUMMARY [0006] Various aspects of the disclosure provide processor cores with the ability to be programmed to enable operations without being limited by the processing capacity of the central processing unit.", "The processor cores may be provided with the ability to be reprogrammable and to utilize event control and feedback, which allows execution of instructions without relying on counting the number of clock cycles to determine when an operation or instruction has been completed.", "[0007] In one aspect of the disclosure, the processor core includes an instruction register unit, an instruction decoder unit, and multiple execution units configured to perform operations associated with accessing non-volatile semiconductor memory units, for example flash drives.", "The instruction register unit fetches instructions for an operation from an instruction memory, and the instruction decoder unit provides each of the instructions to the execution units.", "The execution units are configured to execute instructions requiring different numbers of clock cycles to complete, and are capable of generating an event control signal in response to completing execution of an instruction.", "[0008] In another aspect of the disclosure, a solid state drive controller includes a processor core, a central processing unit, a nonvolatile semiconductor based memory unit, and an interface that couples the processor core with the memory unit.", "The processor core can be configured to respond to memory access commands issued by the central processing unit or an external source, and to control access to the nonvolatile semiconductor based memory unit.", "In at least one embodiment, the processor core is configured to be externally event driven, and to execute memory access instructions that require a variable number of clock cycles to complete.", "[0009] In another aspect of the disclosure, a method of performing a memory access operation comprises the steps of loading into an instruction memory unit a set of instructions, fetching from the instruction memory unit an instruction from the set of instructions, using an instruction decoder unit to select an execution unit to perform some part of an operation associated with the instruction, executing the part of the instruction using the execution unit, and generating an event control signal upon completion of the operation associated with the instruction.", "Execution of part of the operation by the execution unit may include selecting a second execution unit to execute another part of the instruction.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0010] Aspects of this disclosure will become apparent upon reading the following detailed description and upon reference to the accompanying drawings, in which like references may indicate similar elements: [0011] FIG. 1 is a high-level block diagram illustrating a solid state drive controller according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;", "[0012] FIG. 2 is a high-level block diagram illustrating a Multi-Execution Flash Processor core according to one embodiment of the present disclosure;", "[0013] FIG. 3 is a high-level block diagram illustrating a Multi-Execution Flash Processor core according to one embodiment of the present disclosure;", "[0014] FIG. 4 is a high-level block diagram illustrating a Multi-Execution Flash Processor core according to another embodiment of the present disclosure;", "and [0015] FIG. 5 is a flow chart illustrating a method of executing a data memory access operation according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0016] The following is a detailed description of embodiments of the disclosure depicted in the accompanying drawings.", "The embodiments are in such detail as to clearly communicate the disclosure.", "However, the amount of detail offered is not intended to limit the anticipated variations of embodiments;", "on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims.", "[0017] Referring first to FIG. 1 , a high-level block diagram of a solid state drive controller is illustrated and discussed.", "Drive controller 116 includes at least one central processing unit (CPU) 113 , an instruction memory unit (IMU) 101 , an address memory unit (AMU) 102 , a multi-execution flash processor (MXFP) 100 , and an external output 110 that can include at least one bank of nonvolatile semiconductor-based memory (NVSM) banks 104 , such as NAND flash memory units.", "The drive controller 116 is configured to allow the CPU 113 to direct the MXFP 100 to perform data memory access operations on the NVSM banks 104 , although some embodiments can be configured to allow the MXFP 100 to be controlled by an external source.", "There can be additional MXFPs 121 .", "Additionally, the drive controller 116 can be configured to allow the CPU 113 to order the MXFP 100 to transmit both atomic and separate commands to the NVSM banks 104 .", "[0018] The IMU 101 can be programmed, both during and after manufacture, to hold instructions in Tightly-Packed Instruction Sets (TPIS) to perform data memory access operations for multiple NVSM banks 104 .", "Each TPIS is an application-specific instruction set that is to be executed by the MXFP 100 to perform the data memory access operation that includes instructions having variably sized opcodes and operands.", "Furthermore, the amount of the IMU 101 devoted to a TPIS is variable, depending on the operation associated with the instruction.", "Finally, the TPISs can be combined into programs having action sequences.", "These action sequences can be stored concurrently within the IMU 101 or transmitted to the NVSM banks 104 though the MXFP 100 .", "[0019] The AMU 102 can be programmed, by the CPU 113 for example, to store the addresses of the NVSM banks 104 that are to be accessed by the data memory access operation.", "The CPU 113 is configured to communicate with both the IMU 101 and AMU 102 through an interface 117 .", "The CPU 113 can be further configured to communicate with an external computer system 119 by being coupled with a computer interface 118 .", "The CPU 113 can, in some embodiments, utilize an interface 117 to program the AMU 102 with a variable number of addresses of the NVSM banks 104 .", "In addition, the CPU 113 can, in some embodiments, utilize an interface 117 to give the IMU 101 a multiple of TPISs required for ordering the MXFP 100 to perform various data memory access operations on the NVSM banks 104 .", "[0020] The CPU 113 is also coupled to the MXFP 100 through a transmission line 111 that enables the CPU 113 to order the MXFP 100 to fetch instruction and address data from both the IMU 101 and the AMU 102 , which together comprise the external source of data input 105 , through the transmission line 112 to the MXFP 100 to begin the instructed data memory access operation.", "In some embodiments, the MXFP 100 can be configured to be controlled by an external source, such as the computer system 119 , though an external interface, such as through computer interface 118 .", "Both transmission line 112 and transmission line 122 enable the MXFP 100 to engage in two-way communication with the IMU 101 , the AMU 102 , while transmission line 111 enables the MXFP 100 to engage in two-way communication with the CPU 113 .", "Such two-way communication ability enables the MXFP 100 to transmit event control signals that provide operational feedback to any of these devices during a data memory access operation.", "Additional MXFPs 121 would also utilize transmission line 112 , transmission line 122 , and transmission line 111 .", "Finally, the MXFP 100 is coupled to the external output 110 , which can include NVSM banks 104 , through a transmission line 123 that enables the MXFP 100 to execute the data memory access operations.", "The MXFP 100 can also be programmed to work with an external output 110 that includes different numbers of NVSM banks 104 .", "In such a configuration, the MXFP 100 can be programmed to access different numbers of NVSM banks 104 either individually, in a sequence, or simultaneously.", "Disclosed embodiments are not limited to transmitting signals across transmission lines;", "signals can also be transmitted over a bus, or using other known signal transmission methods.", "[0021] As is shown in FIG. 2 , the MXFP 100 itself can include several units that interact both with each other and external devices to execute data memory access operations or to transmit action sequences.", "The instruction register unit (IRU) 106 fetches and receives the opcodes and operands from the instruction sets in the IMU 101 and the addresses in the AMU 102 , which together comprise the input 105 , through the transmission line 112 .", "The instruction and address operands and opcodes fetched by the IRU 106 are interpreted by the instruction decoder unit (IDU) 107 , which selects execution units to perform the operation.", "Each execution unit 108 is configured in parallel within a bank, or stage, of execution units 114 .", "[0022] This configuration enables the IDU 107 to delegate portions of the overall data memory access operation to individual execution units, enabling the operation to be performed faster than if the operation were performed by a single execution unit.", "Furthermore, each execution unit 108 is configured to operation on an event basis, independent of a number of clock cycles.", "Essentially, the execution units can be ordered to operate for as many clock cycles are necessary to complete the operation.", "If multiple execution units 108 are operating on an event basis simultaneously, they can be ordered to wait, following the completion of their respective operations, until all execution units have finished their respective operations, at which time a single execution unit that has be ordered to track the progress of the other execution units will transmit a signal indicating that all execution units have completed their operations and are ready for either new instructions or new addresses.", "[0023] The execution units 108 are configured such that an instruction given to an execution unit 108 can control it in many ways.", "Specifically, the execution unit 108 can be dedicated to a particular instruction, where the instruction's operand can wait for a number of events corresponding to the “external”", "or “internal”", "signals.", "In such a configuration, the execution unit 108 can react differently to different signals, usually by generating an event control signal that is specific to the event detected.", "For example, an execution unit 108 that is programmed with an instruction that orders the execution unit to detect when all other execution units 108 have completed their respective operations will wait until it detects a specific external signal that indicates that all other execution units have completed their operations, at which time the execution unit 108 will transmit a signal to order the IRU 106 to fetch additional instructions from the IMU 101 .", "[0024] The execution units 108 can also be programmed to operate in parallel with each other.", "In some embodiments, such an operation can occur in two ways.", "First, the execution units 108 can operate in series, whereby one execution unit 108 , upon completing its operation, can order another execution unit 108 to execute its respective operation.", "Alternatively, the execution units 108 can operate laterally, whereby some execution units 108 are started by a new instruction while other execution units 108 continue to operate under an older instruction.", "In this manner, multiple execution units 108 are operating simultaneously under different instructions.", "[0025] As illustrated by FIG. 3 , the MXFP 100 can also include additional stages of execution units 115 .", "Once the first stage of execution units 114 completes an operation, it can pass off the output of the first stage 114 into another stage 115 to continue the operation.", "This configuration provides additional flexibility to the design of the MXFP 100 , as it enables a data memory access operation to be broken down into even smaller executable parts, thereby enabling the operation to be completed with greater speed.", "[0026] An additional embodiment is illustrated in FIG. 4 , where the input 105 , comprising the IMU 101 and AMU 102 , can be located inside the MXFP 100 .", "In such an embodiment, the execution units 108 can communicate directly with the IMU 101 and AMU 102 through transmission line 122 .", "[0027] The method of performing a data memory access operation with the MXFP 100 is illustrated in FIG. 5 .", "As illustrated in block 400 , the operation begins with the CPU ordering the operation, whereby the CPU 113 then loads the relevant TPISs and addresses on to the IMU and AMU, as illustrated in blocks 401 and 402 , respectively.", "As is illustrated in block 403 , once the instruction sets and addresses are loaded, the CPU will then start the MXFP, whereupon the IRU will fetch the relevant instructions and addresses from the input that includes the IMU and AMU, as shown in block 404 .", "The IDU will interpret the instruction and address data, as shown in block 406 ;", "if the operation needs to be split into smaller individual operations, the IDU will select execution units to each execute one of those smaller operations.", "[0028] If additional operations need to be performed, the IDU can select execution units to perform those operations.", "For example, if the execution units will be operating on an event basis, independent of a specific number of clock cycles, the IDU may order an execution unit to detect when each other execution unit finishes its operation and then transmit a signal when all other execution units have finished their respective operations.", "Should an execution unit fail to execute its operation successfully, for example if the operation was performed incorrectly), the execution unit can transmit a failure signal to the CPU, as shown in block 409 .", "Otherwise, the execution unit will continue, as shown in block 408 .", "[0029] If additional sub operations (for example, writing to additional sub-addresses) need to be executed by the execution unit, as shown in block 410 , the execution unit will continue on a loop, illustrated in block 418 , until no further sub-operations are required.", "If the outputs of the first execution unit stage must be transmitted to additional stages, the sub-operation loop illustrated by loop 413 will continue until all execution units in all stages have completed their operations.", "At this point, if additional full addresses of the NVSM banks need to be accessed, as illustrated by block 414 , the NVSM address will be incremented, and the operation will cycle again through the execution unit stages, as illustrated by loop 417 .", "Once all required NVSM bank addresses have been accessed, the MXFP can continue on a loop until there are no further instructions to execute, as shown by loop 421 , at which time an execution unit can be ordered to transmit a signal to the CPU indicating that the requested operation has been completed, as shown by block 419 .", "[0030] As may be used herein, the term(s) “coupled to”", "and/or “coupling”", "and/or includes direct coupling between items and/or indirect coupling between items via an intervening item (e.g., an item includes, but is not limited to, a component, an element, a circuit, and/or a module) where, for indirect coupling, the intervening item does not modify the information of a signal but may adjust its current level, voltage level, and/or power level.", "As may further be used herein, inferred coupling (i.e., where one element is coupled to another element by inference) includes direct and indirect coupling between two items in the same manner as “coupled to.”", "As may even further be used herein, the term “operable to”", "indicates that an item includes one or more of power connections, input(s), output(s), etc.", ", to perform one or more its corresponding functions and may further include inferred coupling to one or more other items.", "As may still further be used herein, the term “associated with”, includes direct and/or indirect coupling of separate items and/or one item being embedded within another item.", "[0031] The descriptions used herein are set forth by way of illustration only and are not meant as limitations;", "instead, the invention is defined by the appended claims.", "Various embodiments of the claimed invention has been described above with the aid of method steps illustrating the performance of specified functions and relationships thereof.", "The boundaries and sequence of these functional building blocks and method steps have been arbitrarily defined herein for convenience of description.", "Alternate boundaries and sequences can be defined so long as the specified functions and relationships are appropriately performed.", "Any such alternate boundaries or sequences are thus within the scope and spirit of the claimed invention.", "[0032] Some embodiments of the claimed invention have also been described above with the aid of functional building blocks illustrating the performance of certain significant functions.", "The boundaries of these functional building blocks have been arbitrarily defined for convenience of description.", "Alternate boundaries could be defined as long as the certain significant functions are appropriately performed.", "Similarly, flow diagram blocks may also have been arbitrarily defined herein to illustrate certain significant functionality.", "To the extent used, the flow diagram block boundaries and sequence could have been defined otherwise and still perform the certain significant functionality.", "Such alternate definitions of both functional building blocks and flow diagram blocks and sequences are thus within the scope and spirit of the claimed invention.", "One of average skill in the art will also recognize that the functional building blocks, and other illustrative blocks, modules and components herein, can be implemented as illustrated or by discrete components, application specific integrated circuits, processors executing appropriate software and the like or any combination thereof.", "[0033] A reference to an element in the singular is not intended to mean “one and only one”", "unless specifically stated, but rather “one or more.”", "The term “some”", "refers to one or more.", "Underlined and/or italicized headings and subheadings are used for convenience only, do not limit the claimed invention, and are not referred to in connection with the interpretation of the description of the invention.", "In addition, the description of a signal being sent over a transmission line does not limit the claimed invention to that sole means of transmission.", "Moreover, nothing disclosed herein is intended to be dedicated to the public regardless of whether such disclosure is explicitly recited in the above description." ]

[ "This is a continuation application of application Ser.", "No. 08/116,858, filed on Sep. 7, 1993, abandoned, which is a continuation of Ser.", "No. 07/906,364, filed Jul. 6, 1992, abandoned.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a table tennis game, and in particular, to a table tennis game that can be played by one player, requiring the player to return a served ball and score by striking one or more targets strategically placed on the table surface.", "Table tennis is a popular recreational activity commonly known as "ping-pong".", "The traditional game is played by two players, each positioned at an opposite end of the table so as to volley the table tennis ball across the net affixed at the mid-point of the table.", "Four players can play a doubles game in similar fashion.", "The object of the traditional game is to make a shot across the net that the opposing player cannot return.", "A point is scored when one player cannot return a shot.", "Therefore, a successful or skillful player is one who can strategically place the ball at a point on the table that will cause the ball to carom out of the opponent's reach or to carom in a such a manner as to be difficult for the other player to return.", "One draw back of traditional table tennis or "ping-pong", is that it takes at least two players to play.", "It is desirable, therefore, to have a game that can be played by only one player.", "To that end, ball-throwing or ball-serving devices serve a useful purpose.", "Ball-serving devices or robots are well known to the art.", "Generally speaking, a ball serving device serves a ball to the player and the player returns the shot to a net or other ball catching device affixed to the ball serving machine.", "Although such table tennis ball serving devices or "robots"", "allow a player to play alone, they do not have the capacity to require the player to return a shot with particular accuracy or refinement.", "As stated above, the player simply returns the shot into a net or catching device surrounding the robot.", "The robot allows the player to develop overall ability in the game, such as returning a serve in the general field of play.", "Robots play does not reward a player for stroke accuracy or placement.", "The present invention is designed to be used with an automatic table tennis ball serving device or robot such as those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,844,458;", "4,854,588;", "and 4,917,380, all to Gatchel et al.", "and all assigned to the inventor of the present invention, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference.", "The present invention consists, basically, of a plurality of low profile sensors that can be placed strategically on the table tennis table surface.", "The sensors can accurately record a "hit"", "made by a table tennis ball striking the sensor.", "The sensors are electronically connected to a score-keeping device that keeps track of the player's score as well as the robot's score and the elapsed time of the game.", "Therefore, the game rewards the player who can direct his shot with accuracy and speed.", "This provides a more challenging game and also provides a method for the player to hone shot-making skills.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a table tennis game that can be played by one player which requires the player to score by making strategically placed shots.", "Another object of the invention is to provide a table tennis game that can be used with an automatic ball serving device.", "Another object of the invention is to provide a table tennis game that employs sensors that can accurately record a "hit"", "made by a table tennis ball striking the sensor.", "Still another object of the invention is to provide a table tennis game that provides a score-keeping mechanism that keeps track of the player's score, the automatic server's score, and the amount of time in which to play a game.", "Still another object of the invention is to provide a game that allows the player to select the difficulty of the game by manipulating the number of sensors, size of the sensors, the point level assigned to each sensor, time of the game, or the difficulty of the serve or shot made by the automatic ball server.", "Another object of the invention is to provide a table tennis game that can be used with a conventional table tennis table.", "Yet another object of the invention is to provide a game that is simple and economical to manufacture, low cost, easy to set-up and to use, and well suited for its intended purpose.", "Briefly stated, an automatic table tennis game to be used on a table with a table tennis ball serving device, the game having a plurality of sensors capable of arrangement on the surface of the table so as to provide one or more targets for the player returning a table tennis ball served by the ball serving device, the sensors having means for detecting impact of a table tennis ball, a micro computer means for converting the impact into a score, and means for displaying the score of the player, the score of the serving device, and the time of the game or variations thereof.", "The level of the difficulty of the game can be varied by the selection of the sensor size, the shot value, time of the game, and speed or trajectory of the served ball.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of one arrangement of the table tennis game of the present invention placed on a table, shown in phantom, employing a robot table tennis ball sensor;", "FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a sensor element of the present invention shown with a table tennis ball in phantom, illustrating the low profile of the sensor;", "FIG. 3 is an exploded view of a sensor element of the present invention;", "FIG. 4 is a top plan view of an illustrative embodiment of a strain relief component of the present invention;", "FIG. 5 is a side elevational view of the strain relief component of FIG. 4;", "FIG. 6 is a front elevational view of the electronic control component of the table tennis game of the present invention;", "FIG. 7 is a schematic illustrating the impact signal circuitry of the present invention;", "and FIG. 8 is a schematic illustrating the microcomputer support circuitry of the present invention.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to the drawings, a table tennis game of the present invention is shown generally in FIG. 1 at 1.", "Game 1 is shown in one of an infinite number of arrangements on a table tennis table T, shown in phantom to illustrate environment.", "In this particular embodiment, game 1 is shown in use with a robot table tennis serving device 3 and the surrounding net 5 so as to provide a source of balls to be used in the game as will be explained hereinafter.", "Game 1, as shown in FIG. 1, includes a plurality of sensors pads 7, 7a, 7b, 7c, 7d, 7e.", "The sensor pads serve as targets at which the human player aims a shot when returning a table tennis ball served by the robot server 3.", "The game utilizes a control box, shown generally at 9.", "Control box 9 houses a microprocessor unit programmed to coordinate and integrate the elements of the game.", "Control box 9, which is removably mounted to table T, is connected to sensors 7, 7a, 7b, etc.", "by wires 8, 8a, 8b, etc.", "Control box 9 also serves as a score board and control center with appropriate displays and input keys (see FIG. 7) as will be explained in detail.", "In use, game 1 can be played with an automatic robot server 3 in the following manner: Sensors 7, 7a, 7b etc.", "are placed on the top of table T on the opposite side of table T from the player (on the same side as robot 3).", "A game begins with a player selecting the number and size of sensors 7, 7a, 7b, etc.", "that the player wishes to use.", "The player can arrange the sensors on table T in any desired arrangement.", "The player then mounts the control box 9 on table T and connects wires 8, 8a, 8b, etc.", "to the control box.", "Wires 8, 8a, 8b, etc.", "are long enough to allow placement of the sensors anywhere on table T. The player can select the type of shot the robot delivers and the frequency of the shots as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,854,588 the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference.", "The game begins when the player presses an input key pad on the control box to start counting down the game time.", "The object of the game is beat the robot by scoring, for example 21 points, before the robot scores 21 points.", "The player scores by returning a ball served by the robot and making his shot strike a sensor, for example, by striking sensor 7.", "Control box 9 can be programmed to assign any one of a range of points, for example, 1-3 points per sensor, thereby varying the point value of the sensors and altering the difficulty of the game as will be explained hereinafter.", "In the preferred embodiment, the robot scores points from the amount of time it takes to play the game.", "For example, if the amount of time selected for a game is 21 minutes (programmable into control box 9 as will be explained), the robot will score one point for every minute that elapses from the time the game starts until it ends.", "In this embodiment the robot wins if 21 minutes elapses before the human player scores 21 points;", "the player wins if he scores 21 points before 20 minutes have elapsed.", "Should either of these two conditions not occur, the game will continue until either the robot or the human player is two points ahead of the other.", "The game allows many options for the player to match the difficulty of the game to his or her skill level.", "For example, the length of the game can be changed;", "the more time in the game, the easier it is for the player to win.", "The second option that can be varied is the number of sensors used.", "The more sensors placed on table T, the easier it is for the player to score.", "Sensors 7, 7a, 7b, etc.", "may be varied in size.", "The larger the sensor, the easier it is for the player to strike the sensor and therefore the easier it is for the human player to win.", "Finally, control box 9, as stated, can be programmed to set the point level for the sensors.", "For example, point levels could be set at 1, 2, or 3 points per strike.", "Obviously, the higher the score per strike, the easier it is for the human player to win.", "Finally the difficulty of the serve or shot of the table tennis ball delivered by the robot be adjusted.", "The various perimeters that can be adjusted can include the spin placed on the ball, ball speed, frequency of the shot deliver, height of the ball trajectory, and whether the ball is served to one spot on table T or served to different spots.", "As stated above, the adjustment of the robot is as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,854,588 and is incorporated by reference.", "Turning now to a more detailed description of the elements of the game, FIG. 2 illustrates a sensor 7 used in conjunction with the present invention.", "In FIG. 2, sensor 7 is shown next to a table tennis ball B in phantom so as to demonstrate the low profile aspect and construction of sensor 7.", "It is to be understood that sensor 7 can be of any diameter.", "Generally, the game employs sensors of three different diameters as shown in FIG. 1. Sensor 7, shown in greater detail in FIG. 3, includes an impact pad 11, an impact disc 13 and an impact sensor element, shown at 17, interposed between pad 11 and disc 13.", "As previously stated, pad 11 and disc 13 are of variable diameter depending upon the contact area size desired for the sensor.", "Impact disc 13 is made of an appropriate material, for example, 0.76 mm thick polystyrene plastic.", "Impact disc 13 serves as the base of sensor 7.", "Piezo film sensor element 17 is bonded to disc 13, near the periphery.", "Piezo film sensor 17 includes a piezo film material that generates voltage when a compressive or expansive stress is applied.", "Element 17 has a wire connector 18 on the top side and has a suitable adhesive on the bottom side.", "Sensor element 17 is bonded to disc 13 so that any flexing of disc 13, for example, due to the contact of a table tennis ball on sensor 7, will apply stress to sensor element 17.", "Sensor element 17 generates voltage when stressed and is electrically connected to control box 9 (FIG.", "1, 6), by wires, for example, a wire pair 8.", "The electrical voltage generated by element 17 when sensor 7 is struck by a table tennis ball travels along wire pair 8 to control box 9 and is processed by the microcomputer contained therein as will be explained below.", "Wire pair 8 is secured in place by strain relief support 19, a small, slightly rigid, transparent plastic component that provides support to wire 8 for a short distance beyond the periphery of disc 13.", "Flexible film 21, with a suitable adhesive on the bottom surface, serves to bond wire 8 to strain relief 19 and bond strain relief 19 to disc 13.", "Therefore, film 21 must be oversized as to strain relief 19.", "The area covered by film 21 includes connector 18 on sensor element 17 providing strength and protection to the connection.", "FIGS. 4 and 5 give a more detailed view of strain relief 19.", "Strain relief 19 has wire access hole 20 formed in one end of elongate section 27.", "Wire pair 8 is introduced up through hole 20 and along elongate portion 27.", "Wire pair 8 is split and each segment laced through indention 23 and 23a resting against shoulders 24 and 24a respectively and then laced under rectangular segment 25.", "The ends of wire pair 8 are exposed and secured to connector 18 on sensor element 17 and bent back across rectangular segment 25 so as to be secured by film 21.", "If a force or strain is exerted on either wire of the pair 8, the two segments of wire pair 8 are braced against shoulders 24 and 24a of slots 23 and 23a respectively so as to prevent wire pair 8 and the connected element 17 from being pulled away from disc 13.", "Impact pad 11 is of an appropriate diameter so as to cover the sensor element 17 and strain relief element 19 and center over pad 13.", "Pad 11 can be formed from appropriate material, such as a high-density polyurethene foam with a very fine cell structure.", "Pad 11 is extremely flexible and may stretch more than 150% of its original length without failure.", "Turning now to a detailed description of control box 9, shown in detail at FIG. 6. Control box 9 has a housing 10 that can be constructed in any convenient or functional configuration and constructed of appropriate material such as high impact plastic or light gauge metal.", "Mounting bracket 14 affixed to the bottom of housing 10 serves to mount control box 9 on the edge of table T so as to be visible to and in convenient reach of the player, yet remaining outside of the field of play.", "Face plate 12 serves as a score board, having displays, for example, a display 16 to display the robot server's score, a display 18 to display the human player's score, a display 22 to display the elapsed time of the game.", "Box 19 has input keys to initiate functions of the game.", "Input key 24 for example, can be pushed to increase the length of time of the game;", "input key 26 can be pushed to decrease the playing game of the game;", "input key 28 serves to reset the time controls;", "and input key 30 functions as a start switch which is pushed to begin the game.", "Lights 31, 33 can be color coded, for example red and green respectively, to indicate game on or game over.", "It should be noted that the configuration of face plate 12 as well as the design and placement of the displays, and design and placement of the input keys as well as the various functions of the input keys can be varied without departing from the scope of the invention.", "A programmable microcomputer (shown in FIG. 8) is housed in control box 9 and functions to control the input from the sensors, for example, sensors 7, 7a, 7b, etc.", "(FIG.", "1), and to provide timing and score keeping functions.", "User interface is provided by the input keys, for example, input keys 24, 26, 28 and 30 as well as by displays 14-18 as described above.", "The input signal conditioning circuitry (FIG.", "7) consists of three channels, 32, 34, and 36 with two inputs per channel.", "This provides for six inputs per game.", "Each channel's output is split and applied through switches 38, 40 and 42 to summing/latch circuits 44, 46.", "One of the latches represents, for example, a score of 1 point and the other a score of 2 points.", "Scoring for each channel is determined by closing the switch to either the "1"", "scoring latch or the "2"", "scoring latch.", "If both latches are selected, channel scores 3 points.", "Each channel can be independently set for 1, 2 or 3 points or points as desired.", "FIG. 8 illustrates the remainder of the electronic control circuitry shown generally at 48.", "Circuitry 48 is composed of displays 50, 52 and 54, the input switches 56, 58, 60 and 62, the microcomputer 64, and support circuitry 66.", "The microcomputer drives displays 50, 52 and 54 and also reads input keys 56, 58, 60 and 62;", "the microcomputer monitors the latch conditions and determines game status.", "The microcomputer is driven by a program which may be varied or enhanced without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention.", "In view of the above, it will be seen that various objects and features of the present invention are achieved and other advantageous results are obtained.", "As various changes could be made in the above construction without departing from the scope of the invention, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description and shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense." ]

[ "RELATED APPLICATION DATA This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 11/349,743, filed Feb. 7, 2006 (U.S. Pat. No. 7,574,014), which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 09/945,244, filed Aug. 31, 2001 (U.S. Pat. No. 7,013,021).", "The 09/945,244 application is a continuation in part of U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 09/302,663 (U.S. Pat. No. 6,442,284), filed Apr. 30, 1999, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/125,349 filed Mar. 19, 1999.", "The present invention is also related to U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 09/771,340, filed Jan. 26, 2001 (U.S. Pat. No. 7,072,487), and Ser.", "No. 09/503,881, filed Feb. 14, 2000 (U.S. Pat. No. 6,614,914).", "FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to steganography and, more particularly, to the detection of steganographic signals in media such as images, video and audio signals.", "BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The technology for embedding digital watermarks in images is well known.", "Likewise, the technology for detecting and reading the data payload carried by digital watermarks is well known.", "Assignee's U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 09/503,881, filed Feb. 14, 2000, and U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,862,260 and 6,122,403 illustrate examples of various watermarking techniques.", "Artisans in the field know even more.", "Commercial systems are available for performing such operations.", "Many watermarking systems redundantly embed the same watermark data in multiple regions of an image.", "Often watermarking systems embed data in images in a perceptually adaptive manner.", "That is, the amount of watermark signal in each region of an image is adjusted in accordance with the characteristics of the image in the particular region.", "The watermark may even be absent in some regions of the image.", "The purpose of so adjusting the watermark signal is to insure that the watermark signal will not be visible to an ordinary viewer of the image.", "Since the strength of the watermark signal varies from region to region, the signal is more easily detected in some regions of an image than in other regions of the image.", "Systems for detecting watermarks generally sequentially examine the various regions of an image, seeking to detect the watermark.", "Generally, the amount of computational resources available is limited and if a watermark is not detected in a region as a result of applying a certain amount of computational effort, the detection operation moves on to the next region of the image and the process is repeated.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention enables detection of the presence of a watermark in an efficient manner.", "One embodiment involves a multi-step process.", "First, the image is examined to determine which regions of the image have characteristics such that there is a high probability that a watermark signal can be detected in that region of the image.", "Next the regions that have a high probability that a watermark can be detected (in contrast to all regions of the image) are examined to find watermark data.", "In order to determine the probability of finding watermark data in a particular region of an image, the amount of “variance”", "in the intensity of the pixels in the region is examined.", "For example a region that is entirely white or entirely black has zero variance.", "Such a region cannot carry watermark data;", "hence regions with zero or low variance can be eliminated from further processing.", "Furthermore, if high variance in a region is a result of the fact that the region has an abrupt border or edge between two highly contrasting regions, the high variance does not necessarily indicate a high probability that a watermark signal will be detected in the region.", "Therefore, after regions with high variance are located, these regions are next examined to look for regions with edges between areas of different luminance, which are spread over the entire region.", "The regions with the high variance and with edginess that is spread widely in the region are selected for further processing to detect watermark data.", "In another embodiment, however, regions with high variance are not always indicative of a high detection probability.", "For those regions selected for further processing, the detection process can be enhanced by filtering the data prior to applying a watermark detection program so as to increase the signal to noise ratio of the watermark signal.", "First a high pass filter (e.g. a Laplacian operator) is applied to each region.", "This filtering operation in effect establishes a new intensity value for each pixel in the region.", "Next a nonlinear operator (e.g. a signum function) is applied to the output from the first filter operation.", "The resulting data in each region is then processed in a normal manner to detect watermark data.", "In other embodiments, additional probability factors, or region selection criteria, are used to identify image regions having a high probability of containing watermark data therein.", "The foregoing and other features and advantages of the present invention will be more readily apparent from the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 shows an image with different regions.", "FIG. 2 shows the FIG. 1 image divided into regions for processing.", "FIG. 3 illustrates the pixels in different regions of an image.", "FIG. 4 shows a flow diagram for one embodiment of the present invention.", "FIG. 5 shows a flow diagram for additional steps that can be used.", "FIG. 6 shows a system diagram for practicing an embodiment of the present invention.", "FIG. 7 is a graph showing a relative probability of a successful watermark detection for a given area having a particular variance.", "FIG. 8 shows an edginess detection method in relation to an image portion.", "FIGS. 9 a - 9 c show another edginess detection method in relation to an image portion.", "FIGS. 10 a - 10 c show an image portion that is divided by regions for processing.", "FIG. 11 shows city-block and diagonal distances between centers of detection blocks.", "FIG. 12 shows a keep away zone near a border of an image.", "FIG. 13 shows a neighborhood of detection blocks.", "FIG. 14 illustrates a system diagram for practicing an embodiment of the present invention.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION Digital watermarks are generally inserted into images in a redundant manner.", "That is, images are divided into regions and the same digital watermark data is inserted into each region of the image.", "The ability of a particular region of an image to effectively carry digital watermark data depends upon the characteristics of the image in the particular region.", "Different areas in an image may have more or less ability to carry watermark data.", "For example an area in an image that is entirely white or entirely black will not have the ability to carry watermark data without changing the appearance of the area.", "Modern watermarking programs use visually perceptual adaptive techniques when inserting watermark data into an image.", "The amount of watermark energy inserted into a region is adjusted depending on the characteristics of the region so as to avoid changing the visual appearance of the image.", "For example, no watermark energy would be applied to an area of an image that is entirely white or entirely black.", "Watermark detection programs generally divide an image into regions and then sequentially try to read watermark data from each of the regions in the image.", "Generally several attempts are made to detect watermark data in each region of an image.", "This is a computationally costly endeavor.", "The present invention shortens the processing time and reduces the computational power required to find a watermark in an image by first identifying those regions of the image that have a high probability that a watermark can be detected in the region.", "Then, regions with high probability rather than all regions are examined to locate watermark data.", "It is noted that there are a number of different probability factors that can be considered in connection with watermark detection.", "For example, one can consider the probability that data found by a watermark detection program is in fact identical to the data that was inserted by the program that inserted the watermark.", "The probability discussed herein is different.", "The probability factors discussed herein relative to the present invention relates to the probability that a region of an image with certain characteristics can in fact be carrying watermark data.", "FIG. 1 illustrates an image 2 , which has a number of different identified regions.", "Regions with various types of specific characteristics have been shown in order to illustrate the invention.", "Naturally in most images the regions would not be as pronounced as those shown in FIG. 1 and there would be a variety of types of regions over the entire image 2 .", "The present invention is applicable to any type of image.", "The special image shown in FIG. 1 is selected only as an example to illustrate the principles of the invention in an easily illustrated manner.", "In the image 2 shown in FIG. 1 , region 10 is entirely white, region 11 is entirely black and in region 12 , the pixels of the image have a variety of luminance values.", "If a perceptually adaptive watermarking program were used to insert watermark data in an image such as image 2 , no watermark data would be inserted in regions 10 , 11 .", "Thus, a program, which tried to detect watermark data in regions 10 , and 11 , would spend time examining these regions, but it would find no watermark data.", "FIG. 2 shows the image 2 divided into regions.", "These regions can also be referred to as detection blocks.", "In order to detect digital watermark data, a typical watermark detection program would process the regions of an image (such as those regions shown in FIG. 2 ) in some sequential order.", "Each region would be examined to determine if watermark data could be detected.", "Such examination requires a significant amount of time and/or computational resources.", "In some applications time and/or computational resources are limited.", "The present invention provides a way to pre-process or filter an image to determine the regions that are most likely to contain watermark data.", "The initial processing of each region, that is, the initial filtering, is done very quickly and the regions, which have the most probability of yielding watermark data, are selected for further processing to actually detect the watermark data.", "That is, the time consuming watermark detection algorithms are only applied to the regions, which have a higher probability of providing watermark data.", "For images that are scanned at a relatively high resolution (e.g., 600 ppi) the present invention optionally can use only part of the image data in order to speedup processing.", "For example, high-resolution data can be down-sampled (e.g., either directly or after applying antialiasing filters) to a lower resolution for analysis.", "FIG. 3 illustrates pixels in an image.", "It should be noted that for convenience of illustration, only a limited number of pixels are shown in FIG. 3 .", "The 4×4 blocks are shown for convenience of illustration.", "Of course the blocks can range in size from 4 to 500 pixels by 4 to 500 pixels, or more.", "Furthermore for convenience of illustration no attempt has been made to make the locations or size of the regions in FIG. 3 correspond to the regions in FIG. 1 .", "In typical applications images are scanned at resolutions higher than 75 pixels per inch (resolutions of 300, 600 and 1200 pixels per inch are common) and the regions examined by watermarking programs would generally cover many more pixels than the regions shown in FIG. 3 .", "However, the limited number of pixels shown in FIG. 3 is sufficient to explain the principles of the present invention.", "In area A of FIG. 3 all of the pixels have a luminance value of zero.", "This area corresponds to an area such as area row c column 3 in FIG. 2 where the entire region is white.", "In area B all the pixels have a luminance value of 9.", "Area B corresponds to an area such as the area in row c column 7 in FIG. 2 where all of the pixels are black.", "In area C the luminance value per pixel varies between 0 and 9.", "Area C corresponds to an area such as the area in row g column 7 in FIG. 2 where the pixels have a range of luminance.", "Since the pixels in area A all have a luminance of 0, there is no possibility that this region contains watermark data.", "Likewise, since all the pixels in region B have a luminance value of 9, there is no possibility that region B contains watermark data.", "The pixels in region C have a variety of luminance values;", "hence, there is a possibility that this region does contain watermark data.", "The present invention is directed to detecting the area of an image where there is sufficient variance in the luminance of the pixels in the region that the region could contain watermark data.", "In one embodiment, an “edginess”", "factor (discussed below) can be used to select between regions that have the same or similar variance.", "In such a case, a region having a higher edginess factor is selected over a region with a lower edginess factor, when their variance is equal.", "In one embodiment of the present invention the detection operation proceeds in accordance with the steps shown in FIG. 4 .", "First as indicated by block 21 the image being examined is scanned to detect the luminance of the pixels in the image.", "Next the pixels are broken into regions.", "For example each region can be square and have in the order of 10000 to 40000 pixels (that is, in the order of 100 to 200 pixels square).", "The exact number of pixels in each region depends on the characteristics of the particular detection program used.", "There is, however, a general advantage of using smaller regions (e.g., 8×8 through 64×64) to calculate variance.", "Namely, a smaller region is less likely to be affected by image rotation.", "There is a tradeoff for selecting a smaller region, however, since the variance estimate is less statistically reliable due to the smaller number of pixel samples.", "As indicated by block 22 , the variance in the luminance of the pixels in each block is calculated.", "The following formula is preferably used: Variance=sum((intensity) 2 /(number of pixels))−(mean intensity) 2 If the variance is less than a specified threshold the region is eliminated from further consideration.", "The threshold value selected will depend upon the size of the regions into which the detection program divides the image and upon the characteristics of the watermark as measured over a representative set of images.", "However, for a typical image with a program that divides the image into regions, which are in the range of about 100,000 to 300,000 pixels, the value can be in a range of 100 to 500.", "Of course the pixel range can be smaller if a lower resolution (e.g., 100 dpi) image (or image area) is evaluated.", "An optimal minimum variance threshold is found to vary with resolution.", "That is, the higher the resolution, the higher the minimum variance should be.", "This is particularly the case when high-resolution data is efficiently down-sampled, e.g., without using antialiasing filters.", "Table 1 shows a relationship between optimal minimum variance thresholds and resolution.", "Of course, these minimum values may vary depending on image characteristics, scanner error, precision vs.", "efficiency requirements, etc.", "For instance, these minimum values may decrease depending on the above considerations.", "TABLE 1 Minimum variance at different resolutions for optimal results Resolution (dpi) 75 100 150 300 600 Minimum variance 50 66 100 200 300 Variance of pixels in a region tends to increase with resolution.", "This is particularly true at higher resolutions where nearest neighbor down sampled data (which may be highly aliased) is used to calculate variance.", "Increasing the variance threshold with resolution prevents selection of blocks with spurious variance caused by borders, paper texture, noise etc.", "Another variance determination method relies on a distribution formed by gathering a statistically significant amount of variance data across a broad range of images.", "Separate distributions d 1 and d 2 in FIG. 7 are computed for regions that have a high likelihood of successfully detecting a watermark and for regions that have a low likelihood of successfully detecting a watermark, respectively.", "A probability value associated with a variance for a detection block, e.g., a probability value indicating a likelihood of finding a watermark signal in a particular region having a given variance value, can then be determined for any given variance value.", "Thresholds can either be determined empirically, e.g., through Bayes'", "Rule or other hypothesis tests.", "This probability value is compared against a threshold or a set of thresholds to decide whether to keep the particular variance block.", "A look up table or software algorithm is preferably used to implement the distribution shown in FIG. 7 .", "Note that the distributions shown in FIG. 7 are for illustrative purposes only.", "Indeed, the actual distribution could be different, e.g., multi-modal, non-Gaussian or a mixture of Gaussians.", "Also, the principles discussed with respect to FIG. 7 can be extended to other metrics as well (e.g., variance and edges) to form multivariate distributions.", "To create the distributions shown in FIG. 7 , where a probability of finding a watermark signal is graphed in relation to variance, a statistically significant number of variance values are determined from a respective number of sampled variance detection blocks.", "Each of the sampled variance detection blocks is read to determine whether it contains a watermark signal.", "This detection data is used to generate the probability distribution curves for given variances.", "While there is a low probability that areas with a very low variation in luminance contain watermark data, there is also a low probability that certain areas, which have a very high variance in luminance, contain watermark data.", "For example, the area in row c column 6 contains the border between black area 11 and the remainder of the image.", "In areas such as the area at row c column 6 , the variance in luminance would be high due to the edge effect;", "however, the high variance in luminance in an area such as row c column 6 would not indicate a high probability of finding watermark data.", "In a region such as row c column 6 the “edginess spread”", "is low.", "If a region has a low “edginess spread”, the probability of finding watermark data is relatively low.", "Thus, after the regions with high luminance variation values are found, those regions are tested to determine “edginess spread.”", "That is, to locate regions where the variance is concentrated along a division between regions each of which have a low variance.", "Regions where variance in luminance is concentrated along a division between regions, each of which has a low variance in luminance, are said to have a low edginess spread.", "In one embodiment, edginess is found by filtering the data with an edge operator such as a Laplacian operator or filter, which examines the pixels surrounding each pixel to calculate a New Pixel Intensity value (designated NPI value) and edginess spread value (ES) according to the following equations: NPI=Abs Value(4×Intensity−(sum of intensities of pixels above,below,right and left)), where “Abs Value”", "means “take Absolute value of.”", "Calculate an NNPI value for each pixel as follows: NNPI = 1 ⁢ ⁢ if ⁢ ⁢ NPI ⁢ ⁢ exceeds ⁢ ⁢ a ⁢ ⁢ T ⁢ ⁢ 1 ;", "and = 0 ⁢ ⁢ if ⁢ ⁢ NPI ⁢ ⁢ is ⁢ ⁢ less ⁢ ⁢ than ⁢ ⁢ or ⁢ ⁢ equal ⁢ ⁢ to ⁢ ⁢ T ⁢ ⁢ 1.", "ES= (Sum of NNPI for all pixels)/total number of pixels, where T 1 is a “threshold”", "with a value selected to be near the average value of NPI.", "The above calculation gives a second value (ES or edginess spread) for each region.", "The luminance variance value and the edginess-spread value are then combined to give a “probability index”", "which indicates the probability of finding a watermark in a particular region.", "Alternatively, a difference operator (e.g., a Sobel operator, etc.) could be used to account for both variance and edginess.", "In another embodiment, edginess is determined by evaluating some of a pixel's (or area's) neighbors in comparison to that pixel.", "For example, a difference in graylevels (or color data) between neighboring pixels is compared to determine an edge or edginess value.", "With reference to FIG. 8 , area x is compared to its horizontal (h) neighbor and vertical neighbor (v) to determine an edginess count.", "For a comparison with horizontal neighbor h, an edginess count is preferably incremented when: x−h>T E , where T E is an edginess threshold, and x and h are a measure of their respective pixel (or area) graylevel.", "Similarly, for a comparison with vertical neighbor v, the edginess count is incremented when: x−v>T E , where v is also a measure of its respective pixel graylevel.", "This process can be repeated for some or all of the areas within the edginess determination block 20 .", "When area x is positioned at a boundary (e.g., pixel a) of block 20 , the neighboring h pixel is preferably zero (0).", "Alternatively, a pixel value outside of block 20 that is located in the horizontal position h is used.", "The total edginess count for block 20 can be compared against a predetermined number to determine whether to further use block 20 in the watermark detection process.", "Or the edginess count can be used to rank various edginess determination blocks.", "Of course this process can be modified without deviating from the scope of our invention.", "For example, instead of sampling a left horizontal neighbor, a right horizontal neighbor can be sampled.", "And instead of looking down to the vertical neighbor, a neighbor above can be sampled.", "In another case, a pixel x is compared to several horizontal neighbors and to several vertical neighbors, or even diagonal neighbors.", "Also, the illustrated edginess detection block 20 need not be limited to a 3×3 area as shown.", "Indeed, the block area can be increased (e.g., to an 8×8 through 64×64 area).", "This process can be repeated for some or all blocks through out an image.", "There are many factors to consider when determining an edginess threshold value.", "Since the edginess factor helps determine where the variance is coming from, a low edge count may indicate that the variance is confined to a small image region.", "In contrast, a large edge count may indicate that variance is distributed throughout an image region.", "A lenient threshold, e.g., 0-2 (or a difference of 0-2 graylevels between adjacent pixels to constitute an edge), will allow influence from random noise or from small image variations.", "A larger edginess threshold (e.g., 2-8) may include influence from a watermark signal.", "Increasing the edginess threshold may also reduce sensitivity to spurious edges caused by borders, paper texture, scanner backgrounds and noise.", "There is a tradeoff, however, since a larger threshold may miss a watermark signal embedded at a low strength.", "These same factors can be considered to determine an appropriate edginess count threshold.", "In another embodiment, the edge threshold is resolution dependent, meaning the edge threshold changes are based on sample resolution.", "In still another embodiment, an edginess threshold is determined based on image characteristics.", "In this case, the edginess threshold adapts to the image (or scanner) characteristics.", "In yet another embodiment, the variance and/or edge threshold is adaptively determined by the size of the image or the available processing power/memory.", "Another edginess method that is particularly useful to detect diagonal edges is now discussed.", "A horizontal map and a vertical map are determined based on pixel values in a edginess detection block.", "These maps are generated by determining those areas (or pixels) that have sufficient differences in graylevels when compared to neighboring pixels.", "The horizontal map is constructed using the horizontal techniques discussed above with respect to FIG. 8 .", "High graylevel difference areas are designated as 1 (see FIG. 9 a ).", "A vertical map is constructed using the same vertical techniques as discussed above with respect to FIG. 8 .", "High graylevel difference areas are designated as 1 (see FIG. 9 b ).", "The horizontal and vertical maps are then combined (e.g., with a Boolean “OR”", "operation or other combination technique) on a per pixel basis.", "The resulting map is used as the edge map ( FIG. 9 c ).", "The edginess count of the new map ( FIG. 9 c ) is counted to determine a total edginess count for the edginess detection area.", "The edginess counts obtained by this method are more robust with respect to distortions caused by operation such as image rotation.", "The luminance variance value and the edginess-spread value can be combined in a number of ways to obtain a numeric probability index that a region can contain watermark data.", "For example the values can be combined as follows: Probability index=((variance value)/100)+10(edginess value) Table 2 is an example of a probability index, which results from a number of different values of luminance variation, and a number of values of edginess spread.", "TABLE 2 Probability Index Variance Edginess Probability value value Index 300 7 10 500 2 7 700 9 16 In the above example, the region with the probability index of 16 would be examined first, followed by the region with an index of 10.", "Regions with an index value of less than 10 would only be examined if the other regions that are examined do not result in the detection of watermark data of sufficient reliability.", "It is noted that the equation for combining the values of luminance variation and edginess to obtain the probability index for a region was determined empirically.", "The equation given above does not take into account the magnitude of the change in luminance across an edge.", "The following equation for calculating edginess spread takes into account the magnitude of the change in luminance across an edge.", "ES =(Sum of NPI for all pixels that exceed T 1/total number of pixels).", "By testing the success obtained with different groups of images of interest which have different characteristics one can determine which equation gives the best results for images with a particular set of characteristics.", "In other embodiments, we do not combine the edginess and variance factors in the manner discussed above.", "Instead, detection blocks are selected if they meet both the threshold edginess and/or variance factors.", "Or variance and edginess may be used together or separately and/or in combination with the other probability factors discussed herein.", "It is noted that U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 09/074,034 filed May 6, 1998 (U.S. Pat. No. 6,449,377) describes a technique for inserting watermarks into a lined image by varying the width of the lines to indicate watermark data.", "The present invention would still produce satisfactory results with watermarks of the type described in the above referenced application.", "The reason is that the line widths in a typical image, which uses the technique described in the above application, have a width significantly smaller than the size of a pixel in an image from a typical 300 or 600 DPI scanner.", "The edginess measurement detected by the present invention relates to edges between regions, each of which are wider than a single pixel.", "The present invention can optionally utilize additional filtering to enhance the possibility of finding watermark data in the regions selected for further processing by the above-described technique.", "A flow diagram showing how the additional filtering is performed is shown in FIG. 5 .", "The additional steps shown in FIG. 5 facilitate the detection of watermark data in those regions selected for further processing by the steps shown in FIG. 4 .", "In the process shown in FIG. 5 , regions that have a high probability of carrying watermark data are selected for further processing as described above.", "However with the steps shown in FIG. 5 , the regions selected for further processing are filtered prior to the detection step in order to enhance the detection process.", "The filtering enhances the probability that watermark data (if present) will be detected when a region is later processed in a normal or conventional manner to find a watermark.", "The filtering is done in two steps.", "First as indicated by block 52 , a high pass filter (e.g. a Laplacian operator) is applied to the data.", "Next as indicated by block 55 a non-linear operator (e.g. signum function) is applied to the filtered data.", "Finally the data is processed in a conventional manner to detect the watermark data.", "The first step passes the data from a region through a filter with high pass or edge detection characteristics.", "For example a Laplacian (or Sobel or Roberts, etc) operator can be applied to each block that was selected for further processing.", "In the specific embodiment shown here, the high pass filter computes a new intensity value at each pixel in the block as follows: Filtered intensity=(Old intensity)−(average intensity of the 8 neighbors of the pixel) The second step applies a nonlinear operator (e.g., a signum operator etc) to the filtered output of the high pass or edge detection filter.", "The filtered intensity (FI) of each pixel calculated as given above is modified as follows: New ⁢ ⁢ Intensity = a ⁢ ⁢ if ⁢ ⁢ ( FI >", "T ⁢ ⁢ 1 ) ;", "= b ⁢ ⁢ if ⁢ ⁢ ( T ⁢ ⁢ 2 <= FI <= T ⁢ ⁢ 1 ) ;", "and = c ⁢ ⁢ if ⁢ ⁢ ( FI <", "T ⁢ ⁢ 2 ) , where: a, b, and c are values, and T1 and T2 are thresholds selected to implement a specific nonlinear operator.", "In the specific embodiment shown herein a signum function is used to calculate a new intensity for each pixel according to the following equation: New ⁢ ⁢ Intensity = 1 ⁢ ⁢ if ⁢ ⁢ ( Filtered ⁢ ⁢ intensity >", "0 ) = 0 ⁢ ⁢ if ⁢ ⁢ ( Filtered ⁢ ⁢ intensity = 0 ) = - 1 ⁢ ⁢ if ⁢ ⁢ ( Filtered ⁢ ⁢ intensity <", "0 ) The high pass filter attenuates the low frequencies and amplifies the contribution from the higher frequencies in each block.", "The contribution to the low frequencies is mostly from the host image content.", "Higher frequencies from the watermark signal are amplified.", "The nonlinear operation in effect whitens the noise caused by the host image content in the frequency domain, increasing the signal-to-noise ratio of the watermark signal.", "It is noted as described above, a two-dimensional high pass filter is first applied to the data and then the non-linear operator is applied to the result.", "With many types of images better detection can be achieved by applying a one dimensional high pass filter in the horizontal direction, applying the non linear operator to that result, applying a one dimensional high pass filter in the vertical direction, applying the non linear operator to that result, and then summing the two partial results.", "With other types of images better results can be achieved by applying the one-dimensional high pass filters in various other directions.", "Since some watermarking programs redundantly embed watermark data in multiple blocks in an image, in order to further enhance the ability to detect the watermark data from such programs the following technique can be used.", "Following the non-linear filtering operation, the power spectrum of several blocks can be added together.", "Due to the redundant embedding, the watermark frequencies repeat through several blocks, the power at those frequencies adds up if the power spectrum of several blocks is added together.", "The image frequencies from block to block are generally non-repetitive and hence they get averaged out when the power spectrum of several blocks are added together.", "The power spectrum that results from adding together the power spectrum from several blocks contains a higher signal-to-noise ratio watermark signal.", "The power spectrum can then be more easily correlated with the power spectrum of the watermark.", "A system for practicing one embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. 6 .", "The system includes a conventional computer 60 with an associated display 61 , an associated document scanner 62 and an associated printer 63 .", "The computer 60 , display 61 , scanner 62 and printer 63 are conventional components of personal computer systems such as those marketed by vendors such Compact Computer Company, Dell Computer Company, Gateway Computer Corp.", "etc.", "One embodiment of the present invention is practiced under control of programs A, B and C, which are stored in computer 60 .", "Program A is a conventional watermark detection program.", "Program A processes regions of an image to locate watermark data after program B selects the regions of the image which should be processed and program C filters the data from such regions.", "Programs which process the pixels in an image to locate watermark data are included in such commercially available programs as the program entitled “Photoshop”", "which is marketed by Adobe Corporation or the program “Corell DRAW”", "which is marketed by Corel Corporation, or the program “Micrografx Picture Publisher”", "which is marketed by Micrografx Corporation.", "Such programs divide an image into regions and process each region in order to detect the presence of watermark data.", "With the present invention the same mechanism is used to process the data from each region of an image;", "however, all the regions of an image are not processed in order.", "Program B selects regions of an image, which have a high probability of containing watermark data by first selecting regions that have a high variation in luminance, and a high amount of edginess spread as previously described.", "Program C filters the regions selected for further processing using the two steps process previously described.", "In the embodiment of the invention described above, program 51 (shown in FIG. 5 ) which selects blocks for further processing merely indicates to the subsequent filtering program which blocks should be processed further.", "The block selection program could be used to acquire other information about the various blocks in the image.", "Such additional information could be passed to the filtering programs shown in block 53 and 55 and to the watermark detection program indicated by block 57 to quickly tune these programs to the characteristics of the image in particular regions.", "The present invention includes a wide range of additional probability factors.", "A probability factor can be viewed as a selection criteria or rule that is used to identify those regions in an image which have a high likelihood of including a watermark signal.", "These image regions generally include image characteristics that are conducive to (or indicative of) hiding or carrying a watermark signal.", "Or these image regions may be located in a particular advantageous area, or may include significant signal strength.", "Probability factors are used to select a plurality of detection blocks, which are image regions identified as having a relatively high probability of including a watermark signal.", "Variance and edginess are just a few of our inventive probability factors.", "There are many more.", "Consider an embodiment in which detection blocks (or areas) float, instead of being sequentially arranged as in FIG. 2 .", "Allowing detection blocks to float to various image regions and, optionally, to overlap with other detection blocks, allows for improved detection of off-centered watermarks.", "Moreover centering a detection block on an image region, which includes characteristics that may indicate a region of high detection probability, can help to reduce watermark signal estimation error—such as rotation and scale error—particularly if a captured region is approximately centered in a floating detection block.", "A floating detection block is illustrated with reference to an image (or image portion) 30 shown in FIGS. 10 a and 10 b .", "In FIG. 10 a image 30 is sequentially segmented into detection regions (e.g., a, b, c and d).", "For this example region 31 is assumed to include characteristics indicating a high probability of containing a watermark signal.", "Region 31 is off centered with respect to the sequential detection blocks a, b, c and d shown in FIG. 10 a .", "Accordingly, a watermark detector may not successfully detect the presence of a watermark signal.", "Detection chances are improved if a detection block 32 ( FIG. 10 b ) is allowed to float in order to enclose a larger portion of region 31 .", "Centering floating detection block 32 on region 31 allows for a higher probability of detection and lowers watermark signal rotation estimation error.", "Although FIG. 10 b encloses the entire region 31 , it may not always be possible to do so, depending on a floating detection block size.", "FIG. 10 c shows a plurality of floating detection blocks, illustrated by dashed lines, which are arranged over an image or image portion 34 .", "Preferably, a floating detection block is positioned in a region that has high probability characteristics, e.g., such as having adequate variance and edginess or based on other probability factors discussed herein.", "A floating block can be centered on or otherwise positioned around such a high probability region.", "In one embodiment, a detection block covers a larger region of the image than does the respective blocks used to determine variance and edginess.", "A variance block size may also be larger than an edginess block size, or vice versa.", "In order to increase the effectiveness of a plurality of floating detection blocks, additional probability factors can be used to arrange or position the blocks over an image.", "Since these probability factors often involve a compromise between processing efficiency and memory considerations, a fixed number of detection blocks can be selected in some embodiments.", "The fixed number of detection blocks can be divided into subsets.", "For example, a first subset of detections blocks can be processed according to probability factors that maximize the detection of a digital watermark synchronization or orientation signal.", "Or the first subset can be selected to identify the rotation and/or scale of a watermark signal.", "Or the first subset can be selected based solely on processing speed requirements.", "A second subset of detection blocks can be processed using different criteria, e.g., to maximize detection of a message payload or signal translation, or to balance memory constraints.", "Several competing factors are preferably balanced to achieve an optimal number of members for each detection subset.", "First is a consideration that a watermark signal may be embedded in the image with a low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR).", "A low SNR is sometimes used with digital watermarks to minimize visibility of an embedded watermark signal.", "Second is a consideration of detection time constraints that are often placed to establish a maximum time to determine whether an image includes a watermark signal.", "This constraint suggests that a fewer number of blocks should be examined.", "In contrast, there is often a need to accurately detect the watermark signal, which suggests that more blocks should be examined.", "If time and memory limitations were not a concern, this later approach would almost certainly be preferable.", "Yet a watermark system designer is faced with real world constraints.", "Accordingly, a watermark detection system preferably balances such considerations when determining an optimal number of detection blocks, and whether to allocate such detection blocks into a first and second subsets.", "For an 8½×11 inch, 100 dpi image that is segmented into 128×128 blocks, the number of detection blocks preferably falls within a range of 12-48 blocks.", "More preferably, the number of detection blocks falls within a range of 26-36 blocks.", "These blocks can be allocated into a first and second subset as mentioned above to balance various system requirements.", "Of course, these ranges many vary depending on block size, resolution, image size, and image characteristics.", "In one embodiment, a first subset of detection blocks is used to determine whether a watermark signal is even embedded within the image, e.g., through the detection of a watermark component such as an orientation or synchronization signal.", "The presence of a watermark component announces the presence of a watermark within the image with a high certainty.", "If no watermark component signal is found during the examination of the first subset, the image is preferably deemed unmarked and is likely rejected.", "As a result it is important that the first subset of detection blocks collectively contain enough watermark signal to be able to detect a watermark component signal, if present.", "In many watermark designs, the coverage or placement of a watermark within an image is small.", "Visibility requirements may force the digital watermark to be embedded in regions with diverse characteristics.", "Accordingly, we have found that it is advantageous to increase the block coverage (e.g., decrease detection block overlap for floating blocks) for the first subset of blocks in order to increase the chance of locating a watermark component.", "In particular, we established a proximity metric (one of our probability factors) to help ensure broad coverage for the first subset of detection blocks.", "A minimum “city-block”", "distance between centers of selected detection blocks is set, and is preferably in a range of 2-8 city-block centers.", "(The centers of detection blocks x and y, along with additional blocks, are represented by hexagon-shaped dots in FIG. 11 .", "The city block distance between blocks x and y is 4).", "Additional criteria can be set to further ensure broad detection block coverage in the first subset.", "For example, a minimum diagonal distance between block centers can be established.", "Preferably, the minimum diagonal distance is in a range of 2-6 blocks.", "(The diagonal distance between blocks x and z is 3 as shown in FIG. 11 ).", "A second set of proximity metrics can be used to regulate overlap for the second subset of detection blocks.", "In some embodiments it is advantageous to increase block overlap in the second subset to help focus watermark detection efforts on high probability image areas.", "Accordingly, the city block distance and diagonal requirements can be decreased.", "For the second subset, the minimum city-block distance between centers of selected blocks is preferably in a range of 1-4 block centers, and the minimum diagonal distance is in a range of 1-3 block centers.", "Of course, for both the first and second subsets, the city block distances and diagonal requirements can vary depending on resolution, image characteristics, scanner error and characteristics, performance vs.", "efficiency compromises, memory requirements, etc.", "Also, instead of being measured from the center of a block, such distances can be measured from an edge, corner, off-center location, etc.", "In some embodiments, a detection block is segmented into subblocks, and the proximity metrics discussed above can be imposed on the segmented subblocks.", "In one embodiment, detection blocks in the first subset are weighted according to their probability of including those characteristics likely to support (or hide) a watermark signal.", "Higher probability blocks are more heavily weighted.", "Blocks with a lower weighting are dropped (or conferred to secondarily) when determining the presence of a watermark signal.", "For example, consider a first subset that contains 10 detection blocks.", "Blocks 1 - 7 may collectively represent 90% of the weighting, leaving a collective 10% weight for blocks 8 - 10 .", "Blocks 1 - 7 are used as the primary detection blocks in the first subset, while blocks 8 - 10 are discarded or held in reserve.", "Blocks 1 - 7 are then analyzed to detect a watermark signal.", "This same type of weighting can be applied to the second subset for detection of a watermark signal.", "In one embodiment, the weighting is determined by estimating the signal-to-noise ratio in each block.", "This estimate is used to rank (or weight) the blocks.", "Requiring a minimum variance separation between selected detection blocks can be used to improve detection block selection.", "This probability factor forces some or all of the selected detection blocks to differ in variance from other selected detection blocks.", "Requiring a minimum variance separation can be a significant factor since when a large number of selected blocks have the same or similar variance, it often indicates that the selected blocks are either from the image's background or are focused in small regions of the image.", "A minimum variance separation has the effect of spreading out the blocks—lessening the effect of background or small region influence.", "Of course, a threshold can be selected to maximize the effect of such a minimum separation requirement.", "And, as discussed above, the variance separation threshold may be selected to vary according to image characteristics or resolution—creating an adaptive threshold value.", "Another probability factor establishes a “keep away”", "zone 36 near the borders of an image.", "(See FIG. 12 , in which the hashed area indicates the keep away zone 36 ).", "Detection blocks preferably are not selected if centered within this keep away zone 36 .", "The result is to slightly pull the block centers away from the scan borders.", "The motivation for this improvement is to reduce the sensitivity of edges caused by borders, scanner error, image misalignment and/or noise.", "Experimentally, we have found that a significant benefit is seldom received from blocks that are centered at an image border.", "Preferably, the keep away zone is in a range of 1-4 city block centers from the image border.", "Of course this distance can be expanded according to specific implementations and to image, scanner and/or border characteristics.", "Yet another probability factor is our “good neighbor”", "rule, which is particularly beneficial for images at higher resolutions.", "The good neighbor rule ensures that neighboring regions also have good variance/edge characteristics so that detection block selection can be focused on regions that have a higher likelihood of containing a watermark signal.", "The good neighbor rule helps to prevent selection of isolated regions that have good variance/edge characteristics.", "The reasoning is that a watermark is not usually found in isolated regions.", "And even if a watermark is found, such an isolated region may not necessarily contribute towards successful watermark detection.", "The good neighbor rule provides that detection blocks neighboring a selected detection block meet established minimum variance and/or edge count requirements.", "Consider FIG. 13 , which illustrates a detection block neighborhood including blocks 1 - 9 .", "If block 5 is preliminary selected as a detection block, then a threshold number of neighboring blocks (blocks 1 - 4 and 6 - 9 ) should meet the variance and/or edge count requirements.", "These threshold values can be determined based on precision vs.", "efficiency requirements of a detection application.", "Moreover, isolated regions can be better filtered out when the threshold value is increased (e.g., all or a majority of neighbors meet the thresholds).", "Preferably, between 4-8 neighbors must meet each of these edge and variance requirements before a central neighbor block is selected.", "Of course, this range can be varied according to precision required.", "In some embodiments, an image is segmented into subblocks, which are smaller than the detection blocks.", "The good neighbor rule can be applied to these smaller blocks to help better filter out isolated regions of high variance and edginess.", "Another probability factor helps to ensure that if a sufficient number of detection blocks have not been found, the variance thresholds (and optionally the proximity metrics discussed above) are reset to lower values and the search for acceptable blocks is repeated.", "Resetting the thresholds is particularly advantageous when an image is small (in which case, the city-block distance requirements discussed above may prevent further blocks from being selected) or when the image contrast has been reduced.", "Still another probability factor relies on color saturation in a detection block.", "The color saturation level for a block is determined and then compared with a predetermined threshold level.", "If the saturation level is above the threshold, the block is selected or ranked.", "The higher the color saturation level, the higher ranking the block receives.", "In one embodiment, the saturation value is weighted (or combined) with other probability factors, e.g., edginess and variance.", "The collective metric is used to select a detection block.", "With reference to FIG. 14 , a selection module 42 implementing some or all of the above described probability factors is described in relation to an embodiment of a watermarking detection system.", "An image 40 is presented for watermark detection.", "Image 40 is preferably color converted and down-sampled in module 41 .", "The color-converted image is then presented to selection module 42 .", "Selection module 42 selects a plurality of detection blocks, which have a relatively high probability of including a watermark signal embedded therein, according to some or all of the probability factors discussed herein.", "The selection module 42 generates a list of selected detection blocks 43 .", "The selected detection blocks 43 are processed, e.g., color converted, anti-aliased, and down-sampled, in processing module 44 .", "Detection module 45 searches a first subset of the selected (and processed) detection blocks for a watermark component (e.g., an orientation signal) and/or to determine rotation, scale, differential scale, and/or shear from a detected watermark component.", "These detection results can be passed to the translation module 46 .", "Translation and message detection are carried out in modules 46 and 47 , respectively, from a second subset (and optionally the first subset) of the selected (and processed) detection blocks, preferably only when detection module 45 detects a watermark component in the first subset.", "The first subset of blocks can be optionally passed to translation and message detection modules 46 and 47 .", "CONCLUSION The foregoing are just exemplary implementations of the present invention.", "It will be recognized that there are a great number of variations on these basic themes.", "The foregoing illustrates but a few applications of the detailed technology.", "There are many others.", "It is noted that while the previously described embodiments discuss application of the present invention to images, the present invention is not so limited.", "Instead, the present invention can likewise be applied to other types of media such as video and audio.", "While many probability factors have been disclosed above, it should be appreciated that not all of these factors need to be employed in a single embodiment.", "Instead, a selection process may only include one, several or all of the above noted factors.", "It should be appreciated that the various image blocks shown in the drawings are for illustrative purposes only.", "The block and image sizes can be varied without deviating from the scope of the present invention.", "As an alternative embodiment, all of the first and second detection block subsets mentioned use the same probability factors, rather than using different factors.", "To provide a comprehensive disclosure without unduly lengthening this specification, the above-mentioned patents and patent applications are hereby incorporated by reference.", "The particular combinations of elements and features in the above-detailed embodiments are exemplary only;", "the interchanging and substitution of these teachings with other teachings in this application and the incorporated-by-reference patents/applications are expressly contemplated.", "The above-described methods, systems and functionality can be facilitated with computer executable software stored on computer readable media, such as electronic memory circuits, RAM, ROM, magnetic media, optical media, memory sticks, hard disks, removable media, etc.", ", etc.", "Such software may be stored and executed on a general-purpose computer, or on a server for distributed use.", "Data structures representing the various luminance values, variance metrics, edginess factors, probability factors or methods, image signals, watermark signals, etc.", ", may also be stored on such computer readable media.", "Also, instead of software, a hardware implementation, or a software-hardware implementation can be used.", "In view of the wide variety of embodiments to which the principles and features discussed above can be applied, it should be apparent that the detailed embodiments are illustrative only and should not be taken as limiting the scope of the invention.", "Rather, we claim as our invention all such modifications as may come within the scope and spirit of the following claims and equivalents thereof." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This application relates to a refrigerant system having multiple circuits, and a single economizer heat exchanger utilized by at least two circuits.", "Refrigerant cycles are utilized to provide cooling and/or heating, refrigeration, etc.", "As known, in a refrigerant cycle, a refrigerant is compressed at a compressor and then moved to a condenser.", "From the condenser, the refrigerant passes to an expansion device, and then to an evaporator.", "From the evaporator, the refrigerant returns to the compressor.", "With varying challenges upon a refrigerant cycle, modifications such as the use of multiple circuits have been developed.", "A multiple circuit system may include two complete and separate cycles of each of the basic components described above.", "The cycles may be used alternatively or in combination dependent upon the load on the system.", "One other aspect that has been recently developed and added to modem refrigerant cycles is an economizer cycle.", "In an economizer cycle, a portion of the refrigerant downstream of the condenser is tapped and passed through an expansion device.", "The tapped refrigerant is cooled after having passes through its expansion device, and is then passed through an economizer heat exchanger.", "The main refrigerant flow downstream of the condenser also passes through the economizer heat exchanger, preferably in a counter-flow arrangement, and is cooled by the tapped refrigerant.", "This cooling brings the main flow to a somewhat lower temperature than it was previously achieved in the condenser, thus providing a higher cooling capacity when the main flow reaches the evaporator.", "The use of an economizer cycle provides benefits that relate to enhanced performance in providing the highest cooling capacity and efficiency under high load conditions.", "However, in many applications, the addition of an economizer cycle is too expensive to justify its inclusion in a refrigerant cycle.", "The economizer cycle requires a good deal of additional plumbing, a separate additional heat exchanger, a separate additional expansion valve, piping to both control the tapped refrigerant, re-routing it back to the compressor after passing through the economizer heat exchanger, and modifications in the design of the economized compressors.", "Thus, while economizers have value in increasing efficiency, in many applications they are too expensive to be adopted.", "This is particularly true in the above-described multiple circuit systems where all of the additional costs would be multiplied by the number of circuits.", "The present invention provides a unique way of lowering the cost of adding an economizer cycle to a multiple circuit refrigerant system as well as further enhancing system performance.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In a disclosed embodiment of this invention, a single heat exchanger unit is utilized as the economizer heat exchanger for a plurality of refrigerant circuits in a multiple circuit system.", "In particular, the single heat exchanger provides separate flow paths for both the tapped and main refrigerant flow for each of the plurality of multiple circuits, all within a single unit.", "Disclosed embodiments include two multiple circuit systems, three multiple circuit systems, and a four circuit system.", "Higher numbers would come within the scope of the invention.", "In preferred embodiments, the single economizer heat exchanger includes back-to-back flow members guiding the various fluid paths.", "When more than two circuits are utilized, there will be at least two separate flow passages on at least one side of the single economizer heat exchanger.", "The present invention reduces the number of connections, bracketing, etc.", "that is required for multiple circuit refrigerant systems.", "Thus, the overall cost of providing economizer circuits in a multiple circuit system is reduced.", "Moreover, the cost of having separate economizer heat exchangers is, of course, reduced.", "Further, if a single heat exchanger is utilized instead of multiple units for each system circuit, the heat exchanger and overall system performance can be enhanced.", "If an economizer heat exchanger is located in the outdoor section of the system, then it is exposed to the ambient air, which is hotter than the refrigerant flowing through the heat exchanger.", "In such a scenario, if the heat exchanger is not insulated (insulation represents an additional cost component), then part of its cooling capacity will be lost to the environment.", "A single heat exchanger unit will have less surface area exposed to the environment, reducing such heat flux loss.", "This thus improves the heat exchanger and overall system performance.", "If the economizer heat exchanger is placed in the indoor section of the unit, it is exposed to colder (than refrigerant flowing through the heat exchanger) indoor air.", "Hence, a portion of cooled air capacity will be wasted with the economizer heat exchanger refrigerant.", "Once again, having a single heat exchanger unit reduces the surface area exposed to cold indoor air, limiting cooling capacity loss and improving system performance.", "These and other features of the present invention can be best understood from the following specification and drawings, the following of which is a brief description.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a multiple circuit refrigerant system.", "FIG. 2A shows a first embodiment heat exchanger.", "FIG. 2B is a side view of the FIG. 2A embodiment.", "FIG. 2C shows the reverse side of the FIG. 2A embodiment.", "FIG. 3A shows yet another embodiment.", "FIG. 3B is a side view of the FIG. 3A embodiment.", "FIG. 3C is a rear view of the FIG. 3A embodiment.", "FIG. 4A shows yet another embodiment.", "FIG. 4B is a side view of the FIG. 4A embodiment.", "FIG. 4C shows a reverse view of the FIG. 4A embodiment.", "FIG. 5 shows a portion of the heat exchanger shown in FIG. 3 C. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT A multiple circuit refrigerant system 20 is illustrated in FIG. 1 .", "As is known, a pair of compressors 22 A and 22 B are associated with individual circuits A and B. Separate condensers 24 A and 24 B receive refrigerant from the respective compressors 22 A and 22 B. From the condensers, the refrigerant passes to an economizer heat exchanger 26 A and 26 B. As known, a main expansion device 30 A and 30 B is positioned downstream of the economizer heat exchanger 26 A and 26 B, and an evaporator 32 A and 32 B is downstream of the main expansion device 30 A and 30 B. A main refrigerant path 27 A and 27 B passes refrigerant from the condensers into the economizer heat exchanger 26 A and 26 B. The refrigerant in the main refrigerant flow path 27 A and 27 B passes through the economizer heat exchanger, and continues to a downstream line 27 A and 27 B. A tapped refrigerant is tapped through a tap line 29 A and 29 B from the main line 25 A and 25 B and passes through an economizer expansion device 28 A and 28 B. This refrigerant is tapped and passes through the economizer heat exchanger 26 A and 26 B, and then to a return line 31 A and 31 B back to the compressor 22 A and 22 B. All of the system as described above is known.", "What is inventive is the use of a single unit as the combined economizer heat exchanger 26 A and 26 B for both of the circuits A and B. FIG. 2A shows a first embodiment of the economizer heat exchanger, having the inlet for the main refrigerant flow path or a liquid refrigerant 25 A, and an outlet 27 A. Similarly, the tapped refrigerant passes into an inlet 29 A and an outlet 31 A. The flow passages within this heat exchanger 26 A may be as known, and would typically include a number of channels and passages through which the refrigerants in the two separate flow paths come close to each other such that heat can be exchanged, and the flow in the main refrigerant flow line cooled.", "As can be appreciated from FIG. 2B , the heat exchangers 26 A and 26 B may be back-to-back, with their various flow passages 25 A and B, 27 A and B, and 29 A and B and 31 A and B positioned to be spaced from each other.", "FIG. 3C shows the reverse side and shows that the heat exchanger 26 B would closely resemble the heat exchanger 26 A. FIG. 3A shows another embodiment wherein there are three circuits to the refrigerant cycle.", "Here, a separate main flow path 25 C and 27 C receive the main flow of refrigerant, while a separate economizer tapped fluid 29 C and 31 C provide the tapped economizer fluid for the third circuit.", "FIG. 3 B and FIG. 3C show the heat exchanger 126 , as being similar to the FIG. 2A-C embodiments.", "FIGS. 4A-4C show a four circuit system.", "Here, on the rear side, a fourth circuit 25 D, 27 D, 29 D and 31 D is also provided.", "It should be understood that in the FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 embodiments, a central separation wall preferably separates the A and C and B and D circuits.", "The present invention further allows the provision of various controls to the amount of heat transfer such as by controlling the depth of channels, width of channels, number of passages, geometry inside the channels, etc.", "As an example, in the FIG. 3A embodiment, there is less cross-sectional space on the side of the heat exchanger 126 including both circuits A and C. The associated flow paths for the circuits A and C might have a greater depth than the flow paths associated with circuit B such that the lesser crosssectional area is compensated for.", "Of course, other dimensions of the flow paths can also be varied to achieve this compensation.", "Such controls, as mentioned above, can also be utilized, for example, when circuits of different capacities are employed in the system.", "FIG. 5 shows one feature of the present invention, somewhat schematically.", "As can be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in this art, within the heat exchangers 26 , 126 and 226 , there are a number of flow lines for bringing the two flows into heat transfer contact.", "As mentioned, to provide the same amount of heat transfer surface area in the flow passages between, for example, the A and C circuits of FIG. 3 A and the B circuit of FIG. 3C , the A and C circuits should have their passages be deeper, a greater number of passages, etc.", "FIG. 5 shows this schematically.", "As can be appreciated, a flow passage associated with circuit A is shown to be approximately twice as deep as a similar passage associated with the circuit B. Again, this is due to the fact that circuit B has an entire side, while circuit A would have only approximately half of its side.", "As mentioned, other ways of achieving this balance in heat transfer, such as adjusting the number of passages, internal geometry, etc.", "can be utilized.", "Moreover, this adjustment can also be utilized simply to have varying capacities to the several circuits.", "That is, if one of the circuits typically passes a greater amount of refrigerant than the other, it would be provided with a greater amount of heat transfer surface area.", "However, the present invention provides the main benefit of reducing system cost for a multiple circuit refrigerant cycle system wherein an economizer cycle is incorporated.", "First, separate heat exchangers are not required, and thus separate brazing operations, etc.", "are not required.", "Second, the overall applied compressor cost is reduced in that separate brackets, etc.", "for two separate heat exchangers are not required, separate brazing, separate mounting, etc.", "are eliminated.", "Finally, the complexity of routing all of the required flow lines to each of several distinct economizer heat exchangers is reduced, and less space is required for a multiple circuit system.", "Furthermore, the performance of the single economizer heat exchanger serving multiple circuit system as well as overall system performance are enhanced, since less amount of outside heat exchanger surface is exposed to hotter outdoor air or colder indoor air.", "Although a preferred embodiment of this invention has been disclosed, a worker of ordinary skill in this art would recognize that certain modifications would come within the scope of this invention.", "For that reason, the following claims should be studied to determine the scope and content of this invention." ]

[ "FIELD OF INVENTION [0001] This invention relates generally to reducing arcing in surge suppression devices.", "BACKGROUND [0002] Surge suppression units are used for protecting electrical equipment from electrical power surges.", "There are many different arrangements of electrical components that are used for providing surge suppression.", "Generally, during normal non-power surge conditions, the surge suppression components provide a high resistance path between a power line and a neutral or ground line.", "When a power surge event happens, the surge suppressor components start conducting, shorting the power surge to ground or to a neutral line and away from any electrical equipment connected to the power line.", "[0003] During these surge conditions, the surge suppression components that provide the shorting path for the power surge, such as power diodes or varistors, become hot and can explode and/or electrically arc to other components in the surge suppression unit.", "These explosions and arcing can damage other electrical surge suppression circuitry, such as other diodes or varistors that might have otherwise been used to provide surge suppression during subsequent power surges.", "[0004] To reduce the undesirable effects from explosions and arcing, fuses are located in series with the diodes or varistors.", "The fuses are designed to blow at a particular power level that disconnects the associated diode or varistor from the power line experiencing the power surge.", "These fuses unfortunately reduce the overall power surge capacity of the surge suppression unit.", "In other words, the surge suppressor only redirects a power surge until the fuse blows.", "Thus, using a smaller fuse rating to prevent the undesirable effects of arcing also has the possible negative effect of reducing the overall peak current capacity of the surge suppression unit.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0005] In the accompanying drawings which form a part hereof, and wherein like numbers of reference refer to similar parts throughout: [0006] FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a surge suppression unit with improved arc resistance.", "[0007] FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram for the surge suppression unit shown in FIG. 1 .", "[0008] FIG. 3 is a side sectional view of the surge suppression unit shown in FIG. 1 .", "[0009] FIG. 4 is a top view of another embodiment of the surge suppression unit that includes epoxy covering a printed circuit board.", "[0010] FIG. 5 is a side sectional view of the surge suppression unit shown in FIG. 4 .", "[0011] FIG. 6 is a side sectional view of another embodiment of the surge suppression unit that contains a fire retardant sand.", "[0012] FIG. 7 is a perspective cut-away view of two of the surge suppression units stacked in an enclosure.", "[0013] FIG. 8 is a perspective cut-away view of another surge suppression system that includes different sized surge suppressor units.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0014] FIG. 1 shows a surge suppression unit 12 that includes multiple Metal Oxide Varistors (MOVs) 18 connected to a printed circuit board 22 .", "Other electrical circuitry and components 14 are also connected to the circuit board 22 .", "A power line or neutral line (not shown) is connected to a first terminal 24 and a ground line or neutral line (not shown) is connected to a second terminal 26 .", "The circuit board 22 , varistors 18 and other electrical components 14 are all contained within an enclosure 16 .", "The enclosure 16 includes front and back walls 16 A and 16 B, respectively, and side walls 16 C. A top cover 52 attaches over walls 16 A- 16 C. [0015] The MOVs (varistors) 18 provide a high resistance path between the line connected to terminal 24 and the line connected to terminal 26 .", "For instance, when a power surge occurs on a power line connected to terminal 24 , one or more of the varistors 18 start conducting, redirecting the power surge away from electrical equipment (not shown) connected to the power line and either to a neutral line or ground line connected to terminal 26 .", "[0016] As also mentioned above, the power surge while being redirected to terminal 26 can cause the varistors 18 to heat up enough to start burning or blow up.", "The power surge can also create arcing between the conducting varistor 18 and other varistors 18 or create arcing between the conducting varistor 18 and the other electrical components 14 on circuit board 22 .", "These fires, explosions, and arcing can damage the other varistors 18 and other electrical components 14 , possibly to the extent of rendering the entire surge suppression unit 12 inoperable.", "[0017] FIG. 2 shows one example of a circuit diagram for the surge suppression unit 12 shown in FIG. 1 .", "The terminal 24 is connected through conductor 30 to each of the varistors 18 via associated fuses 28 .", "The opposite end of each varistor 18 is connected through conductor 32 to the terminal 26 .", "A power sensing line 34 is connected to each varistor 18 through resistors 36 .", "FIG. 3 shows a side sectional view of the surge suppression unit 12 shown in FIG. 1 .", "[0018] Referring to FIGS. 1-3 , to reduce the effects of fires, explosions and arcing, separator or spacer walls 20 extend vertically up between the adjacent varistors 18 .", "The separator walls 20 impede arcing paths between the conducting varistor 18 and other varistors 18 , and also impede any arcing paths between the conducting varistor 18 and the other electrical components 14 .", "[0019] In one embodiment, the anti-arcing separator walls 20 are made of a fire resistant fiber, plastic, ceramic or fiberglass insulating material, such as fiberglass based GP03.", "In another embodiment, the separator walls 20 may be made from a honeycombed plastic or fiberglass material.", "However, any material that has a high insulating factor can be used.", "The separator walls 20 in this embodiment have a height that extends over the top of each adjacent varistor and a width that extends along the entire width of each adjacent varistor 18 from a front end to a back end.", "In this embodiment, each separator 20 is approximately two inches tall, two inches wide and approximately ⅙ th inch thick.", "Of course, the dimensions of the separators 20 can vary depending on the size of the adjacent varistors 18 and the amount of desired arc retardation.", "[0020] FIG. 2 shows a separator wall 20 A located between varistors 18 A and 18 B and separator wall 20 B located between varistors 18 B and 18 C. The separators 20 A and 20 B prevent an electrical power surge that is conducted through one of the varistors 18 B, for example, from arcing 40 to varistor 18 A or varistor 18 C. This allows the surge suppression unit 12 to withstand multiple power surges while still providing suppression for subsequent power surges.", "The fuses 28 disconnect the power surge when the varistors 18 get too hot.", "Because, the varistors 18 are less likely to arc, the fuses 28 can, but are not required to, have higher current ratings.", "Thus, the surge suppression unit 12 may maintain a higher power surge rating while at the same time having increased resilience to power surges.", "[0021] The separator walls 20 allow a substantially open area around each one of the varistors 18 while at the same time isolating each varistor 18 from adjacent varistors and other electrical components 14 .", "In one embodiment, this is preferred over other alternative anti-arcing arrangements and materials that might be tightly compacted or encased around each varistor 18 .", "Tightly compacting materials around the varistors 18 could actually increase the negative effects from an explosion.", "For example, a material tightly encased around a varistor 18 may create more pressure around the varistor 189 during a power surge resulting in a larger explosion and the projection of additional shrapnel from encasing material.", "The separator walls 20 allow air to freely circulate around the varistors 18 thus mitigating pressure buildup and the resulting explosion.", "[0022] In another embodiment, the separator walls 20 may also be located in front and behind each varistor 18 .", "In this embodiment, each varistor 18 might be completely surrounded and contained by separator walls 20 .", "This may include a first unitary piece of separator wall material that extends in front of all of the varistors 18 and a second unitary piece of separator wall material that extends behind all of the varistors 18 .", "The separator walls 18 would still be located between the varistors 18 with the front ends abutting against the front separator and the back ends abutting against the back separator.", "Alternatively, there may be individual front and back separator walls for each varistor 18 .", "[0023] In one embodiment, an epoxy or fiberglass material 42 may be laid down in between the varistors 18 .", "The separator walls 20 are then inserted into the wet epoxy to anchor the separators to the printed circuit board or against the sides of the varistors 18 .", "The epoxy 42 may extend underneath all of the varistors 18 in between and around the wires 43 that extend from the bottom of the varistors 18 and connect the varistors 18 to the printed circuit board 22 .", "Alternatively, the epoxy may be applied to the sides and in between the varistors 18 .", "The epoxy 42 can be an electronic module potting epoxy with flame retardant.", "The epoxy 42 further retards arcing that may occur between the varistors 18 and the conductors 43 that connect the varistors 18 to the printed circuit board 22 while the separator walls 20 retard the arching between adjacent varistors 18 .", "[0024] In an alternative embodiment, separator walls 20 are compressively held in place by the adjacent varistors 18 .", "The varistors 18 are spaced close enough together so that the separators 20 can be slid in between the varistors 18 and then held vertically upright on opposite sides by the adjacent varistors 18 .", "Clips or slots in the printed circuit board 22 can also be used to hold the separators 20 upright.", "[0025] FIG. 4 shows a top view of an alternative embodiment of the surge suppression unit 12 .", "FIG. 5 shows a side sectional view of the surge suppression unit 12 shown in FIG. 4 .", "In this embodiment, the epoxy 50 covers the entire top surface of the circuit board 22 .", "The epoxy 50 covers substantially all of the electrical components 14 , other than the varistors 18 , that are located on the top of the circuit board 22 .", "Some of the other larger profile electrical components 14 and 18 may only be partially covered with the epoxy 50 .", "The epoxy 50 may be made of a non-conductive resin, plastic, or fiberglass material that impedes arcing between the varistors 18 and the other electrical components 14 and conductors on printed circuit board 22 .", "The varistors 18 are not completely covered in epoxy 50 , to avoid possibly increasing the explosive effects that may result by completely encasing each varistor 18 .", "[0026] FIG. 6 shows yet another embodiment of the surge suppression unit 12 that contains sand 60 for retarding arcing and reducing the effects of explosions and fires.", "The porous sand and air existing between the sand granules prevent the same shrapnel effects that may result from encasing the varistors in denser insulating materials.", "A fire retardant material 62 may be combined with the sand 60 to further retard arcing and the effects of fires or explosions within the enclosure 16 .", "A similar material used in fire extinguishers, such as monoammonium phosphate may be used for fire retardant 62 .", "In one embodiment, a 50/50 mixture of sand 60 and fire retardant material 62 is used.", "Of course, other types of fire retardants 62 and fire retardant/sand ratios might also be used.", "Epoxy can also be spread over the sand 60 to keep it retained within enclosure 16 .", "[0027] Any combination of the separator walls 20 and epoxy 50 may also be used along with the sand 60 .", "The sand 60 is simply poured into the opening formed by enclosure 16 .", "The top cover 52 is then attached over the top of enclosure 16 to hold in the sand 60 .", "[0028] FIG. 7 shows two of the surge suppression units 12 stacked vertically on top of each other inside of an enclosure 70 .", "The two suppression units 12 are coupled together at a first end by a connector post 72 and at a second end by a connector post 74 .", "The connector post 72 electrically couples terminal 26 to a bus bar 78 that is coupled to neutral or ground.", "The post 74 electrically couples terminal 24 to a power line connector 76 .", "The MOVs 18 extend along substantially the entire length of the circuit board 22 and each is separated by one of the anti-arcing separator or divider walls 20 .", "[0029] This is just one example of how the surge suppression units 12 can be arranged.", "In other embodiments, the enclosure 70 may only contain one surge suppression unit 12 or alternatively may contain multiple different sized suppression units.", "For example, FIG. 8 shows a power surge protection assembly 80 that includes both larger sized suppression units 82 and smaller sized suppression units 12 connected side-by-side.", "The surge suppression units 82 may include similar power surge protection components at surge suppression units 12 previously described above in FIGS. 1-7 .", "However, the larger sized surge suppression units 82 may include more surge suppression components, such as more MOVs 18 .", "[0030] In this example, the smaller surge suppression unit 12 is coupled between a neutral terminal 78 via bus bar 84 and ground via bus bar 86 .", "The larger suppression units 82 provide additional surge suppression protection between power line terminals 92 and 76 and neutral line terminal 78 .", "Any one, or all, of the surge suppression units 82 and/or 12 can include any combination of the anti-arc separator walls 20 , epoxy 50 , and/or sand 60 described above.", "Thus, each of the surge suppression units is more resilient to arcing, fires, explosions, and general destruction during a power surge.", "[0031] Having described and illustrated the principles of the invention in a preferred embodiment thereof, it should be apparent that the invention can be modified in arrangement and detail without departing from such principles.", "We claim all modifications and variation coming within the spirit and scope of the following claims." ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] The present application is a Continuation-in-Part of U.S. Ser.", "No. 07/956,759, filed Dec. 7, 1992.", "Application Ser.", "No. 07/956,759 was a national stage application based on PCT/AU91/00303, filed Jul. 9, 1991.", "The parent application claims priority from Australian Provisional Patent Application PK 1170, filed Jul. 13, 1990.", "The present application also claims priority from Australian Provisional Patent Application PN2712, which was filed May 2, 1995.", "Priority is claimed from the above recited applications, to the extent entitled.", "FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] This invention relates to the growth of animal cells in a cell culture composition.", "More specifically it relates to the provision of a cell culture composition including a milk product extract composition.", "This invention also relates to the growth of animal cells where that growth is associated with the repair of surface wounds or the repair of gastrointestinal injuries, diseases or ulcers, by the application of a composition including a milk product extract composition.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] Animal cells are grown in culture to provide a number of pharmaceutical, diagnostic and veterinary products including human vaccines, lymphokines, hormones, monoclonal antibodies, other pharmaceutically active protein products, veterinary hormones and for research and development and diagnostic purposes.", "[0004] The growth of animal cells requires a defined isotonic medium that contains salts, nutrients, lipid precursors, nucleic acid precursors, vitamins and amino acids that are formulated to mimic the medium that would normally bathe those cells in vivo.", "Examples in common use include Eagle's Minimal Essential Medium, Dulbecco's-modified Eagle's Minimal Essential Medium (DMEM), Medium 199, RPMI 1640 medium and Ham's F12 Medium.", "However, virtually no animal cells will grow in such a medium, but require the co-addition of serum.", "Fetal bovine serum is frequently used as it is more effective than serum obtained from post-natal animals and it contains only minimal concentrations of immunoglobulins which otherwise could have undesirable effects.", "[0005] The supply of fetal bovine serum is limited by the number of pregnant cows slaughtered.", "It also has undesirable lot-to-lot variations and may include toxins.", "Particular concern surrounds its use for the eventual production of recombinant proteins and other pharmaceuticals for human use because the serum may also contain viruses that are harmful to humans and may be carried through a purification protocol that yields the desirable product.", "Principally for these reasons, extensive efforts have been directed towards the replacement of serum by pure ingredients.", "Examples of such ingredients are growth factors, hormones and cell attachment factors.", "Unfortunately, the requirements of each cell type being grown are different and are difficult to establish.", "Frequently it has not proved possible to achieve equivalent growth properties or equivalent yields of cell products with “serum-free”, media as can be obtained with medium containing fetal bovine serum.", "[0006] The limited availability of fetal bovine serum, its lot-to-lot variability, its resultant considerable cost as well as the deficiencies of “serum-free”", "media described above have prompted the investigation of other biological fluids as potential replacements in cell culture media.", "Some progress has been reported in the prior art with bovine milk and bovine colostrum as evidenced by the following selected reports: M. Klagsbrun: “Human milk stimulates DNA synthesis and cell proliferation in cultured fibroblasts”", "(Proc.", "Natl.", "Acad.", "Sci.", "USA 75, 5057, 1978);", "M. Klagsbrun &", "J. Neumann: “The serum-free growth of Balb/c 3T3 cells in medium supplemented with bovine colostrum”", "(J.", "Supramol.", "Struct.", "11, 349, 1979).", "[0007] The prior art also includes U.S. Pat. No. 4,440,860 to M. Klagsbrun which describes “compositions and methods for promoting cell growth featuring, in one aspect, cell culture media containing milk or colostrum and fibronectin;", "fibronectin is preferably pre-coated onto the culture substrate”", "and Japanese Patent JP 59166879 to Morinaga “A culture medium for cell incubation-containing milk or milk components.”", "Ultrafiltrates of milk whey have also been used to support the growth of cultured cells, as in O. Damerdji et al.", "“Utilization of whey fractions as a substitute for fetal calf serum in culture media”", "(Biotech.", "Tech.", "2, 235, 1988).", "[0008] Despite this progress a successful alternative to fetal bovine serum is yet to be located.", "[0009] It is accordingly an object of the present invention to overcome, or at least alleviate one or more of the difficulties or deficiencies related to the prior art.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0010] Accordingly in a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a milk product extract composition including a plurality of cell growth stimulating factors, extracted from milk product, in concentrated form;", "said factors having basic to approximately neutral isoelectric points.", "[0011] By the term “milk product extract”", "we mean an extract from human or animal milk product in which the salt and/or main protein constituents thereof are reduced or eliminated.", "Examples of milk product extracts include cheese whey extracts, skim milk extract and acid (casein) whey extract, and extracts of colostrum.", "Milk products of the invention include cheese whey, skim milk, acid (casein) whey, and colostrum.", "[0012] The range of isoelectric points described by the term “basic to approximately neutral isoelectric point”", "includes isoelectric points between about 6.0 and about 10.5 or between approximately 6.0 and approximately 10.5, preferably between 6.0 and about 10.5, preferably between 6.0 and approximately 10.5.", "[0013] The present invention will be more fully described with reference to the preferred cheese whey extracts.", "However, this is illustrative only and should not be taken as a restriction on the generality of the invention.", "[0014] Preferably the milk product extract composition is a cheese whey extract composition.", "[0015] The cheese whey extract composition may be formed from cheese whey wherein the salt and/or main protein constituents thereof are reduced or eliminated.", "[0016] The milk product extract composition may include reduced amounts of alpha lactalbumin, beta lactoglobulin and casein compared with said milk product.", "Preferably, the milk product extract includes less than approximately 1% w/w of the salt present in the original milk product.", "The milk product extract may include less than approximately 0.5% of the casein, alpha lactalbumin, beta lactoglobulin, immunoglobulin and/or albumin present in the original milk product.", "[0017] The milk product extract composition according to this aspect of the present invention may be utilized in the promotion of cell growth and proliferation in vitro as discussed below.", "The milk product extract composition may be utilized in stimulation of surface wound repair in vivo, or for the treatment of gastrointestinal injuries, diseases or ulcers, in mammals as discussed below.", "[0018] Surprisingly, the milk product extract composition may support the growth of animal cells at lower protein concentrations than achieved with fetal bovine serum, yet with an efficacy comparable to fetal bovine serum for several cell types.", "[0019] Alternatively, the milk product extract may be used as a supplement to media containing low concentrations of fetal bovine serum in order to achieve better growth rates of cultured cells and to conserve the use of fetal bovine serum.", "[0020] Cheese whey is a by-product of the cheese industry that has had essentially all the fat and casein removed during cheese manufacture.", "At the present state of the art cheese whey is essentially valueless, and indeed it may represent a net cost to the industry since it is a potential pollutant.", "[0021] Cheese whey for example is a low protein, high salt product available in tonne amounts from cheese manufacture.", "The main protein constituents present in cheese whey are alpha lactalbumin (αLA) and beta lactoglobulin (βLG), which usually account for more than 90% of the proteins present.", "Significant amounts of serum albumin, immunoglobulins and residual casein may be present.", "All of these proteins have acidic isoelectric points.", "In contrast, the main protein factors that stimulate the growth of animal cells have basic isoelectric points.", "Examples include the growth factors basic FGF, IGF-I, des(1-3)IGF-I and PDGF.", "It is postulated that the extraction of the basic factors present in milk products such as cheese whey in the virtual absence of the otherwise abundant acidic proteins may account for the surprising efficacy of the milk product extract composition.", "[0022] Accordingly in a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for preparing a milk product extract composition including a plurality of cell growth stimulating factors, extracted from milk product in concentrated form;", "said factors having basic to approximately neutral isoelectric points, which method includes [0023] providing [0024] a source of milk product;", "[0025] a cationic exchange resin;", "and [0026] a buffer solution;", "[0027] contacting the milk product with the cation exchange resin such that the more basic components of the milk product are absorbed thereon;", "[0028] eluting the cationic exchange resin with the buffer solution;", "and filtering the eluate to remove salt therefrom.", "[0029] The desorption of the basic proteins from the ion exchange resin leads to a preparation enriched in cell growth stimulating factors.", "The eluate may be concentrated and filtered utilizing any suitable technique.", "The eluate may be concentrated for example by conventional ultrafiltration methods or other procedures to yield a mixture of proteins which supports the growth of animal cells when added to protein-free media such as DMEM.", "[0030] The source of milk product may be a milk product filtrate substantially free of insoluble material.", "Accordingly the preparation method may include the preliminary step of [0031] filtering the milk product to remove insoluble materials therefrom.", "[0032] The milk product may be filtered through a suitable sieve.", "The milk product may be filtered through a hollow fiber cartridge of defined porosity.", "[0033] The cationic exchange resin may be of any suitable type.", "A Sepharose-based cation exchange gel may be used.", "The contacting step may be conducted at neutral to basic pH.", "The contacting step may be conducted at a pH of approximately 6.5 to 8.0.", "[0034] The cationic exchange resin may be equilibrated with a suitable buffer at a pH of approximately 6.5 to 8.0.", "An aqueous sodium citrate buffer may be used.", "The elution steps may be conducted utilizing a suitable eluate.", "A salt solution may be used.", "A buffered saline solution may be used.", "[0035] Thus in a preferred form of this aspect of the present invention the method of preparing a milk product extract composition may include treating milk product sequentially by: [0036] subjecting the milk product to a filtration step, to remove insoluble materials therefrom;", "[0037] adjusting the pH of the filtrate to between approximately 6.5 and 8.0;", "[0038] contacting the filtrate with a cationic exchange resin;", "[0039] eluting from the cation exchange resin at high ionic strength and high pH with a suitable buffer solution;", "and [0040] subjecting the eluate to a concentration step and diafiltration step to remove salt therefrom.", "[0041] Alternatively, the elution from the cation exchange resin is achieved at high ionic strength but without adjusting pH, such that the cell growth stimulating factors are recovered.", "[0042] In this embodiment the cell growth stimulating factors are eluted with less extraneous protein.", "[0043] In a further aspect of the isolation of a suitable extract from cheese whey, the eluant may be treated at high temperature and centrifuged.", "This modification removes additional protein.", "Accordingly, the method may further include subjecting the eluant to a heat treatment to reduce the content of extraneous protein.", "[0044] The milk product extract composition may be sterilized and optionally freeze-dried for storage.", "The freeze-dried material may be dissolved in sterile saline for addition to cells in culture.", "[0045] In a further aspect of the present invention there is provided a cell culture composition including an effective amount of a milk product extract composition including [0046] a plurality of cell growth stimulating factors, extracted from milk product, in concentrated form;", "said factors having basic to approximately neutral isoelectric points;", "and [0047] a culture medium.", "[0048] The culture medium may be a substantially protein-free isotonic culture medium.", "The substantially protein-free isotonic culture medium may be Dulbecco's-Modified Eagle's Minimal Essential Medium (DMEM).", "[0049] It has been found that an approximately equivalent growth rate of human skin fibroblasts to that achieved with 5% Fetal Bovine Serum may be achieved with approximately 20 μg of cell growth stimulating factors extracted from cheese whey according to the preferred aspect of the present invention per 100 μl of medium.", "[0050] Alternatively a small but effective amount of fetal bovine serum may be utilized as the culture medium.", "It has been found that the addition of approximately 25 μg of cell growth stimulating factors per 100 μg of medium containing approximately 2% fetal bovine serum will increase the growth rate of Balb C/3T3 cells to that rate otherwise achieved with 10% fetal bovine serum.", "[0051] Other additions may be made to the medium, depending on the cell type, including growth factors, attachment factors or low amounts of serum.", "[0052] In a preferred form, the present invention provides a cell culture composition, as described above, wherein the milk product extract is present in media at a protein concentration of approximately 10 to 20,000 micrograms per ml, preferably 100 to 2,000 micrograms per ml.", "[0053] Accordingly in a still further aspect of the present invention there is provided a method for culturing cells which method includes [0054] providing [0055] source of animal cells;", "and [0056] a cell culture composition including an effective amount of a milk product extract composition including [0057] a plurality of cell growth stimulating factors, extracted from milk product, in concentrated form;", "said factors having basic to approximately neutral isoelectric points;", "and [0058] a substantially protein-free isotonic culture medium;", "and [0059] culturing the cells in the cell culture composition for a time sufficient, and at a temperature sufficient to achieve a predetermined cell concentration.", "[0060] The cell culture method may be conducted at ambient temperature or above.", "A temperature in the range of approximately 35 to 40° C. may be used.", "[0061] The cell culture process may be conducted in an incubator, for example a humidified incubator.", "[0062] The cell culture method may be conducted on any suitable surface or in suspension.", "Tissue culture plates may be used.", "[0063] The cell culture method may continue for a period of approximately 1 to 5 days depending on the cell concentration desired.", "[0064] Although the method in particular applies to the growth of animal cells in vitro it can also be applied to animals, including humans, that have surface wounds.", "[0065] It has been found that a composition including a milk product extract according to the present invention can improve surface wound repair in vitro and in vivo.", "[0066] As used herein, the term “surface wounds”", "includes the following types of damage: [0067] (a) ulcers of all kinds including pressure ulcers such as pressure sores, bed sores or decubitis ulcers, as well as ulcers associated with vascular disease such as venous ulcers, varicose ulcers, and ulcers associated with diabetes, autoimmune disease, sickle cell diseases or hemophilia;", "[0068] (b) conditions that result from surgery such as debridement, skin grafting, partial thickness wounds that result after removal of skin for grafting, and full thickness incisions;", "[0069] (c) therapeutically induced wounds including those induced during radiotherapy or in response to drugs;", "[0070] (d) wounds associated with disorders of the central nervous system that may alter sensation or affect mobility;", "[0071] (e) wounds that result from any exfoliative disease of the skin;", "[0072] (f) wounds associated with either local or systemic infection such as yaws or HIV;", "[0073] (g) congenital wounds such as spina bifida;", "[0074] (h) pathological wounds that include wounds associated with skin cancers;", "[0075] (i) traumatic and accidental wounds including penetrations, lacerations, abrasions, gouges and other trauma, and [0076] (j) burns.", "[0077] Accordingly, in a further aspect, the present invention provides a pharmaceutical or veterinary composition for the treatment of surface wounds, which composition includes: [0078] an effective amount of a milk product extract composition including a plurality of cell growth promoting factors, extracted from milk product in concentrated form;", "said factors having basic to approximately neutral isoelectric points;", "and [0079] a pharmaceutically or veterinarily acceptable diluent, carrier or excipient therefor.", "[0080] In a particularly preferred form, the present invention provides a pharmaceutical or veterinary composition for the treatment of surface wounds which composition includes: [0081] (a) a milk product extract that contains a mixture of cell growth factors with basic to approximately neutral isoelectric points, preferably isoelectric points between about 6.0 and about 10.5, preferably isoelectric points between 6.0 and about 10.5.", "The mixture of cell growth factors can be obtained from a milk product of an ungulate mammal by first subjecting that product to a cation exchange matrix under conditions whereby casein, alpha lactalbumin, and beta lactoglobulin present in the milk product are not absorbed to the matrix, after which the absorbed growth factor mixture is eluted and then concentrated;", "and [0082] (b) a pharmaceutically or veterinarily acceptable diluent, carrier or excipient therefor.", "[0083] The pharmaceutical or veterinary composition may further include an effective amount of at least one active ingredient.", "[0084] The at least one active ingredient may be selected from antibiotics, antiseptics, other growth promotants, anaesthetics, and the like, and mixtures thereof.", "[0085] The pharmaceutical or veterinary composition may be adapted for administration in any suitable manner.", "The composition may be adapted for internal or topical administration.", "The composition may be in an oral, injectable or topical form.", "Topical administration is preferred.", "The composition may take the form of a wash, lotion, cream, ointment or gel.", "[0086] There are no limitations to the type of surface wound that may be treated, and these include, but are not limited to ulcers, conditions that result from surgery, therapeutically induced wounds, wounds associated with disorders of the central nervous system, any exfoliative disease of the skin, wounds associated with local or systemic infection, congenital wounds, pathological wounds, traumatic and accidental wounds, and burns.", "[0087] Accordingly, in a further aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of treating surface wounds in animals, including humans, which method includes administering to a subject to be treated an effective amount of a pharmaceutical or veterinary composition, which composition includes [0088] an effective amount of a milk product extract composition including a plurality of cell growth promoting factors, extracted from milk product in concentrated form;", "said factors having basic to approximately neutral isoelectric points;", "and [0089] a pharmaceutically or veterinarily acceptable diluent, carrier or excipient therefor.", "[0090] In a particularly preferred form, the present invention provides a method of treating surface wounds in animals, including humans, which method includes administering to a subject to be treated an effective amount of a pharmaceutical or veterinary composition, which composition includes: [0091] (a) a milk product extract that contains a mixture of cell growth factors with basic to approximately neutral isoelectric points, preferably isoelectric points between about 6.0 and about 10.5, preferably isoelectric points between 6.0 and about 10.5.", "The mixture of cell growth factors can be obtained from a milk product of an ungulate mammal by first subjecting that product to a cation exchange matrix under conditions whereby casein, alpha lactalbumin, and beta lactoglobulin present in the milk product are not absorbed to the matrix, after which the absorbed growth factor mixture is eluted and then concentrated;", "and [0092] (b) a pharmaceutically or veterinarily acceptable diluent, carrier or excipient therefor.", "[0093] In the above method, the milk product extract may be applied directly to wounds in a biologically acceptable carrier to ensure sustained release at sufficient concentration in the wound environment.", "Such carriers include any synthetic or biological polymer, glycosaminoglycan, or extracellular matrix molecule (eg.", "fibrin, collagen, gelatin, synthetic polymers, agarose, alginates, methylcellulose, hyaluronic acid, hydrocolloids, alginates).", "The carrier may be in the form of a gel.", "Alternatively the milk product extract could be administered in the form of a spray (in a biologically acceptable diluent, for example a buffer solution), powder, ointment, salve or irrigant or incorporated or impregnated into a dressing (absorbable and non-absorbable), transdermal patches or releasably associated with gauze, bandages, sutures, plasters, staples, prosthetic devices, screws or plates (biodegradable or non-biodegradable).", "Alternatively, the milk product extract may be incorporated into a toothpaste, gum or resin for chewing or provided as a mouth wash.", "[0094] In another aspect the present invention relates to a wound support including an effective amount of a milk product extract composition including a plurality of cell growth promoting factors, extracted from milk product in concentrated form;", "said factors having basic to approximately neutral isoelectric points.", "[0095] As used herein the term “wound support”", "includes any means which is used to support or secure a wound and includes a surgical securing means.", "The term includes plasters, dressings, sutures, staples and the like.", "The wound to be supported may be a wound created by surgery, or the result of accident or other injury.", "The milk product extract may be present on the surface of the wound support or may be impregnated in the wound support and is able to be released therefrom.", "[0096] The milk product extract may have other molecules associated therewith to aid releasability, stability, solubility, activity and/or association with the wound support, including adjuvants, carriers, solubilizing agents, and growth factors.", "Furthermore, the milk product extract may be used in combination with other compounds or molecules which act in synergistic, agonistic and/or additive concert.", "There are no limitations to the nature of these ingredients except they should be pharmacologically and physiologically acceptable for administration and should not degrade the activity, or render harmfully toxic the active ingredients.", "[0097] Preferably the milk product extract when used in the above described methods is administered in an amount from 0.01 to 10 mg/ml of fluid in the local environment at the wound side.", "The milk product extract may be delivered during the peri or post operative period.", "Alternatively the milk product extract may be impregnated or present on the surface of an adhesive dressing, occlusive plaster or surgical securing means such as sutures or staples.", "[0098] It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the milk product extract may be administered for a time and under conditions sufficient to allow for wound repair.", "[0099] The composition of the present invention may also be used to treat animals, including humans, that have gastrointestinal injuries, diseases or ulcers.", "It has also been found to improve the growth rate of gastrointestinal cells in vitro.", "[0100] As used herein the term “gastrointestinal injuries, diseases or ulcers”", "includes the following types of damage to or diseases of the gastrointestinal tract: [0101] (a) dental and oral wounds, including those associated with periodontal disease;", "[0102] (b) peptic ulceration of the duodenum, stomach or esophagus;", "[0103] (c) inflammatory bowel diseases such as ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease;", "[0104] (d) ulcers associated with stress conditions, for example burns, trauma, sepsis, shock, intracranial surgery or head surgery;", "[0105] (e) damage to the lining of the alimentary tract resulting from radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy with agents such as mechlorethamine, melphalan, busulphan, cytarabine, floxuridine, 5-fluorouracil, mercaptopurine, methotrexate, thioguanine, bleomycin, actinomycin-D, daunorubicin, etoposide, mitomycin, vinblastine, vincristine, hydroxyurea or procarbazine;", "[0106] (f) inadequate gut function or damage to the gut associated with prematurity such as narcotizing enterocolitis or poor gut motility;", "[0107] (g) diarrheal conditions such as associated with bacterial, viral, fungal or protozoan infection, including AIDS;", "[0108] (h) food intolerances such as coeliac disease;", "[0109] (i) cancers of the gastrointestinal tract, including buccal cavity, esophagus, stomach or bowel;", "[0110] (j) surgically induced damage such as following partial gut resection, short gut syndrome, jejunostomy, ileostomy, colostomy;", "[0111] (k) damage due to esophageal reflux;", "[0112] (l) conditions associated with loss of gut barrier function such as external burns, trauma, sepsis or shock;", "[0113] (m) congenital conditions resulting in inadequate gastrointestinal function or damage such as volvulus and cystic fibrosis;", "and [0114] (n) autoimmune diseases that affect the gut, such as Sjogren's Syndrome.", "[0115] Accordingly, in a further aspect, the present invention provides a pharmaceutical or veterinary composition for the treatment of gastrointestinal injuries, diseases or ulcers, which composition includes: [0116] an effective amount of a milk product extract composition including a plurality of cell growth promoting factors, extracted from milk product in concentrated form;", "said factors having basic to approximately neutral isoelectric points;", "and [0117] a pharmaceutically or veterinarily-acceptable diluent, carrier or excipient therefor.", "[0118] In a particularly preferred form, the present invention provides a pharmaceutical or veterinary composition for the treatment of gastrointestinal injuries, diseases or ulcers which composition includes: [0119] (a) a milk product extract that contains a mixture of cell growth factors with basic to approximately neutral isoelectric points, preferably isoelectric points between about 6.0 and about 10.5, preferably isoelectric points between 6.0 and about 10.5.", "The mixture of cell growth factors can be obtained from a milk product of an ungulate mammal by first subjecting that product to a cation exchange matrix under conditions whereby casein, alpha lactalbumin, and beta lactoglobulin present in the milk product are not absorbed to the matrix, after which the absorbed growth factor mixture is eluted and then concentrated;", "and [0120] (b) a pharmaceutically or veterinarily acceptable diluent, carrier or excipient therefor.", "[0121] There are no limitations to the type of gastrointestinal injuries, diseases or ulcers that may be treated, and these include, but are not limited to dental and oral wounds, peptic ulcers, inflammatory bowel diseases, ulcers associated with stress conditions, damage caused by radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy, inadequate gut function or damage associated with prematurity, diarrheal conditions, damage caused by food intolerance, cancer of the gastrointestinal tract, surgically induced damage, damage caused by esophageal reflux, conditions associated with loss of gut barrier function, congenital conditions resulting in inadequate gastrointestinal function or damage, and autoimmune diseases that affect the gut.", "[0122] Accordingly, in a still further aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for the treatment of gastrointestinal injuries, diseases or ulcers, which method includes administering to a subject to be treated an effective amount of a pharmaceutical or veterinary composition, which composition includes [0123] an effective amount of a milk product extract composition including cell growth promoting factors, extracted from milk product in concentrated form and having a basic to approximately neutral isoelectric point;", "and [0124] a pharmaceutically or veterinarily acceptable diluent, carrier or excipient therefor.", "[0125] In a particularly preferred form, the present invention provides a method for the treatment of gastrointestinal injuries, diseases or ulcers, which method includes administering to subject to be treated an effective amount of a pharmaceutical or veterinary composition, which composition includes: [0126] (a) a milk product extract that contains a mixture of cell growth factors with basic to approximately neutral isoelectric points, preferably isoelectric points between about 6.0 and about 10.5, preferably isoelectric points between 6.0 and about 10.5.", "The mixture of cell growth factors can be obtained from a milk product of an ungulate mammal by first subjecting that product to a cation exchange matrix under conditions whereby casein, alpha lactalbumin, and beta lactoglobulin present in the milk product are not absorbed to the matrix, after which the absorbed growth factor mixture is eluted and then concentrated;", "and [0127] (b) a pharmaceutically or veterinarily acceptable diluent, carrier or excipient therefor.", "[0128] In the above method the milk product extract may be administered directly into the alimentary canal by oral delivery or other means of direct enteral administration, in order to maximize the effective dose reaching the affected tissue.", "[0129] Compositions of the present invention suitable for oral administration may be presented as discrete units such as capsules, sachets or tablets each containing a predetermined amount of the active ingredient;", "as a powder or granules;", "as a solution or a suspension in an aqueous or non-aqueous liquid;", "as a mouthwash or as an oil-in-water liquid emulsion or a water-in-oil liquid emulsion.", "The active ingredient may also be presented as a bolus, electuary or paste.", "[0130] Compositions suitable for parenteral administration include aqueous and non-aqueous sterile injection solutions which may contain anti-oxidants, buffers, bacteriostats and solutes;", "and aqueous and non-aqueous sterile suspensions which may include suspending agents and thickening agents.", "The compositions may be presented in unit-dose or multi-dose sealed containers, for example, ampoules and vials, and may be stored in a freeze-dried condition requiring only the addition of the sterile liquid carrier, for example water for injections, immediately prior to use.", "Solutions and suspensions may be prepared from sterile powders, granules and tablets of the kind previously described.", "[0131] It should be understood that in addition to the ingredients particularly mentioned above, the compositions of this invention may include other agents conventional in the art having regard to the type of composition in question, for example, those suitable for oral administration may include such further agents as sweeteners, thickeners and flavoring agents.", "[0132] The milk product extract may be administered at any appropriate time including prior to, during or after the gastrointestinal injuries, diseases or ulcers have become evident.", "[0133] The milk product extract may be useful in combination with known therapeutic agents.", "If formulated as a fixed dose, such combination products may employ the milk product extract in an appropriate dosage range and the other pharmaceutically active agent within its approved dosage range.", "Compositions of the invention may be used sequentially with known therapeutic agents when a combination formulation is inappropriate.", "[0134] When the milk product extract is administered to a human subject the daily dosage can be determined by the attending physician with the dosage generally varying according to the age, weight, and response of the individual patient, as well as the severity of the patient's symptoms.", "In general a suitable dose of the milk product extract of the invention will be in the range of 20 mg to 20 g per kilogram body weight of the recipient per day, preferably in the range of 200 mg to 2 g per kilogram body weight per day.", "However, the dose will also depend on the formulation and purity of the milk product extract used.", "The above mentioned doses are calculated on the basis of the cheese whey product extract described in Example 2 and could be modified accordingly by a person skilled in the art if a product of different activity or purity was used.", "[0135] The present invention will now be more fully described with respect to the following examples.", "It should be understood, however, that the description following is illustrative only, and should not be taken in any way as a restriction on the generality of the invention described above.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0136] [0136 ]FIG. 1 Growth of (a) L6 myoblasts, (b) Balb C/3T3 fibroblasts and (c) SF1972 human skin fibroblasts in the presence of () fetal bovine serum (FBS), (∘) GFE prepared according to Example 1 or (▪) GFE-2 prepared according to Example 2.", "The details are described in Example 4.", "[0137] [0137 ]FIG. 2 Growth promoting activities in human umbilical vein endothelial cells in the presence of cheese whey extract (GFE-2, Example 2).", "Data are expressed as the percentage 3 H-thymidine incorporation above control cultures grown in serum-free medium only.", "The details are given in Example 7.", "[0138] [0138 ]FIG. 3 Contraction of a fibroblast-populated collagen gel in response to cheese whey extract (GFE-2, Example 2).", "Fibroblast-induced contraction of the gel was assessed by counting the radioactivity remaining in the gel after 24 h culture (mean±SEM of triplicate determinations).", "The details are given in Example 8.", "[0139] [0139 ]FIG. 4 Excisional wound closure in organ-cultured fetal rat skin in response to () FBS, (▪) DMEM and (▴) cheese whey extract (GFE-2, Example 2).", "Wound repair was assessed by recording the ability of the cheese whey extract at the indicated concentrations to promote repair of the excisional deficit over a 72 h period.", "Other details are given in Example 9.", "[0140] [0140 ]FIG. 5 Strength of incisional wounds in normal rats after single dose treatment with either () a vehicle preparation (rat tail collagen at 1 mg/ml) or (▪) vehicle plus cheese whey extract (GFE-2, Example 2).", "Data are plotted as wound breaking strength (g) against time.", "Other details are given in Example 10.", "[0141] [0141 ]FIG. 6 Contraction and epithelialization of excisional wounds on steroid-treated rats after treatment with either (▪) cheese whey extract (GFE-2, Example 2) or (♦) collagen vehicle alone, compared to wounds that were (□) untreated and left exposed.", "Wounds were treated with either vehicle preparation (1 mg/ml collagen) or vehicle plus cheese whey extract (2.5 mg/ml) daily for 10 days after wounding.", "A further group of control wounds received no treatment and were left exposed.", "Wound repair was measured by tracing both the full thickness wound margin and epithelial margin onto transparent sheets at various time points after wounding.", "FIG. 6( a ) shows full thickness wound area (MM 2 ) vs time as a measure of wound contraction.", "FIG. 6( b ) incorporates the epithelial component of excisional wound repair.", "Other details are given in Example 11.", "[0142] [0142 ]FIG. 7 Growth promoting activities of cheese whey extract (GFE-2, Example 2) on IEC-6 (rat intestinal epithelial) cells.", "GFE-2 was added either (∘) alone or in the presence of (□) 1% FBS or (Δ) 5% FBS.", "Cell growth is expressed as a percentage of that obtained in the presence of 10% FBS.", "Other details are given in Example 12.", "[0143] [0143 ]FIG. 8 Oral administration of cheese whey extract (GFE-2, Example 2) for 5 days to methotrexate-injected rats reduces small intestinal damage as assessed by (a) loss of mucosal crypt area (b) loss of mucosal villi area.", "Means±SEM, N=8.", "Other details are given in Example 13.", "[0144] [0144 ]FIG. 9 Oral administration of cheese whey extract (GFE-2, Example 2) for 5 days to methotrexate-injected rats increases sucrose activity in the ileum.", "Means±SEM, N=8.", "Other details are given in Example 14.", "[0145] [0145 ]FIG. 10 Oral administration of cheese whey extract (GFE-2, Example 2) for up to 12 days to methotrexate-injected rats reduces bacterial translocation across the gut.", "(a) Percentage of rats showing bacterial translocation, (b) Number of bacterial colonies per gram of intestinal lymph node.", "Means±SEM, N=8.", "Other details are given in Example 15.", "[0146] [0146 ]FIG. 11 Daily treatment of the cheek pouch in hamsters with a milk product extract (GFE-2) reduces the severity of oral mucositis ulcers caused by 5-fluorouracil.", "[0147] [0147 ]FIG. 12 Daily treatment of the cheek pouch in hamster with a milk product extract (GFE-2) reduces the body weight loss induced by 5-fluorouracil.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0148] As examples of wound repair in vitro, the cheese whey extract promotes the growth of human skin fibroblasts and human endothelial cells, cell types that are major components of the skin.", "[0149] In a further example of wound repair in vitro, the cheese whey extract stimulates the contraction of a fibroblast-populated collagen gel, a process that is analogous to the desired contraction of a wound in vivo.", "[0150] In yet a further example of wound repair in vitro, the cheese whey extract induces the closure of a full thickness excisional wound in cultured fetal rat skin.", "[0151] As an example of wound repair in vivo, it was found that the cheese whey extract enhanced the strength of an incisional wound in normal rats at 5 days or 7 days after a single treatment.", "[0152] In a second example of wound repair in vivo, it was found that full thickness, excisional wounds on steroid-compromised rats repaired more rapidly when treated daily with the cheese whey extract than with the vehicle solution.", "In this example both wound contraction and wound epithelialization were improved by the treatment.", "[0153] It has also been found that the cheese whey extract when administered to rats at the same time as the chemotherapy agent methotrexate can reduce the loss of mucosal crypts and villi in the jejunum and ileum regions of the gut.", "The treatment protocol can also lead to an increase in the activity of the digestive enzyme, sucrase, above that in animals that only receive methotrexate.", "[0154] In a second investigation on rats having their gut damaged with methotrexate, the incidence of bacterial translocation across the gut is reduced at 9 and 12 days after treatment with the cheese whey extract.", "Moreover, the number of bacterial colonies detected in intestinal lymph nodes is reduced at 5 and 9 days after treatment with the cheese whey extract.", "[0155] In a third investigation on male Golden Syrian hamsters, continuous topical application of GFE-2 to the hamster cheek pouch reduces the severity of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU)-induced chemotherapy-induced mucositis.", "[0156] Some aspects of the compositions and methods desribed herein are described in U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 07/956,759, filed Dec. 7, 1992, the complete disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.", "EXAMPLE 1 Preparation of a Fraction From Cheese Whey (GFE) That is Enriched in Growth Promoting Activity [0157] Pasteurized whey obtained as an end product of cheese manufacture was filtered through a 10 micron screen and a 0.2 micron Sartorius Microsart Sartocon II module to remove solids.", "The ultrafiltrate was adjusted to pH 6.5 and applied to a column of S-Sepharose Fast Flow S cation exchange resin (Pharmacia) that had been equilibrated with 50 mM sodium citrate buffer at pH 6.5.", "After washing the column with the same buffer the absorbed material was eluted by a solution of 1M NaCl containing 0.25 M NH 4 OH.", "This eluate was diafiltered against water until the conductivity reached 0 μg and then concentrated by ultrafiltration;", "both processes using a 3 kDa-excluding membrane.", "The resultant preparation was freeze-dried to produce the “GFE”", "product.", "[0158] A preparation from 30 litres of cheese whey containing 18 g protein yielded a GFE extract containing 2.66 g protein.", "EXAMPLE 2 Preparation of a Fraction From Cheese Whey That is Enriched in Growth-promoting Activity and Depleted in Extraneous Protein Including Lactoferrin (GFE-2) [0159] Pasteurized whey was filtered and applied to a column of S-Sepharose and the column washed as in Example 1.", "Elution was accomplished with a solution containing 0.4M NaCl added to 10 mM sodium citrate pH6.5.", "This GFE-2 was diafiltered against water, concentrated and freeze-dried as described in Example 1.", "[0160] A preparation from 30 litres of cheese whey which contained 18 g protein yielded a GFE-2 extract containing 0.56 g protein.", "EXAMPLE 3 Preparation of a Modified GFE-2 Fraction That is Also Depleted in Extraneous Protein Including Lactoperoxidase (GFE-3) [0161] The freeze-dried GFE-2 (Example 2) was dissolved at a concentration of 25 mg/ml and heated at 80° C. for 2.5 min.", "The heated sample was cooled rapidly and centrifuged.", "The clear supernatant was passed through a 0.22 μm filter before use.", "This solution contained 50% of the protein present in GFE-2 and approximately 10% lactoperoxidase.", "EXAMPLE 4 Stimulation of the Growth of Cultured Cells by Cheese Whey Extracts (Examples 1, 2) Compared With Fetal Bovine Serum [0162] Prior to the addition to culture media, the freeze-dried powders (GFE, GFE-2) were first suspended in Dulbecco's Phosphate-buffered saline and sterilized by passage through a 0.2 μm filter.", "[0163] This example utilizes the cell lines L6 (rat myoblast), Balb C/3T3 (mouse fibroblast) and SF1972 (human diploid skin fibroblast).", "[0164] Each cell line was subcultured on to 96-place tissue culture plates in Dulbecco-Modified Eagle's Minimal Essential Medium (DMEM) containing 5% fetal bovine serum and left in a 5% CO 2 , 37° C., humidified incubator overnight to ensure attachment of the cells.", "Sterile techniques were used throughout.", "The plates were thoroughly washed in DMEM to remove any residual serum and the whey extract (GFE or GFE-2) or fetal bovine serum (FBS) added at the indicated concentrations.", "The total volume in each well was 0.1 ml at 37° C., 5% CO 2 and 100% humidity.", "[0165] After a further 2 days the plates were washed, fixed and the cell numbers quantified using an automated methylene blue method (M.", "H. Oliver et al.", ", J. Cell Sci.", "92, 513, 1989).", "Growth is expressed as the percentage increase in absorbance units relative to the increase in absorbance produced by growing the cells in DMEM containing 5% fetal bovine serum (FIG.", "1).", "[0166] This example shows that in all three cell lines GFE and GFE-2 stimulate growth as well as fetal bovine serum.", "Moreover, in Balb C/3T3 and SF1972 cells GFE-2 is active at approximately one tenth the protein content as fetal bovine serum.", "EXAMPLE 5 Stimulation of the Growth of Cultured Cells by Extracts of Cheese Whey Depleted in Extraneous Protein Including Lactoperoxidase (GFE-3, Example 3) Compared With GFE-2 (Example 2) [0167] The experimental details were exactly as described in Example 4 except that the data are expressed as the protein content (μg/100 μl well) that achieved the same growth response as was achieved with 5% fetal bovine serum (see Table 1).", "TABLE 1 Growth of Cells in the presence of GPE-2 or GFE-3 Concentration (μg/100 μl) achieving growth equivalent to Cell Type Extract 5% fetal bovine serum L6 GFE-2 100 GFE-3 63 Balb C/3T3 GFE-2 15 GFE-3 6 SF1972 GFE-2 8 GFE-3 4 EXAMPLE 6 Growth Effects of Cultured Cells Produced by Supplementing Medium Containing 2% Fetal Bovine Serum With GFE-2 Extracts (Example 2) [0168] The experimental details were exactly as described in Example 4 except that the human lung fibroblast line (HEL) replaced the human skin fibroblast line (SF1972).", "Data are expressed as absorbances achieved after growth of the cells for 2 days (see Table 2).", "TABLE 2 Growth of Cells with GFE-2 added in the presence of 2% fetal bovine serum Fetal Increases in absorbance Bovine GFE-2 Balb C/3T3 HEL Serum (%) (μg/100 μl) L6 cells cells cells 2 0 0.618 0.126 0.16 5 0 0.998 0.270 0.21 10 0 1.309 0.502 0.34 2 5 1.010 0.294 0.32 2 25 1.108 0.585 0.38 2 50 1.157 0.698 0.38 2 100 1.370 0.799 0.37 EXAMPLE 7 Cheese Whey Extract Contains Factors That Promote DNA Synthesis by Cultured Human Endothelial Cells [0169] GFE-2 was prepared as in Example 2.", "The GFE-2 was dissolved in M199 medium, passed through a 0.22 micron filter and serially diluted in the same medium.", "[0170] This example utilizes human umbilical vein endothelial cells as a primary cell of wound repair.", "Primary cultures of human umbilical vein endothelial cells were isolated according to the method of Gimbrone et al.", "(J.", "Cell.", "Biol.", "60, 673, 1974) and passaged in medium 199 containing 20% FBS, endothelial cell growth supplement, and heparin, and left in a 5% CO 2 , 37° C. humidified incubator overnight to ensure attachment of the cells.", "Sterile techniques were used throughout.", "The plates were then thoroughly washed in M199 to remove any residual serum and the whey extract added at the indicated concentrations.", "The total volume in each well was 1 ml.", "After a 24 h incubation 3 H-thymidine was added to each well and allowed to incorporate into cellular DNA for a further 6 h. The cells were then washed thoroughly to remove unincorporated 3 H-thymidine and the cell layer dissolved in 0.5M NaOH containing 0.1% Triton X 13 100.", "3 H-Thymidine incorporated into cellular DNA was measured by scintillation counting.", "DNA synthesis is expressed as the percentage increase in cpm above that produced by growing the cells in unsupplemented M199 (FIG.", "2).", "[0171] This example shows that the cheese whey extract contains factors that stimulate DNA synthesis by endothelial cells.", "The growth response exerted by cheese whey extract can be distinguished from transforming growth factor beta which inhibits the growth of endothelial cells (Muller et al.", "“Inhibitory action of transforming growth factor beta on endothelial cells.”", "Proc.", "Natl.", "Acad.", "Sci.", "USA 84, 5600,1987).", "EXAMPLE 8 Cheese Extract Induces Contraction of a Fibroblast-populated Collagen Lattice [0172] GFE-2 was prepared as in Example 2, and sterile filtered by passage through a 0.22 μm filter.", "[0173] An in vitro model of wound contraction was prepared as follows.", "Human diploid skin fibroblasts were suspended in Dulbecco's-Modified Eagle's Minimal Essential Medium (DMEM) at a concentration of 200,000 cells per ml, and mixed with an equal volume of soluble rat tail collagen (2 mg per ml) containing 3 H-inulin (10-20,000 cpm per ml).", "The mixture was poured into 24-place wells (1 ml per well) and allowed to gel by incubation at 37° C. for 30 minutes.", "The gels were then separated from the tissue culture plastic by reaming the margin of the gel with a 25 G needle.", "The fibroblast populated collagen matrix was then overlaid by DMEM containing cheese whey extract at the indicated concentrations and incubated for a further 24 hours at 37° C. in a humidified atmosphere containing 5% CO 2 .", "The degree of collagen contraction was determined by scintillation counting of the 3 H-inulin remaining in the contracted gel (means+SEM, N=3, FIG. 3).", "[0174] This example shows that factors in cheese whey extract act on the human skin fibroblast to induce reorganization of collagen fibers and contraction of a collagen gel that is analogous to the contraction of a wound.", "EXAMPLE 9 Whey-derived Growth Factor Extract Induces Closure of a Full Thickness Excisional Wound in Cultured Fetal Rat Skin [0175] Cheese whey extract GFE-2 as produced in Example 2 was dissolved in Dulbecco's-Modified Eagle's Minimal Essential Medium (DMEM) and sterile filtered.", "[0176] An in vitro organ culture model of wound repair was established as follows.", "A pregnant Sprague-Dawley rat was killed by CO 2 asphyxiation at 17 days gestation and fetal rats dissected free from the uterus.", "A 1 cm×1 cm piece of skin, including the epidermis and full thickness dermis, was dissected from the back of each fetus using fine scissors and forceps, and a 1 mm hole placed in the centre of the skin using a 19 G needle.", "The preparation was mounted on a cradle and placed in a culture dish containing DMEM done, dilutions of cheese whey extract or 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS).", "All preparations were photographed using a standard focal length jig prior to culture.", "Cultures were then maintained at 37° C. in a humidified atmosphere of 5% CO 2 for 72 hours, and photographed at 24, 48 and 72 hours.", "The percentage of the wound remaining open was determined by planimetry.", "FIG. 4 shows that cheese whey extract at a concentration of 2.5 mg/ml is able to induce healing of the excisional defect after 72 h culture (mean+SEM, N=3).", "This experiment shows that cheese whey extract contains factors that promote healing of a full thickness excisional wound in organotypic fetal skin culture.", "EXAMPLE 10 Cheese Whey Extract Enhances Wound Strength in Normal Rats [0177] Cheese whey extract GFE-2 prepared as in Example 2 was formulated in a 1 mg/ml collagen solution to a final concentration of 2.5 mg/ml.", "[0178] An in vivo model of incisional wound repair was established as follows.", "Male rats between 250 and 300 g were anaesthetized by inhalation of isofluorane and paired 6 cm full thickness incisions were placed through the skin 1.5 cm either side of the dorsal midline.", "Cheese whey extract (2.5 mg/ml) was then applied to one wound and vehicle (rat tail collagen, 1 mg/ml) applied to the contralateral wound, each rat therefore serving as its own control.", "Each wound received 100 μl of either the vehicle or the cheese whey extract preparation;", "experimental wounds therefore received 250 μg of cheese whey extract.", "The margins of both wounds were then apposed using sutures and animals housed individually after surgery.", "Rats were killed by CO 2 asphyxiation at days 3, 5 and 7, and the dorsal pelts removed.", "The maximum load (breaking strength) tolerated by the wounds was measured by placing 4 mm strips taken at 90° to the wound in a tensiometer.", "Wound strength (mean+SEM, N=16 wounds per time point) is expressed as breaking strength vs time (FIG.", "5).", "[0179] This example shows that the single application of cheese whey extract enhances healing of an incisional wound in normal rats.", "This enhancement is particularly evident between 3 and 5 days after wounding, and is maintained until day 7.", "EXAMPLE 11 Cheese Whey Extract Enhances Wound Contraction and Epithelialization in Steroid-treated Rats [0180] Cheese whey extract was prepared as in Example 2 and formulated as in Example 10.", "[0181] An in vivo model of wound contraction and epithelialization was established as follows.", "Sprague Dawley rats, weighing between 250 and 300 grams were administered methyl-prednisolone (30 mg/kg).", "The rats were then anaesthetized using isofluorane/N 2 O/O 2 , their backs clipped of hair and four square symmetrical wounds created down the midline of the back.", "A template containing four square holes, each measuring 1.5 by 1.5 cm, was used to create a line of wounds through the skin and panniculus carnosis muscle to the deep fascia of the back.", "The size and shape of the wounds are then recorded by taking analogue tracings onto acetate film.", "All rats were housed individually after surgery.", "Animals were reanaesthetized and wound areas measured on days 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 12, 14, 16, 19, 21, 23, 26 and 28.", "Care was taken to delineate between the full thickness wound margin and the advancing epithelium which were recorded separately.", "Wounds were treated with the vehicle preparation (rat tail collagen at 1 mg/ml) or vehicle plus whey extract, daily for the first 10 days of the study.", "A further control group received no treatment and the wounds were left exposed.", "Data (means±SEM, N=28 wounds) are expressed as area inside full thickness wound margin vs time (FIG.", "6( a );", "wound contraction) or area inside the epithelial margin of the wound vs time (ie incorporating wound epithelialization;", "FIG. 6( b )).", "[0182] This experiment shows that cheese extract incorporated into a collagen vehicle enhances wound contraction and epithelialization in steroid-compromised animals.", "EXAMPLE 12 Cheese Whey Extract Contains Factors That Promote Cell Division by Cultured Intestinal Epithelial Cells [0183] GFE-2 was prepared as in Example 2.", "The GFE-2 was dissolved in Dulbecco's Modified Eagle's Medium (DMEM), passed through a 0.22 micron filter, and serially diluted in the same medium.", "[0184] This example utilizes rat intestinal epithelial cells as a primary cell of intestinal wound repair.", "IEC-6 cells were maintained and passaged in DMEM containing 10% FBS.", "For each experiment, IEC-6 cells were sub-cultured onto 96-place tissue culture plates in DMEM containing 10% FBS and left in a 5% CO 2 , 37° C. humidified incubator overnight to ensure attachment.", "Sterile techniques were used throughout.", "The plates were then thoroughly washed in DMEM to remove any residual serum and the whey extract added at the indicated concentrations either alone or in the presence of 1% FBS or 5% FBS.", "The total volume in each well was 0.1 ml.", "After a 48 h incubation period the cell number was assessed using a dye-binding assay (Oliver et al.", ", J. Cell.", "Sci.", "92, 513, 1989).", "[0185] This example shows that the whey extract contains factors that stimulate growth of intestinal epithelial cells, and therefore whey extract may be useful in promoting repair of intestinal ulceration or damage, or to enhance intestinal growth.", "EXAMPLE 13 Oral Administration of a Milk Product Extract From Bovine Cheese Whey (GFE-2) Partially Prevents Loss of Small Intestinal Crypts and Villi in Rats With Methotrexate Induced Small Bowel Damage [0186] In this Example 13, rats were injected with high doses of the chemotherapy agent, methotrexate, as an experimental model of damage to the lining of the alimentary tract.", "Oral administration to methotrexate-injected rats of a milk product extract purified from bovine cheese whey (GFE-2 as described in Example 2) provides evidence that the milk product extract can ameliorate chemotherapy damage to the small bowel.", "[0187] Male Sprague Dawley rats, weighing on average 140 g and maintained in metabolism cages were fed a high-carbohydrate diet.", "Control rats received no GFE-2 whereas experimental rats were treated for 5 days with GFE-2.", "GFE-2 treated rats were fed a modified diet containing 31.2 g GFE-2/kg diet in place of the equivalent amount of casein.", "In addition, the GFE-2 fed rats were given GFE by stomach gavage on days 3, 4 and 5 of the experimental period so that the total dose of GFE-2 per day averaged 514 mg/day GFE-2.", "Control rats were fed the unmodified diet and gavaged by an identical protocol on days 3, 4 and 5 with an equivalent amount of bovine serum albumin to ensure an isonitrogenous diet.", "[0188] One group of control rats and the GFE-2 treated rats (8 rats per group) were injected subcutaneously with 2.5 mg/kg methotrexate at the start of days 1, 2 and 3.", "An additional control group (“pair-fed”) received sham methotrexate injections, and was pair-fed to the methotrexate-injected control group.", "[0189] Rats were maintained in the metabolism cages for 5 days, at which time they were killed for collection of the gastrointestinal tract.", "Tissue samples were collected from the proximal small bowel (duodenum and jejunum) as well as the distal small bowel (ileum).", "Tissue samples were fixed in methacarn, embedded in paraffin, sectioned and stained with haematoxylin-eosin for histological analysis.", "[0190] Compared with the pair-fed controls, the methotrexate-injected control group showed loss of mucosal crypts in the jejunum, and to a lesser extend in the ileum.", "This is illustrated in FIG. 8( a ) as the area of intact crypts per unit area of total mucosa, and demonstrates that methotrexate causes loss of mucosal crypts (which contain the dividing cells of the epithelium) characteristic of chemotherapy damage.", "Also characteristic of chemotherapy damage in the small bowel, methotrexate injection caused stunting and loss of intestinal villi, being the functional compartment of the small bowel mucosa.", "This is illustrated in FIG. 8 ( b ) by a reduction in the surface length of the finger-like viiii per unit length of intestinal circumference in methotrexate-treated controls compared with the pair-fed group receiving no methotrexate.", "[0191] Oral administration of GFE-2 for 5 days starting at the time of the first methotrexate injection partially prevented the loss of mucosal crypts and villi in both regions of the small bowel (FIG.", "8) The effects of GFE-2 were statistically significant (P<0.05 by ANOVA) in the jejunum, where methotrexate-induced damage was more severe, and in the ileum for villus surface length.", "[0192] The example demonstrates that oral administration of GFE-2 is able to partially prevent or accelerate repair of chemotherapy damage in the small bowel.", "EXAMPLE 14 Sucrase Activity is Increased in the Damaged Mucosa of Rats Treated With Cheese Whey Extract [0193] From the same experiment as described in Example 13, 4 cm lengths of small bowel were frozen for measurement of the activity of mucosal sucrase, an enzyme located on the surface of epithelial cells of the villus.", "Because sucrase is essential for digestion of dietary sucrose, the sucrase activity per unit length of intestine provides a measure of the functional capacity of the small bowel.", "[0194] Five day's, oral administration of GFE-2 to methotrexate-injected rats significantly improved (P<0.05) the sucrase activity per unit length of ileum compared with the methotrexate-injected control group, or the pair-fed control group (FIG.", "9).", "[0195] This example demonstrates that GFE-2 improves the functional capacity of the chemotherapy-damaged small bowel.", "EXAMPLE 15 Oral Administration of Cheese Whey Extract to Rats for 5 to 12 Days Reduces Bacterial Translocation Across the Gut [0196] The ability of the gut epithelium to provide a barrier against bacterial invasion provides another measure of gut function that is improved by cheese whey extract.", "[0197] 140 g male Sprague Dawley rats were injected with methotrexate for three consecutive days as described in Example 13.", "Methotrexate-injected rats were administered oral GFE-2 by an identical protocol to that described in Example 13.", "One group of rats was killed on day 5 after is the start of methotrexate injections (as in Example 13), while in other groups, GFE-2 treatment was continued for a total of 8 or 12 days (8 rats per group).", "Control methotrexate treated rats and pair-fed control rats identical to those in Example 13 were killed on days 5, 8 and 12 (8 rats per group).", "[0198] Rats were maintained in metabolism cages as in Example 13 until exsanguination on day 5, 8 or 12.", "The abdominal skin was soaked in 70% ethanol before the intestine was removed under aseptic conditions.", "All visible mesenteric lymph nodes were placed into a sterile pre-weighed container.", "Samples were then weighed and infusion solution was added to a final concentration of 100 mg/ml.", "Tissues were homogenized in this solution with sterile glass-reinforced grinders.", "For measurement of translocation of gram negative bacteria into mesenteric lymph nodes, 40 or 60 mg of each tissue homogenate was placed onto MacConkey agar II or blood agar plates and incubated aerobically at 35° C. for 48 hours.", "Enteric gram negative bacterial colonies were identified using API 20E strips, then counted.", "The incidence (proportion of animals exhibiting detectable bacterial translocation) and mean number of bacterial colonies per gram of tissue were calculated for each treatment group.", "[0199] Pair fed control animals receiving no methotrexate showed no incidence of bacterial translocation across the gut.", "Methotrexate injection impaired the intestinal barrier so that all rats in the methotrexate-injected control group (FIG.", "10;", "“No GFE-2”) had positive bacterial cultures from mesenteric lymph nodes on day 5.", "The incidence in this group diminished over the next 7 days, but remained at 60% on day 12 (FIG.", "10 ( a )).", "The number of colonies per gram of mesenteric lymph node was maximal on day 5, and then diminished thereafter in parallel with the incidence (FIG.", "10( b )).", "[0200] Oral administration of GFE-2 resulted in a lower incidence of translocation on days 8 and 12, with the difference between GFE-2 treated and control 2 methotrexate-injected rats reaching statistical significance by X 2 test (P<0.05) on day 12.", "The number of colonies per gram of mesenteric lymph node was also significantly lower in the GFE-2 treated group on both day 5 and 8.", "[0201] The example demonstrates that oral administration of the milk product extract partially prevents chemotherapy-induced loss of barrier function in the gut.", "This could be expected to decrease the incidence of infection and sepsis following chemotherapy.", "[0202] Finally, it is to be understood that various other modifications and/or alterations may be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention as outlined herein.", "EXAMPLE 16 [0203] Continuous topical application of GFE-2 to the hamster cheek pouch reduces the severity of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU)-induced chemotherapy-induced mucositis.", "[0204] This experiment investigated the effects of GFE-2 administered topically on chemotherapy-induced oral mucositis in male Golden Syrian hamsters.", "The trial included continuous treatment of GFE-2 to the cheek pouch of 10 hamsters treated with 5-fluorouracil.", "[0205] Hamsters were divided into two groups of five animals.", "The initial mean body weight of each group was similar.", "All hamsters were given intraperitoneal injections of 90 mg/kg of 5-FU on day 1, and 60 mg/kg on day 3.", "The cheek pouch was scratched on days 1, 2 and 3 with six strokes of a wire brush in one direction and six strokes in the other perpendicular direction to achieve a uniform wound.", "[0206] Groups were treated with either a commercial mouthwash as vehicle, or 0.3 ml of GFE-2 at 40/mg/ml protein concentration.", "The cheek pouch liquid treatments were applied daily for one minute, during which time the hamsters were anaesthetized using isoflurane anesthesia.", "[0207] The cheek pouch was assess on days 5, 7, 8, 11, 13 and 15.", "Monitoring was based on a visual assessment of the cheek pouch (graded on a 1-10 scale) taking into account the overall severity of the lesion, degree of bruising, swelling and scarring.", "Body weight was recorded as a percentage of the day 0 value.", "[0208] Animals given a topical treatment of GFE-2 showed reduced mucositis compared to the vehicle treated group, measured as overall visual score (FIG.", "5), total ulcer area and body weight loss (FIG.", "6).", "Each of these effects was statistically significant by paired t-test favoring GFE-2 treatment.", "[0209] This example suggested that topical administration of GFE-2 may reduce the severity of oral mucositis and related symptoms such as body weight loss." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates generally to a portable cabinet equipped for rolling movement over a surface with an appendage housed inside, said device having separate, compartmentalized trays or containers for receiving, organizing, storing and transporting a plurality of collectible items for holiday such as ornaments, strands of lights, and related accessories, as well as for hobbies and crafts.", "As the popularity of holiday tree decorating grows dramatically, the need arose for a convenient and practical means to receive, organize, store and transport delicate collectibles.", "In the past, delicate collectible items, lighting, and related accessories for the holiday have been stored in large plastic storage containers wherein the contents thereof cannot be secure from damage or breakage.", "There are no separate compartments or dividers to prevent contents from shifting, breaking or being destroyed.", "The prior art is replete with reference to various types of organizers and portable storage devices.", "The prior art is not designed, intended, or adaptable for holiday, hobby, and crafting.", "U.S. Pat. No. 4,444,418, to Goldstein, is directed to a carrying case for information and product samples.", "This case is particularly adapted for artwork or other similar, substantially flat material.", "U.S. Pat. No. 3,913,711, to Schmid, relates to a portable display case comprising a pair of containers detachably connected to each other.", "Each container has a hingably connected cover portion that may be laid flat to support the compartment in a vertical position allowing display of goods contained therein.", "None of these prior art patents relate to a portable cabinet and organizer with separate, compartmentalized trays or containers adaptable for receiving, organizing, storing and transporting a plurality of delicate collectibles.", "The present invention meets these special objectives by a unique design and assembly.", "The manner by which such objectives are achieved will become apparent upon reading the following Specification, particularly when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.", "BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to a portable cabinet with an appendage housed inside, said device having plurality of separate, compartmentalized tote tray or container for receiving, organizing, storing and transporting a plurality of collectible items for holiday and related accessories such as ornaments, one or more strand of lights, hobbies and crafts.", "It is another object of this invention to provide a versatile, portable, efficient system to transport and adequately hold collectibles securely in a cabinet and within its inner compartment.", "This device housed inside the cabinet has separate, compartmentalized trays/containers with dividers that prevent items from shifting, bumping other items.", "It is also an object of this invention to provide a storage and transportation cabinet with a plurality of trays that are reliable, convenient, and efficient in use, yet relatively inexpensive in construction.", "It is a further object of this invention to provide a rigid storage and transporting device to store various collectible items and prevent its contents from shifting and becoming damaged or destroyed.", "It is still another object of the present invention to provide an organizer which can be conveniently fit into an outer container of varying size and shape and which can also be partitioned into inner compartments.", "It is a yet further object of this invention to provide a secure and reliable method of keeping strands of holiday lights from becoming twisted, tangled, damaged and broken.", "Further objects of the present invention will be apparent from the description herein.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the front closed cabinet according to this invention;", "FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the front opened portable cabinet of the present invention;", "FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the back and side front view of the portable cabinet opened illustrating the hinged side cabinet of the present invention;", "FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the opened latch assembly of the portable cabinet and storage cabinet of the present invention;", "FIG. 5 is a back and side elevational view of an embodiment of the cabinet in an upright position illustrating the roller mechanism and handle displayed;", "FIG. 6 is a perspective elevational view of the opened cabinet and storage caddy of the present intention illustrating latch and snap assembly with proper alignment of plurality of horizontal trays and empty chamber with plurality of shelves for rounded trays;", "FIG. 7 is a second perspective view of the front and back portable cabinet of the present invention opened in upright position illustrating proper alignment of boxes for light strands and plurality of trays/containers nested together;", "FIG. 8 is a perspective view of the lid and base components, forming the container;", "FIG. 9 is a schematic front view of the horizontal panel for securing light strands;", "FIG. 10 is a perspective front and side view of rectangular box open illustrating proper alignment and placement of light strand and angled bottom;", "FIG. 11 is a schematic view of the portable cabinet and storage caddy of the present invention with the cabinet open and internal chambers, tote trays or containers displayed illustrating functionality and use.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates generally to a portable cabinet equipped for rolling movement over a surface with an appendage housed inside, said device having separate, compartmentalized trays or containers for receiving, organizing, storing and transporting a plurality of collectible items such as ornaments and strands of lights and hobbies and/or crafts.", "The components of this invention are made of any suitable materials, preferably molded plastic.", "Thus it is apparent that in accordance with the present invention, an apparatus that fully satisfies the objectives, aims and advantages is set forth above.", "While the invention has been described in conjunction with specific embodiments, it is evident that many alternatives, modifications, permutations and variations will become apparent to those skilled in the art in light of the foregoing description.", "Accordingly, it is intended that the present invention embrace all such alternatives, modifications, and variations as fall within the scope of the appended claims.", "Referring to the drawings and specifically FIGS. 1 , 2 , 3 , 5 , 6 , 7 , and 11 , there is illustrated a portable cabinet and caddy organizer 7 and 11 according to the present invention.", "FIG. 1 illustrates the portable cabinet and caddy organizer in the closed transportable position, FIG. 6 , illustrates the enclosure for the portable cabinet and caddy organizer in an open position, in a partially assembled state, and FIGS. 7 and 11 illustrates the portable cabinet and caddy organizer assembled.", "It will be appreciated that the assembled portable cabinet and organizer shown by FIGS. 6 and 7 are devoid of items such as ornaments, lights, collectibles, or the like, as well as such additional elements being deleted from the drawing for clarity of illustration.", "FIG. 5 refers to rollers 4 , which engage the rigid body portion for support, are mounted about adjacent to the bottom of portion of wall member 22 and 23 .", "The rollers 4 are preferably position at the junction of rear panel 22 and the bottom of wall member 23 .", "The rollers 4 are positioned to at least partially support the weight of the cabinet 14 when in the upright, or at rest position.", "The rollers 4 are operable to enable rolling movement of the cabinet across a surface when in an inclined position.", "The rollers 4 are preferably, molded plastic but may be any caster of a type known to those skilled in the art and may be mounted with an axle, snap or any other suitable material known to those skilled in the art.", "The push/pull handle or gripping bar as shown in FIG. 5 is preferably a rigid handle, having two legs and a gripping member 3 .", "The handle, which may also be stationary, is mounted on the cabinet 5 about adjacent to the rigid body portion at the top portion of wall member 20 .", "The handle 3 , which preferably, also includes a locking mechanism (not shown) for locking the handle in the retracted position, may be employed by the user to effect rolling movement of the cabinet 5 across the surface.", "The portable cabinet and organizer as shown in FIG. 3 , includes an enlarged six-sided trunklike enclosure or housing FIGS. 2 and 3 defined primarily by an upright cabinet FIG. 3 having an openable door 1 associated with one side thereof.", "The upright cabinet as shown by FIGS. 2 , 3 and 6 , includes generally parallel and horizontally extending top and bottom walls 22 and 23 which are rigidly and permanently joined to generally parallel and vertically extending side walls 24 and 28 .", "All of these walls 24 , 25 26 and 28 , in turn are rigidly joined to a generally vertically enlarged rear walls 22 and 23 .", "Thus the formed cabinet has a front side 1 which is open so as to provide access to the rather large interior compartment FIGS. 2 , 6 , 7 , and 11 defined by the cabinet.", "The front side or opening 1 of the cabinet 3 is adapted to be closed by the door 1 , the latter including a generally peripheral edge wall 22 - 30 defined between generally parallel and horizontally extending top and bottom edge walls 22 - 30 , the latter being rigidly and permanent joined by parallel and vertically extending side edge walls 24 and 25 .", "The peripheral edge wall is in turn joined to a vertically enlarged front wall or panel 26 which, in cooperation with the edge wall, causes the door 1 to define therein a compartment 8 which extends throughout substantially the full extent of the door but is of shallow horizontal depth.", "The bottom of this compartment 10 is defined by an inner flat panel which extends between the edge wall 24 and overlies the front panel 26 .", "When the door 1 is closed onto the cabinet FIG. 3 , the shallow door compartment 8 faces and is in open communication with the front side of the larger and deeper cabinet compartment 8 .", "The door 1 is connected to the cabinet 2 by a vertically elongated hinge 6 which defines a vertically extending hinge axis disposed adjacent the front edge of the side wall 24 and 26 , whereby the door 1 can be horizontally hingedly swung between the closed and open positions illustrated respectively by FIGS. 3 , 6 and 7 .", "The side edge of the door remote from the hinge preferably has a conventional latch 5 FIGS. 4 , 6 and 7 which cooperates with the cabinet when in the closed position so as to hold the door closed, such latch being typically activated in a conventional manner.", "As shown by FIG. 6 , the cabinet interior compartment 8 and 10 is preferably provided with appropriate organizer supports or elements positioned within the compartment 8 and 10 so as to cooperatively function as part of a portable cabinet and organizer.", "For example, in the illustrated embodiment the cabinet FIG. 6 stationarily mounts therein a first horizontal shelf 7 disposed so as to extend horizontally across the compartment adjacent the upper portion thereof but in slightly downwardly spaced relation from the top wall 1 ( a ).", "A further stationary shelf 7 ( b ) also extends horizontally across the cabinet compartment, this latter shelf 7 ( f ) being positioned approximately midway between the top and bottom walls of the cabinet.", "The elevation of shelf 7 in a preferred embodiment is approximately at work surface or table height relative to the floor.", "A horizontally enlarged slidable shelf or tray 7 ( b ) is also mounted on the cabinet at an elevation slightly below the shelf 7 ( a ).", "This tray or shelf 7 ( b ) is horizontally movably supported on conventional telescopic drawer slides 7 ( b ) which mount to the underside of shelf 7 ( a ), whereby tray 17 and 19 can be slidably moved between a storage position within the cabinet as illustrated in FIG. 7 ;", "and a use position illustrated in FIG. 11 wherein the container 19 ( d ) projects outwardly from the front of the cabinet.", "When in the use position illustrated by FIG. 11 , tray 19 can be readily used.", "Cabinet shown in FIG. 6 , also mounts therein various chambers and fixtures which cooperate to define a useable storage space when the portable cabinet and organizer is in the assembled position of FIG. 11 .", "For example, in the illustrated embodiment the door 1 mounts thereon vertically, the latter being secured at the back of the shallow compartment 2 so as to extend across the inner surface of the front panel adjacent the upper end of the door.", "Considering now the door 1 in the illustrated embodiment, also is provided with a drawer unit 12 and 13 which are disposed within the bottom compartment 8 directly above the bottom wall 33 , and is again supported so that the drawer can be slidably moved inwardly and outwardly from the storage position into an access position illustrated by FIGS. 7 and 11 so as to access the upwardly opening compartment 8 thereof.", "If desired, a further tote tray drawer can be movably supported on the cabinet directly below the drawer being supported so as to be movable into an open position similar to the previous drawer as illustrated by FIGS. 6 and 11 .", "The trays/containers permit storage of significant collectible items therein, both during utilization of the cabinet and organizer when the cabinet and organizer is in the position of FIG. 11 for storage.", "The cabinet bottom 2 supports and stores therein an enlarged organizer, the latter being storable in an upright position within the shallow compartment 10 substantially as illustrated by FIGS. 6 , 7 and 11 .", "There is also provided a horizontally elongated top bracket/clasp 11 positioned within the shallow compartment of the door adjacent the upper end thereof.", "This bracket/clasp 11 extends horizontally across the door compartment, and has leverlike arms 11 at opposite ends thereof which joins the opposite side edge walls of the tray door to permit the bracket/clasp 11 to be vertically moved to accommodate removal of the tote tray about a horizontal hinge axis.", "This enables the bracket/clasp 11 to be moved slightly from a lowermost position as illustrated in FIG. 7 wherein it overlaps and engages the tote tray in the underside compartment 10 , thereby trapping the storage tray and holding it securely in the bottom compartment, and in a lower storage position shown in FIGS. 6 , 7 and 11 , when the cabinet is resting on a flat surface and wherein the bracket/clasp is disposed directly adjacent the bottom edge wall 10 .", "The door 1 also mounts thereon, adjacent the lower free corner thereof (i.e., the lower corner remote from the hinge 6 ), a roller assembly 4 adapted to be disposed in stationary and load-bearing engagement with a support surface or floor when the door 1 is in the open position so as to not only maintain the door 1 stationary relative to the cabinet 7 , but to also prevent load-bearing induced distortion of the door and cabinet which may otherwise interfere with proper utilization of the cabinet and organizer and specifically of the components associated therewith.", "As indicated in FIG. 2 , the bottom edge wall of the bottom 2 is disposed a small distance above the bottom wall 10 of the cabinet 3 and 5 , thus providing sufficient space for accommodating the caster without unduly increasing the structural complexity of the lower edge of the door.", "When the portable cabinet and organizer is in the open position as shown in FIGS. 2 , 3 and 5 , the cabinet 2 and door 1 function not only to support collectibles and equipment such as the shelves, drawers.", "As shown by FIGS. 6 , 7 and 11 , the horizontal tote tray has one or more horizontally elongated device that is approximately 17 inches in length that fit in one bracket therein on opposing ends of the tray to organize and hold strands of lights in place and keep lights tangle-free.", "As indicated in FIGS. 7 and 11 storage container has generally rounded components each with a top that aligns and mates in face-to-face relation with interlocking lips to hold items in the chamber.", "The containers are slidably mounted therein the storage cabinet from top to bottom.", "Components are of any suitable material, preferably molded plastic.", "As illustrated in FIGS. 6 , 7 and 11 , one or more elongated, generally rectangular components are incorporated in the storage caddy chamber, each with a dedicated top and base and handle member, held in place by a pair of clasps 11 woven into the interior recessed sidewalls of the storage apparatus.", "The tote trays FIG. 11 slide in and out of the recessed storage chamber FIG. 7 for access and convenience in storage of collectibles.", "While the portable cabinet and storage caddy organizer has been illustrated and described above incorporating various collectibles, equipment, and accessories (such as shelves, tote tray or container drawers, light comb, and the like) which are believed desirable to provide a portable cabinet and organizer having a minimal but comprehensive selection of usable features, nevertheless it will be appreciated that other structures or features can alternately or optionally be provided within the enclosure if desired.", "The cabinet FIG. 12 will normally have a depth which is several times the average depth of the door compartment.", "Similarly, the enclosure 12 will normally have a height which is significantly greater than either the horizontal width or depth of the closed enclosure.", "In a typical construction, a cabinet will be a depth of about 17 inches, a width of about 17 inches, and a height of about 27 inches.", "When transporting of the portable cabinet and storage caddy organizer as shown in FIGS. 7 and 11 of this invention is desired, then the portable cabinet and storage caddy organizer can be stored intact in an upright position with the door closed and latched so that the overall enclosure is in the closed position illustrated by FIG. 1 or tilt the cabinet and organizer rearwardly to permit the casters to rest on the a flat surface such as a floor or table.", "Although a particular preferred embodiment of the invention has been disclosed in detail for illustrative purposes, it will be recognized that variations or modifications of the disclosed apparatus, including the rearrangement of parts, lie within the scope of the present invention.", "LEGEND 1 .", "Cabinet Top (Door) or Front 2 .", "Cabinet Bottom or Back 3 .", "Handle 4 .", "Wheel Assembly 5 .", "Cabinet Latch Assembly 6 .", "Hinge Assembly 7 .", "Shelf 8 .", "Interior Top Chamber Compartment 9 .", "Caddy Appendage 10 .", "Interior Bottom Caddy Chamber Compartment 11 .", "Clasp 12 .", "Tote Tray Top 13 .", "Tote Tray Bottom 14 .", "Tote Tray Handle 15 .", "Tote Tray Light Comb 16 .", "Tote Tray Latch 17 .", "Single Tray 18 .", "Container Lid 19 .", "Container Base 20 .", "Handle Panel 21 .", "Center Caddy Panel 22 .", "Left Bottom Rear Wall 23 .", "Right Bottom Rear Panel 24 .", "Left Side Bottom Panel 25 .", "Right Side Bottom Panel 26 .", "Right Front Horizontal Panel 27 .", "Right Front Caddy Panel 28 .", "Center Front Horizontal Panel 29 .", "Left Caddy Panel 30 .", "Left Front Horizontal Panel 31 .", "Cabinet Feet (not shown) 32 .", "Bottom Floor Wall 33 .", "Front Floor Wall 34 .", "Horizontal Tray Shelf" ]

[ "CLAIM OF PRIORITY [0001] The present application claims priority from Japanese application JP 2007-101820 field on Apr. 9, 2007, the content of which is hereby incorporated by reference into this application.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1.", "Field of the Invention [0003] The present invention relates to a reaction apparatus and a reaction chip and particularly to a PCR reaction apparatus utilizing PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) that can amplify nucleic acid such as DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) and RNA (Ribonucleic acid) and a reaction chip thereof.", "[0004] 2.", "Description of the Related Art [0005] In these years, a DNA chip used for DNA analysis has been used widely in the various fields of medical treatment, foods inspection and dangerous objects inspection.", "This DNA chip is formed by fixing many single-stranded DNAs on a solid-phase.", "In order to conduct base arrangement analysis and diagnostic analysis using this DNA chip, only a small amount of nucleic acid such as DNA and RNA, or the like must be amplified up to the quantity required for analysis.", "[0006] A PCR method has been proposed as a method for amplifying the nucleic acid.", "According to this PCR method, the particular target DNA, for example, can be amplified up to 100,000 times or more.", "DNA is configured with longer double-stranded molecules coupled with four kinds bases (A: adenine, G: guanine, C: cytosine, and T: thymine), forming a pair with adenine A of one strand and thymine T of the other strand and a pair with guanine G of one strand and cytosine C of the other strand.", "DNA has the characteristic that coupled strands are decoupled into individual single strands when temperature rises (for example, up to 94° C.), while the coupled strands are recovered again when temperature is lowered again.", "When a large amount primer (a set of single-stranded DNAs having the base arrangement equivalent to several bases at both ends of the target DNA region) is introduced, for example, at 55° C. when the coupled strands are decoupled into individual strands, these strands are coupled with priority to a region of the complementary arrangement on the respective strands.", "If the DNA synthetase (DNA polymerase) and four kinds of bases, for example, exist there under 72° C., the strands are respectively synthesized from the starting point of the part coupled with the primer.", "With use of this DNA polymerase, continuous reaction of the DNA synthesis is driven to increase DNA only by repeating the rise and fall cycle of temperature (94° C.→55° C.→72° C.→94° C.).", "[0007] Recently, experiment for amplification of nucleic acid is often conducted using a small-sized chip provided with a reaction channel.", "[0008] For example, as described in “Sensors and Actuators B 105 (2005) 251-258”, investigation is continued for a method to realize amplified reaction of nucleic acid by heating and cooling a PCR reaction chip as a reaction vessel in order to raise or fall the temperature of the reaction liquid as a whole.", "[0009] Meanwhile, as JP-A-2005-253466 describes, investigation is also continued for a method to amplify nucleic acid by forming a channel for different temperature regions within the PCR reaction chip and then allowing the reaction liquid to flow into this channel in order to raise or fall the temperature of the reaction liquid.", "[0010] However, the method of “Sensors and Actuators B 105 (2005) 251-258”", "described above has the problems that since the PCR reaction chip as a whole is heated and cooled, a longer time is required until the PCR reaction is completed by repeating heat treatments and cooling treatments and therefore a longer time is also required for amplification of nucleic acid.", "[0011] Moreover, the method of JP-A-2005-253466 described above has a merit that a reaction time can be shortened in comparison with the time in “Sensors and Actuators B 105 (2005) 251-258”, because temperature is not changed by heating the entire part of the PCR reaction chip, different temperature regions are set within the chip, a channel is formed in the respective regions, and temperature of the reaction liquid is varied by allowing the reaction liquid to flow into the channel.", "However, although the PCR chip is produced by a resin such as PDMS (Polydimethylsiloxane: (C 2 H 6 SiO) n ) in order to control increase in manufacturing cost, thermal conductivity of PDMS is as low as about 0.2[W/mK] and is as small as 1/1000 in comparison with that of a metal material.", "Moreover, the difference between the ambient temperature and the setting temperature is large.", "Therefore, a temperature difference is also generated within the PCR reaction chip, even when the PCR reaction chip is heated from the lower surface.", "As a result, the temperature at each region of the reaction liquid does not become uniform, and failure of the predetermined PCR reaction has been feared.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0012] An object of the present invention is to provide a reaction apparatus and a reaction chip for implementing uniform and stable reaction of a reaction liquid within a short period of time.", "[0013] According to a first aspect of the present invention in order to achieve the object explained above, a reaction apparatus is provided with a heat insulating air layer at the boundary dividing plural temperature regions of the reaction chip, in addition to a reaction chip including the temperature regions and a resin reaction channel formed over these temperature regions, a pump for supplying a reaction liquid to the reaction channel of the reaction chip, a control device for controlling supply of the reaction liquid, and a heater for heating each of the temperature regions of the reaction chip to the preset temperature.", "[0014] Examples of structure as more preferable embodiments in the first aspect of the present invention are as follows.", "(1) A meander reaction channel at each of the temperature regions of the reaction chip is provided on a heated surface side of the reaction chip and each meander reaction channel is communicated with a channel detouring the heat insulating air layer on a non-heated surface side.", "(2) The heat insulating air layer is constituted with formation of a concave groove in on heated surface side of the reaction chip.", "(3) A high heat conductivity member having a conductivity higher than that of the reaction chip is provided surrounding each of the temperature regions of the reaction chip.", "(4) The high heat conductivity member is provided on a reaction stage.", "(5) The high heat conductivity member is constituted in common with the reaction stage.", "(6) The control device controls supply of the reaction liquid to realize reciprocated supply thereof for reaction of the reaction liquid in the reaction channel of each of the temperature regions of the reaction chip.", "(7) Concave and convex shapes are provided on the side surface of the reaction region in each of the temperature regions of the reaction chip.", "[0022] Moreover, according to a second aspect of the present invention, the resin reaction chip where the plural temperature regions heated with the heater are set and the reaction channel is formed over these temperature regions is provided with the heat insulating air layer extending to the boundary of the temperature regions.", "[0023] Moreover, according to a third aspect of the present invention, the reaction apparatus is further provided with the high heat conductivity member having the heat conductivity higher than that of the reaction chip surrounding each of the temperature regions of the reaction chip, in addition to the reaction chip formed of the resin material where the plural temperature regions are set and the reaction channel is formed over these temperature regions, the pump for supplying the reaction liquid to the reaction channel of the reaction chip, the control device for controlling supply of the reaction liquid, and the heater for heating each of the temperature regions of the reaction chip to the preset temperature.", "[0024] Moreover, according to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the reaction apparatus is provided with the resin reaction chip where the plural temperature regions are set and the reaction channel formed over these temperature regions, the pump for supplying the reaction liquid to the reaction channel of the reaction chip, the control device for controlling supply of the reaction liquid, and the heater for heating each of the temperature regions of the reaction chip to the preset temperature, wherein the control device controls the reaction liquid to realize reciprocating supply of the reaction liquid to implement reciprocated supply thereof for reaction of the reaction liquid in the reaction channel of each of the temperature regions of the reaction chip.", "[0025] According to the reaction apparatus and the reaction chip of the present invention explained above, reaction of the reaction liquid can be realized uniformly and stably within a short period of time.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0026] FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a PCR reaction apparatus of a preferred embodiment of the present invention;", "[0027] FIG. 2 is a plan view for explaining a reaction channel of a reaction chip of FIG. 1 ;", "[0028] FIG. 3A is a perspective view of the reaction chip of FIG. 1 ;", "[0029] FIG. 3B is a cross-sectional view taken along the arrows A-A of FIG. 3A ;", "[0030] FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing an assembled state of the reaction chip and a high heat conductivity member of FIG. 1 ;", "[0031] FIG. 5A is a perspective view of the state where the reaction chip of FIG. 1 is assembled with reaction stages;", "[0032] FIG. 5B is a perspective view of the condition where the reaction chip of FIG. 5A is eliminated;", "and [0033] FIG. 6 is a comparison diagram for temperature distribution in the reaction chip of the preferred embodiment and a comparison example.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT [0034] A preferred embodiment of a reaction apparatus of the present invention will be explained with reference to FIG. 1 to FIG. 6 .", "A PCR reaction apparatus for amplifying DNA is taken into account as an example of the reaction apparatus of this preferred embodiment.", "However, the present invention may be applied also to the PCR reaction apparatus for amplifying RNA.", "Moreover, the present invention may also be applied to a biochemical reaction apparatus which requires uniformity in plural temperature regions provided within a reaction chip.", "[0035] First, a general structure of a PCR reaction apparatus 100 of the preferred embodiment will be explained with reference to FIG. 1 .", "[0036] The PCR reaction apparatus 100 for amplifying nucleic acid is constituted with a reaction chip 50 , a reaction stage 2 , a pump 3 , a valve 4 , a heater 5 , a moving stage 6 , a motor driver 7 , a control substrate 8 , a power supply 9 , an information access panel 10 , the other components, and a case 1 for accommodating these elements in an internal space.", "[0037] The case 1 has a chip inserting window 1 a for inserting the reaction chip 50 at a front part of an upper surface thereof.", "The moving stage 6 is provided extending backward from the lower position of the chip inserting window 1 a .", "The reaction stage 2 can move with the moving stage 6 .", "The reaction chip 50 is inserted into the case 1 through the chip inserting window 1 a and is then moved up to the reaction position together with the reaction stage 2 while it is placed on the reaction stage 2 .", "At this reaction position, the chip is clamped and fixed with a chip clamper 21 .", "Thereafter, a reaction liquid is supplied through this chip damper 21 .", "[0038] The heater 5 is integrally placed at the lower part of the reaction stage 2 to heat the reaction chip 50 .", "As the heater 5 , a carbon heater held with insulating sheets such as polyimide films is used and heating temperature of the heater itself is equalized by covering the upper surface of the heater 5 with a heat radiating sheet.", "This heater 5 is installed in the number that is equal to the number of temperature regions to be set.", "[0039] The pump 3 is provided to transfer a DNA sample liquid and a cleaning liquid to the reaction chip 50 and a syringe pump is used as the pump 3 .", "The valve 4 is provided in a transfer route of the pump 3 to select transfer of the DNA sample liquid and the cleaning liquid.", "The pump 3 and valve 4 constitute a liquid transfer device for transferring the DNA sample liquid and the cleaning liquid.", "[0040] The motor driver 7 and control substrate 8 constitute the control device to control the moving stage 6 , pump 3 , valve 4 and heater 5 or the like.", "The power supply 9 supplies electrical powers to various components.", "The information access panel 10 is provided to input measuring conditions.", "Supply of liquid is controlled on the basis of the result of detection through visualization of the interface between the air and liquid surface with a camera.", "[0041] The reaction chip 50 is inserted into the case 1 through the chip inserting window 1 a and is then moved up to the reaction position together with the movable reaction stage 2 .", "The DNA sample liquid and the cleaning liquid are supplied through reciprocated supply into the reaction channel of the reaction chip 50 with switching operation of pressurization with the syringe pump 3 and supply of liquid with the valve 4 .", "The control device formed of the motor driver 7 and the control substrate 8 controls movement of the reaction chip 50 and reciprocated supply of the DNA sample liquid and the cleaning liquid based on the measuring conditions inputted from the information access panel 10 .", "[0042] Next, the reaction chip 50 will be explained concretely by referring to FIG. 2 to FIG. 5B .", "[0043] FIG. 2 is a plan view for explaining the reaction channel of the reaction chip of FIG. 1 .", "FIG. 3A is a perspective view of the reaction chip of FIG. 1 .", "FIG. 3B is a cross-sectional view along the arrows A-A of FIG. 3A .", "The reaction chip 50 is constituted with a microchip as a vessel for PCR reaction and is manufactured with a resin material such as PDMS for reduction of manufacturing cost.", "In this embodiment, this reaction chip 50 is formed of a chip body 70 constituted with a PDMS plate in the height of about 5 mm used to form a reaction channel 59 or the like and a body cover 71 constituted with a PDMS plate in the height of about 1 mm used to close the reaction channel 59 or the like.", "The body cover 71 is joined to both upper and lower surfaces of the chip body 70 to form the channel in combination with the chip body 70 .", "Accordingly, the reaction chip 50 can be easily manufactured in lower price.", "[0044] This reaction chip 50 is divided into an ambient temperature region 63 and plural temperature regions (three temperature regions in this embodiment) 56 to 58 for the PCR reaction.", "These three regions are constituted with a 55-to-60° C. region (first temperature region) indicated by a broken line 56 , a 72° C. region (second temperature region) indicated by a broken line 57 , and a 94° C. region (third temperature region) indicated by a broken line 58 and respectively heated with three heaters 5 .", "[0045] The ambient temperature region 63 is provided with plural handling ports 51 , 52 , 53 , and 54 for injecting and extracting a reagent liquid and the cleaning liquid and plural vessels 60 , 61 .", "The vessel 60 stores a liquid (for example, PCR mixture) supplied through the handling port 52 .", "The vessel 61 stores a liquid (for example, primer) supplied through the handling port 53 .", "The first region 56 is provided with a DNA extracting liquid reservoir 55 for collecting the cells for extraction of DNA.", "The reaction channel 59 is formed over the regions 56 to 58 , and 63 .", "The DNA extracting liquid is supplied to the DNA extracting liquid reservoir 55 via the handling port 51 .", "The reaction channel 59 is formed as the meander channel.", "Reaction can be accelerated with reciprocated supply of the DNA sample liquid (reaction liquid) for the reaction within the reaction channel 59 of each temperature region.", "[0046] Protocol of the reaction chip 50 can be divided into a couple of steps of DNA extraction and PCR process.", "An example of the reaction protocol for implementing the PCR reaction using the reaction chip 50 will be explained below.", "Here, it is assumed that DNA has been extracted from a mucous membrane within the mouth.", "[0047] First, a brush having scrubbed the mucous membrane in the mouth is soaked into the DNA extracting liquid stored in the DNA extracting liquid reservoir 55 .", "Next, the DNA extracting liquid is supplied to the 94° C. region 58 through the 72° C. region 57 and this liquid is incubated to a high temperature, while the liquid is supplied with the reciprocating supply method in the meander channel 59 B, in order to extract DNA.", "[0048] Next, the PCR process is conducted.", "The incubated liquid of several mL is sampled and this sampled liquid is combined with two kinds of PCR mixture stored in the vessel 60 and primer stored in the vessel 61 in the meander channel 59 C and these liquids are mixed through the reciprocating supply within the meander channel 59 C provided in the ambient temperature region 63 .", "Thereafter, the mixed liquid is sequentially supplied to the 55 to 60° C. region 56 , 72° C. region 57 , and 94° C. region 58 .", "A temperature cycle is executed by repeating this reciprocating supply of the mixed liquid in the respective temperature regions to amplify DNA.", "Finally, the amplified DNA is extracted from an extracting port 54 .", "[0049] In this embodiment, three kinds of temperature regions of 55-to-60° C. region 56 , 72° C. region 57 , and 94° C. region 58 are provided, but the number of temperature regions can be set to 2 or more as required.", "The present invention is effective to the chip required to include different temperature regions.", "[0050] In view of attaining uniform temperature of the reaction liquid in the temperature regions 56 to 58 , a heat insulating air layer is provided at the boundaries to separate the temperature regions 56 -to- 58 of the reaction chip 50 .", "As this heat insulating air layer, the most simplified and effective heat insulating air layer 6 is formed.", "This heat insulating air layer 62 can be obtained in the more simplified structure configured by forming a concave groove in the heated surface side of the reaction chip 50 .", "[0051] In this embodiment, the meander reaction channels 59 A to 59 F in the temperature regions 56 to 58 , and 63 of the reaction chip 50 are provided in the heated surface side of the reaction chip 50 and the meander reaction channels 59 A to 59 F are communicated with each other through the liquid supply channel 59 G detouring the heat insulating air layer 62 in the non-heated surface side.", "Accordingly, uniformity of temperature at the temperature regions 56 to 58 , and 63 can be further improved.", "[0052] As shown in FIG. 4 , each of the temperature regions 56 to 58 , 63 is surrounded with a ring-shaped high heat conductivity member 80 having heat conductivity higher than that of the reaction chip 50 .", "Therefore, thermal influence from the ambient of the temperature regions 56 to 58 , 63 can be equalized and thereby uniformity of temperature in the temperature regions 56 to 58 , 63 can be realized.", "[0053] As shown in FIG. 5A and FIG. 5B , the reaction stage 2 in the apparatus side is formed of the same material in the same shape as the ring-shaped high heat conductivity member 80 and the reaction chip 50 is provided near the heater 5 and the high heat conductivity member 80 is constituted in common use with the reaction.", "In this case, uniformity of temperature in the temperature regions 56 to 58 , 63 can be further improved.", "[0054] In this embodiment, the meander channels 59 A to 59 F of the temperature regions 56 to 58 , 63 includes many turning points having a large radius of curvature in order to accelerate reaction and mixture in the temperature regions 56 to 58 , 63 .", "Such turning points generate flow of reaction liquid accompanied by the secondary flow.", "Accordingly, three-dimensional flow occurs in the meander reaction channels 59 A to 59 F. Moreover, flow of the reaction liquid is disturbed, mixture of the reaction liquids is further accelerated, and thereby reaction time can be shortened by providing concave and convex areas at the side surface of the meander reaction channels 59 A to 59 F. [0055] In the case where the reaction liquid is supplied to the temperature regions 56 to 58 , 63 for reaction, it is often observed as a problem to be solved that the reaction liquid is destroyed at the boundary of air and is then disassembled into plural liquids.", "However, destruction of reaction liquid itself can be prevented with the surface tension of the reaction liquid and disassembling the reaction liquid into two kinds of liquids can also be prevented by introducing the meander reaction channels 59 A to 59 F and realizing reciprocating supply of the reaction liquid.", "[0056] In order to search the effectiveness of the present invention, thermal-fluid analysis has been implemented to the reaction chip 50 used in this embodiment and the reaction chip as a comparison example not including the heat insulating air layer 62 .", "FIG. 6 shows a result of comparison of temperature distribution in the heated surface side.", "Numerals given in the figure indicate temperature.", "The upper figure shows temperature distribution in the heated surface side for the reaction chip as the comparison example.", "This upper figure suggests that a large temperature distribution appears, even when the three temperature regions are respectively heated with the heater.", "The lower figure shows a large temperature distribution in the heated surface side for the reaction chip 50 used in this embodiment.", "This lower figure suggests that almost uniform temperature distribution appears in each temperature region.", "From the results explained above, it is understood that the structure of the present embodiment can realize uniform temperature region and execute uniform and stable PCR reaction while the reaction rate can be shortened.", "[0057] According to this embodiment, as explained above, each temperature region in the reaction chip can be set to the predetermined equivalent temperature.", "Therefore, nucleic acid can be stably amplified with the PCR method.", "Moreover, the reaction chip itself can be reduced in size, because uniform region may substantially be increased.", "[0058] In addition, since the reaction chip may be manufactured with a resin material such as PDMS, it may be utilized as a disposable chip.", "Further, the reaction chip has a higher degree of freedom in the shape of reaction channel because it is required to set plural temperature regions.", "However, since the reaction chip itself can be manufactured with a resin material such as PDMS, the reaction channel can be designed easily.", "[0059] Since the reaction channel is formed as the meander channel, three-dimensional flow caused by secondary flow at the turning points can accelerate reaction.", "Moreover, since the reaction liquid is supplied not only in the single direction but also in the reciprocating supply method, reaction efficiency can be improved and channel length can also be shortened.", "In addition, since the reaction channel is not constituted in a rectangular channel but constituted as the channel provided with projected areas on the surface of channel, reaction amount can be increased more effectively.", "Therefore, a small-sized and highly efficient PCR reaction apparatus can be obtained." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION (1) Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ink supplying device adapted for a rotary press used for printing news papers.", "More particularly, the present invention relates to an ink supplying device especially adapted for specific types such as an off-set type printer, which is provided with an ink circulation system between an ink supplying unit and an ink reservoir, and an ink temperature control system.", "(2) Description of the Prior Art Conventional ink supplying devices provided with an ink circulation system between an ink supplying unit such as an ink fountain and a fountain roller and an ink reservoir such as an ink tank have been disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 35-12862 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,384,523.", "In detail, the former invention teaches one type of ink circulation system comprising an overflow wall formed on an ink tank (or ink fountain) and a conduit pipe adjacent to it.", "The conduit pipe is communicated with a main ink tank (or ink tank) so that ink is fed from the main ink tank to the ink tank through a pump and overflowed ink is fed back to the main ink tank through the conduit pipe from the overflow wall.", "This prior art is a typical example of a basic ink supplying device with an ink circulation system.", "This circulation system provides an effect that the ink stored in the ink fountain can be kept at the constant level and further the stagnation of the ink in the fountain is not generated by the circulating flow.", "However this device is not free from some problems caused by this ink circulation.", "The ink temperature is easily increased by the circulation between the ink tank (ink fountain) and the main ink tank (ink tank) and the heat generated from the driving unit of printing apparatus.", "The viscosity of ink becomes low and thus the quality f printed surface may become poor.", "The later invention teaches an example of ink circulation system with a cooling unit which can cool the ink in a circulating tank (ink tank).", "This cooling unit may prevent the quality of printed surface from becoming poor to some degree.", "However, when the viscosity is very high and the fluidity is relatively low, the heat is not quickly transmitted in the ink.", "Even if the ink is subjected to a large scaled cooling device, the heat is not smoothly transmitted because the fluidity becomes poor as temperature decreases.", "Also this invention can not provide sufficient effect.", "In these conventional systems for circulating ink between the ink fountain and the ink tank, the ink may become tacky owing to thixotropy phenomenon of the ink per se after the circulation is not actuated for a while.", "Such tacky ink causes ink spreading to worsen because of poor fluidity.", "Thus enough ink is not applied to the printed surface, thereby causing problems such as poor quality, vague printed surface, lack of clearness, and so on.", "BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an ink supplying device adapted for a rotary press.", "Another object of the present invention is to provide an ink supplying device which can quickly set the printing condition by controlling the temperature of the ink to be supplied to a rotary press.", "A further object of the present invention is to provide an ink supplying device which can control the temperature of the ink within the optimum range for printing during the printing operation to produce always excellent printing surface.", "To accomplish these objects the ink supplying device according to the present invention comprises an ink cylinder, an ink feeding means for feeding ink to the ink cylinder, and an ink temperature control means for controlling the temperature of the ink to be fed to the ink cylinder within the optimum range.", "The temperature control means comprises a medium circulating unit including a medium chamber, a medium temperature detecting unit, a heater and a cooler;", "a heat exchanger;", "a pipe system for circulating between the medium circulating unit and the heat exchanger;", "and an ink temperature detecting unit.", "The heat exchanger may be selected from plate type heat exchangers.", "Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent during the following discussion of the accompanying drawings.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration showing the overall view of the ink supplying device according to a first embodiment of the present invention, wherein an ink feeding unit includes a fountain roller and an ink fountain;", "FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 are partially enlarged illustrations of printing, systems which are respective modifications of FIG. 1, wherein an ink feeding unit includes an ink injecting nozzle;", "FIG. 4 and FIG. 5 are partially enlarged illustrations of printing system which are respective modifications of FIG. 1, wherein an ink feeding unit includes an ink feeding conduit;", "FIG. 6 is a flow chart of operation of the ink supplying device according to the present invention;", "FIG. 7 is a partially cross sectional view showing a heat exchanger;", "and FIG. 8 is a schematic illustration showing one example of flowing directions of medium and ink through the heat exchanger.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT One preferred embodiment of the ink supplying device according to the present invention will be discussed in conjunction with the drawings.", "Through the drawings the same numerals denote the same parts or corresponding elements, so that the same explanation will not be repeated.", "FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration showing the overall view of the ink supplying device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.", "In FIG. 1, the reference numeral 1 denotes a blanket cylinder, 2 denotes a plate cylinder, 3 denotes a form roller, 4 denotes an inking cylinder, 5 denotes a dampening fluid supplying means, 6 denotes an ink feeding means, and 8 denotes a doctor blade.", "These components constitute an offset printing machine.", "A paper web A to be printed is passed through the narrow space defined between the blanket cylinder 1 forcedly pressed to the plate cylinder 2 and a printing cylinder forcedly pressed to the blanket cylinder 1, and printed by passing therethrough.", "Ordinarily, a impression cylinder or one of blanket cylinder 1 may serve as the printing cylinder.", "In this embodiment, the blanket cylinder 1 acts as the printing cylinder.", "The ink feeding means 6 includes an ink feeding unit 61, an ink resevoir 62, and an ink pipe system 63 circulating between the ink feeding unit 61 and the ink reservoir 62.", "In the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the ink feeding unit 61 includes a fountain roller 611 and an ink fountain 612.", "Although the feeding unit 61 may be constituted by other elements.", "For example, FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 employ an ink discharge nozzle 614 as the ink feeding unit 61, and FIG. 4 employs an inking chamber 615.", "In FIG. 1, a sluice plate 613 is disposed in the ink fountain 612 to adjust the ink amount in the ink fountain 612.", "The ink resevoir 62 may be constituted by an ink tank 621 as shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 5, an ink recovery pan 622 as shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 4, or the combination of the ink tank 621 and the ink reservoir pan 622 as shown in FIG. 3. The ink piping system 63 circularly communicates between the ink , reservoir 62 and the ink feeding unit 61, and comprises in ink supply pipe 631 flowing from the ink reservoir 62 to the ink feeding unit 61 and an ink return pipe 632 flowing in the reverse thereof as shown in FIG. 1, FIG. 3 and FIG. 5, or comprises an ink supply pipe 631 alone as shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 4. The ink supply pipe 631 is provided with a pump 633, a driving motor 634 and a heat exchanger 72.", "The numeral 7 denotes an ink temperature control means which comprises a medium circulation mechanism 71, a heat exchanger 72, a medium circulation pipe system 73, an ink temperature detecting unit 74, a control unit 75, and electric circuit 76.", "The medium circulation mechanism 71 further includes a medium tank, a medium temperature detector, a heater, a cooler, and a medium circulating pump, not shown in the drawings.", "The medium circulation mechanism 71 is circulatingly communicated with the heat exchanger 72 through the medium circulation piping system 73, and electrically connected to the control unit 75 through the electric circuit 76.", "This embodiment employs water as the medium.", "The medium circulation piping system 73 circulatingly communicates between the medium circulation mechanism 71 and the heat exchanger 72, and includes an intermediate valve 731, a relief valve 732, and a flow rate control valve 733.", "The ink temperature detecting unit 74 includes a temperature sensor which is located at the downstream of the heat exchanger 72 in the ink sending pipe 631.", "This sensor is electrically connected to the control unit 75 through the electric circuit 76.", "The control unit 75 is respectively connected to the valve 731, the heater and cooler of the medium circulation apparatus 71, and the temperature sensor of the ink temperature detecting unit 74 through the electric circuit 76 to control their operations.", "The heat exchanger 72 is a plate type heat exchanger as shown in FIG. 7, whose plate 721 is made of thin metal having a high heat conductivity.", "The plate 721 defines two spaces, one of them for water and the other for ink.", "Some plates 721 are so configured as to form the water flowing space 722 and the ink flowing space 723 alternatively.", "Further, each flowing spaces 722, 723 contains a wave-sectional shape mesh 724 which contacts two plates 21.", "Each end of the plate 721 is provided with a rubber block 725 made of neoprene which makes the spaces 722 and 23.", "In this embodiment, the plate 721 has a thickness of 0.6 mm, the thickness of each spaces 722, 723 is 4.0 mm, the plates 721 define eight water flowing spaces 722 and eight ink flowing spaces 723.", "Of course, this configuration may be varied in accordance with ink amount and so on.", "FIG. 8 shows one example of flowing directions of water medium and ink through the heat exchanger 72.", "Returning to FIG. 1, the ink in the ink fountain 612 is drawn by the fountain roller 611 and transferred to inking cylinder 4.", "In this embodiment, the inking cylinder 4 is a metering roller which can constantly provide ink.", "The doctor blade 8 contacted to the circumferential surface of the inking cylinder 4 can remove excess ink from the inking cylinder 4 to supply a predetermined amount of ink onto the printing surface of the plate cylinder 2 through the form roller 3.", "At the same time, the printing surface of the plate cylinder 2 is applied with dampening fluid from the dampening fluid supplying means 5.", "A part of the dampening fluid is transferred through the form roller 3, the inking cylinder 4 and the fountain roller 611 to the ink fountain 612 and mixed with the ink therein.", "The ink in the ink fountain 612 is circulated through the ink supply pipe 631 and the ink return pipe 632.", "The ink in the ink supply pipe 631 is forcibly moved from the ink tank 621 to the ink fountain 612 by the pump 633 actuated by the driving motor 634.", "The ink return pipe 632 may be provided with an additional pump, not shown, as required.", "This ink circulation allows the dampening fluid mixed in the ink to uniformly disperse into its entirety.", "A typical operation of the first embodiment will be described below in conjunction with the flow chart shown in FIG. 6. The printing machine is switched into a printing work preparing state as a main switch not shown is turned on.", "In the ink temperature control means 7, the ink temperature detecting unit 74, the heater in the medium circulation apparatus 71, the medium circulation pump, and the medium temperature detector are turned on and thus switched into their working state.", "At this occasion, in the control unit 75 the reference temperature for detecting the medium temperature detector is set at a quick heating mode which is previously determined.", "The ink temperature control means 7 is partially actuated to increase the temperature of the medium (water in this embodiment), and then the warmed medium circulates between the medium circulation mechanism 71 and the heat exchanger 72 through the medium circulation piping system 73.", "The inner heater of the medium circulation apparatus 71 is alternatively turned on or off in response to the detected value of the medium temperature detector.", "That is, the inner heater is turned off when the medium temperature exceeds the predetermined level of the quick heating mode or turned on when it decreases the predetermined level.", "During the above operation, the pump 633 is preferably driven after the medium temperature exceeds the predetermined level of the quick heating mode to supply the ink from the ink tank 621 to the ink fountain 612.", "The ink temperature is increased by the heat exchanger 72 arranged in the ink sending pipe 631, and detected by the ink temperature detecting unit 74.", "The control unit 75 compares the actual ink temperature with the lower limit level predetermined in the control unit 75.", "In this embodiment, the lower limit level is 28° C. The control unit 75 outputs an off signal for closing the valve 731 when the actual ink temperature exceeds the lower limit level.", "As the valve 731 is closed, the circulation of the medium is stopped.", "The heat exchanger 72 does not transmit heat to the ink.", "On the other hand, the valve 731 is opened when the actual ink temperature is lower than the lower limit level, and thus the warmed medium is supplied to the heat exchanger 72 to increase the actual ink temperature.", "According to this ink temperature adjusting operation, the ink actual temperature is maintained within the optimum range between the lower limit and upper limit levels preset in the control unit 75.", "Ordinarily, the ink temperature is kept at cooled level lower than the lower level during the printing work preparing state.", "If the ink temperature exceeds the lower level, the valve 731 for the medium circulation piping system will be automatically closed in response to turning on of the main switch until the ink temperature will be lower than the lower limit level.", "If all the valves 731 belonging to each of the ink temperature control means 7 are closed, the relief valve 732 will be opened to form a short connection of the medium circulation piping system 73.", "When all temperatures detected by the ink temperature detecting unit 74 belonging to the ink temperature control means 7 exceed the lower limit level, the reference temperature for detecting medium temperature detector of the control unit 75 is switched from the quick heating mode (35° C.) to an ordinary control mode (29° C.) which is previously determined lower than the quick heating mode.", "At the same occasion, the heater is stopped and the cooler is operated.", "After this step, when the medium temperature detected by the medium temperature detector is decreased below the ordinary control mode level, the heater is operated and the cooler is stopped.", "Alternatively, when the medium temperature exceeds the ordinary control mode level, the heater is stopped and the cooler is operated.", "The above operation is alternatively repeated.", "As the ink temperature exceeds the lower limit level and the ink begins to circulate between the ink tank 621 and the ink fountain 612, the printing machine is ready to start the printing work.", "When the printing machine starts working, the ink temperature is gradually increased owing to the friction heat of the ink per se generated by friction between the ink and the narrow spaces defined by the fountain roller 611 and the inking cylinder 4 in addition to the circulating friction by the pump 633, and the transmitted heat from the printing machine under working.", "During the printing work of the printing machine, the ink temperature control means 7 performs the following operation.", "The ordinary control mode of the control unit 75 is set into the temperature range between the lower than the ink higher limit level and the ink lower limit level to alternatively actuate the heater and the cooler so as to control the medium temperature within the predetermined range.", "Further, if the ink temperature detected by the ink temperature detecting unit 74 exceeds the ink higher limit level and is lower than the ink lower limit level, the valve 731 will be opened to circulate the medium to the heat exchanger 72.", "This operation will cool the ink supplied to the inking cylinder 4 if the ink temperature exceeds the ink higher limit level, or warm it if lower than the lower limit level to control the ink temperature within the optimum printing temperature range predetermined.", "For reference, examples of predetermined temperature values effective for this invention are as follows.", "Generally, preferable temperature range of printing ink is about 26° C. to 34° C. Predetermined Temperature for Medium Quick Heating Mode 35° C. Predetermined Temperature for Medium Ordinary Control Mode 29° C. Predetermined Temperature for Ink Upper Limit Level 30° C. Predetermined Temperature for Ink Lower Limit Level 28° C. According to these values the actual ink temperature on working was maintained within the preferable temperature range such as 28° to 31° C. If the ink temperature is higher than 50° C., ink properties will be changed or worsened.", "When all the valves 731 belonging to the ink temperature control means 7 are closed during the printing work, the relief valve 732 is opened to perform the short circuit of the medium circulation piping system 73 in the same manner as the printing work preparing state.", "Since the ink temperature may be varied in response to each the printing machine, the valve 731, belonging to the ink feeding means 6 for each of the printing, machines is acted as a control means for adjusting the circulation of the medium.", "As the printing work is finished, the printing machine is stopped to return the ink from the ink fountain 612 to the ink tank 621.", "Then the main switch is turned off.", "The printing machine is released from its working state and its ink temperature control means 7 is also stopped.", "The reference temperatures for detecting the medium temperature detector are reset in the control unit 75.", "Proceeding printing work will be started as the main switch is turned on.", "As given explanation above, the control system of the present invention allows that the ink temperature is quickly adjusted to the optimum range for printing work by switching on the main switch.", "Further during the printing work, the ink temperature can be also maintained within the optimum range.", "Thus the printed quality is always kept at a high level.", "This invented control system can assure that the ink supplied to the printing cylinder through the inking cylinder is kept at preferable property and quantity, and the dampening fluid to balance with the ink is also constantly fed to the printing cylinder.", "Thus, the confused adjusting work for the dampening fluid can be removed or simplified.", "The plate type heat exchanger as shown in FIG. 7 can perform the medium circulation with much amount and a large surface area for heat transmitting so that an extremely high heat exchange efficiency can be obtained.", "Additionally, this type heat exchanger generates turbulent flow of the ink passing through the heat exchanger and thus the wetting water mixed in the ink is stirred and uniformly dispersed in the ink.", "As many apparently widely different embodiments of this invention may be made without departing from the spirit and scope thereof, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the specific embodiments thereof except as defined in the appended claims." ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 15/204,476, filed on Jul. 7, 2016, which claims priority of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2015-0185127, filed on Dec. 23, 2015.", "The disclosure of each of the foregoing application is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.", "BACKGROUND 1.", "Field Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to a method for a semiconductor device, and more particularly, to a semiconductor device including an epitaxial layer and a fabrication method thereof.", "Description of the Related Art An integrated circuit (ICs) includes a transistor such as MOSFET.", "As the integrated circuit is scaled down, it is difficult to maintain or improve performance of the transistor.", "One of methods for improving performance of a transistor is to apply stress to a channel region of the transistor.", "When suitable stress is applied to a channel region of a transistor, mobility of carriers in the channel region increases.", "When compressive stress is applied to a channel region of a PMOS transistor, mobility of holes in the channel region increases.", "In addition, when tensile stress is applied to a channel region of an NMOS transistor, mobility of electrons in the channel region increases.", "SUMMARY Embodiments of the present invention are directed to a transistor whose carrier mobility can be increased and to a fabrication method thereof.", "Embodiments of the present invention are also directed to a semiconductor device having improved performance and a fabrication method thereof.", "In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, a method for fabricating a semiconductor device may include: forming a gate structure on a substrate;", "patterning the substrate using the gate structure as a mask to form a recess in the substrate;", "forming a buffer layer covering bottom corners of the gate structure and an inner surface of the recess;", "and forming a stress-inducing layer over the buffer layer and in the recess.", "The buffer layer and the stress-inducing layer may be formed by selective epitaxial growth.", "Each of the buffer layer and the stress-inducing layer may include a material doped with an N-type dopant, and the buffer layer has a dopant concentration lower than that of the stress-inducing layer.", "The buffer layer may include a dislocation-free material.", "The stress-inducing layer may include a material doped with N-type dopant, and the buffer layer may include a material undoped with the N-type dopant.", "The forming of the gate structure may include forming a gate stack over the substrate;", "forming a gate spacer on both sidewalls of the gate stack, and the gate spacer may include Nitride-Oxide-Nitride structure.", "In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, a method for fabricating a semiconductor device may include: forming a gate structure on a substrate;", "patterning the substrate using the gate structure as a mask to form a recess in the substrate;", "forming a first SiP layer covering bottom corners of the gate structure and a bottom and side walls of the recess;", "and forming a second SiP layer over the first SiP layer and in the recess, the second SiP layer has a phosphorus concentration higher than that of the first SiP layer.", "The second SiP layer may be formed to have a high phosphorus concentration so that it has dislocation, and the first SiP layer may be formed to have a low phosphorus concentration so that it is free of dislocations.", "The second SiP layer may have a phosphorus concentration equal to or higher than 1×10 21 atoms/cm 3 .", "The first SiP layer may have a phosphorus concentration equal to or lower than 5×10 20 atoms/cm 3 .", "The first SiP layer and the second SiP layer may be formed by selective epitaxial growth.", "The forming of the first SiP layer may be performed using a first silicon-containing precursor, the first silicon-containing precursor may include dichlorosilane, the forming of the second SiP layer may be performed using a second silicon-containing precursor, and the second silicon-containing precursor may include a mixture of dichlorosilane and silane.", "The forming of the first SiP layer may further include performing an in situ doping using PH 3 , and the forming of the second SiP layer may further include performing an in situ doping using PH 3 .", "The forming of the second SiP layer may be performed using dichlorosilane, silane, HCl, and PH 3 .", "In accordance with still another embodiment of the present invention, a method for fabricating a semiconductor device may include: forming a gate structure on a substrate;", "patterning the substrate using the gate structure as a mask to form a recess in the substrate;", "forming an undoped Si layer covering bottom corners of the gate structure and a bottom and sidewalls of the recess;", "and forming a SiP layer over the undoped Si layer and in the recess.", "The SiP layer may be formed to have a high phosphorus concentration so that it has dislocations.", "The SiP layer may have a phosphorus concentration equal to higher than 1×10 21 atoms/cm 3 .", "Each of the undoped Si layer and the SiP layer may be formed by selective epitaxial growth.", "The forming of the undoped Si layer may be performed using a first silicon-containing precursor, the first silicon-containing precursor may include dichlorosilane, the forming of the SiP layer may be performed using a second silicon-containing precursor, and the second silicon-containing precursor may include a mixture of dichlorosilane and silane.", "The forming of the SiP layer may further include performing in situ doping using PH 3 .", "The forming of the second SiP layer may be performed using dichlorosilane, silane, HCl, and PH 3 .", "In still accordance with yet another embodiment of the present invention, a method for fabricating a semiconductor device may include: forming a gate structure on a substrate;", "patterning the substrate using the gate structure as a mask to form a recess in the substrate;", "forming a SiP layer filling the recess and covering bottom corners of the gate structure;", "recessing the SiP layer to expose the bottom corners of the gate structure;", "and forming an undoped Si cap layer over the recessed SiP layer.", "The SiP layer may have a phosphorus concentration equal to or higher than 1×10 21 atoms/cm 3 .", "Each of the SiP layer and the undoped Si cap layer may be formed by selective epitaxial growth.", "The forming of the SiP layer may be performed using a first silicon-containing precursor, the first silicon-containing precursor may include a mixture of dichlorosilane and silane, the forming of the undoped Si cap layer may be performed using a second silicon-containing precursor, and the second silicon-containing precursor may include dichlorosilane.", "The forming of the SiP layer may further include performing in situ doping using PH 3 .", "The forming of the second SiP layer may be performed using dichlorosilane, silane, HCl, and PH 3 .", "In accordance with still another embodiment of the present invention, a semiconductor device may include: a substrate comprising a channel region and a recess, the recess is located at both side of the channel region;", "a gate structure formed over the channel region;", "a first SiP layer covering bottom corners of the gate structure and the recess;", "and a second SiP layer formed over the first SiP layer and in the recess, the second SiP layer may have a phosphorus concentration higher than that of the first SiP layer.", "The second SiP layer may have a high phosphorus concentration so that it has dislocations, and the first SiP layer may have a low phosphorus concentration so that it is free-dislocations.", "The first SiP layer may have a phosphorus concentration equal to or lower than 5×10 20 atoms/cm 3 .", "The second SiP layer may have a phosphorus concentration equal to or higher than 1×10 21 atoms/cm 3 .", "In accordance with still another embodiment of the present invention, a semiconductor device may include: a substrate comprising a channel region and a recess, the recess is located at both sides of the channel region;", "a gate structure formed over the channel region;", "an undoped Si layer covering bottom corners of the gate structure and the recess;", "and a SiP layer formed over the undoped Si layer and in the recess, the SiP layer and the bottom corners of the gate structure are spaced apart from each by the undoped Si layer.", "The SiP layer may have a high phosphorus concentration so that it has dislocations.", "The SiP layer may have a phosphorus concentration equal to or higher than 1×10 21 atoms/cm 3 .", "In accordance with still another embodiment of the present invention, a semiconductor device may include: a substrate comprising a channel region and a recess, the recess is located at both sides of the channel region;", "a gate structure formed over the channel region;", "a SiP layer formed in the recess, an upper surface of the SiP layer is located at a lower level than bottom corners of the gate structure;", "and an undoped Si cap layer formed over the SiP layer.", "The SiP layer may have a high phosphorus concentration so that it has dislocations.", "The SiP layer may have a phosphorus concentration equal to or higher than 1×10 21 atoms/cm 3 .", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1A illustrates a semiconductor device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.", "FIG. 1B illustrates a transistor according to a comparative example.", "FIGS. 2A to 2E illustrate a method for fabricating the semiconductor device according to the first embodiment of the present invention.", "FIG. 3 illustrates a semiconductor device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.", "FIG. 4 illustrates a semiconductor device according to a third embodiment of the present invention.", "FIGS. 5A to 5C illustrate a method for fabricating the semiconductor device according to the third embodiment of the present invention.", "FIG. 6 shows a CMOSFET according to an embodiment of the present invention.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION Exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described below in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.", "The present invention may, however, be embodied in different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein.", "Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the present invention to those skilled in the art.", "Throughout the disclosure, like reference numerals refer to like parts throughout the various figures and embodiments of the present invention.", "The drawings are not necessarily to scale and in some instances, proportions may have been exaggerated in order to clearly illustrate features of the embodiments.", "When a first layer is referred to as being “on”", "a second layer or “on”", "a substrate, it not only refers to a case in which the first layer is formed directly on the second layer or the substrate but also a case in which a third layer exists between the first layer and the second layer or the substrate.", "In embodiments below, a description will be given for structures and methods for removing misfit and threading dislocations that occur at a Silicon Phosphorus (SiP)/Silicon oxide (SiO 2 ) interface.", "The SiP may include highly phosphorus-doped Silicon epitaxial layer.", "The SiP has a phosphorus concentration equal to or higher than 1×10 21 atoms/cm 3 .", "For example, the phosphorus concentration of the SiP is in a rage from 1×10 21 atoms/cm 3 to 5×10 21 atoms/cm 3 .", "FIG. 1A illustrates a semiconductor device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.", "Referring to FIG. 1A , a semiconductor device 100 according to the first embodiment may include a transistor 130 .", "The transistor 130 may include a gate structure G and source/drain regions S/D.", "It may further include a channel region 110 under the gate structure G. The transistor 130 may be NMOSFET.", "The transistor 130 may be formed in a substrate 101 .", "The substrate 101 may be made of a material suitable for semiconductor processing.", "The substrate 101 may include a semiconductor substrate.", "The substrate 101 may be made of a silicon-containing material.", "The substrate 101 may include silicon, single-crystalline silicon, polysilicon, amorphous silicon, silicon germanium, single-crystalline silicon germanium, polycrystalline silicon germanium, carbon-doped silicon, a combination of two or more thereof, or a multilayer of two or more thereof.", "The substrate 101 may also include other semiconductor material such as germanium.", "The substrate 101 may also include a group III/V semiconductor substrate, for example, a compound semiconductor substrate such as GaAs.", "The substrate 101 may include a Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) substrate.", "On the substrate 101 , a gate structure G may be formed.", "The gate structure G may include a gate insulating layer 102 , a gate electrode 103 and a gate cap layer 104 .", "The gate insulating layer 102 may include silicon oxide, silicon nitride, silicon oxynitride, high-k material, or a combination of two or more thereof.", "The high-k material may include a material having a dielectric constant greater than that of silicon oxide.", "For example, the high-k material may include a material having a dielectric constant greater than 3.9.", "In other examples, the high-k material may include a material having a dielectric constant greater than 10.", "In another example, the high-k material may include a material having a dielectric constant of 10-30.", "The high-k material may include at least one metallic element.", "The high-k material may include a hafnium-containing material.", "The hafnium-containing material may include hafnium oxide, hafnium silicon oxide, hafnium silicon oxynitride, or a combination of two or more thereof.", "In another embodiment, the high-k material may include lanthanum oxide, lanthanum aluminum oxide, zirconium oxide, zirconium silicon oxide, zirconium silicon oxynitride, aluminum oxide, or a combination of two or more thereof.", "As the high-k material, any known high-k material may also be optionally used.", "In some embodiments, the gate insulating layer 102 may be formed of a stack of an interfacial layer and a high-k material layer.", "The gate electrode 103 may be formed of a silicon-based material, a metal-based material, or a combination thereof.", "In this embodiment, the gate electrode 103 may be a metal-containing layer.", "The gate electrode 103 may include titanium nitride, tungsten, or a combination thereof.", "The gate electrode 103 may be formed of a metal material having a work function.", "The gate cap layer 104 may be formed of a dielectric material.", "The gate cap layer 104 may include silicon oxide, silicon nitride, or a combination thereof.", "The gate structure G may further include a gate spacer.", "The gate spacer may be a multilayer structure.", "The gate spacer may include a first spacer 105 , a second spacer 106 and a third spacer 107 .", "The first spacer 105 and the third spacer 107 may be formed of the same material.", "The second spacer 106 may be formed of a material different from that of the first and third spacers 105 and 107 .", "The first spacer 105 and the third spacer 107 may be formed of silicon nitride, and the second spacer 106 may be formed of silicon oxide.", "The gate spacer may have an Nitride-Oxide-Nitride (NON) structure.", "The NON structure is advantageous to control proximity between the source/drain regions S/D and the gate structure G. The source/drain regions S/D may be formed in recesses 109 and may be epitaxially grown.", "The recesses 109 may be formed in the substrate 101 under both sides of the gate structure G. The recesses 109 may be formed at the end portions of the channel region 110 .", "Each of the source/drain regions S/D may include a first SiP layer 111 and a second SiP layer 112 .", "The first SiP layer 111 may line a bottom and sidewalls of the recesses 109 .", "An end portion 111 E of the first SiP layer 111 may cover the bottom corners 108 of the gate structure G. The second SiP layer 112 may be formed on the first SiP layer 111 so as to completely fill the recess 109 .", "A top portion 112 E of the second SiP layer 112 may be located at substantially the same level as the bottom corners 108 of the gate structure G. The first SiP layer 111 and the second SiP layer 112 may be epitaxial layers.", "The first SiP layer 111 and the second SiP layer 112 may be formed by selective epitaxial growth (SEG).", "The first SiP layer 111 and the second SiP layer 112 may apply stress to the channel region 110 .", "For example, the first SiP layer 111 and the second SiP layer 112 may apply tensile stress to the channel region 110 .", "This tensile stress can increase mobility of carriers in the channel region 110 .", "The first SiP layer 111 and the second SiP layer 112 may have different phosphorus concentrations.", "The first SiP layer 111 may have a relatively low phosphorus concentration, and the second SiP layer 112 may have a relatively high phosphorus concentration.", "The first SiP layer 111 may have a phosphorus concentration of 5×10 20 atoms/cm 3 or less.", "For example, the phosphorus concentration of the first SiP layer 111 is in rage from 1×10 19 atoms/cm 3 to 5×10 20 atoms/cm 3 .", "The second SiP layer 112 may have a phosphorus concentration of 1×10 21 atoms/cm 3 or more.", "For example, the phosphorus concentration of the second SiP layer 112 is in rage from 1×10 21 atoms/cm 3 to 5×10 21 atoms/cm 3 .", "The second SiP layer 112 may include threading dislocation due to its high phosphorus concentration.", "In contrast, the first SiP layer 111 may not include threading dislocation due to its low phosphorus concentration.", "Threading dislocation may be induced by precipitation of phosphorus.", "Between the first SiP layer 111 and the bottom corners 108 of the gate structure G, a SiP/SiO 2 interface 108 I may be formed.", "For example, the second spacer 106 comes into contact with the first SiP layer 111 to form the SiP/SiO 2 interface 108 I. As described above, since the second SiP layer 112 , which has a relatively high phosphorus concentration, is not in contact with the bottom corner 108 of the gate structure G, a threading dislocation or a defect does not occur at the gate corner 108 of the gate structure G. Rather, the first SiP layer 111 , which has a relatively low phosphorus concentration, is in contact with the bottom corner 108 of the gate structure G to form the SiP/SiO 2 interface 118 I. FIG. 1B illustrates a transistor including source/drain regions made only of a SiP layer having a high phosphorus concentration.", "Referring to FIG. 1B , a transistor 130 ′ may include source/drain regions made only of a SiP layer 112 ′ having a high phosphorus concentration.", "As the SiP layer 112 ′ having a high phosphorus concentration comes into a direct contact with the bottom corner 108 of the gate structure G, a SiP/SiO 2 interface 108 I′ is produced.", "When the SiP/SiO 2 interface 108 I′ is produced by the SiP layer 112 ′ which has a high phosphorus concentration as described above, defects 120 can be caused by the precipitation of phosphorus.", "Thus, a threading dislocation may occur at the bottom corners 108 of the gate structure G due to the precipitation of phosphorus.", "FIGS. 2A to 2E illustrate an example of a method for fabricating the semiconductor device according to the first embodiment.", "As shown in FIG. 2A , a substrate 11 may be prepared.", "The substrate 11 may include a silicon substrate.", "Although not shown in the figures, an element isolating layer may further be formed on the substrate 11 .", "A gate stack may be formed on the substrate 11 .", "The gate stack may include a gate insulating layer 12 , a gate electrode 13 and a gate cap layer 14 .", "The gate insulating layer 12 may include silicon oxide, silicon nitride, silicon oxynitride, high-k material, or a combination of two or more thereof.", "In some embodiments, the gate insulating layer 12 may be formed of a stack of an interfacial layer and a high-k material.", "The gate electrode 13 may be formed of a silicon-based material, a metal-based material or a combination thereof.", "In this embodiment, the gate electrode 13 may be a metal-containing layer.", "The gate electrode 13 may include titanium nitride, tungsten or a combination thereof.", "The gate electrode 13 may be made of a metal material having a work function.", "The gate electrode 13 may have an N-type work function or a P-type work function.", "To form a NMOSFET, the gate electrode 13 may have an N-type work function.", "To form a PMOSFET, the gate electrode 13 may have a P-type work function.", "For work function engineering, various work function materials may be formed.", "The gate cap layer 14 may be formed of a dielectric material.", "The gate cap layer 14 may include silicon oxide, silicon nitride or a combination thereof.", "The gate cap layer 14 may be used as an etch barrier during a gate photolithography process.", "As shown in FIG. 2B , a gate spacer may be formed on both sidewalls of the gate stack.", "The gate spacer may be formed of a dielectric material.", "The gate spacer may include silicon oxide, silicon nitride or a combination thereof.", "The gate spacer may have a multilayer structure.", "In this embodiment, the gate spacer may include a first spacer 15 , a second spacer 16 and a third spacer 17 .", "The first spacer 15 and the third spacer 17 may be formed of the same material.", "The second spacer 16 may be formed of a material different from that of the first and third spacers 15 and 17 .", "The first spacer 15 and the third spacer 17 may be formed of silicon nitride, and the second spacer 16 may be formed of silicon oxide.", "Formation of the gate spacer may include blanket etching of the spacer layers.", "On the top and sidewalls of the gate stack, the spacer layers may be formed, followed by an etch-back process.", "In other embodiments, the first spacer 15 may be first formed, and subsequently, the second spacer 16 and the third spacer 17 may be formed.", "The third spacer 17 may not be in contact with the surface of the substrate 11 .", "The bottom of each of the first spacer 15 and the second spacer 16 may be in contact with the surface of the substrate 11 .", "As described above, the gate spacer may have an Nitride-Oxide-Nitride (NON) structure.", "The NON structure is advantageous to control the proximity between the epitaxially grown source/drain regions S/D and the gate structure G. The proximity is an important factor on which electrical properties depend.", "A thickness of the gate spacer is controlled for control of the proximity.", "In other words, it is very important to control a thickness of the gate spacer.", "Through a recess etching process which is performed before epitaxial growth, the thickness of the gate spacer becomes significantly thinner, making it difficult to control the thickness.", "To address this issue, the second spacer 16 is covered on the first spacer 15 , and the third spacer 17 is covered thereon to ensure a sufficient thickness of NON.", "Thus, the proximity between the epitaxially grown source/drain regions S/D and the gate structure G can be controlled.", "In this case, the controllability of the proximity can increase.", "Then, the first and second SiP layers having the well-controlled proximity are epitaxially grown.", "In other embodiments, a sacrificial oxide spacer may be covered on a first nitride spacer, and a second nitride spacer may be covered thereon.", "Next, when the sacrificial oxide spacer and the second nitride spacer are removed by a process of removing the sacrificial oxide spacer, the first nitride spacer having a thin thickness will finally remain.", "Nevertheless, a well-controlled proximity can be obtained.", "Through such a series of processes, a gate structure G including the gate stack and the gate spacer may be formed.", "The gate structure G may include bottom corners 18 .", "As shown in FIG. 2C , one or more recesses 19 may be formed in the substrate 11 .", "To form the recesses 19 , portions of the substrate 11 under both sides of the gate structure G may be etched out.", "The depth of the recesses 19 may vary depending on etching conditions.", "To form the recesses 19 , dry etching, wet etching or a combination thereof may be performed.", "In other embodiments, the recess 19 may further include an undercut.", "The undercut may be located below the gate spacer.", "In other embodiments, the recess 19 may have a sigma shape.", "For example, an etchant such as potassium hydroxide (KOH) may be used to form the recess 19 .", "The sidewall profile of the recess 19 may be vertical or inclined.", "By the recesses 19 , a channel region 20 under the gate structure G may be defined.", "As shown in FIG. 2D , a first SiP layer 21 may be formed.", "The first SiP layer 21 may line a bottom and sidewalls of the recess 19 .", "An end portion 21 E of the first SiP layer 21 may overlap the bottom corners 18 of the gate structure G. The end portion 21 E of the first SiP layer 21 may be in contact with the second spacer 16 .", "Thus, a SiP/SiO 2 interface 18 I may be formed between the end portion 21 E of the first SiP layer 21 and the second spacer 16 .", "The SiP/SiO 2 interface 181 may be formed at the bottom corners 18 of the gate structure G. The first SiP layer 21 may be formed by CVD, LPCVD, ALD, UHVCVD, MBE or other suitable epitaxial process.", "The first SiP layer 21 may be formed by at least single epitaxial process.", "The first SiP layer 21 may be formed by selective epitaxial growth SEG.", "The first SiP layer 21 may have a low phosphorus concentration.", "The first SiP layer 21 may be a phosphorus-doped silicon layer.", "The first SiP layer 21 may have a phosphorus concentration of 5×10 20 atoms/cm 3 or less.", "For example, the phosphorus concentration of the first SiP layer 21 is in rage from 1×10 19 atoms/cm 3 to 5×10 20 atoms/cm 3 .", "Since the first SiP layer 21 has such a low phosphorus concentration, defects such as dislocations do not occur at the SiP/SiO 2 interface 18 I due to the first SiP layer 21 .", "In contrast, when the first SiP layer 21 has a high phosphorus concentration, defects can occur at the SiP/SiO 2 interface 18 I. The defects can be caused by precipitation of phosphorus.", "The first SiP layer 21 may be formed using a phosphorus-containing material and a silicon-containing material.", "Herein, the phosphorus-containing material and the silicon-containing material may be referred to as the phosphorus-containing precursor and the silicon-containing precursor, respectively.", "The phosphorus-containing precursor may include phosphine (PH 3 ).", "The silicon-containing precursor may include silane (SiH 4 ), disilane (Si 2 H 6 ), trisilane (Si 3 H 8 ), dichlorosilane (SiH 2 Cl 2 ), or a combination of two or more thereof.", "Formation of the first SiP layer 21 may include in situ doping.", "For example, during deposition of a silicon layer, in situ doping may be performed using phosphine (PH 3 ).", "As described above, the recesses 19 may be lined with the first SiP layer 21 having a low phosphorus concentration.", "As shown in FIG. 2E , the recesses lined with the first SiP layer 21 , that is, the lined recesses 19 , may be filled with the second SiP layers 22 .", "A top portion 22 E of the second SiP layer 22 may overlap the bottom corners 18 of the gate structure G. The top portion 22 E of the second SiP layer 22 may not be in direct contact with the SiP/SiO 2 interface 18 I. For example, the end portion 21 E of the first SiP layer 21 may be located between the top portion 22 E of the second SiP layer 22 and the SiP/SiO 2 interface 18 I. The second SiP layer 22 may be formed by CVD, LPCVD, ALD, UHVCVD, MBE or other suitable epitaxial process.", "The second SiP layer 22 may be formed by at least single epitaxial process.", "The second SiP layer 22 may be formed by selective epitaxial growth (SEG).", "The second SiP layer 22 may have a high phosphorus concentration.", "The second SiP layer 22 may be a phosphorus-doped silicon layer.", "The second SiP layer 22 may have a phosphorus concentration of 1×10 21 atoms/cm 3 or higher.", "For example, the phosphorus concentration of the second SiP layer 22 is in rage from 1×10 21 atoms/cm 3 to 5×10 21 atoms/cm 3 .", "Even though the second SiP layer 22 which has such a high phosphorus concentration, no defect occurs at the bottom corners 18 of the gate structure G. For example, because the first SiP layer 21 is provided between the second SiP layer 22 and the SiP/SiO 2 interface 18 I, no defect occurs at the bottom corners 18 of the gate structure G. The second SiP layer 22 may be formed using a phosphorus-containing material and a silicon-containing material.", "To form the second SiP layer 22 , chlorine-containing gas may further be used.", "The chlorine-containing gas may include HCl.", "Herein, the phosphorus-containing material and the silicon-containing material may be referred to as the phosphorus-containing precursor and the silicon-containing precursor, respectively.", "The phosphorus-containing precursor may include phosphine (PH 3 ).", "The silicon-containing precursor may include silane (SiH 4 ), disilane (Si 2 H 6 ), trisilane (Si 3 H 8 ), dichlorosilane (SiH 2 Cl 2 ), or a combination of two or more thereof.", "In this embodiment, to form a second SiP layer 22 having a phosphorus concentration equal to or higher than 1×10 21 atoms/cm 3 , a mixture of dichlorosilane (SiH 2 Cl 2 ) and silane (SiH 4 ) may be used to form the second SiP layer 22 .", "Formation of a SiP layer having a phosphorus concentration equal to or higher than 1×10 21 atoms/cm 3 on a bare wafer can be achieved by controlling temperature, pressure and a flow rate of the phosphorus-containing precursor.", "However, when a dielectric material such as the gate spacer is present, it will be difficult to ensure a selectivity of the second SiP layer 22 having a high phosphorus concentration with respect to the dielectric material during formation of the second SiP layer 22 .", "When conditions are controlled to ensure the selectivity, a growth rate of the second SiP layer 22 can be reduced, and the phosphorus concentration thereof can also be lowered.", "Thus, in the embodiments of the present invention, the silicon-containing precursor is controlled as follows in order to quickly form the second SiP layer 22 having a high phosphorus concentration while ensuring the selectivity of the second SiP layer 22 with respect to the gate spacer.", "For example, epitaxial growth may be performed using a mixture of dichlorosilane and silane instead of using dichlorosilane alone.", "Thus, the growth rate can be increased by an acceleration of adsorption together with a removal of a chlorine (Cl) functional group from the epitaxially grown surface while the phosphorus concentration can increase.", "Accordingly, a window for ensuring the selectivity by HCl can increase.", "As a result, a process can be secured which satisfies an increased doping level, an increased growth rate, and selectivity and defect-free conditions.", "Formation of the second SiP layer 22 may include in situ doping.", "For example, during deposition of a silicon layer, in situ doping may be performed using phosphine (PH 3 ).", "As described above, the recesses 19 may be filled with the first SiP layer 21 having a relatively low phosphorus concentration and the second SiP layer 22 having a relatively high phosphorus concentration.", "The first SiP layer 21 and the second SiP layer 22 , in combination, may serve as a source/drain region S/D.", "The source/drain region S/D is also referred to as an embedded source/drain region.", "The first SiP layer 21 and the second SiP layer 22 may also be referred to as stress-inducing materials.", "These layers can apply stress to the channel region 20 .", "For example, the first SiP layer 21 and the second SiP layer 22 can apply a tensile stress to the channel region 20 .", "The tensile stress applied can increase mobility of carriers in the channel region 20 .", "Since the second SiP layer 22 has a high phosphorus concentration, it can further increase the mobility of carriers.", "In addition, since the second SiP layer 22 has a high phosphorus concentration, it can reduce a contact resistance.", "For example, when a contact material such as silicide is formed on the second SiP layer 22 , the second SiP layer 22 can reduce the contact resistance.", "As described above, the first SiP layer 21 and the second SiP layer 22 may have different phosphorus concentrations from each other.", "Both the first SiP layer 21 and the second SiP layer 22 include phosphorus, but the phosphorus concentration of the first SiP layer 21 may be lower than that of the second SiP layer 22 .", "When the second SiP layer 22 comes in direct contact with the bottom corners 18 of the gate structure G, defects can be caused by precipitation of phosphorus.", "According to this embodiment, however, defects can be suppressed since the first SiP layer 21 is located between the SiP/SiO 2 interface 18 I and the second SiP layer 22 .", "For example, defects such as threading dislocations and misfits can be suppressed.", "When the phosphorus concentration of the first SiP layer 21 is maintained at 5×10 20 atoms/cm 3 or lower, the precipitation of phosphorus at the bottom corners 18 of the gate structure G can be suppressed, and thus the formation of defects can be suppressed.", "In this embodiment, the first SiP layer 21 and the second SiP layer 22 may be carbon-free SiP layers.", "Carbon reduces a quality of a SiP layer.", "When a concentration of carbon in the SiP layer increases, a tensile stress applied by the SiP layer is limited.", "Thus, carbon-containing SiP layers have a limited ability to improve mobility of carriers.", "When carbon-free SiP layers are formed, the mobility of carriers can further be improved, and the quality of the layers can be improved.", "In other embodiments, the first SiP layer 21 and the second SiP layer 22 may be formed in situ.", "For example, the first SiP layer 21 may be formed by reducing the flow rate of PH 3 during a first period ranging from an initial stage of epitaxial growth of the silicon layer to a time point at which the silicon layer reaches a certain thickness.", "Next, the second SiP layer 22 may be formed by increasing the flow rate of PH 3 until epitaxial growth of the silicon layer is completed to obtain a desired thickness.", "FIG. 3 illustrates a semiconductor device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.", "A portion of a semiconductor device 200 according to the second embodiment may be similar to that of the semiconductor device 100 of the first embodiment.", "The semiconductor device 200 may include a transistor 230 .", "Referring to FIG. 3 , the transistor 230 may include a gate structure G and source/drain regions S/D.", "It may further include a channel region 110 under the gate structure G. The transistor 230 may be NMOSFET.", "The source/drain regions S/D may fill recesses 109 .", "The source/drain regions S/D may include a Si layer 211 and a SiP layer 212 .", "The Si layer 211 may line a bottom and a sidewall of each of the recesses 109 .", "The end portion 211 E of the Si layer 211 may cover the bottom corners 108 of the gate structure G. The SiP layer 212 may be formed on the Si layer 211 to completely fill the recess 109 .", "The top portion of the SiP layer 212 may overlap the bottom corners 108 of the gate structure G. The Si layer 211 and the SiP layer 212 may be epitaxial layers.", "The Si layer 211 and the SiP layer 212 may be layers formed by selective epitaxial growth (SEG).", "The Si layer 211 and the SiP layer 212 can apply stress to the channel region 110 .", "For example, the Si layer 211 and the SiP layer 212 can apply tensile stress to the channel region 110 .", "Thus, mobility of carriers in the channel region 110 can be increased.", "Unlike the first SiP layer 111 in the first embodiment, the Si layer 211 may be undoped.", "That is, the Si layer 211 is undoped with phosphorus.", "The Si layer 211 may be carbon-free.", "The Si layer 211 may be formed using a silicon-containing precursor.", "The silicon-containing precursor may include silane (SiH 4 ), disilane (Si 2 H 6 ), trisilane (Si 3 H 8 ), dichlorosilane (SiH 2 Cl 2 ), or a combination of two or more thereof.", "During formation of the Si layer 211 , doping with PH 3 may be omitted.", "Formation of the SiP layer 212 may include in situ doping.", "The undoped Si layer 211 and the SiP layer 212 may be formed in situ.", "Like the second SiP layer 112 in the first embodiment, the SiP layer 212 may have a phosphorus concentration equal to or higher than 1×10 21 atorns/cm 3 .", "For example, the phosphorus concentration of the SiP layer 212 is in rage from 1×10 21 atoms/cm 3 to 5×10 21 atoms/cm 3 .", "As the Si layer 211 is formed as described above, a Si/SiO 2 interface 208 I is formed at the bottom corners 108 of the gate structure G. Namely, a SiP/SiO 2 interface is not formed.", "Thus, the formation of defects is suppressed.", "FIG. 4 illustrates a semiconductor device according to as third embodiment of the present invention.", "A portion of a semiconductor device 300 according to the third embodiment may be similar to that of the semiconductor device 100 of the first embodiment.", "Referring to FIG. 4 , the semiconductor device according to the third embodiment may include a transistor 330 .", "The transistor 330 may include a gate structure G and source/drain regions S/D.", "It may further include a channel region 110 under the gate structure G. The transistor 330 may be NMOSFET.", "The source/drain regions S/D may fill recesses 109 .", "The source/drain regions S/D may include a SiP layer 311 and an undoped Si cap layer 312 .", "The SiP layer 311 may be formed to completely fill the recesses 109 .", "A top portion of the SiP layer 311 may be located at a lower level than the bottom corners 108 of the gate structure G so that the SiP layer 311 does not overlap the bottom corners 108 of the gate structure G or a gate spacer 105 / 106 / 107 .", "The undoped Si cap layer 312 may be in contact with the bottom corners 108 of the gate structure G. The SiP layer 311 and the undoped Si cap layer 312 may be epitaxial layers.", "The SiP layer 311 and the undoped Si cap layer 312 may be layers formed by selective epitaxial growth (SEG).", "The SiP layer 311 can apply stress to the channel region 110 .", "For example, the SiP layer 311 can apply tensile stress to the channel region 110 .", "Thus, mobility of carriers in the channel region 310 can be increased.", "The undoped Si cap layer 312 may be undoped.", "Namely, it may be undoped with phosphorus.", "The undoped Si cap layer 312 may be carbon-free.", "Like the second SiP layer 112 in the first embodiment, the SiP layer 311 may have a phosphorus concentration equal to or higher than 1×10 21 atoms/cm 3 .", "For example, the phosphorus concentration of the SiP layer 311 is in rage from 1×10 21 atoms/cm 3 to 5×10 21 atorns/cm 3 .", "As described above, since the SiP layer 311 is formed not to contact the bottom corners 108 of the gate structure G, a SiP/SiO 2 interface is not formed between the SiP layer 311 and the bottom corners 108 .", "Thus, defect formation is suppressed.", "Between the undoped Si cap layer 312 and the bottom corners 108 of the gate structure G, a Si/SiO 2 interface 208 I may be formed.", "FIGS. 5A to 5C illustrate an example of a method for fabricating the semiconductor device according to third embodiment.", "First, according to the method shown in FIGS. 2A to 2C , a gate stack G, a gate spacer 15 / 16 / 17 , and recesses 19 may be formed.", "Next, as shown in FIG. 5A , the recesses 19 may be filled with a SiP layer 31 .", "The top portion of the SiP layer 31 may overlap the bottom corners 18 of the gate structure G. The top portion of the SiP layer 31 and the bottom corners 18 of the gate structure G may form a SiP/SiO 2 interface 18 I. The SiP layer 31 may be formed by CVD, LPCVD, ALD, UHVCVD, MBE or other suitable epitaxial process.", "The SiP layer 31 may be formed by at least single epitaxial process.", "The SiP layer 31 may have a high phosphorus concentration.", "The SiP layer 31 may be a phosphorus-doped silicon layer.", "The SiP layer 31 may have a phosphorus concentration equal to or higher than 1×10 21 atoms/cm 3 .", "For example, the phosphorus concentration of the SiP layer 31 is in rage from 1×10 21 atoms/cm 3 to 5×10 21 atoms/cm 3 .", "Since the SiP layer 31 has such a high phosphorus concentration, defects 31 D can occur at the SiP/SiO 2 interface 18 I. The SiP layer 31 may be formed using a phosphorus-containing material and a silicon-containing material.", "To form the SiP layer 31 , HCl may further be used.", "Herein, the phosphorus-containing material and the silicon-containing material may be referred to as the phosphorus-containing precursor and the silicon-containing precursor, respectively.", "The phosphorus-containing precursor may include phosphine (PH 3 ).", "The silicon-containing precursor may include silane (SiH 4 ), disilane (Si 2 H 6 ), trisilane (Si 3 H 8 ), dichlorosilane (SiH 2 Cl 2 ), or a combination of two or more thereof.", "In this embodiment, a mixture of dichlorosilane and silane may be used as the silicon-containing precursor to form the SiP layer 31 having a phosphorus concentration equal to or higher than 1×10 21 atoms/cm 3 .", "Formation of the SiP layer 31 may include in situ doping.", "For example, during deposition of a silicon layer, in situ doping may be performed using phosphine (PH 3 ).", "As described above, the recesses 19 may be filled with the SiP layer 31 having a high phosphorus concentration.", "The SiP layer 31 may provide a source/drain region.", "As shown in FIG. 5B , defects 31 D may be removed from the SiP layer 31 .", "To remove the defects 31 D, the SiP layer 31 may be recessed.", "Thus, the SiP/SiO 2 interface 18 I and the defects 31 D can be removed.", "To recess the SiP layer 31 , an etch-back process may be performed.", "A top surface of the recessed SiP layer 31 R is located at a lower level than the bottom corners 18 of the gate structure G. To remove the defects 31 D, post etching may be performed.", "The post etching may be performed using chlorine-containing gas.", "The post etching may include etching with HCl.", "The post etching with HCl may be performed in situ after formation of the recessed SiP layer 31 R. As shown in FIG. 5C , an undoped Si cap layer 32 may be formed on the recessed SiP layer 31 R and in the recess 19 .", "The undoped Si cap layer 32 may come into contact with the bottom corners 18 of the gate structure G. The undoped Si cap layer 32 and the bottom corners 18 of the gate structure G may form a Si/SiO 2 interface 18 I′.", "The undoped Si cap layer 32 may be undoped with phosphorus.", "Thus, even though the Si/SiO 2 interface 18 I′ is formed between the undoped Si cap layer 32 and the bottom corners 18 of gate structure G, no defect occurs at the Si/SiO 2 interface 18 I′.", "According to the third embodiment, when etching with HCl is performed in situ in an epitaxial growth chamber after formation of the SiP layer 31 having a high phosphorus concentration, the defects 31 D are removed.", "Since an etch rate of the defects 31 D is higher than that of a crystalline material, the defects 31 D that occurred at the SiP/SiO 2 interface 18 I are removed.", "When the undoped Si cap layer 32 is capped by epitaxial growth after removal of the defects 31 D, no problem arises even in a subsequent process for forming a contact.", "Thus the effect of removing the defects can also be obtained.", "The transistors 130 , 230 and 330 according to the embodiments of the present invention may be planar gate-type transistors.", "In another embodiment, the source/drain region S/D may be a FinFET.", "In addition, the gate structure G in each of the transistors 130 , 230 and 330 may be formed by a gate-last process.", "Each of the transistors 130 , 230 and 330 may be a portion of a CMOSFET.", "FIG. 6 illustrates a CMOSFET according to an embodiment of the present invention.", "Referring to FIG. 6 , a CMOSFET 400 may include an NMOSFET and a PMOSFET.", "The NMOSFET and the PMOSFET may be isolated from each other by an isolating layer 401 .", "The isolating layer 401 may be an STI region.", "The NMOSFET may be the same transistor 130 as the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1A .", "The NMOSFET may include a gate structure and source/drain regions S/D.", "It may further include a channel region 110 under the gate structure.", "The gate structure may include a gate insulating layer 102 , a gate electrode 103 and a gate cap layer 104 .", "The gate structure may further include a gate spacer composed of a first spacer 105 , a second spacer 106 and a third spacer 107 .", "The source/drain regions S/D may include a first SiP layer 111 having a relatively low phosphorus concentration and a second SiP layer 112 having a relatively high phosphorus concentration.", "The PMOSFET may include a gate structure and source/drain regions 408 .", "It may further include a channel region 410 under the gate structure.", "The source/drain region 408 may include a stress-inducing material.", "The stress-inducing material may include silicon germanium (SiGe).", "The source/drain regions 408 may be filled in recesses 409 .", "Thus, the source/drain regions 408 may be referred to as embedded SiGe.", "Compressive stress may be applied to the channel region 410 by the source/drain regions 408 made of SiGe.", "This can increase mobility of carriers in the channel region 410 .", "The gate structure may include a gate insulating layer 402 , a gate electrode 403 and a gate cap layer 404 .", "The gate structure may further include a gate spacer composed of a first spacer 405 , a second spacer 406 and a third spacer 407 .", "The gate structure of the PMOSFET may be the same as the gate structure of the NMOSFET.", "As described above, according to the embodiments, mobility of carriers in the channel region can be increased by forming a SiP layer having a high phosphorus concentration, which serves as a stress-inducing material.", "According to this embodiment, the magnitude of stress that is induced into the channel region can be increased by removing defects caused by the SiP layer having a high phosphorus concentration.", "According to this embodiment, defects at the interface between the gate spacer including oxide and the SiP layer having a high phosphorus concentration can be removed.", "According to the embodiments, using a mixture of dichlorosilane and silane, the SiP layer having a high phosphorus concentration can be epitaxially grown.", "In addition, the SiP layer obtained as such may have a high selectivity with respect to a dielectric material.", "According to the embodiments, the driving current of a transistor can be increased by increasing the carrier mobility of the transistor.", "While the present invention has been described with respect to the specific embodiments, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the following claims." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to polyolefin compositions for electrical insulation having high electrical breakdown strength.", "Conventionally various attempts have been made to improve the electrical breakdown strength of polyolefin by adding additives to polyolefin.", "Some of these attempts have matured to improvements as specifically disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,542,648 and 3,126,358, British Patent No. 1,202,910 and Japanese Patent Publication No. 19663/1970, etc.", "However, the polyolefin compositions proposed have the drawback that when subjected to exposure at elevated temperatures or subjected to heat cycle, the compositions loss their initial breakdown strength.", "Moreover the polyolefin compositions disclosed in prior arts may be not suitable as insulating materials for use at an extra-high voltage, such as 275 kV.", "Our researches have revealed that a polyolefin composition prepared by adding a small amount of ferrocene compound and an 8-substituted quinoline compound to polyolefin exhibits improved electrical breakdown strength, and is capable of retaining excellent voltage endurance even when subjected to heating or heat cycle.", "Further, incorporating of a siloxane oligomer together with above additives, the resultant composition shows more improved electrical breakdown strength and also exhibits superior voltage endurance over a long period of emmersion in water.", "OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION An object of this invention is to provide an electrical insulating composition having excellent electrical breakdown strength.", "Another object of this invention is to provide an electrical insulating polyolefin composition which retains its original outstanding electrical breakdown strength for a prolonged period of time even after heated during operation with alternating current or subjected to heat treatment in a vacuum.", "Another object of this envention is to provide an electrical insulating polyolefin composition having excellent electrical breakdown strength even while being continuously subjected to an elevated temperature of around 110°C.", "Another object of this invention is to provide an electrical insulating polyolefin composition maintaining satisfactory voltage endurance over a long period of immersion in water.", "Still another object of this invention is to provide crosslinked polyolefin compositions having excellent electric breakdown strength and higher durability under water immersion which are suitable for use of electrical insulating materials.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The composition of the present invention comprises polyolefin, small amounts of ferrocene compound, and 8-substituted quinoline compound, or comprises polyolefin, small amounts of ferrocene compound, 8-substituted quinoline compound, and siloxane oligomer.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The polyolefins to be used in this invention are homopolymers, copolymers or mixtures of at least two of these polymers and copolymers of olefins represented by the formula: ##EQU1## wherein R is hydrogen atom, alkyl group of less than three carbon atoms, --COOR'", "or --OCOR'", "group where R'", "is alkyl or aryl group of less than six carbon atoms.", "Examples of such polyolefins are polyethylene, polypropylene, ethylene-propylene copolymer, ethylene-propylene-diene terpolymer, ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer, ethylene-ethyl acrylate copolymer, polymethylmethacrylate, polystyrene, etc.", ", among which polyethylene is most preferable.", "The ferrocene compound in this invention involves ferrocene, substituted ferrocene, and polymerized ferrocene.", "The ferrocene compounds are represented by the following formulae I to VIII: ##EQU2## In formula I, X 1 and X 2 are each hydrogen or halogen atom, or alkyl, aryl, acyl, amino, carboxy, carboalkoxy or silyl group, respectively.", "In formulae II to VIII, Fc is ferrocene (π-C 5 H 5 -Fe-C 5 H 5 ) skeleton, --Fe-- is a 1,2-, 1,3-, or 1,1'-disubstituted ferrocenylene unit and n is an integer of 2 to 10,000.", "In formula II, X and Y are halogen or hydrogen atom, or alkyl, alkenyl, aryl, aralkyl, aralkenyl, hydroxy or alkoxy group, respectively.", "In formula III, Ar is o-, m- or p-phenylene or other arylene group, such as naphthylene or anthracenylene, with or without a substituent thereon.", "In formula IV, X and Y are each the same as X and Y of formula II, or X and Y may form a carbonyl group together with the carbon atom connected with X and Y and Z is alkylene, arylene, aralkylene, alkenylene or aralkenylene group.", "In formula V, m is an integer of 2 to 12 and the carbon ring composed of C and --(CH 2 ) m -- may contain an unsaturated bond and have a substituent thereon.", "In formulae VI and VIII, Z is the same as Z in formula IV, R in formula VIII being nitrogen atom or methine group.", "In formula VII, X is the same as X in formula II.", "Those organic groups, X 1 , X 2 in formula I, X, Y in formulae II and IV, and X in formula VII have carbon atoms less than 30, preferably less than 25.", "Those organic groups, Ar in formula III and Z in formulae IV, VI and VIII, have carbon atoms less than 40, preferably less than 30.", "Preferable among the ferrocene compounds represented by the above formula I are those in which X 1 and/or X 2 are each hydrogen atom, alkyl, aryl, acyl, amino, carboxyl, carboalkoxy or silyl group.", "Especially preferable among these are ferrocene, acetyl ferrocene, t-amylferrocene, n-butylferrocene, 1,1'-di-n-butylferrocene, 1,1'-dimethylferrocene, N,N-dimethylaminoferrocene, carboethoxy-acetylferrocene, ferrocene carboxylic acid, ferrocene acetic acid, ethylferrocene, cinnamoylferrocene, triphenylmethylferrocene, phenylferrocene, 1,1'-diphenylferrocene, 1,2-diphenylferrocene, 1,3-diphenylferrocene, ferrocene aldehyde, methyl ferrocenyl carbinol, N,N-dimethylaminomethylferrocene, 2-N,N-dimethylaminoethylferrocene, hydroxymethylferrocene, cyanomethylferrocene, vinyl ferrocene, chloromethyl-ferrocene and trimethylsilylferrocene.", "Preferable examples of the ferrocene compounds represented by formulae II to VIII are as follows: Compounds of formula II wherein X is a hydrogen atom and Y is an alkyl, aryl, alkenyl, aralkyl or aralkenyl group, Compounds of formula II wherein X is an alkyl or aryl group, and Y is alkyl, aryl, alkenyl, aralkyl, aralkenyl, or alkoxy group or halogen atom, Compounds of formula III wherein Ar is an alkoxy--hydroxy--, or halogen-substituted arylene group, Compounds of formula IV wherein at least either of X or Y is a hydroxyl group of alkoxyl group, and Z is an arylene group, Compounds of formula V wherein m is an integer of 4 to 7, and Compounds of formula VII wherein X is an alkyl group.", "Table 1 shows especially desirable examples among the ferrocene compounds (indicated as "ferrocene polymers") represented by formulae II to VIII.", "Table 1__________________________________________________________________________Ferrocene For- X Y Ar or Z mpolymer mula__________________________________________________________________________1 II H C.sub[.", "].6 H.sub[.", "].5 -- --2 II H p-CH.", "sub[.", "].3 --C.", "sub[.", "].6 H.sub[.", "].4 -- -- --3 II H p-CH.", "sub[.", "].3 O--C.", "sub[.", "].6 H.sub[.", "].4 -- -- --4 II H CH.", "sub[.", "].3 CH=CH-- -- --5 II H C.sub[.", "].6 H.sub[.", "].5 CH=CH-- -- --6 II H CH.", "sub[.", "].3 --CH.", "sub[.", "].2 --.", "sub[.", "].7 -- --7 II H o-OH--C.", "sub[.", "].6 H.sub[.", "].4 -- --8 II H p-(CH.", "sub[.", "].3).", "sub[.", "].2 N--C.", "sub[.", "].6 H.sub[.", "].4 -- -- --9 II CH.", "sub[.", "].3 C.sub[.", "].6 H.sub[.", "].5 -- --10 II C.sub[.", "].6 H.sub[.", "].5 C.sub[.", "].6 H.sub[.", "].5 -- --11 III -- -- --12 III -- -- --13 IV H OH C.sub[.", "].6 H.sub[.", "].4 --14 IV (X--C--Y : >C=O) C.sub[.", "].6 H.sub[.", "].4 --15 V -- -- -- 516 VII CH.", "sub[.", "].3 -- -- --__________________________________________________________________________ The ferrocene compounds of formulae I to VIII are prepared by the method disclosed, for instance, in J. Organometallic Chem.", ", 58, 323 to 410 (1973), and United States Patent No. 3,819,583.", "The 8-substituted quinoline compounds to be used according to this invention are quinoline compounds having a specified substituent R at the 8-position and represented by the formula IX: ##SPC1## wherein R is a halogen atom, alkyl, aryl, hydroxyl, amino, nitro, carboxyl, alkoxyl, aryloxyl, alkenyl, acyl, imino, mercapto or amide group.", "Each of above organic groups has carbon atoms of less than 30.", "The quinoline skelton may have 1 to 3 substituents, such as alkyl, amino, alkoxyl, and carboxyl group, at positions other than the 8-position.", "Preferable among these 8-substituted quinoline compounds are those in which R of formula IX is alkyl, aryl, amino, alkenyl, acyl, amide or hydroxyl group, such as 8-ethylquinoline, 8-methylquinoline, 8-chloromethylquinoline, 8-propylquinoline, 8-phenylquinoline, 2,8-dimethylquinoline, 4,8-dimethylquinoline, 5,8-dimethylquinoline, 6,8-dimethylquinoline, 2,3,8-trimethylquinoline, 2,4,8-trimethylquinoline, 2,6,8-trimethylquinoline, 4,5,8-trimethylquinoline, 2-ethyl-3,8-dimethylquinoline, 2,4,5,8-tetramethylquinoline, 2,5,6,8-tetramethylquinoline, 2,4,6,8-tetramethylquinoline, 2-ethyl-3,6,8-trimethylquinoline, quinoline-8-methanol, 2-chloro-8-methylquinoline, quinoline-8-carboylanilide, methyl 5-(8-hydroxyquinolyl) ketone, methyl 5-(8-hydroxyquinolyl) ketone oxime, phenyl 5-(8-hydroxyquinolyl) ketone, phenyl 5-(8-hydroxyquinolyl) ketone oxime, 8-hydroxyquinoline-5-acetamide, 8-hydroxyquinoline- 5-benzamide, 8-hydroxyquinoline-5-carboylanilide, 8-hydroxyquinoline-5-carboxylic acid ethanol amide, 8-hydroxyquinoline-5-carboxylic acid methyl amide, methyl 8-quinolyl ketone, 2-(3,8-dimethylquinolyl) methyl ketone, 5-(8-methoxyquinoyl) methyl ketone, 8-aminoquinoline, 8-hydroxyquinoline, 8-hydroxyquinoline-7-aldehyde, 5-hydroxymethyl-8-hydroxyquinoline, 7-aminomethyl-8-hydroxyquinoline, 7-(2-propenyl)-8-hydroxyquinoline, 8-benzoyloxyquinoline, quinoline-8-carboxylic acid, 8-methylcarbostyril, 8-methyl-5-hydroxyquinoline, 2-phenyl-8-hydroxyquinoline, 2-methyl-8-hydroxyquinoline, 8-methyl-6-hydroxyquinoline, 5-methyl-8-hydroxyquinoline, 6,8-dimethylcarbostyril, 5-amino-8-hydroxyquinoline, 6-methoxy-8-methylaminoquinoline, 6-methoxy-8-aminoquinoline, 2,8-dihydroxyquinoline, 5,8-dihydroxyquinoline, 6,8-dihydroxyquinoline, 7,8-dihydroxyquinoline, 2-methyl-8-aminoquinoline, 8-amino-7-methylquinoline, 8-amino-6-hydroxyquinoline, 5,8-diaminoquinoline, 6,8-diaminoquinoline, 7,8-diaminoquinoline, 5,8-diamino-6-methoxyquinoline, 8-methylquinoline-4-carboxylic acid, 2-methylquinoline-8-carboxylic acid, 5-methylquinoline-8-carboxylic acid, 8-hydroxycinchonic acid, 8-hydroxyquinaldic acid, 8-aminoquinaldic acid, 6-methoxyquinoline-8-carboxylic acid, quinoline-5,8-dicarboxylic acid, 2-phenylquinoline-4,8-dicarboxylic acid, quinoline-8-acetic acid, quinoline-8 -acrylic acid, quinoline-8-carboxyaldehyde, 8-ethylquinoline-2-carboxyaldehyde, 3,8-dimethyl-2-carboxyaldehyde, 8-hydroxyquinoline-5-carboxyaldehyde, 7-hydroxyquinoline-8-carboxyaldehyde, phenyl 8-quinolyl ketone, 8-hydroxyquinolyl 5-methyl ketone, phenyl 8 -quinolyl ketone oxime (syn and anti) and 8-benzoylaminoquinoline.", "The 8-substituted compounds to be used in this invention further include quinoline compounds of the condensation type such as pyrrolo[4,5-h]quinoline and benzo-7,8-quinoline.", "Examples of most preferable quinoline are 8-phenylquinoline, 2,8-dimethylquinoline, 8-aminoquinoline, 8-hydroxyquinoline, 5-hydroxy-methyl-8-hydroxyquinoline, quinoline-8-carboxylic acid, 2,8-dihydroxyquinoline, 8-hydroxycinchonic acid, and quinoline-8-carboxyaldehyde.", "According to this invention, the ferrocene compound and 8-substituted quinoline compound are added to polyolefin in a total amount of 0.01 to 20 parts by weight, preferably of 0.05 to 5 parts by weight, per 100 parts by weight of polyolefin.", "The ratio in amount of the 8-substituted quinoline compound to the ferrocene compound varies from 0.05 to 20, preferably 0.1 to 5 parts by weight, per one part by weight of ferrocene compound.", "When a siloxane oligomer is added to polyolefin together with the ferrocene compound and 8-substituted quinoline compound in this invention, the resulting polyolefin composition displays remarkably improved electrical breakdown strength and additionally holds enhanced voltage endurance over a long period of immersion in water.", "Examples of the siloxane oligomers having such effects are those represented by the following formulae X to XII: ##EQU3## In formulae X to XII, R 1 is alkyl, aryl, alkoxyl, hydroxy, aralkyl or alkenyl group, or halogen atom, R 2 is hydrogen atom, alkyl, aryl, aralkyl, alkenyl, or alkylhalosilyl group, and X, Y, X'", "and Y'", "are each alkyl, alkenyl, aryl, aralkyl, aralkenyl, hydroxyl or alkoxyl group, or halogen atom.", "Preceding organic groups, R 1 , R 2 , X, Y, X', Y', have carbon atoms less than 15.", "In formula X, n is an integer of 2 to 100, preferably of 5 to 30, while in formula XI, m and n are each an integer of 1 to 60, preferably of 2 to 15.", "Preferably, the siloxane oligomers represented by formulae X and XI have a molecular weight of about 350 to about 30,000.", "In formula XII, N is preferably 2 to 50.", "Further in formula XI, X, X', Y, and Y'", "may be different from each other except that X is identical to X', and Y to Y', and also except that X, X', Y, and Y'", "are all identical.", "Listed in Table 2 are representative examples of the preferable siloxane oligomers in this invention.", "Table 2__________________________________________________________________________SiloxanoligomerFormula R.sup[.", "].1 R.sup[.", "].2 X Y X'", "Y'", "n m__________________________________________________________________________1 X C.sub[.", "].2 H.sub[.", "].5 O C.sub[.", "].2 H.sub[.", "].5 CH.", "sub[.", "].3 CH.", "sub[.", "].3 -- -- 52 X "", """, """, """, "-- -- 103 X "", """, """, """, "-- -- 154 X Cl Si(CH.", "sub[.", "].3).", "sub[.", "].2 Cl "", """, "-- -- 55 X "", """, """, """, "-- -- 106 X "", """, "CH.", "sub[.", "].2 =CH-- "", "-- -- 107 X OH H CH.", "sub[.", "].3 "", "-- -- 58 X "", """, """, """, "-- -- 159 X OCH.", "sub[.", "].3 CH.", "sub[.", "].3 "", """, "-- -- 1510 X "", """, """, """, "-- -- 1011 XI OH H CH.", "sub[.", "].3 CH.", "sub[.", "].3 CH.", "sub[.", "].2 =CH CH.", "sub[.", "].3 1 912 XI "", """, """, """, """, """, "2 1813 XI "", """, "C.sub[.", "].6 H.sub[.", "].5 C.sub[.", "].6 H.sub[.", "].5 CH.", "sub[.", "].3 "", "2 814 XI "", """, """, """, """, """, "4 1615 XI C.sub[.", "].2 H.sub[.", "].5 O C.sub[.", "].2 H.sub[.", "].5 CH.", "sub[.", "].3 CH.", "sub[.", "].3 CH.", "sub[.", "].2 =CH "", "3 3__________________________________________________________________________ According to this invention, the ferrocene compound, siloxane oligomer and 8-substituted quinoline compound are used in a total amount of about 0.01 to 20 parts by weight, preferably 0.03 to 5 parts by weight, and most preferably 0.03 to 3 parts by weight, per 100 parts by weight of polyolefin to assure an effective result.", "Further it is preferable to use the siloxane oligomer in a ratio of 0.05 to 20 parts by weight, most preferably of 0.05 to 5 parts by weight, per one part by weight of the ferrocene compound, while the ratio of the 8-substituted quinoline compound to the ferrocene compound is 0.05 to 20 parts by weight, more advantageously 0.5 to 5 parts by weight, of the former per one part by weight of the latter.", "The composition of this invention can be prepared easily by mixing polyolefin, ferrocene compound, and quinoline compound, or polyolefin, ferrocene compounds, quinoline compounds, and siloxane oligomer by means of conventional mixing equipments such as Banbury mixer or open roll.", "A certain high-speed agitator such as Henschel mixer is also used for this purpose as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,736,173.", "In the present invention, the composition may further contain usually available curing agent, curing co-agent, curing accelerator, antioxidant, mineral filler, ultraviolet absorbent, pigment, processing oil and other additives generally employed for rubber and plastics.", "As a curing agent, curing co-agent and curing accelerator, the following examples are employed: 1.", "Organic peroxides, mixtures of peroxides and sulfur, or mixtures of peroxides and dioximes.", "Examples of the peroxides include dicumyl peroxide, di-tertiarybutyl peroxide, 1,1'-di-tertiary-butyl peroxyethane and 1,4-bis(tertiary-butyl peroxy) diisopropylbenzene, and examples of the dioximes include p-quinone dioxime and p,p'-dibenzylquinone dioxime.", "Thiurams, mixtures of thiurams and thiazoles, mixtures of thiurams and imidazolines, mixtures of thiurams and litharge, or mixtures of thiurams and dithiocarbamates.", "Examples of the thiurams include tetramethylthiuram monosulfide, tetramethylthiuram disulfide, dimethyldiphenylthiuram disulfide, dipentamethylenethiuram monosulfide and dipentamethylenethiuram tetrasulfide.", "Examples of the dithiocarbamates include zinc dimethyldithiocarbamate, zinc diethyldithiocarbamate, selenium diethyldithiocarbamate and tellurium diethyldithiocarbamate.", "Examples of the thiazoles include 2-mercaptobenzothiazole, dibenzothiazyl disulfide and a zinc salt of 2-mercaptobenzothiazole and N-diethyl-2-benzothiazyl.", "A suitable example of the imidazolines is 2-mercaptoimidazoline.", "Mixtures of zinc oxide, magnesium oxide and imidazolines such as 2-mercaptoimidazoline.", "Mixtures of the above-described dioximes and metal oxides.", "The curing agent mentioned above is incorporated in an amount of 0.5 to 10 parts by weight per 100 parts by weight of polyolefin.", "To obtain a cured product of the present composition, such processes are actuated by the heating through high pressure steam, infrared rays, molten salt, high frequency potential, or like heating means.", "The cured composition of the present invention possesses more excellent electrical breakdown strength rather than uncured one of the invention.", "If the composition of this invention additionally contains a small amount of polyhydric alcohol, dispersant, surfactant or unsaturated polymer, or a mixture thereof, still another improvement will be attained in electrical breakdown strength accompanying with narrow scatter in breakdown strength.", "Preferably, these substances are used in an amount of 0.05 to 10 parts by weight, more preferably of 0.1 to 5 parts by weight, per one part by weight of total amount of ferrocene compound and 8-substituted quinoline compound or of ferrocene compound, siloxane oligomer and 8-substituted compound.", "Preferable polyhydric alcohols are those having at least two hydroxyl groups in the molecule and having molecular weight of 62-1000.", "Examples thereof are as follows: 1.", "Aliphatic polyhydroxy compounds such as ethylene glycol, propylene glycol, pentaerythritol, trimethylene glycol, polyethylene glycol, glycerin, etc.", "Alicyclic polyhydroxy compounds such as 1-hydroxymethyl-1-cyclobutanol, cyclohexanediol, methylcyclopentanediol, hydroxymethylcyclohexanol, 1,2-dimethyl-2,3-cyclopentanediol, etc.", "Aromatic polyhydroxy compounds such as catechol, resorcin, phlorglucin, 1,2,4-trihydroxybenzene, hydroxybenzyl alcohol, phthalyl alcohol, dihydroxybiphenyl, benzpinacol, triphenylethylene glycol, hydroquinone, 2,3-dihydroxynaphthalene, 2,6-resorcylic acid, 2,2',4,4'-tetrahydroxydiphenylsulfide, bisresorcin-ethylene ether, bis(2,3-hydroxyphenyl)urea, 2,4-resorcylic acid ethanol amide, 2-hydroxynaphthalene-3-carboyldiethanolamide, 3-hydroxynaphthalene-3-carboylethanolamide, etc.", "Among these polyhydric alcohols, especially preferable are polyethylene glycol, erythritol, pentaerythritol, resorcin and hydroquinone.", "Examples of the dispersant are those generally used for rubber and plastics such as metal salt of higher fatty acid, hydrophilic ester of higher fatty acid, polyethylene glycol alkyl ether, polyethylene glycol ether, thioether, thiobutyrate, and mixtures thereof.", "Preferable surfactants are of the following types: 1.", "Amine type a. Primary amines such as octylamine, tetradecylamine, beef tallow alkylamine, etc.", "b. Tertiary amines such as oleyldimethylamine, dodecyldimethylamine, tetradecyldimethylamine, etc.", "c. Diamines such as beef tallow alkylpropylenediamine, 2.", "Complex type such as amine complex 3.", "Nonionic type a. Amine-ethylene oxide adducts such as hydroxyethylene dodecylamine, polyoxyethylene dodecylamine, polyoxyethylene octadecylamine, polyoxyethylene beef tallow alkylpropylenediamine, etc.", "b. Ether type such as polyoxyethylene oleyl ether, polyoxyethylene cetyl ether, etc.", "c. Alkylphenols such as polyoxyethylene, alkylaryl ethers.", "d. Ester type such as polyethylene glycol monolaurate, polyethylene glycol monostearate, etc.", "e. Partial esters of polyhydric alcohols such as sorbitan monostearate, sorbitan monopalmitate, sorbitan sesquioleate, etc.", "f. Alkylamide type such as polyoxyethylene alkylamide, etc.", "g. Alkylthioethers such as polyoxyethylene dodecylmercapto ether, etc.", "Cationic type a. Quaternary amine halides such as dodecyltrimethyl ammonium chloride, hexadecyltrimethyl ammonirm chloride, octadecyltrimethyl ammonium chloride, polyoxyethylene dodecylmonomethyl ammonium chloride, etc, b. Alkylamines such as polyoxyethylene alkylamine, etc.", "c. Polyamineamide and imidazoline types.", "Anionic type a. Fatty acid soaps such as sodium and calcium salts of fatty acid.", "b. Arylsulfonate such as sodium alkylbenzenesulfonate, sodium alkylarylsulfonate, etc.", "c. Sodium salts of sulfate ester of alcohols and phosphate esters of alcohols.", "Betaine type a. Amine type betaine such as alkyl(diaminoethyl)glycine.", "The above-mentioned unsaturated polymers are those containing at least 0.5, preferably at least one unsaturated bond or unsaturated atomic group selected from the group consisting of C=C, aromatic ring and C.tbd.", "N per unit structure constituting the polymer.", "Examples are 1,2-polybutadiene, styrene-butadiene copolymer, 1,4-polybutadiene, nitrile-butadiene copolymer, and the like.", "The reasons why the compositions of this invention have outstanding electrical breakdown strength are presumably as follows: The ferrocene compound may act as a capture of inactivate highly energized electrons, while the 8-substituted quinoline compound may inactivate a very small amount of metal ions, particularly of copper ions, which are thought to be present as impurities mainly in the polyolefin, thereby improving the electrical breakdown strength of the polyolefin compound.", "When both compounds are conjointly present, the metal ion capturing action of the latter may promote the electron capturing or inactivating action of the former to result in an outstanding synergetic effect.", "Moreover where the siloxane oligomer is also present, the oligomer may fill the voids contained in the polyolefin and expel the molecule of invading water, materially enhancing the synergetic effect of ferrocene compound and 8-substituted quinoline compound.", "The addition of the foregoing unsaturated polymer serves to render more uniform the interface between the crystalline portion and the amorphous portion in the polymer and thereby to secure the structural homogenity in the interior of the polymer, while the dispersant added to the polyolefin compound permits the other additives to be dispersed more uniformly in the composition.", "Thus both ingredients are considered to be effective for improving the breakdown strength.", "The composition of the present invention is more particularly described and explained by means of the following illustrative Examples.", "EXAMPLES 1 TO 22 AND COMPARISON EXAMPLES 1 TO 4 Low-density polyethylene (trade mark: "Yukaron ZF 36", product of Mitsubishi Petrochemical Co., Ltd., Japan, d=0.915, M.I.=1.0) and the additives listed in Table 3 were kneaded together in a roll mill at 110° to 115°C.", "for 10 minutes to prepare the compositions of Examples and Comparison Examples.", "Each composition was tested by the method to be described later after having been heated to 120°C.", "for 20 minutes and also without subjecting to such heat treatment to determine the electrical breakdown strength of the composition.", "Table 4 gives the arithmetic mean value and minimum-to-maximum range of ten test data of the composition.", "The ferrocene polymers used in Examples were of the same structure as those listed in Table 1 with the corresponding reference numerals and were prepared by the methods described below.", "The siloxane oligomers used in Examples and Comparison Examples are shown in Table 2 with the corresponding reference numerals.", "[Methods for preparing ferrocene polymers] Ferrocene polymers 1 to 10 and 15 were prepared by subjecting ferrocene and the carbonyl compound listed in Table 3 to dehydration condensation in a polar solvent in the presence of Lewis acid as a catalyst under the conditions shown in Table 3.", "Each polymer obtained was rinsed with water and then washed with a mixture of benzene and petroleum ether for purification.", "Table 3__________________________________________________________________________Ferrocene Carbonyl compound Reaction conditionspolymer (wt.", "part per one wt.", "Temp.", "Time Solvent Catalyst(No.) part of ferrocene) (°C.) (hr.)__________________________________________________________________________1 Benzaldehyde (0.84) 120 1 DMF FeCl.", "sub[.", "].32 p-Tolualdehyde (0.84) 120 1 DMF FeCl.", "sub[.", "].33 p-Anisaldehyde (0.84) 120 1 DMAC FeCl.", "sub[.", "].34 Crotonaldehyde (0.84) 110 1 n-Methyl-2- SnCl.", "sub[.", "].2 pyrrolidone5 Cinnamic aldehyde (0.84) 120 1 DMAC AlCl.", "sub[.", "].36 n-Nonylaldehyde (0.84) 120 2 DMF SnCl.", "sub[.", "].27 Salicylaldehyde (0.84) 120 2 DMF FeCl.", "sub[.", "].38 p-Dimethylamino- (0.84) 120 1 DMF FeCl.", "sub[.", "].3 benzaldehyde9 Acetophenone (0.9) 140 2 DMF SnCl.", "sub[.", "].210 Benzophenone (0.95) 140 2 DMF FeCl.", "sub[.", "].315 Cyclohexane (0.6) 140 2 p-Methyl-2- SnCl.", "sub[.", "].2 pyrrolidone__________________________________________________________________________ (Note) DMF: Dimethylformamide DMAC: Dimethylacetamide Ferrocene polymer 11 was prepared by reacting 1 part by weight of ferrocene with 1 part by weight of p-dichlorobenzene at 175°C.", "for 2 hours in the presence of di-tert-butyl peroxide and thoroughly washing the resulting product with a mixture of benzene-petroleum ether (1 : 1) for purification.", "Ferrocene polymer 12 was prepared in the same manner as ferrocene polymer 11 except that 1 part by weight of α-bromonaphthalene was used in place of p-dichlorobenzene.", "Ferrocene polymer 14 was prepared by subjecting a mixture of ferrocene and p-phthaloyl chloride (in equal amounts by weight) to Friedel Crafts reaction in n-hexane at 70°C.", "in the presence of AlCl 3 , as a catalyst and thoroughly washing the resulting product with a mixture of benzene and petroleum ether (1 : 1) for purification.", "Ferrocene polymer 13 was prepared by reducing the ferrocene polymer 14 with lithium aluminum hydride in tetrahydrofuran.", "Ferrocene polymer 16 was prepared by subjecting 1,1'-(1,1'-epoxydiethyl)ferrocene to ring-opening polymerization at 75°C.", "in toluene in the presence of BF 3 .", "sup..", "OEt 2 catalyst.", "[Method for determining electrical breakdown strength] Breakdown strength was determined according to the improved method of Kitchen-Pratt method (described in D. W. Kitchen and O. S. Pratt, AIEE, PAS, p. 112, June, 1962) which is generally adopted for evaluating the electrical breakdown strength of polymers.", "A brief explanation of the improved Kitchen-Pratt method is as follows: A specimen, 25 mm.", "× 25 mm.", "× 3 mm, was heated from a room temperature to 120°C.", "and then maintained at this temperature for 5 minutes.", "A polished sewing needle, 30° in needle tip angle and 3 μm in the radius of needle tip curvature, was treated under the same temperature conditions as the specimen and was then inserted into the specimen from the center of 25 mm.", "× 3 mm.", "surface thereof at right angle to the surface, toward the opposite side at a rate of 3 mm.", "/min.", "The needle was placed into the specimen to such a depth that the distance between the needle tip and the opposite surface was 10 mm.", "The specimen having the needle inserted therein was cooled and then left to stand at a room temperature for 7 days.", "A.C. voltage was applied between the needle inserted in the specimen and the opposite surface grounded directly at 8 kV initially, and was thereafter elevated stepwise by 2 kV every 10 minutes.", "With easy elevations of voltage, the specimen was inspected with the unaided eye or through a microscope to check the occurrence of electrical tree.", "The voltage (kV) at which electrical tree initiates is shown in Table 4 and Table 5 as the breakdown strength of the specimen.", "Table 4__________________________________________________________________________ Electrical breakdown strength (KV) After heating at 120°C Additives (part by weight) Original for 20 minutes Range Average Range Average__________________________________________________________________________Comp.", "Ex.", "1 None 8-14 9.8 up to 8 up to 8"", "2 Ferrocene 0.5 12-22 20.6 8-12 10.6"", "3 8-Hydroxyquinoline 0.5 10-20 14.8 8-10 9.7"", "4 Siloxane oligomer 1 0.5 10.16 12.5 8-10 9.4__________________________________________________________________________Ex.", "1 Ferrocene 0.1 16-22 22.1 10-18 13.8 8-Hydroxyquinoline 0.5"", "2 Ferrocene 0.5 18-26 23.2 10-20 16.2 8-Hydroxyquinoline 0.5"", "3 Acetyl ferrocene 0.5 16-26 21.8 12-24 14.8 8-Phenyl quinoline 0.5 Ferrocene 0.5"", "4 8-Hydroxyquinoline 0.5 16-24 21.8 12-22 14.6 Pentaerythritol 0.4 Ferrocene 0.5"", "5 Siloxane oligomer 2 0.5 16-28 22.6 8-16 13.6 8-Hydroxyquinoline 0.5 Ferrocene 0.5"", "6 Siloxane oligomer 3 0.5 16-28 24.2 8-16 14.2 8-Hydroxyquinoline 0.5 Ferrocene 0.5"", "7 Siloxane oligomer 4 0.5 14-26 22.6 8-16 13.4 8-Hydroxyquinoline 0.5 Ferrocene 0.5"", "8 Siloxane oligomer 1 0.5 14-28 23.2 10-16 14.0 8-Hydroxyquinoline 0.5 Ferrocene 0.5"", "9 Siloxane oligomer 9 0.5 14-24 22.2 8-16 13.2 8-Hydroxyquinoline 0.5 Ferrocene 0.5"", "10 Siloxane oligomer 10 0.5 14-28 23.6 10-16 14.4 8-Hydroxyquinoline 0.5 Ferrocene 0.5"", "11 Siloxane oligomer 13 0.5 16-26 22.6 8-16 13.8 8-Hydroxyquinoline 0.5 Ferrocene 0.5"", "12 Siloxane oligomer 15 0.5 16-26 22.0 10-16 14.3 8-Hydroxyquinoline 0.5 N,N-dimethylamino- methylferrocene 0.5"", "13 Siloxane oligomer 2 0.5 18-28 24.5 8-18 15.3 2,8-Dimethylquinoline 0.5 Ethylene glycol 0.5 Trimethylsilyl- ferrocene 0.5"", "14 Siloxane oligomer 5 0.5 16-28 24.3 12-16 14.8 Quinoline-8- carboxylic acid 0.5 cis-1,2-Polybutadiene 0.5"", "15 Ferrocene polymer 1 0.5 14-24 19.0 8-14 12.0 8-Hydroxyquinoline 0.5"", "16 Ferrocene polymer 2 0.5 14-22 18.8 10-16 14.2 8-Hydroxyquinoline 0.5"", "17 Ferrocene polymer 3 1.0 14-26 19.5 8-18 13.1 8-Hydroxyquinoline 0.5 Ferrocene polymer 4 0.5"", "18 Siloxane oligomer 5 0.5 14-26 19.0 8-14 12.8 8-Hydroxyquinoline 0.5 Ferrocene polymer 5 0.5"", "19 Siloxane oligomer 8 0.5 16-24 18.6 14-18 13.6 8-Hydroxyquinoline 0.5 Ferrocene polymer 7 0.5"", "20 Siloxane oligomer 11 0.5 14-28 21.2 12-18 14.7 8-Hydroxyquinoline 0.5 n-Butylferrocene 0.2 Ferrocene polymer 16 0.3"", "21 Siloxane oligomer 14 0.5 14-28 18.4 12-16 14.0 8-Aminoquinoline 0.5 Quinoline-8- carboxylic acid 0.2 Ferrocene polymer 12 0.3"", "22 Siloxane oligomer 7 0.5 14-24 20.0 10-20 14.4 8-Hydroxycinchonic 0.5 acid Polyethylene glycol 0.5 ether__________________________________________________________________________ EXAMPLES 23 TO 38 AND COMPARISON EXAMPLES 5 TO 8 One hundred parts by weight of the same polyethylene as used in the foregoing Examples, 2 parts by weight of dicumyl peroxide and the additives listed in Table 5 were kneaded together in a roll mill at 115° to 120°C.", "for 15 minutes to prepare the compositions of Examples and Comparison Examples.", "Each composition was then cross-linked by pressing at a temperature of 165°C.", "and at a pressure of 150 kg.", "/cm.", "2 for 45 minutes to obtain a cross-linked sheet of 3 mm.", "in thickness.", "A specimen, 25 mm.", "× 25 mm.", "× 3 mm.", ", was cut off from each sheet obtained, and a similar specimen was also prepared from the sheet after it was heated at 180°C.", "for 20 minutes.", "Table 5 gives the arithmetic mean value and minimum-to-maximum range of ten test data of the specimen.", "Table 5__________________________________________________________________________ Electrical breakdown strength (KV) After heating at 180°C Additives (part by weight) Original for 20 minutes Range Average Range Average__________________________________________________________________________Comp.", "Ex.", "5 None 16-20 18.1 up to 8 up to 8"", "6 8-Hydroxyquinoline 3.0 20-30 25.5 8-16 14.8"", "7 Ferrocene 0.5 26-34 30.6 10-20 16.0"", "8 Siloxane oligomer 1 0.5 24-32 26.8 10-18 15.8__________________________________________________________________________Ex.", "23 Ferrocene 0.1 28-36 32.6 24-32 26.2 8-Hydroxyquinoline 0.5 Ferrocene 1.0"", "24 8-Hydroxyquinoline 0.5 30-40 36.2 30-36 32.4 Ferrocene 0.5"", "25 8-Hydroxyquinoline 0.5 32-42 36.8 28-40 32.8 Pentaerythritol 0.4 Ferrocene 0.5"", "26 8-Hydroxyquinoline 0.5 36-42 36.8 32-40 35.2 Cis-1,2-polybutadiene 2.0 Ferrocene 0.5"", "27 Siloxane oligomer 1 0.5 30-40 33.6 14-24 20.0 8-Hydroxyquinoline 0.5 Ferrocene 0.5"", "28 Siloxane oligomer 2 0.5 30-42 35.2 18-26 21.8 8-Hydroxyquinoline 0.5 Ferrocene 0.5 Siloxane oligomer 3 0.5"", "29 8-Hydroxyquinoline 0.5 34-50 43.1 22-30 26.0 1,4-Polybutadiene 0.5 Ferrocene 0.5 Siloxane oligomer 6 0.5"", "30 8-Hydroxyquinoline 0.5 30-40 35.3 18-26 21.5 Octylamine 0.5 Ferrocene 0.5 Siloxane oligomer 8 0.5"", "31 8-Hydroxyquinoline 0.5 32-44 35.8 18-26 21.7 Hydroxyethylene 0.5 dodecylamine Ferrocene 0.5 Siloxane oligomer 9 0.5"", "32 8-Hydroxyquinoline 0.5 30-42 37.0 18-24 21.5 Octadecyltrimethyl ammonium chloride 0.5 Ferrocene 0.5 Siloxane oligomer 10 0.5"", "33 8-Hydroxyquinoline 0.5 28-42 37.1 16-28 21.6 Sodium dodecylbenzen- 0.5 sulfonate Cinnamoyl ferrocene 0.5 Siloxane oligomer 12 0.5"", "34 8-Hydroxyqinoline 0.5 28-42 36.1 18-30 22.4 Ferrocene polymer 6 0.5"", "35 5-Hydroxymethyl-8- 0.5 26-40 35.2 16-24 20.8 hydroxyquinoline"", "36 Ferrocene polymer 8 0.5 2,8-Dihydroxyquinoline 30-40 34.8 18-28 22.8 0.5 Siloxane oligomer 2 0.5 Ferrocene polymer 9 0.5"", "37 Quinoline-8- 0.5 32-44 36.0 20-30 23.2 carboxyaldehyde Siloxane oligomer 1 0.5 Ferrocene polymer 10 0.5"", "38 2,8-Dihydroxyquinoline 0.5 30-42 35.2 18-30 23.0 Siloxane oligomer 2 0.5__________________________________________________________________________ EXAMPLES 39 TO 47 AND COMPARISON EXAMPLES 9 TO 10 The ingredients listed in Table 6 shown below were kneaded together by hot rolls at 90°C.", "for 10 minutes to prepare the compositions of Examples and Comparison Examples, which were then heated at 160°C.", "for 40 minutes to obtain vulcanized sheets of 1 mm.", "in thickness.", "The properties and electrical breakdown stength of each sheet are also given in Table 6.", "Table 6__________________________________________________________________________ Comp.", "Ex.", "9 Example 39 Example 40__________________________________________________________________________Ethylene-propylenecopolymer *1 100 100 100Ethylene-vinyl acetatecopolymer *2 -- -- --Dicumyl peroxide 2.7 2.7 2.7Sulfur 0.3 0.3 0.3Zinc white 10 1 10Whitetex Clay 80 80 80Stearic acid 1 1 1Triallyl cyanurate -- -- --Nocrac-MB *3 1 1 1Kind and amount of Ferrocene Ferroceneferrocene compound *4 -- 0.5 0.5Kind and amount ofsiloxane oligomer *5 -- SO-4, 0.5 SO-5, O[.", "].58-Hydroquinoline -- 0.5 0.5Ethylene glycol -- -- --200% Modulus (Kg/mm..", "sup[.", "].2) 0.30 0.31 0.30Tensile strength(Kg/mm..", "sup[.", "].2) 1.05 1.06 1.00Elongation (%) 625 615 603A.C. breakdownstrength KV/mm.", "*6 41.1 66.5 70.5__________________________________________________________________________ Example 41 Comp.", "Ex.", "10 Example 42__________________________________________________________________________Ethylene-propylenecopolymer *1 100 -- --Ethylene-vinyl acetatecopolymer *2 -- 100 100Dicumyl peroxide 2.7 2 2Sulfur 0.3 -- --Zinc white 10 5 5Whitetex Clay 80 80 80Stearic acid 1 1 1Triallyl cyanurate -- 2 2Nocrac-MB *3 1 1 1Kind and amount of Ferrocene Ferroceneferrocene compound *4 0.5 -- 0.5Kind and amount ofsiloxane oligomer *5 SO-4, 0.5 -- SO-4, 0.58-Hydroquinoline 0.5 -- 0.5Ethylene glycol 0.5 -- --200% Modulus (Kg/mm..", "sup[.", "].2) 0.28 0.50 0.51Tensile strength(Kg/mm..", "sup[.", "].2) 1.08 0.76 0.82Elongation (%) 631 368 349A.C. breakdownstrength KV/mm.", "*6 69.6 37.5 61.6__________________________________________________________________________ Example 43 Example 44 Example 45__________________________________________________________________________Ethylene-propylenecopolymer *1 -- -- --Ethylene-vinyl acetatecopolymer *2 100 100 100Dicumyl peroxide 2 2 2Sulfur -- -- --Zinc white 5 5 5Whitetex Clay 80 80 80Stearic acid 1 1 1Triallyl cyanurate 2 2 2Nocrac-MB *3 1 1 1Kind and amount of Ferrocene PFC-11 PFC-13ferrocene compound *4Kind and amount ofsiloxane oligomer *5 SO-5, 0.5 SO-2.", "0.5 SO-2, 0.58-Hydroquinoline 0.5 0.5 0.5Ethylene glycol 0.5 -- --200% Modulus (Kg/mm..", "sup[.", "].2) 0.53 0.52 0.58Tensile strength(Kg/mm..", "sup[.", "].2) 0.81 0.80 0.80Elongation (%) 352 385 343A.C. breakdownstrength KV/mm.", "*6 62.4 63.8 62.0__________________________________________________________________________ Example 46 Example 47__________________________________________________________________________Ethylene-propylenecopolymer *1 -- --Ethylene-vinyl acetatecopolymer *2 100 100Dicumyl peroxide 2 2Sulfur -- --Zinc white 5 5Whitetex Clay 80 80Stearic acid 1 1Triallyl cyanurate 2 2Nocrac-MB *3 1 1Kind and amount of PFC-14 PFC-15ferrocene compound *4 0.5 0.5Kind and amount ofsiloxane oligomer *5 SO-1, 0.5 SO-1.", "0.58-Hydroquinoline 0.5 0.5Ethylene glycol 0.5 0.5200% Modulus (Kg/mm..", "sup[.", "].2) 0.51 0.59Tensile strength(Kg/mm..", "sup[.", "].2) 0.79 0.85Elongation (%) 377 388A.C. breakdownstrength KV/mm.", "*6 64.0 63.2__________________________________________________________________________ Note: *1: "Esprene 301A", product of Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd..", "Japan.", "*2: "Evaflex 40", product of Mitsui Polychemical Co., Ltd., Japan (containing 12 % by weight of vinyl acetate).", "*3: 2-Mercaptobenzimidazole *4: "PFC-11, -13 .", """, "represents "ferrocene polymer 11, 13 .", "*5: "SO-1, -2 .", """, "represents "siloxane oligomer 1, 2 .", "*6: At a room temperature, an initial voltage of 25 kV was applied to a vulcanized sheet interposed between flat disc electrodes, 50 mm.", "in diameter, and the voltage was thereafter elevated stepwise at a rate of 2 kV/min.", "[Cable test] Onto a stranded copper conductor having a sectional area of 100 mm.", "2 and having semiconducting tape (1 mm.", "in thickness and made of nylon fabric coated with semiconducting butyl rubber) wounded therearound with 50% lap, each composition of Comparison Example 5, Example 28 or Example 29 was extruded from an extruder to form an insulating layer, 4 mm.", "in thickness, on the conductor.", "The insulating layer was hot-cured in steam at 20 atm.", "and then cooled with water.", "Subsequently, the same semiconducting tape as above was wound around the cured insulating layer with 50% lap, and 0.2 mm.", "thick copper tape was further wound therearound with 25% lap.", "Polyvinyl chloride was then applied, in a thickness of 1 mm.", ", onto the covered conductor by extrusion.", "In this way, Cable-2 and Cable-3 were prepared from the compositions of Comparison Example 5, Example 28 and Example 29, respectively.", "According to the procedures to be described later, the cables were tested for long-term A.C. breakdown strength and stability during under-water voltage application.", "The results are shown in Table 7.", "Table 7______________________________________Specimen Long-term A.C. break- Stability during under- down strength (kV/mm.)*.", "sup[.", "].7 water voltage application (number of water trees)*.", "sup[.", "].8Range Average After After 190 days 365 days______________________________________Cable-1 29-42 35.4 6.0 7.0Cable-2 38-50 45.0 0 0Cable-3 39-52 45.7 0 0______________________________________ Note: *7: A.C. voltage, 70 % of the anticipated breakdown voltage, was applied to a 5 m. long cable piece, and the voltage was thereafter elevated stepwise by 5 kV every 30 minutes.", "Ten pieces were tested, and the result are listed as minimum-to-maximum range and arithmetic mean of ten values obtained.", "*8: Both sides of the insulating layer of 5 m. long cable piece were completely filled with water, and A.C. voltage of 6.9 kV and 60 Hz.", "was continuously applied across the conductor and the ground.", "Further in the meantime, alternating current of 500 A was passed through the cable conductor for 4 hours (with which the temperature of the cable was elevated to 90°C.), and then the cable was cooled to stand for 8 hours without current.", "This procedure was repeated.", "Upon lapses of 190 days and 365 days, 5 cable pieces thus treated were observed on the occurrence of the water trees in the insulating layer of the cable pieces.", "The inspection was carried out as follows: 0.5 mm.", "thick slice cut from each insulating layer of cables in perpendicular direction to cable axis was observed througth a microscope at 100 times magnification and the number of water trees of longer than 240 μm in length were counted.", "Table 7 shows the average of 5 pieces." ]

[ "DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART Applications that utilize task scheduling (e.g., multitasking operating systems, real time operating systems, and kernels) have the challenge of managing task switching.", "One task scheduling strategy is known as the preemptive multitasking strategy with time slicing.", "In this model, out of all the tasks in a ready state, the task with the highest priority (e.g., the task with the highest or lowest associated priority number) will run until it is no longer in the ready state or another task with a higher priority enters the ready state.", "For example, the task may no longer be in a ready state when the task waits for a semaphore or resource or the task completes.", "According to preemptive multitasking strategy with time slicing, when there are two tasks in the ready state and each has the highest priority, one of the two tasks will run for a certain amount of time, then get interrupted or swapped-out for the other task, which runs for the same amount of time.", "Any task scheduling model that uses preemption or time slicing must manage the tradeoff of getting the higher priority task to quickly execute and also minimize task switching because of the considerable task switching overhead expense (e.g., idle processor time).", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 illustrates a system in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.", "FIG. 2 depicts an example of contents of a computer-readable memory in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.", "FIGS. 3 and 4 depict examples of task prioritizations in accordance with embodiments of the present invention.", "FIG. 5 depicts an example flow diagram of a manner by which to produce a code segment that reduces task switching overhead, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.", "Note that use of the same reference numbers in different figures indicates the same or like elements.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION FIG. 1 illustrates a system embodiment 10 .", "System 10 may include a host processor 12 coupled to a chipset 14 .", "Host processor 12 may comprise, for example, an Intel® Pentium® III or IV microprocessor commercially available from the Assignee of the subject application.", "Of course, alternatively, host processor 12 may comprise another type of microprocessor, such as, for example, a microprocessor that is manufactured and/or commercially available from a source other than the Assignee of the subject application, without departing from this embodiment.", "Chipset 14 may comprise a host bridge/hub system (not shown) that may couple host processor 12 , a system memory 21 and a user interface system 16 to each other and to a bus system 22 .", "Chipset 14 may also include an input/output (I/O) bridge/hub system (not shown) that may couple the host bridge/bus system to bus 22 .", "Chipset 14 may comprise integrated circuit chips, such as those selected from integrated circuit chipsets commercially available from the Assignee of the subject application (e.g., graphics memory and I/O controller hub chipsets), although other integrated circuit chips may also, or alternatively be used, without departing from this embodiment.", "Additionally, chipset 14 may include an interrupt controller (not shown) that may be coupled, via one or more interrupt signal lines (not shown), to other components, such as, e.g., I/O controller circuit card 20 A, I/O controller card 20 B, and/or one or more tape drives (collectively and/or singly referred to herein as “tape drive 46 ”), when card 20 A, card 20 B, and/or tape drive 46 are inserted into circuit card bus extension slots 30 B, 30 C, and 30 A, respectively.", "This interrupt controller may process interrupts that it may receive via these interrupt signal lines from the other components in system 10 .", "In some cases, the interrupt controller may process interrupts received from modules within the host processor 12 .", "For example, host processor 12 may utilize a timer that can interrupt a running thread to run another interrupt service routine.", "The operative circuitry 42 A and 42 B described herein as being comprised in cards 20 A and 20 B, respectively, need not be comprised in cards 20 A and 20 B, but instead, without departing from this embodiment, may be comprised in other structures, systems, and/or devices that may be, for example, comprised in motherboard 32 , coupled to bus 22 , and exchange data and/or commands with other components in system 10 .", "User interface system 16 may comprise, e.g., a keyboard, pointing device, and display system that may permit a human user to input commands to, and monitor the operation of, system 10 .", "Bus 22 may comprise a bus that complies with the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) Local Bus Specification, Revision 2.2, Dec. 18, 1998 available from the PCI Special Interest Group, Portland, Oreg.", ", U.S.A. (as well as revisions thereof) (hereinafter referred to as a “PCI bus”).", "Alternatively, bus 22 instead may comprise a bus that complies with the PCI Express specification or the PCI-X specification.", "Also alternatively, bus 22 may comprise other types and configurations of bus systems, without departing from this embodiment.", "I/O controller card 20 A may be coupled to and control the operation of a set of one or more magnetic disk, optical disk, solid-state, and/or semiconductor mass storage devices (hereinafter collectively or singly referred to as “mass storage 28 A”).", "In this embodiment, mass storage 28 A may comprise, e.g., a mass storage subsystem comprising one or more redundant arrays of inexpensive disk (RAID) mass storage devices 29 A. I/O controller card 20 B may be coupled to and control the operation of a set of one or more magnetic disk, optical disk, solid-state, and/or semiconductor mass storage devices (hereinafter collectively or singly referred to as “mass storage 28 B”).", "In this embodiment, mass storage 28 B may comprise, e.g., a mass storage subsystem comprising one or more redundant arrays of inexpensive disk (RAID) mass storage devices 29 B. Processor 12 , system memory 21 , chipset 14 , bus 22 , and circuit card slots 30 A, 30 B, and 30 C may be comprised in a single circuit board, such as, for example, a system motherboard 32 .", "Mass storage 28 A and/or mass storage 28 B may be comprised in one or more respective enclosures that may be separate from the enclosure in which motherboard 32 and the components comprised in motherboard 32 are enclosed.", "Depending upon the particular configuration and operational characteristics of mass storage 28 A and mass storage 28 B, I/O controller cards 20 A and 20 B may be coupled to mass storage 28 A and mass storage 28 B, respectively, via one or more respective network communication links or media 44 A and 44 B. Cards 20 A and 20 B may exchange data and/or commands with mass storage 28 A and mass storage 28 B, respectively, via links 44 A and 44 B, respectively, using any one of a variety of different communication protocols, e.g., a Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI), Fibre Channel (FC), Ethernet, Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (S-ATA), or Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) communication protocol.", "Of course, alternatively, I/O controller cards 20 A and 20 B may exchange data and/or commands with mass storage 28 A and mass storage 28 B, respectively, using other communication protocols, without departing from this embodiment.", "In accordance with this embodiment, a SCSI protocol that may be used by controller cards 20 A and 20 B to exchange data and/or commands with mass storage 28 A and 28 B, respectively, may comply or be compatible with the interface/protocol described in American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Small Computer Systems Interface-2 (SCSI-2) ANSI X3.131-1994 Specification.", "If a FC protocol is used by controller cards 20 A and 20 B to exchange data and/or commands with mass storage 28 A and 28 B, respectively, it may comply or be compatible with the interface/protocol described in ANSI Standard Fibre Channel (FC) Physical and Signaling Interface-3 X3.303:1998 Specification.", "Alternatively, if an Ethernet protocol is used by controller cards 20 A and 20 B to exchange data and/or commands with mass storage 28 A and 28 B, respectively, it may comply or be compatible with the protocol described in Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE) Std.", "802.3, 2000 Edition, published on Oct. 20, 2000.", "Further, alternatively, if a S-ATA protocol is used by controller cards 20 A and 20 B to exchange data and/or commands with mass storage 28 A and 28 B, respectively, it may comply or be compatible with the protocol described in “Serial ATA: High Speed Serialized AT Attachment,” Revision 1.0, published on Aug. 29, 2001 by the Serial ATA Working Group.", "Also, alternatively, if TCP/IP is used by controller cards 20 A and 20 B to exchange data and/or commands with mass storage 28 A and 28 B, respectively, it may comply or be compatible with the protocols described in Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Request For Comments (RFC) 791 and 793, published September 1981.", "Circuit card slots 30 A, 30 B, and 30 C may comprise respective PCI expansion slots that may comprise respective PCI bus connectors 36 A, 36 B, and 36 C. Connectors 36 A, 36 B, and 36 C may be electrically and mechanically mated with PCI bus connectors 50 , 34 A, and 34 B that may be comprised in tape drive 46 , card 20 A, and card 20 B, respectively.", "Circuit cards 20 A and 20 B also may include respective operative circuitry 42 A and 42 B. Circuitry 42 A may comprise a respective processor (e.g., an Intel® Pentium® III or IV microprocessor) and respective associated computer-readable memory (collectively and/or singly referred to hereinafter as “processor 40 A”).", "Circuitry 42 B may comprise a respective processor (e.g., an Intel® Pentium® III or IV microprocessor) and respective associated computer-readable memory (collectively and/or singly referred to hereinafter as “processor 40 B”).", "The respective associated computer-readable memory that may be comprised in processors 40 A and 40 B may comprise one or more of the following types of memories: semiconductor firmware memory, programmable memory, non-volatile memory, read only memory, electrically programmable memory, random access memory, flash memory, magnetic disk memory, and/or optical disk memory.", "Either additionally or alternatively, such computer-readable memory may comprise other and/or later-developed types of computer-readable memory.", "Also either additionally or alternatively, processors 40 A and 40 B each may comprise another type of microprocessor, such as, for example, a microprocessor that is manufactured and/or commercially available from a source other than the Assignee of the subject application, without departing from this embodiment.", "Respective sets of machine-readable firmware program instructions may be stored in the respective computer-readable memories associated with processors 40 A and 40 B. These respective sets of instructions may be accessed and executed by processors 40 A and 40 B, respectively.", "When executed by processors 40 A and 40 B, these respective sets of instructions may result in processors 40 A and 40 B performing the operations described herein as being performed by processors 40 A and 40 B. Circuitry 42 A and 42 B may also comprise cache memory 38 A and cache memory 38 B, respectively.", "In this embodiment, cache memories 38 A and 38 B each may comprise one or more respective semiconductor memory devices.", "Alternatively or additionally, cache memories 38 A and 38 B each may comprise respective magnetic disk and/or optical disk memory.", "Processors 40 A and 40 B may be capable of exchanging data and/or commands with cache memories 38 A and 38 B, respectively, that may result in cache memories 38 A and 38 B, respectively, storing in and/or retrieving data from cache memories 38 A and 38 B, respectively, to facilitate, among other things, processors 40 A and 40 B carrying out their respective operations.", "Tape drive 46 may include cabling (not shown) that couples the operative circuitry (not shown) of tape drive 46 to connector 50 .", "Connector 50 may be electrically and mechanically coupled to connector 36 A. When connectors 50 and 36 A are so coupled to each other, the operative circuitry of tape drive 46 may become electrically coupled to bus 22 .", "Alternatively, instead of comprising such cabling, tape drive 46 may comprise a circuit card that may include connector 50 .", "Tape drive 46 also may include a tape read/write mechanism 52 that may be constructed such that a mating portion 56 of a tape cartridge 54 may be inserted into mechanism 52 .", "When mating portion 56 of cartridge 54 is properly inserted into mechanism 52 , tape drive 46 may use mechanism 52 to read data from and/or write data to one or more tape data storage media 48 (also referenced herein in the singular as, for example, “tape medium 48 ”) comprised in cartridge 54 , in the manner described hereinafter.", "Tape medium 48 may comprise, e.g., an optical and/or magnetic mass storage tape medium.", "When tape cartridge 54 is inserted into mechanism 52 , cartridge 54 and tape drive 46 may comprise a backup mass storage subsystem 72 .", "Slots 30 B and 30 C are constructed to permit cards 20 A and 20 B to be inserted into slots 30 B and 30 C, respectively.", "When card 20 A is properly inserted into slot 30 B, connectors 34 A and 36 B become electrically and mechanically coupled to each other.", "When connectors 34 A and 36 B are so coupled to each other, circuitry 42 A in card 20 A may become electrically coupled to bus 22 .", "When card 20 B is properly inserted into slot 30 C, connectors 34 B and 36 C become electrically and mechanically coupled to each other.", "When connectors 34 B and 36 C are so coupled to each other, circuitry 42 B in card 20 B may become electrically coupled to bus 22 .", "When tape drive 46 , circuitry 42 A in card 20 A, and circuitry 42 B in card 20 B are electrically coupled to bus 22 , host processor 12 may exchange data and/or commands with tape drive 46 , circuitry 42 A in card 20 A, and circuitry 42 B in card 20 B, via chipset 14 and bus 22 , that may permit host processor 12 to monitor and control operation of tape drive 46 , circuitry 42 A in card 20 A, and circuitry 42 B in card 20 B. For example, host processor 12 may generate and transmit to circuitry 42 A and 42 B in cards 20 A and 20 B, respectively, via chipset 14 and bus 22 , I/O requests for execution by mass storage 28 A and 28 B, respectively.", "Circuitry 42 A and 42 B in cards 20 A and 20 B, respectively, may be capable of generating and providing to mass storage 28 A and 28 B, via links 44 A and 44 B, respectively, commands that, when received by mass storage 28 A and 28 B may result in execution of these I/O requests by mass storage 28 A and 28 B, respectively.", "These I/O requests, when executed by mass storage 28 A and 28 B, may result in, for example, reading of data from and/or writing of data to mass storage 28 A and/or mass storage 28 B. I/O controller circuit card 20 A and/or 20 B may utilize some embodiments of the present invention that provide for efficient task scheduling techniques.", "FIG. 2 depicts an example of memory contents of I/O controller circuit card 20 A and/or 20 B. For example, such memory contents may include an operating system 202 , a task scheduler 204 , and task codes 206 - 0 to 206 -N, although other contents may be used.", "In one implementation, task scheduler 204 manages an order in which task codes 206 - 0 to 206 -N execute.", "For example, task scheduler 204 may order tasks based, in part, on a priority number associated with each task code 206 - 0 to 206 -N.", "FIGS. 3 and 4 depict examples of task prioritizations in accordance with embodiments of the present invention.", "Referring to the example of FIG. 3 , task scheduler 204 utilizes a ready task list to store a list of tasks that are available to execute.", "In this example, at time t 0 , there are tasks 1 to 5 , each with its own assigned priority number.", "At time t 2 , task 6 is added to the ready task list.", "In this example, task scheduler 204 schedules the task with the highest priority (e.g., the task with the lowest associated priority number) to execute.", "In this example, at time t 0 , task 4 executes based in part on having a lowest associated priority number.", "Example contents of the task 4 code are depicted.", "In this example, prior to a block call portion of the task 4 code, at code segment 302 , the priority of task 4 changes so that task 4 is less likely to be interrupted or swapped-out.", "A block call portion may be a region where task 4 allows another task to execute (e.g., task 4 waits for a semaphore or other resource to execute).", "In this example, code segment 302 (which occurs at time t 1 ) lowers the priority number of task 4 from priority 3 to a priority level 1 , thereby increasing the priority of task 4 .", "In another example (not depicted), code segment 302 lowers the priority number of task 4 from priority 3 to a priority 2 .", "In yet another example (not depicted), code segment 302 sets the priority number of task 4 to be such that task 4 is uninterruptible and unswappable.", "At time t 2 , task 6 is added to the ready task list.", "Task 6 has a priority that is higher than that of task 4 prior to the priority number adjustment in code segment 302 .", "However, task scheduler 204 does not interrupt or swap-out task 4 with task 6 because the priority number of task 4 after adjustment by code segment 302 gives task 4 priority over task 6 .", "In this example, after completion of the blocking call, code segment 304 restores the priority number of the task 4 to the level prior to adjustment by code segment 302 (e.g., priority 3 ).", "After code segment 304 , task scheduler 204 may interrupt or swap-out task 4 with task 6 .", "Code segment 302 , which adjusts the priority number of task 4 so that task 4 is less likely to be interrupted or swapped-out, may be added prior to any portion of the task that can be readily interrupted or swapped-out (e.g., a blocking call).", "The location of code segment 302 within task 4 may be based on when it would be inefficient to interrupt task 4 given the proximity to a region that is likely interruptable or swappable (e.g., block call).", "For example, code segment 302 may be placed after code segment 1 or may be placed prior to code segment 0 .", "FIG. 4 depicts an example that is similar to that of FIG. 3 except that task 4 ends instead of providing a block call and restoring the priority number of task 4 (which occurs in action 304 of FIG. 3 ).", "FIG. 5 depicts an example flow diagram of a manner by which to produce a code segment that reduces task switching overhead in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.", "In action 510 , a location in a task prior to a region of the task that can be likely interrupted or swapped-out (e.g., blocking region or end of task) is identified.", "This location may be based on when it would be inefficient to interrupt the task given the proximity to a region that is likely interruptable or swappable, such as a block call or an end of task.", "In action 520 , a code segment is added to the task at the location identified in action 510 to set the priority number of the task so that the likelihood of the task being interrupted or swapped-out is reduced.", "In action 530 , a code segment is added to the task to restore the priority number of the task to the level prior to that set in action 520 .", "For example, action 530 may be added after the region that is likely interruptable or swappable, such as a block call or an end of task.", "Action 530 may not be used in all circumstances.", "For example, if the task ends, action 530 may not be used.", "The drawings and the forgoing description gave examples of the present invention.", "While a demarcation between operations of elements in examples herein is provided, operations of one element may be performed by one or more other elements.", "The scope of the present invention, however, is by no means limited by these specific examples.", "Numerous variations, whether explicitly given in the specification or not, such as differences in structure, dimension, and use of material, are possible.", "For example, any computer system may utilize embodiments of the present invention described herein.", "The scope of the invention is at least as broad as given by the following claims." ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS The present invention is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser.", "No. 12/109,766, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,017,819, filed on Apr. 25, 2008 titled “THERMAL TREATMENT OF TRIGLYCERIDES”, and U.S. application Ser.", "No. 13/154,597 filed on Jun. 7, 2011, abandoned Apr. 10, 2014, titled “THERMAL CRACKING OF IMPURITIES IN TRIGLYCERIDE FEEDSTOCK”, both of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.", "STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT None.", "FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates generally to the thermal cracking of impurities in triglyceride feedstock and in mixtures with petroleum-derived hydrocarbons and the conversion of such mixtures to fuel range hydrocarbons.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION There is a national interest in the discovery of alternative sources of fuels and chemicals, other than from petroleum resources.", "As the public discussion concerning the availability of petroleum resources and the need for alternative sources continues, government mandates will require transportation fuels to include, at least in part, hydrocarbons derived from sources besides petroleum.", "As such, there is a need to develop alternative sources for hydrocarbons useful for producing fuels and chemicals.", "One possible alternative source of hydrocarbons for producing fuels and chemicals is the natural carbon found in plants and animals, such as for example, oils and fats.", "These so-called “natural”", "carbon resources (or renewable hydrocarbons) are widely available, and remain a target alternative source for the production of hydrocarbons.", "For example, it is known that oils and fats, such as those contained in vegetable oil, can be processed and used as fuel.", "Biodiesel is one such product and may be produced by subjecting a base biomass-derived oil to a transesterification process using methanol in order to convert the oil to desired methyl esters.", "After processing, the products produced have very similar combustion properties as compared to petroleum-derived hydrocarbons.", "However, the use of biodiesel as an alternative fuel has not yet been proven to be cost effective.", "In addition, biodiesel often exhibits poor cold flow properties, which limits its use in pure form in cold climates.", "Unmodified vegetable oils and fats have also been used as additives in diesel fuel to improve the qualities of the diesel fuel, such as for example, the lubricity.", "However, problems such as injector coking and the degradation of combustion chamber conditions have been associated with these unmodified additives.", "Since cetane (C 16 H 34 ), heptadecane (C 17 H 36 ) and octadecane (C 18 H 38 ) by definition have very good ignition properties (expressed as cetane rating), it is often desired to add paraffinic hydrocarbons in the C 16 -C 18 range, provided that other properties of the additive (such as for example, viscosity, pour point, cloud point, etc.) are congruent with those of the diesel fuel.", "Processes for converting biomass-derived oils into hydrocarbons have been achieved, such as, for example, contacting a diesel/vegetable oil mixture with a hydrotreating catalyst.", "However, triglyceride feeds often contain significant amounts of impurities such as such as phospho-lipids, proteins, gums, and other metal containing compounds (such as alkali metals, alkaline earth metals).", "These impurities can cause catalyst deactivation and plugging of the hydrotreating reactor catalyst bed as well as fouling of heat exchangers and other process equipment.", "As such, development of a new and simple process for removing impurities such as phospho-lipids, proteins, gums, metal containing compounds (such as alkali metals, alkaline earth metals) from such oils would be a significant contribution to the art.", "BRIEF SUMMARY In certain embodiments, the inventive process comprises the steps of: a) obtaining a hydrocarbon feed derived from petroleum that comprises compounds having a boiling point from about 25° C. to about 760° C.;", "b) heating the hydrocarbon feed to a temperature ranging from about 100° C. to about 540° C. to produce a heated hydrocarbon feed;", "c) conveying the heated hydrocarbon feed to a thermal cracking zone;", "d) contacting a triglyceride feed with the heated hydrocarbon feed in the thermal cracking zone at a temperature ranging from about 100° C. to about 540° C. to form a thermally-treated feed, where the contacting results in the thermal cracking of at least one contaminant derived from the triglyceride feed to form a decomposed contaminant, where the contaminant may be phospholipids, proteins, gums, a metal containing compound or any combination of these contaminants, and where the metal containing compound may be alkali metals, alkaline earth metals, or any combination of these;", "e) conveying the thermally treated feed to a hydrotreating zone;", "f) hydrotreating the thermally treated feed with a hydrotreating catalyst in the hydrotreating zone at a temperature in the range of from about 260° C. to about 430° C. and a pressure ranging from 0 psig to about 2000 psig to produce a product containing diesel boiling range hydrocarbons.", "In certain embodiments, the sole source of heat for the thermal cracking zone is the heated hydrocarbon feed.", "Preferably, the triglyceride feed is maintained at a temperature that does not thermally crack the contaminant prior to contacting the heated hydrocarbon feed in the thermal cracking zone.", "The thermal cracking of the contaminant may produce a decomposed contaminant that is more easily removed from the thermally treated feed.", "Removal of the decomposed contaminant may be achieved by precipitation followed by sedimentation and collection, filtration, absorption, adsorption, or any combination of these.", "Collection of sediment is optionally facilitated by the design of the thermal cracking zone or the retention zone.", "The inventive process allows cleaning the feedstock in situ and reduces or eliminates the need for conventional de-gumming of the biomass prior to use.", "This enables the use of a variety of low cost biomass feedstock in the process and reduces fouling of reactors, heat exchangers and hydrotreating catalysts.", "Other objects, advantages and embodiments of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of the invention and the appended claims.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS None DETAILED DESCRIPTION Turning now to the detailed description of the embodiments of the present invention.", "It should be understood that the inventive features and concepts may be manifested in other arrangements and that the scope of the invention is not limited to the embodiments described or illustrated.", "The scope of the invention is intended only to be limited by the scope of the claims that follow.", "Triglycerides, fatty acids of triglycerides, or mixtures thereof, may be converted to form a hydrocarbon mixture useful for liquid fuels and chemicals.", "The term, “triglyceride,” is used generally to refer to any naturally occurring ester of a fatty acid and/or glycerol having the general formula CH 2 (OCOR 1 )CH(OCOR 2 )CH 2 (OCOR 3 ), where R 1 , R 2 , and R 3 are the same or different, and may vary in chain length.", "Vegetable oils, such as for example, canola and soybean oils contain triglycerides with three fatty acid chains.", "Useful triglyceride feeds in the present invention include, but are not limited to, triglycerides that may be converted to hydrocarbons when contacted under suitable reaction conditions.", "Examples of triglycerides useful in the present invention include, but are not limited to, vegetable oils including soybean and corn oil, peanut oil, sunflower seed oil, coconut oil, babassu oil, grape seed oil, poppy seed oil, almond oil, hazelnut oil, walnut oil, olive oil, avocado oil, sesame, oil, tall oil, cottonseed oil, palm oil, ricebran oil, canola oil, cocoa butter, shea butter, butyrospermum, wheat germ oil, illipse butter, meadowfoam, seed oil, rapeseed oil, borange seed oil, linseed oil, castor oil, vernoia oil, tung oil, jojoba oil, ongokea oil, algae oil, jatrothea oil, yellow grease (for example, as those derived from used cooking oils), and animal fats, such as poultry grease, beef fat (tallow), and milk fat, and the like and mixtures and any combination thereof.", "In the processes described herein, the triglyceride feed is co-processed in combination with a petroleum-derived hydrocarbon feed to produce fuel-range hydrocarbons, and preferably, diesel boiling range hydrocarbons.", "The petroleum-derived hydrocarbon feed is typically composed of compounds that boil at a temperature of from about 25° C. to about 760° C. One examples of a petroleum-derived hydrocarbon feed suitable for the process includes a middle distillate fuel.", "Middle distillate fuels generally contain hydrocarbons that boil in the range from about 150° C. to about 400° C. Typical middle distillates may include, for example, jet fuel, kerosene, diesel fuel, light cycle oil, atmospheric gas oil, and vacuum gas oil.", "If a middle distillate feed is employed in a given embodiment, the feed generally may contain a mixture of hydrocarbons having a boiling range (ASTM D86) of from about 150° C. to about 400° C., with a mid-boiling point (ASTM D86) of greater than about 175° C. An exemplary middle distillate feed employed in one embodiment is diesel fuel.", "In addition to middle distillate fuels, other suitable hydrocarbons include, but are not limited to, gasoline, naphtha, and atmospheric tower bottom.", "Generally, the petroleum-derived hydrocarbon can contain a quantity of sulfur that is generally greater than about 20 parts per million by weight (ppmw) sulfur.", "In one embodiment of the present invention, sulfur is present in an amount in the range of from about 100 ppmw to about 50,000 ppmw sulfur.", "In another embodiment of the present invention, sulfur is present in the range of from about 150 ppmw to 4,000 ppmw.", "As used herein, the term “sulfur”", "denotes elemental sulfur, and also any sulfur compounds normally present in a hydrocarbon stream, such as diesel fuel.", "Examples of sulfur compounds which may be contained in the hydrocarbon through in the present invention include, but are not limited to, hydrogen sulfide, carbonyl sulfide (COS), carbon disulfide (CS) mercaptans (RSH), organic sulfides (R—S—R), organic disulfides (R—S—S—R), thiophene, substituted thiophenes, organic trisulfides, organic tetrasulfides, benzothiophene, alkyl thiophenes, dibenzothiophene, alkyl benzothiophenes, alkyl dibenzothiophenes, and the like, and mixtures thereof as well as heavier molecular weights of the same, wherein each R can be an alkyl, cycloalkyl, or aryl group containing 1 to about 10 carbon atoms.", "Generally, the triglyceride feed contains a certain amount of impurities, or contaminants that can cause catalyst deactivation and plugging of the hydrotreating catalyst as well as fouling of heat exchangers, reactors, and other process equipment.", "Examples of such contaminants typically include phospho-lipids, proteins, gums, metal containing compounds (such as alkali metals, alkaline earth metals), and any combination thereof.", "The quantities of these contaminants are generally in the range of from about 0 ppmw to about 10,000 ppmw.", "The present processes quickly remove such contaminants by thermal cracking of the contaminants while preventing thermal cracking of most, or all, triglycerides in the feed.", "In certain embodiments, contacting of the triglyceride feed with the heated hydrocarbon feed in the thermal cracking reactor results in the thermal cracking of less than 5 weight percent, 2 weight percent, or even less than 1 weight percent of the triglycerides in the triglyceride feed.", "In certain embodiments, contacting the triglyceride feed with the heated hydrocarbon feed does not result in the thermal cracking of triglycerides in the triglyceride feed.", "The petroleum-derived feed is heated to a temperature ranging from about 100° C. to about 540° C. to produce a heated hydrocarbon feed.", "The triglyceride feed is not mixed with the petroleum-derived feed prior to this heating step in order to avoid fouling of heat exchangers and process equipment upstream from the thermal cracking zone.", "Heating of the petroleum derived feed may be accomplished by any known mechanism, such as via a conventional heat exchanger.", "The heated hydrocarbon feed is then conveyed to a thermal cracking zone where it is contacted with the triglyceride feed at a temperature ranging from about 100° C. to about 540° C. to form a thermally-treated feed.", "Optionally, the temperature in the thermal cracking zone is in the range of from about 120° C. to about 430° C., optionally from about 200° C. to about 400° C., optionally from about 225° C. to about 375° C. The liquid hourly space velocity (LHSV) in the thermal cracking zone typically ranges from about 0.2 hr −1 about 5 hr −1 .", "The contacting of the triglyceride feed with the petroleum-derived feed in the thermal cracking zone results in the thermal cracking of at least one contaminant derived from the triglyceride feed to form a decomposed contaminant, where the contaminant may be phospholipids, proteins, gums, a metal containing compound or any combination of these contaminants, and where the metal containing compound may be alkali metals, alkaline earth metals, or any combination of these.", "The thermally-treated feed is then conveyed to a hydrotreating zone where it contacts a hydrotreating catalyst at a temperature in the range of from about 260° C. to about 430° C. and a pressure ranging from 0 psig to about 2000 psig to produce a product containing diesel boiling range hydrocarbons.", "In certain embodiments, the sole source of heat for the thermal cracking zone is the heated hydrocarbon feed.", "Preferably, the triglyceride feed is maintained at a temperature that does not permit thermal cracking of the contaminant prior to contacting the heated hydrocarbon feed in the thermal cracking zone.", "A benefit of the present processes is that decomposed contaminants are often more easily removed from the thermally treated feed, thereby allowing a greater percentage of contaminants to be removed from the feeds and preventing downstream fouling of process equipment and catalyst deactivation.", "In certain instances, the decomposed contaminant may precipitate for a variety of reasons, including, for example, polymerization of the contaminant following thermal cracking.", "In certain embodiments, retention of the decomposed contaminant is achieved by precipitation followed by sedimentation and collection, filtration, absorption, adsorption, or any combination of these.", "It should be noted that in certain embodiments, a lesser amount of one or more contaminants not decomposed in the thermal cracking zone may still be retained by these mechanisms.", "In certain embodiments, thermal cracking of the contaminant facilitates retention of the decomposed contaminant in a retention zone, which may help prevent contact between the decomposed contaminant and the hydrotreating catalyst.", "This retention zone may overlap or coincide with at least a portion of the thermal cracking zone, or alternatively may be located downstream, between the thermal cracking zone and the hydrotreating zone.", "Collection or retention of sediment may be facilitated by the design of the retention zone.", "The retention zone may comprise, for example, a depression, receptacle, or container into which precipitated decomposed contaminant can sediment and be retained.", "In certain embodiments, sediment comprising decomposed contaminant can be removed either continuously or periodically from the retention zone.", "Such design may optionally work in conjunction with any of the other strategies described above to facilitate retention of the decomposed contaminant.", "As stated, the triglyceride feed contacts the petroleum-derived hydrocarbon feed in the thermal cracking zone to form a thermally treated feed.", "Generally, the triglyceride feed may comprise in the range of from about 0.1 weight percent to about 99.9 weight percent of the thermally treated feed.", "Alternatively, the triglyceride feed may be present in an amount in the range of from about 2 weight percent to about 80 weight percent, from about 10 weight percent to about 60 weight percent, or from about 50 weight percent to about 99.9 weight percent of the thermally treated feed.", "In certain embodiments, contacting of the triglyceride feed with the heated hydrocarbon feed results in the thermal cracking of less than 5%, 2%, or even less than 1% (by weight) of the triglycerides in the triglyceride feed.", "Preferably, contacting the triglyceride feed with the heated hydrocarbon feed does not result in the thermal cracking of triglycerides in the triglyceride feed.", "A typical degumming process for triglycerides involves contacting the triglycerides with a water wash.", "In the present inventive processes, subjecting the triglyceride feed to a degumming process is optional, and one potential benefit of the inventive processes is the ability to omit this degumming of the triglyceride feed without adversely affecting the hydrotreating catalyst or process equipment.", "In one embodiment of the present invention, the triglyceride feedstock or its mixture with petroleum derived feed hydrocarbon may be contacted with an inert co-feed gas in the thermal cracking zone, such as nitrogen, helium, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide or mixtures of any of these gases.", "Preferably, the co-feed gas in the thermal cracking zone is not a reactive gas such as, for example, hydrogen.", "Not wishing to be bound by theory, it is thought that the presence of hydrogen during thermal cracking may prevent efficient or complete decomposition of contaminants in the thermal cracking zone, thereby decreasing the effectiveness of the inventive processes disclosed herein.", "Thermal cracking generally refers to heating a material in the absence of oxygen or air.", "Thermal cracking generally results in decomposition of thermally unstable components of the feedstock, such as phospho-lipids, proteins, gums, and other metal containing compounds.", "The thermally unstable material decomposes and is removed from the feed while optimally leaving cleaner triglycerides unaffected and suitable for downstream hydrotreating to fuel range hydrocarbons.", "Generally, a thermally treated feed from any one of the previous embodiments can be contacted with a catalyst composition under conditions sufficient to produce a reaction product comprising fuel range hydrocarbons, preferably diesel boiling range hydrocarbons.", "Useful catalyst compositions in the present invention include catalysts effective in the conversion of triglycerides to hydrocarbons when contacted under suitable reaction conditions.", "Examples of suitable catalysts include hydrotreating catalysts.", "The term “hydrotreating”", "as used herein, generally describes a catalyst that is capable of utilizing hydrogen to accomplish saturation of unsaturated materials, such as aromatic compounds.", "Examples of hydrotreating catalysts useful in the present invention include, but are not limited to, materials containing compounds selected from Group VI and Group VIII metals, and their oxides and sulfides.", "Examples of hydrotreating catalysts include but are not limited to alumina supported cobalt-molybdenum, nickel sulfide, nickel-tungsten, cobalt-tungsten and nickel-molybdenum.", "The metal of the catalyst useful in the present invention is usually distributed over the surface of a support in a manner than maximizes the surface area of the metal.", "Examples of suitable support materials for the hydrogenation catalysts include, but are not limited to, silica, silica-alumina, aluminum oxide (Al 2 O 3 ), silica-magnesia, silica-titania and acidic zeolites of natural or synthetic origin.", "The metal catalyst may be prepared by any method known in the art, including combining the metal with the support using conventional means including but not limited to impregnation, ion exchange and vapor deposition.", "In an embodiment of the present invention, the catalyst contains molybdenum and cobalt supported on alumina or molybdenum and nickel supported on alumina.", "This process in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention can be carried out in any suitable reaction zone that enables intimate contact of the thermally cracked feed and control of the operating conditions under a set of reaction conditions that include total pressure, temperature, liquid hourly space velocity, and hydrogen flow rate.", "The catalyst can be added first to the reactants and thereafter, fed with hydrogen.", "In the present invention, either fixed bed reactors or fluidized bed reactors can be used.", "As used herein, the term “fluidized bed reactor”", "denotes a reactor wherein a fluid feed can be contacted with solid particles in a manner such that the solid particles are at least partly suspended within the reaction zone by the flow of the fluid feed through the reaction zone and the solid particles are substantially free to move about within the reaction zone as driven by the flow of the fluid feed through the reaction zone.", "As used herein, the term “fluid”", "denotes gas, liquid, vapor and combinations thereof.", "Generally, the reaction conditions at which the hydrotreating zone is maintained include a temperature in the range of from about 260° C. to about 430° C. Preferably, the temperature is in the range of from about 310° C. to about 370° C. In accordance with the present invention, regardless of whether a fixed or fluidized bed is utilized in the hydrotreating zone, the pressure is generally maintained in the range of from about 100 pounds per square inch gauge (psig) to about 2000 psig.", "Generally, when the hydrotreating zone comprises a fixed bed reactor, the pressure is in the range of from about 100 psig to about 1500 psig.", "When the hydrotreating zone comprises a fixed bed reactor, the pressure can also be about 600 psig.", "When the hydrotreating zone comprises a fluidized bed reactor, the pressure is generally in the range of from about 400 psig to about 750 psig, and can also be about 500 psig.", "The following examples are presented to further illustrate the processes described herein, and are not to be construed as unduly limiting the scope of the invention.", "Example 1 Undegummed vegetable oil was diluted in an undesulfurized diesel fuel to provide a mixture containing 10% vegetable oil.", "The mixture was mixed with either hydrogen or nitrogen and was fed into a heated ¼-inch diameter tube.", "The feed was exposed to a temperature of 348° C. for about 20 seconds.", "This run was done with hydrogen as a co-feed, and another with nitrogen as a co-feed.", "The feed and product metal concentrations are shown in Table I, below.", "TABLE I Thermal Cracking of Vegetable Oil Description Feed Product 1 Product 2 Treatment Temperature, ° C. 348 348 Treatment Pressure, psig 200 200 Co-feed Gas H 2 N 2 ICP metal, ppm Potassium 18.9 1.6 1.6 Calcium 7.6 1.0 1.0 Magnesium 7.4 0.9 1.1 Phosphorus 47.6 10.5 13.6 Total 81.5 14.1 17.3 The result of example 1 demonstrated the total metals and phosphorus removal of about 80%.", "Example 2 A mixture of soybean oil and diesel was fed into a heated tube operated at a temperature of about 330° C. and a pressure of 700 psig (there was no co-feed gas present).", "The mixture was then passed through a filter and sent to a hydrotreating reactor containing a hydrotreating catalyst.", "Table 2 below shows that the hydrotreating reactor experienced no pressure drop, unlike when the same mixture is fed through a hydrotreating reactor without the pre-treatment.", "TABLE 2 Heated Hydrotreating Reactor Tube/Filter/Hydrotreating Reactor Configuration Only Reactor Time On-Stream, hrs 50 100 Reactor Pressure 100 None Drop, psig In closing, it should be noted that the discussion of any reference is not an admission that it is prior art to the present invention, especially any reference that may have a publication date after the priority date of this application.", "At the same time, each and every claim below is hereby incorporated into this detailed description or specification as an additional embodiment of the present invention.", "Although the systems and processes described herein have been described in detail, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions, and alterations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the following claims.", "Those skilled in the art may be able to study the preferred embodiments and identify other ways to practice the invention that are not exactly as described herein.", "It is the intent of the inventors that variations and equivalents of the invention are within the scope of the claims while the description, abstract and drawings are not to be used to limit the scope of the invention.", "The invention is specifically intended to be as broad as the claims below and their equivalents." ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] The present application is a continuation patent application that claims the benefit of nonprovisional utility patent application: Ser.", "No. 11/108,115 to Cervone et al.", ", filed on Apr. 18, 2005, entitled: “Wavelet Maxima Curves of Surface Latent Heat Flux”", "and provisional patent application: Ser.", "No. 60/562,535 to Cervone et al.", ", filed on Apr. 16, 2004, entitled “Wavelet Maxima Curves of Surface Latent Heat Flux Associated with the Greek Earthquake of 14 Aug. 2003,” both which are hereby incorporated by reference.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] Multisensor data available from airborne and spaceborne platforms have become widely used to study the changes of land, oceanic, atmospheric and ionospheric parameters, and their relation to various natural hazards.", "For example, significant changes prior to earthquake events have been observed in Surface Latent Heat Flux (SLHF), Sea Surface Temperature (SST), water vapor and chlorophyll concentration.", "Suggesting the presence of some interaction between the lithosphere and atmosphere, these observed changes have created an interest in using satellite-based observations to identify and study earthquake precursors.", "[0003] Routine SLHF measurements can provide early warnings of an impending earthquake.", "With respect to coastal earthquakes, anomalous SLHF peaks appear to consistently occur a few days prior to the main earthquake event.", "The magnitude of each peak tends to vary, while SLHF tends to be higher over oceans and lower over land.", "The origin of anomalous SLHF peaks is likely to be related with the manifestations of the surface temperature in the epicentral region, which can be associated with the building up of stress and movement along faults.", "[0004] It is believed that temperature increases prior to an earthquake.", "To show changes in temperature, infrared (IR) wavelengths from a Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor may be used.", "There may be various explanations, such as friction along a fault or fluid movement, as to why the temperature may rise.", "In addition, SST may also increase due to heat conduction.", "A rise in SST may cause ocean evaporation to increase, which in turn may raise anomalous SLHF peaks prior to a main earthquake.", "[0005] Annually, SLHF contains a large number of maxima peaks, several of which are more than 1 or 2 times above the standard deviation.", "These peaks can be attributed to atmospheric phenomena, earthquakes or ocean disturbances.", "Problematically, it is difficult to identify the maximum SLHF peak as a precursor of an impending earthquake.", "The detection of the maximum SLHF peak is significant to alert and allow affected regions to prepare for an impending earthquake.", "For example, had the maximum SLHF peak of the earthquake that struck the Indian Ocean in Dec. 26, 2004 and caused the great tsunami disaster thereafter been detected, hundreds of thousands of people could have been forewarned and prepared for evacuation.", "Hence, what is needed is a general methodology and model to employ spatial and/or temporal analysis of wavelet maxima to identify signals associated with earthquakes with precise continuity in time and space.", "[0006] Several commercial and research models have been developed for an early warning system that mainly uses past historical data, some of which can be traced back to as far as the 5th century BC.", "For example, one model uses past historical data that includes fracture zones calculated using gravity fields, and changes in the electromagnetic field and tidal cycles to determine the occurrence of earthquakes.", "It further uses ground based data.", "However, only one ground monitoring station is available.", "Thus, it precludes the possibility of real-time prediction.", "Therefore, what is also needed is a general methodology and device that identify signals associated with earthquakes in real-time.", "BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0007] The present invention presents one aspect of identifying earthquake precursory signals by selecting a least one grid to generate a grid path, analyzing the grid(s) in a time-series using wavelet transformation, identifying at least one local wavelet maximum, generating a sequence of local wavelet maxima, identifying at least one singularity, measuring the geometrical space and time continuity of the singularity along the grid path, and identifying an anomaly.", "[0008] In yet a further aspect of the invention, at least one maximum line may be propagated to reduce any potential numerical errors.", "[0009] In yet a further aspect of the invention, a one-dimensional (1-D) real continuous wavelet transformation may be used to analyze a grid in a time-series.", "[0010] In yet a further aspect of the invention, SLHF may be used.", "[0011] In yet a further aspect of the invention, selecting a grid may be based on the tectonics of a region, such as a two-dimensional (2-D) space having dimensions width and height, a 2-D space having dimensions latitude and longitude, evolutionary algorithms, heuristics, continental boundaries, fault lines, and SLHF measurements.", "[0012] In yet a further aspect of the invention, a grid path may be evaluated by at least one criterion and tolerance.", "Each criterion used may be based on at least one maximum length, at least one minimum spread, and at least one maximum anomaly.", "[0013] In yet, a further aspect of the invention, geometrical measurements may involve the introduction of a discontinuity in space and/or time for compensating the rounding of errors in a wavelet transformation.", "[0014] Additional objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned by practice of the invention.", "The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS [0015] The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and form a part of the specification, illustrate an embodiment of the present invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.", "[0016] FIG. 1 shows a method for identifying earthquake precursory signals as per one aspect of the invention.", "[0017] FIG. 2 a shows an embodiment of an earthquake detector as per one aspect of the invention.", "[0018] FIG. 2 b shows another embodiment of an earthquake detector as per one aspect of the invention.", "[0019] FIG. 3 shows extensional, compressional and strike-slip motions of Greece's tectonics.", "[0020] FIG. 4 shows a map of Greece regarding an Aug. 14, 2003 earthquake that occurred in Greece.", "[0021] FIG. 5 shows wavelet analysis for SLHF data over Grid 28 for the year 2003.", "[0022] FIG. 6 shows wavelet analysis for SLHF data over Grid 29 for the year 2003.", "[0023] FIG. 7 shows wavelet analysis for SLHF data over Grid 30 for the year 2003.", "[0024] FIG. 8 shows wavelet analysis for SLHF data over Grid 39 for the year 2003.", "[0025] FIG. 9 shows wavelet analysis for SLHF data over Grid 31 for the year 2003.", "[0026] FIG. 10 shows wavelet analysis for SLHF data over Grid 22 for the year 2003.", "[0027] FIG. 11 shows wavelet analysis for SLHF data over Grid 23 for the year 2003.", "[0028] FIG. 12 shows wavelet maxima computed in wavelet transformations for different grids, where the epicenter of the Aug. 14, 2003 earthquake occurred in Grid 31.", "[0029] FIG. 13 shows results of possible paths of wavelet maxima computed in wavelet transformations.", "[0030] FIG. 14 shows anomalies and time of occurrence for identified signals at each grid location.", "[0031] FIG. 15 shows yet another map of Greece, where the epicenter of the Aug. 14, 2003 earthquake and the epicenter of the Mar. 1, 2004 earthquake are denoted with stars.", "[0032] FIG. 16 shows an example of wavelet analysis and corresponding maxima curves.", "[0033] FIG. 17 shows wavelet analysis for SLHF data over Grid 37 from Mar. 30, 2003 to Mar. 28, 2004.", "[0034] FIG. 18 shows wavelet analysis for SLHF data over Grid 38 from Mar. 30, 2003 to Mar. 28, 2004.", "[0035] FIG. 19 shows wavelet analysis for SLHF data over Grid 39 from Mar. 30, 2003 to Mar. 28, 2004.", "[0036] FIG. 20 shows wavelet analysis for SLHF data over Grid 40 from Mar. 30, 2003 to Mar. 28, 2004.", "[0037] FIG. 21 shows wavelet analysis for SLHF data over Grid 49 from Mar. 30, 2003 to Mar. 28, 2004.", "[0038] FIG. 22 shows wavelet analysis for SLHF data over Grid 41 from Mar. 30, 2003 to Mar. 28, 2004.", "[0039] FIG. 23 shows wavelet analysis for SLHF data over Grid 32 from Mar. 30, 2003 to Mar. 28, 2004.", "[0040] FIG. 24 shows wavelet analysis for SLHF data over Grid 33 from Mar. 30, 2003 to Mar. 28, 2004.", "[0041] FIG. 25 shows results of possible paths of wavelet maxima computed in wavelet transformations.", "[0042] FIG. 26 shows the size of anomalies and their time of occurrence for the two precursory signals of the Aug. 14, 2003 earthquake (signal 1) and Mar. 1, 2004 earthquake (signal 3).", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0043] The present invention is a method, program storage device readable by a machine, and device that uses data mining techniques, including wavelet transformations and spatial and/or temporal continuity analysis of wavelet maxima to identify earthquake precursory signals.", "[0044] Specifically, the present invention may use wavelet transformations as data mining tools by computing wavelet maxima that propagate from finer to coarser scales.", "These maxima may be used in identifying strong anomalies in data.", "Amongst these maxima, those showing continuity in both space and time may be assumed to be potential precursors for earthquakes.", "Space continuity may be defined as: detected anomalies can be distributed in space according to a precise geometry conforming to a region's geological settings.", "Time continuity may be defined as: detected anomalies can occur at the same time or within a short delay of each other.", "[0045] The present invention may be applied to SLHF data to study two earthquakes that occurred in Greece: one on Aug. 14, 2003 and another on Mar. 1, 2004.", "Significant SLHF anomalies may be found to be associated to each earthquake event.", "While these two earthquakes were chosen merely as examples since they occurred in the same region and within a short time span, it is important to note that the present invention is not limited to a particular region or time frame for detecting earthquakes.", "[0046] Referring to FIG. 1 , earthquake precursory signals may be generally identified using a series of steps.", "These steps include: selecting at least one grid S 105 , where a collection of grids can be used to generate a grid path;", "analyzing a time-series on the grid(s) using wavelet transformation S 110 ;", "identifying at least local wavelet maximum for each scale of the wavelet transformation S 115 ;", "generating a sequence of local wavelet maxima S 120 ;", "identifying at least one singularity using the sequence S 125 ;", "measuring the geometrical space and time continuity of the singularity along the grid path S 130 ;", "and identifying at least one anomaly S 135 .", "[0047] This method can be stored in a program storage device readable by a machine 205 .", "Such device 205 can embody instructions executable by the machine to perform the method.", "Examples of program storage devices include, but are not limited to, computers, compact discs (CDs), digital video discs (DVDs), floppy disks, zip disks, hard drives, flash memory sticks/cards, random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), etc.", "[0048] To achieve this method, and other limitations below, an earthquake detector 205 may be used.", "As illustrated in FIG. 2 a , the earthquake detector 205 may have a grid selector 210 , a wavelet transformation analyzer 215 , a local wavelet maximum identifier 220 , a sequence generator 225 , a singularity identifier 230 , a geometric analyzer 235 , and an anomaly identifier 240 .", "It may also have a numerical errors reducer 245 , as shown in FIG. 2 b , to propagate at least one maximum line to reduce or ignore numerical errors.", "Examples of such device include, but are not limited to, personal digital assistants (PDAs), or its equivalent, mobile detector, centralized and/or localized detector, etc.", "[0049] The grid selector 210 is capable of selecting at least one grid to generate a grid path S 105 .", "The wavelet transformation analyzer 215 is capable of analyzing wavelet transform in a time-series S 110 .", "The local wavelet maximum identifier 220 is capable of identifying at least one local wavelet maximum for each scale of the wavelet transformation S 115 .", "The sequence generator 225 is capable of generating a sequence of at least one local wavelet maximum S 120 .", "The singularity identifier 230 is capable of identifying at least one singularity using said sequence S 125 .", "The geometrical analyzer 235 is capable of measuring space and time continuity of at least one singularity along the grid path S 130 .", "The anomaly identifier 240 is capable of identifying at least one anomaly S 135 .", "[0050] Collectively, the method, program storage device and earthquake detector can share the following additional embodiments.", "First, any potential numerical errors, such as noise, may be reduced or ignored by propagating at least one maximum line, or by considering only the longest maxima lines.", "To help accomplish this feature, a numerical errors reducer 245 may be used.", "Second, the grid(s) may be analyzed in a time-series using a 1-D real continuous wavelet transformation.", "Third, SLHF may be used.", "Fourth, to select a grid, it is preferable to use the tectonics of a region.", "Examples of tectonics include, but are not limited to, a 2-D space having dimensions width and height (or alternatively longitude and latitude), at least one evolutionary algorithm, heuristics, at least one continental boundary, at least one fault line, and SLHF measurements.", "Fifth, the grid path may be evaluated using at least one criterion and at least one tolerance.", "The criterion may be based on at least one maximum length, minimum spread and maximum anomaly.", "Sixth, the geometrical measurement may even include a step of introducing a discontinuity in space and/or time for compensating rounding errors in a wavelet transformation.", "[0051] The present invention may be applied to different types of spatial and/or temporal data.", "It is not meant to be bound to a particular spatial resolution or region in the world, or time sampling.", "Generally, earthquakes around the world are not randomly distributed.", "Rather, they tend to be concentrated in narrow, specific regions, such as along plate boundaries.", "[0052] According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), an earthquake occurs when there is a sudden slip on a fault that results in ground shaking and radiated seismic energy caused by the slip, or by volcanic of magmatic activity, or other sudden stress changes in the earth.", "A fault is a fracture along the Earth's crust in which the blocks of crust on either side have moved relative to one another parallel to the fracture.", "Fault fractures can be vertical or nearly vertical, or inclined.", "Where vertical or nearly vertical ones occur, blocks of crust tend to shift horizontally.", "Where inclined fractures occur, blocks of crust tend to shift vertically.", "[0053] For purposes of exemplifying the usefulness and advantages of the present invention, the seismicity of Greece was considered.", "[0054] Greece is located in the most seismically active region of the Mediterranean and West Eurasian plate.", "This region is a part of the collision zone between the Eurasian and African plates, where earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are common.", "Two main different plate tectonic boundaries southwest and east of Greece are the Hellenic Trench and the Hellenic Arc.", "The Hellenic Trench is the largest area of subduction, in which the denser African plate goes under the less dense Eurasian plate.", "In this region, magma rises from under the Earth's crust resulting in a large number of volcanoes.", "The Hellenic Arc is a transformation boundary, in which the African and Eurasian plates slide side by side, causing many fault lines which are responsible for numerous earthquakes.", "However, there are no volcanoes in this region.", "[0055] Typically, earthquakes are common in areas with high tectonic activities.", "Greece has different types of tectonic regions, namely extensional, compressional and strike-slip motions, as illustrated in FIG. 3 .", "In these areas, earthquakes tend to exhibit large magnitude in the compression and strike-slip zone, but small magnitude in the extension zone.", "Extensional motion, which can be coined as tensional stress, is the pulling-apart type of motion.", "According to the USGS, tensional stress is the stress component perpendicular to a given surface, such as a fault plane, that results from forces applied perpendicularly to the surface of from remote forces transmitted through a surrounding rock.", "Compressional motion, which can coined as compressional stress, is the squeezing type of motion.", "As the USGS describes, compressional stress is the stress component perpendicular to a given surface, such as a fault plane, that results from forces applied perpendicularly to the surface or from remote forces transmitted through a surrounding rock.", "Strike-slip motion, which can be coined as sheer stress, is the stress component parallel to a given surface, such as a fault plane, according to the USGS, that results from forces applied parallel to the surface or from remote forces transmitted through a surrounding rock.", "According to the USGS, strike-slip fractures are typically vertical blocks that have mostly moved horizontally.", "[0056] According to the USGS, plate tectonics is a theory that combines concepts of continental drifting and sea-floor spreading.", "This theory suggests that the Earth's rigid outer shell, known as the lithosphere, is broken into a plurality of oceanic and continental plates.", "These plates are in constant motion and have the ability to slide over the uppermost layer of the mantle, known as the asthenosphere.", "Currently, there exist seven major plates, which are subdivided into smaller plates.", "Each is approximately 80 kilometers thick;", "each is in constant motion relative to one another.", "The rate of motion ranges between 10 to 130 millimeters per year.", "The patterns of movement are neither symmetrical nor simple.", "[0057] Greece is known as a highly seismic and rapidly deforming region.", "On Aug. 14, 2003, an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.4 on the Richter scale occurred approximately 40 km off the Ionian island of Lefkada in Western Greece.", "Fifty people were injured, and the region suffered heavy damages.", "The epicenter was approximately located at 39.18° N, 20.74° E in the Ionian Sea with a focal depth of 10 km.", "Following this main earthquake were two strong aftershocks, including a series of smaller aftershocks.", "[0058] On Mar. 1, 2004, an earthquake of magnitude of 5.7 occurred about 7 km northwest of the city of Kalamata.", "The area suffered light to moderate structural damages.", "Fortunately, no casualties were directly associated with this seismic event.", "The epicenter was approximately located at 37.23° N, 22.24° E in the SW Peloponnesos, with focal depth of 7 km.", "The epicenter for this earthquake is located approximately 13 km north of the epicenter of the Aug. 14, 2003 earthquake.", "[0059] Generally, in about every two years, an earthquake having a magnitude of 5 or higher on the Richter scale occurs within 60 km of both these epicenters.", "Both FIGS. 4 and 15 show a map of northern Greece.", "Stars denote the location of an epicenter.", "Also shown are the location of the plate boundary, fault lines and their type (i.e., extensional, compressional and transformation).", "[0060] As explained by the USGS, the Richter scale is a magnitude scale developed in 1935 by Charles F. Richter of the California Institute of Technology.", "This scale serves as a mathematical device to measure and compare earthquake sizes.", "A magnitude may be determined from the logarithm of the amplitude of waves recorded by seismographs.", "Adjustments can be included to account for variations in distances between various seismographs and the epicenter of earthquakes.", "[0061] Magnitude may be expressed in whole numbers and decimal fractions.", "For example, an earthquake having a magnitude of 5.3 may be deemed as a moderate earthquake, whereas one having a magnitude of 6.3 may be deemed as a strong earthquake.", "Since the scale is based on logarithmic scale, each whole number increase represents a ten-fold increase in measured amplitude.", "Equivalently, as an estimate of energy, each whole number increase corresponds to a release of approximately 31 times more energy than the amount associated with the preceding whole number.", "Instruments using the Richter scale can be carefully calibrated with respect to each other so that the magnitude may be computed from the record of any calibrated seismograph.", "[0062] Data used may include SLHF data from Jan. 1, 1998 to Oct. 31, 2003 for the region bounded by latitudes 32° N to 44° N and longitudes 15° E to 30° E. In addition, data may also include SLHF data from Jan. 1, 1998 to Mar. 28, 2004 for the region bounded by latitudes 33° N to 45° N and longitudes 14° E to 28° E. SLHF data may be obtained from the Scientific Computing Division of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).", "[0063] The data set may be represented by a Gaussian grid having 94 lines from the equator to a pole with a regular 1.8° longitudinal spacing and projected into rectangular grid having dimensions of 2° latitude by 2° longitude.", "The global database of various meteorological parameters is often maintained by National Centers for Environmental Protection (NCEP).", "This database may be generated by taking into consideration measured values at various worldwide stations and data retrieved from satellites.", "The fluxes used in operational weather forecast models may incorporate in-situ observations through an assimilation process.", "However, the data source may be a frequent change of assimilation methodology and model resolution, which has be solved by NCEP's well-known re-analysis procedure that incorporates a whole archived data set into a single, frozen data assimilation system.", "[0064] Other data used may include those that identify and plot the location of plate boundaries.", "It is well-known in the art that this data consists of the best fitting Euler vectors, closure fitting Euler vectors and the global model NUVEL-1.", "Such model may be used to geologically describe current plate motions between 12 assumed rigid plates.", "Additionally, data identifying and plotting slab contours may also be used.", "Such data may include contours of the upper edge of subducting slabs calculated using relocated hypocentres.", "Furthermore, data used to identify and plot major fault lines may also be used.", "Moreover, data used to identify and plot the types of fault lines may be used.", "This data has been developed in the PLATES project by the Institute of Geophysics at the University of Texas.", "[0065] The present invention's multi-strategy approach may employ a 1-D real continuous wavelet transformation to discover singularities in a time-series for a particular grid, and a geometrical analysis of the continuity in time and space of detected singularities across several grids adjacent to the epicenter chosen according to the tectonics of the region, such as continental boundaries of fault lines, etc.", "The approach may be tested using SLHF data.", "However, it is not constrained to a specific type of data.", "For example, the approach may use Precipitable Water data.", "The approach employing SLHF data may be implemented using a software called CQuake using, but not limited to, C, Java, Perl, Java R code, statistical package R, mathematical package octave developed at the University of Wisconsin in combination with the WaveLab library developed at Stanford University, and General Mapping Tool (GMT) collection of functions developed at the University of Hawaii.", "[0066] Wavelet Transformation [0067] For any given real value function φ with zero average [0000] ∫ - ∞ ∞  φ  ( t )    t = 0 , [0000] let [0000] Wf  ( u , s ) = ∫ f  ( t ) ( s )  φ  ( t - u s )   t ( 1 ) [0000] be the real continuous wavelet transformation of a function ƒ.", "Since φ has zero mean, the previous integral measures the variation of ƒ in a neighborhood of time (position) u of size proportional to the so-called scale factor s>0.", "[0068] The set (u 0 , s 0 ) may be defined to be a modulus maximum if |Wƒ(u, s 0 )| is a local maximum, i.e., if [0000] ∂ Wf  ( u 0 , s 0 ) ∂ u = 0 ( 2 ) [0000] and if Wƒ(u, s 0 ) is strictly increasing at the left of u 0 or strictly decreasing at the right of u 0 .", "In other words, the isolated local maxima (along the position coordinate u) of the wavelet transformation Wƒ(u, s) for each scale s>0 may be identified.", "[0069] A connected curve γ in the scale-time place may be called a maxima line if (u, s)εγ implies (u, s) is a modulus maximum.", "[0070] Since the modulus maxima are isolated at each scale s 0 , for each (u 0 , s 0 ), there may be at most one curve γ that locally intersects the point (u 0 , s 0 ).", "However, there may be none.", "[0071] A singularity t 0 of the function ƒ may be defined as a point for which the derivative [0000]  f  t [0000] is not defined.", "Modulus maxima may carry a significant degree of information about the position of singularities.", "More particularly, it may be possible to prove that for every singularity, t 0 of ƒ, it may be possible to find a sequence of modulus maxima (u i , s i ) such that s i →0 and u i →t 0 .", "[0072] It is preferred that the word “sequence”", "be used in lieu of the words “maxima line.”", "In general, maxima lines may break up and stop before reaching the smallest scales.", "This break may present a problem in using maxima lines to identify singularities.", "However, there is a choice of φ that may be immune to this problem.", "If φ is a derivative of a Gaussian, then all modulus maxima may belong to maxima lines that propagate to fine scales.", "It is preferable to proceed with this choice.", "[0073] It should be noted that even though sharp, isolated singularities of ƒ may be expected to be found at the abscissa of end points of significant maxima lines, such finding may not always be the case.", "There can be maxima lines that converge to perfectly smooth points of ƒ.", "[0074] A rigorous detection of the singularities may also require the computation of the Lipschitz regularity coefficient of ƒ at the abscissa of the end point of the maxima lines.", "However, it is preferable to use only the detection of significant maxima line as a possible indication of the presence of sharp singularities.", "[0075] As depicted in FIG. 16 , a function with a non-smooth point at t=717 and the corresponding set of maxima lines may be shown.", "The example shows that some points converge for s→0 to 717, but there are some maxima curves converging to smooth points of the curve.", "[0076] When dealing with signals with significantly large numerical errors, the number of maxima lines may also be very large.", "One way of lessening the impact of high frequency numerical errors, such as noise, is to select only the longest or most important maxima lines.", "As a way to accomplish this goal, a parameter called “propagation factor”", "(identified with ξ) may be introduced, where its values may be 0≦ξ≦1.", "This parameter may be used to determine the fraction of the total number of scales S that a maxima line γ must intersect to be considered as significant, i.e., [0000] γ = { significant if   length  ( γ ) ≥ ξ   S notsignificant if   length  ( γ ) <", "ξ   S ( 3 ) [0077] The length of γ may be computed from finer scales (high frequencies) to coarser scales (low frequencies).", "It is preferable to consider as significant the maxima lines that propagate at least up to scale≈ξS.", "It should be noted that S and ξS may be dependent on the specific discretization of the real continuous wavelet transformation.", "While there may be an unavoidable degree of ambiguity in the choice of discretization parameters, it is not likely to significantly affect the quality or robustness of the results.", "[0078] While maxima lines were discussed in the context of continuous scale variation and continuous position variation, in practice, the identification of maxima lines may be performed in a discrete setting.", "Hence, there could be errors that prevent the very last point of the maxima line to converge to the probable singularity.", "Therefore, to have a more robust estimate of the time at which singularity occurs, the following formula may be needed: [0000] g  ( γ , n ) = ∑ i = 1 n  γ i n ( 4 ) [0000] This formula tends to correspond to the average of the values at the abscissa of the last n end points of the maxima line, where n is a parameter either fixed or proportional to the number of scales, and γ i is the abscissa value of γ at scale i. In cases having daily data, the calculated value g (γ, n) may correspond to the approximate day when the anomaly occurred.", "Experiments indicate that the average of the last 10 values (n=10) can yield accurate determination of days corresponding to detected singularities.", "Yet still, it is important to note that smaller or larger values of n may be affected by the overall trend or by numerical errors introduced by a signal's high frequency components.", "[0079] The final result of the wavelet analysis is typically a characteristic vector of the same length as the original signal, where all values may be set to zero except for those corresponding to the calculated values of g (γ, n) for all significant maxima lines γ.", "Such points may be set equal to the length of γ, or to the propagation of the maxima line.", "The resulting characteristic vector may indicate both the time when a singularity was detected, and the singularity's weight as defined by the propagation of the corresponding maxima line.", "[0080] It should be noted that 1-D wavelet transformations are preferable in wavelet analysis over 2-D wavelet transformations because the latter may not be able to detect the geometry of a signal or fault line.", "Moreover, similar 1-D construction along a continental boundary or fault line may still be needed.", "Hence, the algorithm associated with 1-D measurements may be limited to avoid unnecessary complications.", "[0081] Furthermore, 1-D wavelet transformations may effectively filter out peaks due to small high frequency variations, which tend to be associated with very short lines γ.", "Peaks caused by seasonal trends may also disregarded because the length of γ can be computed either from finer to coarser scales or higher to lower frequencies.", "Therefore, depending on propagation factor ξ, it may not be necessary if a line γ propagates all the way to the coarser scales or lowest frequencies, which can be affected by seasonal trends.", "[0082] Continuity of Detected Singularities in Space and Time [0083] The previously described wavelet analysis may be applied to a time-series of several grids corresponding to an epicentral region.", "The result of the analysis may identify several anomalous peaks, which may be caused by earthquakes or by atmospheric or oceanic perturbations.", "For example, SLHF is an atmospheric parameter that is directly correlated to the evaporation of water on the surface.", "SLHF may be affected by changes in land surface temperature and SST.", "The origin of an increase of decrease of surface temperature can be caused by atmospheric perturbations, such as strong winds, precipitation, intense cloud cover, or geological phenomena.", "[0084] Such disturbances may be filtered starting with an assumption that seismic activity is a large scale phenomena that manifests with a precise geometry conforming to geological properties of a region.", "Peaks caused by earthquakes may be discriminated from peaks caused by atmospheric perturbations by using the concept of geometrical continuity under space and time constraints.", "Not only may anomalous peaks associated with earthquake events appear over a large area, but they may also follow a precise geometry as determined by a region's geological conditions.", "This characteristic generally means that a significant anomaly in one grid may be related to significant anomalies in other grids if they all follow a precise geometrical path conforming to geological settings.", "Examples of such settings include continental boundaries, fault lines, orography, sea depth and other characteristics that may help play a role on how anomalies might spread around an epicentral region.", "A collection of grids that satisfy these geometrical constraints may be called “a grid path.”", "[0085] It can be helpful to include a geometrical continuity of grid paths as a spatial constraint.", "This continuity can be used to single out any signal related to earthquakes.", "Furthermore, anomalies over a grid path may need to appear within a short period of time, such as a day or two.", "This presence may provide an additional constraint of the continuity of time.", "[0086] Generally, spatial and temporal constraints can be used to “link,” in a suitable way, a singularity detected in each single grid to discriminate signals most likely due to an impending earthquake from signals that are likely due to other phenomena.", "As one aspect of creating this “link,” grid paths may need to be selected.", "Justification of the selection may be necessary because a selection of contiguous grids defining the grid path can greatly affect the results of the methodology employed.", "[0087] However, the behavior of parameters involved may not respect fully any continuity along a suitably chosen grid path.", "This effect may be partly due to atmospheric disturbances (such as wind, precipitation, etc.) or discontinuities in the sub-surface.", "Therefore, taking into account such factors, alternative grid paths should be selected.", "[0088] Selecting grid paths may be viewed as a search in a 2-D space, where the dimensions are width and height.", "Alternatively, the dimensions can be based upon longitude and latitude.", "Selection may be done using a specialized search technique, such as evolutionary algorithms, or heuristics that can take into account different factors, which may affect the signal shape.", "Grids may even be selected by simply taking into account continental boundaries or fault lines.", "Moreover, the time-series measurements tend to be sufficiently smooth in space and time.", "Such smoothness can potentially make the grid selection robust under small perturbations of the grid path.", "The robustness factor may become more prevalent if higher resolution data is used.", "[0089] Once the grid path is identified, the previously described wavelet-based algorithm may be applied and/or repeated for the time-series of selected grids to determine which signal is most likely associated with an earthquake.", "[0090] The wavelet analysis may be performed using one of two ways: (1) a stepwise format or (2) a smoothing format.", "[0091] In the first way, results of a wavelet analysis for different grids may be combined in a two dimensional matrix N(n×m), in which the row(s) n, correspond to time, and the column(s) m correspond to grid(s) of the grid path at which the wavelet analysis may be performed.", "The values may either be the propagation length of significant maxima lines or zero if no lines were detected in this particular point in space and/or time.", "A continuity line χ may be a signal that propagates in space and time across all non-zero cells of N for at least minLength columns and within maxDisc rows, where minLength and maxDisc are user defined parameters.", "[0092] As one embodiment of generating continuity lines, a recursive algorithm, which take into account the following constraints, may be used: 1.", "C1: The minimum length of χ ought to be equal to or larger than the parameter minLength.", "C2: The time discontinuity can be at most ±maxDisc.", "C3: The space discontinuity can be at most one consecutive grid, but cannot be at either the first or last grid.", "[0096] These constraints and derived formulas may be formalized using the following: [0000] min  (  χ i  ) ≥ minLength   where ( 5 )  χ i  = ∑ j = 1 m  A i , j - d i ( 6 ) [0000] is the length of a continuity line χ at time i, where [0000] A i , j = { 1 p i , j >", "0 0 p i , j = 0   and ( 7 ) p i , j = { if   p i + k , j + 1 >", "0 N  ( i , j ) j - maxDisc <", "k <", "j + maxDisc 0 otherwise   and ( 8 ) d i = ∑ j = 2 m - 1  B i , j   where ( 9 ) B i , j = { p i , j >", "0 1 p i + k , j + 1 = 0 p i + k , j + 2 >", "0 0 otherwise ( 10 ) [0097] The discontinuity in space and time may be introduced to compensate for rounding errors in the wavelet transformation.", "They may also help compensate for the approximation due to the averaging of the end points of significant maxima lines.", "Furthermore, they may help factor in geophysical anomalies, such as wind, atmospheric perturbations and land orography.", "[0098] Each grid path generated may be evaluated according to a multi-criterion evaluation function to determine the most important signals.", "Such function may evaluate all signals using pairs of the form c, τ, where c is a criterion, and τ is a tolerance expressed in percentage.", "For each criterion c, it may compute the maximum value and select only the paths within tolerance of the maximum value.", "Typically, the paths which satisfy all criteria are considered to be significant.", "Three different criteria c may be used: 1) maximum length, 2) minimum spread and 3) maximum anomalies.", "[0099] 1.", "Maximum Length [0100] This criterion evaluates the length of a path χ by summing the number of grids where a propagating signal may be present.", "As described earlier, a discontinuity in a single grid may be allowed to compensate errors, which may be due to anomalies in fault line, geology or calculations.", "Taking into account such discontinuities, a parameter called “penalization coefficient”", "(PC) may be introduced to indicate a value that is subtracted for each discontinuity.", "For example, if the penalization coefficient is equal to 0.5, a path of length 5 with no discontinuity is equivalent to a path of length 6 with two discontinuities.", "Alternatively, it is possible to add an increasingly larger penalization coefficient to each new anomaly such that paths with numerous discontinuities can be penalized more heavily.", "[0101] 2.", "Minimum Spread [0102] This criterion evaluates the spread in time of a signal by considering the standard deviation for all paths and keeping only those paths with smaller values.", "It may penalize signals that propagate across a fault line with a large discontinuity in time.", "For example, assume minDisc=2 (days).", "Here, a signal would be moving two days forward in time across a fault line.", "Hence, it should appear in grid 1 at time 100, grid 2 at time 102, grid 3 at time 104, etc.", "[0103] 3.", "Maximum Anomalies [0104] This criterion takes into consideration any statistical significance of anomalies associated with an earthquake event.", "Each wavelet maxima may correspond to a peak of an original signal.", "Its statistical significance may be proportional to the size of the anomaly.", "Typically, large anomalies are usually one to two sigmas above the mean value.", "[0105] FIG. 12 shows the time of occurrence of wavelet maxima for different grids.", "It indicates points in space and time where significant singularities in SLHF may be detected.", "[0106] FIG. 13 shows the continuity of wavelet maxima in time and space.", "Significant signals are represented by horizontal lines.", "The day of the earthquake is shown with a dashed line.", "Peaks above one and two sigmas are respectively indicated with circles and triangles.", "The most significant signal is shown with the thicker line.", "[0107] Similarly, using the second way, results of a wavelet analysis for different grids may be combined in a two dimensional matrix N (n×m), in which the row(s) n, correspond to grid(s) of the grid path at which the wavelet analysis may be performed, and the column(s) m correspond to time.", "The values may either be the propagation length of significant maxima lines or zero if no lines were detected in this particular point in space and/or time.", "A continuity line χ may be a signal that propagates in space and time across all non-zero cells of N for at least minLength rows and within maxDisc columns, where minLength and maxDisc are user defined parameters.", "[0108] As one embodiment of generating continuity lines, a recursive algorithm, which take into account the following constraints, may be used: 1.", "C1: The minimum length of χ ought to be equal to or larger than the parameter minLength.", "C2: The time discontinuity can be at most ±maxDisc.", "C3: The space discontinuity can be at most one consecutive grid, but cannot be at either the first or last grid.", "[0112] These constraints and derived formulas may be formalized using the following: [0000] min(|χ c |)≧minLength (11) [0000] specifying that the length of the continuity line χ at time c ought to be greater than or equal to minLength, where [0000]  χ c  = ∑ r = 1 n  ( A r , c - ∑ r = 1 n - 2  ( D r , c * PC ) ) .", "( 12 ) [0113] This length may correspond to the number of detected anomalies A minus the number of discontinuities for a chosen grid path D. Discontinuities may be penalized by the parameter PC, which tends to indicate a value that is subtracted for each discontinuity.", "For example, if PC is equal to 0.5, a path of length 5 with no discontinuity is equivalent to a path of 6 with two discontinuities.", "Alternatively, it is possible to add as an increasingly larger penalization coefficient to each new anomaly such that paths with many discontinuities can be penalized more heavily.", "[0000] A r , c = { N  ( r , k ) >", "0 1 c - maxDisc <", "k <", "c + maxDisc 0 otherwise .", "( 13 ) [0114] An anomaly A for grid r and time c may be detected if a wavelet maximum exists for grid r and time k. Time k may be defined as the interval of the original time c±maxDisc, and it can represent the maximum time discontinuity allowed.", "[0000] D r , c = { N r , k >", "0 1 N r + 1 , k = 0 N r + 2 , k >", "0 c - maxDisc <", "k <", "c + maxDisc 0 otherwise .", "( 14 ) [0115] A discontinuity for grid r and time c may be detected if a wavelet maximum exists for grid r and grid r+2, but does not necessarily exist for grid r+1.", "The time k may be defined as given in Equation (14).", "There may be at most a discontinuity of a single grid.", "[0116] Just as the stepwise format, the discontinuity in space and time may also be introduced to compensate for rounding errors in the wavelet transformation.", "They may also help compensate for the approximation due to the averaging of the end points of significant maxima lines.", "Furthermore, they may help factor in geophysical anomalies, such as wind, atmospheric perturbations and land orography.", "[0117] Each grid path generated may be evaluated according to a multi-criterion evaluation function to determine the most important signals.", "Such function may evaluate all signals using pairs of the form Kτ, where K is a criterion, and τ is a tolerance expressed in percentage.", "For each criterion K, it may compute the maximum value and select only the paths within tolerance of the maximum value.", "Typically, the paths which satisfy all criteria are considered to be significant.", "Like the stepwise format, three different criteria K may be used: 1) maximum length, 2) minimum spread and 3) maximum anomalies.", "[0118] 1.", "Maximum Length [0119] This criterion evaluates the length of a path χ by summing the number of grids where a propagating signal may be present.", "As described earlier, a discontinuity in a single grid may be allowed to compensate errors, which may be due to anomalies along the selected grid path due to rounding errors or inhomogeneity in the sub-surface.", "[0120] 2.", "Minimum Spread [0121] This criterion evaluates the spread in time of a signal by considering the standard deviation (sigma) for all paths and keeping only those paths with smaller values.", "It may penalize signals that propagate across a fault line with a large discontinuity in time.", "For example, assume minDisc=2 (days).", "Here, a signal would be moving two days forward in time across a fault line.", "Hence, it should appear in grid 1 at time 100, grid 2 at time 102, grid 3 at time 104, etc.", "[0122] 3.", "Maximum Anomalies [0123] This criterion takes into consideration any statistical significance of anomalies associated with earthquake events.", "Each wavelet maxima may correspond to a peak of an original signal.", "Its statistical significance may be proportional to the size of the anomaly.", "Typically, large anomalies are usually one to two sigmas above the mean value.", "[0124] Finally, whether a stepping format or smoothing format is used, to compare different earthquakes, the concept of anomaly A may be introduced.", "Anomaly A may be defined as: [0000] A = X i - M STD ( 15 ) [0000] where X i is the SLHF at time i, M is the 30-day average for previous years, and STD is the standard deviation of M. [0125] Experiments [0126] 1.", "Stepping format [0127] Referring to FIG. 4 again, using the Aug. 14, 2003 earthquake as an example to determine the existence of a geometrical continuity of anomalies over a continental boundary, grids 22, 23, 28, 29, 30, 31 and 39 may be considered.", "The epicenter of the earthquake, shown with a star, is located in grid 31.", "[0128] A wavelet analysis may be performed using Stanford University's Wavelab library and the University of Wisconsin's octave mathematical program.", "Table 1 shows wavelet parameters used for the analysis.", "[0000] TABLE 1 Wavelet parameters of the numerical real wavelet transformation (RWT) used in experiment Function RWT Mother Wavelet Gauss Nvoice 20 Scale 2 Octave 20 Propagation Factor 1 2 [0129] The wavelet analysis may be performed over the original signal for the year 2003 for each grid.", "Data available from Jan. 1, 2003 to Oct. 31, 2003 may be used.", "FIGS. 5-11 highlight results of wavelet analyses for SLHF data.", "These figures contain three parts.", "The first part shows a time-series for the original signal, a 30-day average for years 1998-2002, and 1 and 2 standard deviations.", "The second part is a graphical representation of the previously described characteristic vector, which shows the time of significant wavelet maxima.", "The depth of propagation is shaded on a gray scale to emphasize those maxima that propagate to finer scales.", "The third part shows a graphical representation of the wavelet coefficients.", "Contour lines may be added to increase readability and to stress the areas most likely to contain maxima lines.", "Table 2 shows information shared by FIGS. 5-11 ;", "Table 3 identifies the location and grid used in each of these figures to conduct the wavelet analysis.", "[0000] TABLE 2 Common SLHF Data Earthquake Date Aug. 14, 2003 Earthquake Day 226 Wavelet Library WaveLab Function RWT (X, 20, 2, 10) Propagation Factor 1 2 [0000] TABLE 3 Location of Wavelet Analysis Figure Location Grid Number FIG. 5 39.05° N, 15° E 28 FIG. 6 39.05° N, 16.88° E 29 FIG. 7 39.05° N, 18.75° E 30 FIG. 8 40.95° N, 18.75° E 39 FIG. 9 39.05° N, 20.62° E 31 FIG. 10 37.14° N, 20.62° E 22 FIG. 11 37.14° N, 22.5° E 23 [0130] A wavelet transformation for the epicentral region may be shown as in FIG. 9 .", "It is possible to notice the sharp SLHF peak, which occurs about two weeks prior to the earthquake, because the peak appears well above two sigma (as represented by a dashed line).", "[0131] Both FIGS. 12 and 13 show the analysis of spatial and temporal continuity.", "More specifically, FIG. 12 shows the local maxima of a wavelet analysis where the X axis is the grid number and the Y axis is time expressed in days.", "FIG. 13 shows possible paths computed over the results of the wavelet analysis.", "It is possible to notice that there exists only one path that satisfies spatial and temporal constraints.", "It is also possible to notice that it manifests about 12 days prior to the earthquake event.", "This signal may be considered as a strong precursor of the earthquake.", "The parameters used to compute the spatial and temporal continuity are given in Table 4.", "[0000] TABLE 4 Continuity parameters used in the experiments Max Discontinuity 20 Days Min Length 5 Grids Penalization Discontinuity 0.5 Tolerance 5% [0132] FIG. 14 shows an SLHF anomaly for the only significant signal.", "Values on the graph indicate the day when the anomaly was registered.", "These values are concentrated around day 214, corresponding to Aug. 2, 2003, just 12 days prior to the earthquake event.", "The SLHF anomaly over the epicenter was also found to be a maximum of 12 days prior to the main earthquake event.", "[0133] In sum, the lessons learned from this example may be used to help detect earthquakes.", "The use of 1-D real continuous wavelet transformation combined with the studies of spatial and temporal continuity of an anomaly over a continental boundary has discriminated a single signal among the ones found.", "This signal occurred 12 days prior to the earthquake, and may be considered as a strong precursor.", "Such anomalous behavior of SLHF may be directly associated with the occurrence of coastal earthquakes.", "[0134] 2.", "Smoothing Format [0135] To exemplify how this format can use SLHF data to show a detectable anomaly prior to an earthquake, the Aug. 14, 2003 (having a magnitude of 6.7) and Mar. 1, 2004 (having a magnitude of 5.7) earthquakes were considered.", "Experiments may be carried out over the stronger earthquake and validated using the same grid path over the weaker earthquake.", "To determine the existence of a geometrical continuity of anomalies over a continental boundary, the grid path covering grids 32, 33, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41 and 49 may be used.", "As shown in FIG. 15 , the epicenter of each earthquake, denoted with a star, is respectively shown in grids 41 and 33.", "This figure also shows the location of the plate boundary, fault lines and their type (e.g., extensional, compressional, and transformation).", "[0136] Wavelet analysis may be performed using 365 SLHF data points, from Mar. 30, 2003 to Mar. 28, 2004, for each of the grids in the grid path.", "The results of the wavelet analysis may be shown in FIGS. 17 to 24 .", "Table 5 shows the parameters used in the analysis.", "[0000] TABLE 5 Wavelet parameters of the numerical RWT used in the experiments Function RWT Mother Wavelet Sombrero Nvoice 10 Scale 10 Octave 2 Propagation Factor 1 2 [0137] Each of these figures may contain three parts: [0138] 1.", "The first part may show the time-series for the original signal, the 30-days average for the previous five years 1998-2002, and the 1 and 2 sigma for the 30-days average.", "[0139] 2.", "The second part may be a graphical representation of the characteristic vector as described in the previous wavelet transformation section, which shows the time when significant wavelet maxima may be detected.", "The gray scale generally indicates the propagation depth to emphasize those maxima that propagate to finer scales.", "[0140] 3.", "The third part may include a graphical representation of the wavelet coefficients, and corresponding maxima lines.", "It is possible to notice how the maxima lines converge to lines indicated in the previous part.", "[0141] Table 2 shows information shared by FIGS. 17-24 ;", "Table 3 identifies the location and grid used in each of these figures to conduct the wavelet analysis.", "[0000] TABLE 6 Common SLHF Data Earthquake Dates Aug. 14, 2003 and Mar. 1, 2004 Data Analyzed Mar. 30, 2003-Mar. 28, 2004 Wavelet Library WaveLab Function RWT (X, 10, Sombrero, 2, 10) Propagation Factor 1 2 [0000] TABLE 7 Location of Wavelet Analysis Figure Location Grid Number FIG. 17 39.05° N, 13.12° E 37 FIG. 18 39.05° N, 15° E 38 FIG. 19 39.05° N, 16.88° E 39 FIG. 20 39.05° N, 18.75° E 40 FIG. 21 40.95° N, 18.75° E 49 FIG. 22 39.05° N, 20.62° E 41 FIG. 23 37.14° N, 20.62° E 32 FIG. 24 37.14° N, 22.5° E 33 [0142] FIG. 22 shows the wavelet transformation for the epicentral region of the 2003 earthquake.", "A sharp SLHF peak well above two sigma (dashed line) is seen about two weeks prior to the earthquake.", "Similarly, FIG. 24 shows the wavelet transformation for the epicentral region of the 2004 earthquake.", "A sharp SLHF peak above one sigma (dotted line) is also seen about two weeks prior to the earthquake.", "The lesser intensity of this peak is likely due to the smaller magnitude of the 2004 earthquake.", "[0143] Referring to FIG. 25 , the analysis of spatial and temporal continuity illustrates significant paths generated using the results of the wavelet analysis, under specified time and space constraints.", "The x-axis represents time expressed in days;", "the y-axis represents the grid of the grid path.", "The strength of the anomaly is shaded.", "[0144] Out of a 365-day period, only three continuous paths may be found that satisfy space and time constraints.", "One of these paths occurred about 12 days prior to the earthquake of Aug. 14, 2003.", "Another occurred about 14 days prior to the Mar. 1, 2004 earthquake.", "Although the third signal may satisfy the given constraints of space and time continuity, it appears to be weaker than the former two.", "One reason is that the detected singularities for the third signal are not very strong.", "However, both the stronger signals can be considered as strong precursors of the two earthquakes.", "Table 6 provides the parameters used to compute spatial and time continuity.", "[0000] TABLE 6 Continuity parameters used in the experiments Max Discontinuity 1 Day Min Length 8 Grids PC 2 Tolerance 20% [0145] FIG. 26 shows SLHF anomalies for the two significant signals.", "The values on the graph indicate the day when each of the anomalies was registered.", "It is possible to notice that in both cases, the largest anomaly occurred either at the epicenter (earthquake of Aug. 14, 2003) or in the grid immediately next to the epicenter (earthquake of Mar. 1, 2004).", "[0146] In sum, the lessons learned from this example may be used to help detect earthquakes.", "The use of 1-D real continuous wavelet transformation combined with the studies of spatial and temporal continuity of the anomaly over the continental boundary have shown SLHF anomalies as earthquake precursors.", "For both earthquakes, the observed precursory signals are seen about two weeks prior to the main events.", "The precursory signals associated with the earthquake events may follow a continuity in time and space, which can be used to discriminate other signals due to different weather and atmospheric processes.", "[0147] The foregoing descriptions of the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been presented for purposes of illustration and description.", "They are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed, and obviously many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teaching without departing from the scope of this invention and its broader aspects.", "The illustrated embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and its practical application to thereby enable others skilled in the art to best utilize the invention in various embodiments and with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.", "For example, one skilled in the art will recognize that the present invention may be used in to detect seismic activity on Earth and planetary bodies, such as the Earth's moon.", "[0148] A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection.", "The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Field of the Invention This invention relates to an improved method for making a package and a package for mounting a sound system on a motorcycle.", "Background Information Various arrangements have been provided in the past for mounting radios and tape players on motorcycles.", "Some of these have included metal enclosures which were intended to be permanently attached to the motorcycle.", "Such permanently attached metal enclosures were intended to protect the components of the sound system which could include a radio, tape player, and speakers from physical damage and from the adverse effects of the environment.", "While intended to be permanently attached, such installations, due to their highly visible exposure were more often subject to theft than similar units installed within a locked automobile.", "A sound system designed for use on a motorcycle would not be as susceptible to theft, or deterioration due to the elements of weather if it could be readily removed from an unattended bike, and just as easily reattached for use.", "Not only is it desirable that the system be readily attached and detached, but it is also desirable that the system be contained in one package which is as small as possible, and is readily carried by a person to and from the bike.", "It is further desirable that the package protect the electronic components to the greatest extend possible from damage by bumping of the package and from the road shocks transmitted to the package while mounted on a bike which is traveling a rough road.", "Further, the components of the package, and the package itself should be readily manufactured and assembled.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a method of packaging a sound system for use on a motorcycle which contains all of the components of the sound system in a compact package which protects the components from road shocks and the adverse effects of the environment, and which package is readily attached to and removed from the motorcycle.", "The components of the sound system are assembled in a compact arrangement with the necessary controls being accessible through openings provided in the package enclosure.", "The package enclosure is formed of a durable flexible material.", "Speakers are supported within the package so as to face toward the driver of the motorcycle.", "Due to the customary shape of the various components of the sound system, all of the space in the package is not occupied by components.", "The space which is void of sound system components is filled with a material such as foamed plastic, which not only helps to hold the components in position within the package, but also serves as a shock absorber between the components and the motorcycle housing.", "Magnets are provided in a wall of the package enclosure to secure the package to a steel portion of the cycle, such as the tank which is normally positioned directly in front of the motorcycle driver.", "Straps are secured to the package enclosure for carrying the sound system package when it is not attached to the cycle, and for securing the package to the cycle.", "Suitable wiring and electrical connectors extend from the housing for energizing components of the sound system from the cycle electrical system.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the sound system package, including a flexible material enclosure, mounted on a motorcycle in one position of normal use;", "FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the sound system package of FIG. 1, with the package detached from the motorcycle, of the front and top of the package showing the portions of the sound system which project from the flexible enclosure;", "FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the sound system package of FIG. 1, with the package detached from the motorcycle, of the back and top of the package showing with dashed lines the permanent magnet strips which are provided in the package to hold the system on a motorcycle;", "FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the sound system package of FIG. 1"", "taken along the line 4--4 in FIG. 1;", "FIG. 5 is an exploded perspective view of the sound system package of FIG. 1, showing the formed filler removed from the flexible material enclosure;", "FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the form and liner material used to make the formed filler;", "FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the form and liner material of FIG. 6, with the liner material positioned in the form;", "FIG. 8 is a perspective view of the form and liner material of FIG. 6 with the liner positioned in the form, and the cover closed after the filer material has been placed within the liner in the form;", "FIG. 9 is an exploded perspective view of the sound package system of FIG. 1, showing the components of the sound system and the formed filler which are assembled in the flexible material enclosure.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to FIG. 1 of the drawings, a sound system package 10 constructed in accordance with this invention is shown mounted on a motorcycle 12, a portion of which is shown.", "The portion of the motorcycle shown is that which is located immediate in front of the rider.", "A portion of a steering assembly 14 of the motorcycle is shown.", "The portion shown includes the handle bars 16 which are secured to a supporting member 18 by a set screw 20.", "The supporting member 18 is in turn supported from a steering member 22 by a pair of upstanding rod-like members 24 and 26.", "Located in front of the steering assembly 14 is a instrument panel 28 having mounted thereon instruments 30, 32, and 34.", "Surrounding the front and sides of the instrument panel 28 is a cowling 36, which has mounted therein a windshield 38.", "Located behind the steering assembly 14 and generally in front of the seat for the motorcycle rider, which is seat is not shown, is a tank assembly 40.", "The tank assembly 40 typically encloses the fuel tank for the motorcycle, and also portions of the structural members interconnecting the front and rear wheels of the motorcycle.", "The sound package 10 as constructed in accordance with this invention is formed as a generally rectangular housing 42.", "The rectangular housing is preferably formed of a durable flexible fabric which is resistant to the elements of weather and to abrasion.", "Extending from the upper or top surface of the housing 42, as mounted on the motorcycle 12, is a control assembly 44 for the stereo system, as well as a pair of speakers 46 and 48.", "The control assembly 44 is shown as being contained in a rectangular housing 49, having a hinged lid 50.", "The hinged lid is provided to cover the controls for the speaker system, which for purpose of illustration are shown as a pair of knobs 52 and a row of push buttons 54.", "In those cases where the sound system includes a tape player, the cover 50 would also cover the slot for receiving the tape.", "A clasp 55 having a first portion 56 formed on the cover 50, and a second portion 58 formed on a lower portion 60 of the housing 49 is provided to retain the cover 50 in a closed position.", "As is best seen in FIGS. 1 and 2, pockets are provided on the sides of the rectangular housing 42.", "The pockets are formed between the sidewall of the housing 42 and an outer wall 62 preferably formed of the same material as the housing 42.", "A flap 64 is secured near the top edge of the housing 42 and extends over top edge 66 of the outer wall 62 of the pocket to provide a cover on the pocket.", "Fastening means such as interlocking strips 68 and 70 are provided on the outer surface of the outer wall 62 and on the inner surface of the flap 64 respectively to retain the cover in the closed position.", "These pockets, which are readily accessible to the motorcycle rider, are convenient for carrying tapes for use in the stereo system, or maps, or any other small item which the rider wishes to have readily at hand.", "For convenience in carrying the sound system package when not attached to the motorcycle, a strap 72 is secured to the top of the housing 42.", "A pair of fasteners 74 and 76 provided with holes 78 and 80 respectively are secured to the strap 72.", "As shown in FIG. 1, a strap 82 having a hook at each end, one of which 84 is shown, is wrapped around the rodlike members 24 and 26 as an additional or supplemental way of securing the sound system package 10 to the motorcycle 12.", "The primary means for securing the sound system package 10 to the motorcycle is best shown in FIGS. 3, 4, and 5.", "As shown in these figures, six strip permanent magnets 86, 87, 88, 89, 90 and 91 are sown into pouches formed between the flexible material 92 forming the bottom of the housing, and a sheet of fabric 94 overlaying the magnets.", "The magnets 86 through 91 are attracted to the metallic tank cover 96, to hold the sound system package 10 in the desired position on the tank assembly 40.", "While the magnets 86 through 91 would provide the greatest holding force if they were to directly contact the tank surface 96, the thin flexible material 92, which in a preferred embodiment is a smooth vinyl material, is interposed therebetween to prevent the magnets from marring the surface of the tank.", "As shown in the cross-section view of FIG. 4, which is taken along the line 4--4 in FIG. 1, the components of the sound system are received in pockets and depressions formed in a filler 98 provided in the rectangular housing 42.", "The components of the stereo system, such as a tuner 100, amplifier 102, battery 104, connector 106, and tape player (if provided), are received in a deep pocket or depression 108, as shown in FIG. 5. The inner ends of speakers, one of which 48 is shown in FIG. 4, rest in a shallower pocket or depression 110, as shown in FIG. 5. The filler 98, the formation of which will be hereinafter described, has wrapped around it a loop-type antenna 112.", "As shown in FIG. 4, electrical wires 114 for connecting the stereo system to the motorcycle electrical system pass through holes formed in the filler 98.", "Referring now to FIG. 6, the method of forming the filler 98 will be described.", "A mold housing 116 has inner walls 118 which form a rectangle which conforms in size and shape to that of the outer walls of the filler 98.", "A mold insert 120 is placed within the inner walls 118 and is spaced from them.", "The insert 120 has a portion 122 which conforms in shape to the deep pocket or depression 108 and portion 124 which conforms in shape to the shallower depression or pocket 110.", "A plastic sheet 126 is place over the mold housing 116.", "The bottom wall 128 of the mold housing 116, and the tops 130 and 132 of the portions 122 and 124 respectively of the insert are provided with apertures through which air may be drawn by a vacuum pump (not shown) attached to tube 134.", "With a vacuum applied to tube 134, the sheet 126 is drawn into the mold cavity to form a liner in the cavity as shown in FIG. 7. A foaming type plastic filler material is then placed in the lined cavity.", "With the filler material in the cavity, but prior to its foaming, portions of the liner extending outside of the cavity are folded over the top, and hinged cover 136 is closed.", "Thereafter, the resin material will foam or expand to fill the confined cavity to form the body of filler 98.", "Various types of plastics may be used to form the filler.", "A preferred form of plastic for the filler is a mixture of Urethane "A"", "and "B"", "components, one being a activator and the other a resin.", "After the foamed plastic filler has hardened, it along with the plastic liner 126, are removed from the mold housing 116 to provide the desired filler 98.", "Referring to FIG. 9, the assembly of the sound system package will be described.", "The loop-type antenna 112 is secured, by suitable means such as by tape to the outer periphery of the filler 98.", "The components including tuner 100, amplifier 102, battery 104, and connector 106 are placed within the deep pocket 108, with the necessary electrical connections being made to the antenna and to the electrical wires 114 extending out of the sound system package 10 for connection to the motorcycle electrical system.", "The speakers 46 and 48 are secured to the cover of the rectangular housing 42 and electrically connected to the amplifier 102.", "A zipper 138 is provided for securing cover 140 to principal portion 142 of the rectangular housing 42.", "When installing the sound system components in the housing, it may be necessary because of variations in the sizes and shape of one or more of the components, to use some small pieces of foam between the components and the inner walls of the cavities to secure the components in a fixed position.", "Taping or otherwise securing the sound system components, other than the speakers, to each other before placing them in the deep pocket or depression 108 will not only aid in the assembly of the sound system, but also provide a more structurally sound package.", "To install the sound system package 10 for use on the motorcycle, it is only necessary to make an electrical connection between the motorcycle electrical system and a plug 144 provided on the end of the electrical wires 114 extending from the sound system, place the sound system so that the magnets 86 through 91 rest on the motorcycle tank cover 96, and clip the hooks on the safety strap 82 in holes 78 and 80 on the fasteners 74 and 76, respectively.", "It should be apparent to those skilled in the art, that while what has been described is considered at present to be a preferred embodiment of the motorcycle sound system, in accordance with the patent statutes, changes may be made in the sound system without actually departing from the true spirit and scope of this invention.", "The appended claims are intended to cover all such changes and modifications which fall within the true spirit and scope of this invention." ]

[ "TECHNICAL FIELD This invention relates to an extra-low-voltage heating system wherein the magnetic field is reduced, both around the heating cables and the feeder that supplies power to the cables.", "Each cable contains six wires that are configured and interconnected in a specific way so as to minimize the magnetic field surrounding the cable.", "Also, the heating cables are themselves configured so as to reduce the magnetic field at points that are close to the heated surface.", "In 3-phase heating systems, the wires of the heating cables are interconnected in either delta or wye form in a specific way.", "In single-phase heating systems, the said delta form is also connected and configured in a specific way.", "By positioning a bare conductor in close proximity to the six wires, and connecting it to a monitoring device, we can continually monitor the integrity of the system.", "BACKGROUND ART Extra-low-voltage systems for heating concrete floors have been used in the past by circulating an electric current in the reinforcing steel wire mesh within a concrete slab.", "In these 60 Hz systems, the voltage is typically limited to a maximum of 30 volts.", "These extra-low-voltage systems offer many advantages, but they also have some shortcomings as follows: 1.", "On account of the low voltage, large currents are required, which generate a strong magnetic field around the busbars and wire meshes.", "The magnetic field interferes with the image on some computer and television screens, causing it to jitter.", "It has been found that in order to reduce the jitter to an acceptable level, the peak flux density must be less than 5 microteslas (5 μT), which corresponds to 50 milligauss (50 mG).", "In some extra-low-voltage heating systems of the prior art, the flux density can exceed 100 μT (1000 mG) at a distance of 5 feet above the floor.", "The magnetic field is perceived by some people to be a potential health hazard.", "Opinions vary as to the acceptable exposure limits to 50 Hz and 60 Hz magnetic fields.", "In a publication by the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists entitled Sub-Radio Frequency (30 kHz and below) Magnetic Fields, continuous exposure limits of 100 μT (1000 mG) are suggested for members of the general public.", "It should be noted that the ambient 60 Hz flux density in a home is typically 1 mG to 2 mG, while that along a busy street ranges from 0.5 mG to 5 mG.", "The flux density near a coffee machine equipped with an electric clock varies from 10 mG to over 100 mG, depending upon the distance from the machine.", "The SI unit of magnetic flux density is the tesla.", "One microtesla (1 μT) is equal to 10 milligauss (10 mG).", "This concern with possible biological effects has given rise to several methods of reducing the magnetic fields of electric heating systems.", "In this regard, we make reference to the following patents: U.S. Pat. No. 5,081,341 to William M. Rowe issued Jan. 14, 1992, describes how a magnetic field can be reduced by arranging wires in a helical manner so that currents flow in essentially opposite directions.", "U.S. Pat. No. 4,998,006 to Daniel Perlman issued on Mar. 5, 1991, there is described how a magnetic field can be reduced by arranging wires in parallel so that currents flow in essentially opposite directions.", "U.S. Pat. No. 4,908,497 to Bengt Hjortsberg, issued Mar. 13, 1990, describes how a magnetic field can be reduced by arranging successive rows of four wires in series so that currents flow in essentially opposite directions.", "These patents are mainly concerned with low-power devices such as comfort heaters and water beds that are in particularly close contact with the human body.", "U.S. Pat. No. 3,364,335 to B. Palatini et al, issued on Jan. 16, 1968 describes a relatively high voltage three-phase heating system to reduce the size of the conductors.", "The objective is to eliminate the danger of high voltages by using a differential protection.", "There is no mention of magnetic fields.", "U.S. Pat. No. 3,223,825 to C. I. Williams issued on Dec. 14, 1965 discloses the use of reinforcing steel bars in concrete to carry heating current.", "Three-phase power is used but the individual heating of bars is single-phase.", "Various circuit configurations are given with design examples.", "There is no mention of magnetic fields.", "U.S. Pat. No. 2,042,742 to J. H. Taylor issued on Jun. 2, 1936 discloses the use of a 3-conductor insulated heating cable mounted on a panel, but no 3-phase source.", "The low temperature system uses copper wire as heating element.", "The Patent also states that circuits of considerable length can be made this way.", "There is no mention of magnetic fields.", "U.S. Pat. No. 3,213,300 to R. S. DAVIS issued on Oct. 19, 1965 describes the use of a low reactance cable.", "Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 2,287,502 to A. A. TOGESEN issued on Jun. 23, 1942 describes "closely spaced busbars within the pairs, effects a reduction in the magnetic field.", """, "BACKGROUND INFORMATION It is well known that an ac current flowing in a long, straight wire produces an alternating magnetic field in the space around the wire.", "The magnetic field is constantly increasing, decreasing and reversing.", "In a 60 Hz system, the flux density reaches its maximum value 120 times per second.", "The flux density is given by the well-known physical equation: ##EQU1## in which B=maximum flux density at the point of interest, in milligauss mG!", "I=peak current flowing in the wire, in amperes A!", "x=shortest distance between the center of the wire and the point of interest, in meters m!", "Among its other features, the invention disclosed herein describes a 3-phase heating cable that produces a particularly low magnetic field.", "In commercial 3-phase installations, the three currents I A , I B , I C flowing in a 3-wire cable vary sinusoidally according to the equations: I.sub.", "A =I.", "sub.", "m cos ωt (2) I.sub.", "B =I.", "sub.", "m cos (ωt-120) (3) I.sub.", "C =I.", "sub.", "m cos (ωt-240) (4) In these equations, I m is the peak current, ω is the angular frequency in degrees per second, t is the time in seconds, and ωt is the time expressed in electrical degrees.", "Table 1 shows the instantaneous currents flowing in the three wires at various instants of time, during one cycle.", "An angle ωt of 360 degrees corresponds to 1/ƒ seconds, where ƒ is the frequency of the power source.", "TABLE 1______________________________________ωt I.sub.", "A I.sub.", "B I.sub.", "C______________________________________0 I.sub.", "m -0.5 I.sub.", "m -0.5 I.sub.", "m30 0.866 I.sub.", "m 0 -0.866 I.sub.", "m60 0.5 I.sub.", "m 0.5 I.sub.", "m -I.", "sub.", "m90 0 0.866 I.sub.", "m -0.866 I.sub.", "m120 -0.5 I.sub.", "m I.sub.", "m -0.5 I.sub.", "m150 -0.866 I.sub.", "m 0.866 I.sub.", "m 0180 -I.", "sub.", "m 0.5 I.sub.", "m 0.5 I.sub.", "m210 -0.866 I.sub.", "m 0 0.866 I.sub.", "m240 -0.5 I.sub.", "m -0.5 I.sub.", "m I.sub.", "m270 0 -0.866 I.sub.", "m 0.866 I.sub.", "m300 0.5 I.sub.", "m -I.", "sub.", "m 0.5 I.sub.", "m330 0.866 I.sub.", "m -0.866 I.sub.", "m 0360 I.sub.", "m -0.5 I.sub.", "m -0.5 I.sub.", "m______________________________________ The instantaneous magnetic field surrounding a cable depends upon the configuration of the wires and the instantaneous currents they carry.", "Because the currents are alternating, they change in value and direction from one instant to the next.", "It is therefore necessary to determine when the flux density is maximum and what its value is at that particular moment.", "I have derived formulas, based upon Eq.", "(1), that describe the flux densities around cables having different wire configurations.", "I narrowed the choice down to one three-phase wire configuration that produces especially good results.", "It involves a cable having six wires;", "the formulas for this special configuration are revealed in subsequent sections.", "When heating a flat surface, such as a wall or floor, the magnetic flux density above the surface depends upon the vector sum of the flux densities produced by all the cables.", "Thus, to determine the maximum flux density at a given point perpendicular to the surface, the configuration of the cables has to be taken into account, in addition to the configuration of the wires within the cables.", "I have found that a specific cable configuration produces particularly low flux densities at points located close to the heated surface.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION This invention concerns an extra-low-voltage, 3-phase heating system that produces a particularly low magnetic flux density.", "It comprises a plurality of 3-phase heating cables that are connected to a common 3-phase feeder.", "The feeder is powered by a step-down transformer whose secondary line-to-line voltage is 30 V or less, to remain within the extra-low-voltage class.", "The heating system is principally, although not exclusively, intended for heating a flat surface and among its several applications, the system is designed for direct burial in a concrete floor, with the cables lying about 50 mm below the surface.", "The cables are designed to produce a specified amount of thermal power per unit length, P C (watts per meter).", "The maximum value of P C depends upon the maximum allowable temperature of the cable.", "The temperature is typically limited to a maximum of 60° C. or 90° C. Consequently, the heating system can be considered to be a low-temperature system.", "When desired, values of P C less than said maximum can be used.", "Cable runs of individual cables are generally of equal length and laid out in sinuous fashion.", "The cable runs are laid out side by side, with the distance between runs being determined by P C and the required thermal power density P D (watts per square meter).", "The invention seeks to reduce the magnetic flux density around the cables, around the heated surface, and around the feeder.", "The invention also includes a monitoring system whereby potential damage to cables may be detected, causing power to be disconnected.", "The monitoring means also enables the fault to be located.", "Each heating cable of this invention comprises six insulated wires, arranged in two rows of three wires, with the rows in juxtaposition.", "The wires and rows are in close proximity to each other.", "The wires in the cable are specially configured and interconnected so as to minimize the magnetic field around the individual cables.", "The wires can be connected in either delta or wye to create what I respectively call a delta cable and wye cable, for purposes of ready identification.", "Furthermore, the cables themselves are configured to reduce even more the resultant flux density near the flat heated surface.", "Similarly, the busbars of the feeder are specially configured to reduce the magnetic flux density around the feeder.", "The said wires and busbars are made of a low resistivity material, such as copper.", "The said delta cable can also be powered by a single-phase source by connecting it to the source in a specific way.", "The specific connection is designed to minimize the magnetic field around the cable.", "The present invention also includes special formulas that have been derived to permit the approximate calculation of the magnetic fields produced around the cables.", "The following features also form part of this invention: 1) Safety.", "The extra-low-voltage of the heating system ensures safety from electric shock;", "2) Robustness.", "The cable contains six wires and hence is particularly able to withstand mechanical abuse when it is installed;", "3) Insulation.", "The cable and its wires are insulated;", "consequently, the cables can come in direct contact with adjoining metal parts;", "4) Balanced 3-phase system.", "The heating cables constitute an inherently balanced three-phase load which meets electric power utility requirements.", "5) Low temperature.", "The heating system operates at low temperatures which ensures long life and reduces the fire hazard.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS A preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, which show various examples of the invention, including its several advantages: FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the cross section of a single wire carrying a current and the resulting magnetic flux density it produces, together with the horizontal and vertical components of the flux density;", "FIG. 2a is a schematic diagram showing a six-wire wye cable;", "FIG. 2b shows its cross section and wire configuration;", "FIG. 3 is a schematic cross section view of a 3-phase wye cable, showing the magnitude and actual direction of current flows in the wires, at the moment when the flux density surrounding the cable is maximum;", "FIG. 4 is a cross section view of a 3-phase wye cable, showing the magnitude and direction of current flow and the resulting flux density components when the flux density is maximum;", "FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing the flux density pattern surrounding a 3-phase wye cable when the flux density is maximum;", "FIG. 6a is a schematic diagram showing a six-wire delta cable;", "FIG. 6b shows its cross section and wire configuration;", "FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing the essential elements of the extra-low-voltage heating system covered by the present invention;", "FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram showing the monitoring system that checks the integrity of the extra-low-voltage heating system;", "FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram showing in greater detail the cables and feeder of a 3-phase extra-low-voltage heating system wherein the feeder is composed of three busbars and the monitoring system is not shown;", "FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram showing the cross section and configuration of three adjacent 3-phase cable runs laid out on a flat surface, together with the flux density patterns at the moment when the flux densities are maximum;", "FIG. 11 is a cross section view of a 3-phase feeder of the prior art;", "FIG. 12 is a cross section view of a special 3-phase five-bar feeder that is part of this invention;", "FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram of a 3-phase heating system using a five-bar feeder, and showing the method of connecting the heating cables thereto;", "FIG. 14 is a schematic diagram of of one embodiment of the monitoring system;", "FIG. 15a is a schematic diagram of a delta cable showing its mode of connection to a single-phase source;", "FIG. 15b is a cross section view of a single-phase delta cable, showing the magnitude and direction of current flow in the wires at the moment when the flux density surrounding the cable is maximum;", "FIG. 16 is a cross section view of a delta cable when connected to a single-phase source, showing the magnitude and direction of current flows in the wires and the resulting components of flux density at the moment when the flux density surrounding the cable is maximum;", "FIG. 17 is a schematic drawing showing the flux density pattern surrounding a delta cable when connected to a single-phase source;", "FIG. 18 is a schematic diagram showing in cross section the configuration of three adjacent delta cable runs, laid out on a flat surface, when delta cables are connected to a single-phase source, together with several representative flux density patterns;", "FIG. 19 is a schematic diagram of two delta cables laid out on a flat surface, showing the preferred cable configuration when the cables have more than one run and are connected to a single-phase source;", "FIG. 20 shows the magnetic flux density distribution above a heated floor when the cables are connected to a 3-phase source, and FIG. 21 shows the magnetic flux density distribution above a heated floor when the cables are connected to a single-phase source.", "DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring to FIG. 1, there is shown the cross section of a single wire carrying an alternating current having an instantaneous value 1.", "The "cross"", "of the conventional dot/cross notation indicates that the current is flowing into the page.", "As previously stated, the value of the flux density is given by: ##EQU2## It is well known that this flux density is directed at right angles to a ray having a radius x whose origin coincides with the center of the wire.", "It follows that the horizontal and vertical flux density components B H and B V at the end of a ray inclined at θ degrees to the horizontal, are respectively given by: B.sub.", "H =B sin θ (5) B.sub.", "V =B cos θ (6) For the current direction shown (into the page), positive values of B H are directed to the right, while positive values of B V are directed downwards.", "FIG. 2a is a schematic diagram showing a cable having six straight wires 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 that are parallel and in close proximity to each other.", "The cable has a length L 1 .", "Wires 2, 4, 6 are connected together at junction N while wire leads a, b, c are connected to a 3-phase source (not shown).", "The wires are therefore connected in wye.", "For convenience, I call this a wye cable.", "The wires carry 3-phase sinusoidal alternating currents I A , I B , I C , which respectively flow in the wire pairs 1,2;", "3,4;", "and 5,6, as shown in the Figure.", "The line currents flowing in leads a, b, c reach peak values of I Y3 where subscript Y stands for wye and subscript 3 stands for 3-phase source.", "The currents are considered to be positive when they flow in the direction of the arrows.", "For example, when I B =+17 A, the current I B is actually flowing in the direction of the arrows shown for wires 3 and 4.", "FIG. 2b is a cross section view of the wye cable, showing the preferred configuration of the six wires.", "The wires are arranged in two rows of 3 wires, with the rows in juxtaposition.", "Wires 1,3,5 and 2,4,6 are respectively coplanar and the two rows are parallel to each other and separated by a distance h. The distance between adjacent wires in each row is d. Distances d and h are measured between the centers of the wires.", "In the upper row, outer wires 1 and 5 are respectively on the left-hand side and right-hand side of inner wire 3.", "Similarly, in the lower row, outer wires 2 and 6 are respectively on the left-hand side and right-hand side of inner wire 4.", "The crosses and dots in FIG. 2b indicate the direction of current flow when the respective currents are positive.", "Thus, when I B =+17 A, the current in wire 3 is 17 A flowing into the page, while the return current of 17 A in wire 4 flows out of the page (toward the reader).", "The flux density surrounding the cable changes from instant to instant but it reaches a maximum during each half cycle.", "I have discovered that when the wires are configured as shown in FIG. 2b, the flux density surrounding the cable is maximum when the current in the inner wires 3 and 4 is zero.", "Based upon the information given in Table 1, this means that the instantaneous currents in the outer wires 1,2,5,6 are equal (in magnitude) to 0.866 I Y3 .", "Furthermore, at this instant, the currents in one set of diagonally opposite outer wires flow in one direction while the currents in the other set of diagonally opposite outer wires flow in the opposite direction.", "Thus, as shown in FIG. 3, when current in wire 1 flows into the page, then current in wire 6 also flows into the page.", "On the other hand, at this same instant, the currents in wires 2 and 5 flow out of the page.", "One half cycle later, the currents will have the same magnitudes but their respective directions will be the opposite to that shown in FIG. 3. I have derived an expression for the flux density surrounding the cable at this particular moment of maximum flux density.", "Referring to FIG. 4, consider a ray 7 that lies on the horizontal axis of the wye cable and extends to the right from the geometric center G of the six wires.", "Next, consider a ray of length x inclined at an angle θ to the horizontal axis.", "It turns out that the maximum flux density at this distance x is given approximately by the expression: ##EQU3## The horizontal and vertical components of this flux density are found to be respectively: B.sub.", "H =B cos 3θ (8) B.sub.", "V =B sin 3θ (9) In these equations, B=maximum flux density, mG!", "x=radial distance from the geometric center of the six wires, m!", "I Y3 =peak line current of the wye cable, A!", "h=distance between rows, m!", "d=distance between adjacent wires in one row, m!", "θ=angle between the horizontal axis of the cable and the ray joining its geometric center to the point of said maximum flux density.", "For the current directions shown in FIG. 4, positive values of B H are directed to the right, while positive values of B V are directed upwards.", "FIG. 5, based on Eqs.", "(7), (8) and (9), shows in greater detail the nature of the flux density pattern surrounding the 3-phase wye cable when the flux density is maximum.", "A set of hypothetical rays, centered at G and spaced at intervals of 15°, are superposed on the six-wire cable.", "The flux orientation associated with each ray is shown by an arrow.", "Thus, for the horizontal ray 7, directed along the horizontal axis of the cable, the flux density vector 7'", "is directed to the right.", "On the other hand, for every point along ray 8, oriented at 30° to the horizontal axis, the flux density vector 8'", "is directed vertically upwards.", "The reason is that B V =B sin 3×30°=B sin 90°=B, while B H =B cos 3×30°=B cos 90°=0.", "Equation (7) reveals that the flux density along each ray decreases inversely as the cube of the distance from the geometric center G. The flux density along any ray decreases therefore very rapidly with increasing values of x, but for any given ray its orientation with respect to the horizontal axis of the cable remains the same.", "The magnitude of the flux density also depends linearly upon the spacings d and h between the wires and rows;", "the closer the spacing the lower the flux density.", "Although Eq.", "(7) is approximate, I have found that if x is both greater than 10 h and greater than 10 d, the calculated value of B is accurate to better than ±2%.", "For example, if I Y3 =23 A, and d=4 mm, h=5 mm and x=60 mm, the value of B, to an accuracy of better than ±2% is: ##EQU4## I have also found that the accuracy of Eq.", "(7) is better than ±5% when x is both greater than 5 h and greater than 5 d. The configuration of the wires and the direction of current flows as shown in FIGS. 2 and 4 are crucial to obtaining the results expressed by Eq.", "(7).", "For example, in FIG. 2a, if the connections of the loop formed by wires 3 and 4 are interchanged, the resulting flux density patterns become vastly different and the flux densities become much larger.", "FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a cable that is identical to the wye cable shown in FIG. 2, except that the six wires are connected in delta and the cable length L 2 is typically greater than cable length L 1 .", "For purposes of ready identification, I call this a delta cable.", "FIG. 6b is a cross section of the delta cable.", "Let us assume that the currents flowing in the six wires of FIG. 6a are identical to those shown in FIG. 2a.", "Consequently, the flux patterns are also identical, and therefore Eqs.", "(7), (8) and (9) can be used to determine the maximum flux density around a delta cable.", "In effect, because the wire currents are assumed to be identical in both cables, the peak line currents flowing in leads a,b,c of the delta cable in FIG. 6a are √3 times larger than those in the wye cable of FIG. 2a, a relationship that is well known in 3-phase circuits.", "The flux density for a delta cable is therefore given by: ##EQU5## wherein the symbols B, h, d, x have the same meaning as in Eq.", "(7) and I D3 is the peak line current per phase.", "The subscripts D and 3 in I D3 stand for delta cable and 3-phase source, respectively.", "The horizontal and vertical components of B for a delta cable are again given by Eqs (8) and (9), respectively.", "DESCRIPTION OF HEATING SYSTEM FIG. 7 reveals the basic elements of the extra-low-voltage heating system covered by this invention.", "A surface area 9 is heated by means of a plurality of three-phase cables 10 that are connected to a three-phase feeder 11 by means of connections 12.", "The feeder is powered by a three-phase stepdown transformer 13 that is connected on its primary side to a 3-phase supply line 14 by means of circuit-breaker 15.", "The secondary line-to-line voltage is 30 V or less, to keep the system in the extra-low-voltage class.", "As previously described, each heating cable 10 consists of six insulated wires that are in close proximity to each other.", "The cables develop a thermal power of P C watts per unit length.", "The value of P C depends upon several factors, such as the feeder voltage, the wire size, the length of cable and the resistivity of the wire material.", "For a given voltage, wire size and wire material, the cable lengths are set so that the resulting value of PC maintains the temperature of the wires at or below the rated temperature of the cable.", "The rated temperature is typically less than 90° C. The sinuous cable runs are spaced at such a distance D R from each other so as to develop the desired thermal power density P D .", "In FIG. 7, each cable makes three runs, labeled 16.", "The value of D R is given by: D.sub.", "R =P.", "sub.", "C /P.", "sub.", "D (11) in which D R =distance between cable runs m!", "P C =thermal power per unit length W/m!", "P D =thermal power density W/m 2 !", "The voltage along the length of the feeder 11 is essentially constant and equal to 30 V or less.", "The feeder is made of flat copper bars insulated from each other, and specially configured to reduce the magnetic field produced by the feeder.", "The feeder current at the transformer terminals is equal to the sum of the currents drawn by the cables.", "It is clear that the current in the feeder decreases progressively from a maximum at the transformer terminals to zero at the far end of the feeder.", "Consequently, the magnetic flux density surrounding the feeder reaches its greatest value near the transformer.", "FIG. 8 is another embodiment of the heating system of the present invention wherein a monitoring network is added.", "In this network, each heating cable contains, in addition to its heating wires, a bare metallic sensing wire or braid 17.", "Each sensing wire is connected at point 18 to a single insulated conductor 19 that follows the general direction of the feeder and terminates at a monitoring device 20.", "This low-power device applies a voltage between the sensing wires and the respective heating wires of the cables.", "If for any reason the insulation between a sensing wire and the heating wires of a cable should become damaged, a small current will flow, causing the monitoring device to trip circuit breaker 15.", "As a result, the heating system will be shut down.", "The nature of this monitoring device will be explained later in this disclosure.", "FIG. 9 shows in greater detail the method of connecting the cables to a conventional 3-phase feeder having three busbars A, B, C. In this Figure, the cables have a single run.", "The three leads a, b, c of each cable are connected to the busbars A, B, C. Care is taken to make all connections the same.", "Towards this end, the cable leads a, b, c must be marked (such as by color coding), to ensure that the correct leads are connected to the respective busbars.", "Correct lead connections are required so that the resulting cable configuration will minimize the flux density in certain regions above the heated surface.", "Cable Configuration In this 3-phase heating system, correct cable configuration means that the cable runs are laid flat so that the axes of the cables are coplanar and lie substantially parallel to the plane of the surface to be heated.", "Furthermore, the cable leads a, b, c are respectively connected to phases A, B, C of the feeder.", "Under these controlled conditions, the flux density at a given point perpendicular to the heated surface can be calculated.", "In effect, in the case of a wye cable, knowing the spacing D R between the cable runs and applying Eqs.", "(7), (8), (9) to each run, the respective horizontal and vertical components of flux density can be summed, and so the resultant flux density at the given point can be found.", "In general, for a given perpendicular distance from the plane of the heated surface, the flux density tends to be greatest immediately above the cable runs.", "To visualize the resultant flux density pattern, it is helpful to examine the simple model of FIG. 10.", "It shows the flux density patterns of three adjacent cable runs G 1 , G 2 , G 3 having geometric centers that are also labeled G 1 , G 2 , G 3 .", "The runs carry identical currents in correspondingly-located wires, and the instant is selected when the flux density is maximum.", "Consequently, the flux density pattern for each cable is the same as that previously illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 5.", "We want to picture the resultant flux densities for heights H immediately above geometric center G 1 , and perpendicular to the horizontal axes of the cables.", "Hypothetical rays fan out at 30° intervals from the geometric centers of cables G 2 , G 3 .", "For distances immediately above cable G 1 , the 30° ray 22 and 150° ray 23 intersect at point A, while the 60° and 120° rays 24 and 25 intersect at point B. As regards cable G 1 , the vertical ray 21 is the one we have to consider.", "It is associated with a flux density vector 21'", "that acts downwards, as previously seen in FIG. 5. Consider first rays 22 and 23 that intersect at point A. They are respectively associated with flux density vectors (such as 22'", "and 23') that act upward.", "Consequently, at the point of intersection A, these flux densities act in opposition to the downward flux density produced by G 1 .", "It follows that the net flux density at point A is less than if cable run G 1 acted alone.", "Next, turning our attention to rays 24 and 25 at point B, they are associated with flux density vectors (such as vectors 24'", "and 25') that are horizontal, equal and opposite.", "Consequently, at point B, these opposing flux densities cancel out and so the resultant flux density is equal to that produced by cable G 1 alone.", "Thus, for all points below point B, the flux density is less than that produced by cable G 1 alone.", "The reason is that any two rays emanating from G 2 and G 3 that intersect along the vertical line below point B are associated with flux densities that have a vertical component that is directed upwards (thereby opposing the flux density vector 21'), while the respective horizontal components cancel out.", "This can be seen by observing the orientation of the flux density vectors displayed in FIG. 5. Consequently, the cable configuration shown in FIG. 10 is advantageous because it tends to reduce the flux density near the heated surface where the flux density tends to be large.", "Note that distance BG 1 is equal to D R √3 which corresponds to a height H of about 1.7 D R .", "On the other hand, the flux density above point B is larger than that produced by cable G 1 alone.", "The reason is that when the rays from G 2 and G 3 are steeper than 60°, they contain a vertical component that acts downwards, in the same direction as the flux density produced by cable G 1 .", "However, this is not a serious drawback because the flux densities at distances exceeding 1.7 D R are very small.", "It can be seen that if cable run G 1 is surrounded by several cable runs on either side, the flux density is reduced still more, even for heights H greater than 1.7 D R .", "However, for low heights very close to cable G 1 , the reduction in flux density becomes relatively small because the distances to surrounding cable runs become relatively much larger.", "If cable run G 1 is at the edge of a heated surface (say the left-hand edge), the cable runs to the left are absent.", "The reduction in flux density is then not as great as that, say, in the middle of the heated surface.", "In conclusion, except near the edges of a heated surface, the flux density at heights H less than 1.7 D R above the plane of the cables is substantially less than that due to one cable alone.", "The physical configuration of the wye or delta cables as described above is therefore an important factor in reducing the flux density above a heated surface that is powered by a 3-phase source.", "Magnetic Field Produced by the Feeder FIG. 9 shows a heating system wherein a conventional 3-phase feeder 11, composed of three copper busbars, delivers power to a plurality of individual cables 10 distributed along its length.", "As the current builds up along the length of the feeder, the busbars A, B, C may eventually carry peak currents of as much as 1000 A. This creates a problem as far as the magnetic field surrounding the feeder is concerned.", "The feeder 11 is usually composed of three busbars, traditionally stacked as shown in FIG. 11, which is a cross section view.", "Two thin strips of insulation 27 separate the respective busbars 26.", "In this Figure, for purposes of illustration, suppose each copper bar is 48 mm (2 in) wide and 12 mm (0.5 in) thick, separated by an insulating strip of 3 mm.", "Such a feeder can carry an RMS (root mean square) current of about 1000 A, per phase.", "When the peak 3-phase current delivered by the transformer is 1000 A, the feeder produces the approximate peak flux densities shown in Table 2, wherein the values were obtained by computer simulation.", "Distances are measured from the geometric center of the feeder.", "These flux densities are too high if television screens are located closer than about 40 inches from the transformer end of the feeder.", "For this reason, a special feeder, producing a lower flux density, is desirable for this extra-low-voltage heating system.", "FIG. 12 shows a cross section view of this special feeder 28, which has five copper bars instead of three.", "In effect, the current formerly carried by busbar B is now carried by two intermediate bars B1, B2 having half the thickness of the original busbar.", "TABLE 2______________________________________Three busbar configurationdistance from feeder flux densitymm inches milligauss______________________________________100 4 5400250 10 840500 20 2101000 40 52______________________________________ Similarly, the current of busbar C is now carried by two outer bars C1, C2, also having half the thickness of the original busbar.", "Furthermore, the copper bars are stacked in a special way, as shown in FIG. 12.", "The intermediate bars B1, B2 are respectively sandwiched between the outer bars C1, C2 and the central bar A. FIG. 13 shows that at one end of the feeder, bars B1, B2 are connected to terminal Y of transformer 13, bars C1, C2 are connected to terminal Z, and bar A is connected to terminal X. This five-bar configuration produces the flux densities shown in Table 3, when the peak 3-phase current delivered by the transformer is again 1000 A. TABLE 3______________________________________Five-bar configurationDistance from feeder Flux densitymm inches milligauss______________________________________100 4 800250 10 50500 20 61000 40 1______________________________________ As compared to Table 2, it is evident that this configuration reduces the flux density to an acceptable value for TV screens that are 10 inches away from the feeder.", "However, to obtain this result, the RMS currents carried by each of the intermediate bars must be equal to the RMS currents carried by each of the outer bars, which in turn must be equal to one-half the RMS current carried by the central bar.", "Ideally, this condition should be met at every given point along the length of the feeder, in order to minimize the flux density surrounding the feeder at that point.", "To approach this ideal condition, FIG. 13 shows how the heating cables are connected to the five-bar feeder 28.", "Cable 10X is connected to bars A, B1, C1 and the adjacent cable 10Y is connected to bars A, B2, C2.", "The successive cables, each of which draws substantially the same current from the feeder, are therefore alternately connected to these bars.", "This ensures substantially equal RMS currents in bars B1, B2, C1, C2, at any given point along the feeder.", "The present invention also includes the special feeder as part of the extra-low-voltage heating system.", "Monitoring the Integrity of the Heating System FIG. 8 illustrates the essential elements of a monitoring system.", "FIG. 14 shows one embodiment whereby the bare sensing wires 17 running along the length of each heating cable can be used to detect the integrity of the 3-phase heating system.", "The bare wires 17 are connected to a single insulated conductor 19 which follows the main feeder 11 back to the monitoring device 20.", "The latter consists of switches S1 and S2, a lamp L, a diode D, a capacitor C and a dedicated ac source 29.", "The heating wires and the bare sensing wire of each cable are contained within a plastic sheath.", "The sensing wire is therefore in close proximity to the heating wires.", "Consequently, if a cable is damaged, such as may happen if a hole is pierced in a floor, a contact will be established between the bare wire and at least one of the heating wires.", "In one embodiment of the monitoring device 20, a 120 V, 60 Hz ac source 29 charges a capacitor C to a potential of about 170 V dc by means of a diode D. A lamp L is connected in series with an electronic switch S1 that closes repeatedly at intervals, say, of once per second.", "If the heating system is intact, the periodic application of 170 V dc between the bare wires and the heating wires will have no effect and the lamp will not light up.", "But if a fault or short-circuit occurs between a bare wire and any one of the heating wires in the cable, the lamp will blink repeatedly at a rate of once per second, as the capacitor discharges through the lamp into the short circuit.", "By an auxiliary circuit means (not shown), this action will cause circuit breaker 15 on the primary side of the transformer to trip, thus removing power from the defective heating system.", "Because the monitor is powered by a dedicated supply, the lamp will continue to blink, thus alerting the existence of a faulty cable.", "To locate the fault, the lamp is short-circuited by means of switch S2, a procedure that greatly increases the capacitor discharge current through the fault.", "The resulting pulsating magnetic field created around the insulated conductor 19 and around the defective cable, can be detected by a portable magnetic pick-up.", "By following the path of the pulsating magnetic field, the exact location of the fault can be determined.", "It is understood that many other means, utilizing the sensing wire concept, can be devised to monitor a heating system, and to determine the location of a fault.", "Single-Phase Cable Configuration Some heating systems are powered by a single-phase source.", "In such cases, the six-wire delta cable used in 3-phase systems can be connected so that the accompanying magnetic field is particularly low.", "The preferred single-phase connection of a delta cable is shown in FIG. 15a.", "The single-phase source is connected to cable leads a and c, while lead b is left open.", "As a result, the two inner wires 3 and 4 remain connected in series between cable terminals a, c. However, the four outer wires 1, 2, 5, and 6 are now effectively connected in series between the same terminals.", "The arbitrary positive directions of currents I B and I S that flow in the wires are shown in FIG. 15a.", "The wires have the same cross section;", "consequently I B is twice as large as I S .", "Both currents attain their respective maximum values at the same time.", "As a result, the peak flux density is attained when the currents reach their maximum positive (or negative) values.", "The actual direction and magnitude of the respective currents at one moment of maximum flux density are shown in FIG. 15b.", "Thus, the currents in conductors 2, 3 and 6 flow into the page, while the currents in conductors 1, 4, and 5 flow out of the page.", "Furthermore, the currents in the inner wires 3 and 4 are double those in the outer wires 1, 2, 5, 6.", "Consequently, the peak value of I B =2/3 I D1 , where I D1 is the peak current drawn from the single-phase line, flowing in leads a, c. The subscripts D and 1 in I D1 respectively stand for delta cable and 1-phase source.", "An expression was derived that gives the flux density surrounding the delta cable at this particular moment of peak flux density.", "Referring to FIG. 16, ray 7 lies on the horizontal axis of the cable, extending to the right from the geometric center G of the six wires.", "Consider now a ray of length x, inclined at an angle θ to the horizontal axis.", "I have found that the maximum flux density at this distance x is given by the approximate formula: ##EQU6## This formula is accurate to better than ±5% provided x is both greater than 5h and greater than 5d.", "The approximate horizontal and vertical components of this flux density are respectively: B.sub.", "H =B cos 4θ (13) B.sub.", "V =B sin 4θ (14) where B=maximum flux density mG!", "I D1 =peak line current drawn by the single-phase delta cable A!", "h=space between the rows m!", "d=space between adjacent wires in the rows m!", "x=radial distance from the geometric center of the cable m!", "θ=angle between the horizontal axis of the cable and the ray joining its geometric center to the point of said maximum flux density.", "For the current directions shown in FIG. 16, positive values of B H are directed to the right, while positive values of B V are directed upwards.", "FIG. 17 shows in greater detail the nature of the flux pattern surrounding the cable.", "A set of hypothetical rays, centered at G and spaced at intervals of 22.5°, are superposed on the six-wire cable.", "The flux density orientation associated with each ray is shown by an arrow.", "Consider, for example, ray 30a that is inclined at 45° to the horizontal axis.", "The horizontal component B H associated with this ray is B H =B cos 4×45°=B cos 180°=-B, directed to the left.", "On the other hand, the vertical component B V =B sin 4×45°=B sin 180°=0.", "Thus, the flux density vectors at every point along ray 30a are directed horizontally to the left, as indicated by representative flux density vector 30'.", "By a similar reasoning, the representative flux density vector 30"", "is directed horizontally to the right at every point along ray 30b, because this ray is inclined at 90° to the horizontal axis.", "Equation (12) reveals that the flux density decreases inversely as the fourth power of the distance from the geometric center G. Thus, the flux density decreases very rapidly with increasing x. The magnitude of the flux density also depends upon the spacings d and h between the wires and rows;", "the closer the spacing the lower the flux density.", "To obtain the results predicted by Eqs.", "(12), (13) and (14) it is essential that the wires (and the currents they carry) be configured, as described above.", "Single-Phase Wye Cable Referring to FIG. 2a, the wye cable can also be connected to a single-phase source by short-circuiting terminals a, c and applying a single-phase voltage between terminals a and b. The resulting flux density pattern is similar to that of a delta cable connected to a single phase source.", "Indeed, the flux density patterns are identical when the line current of the wye cable is arranged to be 2/3 that of the delta cable.", "Configuration of Cables in Single-Phase Circuits FIG. 18 shows, in cross section, three adjacent cable runs G 1 , G 2 , G 3 , whose geometric centers are also labeled G 1 , G 2 , G 3 .", "The cable runs are laid out on a flat surface and spaced at a distance D R .", "The cables are powered by a single-phase source and their flux density patterns are similar to the pattern illustrated in FIGS. 16 and 17.", "In effect, the cables are laid out flat and configured in such a way that their axes are coplanar and lie parallel to the plane of the heated surface, as shown in FIG. 18.", "Furthermore, the cables are arranged so that the magnitudes and directions of current flows in correspondingly-located wires of successive cable runs are substantially the same.", "In order to visualize the nature of the resulting magnetic field, we assume that rays, spaced at 22.5° intervals, fan out from the respective geometric centers G 2 , G 3 .", "Let us examine the resultant flux densities immediately above cable G 1 .", "We recall that the vertical ray 30b emanating from G 1 is associated with flux density vectors that are directed horizontally to the right, as exemplified by flux density vector 30".", "Consider first the rays 31 and 32, respectively inclined at 67.5° and 112.5° to the horizontal, that intersect at point A. Their associated magnetic fields act vertically, but in opposite directions, as illustrated by vectors 31'", "and 32'.", "At point A, the flux densities are equal in magnitude (and therefore cancel out) because the distances AG 2 and AG 3 are the same.", "Consequently, the resultant flux density at point A is that due to cable G 1 alone.", "The flux density vector at this point is therefore directed to the right.", "Point A is at a distance H=D R tan 67.5°=2.4 D R above the horizontal axes of the cables, and perpendicular thereto.", "Next, consider rays 33 and 34, respectively inclined at 22.5° and 157.5°, that intersect at point C. The corresponding flux densities also act vertically and in opposite directions as illustrated by vectors 33'", "and 34'.", "Consequently, the resultant flux density at point C is again due to cable G 1 alone, also directed to the right.", "Point C is situated at a distance H=D R tan 22.5°=0.4 D R above the horizontal axes of the cables, and perpendicular thereto.", "Finally, consider rays 35 and 36, respectively inclined at 45° and 135° to the horizontal axis, that intersect at point B. Both rays are associated with flux densities that act to the left, in direct opposition to the flux density created by cable G 1 .", "These directions are illustrated by vectors 35'", "and 36'.", "Consequently, the net flux density at point B is less than that created by cable G 1 .", "It is now seen that the flux density at every point along the line between points A and C is less than that produced by G 1 alone.", "However, in this simple model of FIG. 18, it can be readily shown that the flux densities at every point above point A and below point C will be greater than that due to cable G 1 alone.", "However, this is not a serious drawback, for the following reasons.", "First, point A is located at a distance of 2.4 D R above the surface, which is so far away from the cables that the flux density is already very low.", "Second, points immediately below point C are much closer to G 1 than they are to G 2 or G 3 .", "Consequently, bearing in mind that the flux density decreases as the fourth power of distance, it follows that the contribution of cables G 2 and G 3 to the total flux density below point C is small.", "For example, at point C the distance CG 2 is 2.6 times the distance CG 1 .", "As a result, the flux density created at this point by cable G 2 (or G 3 ) is only 1/2.6 4 =0.022 or 2.2% of that created by G 1 .", "If cable G 1 is surrounded by several cable runs on either side, the resulting flux density will be reduced still more in the general region between points A and C. It is understood that when several cable runs are involved, a detailed flux density analysis can be made, either by employing Eqs.", "(12), (13) and (14), or by computer simulation.", "However, the basic factors that come into play are easier to visualize by referring to FIG. 18.", "In conclusion, the single-phase cable configuration of FIG. 18 is a preferred embodiment of this invention because it tends to reduce the flux density in the regions near the heated surface, namely those situated at distances H between 0.4 D R and 2.4 D R perpendicular to the horizontal axes of the cables.", "When a single-phase cable comprises two or more runs, the cables must be twisted at the end of each run to obtain the cable configuration shown in FIG. 18.", "The required twists are illustrated in FIG. 19 for two adjacent cables, each having three contiguous runs.", "Note that the said upper rows and lower rows of the contiguous cable runs are alternately interchanged.", "Cable Parameters and Characteristics In addition to low flux densities, the heating cables must meet the requirements listed in the objectives of this invention.", "Thus, they must be robust, operate at temperatures below 90° C., and be as long as possible in order to reduce the number of cables that have to be connected to the feeder.", "Another objective is that the cables should be standardized as to wire size, wire material, and wire configuration so that a particular type of cable may be used in different heating installations.", "In order to meet these objectives and to evaluate the interaction of the various requirements, we postulate the following parameters.", "They are common to all cable types (wye, delta and single-phase) revealed in this disclosure: ______________________________________Parameter symbol unit______________________________________Line-to-line operating voltage E volt V!", "of heating system:Thermal power density P.sub.", "D watt per squareof heating system: meter W/m.", "sup[.", "].2 !", "Thermal power per unit P.sub.", "C watt per meterlength of cable: W/m!", "Length of cable: L meter m!", "Total cross section of all six A square meter m.sup[.", "].2 !", "wires in the cable:Resistivity of wire material: ρ ohm-meter Ω.", "______________________________________ Using these parameters, the features of the three cable types can be determined and compared.", "In making the comparison, we assume that the line-to-line operating voltage E, the thermal power per unit length P C , and the total cross section A of the six current-carrying wires is the same for all three types of cables.", "We begin our analysis of the 3-phase wye cable illustrated in FIG. 2. We reason as follows: ##EQU7## By following the same procedure, the features of the other cables (FIGS.", "6, 15) can be found.", "The features are listed in Table 4.", "We use the amperage parameter ##EQU8## to show with greater clarity the relative magnitudes of the line currents and flux densities.", "Choice of of Wire Material and Individual Cable Length Table 4, row (2), reveals that for all cables, the length of individual cables depends on E, A, P C and ρ, multiplied by a numerical coefficient that depends upon the type of cable.", "To ensure robustness, the total cross section A of all six wires should not be too small.", "Typical values for surface heating range from 5 mm 2 to TABLE 4__________________________________________________________________________Type of cable wye delta 1-phase (delta)__________________________________________________________________________ (1) source 3-phase 3-phase 1-phase (2) length of cable ##STR1## ##STR2## ##STR3## (2) length of cable L.sub[.", "].1 L.sub[.", "].2 L.sub[.", "].3 (3) wires per cable 6 6 6 (4) wire cross section A A A 6 6 6 (5) RMS line current 0.167I.", "sub.", "O 0.289I.", "sub.", "O 0.354I.", "sub.", "O (6) peak line current 0.236I.", "sub.", "O 0.409I.", "sub.", "O 0.5I.", "sub.", "O (7) peak line current I.sub.", "Y3 I.sub.", "D3 I.sub.", "D1 (8) power per unit length P.sub.", "c P.sub.", "c P.sub.", "c(10) peak flux density ##STR4## ##STR5## ##STR6##(11) Figure FIG. 2 FIG. 6 FIG. 15__________________________________________________________________________ ##STR7##- 10 mm.", "sup[.", "].2.", "However, for special applications, smaller or larger value can be employed.", "The voltage E is low, being 30 V or less.", "Consequently, according to the formulas in Table 4, row (2), the cable lengths tend to be short, which is a disadvantage.", "The question now arises as to the values of P.sub.", "C and ρ that should be used.", "In any given surface-heating project requiring a total power P, the total length of all the heating cables is equal to P/P C .", "In order to minimize the cost, the total length should be as small as possible, which means that P C should be as large as possible.", "However, the value of P C is limited to a maximum P Cmax that depends upon the maximum allowable temperature of the cable as well as the environmental conditions, such as the ambient temperature and the emplacement of the cables.", "For a given cable having six wires and a total wire cross section A there is a corresponding P Cmax , as defined above, no matter what conductive material is used for the wires.", "Thus, given the total cross section A and knowing the value of P Cmax and recognizing that E is limited to 30 V, it follows from the formulas in Table 4, row (2), that to obtain the longest possible individual cable, the resistivity ρ of the material should be as low as possible.", "Copper has the lowest resistivity of all practical conducting materials and so it is a logical choice.", "However, aluminum is also a satisfactory choice.", "Nichrome, the well-known resistive alloy, often used in heating applications, is inappropriate for an extra low-voltage system when long cable lengths are desirable.", "The reason is its resistivity is about 50 times that of copper.", "Table 4 reveals that the delta cable is inherently the longest of the three cable types.", "Having chosen the wire material, the total cross section A and using the value of P C max to minimize the cost, the length of the individual cables can still be tailored to a desired value by using an appropriate voltage E that is less than 30 V. The ability to tailor the individual cable lengths is important because flat surface-heating systems are preferably composed of runs of equal length, such as shown in FIG. 7. These findings regarding the appropriate wire material and cable lengths constitute a further aspect of this invention.", "The Heating Cable as a System The foregoing disclosure shows that the extra-low-voltage, low flux density six-wire heating cable, as defined, can be used to heat not only flat surfaces, but indeed any surface.", "For example, the cable can be used in a single run configuration to heat an object, such as a water pipe.", "The low voltage and particularly low magnetic field make such a cable attractive in some heat tracing applications.", "The ability of the cable to be used in either a single-phase or 3-phase configuration is also an advantage.", "EXAMPLES AND TEST RESULTS The following examples and test results illustrate some of the characteristics of the extra-low-voltage heating systems covered by this disclosure.", "Example 1 A three-conductor No. 14 AWG gauge cable was embedded in a concrete slab and then subjected to snow-melting conditions.", "It was discovered that a current of 42 A could be circulated through the wires without exceeding the temperature limit of 60° C. This test corresponds to a thermal power of 50 watts per meter.", "It is equivalent to a six-wire cable in which the wire size is No. 17 AWG and the current in each wire is 21 A. As a general rule, our experiments on typical low-voltage systems indicate that P C can range between 20 W/m and 50 W/m depending upon the type of cable, the ambient temperature and the emplacement of the cable.", "As regards P D , it ranges from 100 W/m 2 (10 W/ft 2 ) for room heating to 500 W/m 2 (50 W/ft 2 ) for snow melting.", "As result, the cable spacings D R will typically range from 0.1 m (4 in) to 0.2 m (8 in).", "Example 2 It is required to calculate the length of a 3-phase delta cable composed of six copper wires, No. 17 AWG, knowing that the temperature is limited to a maximum of 60° C. The line voltage is 30 V and the desired thermal power P C is 25 W/m.", "The resistivity of copper at 60° C. is 20 nΩ.", "m and the cross section of the individual wires is 1.04 mm 2 .", "The length can be found by referring to the delta cable in the third column, row (2) of Table 4: ##EQU9## Example 3 FIG. 20 shows the flux distribution above a long, narrow floor that is 84 inches wide and heated by twenty cable runs spaced at 4 inch intervals.", "The first cable run is located 4 inches from the left-hand edge of the floor and the twentieth cable run is 4 inches from the right hand edge.", "The heating system has the following specifications: ______________________________________Power source 3-phase, 30 Vnumber of cable runs 20type of cable delta cableRMS line current per cable 35 Acable specifications: (see FIG. 6b) h = 6 mm;", "d = 5 mmspacing D.sub.", "R between cable runs (FIGS.", "7, 10): 101.6 mm (4 inches)height H above coplanar axes of cables: 100 mm______________________________________ FIG. 20 shows that at a height H of 100 mm (4 in), the flux density is about 1.5 mG over most of the width of the floor and rises to about 4.5 mG at the edges.", "Also, at this particular height, owing to the interaction of the fields created by neighboring cables, the flux density varies considerably near the edges.", "The flux distribution was obtained by computer simulation, based on Eq.", "(1).", "By way of comparison, the peak flux density created by a single cable run at a distance of 100 mm from its geometric center can be calculated by using Eq (10).", "Recognizing that the peak line current is I D3 =35 √2=49.5 A, it is found that the maximum flux density is: ##EQU10## This individual-cable flux density is four times greater than the 1.5 mG that appears over most of the floor at a height H of 100 mm.", "Consequently, it is evident that the special configuration of the cables, as postulated in this disclosure, is a very important and beneficial factor in reducing the flux density above a heated floor.", "Note that the height of 100 mm falls in the range below the prescribed level H=1.7 D R =1.7×101.6=173 mm, wherein the flux density is reduced, as mentioned in the disclosure.", "Example 4 FIG. 21 shows the flux distribution above the same floor as in Example 3 except that the power source is single-phase and the delta cables are connected accordingly, as shown in FIG. 15.", "To obtain the same power per unit length of cable, the single-phase RMS line current is set at (0.354/0.289)×35=42.9 A. This result is calculated by referring to the formulas listed in Table 4, row (5).", "The current is set to 42.9 A by tailoring the length of the cable and, if necessary, by adjusting the line voltage E. FIG. 21 shows that at a height of 100 mm (4 in), the flux density is about 0.2 mG over most of the width of the floor and rises to about 0.28 mG at the edges.", "The flux distribution was obtained by computer simulation, based on Eq.", "(1).", "Again by way of comparison, the peak flux density created by a single cable at a distance x of 100 mm from its geometric center can be calculated by using Eq (12).", "The peak line current is I D1 =42.9 √2=60.6 A, and therefore the flux density is given by Eq.", "(12): ##EQU11## This individual-cable flux density is 1.8 times greater than the 0.20 mG that appears over most of the floor at a height H of 100 mm.", "Consequently, the special configuration of the single-phase cables, as postulated in this disclosure, is a beneficial factor in reducing the flux density above a heated floor.", "Note that the height of 100 mm falls within the prescribed range, revealed in the disclosure, where the flux density is reduced, namely between H=0.4 D R =0.4×101.6=41 mm, and H=2.4 D R =2.4×101.6=244 mm.", "The single phase mode of operation is particularly effective in reducing the flux density.", "For example, in comparing it with the 3-phase heating system at the stated height of 100 mm (Example 3), the single-phase system produces a flux density that is 1.5 mG/0.20 mG=7.5 times smaller.", "It is within the ambit of the present invention to cover any obvious modifications of the examples of the preferred embodiments described herein, provided such fall within the scope of the appended claims." ]

[ "CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application claims the benefit of Provisional Application Ser.", "No. 62/120,478 filed Feb. 25, 2015 the entire contents of which is hereby expressly incorporated by reference herein.", "STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT [0002] Not Applicable THE NAMES OF THE PARTIES TO A JOINT RESEARCH AGREEMENT [0003] Not Applicable INCORPORATION-BY-REFERENCE OF MATERIAL SUBMITTED ON A COMPACT DISC [0004] Not Applicable BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0005] Field of the Invention [0006] This invention relates to improvements in heart rate playback machine.", "More particularly, the present heart rate playback machine records a person's heart rate changes as they exercise and then converts the recorded heart rate changes into intensity changes in a fitness machine to duplicate the heart rate changes to make an equivalent workout.", "[0007] Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98.", "[0008] Many people monitor their heart rate to maintain workout intensity to optimize the cardiovascular benefits of the exercise.", "Initially heart rate was monitored by manually sensing heart beats over a period of time.", "More modern technology utilize a chest strap, wrist strap or finger sensor that monitors heart beats and then displays the present heart rate.", "Some systems will store a maximum reading or an average heart rate while a person exercises.", "Some pieces of exercise equipment have integrated heart rate monitors that display heart rate, and still other pieces of fitness equipment can also alter the intensity of the workout by changing the load, speed or elevation on the fitness equipment to alter the heart rate of a person.", "[0009] A number of patents and or publications have been made to address these issues.", "Exemplary examples of patents and or publication that try to address this/these problem(s) are identified and discussed below.", "[0010] U.S. Pat. No. 8,033,959 issued Oct. 11, 2011 to Mark Arthur Oleson discloses a Portable fitness monitoring systems, and applications thereof.", "The portable fitness monitoring system includes a portable fitness monitoring device for sensing performance parameters during a physical activity conducted by the user and communicating performance parameter data to the dedicated portable fitness monitoring device.", "While the device monitors heart rate and performance of a user it does not record and track the heart rate changes over an extended period of time where the heart rate can be used to create an equivalent future workout.", "[0011] U.S. Pat. No. 8,152,695 issued on Apr. 10, 2012 to Raymond W. Riley et al.", ", disclose an Athletic performance sensing and/or tracking systems and methods.", "The athletic performance sensing and/or tracking systems include components for measuring or sensing athletic performance data and/or for storing and/or displaying desired information associated with the athletic performance to the user (or others).", "While the system senses and tracks performance of an athlete, the accumulated information is tracked as opposed to continuously recorded to enable the system to recreate the workout.", "[0012] U.S. Pat. No. 8,911,330 issued on Dec. 16, 2014 to Scott R. Watterson et al.", ", disclose an Indoor-Outdoor Exercise System.", "The remote communication system is receptive to the data regarding the outdoor exercise routine and generates an exercise program based on the data regarding the outdoor exercise routine.", "The device uses real-time information to generate an exercise routine.", "It does not use historical collected heart rate information to produce the heart rate stress on indoor exercise equipment.", "It further does not allow the heart rate changes to be transported to other pieces of equipment.", "[0013] U.S. Patent Application Publication 2009/0023554 was published on Jan. 22, 2009, discloses an Exercise System in Virtual Environment.", "The exercise system includes at least two exercise modules and is arranged to allow multiple users performing exercises on, with or against the modules in different locations while performing at least one preset task defined in a context of a story, a scenery or a video (or computer) game each in turn preferably defined in a virtual environment.", "While this system provides a virtual environment for multiple users to compete, the exercise environments are pre-created from stories or games and a user is not able to enter a workout based upon their own heart rate changes as they exercise.", "[0014] What is needed is a monitoring system that tracks and records heart rate over the exercise period.", "The recorded date and then be interpolated to recreate the workout on exercise equipment.", "The proposed heart rate playback machine provides the solution with a monitoring and recording system combined with re-creation algorithm.", "BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0015] It is an object of the heart rate playback machine to monitor changes in the heart rate of a user as a person exercises.", "The heart rate is generally monitored by a chest strap that is placed around the chest of a user that transmits either the beats or the calculated heart rate.", "The heart rate can be received by a monitoring device, like a wrist or waist mounted device.", "The chest belt can syncs directly to an exercise machine wirelessly to transfer a previous workout or to a smart device and the smart device can connect to the machine, or the smart device can upload the data to the internet.", "[0016] It is another object of the heart rate playback machine to record the heart rate as a person exercises.", "There are several ways to record the heart rate changes, including but not limited to a time between heartbeats, the actual heart rate over at particular time intervals or a period of time that a heart rate stays at different heart beats per minute.", "The total time interval of the workout is also recorded.", "[0017] It is another object of the heart rate playback machine to convert the heart rate into estimated loads of resistance, speed, elevation or other changes to simulate duplication of the heart rate.", "The machine uses a reverse algorithm to increase the resistance, speed or elevation prior to the recorded heart rate changes.", "The reverse algorithm can use each workout to better tune when the intensity is adjusted to try and match when a present heart rate changes are made to correspond to a prior recorded heart rate.", "[0018] It is another object of the heart rate playback machine to be able to send or transport the historical workout heart rate or the simulated workout to another.", "This allows a person to bring the workout with them, or can send the work out to a friend that can enjoy the workout.", "[0019] It is still another object of the heart rate playback machine to playback the exercise.", "The intensity can also be scaled to accommodate an athlete that may have higher or lower peak heart rate.", "This can allows older or younger athletes to replay the workout.", "When the replay is on a treadmill it is possible to select all of the changers to the treadmill as speed only, elevation only or a combination thereof.", "[0020] It is still another object of the heart rate playback machine to utilize the chest belt to automatically count every time the user performs an activity, when a certain “stress”", "is put on the heart.", "This chest belt is sensitive enough to determine if a user is standing or sitting.", "If a user does 10 squat exercises, bench presses, pull-ups, swim strokes, etc.", "the chest belt will detect 10 “stresses”", "put on the heart and can count the reps and display it on a computer, tablet, phone, watch or other smart device.", "[0021] Various objects, features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments of the invention, along with the accompanying drawings in which like numerals represent like components.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING(S) [0022] FIG. 1 shows a flow chart of the chain of events associated with the heart rate playback machine.", "[0023] FIG. 2 shows a pictorial view of communication between the devices.", "[0024] FIG. 3 shows a person on a bench press with the weight against the chest of the person.", "[0025] FIG. 4 shows a person on a bench press with the weight being lifted thereby stressing the person.", "[0026] FIG. 5 shows heartbeat graph.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0027] FIG. 1 shows the chain of events associated with the heart rate playback machine.", "To create a workout a first user 20 uses a heart rate monitor 31 that communicates with the receiver 30 .", "The first user 20 can select a start button on the receiver 30 or the receiver can continuously monitor the heart rate and when a sufficiently prolonged and increasing heart rate is detected the receiver can estimate the point in time when the first user 20 began to exercise.", "The receiver 30 can also use GPS, motion sensors or gyros to determine that the first user has begun an exercise workout.", "[0028] The heart rate monitor is typically a chest belt, but could also be other types of heart rate monitor 20 can also have an integrated receiver, but in either case, the heart rate information is recorded and the user's IBI (inter-beat interval) and/or BPM (Beats Per Minute) while the user is outside performing cardiovascular activities.", "(Running, biking, swimming, tennis, boxing, dancing etc.", "It is also contemplated that the heart rate information for the workout can be recorded in different ways, including but not limited to the actual heart rate over at particular time intervals or a period of time that a heart rate stays at different heart rate beats per minute.", "[0029] After the exercise from the first user 20 is recorded, the first user 20 can then download the recorded information to a computer of piece of exercise machine.", "The download can be a wired connection, infrared, or a wireless connection such as an inductive coupling, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, RF, infrared or other wireless communication.", "The heart rate can be received by a monitoring device, like a wrist or waist mounted device.", "The chest belt can syncs directly to an exercise machine wirelessly to transfer a previous workout or to a smart device and the smart device can connect to the machine, or the smart device can upload the data to the internet.", "[0030] The exercise equipment 40 can then essentially re-create a pseudo equivalent exercise experience by altering the speed and/elevation changes to provide similar heart beat changes that were experienced with outdoor training.", "Given that there is a lag time from when a load or exercise intensity changes until the heart rate change is reasonably altered the exercise equipment 40 can optionally interpolate the heart rate at a period in time of between 10 to 30 seconds later in the recorded workout to get a heart rate of the second user 21 at the same heart rate at approximately the same time as the first user 20 .", "[0031] After the information from the first user has been downloaded and stored into the exercise machine to create the exercise workout.", "The exercise machine can then alter the load by speed, resistance and or elevation to give essentially the same cardio workout as the outdoor/non-machine activity.", "[0032] As an example, if the first user 20 runs 5 miles on a mountain trail, the heart rate data from the first user 20 is recorded the whole time and the first user can come back to their treadmill 40 and program the treadmill to increase/decrease speed+elevation to match (in a cardiovascular BPM sense) the outdoor run.", "[0033] FIG. 2 shows a pictorial view of communication between the devices.", "In this figure the recording device 30 transmits data to either a computer 60 , into the internet 50 or to the fitness device 40 .", "When the recorded data is available on the internet a user can transfer the information to another person, to a storage device like a flash drive or to their database on the computer or to their gym.", "The computer 60 can be used to scale the data for other users or for other types of fitness equipment like a bicycle or stepping machine.", "[0034] Option A [0035] After the above data has been recorded and transmitted to a treadmill or other type of exercise equipment.", "The workout can be stored for use by other people 21 or recalled for future exercise.", "The exercise machine 40 will remember the actual speed/resistance/incline parameters that resulted in the same cardio workout and saved into the machine computer.", "The speed and elevation changes can be separated from the heart rate.", "This would allow a user to identify the workout as a “5 mile run, mile 1 at a pace of 7 min/mi pace, mile 2 at a pace of 7.5 min/mile pace, etc. . . . ”", "on the machine.", "Without entering the speed and elevation changed the speed/elevation/resistance changes would be based purely on the heart rate data that was saved.", "The fitness machine 40 would always be increasing the speed/resistance as the user increases in athletic ability to allow the athlete to get into better physical condition.", "[0036] As an example when a first user 20 runs a particular route for the first time, the runner establishes a “personal best”", "for the run.", "As the runner continues to run the same route their athletic ability will increase that the run will become easier.", "If the treadmill maintains the same pace, without input from the heart rate the runner would not improve their ability or fitness level.", "When the machine 40 uses the heart rate of the user as one parameter to increase the speed and/or elevation the ability of the athlete will improve.", "While the exercise time for the runner can decrease as the runner gets faster, the exercise equipment can extend portions of the run or can loop the one or more portions of the run/workout to maintain the same duration of the run, if desired by the runner.", "[0037] Option B [0038] The computer, microprocessor in the exercise machine or a smart device will be able to send both the physical parameters of the computer, microprocessor in the exercise machine and the user's 21 heart beats per minute is ported to another piece of exercise machine by a (wirelessly connection).", "When the first user returns from an exercise routing, the first user 20 interfaces with the exercise equipment 40 , the internet 50 or the computer 60 , the heart rate from the workout is downloaded and synced.", "[0039] Once the information is in the computer 60 or the internet 50 , the data from the workout can be converted or sent to a friend or to an application that can be sold, purchased or given to other such as friends or team mates.", "This allows other 21 to experience the exact same run or workout as the first user 20 .", "The data transfer can include treadmill parameters of “speed/incline.”", "If the second athlete 21 is at a different level of fitness, the workout can be adjusted based upon miles, pace or incline, the data and heart rate is transferred to the second athletes 21 exercise equipment.", "The other treadmill, bicycle or stepper makes adjustments so the second athlete 21 experiences an essentially equivalent cardiovascular workout.", "[0040] Option C [0041] In this third preferred embodiment, the workout is transferrable between different types of exercise equipment where the changes in exercise intensity is usable for a variety of purposes.", "As an example, if a first athlete 20 prefers exercise by running outside, but the second person has bad knees and they can exercise by cycling, the heart rate changes can be transferred between different types of exercise equipment at the same time or at different times.", "The beats-per-minute or inter-beat interval data can be transferred to any machine in order to mirror a previous workout.", "[0042] All of the heart rate information can be encoded and uploaded onto the web or a web site such as mycloudfitness.com so first 20 or the second/subsequent 21 user can track their heart rate variability, beats per minute information.", "The heart rate information can be transferred to a smart device like a phone, computer, tablet, watch, flash drive or music player.", "The data could then be used for comparison by both the first user 20 , the second user 21 or by a third parts such as a coach or trainer.", "This chest belt or other heart rate monitoring device could also compare different activities that don't require a fitness machine 40 .", "The other activities can include, but not be limited to swimming vs.", "shooting under pressure.", "[0043] The exercise equipment monitors the first athlete and/or a subsequent athlete to compare the heart rate of first athlete and/or a subsequent athlete using said down loaded logged historical heart rate information to alter the speed, elevation or resistance to improve time overlap of real-time heartrate with the loaded logged historical heart rate information.", "[0044] FIG. 3 shows a person 19 on a bench press bench 50 with the weight 51 against the chest of the person 19 , and FIG. 4 shows a person 19 on a bench press bench 50 with the weight 51 being lifted thereby stressing the person 19 that is detectable with the chest strap monitor 32 .", "[0045] In another contemplated embodiment the chest belt is sensitive enough to determine when the heart is stressed.", "FIG. 5 shows heartbeat graph.", "In the heartbeat graph, each heartbeat 60 has certain period between beats 61 and each beat has a particular height 62 that approximately equates to the pressure wave or volume of blood being pumped.", "When a person is at a steady state of exercise the period 61 and the height 62 of the heart beat is fairly consistent.", "When a person exhorts a lift, such as shown in the bench press, the period 61 is altered and/or the height 62 of the beat is altered depending upon when the lift begins and ends relative to when a heartbeat occurs.", "The variation in the period and/or the height of the beat is used to determine that a lift or stress has occurred.", "[0046] The chest belt 32 can use the stress to automatically count every time the user performs an activity, when a certain “stress”", "is put on the heart.", "This chest belt 32 is also sensitive enough to determine if a user is standing or sitting.", "If a user 19 does a bench press, squat exercises, pull-ups, swim strokes, etc.", "the chest belt will detect change in heartbeat period and/or beat height as “stresses”", "put on the heart and can count the reps and display it on a computer, tablet, phone or other smart device.", "The smart device can record and use the counts in an application that includes features like a weight selection, an exercise type, a coaching module and a movie.", "[0047] Thus, specific embodiments of a heart rate playback machine have been disclosed.", "It should be apparent, however, to those skilled in the art that many more modifications besides those described are possible without departing from the inventive concepts herein.", "The inventive subject matter, therefore, is not to be restricted except in the spirit of the appended claims." ]

[ "REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This Application claims priority to U.S. Provisional No. 60/426,539 filed Nov. 15, 2002 and is a continuation in part of U.S. Ser.", "No. 09/795,687 filed Feb. 27, 2001 (NT-202), now U.S. Patent No. 6,953,392, and U.S. Ser.", "No. 10/264,726 filed Oct. 3, 2002 (NT-224), all incorporated herein by reference.", "FIELD The present invention relates to manufacture of semiconductor integrated circuits and more particularly to a method of forming conductive interconnect structures.", "BACKGROUND Conventional semiconductor devices generally include a semiconductor substrate, usually a silicon substrate, and a plurality of sequentially formed dielectric layers such as silicon dioxide or low-k materials and conductive paths or interconnects made of conductive materials.", "Copper and copper alloys have recently received considerable attention as interconnect materials because of their superior electro-migration characteristics and low resistivity.", "Interconnects are usually formed by filling copper, by a metallization process, into features or cavities etched into the dielectric layers.", "The preferred method of copper deposition is electroplating.", "In an integrated circuit, multiple levels of interconnect networks laterally extend with respect to the substrate surface.", "Interconnects formed in these stacked dielectric layers can be electrically connected using vias or contacts which may extend from one layer to the other.", "In a typical interconnect formation process, first an insulating interlayer is formed on the semiconductor substrate.", "Patterning and etching processes are performed to form features such as trenches and vias in the insulating layer.", "Then, thin barrier and copper seed layers are deposited and copper is electroplated to fill the features.", "Once the plating is over, a chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) step is conducted to remove the excess portions of the copper and barrier layers that are at the top surface of the substrate, leaving conductors only in the features.", "This way an interconnect structure of copper is formed.", "These processes are repeated multiple times to manufacture multi-layer interconnects.", "An exemplary prior art process can be briefly described with the help of FIGS. 1A and 1B .", "FIG. 1A shows a substrate 8 which is processed to form an exemplary dual damascene interconnect structure shown in FIG. 1B .", "In this structure, a via 10 and a trench 12 are first formed in a dielectric layer 14 on the substrate 8 , and then filled with copper 16 through electroplating process.", "Conventionally, after patterning and etching, which form the cavities such as vias and trenches, the dielectric layer 14 is first coated with a barrier layer 18 , for example, a Ta/TaN composite layer.", "The barrier layer 18 coats the dielectric layer to ensure good adhesion and acts as a barrier material to prevent diffusion of the copper into the dielectric layers and into the semiconductor devices.", "Next, a seed layer (not shown), which is often a copper layer, is deposited on the barrier layer.", "The seed layer forms a conductive material base for copper film growth during the subsequent copper deposition.", "As the copper film is electroplated, the copper 16 quickly fills the small via 10 but coats the wide trench and the surface in a conformal manner.", "When the deposition process is continued, the trench is also filled with copper, but a thick overburden layer ‘t’ is formed over the top surface and a step ‘s’ is formed over the large trench.", "The excess copper, or overburden needs to be removed from the top surface for the formation of interconnect structure.", "Removal of such a thick copper layer from the surface presents a problem during the CMP step, which is expensive and time consuming.", "As shown in FIG. 1B , during the CMP removal of the thick copper layer and then the barrier layer from the top surface, a non-planar surface 20 may be formed of the copper left in the trench.", "Such non-planar surfaces may form due to the difference in polishing rates between the barrier layer and the copper, or other reasons.", "The non-planar surface 20 , or so-called “dishing effect”, adversely affects the quality of the subsequently deposited layers and the resistance of the line formed by the trench 12 .", "Some prior art processes attempt to minimize or eliminate the dishing effect by employing multiple CMP steps with different slurries and polishing pads.", "For example, in one particular prior art process, at a first CMP process step, the bulk copper layer on the substrate is removed down to an initial thickness that is over the barrier layer.", "The first step is performed in a first CMP station.", "A second step is performed in a second CMP station to expose a portion of the barrier layer that overlies the dielectric layer.", "In a third step, the portion of the barrier layer that overlies the insulating layer is removed.", "The third step is performed in a third CMP station.", "In another approach, a first CMP step utilizes selective slurry to remove all of the copper from the top surface region.", "Then a second CMP step employing non-selective slurry is used to remove the barrier from the top surface, at the same time removing some copper from the features and some of the dielectric.", "This way dishing is reduced, however, since some copper is lost from the features, resistance of the interconnect lines is increased.", "In such prior art processes, multiple CMP steps carried out at multiple CMP stations using multiple consumable sets increase the production time and cost.", "To this end, there is a need for an alternative, lower cost method of removing overburden conductor off the surface of plated substrates.", "SUMMARY The invention provides an apparatus, system, and method of processing a wafer having a conductive surface in a wafer processing system.", "A method for processing a front surface of a wafer is disclosed.", "The method comprises electrochemically mechanically processing the conductive surface of the wafer to form a substantially planarized conductive layer in an electrochemical mechanical processing (ECMPR) module, removing additional conductive material from an edge region of the wafer, chemically mechanically polishing the conductive layer in a chemical mechanical polish (CMP) module to form a metallic interconnect structure on the wafer.", "In one aspect of the invention, the electrochemically mechanically processing step includes depositing a conductive material over the conductive surface.", "In another aspect of the invention, the electrochemically mechanically processing step includes removing the conductive layer.", "In another aspect of the invention, the chemically mechanically polishing step includes removing at least a portion of the conductive surface.", "Advantages of the invention include improved control of deposited metal to improve device consistency and yield.", "DRAWINGS The invention is described in detail with reference to the drawings, in which: FIG. 1A depicts formation of an exemplary dual damascene interconnect structure;", "FIG. 1B depicts the exemplary dual damascene having a non planar surface;", "FIG. 1C depicts an exemplary electrochemical mechanical processing system according to an embodiment of the present invention;", "FIG. 2 depicts an exemplary processing system according to an embodiment of the present invention;", "FIGS. 3A–3C depicts cross-sectional views of a substrate in the formation of an interconnect according to an embodiment of the present invention;", "FIG. 4A depicts a substrate having a thin planar layer of metal on the surface of the substrate;", "FIG. 4B depicts a completed substrate after the metal layer and the barrier layer have been polished away according to an embodiment of the present invention;", "FIG. 5 depicts another exemplary electrochemical mechanical processing system according to an embodiment of the present invention;", "FIGS. 6A–6B depict cross-sectional views of a substrate in the formation of an interconnect according to an embodiment of the present invention;", "and FIGS. 7A–7B depict cross-sectional views of a substrate in the formation of an interconnect according to an embodiment of the present invention.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION Reference will now be made to the drawings wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout.", "Electrochemical Mechanical Processing (ECMPR) is a new approach for processing conductive layers for interconnect applications.", "ECMPR has the ability to provide thin films of planar conductive materials on the patterned workpiece surface, or even provide a workpiece surface with no overburden or excess conductive material.", "The term “Electrochemical Mechanical Processing (ECMPR)”", "is used to include both Electrochemical Mechanical Deposition (ECMD) processes as well as Electrochemical Mechanical Etching (ECME), also called Electrochemical Mechanical Polishing (ECMP).", "It should be noted that, in general, both ECMD and ECME processes are referred to as ECMPR since both involve electrochemical processes (electrochemical deposition and electrochemical etching) and mechanical action.", "FIG. 1C shows an exemplary ECMPR system 50 , which includes a workpiece-surface-influencing device (WSID) 52 such as a mask, pad or a sweeper, a carrier head 54 holding a workpiece 55 and an electrode 56 .", "Other conventional ECMPR systems include those that have reverse geometry, i.e. WSID is above the workpiece and the workpiece surface faces up.", "There are also designs with belt-shaped WSIDs.", "During ECMD or ECME processes, the WSID 52 may be held in close proximity of the workpiece surface, i.e., no-touch processing.", "However, part of the time WSID mechanically sweeps the surface of the workpiece, i.e. touch-processing, while a relative motion is established between the workpiece surface and the WSID.", "Surface of the WSID 52 sweeps the surface of the workpiece 55 while an electrical potential is established between the electrode 56 and the surface of the workpiece during touch-processing.", "Channels 58 of the WSID 52 allow a process solution 60 to flow to the surface of the workpiece 55 .", "If the ECMD process is carried out, the surface of the workpiece 55 is wetted by a deposition solution, which is also in fluid contact with the electrode 56 and a potential is applied between the surface of the workpiece and the electrode rendering the workpiece surface cathodic.", "In other designs of ECMPR apparatus, the process solution may be fed onto the WSID rather than through it.", "If the ECME process is carried out, the surface of the workpiece may be wetted by the deposition solution or a special electroetching solution, which is also in fluid contact with an electrode.", "A potential is then applied between the surface of the workpiece and the electrode rendering the workpiece surface anodic.", "Thus, electroetching takes place on the workpiece surface.", "Very thin planar deposits can be obtained by first depositing a planar layer using an ECMD technique and then using an ECME technique on the planar film in the same deposition apparatus and deposition solution by reversing the applied voltage.", "Alternately, the ECME step can be carried out in the deposition apparatus, but an electroetching solution different from the deposition solution used for the ECMD step may be fed into the apparatus during the ECME step.", "In another alternative approach the ECME process may be carried out in an apparatus, which is separated from the one ECMD step is carried out, i.e. wafer needs to be transferred to the ECME apparatus from the ECMD apparatus.", "ECME technique may branch out into a family of processes, depending on use of touch or no-touch processes.", "For example, if ECME is performed using a non-touch approach, the mechanical component of the electrochemical mechanical etching process is eliminated and as a result material removal is performed only electrochemically.", "This process is referred to as electrochemical etching ECE.", "Electrochemical etching electrolytes are typically chosen to have a leveling capability.", "Such electrolytes are used in processes at high current densities to yield smooth surfaces.", "Therefore, ECE is also called electrochemical polishing or ECP.", "Further, if etching is performed in touch mode but with no voltage applied between the electrode and the substrate surface, the process is chemical mechanical etching (CME).", "Like wise, if the etching is performed in the no-touch mode and without applied voltage, the process is solely chemical etching, CE.", "As indicated before, ECME may be performed either in an electroetching solution or in a deposition solution.", "Electroetching solutions are also called electropolishing solutions and they are specially formulated to yield a smooth surface of the electroetched material.", "Chemical etching rate of the material is small in the electroetching solutions.", "The rate becomes high once electrochemical process is initiated i.e. voltage is applied.", "Deposition solutions are formulated for material deposition.", "However, as explained before, they can be used for electroetching in cases when electroetching is carried out right after electrodeposition, in the same apparatus.", "Obviously, this is a low cost alternative and an example of it is described in U.S. Ser.", "No. 09/671,800 filed Sep. 28, 2000, entitled Method to Minimize/Eliminate Metal Coating Over the Top Surface of a Patterned Substrate and Layer Structure Made Thereby, which is commonly owned by the assignee of the present invention.", "Descriptions of electrochemical mechanical deposition and etching methods, i.e. ECMPR, can be found in various patents and pending applications, all commonly owned by the assignee of the present invention.", "U.S. Pat. No. 6,176,992, entitled, “Method and Apparatus for Electro-chemical Mechanical Deposition,” U.S. application Ser.", "No. 09/740,701, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,534,116, entitled, “Plating Method and Apparatus that Creates a Differential Between Additive Disposed on a Top Surface and a Cavity Surface of a Workpiece Using an External Influence,” filed on Dec. 18, 2001, and U.S. Application filed on Sep. 20, 2001 with Ser.", "No. 09/961,193, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,921,551, entitled, “Plating Method and Apparatus for Controlling Deposition on Predetermined Portions of a Workpiece”", "are patents and applications describing various ECMPR approaches.", "Electrochemical mechanical processes can deposit metals in and over cavity sections on a patterned workpiece surface in a planar manner.", "They also have the capability of yielding novel structures with excess amount of metals selectively over the features irrespective of their size, if desired.", "A system that can be adapted to perform the processes of the present invention is discussed in U.S. Utility application Ser.", "No. 09/795,687, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,953,392, entitled, “Integrated System for Processing Semiconductor Wafers”, which was filed on Feb. 27, 2001 and based on priority provisional application 60/259,676 filed Jan. 5, 2001 and 60/261,263 filed Jan. 16, 2001.", "Some process systems and methods are also disclosed in U.S. Ser.", "No. 10/264,726 filed Oct. 3, 2002, entitled, “Fabrication of Semiconductor Interconnect Structures, which is commonly owned by the assignee of the present invention.”", "As will be described below, the present invention provides a method and a system for manufacturing interconnects for semiconductor integrated circuits.", "The method is especially useful to form interconnects that include trenches and other features with widths larger than 1 micron.", "As shown in FIG. 1A , standard plating techniques cause a step ‘s’ over such wide features and standard material removal approaches, such as CMP, cause dishing 20 , as shown in FIG. 1B .", "In one embodiment, the present invention employs a planar deposition process, such as electrochemical mechanical deposition (ECMD) process and chemical mechanical polishing process (CMP) to form copper interconnects.", "In this embodiment, for example, a planar copper layer is initially formed by an ECMD process step which is subsequently removed by carrying out two separate CMP process steps to produce the final interconnect structure.", "In another embodiment, an initial ECMD process step is used to form a planar layer that is thinner than the layer formed in the first embodiment.", "This thin planar layer along with the barrier are then removed using a single CMP step to form the final interconnect structure.", "In connection with the above embodiments, the present invention also provides integration of electrochemical etching processes to remove conductive layers that are deposited by conventional plating or planar plating processes, planar plating processes being preferable.", "Integration of edge copper removal, wafer backside cleaning and annealing into the systems may also be achieved.", "The CMP process conventionally involves pressing a semiconductor wafer or other such substrate against a moving polishing surface that is wetted with a chemically reactive abrasive slurry.", "The slurries are usually either basic or acidic and generally contain alumina, ceria, silica or other hard ceramic particles.", "The polishing surface is typically a pad made of polymeric materials well known in the art of CMP.", "The pad itself may also be an abrasive pad.", "During a CMP process, a wafer carrier with a wafer to be processed is placed on a CMP pad and pressed against it.", "The pad, which may be an abrasive pad, may be moved laterally as a linear belt or may be rotated.", "The process is performed by moving the wafer against the pad or the linear belt in a CMP slurry solution flowing between the pad and the wafer surface.", "The slurry may be any of the known CMP slurries in the art, and may be flowed over the pad or may be flowed through the pad if the pad is porous in the latter case.", "FIG. 2 shows a first system 100 of the present invention.", "The first system 100 comprises a processing section 101 , a load-unload section 102 and a buffer section 103 that is located between the processing section and the load unload sections.", "The wafers are loaded into load-unload section 102 and a first robot 105 located in the load unload section 102 delivers them to, or picks up from, the processing section via the buffer section 103 .", "In one embodiment, the processing section may have a process station 106 , a first CMP station 107 , a second CMP station 108 , a secondary cleaning station 109 and an annealing station 110 .", "A second robot 111 is used to deliver, or pick up, wafers in the processing section.", "In this example, the process station may be used to perform a planar electrodeposition process such as ECMD.", "Although, in this example, stations are shown as an integrated part of the first system 100 , they may also be individual stations that are located separately.", "Furthermore, more ECMD, CMP, anneal or secondary cleaning stations may be included in the system to increase its throughput.", "It should be noted that in this embodiment, preferably, the chambers are vertically stacked chambers including a lower process chamber (such as an ECMD chamber) and a top rinsing and drying chamber.", "One such exemplary vertical chamber design and operation is disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 6,352,623, entitled “Vertically Configured Chamber Used for Multiple Processes,” filed Dec. 17, 1999, commonly owned by the assignee of the present invention.", "Accordingly, in this embodiment, the process chamber 106 has a bottom ECMD process chamber and an upper rinsing and drying chamber.", "In the upper chamber edge copper removal and subsequent cleaning can be also performed.", "A wafer can be transferred to the process station 106 in the processing section 101 to initiate the process such as ECMD.", "The stations 106 – 110 can be adapted to either process 200 or 300-millimeter wafers.", "The anneal station is used to anneal the wafers before or after the CMP processes, or before and after the CMP process.", "Wafer front and back surfaces may be further cleaned in the secondary cleaning chamber to remove possible contaminants from these surfaces after the wafers are rinsed and dried in the process station.", "FIGS. 3A–3C are schematic cross-sectional views exemplifying the process of the present invention to form a copper interconnect using a three step process of the present invention and the system shown in FIG. 2 .", "In this example, an exemplary dual damascene interconnect structure will be formed by a three step deposition-polishing process which includes the steps of first depositing a thin planar layer using ECMD and then removing this layer using a two step CMP process.", "Referring to FIG. 2 , in this embodiment ECMD process is performed in the process station 106 .", "Although copper is used as an example material that is deposited and/or removed herein, the present invention may be used when depositing or removing other conductors, for example Ni, Pd, Pt, Au, Pb, Sn, Ag, Co and their alloys.", "FIG. 3A shows a semiconductor substrate 120 having a planar copper layer 122 formed in a deposition step of the present invention, which employs an ECMD process.", "In the process station 106 shown in FIG. 2 , the planar layer 122 is electroplated into a via 124 and a trench 126 which are patterned and etched into an insulating layer 128 .", "The insulating layer 128 has a top surface 129 and is formed on a semiconductor wafer 130 .", "A barrier layer 132 rather conformally coats the via 124 , the trench 126 and the top surface 129 of insulating layer 128 .", "A copper seed layer (not shown) is deposited on the barrier layer 132 and forms the base on which copper is electroplated.", "The thickness of a portion of the flat copper layer 122 that overlies the top surface 129 of the insulator 128 is related to the depth of the largest feature, i.e., the feature with the largest width, to be filled on the substrate 130 , which is in this example the trench 126 .", "If the width of the trench 126 which is denoted by ‘W’ is the largest on the substrate, the thickness ‘t’ of the flat copper portion that overlies the top surface 129 may be equal to or less than 0.75 D, where ‘D’ is the depth of the trench.", "However, it is understood that if there is a larger, i.e., wider feature, on the entire wafer surface, thickness t will be a function of the depth of that larger feature, i.e., it would be less than or equal to about three quarters of the depth of that largest feature.", "It should be noted that in the prior art process (see FIG. 1A ), the thickness of the copper overburden is larger than D, i.e., t>D.", "Such thin and flat copper layer can be produced by planar deposition techniques such as ECMD process that advantageously eliminates the use of a long and expensive conventional step of removing overburden or the excess copper from the surface of the substrate.", "The process station 106 then rinses and dries the wafer to send to the first CMP station 107 .", "As shown in FIG. 3B , in a polishing step following the deposition step, a first CMP process step is performed in the first CMP station to polish away the excess flat copper layer, in a planar manner, that overlies barrier layer on the top surface 129 of the insulating layer 128 .", "The first CMP process step can preferably be performed using a fixed abrasive pad 134 with an abrasive-free slurry.", "The fixed abrasive pad 134 selectively removes the copper layer 122 down to the barrier layer.", "The first CMP station 106 then rinses and dries the substrate and transfers to the second CMP station 108 .", "As shown in FIG. 3C , a second and final polishing step is performed in the second CMP station, the barrier layer 132 overlying the top surface 129 of the insulating layer 128 is removed, for example with a slurry based CMP process using a non-abrasive pad 136 .", "Removal of copper and barrier layers using different polishing pad and slurries is disclosed in U.S. Provisional Application No. 60,365,001, entitled “Method and Apparatus for Integrated Chemical Mechanical Polishing of Copper and Barrier Layers,” filed Mar. 13, 2002 and now abandoned, commonly owned by the assignee of the present invention.", "In another process sequence in the same system, the annealing step may be applied after the ECMD step and before the CMP step.", "After the ECMD step and following rinsing and drying, the wafer can be further cleaned in the secondary cleaning station to assure that back side and bevel of the wafer is free of copper.", "As stated earlier copper concentration needs to be lower than 10E11 atoms/cm2.", "Annealing before the CMP step in this process assures that copper grain size is larger and stabilized since copper thickness is larger.", "Alternatively, in yet another process sequence, the annealing step may be performed twice.", "The first annealing step is performed before the first CMP step and the second annealing is performed after the second CMP step.", "As in the previous embodiments, the secondary cleaning step may be performed after the rinsing and drying steps that follow the ECMD step, and also before any annealing step to assure that annealing does not cause any copper diffusion from the bevel and back surface of the wafer into the devices on the wafer.", "Further, in another process sequence, The ECMD process may be performed in no-touch mode to obtain a non-planar copper layer.", "After cleaning and an anneal step in the anneal station, the deposition process may continue with a touch-ECMD process to obtain a planar copper layer.", "The wafer may then be subjected to CMP steps with or without an additional annealing step at the end as described before.", "If the planar copper layer is thin enough, i.e., less than approximately 2000 Angstroms (Å), the above process may be performed with a single CMP step performed in one of the CMP stations 107 , 108 .", "The single CMP step removes the thin copper layer and underlying barrier layer using a non-selective slurry.", "As it will be appreciated, the CMP station used in this embodiment is reconfigured to perform single process step.", "FIGS. 4A and 4B are schematic cross-sectional views exemplifying the process of the present invention to form a copper interconnect using the system shown in FIG. 2 .", "In this embodiment, a dual damascene structure will be formed in accordance with the principles of the present invention.", "FIG. 4A shows a semiconductor substrate 220 having a thin planar copper layer 222 formed in a first step of the present invention.", "In the processing station 204 shown in FIG. 2 , the planar layer is electroplated into a via 224 and a trench 226 which are patterned and etched into an insulating layer 228 .", "In this embodiment, the thickness of a portion of the flat copper layer 222 that overlies the top surface 229 of the insulator 228 , is less than or equal to 2000 Å, preferably, less than 1000 Å.", "Such thin and flat copper layer produced by the ECMD process advantageously eliminates the use of long and expensive conventional steps of removing overburden.", "After the ECMD process, the wafer is rinsed and dried in the same process station, and is sent to, for example, the first CMP station 107 (see FIG. 2 ).", "As shown in FIG. 4B , in the final step of the present invention, a CMP process is performed to polish away the excess flat copper layer and the barrier layer, in a single polishing step.", "As mentioned before the first CMP station 107 is reconfigured to perform single step process.", "The pad 234 removes the copper layer 222 and the barrier layer 232 down to the top surface 229 of the interconnect 228 with the help of a slurry.", "Ultimately, a metallic interconnect is formed, thereby forming a complete dual damascene structure.", "A non-selective slurry may also be used in this step to remove a small thickness of the insulator or dielectric layer, thereby minimizing dishing effects.", "It should be noted that although the present invention is described using the ECMD process, it is also applicable to any planar deposition process that can yield thin layers.", "As in the previous embodiments, following the single step CMP, the wafer may be annealed in the anneal station.", "Before the anneal, it is preferable to clean the wafer one more time in the secondary cleaning station 109 .", "After the annealing step, the wafer is taken to load-unload section to stack in cassettes.", "In another process sequence in the same system, the annealing step may be applied before the CMP step and after the ECMD process step.", "Further, after the ECMD step, the wafer can be cleaned in the secondary cleaning station, after it is rinsed and dried in the processing station.", "Alternatively, in yet another embodiment, the annealing step may be performed twice, once before and once after the CMP step.", "As in the previous embodiments, also in this approach, the secondary cleaning step may be performed before each anneal step.", "Further, in another process sequence, The ECMD process may be performed in no-touch mode to obtain a non-planar copper layer.", "After an anneal step in the anneal station, the deposition process may continue with a touch-ECMD process to obtain a planar copper layer.", "The wafer may be cleaned in the secondary cleaning station after each deposition process.", "The planar layer is then polished using the single step CMP process.", "In all the above embodiments, it should be noted that edge copper removal step which removes copper from the front edge, bevel and back edge of the wafer may be carried out after the ECMD or plating steps.", "This process is preferably carried out in the rinse-dry section of the ECMD station, although it may also be performed in the secondary cleaning station.", "In cases when two different copper deposition steps are used in the process, copper on the front edge is removed only after the second deposition step because this copper is needed to make contact to for the second deposition step.", "However, the backside edge and bevel need to be cleaned after the first plating step and before any annealing step to avoid diffusion of copper from the backside and bevel to areas where devices are fabricated.", "As described in the above embodiments and shown FIGS. 3A and 4A , initial planar copper structures 122 and 222 are formed using ECMD process.", "The same structures may also be manufactured by utilizing an electrochemical mechanical etching (ECME) or regular electropolishing steps after an ECMD step that deposits a thick planar copper layer.", "Once the copper layer is thinned down by an electropolishing process, one step or two step CMP processes, which are described above, can be performed to remove the excess copper layer.", "The above process may be performed in an exemplary second system 200 shown in FIG. 5 .", "The second system 200 may also comprise a processing section 201 , a load-unload section 202 and a buffer section 203 that is located between the processing section and the load unload sections.", "The wafers are loaded into load-unload section 202 and a first robot 205 located in the load unload section 203 delivers them to, or picks up from, the processing section via the buffer section 203 .", "In one embodiment, the processing section 201 may have a process station 206 , a first CMP station 207 , an electropolishing or electroetching station 208 , a secondary cleaning station 209 and an annealing station 210 .", "A second robot 211 is used to deliver, or pick up, wafers in the processing section.", "In this example, the process station may be used to perform a planar electrodeposition process such as ECMD.", "Although, in this example, stations are shown as an integrated part of the second system 200 , they may be individual stations that are located separately.", "Furthermore, more ECMD, CMP, electropolish, annealing and cleaning stations may be included in the system to increase its throughput.", "It should be noted that in this embodiment, preferably, the chambers are vertically stacked chambers including a lower process chamber (such as an ECMD chamber) and a top rinsing and drying chamber, as disclosed in the above mentioned U.S. Pat. No. 6,352,623.", "Accordingly, in this embodiment, the process chamber 206 has a bottom ECMD process chamber and an upper rinsing and drying chamber.", "In the upper chamber edge copper removal and subsequent cleaning can be also performed.", "A process using the system 200 is illustrated using FIGS. 6A–6B .", "As shown in FIG. 6A , the substrate 300 has a via 304 and a trench 306 that are formed in an insulating layer 308 or dielectric layer disposed on a wafer 310 .", "The insulating layer 308 has a top surface 312 .", "A barrier layer 314 conformally coats the via 304 , the trench 306 and the top surface 312 of insulating layer 308 .", "A copper seed layer (not shown) may also be deposited on the barrier layer.", "The first step of the process is to deposit a planar copper layer 302 over the surface.", "The planar copper layer 302 is deposited in the process station 206 using the ECMD process.", "This planar layer, unlike the prior art shown in FIG. 1A , forms a near-flat copper surface over all features of all sizes including features with widths of several microns, even tens of microns.", "After the ECMD, the wafer may be cleaned in the secondary cleaning chamber 209 .", "The following step of the process reduces the thickness of the planar copper layer by employing electrochemical etching in the electrochemical etching station 208 .", "Before the electropolishing step, however, the wafer may be annealed in the anneal station 210 .", "The initially thick nature of the layer 302 assures very large grain in the annealed material.", "Subsequent to electropolishing, depending on the thickness of the remaining planar layer, a CMP step is employed to remove rest of the conducting layers from the wafer surface.", "Although in this example the system 200 has only one CMP station, the system 200 may have two CMP stations to perform the two step CMP approach as described above.", "As illustrated in FIG. 6A , at the electroetching stage, a top thick portion of the copper layer 302 is removed in a planar fashion down to planar surface 318 .", "The thickness of the remaining layer can be equal or less than 2000 Å, preferably less than 1000 Å.", "It is understood that the thickness of the remaining layer is the thickness of the planar copper portion overlying the barrier layer on the top surface of the insulating layer.", "After forming the planar surface 318 the process may continue with the single step CMP process in the CMP chamber 207 .", "As shown in FIG. 6B , using a single step CMP process, the barrier layer portion on the surface 312 together with a top portion 320 of the insulating layer 308 and a top portion 322 of the copper 302 in the trench 306 is removed in planar manner down to the planar surface 324 .", "In a preferred process sequence in the same system, the annealing step may be applied before the CMP step and after the ECMD step.", "After the ECMD step and the following rinsing and drying, the wafer may be cleaned in the secondary cleaning station.", "Alternatively, in yet another process sequence, after the CMP step, the substrate may be annealed in the anneal station 210 .", "Also in this approach, the secondary cleaning step may be performed after the rinsing and drying steps that follow the CMP process.", "As it will be appreciated, the above described approach has many advantages.", "First of all, the starting copper layer is a planar, relatively thick layer so that, once annealed, yields large grain structure.", "Since the layer is planar, it is feasible to reduce its thickness as shown in FIG. 6A , by utilizing a low cost electropolishing approach.", "Since planarization during material removal is not necessary, electropolishing can uniformly thin the layer 302 down to planar surface 318 .", "Electropolishing is a very low cost process compared with the CMP, which has high costs of consumables such as polishing pads and slurries.", "Therefore, removing most of the copper by electropolishing and leaving behind only a thin layer to be polished off by the CMP step has important economic benefits.", "It should be noted that electropolishing could be continued all the way to remove all the overburden copper from the surface.", "This, however, is more difficult and the process window is narrower.", "For example, over-etching by a few hundred angstroms would cause dishing into the features (vias, trenches).", "By leaving about 2000 Å or less copper on the surface, a single CMP step can be carried out that can yield very good dishing and erosion results, and at the same time, using small amount of consumables.", "Therefore, such an approach is economical and has high throughput.", "Simple chemical etching process may also be used to thin down planar copper layers to a thickness less than 2000 Å.", "However, it is more difficult to arrest chemical reaction between the rather strong etching solution and the copper surface.", "Therefore, corrosion and etching of copper may continue even after etching process is stopped.", "In the case of electropolishing, however, as mentioned earlier, the electropolishing solutions do not appreciably etch copper surface without applied voltage.", "Therefore, this process is more controllable, i.e. etching stops immediately when voltage is turned off, and it also yields smooth surfaces.", "Another process using the system 200 is illustrated using FIGS. 7A–7B .", "In this embodiment, at a first step, a substrate 400 is plated with a copper layer 402 using a standard electrodeposition or non-contact ECMD process in the process station 206 .", "The copper layer 402 is a conventional non-planar copper layer, which is similar to a layer deposited using conventional electrochemical deposition process.", "An example of a conventional electrochemical copper deposition is described in the background section in connection to FIG. 1A .", "The substrate 400 has a via 404 and a trench 406 that are formed in an insulating layer 408 or dielectric layer disposed on a wafer 410 , and filled with copper through plating process to form the non-planar copper layer 402 .", "The insulating layer 408 has a top surface 412 .", "A barrier layer 414 conformally coats the via 404 , the trench 406 and the top surface 412 of insulating layer 408 .", "A copper seed layer (not shown) may also be deposited on the barrier layer.", "After the deposition process the substrate may be cleaned in the secondary cleaning station 209 .", "Since the copper layer is not planar, the subsequent process needs to planarize it.", "In this embodiment, the substrate can be annealed in the anneal station 210 after the non-planar deposition process.", "As illustrated in FIG. 7A , since the starting layer is non-planar, there is a need to planarize the surface during the material removal step.", "Therefore, an electrochemical mechanical etching (ECME) step is used.", "At the ECME stage, a top portion of the copper layer 402 is removed and planarization is achieved by the help of the mechanical action during the process leading to planar surface 418 .", "The thickness of the remaining layer under surface 418 can be equal or less than 2000 Å, preferably less than or equal to 1000 Å.", "It is understood that the thickness of the remaining layer is the thickness of the planar copper portion overlying the barrier layer on the top surface of the insulating layer.", "After forming the planar surface 418 , the process may continue with the single step CMP process in the CMP chamber 207 .", "As shown in FIG. 7B , using a single step CMP process, the barrier layer portion on the surface 412 together with a top portion 420 of the insulating layer 408 and a top portion 422 of the copper 402 in the trench 406 is removed in planar manner down to the planar surface 424 .", "In one process sequence in the same system, the annealing step may be applied after the ECME step and before the CMP step.", "After the ECME step and following rinsing and drying, the wafer can be cleaned in the secondary cleaning station, after it is rinsed and dried in the processing station.", "Alternatively, in yet another process sequence, after the CMP step, the substrate is annealed in the anneal station 210 .", "Also, in this approach, the secondary cleaning step may be performed before the annealing process.", "Although, exemplary system comprising specific number of process modules have been illustrated and described above, it is understood that the above-described systems may include more or less number of processing (ECMD and ECME) and CMP process modules depending upon throughput considerations.", "Further, in this application, the systems are shown schematically, thus, the process modules within the systems may be varied without changing the process results of the invention.", "Although various preferred embodiments and the best mode have been described in detail above, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that many modifications of the exemplary embodiment are possible without materially departing from the novel teachings and advantages of this invention." ]

[ "[0001] This nonprovisional application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(a) on Patent Application No. 10 2004 058 595.4 filed in Germany on Nov. 26, 2005, which is herein incorporated by reference.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1.", "Field of the Invention [0003] The present invention relates to a driver circuit, which in an operating mode drives a component that supplies output power when a driving input signal exceeds a first threshold value, having a differential amplifier whose output signal controls the driving input signal, having a reference signal generator that supplies a reference input of the differential amplifier, and having an external feedback that applies a signal, which is dependent on the output signal, to a feedback input of the differential amplifier.", "[0004] The invention further relates to a method for compensation of offset currents in such a driver circuit.", "[0005] 2.", "Description of the Background Art [0006] A typical example of such a component is a laser diode in which a laser effect occurs only above a laser threshold.", "For a laser diode, the external feedback takes place by the radiated optical power of the laser diode and a photodiode that is connected to the feedback input and receives a portion of the radiated optical power.", "When the laser diode radiates a comparatively high optical power, the photodiode supplies a high photocurrent to the feedback input of the differential amplifier.", "This reduces the difference at the input of the differential amplifier, which reduces the output signal of the differential amplifier, and thereby reduces the optical power of the laser diode.", "Similarly, a relatively low radiated optical power leads to an increase in the difference and thereby to an increase in the optical power.", "The feedback thus closes a control loop, by which a stable optical power is established at a stable input signal difference in the steady state.", "[0007] In this context, a signal difference corresponding to the quotient of the output signal and the gain of the differential amplifier is established between the reference input and the feedback input.", "[0008] Ideal differential amplifiers deliver reproducibly identical output signals for specific reference signal values and thus possess a reproducibly stable characteristic curve.", "In real differential amplifiers, however, shifts in the characteristic curves arise through offset currents of the differential amplifiers.", "The offset currents can be represented in an equivalent schematic as an additive offset of the reference signal.", "[0009] In the case of a driver circuit with a differential amplifier that has such an offset, therefore, signal distortion occurs at the reference input.", "In the absence of countermeasures, such a signal distortion is stabilized by the external feedback.", "When the reference signal is switched off, the offset current alone acts as a reference signal in the equivalent schematic.", "Under certain circumstances, namely when the laser threshold is exceeded, the external feedback then establishes a final output power even though the switched off reference signal generator should likewise reduce the output power to zero.", "[0010] For this reason, such behavior is always problematic when small output power levels are to be established, as is the case for a laser diode in a CD or DVD unit in read operation, for example.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0011] It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an improved driver circuit in which offset currents of a differential amplifier are compensated.", "[0012] This object is attained in a method of the aforementioned type in that the driver circuit has an adapter circuit and an internal feedback that can be activated in a compensation mode as an alternative to the external feedback, the internal feedback providing a signal to both the feedback input and an adapter circuit even for input signals that do not exceed the first threshold, in that the adaptor circuit generates from the signal, and stores, a compensation signal that compensates an offset signal acting alone at the reference input when the reference signal generator is switched off, and in that the adaptor circuit feeds the stored compensation signal, together with a reference signal provided by the reference signal generator, to the reference input or the feedback input when the external feedback is activated.", "[0013] This object is further attained in a method of the aforementioned type by the following steps: activation of an internal feedback that can be activated in a compensation mode as an alternative to the external feedback and that provides a signal to both the feedback input and the adapter circuit even for input signals which do not exceed the first threshold, storage of a compensation signal that is generated from the signal and that compensates an offset signal acting alone at the reference input when the reference signal generator is switched off, and, when the external feedback is activated, feeding of the stored compensation signal to the reference input or the feedback input, in addition to the feeding of a reference signal provided by the reference signal generator.", "[0014] In compensation mode with the reference signal generator switched off and the external feedback deactivated, a detected feedback signal can be unambiguously associated with an undesired offset current of the differential amplifier.", "The generation and storage of a compensation signal in the compensation mode, together with the additional feeding of the compensation signal in the operating mode, leads to the desired compensation of problematic offset currents.", "[0015] With regard to embodiments of the driver circuit, it is preferred for the internal feedback to have a threshold filter that only allows feedback signals to pass which exceed a second threshold.", "[0016] Due to this embodiment, the adaptation process takes place for output signals of the differential amplifier, which result in feedback signals of a minimum amplitude determined by the second threshold.", "As a result, the compensation values determined in the compensation mode that are above the second threshold value but below the first threshold value can be transmitted to the later operating mode better than would be the case in adaptation with arbitrarily small output signals of the differential amplifier.", "[0017] Another embodiment includes a threshold filter as a current source that is connected to the internal feedback and that receives or emits a current up to a predetermined maximum current amplitude corresponding to the second threshold.", "[0018] This embodiment represents a particularly simple and continuous form of threshold filtering.", "The current source can be implemented, for example, as a source of negative currents, hence as a current sink, that is connected to the internal feedback and receives small currents, and only allows currents in excess of its maximum current to pass by into the feedback.", "[0019] It is also preferred for the internal feedback to have an output coupling circuit that couples a feedback signal out of the internal feedback and supplies it to the adapter circuit.", "[0020] As a result of such a coupling taking place in the internal feedback in parallel with the continuation of the feedback signal, the adaptation can take place continuously in the compensation mode and with no disturbing influence on the loop including the differential amplifier and inner feedback, in contrast to a switchover that supplies the feedback signal to the adapter circuit at certain times and to the feedback input of the differential amplifier at certain times.", "[0021] Moreover, the output coupling circuit can have a current mirror that reflects a current fed out of the differential amplifier into the internal feedback, reflecting the current into a current branch leading to the feedback input as well as into a measuring branch of the adapter circuit.", "[0022] The coupling with the current mirror has the advantage that any desired transmission ratios between the currents in different branches of the current mirror can be established by the number and dimensioning of the elements used.", "It is thus possible to set the attenuation of the signal feedback, for example.", "[0023] The adapter circuit can have a detector that detects a signal amplitude of the coupled-out feedback signal and transmits it to a control unit.", "[0024] The signal amplitude of the feedback signal is a measure of the amplitude of the offset current.", "This embodiment thus permits indirect measurement of the offset current.", "[0025] Moreover, the detector can periodically sample the signal amplitude.", "[0026] By means of the periodic sampling, a sequence of discrete measurements is produced, which can easily be processed by the subsequent control unit into stepwise changes in a compensation signal.", "[0027] The detector can also be embodied as a clocked comparator, as this has a very high sensitivity.", "This measure permits a minimization of the interaction between the measurement intervention and the internal feedback.", "[0028] Another embodiment provides that the control unit can store the signal amplitude and, by controlling a compensating current source, creates a compensating current at the reference input which at least partially compensates the offset current.", "[0029] By this embodiment, the appropriate value of the compensating current is determined successively, because an initial partially completed compensation, which still does not lead to a change in feedback signal in the compensation mode, is stored and can thus serve as a basis for further change in the compensating current.", "[0030] With regard to embodiments of the method, it is thus preferred for generation of the compensation signal to be performed in a stepwise manner, wherein the signal supplied to the adapter circuit is compared to a third threshold and wherein the compensation signal is changed in a stepwise fashion from a starting value until the signal supplied to the adapter circuit crosses the third threshold.", "[0031] Further scope of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter.", "However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0032] The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description given hereinbelow and the accompanying drawings which are given by way of illustration only, and thus, are not limitive of the present invention, and wherein: [0033] FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional arrangement of a driver circuit with external feedback;", "[0034] FIG. 2 is a characteristic curve of a laser diode;", "[0035] FIG. 3 illustrates characteristic curves of a differential amplifier with and without offset currents of different polarities;", "[0036] FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an example embodiment of a driver circuit according to the present invention;", "[0037] FIG. 5 is a circuit diagram illustrating an example of possible circuit implementations of various blocks from FIG. 4 ;", "and [0038] FIG. 6 shows timing diagrams of signals such as those arising during the course of an example embodiment of the inventive method in the block diagram in FIG. 4 .", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0039] FIG. 1 shows a conventional driver circuit 10 , which drives a laser diode 12 .", "The driver circuit 10 has a differential amplifier 14 that has a reference input 16 and a feedback input 18 , as well as a reference signal generator 20 , a control unit 22 , and a photodiode 24 .", "The reference input 16 is fed by the reference signal generator 20 , which is controlled by the control unit 22 .", "Connected to the feedback input 18 is the photodiode 24 , which, during operation of the driver circuit 10 and the laser diode 12 , receives a portion of the optical power radiated by the laser diode 12 through an optical coupling 25 and converts it into a photocurrent.", "The photocurrent serves as the feedback signal Ifb.", "The differential amplifier 14 provides a current I as a control signal for the laser diode 12 , whereby the current depends on the gain G and the difference between the signals at the reference input 16 and the feedback input 18 .", "In this way, the power radiated by the laser diode 12 and the signal shape of the optical output signal are determined by the reference signal generator 20 and the control unit 22 , and are regulated in an external feedback that is connected by the optical coupling 25 between the laser diode 12 and the photodiode 24 .", "[0040] FIG. 2 shows a characteristic curve 26 of the laser diode 12 .", "In this context, the optical power P of the laser diode is plotted as a function of the driving input signal I. As is evident from the course of the characteristic curve 26 , an optical power P does not appear until the driving input signal I exceeds a threshold SW 1 .", "This threshold SW 1 corresponds in the case of the laser diode 12 to the laser threshold, which must be exceeded for the laser effect to occur.", "The laser diode 12 thus represents an example of a component that only provides an output power P when a driving input signal I exceeds a first threshold SW 1 .", "[0041] FIG. 3 shows typical characteristic curves of a differential amplifier, for example the differential amplifier 14 from FIG. 1 .", "In this context, the output signal I of the differential amplifier 14 is plotted as a function of the reference signal Iref, wherein the characteristic curves have been recorded in an open loop condition, which is to say with a constant signal at the feedback input 18 .", "The output signal I of the differential amplifier 14 , which in FIG. 3 is plotted at the ordinate, represents for example the driving input signal I for the laser diode 12 , which in FIG. 2 is plotted along the abscissa.", "FIG. 3 shows a total of three characteristic curves 28 , 30 and 32 , wherein the number 28 designates an ideal characteristic curve.", "The ideal characteristic curve 28 is characterized in that it passes through the coordinate origin with no offset current, so that even a small change in the reference signal Iref from zero results in a finite change in the output signal I. [0042] As already mentioned above, however, real differential amplifiers have offset currents which can be represented in an equivalent schematic as additive effects on the signal at the reference input, where the additive effects can be positive as well as negative.", "The characteristic curve 30 shown in dashed lines results from shifting the ideal characteristic curve 28 to the right, which corresponds to a negative offset current: If the ideal characteristic curve 28 is considered as a function of Iref, then the characteristic curve 30 can be generated as the identical function with the argument (Iref−Ioff), where Ioff represents the offset current.", "Analogously, the characteristic curve 32 , produced by shifting the ideal characteristic curve 28 to the left, represents a positive offset current that could be represented in a functional representation as a positive offset in an argument Iref+Ioff.", "[0043] FIG. 4 shows a block diagram of an example embodiment of a driver circuit 34 , with which both the positive and negative offsets of the characteristic curves 32 and 30 relative to the ideal characteristic curve 28 can be adapted in a special compensation mode, by which a compensation of the shifts can occur even in a normal operating mode.", "The driver circuit 34 includes, among other items, a laser diode 12 , a differential amplifier 14 with reference input 16 and feedback input 18 , a reference signal generator 20 , a control unit 22 , and a photodiode 24 that is connected to the feedback input 18 of the differential amplifier 14 .", "[0044] In addition to these elements, the driver circuit 34 also has an output stage 36 , a switch 40 , a threshold filter 42 , a threshold combining element 44 , an attenuator 46 , an output coupling circuit 48 , a detector 50 , a compensating current source 52 , and a combining element 54 and/or a combining element 55 .", "In this regard, the output stage 36 serves only to further amplify the output signal I of the differential amplifier 14 into an input signal I′ of the laser diode 12 .", "The output coupling 38 serves to couple out a feedback signal that is fed to the feedback input 18 of the differential amplifier 14 through an internal feedback in a compensation mode.", "The internal feedback is activated by closing the switch 40 and includes the threshold filter 42 , the threshold combining element 44 , the attenuator 46 , and the output coupling circuit 48 .", "[0045] In this context, the threshold filter 42 defines a second threshold value SW 2 for regulation by the internal feedback;", "said second threshold value is smaller than the first threshold value SW 1 acting in the external feedback, corresponding, for example, to the laser threshold of the laser diode 12 .", "The control unit 22 switches the driver circuit 34 into a compensation mode by closing the switch 40 .", "The output signal I of the differential amplifier 14 that is coupled into the internal feedback through the output coupling 38 is combined in the combining element 44 with the comparatively low second threshold value SW 2 of the threshold filter 42 .", "In this regard, this combination can take place, for example, in such a manner that the threshold filter 42 can draw a current from the combining element 44 up to a predefined maximum value, so that the combining element 44 only transmits a signal to the attenuator 46 when the maximum value defined by the threshold filter 42 is exceeded by the output signal I coupled out of the differential amplifier 14 .", "The portion of the output signal I of the differential amplifier 14 that exceeds the second threshold value SW 2 is attenuated by the attenuator 46 to such a degree that a stable internal feedback is ensured.", "The attenuated signal is applied to the feedback input 18 of the differential amplifier 14 through the output coupling circuit 48 as feedback signal Ifb_i of the internal feedback.", "[0046] Since the second threshold value SW 2 which acts in the internal feedback is lower than the first threshold value SW 1 which acts in the external feedback, a relatively large feedback signal Ifb_i initially appears at the feedback input 18 of the differential amplifier 14 when switch 40 is closed, which is to say in compensation mode.", "As a result, the input signal difference at the differential amplifier 14 drops, and consequently so does the amplitude of the output signal I that is combined with the input signal difference by the gain G. With appropriate dimensioning of the second threshold value SW 2 , in comparison to the first threshold value SW 1 , the input signal I′ of the laser diode 12 then drops below the laser threshold so that the optical power radiated by the laser diode 12 ceases.", "As a result, the optical coupling between the laser diode 12 and the photodiode 24 also ceases so that the external feedback, which is closed through this optical coupling in the operating mode, is deactivated.", "[0047] In addition to the deactivation of the external feedback through the closing of the switch 40 , the reference signal generator 20 is also switched off in the compensation mode so that it no longer provides a signal to the reference input 16 of the differential amplifier 14 .", "If the characteristic curve of the differential amplifier 14 corresponds to the ideal characteristic curve 28 from FIG. 3 , the output signal I of the differential amplifier 14 will then also drop to zero and the input signal difference between the inputs 16 and 18 of the differential amplifier 14 will vanish.", "[0048] In contrast, if the differential amplifier 14 has a characteristic curve 32 from FIG. 3 that is shifted to the left by a positive offset, then even when the reference signal is switched off an output signal I will appear, which is fed back to the feedback input 18 of the differential amplifier 14 through the internal feedback as an attenuated signal Ifb_i.", "By an adapter circuit formed of the detector 50 , the control unit 22 , the compensating current source 52 , and the combining element 54 and/or the combining element 55 , this undesirable offset can be learned in the compensation mode and can be compensated in the subsequent operating mode.", "The output coupling circuit 48 couples a signal out of the internal feedback in which the feedback signal Ifb_i is reflected.", "The reflection can be identical, for example, so that a signal Ifb_i is fed into the detector 50 of the adapter circuit.", "[0049] The detector 50 compares the fed-in feedback signal Ifb_i to a predefined third threshold value SW 3 , and if the signal exceeds or drops below the third threshold value SW 3 , the detector supplies an appropriate signal to the control unit 22 .", "The control unit 22 controls the detector 50 by means of the dashed connection between the blocks 22 and 50 in such a manner that, for example, the detector 50 samples its input signal at predetermined time intervals specified by the control unit 22 and compares it to the third threshold value SW 3 .", "The third threshold value SW 3 can, e.g., be dimensioned such that it corresponds to the value f(SW 3 ) in the graph in FIG. 3 .", "In this regard, the value f(SW 3 ) in FIG. 3 is drawn relatively high on the I-axis for reasons of clarity, and is brought still closer to the coordinate origin in implementations of the invention.", "[0050] If the third threshold value SW 3 is immediately exceeded at the beginning, as is the case in the characteristic curve 32 from FIG. 3 , the control unit 22 triggers a stepwise change in a compensating current by the compensating current source 52 , which is applied through the combining element 54 to the reference input 16 and/or through the combining element 55 to the feedback input 18 of the differential amplifier 14 , and is intended to compensate the offset current acting there.", "In order to achieve the effect of a positive (negative) compensating current at the reference input 16 , feed-in to the feedback input 18 must take place with a negative (positive) polarity.", "As has already been mentioned, the characteristic curve 32 corresponds to a positive offset current so that in this case the control unit 22 establishes a negative compensating current of the compensating current source 52 if the compensating current is fed in through the reference input.", "This is reflected in a change in the feedback signal Ifb_i by means of the internal feedback.", "[0051] In the case of the characteristic curve 32 from FIG. 3 , the application of a negative compensating current into the combining element 54 results in a shift to the right of the characteristic curve 32 .", "As a result, the point of intersection of the characteristic curve 32 with the I-axis drops.", "With successive increases in the negative compensating current by the adapter circuit, the characteristic curve 32 shifts successively further downward until the value crosses below f(SW 3 ).", "This downward crossing is detected by the detector 50 and is registered by the control unit 22 .", "The control unit 22 then commands the compensating current source 52 to maintain the last compensating current value used, and to use it with activated external feedback in the subsequent operating mode.", "[0052] In similar fashion, a characteristic curve 30 in FIG. 3 that is initially shifted to the right by a negative offset current, is shifted to the coordinate origin by successive determination of a compensating positive compensation current.", "[0053] FIG. 5 shows a circuit diagram as an example of possible circuit implementations of various blocks from FIG. 4 .", "Thus, the coupling 38 can be accomplished by a transistor 56 , which is connected through an emitter resistor 58 to a supply voltage 60 , which is controlled by the output signal of the differential amplifier 14 , and whose collector is connected to the threshold combining element 44 .", "In the circuit 34 shown in FIG. 5 , the output signal of the differential amplifier can be a voltage or a current.", "The output stage 36 can likewise be implemented through a transistor 62 which is connected through an emitter resistor 64 to a supply voltage 60 , which likewise is controlled by the output signal I of the differential amplifier 14 , and whose collector current serves as the input signal I′ of the laser diode 12 .", "The threshold filter 42 can include, for example, a variable current source 66 that draws from the threshold combining element 44 a current of variable amplitude, but predefined maximum amplitude, and which is connected between the threshold combining element 44 and a ground connection 68 .", "[0054] A current mirror 70 , which has three branches 72 , 74 and 76 , mirrors a current flowing in the first branch 72 as feedback current Ifb_i from the threshold combining element 44 through a transistor 78 and a resistor 80 to the ground potential 68 , to the other two branches 74 and 76 , each of which likewise has its own transistor 82 , 86 and emitter resistor 84 , 88 .", "The collector of the transistor 82 of the second branch 74 is connected to the feedback input 18 of the differential amplifier 14 , thus closing the internal feedback.", "As in the case in FIG. 4 , the switch 40 serves to deactivate the external feedback.", "But unlike FIG. 4 , it is arranged in FIG. 5 such that it deactivates the external feedback in the closed state.", "[0055] In the implementation in FIG. 5 , the attenuator shown as block 46 in FIG. 4 results from the transmission ratio of the currents in the branches 72 and 74 .", "The current mirrored in the third branch 76 constitutes a current coupled out of the internal feedback, so the third branch 76 in combination with the other two branches 72 , 74 of the current mirror 70 represents the function of the output coupling circuit 48 from FIG. 4 .", "In this context, the transistors and resistors can be dimensioned such that a different current is fed into the measuring branch 76 than into the feedback branch 74 .", "For example, by means of a higher current in the measuring branch 76 , the voltage drop can be increased through a measurement resistor 92 , which increases the sensitivity of the measurement.", "The detector 50 from FIG. 4 is implemented, for example, by a comparator 90 in conjunction with the measurement resistor 92 .", "The comparator 90 can take the form of a “latched comparator”", "or a “clocked comparator.”", "A clocked comparator of this nature has, in addition to differential inputs 90 .", "1 and 90 .", "2 , a clock input 94 .", "When the clock signal is switched on, a positive feedback is activated within the comparator 90 , which latches the state at the output 90 .", "3 of the comparator 90 .", "This state is then, which is to say until the next pulse of the clock signal, independent of the input signal.", "As a result of the positive feedback, the gain of the comparator 90 is very large at the time of switchover, so even the smallest changes between the differential inputs 90 .", "1 and 90 .", "2 result in unambiguous signals at the output 90 .", "3 .", "[0056] FIG. 6 shows time behaviors of signals such as those that can be obtained at various points in the circuits in FIGS. 4 and 5 when the differential amplifier 14 has the characteristic curve 30 shifted to the right by a negative offset current as shown in FIG. 3 .", "The high level of the signal 93 in FIG. 6 a represents an active compensation mode, while the low signal level there represents an active operating mode.", "As is evident from FIG. 3 , in the case of the characteristic curve 30 as output signal I of the differential amplifier 14 , a zero signal, or a signal that is smaller than the value f(SW 3 ) in FIG. 3 , is established.", "Consequently, no current flows initially in the internal feedback, so that the feedback signal Ifb_i is also zero at first.", "This is represented by the initially low signal level in FIG. 6 b, which represents the time behavior 95 of the signal Ifb_i.", "[0057] FIG. 6 c illustrates sampling of the feedback signal Ifb_i by the detector 50 .", "In this context, the pulses 96 , 98 and 100 each correspond to periods of time in which the control unit 22 applies a clock signal to the clock input 94 of the comparator 90 in FIG. 5 , thus recording a measurement.", "FIG. 6 d illustrates a possible curve 102 of a compensating current Icomp.", "Initially, i.e. at the first measurement by the pulse 96 , the compensation value is still zero.", "Since the detector 50 determines at the first measurement that the feedback signal Ifb_i is below the third threshold value SW 3 , the control unit 22 sets a first base value of a positive compensating current by means of the compensating current source 52 , wherein the setting in FIG. 6 takes place in each case with a delay dt.", "This base value corresponds to the first stage 104 in the signal 102 .", "As a result, the characteristic curve 30 from FIG. 3 is shifted somewhat to the right toward the coordinate origin.", "[0058] If the shift is not yet enough to place the characteristic curve 30 above the threshold value f(SW 3 ), the base value of the set compensating current was apparently too small, and at the next measurement pulse 98 the detector 50 again determines that the feedback signal Ifb_i lies below the third threshold value SW 3 .", "In consequence, the control unit 22 , with the aid of the compensating current source 52 , increases the compensating current by a predetermined step size corresponding to the level height in FIG. 6 d at the transition from the level 104 to the level 106 .", "For the following discussion, it is assumed that the compensating current is now so large that it overcompensates the negative offset current.", "In the illustration in FIG. 3 , this means that the characteristic curve 30 has been shifted far enough to the left that the threshold value f(SW 3 ) now lies below the shifted characteristic curve 30 .", "[0059] Then, with the reference signal generator 20 still switched off, an output signal I appears at the output of the differential amplifier 14 , and this signal is reflected by an increase in the feedback signal Ifb_i.", "In FIG. 6 b, this is represented by the level 108 in the signal curve 95 .", "In keeping with the aforementioned assumption, Ifb_i will be so large that the detector 50 will determine at its next sampling pulse 100 that the third threshold SW 3 has been exceeded.", "The detector signals this by a switchover to a high signal level 110 in the signal 112 that is fed into the control unit 22 through the closed switch 94 .", "The control unit 22 thus registers the crossing above the third threshold SW 3 and terminates the compensation mode, which is represented in FIG. 6 a by the falling edge in the signal 93 .", "At the same time, the compensating current source 52 latches the compensating current value that was determined.", "Consequently, in a subsequent operating mode, operation always approaches the ideal characteristic curve 28 from FIG. 3 .", "[0060] The invention being thus described, it will be obvious that the same may be varied in many ways.", "Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the invention, and all such modifications as would be obvious to one skilled in the art are to be included within the scope of the following claims." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Field of the Invention This invention generally relates to a motor control system particularly suitable for applications wherein the motor must be very accurately controlled as in the case of an apparatus for separating cellular components, such as red blood cells and platelets, from blood plasma by centrifugation.", "More specifically, the invention relates to a control circuit for a centrifuge for improving the degree of separation of the cellular components from the plasma.", "Description of the Prior Art Various motor control circuits usable with centrifugal blood separators are known.", "Generally, such motor control circuits control the separation apparatus to separate cellular components, such as red blood cells and platelets, from plasma.", "Once the plasma is separated, various tests can be performed to detect, for example, triglycerides, potassium or cholesterol in the blood.", "The accuracy of such tests is a function of the degree of separation of the cellular components from the plasma which depends on a variety of factors.", "The most important factors are the rotational speed of the centrifuge and the spin time.", "More specifically, the degree of separation of the cellular components from the plasma is primarily dependent upon the product of the rotational speed of the centrifuge and the spin time or time of operation of the centrifuge.", "Blood separators which are operated at relatively low speed time products do not result in adequate separation (e.g., red blood cells and platelets remain in the plasma).", "When blood separators are operated at relatively high speed time products, the degree of separation is relatively unaffected although problems have resulted.", "A sample cup is located within the centrifuge and is adapted to receive the whole blood to be separated.", "The sample cup is carried by a holder which is coupled to the shaft of the centrifuge drive motor and thus is rotated at the same speed as the motor shaft.", "When the centrifuge is operated at a relatively high speed the sample cup may rupture due to internal pressure and consequently leak.", "Other factors also affect the degree of separation of the cellular component from the plasma.", "For example, the drive motor acceleration can affect the degree of separation.", "Specifically, when the drive motor is accelerated too rapidly, several problems can result such as, air bubbles being trapped and breakage of red blood cells.", "Broken red blood cells can adversely affect some tests, such as the potassium test.", "Also rapid deceleration of the drive motor can result in remixing of the plasma and the red blood cells in the sample cup.", "Moreover, certain factors which may not affect the degree of separation can have an adverse impact on the blood separator itself.", "For example, operating the blood separator at a relatively high speed does not significantly affect the degree of separation but does affect the life of the drive motor.", "Specifically the motor bearing and brush wear are dependent upon the speed of the motor and the load.", "Consequently, operating the blood separator at a relatively high speed will shorten the effective motor life.", "On the other hand, operation of the blood separator at too low of speed, irrespective of the spin time, can result in inadequate separation.", "Various attempts have been made to control the plasma quality by controlling the speed of the centrifuge drive motor and the spin time.", "For example, in one blood separator apparatus, an interval timer was used to control the spin time by permitting the motor to be energized for a predetermined amount of time each time electrical power was applied to the motor.", "However, due to the poor regulation of the source of electric power for the motor, the speed of the motor varied substantially.", "As such, the variation in motor speed produced unacceptable and unpredictable results.", "Another attempt to control the speed time product of a blood centrifuge included a servo system having a motor speed detector connected in a feedback circuit.", "In that system the actual motor speed is detected by a speed transducer and compared with a speed command signal.", "The difference between the actual speed and the command speed is used to generate an error signal which, in turn, is used to increase or decrease the motor speed to reduce the error.", "Although such a system adequately controls the voltage and consequently the speed of the centrifuge drive motor, it requires the use of a motor speed transducer, such as a tachometer, which can be quite expensive.", "However, it is known by those of ordinary skill in the art that the speed of a DC motor can also be determined by measuring the back EMF of the motor.", "Since the back EMF is directly proportional to the speed of the motor a speed transducer can be eliminated.", "However, unless the source of electrical power to the motor is regulated, variations in the voltage can cause the back EMF detection circuits to vary substantially which will in turn affect the motor speed.", "Another alternative is to utilize a regulated voltage supply for the motor.", "However, as will be discussed below in connection with the description of FIG. 2, known regulated voltage regulator circuits can be temperature dependent.", "Specifically, some known voltage regulator circuits require the use of external capacitors.", "It is well known in the art that the charge on a capacitor operated with a direct current voltage can leak.", "It is also known that the leakage current increases approximately exponentially with increasing temperature.", "As will be discussed in connection with the description of FIG. 2, the capacitor leakage current can cause errors in the regulated output voltage.", "Consequently, since the speed of the motor is proportional to the voltage applied to its terminal, such variations, which are temperature dependent, can cause variations in the motor speed and consequently affect the degree of separation of the cellular components from the plasma.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a highly accurate motor control system particularly usable with apparatus such as blood separators and other devices that require precise motor control.", "It is another object of the present invention to solve the problems associated with the prior art centrifugal blood separators used to separate cellular components, such as red blood cells and platelets from the plasma.", "It is another object of the present invention to provide a control circuit for a centrifugal blood separator for adequately separating the cellular components from the blood plasma by controlling the rotational speed of the centrifuge and the spin time.", "It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a control circuit for a centrifugal blood separator to control the acceleration of the centrifuge to reduce contamination of the plasma resulting from broken red blood cells.", "It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a control circuit for a centrifugal blood separator for controlling the speed of the centrifuge such that the life of the motor will be optimized.", "It is another object of the present invention to provide a control circuit for a centrifugal blood separator for maintaining a minimum rotational speed to insure proper separation of the cellular components from the plasma.", "Briefly, the invention relates to a highly accurate motor control system particularly usable with a centrifugal blood separator.", "Specifically, the invention relates to a control circuit for controlling the speed of the centrifuge and the spin time to provide an acceptable and predictable degree of separation of cellular components, such as red blood cells and platelets, from the blood plasma.", "The centrifugal blood separator includes a drive motor having a sample cup holder which is directly coupled to the shaft of the drive motor.", "Blood samples taken by, for example, venipuncture techniques are deposited into the sample cup which may be disposable.", "Once the sample cup is placed in the sample cup holder, it rotates at the same rotational speed as the centrifugal drive motor when the unit is operating.", "The control circuit allows the motor to "slow start"", "or gradually attain rated speed to reduce cell breakage which can contaminate the plasma.", "The control circuit also insures that the motor speed does not fall below a predetermined minimum speed which can result in inadequate separation of the cellular components from the plasma.", "An important aspect of the present invention relates to the ability of the control circuit to accomplish its objectives relatively independent of ambient temperature variation.", "Known voltage regulator circuits used to control the speed of a DC motor often contain electrical components, such as capacitors and transistors whose performance varies as a function of temperature.", "Thus many prior art circuits can provide spurious or unpredictable operation resulting in inadequate blood separation when the temperature fluctuates.", "The present invention solves this problem by providing a relatively stable voltage regulator even during fluctuating ambient temperature conditions.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING These and other objects and features of the present invention will become better understood from the following description with reference to the accompanying drawing in which: FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a centrifugal blood separator in accordance with the present invention;", "FIG. 2 is a schematic of a prior art voltage regulator control circuit;", "and FIG. 3 is a schematic of a voltage regulator control circuit for a blood separator in accordance with the present invention.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION The present invention relates to a centrifugal blood separator, generally identified by the reference numeral 10, which is used to separate cellular blood components, such as red blood cells and platelets from plasma.", "Once the cellular components are separated from the plasma, certain tests can be performed on the plasma for detecting the presence of triglycerides, potassium, cholesterol and the like in the blood.", "Referring to FIG. 1, a centrifugal blood separator 10, in accordance with the present invention, is illustrated.", "The blood separator 10 is enclosed in a housing 12 having a mating cover 14.", "The housing 12 can be made by conventional injection molding techniques and molded with cavities for mounting of a drive motor 16, an interlocking cover switch 18, a printed circuit board 20, upon which the control circuit is mounted, and a power jack (not shown).", "The unit is adapted to be plugged into a standard 120 volt AC receptacle via the power jack.", "The housing 12 is generally cylindrical in shape and is open on one end.", "The housing 12 can be made from conductive plastic or painted with a conductive coating to reduce radio frequency interference and electromagnetic interference.", "An aperture 22 located in the side wall of the housing 12 near the bottom is adapted to receive the power jack (not shown).", "A motor mount 24 is mounted generally vertical within the housing 12.", "The motor mount 24 is rigidly held between the floor 26 of the housing 12 and a top plate 28 which closes the opening in the housing 12.", "The motor mount 24 carries the drive motor 16 in a relatively vertical position such that the shaft 30 of the motor 16 extends through an opening 32 in the top plate 28.", "The motor mount 24 can be molded from a relatively flexible material.", "The motor mount 24 has a plurality of radial ribs 34, which are adapted to flex to accommodate tolerances in the motor and cavity dimensions and to isolate vibrations from the housing 12 due to unbalanced loads.", "The motor mount 24 also has a plurality of vertical protuberances 36 which are compressed when the top plate 28 is mounted to the housing 12.", "In operation, the ribs 34 flex to accommodate deflection in the drive motor 16 due to vibration.", "In addition to holding the drive motor 16 in place, the top plate 28 also holds the printed circuit board 20, upon which the novel control circuit is mounted, and the cover switch 18 in place.", "An inwardly projecting protuberance 38 from the top plate 28 cooperates with a pair of protuberances 40, located on the floor 26 of the housing 12 to hold the printed circuit board 20 in a relatively vertical position.", "The cover 14 is attached to the top plate 28 via a hinge pin 42 located at an end portion of the top plate 28 which extends outwardly from the housing 12 to allow the cover 14 to be placed in an open position and a closed position.", "The cover 14 includes a latch 44 which cooperates with a catch 46 within the top plate 28 to latch the cover 14 in a closed position.", "The cover switch 18 is interlocked with the cover 14 to isolate the operator from the blood sample when the drive motor 16 is running.", "More specifically, a protuberance 47, which is integrally molded with the cover 14, actuates the cover switch 18 when the cover 14 is placed in a closed position to permit the motor 16 to be started.", "When the cover 14 is placed in an open position, the motor 16 is prevented from starting.", "A cup holder 48 is used to carry a disposable sample cup (not shown) containing the whole blood to be separated.", "The sample cup holder 48 is directly coupled to the motor shaft 30.", "The cup holder 48 transfers rotational energy of the motor shaft 30 to the sample cup.", "FIG. 2 illustrates a known control circuit for providing a regulated output voltage V O , for example, for controlling the speed of the drive motor 16.", "As previously discussed, it is important that the drive motor 16 develop a minimum speed to insure adequate separation of the cellular components from the plasma.", "The performance of some known speed control circuits, such as the circuit illustrated in FIG. 2, is affected by temperature and as such, such circuits are unable to accurately control the speed of the motor when there are significant temperature fluctuations As will be discussed below, the circuit illustrated in FIG. 2, utilizes a transistor and a capacitor which are subject to reverse saturation and leakage, respectively.", "As will be discussed in detail below, transistor reverse saturation current and the capacitor leakage current can affect the output voltage of the voltage regulator circuit and consequently the speed of the drive motor 16.", "As known by those of ordinary skill in the art, both the transistor reverse saturation current and the capacitor leakage current are temperature dependent.", "The circuit illustrated in FIG. 2 utilizes a three terminal adjustable voltage regulator 50, having an input terminal V IN , and output terminal V OUT and an adjustment terminal ADJ.", "The regulator can be a National Semiconductor type regulator Model Nos. LM117, LM217 or LM317.", "A resistor R 1 is connected between the output terminal V OUT and the adjustment terminal ADJ.", "A second resistor R 2 is connected between the adjustment terminal ADJ and an electrical common point 51, which is grounded.", "A PNP transistor Q 1 is connected in parallel across the resistor R 2 .", "Specifically the emitter terminal of transistor Q 1 is connected to the adjustment terminal ADJ of the voltage regulator 50 and the collector terminal is connected to common point 51.", "A third resistor R 3 is connected between the emitter terminal and the base of the transistor Q 1 .", "A capacitor C 1 is connected between the base and the collector terminals of the transistor Q 1 .", "A diode D 1 is connected between the base of the transistor Q 1 and the output terminal V OUT of the voltage regulator 50.", "Another capacitor C 2 is connected between the input terminal V IN of the voltage regulator 50 and the electrical common point 51.", "Although the circuit of FIG. 2 can provide for a slow start of the motor 16, the performance is dependent on temperature fluctuations as will be discussed below.", "Specifically, the voltage regulator 50 utilizes internal feedback to maintain a predetermined voltage, for example, 1.25 volts, between the output terminal V OUT and the adjustment terminal ADJ.", "The output voltage V OUT is approximately: ##EQU1## The current I adj is the voltage regulator adjustment current.", "Since the voltage regulator current I adj changes very little with the voltage regulator line or load changes and its magnitude is normally small when compared to the current through resistor R 1 , the term I adj ·R 2 can be ignored for simplicity in determining the output voltage V OUT .", "The output voltage V OUT is thus approximately ##EQU2## The 1.25 volts is impressed upon a fixed resistor R 1 .", "Consequently, a constant current I R1 flows through the resistor R 1 .", "A portion of the current I R1 flows through the resistor R 2 , the transistor Q 1 and the resistor R 3 capacitor C 1 network.", "Designating that portion of the total current I R1 which flows through the resistor R 2 as I R2 , the voltage drop across the resistor R 2 is R 2 .", "I R2 .", "Therefore, the output voltage V OUT is 1.25 volts+I R2 .", "R 2 .", "As will be discussed below, an error occurs as a result of the change in the current I R2 which flows through the resistor R 2 .", "In operation, when electrical power is applied to input terminal V IN of the voltage regulator 50, current flows through the resistors R 1 , R 2 , and R 3 while the capacitor C 1 is charging.", "The current flowing through the resistor R 3 causes a voltage drop across the resistor R 3 which, in turn, biases the PNP transistor Q 1 causing it to conduct while the capacitor C 1 is charging.", "While the transistor Q 1 is conducting, the current through the resistor R 2 is reduced, thus causing the output voltage of the voltage regulator 50 to be relatively lower than the expected steady state voltage.", "After the capacitor C 1 is charged, the voltage across the transistor Q 1 base emitter junction approaches zero thereby cutting off the transistor Q 1 .", "However, there is still a small emitter base junction forward bias.", "Consequently, transistor Q 1 continues to operate in the active region having a collector current which is given by: I QC =-αI E +I CO , where α is the large-signal current gain, I E is the emitter current and I CO is the reverse saturation current.", "It is well known that the quantities α and I CO are temperature dependent quantities.", "The expression for the output voltage V OUT of the regulator 50 then becomes (after the capacitor has charged) ##EQU3## where -(I QC +I C1 )R 2 is dependent on the transistor and capacitor characteristics (both temperature dependent quantities).", "The performance of capacitor C 1 and is also dependent on temperature fluctuations.", "Specifically, it is well known that capacitors operated with a DC voltage will exhibit leakage current.", "Both the capacitor leakage current I CBO and the transistor Q 1 reverse saturation current discussed above reduce the magnitude of the current IR 2 which in turn, affects the output voltage of the voltage regulator 50 since the output voltage V OUT is a function of the voltage drop across the resistor R 2 .", "By reducing the magnitude of current flowing through the resistor R 2 , an error in the output voltage V OUT results.", "Since both the transistor reverse saturation current and the capacitor leakage current are temperature dependent, the output voltage V O of the regulator 50 will thus be influenced by temperature variations.", "In operation, the capacitor C 1 leakage current is supplied by current through the emitter base junction of the transistor Q 1 as well as current through the resistor R 3 .", "These currents must be supplied by the current flowing from the output terminal V OUT of the voltage regulator 50 through resistor R 1 thus reducing the current available to flow through the resistor R 2 .", "Consequently, the output voltage V OUT of the voltage regulator 50 will be affected and hence will be temperature dependent.", "The control circuit in accordance with the present invention solves this problem and produces an output voltage which is not as susceptible to temperature variations.", "Referring to FIG. 3, like components with primes will be used to designate components corresponding in function to similar components in FIG. 2. The blood separator 10 is supplied with an external source of DC electrical power which is connected via a jack 54 which is serially connected to the single pole single throw contact of the cover switch 18.", "As illustrated, the jack 54 is adapted to be inserted into a receptacle of an external source of unregulated DC power which can be derived from an external bridge rectifier (not shown) having a conventional 120 volt line supply applied to its input terminals.", "As previously discussed, the cover switch 18 is interlocked such that the electrical power can only be applied to the drive motor 16 when the cover is closed.", "Accordingly, the cover switch 18 prevents electrical power from being applied to the drive motor 16 when the cover is opened to isolate the operator of the blood separator during separation.", "A transient voltage suppressor Z 1 is connected between a terminal V CC and an electrical common point 51'", "to limit input voltage being applied to the input of the regulator.", "An input coupling capacitor C 2 '", "is coupled between the transient voltage suppressor Z 1 and is coupled to the input terminal V IN of the adjustable voltage regular 50'.", "A resistor R 1 '", "is connected between the output terminal V OUT and the adjustment terminal ADJ of the voltage regulator 50'.", "A transistor Q 1 '", "(shown as a Darlington pair) is connected between the adjustment terminal ADJ and an electrical common point 51'", "such that the emitter terminal is connected to the adjustment terminal ADJ of the regulator 50'", "and the collector terminal of the transistor Q 1 '", "is connected to the electrical common point 51'.", "The base terminal of the transistor Q 1 '", "is coupled to the anode of a diode D 1 '.", "The cathode of the diode D 1 '", "is coupled to the output terminal V OUT of the regulator 50'.", "A resistor R 3 '", "is coupled between the output terminal V OUT of the regulator 50'", "and the base terminal of the transistor Q 1 '.", "The resistors R 1 '", "and R 3 '", "are used to bias the transistor Q 1 '.", "A capacitor C 1 '", "is coupled between the base terminal of the transistor Q 1 '", "and the electrical common point 51'.", "A resistor R 2 '", "is serially connected to an adjustable resistor R 4 .", "The serial combination of the resistor R 2 '", "and the adjustable resistor R 4 is coupled between the collector and emitter junction of the transistor Q 1 '.", "Also coupled between the collector and emitter junction of the transistor Q 1 '", "is a bypass capacitor C 3 .", "A diode D 2 is coupled between the output terminal V OUT of the voltage regulator 50'", "and the input terminal V IN .", "The drive motor 16 is coupled between the output terminal V OUT of the regulator 50'", "and the collector of a transistor Q 2 .", "A bypass capacitor C 4 is coupled between the electrical common point 51'", "and the positive terminal of the drive motor 16.", "A capacitor C 5 is connected in parallel with the motor 16.", "The capacitor C 5 is used to suppress electrical noise generated by the motor.", "The negative terminal of the motor 16 is connected to the collector terminal of a transistor Q 2 (shown as a Darlington pair).", "The emitter terminal of a transistor Q 2 is connected to the electrical common point 51'.", "The base terminal of the transistor Q 2 is connected to a timing control circuit for controlling the time that the motor is connected to the source of electrical power.", "The timing control circuit is generally identified by the reference numeral 56.", "The supply voltage for the timing control circuit 56 is closely regulated since variations in the voltage will result in variations in the timing periods.", "In order to closely regulate the supply voltage to the timing control circuit 56, its voltage is derived from another voltage regulator 60 which is connected such that the transient voltage suppressor Z 1 is connected between its input terminal V IN and the electrical common point 51'.", "A resistor R 5 is connected between its output terminal V OUT and the adjustment terminal ADJ of the voltage regulator 60.", "Another resistor R 6 is connected between the adjustment terminal of the regulator 60 and the electrical common point 51'.", "A capacitor C 6 is connected between the output terminal of the regulator 60 and the electrical common point 51'.", "The output voltage of the regulator 60 is applied to the timing circuit 56.", "The timing control circuit 56 consists of a programmable timer 62 having a built in oscillator and a multistage binary counter which is clocked at the oscillator frequency.", "Each time electrical power is applied to the programmable timer 62, the output terminal Q is set high which turns on the transistor Q 2 via a current limiting resistor R 7 to connect the negative terminal of the drive motor 16 and thus allow the drive motor 16 to run.", "After the programmable counter 62 counts a predetermined number of pulses from the internal oscillator, the output terminal Q goes low thus causing the transistor pair Q 2 to turn off and consequently disconnect the motor 16.", "An external RC network comprising resistors R 8 , R 9 and capacitor C 7 and a potentiometer R 10 are used to set the oscillator frequency of the timer 62.", "Although those of ordinary skill in the art will realize that various types of programmable timers are contemplated for use with the invention, one such timer that can be used is a Motorola type 4541B.", "In such a counter, the output terminal Q is set high after 2 16 or 32,768 pulses of the internal oscillator.", "In order to program the timer for a spin time of 60 seconds, for example, the oscillator frequency is set at 546 Hz.", "This is accomplished by adjusting the values for resistors R 8 , R 9 and R 10 and the capacitor C 7 connected to the terminals RTC, CTC and RS.", "In operation, when the cover 14 is closed, the cover switch 18 allows electrical power to be supplied to the control circuit.", "Once the power is applied, the drive motor 16 is turned on and timing is initiated by the programmable timer 62.", "The Q output of the programmable timer 62 is held high for a predetermined timing period.", "After the programmable timer 62 times out, the drive motor 16 is turned off and will not be turned on again unless the power is removed and reapplied.", "Thus, each time the cover 14 is closed, the programmable timer 62 will control the operation of the drive motor 16 such that it is only energized for a predetermined amount of time.", "The speed of the motor is controlled to "slow start"", "or gradually attain rated speed.", "As is known by those of odinary skill in the art, the speed of a DC motor is directly proportional to the voltage applied to its terminals.", "The voltage applied to the drive motor 16 is controlled by the adjustable voltage regulator 50'", "and associated circuitry described above.", "An important aspect of the present invention is that the output voltage from the voltage regulator 50 is not affected by capacitor leakage current or transistor reverse saturation current as the circuit illustrated and described in FIG. 2. In the circuit in accordance with the present invention, neither the capacitor leakage current for the capacitor C 1 '", "nor the transistor Q 1 '", "reverse saturation current are supplied from the current flowing through resistor R 1 '.", "Rather, both the capacitor leakage current and transistor reverse saturation current are supplied through resistor R 3 from the voltage regulator output terminal V OUT after the capacitor has charged.", "The output voltage V OUT of the voltage regulator 50'", "is thus given by the following expression: ##EQU4## Accordingly, the capacitor leakage current and transistor reverse saturation current have no affect on the steady state output voltage of the voltage regulator 50'", "in this improved design.", "After the capacitor C 1 '", "has fully charged, the voltage across it will very nearly equal the output voltage V OUT .", "Since the transistor emitter voltage is approximately 1.25 volts less than V OUT , the transistor emitter base junction will be reverse biased.", "With the emitter base and collector base junctions of the transistor Q 1 '", "both reverse biased, the transistor will be in the cut-off region of operation.", "Hence, the emitter current I E becomes zero and the transistor collector current consists entirely of the small reverse saturation current I CO supplied through the transistor base terminal.", "In operation, when power is first applied, the voltage across the base emitter junction V BE of the transistor Q 1 '", "and the voltage V C across the capacitor C 1 '", "are equal to zero.", "The internal feedback circuit in the voltage regulator 50'", "will attempt to keep the voltage across R 1 '", "constant;", "for example 1.25 volts.", "A constant voltage across a fixed resistor R 1 '", "will result in a constant current of 1.25 volts/R 1 '", "flowing through the resistor R 1 '.", "The voltage at the adjustment terminal ADJ of the voltage regulator 50'", "will rise to about 1.2 volts.", "When the voltage at the adjustment terminal rises to about 1.2 volts the transistor Q 1 '", "turns on.", "Since the voltage across the emitter base junction of the transistor Q 1 '", "is constant while the transistor Q 1 '", "is in the active region and since the voltage across the resistor R 1 '", "is constant, the current through the resistor R 3 is also constant.", "Consequently, a constant current flows into the capacitor C 1 '", "resulting in a linear voltage rise across the capacitor C 1 '", "according to the well known relationship wherein V C =∫idt: Consequently the differential voltage drop across the capacitor C 1 is equal to ##EQU5## Rearranging the terms results in the expression: ##EQU6## for i equal to a constant.", "Thus, the voltage across the capacitor C 1 '", "rises in a linear fashion until the voltage across the capacitor C 1 '", "becomes greater than V OUT [-1.25 volts (the voltage at the output terminal) -1.2 volts (the voltage at the adjustment terminal)] and the transistor Q 1 '", "cuts off.", "Thus it should be apparent that an improved blood separator has been disclosed wherein the speed of the centrifuge can be accurately controlled and is relatively not affected by temperature dependent circuit variables, such as transistor reverse saturation current and capacitor leakage current.", "The system can be implemented in a number of ways, all of which are contemplated within the scope of the appended claims.", "Obviously, many other modifications and variations of the invention as hereinbefore set forth can be made without departing from the spirit and scope thereof." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to an apparatus for opening and closing a bottom tap opening in a vacuum induction melting and casting furnace, with a movable closure body, a plug rod for example, as well as a drive unit for displacing the closure body.", "There are many different tapping apparatus for melting and casting furnaces for controlling the flow of molten metals from a metallurgical vessel.", "For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,083,689 describes an outlet system with a movable closure plug for controlling the flow of molten metals from a metallurgical vessel, having a control piston which is engaged in a bore and situated at the bottom end of a plug rod, and having a yoke connected with the upper end portion of the plug rod.", "A coupling red extending radially from the plug rod is present between the yoke and the plug rod, and for the connection between the yoke and the coupling rod at least one releasable clamping device permitting changes of angle and length is provided.", "U.S. Pat. No. 4,736,930 discloses a closure system for a tap opening in the bottom of a metallurgical vessel, especially a metal melting furnace, with a shut-off means by which the tap opening can be closed from below, and which is protected against direct contact with the molten metal by a filler material placed in the tap opening.", "A tube is displaceable from a lowered blocking position to a raised release position releasing the tap opening, and has a protective layer of refractory material at least in the area of contact with the molten metal.", "These known devices have the disadvantage that they do not allow a reliable opening and closing of the bottom pouring opening.", "This is especially necessary in the pouring of small amounts of high-purity metals.", "In the use of the above-mentioned plug rods consisting usually of metal in inductively heated melting and casting furnaces, an undesired heating of the plug rod occurs due to the excitation of the metal part of the rod by the induction field of the furnace.", "The plug rods are usually actuated by hydraulic jacks which are disposed within the vacuum chamber.", "The oil fog caused by the piston rod of the hydraulic jack within the vacuum chamber is of no great importance in most cases.", "For the melting and casting of high-purity metal alloys, however, the oil fog within the vacuum chamber is a great disadvantage and can result in contamination of the molten metal.", "The present invention provides reliable opening and closing of the bottom tap opening, while preventing undesired heating of the plug rod and contamination within the furnace by the accessory equipment, which may cause an oil fog.", "According to the invention, the plug rod is made of ceramic material, and is connected by levers to a coupling means which has a compression spring to limit the maximum closing force of the closure body, and can be displaced by an electric motor drive.", "Advantageously, this permits a reliable opening and closing of the bottom tap opening, prevents the heating of the plug rod, and prevents interference with the melting of high-purity metal alloys by oil fog within the vacuum chamber.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a melting and casting crucible with invention, consisting essentially of a plug rod, a boom and a spindle drive powered by an electric motor, and FIG. 1A is an enlarged sectional view of the device when the plug rod is in the pouring opening of the crucible;", "FIG. 2 is a section of a plug rod mounting with alignment equalization;", "FIG. 2A is an enlarged sectional view of the alignment device of FIG. 2. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT As FIG. 1 shows, on the bottom of a vacuum chamber 1 there is a stand 2 on which the melting and casting crucible 3 is placed.", "The crucible 3 is surrounded by an induction coil 4 and has a bottom pouring opening 5 through which the molten metal 6 in the crucible is poured out.", "The opening 5 can be closed by a cylindrical plug rod 7 which at its upper end extending out of the molten metal is affixed to a boom 8.", "The boom 8 is held at its vertical part in the guide 9 and is fixed to horizontal beam 10;", "the carrier 11 is fixed to the other end of horizontal beam 10.", "Fixing is preferably done by welding the beam 10 to boom 8 and carrier 11.", "A cylindrical compression spring 12 is inserted into the carrier 11.", "A spindle sleeve 13 having a threaded bore is placed on the upper end of the compression spring 12 and is driven vertically relative to the carrier 11 as the threaded spindle 15 is rotated in the bore and the spring 12 is compressed.", "Relative vertical movement is limited by stop-bolts 14, 14'", "as shown in FIG. 1. The spring 12 is shown compressed in FIG. 1A;", "this is the condition when the plug rod 7 is seated in orifice 5.", "The carrier 11, the spring 12, and the spindle sleeve 13 have a common axis of rotation on which the spindle 15 is also disposed.", "The top end of the spindle 15 is threaded in sleeve 13 and the bottom end is connected by a coupling 16 to the electric motor 17.", "On the wall 18 of the vacuum furnace chamber 1 is a bracket 19 with a vertical rail on which the two limit switches 20 and 21 are fastened.", "These switches 20 and 21 are actuated by the two chamfers on the spindle sleeve 13.", "All of the parts mounted above the motor 17 are generally designated as the drive unit 22.", "FIG. 2 shows an alternative embodiment wherein the plug rod includes a ceramic sleeve 44 and an end cap 45 with an intervening disk 35'", "held together by cement.", "Additional retention is provided by threads on the end of tension rod 38, which cooperate with threads in cap 45 to fix it in the plug rod, and nuts 39'", "bearing against disk 35'.", "The rod 38 may be high grade steel or graphite.", "The tension rod is fixed relative to sleeve 40 and annular plate 42, which is slidably mounted in a stepped central bore of joint part 33.", "A cylindrical sleeve 34 is fixed in the upper part of the stepped bore, and contains a coil spring 41 which urges the sleeve 40 downward relative to the joint part 33.", "Relative motion is limited by bolts 43 in the same fashion as bolts 14, 14'", "shown in FIGS. 1 and 1A.", "As the boom 8 is lowered by the action of a motor (not shown), an upper joint part 32 bears against the lower joint part 33 when the ceramic end cap is seated in a pouring opening of the crucible.", "This causes the joint parts 32, 33 to move downward relative to the sleeve 40, compressing the spring 41 as the bolts 43 "rise"", "through countersunk bores in the lower joint part 33.", "The tension rod 38 will also "rise"", "through sleeve 34 and top cover 35.", "That is, the rod 38 becomes stationary when the pouring opening is closed, and the sleeve 34 and cover 35 move downward relative thereto as spring 41 is compressed.", "The embodiment of FIG. 2 also compensates for misalignments between the pouring opening and the plug rod.", "If the rod is not properly aligned, the joint part 33, which is configured as a ball, will rotate in joint part 32, which is configured as a socket.", "This feature is shown in greater detail in FIG. 2A.", "Referring to FIG. 2A, a hollow hemispheric upper joint part 32 is fastened on boom 30 by means of the screw 31.", "A joint part 33 matching it is bolted to a cylindrical sleeve 34.", "On the sleeve 34 there is a disk-shaped cover 35 which is placed on a rubber pressure ring 36 on the annular part of the boom 30.", "In a radially inner groove in the upper joint part 32 there is placed a rubber quad ring 37 which in turn radially encircles the sleeve 34.", "In a central bore of the cover 35 and of the sleeve 34 there is an upright tension rod 38, which is fastened on top of the cover 35 by means of a pair of nuts 39.", "On the tension rod 38 there is furthermore a sleeve 40 which holds a compression spring between its top and a flange of the sleeve 34.", "The sleeve 40 is adjoined at the bottom by a plate 42 which is fastened to the hemispheric joint part 33 by the screw 43.", "The tension rod 38 is surrounded below the plate 42 by a hollow cylindrical ceramic sleeve 44.", "This sleeve 44 is clamped at its bottom end to the tension rod 38 by a pair of nuts 39', 35'", "(FIG.", "2).", "If misalignment occurs during downward movement of boom 30, the ball 32 will rotate in socket 33, causing the rubber ring 37 to be compressed on one side.", "The ring 37 also provides a resilient centering action when the boom 30 is raised.", "The foregoing is exemplary and not intended to limit the scope of the claims which follow." ]

[ "TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present application relates generally to the technical field of project management and, in one specific example, to allow for tracking and managing projects.", "BACKGROUND [0002] Planning, organization and managing resources are required for the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives.", "Achieving project goals and objectives while adhering to quality, scope, time and budget constraints is one of the many challenges faced by project managers.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0003] Some embodiments are illustrated by way of example and not limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which: [0004] FIG. 1 is screenshot of a Graphical User Interface (GUI) screen, according to an example embodiment, of a capacity planning tool used to enter the quarterly time frame of the project.", "[0005] FIG. 2 is a screenshot of a GUI screen, according to an example embodiment, of a capacity planning tool illustrating a capacity request queue.", "[0006] FIG. 3 is a screenshot of a GUI screen, according to an example embodiment, illustrating a capacity request form.", "[0007] FIG. 4 is a further detailed screenshot of a GUI screen shown in FIG. 3 , according to an example embodiment, illustrating the capability of choosing a concept for the capacity request.", "[0008] FIG. 5 is a further detailed screenshot of a GUI screen shown in FIG. 3 , according to an example embodiment, illustrating an update option control for capacity request.", "[0009] FIG. 6 is a screenshot of a GUI display, according to an example embodiment, that shows the quarterly budget allocation for various projects.", "[0010] FIG. 7 is screenshot of a GUI display shown in FIG. 6 , according to an example embodiment, which allows a budget administrator to enter the operations budget for a particular project and quarterly time frame.", "[0011] FIG. 8 is a screenshot of a GUI screen, illustrating a Project Management (PMO) Audit Report Tool for project management, according to an example embodiment.", "[0012] FIG. 9 is a screenshot of a GUI display, showing a Project Management Organization (PMO) Audit Report Tool is provided that includes flags to show status of various projects, according to an example embodiment.", "[0013] FIG. 10 is a screenshot of a GUI display, showing a menu used to generate an audit rule, according to an example embodiment.", "[0014] FIG. 11 is a screenshot of a GUI display, illustrating a Visual Roadmap Tool used to view a program including various projects, according to an example embodiment.", "[0015] FIG. 12 is a screenshot of a GUI display, showing a menu used to add ad-hoc milestones for the program shown in FIG. 11 .", "[0016] FIG. 13 is a screenshot of a GUI display, showing a menu to add/remove projects for the program shown in FIG. 11 .", "[0017] FIG. 14 is a screenshot of a GUI display, showing a visual roadmap of a project, according to some embodiments.", "[0018] FIG. 15 is a flow diagram illustrating the execution of an operation, according to an example embodiment, used to provide a capacity plan and display budget data.", "[0019] FIG. 16 is a flow diagram illustrating a Remote Email Approval Tool, according to an example embodiment, used to provide an approval system for project data using email approvals.", "[0020] FIG. 17 is a flow diagram illustrating the execution of an operation, according to an example embodiment, to provide a visual roadmap of a project that displays a roll-up view.", "[0021] FIG. 18 is a flow diagram illustrating the execution of an operation, according to an example embodiment, used to provide an audit flow and render project flags based on various audit rules.", "[0022] FIG. 19 shows a diagrammatic representation of a machine in the form of a computer system, according to an example embodiment.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0023] Example methods and systems to provide real-time project planning and tracking are described herein.", "In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth to provide a thorough understanding of example embodiments.", "It will be evident, however, to one of ordinary skill in the art that the various embodiments may be practiced without these specific details.", "In some example embodiments, a system and method are shown that allow for the real-time project planning and tracking tool in an online environment that allows for resource allocation and determination to be made at the front end before resources are allocated to a particular project/task.", "The system and methods provided herein allow for visual representation of project time lines, project status and allows for the linking of various projects to determine if a particular project requires the completion of other projects before it can be scheduled to begin.", "[0024] FIG. 1 is screenshot 100 of a Graphical User Interface (GUI) screen, according to an example embodiment, showing a capacity planning tool used to enter the quarterly time frame of a chosen project.", "In some embodiments, screenshot 100 shows a dashboard area 110 activated by a control button “Dashboard”", "120 .", "In some embodiments, Dashboard area 110 is configured to view the project planning tool by various quarters.", "Dashboard area 110 can be used to select for viewing a time frame (e.g., years namely 2007, 2008, and 2009 having quarters Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4);", "a particular project from a set of projects (e.g., Corporate, and Global) including tasks (e.g., Giving Works, World of Good, and Kijiji).", "Dashboard area 110 also includes a control button (shown as “GO”) that is used to activate the chosen time frames of particular projects displayed in screenshot 100 .", "Screenshot 100 further shows control buttons Capacity Request Queue 122 (described in FIG. 2 ), and Capacity Budget 124 .", "[0025] Screenshot 100 also shows a table 132 including regions 130 , 140 , 150 and 160 .", "In some embodiments, region 130 can be configured to list various projects along with their corresponding tasks.", "Region 140 and 150 correspond to quarters Q3 2008 and Q4 2008, respectively.", "In some embodiments, region 140 includes a listing for each project a set of columns indicating parameters such as a project development target budget 142 , an appropriation amount (capacity budget) 144 , a requested amount (capacity scope) 146 and a balance 148 , which is the difference between the appropriation amount 144 and the requested amount 146 .", "[0026] FIG. 2 is a screenshot 200 of a GUI screen, according to an example embodiment, of a capacity planning tool illustrating a capacity request queue.", "Screenshot 200 shows control buttons dashboard 120 , capacity request queue 122 , and capacity budget 124 and add button 210 .", "Screenshot 200 shows a list of projects for which appropriations of funds or resources are requested by various project managers.", "In some embodiments, the titles of the request for appropriation are listed in column 220 .", "In some embodiments, the names of the project for which the request is made are listed in column 230 .", "In some embodiments, the expected start dates of the projects are listed in column 240 .", "In some embodiments, the cost of the project is listed in column 250 .", "In some embodiments, the names of the requesting project managers or personnel are listed in column 260 .", "In some embodiments, the date of submission of the appropriation request is provided in column 270 .", "In some embodiments, the status of the appropriation requests requested by personnel listed in column 260 is listed in column 280 .", "A concept is a project that has not been scoped or assigned resources.", "It is essentially a project in the planning phase of the project life cycle.", "The CBOM details column provides a link to a Capacity Build of Materials detail screen.", "[0027] FIG. 3 is a screenshot 300 of a GUI screen, according to an example embodiment, illustrating a capacity request form 310 which is a window that can be opened by clicking the icon positioned on or near the appropriation request titled “Testing 2[14].”", "In some embodiments, window 310 is a drop down menu button 320 that expands to show different projects (GXTs), a title field 330 identifying the name of the appropriation request, a start date field 340 indicating the start date of the project, a description block 350 provided to record any particular information pertaining to the appropriation request or the project for which appropriation is requested, a status field 360 which can have any number of status designations such as “Active”, “Inactive”, “Terminated”, “Suspended”", "etc.", ", to describe the status of the appropriation request.", "The “Verify”", "button allows the user to verify the Concept name within the Tracker database.", "The user can select a valid concept if results are returned.", "[0028] In some embodiments, window 310 can be used to select, change or add particular values for the various field of the appropriation and screen 300 can then be updated using update button 370 .", "[0029] FIG. 4 is a further detailed screenshot 400 of a GUI screen 300 as shown in FIG. 3 , according to an example embodiment, illustrating the capability of choosing a concept (such as a “project feature”) for the capacity request.", "Screenshot 400 shows window 310 including a drop down menu 370 that can be used to select a concept associated with the corresponding appropriation request.", "[0030] FIG. 5 is a further detailed screenshot 500 of a GUI screen 300 as shown in FIG. 3 , according to an example embodiment, illustrating an update option control 370 for capacity request.", "Screenshot 500 shows a detail window 310 including a field 380 having a concept selected and associated with the corresponding appropriation request.", "[0031] FIG. 6 is a screenshot 600 of a GUI display, according to an example embodiment, that shows a the quarterly budget allocation for various projects.", "Screenshot 600 shows a dashboard 610 including fields 612 , 614 and 616 corresponding to years 2007, 2008 and 2009, respectively.", "Dashboard 610 also includes a scrollbar 620 that may be used to scroll up or down for the selection of a particular project from the list of projects.", "Column 650 lists the various projects that are active for quarters Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4 of year 2008.", "Columns 652 , 654 , 656 and 658 show the corresponding appropriation budgets provided for the various projects listed in column 650 .", "[0032] FIG. 7 is screenshot 700 of a GUI display 600 shown in FIG. 6 , according to an example embodiment, which allows a budget administrator to enter the operations budget for a particular project and quarterly time frame.", "Screenshot 700 shows a pop up window 710 that is generated by clicking on any of the cells under the Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4 columns in fields 612 , 614 , and 616 .", "Window 710 provides for adding or editing the capacity budget.", "Typically this is done at the corporate or divisional level.", "The requested amounts are provided by the working group level.", "The working group can request changes in the appropriation amounts (capacity budgets) but cannot change the amounts directly.", "Working groups can change the “requested amount”", "based on their projections of what resources are needed to perform the project tasks.", "In some embodiments, by using window 710 , a new budget amount can be entered in the “Budget Amount”", "field.", "In some embodiments, a “Change Type”", "option is provided with a selection field 720 to select either of two settings namely “Increase”", "or “Decrease.”", "Window 710 also includes control buttons 740 and 750 that are used for activating the “Save”", "and “Reset”", "function, respectively.", "[0033] FIG. 8 is a screenshot 800 of a GUI display, illustrating a Project Management Organization (PMO) Audit Report Tool for project management, according to an example embodiment.", "Screenshot 800 shows a search field 810 including a drop down menu for a list of criteria;", "for example, Project, Project Managers, Dates of Projects, etc In some embodiments, the search includes a generic search field across any of the tools described herein.", "Field 820 is provided next to search field 810 to enter text used for searching against the criterion that was selected under search field 810 .", "Screenshot 800 also shows a Project Management Organization (PMO) audit report that has selection options such as Group (including the Project Manager or Product Manager), Manager (to select a particular manager), Resource (e.g. to select a particular software engineer), RASCI—the corporation's decision making process hierarchy (R—Responsible, A—Approver, S—Supporter, C—Consultant, I—Informed).", "For example;", "in a situation where there are 5 project managers working on a project, the Project Manager with the “R”", "designation is the primary contact and decision maker.", "In some embodiments, the tool also includes a “Due within weeks”", "drop down menu, and an “Audit Rules”", "drop down menu to select various audit rules that can be chosen to be applied for a given project or task.", "[0034] In some embodiments, screenshot 800 further shows control buttons for Pending/Overdue items 830 and At-Risk Projects status 840 .", "In some embodiments, selection of the various at-risk projects button shows a list of projects that are at risk that have their ID listed in column 844 , the title of projects listed in column 846 , and status field 848 .", "In some embodiments, status field 848 has three colored options (Color Green—representing no risk to the project, Color Yellow—representing that the project is potentially at risk in the near future, Color Red—representing that the project is currently at risk).", "[0035] FIG. 9 is a screenshot 900 of a GUI display, showing a Project Management Organization (PMO) Audit Report Tool is provided that includes flags to show status of various projects, according to an example embodiment.", "Screenshot 900 shows an audit report field including a drop down menus 910 , 920 , 930 , 940 , 950 and 960 to select a group, a manager, a resource, a RASCI—the corporation's decision making process hierarchy (R—Responsible, A—Approver, S—Supporter, C—Consultant, I—Informed) Screen shot 900 shows pending/overdue items field 980 and at-risk project field 990 , wherein the pending/overdue items field 980 has been selected.", "Selection of the pending/overdue items 980 field displays a list of project ID with various tasks against each ID, a status column corresponding to each task with appropriate completion dates (such as development date, operations date, quality assurance date) shown in further columns.", "In some embodiments, various flags are used to identify if the tasks do not conform to a set of audit rules selected using field 960 .", "In some embodiments, the flags are displayed for different categories or activities such as project plan, scope (resource or appropriation) assignment, development to quality assurance hand off, etc.", "In some embodiments, the flags are associated with project activities such as Project requirement Document (PRD), Architecture Review Board (ARB), Engineering Requirement Document (ERD) checklist, and Roll-out Plan (ROP).", "Project Requirements Document (PRD), Branch Registration (Source control management tool ClearCase uses branches as a way to develop and deploy software.", "Each project sub-feature is developed on a branch.", "Those branches are registered to sub-features within the tool.", "As a result, a release management personnel or department knows what software code is being deployed on any given week.", "Software Developers are required to register those branches by a certain date.) An open Sub-feature is a project sub-feature that has not been deployed to production.", "Once the sub-feature is on production, the sub-feature must be closed.", "Once all the sub-features of a project are closed, the project is considered completed.", "If a sub-feature is still open after it was released, the flag shows up in the Audit Tool.", "In some embodiments, a Merge Approval flag is provided to show whether the Quality Assurance department has signed-off on a sub-feature before it can merge to the main branch of corporation's code (essentially a release).", "[0036] In some embodiments, a PMO Audit Dashboard is included that provides a way to help project managers keep track of deadlines.", "In some embodiments, the project manager must make milestones to ensure that the project data is complete and up-to-date.", "In some embodiments, the PMO tool is designed to accommodate different groups with different milestones.", "In some embodiments, the primary interface of the PMO tool allows the user to select a project manager and project what milestones are approaching as well as milestones that are missed.", "In some embodiments, a flag with a red border means the milestone has passed and is unfulfilled.", "In some embodiments, a flag with no border means that it is due within the selected time frame.", "In some embodiments, clicking on the flag will take one directly to the data entry point for that task.", "Once, the task is completed, the flag will disappear after refreshing the data.", "[0037] FIG. 10 is a screenshot 1000 of a GUI display, showing a menu provided in the PMO Audit Report Tool used to generate an audit rule, according to an example embodiment.", "In some embodiments, the rules for the audit report can be defined for different groups.", "In some embodiments, the PMO audit report tool allows the user to input more rules without performing any source code changes.", "[0038] FIG. 11 is a screenshot 1100 of a GUI display, illustrating a Visual Roadmap Tool used to view a program including various projects, according to an example embodiment.", "In some embodiments, the Visual Roadmap Tool provides a hierarchy of analysis such that executives and/or other managers can see where and how a project is progressing.", "In some embodiments, the granularity of the details of the progress of projects can be varied.", "In some embodiments, a progress bar or counter (such as for e.g., Coding—20% complete etc.) is provided for each of the tasks monitored.", "In some embodiments, the visual roadmap tool visually represents all of the dependencies impacting a particular project which allows the user to better understand the business rules of that particular project.", "In some embodiment, the user of the tool can find a project for milestones that are due or overdue.", "In some embodiments, the user is capable of viewing any violations for a given project over a space of time the user selects.", "[0039] FIG. 12 is a screenshot 1200 of a GUI display, showing a menu used to add ad-hoc milestones for the program shown in FIG. 11 .", "In some embodiments of the user can manually enter a milestone at a folder level and choose to provide the data to the executive level.", "[0040] FIG. 13 is a screenshot 1300 of a GUI display, showing a menu to add/remove projects for the program shown in FIG. 11 .", "In some embodiments, the user can associate a project to a folder and allow it to be surfaced to the executive rollup level.", "[0041] FIG. 14 is a screenshot 1400 of a GUI display, illustrating a Visual Roadmap Tool used to provide a visual roadmap of a project, according to some embodiments.", "In some embodiments, the user can view the project start and end, plus selected or added milestones in a graphical timeline by selecting the folders that contain the projects.", "[0042] FIG. 15 is a flow diagram 1500 illustrating the execution of an operation, according to an example embodiment, used to provide a capacity plan and display budget data.", "Flow diagram 1500 includes a capacity budget block 1510 , which provides data to the project tables block 1520 and to the dashboard at block 1530 and the request form at block 1550 .", "At block 1530 , the operation receives data from the capacity budget (appropriation data) along with hardware request data (scope data or requested data) associated with a particular hardware request.", "The operation proceeds from block 1530 to block 1540 that provides for displaying of the budget data and the difference between the budget data and scope data (requested data).", "[0043] At block 1550 , in some embodiments, a request form receives data from block 1520 that include project tables, in order to view existing hardware requests.", "The operation proceeds from block 1550 to block 1560 .", "At block 1560 , operations architects (managers) can submit new requests or edit existing ones, wherein the requests can be tied to a project.", "In some embodiments, the various requests are linked to project tables at block 1520 .", "[0044] In some embodiments, during a budget administration operation, block 1570 receives capacity budget data.", "At block 1580 , in some embodiments, budget administrator can change the budget numbers for each of the various strategies and quarters.", "[0045] FIG. 16 is a flow diagram 1600 illustrating the operation of a Remote Email Approval Tool, according to an example embodiment, used to provide an approval system for project data using email approvals.", "[0046] In some embodiments, the process of approval includes the following: (a) a request is made to increase a budget item, (b) the tool takes the request and marks it “Pending Approval,” (c) an email is sent to the approver asking for approval, (d) the approver types “Approved”", "in the reply email, (e) the Remote Email Approval Tool receives the “Approved”", "message and updates the request to “Approved”", "in the system and consequently the budget item is updated to the new value that was approved.", "[0047] In some embodiments, block 1610 provides project data to block 1630 .", "At block 1630 , the operation provides for emails to be sent to an email system that allows an approver to receive an email regarding approval for a project.", "In some embodiments, block 1630 includes providing an approval email to be identified with a unique ID.", "At block 1640 , the operation provides for the approval emails sent from and to the approver to be collected and stored.", "At block 1650 , the operation provides for identifying the ID and word “Approved”", "in the return email.", "Additionally, block 1650 the operation provides for updating the database to show request was approved.", "[0048] FIG. 17 is a flow diagram 1700 illustrating the operation of a Visual Roadmap Tool, according to an example embodiment, to provide a visual roadmap of a project that displays a roll-up view.", "In some embodiments, block 1710 provides a table of audit rules.", "At block 1720 , the operation allows for receiving data from audit rules table to dynamically create SQL based on user and user group association.", "The operation proceeds from block 1720 to block 1730 , which includes project tables.", "The operation proceeds from block 1730 to block 1740 .", "At block 1740 , the operation loops over each dynamic query to build a result set for each user.", "In some embodiments, at block 1750 , the operation sends results as XML to visual interface and renders project flags for each rule.", "[0049] FIG. 18 is a flow diagram 1800 illustrating the execution of an operation, according to an example embodiment, used to provide an audit flow and render project flags based on various audit rules.", "In some embodiments, at block 1810 , the operation provides project tables.", "The operation proceeds from block 1810 to block 1820 .", "At block 1820 , the operation provides hierarchical project data from database in XML format.", "The operation proceeds from block 1820 to block 1830 .", "At block 1830 , the operation provides for a team lead to modify folder structure and add projects for the roll-up view (for the executives).", "The operation proceeds from block 1830 to block 1840 .", "At block 1840 , the operation provides for ad-hoc milestones to be created at each folder level to surface key milestones for groups of projects.", "The operation further proceeds from block 1840 to block 1850 .", "At block 1850 , the operation provides for the project data to be displayed as rolled up for executive view.", "Example Storage [0050] Some embodiments may include the various databases for capacity budget ( 1510 ), project tables ( 1520 , 1730 , 1810 ), project data ( 1610 ), and project related emails ( 1620 ) as being relational databases, or in some cases On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) based databases.", "In the case of relational databases, various tables of data are created, and data is inserted into and/or selected from these tables using Structured Query Language (SQL) or some other database-query language known in the art.", "In the case of OLAP databases, one or more multi-dimensional cubes or hypercubes containing multidimensional data, which data is selected from or inserted into using a Multidimensional Expression (MDX), may be implemented.", "In the case of a database using tables and SQL, a database application such as, for example, MYSQL™, SQLSERVER™, Oracle 81™, 10G™, or some other suitable database application may be used to manage the data.", "In the case of a database using cubes and MDX, a database using Multidimensional Online Analytic Processing (MOLAP), Relational Online Analytic Processing (ROLAP), Hybrid Online Analytic Processing (HOLAP), or some other suitable database application may be used to manage the data.", "These tables or cubes made up of tables, in the case of, for example, ROLAP, are organized into a RDS or Object Relational Data Schema (ORDS), as is known in the art.", "These schemas may be normalized using certain normalization algorithms so as to avoid abnormalities such as non-additive joins and other problems.", "Additionally, these normalization algorithms may include Boyce-Codd Normal Form or some other normalization or optimization algorithm known in the art.", "A Three-Tier Architecture [0051] In some embodiments, a method is described as implemented in a distributed or non-distributed software application designed under a three-tier architecture paradigm, whereby the various components of computer code that implement this method may be categorized as belonging to one or more of these three tiers.", "Some embodiments may include a first tier as an interface (e.g., an interface tier) that is relatively free of application processing.", "Further, a second tier may be a logic tier that performs application processing in the form of logical/mathematical manipulations of data inputted through the interface level, and communicates the results of these logical/mathematical manipulations to the interface tier and/or to a backend or storage tier.", "These logical/mathematical manipulations may relate to certain business rules, or processes that govern the software application as a whole.", "A third, storage tier, may be a persistent or non-persistent storage medium.", "In some cases, one or more of these tiers may be collapsed into another, resulting in a two-tier or even a one-tier architecture.", "For example, the interface and logic tiers may be consolidated, or the logic and storage tiers may be consolidated, as in the case of a software application with an embedded database.", "This three-tier architecture may be implemented using one technology, or as will be discussed below, a variety of technologies.", "This three-tier architecture, and the technologies through which it is implemented, may be executed on two or more computer systems organized in a server-client, peer-to-peer, or some other suitable configuration.", "Further, these three tiers may be distributed between more than one computer system as various software components.", "Component Designs [0052] Some example embodiments may include the above described tiers, and processes or operations that make them up, as being written as one or more software components.", "Common to many of these components is the ability to generate, use, and manipulate data.", "These components, and the functionality associated with each, may be used by client, server, or peer computer systems.", "These various components may be implemented by a computer system on an as-needed basis.", "These components may be written in an object-oriented computer language such that a component oriented, or object-oriented programming technique can be implemented using a Visual Component Library (VCL), Component Library for Cross Platform (CLX), Java Beans (JB), Enterprise Java Beans (EJB), Component Object Model (COM), Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM), or other suitable technique.", "These components may be linked to other components via various Application Programming interfaces (APIs), and then compiled into one complete server, client, and/or peer software application.", "Further, these APIs may be able to communicate through various distributed programming protocols as distributed computing components.", "Distributed Computing Components and Protocols [0053] Some example embodiments may include remote procedure calls being used to implement one or more of the above described components across a distributed programming environment as distributed computing components.", "For example, an interface component (e.g., an interface tier) may reside on a first computer system that is located remotely from a second computer system containing a logic component (e.g., a logic tier).", "These first and second computer systems may be configured in a server-client, peer-to-peer, or some other suitable configuration.", "These various components may be written using the above-described object-oriented programming techniques and can be written in the same programming language or in different programming languages.", "Various protocols may be implemented to enable these various components to communicate regardless of the programming language(s) used to write them.", "For example, a component written in C++ may be able to communicate with another component written in the Java programming language through use of a distributed computing protocol such as a Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA), a Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), or some other suitable protocol.", "Some embodiments may include the use of one or more of these protocols with the various protocols outlined in the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model, or the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) protocol stack model for defining the protocols used by a network to transmit data.", "A System of Transmission Between a Server and Client [0054] Some embodiments may use the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) basic reference model or Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) protocol stack model for defining the protocols used by a network to transmit data.", "In applying these models, a system of data transmission between a server and client, or between peer computer systems is described as a series of roughly five layers comprising: an application layer, a transport layer, a network layer, a data link layer, and a physical layer.", "In the case of software having a three-tier architecture, the various tiers (e.g., the interface, logic, and storage tiers) reside on the application layer of the TCP/IP protocol stack.", "In an example implementation using the TCP/IP protocol stack model, data from an application residing at the application layer is loaded into the data load field of a TCP segment residing at the transport layer.", "The TCP segment also contains port information for a recipient software application residing remotely.", "The TCP segment is loaded into the data load field of an IP datagram residing at the network layer.", "Next, the IP datagram is loaded into a frame residing at the data link layer.", "This frame is then encoded at the physical layer, and the data is transmitted over a network such as the Internet, Local Area Network (LAN), Wide Area Network (WAN), or some other suitable network.", "In some cases, the word “internet”", "refers to a network of networks.", "These networks may use a variety of protocols for the exchange of data, including the aforementioned TCP/IP.", "These networks may be organized within a variety of topologies (e.g., a star topology) or structures.", "A Computer System [0055] FIG. 19 shows a diagrammatic representation of a machine in the example form of a computer system 1900 within which a set of instructions for causing the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein may be executed.", "A server may be a computer system.", "In alternative embodiments, the machine operates as a standalone device or may be connected (e.g., networked) to other machines.", "In a networked deployment, the machine may operate in the capacity of a server or a client machine in server-client network environment, or as a peer machine in a peer-to-peer (or distributed) network environment.", "The machine may be a Personal Computer (PC), a tablet PC, a Set-Top Box (STB), a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a cellular telephone, a web appliance, a network router, switch or bridge, or any machine capable of executing a set of instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that machine.", "Further, while only a single machine is illustrated, the term “machine”", "shall also be taken to include any collection of machines that individually or jointly execute a set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein.", "Example embodiments can also be practiced in distributed system environments where local and remote computer systems that are linked (e.g., either by hardwired, wireless, or a combination of hardwired and wireless connections) through a network both perform tasks.", "In a distributed system environment, program modules may be located in both local and remote memory-storage devices (see below).", "[0056] The example computer system 1900 includes a processor 1902 (e.g., a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) or both), a main memory 1901 and a static memory 1906 , which communicate with each other via a bus 1908 .", "The computer system 1900 may further include a video display unit 190 (e.g., a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) or a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT)).", "The computer system 1900 also includes an alphanumeric input device 1956 (e.g., a keyboard), a User Interface (UI) cursor controller 1911 (e.g., a mouse), a disk drive unit 1916 , a signal generation device 1953 (e.g., a speaker) and a network interface device (e.g., a transmitter) 1920 .", "[0057] The disk drive unit 1916 includes a machine-readable medium 1946 on which is stored one or more sets of instructions 1917 and data structures (e.g., software) embodying or used by any one or more of the methodologies or functions described herein.", "The software may also reside, completely or at least partially, within the main memory 1901 and/or within the processor 1902 during execution thereof by the computer system 1900 , the main memory 1901 and the processor 1902 also constituting machine-readable media.", "[0058] The instructions 1917 may further be transmitted or received over a network 1926 via the network interface device 1920 using any one of a number of well-known transfer protocols (e.g., Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP), Secure Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTPS)).", "[0059] In some embodiments, a removable physical storage medium is shown to be a single medium, and the term “machine-readable medium”", "should be taken to include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database, and/or associated caches and servers) that store the one or more sets of instructions.", "The term “machine-readable medium”", "shall also be taken to include any medium that is capable of storing, encoding, or carrying a set of instructions for execution by the machine and that cause the machine to perform any of the one or more of the methodologies described herein.", "The term “machine-readable medium”", "shall accordingly be taken to include, but not be limited to, solid-state memories, optical and magnetic media, and carrier wave signals.", "Market Place Applications [0060] Some example embodiments include a Capacity Planning Tool which enables project managers the ability to determine the amount of available capacity (for e.g., human resources, appropriation amounts) for a project.", "This available capacity may be quantified in the form of labor, cost, time, hardware availability, electrical power availability, and other types of applicable resources.", "[0061] Some example embodiments include an Executive Rollup Tool which provides a software application interface that allows for a project manager to review milestones, wherein these milestones may be filtered based upon the needs of the project manager.", "Additionally, a color coding method may be utilized to show or denote progress of a particular project.", "[0062] Some examples embodiments include a Visual Roadmap Tool that provides a rollup feature akin to a file tree/directory structure.", "Using this rollup feature progress of a project can be determined using a varying (increasing/decreasing) granularity level via providing a breakdown of the project progress.", "[0063] Some example embodiments include a PMO audit Tool that displays unattained milestones for a project, and provides associated audit capabilities for the project manager.", "In addition, various color coding methodologies are provided that can be used to denote particular milestones that are either met, not met or in jeopardy of being met.", "[0064] Some example embodiments include a Remote Email Approval Tool that provides project managers and executives interested in a particular project to receive email, SMS, or other electronic method to receive updates of project progress, audits, and the like.", "In some embodiments, the approver can approve projects using a mobile device such as a Blackberry®.", "Further, approval may be sought for moving forward with certain milestones using email, SMS etc.", "[0065] The Abstract of the Disclosure is provided to comply with 37 C.F.R. § 1.72(b), requiring an abstract that allows the reader to quickly ascertain the nature of the technical disclosure.", "It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.", "In addition, in the foregoing Detailed Description, it can be seen that various features are grouped together in a single embodiment for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure.", "This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the claimed embodiments require more features than are expressly recited in each claim.", "Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive subject matter lies in less than all features of a single disclosed embodiment.", "Thus the following claims are hereby incorporated into the Detailed Description, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment." ]

[ "This application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 13/489,307, filed Jun. 5, 2012, entitled Methods for Isolating Crystalline Form I of 5-Azacytidine;", "which is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 12/729,116, filed Mar. 22, 2010, entitled Pharmaceutical Compositions Comprising Crystal Forms of 5-Azacytidine (now U.S. Pat. No. 8,211,862);", "which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 11/198,550, filed Aug. 5, 2005, entitled Methods for Isolating Crystalline Form I of 5-Azacytidine (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,700,770);", "which is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 10/390,530, filed Mar. 17, 2003, entitled Methods for Isolating Crystalline Form I of 5-Azacytidine (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,943,249).", "FIELD OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to the isolation of crystalline polymorphic Form I of 5-azacytidine (also known as azacitidine and 4-amino-1-β-D-ribofuranosyl-S-triazin-2(1H)-one).", "5-azacytidine may be used in the treatment of disease, including the treatment of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS).", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Polymorphs exist as two or more crystalline phases that have different arrangements and/or different conformations of the molecule in a crystal lattice.", "When a solvent molecule(s) is contained within the crystal lattice the resulting crystal is called a pseudopolymorph, or solvate.", "If the solvent molecule(s) within the crystal structure is a water molecule, then the pseudopolymorph/solvate is called a hydrate.", "The polymorphic and pseudopolymorphic solids display different physical properties, including those due to packing, and various thermodynamic, spectroscopic, interfacial and mechanical properties (See H. Brittain, Polymorphism in Pharmaceutical Solids, Marcel Dekker, New York, N.Y., 1999, pp. 1-2).", "Polymorphic and pseudopolymorphic forms of the drug substance (also known as the “active pharmaceutical ingredient”", "(API)), as administered by itself or formulated as a drug product (also known as the final or finished dosage form, or as the pharmaceutical composition) are well known and may affect, for example, the solubility, stability, flowability, fractability, and compressibility of drug substances and the safety and efficacy of drug products, (see, e.g., Knapman, K Modem Drug Discoveries, Mar. 2000: 53).", "5-azacytidine (also known as azacitidine and 4-amino-1-β-D-ribofuranosyl-S-triazin-2(1H)-one;", "Nation Service Center designation NSC-102816;", "CAS Registry Number 320-67-2) has undergone NCI-sponsored trials for the treatment of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS).", "See Komblith et al.", ", J. Clin.", "Oncol.", "20(10): 2441-2452 (2002) and Silverman et al.", ", J. Clin.", "Oncol.", "20(10): 2429-2440 (2002).", "5-azacytidine may be defined as having a formula of C 8 H 12 N 4 O 5 , a molecular weight of 244.20 and a structure of: In the United States patent application entitled “Forms of 5-azacytidine,” filed Mar. 17, 2003 and incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, eight different polymorphic and pseudopolymorphic forms of 5-azacytidine (Forms I-VIII), in addition to an amorphous form, are described.", "Forms each have characteristic X-Ray Powder Diffraction (XRPD) patterns and are easily distinguished from one another using XRPD.", "5-azacytidine drug substance used in the previous clinical trials has typically been synthesized from 5-azacytosine and 1,2,3,5,-tetra-O-acetyl-β-D-ribofuranose by the method presented in Example 1.", "The last step of this method is a recrystallization of the crude synthesis product from a methanol/DMSO co-solvent system.", "Specifically, the crude synthesis product is dissolved in DMSO (preheated to about 90° C.), and then methanol is added to the DMSO solution.", "The product is collected by vacuum filtration and allowed to air dry.", "In (supra), it is demonstrated that this prior art method for the recrystallization of the crude synthesis product does not control for the polymorphic forms of 5-azacytidine.", "Specifically, the prior art recrystallization procedure produces either Form I substantially free of other forms, or a Form I/II mixed phase i.e. a solid material in which 5-azacytidine is present in a mixed phase of both polymorphic Form I and polymorphic Form II.", "Thus, the prior art procedures do not allow one to reliably target Form I as the single polymorphic form in the drug substance.", "The present invention provides methods that allow one to recrystallize 5-azacytidine as polymorphic Form I robustly and reproducibly.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides methods for robustly and reproducibly isolating 5-azacytidine as polymorphic Form I substantially free of other forms.", "The methods involve recrystallizing dissolved 5-azacytidine from a primary solvent/co-solvent mixture and then collecting the resultant crystals.", "The invention also provides pharmaceutical compositions comprising Form I of 5-azacytidine together with a pharmaceutically acceptable excipient, diluent, or carrier.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Polymorphic Form I of 5-azacytidine Form I of 5-azacytidine is described fully in (see supra), and such descriptions are incorporated by reference herein.", "Table I provides the most prominent 2θ angles, d-spacing and relative intensities for Form I observed using X-Ray Powder Diffraction (XRPD) performed according the method of Example 4: TABLE 1 5-azacytidine Form I - the most prominent 2θ angles, d-spacing and relative intensities (Cu Kα radiation) 2θ Angle (°) d-spacing (Å) Relative Intensity 12.182 7.260 39.1 13.024 6.792 44.1 14.399 6.146 31.5 16.470 5.378 27.1 18.627 4.760 16.0 19.049 4.655 35.9 20.182 4.396 37.0 21.329 4.162 12.4 23.033 3.858 100.0 23.872 3.724 28.0 26.863 3.316 10.8 27.135 3.284 51.5 29.277 3.048 25.6 29.591 3.016 11.5 30.369 2.941 10.8 32.072 2.788 13.4 Isolation of Polymorphic Form I of 5-azacytidine by Recrystallization Form I of 5-azacytidine may be reproducibly isolated substantially free of other forms by recrystallizing dissolved 5-azacytidine and collecting the resultant crystals.", "Specifically, 5-azacytidine is first dissolved completely in at least one suitable primary solvent, preferably a polar solvent, more preferably a polar aprotic solvent.", "Suitable polar aprotic solvents include, but are not limited to, dimethylformamide (DMF), dimethylacetamide (DMA), dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO), and N-methylpyrrolidinone (NMP).", "The most preferred polar aprotic solvent is DMSO.", "Mixtures of two or more primary solvents are also contemplated for dissolving the 5-azacytidine, for example a mixture of DMSO and DMF.", "The 5-azacytidine used to form the solution may be synthesized by any procedure known in the art;", "an exemplary prior art synthesis scheme is provided in Example 1.", "Any polymorphic or pseudopolymorphic form(s) of 5-azacytidine, including mixed phases, may be used to form the solution.", "Amorphous 5-azacytidine may also be used to form the solution.", "It is preferred, but not required, that the primary solvent is preheated to an elevated temperature in order to ensure that the 5-azacytidine is dissolved completely.", "An especially preferred primary solvent is dimethyl sulfoxide, (DMSO), most preferably preheated to a temperature in the range of about 40° C. to about 90° C. Following solvation of the 5-azacytidine in the primary solvent, at least one co-solvent is added to the solution of 5-azacytidine.", "Suitable co-solvents include C 2 -C 5 alcohols (which term hereinafter refers to C 2 -C 5 alcohols that are independently: branched or unbranched, substituted or unsubstituted), aliphatic ketones (which term hereinafter refers to aliphatic ketones that are indepedently: branched or unbranched, substituted or unsubstituted), and alkyl cyanides (which term hereinafter refers to alkyl cyanides that are independently: branched or unbranched, substituted or unsubstituted).", "Preferred C 2 -C 5 alcohols, aliphatic ketones, and alkyl cyanides, along with other suitable solvents, are listed below as Class 2 (solvents to be limited) and Class 3 (solvents of low toxic potential) per the International Conference on Harmonization's (ICH) Guideline for Residual Solvents, July 1997).", "The use of mixtures of two or more of any of the aforementioned co-solvents is also included within the scope of the invention.", "Class 2 Acetonitrile Chlorobenzene Cyclohexane 1,2-Dichloroethene Dichloromethane 1,2-Dimethoxyethane N,N-Dimethylformamide N,N-Dimethylacetamide 1,4-Dioxane 2-Ethoxyethanol Ethyleneglycol Formamide 2-Methoxyethanol Methylbutyl ketone Methylcyclohexane Nitromethane Pyridine Sulfolane Tetralin 1,1,2-Trichloroethene Class 3 1-Butanol 1-Pentanol 1-Propanol 2-Butanol 2-Methyl-1-propanol 2-Propanol (isopropyl alcohol) 3-Methyl-1-butanol Acetone Anisole Butyl acetate Cumene Ethanol Ethyl acetate Ethyl ether Ethyl formate Isobutyl acetate Isopropyl acetate Methyl acetate Methylethyl ketone Methylisobutyl ketone Propyl acetate tert-Butylmethyl ether Tetrahydrofuran It is preferred, but not required, that the co-solvents are preheated before mixing with the primary solvent, preferably to a temperature below the temperature at which a substantial portion of the co-solvent would boil, most preferably to about 50° C. It is also preferred, but not required, that the co-solvent(s) is added gradually to the primary solvent(s).", "Following mixing, the primary solvent(s)/co-solvent(s) mixture is then equilibrated at different temperatures in order to promote either a slow recrystallization or a fast recrystallization of Form I of 5-azacytidine, as described below.", "By slow recrystallization is meant that the co-solvent/DMSO solution is allowed to equilibrate at a temperature in the range from about 0° C. to about 40° C., preferably in the range of about 15° C. to about 30° C., and most preferably at about ambient temperature.", "Slow recrystallization of Form I of 5-azacytidine is preferably performed using C 2 -C 5 alcohols, aliphatic ketones, or alkyl cyanides as the co-solvent.", "More preferably, slow recrystallization is performed with Class 3 C 2 -C 5 alcohols, Class 3 aliphatic ketones, or acetonitrile (Class 2).", "The most preferred Class 3 C 2 -C 5 alcohols are ethanol, isopropyl alcohol, and 1-propanol, and the most preferred Class 3 aliphatic ketone is methylethyl ketone.", "By fast recrystallization is meant that the co-solvent solution is allowed to equilibrate at a temperature of below 0° C., preferably below about −10° C., and most preferably at about −20° C. Fast recrystallization of Form I of 5-azacytidine is preferably performed with a C 3 -C 5 alcohol (which term hereinafter refers to C 3 -C 5 alcohols which are independently: branched or unbranched, substituted or unsubstituted) or an alkyl cyanide as the co-solvent.", "More preferably the C 3 -C 5 alcohol is a Class 3 solvent, and the alkyl cyanide is acetonitrile.", "The most preferred Class 3 C 3 -C 5 alcohols are isopropyl alcohol (2-propanol) and 1-propanol.", "Non-limiting examples of protocols for the recrystallization of Form I according to the methods described herein are provided in Examples 2 (slow recrystallization with DMSO as the primary solvent and ethanol, isopropyl alcohol, acetonitrile, or methylethyl ketone as the co-solvent) and 3 (fast recrystallization with DMSO as the primary solvent, and isopropyl alcohol or acetonitrile as the co-solvent) below.", "Following recrystallization, the Form I of 5-azacytidine crystals may be isolated from the co-solvent mixture by any suitable method known in the art.", "Preferably, the Form I crystals are isolated using vacuum filtration through a suitable filter medium or by centrifugation.", "Using the novel methods provided herein, it is possible for the first time to target Form I of 5-azacytidine as the drug substance reproducibly and robustly.", "In particular, isopropyl alcohol and acetonitrile reliably produce Form I independent of cooling rate (either slow recrystallization or fast recrystallization) and are preferred as the recrystallization co-solvents to recover Form I. Most preferably, Form I is isolated using isopropyl alcohol as the co-solvent since isopropyl alcohol carries a Class 3 risk classification (solvent of low toxic potential), whereas acetonitrile carries a Class 2 risk classification (solvent to be limited).", "The use of the DMSO/isopropyl alcohol system allows Form I of 5-azacytidine to be reliably recovered for the first time from solvents of low toxic potential without requiring control over the rate of recrystallation.", "In the most preferred embodiment, Form I of 5-azacytidine may be recovered simply by dissolving 5-azacytidine in DMSO (preferably heated to a temperature in the range of about 40° C. to about 90° C. prior to the addition of 5-azacytidine), adding isopropyl alcohol, and allowing the resulting solvent mixture to equilibrate at about ambient temperature.", "In some embodiments of the invention, Form I of 5-azacytidine may be recovered from a primary solvent(s)/co-solvent(s) mixture by “seeding”", "with a small amount of Form I of 5-azacytidine either prior to, or during, the addition of the co-solvent(s).", "By seeding with Form I, it is possible to expand the list of suitable co-solvents and co-solvent classes beyond those listed above.", "For example, it is known that recrystallization from the DMSO/methanol system produces either Form I, or a Form VII mixed phase (see Example 1).", "If a small amount of Form I is added to the solution of 5-azacytidine in DMSO prior to addition of the methanol co-solvent, or is added during the addition of the methanol co-solvent, then Form I of 5-azacytidine may be reliably isolated.", "By allowing the isolation of a single polymorphic form, one skilled in the art will appreciate that the present invention allows for the first time the production of 5-azacytidine drug substance with uniform and consistent properties from batch to batch, which properties include but are not limited to solubility and dissolution rate.", "In turn, this allows one to provide 5-azacytidine drug product (see below) which also has uniform and consistent properties from batch to batch.", "Pharmaceutical Formulations For the most effective administration of drug substance of the present invention, it is preferred to prepare a pharmaceutical formulation (also known as the “drug product”", "or “pharmaceutical composition”) preferably in unit dose form, comprising one or more of the 5-azacytidine polymorphs of the present invention and one or more pharmaceutically acceptable carrier, diluent, or excipient.", "Most preferably, Form I 5-azacytidine prepared according to the methods provided herein is used to prepare the pharmaceutical formulation.", "Such pharmaceutical formulation may, without being limited by the teachings set forth herein, include a solid form of the present invention which is blended with at least one pharmaceutically acceptable excipient, diluted by an excipient or enclosed within such a carrier that can be in the form of a capsule, sachet, tablet, buccal, lozenge, paper, or other container.", "When the excipient serves as a diluent, it may be a solid, semi-solid, or liquid material which acts as a vehicle, carrier, or medium for the 5-azacytidine polymorph(s).", "Thus, the formulations can be in the form of tablets, pills, powders, elixirs, suspensions, emulsions, solutions, syrups, capsules (such as, for example, soft and hard gelatin capsules), suppositories, sterile injectable solutions, and sterile packaged powders.", "Examples of suitable excipients include, but are not limited to, starches, gum arabic, calcium silicate, microcrystalline cellulose, polyvinylpyrrolidone, cellulose, water, syrup, and methyl cellulose.", "The formulations can additionally include lubricating agents such as, for example, talc, magnesium stearate and mineral oil;", "wetting agents;", "emulsifying and suspending agents;", "preserving agents such as methyl- and propyl-hydroxybenzoates;", "sweetening agents;", "or flavoring agents.", "Polyols, buffers, and inert fillers may also be used.", "Examples of polyols include, but are not limited to: mannitol, sorbitol, xylitol, sucrose, maltose, glucose, lactose, dextrose, and the like.", "Suitable buffers encompass, but are not limited to, phosphate, citrate, tartrate, succinate, and the like.", "Other inert fillers which may be used encompass those which are known in the art and are useful in the manufacture of various dosage forms.", "If desired, the solid pharmaceutical compositions may include other components such as bulling agents and/or granulating agents, and the like.", "The compositions of the invention can be formulated so as to provide quick, sustained, controlled, or delayed release of the drug substance after administration to the patient by employing procedures well known in the art.", "In certain embodiments of the invention, the 5-azacytidine polymorph(s) may made into the form of dosage units for oral administration.", "The 5-azacytidine polymorph(s) may be mixed with a solid, pulverant carrier such as, for example, lactose, saccharose, sorbitol, mannitol, starch, amylopectin, cellulose derivatives or gelatin, as well as with an antifriction agent such as for example, magnesium stearate, calcium stearate, and polyethylene glycol waxes.", "The mixture is then pressed into tablets or filled into capsules.", "If coated tablets, capsules, or pulvules are desired, such tablets, capsules, or pulvules may be coated with a concentrated solution of sugar, which may contain gum arabic, gelatin, talc, titanium dioxide, or with a lacquer dissolved in the volatile organic solvent or mixture of solvents.", "To this coating, various dyes may be added in order to distinguish among tablets with different active compounds or with different amounts of the active compound present.", "Soft gelatin capsules may be prepared in which capsules contain a mixture of the 5-azacytidine polymorph(s) and vegetable oil or non-aqueous, water miscible materials such as, for example, polyethylene glycol and the like.", "Hard gelatin capsules may contain granules or powder of the 5-azacytidine polymorph in combination with a solid, pulverulent carrier, such as, for example, lactose, saccharose, sorbitol, mannitol, potato starch, corn starch, amylopectin, cellulose derivatives, or gelatin.", "Tablets for oral use are typically prepared in the following manner, although other techniques may be employed.", "The solid substances are gently ground or sieved to a desired particle size, and a binding agent is homogenized and suspended in a suitable solvent.", "The 5-azacytidine polymorph(s) and auxiliary agents are mixed with the binding agent solution.", "The resulting mixture is moistened to form a uniform suspension.", "The moistening typically causes the particles to aggregate slightly, and the resulting mass is gently pressed through a stainless steel sieve having a desired size.", "The layers of the mixture are then dried in controlled drying units for a pre-determined length of time to achieve a desired particle size and consistency.", "The granules of the dried mixture are gently sieved to remove any powder.", "To this mixture, disintegrating, anti-friction, and anti-adhesive agents are added.", "Finally, the mixture is pressed into tablets using a machine with the appropriate punches and dies to obtain the desired tablet size.", "In the event that the above formulations are to be used for parenteral administration, such a formulation typically comprises sterile, aqueous and non-aqueous injection solutions comprising one or more 5-azacytidine polymorphs for which preparations are preferably isotonic with the blood of the intended recipient.", "These preparations may contain anti-oxidants, buffers, bacteriostats, and solute;", "which render the formulation isotonic with the blood of the intended recipient.", "Aqueous and non-aqueous suspensions may include suspending agents and thickening agents.", "The formulations may be present in unit-dose or multi-dose containers, for example, sealed ampules and vials.", "Extemporaneous injection solutions and suspensions may be prepared from sterile powders, granules, and tablets of the kind previously described.", "Liquid preparations for oral administration are prepared in the form of solutions, syrups, or suspensions with the latter two forms containing, for example, 5-azacytidine polymorph(s), sugar, and a mixture of ethanol, water, glycerol, and propylene glycol.", "If desired, such liquid preparations contain coloring agents, flavoring agents, and saccharin.", "Thickening agents such as carboxymethylcellulose may also be used.", "As such, the pharmaceutical formulations of the present invention are preferably prepared in a unit dosage form, each dosage unit containing from about 5 mg to about 200 mg, more usually about 100 mg of the 5-azacytidine polymorph(s).", "In liquid form, dosage unit contains from about 5 to about 200 mg, more usually about 100 mg of the 5-azacytidine polymorph(s).", "The term “unit dosage form”", "refers to physically discrete units suitable as unitary dosages for human subjects/patients or other mammals, each unit containing a predetermined quantity of the 5-azacytidine polymorph calculated to produce the desired therapeutic effect, in association with preferably, at least one pharmaceutically acceptable carrier, diluent, or excipient.", "The following examples are provided for illustrative purposes only, and are not to be construed as limiting the scope of the claims in any way.", "EXAMPLES Example 1 Prior Art Procedure for Synthesis and Recrystallization of 5-azacytidine Drug Substance 5-azacytidine may be synthesized using commercially available 5-azacytosine and 1,2,3,5-tetra-O-acetyl-β-D-ribofuranose (RTA) according to the following pathway: The crude synthesis product is dissolved in DMSO (preheated to about 90° C.), and then methanol is added to the DMSO solution.", "The co-solvent mixture is equilibrated at approximately −20° C. to allow 5-azacytidine crystal formation.", "The product is collected by vacuum filtration and allowed to air dry.", "Example 2 Form I of 5-azacytidine: Slow Recrystallization of 5-azacytidine from Co-Solvent Systems Approximately 250 mg of 5-azacytidine was dissolved with approximately 5 ml of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), preheated to approximately 90° C., in separate 100-mL beakers.", "The solids were allowed to dissolve to a clear solution.", "Approximately 45 mL of ethanol, isopropyl alcohol, acetonitrile, or methyl ethyl ketone co-solvent, preheated to approximately 50° C., was added to the solution and the resultant solution was mixed.", "The solution was covered and allowed to equilibrate at ambient conditions.", "The product was collected by vacuum filtration using a Buchner funnel.", "Example 3 Form I of 5-azacytidine: Fast Recrystallization of 5-azacytidine from Co-Solvent Systems Approximately 250 mg of 5-azacytidine was dissolved with approximately 5 mL of DMSO, preheated to approximately 90° C., in separate 100-ml beakers.", "The solids were allowed to dissolve to a clear solution.", "Approximately 45 mL of isopropyl alcohol or acetonitrile co-solvent, preheated to approximately 50° C., was added to the solution and the resultant solution was mixed.", "The solution was covered and placed in a freezer to equilibrate at approximately −20° C. to allow crystal formation.", "Solutions were removed from the freezer after crystal formation.", "The product was collected by vacuum filtration using a Buchner funnel.", "Example 4 X-Ray Powder Diffraction of Recrystallized 5-azacytidine X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) patterns for each sample were obtained on a Scintag XDS 2000 or a Scintag X 2 θ/θ diffractometer operating with copper radiation at 45 kV and 40 mA using a Kevex Psi Peltier-cooled silicon detector or a Thermo ARL Peltier-cooled solid state detector.", "Source slits of 2 or 4 mm and detector slits of 0.5 or 0.3 mm were used for data collection.", "Recrystallized material was gently milled for approximately one minute using an agate mortar and pestle.", "Samples were placed in a stainless steel or silicon sample holder and leveled using a glass microscope slide.", "Powder diffraction patterns of the samples were obtained from 2 to 42° 2θ at 1°/minute.", "Calibration of the X 2 diffractometer is verified annually using a silicon powder standard.", "XRPD performed according to this method revealed that the Form I of 5-azacytidine was isolated in Example 2 by slow recrystallization using either ethanol, isopropyl alcohol, acetonitrile, or methyl ethyl ketone as the co-solvent, and in Example 3 by fast recrystallization using isopropyl alcohol or acetonitrile as the co-solvent.", "The results indicate that Form I of 5-azacytidine may be reliably recovered from the DMSO/isopropyl alcohol and DMSO/acetonitrile solvent systems without control of the rate of recrystallization." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] 1.", "Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a liquid-based method for deposition of inorganic films having Cu, Zn, Sn, and at least one of S and Se, and more particularly to a method of deposition of kesterite-type Cu—Zn—Sn—(Se,S) materials and improved photovoltaic devices based on these films.", "[0003] 2.", "Description of Related Art [0004] Large-scale production of photovoltaic devices requires high-throughput technologies and abundant environmentally friendly materials.", "Thin-film chalcogenide-based solar cells provide a promising pathway to cost parity between photovoltaic and conventional energy sources.", "[0005] Currently, only Cu(In,Ga)(S,Se) 2 and CdTe technologies have reached commercial production and offer over 10 percent power conversion efficiency.", "These technologies generally employ (i) indium and tellurium, which are relatively rare elements in the earth's crust, or (ii) cadmium, which is a highly toxic heavy metal.", "[0006] Copper-zinc-tin-chalcogenide kesterites have been investigated as potential alternatives because they are based on abundant elements.", "However, photovoltaic cells with kesterites, even when produced using high cost vacuum-based methods, have so far achieved at best only <6.7 percent efficiencies, see Katagiri, H. et.", "al.", "Development of CZTS-based thin film solar cells;", "Thin Solid Films 517, 2455-2460 (2009).", "[0007] K. Tanaka, M. Oonuki, N. Moritake, H. Uchiki, Solar Energy Mater.", "Sol.", "Cells 2009, 93, 583-587 describe a solution-based approach for an indium-free material which produced a photovoltaic device with efficiency of only 1%.", "[0008] T. Todorov, M. Kita, J. Carda, P. Escribano, Thin Solid Films 2009, 517, 2541-2544 describe a deposition approach based on quaternary Cu—Zn—Sn—S precursors formed by reacting metal acetates and chlorides with elemental sulfur in ethylene glycol at 170° C. [0009] Guo et.", "al, J. AM.", "CHEM.", "SOC.", "2009, 131, 11672-11673 have reported films deposited by a similar approach, subsequently subjected to selenization treatment.", "They have also reported that devices based on the Cu 2 ZnSnS y Se 1−y films yield efficiencies of 0.74%, a level that is lower than the above solution approach for Cu 2 ZnSnS 4 .", "[0010] However, there are no reports of hydrazine-based deposition approaches of depositing homogeneous chalcogenide layers from dispersions of metal chalcogenides in systems that are not strictly soluble in hydrazine.", "Further, there are no reports to extend the nanoparticle- and microparticle-based approaches to systems without organic binders in a manner that particle-based precursors can readily react with solution component and form large-grained films with good electrical characteristics.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0011] The disadvantages associated with the prior art are overcome by embodiments of the present invention by the introduction of hybrid precursor inks including both dissolved and solid components of the targeted material, where the dissolved component acts as a binder, without introducing extraneous elements into the solution that would generally end up as impurities in the final film.", "[0012] The present method provides a method of depositing a kesterite film including a compound of the formula: [0000] Cu 2−x Zn 1+y Sn(S 1−z Se z ) 4+q [0013] wherein 0≦x≦1;", "0≦y≦1;", "0≦z≦1;", "−1≦q≦1 [0014] The method includes the steps of contacting hydrazine, a source of Cu, a source of Sn, a source of Zn and a source of at least one of S and Se under conditions sufficient to form a dispersion including Zn-containing solid particles.", "In a preferred embodiment, the method includes the steps of contacting hydrazine, a source of Cu, and a source of at least one of S and Se forming solution A;", "contacting hydrazine, a source of Sn, a source of at least one of S and Se, and a source of Zn form dispersion B;", "mixing solution A and dispersion B under conditions sufficient to form a dispersion including Zn-containing solid particles;", "applying the dispersion onto a substrate to form a thin layer of the dispersion on the substrate;", "and annealing at a temperature, pressure, and length of time sufficient to form the kesterite film.", "[0015] The present invention further provides a composition, which includes a dispersion of Zn-containing solid particles formed from hydrazine, a source of Cu, a source of Sn, a source of Zn, and a source of at least one of S and Se;", "which when annealed, forms a compound of the formula: Cu 2−x Zn 1+y Sn(S 1−z Se z ) 4+q wherein 0≦x≦1;", "0≦y≦1;", "0≦z≦1;", "−1≦q≦1.", "[0016] The present invention still further provides a photovoltaic device, including a top electrode having transparent conductive material;", "an n-type semiconducting layer;", "a kesterite film on the substrate formed by the above described method;", "and a substrate having an electrically conductive surface.", "[0017] The present invention provides a non-vacuum slurry-based coating method that enables fabrication of Cu 2 ZnSn(Se,S) 4 devices with 9.6% percent efficiency, almost an order of magnitude improvement over previous attempts to use high-throughput non-vacuum approaches and sufficient performance enhancement to suggest direct commercial utility for this material system.", "[0018] The hybrid deposition process combines advantages of both a recently described hydrazine-based solution approach, enabling the incorporation of select metal chalcogenide anions directly in solution, and particle-based deposition, which allows the incorporation of additional otherwise insoluble components.", "The described modified slurry method enables the high-throughput low-capital-cost fabrication of thin films of different semiconductor materials, ranging from new chalcogenide-based photovoltaic absorbers to a broader range of materials employed in the optical, electronic and other semiconductor industries.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0019] FIG. 1 is a TEM image of solid particles filtered out of the hybrid deposition solution in Example 1.", "[0020] FIG. 2 shows an X-ray diffraction pattern of CZTSe film prepared on molybdenum-coated glass substrate according to Example 1.", "[0021] FIG. 3 is Scanning electron microscopy image of CZTSe kesterite film of Example 1 in a solar cell prepared according to Example 3.", "[0022] FIG. 4 depicts the Current-voltage curve of a CZTSe solar cell, prepared according to Example 3, having Voc=0.5160 V, Isc=12.481 mA, Jsc=28.612 mA/cm2, Fill Factor=65.43%.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS [0023] The details given in this section are non-limiting and for exemplary purpose only, demonstrating various modes of applying the invention.", "When components of the invention are defined as containing elements, it must be understood that these elements can be present in either isolated or in compound form, (e.g., a Zn-containing component may contain Zn, ZnS, ZnSe or any other known Zn compound).", "[0024] The present invention provides a liquid (ink-based) method for light absorbing semiconductor film formation suitable for ultrahigh throughput production.", "The ink is based on a hybrid precursor containing at least a dissolved component and at least a solid component (particles) whereas elements from both components are incorporated into the final film composition by a reactive anneal.", "The dissolved component provides effective binding media surrounding the particles while the particles have stress-relief and crack-deflection effect permitting the deposition of thicker films in a single coating.", "[0025] The present invention provides a method for coating a substrate with a Cu—Zn—Sn—(S,Se) based compound film.", "The method is suitable for ultrahigh-throughput fabrication and overcomes the disadvantages associated with the prior art by: [0026] Forming a hybrid precursor ink composed of both solid (particle-based) and dissolved precursor component in a suitable liquid media (solvent), where both the solid and dissolved components preferably contain metal atoms and both are aimed to be substantially incorporated into a final nominally single-phase composition;", "[0027] Coating and drying the hybrid precursor ink on a substrate to produce a coated substrate.", "As the solvent(s) evaporate, dissolved components act as binders forming continuous media around the solid particles, which in turn, as non-compressible components have stress-relief and crack-deflecting effect, permitting the formation of a thicker layer in single coating;", "and [0028] Heating the coated substrate in a desired atmosphere to induce chemical reaction between the precursor particles and the binding (formerly dissolved) precursor component.", "The intimate contact between the two phases provides conditions for homogeneous reaction yielding a substantially single-phase film.", "In specific embodiments, the atmosphere may contain additional reactants, e.g., sulfur or selenium or compounds thereof.", "[0029] The obtained film on a substrate can further be used for diverse applications, including improved photovoltaic devices.", "[0030] A specific embodiment of the invention provides Cu—Zn—Sn—S(Se) compound films and high-efficiency photovoltaic devices based on these compounds.", "[0031] The ink, or functional liquid used to deposit an inorganic, substantially single-phase compound film by a liquid-coating method includes at least one of each 3 following categories: Solvent, Including a Mixture of Solvents: [0032] The solvent can be water or non-aqueous liquid, the second being either organic or inorganic liquid.", "Preferably, the solvent can be substantially eliminated by evaporation, i.e., it has sufficient vapor pressure below its decomposition temperature and/or upon thermal anneal that it is substantially converted to gas phase and does not leave residual contamination of elements foreign to the targeted composition.", "[0033] In the specific embodiment where a non-oxide (e.g., selenide, sulfide, phosphide, nitride, telluride) compound is targeted, particularly when anneals in oxidation atmosphere are undesirable, the solvent and its coordination compounds with the dissolved component preferably do not retain carbon or oxygen, except in the cases when this is strictly desirable.", "[0034] In one specific embodiment, the solvent, for example hydrazine, does not contain carbon or oxygen elements.", "Other examples of solvents include but are not limited to: alcohols, ethers, glycols, aldehydes, ketones, alkanes, amines, dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO), cyclic compounds, halogenated organic compounds;", "Dissolved Components: [0035] The dissolved components preferably include Cu, and Sn in combination with S and/or Se in total concentration of from about 5 to about 1000 mg/ml.", "Optionally, the dissolved components include an element, selected from the group: Li, Na, K, Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba, Sb, Bi, and B;", "and Solid Component: [0036] The solid components, referred to herein as “particles,” are defined as solid structures of crystalline or amorphous nature are dispersed in the solvent.", "The solid components are detectable by any analytical technique know to those skilled in the art, and include techniques, such as, but not limited to, x-ray diffraction;", "optical (laser) scattering;", "and optical, electron or atomic force microscopy.", "[0037] Preferably the particles are in concentration from about 5 to about 1000 mg/ml.", "[0038] The particle size preferably is from about 2 nm to about 2000 nm and ranges therebetween.", "More preferably, the particle size is from about 10 nm to about 1000 nm and most preferably, the particle size is from about 10 nm to about to about 500 nm.", "[0039] In a preferred embodiment, the dimensions of these particles are represented by the formula: [0000] d≧2e [0040] wherein d is at least one dimension of the particles;", "and e is any other dimension of the particles.", "[0041] The particles may be of various shapes, e.g., elongated, spherical, rod-like, planar, cubic, tetrapod, flake-like etc.", ", and of various sizes, e.g., 2 nm-100 micron, or otherwise they can be nanoparticles and/or microparticles.", "However, preferably, the particle size is smaller than the thickness of the film being deposited.", "[0042] The particles can be prepared by any standard technique known to the skilled in the art, such as, but not limited to, solution-based, e.g., controlled precipitation, sol-gel, wet atomization, gas-phase reactions, optical, e.g., laser ablation, electrical, e.g., electro explosion, plasma jet, electric arc, or mechanical, e.g., grinding, ablation, milling, and water-jet.", "[0043] Optionally, the particles can contain an element selected from the group: Li, Na, K, Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba, Sb, and Bi.", "[0044] An advantage of the process is the possibility to deposit highly pure semiconductor layers by printing techniques without the necessity to use organic enhancers, such as, polymeric binders known to produce carbon and/or oxygen contamination upon thermal decomposition.", "A specific embodiment of the invention is a Cu—Zn—Sn—Se—S based film deposited by use of the hybrid ink and an improved photovoltaic cell base on the film.", "[0045] Another advantage of the present invention is to avoid or reduce the necessity of enhancing additives, in particular organic polymers acting as binders, surfactants and/or extenders, as their function can be substantially engineered by adequate introduction of desirable dissolved components that are subsequently incorporated into the final composition.", "[0046] Nevertheless, in cases where additive use is desirable or in cases where such additives can be conveniently eliminated, e.g., by thermal anneal in oxidizing atmosphere when oxide materials are targeted, these can be readily used.", "Therefore, in addition to the above 3 principle components the ink may optionally contain enhancing additives that improve the dispersion of the solid phase and/or the solubility of the liquid phase and/or the rheological properties of the ink.", "[0047] Some non-limiting examples of such additives include: binders, viscosity modifiers, pH modifiers, dispersants, wetting agents and/or solubility enhancers, such as, polymers, surface active compounds, complex forming agents, e.g., amines, and acidic and basic substances.", "[0048] The deposition of the prepared ink on a substrate can be accomplished by forming a liquid layer of the ink by any standard liquid-coating technique, such as, but not limited to, spin coating, dip coating, doctor blading, curtain coating, slide coating, spraying, slit casting, meniscus coating, screen printing, ink jet printing, pad printing, flexography, and gravure printing.", "[0049] The substrate may be made of glass, metal, ceramics, polymers, or a combination thereof including composite materials.", "In one embodiment the substrate is metal or alloy foil containing as non-limiting examples molybdenum, aluminum, titanium, iron, copper, tungsten, steel or combinations thereof.", "In another embodiment the metal or alloy foil is coated with an ion diffusion barrier and/or an insulating layer succeeded by a conductive layer.", "In another embodiment the substrate is polymeric foil with a metallic or other conductive layer, e.g., transparent conductive oxide, carbon) deposited on the top of it.", "In one preferred embodiment, regardless of the nature of the underlying substrate material or materials, the surface contacting the liquid layer contains molybdenum.", "[0050] After a liquid layer of the ink is deposited on the surface of the substrate, the solvent is subjected to evaporation by means of exposure to ambient or controlled atmosphere or vacuum that may be accompanied with a thermal treatment, referred to as preliminary anneal, to fabricate substrate coated with a hybrid precursor including discrete particles and surrounding media.", "This surrounding media is formed by solidification of the dissolved component.", "[0051] The substrate thus coated with a hybrid precursor is then subjected to recrystallization or reactive anneal producing a nominally single-phase material.", "The nominally single-phase material preferably contains at least 80% of the targeted compound, more preferably at least 90% and even more preferably at least 95% by mass of the targeted compound.", "[0052] The reactive anneal can be carried out in inert, e.g., nitrogen, helium or argon, atmosphere or reactive atmosphere inducing oxidation, reduction or otherwise introduction or elimination of a specific element into the final composition.", "The reactive atmosphere may contain as non-limiting examples S and Se.", "The thermal anneal is carried at temperatures from about 200° C. to about 800° C., preferably from about 400° C. to about 600° C. Most preferably, the anneal temperature is from about 500 to about 600° C. [0053] The preliminary and/or reactive anneal can be carried our by any technique known to the skilled in the art, including but not limited to: furnace, hot plate, infrared or visible radiation, e.g., laser, lamp furnace, rapid thermal anneal unit, resistive heating of the substrate, heated gas stream, flame burner, electric arc and plasma jet.", "The duration of this anneal can vary depending on the process and typically is from about 0.1 sec.", "to about 72 hr.", "[0054] The intimate contact between the two components of the hybrid precursor for most embodiments allows to limit the anneal duration to less than 30 min.", "[0055] The obtained film on substrate may then be used for the desired application, such as, optical, electrical, anti-friction, bactericidal, catalytic, photo-catalytic, electromagnetic shielding, wear-resistance, and diffusion barrier.", "Example 1 Preparation of Cu 2 ZnSn(S,Se) 4 Film [0056] All operations were performed in nitrogen-filled glove box.", "The deposition solution was prepared in two parts in glass vials under magnetic stirring: A 1 , by dissolving Cu 2 S, 0.573 g and sulfur, 0.232 g in 3 ml of hydrazine and B 1 , by mixing SnSe, 0.790 g, Se, 1.736 g and Zn, 0.32 g with 7 ml of hydrazine.", "After 3 days under magnetic stirring, solution A had an orange transparent aspect, while B 1 was dark green and opaque.", "Solutions A 1 and B 1 were mixed (C 1 ) before deposition.", "[0057] A sample of the mixed solution was filtered through a syringe filter and the filtered particles were observed by Transmission Electron Microscopy ( FIG. 1 ).", "Particles are elongated with dimensions that can be represented by the formula d≧2 e wherein d is at least one dimension of the particles and e is any other dimension of the particles.", "For example, where d can be the length and e can be the width.", "EDX analysis confirmed presence of Zn and Se in the solid particles and the X-ray powder diffraction pattern matched that for ZnSeN 2 H 4 , JCPDS 37-0619 ( FIG. 2 ).", "[0058] Films were deposited on soda lime glass substrates coated with 700 nm molybdenum by spin coating at 800 rpm and heated at 540° C. for 2 minutes.", "The coating and heating cycle was repeated 5 times before a final anneal was carried out for 10 minutes.", "Example 2 Preparation of Cu 2 ZnSn(S,Se) 4 Film [0059] Repeating the procedure of Example 1, atmosphere containing elemental sulfur vapor (0.12 g/l N2) was used for the final anneal.", "Example 3 Photovoltaic Devices Prepared by the Method of the Present Invention [0060] Solar cells were fabricated from the above-described Cu 2 ZnSn(Se,S) 4 films by deposition of 60 nm CdS buffer layer by chemical bath deposition, 100 nm insulating ZnO and 130 nm ITO (indium-doped zinc oxide) by sputtering ( FIG. 2 ).", "In addition to the shown structure, Ni/Al metal contacts and 110 nm MgF coatings were deposited by electron-beam evaporation.", "[0061] Photovoltaic performance was measured (NREL CERTIFIED, FIG. 4 ) under ASTM G173 global spectrum, yielding 9.3% efficiency with films prepared according to Example 1 and 9.66% total area, including metal contacts, i.e., about 5% of the total area, conversion efficiency with films prepared according to example 2, with Voc=0.5160 V, Isc=12.481 mA, Jsc=28.612 mA/cm 2 , Fill Factor=65.43% ( FIG. 4 ).", "[0062] The potential advantage of this process is that it would be much lower cost than the traditional approaches.", "This performance is a world record for the category of indium and cadmium-free photovoltaic absorbers deposited by any method, including vacuum-based and makes this material already eligible for commercial consideration.", "[0063] The present invention has been described with particular reference to the preferred embodiments.", "It should be understood that variations and modifications thereof can be devised by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.", "Accordingly, the present invention embraces all such alternatives, modifications and variations that fall within the scope of the appended claims." ]

[ "CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This is the 35 USC 371 national stage of international application PCT/NL99/00123 filed on Mar. 8, 1999 which designated the United States of America.", "FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an identification mark comprising an optically and an electronically readable marking.", "The electronic marking comprises an (acoustic/electro)magnetic marking, having a soft magnetic layer, and the optical marking comprises a structure provided with a relief.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION An identification mark of this type is disclosed in European Patent Application 0 673 853.", "This publication describes a security marking.", "A security marking is a marking which reacts to an acoustic, electrical or (electro)magnetic signal which if it is not deactivated, for example taken past an antenna in a shop without being paid for, can cause a signal to be triggered.", "A security marking of this type is provided with screening that can be deactivated.", "If it is handled correctly, that is to say deactivated, the effect of the soft magnetic layer used in the security marking can be negated by deactivating it.", "The optical marking described in European Application 0 673 853 comprises a hologram.", "Purchasers can see from this hologram whether a product is a genuine brand product or an imitation.", "According to what is described in the said European Application, the hologram is fixed to the authenticity marking by means of an adhesive.", "This joining technique, that is to say the use of adhesive, is relatively complex in the case of large-scale production and increases the cost price, but, on the other hand is attractive to imitators.", "After all, ever increasing numbers of forged holograms are coming onto the market, whilst authenticity markings are likewise being forged.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The aim of the present invention is to provide an improved identification mark which, on the one hand, is less expensive and can be produced more accurately in large runs but, on the other hand, is more difficult to copy.", "This aim is achieved with an identification mark as described above, and which comprises an authenticity marking provided in the electronically readable marking.", "The soft magnetic layer has a thickness of less than 1 μm, and an additional metallic layer, which contains the optically readable marking.", "According to the invention, the hologram or other optical marking is joined to the (acoustic/electro)magnetic marking during the production process itself.", "By this means an efficient and accurate production process can be provided whilst copying is made more difficult.", "After all, the identification mark obtained according to the invention no longer consists of the simple combination of a hologram and authenticity marking.", "In contrast to the European Application 0 673 853 described above, there is no adhesive layer between the hologram component and the (acoustic/electro)magnetic component.", "It is possible to deposit the additional metallic layer directly on the soft magnetic layer.", "According to another embodiment, it is possible to insert an intermediate layer, such as a carrier layer consisting of PET, OPP or PVC.", "The same applies with regard to the optical marking.", "The latter can either be incorporated directly in the additional metallic layer, but also in a coating applied thereon.", "The optical marking is preferably a hologram.", "Holograms are also understood to include kinegrams, pixelgrams, kineforms and the like.", "These can be either two-dimensional or three-dimensional.", "Holograms are also understood to include ‘Optical Variable Devices’ (‘OVD’), that is to say devices which are optically readable, for example with the aid of a scanner.", "Pixel comparison is likewise possible.", "A hologram can be applied in any way known in the sate of the art.", "Embossing is one possibility and this is used in particular if the hologram is applied in the additional metallic layer.", "This additional metallic layer can comprise any material known in the art and according to a preferred embodiment consists of aluminium.", "The (acoustic/electro)magnetic marking described above can be either an authenticity marking or a security marking.", "The hologram described above is an authenticity marking.", "The combination described above of a soft magnetic layer and a (hard) magnetic layer that can be deactivated is a security marking.", "However, it is possible for the marking according to the invention to be implemented solely as an authenticity marking, that is to say for only a soft magnetic layer to be present which cannot be deactivated in any way whatsoever.", "So as not to trip existing security devices in such a case, it can be necessary to reduce the effectiveness of such a soft magnetic layer, for example by reducing the thickness thereof.", "Whereas in the prior art and in the invention the layer thickness of a soft magnetic layer for a security marking is approximately 1 μm, when said marking is used as an authenticity marking said layer thickness will be considerably less than 1 μm and in a preferred embodiment less than 0.5 μm.", "With the aid of such an (electro)magnetic authenticity marking it is possible to detect markings which are inside packaging, that is to say in situations where the hologram is not visible, with the aid of relatively simple equipment.", "Moreover, it is possible to give different products different (electro)magnetic characteristics which are characteristic of the products concerned.", "For instance, the composition of the soft magnetic layer can consist of various quantities and combinations of soft ferrous and non-ferrous metals, such as copper, cobalt, silver and gold.", "Likewise, a difference in relief, coarser or finer, in the metallic layer and/or the magnetic layer can be produced by using different embossing (hologram, etc.), by means of which the nature of the (electro)magnetic signal is influenced.", "By means of different combinations it is possible to recognise and distinguish different types of products.", "It is possible to recognise different products from a distance of, for example, 5 cm using relatively simple equipment.", "As indicated above, the identification mark can be implemented either as a security marking or as an authenticity marking.", "It is possible to attach the identification mark according to the invention to packaging, but also to attach it to documents to guarantee the authenticity thereof.", "The fixing technique can be any technique known in the state of the art, such as sticking.", "According to an advantageous embodiment of the invention, said fixing technique also comprises the hot stamp technique.", "With the latter technique fusion takes place between the material to which the identification mark has been applied and that layer of the identification mark which adjoins said material.", "As a result it is not possible to remove the identification mark without damaging the packaging and/or document concerned.", "This offers appreciable security.", "It will be understood that the abovementioned layers of the identification mark are only those layers which are essential to the invention.", "Depending on the application and the production method, numerous further layers can be present, as will also be seen from the illustrative embodiments described with reference to the drawings.", "The deposition technique described above for the additional metallic layer, such as an aluminium layer, can comprise any deposition technique known in the state of the art.", "In this context consideration is given to the vacuum deposition technique, but also to sputtering techniques.", "It is possible to make the identification mark according to the invention in any shape.", "For instance, for use on a compact disc the identification mark could be produced in the form of a ring which extends around the central opening.", "This ring can then be applied either with the aid of an adhesive auxiliary layer or by using the hot stamp technique described above.", "In the case of use on a compact disc, the identification mark can be either an authenticity marking or a security marking.", "The present invention also relates to a method for the production of the identification mark described above.", "With this method the optical marking and the (acoustic/electro)magnetic marking are produced in an unbroken sequence of steps as a single identification mark.", "That is to say, preferably, after provision of a layer of material having soft magnetic properties, a further metallic layer is applied thereon with the aid of a deposition technique, in which further layer the hologram is then produced.", "As indicated above, an auxiliary layer, for example composed of plastic material, can have been applied between the soft magnetic layer and the additional layer, which preferably consists of aluminium.", "Moreover, the additional layer can have been provided with a (plastic) coating in which the hologram is then produced.", "That is to say, in contrast to the prior art, it is not the case that, on the one hand, an (acoustic/electro)magnetic marking and optical marking are provided in two completely separate steps and these two layers are then joined to one another in a third step, but the hologram or any other optical identification mark is produced in a step integrated in the process in a layer which has already been joined to the soft magnetic layer.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The invention will be explained in more detail below with reference to illustrative embodiments shown in the drawings.", "The drawings all refer to an authenticity marking, but it must be understood that the invention also extends to the field of security markings.", "In the drawings: FIG. 1 shows, in cross-section, one embodiment of the authenticity identification mark according to the invention;", "FIG. 2 shows a variant of the construction shown in FIG. 1, shown as hot stamping film for hot stamping;", "FIG. 3 shows the construction according to FIG. 2 after hot stamping;", "FIG. 4 shows a further film layer that can be processed by the hot stamp technique;", "FIG. 5 shows laminate using the hot stamp technique, and FIG. 6 shows a further construction in which a paper layer is used as support.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The authenticity marking according to the invention is indicated in its entirety by 1 .", "The end edges have been shown broken away to indicate that component 1 can have any imaginable shape.", "This authenticity marking according to the invention consists of a component 2 that has been produced as a hologram or optical authenticity marking and a component 3 in which a magnetisable layer is located.", "A hologram, as described above, or optical security marking is described in Netherlands Patent Application 9001616.", "In the embodiment according to FIG. 1, component 2 consists, from the outside to the inside, of a transparent varnish layer 10 , a coating 4 with holographic information incorporated therein, in contact with which there is an aluminium layer 5 which has been produced by vapour deposition on carrier layer 6 , which in this embodiment comprises a PET layer.", "A magnetisable layer, such as an Atalante® layer 7 , which is provided with an adhesive layer 8 for fixing to the article concerned, adjoins this PET layer.", "It is possible to produce authenticity marking 1 in any way imaginable in the state of the art.", "One possibility is to first produce component 3 , after which aluminium layer 5 is vapour-deposited on the PET layer 6 , the layers 4 and 10 then being applied.", "The various layers can have thicknesses which are suitable for the associated function.", "For instance, layer 7 can have a thickness of between 0.1 and 0.5 μm and more particularly 0.1-0.5 μm.", "Layer 4 can have a thickness of approximately 1.0 μm.", "A thickness of approximately 23 μm may be mentioned for layer 6 .", "Instead of attaching layer 6 by adhesive, other joining techniques, such as laminating and the like, are also possible.", "It will be understood that there are equivalents for the various layers.", "For instance, layer 6 can be replaced by a (biaxially orientated) polypropylene or PVC layer.", "Those skilled in the art will also understand that component 3 can be replaced by a component reacting to a radio frequency field or by a component reacting to an acoustic-magnetic or electromagnetic field.", "Adhesion to the authenticity marking 2 will be achieved depending on the component concerned.", "FIG. 2 shows a film that can be processed by the hot stamp technique and is indicated in its entirety by 11 .", "This film consists of a polyester layer 12 , a release layer 13 , a varnish layer 14 in which a hologram has been produced with the aid of a relief technique, an aluminium layer 15 applied using a vacuum technique, an additional soft magnetic aluminium layer 16 of relatively small thickness, applied by a sputtering technique, an adhesive layer 17 and a cover layer protecting said adhesive layer.", "FIG. 3 shows the film 11 after the use of heat and pressure (hot stamp technique).", "Moreover, the layers 12 and 13 have been removed and the film 11 has been applied to a substrate by removing cover layer 18 and applying a substrate 19 .", "FIG. 4 shows a further variant in which the film layer is indicated in its entirety by 21 .", "The polyester layer is indicated by 22 and the underlying release layer by 23 .", "In contrast to the embodiment according to FIG. 2, the hologram is applied in the aliminium layer indicated by 25 , which aluminium layer has been deposited by a vacuum technique, the hologram facing layer 24 having a relatively small thickness (for example 2 Å).", "Beneath layer 25 there is once again an additional sputtered soft magnetic layer 26 , a layer of adhesive 27 and a cover layer 28 .", "FIG. 5 shows how a film 21 is placed between two components of a credit card, which are indicated by 29 and 30 .", "The film is indicated in its entirety by 31 and consists of a hot-melt adhesive layer 32 , a relatively thick deposited aluminium layer 33 , into which a hologram has been introduced, and a further soft magnetic layer 34 , applied by sputtering, and an adhesive layer 35 .", "In FIG. 6 a variant of the invention is indicated in its entirety by 41 .", "This variant is protected by a paper support layer 42 onto which an adhesive 43 has been applied.", "A polyester layer is indicated by 44 , on which polyester layer a release layer 45 has been applied.", "46 indicates a soft magnetic layer applied with the aid of a sputtering technique.", "An aluminium metallic layer 47 , a varnish layer 48 and a layer 49 containing a hologram have then been applied.", "An aluminium metallised layer 50 and a sealing layer 51 then follow.", "The sealing layer 51 can comprise a wax covering.", "Several of the layers shown in FIG. 6 can be dispensed with or replaced by other layers.", "For instance, it is possible to apply the hologram in a varnish layer, such as a UV varnish layer.", "It will be understood that numerous variants are possible which fall within the scope of the present invention but always result in the combination of a hologram with an electronic authenticity marking.", "Furthermore, it is possible to combine the authenticity marking according to the invention with, for example, a barcode.", "Such a barcode can be present on the film layer and can be applied, for example, using very fine etching techniques.", "It will be clear to those skilled in the art that many variants are possible and that the fields of application are likewise diverse.", "These various aspects fall within the scope of the appended claims." ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATIONS [0001] This patent application is a continuation of co-pending U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 12/168,327, filed Jul. 7, 2008 and entitled: SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ADJUSTING BANDWIDTH BASED ON A TIME OF DAY PROFILE, which is incorporated herein by reference.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1.", "Description of the Related Art [0003] The use of and development of communications has grown nearly exponentially in recent years.", "The growth is fueled by larger networks with more reliable protocols and better communications hardware available to service providers and consumers.", "[0004] Despite the many technological advances, most users of communications services are still limited by traditional service plans.", "In particular, users are commonly charged a flat rate for data services, such as a specified or guaranteed amount of bandwidth.", "The bandwidth provided by the communications service provider may limit the user's activities or ineffectively utilize the communication service provider's network and available bandwidth.", "Current systems and services may be inefficient for both the user and the communications service provider.", "[0005] 2.", "Brief Summary of the Invention [0006] One embodiment provides a system and method for managing bandwidth to a user.", "A selection of a profile may be received from a plurality of profiles.", "The profile may be selected to allocate bandwidth to a user.", "The selection of the profile for allocating bandwidth to the user through a connection may be determined.", "The bandwidth may be allocated to the connection in response to determining the profile provides for a bandwidth reconfiguration.", "[0007] Another embodiment provides a network edge device for managing bandwidth to one or more users.", "The network edge device may include a clock operable to determine a current time.", "The network edge device may also include a bandwidth controller operable to determine whether the bandwidth available to a user is to be adjusted based on the current time and a profile.", "The bandwidth controller may be operable to issue a command to adjust the bandwidth in response to the determination.", "The network edge device may also include an access circuit for adjusting the bandwidth available to the user through a connection in response to the command.", "The network edge device may also include cost logic operable to determine costs incurred by the user in response to the profile implemented by the bandwidth controller.", "[0008] Yet another embodiment provides a network device for adjusting bandwidth.", "The network device may include a processor for executing a set of instructions and a memory in communication with the processor.", "The memory may be operable to store the set of instructions.", "The set of instructions may be operable to receive a selection of a profile from a plurality of profiles, the profile being selected to allocate bandwidth to a user, determine the selected profile for allocating bandwidth to the user through a connection, allocate the bandwidth available to the connection in response to determining the selected profile provides for a bandwidth reconfiguration, and track implementation of each of the plurality of profiles during a time period to bill the user for the bandwidth utilized during the time period.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0009] Illustrative embodiments of the present invention are described in detail below with reference to the attached drawing figures, which are incorporated by reference herein and wherein: [0010] FIG. 1 is a pictorial representation of a communications environment in accordance with an illustrative embodiment;", "[0011] FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a network edge device in accordance with an illustrative embodiment;", "[0012] FIG. 3 is an illustrative chart of available bandwidth compared with utilized bandwidth in accordance with an illustrative embodiment;", "[0013] FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a process for establishing a time of day profile in accordance with an illustrative embodiment.", "[0014] FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a process for adjusted bandwidth to a user in accordance with an illustrative embodiment;", "and [0015] FIG. 6 is an interface for selecting a time of day profile in accordance with an illustrative embodiment.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0016] The illustrative embodiments provide a system and method for dynamically adjusting the bandwidth available to a user.", "In one embodiment, the user may select from multiple time of day profiles to increase the available bandwidth for an additional fee.", "In particular, the user may select at any time to expand bandwidth received during off-peak or non-peak hours for a small service cost.", "The additional bandwidth may be utilized to perform network intensive tasks, such as backups, large downloads or uploads, synchronization between offices, devices, servers or other systems, and batch transmission or receipt jobs.", "Any number of descriptions, classifications or ratings may be used to describe utilization or availability of data services, such as peak, non-peak, and off-peak.", "For example, peak hours may represent maximum network traffic, non-peak hours may specify network usage between 40 and 70 percent, and off-peak hours may specify network utilization less than 40 percent.", "However, any number of criteria or thresholds may be utilized to classify network utilization.", "[0017] FIG. 1 is a pictorial representation of a communications environment 100 in accordance with an illustrative embodiment.", "The communications environment 100 of FIG. 1 is the system, environment, devices, and settings utilized for data communications.", "In one embodiment, the communications environment 100 may include a data network 102 , a communications management system 104 , including a network edge device 106 , and a utilization server 108 , connection 109 , a customer 110 , a router 112 , and clients 114 and 116 .", "[0018] The data network 102 is a network and system for communicating data, packets, and other information between any number of points, individual users, businesses, organizations or other communicating parties.", "The data network 102 may be provided by a communications service provider.", "The communications service provider may provide data services for multiple users or customers which may include the customer 110 .", "The data network 102 may include any number of devices, physical connections, elements or wireless systems in addition to the communications management system 104 , network edge device 106 , and utilization server 108 .", "[0019] In one embodiment, the data network 102 may provide any number of data services, including Internet Protcol (IP), Ethernet, digital subscriber line (DSL), ATM, Frame Relay, data over cable service interface specifications (DOCSIS) or other similar data connections for users registered to receive the service.", "The communications management system 104 is the device or network elements that manages communications for all or a part of the data network 102 .", "The communications management system 104 may include any number of switches, servers, routers, databases, processing systems, and other elements utilized to enable data communications for the customer 110 .", "As illustrated herein, the communications management system 104 includes the network edge device 106 and the utilization server 108 .", "[0020] The network edge device 106 is the last device or element that is integrated with the data network 102 before connecting to a device or element utilized by a user shown as the customer 110 in FIG. 1 .", "The network edge device 106 is positioned on the outer-most part of the data network 102 to manage bandwidth utilized or available to the customer 110 .", "The network edge device 106 may be one or more servers, routers, switches or intelligent network devices managing data flow to the customer 110 .", "However, the network edge device 106 may be any device suitable for managing communications between a data network 102 provided by a communications service provider and the user as represented by the elements of the customer 110 .", "[0021] The network edge device 106 may store one or more time of day profiles for controlling the bandwidth available to the customer 110 through the router 112 .", "In one embodiment, the customer 110 may select any number of compatible time of day profiles to be stored in the network edge device 106 for implementation.", "[0022] The utilization server 108 is a server configured to track the time of day profiles utilized by the customer 110 .", "In one embodiment, the customer 110 may select the time of day profile or one or more profiles to be stored in the network edge device 106 and the utilization server 108 .", "In addition to any number of other software or hardware elements, the utilization server 108 tracks the additional costs for selecting a time of day profile with expanded bandwidth available during non-peak and off-peak hours.", "In another embodiment, the customer 110 may pay for 50 Mb of bandwidth available to the clients 114 and 116 through the router 112 from the hours of 6:00 AM to 10:00 PM.", "The customer 110 may select to add a time of day profile that expands the bandwidth available through the router to 100 Mb per second from 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM.", "The customer 110 may utilize the additional bandwidth to send batch information, perform system updates, backup information or otherwise utilize the bandwidth.", "In another embodiment, a database in communication with the utilization server 108 may store the selection of a time of day profile for implementation by the network edge device 106 .", "The utilization server 108 may be connected to any number of billing databases, web servers or other invoice or billing applications or systems in order to bill the customer 110 for the increased bandwidth available through the connection 109 .", "[0023] The customer 110 is a user of the communications service provider operating the data network 102 .", "The customer 110 may also be an individual, family, organization, group or other data services customer.", "The customer 110 may be housed in one or more buildings and may receive all data communications through the router 112 .", "[0024] The router 112 is a device configured to route data communications to the clients 114 and 116 .", "However, the router 112 may be a server, wireless network device or other element suitable for receiving and routing communications to the clients 114 and 116 .", "In one embodiment, the router 112 may be a WiFi® router configured to communicate with the clients using a wireless standard or proprietary protocol.", "In another embodiment, the router 112 may be an integrated portion of a local area network utilized by the customer 110 .", "[0025] The clients 114 and 116 are communications or computing devices operable to send and receive data communications.", "The clients 114 and 116 represent any number of devices or elements that may communicate through the connection 109 .", "For example, the clients 114 and 116 may include: laptops, personal computers, servers, wireless devices, PDAs, Blackberry®, voice over IP telephones or other similar communications devices.", "[0026] The connection 109 is a data connection between the customer 110 and the data network 102 .", "For example, the connection 109 may provide the customer 110 access to the Internet, any number of local area networks, private networks, virtual private networks, networks, devices or other communications service providers available through the connection 109 .", "The connection 109 may be physically represented by a fiber optic connection, category 6 cable, coaxial cable, telephone line, wireless network or other communications line connecting the network edge device 106 and the router 112 which may include both large-scale and small-scale connections.", "[0027] FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a network edge device 200 in accordance with an illustrative embodiment.", "The network edge device 200 and the user 218 are particular implementations of the network edge device 106 and the customer 110 of FIG. 1 , respectively.", "The network edge device 200 may include any number of hardware, software, and firmware elements which may include a processor 202 , a memory 204 , a clock 206 , a bandwidth control 208 , time of day profiles 212 , a user interface 214 , and an access circuit 216 .", "The network edge device 200 may manage bandwidth and communications for one or more individuals, groups, organizations or businesses, including a user 218 .", "[0028] The processor 202 is circuitry or logic enabled to control execution of a set of instructions.", "The processor 202 may be a microprocessor, digital signal processor, central processing unit or other device suitable for controlling an electronic device including one or more hardware and software elements, executing software, instructions, programs and applications, converting and processing signals and information, and performing other related tasks.", "The different elements of the network edge device 200 may be integrated or communicated through leads, wires, busses, sockets, cards or other interfaces.", "The processor 202 may be a single chip or integrated with other computing or communications elements.", "In one embodiment, the processor 202 may function with the bandwidth 208 control to manage the available bandwidth allotted to the user 218 through the access circuit.", "[0029] The memory 204 is a hardware element, device or recording media configured to store data for subsequent retrieval or access at a later time.", "The memory 204 may be static or dynamic memory.", "The memory 204 may include a hard disk, random access memory, cache, removable media drive, mass storage or configuration suitable as storage for data, instructions, and information.", "In one embodiment, the memory 204 and processor 202 may be integrated.", "The memory may use any type of volatile or non-volatile storage techniques and mediums.", "In one embodiment, the memory 204 may store the current selection of a time of day profile.", "[0030] The clock 206 is a device or software module for tracking and measuring the current time.", "In one embodiment, the clock 206 is a stratum clock that directly or indirectly receives a time signal indicating the current time from the United States Naval Observatory or equivalent organization.", "The clock 206 may be enabled to synchronize the current time with one or more other timekeeping elements or clocks.", "Additionally, the clock 206 may keep and track the current time independently for purposes of autonomy or as needed.", "The clock 206 may be important because the different time of day profiles 212 may be initiated to increase or decrease the available bandwidth based on the current time read by the clock 206 .", "[0031] The time of day profiles 212 is information that controls a bandwidth available to the user 218 based on the time of day measured by the clock 206 .", "The time of day profiles 212 may include any number of profiles or settings that may be selected by the user 218 and implemented by the network edge device 200 .", "For example, the user 218 may select to increase the bandwidth available from 250 Mb to 750 Mbps from 2:00 AM to 7:00 AM for a increased cost of $10.00 per day.", "The increased bandwidth during this time may be used by the user 218 to perform system updates, backups or other bandwidth intensive processes or functions.", "[0032] In one embodiment, the user 218 may utilize another network device in communication with the network edge device 200 in order to make the selection of the time of day profiles 212 and receive the related cost or billing information.", "In one embodiment, the user interface 214 may allow the user 218 to update one or more of the time of day profiles 212 via cell phone.", "In another embodiment, the user 218 may communicate with a billing database through a web server that allows the user 218 to upgrade the time of day profiles 212 selected for implementation by the network edge device 200 using a network connection.", "[0033] The user interface 214 is an interface for receiving user input.", "The user interface 214 may be a graphical user interface (GUI), interactive voice response system, web page or other interface element or devices.", "The user interface 214 may be accessible using a user name, password, account number or any other identifiers that allow the user 218 to authenticate the changes made to the time of day profiles 212 .", "The user interface 214 may be available through any number of computing or telecommunications devices, including personal computers, servers, laptops, routers, wireless devices, virtual tunnels, modules or other elements.", "The user interface 214 may allow the user 218 to select or change a time of day profile at any time.", "For example, based on the user's needs, a time of day profile may be immediately selected and initiated.", "The user 218 may be charged for the time of day profile on an hourly, daily or monthly basis.", "For example, the user may be charged for the increased expense for a time of day profile by prorating the costs for the time period the time of day profile is selected.", "Alternatively, the time of day profile may be charged in day or month increments.", "[0034] The bandwidth control 208 or controller is the logic or circuitry for controlling the bandwidth allocated to the user 218 .", "In one embodiment, the bandwidth control 208 sends commands to the access circuit 216 .", "The access circuit 216 is the logic and circuitry that increases or decreases the bandwidth allocated to the user 218 .", "The access circuit 216 may be connected to the user 218 through a communication line or link.", "In one embodiment, the data information and packets communicated by the user 218 are channeled through the access circuit 216 .", "[0035] The clock 206 , bandwidth control 208 , time of day profiles 212 , user interface 214 , and access circuit 216 may be implemented as software modules, digital logic, firmware or hardware within or external to the network edge device 200 in order to manage, control, and physically allocate the bandwidth available to the user 218 .", "[0036] The access circuit 216 may utilize any number of physical layer access methods to allocate the bandwidth through one or more circuits, connections or other devices.", "For example, the access circuit 216 may utilize TCP/IP protocols to send and receive data with the user 218 .", "However, any standards or protocols available for data communication may be utilized between the access circuit 216 and the user 218 .", "As previously described, information received from the user 218 may be routed through the access circuit 216 to any number of other network devices, trunks, communications lines or other users.", "[0037] FIG. 3 is an illustrative chart of available bandwidth compared with utilized bandwidth in accordance with an illustrative embodiment.", "FIG. 3 shows a chart 300 that may include various statistical and graphical elements which includes traffic 302 , capacity 304 , and available bandwidth 306 .", "[0038] The chart 300 may be utilized by a communications service provider in order to represent traffic 302 on one or more of the service provider's networks.", "As shown, the X axis of the chart 300 represents the hours of the day and the time measurement.", "The Y axis represents the bandwidth in megabytes per second utilized on the network.", "[0039] The capacity 304 is the capacity available on the network.", "The capacity 304 may represent various theoretical, practical or functional limitations for the communications service provider and the communications service provider's customers and users.", "[0040] The traffic 302 is the actual usage of the network as measured hour by hour or second by second in megabytes per second.", "The chart 300 is representative of the network traffic and network capacity available to many communications service providers.", "It is important to note that between the hours of 11:00 PM and 8:00 AM, the traffic 302 decreases substantially to a low point at approximately 5:00 AM.", "In other words, during this time period the network may be said to be under utilized as indicated by the available bandwidth 306 .", "[0041] The available bandwidth 306 indicates bandwidth that may be used for data communications.", "As a result, the communications service provider may offer one or more time of day profiles in order to increase the traffic 302 and more effectively utilize the available bandwidth 306 .", "For example, from 10:00 PM or 2200 hours, military time, to 2:00 AM may be considered an non-peak time.", "When the network is not being fully utilized, the time period from 2:00 AM to approximately 8:00 AM may be considered as off-peak times during which the network is minimally utilized.", "As a result, the communications service provider may for a small increase in costs or fees allow a user to have expanded bandwidth from 11:00 PM to 2:00 AM as a non-peak time.", "For example for an additional $20.00 per month, the user's bandwidth may be expanded from 50 Mbps to 100 Mbps.", "[0042] Additionally, the user may be able to select a profile from 2:00 AM to 8:00 AM that triples the bandwidth available during that time for an additional $20.00 per month by selecting a time of day profile.", "Each of the time of day profiles or both may be purchased or selected by the user.", "For example if the user selected both profiles, the user would incur the additional cost of $40.00 per month for double the bandwidth during non-peak times and triple the bandwidth during off-peak times.", "[0043] The expanded time of day profile may allow the communications service provider to more effectively utilize the available bandwidth 306 and further increase profit margins and user satisfaction with the services and customization available.", "The communications service provider may more effectively use communications lines and equipment that is already purchased, leased or otherwise included as an operating expense to increase profits and provide additional alternatives to enhance user satisfaction with the data services provided by the communications service provider.", "[0044] FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a process for establishing a time of day profile in accordance with an illustrative embodiment.", "The process of FIG. 4 may be implemented by a network device for receiving time of day profiles.", "In one embodiment, the network device may be a billing or utility server in communication with one or more user databases, billing databases, and other similar systems and devices.", "[0045] The process may begin with the network device displaying a user interface (step 402 ).", "The interface may be provided through a website, wireless device or other element.", "In one embodiment, the user interface is a portal generated by a web server operated by the communications service provider.", "[0046] Next, the network device receives user information for accessing services and devices (step 404 ).", "The user information may include authentication information, such as a user name, password, account number or other identifying information.", "The user information may validate that the user is authorized to configure the services and devices that may be configured through the user interface.", "[0047] Next, the network device displays available bandwidth for each time of day profile and an associated cost (step 406 ).", "The available bandwidth may be displayed to the user based on the amount of bandwidth typically used by the user, network capacity, service level agreements relating to quality of services, dropped packets, device and network connection limitations, and other service guarantees.", "The associated cost is the price to the user for expanding the bandwidth during the specified time of day.", "For example, by selecting a particular time of day profile, an additional cost may be incurred.", "[0048] Next, the network device receives a user selection of a time of day profile (step 408 ).", "The user selection may be received at any time.", "In one embodiment, the cost for implementing a new time of day profile may be prorated for the portion of the month that the time of day profile is selected and implemented for the user.", "For example, the user may need to perform a number of backups during a particular week of the month.", "As a result, an administrator authorized by the user may select one or more time of day profiles that may increase bandwidth for the specified time period.", "The ability to change the time of day profile on an hourly, daily or weekly basis may allow the user to have increased satisfaction with the communications service provider.", "[0049] FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a process for adjusted bandwidth to a user in accordance with an illustrative embodiment.", "The process of FIG. 5 may be implemented by a network edge device.", "The process may be implemented for any number of users simultaneously in order to take advantage of unused bandwidth available on the communications service provider's network.", "The process may begin by determining a currently selected time of day profile (step 502 ).", "The time of day profile may have been previously elected by the user for implementation.", "[0050] Next, the network edge device determines a current time (step 504 ).", "The current time may be tracked by one or more clocks of the network edge device or may be streamed to the network edge device from an atomic clock, stratus clock or other timekeeping device or network construct.", "[0051] The network edge device determines whether the bandwidth needs to be adjusted (step 506 ).", "The determination of step 506 is made based on the current time and the selected time of day profile.", "If the bandwidth does not need to be adjusted, the network edge device again determines the current time (step 504 ).", "[0052] If the network edge device determines the bandwidth does need to be adjusted in step 506 , the network edge device adjusts the bandwidth (step 508 ).", "The available bandwidth may be increased or decreased based on the stipulations and criteria of the time of day profile.", "For example at 2:00 AM, the time of day profile selected by the user may call for a 50% increase in the bandwidth available to the user.", "However, at 7:30 AM the time of day profile may call for a 50% reduction in the bandwidth allocated to the user.", "As a result, the bandwidth is adjusted in accordance with the selection made by the user.", "[0053] FIG. 6 is an interface for selecting a time of day profile in accordance with an illustrative embodiment.", "The interface 600 is an illustrative embodiment of an interface that may be presented to a user to select one or more time of day profiles.", "The interface 600 is one example of a graphical user interface.", "The interface 600 may include sections 602 , 604 , 606 , and 608 .", "The interface 600 may be also used by a user service representative or as a menu that may be audibly played to a user through an interactive voice response system.", "[0054] As previously described, the interface 600 may be configured to only allow selections of compatible profiles.", "For example, the profiles of sections 602 , 604 , 606 may be compatible, whereas the profiles of sections 604 and 608 may not be compatible.", "The profiles as shown in sections 602 , 604 , 606 , and 608 may show the time period during which the time of profile is activated, the increased change or available bandwidth allocated to the user, and any increased or decreased cost to the user for selecting that time of day profile.", "[0055] As previously described, the time of day profiles may be selected at any time based on the needs of the user.", "A selection of a time of day profile may indicate that the user is charged for that time of day profile during the next billing cycle.", "In another embodiment, the cost of the selected time of day profile may be prorated for the portion of the billing cycle that the user actually utilized that time of day profile.", "[0056] The previous detailed description is of a small number of embodiments for implementing the invention and is not intended to be limiting in scope.", "One of skill in this art will immediately envisage the methods and variations used to implement this invention in other areas than those described in detail.", "The following claims set forth a number of the embodiments of the invention disclosed with greater particularity." ]

[ "COPYRIGHT AUTHORIZATION [0001] The disclosure below may be subject to copyright protection.", "The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the documents containing this disclosure, as they appear in the Patent and Trademark Office records, but otherwise reserves all applicable copyrights.", "BACKGROUND [0002] Iron-type clubs are generally intended to be used as a set, and the specifications of iron-type clubs generally progress throughout at least a portion of the set.", "Certain club specifications, e.g., lie angle, are crucial to achieving shot consistency and are dictated by the swing type and physical characteristics of the player.", "Therefore, individual players must be properly fitted to optimize these parameters in their iron sets and to obtain maximum performance from their equipment.", "During the fitting process, club specifications for the entire set are typically determined by evaluating a player's swing relative to a planar lie board using, e.g., a plurality of 7 irons, wherein each test iron has a distinct set of specifications.", "[0003] In existing lie board fitting methods, the ideal lie angle for a player is generally identified by determining the point of contact between the sole of the test club and the lie board during a test shot by the player.", "As shown in FIGS. 1-3 , lie tape 112 is initially applied to the sole 108 of test club 100 and a reference line 111 , substantially perpendicular to the leading edge 124 , is then marked on the lie tape 112 proximate a face centerline 118 .", "Referring to FIGS. 4 and 5 , the “face centerline,” as used herein, denotes an imaginary line defined by the intersection of the strike face 123 with an imaginary vertical plane 115 that is oriented substantially perpendicular to the leading edge 124 and passes through a face center 110 , with the club head of the test club in an address position.", "[0004] Referring again to FIG. 3 , after the reference line has been marked on the lie tape, the player swings the test club relative to the lie board.", "The impact between the sole of the club head and the lie board produces a scarred or torn area in the lie tape at the point of contact.", "For each ¼ inch the point of sole impact is on the toe side of the reference line, the correct lie angle will be 1° more upright than the lie of the test club.", "For each ¼ inch the sole impact is on the heel side of the reference line, the correct lie angle will be 1° more flat than the lie of the test club.", "However, conventional fitting carts generally require a large number of “confirmation clubs,” so that the player may verify their test results with a club head having the appropriate lie angle.", "Accordingly, conventional fitting carts are generally expensive and can be cumbersome to transport.", "SUMMARY [0005] The present invention, in one or more aspects thereof, may advantageously comprise a more efficient fitting apparatus and method that reduce the number of clubs required to properly fit the player.", "[0006] In one example, a method of determining a reference lie angle for at least one iron-type golf club custom-fit for a player comprises (a) providing a primary lie board having a horizontal hitting surface;", "(b) providing a secondary lie board having an oblique hitting surface inclined relative to the horizontal surface, the secondary lie board comprising a flat lie-angle orientation and an upright lie-angle orientation;", "(c) providing a test club comprising a sole and a test lie angle, the test club having a predetermined relationship with the at least one iron-type golf club;", "(d) providing a gauge comprising a toe region, a heel region, and an intermediate region;", "(e) applying the gauge to the sole of the test club;", "(f) directing the player to swing the test club relative to the horizontal hitting surface to impact the gauge against the horizontal hitting surface, whereby a first witness mark is produced on the gauge;", "(g) identifying whether the first witness mark is proximate the toe region, the heel region, or the intermediate region;", "(h) if the first witness mark is proximate the intermediate region, selecting the at least one iron-type golf club wherein the reference lie angle is substantially equal to the test lie angle;", "(i) if the first witness mark is proximate the heel region, directing the player to swing the test club relative to the oblique hitting surface, with the secondary lie board in the flat lie-angle orientation, to impact the gauge against the oblique hitting surface, whereby a second witness mark is produced on the gauge;", "(j) identifying whether the second witness mark of step (i) is proximate the toe region, the heel region, or the intermediate region, the toe region associated with a first flat lie-angle value, the intermediate region associated with a second flat lie-angle value, and the heel region associated a third flat lie-angle value;", "(k) if the second witness mark of step (i) is proximate the toe region, selecting the at least one iron-type golf club wherein the reference lie angle is substantially equal to the difference between the test lie angle and the first flat lie-angle value;", "(l) if the second witness mark of step (i) is proximate the intermediate region, selecting the at least one iron-type golf club wherein the reference lie angle is substantially equal to the difference between the test lie angle and the second flat lie-angle value;", "(m) if the second witness mark of step (i) is proximate the heel region, selecting the at least one iron-type golf club wherein the reference lie angle is substantially equal to the difference between the test lie angle and the second flat lie-angle value;", "(n) if the first witness mark is proximate the toe region, directing the player to swing the test club off the oblique hitting surface, with the secondary lie board in the upright lie-angle orientation, to impact the gauge against the oblique hitting surface, whereby the second witness mark is produced on the gauge;", "(o) identifying whether the second witness mark of step (n) is proximate the toe region, the heel region, or the intermediate region, the toe region associated with a first upright lie-angle value, the intermediate region associated with a second upright lie-angle value, and the heel region associated with a third upright lie-angle value;", "(p) if the second witness mark of step (n) is proximate the toe region, selecting the at least one iron-type golf club wherein the reference lie angle is substantially equal to the sum of the test lie angle and the first upright lie-angle value;", "(q) if the second witness mark of step (n) is proximate the intermediate region, selecting the at least one iron-type golf club wherein the reference lie angle is substantially equal to the sum of the test lie angle and the second upright lie-angle value;", "and (r) if the second witness mark of step (n) is proximate the heel region, selecting the at least one iron-type golf club wherein the reference lie angle is substantially equal to the sum of the test lie angle and the third upright lie-angle value.", "[0007] In another example, a method of determining a reference lie angle for at least one iron-type golf club custom-fit for a player comprises (a) providing a horizontal hitting surface;", "(b) providing an oblique hitting surface inclined relative to the horizontal surface, the oblique hitting surface comprising a flat lie-angle orientation and an upright lie-angle orientation;", "(c) providing a test club comprising a sole and a test lie angle, the test club having a predetermined relationship with the at least one iron-type golf club;", "(d) providing a gauge comprising a toe region, a heel region, and a intermediate region;", "(e) applying the gauge to the sole of the test club;", "(f) directing the player to swing the test club relative to the horizontal hitting surface to impact the gauge against the horizontal hitting surface, whereby a first witness mark is produced on the gauge;", "(g) identifying whether the first witness mark is proximate the toe region, the heel region, or the intermediate region;", "(h) if the first witness mark is proximate the intermediate region, selecting the at least one iron-type golf club wherein the reference lie angle is substantially equal to the test lie angle;", "(i) if the first witness mark is proximate the heel region, directing the player to swing the test club relative to the oblique hitting surface, with the oblique hitting surface in the flat lie-angle orientation, to impact the gauge against the oblique hitting surface, whereby a second witness mark is produced on the gauge;", "(j) identifying whether the second witness mark of step (i) is proximate the toe region, the heel region, or the intermediate region, the toe region associated with a first flat lie-angle value, the intermediate region associated with a second flat lie-angle value, and the heel region associated with a third flat lie-angle value;", "(k) if the second witness mark of step (i) is proximate the toe region, selecting the at least one iron-type golf club wherein the reference lie angle is substantially equal to the difference between the test lie angle and the first flat lie-angle value;", "(l) if the second witness mark of step (i) is proximate the intermediate region, selecting the at least one iron-type golf club wherein the reference lie angle is substantially equal to the difference between the lie angle and the second flat lie-angle value;", "(m) if the second witness mark of step (i) is proximate the heel region, selecting the at least one iron-type golf club wherein the reference lie angle is substantially equal to the difference between the test lie angle and the third flat lie-angle value;", "(n) if the first witness mark is proximate the toe region, directing the player to swing the test club relative to the oblique hitting surface, with the oblique hitting surface in the upright lie-angle orientation, to impact the gauge against the oblique hitting surface, whereby the second witness mark is produced on the gauge;", "(o) identifying whether the second witness mark of step (n) is proximate the toe region, the heel region, or the intermediate region, the toe region associated with a first upright lie-angle value, the intermediate region associated with a second upright lie-angle value, and the heel region associated with a third upright lie-angle value;", "(p) if the second witness mark of step (n) is proximate the toe region, selecting the at least one iron-type golf club wherein the reference lie angle is substantially equal to the sum of the test lie angle and the first upright lie-angle value;", "(q) if the second witness mark of step (n) is proximate the intermediate region, selecting the at least one iron-type golf club wherein the reference lie angle is substantially equal to the sum of the test lie angle and the second upright lie-angle value;", "and (r) if the second witness mark of step (n) is proximate the heel region, selecting the at least one iron-type golf club wherein the reference lie angle is substantially equal to the sum of the test lie angle and the third upright lie-angle value.", "[0008] In another example, a method of determining a reference lie angle for at least one iron-type golf club custom-fit for a player comprises (a) providing a horizontal hitting surface;", "(b) providing an oblique hitting surface inclined relative to the horizontal surface, the oblique hitting surface comprising a flat lie-angle orientation and an upright lie-angle orientation;", "(c) providing a test club comprising a sole and a test lie angle, the test club having a predetermined relationship with the at least one iron-type golf club;", "(d) providing a first gauge and a second gauge, each comprising a toe region, a heel region, and a intermediate region;", "(e) applying the first gauge to the sole of the test club;", "(f) directing the player to swing the test club relative to the horizontal hitting surface to impact the first gauge against the horizontal hitting surface, whereby a first witness mark is produced on the first gauge;", "(g) identifying whether the first witness mark is proximate the toe region, the heel region, or the intermediate region;", "(h) if the first witness mark is proximate the intermediate region, selecting the at least one iron-type golf club wherein the reference lie angle is substantially equal to the test lie angle;", "(i) if the first witness mark is proximate the heel region, removing the first gauge from the sole of the test club, applying the second gauge to the sole of the test club, directing the player to swing the test club relative to the oblique hitting surface, with the oblique hitting surface in the flat lie-angle orientation, to impact the second gauge against the oblique hitting surface, whereby a second witness mark is produced on the second gauge;", "(j) identifying whether the second witness mark of step (i) is proximate the toe region, the heel region, or the intermediate region, the toe region associated with a first flat lie-angle value, the intermediate region associated with a second flat lie-angle value, and the heel region associated with a third flat lie-angle value;", "(k) if the second witness mark of step (i) is proximate the toe region, selecting the at least one iron-type golf club wherein the reference lie angle is substantially equal to the difference between the test lie angle and the first flat lie-angle value;", "(l) if the second witness mark of step (i) is proximate the intermediate region, selecting the at least one iron-type golf club wherein the reference lie angle is substantially equal to the difference between the test lie angle and the second flat lie-angle value;", "(m) if the second witness mark of step (i) is proximate the heel region, selecting the at least one iron-type golf club wherein the reference lie angle is substantially equal to the difference between the test lie angle and the third flat lie-angle value;", "(n) if the first witness mark is proximate the toe region, removing the first gauge from the sole of the test club, applying the second gauge to the sole of the test club, directing the player to swing the test club relative to the oblique hitting surface, with the oblique hitting surface in the upright lie-angle orientation, to impact the second gauge against the oblique hitting surface, whereby the second witness mark is produced on the second gauge;", "(o) identifying whether the second witness mark of step (n) is proximate the toe region, the heel region, or the intermediate region, the toe region associated with a first upright lie-angle value, the intermediate region associated with a second upright lie-angle value, and the heel region associated with a third upright lie-angle value;", "(p) if the second witness mark of step (n) is proximate the toe region, selecting the at least one iron-type golf club wherein the reference lie angle is substantially equal to the sum of the test lie angle and the first upright lie-angle value;", "(q) if the second witness mark of step (n) is proximate the intermediate region, selecting the at least one iron-type golf club wherein the reference lie angle is substantially equal to the sum of the test lie angle and the second upright lie-angle value;", "and (r) if the second witness mark of step (n) is proximate the heel region, selecting the at least one iron-type golf club wherein the reference lie angle is substantially equal to the sum of the test lie angle and the third upright lie-angle value.", "[0009] In yet another example, a method of determining a reference lie angle for at least one iron-type golf club custom-fit for a player comprises (a) providing a horizontal hitting surface;", "(b) providing an oblique hitting surface inclined relative to the horizontal surface, the oblique hitting surface comprising a flat lie-angle orientation and an upright lie-angle orientation;", "(c) providing a test club comprising a sole and a test lie angle, the test club having a predetermined relationship with the at least one iron-type golf club;", "(d) providing a gauge comprising a toe region, a heel region, and a intermediate region;", "(e) applying the gauge to the sole of the test club;", "(f) directing the player to perform at least two test swings relative to the horizontal hitting surface to impact the gauge against the horizontal hitting surface, whereby at least two first witness marks are produced on the gauge;", "(g) identifying whether a majority of the at least two first witness marks is proximate the toe region, the heel region, or the intermediate region;", "(h) if the majority of the at least two first witness marks is proximate the intermediate region, selecting the at least one iron-type golf club wherein the reference lie angle is substantially equal to the test lie angle;", "(i) if the majority of the at least two first witness marks is proximate the heel region, directing the player to perform at least two test swings relative to the oblique hitting surface, with the oblique hitting surface in the flat lie-angle orientation, to impact the gauge against the oblique hitting surface, whereby at least two second witness marks are produced on the gauge;", "(j) identifying whether a majority of the at least two second witness marks of step (i) is proximate the toe region, the heel region, or the intermediate region, the toe region associated with a first flat lie-angle value, the intermediate region associated with a second flat lie-angle value, and the heel region associated with a third flat lie-angle value;", "(k) if the majority of the at least two second witness marks of step (i) is proximate the toe region, selecting the at least one iron-type golf club wherein the reference lie angle is substantially equal to the difference between the test lie angle and the first flat lie-angle value;", "(l) if the majority of the at least two second witness marks of step (i) is proximate the intermediate region, selecting the at least one iron-type golf club wherein the reference lie angle is substantially equal to the difference between the test lie angle and the second flat lie-angle value;", "(m) if the majority of the at least two second witness marks of step (i) is proximate the heel region, selecting the at least one iron-type golf club wherein the reference lie angle is substantially equal to the difference between the test lie angle and the third flat lie-angle value;", "(n) if the majority of the at least two first witness marks is proximate the toe region, directing the player to perform a plurality of test swings relative to the oblique hitting surface, with the oblique hitting surface in the upright lie-angle orientation, to impact the gauge against the oblique hitting surface, whereby the at least two second witness marks are produced on the gauge;", "(o) identifying whether the majority of the at least two second witness marks of step (n) is proximate the toe region, the heel region, or the intermediate region, the toe region associated with a first upright lie-angle value, the intermediate region associated with a second upright lie-angle value, and the heel region associated with a third upright lie-angle value;", "(p) if the majority of the at least two second witness marks of step (n) is proximate the toe region, selecting the at least one iron-type golf club wherein the reference lie angle is substantially equal to the sum of the test lie angle and the first upright lie-angle value;", "(q) if the majority of the at least two second witness marks of step (n) is proximate the intermediate region, selecting the at least one iron-type golf club wherein the reference lie angle is substantially equal to the sum of the test lie angle and the second upright lie-angle value;", "and (r) if the majority of the at least two second witness marks of step (n) is proximate the heel region, selecting the at least one iron-type golf club wherein the reference lie angle is substantially equal to the sum of the test lie angle and the third upright lie-angle value.", "[0010] In yet another example, a method of determining a reference lie angle for at least one iron-type golf club custom-fit for a player comprises (a) providing a horizontal hitting surface;", "(b) providing an oblique hitting surface inclined relative to the horizontal surface, the oblique hitting surface comprising a flat lie-angle orientation and an upright lie-angle orientation;", "(c) providing a test club comprising a sole and a test lie angle, the test club having a predetermined relationship with the at least one iron-type golf club;", "(d) providing a first gauge and a second gauge, each comprising a toe region, a heel region, and a intermediate region;", "(e) applying the gauge to the sole of the test club;", "(f) directing the player to perform at least two test swings relative to the horizontal hitting surface to impact the first gauge against the horizontal hitting surface, whereby at least two first witness marks are produced on the first gauge;", "(g) identifying whether a majority of the at least two first witness marks is proximate the toe region, the heel region, or the intermediate region;", "(h) if a majority of the at least two first witness marks are proximate the intermediate region, selecting the at least one iron-type golf club wherein the reference lie angle is substantially equal to the test lie angle;", "(i) if the majority of the at least two first witness marks is proximate the heel region, removing the first gauge from the sole of the test club, applying the second gauge to the sole of the test club, directing the player to perform at least two test swings relative to the oblique hitting surface, with the oblique hitting surface in the flat lie-angle orientation, to impact the gauge against the oblique hitting surface, whereby at least two second witness marks are produced on the gauge;", "(j) identifying whether a majority of the at least two second witness marks of step (i) is proximate the toe region, the heel region, or the intermediate region, the toe region associated with a first flat lie-angle value, the intermediate region associated with a second flat lie-angle value, and the heel region associated with a third flat lie-angle value;", "(k) if the majority of the at least two second witness marks of step (i) is proximate the toe region, selecting the at least one iron-type golf club wherein the reference lie angle is substantially equal to the difference between the test lie angle and the first flat lie-angle value;", "(l) if the majority of the at least two second witness marks of step (i) is proximate the intermediate region, selecting the at least one iron-type golf club wherein the reference lie angle is substantially equal to the difference between the test lie angle and the second flat lie-angle value;", "(m) if the majority of the at least two second witness marks of step (i) is proximate the heel region, selecting the at least one iron-type golf club wherein the reference lie angle is substantially equal to the difference between the test lie angle and the third flat lie-angle value;", "(n) if the majority of the at least two first witness marks is proximate the toe region, removing the first gauge from the sole of the test club, applying the second gauge to the sole of the test club, directing the player to perform at least two test swings relative to the oblique hitting surface, with the oblique hitting surface in the upright lie-angle orientation, to impact the gauge against the oblique hitting surface, whereby the at least two second witness marks are produced on the gauge;", "(o) identifying whether the majority of the at least two second witness marks of step (n) is proximate the toe region, the heel region, or the intermediate region, the toe region associated with a first upright lie-angle value, the intermediate region associated with a second upright lie-angle value, and the heel region associated with a third upright lie-angle value;", "(p) if the majority of the at least two second witness marks of step (n) is proximate the toe region, selecting the at least one iron-type golf club wherein the reference lie angle is substantially equal to the sum of the test lie angle and the first upright lie-angle value;", "(q) if the majority of the at least two second witness marks of step (n) is proximate the intermediate region, selecting the at least one iron-type golf club wherein the reference lie angle is substantially equal to the sum of the test lie angle and the second upright lie-angle value;", "and (r) if the majority of the at least two second witness marks of step (n) is proximate the heel region, selecting the at least one iron-type golf club wherein the reference lie angle is substantially equal to the sum of the test lie angle and the third upright lie-angle value.", "[0011] In yet another example, a method of determining a reference lie angle for at least one iron-type golf club custom-fit for a player comprises providing a first hitting surface and a second hitting surface, the first hitting surface being different from the second hitting surface;", "providing a test club comprising a data acquisition device;", "directing the player to swing the test club relative to the first hitting surface, whereby initial information is collected by the data acquisition device;", "determining whether the initial information collected by the data acquisition device satisfies a pre-set condition;", "if the condition is satisfied, directing the player to swing the test club relative to the second hitting surface, whereby supplemental information is collected by the data acquisition device;", "and evaluating the supplemental information collected by the data acquisition device to determine the reference lie angle.", "[0012] In yet another example, a plurality of lie boards for determining a reference lie angle for at least one iron-type club custom-fit for a player comprises a first lie board having a horizontal surface and a second lie board having an oblique surface.", "[0013] These and other features and advantages of the fitting apparatus and method according to the invention in its various aspects, as provided by one or more of the examples described in detail below, will become apparent after consideration of the ensuing description, the accompanying drawings, and the appended claims.", "The accompanying drawings are for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0014] Exemplary implementations of the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein: [0015] FIG. 1 is a bottom plan view of a golf club head.", "[0016] FIG. 2 is a bottom plan view of the golf club head of FIG. 1 with lie tape applied thereto.", "[0017] FIG. 3 is a front perspective view of the golf club head of FIG. 1 , [0018] FIG. 4 is a top plan view of the golf club head of FIG. 1 .", "[0019] FIG. 5 is a front elevational view of the golf club head of FIG. 1 .", "[0020] FIG. 6 is a rear perspective view of a golf club head with lie tape applied thereto.", "[0021] FIG. 7 is a top plan view of a generally planar lie board according to one or more aspects of the present invention.", "[0022] FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view of the planar lie board of FIG. 7 taken along the lines 8 - 8 of FIG. 7 .", "[0023] FIG. 9A is a bottom plan view of a golf club head with lie tape applied thereto.", "[0024] FIG. 9B is a bottom plan view of the golf club head of FIG. 9A .", "[0025] FIG. 9C is a bottom plan view of the golf club head of FIG. 9A .", "[0026] FIG. 10 is a top plan view of an exemplary lie board having an oblique hitting surface according to one or more aspects of the present invention.", "[0027] FIG. 11 is an exploded view of the lie board of FIG. 10 .", "[0028] FIG. 12 is a bottom plan view of the lie board of FIG. 10 .", "[0029] FIG. 13 is a cross-sectional view of the lie board of FIG. 10 taken along the lines 13 - 13 of FIG. 12 .", "[0030] FIG. 14 is a bottom plan view of an exemplary lie board according to one or more aspects of the present invention.", "[0031] FIG. 15 is a bottom plan view of an exemplary lie board according to one or more aspects of the present invention.", "[0032] FIG. 16 is a bottom plan view of an exemplary lie board according to one or more aspects of the present invention.", "[0033] FIG. 17 is a bottom plan view of an exemplary lie board according to one or more aspects of the present invention.", "[0034] FIG. 18 is a bottom plan view of an exemplary lie board according to one or more aspects of the present invention.", "[0035] FIG. 19 is a bottom plan view of an exemplary lie board according to one or more aspects of the present invention.", "[0036] FIG. 20 illustrates a golfer addressing a lie board having an oblique hitting surface.", "[0037] FIG. 21A is a bottom plan view of a golf club head with lie tape applied thereto.", "[0038] FIG. 21B is a bottom plan view of the golf club head of FIG. 21A .", "[0039] FIG. 21C is a bottom plan view of the golf club head of FIG. 21A .", "[0040] FIG. 22A is a bottom plan view of the golf club head of FIG. 21A .", "[0041] FIG. 228 is a bottom plan view of the golf club head of FIG. 21A .", "[0042] FIG. 22C is a bottom plan view of the golf club head of FIG. 21A .", "[0043] FIG. 23A is a bottom plan view of the golf club head of FIG. 21A .", "[0044] FIG. 23B is a bottom plan view of the golf club head of FIG. 21A .", "[0045] FIG. 23C is a bottom plan view of the golf club head of FIG. 21A .", "[0046] FIG. 24A is a bottom plan view of the golf club head of FIG. 21A .", "[0047] FIG. 24B is a bottom plan view of the golf club head of FIG. 21A .", "[0048] FIG. 24C is a bottom plan view of the golf club head of FIG. 21A .", "[0049] FIG. 25A is a bottom plan view of the golf club head of FIG. 21A .", "[0050] FIG. 25B is a bottom plan view of the golf club head of FIG. 21A .", "[0051] FIG. 25C is a bottom plan view of the golf club head of FIG. 21A .", "[0052] For purposes of illustration, these figures are not necessarily drawn to scale.", "In all the figures, same or similar elements are designated by the same reference numerals.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0053] A novel lie board and method for determining a reference lie angle for at least one iron-type golf club custom-fit for a player is disclosed.", "Those skilled in the art will appreciate the applicability of this lie board and method to right-handed as well as left-handed players.", "Similarly, the lie board and method are applicable to wedges as well as irons.", "[0054] Referring to FIG. 6 , the player, according to one or more aspects of the present invention, is initially provided with a test club 200 having a sole 208 and a test lie angle β, measured with the club head in the reference position.", "A data acquisition device or gauge 212 is applied to the sole 208 of the club head to collect information relating to the player's swing.", "The gauge 212 may be a mechanical device, e.g., lie tape, or an electronic device that communicates the player's swing information to a data terminal.", "According to one or more aspects of the present invention, the gauge 212 may comprise a toe region 226 a , an intermediate region 226 b, and a heel region 226 c. [0055] Referring to FIGS. 7 and 8 , the player is directed to swing the test club 200 relative to a primary lie board 225 having a horizontal hitting surface 232 , when the lie board 225 is resting on the ground plane for use by the player.", "As shown in FIGS. 9A-9C , the impact of the gauge 212 against the horizontal hitting surface 232 produces a first witness mark, e.g., first witness marks 234 a - c , on the gauge 212 .", "The first witness mark may be formed by the tearing or scarring of the gauge 212 during the test swing or by the transfer of a colored marking directly from the lie board 225 to the gauge 212 .", "In another example, a virtual first witness mark may be transmitted to a data terminal when an electronic gauge is employed.", "Typically, the primary lie board 225 is formed from a rigid, transparent material, e.g., polycarbonate, polypropylene, plexi-glass, and polytrimethyleneterephthalate (PTT).", "[0056] After completing the test swing, the location of the first witness mark on the gauge 212 is identified and recorded.", "For example, the first witness mark may be disposed proximate the toe region 226 a ( FIG. 9A ), the intermediate region 226 b ( FIG. 9C ), or the heel region 226 c ( FIG. 9B ).", "Referring again to FIG. 9C , if the first witness mark is located proximate the intermediate region 226 b of the gauge 212 , at least one iron-type golf club having a reference lie angle substantially equal to the test lie angle β is selected for the player.", "For example, if the lie angle of the test club 200 is 62°, then a golf club having a reference lie angle of substantially 62° is selected for the player.", "The lies of the remaining clubs in the set are adjusted relative to the selected club head.", "However, if the first witness mark is located proximate the toe region 226 a ( FIG. 9A ) or the heel region 226 c ( FIG. 9B ), the player is directed to swing the test club 200 relative to a secondary lie board 236 ( FIG. 10 ).", "Prior to performing a test swing relative to the secondary lie board 236 , the gauge 212 may be removed from the sole of the test club and a new gauge may be applied thereto.", "[0057] Referring to FIGS. 10 and 11 , the secondary lie board 236 may have a two-piece construction comprising a central section 238 and a support structure 240 .", "The central section 238 may have an oblique hitting surface 244 inclined, e.g., 1°, 2°, or 3°, relative to the ground plane, when the lie board 236 is resting on the ground plane for use by the player.", "Suitable methods for fabricating the secondary lie board 236 may include, e.g., pressure forming, stamping, milling, or water-jetting.", "Preferably, the secondary lie board 236 may be formed from a light-weight, rigid material, e.g., polycarbonate, polypropylene, PTT, or plexiglass, to minimize the weight of the fitting cart and to facilitate the transport thereof.", "As shown in FIG. 11 , the support structure 240 may include a recess 245 for receiving the central section 238 .", "The central section 238 may be coupled to the support structure 240 , e.g., by plastic welding, mechanical interlocking, press fitting, or adhesive bonding.", "According to one or more aspects of the present invention, the central section 238 of the lie board 236 may be interchangeable, since repeatedly striking the lie board 236 with a test club may accumulate distracting smudges and/or scratches on the hitting surface of the central section 238 .", "[0058] Referring to FIGS. 12 and 13 , the support structure 240 may further include a lateral portion 250 having a lateral surface 252 integral with a support leg 254 .", "Preferably, the secondary lie board 236 is formed from a transparent or translucent material so that decals or indicia applied to the underside of the lateral portion 250 are visible to a player when addressing the secondary lie board 236 .", "The support leg 254 may include a foot 256 that contacts a ground plane 207 , when the secondary lie board is resting on the ground plane for use by the player, and provides sufficient torsional resistance to inhibit movement of the board at club impact.", "[0059] As shown in FIG. 13 , the support structure 240 may further include a central reinforcement portion 248 integral with the lateral portion 250 and disposed proximate the central section 238 .", "The central reinforcement portion 248 may include a plurality of longitudinally disposed reinforcement members 246 , whereby each reinforcement member may be separated by a support platform 258 that abuts the central section 238 to help prevent impact and/or fatigue cracking thereof.", "Moreover, each reinforcement member 246 may at least partially contact the ground plane 207 , when the secondary lie board 236 is resting on the ground plane for use by the player, to minimize the deflection of the central section 238 at club impact.", "Deflection of the central section 238 during a test swing may lead to inaccurate test results.", "To accommodate the changes in elevation associated with the inclined lie board 236 , each reinforcement member 246 may have a distinct effective height.", "“Effective height”, as used herein, denotes a vertical distance between a first point 260 , characterized as a point of contact between a reinforcement member 246 and the ground plane 207 , and a second point 262 , characterized by the intersection of an imaginary line 264 , substantially perpendicular to the ground plane and containing the first point 260 , with the hitting surface 244 .", "The effective heights of the reinforcement members may range between about 0.10 inches and about 1 inch and more preferably between about 0.25 inches and about 0.50 inches.", "[0060] As illustrated in FIGS. 14-19 , the orientation of the reinforcement members relative to the central reinforcement portion may vary.", "For example, as shown in FIG. 14 , a secondary lie board 336 may include a central reinforcement portion 348 having a plurality of reinforcement members 346 that originate from a central location 368 .", "At least two reinforcement members 346 are disposed diagonally across the central reinforcement portion 348 and at least two reinforcement members 346 are oriented perpendicular to one another.", "In another example, shown in FIG. 15 , a secondary lie board 436 may include a central reinforcement portion 448 comprising a plurality of circular-shaped reinforcement members 446 .", "FIG. 16 depicts a secondary lie board 536 having a central reinforcement portion 548 comprising a plurality of reinforcement members 546 oriented in a honey-comb shaped structure.", "Alternatively, FIG. 17 illustrates a secondary lie board 636 comprising a reinforcement portion 648 having a plurality of reinforcement members 646 arranged in a waffle pattern.", "In another example, shown in FIG. 18 , a secondary lie board 736 may have a central reinforcement portion 748 comprising a single, curvilinear reinforcement member 746 .", "In yet another example, shown in FIG. 19 , a secondary lie board 836 may have a central reinforcement portion 848 including a plurality of reinforcement members 846 , whereby each reinforcement member 846 is disposed parallel to the transverse dimension 870 .", "[0061] Referring again to FIG. 9A , if the first witness mark, e.g., the first witness mark 234 a, is proximate the toe region 226 a, the player is directed to swing the test club 200 relative to the secondary lie board 236 , with the secondary lie board 236 in an upright lie-angle orientation relative to the player.", "As shown in FIG. 20 , the secondary lie board 236 is in the upright lie-angle orientation ULO when the player is addressing the oblique hitting surface 244 with his or her feet perpendicular to and proximate the highest edge of the lateral surface 252 .", "Prior to performing the upright lie-angle test swing relative to the secondary lie board 236 , each region of the gauge 212 (see FIG. 6 ) may be assigned a distinct upright lie-angle value.", "For example, the toe region 226 a may be associated with a first upright lie-angle value, e.g., 3°, the intermediate region 226 b may be associated with a second upright lie-angle value, e.g., 2°, and the heel region 226 e may be associated with a third upright lie-angle value, e.g., 1°.", "[0062] During the upright lie-angle test swing, the impact of the gauge 212 against the oblique hitting surface 244 produces a second witness mark on the gauge 212 .", "Referring to FIG. 21A , if the second witness mark, e.g., the second witness mark 270 a, is proximate the toe region 226 a, at least one iron-type golf club having a reference lie-angle that is substantially equal to the sum of the test lie angle β (see FIG. 6 ) and the first upright lie-angle value is selected for the player.", "Referring to FIG. 21B , if the second witness mark, e.g., the second witness mark 270 b, is proximate the heel region 226 c, at least one iron-type golf club having a reference lie-angle that is substantially equal to the sum of the test lie angle β and the third upright lie-angle value is selected for the player.", "Referring to FIG. 21C , if the second witness mark, e.g., the second witness mark 270 c, is proximate the intermediate region 226 b, at least one iron-type golf club having a reference lie-angle that is substantially equal to the sum of the test lie angle β and the second upright-lie angle value is selected for the player.", "[0063] Referring again to FIG. 9B , if the first witness mark, e.g., the first witness mark 234 b, is proximate the heel region 226 c, the player is directed to swing the test club 200 relative to the secondary lie board 236 , with the secondary lie board 236 in a flat lie-angle orientation relative to the player.", "As shown in FIG. 20 , the secondary lie board 236 is in the flat lie-angle orientation FLO when the player is addressing the oblique hitting surface 244 with his or her feet perpendicular to and proximate the lowest edge of the lateral surface 252 .", "Prior to performing the flat lie-angle test swing relative to the secondary lie board 236 , each region of the gauge 212 may be assigned a distinct flat lie-angle value.", "For example, the toe region 226 a may be associated with a first flat lie-angle value, e.g., 1°, the intermediate region 226 b may be associated with a second flat lie-angle value, e.g., 2°, and the heel region 226 c may be associated with a third flat lie-angle value, e.g., 3°.", "[0064] During the flat lie-angle test swing, the impact of the gauge 212 against the oblique hitting surface 244 produces a second witness mark on the gauge 212 .", "Referring to FIG. 22A , if the second witness mark, e.g., the second witness mark 270 a, is proximate the toe region 226 a, at least one iron-type golf club having a reference lie-angle that is substantially equal to the difference between the test lie angle β and the first flat lie-angle value is selected for the player.", "Referring to FIG. 22B , if the second witness mark, e.g., the second witness mark 270 b, is proximate the heel region 226 c, at least one iron-type golf club having a reference lie-angle that is substantially equal to the difference between the test lie angle β and the third flat lie-angle value is selected for the player.", "Referring to FIG. 22C , if the second witness mark, e.g., the second witness mark 270 c, is proximate the intermediate region 226 b, at least one iron-type golf club having a reference lie-angle that is substantially equal to the difference between the test lie angle β and the second flat-lie angle value is selected for the player.", "[0065] Since the impact location between the sole of the test club and the lie board can vary for each swing, the player may be directed to perform a plurality of test swings relative to the primary lie board 225 ( FIG. 7 ) and the secondary lie board 236 ( FIG. 11 ) to accurately determine the player's swing tendencies.", "For example, the player may be directed to perform at least two test swings relative to the horizontal hitting surface 232 of the primary lie board 225 to produce at least two first witness marks on the gauge 212 .", "Referring to FIG. 23C , if the majority of the at least two first witness marks 234 c is located proximate the intermediate region 226 b, at least one iron-type golf club having a reference lie angle substantially equal to the test lie angle β is selected for the player.", "However, if the majority of the at least two first witness marks 234 a is located proximate the toe region 226 a ( FIG. 23A ) or the heel region 226 b ( FIG. 23B ), the player is directed to perform at least two test swings relative to the secondary lie board 236 .", "Prior to performing a test swing relative to the secondary lie board 236 , the gauge 212 may be removed from the sole of the test club and a new gauge may be applied thereto.", "[0066] Referring again to FIG. 23A , if the majority of the first witness marks, e.g., first witness marks 234 a, is proximate the toe region 226 a, the player is directed to perform a plurality of test swings relative to the secondary lie board 236 , with the secondary lie board 236 ( FIG. 11 ) in the upright lie-angle orientation relative to the player.", "Each impact of the gauge 212 against the oblique hitting surface of the secondary lie board produces a second witness mark proximate the toe region 226 a, the intermediate region 226 b, or the heel region 226 c. [0067] If the majority of the at least two second witness marks 270 a is proximate the toe region 226 a ( FIG. 24A ), at least one iron-type golf club having a reference lie-angle that is substantially equal to the sum of the test lie angle β and the first upright lie-angle value is selected for the player.", "Alternatively, if the majority of the at least two second witness marks 270 b is proximate the heel region 226 c ( FIG. 24B ), at least one iron-type golf club having a reference lie-angle that is substantially equal to the sum of the test lie angle β and the third upright lie-angle value is selected for the player.", "Moreover, if the majority of the at least two second witness marks 270 c is proximate the intermediate region 226 b ( FIG. 24C ), at least one iron-type golf club having a reference lie-angle that is substantially equal to the sum of the test lie angle β and the second upright-lie angle value is selected for the player.", "[0068] Referring again to FIG. 23B , if the majority of the first witness marks, e.g., the first witness mark 234 b, is proximate the heel region 226 a, the player is directed to perform a plurality of test swings relative to the secondary lie board 236 , with the secondary lie board 236 in the flat lie-angle orientation relative to the player.", "Each impact of the gauge 212 against the oblique hitting surface 244 produces a second witness mark proximate either the toe region 226 a, the intermediate region 226 b, or the heel region 226 c. [0069] If the majority of the second witness marks is proximate the toe region 226 a ( FIG. 25A ), at least one iron-type golf club having a reference lie-angle that is substantially equal to the difference between the test lie angle β and the first flat lie-angle value is selected for the player.", "Conversely, if the majority of the at least two second witness marks is proximate the heel region 226 c ( FIG. 25B ), at least one iron-type golf club having a reference lie-angle that is substantially equal to the difference between the test lie angle β and the third flat lie-angle value is selected for the player.", "Moreover, if the majority of the at least two second witness marks is proximate the intermediate region 226 b ( FIG. 25C ), at least one iron-type golf club having a reference lie-angle that is substantially equal to the difference between the test lie angle β and the second flat-lie angle value is selected for the player.", "[0070] According to one or more aspects of the present invention, the reference lie angle may be determined without using a lie board.", "For example, the player may be directed to perform test swings relative to any horizontal surface, e.g., a hitting mat.", "Moreover, one or more oblique hitting surfaces may be provided in lieu of the secondary lie board, described above.", "In yet another aspect, the present invention may include a golf club and/or a golf club set which has been custom fitted to a particular person using any of the methods set forth herein.", "[0071] In the foregoing specification, the invention has been described with reference to specific exemplary aspects thereof.", "It will, however, be evident that various modifications and changes may be made thereto without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.", "The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense." ]

[ "FIELD OF INVENTION [0001] This invention relates to hunting and decoys used in hunting.", "More specifically the invention relates to portable decoys that can be stowed for transport and then deployed by at hunter in the field.", "In even greater particularity, the invention relates to decoys that can be compressed for transport such that a number of decoys can be carried and then released from compression to return to their shape emulating a game animal or some other decoy.", "In still greater particularity, the present invention relates to compressible decoys that have a shape memory such that they return to the original shape once compression is released BACKGROUND [0002] The use of decoys is well known in the hunting industry including hand carved wooden duck decoys, rigid deer decoys, inflatable turkey decoys and a myriad of other decoys that the hunter must transport to the field to try to provide the game animal with a sense of safety due to the presence of other similar animals.", "Of course, the hunter must transport these decoys to the field each time he wishes to use them and the bulk of some rigid or wooden decoys clearly limit the number of decoys that can be transported, even on an all- terrain vehicle.", "Inflatable decoys develop leaks and may not present a realistic look after several uses and may be too lightweight to remain in a non-threatening posture in the field.", "Consequently there is a need for a collapsible and re-deployable decoy that conserves space and presents a realistic appearance.", "[0003] This invention embodies a new type of decoy used for turkey hunting.", "Its construction involves a thin rubber roto molded outer shell lined with a thicker layer of foam rubber.", "The interior of the decoy is hollow, thus allowing the decoy to be folded or compressed into a small mass.", "When the compressive force is removed, the decoy returns to its full shape due to the memory of the foam rubber lining.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0004] Referring to the drawings which are appended hereto and which form a portion of this disclosure, it may be seen that: [0005] FIG. 1 is perspective view of my improved decoy in the form of a turkey;", "[0006] FIG. 2 is a sectional view of my improved decoy along a vertical axis;", "[0007] FIG. 3 is bottom view of my improved decoy.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0008] One or more of the above objects can be achieved, at least in part, by providing a decoy 10 that does not require inflation but can be compressed to reduce volume.", "The preferred material for construction of the self-restoring decoy 10 are as follows: The decoy 10 includes an outer shell 11 which must be a rubberized material that can be roto- molded and will return to its original shape after being crushed or deformed due to an external force applied by the hunter.", "The shell is molded in the shape of a wild animal with detailed features of the wild animal molded thereon.", "Rotational Molding, also called roto- molding or roto-cast, is a thermoplastic process for producing hollow parts by placing powdered resin into a hollow mold and then rotating that mold bi-axially in an oven until the resin melts and coats the inside of the mold.", "Materials that may be used to fabricate the decoy shell 11 include Polyethylene including LLDPE, LDPE, HPPE, Cross-Linked or Recycled/Regrind;", "Polyvinyl chloride (PVC);", "Nylon;", "Polypropylene;", "and Thermoplastic Polyester Elastomers TPE.", "However, the outer shell 11 must be resilient, permeable and flexible as well as compatible with a rubberized paint such that the paint providing the proper coloration for the decoy does not flake or chip off when the decoy is rolled up or crushed.", "To the best of my knowledge, PVC rubber is the best choice as it can be roto-molded to capture extreme detail and also makes a chemical bond to a layer of flexible paint, thus eliminating chipping and peeling of the paint.", "Any roto-moldable rubber compound would work provided it possessed these qualities.", "[0009] The Decoy also includes an inner layer 13 of open cell foam of polyethylene, polypropylene or poly styrene affixed to the inner surface of shell 11 from adjacent an opening 21 in a bottom portion 23 of shell 11 contiguous and coextensive with the inner surface, thus forming an inner hollow core which communicates with opening 21 .", "However, the foam layer 13 must possess the following qualities: It must be compressible, thus open cell foam rubber such as those made of polyurethane is the best choice as the air can escape from the voids allowing it to be compressed to a minimum volume.", "Additionally, the decoy must return to its original shape and volume once compressive forces are removed.", "Closed cell foam entraps air bubbles and thus cannot be compressed to a minimum volume.", "There may be other materials that would meet this function, but for cost and availability, open cell foam rubber is the best choice.", "[0010] As far as the manufacturing process goes, roto-molding is the best choice for the outer shell 11 .", "Roto-molding allows the part to pick up fine details of the animal features that are a must have in today's high end decoy market and roto-moldable resins have superior paint adhesion.", "While the outer shell 11 could be blow molded, it would lack the necessary detail and would restrict material choices to extrude-able polymers.", "Further, extrude-able polymers that are flexible are notoriously difficult to paint or decorate due to their low surface tension.", "[0011] Due to the low tensile strength of the decoy material, a small support plate made 15 of die cut plastic sheet with a grommet 17 must be mounted to the balance point of the inside surface of the decoy on a region corresponding to the back of the decoy animal such that the decoy balances in the proper posture when placed on a stake 19 for use in the field.", "In practice, a hunter would manually compress the decoy to the minimum size desired and secure the compressed decoy with a strap or compression sack for transport to the field.", "At the field, decoy would be released from compression and return to its normal shape.", "The restored decoy could then be placed on stake 19 .", "[0012] Once the outer layer 11 has been molded and the grommet 17 has been installed, there are two options for installing the foam rubber layer 13 .", "One option is to roto-mold an expanding foam layer on the interior surface of the outer shell 11 .", "This would allow the foam rubber to be bonded to the inner surface of the outer shell while maintaining a hollow core.", "However, roto-molded expanding foam would be difficult to control a consistent wall thickness.", "A second option, and probably the most affordable, is to install a fabricated foam rubber liner into the outer shell using an adhesive to secure the two layers.", "In either option, the outer shell is secured to the foam rubber layer via an access hole 21 cut into the underbelly or bottom portion 23 of the decoy 10 .", "[0013] While in the foregoing specification this invention has been described in relation to certain embodiments thereof, and many details have been put forth for the purpose of illustration, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the invention is susceptible to additional embodiments and that certain of the details described herein can be varied considerably without departing from the basic principles of the invention." ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S) [0001] This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119(a) of a Korean patent application filed on Aug. 27, 2012 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office and assigned Serial No. 10-2012-0093821, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference.", "TECHNICAL FIELD [0002] The present disclosure relates to display control for a mobile terminal.", "More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a mobile terminal and display control method for the same that detect hovering input of a pen and display different pointers according to attributes of the hovering input position.", "BACKGROUND [0003] Advanced smartphones employ various input recognition techniques to provide a variety of functions based on recognized input.", "[0004] In particular, a mobile terminal such as a smartphone may perform, in response to one input, multiple operations such as entering a text input mode, entering a drawing input mode and providing a popup menu.", "[0005] However, a user of an existing mobile terminal may identify a mode provided by an input only after actually selecting a specific position to perform mode transition.", "In other words, the user cannot identify possible operations associated with a specific position in advance before the user actually selects the position to perform mode transition.", "[0006] The above information is presented as background information only to assist with an understanding of the present disclosure.", "No determination has been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the above might be applicable as prior art with regard to the present disclosure.", "SUMMARY [0007] Aspects of the present disclosure are to address at least the above-mentioned problems and to provide at least the advantages described below.", "Accordingly, an aspect of the present disclosure is to provide a mobile terminal and display control method for the same that detect hovering input of a pen and display a pointer differently according to attributes of the hovering input position.", "[0008] In accordance with an aspect of the present disclosure, a display control method for a mobile terminal is provided.", "The method includes detecting hovering input, identifying a position of the hovering input, determining an attribute associated with the hovering input position, and displaying a pointer corresponding to the determined attribute at the position of the hovering input.", "[0009] The hovering input may be generated by a pen device.", "[0010] The determining of an attribute may include checking whether the hovering input position is associated with an information display, and loading, when the hovering input position is associated with the information display, a pointer indicating presence of information to be displayed.", "[0011] The determining of an attribute may include checking whether the hovering input position is associated with a text input or a drawing input, and loading, when the hovering input position is associated with the text input or the drawing input, a text pointer or drawing pointer according to the input attribute.", "[0012] The loading of a drawing pointer may include determining, when the hovering input position is associated with the drawing input, whether the input mode is a pen mode or an eraser mode, and determining, when the input mode is the pen mode, properties of a drawing pen including one or more of a shape, a thickness and a color, and loading a pen pointer or eraser pointer corresponding to the pen mode or the eraser mode.", "[0013] The determining of an attribute may include determining whether the hovering input position is associated with actions including scrolling, panning, object movement, split screen adjustment and object size change, and loading, when the hovering input position is associated with one of the actions, a pointer corresponding to the associated action.", "[0014] The displaying of the pointer may include displaying the pointer at the hovering input position in conjunction with an application effect including a translucence effect, a popup window effect, an animation effect, and a slide effect.", "[0015] The display control method may further include detecting a mode change input, loading setting information regarding the mode change input from mode changes, and displaying a pointer corresponding to a changed mode on the basis of the setting information.", "[0016] The mode change input may be generated by a button on an input source having generated the hovering input.", "[0017] In the case of a drawing input attribute, the mode changes include one or more of a change in pen properties including a type, a thickness, and a color of a drawing pen, and a transition between a pen mode and an eraser mode.", "[0018] In accordance with another aspect of the present disclosure, a mobile terminal is provided.", "The terminal includes an input unit detecting a hovering input and generating an input signal corresponding to the hovering input, a display unit displaying information, and a control unit identifying, upon reception of an input signal from the input unit, a position of hovering input, determining an attribute associated with the hovering input position, and controlling the display unit to display a pointer corresponding to the determined attribute.", "[0019] The input unit may generates an input signal on the basis of an input source for hovering input and states of a button on the input source, and wherein the control unit identifies the position of hovering input when the input source is a pen device.", "[0020] The attribute is related to one or more of an information display, a text input, a drawing input, a scrolling operation, a panning operation, an object movement operation, a split screen adjustment operation, and an object size change operation.", "[0021] The control unit may check whether the hovering input position is associated with an information display and controls, when the hovering input position is associated with the information display, the display unit to display a pointer indicating the information to be displayed.", "[0022] The control unit may check whether the hovering input position is associated with a text input or a drawing input and controls, when the hovering input position is associated with text input or drawing input, the display unit to display a text pointer or a drawing pointer according to the input attribute.", "[0023] The control unit may determine, when the hovering input position is associated with the drawing input, whether the input mode is a pen mode or an eraser mode, determines, when the input mode is a pen mode, properties of a drawing pen including one or more of a shape, a thickness and a color, and controls the display unit to display a pen pointer or an eraser pointer according to the pen mode or eraser mode.", "[0024] The control unit may determine whether the hovering input position is associated with actions including scrolling, panning, object movement, split screen adjustment and object size change, and controls, when the hovering input position is associated with one of the actions, the display unit to display a pointer corresponding to the associated action.", "[0025] Upon detection a mode change input, the input unit generates an input signal corresponding to the mode change input, and wherein the control unit loads setting information regarding mode changes in response to the mode change input and controls the display unit to display a pointer corresponding to a changed mode based on the setting information.", "[0026] The mode change input may be generated by a button on an input source having generated the hovering input.", "[0027] In the case of a drawing input attribute, the mode changes comprise one or more of a change in pen properties including one or more of a type, a thickness and a color of a drawing pen, and a transition between a pen mode and an eraser mode.", "[0028] Other aspects, advantages, and salient features of the disclosure will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description, which, taken in conjunction with the annexed drawings, discloses various embodiments of the disclosure.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0029] The above and other aspects, features, and advantages of various embodiments of the present disclosure will be more apparent from the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: [0030] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a mobile terminal according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;", "[0031] FIG. 2 illustrates an example of an input unit, such as the input unit of the mobile terminal of FIG. 1 , according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;", "[0032] FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a display control method for the mobile terminal according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;", "[0033] FIG. 4 illustrates a hovering input according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;", "[0034] FIG. 5 is a flowchart of an attribute determination procedure according to a first embodiment of the present disclosure;", "[0035] FIGS. 6A and 6B illustrate display states according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure;", "[0036] FIG. 7 is a flowchart of an attribute determination procedure according to a second embodiment of the present disclosure;", "[0037] FIGS. 8A to 8C illustrate example display states according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure;", "[0038] FIG. 9 is a flowchart of an attribute determination procedure according to a third embodiment of the present disclosure;", "[0039] FIGS. 10A and 10B , 11 , 12 , and 13 illustrate example display states according to the third embodiment of the present disclosure;", "and [0040] FIG. 14 illustrates example display states according to mode changes according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.", "[0041] Throughout the drawings, it should be noted that like reference numbers are used to depict the same or similar elements, features, and structures.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0042] The following description with reference to the accompanying drawings is provided to assist in a comprehensive understanding of various embodiments of the disclosure as defined by the claims and their equivalents.", "It includes various specific details to assist in that understanding but these are to be regarded as merely exemplary.", "Accordingly, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that various changes and modifications of the embodiments described herein can be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the disclosure.", "In addition, descriptions of well-known functions and constructions may be omitted for clarity and conciseness.", "[0043] The terms and words used in the following description and claims are not limited to the bibliographical meanings, but, are merely used by the inventor to enable a clear and consistent understanding of the disclosure.", "Accordingly, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the following description of various embodiments of the present disclosure is provided for illustration purpose only and not for the purpose of limiting the disclosure as defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.", "[0044] It is to be understood that the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the”", "include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.", "Thus, for example, reference to “a component surface”", "includes reference to one or more of such surfaces.", "[0045] The present disclosure is applicable to display control of a mobile terminal capable of sensing hovering input.", "[0046] The present disclosure may be applied to any electronic appliance capable of sensing hovering input by a pen, such as a smartphone, a portable terminal, a mobile terminal, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a Portable Multimedia Player (PMP), a note pad, a WiBro terminal, or a tablet computer.", "[0047] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a mobile terminal 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.", "[0048] Referring to FIG. 1 , the mobile terminal 100 may include an input unit 110 , a control unit 120 , a storage unit 130 , and a display unit 140 .", "[0049] The input unit 110 senses user input and sends an input signal corresponding to the user input to the control unit 120 .", "The input unit 110 may be configured to include a touch sensor 111 and an electromagnetic sensor 112 .", "[0050] The touch sensor 111 may sense a user touch gesture.", "The touch sensor 111 may take the form of a touch film, touch sheet, a touch pad or the like.", "The touch sensor 111 may sense touch input and send a corresponding touch signal to the control unit 120 .", "Here, information corresponding to the sensed touch input may be displayed on the display unit 140 .", "The touch sensor 111 may sense user touch input through various input sources.", "The touch sensor 111 may sense touch input through a finger or physical tool.", "The touch sensor 111 may sense not only direct contact, but also proximity input within a preset distance with respect to the display unit 140 .", "[0051] The electromagnetic sensor 112 may sense touch input or proximity input according to change in an electromagnetic field strength.", "The electromagnetic sensor 112 may include a coil to induce a magnetic field and may sense an object that has a resonant circuit, thereby causing a change in the characteristics of the magnetic field created by the electromagnetic sensor 112 .", "Such an object having a resonant circuit may be an input device such as a stylus pen or digitizer pen.", "The electromagnetic sensor 112 may sense direct contact with the mobile terminal 100 and a proximity input or a hovering input without direct contact of the input device.", "Supplemental input sources such as a key, button and dial may cause different changes in the characteristics of the magnetic field created by the electromagnetic sensor 112 .", "Hence, the electromagnetic sensor 112 may sense manipulation of the supplemental input sources.", "[0052] The input unit 110 may include an input pad upon which the touch sensor 111 and the electromagnetic sensor 112 are mounted.", "The input unit 110 may be composed of an input pad to which the touch sensor 111 is attached in the form of a film or with which the touch sensor 111 is coupled in the form of a panel.", "The input unit 110 may be composed of an input pad using the electromagnetic sensor 112 on the basis of ElectroMagnetic Resonance (EMR) or ElectroMagnetic Interference (EMI).", "The input unit 110 may be formed with multi-layered input pads using multiple sensors for input detection.", "[0053] The input unit 110 and the display unit 140 may be combined into a layered structure to form a touchscreen.", "For example, the input unit 110 including an input pad having the touch sensor 111 may be combined with the display unit 140 coupled with a TouchScreen Panel (TSP).", "Alternatively, the input unit 110 including an input pad having the electromagnetic sensor 112 may be combined with the display unit 140 having a display panel.", "[0054] FIG. 2 illustrates an example of an input unit, such as the input unit of the mobile terminal of FIG. 1 , according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.", "[0055] Referring to FIG. 2 , the input unit 110 may be composed of a first input pad 110 a and a second input pad 110 b forming a layered structure.", "The first input pad 110 a and the second input pad 110 b may be a touch or pressure pad including the touch sensor 111 or may be an electromagnetic or EMR pad including the electromagnetic sensor 112 .", "The first input pad 110 a and the second input pad 110 b correspond to different inputs and may receive input respectively from the different input sources.", "For example, the first input pad 110 a may be a touch pad capable of sensing touch input from a human body and the second input pad 110 b may be an EMR pad capable of sensing a pen input.", "The input unit 110 may sense a multi-point input from the first input pad 110 a and second input pad 110 b .", "Here, an input pad sensing pen input may include sense states of a key, button or jog dial formed on the pen.", "[0056] The input unit 110 may be combined with the display unit 140 to form a layered structure.", "The first input pad 110 a and second input pad 110 b may be placed below the display unit 140 so as to detect input generated by an icon, menu item, button or the like displayed on the display unit 140 .", "The display unit 140 may commonly be a display panel or be a touchscreen panel combined with an input pad.", "[0057] The combination between the input unit 110 and the display unit 140 depicted in FIG. 2 is purely illustrative.", "The types and number of input pads constituting the input unit 110 , and relative arrangement of input pads and the display unit 140 may be varied according to manufacturing technology.", "[0058] In particular, the input unit 110 may sense a hovering input, generate an input signal corresponding to the hovering input, and send the input signal to the control unit 120 .", "The input unit 110 may generate an input signal together with hovering information regarding hovering input position, input source and states of a button on the input source.", "[0059] The control unit 120 may control the individual components of the mobile terminal 100 to realize functions of the present disclosure.", "For example, when a hovering input of a pen is sensed through the input unit 110 , the control unit 120 may control the display unit 140 to display a pointer corresponding to the attribute of the hovering input position.", "[0060] In one embodiment, when an input signal from the input unit 110 contains hovering input information, the control unit 120 may identify the hovering input position, identify an attribute corresponding to the hovering input position, and control the display unit 140 to display a pointer corresponding to the identified attribute.", "[0061] The control unit 120 may determine whether the hovering input position corresponds to an attribute of information display according to hovering input, an attribute of text input or drawing input, or an attribute of actions including scrolling, panning, object movement, split screen adjustment and object size change.", "When the hovering input position corresponds to the drawing input attribute, the control unit 120 may determine an input mode such as, for example, a pen mode and an eraser mode.", "When the pen mode is determined as the input mode, the control unit 120 may determine pen properties including a type, a thickness and a color of a drawing pen.", "[0062] Operations of the control unit 120 are described in more detail later with reference to the drawings.", "[0063] The storage unit 130 may store programs or commands for the mobile terminal 100 .", "The control unit 120 may execute the programs or the commands stored in the storage unit 130 .", "[0064] The storage unit 130 may include one or more of various types of storage media, such as a flash memory, hard disk, multimedia or other memory card, Random Access Memory (RAM), Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), Read Only Memory (ROM), Programmable Read-Only Memory (PROM), Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM), magnetic memory, magnetic disk, and optical disc.", "[0065] In one embodiment, the storage unit 130 stores information regarding user input and actions corresponding to input position.", "For example, the storage unit 130 may store information regarding a touch input, a proximity input and a pressure input, as well as actions corresponding to the input position.", "For example, the storage unit 130 may further store information regarding actions corresponding to states of a button formed on an input source for generating input.", "The control unit 120 may identify an action corresponding to a hovering input position and determine an attribute as to the identified action on the basis of information related to actions stored in the storage unit 130 .", "[0066] The storage unit 130 may temporarily or semi-permanently store information on pen properties including a type, a thickness and a color of a drawing pen for drawing input according to user settings or initial settings.", "[0067] The display unit 140 outputs information processed by the mobile terminal 100 .", "For example, the display unit 140 may display guide information for the currently active application, program or service as part of the User Interface (UI) or Graphical User Interface (GUI).", "[0068] The display unit 140 may be realized using one or more of display techniques based on Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), Thin Film Transistor Liquid Crystal Display (TFT-LCD), Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLED), flexible display, and 3D display.", "[0069] When the display unit 140 is layered with the touch sensor 111 and/or the electromagnetic sensor 112 of the input unit 110 , it may serve as a touchscreen for touch input.", "In this case, the display unit 140 may serve as an input source as well as a display source.", "[0070] In one embodiment, the display unit 140 displays a pointer corresponding to the attribute of a hovering input position under control of the control unit 120 .", "The display unit 140 may display different pointers if the attribute of a hovering input position indicates information display of a pointer.", "The display unit 140 may display different pointers according to whether the attribute of a hovering input position indicates a text input or a drawing input.", "The display unit 140 may display different pointers if the attribute of the hovering input position corresponds to actions such as scrolling, panning, object movement, split screen adjustment and object size change.", "[0071] The components of the mobile terminal 100 shown in FIG. 1 are examples and, therefore, components may be added or an existing component may be omitted or replaced according to the requirements of the mobile terminal.", "[0072] FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a display control method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.", "[0073] Referring to FIG. 3 , the control unit 120 of the mobile terminal 100 detects hovering input at operation 1100 .", "[0074] FIG. 4 illustrates a hovering input according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.", "[0075] The hovering input may be generated when an input source is placed in proximity to the mobile terminal 100 as shown in FIG. 4 .", "[0076] The input unit 110 may sense the hovering input through one of the touch sensor 111 and the electromagnetic sensor 112 .", "Here, the touch sensor 111 may be used to sense a hovering input by a finger (human body) and the electromagnetic sensor 112 may be used to sense a hovering input by a pen device such as a stylus pen or digitizer pen.", "When any of the hovering input is sensed, the input unit 110 generates a corresponding input signal and sends the input signal to the control unit 120 .", "[0077] The input signal may carry hovering information including hovering input position, input source, and states of a button on the input source.", "That is, the input unit 110 generates an input signal specific to an input device for the hovering input.", "For a hovering input by a pen, the input unit 110 generates an input signal reflecting states of key input, buttons and jog dials on the pen.", "[0078] The control unit 120 recognizes the hovering input from the input unit 110 and may identify hovering information such as hovering input position and an input source providing the input signal.", "For example, referring to FIG. 4 , the control unit 120 may identify a hovering input position 10 , a pen 20 as an input source, and pressing of a button 30 as the basis of the input signal.", "[0079] In one embodiment, upon detection of the hovering input by a pen device such as a stylus pen or digitizer pen, the control unit 120 may perform display control according to the hovering input.", "The control unit 120 may also perform display control according to a state of a button on the pen device.", "[0080] Upon detection of the hovering input by an input source other than the pen device, the control unit 120 may perform a corresponding operation.", "For example, the control unit 120 may perform an operation such as function execution, call placement or reception, message transmission, character input, page transition, or multimedia playback.", "[0081] In the above description, the control unit 120 performs display control upon detection of the hovering input by a pen device optionally having a button pressed.", "However, the control unit 120 may also perform a guiding operation upon detection of hovering input by a different input source such as a finger.", "[0082] The control unit 120 identifies the hovering input position at operation 1200 .", "[0083] The control unit 120 identifies the hovering input position on the basis of the input signal received from the input unit 110 .", "The hovering input position may be represented as two-dimensional coordinates defined on the display unit 140 .", "[0084] The control unit 120 identifies an attribute assigned to the hovering input position at operation 1300 .", "[0085] The control unit 120 may determine the attribute based on operations associated with the hovering input position.", "For example, the control unit 120 may determine whether the hovering input position is associated with information display, text input or drawing input.", "The control unit 120 may determine whether the hovering input position is associated with an operation such as scrolling, panning, object movement, split screen adjustment and object size change.", "Attribute handling is described in more detail later.", "[0086] To identify the attribute corresponding to the hovering input position, the control unit 120 may refer to information related to the currently active application or service.", "For an application at which hovering input occurs, the control unit 120 may refer to application information including operation or attribute information describing mappings between operations and positions on the display unit 140 .", "The application information may be prepared by the application developer and stored together with the corresponding application in the mobile terminal 100 .", "[0087] The control unit 120 is configured to display a pointer corresponding to the identified attribute at operation 1400 .", "[0088] The control unit 120 controls the display unit 140 to display a pointer corresponding to the attribute.", "The pointer may contain at least one of text and image.", "The control unit 120 may display the pointer at the hovering input position and may control the display unit 140 to display the pointer together with at least one effect such as a translucence effect, a popup window effect, an animation effect, and a slide effect.", "[0089] Next, a description is given of attribute determination according to specific examples of hovering input positions and corresponding pointer displays.", "First Embodiment [0090] In a first embodiment of the present disclosure, the control unit 120 may display different pointers depending upon the presence of the information display attribute.", "[0091] FIG. 5 is a flowchart of an attribute determination procedure according to a first embodiment of the present disclosure.", "[0092] For example, referring to FIG. 5 , as a part of operation 1300 for the attribute determination, the control unit 120 determines whether the hovering input position is associated with the information display attribute at operation 1311 .", "[0093] To this end, the control unit 120 may check the presence of an information display attribute to be displayed corresponding to the hovering input.", "The information to be displayed may be, for example, one of guide information, menu information, and notification or warning information.", "When information to be displayed is present, the control unit 120 may determine that the hovering input position is associated with the information display attribute.", "When information to be displayed is not present, the control unit 120 may determine that the hovering input position is not associated with the information display attribute.", "[0094] When the hovering input position is associated with the information display attribute, the control unit 120 loads a first pointer at operation 1312 .", "Here, the first pointer indicates presence of information to be displayed at the hovering input position.", "The control unit 120 may assign a specific shape, color or image to the first pointer to indicate the presence of information to be displayed.", "The shape, color and image assignable to the first pointer may be determined according to user or manufacturer settings.", "[0095] When the hovering input position is not associated with the information display attribute, the control unit 120 loads a second pointer at operation 1313 .", "Here, the second pointer indicates the absence of information to be displayed at the hovering input position and may be a regular pointer indicating a wait state.", "The second pointer has a different shape, color and image than the first pointer.", "The shape, color and image assignable to the second pointer may be determined according to user or manufacturer settings.", "[0096] After the attribute determination, the control unit 120 controls the display unit 140 to display a pointer corresponding to the attribute.", "The control unit 120 controls the display unit 140 to display the pointer loaded according to presence of the information display attribute.", "[0097] FIGS. 6A and 6B illustrate display states according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure.", "[0098] When the hovering input position is associated with the information display attribute, the control unit 120 displays the first pointer.", "For example, referring to FIG. 6A , the first pointer may have a shape of a hollow circle.", "When the hovering input position is not associated with the information display attribute, the control unit 120 displays the second pointer.", "For example, referring to FIG. 6B , the second pointer may have a shape of a filled circle.", "Thus, the second pointer includes one or more of a shape, color and image that is different from the first pointer.", "[0099] Hence, the user may identify presence of information to be displayed at the hovering input position based on the displayed pointer.", "That is, the user may determine information displayed at a specific position without actual input by bringing an input source in proximity with the mobile terminal 100 (i.e., the hovering input).", "Second Embodiment [0100] In a second embodiment of the present disclosure, the control unit 120 may display different pointers depending upon presence of the information display attribute.", "[0101] FIG. 7 is a flowchart of an attribute determination procedure according to a second embodiment of the present disclosure.", "[0102] More specifically, referring to FIG. 7 , as a part of operation 1300 for attribute determination, the control unit 120 determines whether the hovering input position is associated with one or more of text or drawing input attribute at operation 1321 .", "[0103] The control unit 120 may determine whether the hovering input position is associated with the text or drawing input attribute according to the possibility of a text input or a drawing input at the hovering input position.", "[0104] Text input is possible when the hovering input position corresponds to an input region of an application, program or service requiring character input such as a text message, email message, memo or phone number, for example.", "[0105] Drawing input is possible when the hovering input position corresponds to an input region of an application, program or service requiring graphical input such as a drawing, memo, picture diary or screen capture, for example.", "[0106] When the hovering input position is associated with the text input attribute or the drawing input attribute, the control unit 120 determines whether the hovering input position is associated with the text input attribute at operation 1322 .", "[0107] That is, at operation 1322 , the control unit 120 may determine that the hovering input position is associated with the text input attribute when the text input is possible at the hovering input position.", "[0108] When the hovering input position is associated with the text input attribute, the control unit 120 loads a text pointer at operation 1323 .", "[0109] In this example, the text pointer indicates the option to provide text input at the hovering input position.", "The control unit 120 may assign a specific shape, color or image to the text pointer to indicate the option to provide text input.", "The shape, color and image assignable to the text pointer may be determined according to user or manufacturer settings.", "[0110] When the hovering input position is not associated with the text input attribute, the control unit 120 determines whether the hovering input position is associated with the drawing input attribute at operation 1324 .", "[0111] That is, at operation 1324 , the control unit 120 may determine that the hovering input position is associated with the drawing input attribute the drawing input is possible at the hovering input position.", "[0112] When the hovering input position is associated with the drawing input attribute, the control unit 120 determines whether the input mode is a pen mode at operation 1325 .", "[0113] In the case of the pen mode input attribute, the control unit 120 may perform drawing input according to user manipulation in the pen mode and may perform drawing removal according to user manipulation in the eraser mode.", "The control unit 120 may identify the input mode on the basis of settings at the time of drawing input termination, user settings, or initial settings.", "Input mode settings may be temporarily or semi-permanently stored in the storage unit 130 .", "[0114] When the input mode is a pen mode, the control unit 120 identifies the pen properties at operation 1326 .", "[0115] The control unit 120 may determine properties of a drawing pen such as shape, thickness and color, for example.", "Pen properties may be identified based on one or more of settings at the time of drawing input termination, user settings, and initial settings.", "Pen settings may be temporarily or semi-permanently stored in the storage unit 130 .", "[0116] The control unit 120 loads a pen pointer corresponding to the pen properties at operation 1327 .", "[0117] The control unit 120 may load a pen pointer corresponding to the pen properties including one or more of shape, color, thickness and texture, for example.", "The pen properties including shape, color, thickness and texture of a pen pointer and may be determined according to information regarding an application, program or service providing a drawing mode or associated pointer data.", "[0118] Referring back to operation 1325 , when the input mode is not a pen mode, the control unit 120 loads an eraser pointer corresponding to an eraser mode at operation 1328 .", "[0119] The eraser pointer may have a one or more of a shape, color and image reminiscent of an actual eraser.", "The shape, color and image of the eraser pointer may be determined according to information regarding an application, program or service providing a drawing mode or associated pointer data.", "[0120] In embodiments of the present disclosure, the text pointer, pen pointer and eraser pointer described may above differ in one or more of shape, thickness and image.", "[0121] After attribute determination, the control unit 120 controls the display unit 140 to display a pointer corresponding to the attribute.", "The control unit 120 controls the display unit 140 to display the pointer loaded according to the text or drawing input attribute.", "[0122] FIGS. 8A to 8C illustrate example display states according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure.", "[0123] When the hovering input position is associated with the text input attribute, the control unit 120 displays a text pointer.", "For example, referring to FIG. 8A , the text pointer may have an I-shape.", "When the hovering input position is associated with the drawing input attribute and the current input mode is the pen mode, the control unit 120 displays a pen pointer corresponding to the pen properties.", "For example, referring to FIG. 8B , the pen pointer may have a one or more of a shape, color, thickness and texture corresponding to the pen properties.", "When the hovering input position is associated with the drawing input attribute and the current input mode is an eraser mode, the control unit 120 displays an eraser pointer.", "For example, referring to FIG. 8C , the eraser pointer may have a shape and image reminiscent of an actual eraser.", "[0124] Hence, the user may recognize availability of text input or drawing input at the hovering input position based on the displayed pointer.", "That is, the user may determine possibility of text input or drawing input at a specific position in advance without actual input or actual drawing tool activation by placing an input source in proximity with the mobile terminal 100 (i.e., hovering input).", "Third Embodiment [0125] In a third embodiment of the present disclosure, the control unit 120 may display different pointers according to the attribute of actions.", "[0126] FIG. 9 is a flowchart of an attribute determination procedure according to a third embodiment of the present disclosure.", "[0127] More specifically, referring to FIG. 9 , as part of the attribute determination at operation 1300 , the control unit 120 determines whether the hovering input position is associated with actions at operation 1331 .", "[0128] The control unit 120 may determine whether the hovering input position indicates a position for scrolling or panning.", "The control unit 120 may also determine the hovering input position indicates a position at which a movable object is present, indicates a position for adjustment of split screens, or indicates a position for an object size change.", "[0129] Upon determination result, the control unit 120 may determine whether the hovering input position is associated with at one or more actions including scrolling, panning, object movement, split screen adjustment, and object size change, for example.", "[0130] When the hovering input position is associated with actions, the control unit 120 loads a pointer corresponding to the attribute of actions at operation 1332 .", "[0131] The control unit 120 may check the direction of the action.", "That is, the control unit 120 may determine applicable directions for scrolling or panning.", "The control unit 120 may also determine applicable directions for an object movement, a split screen adjustment, or an object size enlargement or reduction.", "[0132] For example, when a portion of content is displayed on the display unit 140 and the screen is scrollable in the up direction and the down direction, the control unit 120 may determine “up”", "and “down”", "as applicable directions.", "When the screen is split vertically and the spilt screens are adjustable in the left or right direction, the control unit 120 may determine “left”", "and “right”", "as applicable directions.", "[0133] For a particular action, a determination of applicable directions may be performed as part of attribute determination.", "In this case, the control unit 120 may skip determination of applicable directions.", "[0134] The control unit 120 may load a pointer corresponding to the attribute or direction of the action.", "The control unit 120 may load a pointer having one or more of a shape, color and image corresponding to the attribute or direction of the action.", "[0135] In embodiments of the present disclosure, the pointers for actions described above differ in one or more of shape, thickness and image according to one or more of attributes, action, and a direction of the actions.", "[0136] FIGS. 10A and 10B , 11 , 12 , and 13 illustrate example display states according to the third embodiment of the present disclosure.", "[0137] After the attribute determination, the control unit 120 controls the display unit 140 to display a pointer corresponding to the attribute.", "[0138] For example, referring to FIG. 10A , when the hovering input position indicates a position for scrolling, the control unit 120 may display a pointer composed of an image indicating scrollable directions.", "When a portion of content is displayed on the display unit 140 and scrolling to the right is possible, the control unit 120 may display a pointer indicating the option to scroll to the right.", "Here, the control unit 120 may control the display unit 140 to display a scrollbar 40 together with the pointer.", "[0139] As another example, referring to FIG. 10B , when the hovering input position indicates a position for panning, the control unit 120 may display a pointer composed of an image indicating panning directions.", "When a touch, proximity or pressure input is sensed at the hovering input position, the control unit 120 may perform scrolling or panning in a direction according to the input position.", "[0140] Referring to FIG. 11 , when the hovering input position indicates a position at which a movable object is present, the control unit 120 may display a pointer composed of an image indicating object movability (i.e., displacement).", "Here, the pointer may have an image of an arrow indicating directions in which the object may be moved.", "[0141] Referring to FIG. 12 , when the hovering input position indicates a position for split screen adjustment, the control unit 120 may display a pointer composed of an image indicating the adjustability of split screens.", "Here, the pointer may have an image of an arrow indicating the adjustable directions of split screens.", "[0142] Referring to FIG. 13 , when the hovering input position indicates a position for object size change, the control unit 120 may display a pointer composed of an image indicating size adjustment of an object.", "Here, the pointer may be an image of an arrow indicating directions of object size enlargement and reduction.", "[0143] In the embodiments described above, the control unit 120 may display the pointer together with at least one effect such as a translucence effect, a popup window effect, an animation effect, and a slide effect, for example.", "[0144] Referring back to FIG. 3 , the control unit 120 checks whether mode change input is detected at operation 1500 .", "[0145] The input unit 110 may generate different input signals according to state changes of a button on the input source having generated the hovering input.", "[0146] The control unit 120 may detect a change in hovering input information through an analysis of an input signal from the input unit 110 .", "In an embodiment, for the hovering input by a pen, the control unit 120 may detect a mode change input when the analysis of an input signal indicates that a button on the pen has been manipulated.", "[0147] When mode change input is detected, the control unit 120 checks whether a user setting mode is present at operation 1600 .", "[0148] A mode change input may cause a change in pen properties such as, for example, one or more of a type, a thickness and a color of the pen having generated the hovering input.", "The mode change input may be caused by transition between the pen mode and the eraser mode, for example.", "The user setting mode may be composed of one or more modes and the sequence of transitions between the modes may be specified by the user.", "The control unit 120 may obtain information on user setting modes and transitions therebetween.", "The pointers may differ in type, color and image as assigned to the user setting modes.", "[0149] The control unit 120 may receive information on a user setting mode from the user.", "[0150] When no user setting mode information is received from the user, the control unit 120 may obtain information on a default setting mode.", "Information on the default setting mode may be pre-stored in the storage unit 130 by the manufacturer.", "[0151] When a user setting mode is present, the control unit 120 displays a pointer corresponding to the user setting mode at operation 1710 .", "[0152] The control unit 120 may assign a specific shape, color and image to the pointer corresponding to the user setting mode.", "The shape, color and image assignable to the pointer may be determined according to user settings.", "[0153] In the case that the user setting mode is composed of one or more sub-modes such that when a mode change input is detected, the control unit 120 may transition between the sub-modes and display a pointer corresponding to the current sub-mode.", "Here, pointers corresponding to the sub-modes may differ in one or more of a shape, thickness and image.", "[0154] FIG. 14 illustrates example display states according to mode changes.", "[0155] Referring back to operation 1600 , when a user setting mode is not present, the control unit 120 displays a pointer corresponding to a default setting mode at operation 1720 .", "[0156] The control unit 120 determines whether hovering input is terminated at operation 1800 .", "[0157] When the hovering input is sustained, the input unit 110 may generate an input signal corresponding to the hovering input and send the input signal to the control unit 120 at regular intervals.", "[0158] When the hovering input is terminated, the input unit 110 does not generate a corresponding input signal to be sent to the control unit 120 .", "When an input signal with hovering information is not received for a preset time, the control unit 120 may determine that the hovering input is terminated.", "[0159] When the hovering input is terminated, the control unit 120 discontinues display of the pointer at operation 1900 .", "[0160] Upon detection of hovering input termination, the control unit 120 may control the display unit 140 not to display the pointer.", "[0161] In a feature of the present disclosure, the mobile terminal and display control method for the same detect hovering input and present current operating mode or available operating modes associated with the hovering input position, notifying the user of currently available modes in advance.", "[0162] In addition, the mobile terminal and display control method for the same enable the user to identify an available mode in advance without making actual mode transition.", "Hence, the user may use the mobile terminal in a more efficient manner without unnecessarily transitioning between modes.", "[0163] It will be appreciated that various embodiments of the present disclosure according to the claims and description in the specification can be realized in the form of hardware, software or a combination of hardware and software.", "[0164] Any such software may be stored in a non-transitory computer readable storage medium.", "The non-transitory computer readable storage medium stores one or more programs (software modules), the one or more programs comprising instructions, which when executed by one or more processors in an electronic device, cause the electronic device to perform a method of the present disclosure.", "[0165] Any such software may be stored in the form of volatile or non-volatile storage such as, for example, a storage device like a Read Only Memory (ROM), whether erasable or rewritable or not, or in the form of memory such as, for example, Random Access Memory (RAM), memory chips, device or integrated circuits or on an optically or magnetically readable medium such as, for example, a Compact Disk (CD), Digital Versatile Disc (DVD), magnetic disk or magnetic tape or the like.", "It will be appreciated that the storage devices and storage media are various embodiments of non-transitory machine-readable storage that are suitable for storing a program or programs comprising instructions that, when executed, implement various embodiments of the present disclosure.", "Accordingly, various embodiments provide a program comprising code for implementing apparatus or a method as claimed in any one of the claims of this specification and a non-transitory machine-readable storage storing such a program.", "[0166] While the disclosure has been shown and described with reference to various embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure as defined by the appended claims and their equivalents." ]

[ "This application is a continuation of application Ser.", "No. 09/637,330, filed Aug. 10, 2000, status allowed.", "This application contains subject matter protected by Copyright Law.", "All rights reserved.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Technical Field The present invention relates generally to client-server technologies and, in particular, to techniques for enabling web sites to collect HTTP transaction performance information such as an approximate round trip time, an approximate page render time at the client, a request service time at the server, and the like.", "Description of the Related Art The World Wide Web is the Internet's multimedia information retrieval system.", "In the Web environment, client machines effect transactions to Web servers using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which is a known application protocol providing users access to files e.g., text, graphics, images, sound, video, etc.) using a standard page description language known as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML).", "HTML provides basic document formatting and allows the developer to specify “links”", "to other servers and files.", "In the Internet paradigm, a network path to a server is identified by a so-called Uniform Resource Locator (URL) having a special syntax for defining a network connection.", "Use of an HTML-compatible browser (e.g., Netscape Navigator) at a client machine involves specification of a link via the URL.", "In response, the client makes a request to the server identified in the link and, in return, receives a document or other object formatted according to HTML.", "A collection of documents supported on a Web server is sometimes referred to as a Web site.", "As consumer-to-business e-commerce increases on the Internet, a business will want to gather metrics that reflect its customer's experience with the Internet business services provided from the site.", "One such metric is the “total round trip time”", "for a given transaction, which represents the total time necessary to process a given HTTP transaction from the time the request is issued to the server until the page is fully rendered on the client.", "The total round trip time includes a number of elements: the server response time, the client page display time, and the time spent on the network.", "It is known in the prior art to provide specialized software to facilitate calculation of such performance metrics.", "In one scheme, a user of a client machine must download and install a client-side agent that is used to calculate the total round trip time.", "The agent, in effect, starts a timer when the page request is issued, and the software then determines the total round trip by determining when the page has been rendered.", "This technique, however, is obtrusive, and it does not provide information about the server response time (except to the extent that such data is included in the total round trip time).", "Of course, when given the choice, most users will not install and/or use such monitoring agents.", "There remains a need in the art to provide an improved technique for enabling sites to monitor HTTP transaction performance, preferably without involvement from the user of the client machine.", "BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A proxy is associated with a web server to perform performance monitoring for a given web site.", "The proxy receives a page request intended for the server and records a first time T 1 .", "The page request is then forwarded to the server for response.", "The response stream generated by the server is intercepted at the proxy at a second time T 2 .", "As the stream is forwarded to the requesting client, the proxy inserts into the stream a page script that, upon execution at the client, calculates a page render time.", "This time is determined by calculating a difference between a third time (the time at which the page script begins execution at the client) and a fourth time (a time at which the page rendering is complete).", "Upon completion of the page rendering, the script opens a connection back to the server and returns a packet that includes the page render time.", "This packet is received at a fifth time T 5 .", "A transaction record is then built by the proxy using the timestamp data.", "This record includes a request service time (the difference T 2 −T 1 ), an approximate page render time (the difference T 4 −T 3 ), an approximate time “on the wire) ((T 5 −T 2 )−(T 4 −T 3 )), and a total round trip time [(T 2 −T 1 )+(T 4 −T 3 )+((T 5 −T 2 )−(T 4 −T 3 ))], or (T 5 −T 1 ). The foregoing has outlined some of the more pertinent objects and features of the present invention. These objects should be construed to be merely illustrative of some of the more prominent features and applications of the invention. Many other beneficial results can be attained by applying the disclosed invention in a different manner or modifying the invention as will be described. Accordingly, other objects and a fuller understanding of the invention may be had by referring to the following Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiment. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS For a more complete understanding of the present invention and the advantages thereof, reference should be made to the following Detailed Description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which: FIG. 1 is a simplified illustration of a known client-server computing environment in which the present invention may be implemented;", "FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a client-server environment and the inventive reverse proxy of the present invention;", "FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the three (3) sub-systems of the reverse proxy of the present invention;", "FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the controller sub-system of the invention;", "FIG. 5 is a block diagram of the transaction data producer sub-system of the invention;", "and FIG. 6 is a block diagram of the transaction consumer data sub-system of the invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The present invention is a web site performance monitor operative in a computer network such as the public Internet, an intranet, a virtual private network, a combination thereof, or the like. As is well-known, in the Internet paradigm as illustrated in FIG. 1 , a client machine, such as machine 100 , may use an application, such as a web browser 102 , to access a server 104 via a computer network 106 . Network 106 typically includes other servers (not shown) for control of domain name resolution, routing and other control functions. A representative server 104 is a computer or workstation having at least one processor 108 , system memory (e.g., RAM) 120 , disk or other permanent storage 122 , I/O devices 124 a - n , an operating system 126 , a server program 128 , and an application programming interface (API) 130 that provides extensions to enable application developers to extend and/or customize the core functionality thereof through software programs including plug-ins, CGI programs, Java servlets, and the like. A representative server machine is a Intel Pentium® or RISC-based processor platform running an operating system (e.g., Unix, Linux, Windows, Apache, or the like) and a server program such as IBM® WebSphere® Version 2.0. Of course, any other computer hardware, operating system and/or or server software may be used. A representative client is a personal computer, notebook computer, Internet appliance or pervasive computing device (e.g., a PDA or palm computer) that is Pentium-, PowerPC®- or RISC-based. The client includes an operating system such as Microsoft Windows, Linux, Microsoft Windows CE, PalmOS or the like. A typical client includes a suite of Internet tools including a Web browser, such as Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer, that has a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and support for application plug-ins or helper applications. Communications between the client and the server typically conform to the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (Version 1.0 or higher), and such communications may be made over a secure connection. The browser includes the capability to read, interpret and process page scripts located in markup language pages retrieved by the client. As used herein, a “page script”", "or “script”", "is any set of statements, operators, objects and functions that make up a basic script designed to be interpreted and run by a browser.", "A page script may be written in any given scripting language.", "JavaScript, the most widely used scripting language, is a cross-platform, object-oriented language created by the Netscape Communications Corporation.", "Core JavaScript encompasses all of the statements, operators, objects, and functions that make up the basic JavaScript language.", "The client-side version of the language, called Client-side JavaScript (CSJS), is used in millions of web pages.", "The objects in CSJS enable the page author to manipulate HTML documents (checking form fields, submitting forms, creating dynamic pages, and such) and the browser itself (directing the browser to load other HTML pages, display messages, and so on).", "Microsoft has its own version of JavaScript, called Jscript, which is designed to run in Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser.", "Another version of JavaScript, called ECMA Script, has been standardized by EMCA, a European association for standardizing information and communications system.", "The ECMA specification is based on JavaScript 1.1 and includes the core JavaScript language.", "Another known scripting language is VBScript.", "Referring now to FIG. 2 , the inventive performance monitor preferably is implemented in a proxy 200 and its associated management server 202 .", "As seen in the drawing, the proxy 200 and the management server 202 are each illustrated as being separate computers although this is not a limitation of the invention of course.", "In this example, the web server 204 has an associated back end data store 206 that is located behind an inner firewall 208 .", "The web server 204 , the proxy 200 and the management server 202 are located between the outer firewall 210 and the inner firewall 208 .", "Again, this configuration is merely exemplary.", "Although not meant to be limiting, the proxy 202 is an Apache server configured in reverse proxy mode.", "In operation, the proxy 200 supports an application that is capable of determining the approximate round trip time, the approximate page render time, and the request service time for an HTTP transaction in either a secure or non-secure environment.", "As illustrated, the application preferably is a server-side application that does not require any permanent (or temporary) installation at the client endpoint.", "The data collected by this application may be used to provide answers to end user questions with respect to web site performance, e.g., in the context of business-to-business and business-to-consumer e-commerce (and other) transaction environments.", "The application may be implemented as a Java servlet, as native code, or in any other convenient fashion, such as being built into the web server itself.", "One of ordinary skill will also appreciate that the invention may also be used to monitor performance criteria for other protocols besides HTTP although, for convenience, the remainder of this description will focus on this protocol.", "According to the invention, the operator of the web server 204 configures the proxy into the site for monitoring server performance as will now be described.", "Generally, the proxy intercepts (or is configured to receive) requests directed to the server 204 .", "The time at which a request is received at the reverse proxy (the arrival metric) is designated T 1 .", "This request is then delivered to the web server for processing.", "The time at which the reverse proxy receives the response stream from the web server (to be passed back to the requesting client) is designated T 2 .", "Thus, the function T 2 −T 1 represents the approximate server response time, i.e. the amount of time taken to process the page request at the server.", "As will be seen, before the response stream is passed back to the requesting client, the reverse proxy “instruments”", "that stream by inserting a page script therein.", "This script, when interpreted at the client, starts a timer at time T 3 .", "When the page is completely rendered, the timer has advanced to time T 4 ;", "thus, the approximate client page render or “display”", "time is the function T 4 −T 3 .", "When the page rendering is complete, the script opens a connection (e.g., a socket) back to the server and sends a packet identifying the render time.", "This packet is received at the reverse proxy at time T 5 .", "Thereafter, the proxy returns an acknowledgment to the client, e.g., an HTTP 204 No Content response.", "Any valid HTTP response (e.g., an HTTP 200 with more web content) could be sent as well.", "The difference between time T 1 and time T 5 is a relatively good approximation of the round trip time (RTT) for the entire transaction because, although the reverse proxy does not know the time at which the client request was actually issued, the time it takes for the initial client request to travel from the client to the server is approximately the same as the time difference T 5 −T 4 .", "The actual “on the wire”", "travel time for the entire transaction is then approximately ((T 5 −T 2 )−(T 4 −T 3 )).", "Preferably, there are three (3) sub-systems that comprise the inventive monitoring application on the proxy computer.", "As illustrated in FIG. 3 , these sub-systems include: a transaction data consumer (TDC) sub-system 302 , a transaction data producer (TDP) sub-system 304 , and a controller sub-system 306 .", "As noted above, any of these components may be integrated together, of course.", "When a user makes a request to the web server 204 that is using the proxy, the transaction data producer 304 inspects the request, determines if the request is one that matches given criteria dictated by a set of one or more request filters (as will be described), creates a new transaction record for the request if the criteria is met, and forwards the request to the server for the target resource.", "When the transaction data producer 304 receives a response from the server (e.g., the requested page), it attempts to match the response with a transaction record.", "If a transaction record exists, the transaction data producer 304 instruments the response and forwards it back to the requesting client.", "As used herein, the response is instrumented by having a given script inserted into the response stream.", "The script is then executed on the client machine when the page is rendered, as will be seen, to generate an approximate page render time (at the client).", "The script is also used to open a connection to the server that is then used to deliver a packet identifying the page render time calculated by the script.", "As the transaction data producer 304 interacts with the client request and the server response, it is also calculating a server response time.", "The transaction data consumer sub-system 302 is preferably a server plug-in (e.g., a native Apache web server plug-in).", "When this module receives a request, it inspects the URI to determine whether this request is a result of the instrumentation supplied by the transaction data producer 304 .", "If so, the transaction data consumer 302 produces a transaction record, having a given format, and it responds to the calling client to complete the transaction.", "The resultant transaction record is sent, e.g., via a socket call, to the controller sub-system 306 .", "The controller sub-system 306 provides administrative interfaces for accepting and propagating (e.g., via HTTP POSTs) request filters and constraints to the transaction data consumer 302 and the transaction data producer 304 .", "As will be described, the controller sub-system 306 is also a parent thread of a record sink thread, which is a server socket that accepts connections for transaction records sent to the controller by the transaction data consumer sub-system.", "FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a preferred implementation of the controller sub-system.", "This sub-system is user-visible portion of the application.", "The responsibilities for this sub-system, as described above, are: receiving task information and start/stop commands and relaying the information to the transaction data producer and the transaction data consumer sub-systems, reading the transaction records that are logged by the transaction data consumer sub-system, and forwarding any constraint violations as events to the management server.", "The controller sub-system 400 comprises: a constraint and request filter sink 402 , a remote controller 404 , a record sink 406 , a transaction record filter 408 , and an event forwarder 410 .", "The constraint and request filter sink 402 is a set of APIs that provides accessors for setting and getting the constraints and the request filters for the session.", "In addition, this component exposes an execute operation used by the outside world to begin the session.", "The sink 402 is responsible for spawning a record sink thread 406 , building an HTTP POST method for the TDC and TDP sub-systems, and invoking the remote controller 404 for communication of the request filter information.", "The remote controller 404 component provides a communication mechanism for communicating request filter information to the TDC and TDP sub-systems.", "In addition, the remote controller 404 starts and stops the TDC and TDP sub-systems.", "The method of communication from this component to the TDC and TDP sub-systems preferably is HTTP.", "The record sink 406 is a server socket thread that listens for connections from the TDP sub-system.", "Upon receiving a request, the record sink creates a child thread that will receive the transaction record from the TDP sub-system.", "Each transaction record preferably is sent along two paths: (1) to the stream provided for upload to the management server, and (2) to the transaction record filter 408 for comparison against a current set of constraints.", "The transaction record filter 408 is responsible for comparing each received record against a current set of constraints.", "If one of the constraints has been violated, the transaction record filter 408 passes the record off to the event forwarder 410 .", "The event forwarder 410 is responsible for creating an event object out of the received transaction records and forwarding those events to the management server.", "FIG. 5 illustrates the transaction data producer sub-system 500 in more detail.", "As noted above, this sub-system receives configuration and constraint information about a current task from the controller sub-system, e.g., via HTTP requests.", "This sub-system is responsible for: creating transaction records for requests that meet the request filter criteria and logging the arrival metric T 1 , determining if a given response exists as a transaction record and updating the transaction record with the response metric T 2 , instrumenting the HTTP response with the gathered T 1 and T 2 metrics, the location of the TDC sub-system, and the script that will be used to determine the render time (T 4 −T 3 ), responding to the requesting client with the instrumented response, and allowing requests that do match the request filter constraints to simply pass through the mechanism.", "As illustrated in FIG. 5 , the transaction data producer sub-system 500 comprises a request handler 502 , a response handler 504 , and a request filter 506 .", "The request handler 502 is responsible for accepting HTTP requests from the outside world, determining if the request meets the request filter criteria, and creating a transaction record if it does.", "The request handler 502 then forwards the request to the web server.", "If the request comes from the remote controller 404 (in FIG. 4 ), then the request handler 502 responds appropriately to the command, e.g., by updating its constraint filter information or placing itself in an “on”", "or “off”", "mode.", "The response handler 504 is responsible for matching responses to transaction records when they exist.", "If they do exist, then the appropriate metrics gathering and page instrumentation occurs, and the instrumented response is sent to the requesting client.", "If matching responses do not exist, the response is simply passed through to the requesting client.", "Preferably, the matching is done based on the response stream being MIME type text/html (e.g., .", "html pages, .", "jsp pages .", "asp pages, and the like).", "If the original request was from the remote controller 404 (in FIG. 4 ), then the response handler sends a response signifying the results of the command issued during the request.", "FIG. 6 illustrates the transaction data consumer sub-system 600 .", "As described above, this sub-system receives configuration and constraint information about the current task from the controller sub-system, e.g., via HTTP requests.", "This sub-system then receives the results of the page instrumentation action, derives the T 5 metric as a result of receiving the request, and persists the data to a log file.", "The TDC sub-system 600 comprises a request handler 602 , a response handler 604 , and an IPC communicator 606 .", "The request handler 602 is responsible for determining if the received request has been generated as a result of the TDP instrumenting an HTTP response.", "If it is, then the request handler passes the transaction record to the IPC communicator 606 for propagation and asks the response handler to generate a response to the client.", "If the request handler receives a command from the remote controller 404 (in FIG. 4 ), the request handler responds appropriately to the command (e.g., creating the log file, or putting itself into “on”", "or “off”", "mode).", "The response handler 604 is responsible for dynamically generating a response and sending the response, via HTTP, to the client.", "In a simple form, the response is a 204 No Content HTTP response.", "However, any convenient response may be sent.", "If the original request was from the remote controller, then the response handler sends a response signifying the results of the command issued in the remote controller HTTP request.", "The IPC communicator 606 is responsible for taking the transaction records passed from the request handler 602 , opening a socket to the record sink component 406 (of FIG. 4 ), and transmitting the transaction record to the record sink.", "If this operation fails, the record is persisted to a local file.", "The monitoring application of the invention provides significant advantages over the prior art.", "As described above, the application preferably is implemented by the site provider and does not require any client-side involvement.", "The application monitors performance metrics for a given HTTP request, namely, approximate total round trip time, the request service time at the server, the approximate page render time at the client, and the approximate time that the transaction request is “on the wire”", "between the client and server.", "The total round trip time is estimated by calculating the difference between the final arrival time metric T 5 and the initial arrival time metric T 1 , as measured at the reverse proxy.", "The following is a representative script that is inserted into the server response stream by the proxy.", "<script language=“JavaScript”>", "onload = loadHandler;", "startTime = new Date( );", "function loadHandler(e){timeDiff = new Date( ) − startTime;location=“eaa.html?RTT=512694593&ST=172&REC=−+− +[26/Jun/2000:09:59:12+−0500]+“GET+/+HTTP/1.0”+200+14393&", "PRT=”", "+ timeDiff;} </script></HEAD>", "When this script starts, the current start time is obtained from the client machine using the startTime=new Date ( ) function.", "The loadHandler function is not called until the page finishes loading.", "Once the page is loaded, the time delta (T 4 −T 3 ) is calculated using the timeDiff variable.", "The location directive forces an HTTP request to the URL specified, in this case “eaa.html,” which represents a dummy page that is recognized by the proxy.", "RTT represents, in this example, the start time (T 1 ), the time at which the original request was received at the reverse proxy.", "The above-described implementation may be varied without departing from the scope of the present invention.", "Thus, for example, the TDP was described above as including the functionality of matching a response with a transaction record.", "In an alternative embodiment, such transaction table matching is not required.", "In particular, the entire transaction can be made stateless by appending information to the URL contained in the script.", "This means that the T 5 request can be received by any of the data collectors, which provides additional implementation flexibility.", "Thus, according to this alternative implementation, all transactions are stateless and the information travels in the argument parameters of the location directive of the script.", "According to another variation, it is not required to relay data via a socket connection.", "Rather, any convenient IPC mechanism (e.g., RPC) may be used, or the information may simply be stored and gleaned from a log file.", "The above-described implementation generates a RTT that may include the network or “on the wire”", "approximation, as has been previously described.", "Given that this calculation is only approximate, it may be omitted.", "As noted above, the inventive mechanism is preferably implemented in client-side code (a simple page script) coupled with server-side code (in the reverse proxy that is provisioned to provide the functionality).", "Generalizing, the above-described functionality is implemented in software executable in a processor, namely, as a set of instructions (program code) in a code module resident in the random access memory of the computer.", "Until required by the computer, the set of instructions may be stored in another computer memory, for example, in a hard disk drive, or in a removable memory such as an optical disk (for eventual use in a CD ROM) or floppy disk (for eventual use in a floppy disk drive), or downloaded via the Internet or other computer network.", "In addition, although the various methods described are conveniently implemented in a general purpose computer selectively activated or reconfigured by software, one of ordinary skill in the art would also recognize that such methods may be carried out in hardware, in firmware, or in more specialized apparatus constructed to perform the required method steps.", "Further, as used herein, a “client”", "should be broadly construed to mean any computer or component thereof directly or indirectly connected or connectable in any known or later-developed manner to a computer network, such as the Internet.", "The term “server”", "should also be broadly construed to mean a computer, computer platform, an adjunct to a computer or platform, or any component thereof.", "Of course, a “client”", "should be broadly construed to mean one who requests or gets the file, and “server”", "is the entity which downloads the file.", "Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is set forth in the following claims:" ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS (Not applicable) STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH (Not applicable) BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Field of the Invention The present invention is directed generally to a remote control device and, more specifically, to a remote control device with motion-detected illumination.", "Description of the Background Virtually every consumer electronic (CE) device sold today comes with its own remote control.", "As a result, it is not uncommon for households to have as many as three different remote control devices to control separate CE devices on the living room coffee table, thus introducing clutter and confusion as to the remote control that controls each particular CE device.", "The home electronics industry has responded to consumer frustrations with the introduction of universal remote devices.", "A universal remote control can be “taught”", "to take the place of all of the individual remote controls, thus allowing reduction of the number of remote controls per household to one.", "Even though using a universal remote control has many advantages, it, at the same time, introduces new problems.", "For one, it is difficult to determine the current mode of operation of the universal remote control merely by visual inspection.", "In addition, once the mode of operation is determined, a sequence of buttons must be pressed to change the mode of operation of the remote control to that of another CE device.", "Thus, there is a need for a remote control in which the mode of operation may be more easily changed.", "Another significant problem with universal remote controls is that no feedback is given to the user to identify the source of transmittal problems between the remote control and the CE device such as a weak remote control signal, low battery power, an incorrect mode of operation, a malfunctioning set-top box, and other such problems.", "Thus, there exists a need for a feedback device that indicates the mode of operation of the remote control whenever the buttons of the remote control are pressed to assist in diagnosing the source of transmittal problems.", "Further, there exits a need for a remote control having a feedback device that indicates weak signal strength and/or low battery power.", "In addition, many remote control users also find it frustrating to have to press a button or tap an LCD screen on the remote control that cannot be seen in a dark room in order to light the remote control's buttons.", "Further, pressing a random button or randomly tapping the LCD screen in the dark may trigger a remote control function that the user did not intend.", "Thus, there exists a need for a remote control having illumination whenever the remote control is moved or picked up.", "Advanced technophile users demand the functionality of universal remote control devices to become increasingly more sophisticated.", "For example, an experienced technical user may wish to do as much as the user can with a single remote control device.", "In addition, a home electronics maven might wish to be visually or audibly alerted to incoming telephone calls, or to a favorite television show starting, from the mobile remote control independent of the typically immobile set-top box or other CE device, which may be off when such an event occurs, thereby causing the user to miss that event.", "In addition, some advanced consumers may appreciate having the means to save and retrieve individualized settings of each CE device and/or their user profile from their remote control instead of having to use the set-top box to access these individualized settings and user profiles.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is directed to a remote control device including a housing, a processor located in the housing, and a motion detector in communication with the processor.", "The device also includes at least one input device in communication with the processor and a light source attached to a top side of the housing and in communication with the processor, wherein the motion detector communicates a signal to the processor upon detection of motion, and wherein the processor effects the light source to be lit upon receipt of the signal.", "The present invention represents a substantial advance over prior remote control devices.", "The present invention has the advantage that the illumination of the input devices of the remote control is automatic when movement of the remote control device is detected and is not dependent upon input to the device.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS For the present invention to be clearly understood and readily practiced, the present invention will be described in conjunction with the following figures, wherein: FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a remote control device with motion-detected illumination according to one embodiment of the present invention;", "FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a remote control device with an automatic positional mode of operation changer according to another embodiment of the present invention;", "FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a remote control device with an automatic event notifier and a corresponding consumer electronic device that interacts with the remote control device according to another embodiment of the present invention;", "FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a remote control device with a smart card reader/writer and a corresponding consumer electronic device that interacts with the remote control device according to another embodiment of the present invention;", "and FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a universal remote feedback device according to another embodiment of the present invention.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT It is to be understood that the figures and descriptions of the present invention have been simplified to illustrate elements that are relevant for a clear understanding of the present invention, while eliminating, for purposes of clarity, many other elements found in a typical device.", "Those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that other elements are desirable and/or required to implement a device incorporating the present invention.", "However, because such elements are well known in the art and because they do not facilitate a better understanding of the present invention, a discussion of such elements is not provided herein.", "FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a remote control device 10 with motion-detected illumination according to one embodiment of the present invention.", "The device 10 includes a housing 12 that contains the circuitry of device 10 .", "Within the housing 12 are a microprocessor 14 , an input device 16 , a light source 18 , a motion detector 20 , and a data storage area 22 .", "According to one embodiment of the present invention, the housing 12 may be constructed of a durable material such as, for example, a lightweight metal such as, for example, aluminum, titanium or a long-lasting alloy.", "According to another embodiment, the housing 12 may be constructed of a heavy duty plastic such as, for example, PVC, ABS, or Fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP).", "According to still another embodiment, the housing 12 may be constructed of rubber or of any other material or any combination of materials than is capable of withstanding constant handling and use.", "The motion detector 20 can be any type of detector that senses when the device 10 is moved and can be of any type of mechanical switch such as, for example, a mercury switch or a gravity-based switch or of any type of electronic sensor.", "The microprocessor may be of any type of microprocessor appropriate such as, for example, AMD's K5, K6, or K7 series, Intel's Pentium series, Cyrix's 6x86 or Mxi series, IDT's WinChip series, or Rise's mP6 or any other suitable microprocessor.", "The data storage area 22 may be any data storage means that is utilized to store, retain and send computer readable instructions to the microprocessor such as;", "for example, the M-Systems flash memory chip;", "persistent data memory chips such as, for example, EEPROM, battery-backed SRAM or mask ROM;", "or temporary-data-storage memory chips, such as, for example, DRAM, SRAM or ferroelectric RAM (FRAM);", "or any combination of the above data-storage memory chips.", "According to another embodiment of the present invention, the microprocessor and the data storage area may be combined onto a single chip such as, for example, Atmel's 16-Mbit ConcurrentFlash dual-bank device or STMicroelectronics and Waferscale Integration's NOR-based Flash+ technology.", "The light source 18 may be, for example, an incandescent, fluorescent, electro-luminescent, or low-voltage light source, multicolored LEDs, or any lighting means that illuminates a portion or all of the input device 16 .", "The input device 16 may be an alphanumeric keyboard or buttons, arrowed buttons, plain buttons, an LCD screen, a touch screen, a joystick, a stylus, a mouse, a keypad, a modem jack or any means that can be utilized by the user to input information.", "When the motion detector 20 detects movement, the motion detector 20 transmits a signal to the microprocessor 14 indicating the movement.", "The motion detector 20 is connected to a microprocessor 14 and detects movement of the device 10 .", "The microprocessor 14 , in turn, after retrieving instructions from the data storage area 22 , sends a signal to the light source 18 .", "Upon receipt of the message, the light source 18 illuminates all or a portion of the input device 16 so that the input device 16 may be more readily seen in dark environments.", "According to one embodiment, a portion or all of the input device 16 may be backlit by the light source 18 .", "Alternatively, in another embodiment, the light source 18 may shine down upon the input device 16 from an extending projection 19 or projections of the housing 12 to illuminate the input device 16 .", "The light sources 18 may thus be a single light that lights the input device 16 or may be, for example, a grid of lights, with each light corresponding to, for example, a button on the input device 16 .", "In another embodiment, a portion of the device 10 not used for input such as, for example, a border around the top side of the device 10 , may be backlit by the light source 18 , thus shedding light on the input device 16 .", "Optionally, after a pre-set period of time (e.g., five to ten seconds) without the remote control device 10 moving or without any input from the input device 16 , one embodiment of the present invention may have the microprocessor 14 send a signal to the light source 18 to cease the illumination of the input device 16 .", "In addition, according to another embodiment, the remote control device 10 may have a button or some other physical means of input that activates the illumination of the input device 16 so the user is not limited to moving the remote control device 10 to trigger illumination.", "Further, in another embodiment of the present invention, the automatic illumination due to movement feature of the remote control device 10 may be turned off with, for example, a user-controllable switch to save battery life.", "FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a remote control device 30 with an automatic positional mode of operation changer according to another embodiment of the present invention.", "The remote control device 30 is similar to the remote control device 10 described hereinbefore in conjunction with FIG. 1 with the exception that the remote device 30 in FIG. 2 also includes a motion detector 40 that detects a different type of motion than that of the motion detector 20 in FIG. 1 .", "The remote control device 30 also includes a directional mode indicator 44 .", "The motion detector 40 may be a gravity switch or any gyroscope-type device that can detect changes from horizontal in at least two degrees of freedom.", "The motion detector 40 detects the tilting or absence of tilting of the apparatus 30 and sends a signal to the microprocessor 34 indicating the direction of the tilt or lack thereof.", "After receiving the tilt directional information, the microprocessor 34 , acting on informational instructions retrieved from data storage area 42 , changes the mode of operation of the apparatus 30 to correspond to the appropriate consumer electronic device.", "The appropriate consumer electronic device may be, for example, a television, a VCR, a DVD, a DVR, a satellite, a cable or HDTV controller, home theater system components, or stereo system components, indicated by the tilt of the apparatus 30 .", "A number of different orientations of the remote device 30 may correspond to a separate operational mode.", "Therefore, when a particular orientation of the remote control device 30 is detected, the microprocessor 34 may then assume the appropriate operational mode.", "The microprocessor 34 may be programmed to detect the orientation of the device 30 based on feedback from the motion detector 40 and thus determine the mode of operation of the device 30 by any of a number passive programming techniques, such as, for example, numeric code programming, automatic programming, learned method programming, downloading from a personal computer, button presses or any of the typical means used to program remote controls to accept the codes recognized by consumer electronic devices.", "In addition to changing the mode of operation, in another embodiment of the present invention, the microprocessor 34 may transmit a message to the light source 38 to illuminate the corresponding directional mode indicator 44 so the user, at a glance, can determine the direction of the orientation of the device 30 and thus the mode of operation of the remote control device 30 .", "According to one embodiment of the present invention, the direction of the orientation and the corresponding mode of operation may be indicated by the directional mode indicator 44 which may consist of an arrangement of arrows corresponding to the different orientation directions.", "According to another embodiment of the present invention, the arrow corresponding to the direction of the orientation may light up when the remote control device 30 is tilted in that direction.", "The light source 38 may be any lighting means described hereinbefore in FIG. 1 that fully illuminates the direction mode indicator 44 .", "According to another embodiment, the directional mode indicator 44 is not limited to visual signals.", "Any means that adequately relays the tilt and mode of operation information of, for example, a television, a VCR, a DVD, a satellite, cable or HDTV controller, home theater system components, or stereo system components, may be used.", "FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a remote control device 60 with an automatic event notifier and a corresponding consumer electronic device 100 that interacts with the remote control device 60 according to another embodiment of the present invention.", "The remote control device 60 is similar to the remote control device 10 described hereinbefore in FIG. 1 except that the remote control device 60 in this embodiment also incorporates a speaker 70 and a receiver 74 within the housing 62 .", "The consumer electronic device 100 has the capability to be programmed to keep track of scheduled events, such as television shows or sporting event starting times, through an electronic program guide 102 .", "The consumer electronic device 100 has a terminal connection 106 for receiving data via a telephone line.", "The consumer electronic device 100 may be, for example, a typical set-top box commonly used by HDTV, satellite or cable television companies or any consumer electronic device such as a television, a VCR, DVD, home theater system components, stereo system components, or a digital video recorder (DVR).", "Besides the electronic program guide 102 and the terminal connection 106 to a telephone line, the consumer electronic device 100 may additionally include a receiver 112 and at least one transmitter 110 to communicate with the remote control device 60 .", "The consumer electronic device 100 may also include a speakerphone 108 and/or a video conferencing system 104 .", "When a scheduled event occurs via the electronic program guide 102 or when a telephone call is received via the telephone terminal connection 106 , the consumer electronic device 100 may transmit a message via the consumer electronic device transmitter 110 to the receiver 74 of the remote control device 60 .", "Electromagnetic waves such as, for example, infrared (IR), radio frequency (RF), X-10, pulsed codes, sound waves, microwave, or any typical remote control signaling technique may be utilized to pass the message between the consumer electronic device transmitter 110 and the remote control device receiver 74 .", "When the receiver 74 receives the signal concerning an incoming event from the consumer electronic device 100 , the receiver 74 may transmit a signal to the microprocessor 64 .", "The microprocessor 64 may, in turn, retrieve informational instructions from the data storage area 72 , interpret the signal using the instructions, and provide an alert to a user that a scheduled event is about to occur or that there is an incoming telephone call by activating the speaker 70 and/or the light source 68 .", "The light source 68 may be any lighting means that can be fully customized to represent different scheduled events or incoming telephone calls.", "Additionally, the speaker 70 may emit brief “chirps”", "or “clicks”", "with varying pitches and tones programmed to represent different scheduled events or incoming telephone calls.", "However, the visual and audio alerts are not limited to these responses.", "According to other embodiments, other alerts may be used to allow the user to easily locate the remote control device 60 and recognize the event that is occurring.", "Both audio and visual responses may be customizable and programmed to be unique to the different incoming signals from the electronic program guide 102 , the video conferencing system 104 or the speakerphone 108 of the consumer electronic device 100 .", "For example, according to one embodiment of the present invention and in the case of an incoming telephone call, the input device 66 could have a caller id function so the user can determine who was calling before activating the speakerphone.", "In another embodiment and in the case of a scheduled event, the input device 66 could display what event is about to occur.", "According to one embodiment of the present invention, activating the input device 66 may turn off the audio and visual alerts by the speaker 70 and light source 68 and acknowledge the programmed event from the electronic program guide 102 or the incoming telephone or video conferencing call through the speakerphone 108 or video conferencing system 104 from the consumer electronic device 100 .", "According to one embodiment of the present invention, the consumer electronic device 100 does not need to be powered on when the event occurs or the telephone call is received.", "The remote control device 60 will still receive the notification from the consumer electronic device 100 and will alert the user to the event or call.", "Activating the input device 66 after an alert will power on the consumer electronic device 100 if selected by the user.", "FIG. 4 is a block diagram is a remote control device 80 with a smart card reader/writer and a corresponding consumer electronic device 140 that interacts with the remote control device 80 according to another embodiment of the present invention.", "The consumer electronic device 140 includes an electronic program guide 142 , a receiver 144 and at least one transmitter 146 to communication with the remote control device 80 .", "The remote control device 80 is similar to the remote control device 10 described herein before in conjunction with FIG. 1 .", "However, the remote control device 80 also incorporates within the housing 82 at least one transmitter 86 , a receiver 94 , and a smart card reader/writer 92 .", "The smart card reader/writer 92 is of a suitable type such as, for example, a manual insertion, manual swipe, motorized insertion, hybrid, TTL, RS232, proximity or any other appropriate variety of smart card reader/writer.", "However, the smart card reader/writer in the remote control device 80 is not limited to any particular type of smart card reader/writer listed above.", "The removable smart card 92 can be of any type of smart card including a contact, contactless, combi or hybrid type with either an embedded microprocessor or memory chip.", "A removable smart card 92 may be inserted by the user into the smart card reader/writer 90 of the remote control device 80 .", "The removable smart card 92 may contain information concerning user profiles, user history, favorite shows, favorite channels, favorite themes, channel order, reminders for favorite shows, parental controls, audio and visual settings, pay-for-view purchases and spending limits or any information that a user may want individualize for use with the consumer electronic devices.", "The information stored on the removable smart card 92 could also contain user Internet profiles and information including access to email, Internet browser bookmarks, account names, address lists, hosts, security features, and display formats pertaining to Internet browsing on a television monitor.", "According to one embodiment, the removable smart card 92 does not need to be remote control specific.", "The user may be able to take the removable smart card 92 anywhere there is a compatible remote control 80 to access personal information on the removable smart card 92 .", "In addition, the removable smart card 92 could store promotional information allowing the user to take the removable smart card 92 to other locations to receive coupons, discounts or special merchandise.", "The information stored on the smart card 92 may be read by the smart card reader/writer 90 and sent to the microprocessor 84 .", "The microprocessor 84 , after retrieving informational instructions from the data storage area 88 , transmits the information to the transmitter 86 .", "The transmitter 86 , in turn, transmits the information read from the removable smart card 92 to the receiver 144 of the consumer electronic device 140 .", "The transmitter 86 may transmit information via electromagnetic waves such as, for example, infrared (IR), radio frequency (RF), X-10, pulsed codes, sound waves, microwave or any type of remote control signal that can be interpreted easily by the receiver 144 .", "The receiver 144 then relays the information to the electronic program guide 142 , which then acts upon the information received.", "When information such as, for example, sound and video settings, is updated on the consumer electronic device 140 , the information may be sent to the transmitter 146 and then sent out to the receiver 94 of the remote control device 80 .", "The receiver 94 in turn may transmit the new information to the microprocessor 84 , which retrieves informational instructions from the data storage area 88 and relays the information to the smart card reader/writer 90 .", "Upon receipt of the information from the microprocessor 84 , the smart card reader/writer 90 writes the new information on the removable smart card 92 .", "Having the smart card reader/writer 90 in the remote control device 80 allows multiple users to move between several different removable smart cards 92 easily and quickly since the user no longer needs to have to walk over to the consumer electronic device 140 to swap out different smart cards, thus increasing convenience and productivity.", "FIG. 5 is a block diagram for a universal remote feedback device 120 according to another embodiment of the present invention.", "The universal remote feedback device 120 is programmed to respond to the signals sent by a consumer electronic (CE) device and its corresponding remote control device as a means of feedback to input entered into the remote control device.", "The universal remote feedback device 120 is similar to the remote control device 10 described hereinbefore in conjunction with FIG. 1 .", "The device 120 may also include a receiver 128 , a speaker 132 , and a display device 136 .", "The universal remote feedback device 120 may be programmed using any suitable programming techniques such as, for example, numeric code programming, automatic programming, learned method programming, downloading from a personal computer, and button presses or any of typical means being used to program universal remote controls to accept the codes needed to operate consumer electronic devices.", "According to one embodiment, the universal remote feedback device 120 may be attached to a CE device.", "In another embodiment, the universal remote feedback device 120 may be attached to the CE device's remote control.", "In yet another embodiment, the universal remote feedback device 120 may be attached to a commercially available universal remote control.", "In all embodiments, it is imperative that the device, either the CE device or the remote control device, to which the universal remote feedback device 120 is attached does not have its signal blocked and the universal remote feedback device 120 can receive the feedback signal the user wants.", "When the receiver 128 of the universal remote feedback device 120 receives a signal from a CE device or its remote control, the universal remote feedback device 120 transmits a message to the microprocessor 124 .", "The microprocessor 124 retrieves informational instructions from the data storage area 134 and activates the speaker 132 and light source 130 .", "The sound and light produced is customizable and can be unique to each device programmed into the universal remote feedback device 120 .", "The light source 130 may be, for example, multicolored LEDs or any lighting means that can be fully customized.", "The speaker 132 could emit brief “chirps”", "or “clicks”", "with varying pitches and tones programmed to represent different consumer electronic devices.", "According to one embodiment, the display device 136 may display multiple alphanumeric characters as an indication of what device sent the signal to the universal remote feedback device 120 .", "For example, if the universal remote control were in DVD mode, the display device 136 would show “DVD”", "each time input is received by the universal remote control device 120 .", "The user may select whether to have audio feedback, visual feedback, alphanumeric feedback, or any combination of feedback.", "However, other means of feedback are available to the user and should not be limited to those described.", "The display device 136 , speaker 132 and light source 130 as well as other means of feedback also may provide feedback when there is a weak signal, low battery power or other transmittal problems associated with either the remote control device and consumer electronic device.", "Although the present invention has been described herein with reference to certain embodiments, numerous modifications and variations can be made and still the result will come within the scope of the invention.", "No limitation with respect to the specific embodiments disclosed herein is intended or should be inferred." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for protecting bows from being broken or damaged when the bow is drawn and released without an arrow.", "Brief Description of the Prior Art It is common for archers to test the feel of a bow by drawing the bow without having an arrow in place and accidentally releasing the string from the full draw point, i.e., “dry firing”", "the bow.", "If the bow is a compound bow, the return of the string without the resistance of an arrow can be so rapid and with such force that the limbs, eccentrics, cables, string or riser may be damaged.", "Damage to the limbs is possible when the bow is a recurve bow.", "There are various devices to allow archers to safely draw and release a bow without an arrow.", "These devices allow an archer to draw and release the bow without an arrow to build up strength or to improve technique and shooting form.", "The prior art mechanisms that allow an archer to safely draw and release a bow without an arrow incorporate a damping device, such as a fluid cylinder, to slow the release of tension in the bow string by applying a resistance to the arrow.", "The damping device, i.e., a fluid cylinder, is attached to the bow, for example, with a bolt-and-clamp mechanism installed around the bow handle.", "This arrangement may damage the bow and requires removal of the arrow rest which an archer may not like if the arrow rest has been tuned.", "The following patents are incorporated by reference herein: U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,261,321, 4,605,223, 4,623,145, 4,708,341, 4,911,364, 5,002,035, 5,143,043, 5,297,533, 5,592,928 and 6,161,532.", "BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above, it is an object of the present invention to provide a damping mechanism to permit an archer to safely draw and release a bow without an arrow that makes use of conventional threaded attachment points already present in a conventional bow.", "It is another object to provide a nocking structure for a damping mechanism that does not require the bow to be unstrung.", "Other objects and features of the invention will be in part apparent and in part pointed out hereinafter.", "The present invention provides a damping mechanism to permit an archer to safely draw and release a bow without an arrow.", "The damping mechanism is attached to the bow at one or more attachment mounting holes in a handle or riser of the bow conventionally provided for attachment of an arrow rest, stabilizer, sight, cable guard or the like threaded insert provided by a manufacturer for an assessory.", "The damping mechanism includes a damping cylinder and a means for mounting the damping cylinder to the bow.", "The means for mounting the damping cylinder has a clamping body with a longitudinal slit with means for compressing the clamping body at the slit on the damping cylinder.", "A fastener is provided for connecting the clamping body to one or more of the attachment mounting holes.", "An arrow-like piston rod of the damping cylinder occupies the place of an arrow and is attached to the bow string.", "The invention may also utilize a novel nock latch for securely and releasably attaching the bow string to the piston rod.", "The invention summarized above comprises the constructions hereinafter described, the scope of the invention being indicated by the subjoined claims.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING In the accompanying drawings, in which several of various possible embodiments of the invention are illustrated, corresponding reference characters refer to corresponding parts throughout the several views of the drawings in which: FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a compound bow having a damping mechanism in accordance with the present invention;", "FIG. 2 is a partial exploded perspective view showing the attachment of a means for mounting a damping cylinder to the arrow rest mount on a bow;", "FIG. 3 is a view similar to FIG. 2 showing an alternative means for mounting a damping cylinder to the stabilizer mount on a bow;", "FIG. 4 is a side view of a compound bow, in phantom, showing the damping mechanism installed on the bow with the bow string drawn in full lines and with the bow string relaxed in broken lines;", "FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of a damping cylinder shown in FIGS. 1 and 4 and a hole through the piston rod for attaching the bow string to a piston rod of the damping cylinder;", "and, FIG. 6 is a detailed view of a nock latch.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Referring to the drawings more particularly by reference character, FIG. 1 shows a compound bow 10 having a bow handle 12 and limbs 14 .", "Limbs 14 are attached to handle 12 by limb bolts 16 .", "Handle 12 includes a grip 18 , a bow window 20 , a conventional arrow rest mount 22 (see FIG. 2) and a conventional stabilizer mount 24 .", "Bow 10 also has a bow string 26 attached to a cable 28 .", "Bow string 26 passes over an idler wheel 30 and a cam 32 , in a one-cam compound bow, or over both cams in a two-cam compound bow.", "A damping mechanism 34 in accordance with the present invention may be attached to bow 10 at arrow rest mount 22 as shown in FIGS. 1-2 and 4 or at stabilizer mount 24 as shown in FIG. 3 .", "With continuing reference to FIGS. 1-2 and 4 , damping mechanism 34 includes a damping cylinder 36 and a means for mounting 38 the damping cylinder.", "As shown in FIG. 5, damping cylinder 36 includes a cylinder barrel 40 and a piston 42 with an elongated, arrow-like piston rod 44 which when used with bow 10 occupies the location which would be occupied by an arrow in normal firing of bow 10 .", "Cylinder barrel 40 has end caps 46 , one of which has a seal 48 through which piston rod 44 passes.", "The interior of cylinder barrel 40 is hollow and contains an elastic medium, for example a fluid such as air or other gas.", "Cylinder barrel 40 or piston rod 44 may have an orifice 50 therein to control the damping effect of damping cylinder 36 , as is known in the art.", "It will be appreciated that other fluids, such as liquids may be used as well as other damping means such as friction or springs.", "When bow 10 is draw and released without an arrow the energy stored in the bow is absorbed in a slow controlled manner by damping cylinder 36 , as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art.", "Turning to FIG. 2, means for mounting 38 damping cylinder 36 has a hollow cylindrical clamp body 52 .", "Clamp body 52 has a longitudinal slit 54 bordered with a pair of longitudinal, outwardly extending flanges 56 , as shown.", "Clamp body 52 also has a longitudinal, outwardly extending flat 58 .", "Flat 58 is spaced from longitudinal flanges 56 by about ninety degrees of rotation about clamp body 52 , but it will be appreciated that other spacing may be used.", "A transverse bore 60 passes through clamp body 52 and flat 58 for receipt of a threaded fastener 62 providing means for joining clamp body 52 to bow 10 .", "Threaded fastener 62 can be passed through bore 60 and then seated in flat 58 for use as described below.", "Hollow clamp body 52 , providing means for receiving damping cylinder 36 , is sized to snugly receive damping cylinder 36 , as shown in FIG. 1 .", "Longitudinal flanges 56 have one or more pairs of vertically aligned bores 66 extending therethrough.", "One of bores 66 in each pair may be threaded to receive a threaded fastener 68 .", "By tightening threaded fasteners 68 in the threaded one of bores 66 , clamp body 52 constricts on cylinder barrel 40 by pinching slit 54 partially closed, securely attaching damping cylinder 36 to bow 10 .", "Other means for constricting clamp body 52 at slit 54 will occur those skilled in the art, such as by passing a bolt through aligned bores 66 and attaching a nut.", "As the nut is tightened on the bolt, flanges 56 may be pressed together.", "As shown in FIG. 3, clamp body 52 may be attached to bow 10 at arrow rest mount 22 , at stabilizer mount 24 or at some other analogous threaded opening conventionally provided on bow handle 12 .", "When means for mounting 38 damping cylinder 36 is attached to arrow rest mount 22 , flat 58 of clamp body 52 is held in abutment against bow window 20 and fastener 62 passed through transverse bore 60 for threaded engagement with arrow rest mount 22 .", "When means for mounting 38 the damping cylinder is attached to stabilizer mount 24 , clamp body 52 is attached to a rod 70 , one end of which is tapped for threaded engagement with fastener 62 .", "Rod 70 passes in close sliding fashion through a hollow mounting block 72 .", "Mounting block 72 can be held in a selected position on rod 70 with a set screw 74 threaded through mounting block 72 for engagement with rod 70 .", "A bore 76 is provided through mounting block 72 transverse to rod 70 for receipt of a threaded fastener 78 .", "Threaded fastener 78 may be similar to threaded fastener 62 used for mounting clamp body 52 to rod 70 .", "To mount damping cylinder 36 through stabilizer mount 24 , clamp body 52 is attached to rod 70 with fastener 62 and rod 70 removed from mounting block 72 .", "Mounting block 72 is held in abutment against grip 18 and fastener 78 passed through bore 76 for threaded engagement with stabilizer mount 24 .", "After mounting block 72 is secured to stabilizer mount 24 , rod 70 is inserted into mounting block 72 and clamp body 52 positioned vertically such that damping cylinder 36 is in bow window 20 .", "Rod 70 is then locked in mounting block 72 with set screw 74 .", "If an archer does not want to remove a previously installed arrow rest (not shown) because it has been sighted in, damping cylinder 36 may be positioned above the arrow rest and piston rod 44 nocked high.", "As shown in FIGS. 1 and 5, bow string 26 of bow 10 may be received in piston rod 44 by passing bow string 26 through a transverse hole 80 provided therefor.", "However, this means for connecting the piston rod to the bow string, requires bow 10 to be unstrung so that an end of bow string 26 can be passed through hole 80 .", "It is preferred that a nock latch 82 , a representative one of which is shown in FIG. 6, be provided at the end of piston rod 44 for securing piston rod 44 to bow string 26 .", "As shown, piston rod 44 is bifurcated to form a nock 84 .", "Arms 86 of nock 84 have transverse, aligned bores 88 , at least one of which is threaded and through which a threaded fastener 90 passes.", "Bow string 26 is trapped between threaded fastener 90 and the base of nock 84 to securely connect piston rod 44 to bow string 26 .", "Nock latch 82 may take other forms, such as a clasp, etc.", ", may be padded to prevent damage to bow string 26 and may be used with damping mechanisms not in accordance with the present invention.", "Such other mechanisms are discussed in the “Brief Summary of the Invention”", "section above and shown in the prior art references cited by the applicant to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.", "In view of the above, it will be seen that damping cylinder 36 is mounted to bow 10 with means for mounting 38 without injuring the bow by making use of mounts already provided on a convention bow for other attachments, e.g., arrow rest mount 22 , stabilizer mount 24 , etc.", "It will also be seen that the other objects of the invention are achieved and other advantageous results attained.", "As various changes could be made in the above constructions without departing from the scope of the invention, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense." ]

[ "BACKGROUND ART [0001] The invention relates generally to biocide containing laminates for use in a wide variety of products, including pouches or containers forming an envelope for protectively packaging food substances, written materials, and other products.", "The laminate includes a layer of paper and at least one ply of an oriented synthetic plastic film that imparts high strength and tear resistance.", "Other products include bags and other dilatable container products that initially are in a flat state and are normally made of paper, or tape or other adhesive-backed laminate sheetings.", "[0002] Pouches or containers for storing and dispensing flowable or solid food substances and other more or less perishable products are usually fabricated of a multi-ply laminate sheeting forming an envelope to protect the contents of the package and prolong its shelf life.", "The shelf life of a packaged product depends on the degree to which it is isolated from the atmosphere in which the package is placed.", "[0003] One well-known form of pouch serves to package a condiment such as mustard, ketchup or a hot dog relish, which is dispensed by tearing an opening in the pouch and then squeezing the pouch to extrude the condiment therefrom.", "This pouch is formed of a laminate sheeting whose outer ply is a clear polyester film, the inner face of which is printed to identify the contents.", "The outer film ply is adhesively laminated to an intermediate ply of metal foil that in turn is adhesively laminated to an inner ply formed of polyethylene film.", "[0004] The three plies that together create this laminate sheeting have distinctly different properties.", "The outer polyester film ply imparts strength and tear resistance to the pouch, the intermediate metal face ply acts as a moisture barrier, while the inner polyethylene ply facilitates sealing of the pouch.", "[0005] The reason that a metal foil or a metallized plastic film is often included in laminate sheeting from which a pouch is fabricated to package food is because plastic films, even those of exceptional tensile strength, have some degree of porosity.", "As a consequence, a pouch formed entirely of plastic film material will exhibit a moisture vapor transmission rate (MVTR) that is often unsuitable in a food container.", "The transfer of moisture through the envelope of a food pouch reduces its shelf life, and a moisture barrier is therefore desirable.", "[0006] A serious drawback of multi-ply laminate sheeting of the type heretofore used for fabricating pouches and other packaging material, does not entirely reside in the structure of the sheeting, but rather in the environmental conditions which prevail in the course of producing the sheeting.", "[0007] Most industrial adhesives used to interlaminate the several plies of the laminate sheeting include volatile chemical solvents that in the course of curing the adhesive are volatilized.", "The resultant noxious fumes that are driven off into the atmosphere are environmentally objectionable.", "It becomes necessary, therefore, in the plant in which the pouch laminate sheeting is produced, to provide filtration and other equipment to capture and treat the noxious fumes.", "This requirement adds substantially to the cost of production.", "[0008] In those instances where hot melt adhesives are used to join the plies of a laminate sheeting, not only do some of these adhesives give off objectionable fumes, but the heat involved may have adverse effect on the plies to which the hot melt adhesive is applied.", "Thus, if one of the plies is a synthetic plastic film that has been uni-axially or bi-axially oriented to enhance its tensile strength, this orientation will be impaired by heat, for heat acts to relax the film and in doing so, to destroy its orientation and strength.", "[0009] Of background interest are U.S. Pat. No. 4,790,429 to Fukushima and U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,989,640 and 4,724,982 to Redmond.", "These patents disclose various forms of pouches and containers for food products formed of plastic film material.", "The food pouch disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,366,229 to Sanni uses a laminated sheeting of thermoplastic film and paper so that seal lines can be produced by thermal welding.", "U.S. Pat. No. 4,806,398 to Martin shows a carton for liquid formed by a paper substrate having bonded to one side a polyethylene film and to the other side a polyolefin film to provide a liquid-impermeable laminate that lends itself to thermal bonding.", "A similar container is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,404,988 to Rawing.", "[0010] There is also a need for materials that can be used for packaging or mailing of various items.", "In the past, such materials were made from plastics or Kraft or other paper, the latter optionally coated with polymers or plastic films.", "The plastics or polymers provide resistance to moisture, such as would be encountered from rain or snow during times when the package is being shipped.", "[0011] The sheeting traditionally used in making packaging materials such as envelopes, grocery bags and other types of dilatable container products that initially are in a flat state, is paper.", "Paper is a semi-synthetic material made by chemically processing cellulose fibers.", "Apart from its low cost, an important advantage of paper is that it can be converted into envelopes and other types of dilatable container products by means of high speed equipment that functions to cut and fold the sheeting into the desired configuration, the folds and flaps of the product being bonded together, where necessary, by standard low-cost adhesives.", "Another advantage of paper in this context is that it can readily be printed and colored, using standard inks for this purpose.", "But such paper products suffer from several disadvantages, for they are characterized by low tear and burst strength, and are by no means water resistant;", "for unless coated, paper is highly absorbent.", "[0012] A number of packaging products have been made from materials that are paper-based but that have greater strength or durability.", "These products are made of heavy weight paper and cardboard or other pressed paperboard products.", "Corrugations or other configurations can be used to further strengthen the product without adding excessive weight.", "While these products are useful for a variety of applications, they still have deficiencies in that the cardboard materials can be damaged by impact and moisture.", "Of course, when wet, the material can deteriorate or be damaged more easily.", "For these reasons, cardboard packaging products can be coated with a moisture-resistant or water-repellant coating, but this significantly increases the costs of such products.", "[0013] Also well known in the art are plastic-coated cellulosic papers, these being used chiefly in children's books, posters, signs and shipping tags, and for other purposes demanding resistance to hard wear and to outdoor exposure.", "Such plastic-coated papers lack high tear and burst strength.", "Also low in strength are special purpose coated papers covered on one or both sides with a suspension of clays, starches, rosin or wax, or a combination of these substances.", "To overcome the drawbacks of paper-fabricated dilatable container products, in recent years such products have been made of TYVEC or other polymeric synthetic plastic sheeting.", "The resultant products not only have a tear and bursting strength far superior to paper, but they are also waterproof.", "But TYVEC and similar synthetic plastic sheeting materials are difficult to convert into envelopes and other dilatable container products using high-speed equipment of the type mainly suitable for paper.", "As a consequence, production scrap rates can run as high as thirty percent, thereby raising the cost of manufacturing these products.", "Moreover, such plastic sheeting has a low chemical affinity for standard adhesives;", "hence in the case of envelopes, one must then use a special and more costly adhesive on the flaps.", "And such plastic sheeting also has a low affinity for standard printing inks, and the products, therefore, demand special printing inks for this purpose.", "[0014] One particular packaging material that resolves many of these problems is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,244,702 to Finestone et al.", ", where an envelope is made from a laminate of a plastic film that is adhesively cold laminated with one layer of paper or between two layers of paper.", "The paper layers enable the laminate to be printed, colored or marked with indicia, while the plastic film provides resistance to tearing and resistance to deterioration by contact with moisture or rough handling.", "[0015] While the envelope materials of the Finestone et al.", "patent are suitable for many applications, there are situations when the contents of the package must be protected from organisms such as insects, bacteria or other contaminants that can deleteriously affect products that are packaged with such materials, and in particular, food products.", "[0016] Certain packaging materials have been made with biocidal materials in an attempt to protect the contents of the package from such organisms.", "For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,988,236 discloses a polymeric tape that includes a biocide that is incorporated in the polymer in an amount effective to provide biocidal activity on the surface of the tape.", "Typically, the biocide is added to polymer pellets and the film is formed from the mixture.", "The resulting biocide containing film is generally used as an outer layer of the tape so that the biocide can leach from the polymer after the tape is applied to a package.", "This material has disadvantages in that the addition of the biocide to the polymer that is used to form the film reduces the properties of the resultant polymer film.", "[0017] Also, U.S. patent application publication No. 2001/0041238 A1 discloses an adhesive coated, peelable protective films and labels, wherein the adhesive may contain among many other components, a biocide.", "While the addition of a biocide to an adhesive is a more convenient way to incorporate it into the tape, it can be removed when the adhesive is activated for application to a package or the like.", "[0018] Furthermore, many biocides produce pungent or otherwise undesirable odors, and these are not desirable when food products are packages.", "Thus, there is a need for improved packaging materials or tapes that contain biocides that do not generate odors that will be perceived as offensive or undesirable by people handling those materials.", "In addition, the resulting materials or tapes should be resistant to moisture while still being capable of receiving printing or other marking indicia.", "The present invention now provides new materials that satisfy these needs.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0019] The present invention now provides a method for making an organism-resistant laminate of plastic and paper.", "This method includes the steps of providing a laminate of a paper material and a plastic film;", "and associating a non-odorous biocide with the paper material or water-based adhesive of the laminate in an amount sufficient to render it resistant to attack from organisms, with the plastic film protecting and retaining the biocide in the laminate.", "The useful non-odorous biocides include bacteriocides, fungicides, pesticides, moldicides, mildicides or viricides.", "[0020] In one embodiment, the non-odorous biocide is associated with the paper sheet before the laminate is prepared.", "This is conveniently achieved by contacting the paper sheet with an aqueous solution or suspension of the biocide and then drying the paper sheet.", "In another embodiment, the biocide is associated with a water-based adhesive that is utilized to laminate the plastic film to the paper sheet.", "This may be accomplished by combining an aqueous solution or suspension of the biocide with the adhesive to make a biocide containing adhesive mixture before utilizing the mixture to laminate the plastic film and paper sheet together.", "[0021] The laminate is preferably prepared by providing a plastic film having first and second sides;", "corona discharge treating the first side of the plastic film;", "providing a paper sheet having first and second sides;", "and adhesively cold laminating the corona discharge treated first side of the plastic film to the first side of the paper sheet using a water-based adhesive and pressure to form a paper-plastic laminate.", "A paper-plastic-paper laminate can be prepared by corona discharge treating the second side of the plastic film;", "and adhesively cold laminating the corona discharge treated second side of the plastic film to a side of a second paper sheet using a water-based adhesive and pressure.", "This laminate can be used as is as a packaging material, or one of its outer surfaces can include an adhesive after treatment of that surface by corona discharge.", "Any type of adhesive can be applied.", "[0022] The invention also relates to the no-odorous biocide containing laminates described herein as well as to the use of those laminates as organism-resistant packaging materials.", "A preferred use of the material is as an organism-resistant package where the laminate is configured and dimensioned as an envelope, packaging material, or container.", "In this embodiment, the laminate can be folded to form the envelope or container and an adhesive applied to one or more portions of the folded laminate to facilitate closure and/or sealing.", "[0023] A preferred embodiment of the package is as a container of a dilatable material that is configured and dimensioned to retain one or more articles therein and which includes the laminate described herein with applied adhesive to close and seal the article(s) in the container.", "The dilatable material may be a cardboard box having flaps that are folded to form the box and the laminate in the form of a tape product is applied to secure the flaps and seal the articles in the box.", "Instead, the laminate of dilatable material may be in the form of an envelope or container with adhesive being applied thereto for forming a closing portion for the envelope or container.", "The package may include two superposed panels of the laminate that are marginally sealed together to define a pocket to accommodate the article(s).", "[0024] The laminate may also be formed into a tape by applying an adhesive to all or a portion of one of the surfaces of the laminate.", "Also, the laminate can be cut to the desired size for use as a tape.", "When a paper/plastic laminate is used, the adhesive can be simply applied to the second surface of the paper sheet, or to the second side of the plastic film after corona discharge treating that side of the film.", "For a plastic/paper/plastic laminate, the adhesive can be applied to an outer surface of one of the plastic films after corona discharge treating that film.", "Preferred adhesives include a water-moistenable adhesive, a pressure sensitive adhesive, a heat activated adhesive, or a cohesive adhesive.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS [0025] The present invention discloses desirable laminate structures which have a biocide associated with the laminate such that it can be used as packaging material or as packaging tape with enhanced performance compared to laminates or tapes that do not contain a biocide.", "This renders the material eminently suitable for packaging food items or other perishable commodities while protecting them from attack or deterioration cause by various organisms.", "[0026] In this specification, the term “organism”", "is used to mean an animal, insect or other pest, bacterium, fungus, mold, mildew, virus or other biological contaminant that can detrimentally affect a food or similar perishable commodity, while the term “biocide”", "is used to refer to any agent such as an insecticide, pesticide, fungicide, moldicide, mildicide or viricide, which can eradicate, eliminate or ward off such organisms.", "[0027] The term “non-odorous”", "is used to mean that a person cannot detect the presence of the biocide in the laminate when handling the materials of packages containing the same.", "Specific examples of non-odorous biocides follow.", "Organic biocides, such as alkali salts of organic acids such as benzoic acid and the like can be used, with sodium benzoate being particularly preferred.", "Also, inorganic biocides include the non-odorous inorganic salts of oxidizing agents, such as sodium chlorate.", "Arsenic compounds, organophosphorous compounds, heavy metal compounds, sulfur compounds and tin compounds, provided that they are non-odorous as noted above, are suitable as biocidal components.", "Those of ordinary skill in the art can select the desired biocide for the intended use of the biocide containing laminate as well as for its intended incorporation in the final article.", "[0028] The non-odorous biocide can be associated with the laminate in any one of a variety of ways, so that an amount is present which is effective to render the laminate resistant to attack by such organisms.", "The specific method for associating the biocide with the laminate will vary depending upon the form of the laminate and the lamination method.", "[0029] One of the sheets of the laminate preferably comprises paper while the other comprises a sheet material that is capable of bonding to paper and that has increased strength and/or moisture resistance compared to paper.", "The second sheet is usually a paper sheet to facilitate formation of the laminate.", "The first sheet then can be any one of a wide variety of materials that can be laminated to the paper sheet.", "These materials include polymeric films, metal foils, or paper sheets that are treated by the addition of a plastic coating, fiber reinforcement or metallization.", "Each of these materials has enhanced properties compared to paper and this contributes to the overall improved properties of the container.", "[0030] The plastic films can be in the form of single webs of any type of polymeric or plastic material, extrusions or coextrusions of different polymers, or multiple extruded layers of the same or different polymers, and preferably those that are joined together for dimensional stability.", "For example, a single web of a polyolefin or polyester material, whether oriented or not, is suitable, whether in the form or a film or foam.", "Polyesters such as MYLAR and polyamides such as nylon are preferred, while suitable polyolefins include polypropylene, polyethylene or copolymers thereof.", "Polyvinylchlorides or other thermoplastics can be used when moisture resistance rather than strength is the primary concern.", "An extruded multiple layer laminate of polyethylene and polyester is advantageous when the combination of properties of those polymers is desired, i.e., one for strength and temperature resistance and the other for bonding or heat sealing when forming the container.", "Similarly, a film of polyvinyl alcohol dispersed in nylon can be used when high strength and an oxygen barrier is needed.", "Also, an extruded multiple layer laminate of polyethylene and polypropylene is useful when the combination of a strengthened film and one that is more easily joined by heat sealing is desired.", "Three layer extrusions are also possible, with the inner layer being regrind or recycle polymer material.", "These materials are conventionally made using a multiple head extruder as is known in the polymer art.", "Furthermore, composites of polymer or plastic films and other materials, with or without fiber or other reinforcement, can be used for even greater strength or rigidity of the container or bag.", "[0031] Metal foils, such as aluminum or others, can be used as the first sheet when desired.", "These materials impart strength, moisture resistance and a desirable appearance to the laminate.", "These materials are easy to laminate to paper and when so laminated are typically used as the outer surface of the container in order to take advantage of its desirable appearance.", "Instead of foil, metallized paper or polymer films can be used to obtain these improved appearances.", "As metallizing techniques are well known in the art no further mention needs to be made of the processes for forming these materials.", "[0032] Finally, the material to be laminated to paper can be a paper sheet that is treated by the addition of a plastic coating, fiber reinforcement or metallization.", "These treatments enhance the moisture resistance and/or strength properties of the paper and the enhancement is then imparted to the laminate and the container.", "[0033] The second sheet of the laminate is made of paper.", "Any type of paper can be used, including kraft paper, white paper or even cardboard.", "These materials can be of any desired weight for such containers.", "[0034] The laminate can be formed in any conventional way.", "It is entirely suitable to laminate these materials using a hot melt adhesive or an reaction cure adhesive provided that care is taken to assure dimensional stability until the laminate is formed after those adhesives set and/or cure.", "For example, when hot melt adhesives are used, such as conventional heat-meltable polyethylene adhesives, care must be taken so that the paper and other material do not slip apart or otherwise move away from each other until the adhesive cools and sets to form the laminate.", "The reaction cure adhesives of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,037,700 can also be used, but these generally require the addition of heat to facilitate curing to form the laminate.", "Again, care must be taken with such adhesives so that the paper and other material do not slip apart or otherwise move away from each other until the adhesive sets and cures to form the laminate.", "[0035] A preferred material for the plastic film of the laminate is one that is transparent and is uniaxially or biaxially-oriented for increased strength.", "Film materials suitable for this purpose are polypropylene, polyethylene, or a polyester such as MYLAR.", "The tensile strength of the film is substantially increased by orientation which results in molecular orientation of the film.", "In the case of biaxial orientation, orientation is in both the longitudinal and transverse directions.", "This is usually effected by controlled stretching of the unoriented film.", "The tensile strength of an oriented film is seriously impaired, however, if heat is applied thereto, for the heat acts to relax the film and cause it to lose its molecular orientation.", "Thus when oriented films are used, cold lamination is preferred for forming the laminate.", "The well known techniques disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,244,702 and U.S. patent application 2002/0160216A1 are useful for this purpose and the content of each of those documents is expressly incorporated herein by reference thereto to the extent necessary to understand these techniques.", "[0036] When a transparent outer surface is not needed, the film or first sheet may be metallized.", "When a transparent film is to be metallized, this may be done on the side of the film that is laminated to the paper so that the metallized surface is protected against abrasion, wear or damage due to rough handling.", "[0037] Preferably, the paper-plastic laminate is formed by cold laminating a paper ply to a plastic film that has been treated by a corona discharge to render it receptive to adhesives.", "The paper that is used to form these laminates can be any kind of paper, which includes coated paper, Kraft paper, or a higher quality paper such as Bond or white paper.", "These papers generally have a thickness of from about 3 to 6 mils although other thicknesses can be used for certain specialty applications.", "[0038] A single plastic film is adhesively cold laminated to the paper to form the laminate.", "The plastic film that is used is preferably a polymer and is most preferably polypropylene, polyethylene or polyester.", "It typically has a thickness of from about 0.5 to about 3 mils although other thicknesses can be used without departing from the teachings of the invention.", "It is advantageous to use a plastic film that is oriented, and preferably biaxially-oriented, so that it can provide exceptional tensile and burst strengths.", "Such orientation is effected by stretching the film along at least one and preferably both of their transverse and horizontal axes to molecularly orient the film structure.", "Preferred plastic materials include polypropylene or polyester (i.e., MYLAR).", "The resultant oriented films material have a sufficiently high tensile strength to easily and securely retain materials within the package or container during shipping and handling.", "[0039] In order to join the plastic film to the paper web, the surface of the plastic film that is to be laminated to the paper is corona-discharge treated.", "This treatment is applied to the plastic film immediately before the corona discharge treated surface is adhesively cold laminated to the paper web.", "This enables a strong bond to be achieved between the plastic and paper in the laminate.", "[0040] The cold lamination process enables the present laminate material to be manufactured at much higher speeds than when other adhesives, such as hot melt adhesives, are utilized, due to the additional time required for cooling of the hot melt adhesive before a secure bond is achieved.", "If hot melt adhesives were used instead of cold lamination for joining the plastic film to the paper, the heat of the adhesive could also cause the film to shrink, thus causing a loss of strength.", "Also, hot melt adhesives do not achieve a final bond strength until the adhesive cools, and the plastic film can shrink before this happens.", "Moreover, a wrinkled or curled product often results due to the difference in the high strength and low strength areas of the plastic film.", "[0041] The use of cold lamination is especially advantageous when an oriented or biaxially-oriented plastic film is utilized.", "It is known that at elevated temperatures, such films relax and lose molecular orientation and strength.", "For example, when two sheets of biaxially-oriented polyester film are seamed together, using an ultrasonically-activated sealing bar to create internal friction and heat within the film, the films soften and fuse, with a resultant sealing line that is weak, such that the sheets then tend to tear along this line.", "Similar problems are encountered if an oriented film is exposed to high heat, such as if a hot melt adhesive would be used to join the film to the paper.", "[0042] Accordingly, cold lamination utilizing a water-based adhesive is essential in order to produce a laminate that has high strength.", "The paper layer absorbs the water from this adhesive system so that a high strength lamination can be rapidly achieved.", "While any water-based adhesive can be used to make this type of high strength bond, it has now been found that a formulation that rapidly sets to provide initial tack to the adhesive is necessary.", "Suitable initial tack means that the adhesive can hold an oriented plastic film in position against the paper web without slippage within 10 seconds of application of the adhesive, and preferably within about 5 seconds.", "Essentially instantaneous tack is highly desirable, since this enables even faster production speeds to be utilized.", "U.S. Pat. No. 5,244,702 provides further details on this cold lamination process, and is incorporated herein to the extent necessary to further understand this feature of the invention.", "If a rapidly setting adhesive is used, however, much higher production speeds can be achieved.", "[0043] In any of the embodiments that include a paper layer, the biocide can be applied to the paper layer before cold laminating it to the plastic film or films.", "An aqueous solution of the biocide can be made and the paper can be dipped into, or sprayed or brushed with the solution.", "The concentration of the biocide in the solution should be such that a sufficient amount is present in the paper to prevent attack by the organism.", "One of ordinary skill in the art can determine by routine testing as to how much of the biocide is needed depending upon the type and properties of the specific compound that is used.", "The particular amount to be used can be determined by routine testing, but would be on the order of about 1 ppm to about 5% by weight of the laminate, and preferably about 100 ppm to about 1% by weight of the laminate.", "The biocide does not have to be fully dissolved in the solution, as a suspension, dispersion or other mixture of the biocide is also suitable.", "Whether the mixture of biocide and water is a solution, suspension or dispersion depends somewhat upon the solubility of the particular biocide compound that is used.", "If necessary, a surfactant or other dispersing agent can be used to assist in keeping the biocide dispersed or dissolved in the solution so that it can be relatively uniformly applied and distributed onto or into the paper.", "After application, it is preferable for the paper to dry before being laminated as it is advantageously used to absorb some of the water from the water-based adhesive that is used for the cold lamination step.", "[0044] Another way of associating the biocide with the laminate is to include it in the water that is used to prepare the water-based adhesive that is used for cold laminating a paper ply to a plastic film or for laminating two plastic films together.", "Again, the adhesive can be in the form of a solution, dispersion, suspension or other mixture, and surfactants or dispersing agents can be included if desired.", "In general, any of the adhesives disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,244,702 or 5,686,180 can be utilized.", "[0045] The incorporation of the biocide in the paper layer or in the adhesive that is used to join the paper layer to the plastic film enables the biocide to be protected in a central portion of the laminate.", "When incorporated in the paper layer and the bonding adhesive that is used to attach the laminate to a package is applied to the paper layer, the biocide containing paper is protected by the water-based adhesive and plastic film on one side and by the bonding adhesive on the other side.", "When incorporated in the water-based adhesive, the biocide-containing adhesive is protected by the paper layer on one side and the plastic film on the other side.", "Even when the bonding adhesive is applied to the plastic film and the biocide is incorporated into the paper, the exposed paper layer has better resistance to loss of biocide than if the biocide was applied to the bonding adhesive.", "This is particularly true when the biocide-containing paper is dried prior to formation of the laminate.", "[0046] The water-based laminating adhesive is applied at an amount of about 4 to 10 pounds, and preferably 4 to 6 pounds per ream of paper.", "Since the solids content of the adhesive is approximately 50%, the adhesive introduces approximately 2 to 5 pounds and preferably 2 to 3 pounds of water per ream of paper.", "The paper layer absorbs such moisture and enables the laminate to be prepared by simultaneous lamination.", "Also, the rapid setting and generation of tack by the preferred adhesives of the invention enables the oriented plastic films to adhere to the paper or each other without slippage or loss of stretch of the films.", "[0047] Further details on the additional adhesives that can be utilized in this invention, along with their method of manufacture, can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,686,180, the content of which is expressly incorporated herein by reference thereto.", "[0048] The method of manufacturing of the plastic-paper laminate is advantageously conducted in one step, with the plastic film being exposed to ionization on the surface that faces the paper web, the water-based adhesive is applied to the activated surface of the film, and then the film is applied to the paper web as they pass between the pressure rolls.", "U.S. Pat. No. 5,244,702 includes additional details about the manufacture of these type products, and is incorporated herein by reference to the extant necessary to understand such manufacturing details.", "Additional layers or plies can be added to the laminate as taught therein, i.e., that any plastic film surfaces to be joined are first corona-discharge treated while no special treatments are needed for the paper ply except to assure that it is somewhat dry before being laminated.", "[0049] In certain specialty applications, an additional paper layer can be applied to one or both of the outer surfaces of the plastic films of the laminate.", "As the additional paper layer(s) form the inner and/or outer sides of the laminate material, they can easily be printed with graphics or other indicia.", "This enables the laminate material to have one appearance on the outside of the envelope and another, different appearance on the inside of the envelope.", "[0050] After the laminate sheeting material is formed into the final product, an envelope for example, a flap can be provided with an adhesive band.", "The adhesive may be a standard starch adhesive or a pressure sensitive adhesive.", "Also, the band may be a layer of cohesive material and, if so, a corresponding band of cohesive material is applied onto the portion of the envelope that is contacted by the flap.", "Since the cohesive material only sticks to itself, the exposed bands of cohesive do not stick to other portions of the envelope.", "Thus, the envelopes can be stacked or otherwise collected and collated without concern of the envelopes sticking together and no barriers are required to prevent the envelopes sticking to itself or other envelopes when a plurality of envelopes are stacked and packaged.", "[0051] The laminate sheeting material can be used as is as a packaging material and can be wrapped about an article or item to be shipped.", "The laminate can form a seal around the article if secured by tape.", "In particular, a tape made from the laminate of the invention is preferred since the article to be shipped would be sealed with biocide containing material wither in the form of a laminate or tape.", "[0052] When a tape product is to be made, the laminate is provided with an adhesive on one of its outer sides.", "If the outer side is a paper layer, no special treatment is needed, while if it is a plastic film, it will be corona-discharge treated as described herein before the adhesive is applied.", "Any of a wide variety of adhesives can be used for this purpose, but water-moistenable, pressure-sensitive, or heat-activated adhesives are preferred.", "In some cases, a cohesive adhesive can be used if the material it be envelope a product and stick to itself.", "Also, the laminate sheeting itself can be provided with an adhesive on selected portions or all of one of its outer sides so that it can adhere to itself or the article during wrapping of the package.", "[0053] When multiple layer laminates are utilized, the biocide can be applied to any paper layer or to any water-based adhesive that is used to laminate the layers together.", "Multiple applications of the biocide may be preferred for certain applications where the highest degree of protection is desired.", "[0054] When the laminate is used as a packaging material, a tear line or weakened portion can be provided to assist in opening the package.", "The laminate can also be provided in the form of a pouch that can retain a liquid or solid food therein.", "This pouch, though illustrative of a flexible container fabricated of laminate sheeting in accordance with the invention is by no means the only form of pouch that can be so produced.", "Thus, the pouch may be shaped and dimensioned to store potato chips, or candy and other solid food substances.", "Or the pouch or container formed of the laminate sheeting may be designed to envelop and protectively package other non-food products that are more or less perishable.", "[0055] In these constructions the plastic layers generally provide resistance to moisture and a smooth surface for introducing items into the pouch or envelope or for handling the package.", "The paper layer can be preprinted with written material, colors, or other indicia on one or both sides so that information regarding the origination or mailer of the package or its manufacturer can be readily observed either as an outer layer or through the plastic layer.", "The paper layer can also be metallized on one or both sides for an enhanced appearance.", "[0056] For products where it is important to securely maintain the product contents therein, the use of a container made from a laminate that has two layers of plastic and which is sealed by a laminate in the form of a tape is preferred.", "These can be used to retain foods that can be affected by biological contamination or to retain waste such as sanitary napkin or air sickness bags or bags used to convey medical wastes.", "The plastic films in the laminates prevent the entry or exit of liquid or moisture from the container as well as preventing the ingress or egress of biological organisms.", "[0057] There may be certain situations where it is undesirable to have exposed interior or exterior plastic surfaces.", "These situations can be avoided by laminating additional paper layers to one or both of the exposed surfaces of the plastic films.", "These additional paper layers can be applied as described above with any of the laminates disclosed herein to thus provide final laminates of paper-plastic-plastic;", "paper-plastic-plastic-paper;", "paper-plastic-paper-plastic;", "or paper-plastic-paper-plastic-paper.", "This demonstrates the versatility of the invention in providing the most desirable form of the laminate for any particular use.", "These constructions provide even more locations where the biocide may be incorporated while being protected by outer layers of plastic or paper layers.", "[0058] The salient advantages of the laminate in accordance with the invention include the waterproof properties of the resulting laminate, and the fact that the laminate can be converted into products by conventional equipment for this purpose with minimum scrap in a range in a range comparable to the scrap rate encountered in making paper envelopes and other dilatable container products.", "As paper sheets have a high affinity for standard printing inks, when these are included, the resulting laminate can readily be printed and colored.", "Also, when a paper layer or sheet is provided on the exterior surfaces, a standard starch or pressure-sensitive adhesive may be used on the flaps of envelopes formed of these laminates.", "[0059] Certain food products require that the container in which they are shipped have some degree of breathability, and in those situations, the container is not made of the laminates of this invention.", "Instead, a conventional cardboard box may be used to hold the food product, and the laminate of the invention is made into a tape product that is used to seal the box to prevent or reduce the possibility of entrance of the organism.", "For example, a standard box that has four top and bottom flaps can be closed by folding the flaps and then is sealed by the application of the tape of the invention.", "Organisms cannot gain access to the food product through the spaces between the flaps as those are covered by the tape.", "In some instances, the laminate of the invention can be applied as an adhesive backed sheet to provide, e.g., moisture resistance to the bottom of the box for additional protection as it is shipped.", "In this embodiment, the laminate can be applied to either the inside or outside of the box.", "Thus, a wide range of container designs can be made combining conventional materials, such as cardboard, and laminates according to the invention.", "[0060] Additional examples of products according to the invention include cardboard boxes of fruit, grains, vegetables or other foods where the boxes are sealed with a tape comprising one of the laminates of the invention that includes a pressure-sensitive adhesive backing.", "In addition, certain foods that are shipped in the box, e.g., bananas, can also be placed in pouches formed of one of the laminates of the invention.", "This provides the most secure protection of the product from the attack of organisms.", "[0061] While embodiments of the invention have been shown and described, it will be appreciated that many changes may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention.", "For example, the plastic films themselves can be colored or clear.", "Coloration of the films can be made over the entire film or only on selective portions.", "Metallization of the films can be provided in the same manner.", "When clear plastic films are utilized alone in a plastic-plastic laminate, the contents of the envelope or pouch are visible so that the recipient can readily determine what is included therein.", "This can be used for safety or quality control purposes." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Field of the Invention The present invention magnetic tape head cleaning apparatus generally relates to the field of cleaning equipment, and more particularly to cleaning equipment adapted to be used for cleaning magnetic tape heads.", "Description of the Prior Art The increased use of magnetic tape as a source for entertainment and other purposes has resulted in a need for more efficient ways to maintain the equipment.", "The cassette tape playback/recording units being used within automobiles and other applications have several characteristics in common.", "The units which utilize cassette mounted tapes use a standardized cassette package.", "In addition, the cassette is inserted within an aperture or within a fully covered receiving area in the playback/recording unit, which unit is designed to prevent direct access to the magnetic tape head or the capstan and pinch roller which provides the motive force to the tape.", "It has long been recognized that continued use of a playback/recording unit will result in the accumulation of dirt or other debris at the magnetic tape head, erase head, capstan and pinch roller.", "The accumulation of dirt or other debris results in degraded reproduction from or recording of the magnetic tape because of interference at the head gap.", "If left alone, this can result in a failure of the playback/recording unit.", "The difficulty in gaining access to the magnetic tape head has lead to the development of devices which are disclosed by the prior art, none of which satisfactorily solve all of the inherent problems.", "One of the devices disclosed by the prior art uses a tape cartridge having an abrasive material mounted in place of the tape.", "The cleaning action of the magnetic tape heads is mechanical in nature and is intended to abrasively rub all dirt or debris from the fact of the magnetic tape head.", "The problem with this type of device is apparent.", "The magnetic tape head is a sensitive component made of small subcomponents, and contacting the surface of the magnetic tape head with an abrasive tape can eventually result in damage and possible destruction of the magnetic tape head.", "Another device disclosed by the prior art incorporates a mounted felt strip within a magnetic tape cassette.", "The felt strip is urged through the cassette in the same manner as magnetic tape.", "The device is intended to clean the magnetic tape head by impregnating the felt strip with isopropyl alcohol or other like cleaning fluid and allows the movement of the felt strip across the magnetic tape head to clean dirt and other debris from the magnetic tape head.", "Several problems remain unsolved through the use of this device.", "Since the felt is mounted within the tape cassette to move therethrough in a manner analogous to tape, there is a substantial volume of felt material.", "This results in the cleaning fluid being defused substantially throughout the felt.", "The result is a very weak concentration of the cleaning fluid at the point of contact with the magnetic head, thus thereby minimizing the cleaning effect of the device.", "Another problem resides in an inability to apply sufficient pressure on the tape head to carry out the cleaning function.", "Since the felt strip is mounted in a manner analogous to the magnetic tape, significant pressure cannot be asserted against the strip to force it against the magnetic head.", "Such pressure would in effect stop the rotation of the capstan or otherwise halt the movement of the strip through the cassette and thereby prevent any cleaning action.", "Another prior art device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,761,994 (1973), which discloses a spring biased cleaning apparatus for magnetic tape cartridges.", "The inability to utilize a structure such as this is evident.", "An arm is disposed from the front to the rear wall of the cartridge a manual handle moves of the cleaning pads laterally across the magnetic tape head.", "The inadequacies of this device as applied to magnetic tape cassettes is evident.", "Since the cassette playback/recording units include an internal, covered compartment into which the magnetic tape cassette is inserted during operation, the movement of the cleaning member must be self-contained as there is no access to the internal members of the cassette.", "Another device disclosed by the prior art is Applicant's U.S. Pat. No. 4,141,053 (1979).", "This device discloses a pair of spring biased arms which are rotatable about the hubs of the conventional housing.", "The present invention improves upon the device taught therein by utilizing a direct drive between the gear receiving the capstan surface and the cleaning head.", "The present invention substantially solves those problems left unresolved by the devices disclosed in the prior art.", "Although the industry has attempted to maintain strict standards with respect to magnetic tape playback/recording units, it is well known that there is a variation of commercially available units, e.g., whether they are provided with or without tape guides.", "The positioning of tape guides can render many of the devices disclosed by the prior art useless for the intended purposes.", "In addition, any variation in the placement of the magnetic tape head capstan roller and device can also lead to inoperability of a cleaning device.", "The need for cleaning the magnetic tape head arises out of the structure of the magnetic tape head itself.", "The magnetic tape head assembly involved typically comprises separate heads for the particular number of recorded tracks of the tape being used.", "Each magnetic head is typically constructed of two identical core halves built of thin laminations of magnetic alloy material.", "Each half is then wound precisely with an identical number of turns and assembled with non-magnetic separators at the front and rear with a miniscule gap remaining at the bottom of the head which contacts the magnetic tape.", "As the tape transport draws the tape across the head, the gap between the core halves is shunted, and the magnetic flux path is completed.", "The head gap is critical in both the recording and reproduction phase of the process.", "When recorded tape is drawn across the gap of the head, the portion of the tape in actual contact with the gap bridges the magnetic core of the head causing magnetic flux to flow through the core.", "The head gap size depends on the intended function of the head.", "For a record head, it must be wide enough to permit the flux to penetrate the tape deeply, yet narrow enough to obtain sharp gradients of flux.", "For a reproduction head, gap size must be a compromise between the upper-frequency limit, dynamic range and head life.", "Extremely close mechanical tolerances are inherent in the head gap as well as the flux position of the tape and magnetic head.", "If dirt or other debris lodges on the surface of the magnetic tape head or within the head gap, the strength of the magnetic flux will be deleteriously affected.", "Therefore, in order to maintain proper operating conditions, the magnetic tape head must be cleaned to remove any dirt or debris which accumulates.", "These conditions will occur from the scraping effect which exists as the top oxide layer passes over the tape head.", "The oxide build-up and dirt and debris physically disposed on the magnetic tape are all contributing factors to reduced tape head operation.", "Tape transports utilizing cassette mounted magnetic tape present a different problem with regard to cleaning the magnetic tape head assembly.", "Magnetic tape cassettes are generally mounted with apertures which substantially preclude access to the magnetic tape heads or are mounted within compartments which preclude any access to any of the lateral edges of the cassette.", "Since the magnetic tape head is virtually inaccessible, the need for the present invention has arisen.", "The present invention utilizes three independently rotatable arms which are resiliently biased in a manner which will permit cleaning of both the tape head and the capstan drive.", "The arms are resiliently biased about three independent points within the cassette housing independent of the cassette housing.", "The capstan drive is urged against a geared surface having a surface which will rotate about its axis at the speed of the capstan drive.", "A planar gear transfers the rotation thereof to the capstan cleaning head, the resilient forces imposed on the gear train and the arms holding same maintaining appropriate forces against the tape head.", "The magnetic tape head will be subjected to sufficient cleaning motion irrespective of minor variations in the placement of the capstan roller and drive and the presence or absence of the guides.", "The present invention comprises an apparatus for providing means to clean the magnetic tape head assembly of a playback/recording unit adapted for mounting tape cassettes.", "It is to be noted that the present invention can be adapted for cleaning the magnetic tape heads of eight-track cartridge transports, but for the purpose of example, cassette equipment shall be discussed.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A housing having substantially the same shape as a magnetic tape cassette provides for mounting the cleaning apparatus.", "A cassette housing is utilized to provide the supporting structure for the present invention magnetic tape head cleaning apparatus.", "A rotatable surface adapted for contacting the capstan roller is rotatably coupled to a first arm which is pivotable about an axis positioned along the front of the housing.", "The opposite end of the first arm is resiliently coupled to a point within the housing permitting lateral movement of the first arm between points which are limited by an opening in the housing and the second arm.", "A planar transfer gear is coupled to the capstan driven gear, the planar transfer gear being rotatably coupled to the second arm.", "The rotatable motion of the capstan drive is driven through the capstan driven gear, planar transfer gear to the tape head cleaning surface.", "The second arm is again resiliently coupled in a manner which will cause said second arm to maintain a sufficient force against the tape head cleaning surface in order to satisfy the objectives of the present invention.", "When the present invention magnetic tape head cleaning apparatus is inserted within the recording/playback unit, the position of the capstan roller causes rotation of the capstan driven member transferring said rotation to the cleaning surface.", "When operating, the present invention magnetic tape head cleaning apparatus can appropriately adapt to variations in the placement of capstan drive and roller and will maintain appropriate pressure against the magnetic tape head to insure a proper cleaning motion irrespective of whether the recording/playback unit utilizes a tape guide.", "The spring biasing of the internal members will insure appropriate cleaning of the magnetic tape head under substantially all conditions.", "It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved magnetic tape head cleaning apparatus.", "It is another object of the present invention to provide a non-abrasive magnetic tape head cleaning apparatus.", "It is still another object of the present invention to provide an improved magnetic tape head cleaning apparatus mounted within a tape cassette.", "It is still yet another object of the present invention to provide a magnetic tape head cleaning apparatus incorporating means for cleaning the capstan of the magnetic tape transport.", "The novel features which are believed to be characteristic of the invention, both as to its organization and method of operation, together with further objectives and advantages thereof, will be better understood from the following description considered in connection with the accompanying drawing in which a presently preferred embodiment of the invention is illustrated by way of example.", "It is to be expressly understood, however, that the drawing is for the purpose of illustration and description only and is not intended as a definition of the limits of the invention.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a front perspective view of one form of a magnetic tape transport adapted for using cassette mounted magnetic tapes.", "FIG. 2 is a front perspective view of an exemplary magnetic tape head to be cleaned in accordance with the present invention.", "FIG. 3 is a front perspective view of the present invention cassette tape head cleaner illustrating the quiescent position of the cleaning portion of the present invention.", "FIG. 4 is a top plan view of the interior of a form of the present invention magnetic tape head cleaning apparatus.", "FIG. 5 is a top plan view of the interior of another form of the present invention magnetic tape head cleaning apparatus showing an alternate structure for applying resilient forces to the interior arms.", "FIG. 6 is a partial cross-sectional view taken through line 6--6 of FIG. 4. FIG. 7 is a bottom plan view of the form of the present invention shown in FIG. 4. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT An understanding of the use of the present invention magnetic tape head cleaning apparatus can be best gained by reference to FIG. 1 wherein an exemplary magnetic tape cassette recoding/playback transport unit is shown, the transport unit being generally designated by the reference numeral 10.", "Magnetic tape transport unit 10 is typically a reproduction unit adapted to receive magnetic tape cassettes.", "Transport unit 10 employs an internal compartment 11 accessible by cover 12.", "A tape cassette is placed within compartment 11 during operation of transport unit 10.", "As illustrated, magnetic tape head 13, erase head 14, capstan pinch roller 15 and capstan drive 16 can be seen.", "When a cassette unit is disposed within compartment 11 and cover 12 moves into position, none of the lateral edges of the tape cassette will be accessible.", "As shown in FIG. 1, the cassette will be disposed upon hub drive 17, but the tape cassette itself will be essentially inaccessible.", "It is to be understood that the form of the transport unit 10 shown in FIG. 1 is for the purpose of example only.", "The present invention magnetic tape head cleaning apparatus will function properly in all conventional transport units which utilize cassette mounted tape.", "For the purpose of example, the magnetic tape transport unit 10 shown in FIG. 1 will be used to explain the present invention.", "The preferred form of the magnetic tape head cleaning apparatus is disposed within compartment 11 of the transport unit 10 in substantially the same manner as the magnetic tape cassette which is intended for use within transport unit 10.", "The structure of magnetic tape head cleaning apparatus is described in FIG. 2. Magnetic head assembly 20 comprises an outer housing 26 having a convex profile 28 adequate for interface with the magnetic tape disposed within a suitable cassette.", "Head assembly 20 (FIG.", "2) comprises a 2-track magnetic head consisting of two magnetic heads 29, each made up of a pair of core halves typically built of thin laminations of alloy materials.", "One pair of heads is necessary since the magnetic tape stored within a cassette is recorded by placing two recorded tracks on each half of the tape.", "Each core half is precisely wound with a predetermined number of turns and assembled with non-magnetic separators at the front and rear of the head with a small gap 30 separating the core halves.", "The spacing between magnetic heads 29 becomes important to eliminate cross-talk between tracks.", "In operation, when magnetic tape is drawn across gap 30, the portion of tape in actual contact with the gap bridges the gap between the magnetic core halves causing magnetic flux to flow through the core.", "As transport 10 draws the tape across surface 28 of head assembly 20, gap 30 is shunted and the flux path through each of the magnetic heads 29 is completed.", "If dirt or other debris lodges in gap 30 or causes a shunted medium to exist between adjacent tracks, the performance of magnetic head assembly 20 and therefore transport 10 would be seriously degraded.", "It therefore becomes obvious that means must be provided to remove effectively any dirt or debris which may become lodged between any pair of core halves of a magnetic head 39 or between adjacent tracks.", "The present invention magnetic tape head cleaning apparatus comprises an outer housing 40 (FIGS.", "4-7) which is constructed similar to the magnetic tape cassettes used with transport 10 (FIG.", "1).", "The front wall of housing 40 has three apertures 41, 42 and 43 to interface with the structural assembly of transport 10.", "Aperture 43 receives the capstan pinch roller 14.", "Aperture 42 at the center of housing 40 will be in cooperative relationship with magnetic tape head 30.", "Aperture 41 in the front surface of outer housing 40 will lie adjacent and be adapted to be urged against the capstan drive 16 upon reversed insertion of housing 40.", "Drive hubs 44 are adapted to be disposed about shaft 17 of transport 10.", "FIGS. 4, 6 and 7 show a preferred form of the present invention.", "FIG. 7 illustrates the placement of the interior arms of the present invention after housing 40 is inserted within a transport 10, and FIG. 4 shows their position before housing 40 is inserted and before the interior arm contacts capstan drive 16.", "Spring biased arms 50, 51 and 52 are pivotally coupled about projections 54, 55 and 56 respectively depending upwardly from surface 53 of housing 40.", "Capstan driven wheel member 57 is rotatably coupled about projection 58 extending from spring biased arm 50.", "Mounting means in the housing supports the driven wheel member between two positions as explained in more detail below.", "Aperture 59 is disposed through surface 53 of housing 40 in order to receive capstan drive 16.", "In the exemplary embodiment, the mounting means for the driven wheel member comprises spring biased arm 50, which in FIG. 4 is rotated from a first position in which driven wheel member 57 is in contact with capstan drive 16 extending through opening 59 counterclockwise to a second position where capstan wheel 57 is out of contact with capstan drive 16.", "The second position (FIG.", "4) provides unrestricted insertion of capstan drive 16 within aperture 59.", "A clockwise resilient force is applied to the end of spring biased arm 50 opposite projection 54 through the use of a helical spring 60.", "As will be described below, the present invention also has a head cleaning wheel 72 and wheel mounting means in the housing for mounting the wheel adjacent the head.", "In the exemplary embodiment, the wheel mounting means comprises arm 51 which is mounted on pivot 55 extending upward from bottom wall 53 of housing 40.", "Blocking means on the wheel mounting means blocks movement of the mounting means of the driven member from the second position to the first position.", "In the exemplary embodiment, the blocking means comprises projection 61 extending upward from arm 50 and a detent 62 on arm 51 engaging projection 61 when arm 50 is in its second position.", "When housing 40 is inserted within tape transport 10, tape head 13 causes spring biased arm 51 to rotate about projection 55 and release projection 61 from detent 62.", "As soon as projection 61 is released, the force imposed by spring 60 will permit spring biased arm 52 to rotate clockwise and urge capstan driven wheel 57 against the capstan drive 16.", "Capstan driven wheel 57 comprises a resilient surface 63 and integral gear 64 which concentrically rotate about the axis of projection 58.", "When capstan driven wheel 57 is in contact with capstan drive 16, a rotating force imposed by gear 64 is transferred to planar transfer gear 70, which rotates about projection 55 on spring biased arm 51.", "Axis of transfer gear 70 is also the axis on which arm 51 pivots.", "Although the use of meshing gears 64 and 70 is the preferred form of the present invention, it is understood that planar gear 64 can be replaced by a belt and roller assembly transferring the rotational force to the capstan drive 16 to a receiving roller which is made integral with transfer gear 70.", "Projection 71 depends upwardly from the end of spring biased arm 51 which is located adjacent aperture 42.", "Head cleaning wheel 72 comprise a non-abrasive surface 73 and an integral planar gear 74.", "Non-abrasive surface 73 comprises an unsymmetrical rotating surface about projection 71.", "Although non-abrasive surface 73 can be made uniform, the use of an unsymmetrical surface to be disposed against tape head 13 will provide a broader cleaning area when the non-abrasive surface 73 is imposed against tape head 13.", "For the purpose of defining the geometry of surface 73, it shall be deemed to be unsymmetrical to the extent that the radius between surface 73 and projection 71 is variable.", "As can be best seen in FIG. 4, planar gear 74 is rotated by the rotational force imposed by capstan 16 on driven wheel 57 and its integral gear 64 through the use of planar transfer gear 70.", "Gears 64, 70 and 74 of the exemplary embodiment are considered coupling means that extend between driven member 57 and cleaning wheel 72 for rotating the cleaning wheel when the capstan rotates the driven wheel.", "In the form of the present invention shown in FIGS. 4, 6 and 7, the arm 51 is biased through the use of helical spring 75.", "Helical spring 75 is disposed between arms 51 and 52 causing arm 51 to rotate in a clockwise manner about projection 55.", "This will insure that there is a resilient force urging the non-abrasive surface 74 against tape head 13.", "The present invention also provides means for cleaning the surface of the capstan drive.", "Spring biased arm 52 is rotatable about projection 56.", "Cleaning surface 80 is disposed at one end thereof, the opposite end being subjected to a resilient force imposed by helical spring 81.", "In order to limit the rotation of the spring biased arm 52 appropriately, projection 82 depends upwardly from arm 52 and is disposed within slot 83 of connecting arm 84.", "Connecting arm 84 is pivotally coupled to spring biased arm 50 and thereby limits the rotation of spring biased arm 52.", "Another form of the present invention can be seen in FIG. 5 wherein an alternate structure for the resilient forces imposed by helical springs 75 and 81 are shown.", "For the purpose of simplicity, elements having coresponding parts in FIG. 4 are given like reference numerals.", "As was described hereinabove, helical springs 75 impose a clockwise force upon spring biased arm 51 in order to insure that head cleaning wheel 72 is urged against tape head 13 with sufficient force to clean any debris from tape head 13.", "An alternate form of the present invention replaces helical spring 75 and its connection to spring biased arm 52 with resilient extension 90.", "Resilient extension 90 is integral with spring biased arm 51 and is disposed between projections 91 and 92 which depend inwardly from wall 93 of housing 40.", "When the present invention tape head cleaning apparatus is inserted and the tape head 13 imposes an inward force against head cleaning wheel 72, extension 90 will produce an opposing force causing head cleaning wheel 72 to be resiliently urged against tape head 13.", "In a like manner, helical spring 81 is replaced by resilient projection 94 which is disposed against side wall 95 of housing 40.", "As will be described, when the present invention tape head cleaning apparatus is inserted in transport 10 in an inverted position capstan drive 16 is positioned against cleaning head 80 tending to rotate arm 52 counterclockwise about projection 56.", "The resilient forces imposed by extension 94 against side wall 95 will oppose the force imposed by capstan drive 16 thereby maintaining an appropriate force against capstan drive 16 and thereby allow cleaning of same.", "The use of the present invention can be best understood by reference to FIG. 4 and FIG. 7. Prior to insertion of the present invention tape head cleaning apparatus, manual force is imposed upon end 100 of spring biased arm 50, which extends out of a secondary opening in the rear of housing 40, urging end 100 to the right until projection 61 is engaged by detent 62.", "By rotating spring biased arm 50, aperture 59 is unobstructed thereby allowing for the insertion of capstan drive 16.", "In this position, helical spring 60 is stretched imposing a resilient force which would rotate the spring biased arm 50 in a clockwise direction in the absence of engagement of projection 61 by detent 62.", "Upon the insertion of the tape head cleaning apparatus into tape transport 10, tape head 13 is urged against cleaning wheel 72 causing spring biased arm 51 to rotate in a counterclockwise direction, which releases projection 61.", "The resilient force imposed by helical spring 60 urges capstan driven wheel 57 against capstan drive 16 causing the rotation of capstan drive 16 to be transferred to wheel 57 and the engaged gears.", "The rotational force of capstan drive 16 is transferred through transfer gear 70 to head cleaning wheel 72.", "The resilient force imposed by helical spring 75 (FIG.", "4) or resilient extension 90 (FIG.", "5) insures that head cleaning wheel 72 is maintained in sufficient contact with tape head 13 to insure removal of any debris disposed on tape head 13.", "In order to clean the surface of capstan drive 16, the present invention tape head cleaning apparatus is inserted so that cleaning surface 80 is adjacent capstan drive 16.", "As described hereinabove, end 100 of spring biased arm 50 is placed in the position shown in FIG. 4 (or FIG. 7).", "The disposition of tape head 13 against head cleaning wheel 72 will release projection 61 from detent 62 causing surface 80 to be urged against the rotating capstan drive providing for an appropriate cleaning operation.", "The present invention magnetic tape head cleaning apparatus provides improved means for cleaning the magnetic tape head and capstan drive of a conventional recording/playback unit which utilizes cassette mounted magnetic tape.", "Irrespective of whether the transport unit utilizes a tape guide or has minor variations in the placement of the capstan roller and drive, the present invention cleaning apparatus operates effectively." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention pertains generally to methods for constructing infrared detectors and more particularly to methods for constructing epitaxial film, metal contact infrared detectors (including Schottky barrier detectors) sensitive to radiation in the 8- 14 microns atmospheric window of the electromagnetic spectrum.", "Various methods exist for constructing semiconductor junctions-detectors which are responsive to electromagnetic radiation.", "A common method uses bulk material and a number of complex photolithographic steps to form junctions which run parallel to the semiconductor surface.", "Structures formed by this method are constructed such that they must be mechanically self-supporting.", "Their resulting relative massiveness makes it difficult to obtain efficient radiation exposure of their junctions.", "Epitaxial films have been used to alleviate some of the problems posed by bulk detectors.", "Epitaxial films are grown in single crystalline structures on crystalline substrates, such as barium fluoride, by various evaporation techniques.", "Compared with etched bulk materials, these epitaxial films provide relatively thin semiconductor layers.", "The films, in addition, solve the radiation exposure or quantum efficiency problems, by allowing radiation to enter the semiconductor film through a non-absorbing substrate, whereas in bulk material the radiation enters through a thick layer of semiconductor material.", "Epitaxial films have, of course, been grown by various techniques.", "However, the quasiequilibrium technique (cool method) for growing films as disclosed in an article entitled "Thick Epitaxial Films of Pb 1 -x Sn x Te"", "in The Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology, Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 226-230, by R. F. Bis, J. R. Dixon and J. R. Lowney has been proven to be a superior method for growing epitaxial films.", "Epitaxial films formed by this technique adhere firmly to the substrate facilitating handling and creating a generally more durable device.", "In addition, the electrical properties of the films can be controlled effectively during growth, making costly and time consuming post growth treatments largely unnecessary.", "Schottky barrier devices have been developed to detect infrared radiation which have utilized the conventional complex and time consuming evaporation techniques for growing epitaxial films.", "The further step of formation of Schottky barriers on films grown by the conventional techniques certainly has not proved to be a simplier or less costly procedure.", "Schottky barrier detectors have also been constructed with epitaxial film layers of Pb 1 -x Sn x Te formed by techniques similar to quasiequilibrium technique but have relied on electroplating rather than evaporation methods to form the detector metal-semiconductor junction.", "However, electroplating requires breaking of the vacuum after depositing the epitaxial film and exposing the surface of the film to potentially contaminating gas-ambients.", "Exposing the semiconductor to ambient gases after growth, runs the risk of degrading the electro-optical properties of the metal semiconductor contact to be formed, hence degrading the performance of the device.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention overcomes the disadvantages and limitations of the prior art by providing a method for constructing an improved thick epitaxial film Pb 1 -x Sn x Te or Pb 1 -x Sn x Se Schottky barrier detector.", "The present invention discloses a method whereby epitaxial films are grown on a BaF 2 crystalline substrate by the "quasiequilibrium"", "technique referred to above, to create a Schottky barrier detector sensitive to electromagnetic radiation having wavelengths ranging from 8 to 14 microns.", "Strips of indium (In) are used as the metal electrode and are deposited on the epitaxial film by thermal evaporation techniques without breaking the vacuum so as to preserve the quality of the metal-semiconductor interface.", "This creates a device which has all the advantages of an epitaxial exposure to radiation, without the complex problems of fabrication requiring special handling as, e.g. those faced in photolithography methods.", "It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved method for constructing infrared detectors.", "It is also an object of the present invention to provide an improved method for constructing infrared detectors responsive to radiation having wavelengths ranging from 8 to 14 microns.", "Another object of the present invention is to provide an inexpensive, simple, and reliable method for producing photovoltaic infrared detectors.", "Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein: BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a schematic drawing of a single detector junction.", "FIG. 2 is a schematic drawing of a linear array of detector junctions.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT FIG. 1 discloses a single detector produced by the method of the preferred embodiment.", "A crystalline layer 12 of BaF 2 is utilized as a substrate.", "The semiconducting material 14 which is used in an alloy of lead-tin-telluride (Pb 1 -x Sn x Te) or lead tin selenide (Pb 1 -x Sn x Se) or mixtures thereof where x is a value selected for detecting 8 to 14 micron wavelength electromagnetic radiation.", "The semiconducting material is grown as an epitaxial film layer 14 on the BaF 2 substrate by an evaporation method referred to as the "quasiequilibrium"", "technique as disclosed in the above mentioned article by Bis, Dixon, and Lowney.", "This technique creates epitaxial film up to 20 times thicker than those produced by conventional thermal evaporation techniques of comparable quality.", "The thicker films are not only more durable, but are found to bond more securely to the substrate 12 without cracking or peeling and allow attachment of ohmic contact 20 more readily.", "The films are grown through vapor masks placed on the substrate 12 as to deliniate the geometrical configuration of the Pb 1 -x Sn x Te film of the detector or detector array.", "Growth through a vapor mask makes the use of photolithography unnecessary.", "Once the epitaxial layer 14 is grown on the substrate, a strip of metal 16 such as indium (In) lead (Pb), or tin (Sn) is thermally evaporated through appropriate masks so as to overlap the epitaxial layer 14 to form a photovoltaic metal-semiconductor interface.", "It is not presently known whether, when examined on a microscopic level, this interface is a Schottky barrier, a diffused metal junction, or a combination of the two.", "The metal strip also serves as an electrical contact 20 for the detector.", "The strip of metal should preferably be deposited immediately after the epitaxial layer 14 has cooled to room temperature or below following its growth heat treatment in high vacuum and without exposing the epitaxial layer to ambient gases (without breaking vacuum).", "This preserves the quality of the surface of the epitaxial layer 14 for disposition of the indium strip 16.", "A layer 22 of SiO 2 is then deposited by thermal evaporation on the entire sandwich structure without breaking vacuum to protect it from the atmosphere.", "The junction between the metal (In) and the semiconductor (Pb 1 -x Sn x Te) so defined constitutes a radiation detector which is sensitive to wavelengths between 8 and 14 microns with the appropriate choice of X (e.g. X = 0.2).", "The second ohmic electrical contact 18 is placed on the PbSnTe itself.", "It is a thermally evaporated gold contact.", "The sandwich structure and substrate 12 are then bonded to the heat sink 10 with a high thermally conducting epoxy.", "Since the BaF 2 substrate 12 is transparent to 8-14 micron radiation, the radiation 24 can enter the epitaxial semiconductor through the substrate and through the cutaway portion of the heat sink 10 as shown in FIG. 1. The back of the substrate 12 at the interface between the substrate 12 and the heat sink 10 is metalized and shaped so as to trap radiation and reflect it back to the detector sandwich.", "A series of detectors forming a linear array is shown in FIG. 2. The array is formed by growing an elongated epitaxial strip 14 and depositing a series of metal strips 16 in the same manner as disclosed above.", "The remainer of the procedure for forming the array of detectors in the same.", "It is well known that majority carrier injection across Schottky barriers is partially governed by diffusion and partially by therminoic (field) emission.", "However, the Indium-epitaxial crystalline layer may not be an abrupt metal-semiconductor contact at all.", "The low temperature optical band gap of Pb 0 [.", "].8 Sn 0 [.", "].2 Te is of course, also expected to be of 0.1eV, barring major effects from a Burstein Shift in this material.", "This correlation with the activation energy of responsivity might be interpreted to imply that the zero bias resistance is simply proportional to the inverse square of the intrinsic carrier density.", "In that case, the potential distribution and conduction mechanism of the contact would be more like that of a classical p-n junction with diffusion limited reverse saturation current.", "The reverse bias current of a Schottky barrier should be voltage dependent due to barrier lowering by the applied electrical field.", "Embodiments made according to the teachings of the present process show this general behavior - a gradual increase of reverse current with reverse voltage.", "These junctions probably contain leakage current paths, not only along the periphery but also through patches in the general area of the contact and hence the current-voltage characteristics may not be ideal.", "The advantage of the method of the preferred embodiment is that it renders a durable and simply constructed device for detecting infrared radiation in the 8 to 14 micron wavelength region.", "A minimum number of steps are required to produce the infrared detector or detector array which is assured to have a high quality surface at the metal-semiconductor Schottky barrier layer.", "Obviously, many modifications and variations of the present invention are possible in light of the above teachings.", "For example, different configurations in the geometry of the epitaxial films and metal layers could be used.", "Also, metals other than indium (In) could be used.", "Also, other thermally conducting and electrically insulating crystalline substrates of a material having a face-centered cubic lattice with the spacing between atoms equal to that of the epitaxial crystalline layer and a coefficient of thermal expansion approximately matched (i.e., the coefficient of thermal expansion of the epitaxial crystalline film substantially equal to that of the substrate at the higher temperatures, but differing approximately by a factor of 2° at 77° Absolute) to that of the epitaxial crystalline layer could be used, such as sodium chloride (NaCl) or cesium bromide (CsBr), cesium chloride (CsCl), cesium fluoride (CsF), potassium chloride (KCl), lithium fluoride (LiF), barium fluoride (BaF 2 ), strontium fluoride (SrF 2 ), calcium fluoride (CaF 2 ), or calcium fluoride (CaF 2 ).", "Also other protective and electrically insulating layers could be used in place of SiO 2 such as magnesium fluoride (MgF 2 ), calcium fluoride (CaF 2 ) or aluminum oxide (Al 2 O 3 ).", "It is therefore to be understood that within the scope of the appended claims the invention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described." ]

[ "CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This is a divisional application of U.S. Ser.", "No. 09/930,696 filed Aug. 15, 2001 entitled AUTHENTIC DOCUMENT AND METHOD OF MAKING by David L. Patton et al.", "FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The invention relates generally to the field of authenticating documents and in particular creating a print medium with an identifying physical anomaly.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] An article from the Hardcopy Observer, “Pitney Postage Plan Wins Approval, Escher Tries New Approach”, January 2000 announces a technology that enhances the security of postage documents by forming a signature of the paper fiber over a localized region and then printing this signature elsewhere on the envelope in the form of wavy lines.", "[0004] Since the image obtained from scanning paper fiber is random, it is very likely that no two envelopes ever have or ever will possess the same fiber structure.", "Therefore, every envelope may be considered to have a unique identifier and may be used to uniquely identify every letter.", "The technique requires that the fiber signature be printed and encoded as a series of wavy lines elsewhere on the envelope.", "How the fiber signature is distilled from the fibrous region is not disclosed.", "A significant advantage of this system is that it is unlikely that a counterfeiter would discover the process needed to duplicate this process.", "Simply copying the envelope is not sufficient because modern copiers do not copy the fibrous structure.", "The copier resolution is simply not high enough.", "By providing an information channel directly related to the unique aspects of the paper itself, the ability to counterfeit is minimized.", "[0005] However, the technique described above has a significant shortcoming.", "The requirement is that the fibrous signature is used as the unique identifier.", "The fibrous signature relies on the construction of the paper base of the envelope.", "Other medium such as photographic paper, thermal transfer, and inkjet all have different surface characteristics.", "In some cases these media do not have a paper base or a paper base that is close to the surface where the fiber structure is available for scanning.", "These media generally have a receiver layer constructed using a polymeric material.", "The polymeric materials used to form the receiving layer cover the paper base obscuring the fibers.", "The fibers themselves are susceptible to damage from outside elements such as water, abrasion, etc.", "In addition the technique does not provide a separate record in the form of a digital file of the scan of the envelope's fiber or link that file back to the envelope.", "[0006] Verification Technologies, Inc. discloses on their Website at http://www.netventure.com/vti/isis/main.", "htm a method for identifying valuable objects by capturing a unique series of microphotographs and a log of how they are collected.", "The microphotographs are then used to verify the authenticity of the objects.", "[0007] In each of the cases cited the feature being scanned or photographed already exists as a part of the object.", "The features are not purposely created during the time of manufacture for the sole purpose of proving authenticity.", "Nor is any attempt made to artificially create the mark or produce a mark that is physically robust.", "[0008] It is an object of the present invention to provide a high-resolution scan of the physical indicia identifier creating a unique digital representation of the physical indicia identifier.", "[0009] It is a further object of the present invention to provide a cryptographically secure method for invisibly hiding (or embedding) a message derived using a texturally derived signature from the anomaly.", "In the case of printed image on the media, the need for a visible representation of the data to authenticate an image is eliminated.", "[0010] It is another object of the present invention to provide a unique physical indicia identifier by embossing, etching or printing a pattern on the front or back surface of a media.", "[0011] It is a further object of the present invention to provide a high-resolution scan of the physical indicia identifier creating a unique digital representation of the physical indicia identifier.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0012] In accordance with one aspect of the present invention there is provided a method for making media on which is used for making an authenticable original document, comprising the steps of: providing a predetermined amount of media;", "forming a three dimensional physical indicia identifier on the predetermined amount of media.", "[0015] In another aspect of the present invention there is provided a media that is used for making an authenticable original document, the media having a three dimensional physical indicia identifier formed thereon, the media being made of a material such that when the three dimensional physical indicia is digitally scanned a unique digital file is produced.", "[0016] These and other aspects, objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will be more clearly understood and appreciated from a review of the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments and appended claims, and by reference to the accompanying drawings.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0017] In the detailed description of the preferred embodiments of the invention presented below, reference is made to the accompanying drawings in which: [0018] FIG. 1 is a schematic of a sheet of media having pre-formed physical indicia identifier made in accordance with the present invention;", "[0019] FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating how a sheet of media having pre-formed physical indicia identifier is made in accordance with the present invention;", "[0020] FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating a second embodiment of how a sheet of media having pre-formed physical indicia identifier is made in accordance with the present invention;", "[0021] FIG. 4 is a partial view of FIGS. 2 and 3 illustrating how a sheet of media having pre-formed physical indicia identifier is made in accordance with the present invention;", "[0022] FIG. 5 is a flow chart illustrating the operation of the overall system made in accordance with the present invention;", "[0023] FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a system made in accordance with the present invention;", "[0024] FIG. 7 is a flow chart of the operation of the system of FIG. 6 .", "[0025] FIG. 8 is a completed document made using the sheet of FIG. 1 ;", "[0026] FIG. 9A is a flow chart illustrating one method on how the document of FIG. 8 is verified;", "and [0027] FIG. 9B is a flow chart illustrating another method on how the document of FIG. 8 is verified.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0028] The invention utilizes aspects of data embedding.", "The science of data embedding is also referred to as data hiding, information hiding, data embedding, watermarking, and steganography.", "A data embedding technique is disclosed in Honsinger, et al.", ", U.S. Pat. No. 6,044,156, which is incorporated herein by reference.", "[0029] Referring to FIG. 1 , there is illustrated a sheet 10 for making a document in accordance with the present invention.", "Sheet 10 may be a print medium such as photosensitive, ink-jet, or thermal transfer media uniquely fingerprinted with a physical indicia identifier 15 .", "The physical indicia identifier 15 is a unique physical feature formed in the front or back surface or an integral part of the structure of the sheet 10 .", "For example, the physical indicia identifier 15 can be but is not limited to an embossed, etched or engraved indicia or a discernable physical characteristic on the front and/or back surface of the sheet 10 and not duplicatable using known visual copying techniques.", "The physical indicia identifier 15 may or may not be visible to the unaided eye.", "Sheet 10 is also printed with a unique identification number 20 .", "The identification number 20 may be a human and/or machine-readable code, for example an alphanumeric or a bar code.", "[0030] Referring now to FIG. 2 , there is illustrated a schematic diagram of an apparatus for making the sheet 10 of media 41 having the physical indicia identifier 15 and identification number 20 .", "It is well known to those in the art of manufacturing resin-coated media that a resin such as polyurethane or polyethylene is heated to above the glass transition point then applied to a base 40 such as paper or plastic via a hopper 42 .", "After the resin has been applied to the base, the base is run through a set of chilled rollers 44 where the resin is evenly spread over the surface of the base 40 and hardened.", "The resulting base 40 can be used to manufacture media 41 in the form of thermal, photosensitive paper or inkjet paper.", "The type of media 41 being manufactured can determine whether the physical indicia identifier 15 is formed on the front or back surface.", "For example if the media 41 is of the thermal type having a resin overcoat, the physical indicia identifier 15 may be formed on the top surface.", "If the media 41 is photosensitive paper where an emulsion is coated on a resin coated base, the physical indicia identifier 15 may be formed on the back surface.", "If the media 41 is inkjet paper, which may or may not have a resin coating, the embossing may be used to form the physical indicia identifier 15 on either the back or front surface.", "In the case where the media 41 is manufactured in a roll 46 to roll 47 process as shown in FIG. 2 , the base 40 , after the resin has been coated, passes through a set of physical indicia identifier forming rollers 48 .", "Referring to FIG. 4 , there is illustrated an enlarged partial view of FIGS. 2 and 3 .", "The rollers 48 contain heating elements 50 similar to the heating elements used in thermal heat heads such as those used in a KODAK ds 8650 PS Color Printer.", "As the media 41 passes between the rollers'", "heating elements 50 the heat from the heating elements 50 form a specified three-dimensional pattern of the physical indicia identifier 15 .", "A logic control unit, such as computer 45 controls the heating elements to provide successively different physical indicias.", "This allows the forming of a unique physical indicia identifier 15 for each sheet.", "After the physical indicia identifier 15 is formed in the surface of the resin coating a high-resolution scan is made via a scanner 52 and/or 54 .", "In addition, an identification number 20 is printed on either the front or back surface of the media 41 via a printer 56 or a printer 58 located on the roller 48 and/or roller 49 respectively.", "In the embodiment illustrated, the high resolution-scan is on the order of 1200 dots/inch.", "The results of the high resolution-scan are stored in memory, for example in memory of computer 45 or on a memory storage device such as on a CD 25 (shown in FIG. 6 ) via a computer 45 along with the identification number 20 .", "The method used for obtaining the high-resolution scan will be explained later.", "While in the particular embodiment illustrated the results of the scan is stored on a CD, it may be stored in any desired memory storage device or location.", "For example, but not limited to a computer disc, memory stick, memory card, or an internet accessible URL address such as a web site.", "[0031] FIG. 3 illustrates a schematic diagram of an apparatus made in accordance with the present invention wherein the media 41 is cut into a plurality of cut sheets 43 each having a physical indicia identifier 15 and identification number 20 as previously discussed.", "Like numerals in FIG. 3 indicate like parts and operation as previously discussed with respect to FIG. 2 .", "The media 41 is fed from the roll 46 via a set of drive rollers 55 and 57 through the set of rollers 48 and 49 .", "These rollers 48 and 49 contain either heating elements 50 or embossers (not shown).", "As the media 41 passes between the roller 48 and 49 the embossing roller form the specified pattern of the physical indicia identifier 15 .", "As each unique physical indicia identifier 15 is formed in the surface of the media 41 the high-resolution scan is made via the scanner 52 or 54 and the identification number 20 is printed on either the front or back surface of the media 41 via printer 56 or a printer 58 .", "After the physical indicia identifier 15 has been formed and the identification number 20 printed on the media 41 , the media 41 is cut into sheets 10 via a cutter assembly 60 .", "Each sheet 10 having its'", "own distinct physical indicia identifier 15 , identification number 20 , which is associated with a unique scan of the identifier 15 .", "Typically this is accomplished by a computer associating the scanned digital file with the identification number 20 and storing this information in a memory device.", "[0032] Referring to FIG. 5 , a flow chart illustrates a method for making an original document using sheet 10 in accordance with the present invention.", "A sheet 10 is provided at step 100 .", "The identification number 20 is printed on sheet 10 and the physical indicia identifier 15 is formed on the sheet 10 at steps 110 and 120 respectively.", "A high-resolution scan of the physical indicia identifier 15 is made and a digital file of the high-resolution scan is created at step 130 .", "The digital file of the high-resolution scan is linked to the sheet 10 via the printed identification number 20 at step 140 .", "The high-resolution scan provides a unique digital file with respect to physical indicia identifier 15 .", "The digital file of the high-resolution scan of the physical indicia identifier 15 is stored in memory such as written to a CD 25 (shown in FIG. 6 ) at step 150 and is associated with the unique identifier number 20 .", "A digital file that is to be later printed on the sheet 10 is created at step 160 .", "In the particular embodiment illustrated, the digital file is a text file 165 , however, the digital file may be an image file or mixture of text and image files.", "For the purposes of the present invention a text file shall mean a text file, an image file, or a combination of text and image files.", "If the text file 165 is large, it may be distilled at step 170 to a smaller representation called a distilled digital text file 175 using hash algorithms.", "These algorithms are utilized widely in computer systems.", "An example of a known hash algorithm is the Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA) of National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).", "With this algorithm it is possible to distill a large data set to 160 bits, rendering the probability of any two documents having the same hash value astronomically small.", "Modern watermarking technologies can easily hide this amount of data.", "[0033] Using the distilled digital text file 175 and an algorithm on CD 25 a message image 185 is created at step 180 .", "Briefly, the message image 185 is obtained taking the distilled image and scrambling it into a predetermined pattern/template.", "An example of obtaining this message image is described in greater detail in U.S. Pat. No. 6,044,156 both of which are incorporated herein by reference.", "The message image 185 is combined with the high-resolution scan file of the physical indicia identifier 15 at step 190 .", "One method of combining is convolving.", "An example of convolving is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,925,192 issued Aug. 2, 2005 to Chris W. Honsinger and David L. Patton.", "From Fourier theory, spatial convolution of two functions in the frequency domain is the same as adding together the functions phases while multiplying their respective Fourier amplitudes.", "Therefore, the effects of combining the message with a carrier, such as by the described convolution technique, distributes the message energy in accordance with the phase of the carrier and to modulate the amplitude spectrum of the message with the amplitude spectrum of the carrier.", "If the message image were a single delta function and the carrier of random phase and of uniform Fourier magnitude, the effect of convolving with the carrier would be to distribute the delta function over space.", "The Fourier magnitude would maintain its shape because the carrier is of uniform amplitude spectrum.", "If the amplitude of the convolved delta function is lowered in the space domain, the convolution may be viewed as a way to redistribute energy over space in an invisible way.", "The effect of convolving an arbitrary message with a random phase carrier is to spatially disperse the message energy over the image.", "In this sense, the convolution is a dispersive process.", "The message image 185 combined or convolved with the high resolution scan file of the physical indicia identifier 15 creates a dispersed message 195 at step 190 and the dispersed message 195 along with the text 36 is printed on the sheet 10 at step 200 .", "Due to the convolution step only the text 36 will be seen and the dispersed message 195 will not be seen by the unaided eye.", "[0034] Referring now to FIG. 6 , the sheet 10 containing the physical indicia identifier 15 and identification number 20 is placed into a printer 22 such as an inkjet or thermal printer.", "A compact disc (CD) 25 containing the digital file of the high-resolution scan of the physical indicia identifier 15 is placed into a computer 30 .", "The digital file of the high-resolution scan of the physical indicia identifier 15 has previously been associated to the sheet 10 via the identification number 20 .", "The high-resolution scan of the physical indicia identifier 15 can also exist on a remote server located at a service provider and be accessed via a communication network such as the Internet 33 .", "The high-resolution scan of the physical indicia identifier 15 can also exist in any type of memory such as a floppy disk, DVD, hard drive, portal hard drive, etc.", "and delivered to the computer 30 by any appropriate means.", "[0035] Now referring to FIG. 7 , there is illustrated a flow chart showing how a user creates an original document 34 shown in FIGS. 6 and 8 made in accordance with the present invention.", "The user places the sheet 10 into the printer 22 and the CD 25 into the computer 30 at step 220 .", "A software program in the computer 30 , typically obtained from the CD 25 , asks the user for the identification number(s) 20 for the sheet(s) 10 at step 230 .", "The user enters the identification number 20 via a keyboard 32 (shown in FIG. 6 ) at step 240 .", "If there is more than one sheet required for printing the document, the correct identification number 20 for each sheet placed into the printer and the additional sheets are entered into the computer in the order they will be printed.", "Using a word processor such as Microsoft Word or Claris Works, the user creates the text file, which is to be printed on the sheet 10 at step 250 .", "The software using the physical indicia identifier high-resolution scan file 15 and the digital text file creates the dispersed message at step 260 which was previously described in greater detail with respect to steps 160 , 170 , 180 &", "190 of FIG. 5 .", "The digital text file 165 with the dispersed message 195 intermixed therein is printed on the selected sheet(s) at step 270 creating only one original document 34 at step 280 as shown in FIGS. 6 and 8 that cannot be counterfeited using standard duplicating methods.", "[0036] Now referring to FIG. 8 , there is illustrated the completed document 34 made in accordance with the present invention.", "The completed document 34 comprises the physical indicia identifier 15 , the identification number 20 , the text 36 , and the dispersed message 195 , which is not normally visible as it is intermixed with the text 36 .", "[0037] Now referring to FIG. 9A , there is illustrated a flow chart of one method on how a document is verified in accordance with the present invention.", "A digital scan of the physical indicia identifier 15 is made at step 285 .", "The identification number is used to find the previously scanned information of the physical indicia identifier 15 on CD 25 at step 290 .", "This stored information is compared with the information obtained by scanning of the physical indicia identifier 15 on document at step 295 .", "If the scanned information regarding the physical indicia identifier 15 is the same as the stored information the document is verified at decision block 296 as being an original at step 297 , otherwise the scanned document cannot be verified at step 298 .", "[0038] Referring to FIG. 9B there is illustrated a flow chart of another method on how a document is verified in accordance with the present invention.", "In this method two different techniques are used to derive the same common data such that the common data obtained by the two different techniques must correspond in order to verify that the document is an original.", "A digital scan of the document 34 is made at step 300 and using appropriate algorithms on CD 25 , the physical indicia identifier 15 , the text 36 , and the dispersed message 195 are obtained.", "The physical indicia identifier 15 is located and the dispersed message 195 is obtained at step 310 .", "By using the data embedding and extraction algorithm described in detail below, the physical indicia identifier 15 is processed in the Fourier domain to maintain phase and flatten the Fourier magnitude.", "This result is inverse Fourier transformed to obtain a carrier, which is then correlated with the dispersed message 195 as found by step 190 previously discussed in FIG. 5 .", "The physical indicia identifier 15 is correlated with the dispersed message 195 , and the message image 185 is recovered at step 330 .", "Now, the message image 185 recovered at step 330 should correspond to the candidate message image 410 (text file) that is to be validated.", "[0039] To obtain the candidate message image 410 , the text file 405 is extracted at step 340 from the scan done at step 300 .", "An optical character-recognition (OCR) algorithm extracts the digital file 405 of the text at step 340 .", "It is understood that OCR is one example of a text recognition algorithm and there are many others that can be used.", "Using the same hash algorithm, text file 405 is distilled at step 350 .", "This distilled text is used to create a message image as discussed with respect to FIG. 5 to form a candidate message image 410 at step 360 .", "A decision of validity is made at decision block 370 by comparing the value of the candidate message image 410 obtained at step 360 with the message image 185 recovered at step 330 .", "If the candidate message image 410 is the same as the recovered message image 185 recovered at step 330 , the document is validated at step 390 .", "Otherwise the document is not validated at step 380 .", "As can be seen in this method two distinct techniques are used to obtain a common data.", "In one method the common data is obtained starting from the beginning of the method of FIG. 5 .", "In the second method using the scanned document and starting at the end of method of FIG. 5 and working backwards, the common data is obtained.", "In the embodiment illustrated the common data is the message image, however, the common data could have been the distilled text file.", "In such case after step 330 , the distilled text file could have been obtained using the appropriate algorithm.", "This could have been compared with the data obtained at step 350 .", "All that is important is that the common data is obtained using one method starting from the beginning and compared with the common data is starting from the other end of the process.", "[0040] The invention has been described in detail with particular reference to certain preferred embodiments thereof, but it will be understood that variations and modifications can be effected within the spirit and scope of the invention.", "Parts List [0000] 10 sheet 15 physical indicia identifier 20 identification number 22 printer 25 CD 30 computer 32 keyboard 33 Internet 34 document 36 text 40 base 41 media 42 hopper 43 cut sheets 44 chilled roller 45 computer 46 roll 47 roll 48 indicia identifier forming rollers 49 indicia identifier forming rollers 50 heating elements 52 scanner 54 scanner 55 drive roller 56 printer 57 drive roller 58 printer 60 cutter assembly 100 step 110 step 120 step 130 step 140 step 150 step 160 step 165 digital text file 170 step 175 distilled digital text file 180 step 185 message image 190 step 195 dispersed message 200 step 220 step 230 step 240 step 250 step 260 step 270 step 280 step 285 step 290 step 295 step 296 decision block 297 step 298 step 300 step 310 step 320 step 330 step 340 step 350 step 360 step 370 decision block 380 step 390 step 405 digital text file 410 candidate message image" ]

[ "This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser.", "No. 09/729,537, filed Dec. 4, 2000, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/196,038, filed Apr. 7, 2000.", "This invention was disclosed in the Disclosure Documents Program of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Dec. 30, 1999, Disclosure Document No. 466889.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Field of the Invention This invention relates to the easy conversion of a portable cordless hand dry vacuum cleaner into a device capable of both wet and dry operation.", "Description of Related Art Cordless, portable vacuum cleaners have become popular due to their ease of use and simplicity of operation.", "Their small and lightweight designs are effective in vacuuming small amounts of dry debris from floors as well as places normally difficult to reach with larger machines requiring wall current for operation.", "However, the design of these portable devices precludes their ability to vacuum liquid spills and is a major drawback of their use.", "This invention relates generally to an improvement in the means for allowing the vacuuming of liquids by a cordless hand vacuum cleaner.", "Previous attempts at developing a portable wet-dry vacuum cleaner were ineffective as the designs allowed the vacuumed liquid to leave the device if it was tilted or inactivated, only allowed the removal of very small quantities of fluid or were too cumbersome to use.", "It is therefore to the effective resolution of the aforementioned problems and shortcomings that the present invention is directed.", "Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a design for the device that is compatible with commercially available portable hand vacuum cleaners thus allowing an ease in assembling and usage.", "It is another object of this invention to provide a device that does not allow unintended egress of the liquid contents from the device or into the motor thus damaging the device.", "It is still another object of this invention to provide a device that allows the user to observe the filling of the vacuum chamber device with fluid.", "BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The foregoing objects are achieved and the foregoing problems are solved in one illustrative embodiment of the invention in which a portable wet-dry vacuum cleaner is provided and includes a preferably clear plastic chamber assembly which is attached to a standard cordless portable hand vacuum cleaner similar to how non-fluid chamber assemblies are attached to standard cordless portable hand vacuum cleaners.", "The attachment is secure such that fluid or dry debris cannot exit the device through defects in the attachment.", "The distal and proximate ends of the vacuum cleaner are joined together as is conventionally known to define the chamber receiving area.", "The wet-dry vacuum chamber assembly is placed in the chamber receiving area between the standard proximal vacuum attachment and the distal motor of the prior art device similar to how non fluid chamber assemblies are disposed which is readily apparent to one having skill in the art.", "In one embodiment of the device, the vacuum chamber assembly contains a ball, cylindrical device or other occluding device which is enclosed within a smaller chamber by a perforated wall.", "The occluding device is of sufficient weight that it is not sucked into the vacuum thus occluding the port but is buoyant such that the filling of the chamber with fluid will allow it to rise and occlude the vacuum port and the motor port.", "The diameter of the occluding device is larger than the diameter of the openings into the vacuum or motor port such that the occluding device remains within the vertical chamber.", "The blockage of the path between the vacuum port and the motor port prevents fluid from leaving the vacuum chamber and spilling from the standard vacuum attachment or from entering the motor attachment once the device is sufficiently filled with fluid, tilted or inactivated.", "The perforated wall which encloses the occluding device within the larger chamber is provided to decrease the distance that the occluding device must travel to occlude the ports if the device is tilted.", "The design of the vacuum attachment also allows the trapping of any particulate or dry debris not retained by the standard proximal vacuum attachment.", "The transparency of the chamber allows the user to determine when the vacuum chamber is sufficiently filled such that an emptying of the chamber is required.", "The vacuum chamber assembly is emptied of fluid by removing a plug or stopper from the bottom of the chamber.", "Alternatively, the chamber assembly may be disconnected from the portable cordless vacuum cleaner, such as during cleaning of the proximal vacuum attachment and vacuum chamber, inverted and shaken thus allowing the fluid to exit the vacuum chamber.", "In another embodiment of the invention, a trap filter is placed between the vacuum chamber and the distal motor attachment to further protect the motor from debris.", "In yet another embodiment of the invention a trap filter and separate trap chamber is provided to further protect the motor from fluid and or debris.", "The trap chamber may be emptied by a stopper that drains both the trap and main chamber or be tilted such that the fluid leaves the trap chamber by an exit port or the stopper draining the main chamber.", "In still another embodiment of the invention two balls or other occluding devices are provided in vertically oriented perforated chambers to further minimize fluid leak from the vacuum chamber into the proximal vacuum attachment or the distal motor.", "Gravity, the flow of fluid contained within the fluid receiving area and/or the position of the vertical inner wall(s) help to retain the occluding object within the corresponding opening/port when the vacuum cleaner is tilted in certain positions and/or when a certain amount of fluid is disposed within the fluid receiving area.", "A trap filter or trap filter and trap chamber may also be provided.", "In yet another embodiment, a straight or curved wall is placed between the proximal vacuum attachment and the distal vacuum motor such that one elliptical or oval object may be used to block both openings into the vacuum chamber.", "The opening into the chamber may be in the center of the chamber or displaced to one side of the chamber.", "A trap filter or trap filter and trap chamber may also be provided.", "In accordance with these and other objects which will become apparent hereinafter, the instant invention will now be described with particular reference to the accompanying drawings.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS The invention may be better understood by reference to the drawings in which: FIG. 1 a is a pictorial illustration of a side view of one embodiment for the vacuum chamber assembly in accordance with the present invention.", "An optional trap filter is also illustrated.", "FIG. 1 b is another embodiment of the invention in which a standard cordless hand vacuum cleaner trap filter and a separate trap chamber is incorporated with the device.", "FIG. 2 is a side view of the invention demonstrating the wet-dry vacuum chamber assembly attached to a prior art cordless hand vacuum cleaner.", "FIG. 3 is a side view of the invention demonstrating a larger version of the wet-dry vacuum cleaner chamber assembly attached to a standard cordless hand vacuum cleaner.", "FIG. 4 is a side view of the invention demonstrating the wet-dry vacuum cleaner chamber assembly with two balls oriented in vertical chambers with perforated side walls.", "FIGS. 5 a - 5 d are side views demonstrating a vertical straight wall (FIGS.", "5 a and 5 d ), a curved wall (FIG.", "5 b ) or two curved walls (FIG.", "5 c ) between the proximal vacuum attachment and the distal vacuum motor.", "The opening from the proximal vacuum attachment and the distal motor may be in the center of the chamber (FIGS.", "5 a and 5 b ) or displaced to one side of the chamber (FIGS.", "5 c and 5 d ).", "An elliptical, oval or circular object is used to occlude the openings into the chamber and prevent fluid from back flowing into the proximal vacuum attachment or into the distal vacuum motor.", "The occluding device may be enclosed within the chamber by a perforated wall such as in FIG. 5 d. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION FIG. 1 a illustrates a first embodiment of the portable wet-dry vacuum cleaner assembly showing the transparent main chamber/container ( 1 ).", "A perforated wall ( 2 ) encloses a ball ( 3 ) or other occluding structure.", "Openings are provided for connection to the proximal vacuum attachment ( 4 ) and distal motor attachment ( 5 ).", "The vacuum chamber assembly attaches to the proximal vacuum attachment by a clip ( 6 ) that fits into the housing of the vacuum attachment.", "The vacuum chamber assembly connects to the motor attachment by an opening ( 6 a ) through which the typically provided clip on the motor attachment fits in.", "A preferred material to manufacture the device from is plastic, although other materials of a robust nature may also be used.", "An optional filter ( 7 ) may be placed within the opening ( 5 ) of the motor attachment.", "FIG. 1 b illustrates a second embodiment of the device in which a separate trap chamber ( 8 ) and standard vacuum filter ( 9 ) to further prevent fluid from entering the motor is provided.", "A plug or stopper ( 10 ) may be provided to empty the chamber.", "The stopper may be located within the main chamber or alternatively connect the main chamber and the separate trap chamber.", "FIG. 2 demonstrates incorporating the vacuum chamber assembly within a standard cordless hand vacuum, and is not limited to any embodiment of the assembly.", "The vacuum chamber assembly inserts between the proximal vacuum attachment ( 11 ) and the distal motor attachment ( 12 ).", "The attachment clips ( 6 ) and ( 13 ), the vents for the motor ( 14 ), the activation switch ( 15 ) and the opening for the person's hand to hold the device ( 16 ) are also illustrated.", "FIG. 3 is a side view of a larger version of the vacuum chamber assembly having an elongated chamber ( 17 ) such that a larger quantity of fluid can be accommodated.", "The illustration also demonstrates the conduit ( 18 ) inside a prior art vacuum attachment that deflects and traps particulate dry matter within the vacuum attachment.", "As seen in FIG. 4, another embodiment for the wet-dry vacuum chamber assembly is illustrated and contains two balls ( 19 ) or occluding objects within vertically oriented chambers ( 20 ) with a perforated side wall ( 2 ).", "As main chamber ( 1 ) fills with fluid, or the device is tilted, the balls will occlude the vacuum attachment port ( 4 ), the motor port ( 5 ) or both ports.", "A stopper ( 10 ) is provided to empty the chamber.", "FIG. 5 a demonstrates another embodiment for the vacuum chamber assembly in which a vertical wall ( 23 ) is placed between the vacuum attachment port ( 4 ) and the motor port ( 5 ).", "An occluding device ( 24 ), shown as being substantially oval, is demonstrated to occlude both openings, though a ball, cylinder or other occluding device can also be used.", "FIG. 5 b illustrates an alternate embodiment in which a curved wall ( 25 ) may be provided between the vacuum attachment port ( 4 ) and the motor port ( 5 ).", "In FIG. 5 c , two curved walls ( 26 ) are placed within the opening between the vacuum attachment ( 4 ) and the motor port ( 5 ).", "The opening ( 27 ) into the vacuum chamber ( 1 ) may be centrally located or can be displaced to one or the other side of the chamber as illustrated.", "A trap filter ( 9 ) or trap filter with trap chamber (as in FIG. 1 b ) may also be provided.", "FIG. 5 d illustrates another embodiment in which a vertical wall ( 23 ) is placed between the vacuum attachment port ( 4 ) and the motor port ( 5 ).", "An occluding device ( 24 ) is enclosed by a perforated wall ( 2 ).", "Changes in modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art.", "Such modifications and changes are intended to be covered by the claims herein.", "The illustrated embodiments refer to clips attaching the vacuum chamber assembly to a standard proximal vacuum attachment and distal motor attachment.", "However, such should not be considered limiting.", "It is apparent that there are many other alternate ways of attaching the vacuum chamber assembly to a variety of prior art portable or non-portable vacuum cleaners.", "It is also apparent that a device incorporating the proximal vacuum attachment and the vacuum chamber assembly could be constructed thus eliminating the need for multiple attachment devices and decreasing the chance of fluid leakage.", "It is also apparent that the diameter of the vacuum and motor ports leading into and out of the vacuum chamber affect the dimensions of the occluding device or devices and thus, should not be considered limiting.", "It should also be understood that the hand held vacuum cleaner, including the vacuum chamber assembly of the present invention, can also be used to pick up non-fluids.", "The present invention assembly can also be incorporated within other types of vacuum cleaners.", "The instant invention has been shown and described herein in what is considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiment.", "It is recognized, however, that departures may be made therefrom within the scope of the invention and that obvious modifications will occur to a person skilled in the art." ]

[ "[0001] The present invention relates to an underwater viewing facility consisting of a buoyant platform with an underwater observation device.", "More particularly, the invention provides a buoyant platform for a person lying prone on it, such as a raft, a sea mattress, a pontoon, or the like, with an underwater observation device characterized by its panoramic wide angle sight.", "[0002] The prior art describes several underwater viewing facilities, such as: U.S. Pat. No. 2,712,139 (Jul. 5, 1955) U.S. Pat. No. 2,717,399 (Sep. 13, 1955) U.S. Pat. No. 4,895,539 (Jan. 23, 1990) U.S. Pat. No. Des.", "311,410 (Oct. 16, 1990) U.S. Pat. No. Des.", "357,156 (Apr. 11, 1995) U.S. Pat. No. 6,142,844 (Nov. 7, 2000) U.S. Pat. No. 6,241,569 B1 (Jun. 5, 2001) U.S. Pat. No. 6,293,841 B1 (Sep. 25, 2001) U.S. Pat. 6,572,424 B2 (Jun. 3, 2003) U.S. Pat. Appl.", "Pub.", "No. U.S. 2006/0252318 A1 U.S. Pat. Appl.", "Pub.", "No. U.S. 2010/0062665 A1 DE 203 15 281 U1 (22.01.2004) Gebrauchsmusterschrift [Functional design) [0015] None of the above inventions and patents, or others which have been cited in those, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed.", "[0016] All prior-art underwater observation devices, enable the observer, which uses a buoyant platform, an insufficient and much limited view of the underwater scenes, due to the fact that the observer's face is situated beyond the viewing device, and as a result, he is enjoying a more or less, however always limited angle of sight, depending on the construction of the viewing device.", "SUMMARY [0017] It is therefore the object of the present invention to obviate the said disadvantage of the prior-art and to provide the observer with a much broader angle of underwater sight.", "[0018] The present invention achieves the above object by providing a buoyant platform made of any kind of floating material or floating capacity, the buoyant platform having a through-hole, the hole's diameter is slightly bigger than the size of a human head, the through-hole penetrating from top to bottom of the buoyant platform ,the buoyant platform on its top has a soft protecting ring around said hole, thus when an observer is lying in a prone position on the buoyant platform with his face in the hole, the protective ring around his head prevents water to reach the hole, the hole employs an underwater observation device, the observation device consists of: [0019] 1.", "A viewing chamber, e.g. a transparent chamber, sitting in the hole of the buoyant platform, the chamber protruding the bottom of the buoyant platform, the observer's face rests in the transparent viewing chamber, through the chamber's opening at its upper side;", "[0020] 2.", "Means to secure the viewing chamber in the correct position to said hole, in a preferred embodiment said means are: a. A flat ring is in a perpendicular position to the chamber's upper edge;", "b. A lock-belt is situated around said chamber, a ring configuration, to secure the position of the transparent viewing chamber in the hole of the buoyant platform;", "[0023] In a preferable embodiment of the present invention the lock-belt is an inflatable sleeve provided with an inflatable valve of its own, the sleeve being part of the observation device.", "[0024] If the buoyant unit of the present invention is an air mattress, preferably it will have an integral lock-belt made of a separate inflatable sleeve provided with a separate, inflatable valve.", "[0025] The most preferred shape of the viewing chamber of the underwater observation device of the present invention is of a semi-spherical configuration, however, it could be of any other configuration such as rectangular, trapezoidal or any other desired configuration, as long as the chamber is open at is upper edge, and the chamber's size is such that the observer can insert at least his face, or preferable his entire head, into the transparent viewing chamber.", "[0026] In case of an air mattress the person lying prone on it, the weight of his body causes the mattress to float below sea level, however, the front of the mattress carrying only the weight of the person's head is automatically lifted and stays in a tilt position to the rest of the mattress, thus enabling the person to insert his head easily into the viewing chamber and in a comfortable manner.", "[0027] In case of a rigid buoyant platform, in order that the person can insert his head easily and in a comfortable manner into the viewing chamber, it is preferred that the platform's front is thinner than its rear side, which means that the upper surface of the platform is slightly sloped.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0028] In the annexed drawings: [0029] FIGS. 1 a and 1 b are, respectively, perspective and partial section views of an underwater viewing facility;", "[0030] FIGS. 2 a , 2 b and 2 c are, respectively schematic views of an embodiment of the underwater viewing facility illustrating folding capability;", "[0031] FIG. 3 a illustrates a person lying prone on the underwater viewing facility shown as an air-mattress;", "[0032] FIG. 3 b illustrates schematically a viewing chamber of the underwater viewing facility;", "[0033] FIG. 4 is a top view of an underwater viewing facility in the configuration of an air-mattress;", "[0034] FIG. 5 a is a perspective view illustrating a person lying prone on an underwater viewing facility shown as an air-mattress;", "and [0035] FIG. 5 b is a perspective view illustrating the bottom of front of the underwater viewing facility air-mattress of FIGS. 4 and 5 a with an external ring about the viewing chamber.", "DESCRIPTION [0036] With specific reference now to the figures in detail, it is stressed that the particulars shown are by way of example and for the purposes of illustrative discussion of the preferred embodiments of the present invention only, and are presented in the cause of providing what is believed to be the most useful and readily understood description of the principles and conceptual aspects of the invention.", "In this regard, no attempt is made to show structural details of the invention in more detail than is necessary for a fundamental understanding of the invention, the description taken with the drawings making apparent to those skilled in the art how the several forms of the invention may be embodied in practice.", "[0037] In FIGS. 1 a and 1 b is shown an underwater viewing facility made of a rigid buoyant platform 1 , the platform's front 5 is thinner than its rear side 4 , its upper surface 3 being moderately sloped.", "A through-hole 8 , which is slightly bigger than the size of a human head, penetrates from the upper surface 3 to the bottom 2 , of the buoyant platform 1 .", "A transparent chamber 6 is accommodated in the hole 8 , the chamber 6 has a flat ring 7 in a perpendicular position to its upper edge, the ring 7 is resting on the upper surface 3 of the buoyant platform 1 .", "Chamber 6 is protruding the bottom 2 of platform 1 .", "A lock-belt 11 is pressed between chamber 6 and platform 1 to secure the chamber 6 in a correct position to hole 8 .", "In this embodiment, lock-belt 11 has on its top a soft protective ring 20 , ring 20 is situated over, and is surrounding, the upper edge of chamber 6 .", "[0038] An observer lying prone on the sloped upper surface 3 of rigid platform 1 , can easily insert his head and in a comfortable manner into transparent viewing chamber 6 .", "[0039] When an observer inserts his head in opening 9 of chamber 6 , the soft protecting ring 20 fits itself around his head and prevents water to enter through opening 9 into chamber 6 .", "[0040] The rigid buoyant platform 1 of this invention, may be a massive body made of any floating material, or a hallow float body of a material which by its own is without floating capacity, such as a metallic body, or the like.", "[0041] In FIGS. 2 a , 2 b and 2 c is shown an underwater viewing facility similar to the one described in FIGS. 1 a and 1 b , however it differs from that facility, in the buoyant platform's folding capability, thus this embodiment needs less storage room at home and fits well in a car's trunk.", "[0042] The rigid buoyant platform 1 of FIGS. 2 a , 2 b and 2 c consists of three links;", "16 , 17 , and 18 .", "The edge 19 of each two neighboring links is coupled to each other.", "[0043] When the user wishes to fold the buoyant platform 1 , he pulls the links 16 , 17 and 18 to withdraw them from each other.", "Between each two links are fixed pivoted bars 13 with a couple of hinge pins 14 and 15 .", "When the links 16 , 17 and 18 are withdrawn from each other, the space 12 between each two links enables the links to fold and lie on each other.", "[0044] As long as the edges 19 of the links 16 , 17 and 18 are tied to each other, the hinge pins 14 and 15 sit close to the center of their pivoted bar 13 (See FIG. 2 a ).", "Having pulled the links 16 , 17 , and 18 away from each other, the hinge pins 14 and 15 move to the edges of their pivoted bar 13 (See FIGS. 2 b and 2 c ).", "[0045] FIGS. 3 to 5 demonstrate an embodiment of the underwater viewing facility with a soft buoyant platform 10 being a constant air mattress or the like, or an inflatable one.", "[0046] In this embodiment in which the buoyant platform 10 is an air mattress, the soft protecting ring 20 is part of the air mattress's front 21 (See FIGS. 4 a and 5 a ) and not part of a lock-belt as in the previous embodiments.", "[0047] In FIGS. 3 a and 5 a is shown a person 22 , an observer that is lying prone on the buoyant platform 10 , an air-mattress 10 .", "Contrary to the main body of the air-mattress 10 , which carries a considerable weight, that is the person's 22 body, the front 21 of air-mattress 10 carries only the low weight of the person's 22 head.", "This division in the weight acting on buoyant mattress 10 , while floating, causes automatically the front 21 to raise itself and stay tilt to the main body of buoyant mattress 10 .", "This phenomenon helps the person 22 to easily insert his head 23 into the transparent viewing chamber 6 and in a comfortable manner.", "[0048] In FIGS. 3 b , 4 and 5 a are shown, a transparent viewing chamber 6 with its perpendicular ring 7 ( FIG. 3 b ) at its upper edge.", "In a hole 8 in the internal ring 24 of front 21 of the mattress 10 , is accommodated the transparent viewing chamber 6 .", "In this embodiment internal ring 24 presses on transparent viewing chamber 6 to secure the chamber 6 in a correct position to hole 8 .", "The same function of internal ring 24 in this embodiment, is carried out in the previous embodiments by the lock-belt.", "A lock-belt is unnecessary in this embodiment of the air-mattress.", "The front 21 of air-mattress 10 consists of an external ring 25 , an internal ring 24 with its hole 8 and a soft protecting ring 20 .", "All three said rings and the air-mattress may be produced as one unit.", "[0049] In FIGS. 4 and 5 a is seen opening 9 of transparent viewing chamber 6 (not illustrated here).", "In FIG. 5 a the observer 22 lying on air-mattress 10 , has started to put his face 23 into opening 9 , in order to insert most of his head, or even the entire head in the transparent viewing chamber.", "[0050] In FIG. 5 b is shown a view of the bottom of front 21 of air-mattress 10 , with external ring 24 , transparent view chamber 6 and ring 24 which will soon press against chamber 6 when ring 24 is more inflated.", "[0051] The embodiments of the present invention, including the preferred embodiments, disclosed herein are intended to be illustrative only and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.", "It should be understood by those skilled in the art that various modifications and adaptations of the present invention as well as alternative embodiments of the present invention may be contemplated.", "It is to be understood the present invention is not limited to sole embodiments described above, but encompasses any and all embodiments within the scope of the following claims." ]

[ "RELATED U.S. PATENT APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 13/632,478, filed filed Oct. 1, 2012, which is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 10/661,159 filed Sep. 12, 2003 (now U.S. Pat. No. 8,298,161 B2), which claims the benefit of priority of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/409,927, filed Sep. 12, 2002, the entirety of each of which is incorporated by reference herein.", "TECHNICAL FIELD [0002] The present disclosure relates to devices, systems, and processes useful for exploration of hollow body structures, particularly those areas accessed through a tortuous, unsupported path.", "More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a shape-transferring cannula device that creates a custom-contoured access port for insertion and removal of diagnostic, surgical, or interventional instruments to and from a site within the body to which the physician does not have line-of-sight access.", "BACKGROUND [0003] Surgical cannulas are well known in the art.", "Such devices generally include tube-like members that are inserted into openings made in the body so as to line the openings and maintain them against closure.", "Surgical cannulae can be used for a wide variety of purposes, and their particular construction tends to vary accordingly (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,911,714).", "Flexible endoscopes, endovascular catheters and guidewires, and trocar cannulae such as those used in laparascopic surgery, are examples of such devices.", "Several U.S. patents recite such devices.", "See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,482,029;", "5,681,260;", "5,766,163;", "5,820,623;", "5,921,915;", "5,976,074;", "5,976,146;", "6,007,519;", "6,071,234;", "and 6,206,872.", "[0004] All of these devices are in use in one form or another and they are helpful to some extent, but they also pose several problems.", "Flexible endoscopes and endovascular catheters rely on reaction forces generated by pushing against the tissue of the body cavity being explored to navigate around corners or bends in the anatomy.", "This approach works reasonably well for small-diameter endovascular catheters that are typically run through arteries well supported by surrounding tissue.", "In this case the tissue is effectively stiffer than the catheter or guidewire and is able to deflect the catheter's path upon advancement into the vessel.", "The approach is much less successful in the case of flexible endoscopes being guided through a patient's colon or stomach.", "In these cases the endoscope is either significantly stiffer than the body cavity tissue it is being guided through or, as is the case for the stomach or an insufflated abdomen, the body cavity is sufficiently spacious that the endoscope has no walls at all to guide it.", "In the case of colonoscopy, the endoscope forces the anatomy to take painful, unnatural shapes.", "Often, the endoscope buckles and forms “loops”", "when the colonoscopist attempts to traverse tight corners.", "Pushing on the end of the flexible endoscope tends to grow the loop rather than advance the endoscope.", "“Pushing through the loop”", "relies on the colon to absorb potentially damaging shapes of force to advance the endoscope.", "In cases of unusually tortuous anatomy, the endoscope may not reach its intended target at all, leaving the patient at risk of undiagnosed and potentially cancerous polyps.", "[0005] Endovascular catheters have drawbacks as well.", "While generally flexible enough to avoid seriously damaging the vessel's endothelial surface, guidewires are difficult to guide into small side branches of large vessels such as the coronary ostia or into relatively small vessels connecting to relatively large chambers such as the pulmonary veins.", "Catheters are even more limited in their ability to deal with greatly tortuous vessel anatomy such as the vessels radiating from the brain's so-called Circle of Willis.", "[0006] Ablation and EKG mapping catheters used in cardiological electrophysiology find their intended targets chiefly by trial and error insertion and twisting of a guidewire/catheter accompanied by gross motions of the entire catheter.", "A need, therefore exists for a cannula system that provides access port for insertion and removal of diagnostic, surgical, or interventional instruments to and from a site within the body to which the physician does not have line-of-sight access.", "Furthermore, there is a need for cannula systems that can follow a tortuous path through hollow soft-tissue structures without relying on the surrounding tissue to mechanically support and guide its insertion and may be steered and advanced directly to an anatomical point of interest.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0007] FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic sectional view of the shape transferring cannula system illustrating the major components.", "[0008] FIGS. 2A-2D illustrate diagrammatic sectional representations of a sequence of rigidizing structure stiffening, relaxing, and advancement that enables guiding of the shape transferring cannula.", "[0009] FIG. 3 is a perspective view of an embodiment of laterally parallel rigidizing core and sheath linkage structures.", "[0010] FIGS. 4A and 4B illustrate perspective views of captured-link rigidizing linkages.", "[0011] FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a cable-rigidized core linkage.", "[0012] FIG. 6 shows perspective and sectional views of a cable-rigidized sheath linkage.", "[0013] FIG. 7 is a sectional view of an off-axis tensioning mechanism for a cable-rigidized sheath linkage.", "[0014] FIG. 8 is a perspective view of an alternate embodiment of a laterally parallel sheath linkage.", "[0015] FIG. 9 is a sectional view of a laterally parallel sheath linkage.", "[0016] FIG. 10 shows perspective and end views of an open-sided sheath linkage.", "[0017] FIG. 11 is a perspective view of a laterally parallel sheath linkage with compliant elements.", "[0018] FIGS. 12A-12H illustrate various views of an alternating advancement mechanism in accordance with the present disclosure.", "[0019] FIGS. 13A-13C is a perspective view of a rotating link cannula structure [0020] FIGS. 14A-14C is a diagrammatic view of a cannula structure including a passive element.", "[0021] FIG. 15 is a sectional view of a continuous stiffening cannula structure.", "[0022] FIG. 16 is a perspective view of a cannula structure formed with normally-rigid, thermally relaxing materials.", "[0023] FIGS. 17A and 17B illustrate sectional views of vacuum-stiffening cannula structure elements.", "[0024] FIG. 18 is a sectional view of a pressure-stiffening cannula structure.", "[0025] FIGS. 19A and 19B show a sectional view of normally-rigid, vibrationally relaxing cannula structure elements.", "[0026] FIGS. 20A and 20B illustrate sectional views of a cannula structure including active material elements.", "[0027] FIG. 21 is a perspective view of two-axis pivoting links.", "[0028] FIG. 22 depicts a catheter with a shape-transferring section.", "[0029] FIG. 23 depicts a thermally relaxing normally-rigid structure.", "[0030] FIG. 24 depicts a motorized advancement mechanism.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0031] The present disclosure is directed to a novel shape-transferring cannula system, which provides access to tortuous and unsupported paths.", "The shape-transferring cannula system and method enables exploration of hollow body structures, and creates a custom-contoured access port for insertion and removal of, for example, diagnostic, surgical, or interventional instruments to and from a site within the body to which the physician does not have line-of-sight access.", "[0032] The shape-transferring cannula can follow a tortuous path through hollow soft-tissue structures without relying on the surrounding tissue to mechanically support and guide its insertion.", "The system includes two parallel rigidizing sections that alternatingly stiffen and relax with respect to one another and alternatingly transfer the path shape traced-out by the articulating tip to one another.", "A steerable articulated tip is attached to one of the rigidizing sections.", "The cannula's custom shape is formed by guiding the articulated tip along a desired path direction, stiffening the attached rigidizing section, and advancing the other rigidizing section along the stiffened section.", "[0033] The end of the shape-transferring cannula may be steered and advanced directly to an anatomical point of interest.", "The user traces a path for the shape-transferring cannula with the steerable tip and in doing so defines the longitudinal shape assumed by the cannula, thus directing the working end of the cannula to a target site without substantially disturbing the length of cannula behind it.", "The ability to navigate predictably within heart chambers and swap out catheters from a relatively fixed position, for example, greatly improves electrophysiologists'", "ability to methodically locate and ablate the ectopic foci responsible for atrial fibrillation and other cardiac arrhythmias.", "[0034] The ability to localize movements to the user-controlled tip of the cannula is especially valuable when working within particularly sensitive open structures such as the ventricles of the brain or loosely supported, tortuous structures such as the colon that provide very little mechanical support for intubation around corners.", "[0035] The shape-transferring cannula system assumes the shape traced by the path of the articulating tip in an incremental fashion, with the core and sheath rigidizing structures transferring the traced path shape back and forth to each other.", "Having reached the target site, the external sheath can be made flexible and slid out over the rigidized central core.", "Unlike the lengthy re-intubation procedure for a conventional flexible endoscope, returning to the target site is simply a matter of sliding the sheath or surgical instruments over the core that now acts as a guidewire.", "Alternately, the sheath may be left rigid and in place once having reached the target site and the core may be made flexible and removed.", "This leaves the shaped sheath to act as a cannula through which surgical instruments such as snares, ultrasound probes, biopsy probes and other diagnostic devices, electrocautery tools, and the like may be transferred to and from the target site.", "[0036] The individual elements of the disclosure have useful applications independent of the full system.", "For instance, the rigidizing sheath structure may be used on its own as a rigidizing cannula when introduced to a target site by a conventional guidewire, flexible endoscope, or similar introduction element.", "Unlike conventional rigid cannulae, the rigidizing cannula does not have a predetermined longitudinal shape.", "Yet, when stiffened, the rigidizing cannula may support reaction forces like a rigid cannula when tools are run down its length, thus protecting sensitive tissue structures.", "[0037] The present disclosure will now be described in detail with reference to the following drawings.", "FIG. 1 depicts a preferred embodiment of a shape-transferring cannula system Id having two parallel rigidizing core 1 and sheath 2 structures, a steerable articulated tip 3 attached to one of the rigidizing structures, a proximal end 1 a , a distal end 1 b and a lumen 1 c through which surgical tools may be introduced or through which the target site may be irrigated or suctioned.", "The core 1 and sheath 2 are parallel structures that can be coaxial or side-by-side and that may be made rigid or flexible with respect to one another.", "The core and sheath structures may be unitary materials or continuous structures, or they can be formed of individual, flexibly connected rigid links.", "The core and sheath structure employs rigidizing cables which, when put into tension, pull the links together to increase friction between links and prevent relative motion between the links.", "The core's rigidizing structure is built-up of links such that a convex spherical surface on one link engages a concave surface on an adjacent link.", "The core's rigidizing cable runs through each core link's central orifice, connecting the entire core rigidizing structure.", "The core link's central orifice has a diameter D 1 that is in the range from about 0.5 mm to about 30 mm.", "Those of skill in the art will readily appreciate that the particular application, e.g., device, to which the present disclosure is applied may require a particular diameter D 1 , and it is within the scope of the present disclosure to select an appropriate diameter D 1 for the specific application.", "For example, a typical endoscope employing structures in accordance with the present disclosure may have an inner diameter from about ¼ inch to about ½ inch, although larger or smaller sizes may also be suitable.", "[0038] The system employs a method of incremental advancement to deliver the distal end 1 b of the cannula to a target site.", "The core 1 and sheath 2 rigidizing structures are alternatingly advanced, one structure past the other, the stationary structure being made rigid and acting as a guide for the advancing flexible structure.", "The steerable tip assembly 3 is located on the end of at least one of the two rigidizing structures such as the core 1 as depicted in FIG. 1 .", "The steerable tip 3 may be actuated via cables or other tension members, magnetostrictive materials, bimetallic strips or other flexing elements, piezoelectric polymer films or ceramics, shape memory materials such as nickel-titanium shape memory alloys or shape memory polymers, electroactive artificial muscle polymers, or the like.", "The length of the steerable tip 3 and the length L, described elsewhere herein, are preferably mutually selected to be about the same length, so that the cannula can follow and track the steerable tip (see FIG. 12G ).", "[0039] The overall length of the cannula will vary according to the particular hollow body structure for which it is intended.", "For instance, used in a colonoscope application the shape-transfer cannula length might range from 100 cm to 180 cm.", "In a bronchoscope application the shape-transfer cannula length might range from about 30 cm to about 100 cm.", "In a catheter application, the rigidizing core 1 and sheath 2 components of a shape-transfer cannula might be limited to a relatively small section of the entire catheter length, as depicted in FIG. 22 .", "For example, the core 1 and sheath 2 can be provided only at the distalmost end of the device or apparatus that is intended to be steered.", "In such a case the majority of the cannula's length might include “passive”", "conventional extruded catheter material 251 and a non-rigidizing section of core 252 .", "For example, in accessing particular areas within the heart's ventricles, the extra control provided by the shape-transferring core 1 and sheath 2 components might only be needed within the ventricles themselves so the length of the rigidizing section R, need only be sufficient to navigate within the ventricles themselves.", "[0040] Another aspect of the present disclosure is that the distal, steerable portion of the apparatus has a shape-transforming length L and an outer diameter D, with the ratio L/D being at least about 5 (UD>5), so that there is enough longitudinal length of the shape-transforming portion of the device or apparatus to track the steerable tip 3 .", "[0041] FIG. 2 illustrates by way of example a sequence in which the core 1 and sheath 2 alternate sequentially between rigid and flexible such that the entire structure takes the shape traced by the steerable tip 3 as the shape-transferring cannula is inserted into a hollow body structure such as the colon, stomach, lung bronchi, uterus, abdominal cavity, brain ventricle, heart chamber, blood vessel, or the like.", "In FIG. 2 a , the sheath 2 is rigid and the core 1 with steerable tip 3 is flexible.", "The steerable tip 3 initially lies within and is approximately flush with the distal end 1 b of the sheath 2 such that both the sheath 2 and core 1 assume the same longitudinal shape whether curved or straight.", "To begin the sequence that advances and forms the longitudinal shape of the shaped cannula structure 1 d , in FIG. 2 b the core 1 is advanced distally through the rigidized sheath 2 , exposing the length of the steerable tip 3 .", "The user then directs the exposed steerable tip 3 in the desired direction of insertion and advances the structure with, for example, a squeeze advancement mechanism (which will be discussed later herein) or through a cam mechanism or through any other structure or mechanism that rigidizes and relaxes the core 1 and sheath 2 in proper sequence.", "Referring to FIG. 2 c , to advance the entire shape-transferring cannula structure 1 d , the core 1 is made rigid and then the sheath 2 is relaxed and, as shown in FIG. 2 d , the sheath is advanced over the core 1 and steerable tip 3 .", "Preferably, the longitudinal relative motion between the two rigidizing elements (i.e. core 1 and sheath 2 ) is limited to the length of the steerable tip 3 , the user-controlled element that serves as the system's directional guide.", "The sheath 2 is then made rigid and the core 1 is relaxed and advanced to re-expose the steerable tip 3 .", "Thus, in sequential fashion, the rigidizing structure portion of the shape-transferring cannula 1 d takes the shape of the path traced by the steerable tip 3 as guided by the user.", "[0042] Other sequences and combinations of stiffening, flexibility, and advancement to achieve the same result are possible within the scope of this disclosure.", "For instance, the sheath 2 and core 1 may be normally-stiff structures that momentarily become flexible at appropriate times in the shape-transferring cannula advancement sequence.", "In another example, the sheath 2 and core 1 may be normally-flexible structures that momentarily become rigid at appropriate times to complete the advancement sequence.", "In another example, the core 1 and sheath 2 may both include a steerable tip 3 providing each structure with both directional control and the momentary rigidity necessary for shape-transference.", "[0043] FIG. 3 depicts an alternative embodiment of a shape-transferring cannula system in accordance with the present disclosure.", "In this embodiment, the shape-transferring core 1 and sheath 2 are not necessarily coaxial structures and may be laterally parallel structures that slidably engage each other longitudinally via engagement features 10 .", "In general, engagement features in accordance with the present disclosure include structures that permit the core 1 and sheath 2 to slide or otherwise move longitudinally relative to each other.", "One aspect of engagement features in accordance with the present disclosure that one of the core 1 and sheath 2 provides a rail for advancement of the other of the core and sheath relative thereto.", "[0044] At least one of the shape-transferring structures includes a steerable tip 3 with which to guide advancement of the system.", "Either or both of the shape-transferring structures can contain accessory lumens 11 through which surgical tools may be introduced or through which the target site may be irrigated or suctioned.", "The engagement feature 10 of either structure can be used as a guide for withdrawing samples or inserting tools that won't fit through the accessory lumen 11 .", "Outsized tools may be provided with compatible engagement features such that they track along the guide formed by the rigidizing structure's engagement features.", "[0045] In a preferred embodiment of the present disclosure, the user's selection of an advancement direction and his actuation of the system, whether manual or powered, causes the entire cycle of core rigidization, sheath relaxation, sheath advancement, sheath rigidization, and core relaxation to occur such that the structure is returned to its initial state with a new longitudinal shape.", "[0046] The core and sheath structures may be unitary materials or continuous structures that can be transformed between relatively rigid and relatively flexible or they can be formed of individual, flexibly connected rigid links which become substantially locked together to rigidize the structure.", "In an embodiment comprised of links, the sheath and core linkage structures are rigidized by temporarily preventing, by any suitable mechanism, substantial relative motion between the links.", "For example, motion between links may be temporarily stopped or substantially reduced by tightening a tension cable to put the linkage into longitudinal compression, by electrostatic or magnetic forces, by hydraulic or pneumatic actuation, by changes in viscous coupling as with electrorheological or magnetorheological materials, or through any friction modulating means.", "[0047] Linkages may be held together by a flexible internal cable or external covering, or by attaching the links to each other while leaving enough freedom of rotation to make the structure longitudinally flexible.", "More specifically as shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B , the links may be loosely captured by overlapping ball and cup features in adjacent links such that the cup features 22 overlap past the equators of the adjacent ball features 23 .", "This arrangement allows two-axis pivoting between links while keeping the linkage intact.", "FIG. 4A illustrates a specific example of a rigidizing mechanism where sheath and core rigidizing linkage structures may include a compression element 20 in each link, such as a loop of nickel-titanium alloy wire or shape memory polymer whose shape-memory transition temperature is higher than normal body temperatures.", "A slot 24 in the cup 22 may facilitate compression of the cup against the ball 23 when the compression element 20 is actuated.", "The compression elements 20 in the links may be actuated through electrical or inductive heating or through any suitable means to activate the shape-memory effect such that the compression elements reduce their unstressed diameters, creating local compression between ball and cup, and thus increasing friction between links.", "[0048] FIG. 4B illustrates another example of a rigidizing mechanism employing the same type of captured-link linkage configuration as the previous example.", "In this embodiment, either the ball 23 or the cup 22 can include active material components 25 made of materials such as electroactive polymer (EAP) that change shape when energized.", "The active material components may be oriented to expand radially when energized, causing interference between the ball and cup of adjacent links.", "Alternately, in a normally-rigid structure, the active material components 25 may be oriented to contract radially when energized, relieving interference between the ball and cup features of adjacent links.", "[0049] By way of another example, linkages built of links made of dielectric materials may be rigidized electrostatically by building attractive or repulsive charges between links and increasing friction between links.", "By way of another example, inducing magnetic attraction or repulsion between links containing ferromagnetic materials can stiffen a rigidizing linkage by increasing friction between the links.", "By way of another example, linkages built with links made of conductive materials may be rigidized by inducing eddy currents that attract links to each other and increase friction between links.", "[0050] FIGS. 5 and 6 illustrate a linkage embodiment of parallel rigidizing sheath and core structure that employs rigidizing wires or cables 34 and 40 , which go through the core 1 and sheath 2 respectively.", "These cables, when put into tension, pull the links together to increase friction between the links and thus prevent relative motion between the links.", "When not in tension, the rigidizing cables serve to hold the individual links in the rigidizing assembly together.", "[0051] As illustrated in FIG. 5 , the core's rigidizing structure 30 is built-up of links such that a convex spherical surface 31 on one link engages a concave surface 32 on the adjacent link.", "FIG. 5 shows cup-like nesting links 33 with a spherical ball-joint-like interface that allows two-axis pivoting between abutting links, thus making the linkage longitudinally flexible.", "The core's rigidizing cable 34 runs through each core link's central orifice 35 , connecting the entire core rigidizing structure 30 .", "The steerable tip 3 control cables 36 may also run through each link's central orifice 35 .", "The control cables 36 may be mechanical cables transmitting tension or compression, or electrical connections transmitting power or signal to actuate or control the steerable tip 3 .", "Alternatively, the rigidizing cable 34 and tip-steering cable 36 may be contained within individual lumens of a multilumen housing or within individual housings, keeping them separated and keeping the tip-steering cables 36 from binding when the rigidizing cable 34 is tensioned to stiffen the core structure.", "The housing material may be chosen for low friction cable movement.", "One lumen of the multilumen housing might also serve to guide the core 1 along a conventional guidewire for rapid insertion into guidewire accessible anatomy such as the atria and ventricles of the heart.", "[0052] Other linkage geometries that allow two-axis pivoting are possible within the scope of this disclosure.", "For example as in FIG. 21 , links 240 with male 241 and female 242 pivot features that each rotate on only one axis can be alternated and mounted within each other, within the rigidizing structure, with adjacent pivot features having axes perpendicular to one another.", "Thus, each pair of links 240 provides two orthogonal pivoting axes to the linkage structure.", "[0053] FIG. 6 illustrates a linkage embodiment of the sheath 2 in which the sheath links include a hollow central orifice 41 and pivot on spherical ball-joint like ball 48 and cup 47 surfaces for two-axis pivoting.", "The sheath's rigidizing cable 40 runs outside each sheath 2 link's central orifice 41 allowing the assembled links to form a hollow central lumen 42 that can be occupied by the core 1 structure during cannula advancement as well as by items such as surgical instruments which the sheath lumen 42 can guide to a surgical or diagnostic site.", "The link's central orifice 41 has a diameter D 2 that is substantially similar to diameter D 1 , described above.", "[0054] The rigidizing sheath links 45 may include at least two cable-guiding features 44 external to the central lumen 42 .", "The cable 40 and cable-guiding features 44 are configured for low friction sliding.", "Friction may be further reduced by encasing the cable in a cable housing formed of a material with low-friction properties, such as PTFE, HDPE, and the like, thus separating it from the cable-guiding features 44 .", "Alternatively, the cable-guiding features themselves could be manufactured from low friction materials different from that of the rest of the links.", "When the links 45 are assembled into a rigidizing structure 46 , the cable-guiding features 44 form segmented channels running the length of the rigidizing structure 46 .", "Since the cables 40 do not run down the central axis of the sheath 2 , cables running on opposite sides of the sheath 2 must effectively change length when the sheath 2 bends.", "Cable segments closer to the center of curvature relative to the structure's neutral axis will have to shorten.", "Likewise, cable segments further from the center of curvature relative to the sheath's 2 neutral axis will have to lengthen.", "[0055] An embodiment of a linkage sheath with two cable-guiding channels an equal radial distance from the sheath's central axis may employ the single cable 40 wrapping around a pulley 43 , which may be a rotating component, sliding surface, or the like, to run back and forth along the length of both cable-guiding channels.", "As the structure bends, the inner cable path will shorten the same amount as the outer cable path lengthens and cable length will move from the shortening side around the pulley 43 to the lengthening side.", "Tension on the pulley 43 with respect to the linkage structure 46 tightens the entire cable 40 and stiffens the sheath 2 by increasing friction between the links.", "Referring to FIG. 7 , the sheath's tensioning pulley 43 may be positioned off-axis such that the sheath central lumen 42 is clear and able to receive the core 1 or surgical instruments.", "A cable-guiding element 50 at the base of the sheath 2 acts to redirect the tensioning cable 40 to an off-axis pulley 43 and away from the sheath's central lumen 42 .", "[0056] Referring to FIG. 8 , the sheath rigidizing linkage structure 60 may run parallel to the core 1 without being coaxial with it.", "Each link may include dedicated rigidizing features 61 through which a rigidizing cable 62 may run and at least one lateral orifice 62 which, when multiply assembled in the complete linkage, form a laterally parallel segmented lumen through which the core 1 or surgical tools may run.", "The lateral orifice 62 has a diameter D 3 , which is substantially similar to diameter D 1 , described above.", "[0057] FIG. 9 depicts a laterally parallel sheath linkage.", "The laterally parallel sheath 60 a may form a lateral lumen 70 capable of forming varying radii of curvature by nesting conical shapes that form the lateral lumen 70 , leaving sufficient mechanical clearance 71 to accommodate an angle .", "alpha.", "between adjacent links.", "The angle .", "alpha.", "is preferably in the range from about zero degrees to about 90 degrees.", "The lateral lumen diameter D 4 is substantially similar to diameter D 1 , described above.", "[0058] FIG. 10 depicts an alternate embodiment of a linkage.", "Linkage 82 with the parallel lateral lumen 70 may include an open side 80 such that objects 81 larger than the lumen diameter D 4 may be introduced to and withdrawn from the surgical or diagnostic site using the combinations of the open sides 80 to retain therein a matching portion 83 on the object 81 .", "[0059] FIG. 11 depicts another alternate embodiment of a linkage.", "Linkage 82 a with the parallel lateral lumen 70 may employ flexible elements 90 in the lumen portion of each link that partially overlap each adjacent link.", "The flexible elements serve to form a smoother and larger segmented lumen than would be formed by purely rigid links by flexing when formed into a radius rather than requiring clearance for the entire range of motion between the links.", "[0060] Referring to FIGS. 12A-12G , a mechanism for advancing parallel rigidizing elements may include two opposing racks 91 and 92 that alternatingly advance relative to each other.", "Referring to FIG. 12G , the maximum amount of incremental advancement, length ‘L’, is ideally limited to the length of cannula having the steerable tip 3 .", "A linearly sliding shuttle 93 supports one rack and a housing 94 supports the other rack.", "The core actuation handle 95 (not shown for clarity in FIG. 12A and FIG. 12B ) and core rack 91 are each pivotally attached to the housing 94 .", "The sheath actuation handle 96 and sheath rack 92 are each pivotally attached to the shuttle 93 .", "The core and sheath actuation handles 95 and 96 are attached to the rigidizing cables 40 and 34 of the sheath 2 and core 1 , respectively.", "Upon actuation by the user, these handles rotate on their pivots 97 and 98 to first relax their respective rigidizing structure, disengage their respective rack from the other, which remains temporarily fixed, and transmit the force which slides the housing 94 and shuttle 93 with respect to one another to advance the shape-transferring cannula.", "[0061] Beginning the advancement sequence as shown in FIG, 12 B, spreading the handholds 99 and 100 (core advancement handhold 99 not shown for clarity) apart biases the core handle 95 (not shown for clarity) against its mechanical stop 104 in the housing 94 and rotates the sheath handle 96 on its pivot 98 , first compressing the sheath rigidizing spring 106 , relaxing the sheath linkage 2 , and then disengaging the sheath rack 92 from the currently-fixed core rack 91 .", "The sheath rack 92 disengages the core rack 91 by rotating on its pivot 105 against the force of the sheath rack bias spring 113 .", "The sheath rack 92 is rotated away from the core rack 91 by the force of the sheath rack lifter 115 , which extends from the sheath handle 96 , acting against the rack's lift tab 117 .", "An initial gap between the sheath rack lifter 115 and rack's lift tab 117 allows the sheath handle 96 to rotate enough to compress the sheath rigidizing spring 106 and relax the sheath 2 before the sheath rack 92 is disengaged from the core rack 91 .", "As illustrated in FIG. 12C , continued spreading of the actuation handles 95 and 96 , with racks 91 and 92 disengaged, translates the handles apart from each other and advances the shuttle 93 and sheath 2 relative to the housing 94 and core 1 .", "[0062] As illustrated in FIG. 12D , releasing the handle spreading pressure allows the sheath rigidizing spring 106 to rotate the sheath handle 96 back to its resting position and re-stiffen the sheath 2 by tensioning the sheath rigidizing cable 40 .", "The rotation of the sheath handle 96 , in turn, rotates the sheath rack lifter 115 away from the sheath rack 92 , allowing the sheath rack bias spring 113 to rotate the sheath rack 92 towards the core rack 91 .", "Re-engagement of the racks locks the mechanism in a sheath-forward position shown in FIG. 12D .", "[0063] Continuing the advancement sequence as shown in FIG. 12E , squeezing the advancement handholds 99 and 100 of the actuation handles 95 and 96 such that they rotate towards each other biases the sheath handle 96 solidly against its mechanical stop 101 on the shuttle 93 and rotates the core handle 95 on its pivot 97 , first compressing the core rigidizing spring 102 , relaxing the core linkage 1 , and then disengaging the core rack 91 from the currently-fixed sheath rack 92 .", "The core rack 91 disengages the sheath rack 92 by rotating on its pivot 103 against the force of the core rack bias spring 112 .", "The core rack 91 is rotated away from the sheath rack 92 by the force of the core rack lifter 114 , which extends from the core handle 95 , acting against the rack's lift tab 116 .", "An initial gap between the lifter 114 and lift tab 116 allows the core handle 95 to rotate enough to compress the core rigidizing spring 102 and relax the core 1 before the core rack 91 is disengaged from the sheath rack 92 .", "The racks 91 and 92 being disengaged from each other, continued squeezing as shown in FIG. 12F translates the handles 95 and 96 closer together by advancing the housing 94 and core 1 relative to the shuttle 93 and sheath 2 .", "[0064] Releasing the squeezing pressure on the advancement handholds 99 and 100 allows the core rigidizing spring 102 to rotate the core handle 95 back to its resting position and re-stiffen the core 1 by tensioning the core rigidizing cable 34 .", "The rotation of the core handle, in turn, rotates the core rack lifter 114 away from the core rack 91 allowing the core rack bias spring 112 to rotate the core rack 91 towards the sheath rack 92 .", "Re-engagement of the racks locks the mechanism in the sheath-back position shown on FIG. 12A .", "[0065] Referring to FIG. 12G , the difference in engaged length of the racks 91 and 92 between the sheath-back position and the sheath-forward position, length ‘L’, as well as the position of the sliding stop structures 110 and 111 in the housing 94 and shuttle 93 define the maximum relative motion for incremental advancement between the sheath 2 and core 1 elements.", "The amount of incremental advancement, length ‘L’, is preferably limited to the length of the steerable tip 3 .", "Rack features 107 such as teeth define the increments in which the shape-transferring cannula may be mechanically advanced or retracted.", "The rack features 107 may be configured to allow only integral advancement of units the length of the entire steerable tip 3 as shown in FIG. 12G or, alternately, may be configured allow units of advancement fractions of that length.", "[0066] The rack mechanism described above may also withdraw the shape-transferring cannula in controlled increments through a process reversing the advancement sequence.", "Withdrawal of hand-holds 108 and 109 on the ends of the handles 95 and 96 opposite the advancement ends actuate the mechanism in reverse using the same gripping and spreading finger/thumb motions used to advance the cannula.", "[0067] In another embodiment of the disclosure, FIGS. 20A and 20B depict rigidizing structures including inner and outer concentric tubes, 221 and 222 respectively, separated by short segments of materials 223 that change shape when energized, such as electroactive polymer (EAP), which changes shape when exposed to electric fields.", "The inner tube 221 mayor may not have an open lumen.", "When employing biaxially active materials such as EAP, the active material components are oriented to contract longitudinally and expand radially when energized.", "The active material components may be employed in a normally-noninterfering configuration or a normally-interfering configuration.", "In a normally-non-interfering configuration the active material components 223 are each attached to one of the concentric tubes 221 or 222 such that they do not contact the other tube, as shown in FIG. 20A , when not energized.", "When energized, the radial expansion of the active material components 223 causes mechanical interference with the other tube, as in FIG. 20B , thus preventing motion between the opposed surfaces 224 and 225 and effectively locking-in the curvature of the rigidizing structure.", "According to the present disclosure, one may substitute materials that change shape when exposed to electric current, magnetic fields, light, or other energy sources.", "The same rigidizing effect may be achieved by replacing normally-non-interfering active material components 223 with non-interfering balloons expandable by gas or liquid fluid pressure.", "Alternately, such materials may be placed in a normally-interfering configuration between concentric tubes 221 and 222 such that they interfere, as in FIG. 20B when not energized and contract radially to the state depicted in FIG. 20A when energized.", "For example, a normally-rigid structure made stiff by normally-interfering EAP components 223 may be made flexible by applying a voltage to the EAP components such that they contract radially to the noninterfering state depicted in FIG. 20A , relieving the mechanical interference and allowing relative motion between the opposed surfaces 224 and 225 of the concentric tubes 221 and 222 .", "Similarly, normally-interfering balloons replacing normally-interfering active material components 223 may be collapsed by applying a relative vacuum.", "[0068] Referring to FIG. 13A , in an alternate embodiment of the disclosure, the rigidizing sheath 2 can include rotating wedge links 130 .", "The wedge links 130 have hollow central axes 131 that form the sheath's lumen 42 as well as two interface features 132 angled with respect to one another.", "For example, the angle between the links can be between about zero degrees and about 90 degrees.", "The perpendicular centerlines 133 of the interface surfaces define axes of rotation between the links.", "As depicted diagrammatically in FIGS. 13B and 13C , the wedge links 130 in a sample starting position in FIG. 13B rotate with respect to neighboring links 134 at the connecting interface 132 between links.", "This rotation forms curves as shown in FIG. 13C in the sheath 2 structure while maintaining a substantially constant sheath lumen 42 volume.", "Impeding rotation between links rigidizes the structure.", "Link rotation can be prevented through any of the ways described above for impeding relative motion between links.", "The wedge links 130 may be formed as sections of spheres as shown in FIG. 13A to avoid creating sharp corners when curves are formed, leaving a relatively smooth and atraumatic outer surface.", "[0069] FIGS. 14A-14C depict another embodiment of the disclosure in which one of the two parallel elements in the shape-transferring cannula is passive.", "The passive element is more rigid than the relaxed rigidizing structure and more flexible than the stiffened rigidizing structure.", "The passive element is less mechanically complex than an equivalent rigidizing structure, not requiring rigidizing cables 34 and 40 or other mechanisms to serve the shape-transfer function.", "Thus a shaped cannula assembly with a passive sheath may be narrower in cross-section than an assembly formed of two rigidizing structures.", "In FIG. 14A the core 1 is relaxed such that it is more flexible than the sheath 2 and has been advanced such that the steerable tip 3 protrudes ahead of the sheath 2 .", "In FIG. 14B the core 1 is stiffened such that it is more rigid than the sheath 2 and the user deflects the steerable tip 3 towards the direction of intended cannula advancement.", "In FIG. 14C the core 1 remains stiffened such that it is more rigid than the sheath 2 and the sheath is then advanced over the core and its steerable tip 3 .", "The sheath 2 assumes the core's longitudinal shape including the new bend introduced by the user through the deflected steerable tip 3 .", "Elements of a passive link structure could be mechanically energized to encourage them to move relative to one another when being advanced past a relatively rigid structure.", "Mechanical energizing can be achieved by vibrating the passive structure with any suitable device, such as a piezoelectric transducer, voicecoil, or eccentrically weighted motor.", "[0070] Embodiments of the disclosure that employ continuous, non-segmented, parallel core and sheath structures can be made smaller in cross-section than mechanically-stiffened linkage structures.", "Such structures may be constructed such that they become relatively rigid when energized or become relatively flexible when energized.", "[0071] FIG. 15 depicts a continuous, parallel shape-transferring core and sheath structure.", "The core 1 and sheath 2 structures can each include inner 151 and outer 152 flexible tubes containing stiffening material 153 that increases in viscosity or otherwise stiffens when energized.", "Examples of such substances are electrorheological fluid, which stiffens upon exposure to electrical potential, and magnetorheological fluid, which stiffens upon exposure to magnetic fields.", "A rigidizing structure configured as a core or as a sheath may be built-up of inner 151 and outer 152 containment tubes with stiffening material 153 sandwiched in between.", "In the case of a core, the inner tube may be a solid element such as plastic monofilament, lacking a lumen.", "In the case of a structure employing electrorheological fluid, flexible electrical contacts may line the length of each containment tube or the tube itself may be made of electrically-conductive plastic or other similar material.", "A section of electrically insulating material 154 may connect the tubes 151 and 152 at their proximal and distal ends, mechanically connecting the tubes 151 and 152 and sealing the electrorheological fluid within.", "A woven mesh or other similar separating material 155 sandwiched with the electrorheological fluid between the tubes 151 and 152 may act as a baffle, restricting the flow of viscous fluid so as to increase the rigidity of the structure when energized, and as an insulator when an electrical potential is used to energize the elements.", "The tubes 151 and 152 themselves may contain baffling features such as grooves or threads and may also contain a layer of insulating material, obviating the need for a separating material 155 .", "A similar structure employing magnetorheological fluid could be constructed with at least one containment tube containing electrical conductors arranged in such a manner as to generate a magnetic field sufficient to rigidize the structure.", "[0072] A shape-transferring cannula structure may be constructed of normally-rigid core 1 and sheath 2 elements which, in proper sequence, become flexible when energized and re-stiffen when they return to an un-energized state.", "Each element can become flexible enough, when energized, to be advanced along a relatively rigid mating structure and then, when de-energized, become rigid enough to mechanically support the advancement of an energized parallel structure.", "Referring to FIG. 16 , parallel normally-rigid core 1 and sheath 2 elements may include in their construction thermoplastic, thermoplastic alloys such as Kydex™ (acrylic-PVC alloy), urethane alloys, or similar materials that soften to a flexible state when heated above a transition temperature by embedded heating elements 171 and 172 or any suitable mechanism.", "The transition temperature can be selected through design and material composition to be somewhat higher than normal body temperatures.", "The normally-rigid parallel structures may contain heating elements that momentarily increase their temperatures above the flexibility transition temperature.", "Surrounding body fluid such as blood, saline solution, or lymph can serve as a heat sink to quickly draw heat away and re-stiffen the structures when the momentary heating is ceased.", "Similarly, as shown in FIG. 23 , normally-rigid core 1 or sheath 2 structure can include a guidewire 260 with wirewound coils in its construction.", "The coils 263 can be at least partially potted in a low-temperature flowing material 261 such as wax or polymer which adheres to the coils.", "The low-temperature flowing material 261 may be contained within a compliant cover 262 .", "In an un-energized state the flowing material 261 is relatively solid and prevents the coils 263 from moving substantially with respect to one another, thus substantially locking-in the curvature of the structure.", "When energized through heating, the flowing material 261 softens sufficiently to allow relative motion between coils 263 , thus relaxing the structure.", "[0073] Referring to FIGS. 19A and 19B , shape-transferring cannula can be built of normally-rigid core 1 and sheath 2 structures, each including flexible tubes 212 and 214 respectively, containing substantially stiff materials 213 that relax upon vibration.", "Such materials can include interlocking particles like sand grains or normally-viscous fluid, such as xanthan gum that becomes less viscous upon agitation.", "Vibrating each structure, for example with a vibrating element 215 such as a piezoelectric transducer, a voicecoil, or a motor with an eccentrically mounted weight, could temporarily relax it to a flexible state by loosening the interlocking particles or by causing the contained fluid to transition to a less viscous state.", "Alternatively, the containment tubes 212 and 214 themselves could be constructed of or contain a piezoelectric material such as PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride) along their length such that each entire tube could actively vibrate when energized with an alternating voltage V. [0074] In another embodiment of the disclosure, FIGS. 20A and 20B depict rigidizing structures including inner and outer concentric tubes, 221 and 222 respectively, separated by short segments of materials 223 that change shape when energized, such as electroactive polymer (EAP), which changes shape when exposed to electric fields.", "The inner tube 221 mayor may not have an open lumen.", "When employing biaxially active materials such as EAP, the active material components are oriented to contract longitudinally and expand radially when energized.", "The active material components may be employed in a normally-noninterfering configuration or a normally-interfering configuration.", "In a normally-non-interfering configuration the active material components 223 are each attached to one of the concentric tubes 221 or 222 such that they do not contact the other tube, as shown in FIG. 20A , when not energized.", "When energized, the radial expansion of the active material components 223 causes mechanical interference with the other tube, as illustrated in FIG. 20B , thus inhibiting or preventing motion between the opposed surfaces 224 and 225 and effectively locking-in the curvature of the rigidizing structure.", "The same disclosure may substitute materials that change shape when exposed to electric current, magnetic fields, light, or other energy sources.", "The same rigidizing effect may be achieved by replacing normally-non-interfering active material components 223 with non-interfering balloons expandable by gas or liquid fluid pressure.", "Alternately, such materials may be placed in a normally-interfering configuration between concentric tubes 221 and 222 such that they interfere, as in FIG. 20B when not energized and contract radially to the state depicted in FIG. 20A when energized.", "For example, a normally-rigid structure made stiff by normally-interfering EAP components 223 may be made flexible by applying a voltage to the EAP components such that they contract radially to the non-interfering state depicted in FIG. 20A , relieving the mechanical interference and allowing relative motion between the opposed surfaces 224 and 225 of the concentric tubes 221 and 222 .", "Similarly, normally-interfering balloons replacing normally-interfering active material components 223 may be collapsed by applying a relative vacuum.", "[0075] Referring to FIG. 17A , core and sheath rigidizing 180 structures can include compliant inner and outer tubes, 181 and 182 , containing compression-stiffening particles 183 in the annular space between the opposing tube surfaces.", "The compression stiffening particles 183 are made of materials such as expanded polystyrene that interlock and form a substantially rigid structure when compressed.", "Such compression can occur when the space containing the compression-stiffening particles is placed under a relative vacuum P. Alternatively, external pressure may be applied to the material in the annular inter-tubal space to compress and stiffen it.", "For example, pressure may be applied to the internal concentric tube such that it expands and presses compression-stiffening material in the inter-tube space against the external concentric tube.", "Referring to FIG. 17B , core 1 structure can include a compliant tube 184 containing compression-stiffening particles 183 .", "The structure may be stiffened by putting the tube's interior under relative vacuum P. [0076] Referring to FIG. 18 , a core 1 or sheath 2 structure including links 191 may be rigidized or relaxed via pressure P which can be either positive pressure or relative vacuum.", "In a normally-rigid configuration, a compliant cover 192 the length of the structure can be stretched taut against the movable links 191 in an equalized pressure environment.", "The tight covering 192 keeps the links from moving substantially relative to one another, making the rigidizing structure stiff.", "Application of pressure P underneath the compliant cover 192 expands the cover, allowing the links 191 to rotate relative to one another thereby relaxing the structure.", "Alternately, in a normally-flexible structure, the compliant cover 192 can loosely cover the links 191 in an equalized pressure environment such that the links can rotate relative to one another.", "Applying a relative vacuum P inside the compliant cover 192 causes it to compress against the movable links 191 , preventing their rotation relative to one another thereby stiffening the structure.", "[0077] The rigidizing structures described above as a paired system may be also employed singly as an alternatingly rigid and compliant support for a steerable catheter such as an endovascular catheter or flexible endoscope.", "In such cases as depicted in FIG. 22 , the rigidized structure provides support for the catheter to round corners without the possibility of looping because the flexible element is advanced only when the supporting structure is rigid.", "Similarly, the relaxed rigidizing support is advanced only along the length of the catheter, using it as a guidewire.", "[0078] In another embodiment of the disclosure, a steerable catheter such as an endovascular catheter or flexible endoscope may be aided in advancing around tight corners through alternating between advancement of two parallel structures, using the relatively rigid steerable bending section at the tip to advance through a tight anatomical turn without looping.", "[0079] In one embodiment, the sheath is rigidized and the core with an articulating tip is made flexible.", "The core is advanced and then rigidized.", "The articulating tip is pointed in the desired direction of path creation.", "The sheath is relaxed and advanced over the rigid core.", "[0080] Referring now to FIG. 24 , yet further aspects of the present disclosure are illustrated.", "More specifically, FIG. 24 illustrates that the handholds, such as handholds 99 , 100 , 108 , 109 illustrated in FIGS. 12A-12H , can optionally be replaced with a semi- or fully automated systems, to permit the practitioner's hands to be used for other tasks during the particular procedure performed on a patient.", "As illustrated in FIG. 24 , a rack 302 having teeth 304 is pivotally mounted to the arm 306 at a pivot 308 , to which handhold 100 is attached in the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 12G .", "A pinion 310 having teeth 316 , which mate with teeth 304 , is rotatably mounted to arm 312 , while a pin or the like 314 holds the rack 302 against the pinion.", "Thus, rotation of pinion 310 , such as by a rotary motor 318 or the like, causes arm 306 to move in direction X, while the arm 312 can be separately or simultaneously moved along direction X by pulling or pushing on the arm 312 , or the motor 318 , with a suitable linear actuator or motor (not illustrated).", "Further optionally, the activation of the actuators or motors, including motor 318 , can be automated by controlling them using an automatic controller 320 .", "By way of example and not of limitation, controller 320 can be a general purpose computer having a memory 322 in which the logic of the sequence of movements of the arms 306 , 312 can reside.", "Alternatively, controller 320 can be a PLC controller or other controller as will be readily appreciated by those of skill in the art, which can automatically control the movements of the arms 306 , 312 .", "[0081] While the disclosure has been described in detail with reference to preferred embodiments thereof, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that various changes can be made, and equivalents employed, without departing from the scope of the disclosure.", "Each of the aforementioned documents is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Field of the Invention The invention generally relates to complementary code decoders, and in particular to data communications receivers such as WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) receivers comprising such decoders.", "Description of the Related Art A wireless local area network is a flexible data communications system implemented as an extension to or as an alternative for, a wired LAN.", "Using radio frequency or infrared technology, wireless LANs transmit and receive data over the air, minimizing the need for wired connections.", "Thus, wireless LANs combine data connectivity with user mobility.", "Most WLAN systems use spread spectrum technology, a wide-band radio frequency technique developed for use in reliable and secure communication systems.", "The spread spectrum technology is designed to trade-off bandwidth efficiency for reliability, integrity and security.", "Two types of spread spectrum radio systems are frequently used: frequency hopping and direct sequence systems.", "The standard defining and governing wireless local area networks that operate in the 2.4 GHz spectrum, is the IEEE 802.11 standard.", "To allow higher data rate transmissions, the standard was extended to the 802.11b standard that allows data rates of 5.5 and 11 Mbps in the 2.4 GHz spectrum.", "This extension is backwards compatible as far as it relates to direct sequence spread spectrum technology, but it adopts a new modulation technique called CCK (Complementary Code Keying) which allows for realizing the speed increase.", "Complementary codes, also referred to as binary complementary sequences or series, may generally be defined as codes that comprise a pair of sequences of equal finite length, having the property that the number of pairs of like elements with any given separation in one series is equal to the number of pairs of unlike elements with the same separation in the other series.", "This leads to some symmetry resulting in a periodic autocorrelative vector sum being zero everywhere except at the zero shift.", "A binary complementary code is a subset of the more general class of codes known as polyphase codes.", "A polyphase complementary code is a sequence having complementary properties, and being made of elements that have phase parameters.", "More specifically, such elements are e. g. members of a set of complex numbers {1, −j, −1, j} with j 2 =−1.", "CCK uses the complex set of Walsh/Hadamard functions as complementary codes.", "The Walsh codes can be formed by a successive folding operation, and they may be considered to be a block code which translates (at full rate) a sequence of bits d i into a codeword C of complex chips c i .", "In the CCK-11 case, i. e. where a data rate of 11 Mbps is used, the number of bits d i and the number of chips c i are eight.", "At 5.5 Mbps, the number of bits d i is four and the number of chips c i is eight.", "The following equation represents the eight complex chip values for the CCK code set, with the phase variable being QPSK (Quadrature Phase Shift Keying) phases: C = [ c 0 c 1 c 2 - c 3 c 4 c 5 - c 6 c 7 ] = [ exp ⁡ ( j ⁡ ( φ 1 + φ 2 + φ 3 + φ 4 ) ) exp ⁡ ( j ⁡ ( φ 1 + φ 3 + φ 4 ) ) exp ⁡ ( j ⁡ ( φ 1 + φ 2 + φ 4 ) ) exp ⁡ ( j ⁡ ( φ 1 + φ 4 ) ) exp ⁡ ( j ⁡ ( φ 1 + φ 2 + φ 3 ) ) exp ⁡ ( j ⁡ ( φ 1 + φ 3 ) ) exp ⁡ ( j ⁡ ( φ 1 + φ 2 ) ) exp ⁡ ( j ⁡ ( φ 1 ) ) ] The variables φ 1 , φ 2 , φ 3 and φ 4 are complex QPSK phasors mapped from the data bits as follows: The first phasor φ 1 undergoes a different bit mapping for each even or odd CCK symbol: CCK symbol (d 0 , d 1 ) even odd (0,0) 0 π (0,1) π/2 3π/2 (1,1) π 0 (1,0) 3π/2 π/2 The other phasors φ 2 , φ 3 and φ 4 define the basecode, and the QPSK encoding table in this case is for CCK-11: (d i ,d i+1 ) φ 2 , φ 3 , φ 4 (0,0) 0 (0,1) π/2 (1,0) π (1,1) 3π/2 and for CCK-5.5 (CCK at 5.5 Mbps): φ 2 = d 2 · π + π 2 φ 3 = 0 φ 4 = d 3 · π Thus, φ 2 , φ 3 and φ 4 define 64 different CCK codes of 8 bits (with CCK-11) or 4 different CCK codes of 4 bits (with CCK-5.5), and the differential encoded phasor φ 1 gives an extra phase rotation to the entire codeword since it is part of all chips in one codeword.", "That is, to make 11 Mbps CCK modulation, the data is grouped into 2 bits and 6 bits.", "The 6 information bits are used to select one of 64 complex vectors of 8 chip length for the symbol and the other 2 bits DQPSK (Differential QPSK) modulate the entire symbol.", "In the 5.5 Mbps mode, the data is grouped into 4 bits nibbles where 2 of those bits select the spreading function out of the set of four while the remaining 2 bits QPSK modulate the symbol.", "The spreading sequence then DQPSK modulates the carrier by driving the I and Q modulators.", "Referring now to FIG. 1 , a block diagram of a conventional CCK modulator is illustrated that may be used in a transmitter.", "In the modulator, a multiplexer 100 receives scrambled data and multiplexes the input data either to the code selector 110 or to the modulator 120 .", "The multiplexer 100 gets clocked at the symbol rate, i. e. at 1.375 MSps.", "The code selector 110 selects one of the complex codes that is to be fed to the modulator 120 .", "This code represents the information bits that are spread over the basecode phasors φ 2 , φ 3 and φ 4 .", "The bits that the modulator 120 receives from the multiplexer 100 are the two least significant (i.", "e. first incoming) bits d 0 , d 1 that are used to QPSK (Quadrature Phase Shift Keying) modulate the codeword.", "The outputs of the modulator 120 are respective I and Q signals.", "On the receiver side, a conventional CCK demodulator as shown in FIG. 2 may be used that decodes the received CCK codes using a fast Walsh transformation technique.", "This functionality is generally provided in the WLAN baseband processor, and it provides a channel matched filter 200 that supplies the filtered signals to a Walsh transformation block 210 .", "It is to mentioned that a channel matched filter 200 as shown in FIG. 2 needs not necessarily be provided in a CCK demodulator.", "In the CCK-11 (or CCK-5.5) Walsh transformer, a bank 220 of 64 (or 4) correlators followed by a maximum detector 230 determines which code was transmitted giving the most significant 6 bits (or 2 bits) of the data word.", "The other 2 bits of the data word are determined from the QPSK phase of the symbol and fed to the sign detector 240 .", "For this purpose, the sign detector 240 may comprise a differential demodulator, but it is again to be mentioned that a sign detector 240 as shown in FIG. 2 needs not necessarily be provided in a CCK demodulator.", "Assuming R to be the received signal vector, and C* the conjugate code vector, the Walsh transformer 210 has to search for the maximum correlation of R over all codewords.", "For doing so, a high number of correlations R·C* need to be computed and compared, to detect the ML (maximum likelihood) codeword: R · C * = ⁢ exp ⁡ ( - j ⁢ ⁢ φ 1 ) · [ 1 × exp ⁡ ( - j ⁢ ⁢ φ 2 ) × exp ⁡ ( - j ⁢ ⁢ φ 3 ) × exp ⁡ ( - j ⁢ ⁢ φ 4 ) 1 × exp ⁡ ( - j ⁢ ⁢ φ 3 ) × exp ⁡ ( - j ⁢ ⁢ φ 4 ) 1 × exp ⁡ ( - j ⁢ ⁢ φ 2 ) × exp ⁡ ( - j ⁢ ⁢ φ 4 ) 1 × exp ⁡ ( - j ⁢ ⁢ φ 4 ) 1 × exp ⁡ ( - j ⁢ ⁢ φ 2 ) × exp ⁡ ( - j ⁢ ⁢ φ 3 ) 1 × exp ⁡ ( - j ⁢ ⁢ φ 3 ) 1 × exp ⁡ ( - j ⁢ ⁢ φ 2 ) 1 ] · [ r 0 r 1 r 2 - r 3 r 4 r 5 - r 6 r 7 ] = ⁢ R · exp ⁡ ( - j ⁢ ⁢ φ 1 ) · C B * This expression can be written as: R·C*=e −jφ 1 {[( r 0 e −jφ 2 +r 1 ) e −jφ 3 +( r 2 e −jφ 2 −r 3 )] e −jφ 4 +[( r 4 e −jφ 2 +r 5 ) e −jφ 3 +(− r 6 e −jφ 2 +r 7 )]} Thus, each of the correlations that are to be computed may be implemented using the CCK correlator circuit shown in FIG. 3 .", "That is, conventional CCK decoders require a correlator bank 220 that includes up to 64 CCK correlator circuits such as that shown in FIG. 3 .", "This consumes a large amount of chip area and leads to substantial manufacturing costs.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An improved complementary code decoding technique is provided that may allow for saving chip space and costs without deteriorating the overall system performance.", "In one embodiment, a WLAN receiver is provided that has a CCK decoder.", "The CCK decoder comprises a serial-to-parallel converter that is connected to receive CCK encoded input data and output a parallelized representation thereof.", "The CCK decoder further comprises a correlator circuit that is connected to receive the parallelized input data and generate correlation values therefrom.", "The correlator circuit is capable of changing its correlation characteristics depending on at least one control signal.", "The CCK decoder further comprises a state transition controller that is adapted to sequentially provide different control signals to the correlator circuit thereby driving the correlator circuit to sequentially generate multiple correlation values from the parallelized input data based on different correlation characteristics.", "Further, the CCK decoder comprises a best correlation picker circuit that is connected to receive the multiple correlation values and that is adapted to identify the correlation value that represents the optimum correlation.", "In another embodiment, there may be provided a complementary code decoder that comprises a serial-to-parallel converter that is connected to receive serially encoded input data and output a parallelized representation thereof.", "The complementary code decoder comprises a correlation circuit that is connected to receive the parallelized input data and generate correlation values therefrom.", "The correlator circuit is capable of changing its correlation characteristics depending on at least one control signal.", "The complementary code decoder further comprises a state transition controller that is adapted to sequentially provide different control signals to the correlator circuit thereby driving the correlator circuit to sequentially generate multiple correlation values from the parallelized input data based on different correlation characteristics.", "The complementary code decoder further comprises a best correlation picker circuit that is connected to receive the multiple correlation values and that is adapted to identify the correlation value that represents the optimum correlation.", "In a further embodiment, there may be provided an integrated circuit chip that has CCK decoder circuitry.", "The CCK decoder circuitry comprises a serial-to-parallel converter circuit that is connected to receive CCK encoded input data and output a parallelized representation thereof.", "The CCK decoder circuitry further comprises a correlator circuit that is connected to receive the parallelized input data and generate correlation values therefrom.", "The correlator circuit is capable of changing its correlation characteristics depending on at least one control signal.", "The CCK decoder circuitry further comprises a state transition control circuit that is adapted to sequentially provide different control signals to the correlator circuit thereby driving the correlator circuit to sequentially generate multiple correlation values from the parallelized input data based on different correlation characteristics.", "Moreover, the CCK decoder circuitry comprises a best correlation picker circuit that is connected to receive the multiple correlation values and that is adapted to identify the correlation value that represents the optimum correlation.", "In still a further embodiment, a method of decoding a CCK encoded input signal comprises receiving the CCK encoded input signal, converting the received data to parallel data, submitting the converted input data to a correlator circuit, sequentially submitting different control signals to the correlator circuit to drive the correlator circuit to sequentially generate multiple correlation values from the parallel data, where the correlator circuit is capable of changing its correlation characteristics depending on the control signals, and identifying the correlation value that represents the optimum correlation.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The accompanying drawings are incorporated into and form a part of the specification for the purpose of explaining the principles of the invention.", "The drawings are not to be construed as limiting the invention to only the illustrated and described examples of how the invention can be made and used.", "Further features and advantages will become apparent from the following and more particular description of the invention, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein: FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating the components of a conventional CCK modulator;", "FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a conventional CCK demodulator;", "FIG. 3 illustrates a CCK correlator circuit that may be used in the correlator bank that is a component of the demodulator shown in FIG. 2 ;", "FIG. 4 illustrates 802.11b outer receiver components according to an embodiment;", "FIG. 5 illustrates a Walsh transformer that may be used in the arrangement of FIG. 4 , according to an embodiment;", "FIG. 6 illustrates a multiplication unit according to an embodiment that may be used in the circuits of FIG. 5 ;", "and FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating the process for complementary code decoding according to an embodiment.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The illustrative embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the figure drawings wherein like elements and structures are indicated with like reference numbers.", "Referring now to the drawings and particularly to FIG. 4 , components of a baseband processor in a WLAN outer receiver according to an embodiment are shown.", "As apparent from the figure, the complex input signal is fed to a Walsh transformer 400 and a Barker matched filter 410 .", "Further, there is a state transition controller 480 provided that controls the operation of both the Walsh transformer 400 and the Barker matched filter 410 .", "More specifically, the state transition controller 480 provides activity signals to the units to enable at any one time the operation of only one of the Walsh transformer 400 and the Barker matched filter 410 .", "The state transition controller 480 further controls multiplexers 420 , 430 that select the complex output signals of the Walsh transformer 400 or the Barker matched filter 410 , respectively.", "The multiplexed signal is then registered in registers 440 , 450 before being processed in the demapper 460 .", "Finally, the signal gets descrambled in unit 470 , and for this purpose, the descrambler 470 receives the basecode from the Walsh transformer 400 .", "In another embodiment, the registers 440 , 450 may be combined to form a uniform unit which may be considered, together with some suitable additional circuitry, as a differential demodulator.", "Moreover, while the state transition controller 480 is shown in FIG. 4 to provide activity signals to the individual other units of the baseband processor, it may further control the demapper 460 to provide the ability to make adjustments for the various modulation techniques such as BPSK or QPSK, in case it operates on signals from the Barker matched filter 410 .", "Turning now to FIG. 5 which illustrates the components of the Walsh transformer 400 of the present embodiment in more detail, the input signal r(k) is fed to the circuit on the lower left side of the figure.", "The eight chips of the CCK codeword that is received are first parallelized in a serial-to-parallel converter 500 .", "The converter 500 comprises a sequence of seven chip registers that are clocked with the chip rate (e.g. 11 Mcps in the CCK-11 case).", "Thus, a new codeword will be written into the registers after eight clocks.", "By controlling an output shutter of the serial-to-parallel converter 500 in an eight clock time distance, a parallelized representation of the CCK encoded input data r(k) is generated and submitted to the following circuitry.", "The shutter functionality may be realized by setting output enable signals to the registers 500 .", "This enable signal, or any other control signal used to perform this functionality, is provided by the state transition controller 480 .", "In the present embodiment, the state transition controller 480 is a finite state machine (FSM) that steps from one finite state to the next finite state in a predefined manner.", "By doing so, the state transition controller realizes a sequential automaton that controls the components of the Walsh transformer 400 and that may further control other components of the baseband processor.", "In FIG. 5 , control signals provided by the state transition controller are denoted C FSM .", "Once the incoming codeword has been parallelized, some circuitry may be provided for performing initial arithmetic operations on the data elements of the parallelized data.", "In the embodiment of FIG. 5 , an inverter bank 505 is provided for reverting the sign of some of the data elements as required to comply with the above described code definitions.", "The parallelized and preprocessed data are then input to a three-stage correlator circuit.", "Similarly to the three stages 300 , 310 , 320 of the correlator circuit shown in FIG. 3 , each of the stages of the arrangement according to the present embodiment is adapted to perform signal processing operations based on an individual one of the CCK basecode phasors φ 2 , φ 3 and φ 4 .", "However, the three-stage structure of the embodiment differs from that of FIG. 3 in that each of the stages shown in FIG. 5 receives control signals from the state transition controller 480 to change its correlation characteristics.", "In the present embodiment, the three-stage correlation circuit of FIG. 5 is sequentially operated in eight cycles based on the same parallel input data, and the correlation characteristics are changed from cycle to cycle.", "That is, while conventional CCK decoders require up to sixty-four separate circuits of the kind shown in FIG. 3 , the present embodiment requires to have only one three-stage structure to obtain the same correlation information.", "This is achieved by doing both: simultaneously operating on eight parallel data elements (i.e. chips), and using the same hardware structure in an eight cycle sequence where each cycle has different correlation characteristics.", "It is to be noted that generally, the number of cycles may be chosen to be sixty-four divided by the number of chips per codeword.", "It is however to be mentioned that other embodiments exists where the number of cycles may be different from this value.", "In the embodiment of FIG. 5 , the correlator circuit is made up of a plurality of multiplier units 515 , 530 , 540 , 555 and adders 520 , 535 , 545 and 560 .", "The multiplier units multiply the respective input signal with the respective phasor factor e −jφ 2 , e −jφ 3 , e −jφ 4 of the stage.", "The values of these factors are switched according to the control signal C FSM that is provided by the state transition controller 480 .", "A circuit that may be used as multiplier unit in the correlator circuit of FIG. 5 is illustrated in FIG. 6 .", "As apparent from this figure, the circuit comprises a multiplexer 610 that receives the complex numbers +1, −j, −1, and +j as input values.", "The multiplexer 610 selects one of the complex numbers based on the C FSM based control signal.", "The selected complex number is then multiplied with the input signal by multiplier 600 .", "Thus, the state transition controller 480 is allowed for changing the multiplication properties of the circuit by providing respective control signals.", "While the circuit shown in FIG. 6 can in principle be used for each of the multiplier units 515 , 530 , 540 , 555 in FIG. 5 , it is to be noted that in the present embodiment, the circuit of FIG. 6 is used in stages 510 and 525 only.", "The following table gives an example of how to provide control signals to the Walsh transformer of FIG. 5 to achieve the correlation properties described above.", "In the table, C B denotes the basecode part of the codeword, and arg C B gives the basecode index that is equivalent to the reversed bit pattern for {d 2 , .", ", d 7 }.", "c FSM e −jφ 2 e −jφ 3 e −jφ 4 argC B c FSM e −jφ 2 e −jφ 3 e −jφ 4 argC B 0 1 1 1 0 4 −1 1 1 32 1 1 −j 1 −1 1 −j 33 1 1 −1 2 −1 1 −1 34 1 1 j 3 −1 1 j 35 1 −j 1 4 −1 −j 1 36 1 −j −j 5 −1 −j −j 37 1 −j −1 6 −1 −j −1 38 1 −j j 7 −1 −j j 39 1 1 −1 1 8 5 −1 −1 1 40 1 −1 −j 9 −1 −1 −j 41 1 −1 −1 10 −1 −1 −1 42 1 −1 j 11 −1 −1 j 43 1 j 1 12 −1 j 1 44 1 j −j 13 −1 j −j 45 1 j −1 14 −1 j −1 46 1 j j 15 −1 j j 47 2 −j 1 1 16 6 j 1 1 48 −j 1 −j 17 j 1 −j 49 −j 1 −1 18 j 1 −1 50 −j 1 j 19 j 1 j 51 −j −j 1 20 j −j 1 52 −j −j −j 21 j −j −j 53 −j −j −1 22 j −j −1 54 −j −j j 23 j −j j 55 3 −j −1 1 24 7 j −1 1 56 −j −1 −j 25 j −1 −j 57 −j −1 −1 26 j −1 −1 58 −j −1 j 27 j −1 j 59 −j j 1 28 j j 1 60 −j j −j 29 j j −j 61 −j j −1 30 j j −1 62 −j j j 31 j j j 63 Turning now back to FIG. 5 , the correlator circuit generates in each cycle eight correlator output metrics, i.e., correlation values that are compared to each other by the comparator tree 570 that comprises seven comparators.", "The biggest correlation value is registered in register 575 and compared with the maximum metric of the previous cycles.", "For this purpose, a register 585 is provided that outputs its contents to the comparator 580 where the registered value is compared with the correlation value of the current cycle that was stored in register 575 .", "The greater value, i.e. that showing the better correlation, is then written into the register 585 .", "That is, at the end of the eight-cycle process, the register 585 stores the global maximum metric for the received CCK symbol, i.e. the basecode index.", "As apparent from the figure, there may further be provided a multiplexer 590 that receives signals from the third stage 550 and selects one of these signals based on the output of the comparator tree 570 .", "The multiplexed signal is stored in a temporary register 595 which after eight cycles holds the complex value that pertains to that phasor φ 1 that is not a basecode phasor.", "This complex value may then be passed to a differential demodulator such as the sign detector 240 shown in FIG. 2 , and/or to a phase error correction unit of the receiver where the value may provide a phase change estimate.", "While the circuits of FIGS. 5 and 6 have been shown to comprise multipliers and adders for performing the correlation functions, it is to be noted that the same architecture can be realized using other structures.", "For instance, the arithmetic operations that are performed by the multipliers and adders can be realized in other embodiments by programmable elements.", "For instance, each of the four structures 515 , 520 of the first stage 510 of the correlator circuit that comprise one multiplier 515 and one adder 520 may be implemented in software coded form by realizing the following pseudo code.", "In this code, the variable mode corresponds to the value of the control signal issued by the state transition controller 480 .", "case(mode) 2′D0: begin phi2_real = {in_real_1[5],in_real_1} + {in_real_2[5],in_real_2};", "phi2_imag = {in_imag_1[5],in_imag_1} + {in_imag_2[5],in_imag_2};", "end 2′D1: begin phi2_real = {in_imag_1[5],in_imag_1} + {in_real_2[5],in_real_2};", "phi2_imag = {in_imag_2[5],in_imag_2} − {in_real_1[5],in_real_1};", "end 2′D2: begin phi2_real = {in_real_2[5],in_real_2} − {in_real_1[5],in_real_1};", "phi2_imag = {in_imag_2[5],in_imag_2} − {in_imag_1[5],in_imag_1};", "end 2′D3: begin phi2_real = {in_real_2[5],in_real_2} − {in_imag_1[5],in_imag_1};", "phi2_imag = {in_imag_2[5],in_imag_2} + {in_real_1[5],in_real_1};", "end endcase Similarly, the multiplier-adder structures 530 , 535 ;", "540 , 545 of the second stage 525 may be realized by: case(c_mode) 2′D0: begin phi3_real = {in_real_1[5],in_real_1} + {in_real_2[5],in_real_2};", "phi3_imag = {in_imag_1[5],in_imag_1} + {in_imag_2[5],in_imag_2};", "end 2′D1: begin phi3_real = {in_imag_1[5],in_imag_1} + {in_real_2[5],in_real_2};", "phi3_imag = {in_imag_2[5],in_imag_2} − {in_real_1[5],in_real_1};", "end 2′D2: begin phi3_real = {in_real_2[5],in_real_2} − {in_real_1[5],in_real_1};", "phi3_imag = {in_imag_2[5],in_imag_2} − {in_imag_1[5],in_imag_1};", "end 2′D3: begin phi3_real = {in_real_2[5],in_real_2} − {in_imag_1[5],in_imag_1};", "phi3_imag = {in_imag_2[5],in_imag_2} + {in_real_1[5],in_real_1};", "end endcase In the third stage, the operation of the arithmetic structures may similarly be described by: phi40_real = {phi3_0_real[7],phi3_0_real} + {phi3_1_real[7],phi3_1_real};", "phi40_imag = {phi3_0_imag[7],phi3_0_imag} + {phi3_1_imag[7],phi3_1_imag};", "phi41_real = {phi3_1_real[7],phi3_1_real} + {phi3_0_imag[7],phi3_0_imag};", "phi41_imag = {phi3_1_imag[7],phi3_1_imag} − {phi3_0_real[7],phi3_0_real};", "phi42_real = {phi3_1_real[7],phi3_1_real} − {phi3_0_real[7],phi3_0_real};", "phi42_imag = {phi3_1_imag[7],phi3_1_imag} − {phi3_0_imag[7],phi3_0_imag};", "phi43_real = {phi3_1_real[7],phi3_1_real} − {phi3_0_imag[7],phi3_0_imag};", "phi43_imag = {phi3_1_imag[7],phi3_1_imag} + {phi3_0_real[7],phi3_0_real};", "Given the above described embodiments, a fully pipelined CCK decoder is described that can solve the ML CCK decoding problem to obtain the basecode index within eight steps using a minimum set of operator blocks.", "In fact, by avoiding a large set of conventional correlator circuits to be realized, the required chip area can be reduced to one fourth.", "This advantageously reduces the manufacturing costs and further improves the efficiency of the overall operation.", "The embodiments make use of eight parallel variable correlator paths that are used eight times per symbol.", "Thus, the circuit structure is advantageously reused multiple times so that the gate count of the CCK decoder block can be strongly decreased.", "While the embodiments described above primarliy relate to the CCK-11 mode defined in the 802.11b specification, it is to be mentioned that other embodiments exist where the 5.5 Mbps mode is used.", "In this mode, the information of two bits is spread over three basecode phasors.", "This causes only the basecode indices { 16 , 48 , 18 , 50 } to be valid.", "Thus, the same structure as that shown in FIG. 5 can be used and only some changes to the signal assignment performed by the state transition controller 480 need to be done to pass only those values to the comparator tree that match the mentioned basecode indices.", "Moreover, while the above described embodiments relate to CCK decoders in WLAN receivers, it is to be noted that other embodiments exist where the decoder structure discussed above is used to decode other complementary codes in other data communication systems.", "While the invention has been described with respect to the physical embodiments constructed in accordance therewith, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications, variations and improvements of the present invention may be made in the light of the above teachings and within the purview of the appended claims without departing from the spirit and intended scope of the invention.", "In addition, those areas in which it is believed that those of ordinary skill in the art are familiar, have not been described herein in order to not unnecessarily obscure the invention described herein.", "Accordingly, it is to be understood that the invention is not to be limited by the specific illustrative embodiments, but only by the scope of the appended claims." ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser.", "No. 12/918,643, filed Oct. 8, 2010, which is the National Stage of International Patent Application No. PCT/DK2009/000052 filed on Feb. 26, 2009, which claims priority to Danish Patent Application No. PA 2008 00291 filed Feb. 28, 2008, the contents of which are incorporated by reference.", "TECHNICAL FIELD [0002] This invention relates to objects having a corrosion resistant surface improving the overall corrosion resistance of the object relative to the core material, preferably being titanium or titanium based.", "The surface layer preferably contains at least 80% by mass of a refractory metal such as tantalum, or an alloy based on one or more refractory metals.", "To ensure a good adhering of the surface to the base material an alloy layer is created between a core element and the surface layer having a thickness at least twice that of the surface layer, where the alloy layer itself has corrosion resistant properties.", "BACKGROUND [0003] Objects which are meant to be positioned in highly corrosive environments must have an outer surface which is corrosion resistant in order to protect the object.", "Such a corrosion resistant outer surface may be provided by manufacturing the entire object from a corrosion resistant material.", "This may, however, be undesirable, e.g. due to the costs involved in manufacturing such an object, or because the corrosion resistant material may fail to meet other requirements or properties which the object has to fulfil or have, e.g. in terms of strength, magnetic properties, flexibility, durability, density, weight, thermal or electrical conductivity, workability (e.g. with respect to pressing, stamping, welding, forging, screwing, soldering or gluing), elasticity, fatigue properties, lubrication related properties, hardness, roughness, etc.", "Accordingly, a corrosion resistant outer surface is often provided by coating the object with a layer of corrosion resistant material, such as tantalum (Ta), Niobium (Nb), zirconium (Zr), Tungsten (W), Titanium (Ti) or alloys, that includes one or more of these materials in a concentration of at least 10% by mass.", "[0004] It is vital that such a surface layer is tight without pinholes creating exposed spots of the object under the coating to the highly corrosive environments, and a number of documents describes methods to apply such a pinhole free layer, such as EP0578605B1 describing a molten bath for plating with high-melting metals, in particular niobium and tantalum.", "The bath consists of an alkali metal fluoride melt, which contains oxide ions and ions of the metal to be precipitated.", "The molar ratio between the metal to be precipitated and the oxide ions, or the other cations in the melt, must be held within given ratios.", "The redox level must be held at a value which corresponds to that which is reached when the molten bath is in contact with the particular high-melting metal in the metallic form.", "SUMMARY [0005] A first object of the invention is to ensure good attachment to a base material and mechanical performances of the surface layer.", "This is ensured by the formation of a diffusion zone, or alloying zone.", "This alloying zone ensures that the resistant surface is sufficiently ductile to let the surface, or the whole object, being mechanically modified without creating cracks or other weaknesses undermining or damaging the corrosion resistance.", "The base material preferably but not limiting is titanium or titanium based.", "[0006] A further object of the invention is to ensure that the alloying zone itself has corrosion resistant properties and, should the surface layer or coating fail due to damage, wear, slow corrosion, then to give means for estimating the corrosion speed, and thereby the remaining life time of the object, given the corrosion environment.", "This is ensured by the alloying zone being thick in relation to the thickness of the surface layer or coating and where the content of the main substance, or the corrosion resistant material, of the surface layer (like Ta) decreases into the alloying zone, so that the corrosion resistance decreases into the alloying zone.", "[0007] The thickness of the surface layer is defined as the thickness from the surface to where the concentration of the corrosion resistant material is reduced to 90% by mass of the total concentration of the surface layer.", "The alloying zone is defined to begin at this 90% limit.", "The thickness of the alloying zone is defined as the thickness from the beginning of the alloying zone at the 90% limit, to the depth where the concentration of the corrosion resistant material is reduced to 10% by mass of the concentration at the 90% limit.", "At that point the total concentration of the corrosion resistant material is 9% by mass.", "An alternative definition of the depth of the alloying zone is the depth from the beginning of the alloying zone at the 90% limit to the point where the total concentration of the corrosion resistant material is down to 20% by mass, averaged over the depth.", "[0008] Typically half of the deposited tantalum is alloyed into the material, giving an alloying zone 2-3 times the thickness of the corrosion resistant surface layer.", "For example, the object may have a 10 micrometers surface layer and a 25 micrometers alloying zone.", "[0009] If the surface layer has been damaged or even removed by wear or slow corrosion, the alloying zone having better corrosion resistance than the base material still offers some protection, giving rise to only slow corrosion attack.", "From a measurement of the content of the corrosion resistant material in the actual surface, the corrosion speed and hence the remaining service life may be predicted (given a known corrosion environment).", "[0010] The alloying zone and the surface layer are preferably formed by a CVD process.", "In a CVD process of formation of the alloying zone and the surface layer, the deposition process is conducted continuously without interruption for sufficient time to create an alloying zone at least twice the thickness of the surface layer.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS [0011] FIG. 1 The object of the invention showing a base material with a surface layer and an alloying zone there between.", "[0012] FIG. 2 The object of the invention where the surface layer and part of the alloying zone have been removed.", "[0013] FIG. 3 A first micrograph of a cross-section of the preferred object of the invention in which the base material is titanium and the surface layer is tantalum.", "[0014] FIG. 4 A second micrograph of a cross-section of the preferred object of the invention in which the base material is titanium and the surface layer is tantalum.", "[0015] FIG. 5 A third micrograph of a cross-section of the preferred object of the invention in which the base material is titanium and the surface layer is tantalum.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0016] FIG. 1 illustrates the object ( 1 ) of the invention having a base element ( 2 ) being of a titanium based material.", "The object has a corrosion firm surface layer ( 3 ) comprising a concentration of at least 80% by mass of a corrosion resistant material like Ta, Nb, W, Ti, or other refractory metals.", "The thickness of the surface layer is defined as the thickness from the surface to where the concentration of the corrosion resistant material (like Ta or Ti) is 90% by mass of the total concentration of the surface layer, where the alloying zone is defined to begin.", "[0017] An alloying zone ( 4 ) is formed between the base element ( 2 ) and the surface layer ( 3 ) with a decreasing concentration of the corrosion resistant material into the object, being illustrated by the direction of arrow ( 5 ).", "The thickness of the alloying zone is defined as the thickness from the beginning of the alloying zone, to the depth where the concentration has fallen to 10% by mass of the concentration at the beginning of the zone.", "[0018] FIG. 2 illustrates the object after a graduated decrease of the corrosion firmness into the deposit, meaning that the coating ( 3 ), or surface layer, has been damaged, removed by wear or slow corrosion, giving a slow corrosion attack that also has removed part of the alloying zone ( 4 ).", "[0019] These lowered corrosion abilities reflect the composition of the actual surface ( 6 ) of the object ( 1 ), being gradually changed into the alloying zone having a decreasing concentration of the corrosion resistant material.", "From a measurement of the content of the corrosion resistant material in the actual surface ( 6 ), then the corrosion speed, or the remaining service life, may be predicted (given a known corrosion environment).", "[0020] A sample of the preferred object of the invention was prepared by the following process.", "The titanium base material was placed in a 10L CVD vessel and heated to 900° C. under a vacuum of 10 −2 mbar.", "While being maintained at a temperature of 900 ° C., the vessel was then subjected to a flow of hydrogen gas to a pressure of 25 mbar and a flow rate of 13.5 mol/h for 5 minutes (“first period of time”).", "The vessel was then again evacuated to a vacuum of 10 −2 mbar, following which tantalum pentachloride at a flow rate of 0.135 mol/h and argon gas at a flow rate of 0.27 mol/h were admitted to the vessel for 4 minutes (“second period of time”).", "Hydrogen gas at a flow rate of 13.5 mol/h was then added to the flow of tantalum pentachloride and argon gas and the combination of three gasses continued for a further 75 minutes (“third period of time”).", "The flow of gasses was then discontinued, and the vessel was maintained at 900° C. under a vacuum of 10 −2 mbar for 30 minutes (“fourth period of time”), after which the vessel was cooled to ambient temperature under a vacuum of 10 −2 mbar.", "[0021] The structure of the resulting object is shown in FIGS. 3-4 .", "The object has base element ( 2 ) of titanium and a corrosion firm surface layer ( 3 ) of tantalum.", "The alloying zone ( 4 ) is formed between the titanium base layer and the tantalum surface layer.", "In order to prepare the sample for the micrograph, the surface of the object is coated with a polymer moulding material ( 7 ).", "In FIGS. 3 and 4 , the extent of the alloying zone ( 4 ) is marked by the black line parallel to the tantalum surface at the end of the arrows ( 4 ).", "[0022] FIG. 5 shows the structure of an object made by a similar process but with tantalum pentachloride at a flow rate of 0.7 mol/h, argon gas at a flow rate of 0.5 mol/h and hydrogen gas at a flow rate of 20 mol/h and with a third period of time of 60 minutes.", "The Figure shows the 4 micrometer thin white layer of pure tantalum ( 3 ) and the wide alloy zone ( 4 ) beneath the tantalum layer ( 3 ) having the fine needle structure and having a thickness several times the thickness of the tantalum layer ( 3 ).", "[0023] Surprisingly, it has been found that if titanium is heated to a temperature of at least 880° C. (and preferably at least 900° C.), its crystal structure becomes compatible with the crystal structure of tantalum and the two materials can mix to form the alloying zone, resulting in a tight bond between the two metals.", "At temperatures below 880° C. (such as 825° C.), however, the crystal structure of titanium remains incompatible with the crystal structure of tantalum, and the tight bond does not form, resulting in delamination and the tantalum layer flaking off the titanium.", "The temperature can be any temperature above 880° C. that is convenient, such as up to 1000° C. or 1250° C., but no particular advantage is derived from temperatures higher than about 900° C., which temperature is used in order to be well above the critical temperature.", "[0024] Applicants have also surprisingly discovered that the order of gas flow is important in the process of preparing the preferred object of the invention.", "The heated titanium is first subjected to a flow of hydrogen gas.", "After the flow of hydrogen gas is stopped, tantalum pentachloride and argon are introduced and, after a few minutes, the flow of hydrogen is resumed.", "If the titanium is subjected initially to hydrogen and tantalum pentachloride, imperfections arise in the surface that are not observed in the present process.", "The initial flow of hydrogen assists the transition of the crystal structure of the titanium to one that is compatible with the crystal structure of tantalum.", "Applicants have found that five minutes at a flow of 13.5 mol/h is sufficient, but the flow rate and time may be altered as would be understood by those of skill in the art.", "It is important (after the initial flow of hydrogen is stopped) to subject the titanium to a flow of tantalum pentachloride and argon before any hydrogen flow is resumed.", "Applicants have found that a period of tantalum pentachloride and argon flow of four minutes before resuming hydrogen flow is sufficient, but one of skill in the metallurgy art could adjust the time.", "The period of flow of tantalum pentachloride, argon, and hydrogen (third period of time) may be varied as is recognized by those of skill in the art depending on the thickness of the tantalum layer and alloy zone desired.", "For example, times between 60 and 360 minutes could be used and even as long as 4 hours.", "Similarly, the time after discontinuation of gas flow (fourth period of time) may also be varied from 15 to 90 minutes depending on the thickness of the titanium base material so as to allow any hydrogen dissolved in the tantalum, alloy zone, and titanium to escape.", "[0025] Those of skill in the art will appreciate that many variations are possible within the scope of the appended claims.", "Thus, while the disclosure is particularly shown and described above, it will be understood that changes in form and detail may be made without departing from the scope of the claims." ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCE This application claims the priority of U.S. Provisional Application Ser.", "No. 61/924,042, filed Jan. 6, 2014, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Loudspeakers'", "general construction includes a diaphragm, typically a thin film attached to a frame under tension, an electrical circuit, and magnetic sources creating a flux field adjacent to the diaphragm.", "Electrical current is applied to the circuit, which interacts with the magnets and causes a vibration of the diaphragm, which produces the sound from an electro-dynamic loudspeaker.", "Several difficulties in loudspeaker design, manufacturing and materials have presented challenges to be overcome.", "The diaphragm material and construction needs to achieve an optimum or desired resonance frequency, with minimal or reduced changes in frame attachment or tension occurring during extended operation, while minimizing or reducing any sound distortion, damping or frequency loss to deliver an extended bandwidth of sound.", "For many speakers, the conductor (i.e. coil) in electro-dynamic loudspeakers is attached directly to the thin diaphragm, necessitating that the conductor be constructed of a material having a low mass and be securely attached to the diaphragm by high temperature and power (large current).", "The diaphragm is then driven when current passes through the conductor within a magnetic field creating a motive force.", "Prior conductor construction has been done by winding 32 AWG magnetic wire (solid copper with thin epoxy coating, either heat or solvent activation) into a “race-track”", "oval.", "The limitation of this coil size is approximately six inches due to pre-stress in the wire and an increasingly lower yield and poor performance.", "Wire breakage is a problem and the number of “race-track turns”", "is reported to be about 56 turns before the wire pre-stress makes it impossible to achieve the flatness required for use in proximity to the magnets and within the magnetic flux field required.", "Transducers of substantially rigid planar diaphragms present a challenge to current electro-magnetic drive systems and specifically to linear moving coils by presenting a low impedance to the amplifier which reduces high fidelity performance by not driving the transducers properly.", "Loudspeaker enclosures, rear-planar-surfaces, or multiple transducer positioning have been configured and used to compensate for acoustic problems of backwaves, cancellation “dead spots”, and frequency damping all causing undesirable resonances or other loss of sound quality.", "The space limitations and configuration of a wide variety of listening environments have presented a big challenge to past designers of loudspeakers and audio systems to try to create a system and known directivity pattern.", "These specifications are then delivered to the user to compensate by locating or mounting speakers in such a way to avoid the limitations inherent in the design.", "Size and space constraints of a particular environment have made it difficult in the past to achieve the desired performance from traditional audio systems.", "Loudspeakers include a frame that supports magnets used to move the coils, the diaphragm and the terminal, consequently, has faced its own design difficulties.", "It has to bond to the diaphragm, be rigid enough to maintain uniform tension.", "Ferrous frames in the past had the advantage of being capable of carrying magnetic energy or flux.", "Another alternative was using a plastic frame with spring-loaded inserts to achieve very precise control of the separation distance between the top of the embedded magnets and the film conductor.", "The plastic frames overcame the difficulties of increased weight and could compensate for magnet lots with high thickness variation which allowed cost-savings in the magnet specifications.", "Plastic frames also helped to address the design capability by minimizing the mean separation distance between driver and magnets.", "Historically, loudspeaker technology has relied on a single magnet, dual pole drive system, which resulted in a flux field that was non-linear and limited the dynamic response of the speaker.", "This non-symmetrical operation is also seen with single ring magnets (adapted for driving traditional cone-shaped speaker diaphragms) and dual pole electro-magnetic drive units, due to the differences in mass, size and configuration of the pole pieces again giving a non-linear pistonic action of the moving coil.", "A need exists for an improved loudspeaker having a high performance linear moving coil magnetic drive system.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Systems and methods are provided relating to the field of loudspeakers, and more specifically, to improvements for loudspeakers and related manufacturing methods.", "Other related applications in this field, for example vibration shaker tables and material conveying belts, will benefit from these systems and methods which fill the requirements for super-light-weight, limited operational space, high force density, high frequency operation, needing precise and short linear motion with controlled feedback in an electromechanical system.", "The loudspeaker may be a planar loudspeaker including include a high performance linear moving coil and stationary magnetic drive design which may solve one or more of the issues with traditional loudspeakers, while contributing new progress in the field of rigid planar diaphragm and electro-magnetic drive technologies.", "The conductor may be removed from the diaphragm and suspended between bars of magnets which may enable new materials and manufacturing methods to create a planar loudspeaker that achieves new levels of acoustic performance.", "A driver can be suspended between magnets with minimal or reduced separation as disclosed herein.", "The loudspeakers that include one or more of the features described herein can be used in a variety of settings and ways according to a user's wishes.", "In one embodiment, the speakers can be mounted on the living room wall, in their “flat-panel photo-frames”, on either side of a flat-panel television set.", "The audio performance does not require attention to directivity or special “box”", "enclosures or mounting.", "The high performance linear moving coil magnetic drive system herein described may include a quadrupole magnetic assembly, a carbon fiber encapsulated linear moving coil, a diaphragm, a frame and materials, manufacture and method of use thereof.", "Methods may be provided for selecting the permanent magnet composition and size specification to provide sufficient magnetic flux for driving the linear moving coil.", "The magnets (e.g., FIG. 1A , item 2 ) may be positioned in a frame (e.g., FIG. 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B , item 1 ) that may be metal, plastic, wood, or other material to affix and hold in place strong magnets with minimal spacing between rows of magnets (e.g., FIG. 2A , item 3 ).", "A preferable embodiment may include a frame of ferrous metal that can enhance magnet positioning, affixation and the resultant flux field.", "There may be four rows of magnets, two on one side of a central frame bar, two on the opposing side of the central frame bar (e.g., FIG. 2B , item 2 ), in a quadrupole arrangement (e.g., FIG. 2B , item 2 , showing North and South poling of magnets).", "The magnets may also be held in place by an adhesive, a flange, metal alloy solder or other technique.", "The magnets may include a first magnet(s) affixed to the frame in a first row and a second magnet(s) affixed to the frame in a second row.", "Each of the first and second rows may be a plurality of magnets end-to-end or longitudinally, or in a plurality of rows.", "Magnets may be positioned in the first row with polarity that is opposite to the polarity of the magnets positioned in the second row.", "Each of the magnets may include a first surface that is coplanar with an inner surface of the frame and a second surface of the magnets that extends into the frame towards an outer surface of the frame.", "A high performance linear moving coil (e.g., FIG. 3A, 3B, 4A, 4B ) may be mounted to the diaphragm ( FIG. 5B ) to achieve a determined distance from the magnets.", "The rows of magnets may produce one or more magnetic fields between them as produced by electrical signals passing through the conductor coil that is attached to the diaphragm.", "The moving coil may be a racetrack coil constructed of metal traces on printed circuit board (PCB) material such as FR4, flex-circuitry membrane materials, Mylar, or other flexible or semi-rigid materials and may include an electronic device or component, or other electrical connection.", "In one embodiment, the target resistance value is 8 ohm nominal.", "An equalizer circuit to tune the voltage at any frequency may be included in another embodiment.", "In another embodiment, a metallic and/or ferromagnetic finely ground particulate may be applied to enhance the magnetic interaction within the quadrupole magnetic field.", "The linear moving coil may be enclosed between two unidirectional carbon fiber sheets of fabric, two L-shapes to bring together into a T-shape (e.g., FIG. 4A, 4B ), with impregnated material enhancements and final assembly curing steps.", "One embodiment may position the linear coil between the rows of magnets where it vibrates and levitates according to the electrical current and magnetic flux.", "The coil may return to its original central neutral position after an internal or external force is applied.", "The movement can be stabilized in low frequency excitation (fast bass).", "Other embodiments can optimize the dynamics of the loudspeaker for small size, large commercial use, or small-space acoustic dynamics for specific targets such as auto interior or aircraft speakers.", "The diaphragm (e.g., FIG. 5A, 5B ) may include a thin film, a thick film, a man-made material such as Kevlar fiber fabric, unidirectional carbon fiber fabric, a natural material such as cork or Corecork, Dyvincell or Rohacell foam or a combination of layered materials (e.g., FIG. 5A , item 11 , 12 ).", "The film may be movable in response to the moving coil force created by interaction between the magnetic fields produced by the magnets and the magnetic field produced with the electrical signals.", "The resulting movement of the film may produce sound.", "The diaphragm may be surrounded by a frame (e.g., FIG. 6A ) with the encapsulated PCB-type coil in the approximate center (e.g., FIG. 6A , item 16 ) attached to the composite sound panel sub-assembly (e.g., FIG. 6A , item 15 ) with a rubber foam material (e.g., FIG. 6A , item 17 ) providing particulate protection for the moving coil and magnet spacing, and resonant stabilization and attachment to the frame.", "The moving coil (e.g., FIG. 5 , item 16 ) may be attached to the diaphragm ( FIG. 5 , item 15 ), and very precisely oriented for suspension between the magnet sub-assemblies (e.g., FIG. 2A, 2B ) by the frame piece (e.g., FIG. 7A , item 21 ) that may be constructed of wood or other materials.", "There are two circular magnets in each of the corners of the frame recessed area (e.g., FIG. 7B , item 19 ) which may be on the opposite side from the attachment of the metal magnet-carrying bars (e.g., FIG. 1A ).", "These smaller, corner magnets may serve a purpose of attaching a special, removable, customizable art-on-silk cover (e.g., FIG. 8B , item 22 ) that faces away from the wall or other surface on which the speaker may be mounted.", "Additional aspects and advantages of the present disclosure will become readily apparent to those skilled in this art from the following detailed description, wherein only illustrative embodiments of the present disclosure are shown and described.", "As will be realized, the present disclosure is capable of other and different embodiments, and its several details are capable of modifications in various obvious respects, all without departing from the disclosure.", "Accordingly, the drawings and description are to be regarded as illustrative in nature, and not as restrictive.", "INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE All publications, patents, and patent applications mentioned in this specification are herein incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each individual publication, patent, or patent application was specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The novel features of the invention are set forth with particularity in the appended claims.", "A better understanding of the features and advantages of the present invention will be obtained by reference to the following detailed description that sets forth illustrative embodiments, in which the principles of the invention are utilized, and the accompanying drawings of which: FIG. 1A shows an example of a front view of a magnetic poles in-line assembly in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.", "FIG. 1B shows a cross-sectional view of the magnetic poles in-line assembly shown in FIG. 1A .", "FIG. 2A shows a view of magnetic poles in-line assemblies put together and separated by at least one spacer.", "FIG. 2B shows a cross-sectional view of the magnetic poles in-line assemblies shown in FIG. 2A .", "FIG. 3A shows a coil layout including a conductor trace on a printed circuit board in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.", "FIG. 3B shows a cross-sectional view of the conductor trace and printed circuit board shown in FIG. 3A .", "FIG. 4A shows a moving coil module in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.", "FIG. 4B shows a cross-sectional view of the moving coil module of FIG. 4A .", "FIG. 5A shows a diaphragm in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.", "FIG. 5B shows the diaphragm attached to a moving coil module.", "FIG. 6A shows a composite sound panel assembly in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.", "FIG. 6B shows a cross-sectional view of the composite sound panel assembly.", "FIG. 7A shows a side view of a support frame in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.", "FIG. 7B shows a top view of the support frame in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.", "FIG. 7C shows a cross-sectional interior view of the support frame.", "FIG. 7D shows a close up of the cross-sectional interior view of the support frame.", "FIG. 8A shows a top external view of a loudspeaker in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.", "FIG. 8B shows a side view of the loudspeaker.", "FIG. 8C shows a front, oblique view of the loudspeaker with a dust cover.", "FIG. 8D shows an interior front, oblique view of the loudspeaker along with a front oblique view of the dust cover.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The invention provides systems and methods for controlling movement of a diaphragm in a loudspeaker in accordance with aspects of the invention.", "Various aspects of the invention described herein may be applied to any of the particular applications set forth below or for any other types of audio systems.", "The invention may be applied as a standalone system or method, or as part of an integrated loudspeaker system.", "It shall be understood that different aspects of the invention can be appreciated individually, collectively, or in combination with each other.", "A loudspeaker may include a diaphragm which may be attached to a frame under tension.", "Vibration of the diaphragm produces sound from the loudspeaker.", "A moving coil module may be suspended from the diaphragm and positioned between portions of a magnet assembly.", "The magnet assembly can create a magnetic field that aids in the control of movement of the moving coil module as current passes through a conductor trace of the moving coil module, thus effecting vibration of the diaphragm.", "FIG. 1A is the front view of a portion of a magnet assembly in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.", "The magnet assembly may include a magnet support frame 1 and a two-pole magnetic pole in-line assembly with permanent magnets 2 .", "The magnet support frame 1 may be a T-bar, which may be formed from steel, any ferrous metal or metal alloy, any other metal or metal alloy, plastic, wood, or any other material or combinations of materials or composites, natural or man-made, including those described elsewhere herein.", "The T-bar may include two substantially planar portions that may be orthogonal to one another.", "One of the orthogonal portions planar portions may connect to a central planar region of the other planar portion, thus forming a T cross-section.", "The magnet support frame may be formed from a single integral piece or multiple pieces that may be connected to one another.", "One or more magnets 2 may be disposed on the magnet support frame 1 .", "The magnets may be composed of neodymium, or other high gauss permanent magnets (e.g., magnets of other rare earth elements or electrical enhancement that create a powerful magnetic flux).", "The magnets may optionally be formed as bars.", "In some embodiments, one, two or more rows of magnets 2 may be disposed on the magnet support frame.", "For example, two rows of magnets may be provided on the magnet support frame.", "The rows may be substantially parallel to one another.", "In some embodiments, the first row may include one or more magnets, each of which have a magnetic poling designated as North N on its exposed surface and the second row may include one or more magnets, each of which have a magnetic poling designated as South S on its exposed surface.", "Any description herein of a polarity or magnetic poling of a magnet herein may refer to an exposed surface of the magnet (i.e., surface of the magnet opposing the side of the magnet that contacts the magnet support frame).", "For example, a reference to a magnet having a polarity or magnetic poling designated as North N may mean the exposed surface has a polarity or magnetic poling of N while a reference to a magnet having a polarity or magnetic poling designated as South S may mean the exposed surface has a polarity or magnetic poling of S. Each of the magnets within the same row may have the same magnetic poling (e.g., their exposed surfaces opposing the surface contacting the magnet support frame may have the same polarity).", "Each row of magnets may have different magnetic poling from its adjacent row.", "In some embodiments, each row may include a single longitudinally extended magnet.", "In other embodiments, each row may include a plurality of magnets longitudinally connected to one another.", "The plurality of magnets within the row may each directly contact one another.", "Alternatively, space may be provided between the magnets.", "Any number of magnets may be provided in a row.", "For example, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen or more magnets may be provided in a row.", "FIG. 1B is the cross sectional view of the portion of the magnet assembly of FIG. 1A with magnetic poling designated as North N and South S. The magnet assembly may include a magnet support frame 1 , such as a T-bar, and one or more magnets 2 supported by the magnet support frame.", "The magnets may form a plurality of rows on the T-bar.", "In some instances, a first row may be provided on a planar surface of the T-bar, and a second row may be provided on the same planar surface of the T-bar.", "The planar surface may or may not be completely flat.", "In embodiments one or more grooves or ledges may be provided.", "For example, a groove may be provided between the rows of magnets.", "An orthogonal planar portion of the T-bar may be attached to an opposing side of the portion of the T-bar relative to the side contacting the rows of magnets.", "The orthogonal planar portion may be located between the rows of magnets.", "The rows of magnets may have different magnetic polarities.", "For example, a first row of magnets may have a poling designated as North N while a second row of magnets may have a poling designated as South S. The magnets 2 may be attached to the magnet support frame 1 using any known technique, such as an adhesive, flange, locking mechanism, mechanical connector, solder (e.g., metal alloy solder), or any other technique.", "The magnets may be permanently affixed to the magnet support frame.", "FIG. 2A is a cross sectional side view of a magnet assembly.", "The magnet assembly may include two magnetic poles in-line assemblies put together and separated by one or more non-ferromagnetic spacers or non-ferromagnetic screws and nuts 3 .", "Each magnetic pole in-line assembly may include a magnet support frame 1 and one or more magnets 2 affixed thereto.", "Each magnetic pole in-line assembly may optionally be a two-pole magnetic pole in-line assembly having two rows of magnets with different polarities.", "The magnet assembly may include any number of magnetic pole in-line assemblies, which may include a T-bar magnet support frame 1 and one or more magnets 2 .", "For instance, one, two, three, four or more magnet pole in-line assemblies may be provided.", "In some examples, the magnet assembly may include two magnet pole in-line assemblies facing one another, so the sides with the magnets are closest to one another.", "For example, a surface of the magnet support frame supporting the magnets may be facing the surface of the other magnet support frame supporting the magnets.", "The magnets may be aligned so that the rows from a first magnet pole in-line assembly are opposing the rows from a second magnet pole in-line assembly.", "The arrangement may include one or more planes of symmetry.", "For example, a first plane of symmetry may pass through a portion of the magnet support frames for each of the magnetic pole in-line assemblies that are orthogonal to the portion of the magnet support frames contacting the magnets (e.g., the bottom portion of the ‘T’).", "A second plane of symmetry may be provided between the magnets (e.g., between the top portion of the ‘T’s).", "One or more spacers 3 may be provided between the magnetic pole in-line assemblies.", "The one or more spacers may be formed from a non-ferromagnetic material.", "For example, a spacer may be composed of aluminum, non-ferromagnetic metal, non-ferromagnetic screws and nuts, wood, plastic, or other material without magnetic properties, that meets specifications for strength, weight, resonance, cost, aesthetics or other criteria.", "The spacers may affix the positions of the rows of magnets relative to one another.", "The spacers may affix the positions of the rows of magnets supported by different magnet support frames relative to one another.", "The spacers may affix the positions of the magnet support frames relative to one another.", "The spacers may cause the magnets to remain a predetermined distance apart.", "The spacers may permit an air gap to form between the rows of magnets.", "The air gap may remain the same dimension during the use of the magnet assembly.", "These spacers may provide a high level of precision needed for the separation of the two magnetic T-bar assemblies in order to enhance/focus the magnetic line density to the air gap that will receive the suspended moving coil described in FIGS. 3 &", "4 .", "This configuration forms a quadrupole magnetic field air gap in the middle of the magnet assembly.", "FIG. 2B is the cross-sectional view of the magnet assembly FIG. 2A .", "The magnet assembly may include a pair of magnetic pole in-line assemblies.", "Each magnetic pole in-line assembly may have a T-bar magnet support frame 1 and one or more rows of magnets 2 supported by each T-bar magnet support frame.", "Preferably, two rows of magnets may be supported on each T-bar magnet support frame.", "The magnetic pole in-line assemblies may be oriented so the portions with the magnets are facing one another.", "One or more spacers 3 may be provided between the magnetic pole in-line assemblies.", "Each row of magnets on the T-bar magnetic support frame may have a different polarity from the row of magnets adjacent to it.", "For example, a first row of magnets may have a North N orientation (e.g., magnetic poling of N on its exposed surface) while a second row of magnets supported on the same support frame may have a South S orientation (e.g., magnetic poling of S on its exposed surface).", "Each row of magnets on a T-bar magnetic support frame may have a different polarity from the row of magnets directly opposing it on a different T-bar magnetic support frame.", "For example, a first row of magnets on a first magnetic support frame may have a North N orientation while a first row of magnets on a second magnetic support frame that directly opposes the first row of magnets on the first magnetic support frame may have a South S orientation.", "A second row of magnets on the first magnetic support frame may have a South S orientation while a second row of magnets on the second magnetic support frame that directly opposes the second row of magnets on the first magnetic support frame may have a North N orientation.", "This may form a quadrupole magnetic field.", "One or more non-ferromagnetic spacers 3 may be provided between the magnetic pole in-line assemblies.", "The spacers may be provided between the magnet support frames 1 .", "The spacers may contact a surface of the magnet support frame.", "The spacers may contact surfaces of the pair of the magnet support frames that are facing one another.", "In some embodiments, a first spacer may be provided between a pair of support frames on a first side, and a second spacer may be provided between the pair of support frames on a second side.", "The first side and the second side may be on opposing sides of the rows of magnets.", "An air gap may be provided between the pair of magnetic pole in-line assemblies.", "An air gap may be provided between the rows of magnets supported by different magnet support frames.", "Optionally, an air gap may be provided between rows of magnets supported by the same magnet support frames.", "In some instances, the exposed surfaces of the magnets supported by different magnet support frames (e.g., belonging to different magnetic pole in-line assemblies) may be substantially parallel to one another.", "The exposed surfaces may be very close together.", "For example, the gap between the exposed magnet surfaces may be less than or equal to about 70 mm, 60 mm, 50 mm, 40 mm, 30 mm, 20 mm, 10 mm, 8 mm, 6 mm, 5 mm, 4 mm, 3 mm, 2 mm, 1 mm, or 0.5 mm.", "FIG. 3A shows a portion of a moving coil assembly.", "The moving coil assembly may a printed circuit board (PCB) substrate 4 and a conductor trace 5 formed thereon.", "The PCB substrate 4 may comprise a high-temperature substrate material that can withstand up to 130 degrees Celsius during a bake process for 2.5 hours, for example FR-4.", "The PCB substrate may be formed from FR-4, low density ceramic, flex-circuitry membrane materials, Mylar, or other flexible or semi-rigid materials that may include an electronic device or component or other electrical connection.", "In some embodiments, alternative substrates may be used.", "Any reference to a “PCB”", "substrate herein may also be applied to any other substrate (i.e. which need to be PCB), such as other less rigid and/or non-conventional materials.", "In some embodiments, any reference to a “PCB”", "substrate may apply to any substrate of rigid, semi-rigid, or flexible material upon which conductor traces may be provided (e.g., deposited, printed, etched).", "A substrate may be formed from an electrically insulating material.", "Optionally, the PCB substrate may withstand up to 100 degrees C., 125 degrees C., 150 degrees C., 175 degrees C., or 200 degrees C. during the bake process.", "The bake process may occur during the manufacture of this portion of the moving coil assembly to achieve desired mechanical properties in an encapsulated carbon fiber fabric portion to be described in greater detail further herein.", "In some embodiments, the PCB may be formed of laminates, copper-clad laminates, resin impregnated B-stage cloth, or copper foil.", "A conductor trace 5 may be formed on the PCB substrate 4 .", "The conductor trace may have a racetrack shaped coil layout.", "The conductor trace may be formed as metalized trace lines, which may be copper, silver, aluminum, or other metals or composites, occurring in a single or multiple layers, on top the PCB substrate.", "The conductor trace may be a copper, silver, or aluminum trace.", "Alternatively, the conductor trace may be another metal, metal alloy, or composite material optionally with high electrical conductivity (e.g., higher or equal to the conductivity of copper).", "The conductor trace may have a length between 1 and 100 meters.", "For example, the conductor trace may be greater than or equal to about 8 meters, 10 meters, 12 meters, 15 meters, 20 meters, or 25 meters long.", "The conductor trace may be at 2 to 16 ohm with a number of turns between 1 to 1000 turns, 10 to 500 turns, or 20 to 100 turns.", "For example, the number of turns may be greater than or equal to about 5 turns, 10 turns, 15 turns, 20 turns, 25 turns, 30 turns, 32 turns, 35 turns, 37 turns, 40 turns, 45 turns, 50 turns, 55 turns, 60 turns, 70 turns, or 80 turns.", "Optionally, the conductor trace may less than 40 turns, 45 turns, 50 turns, 55 turns, 60 turns, 70 turns, 80 turns, 100 turns, 200 turns, 300 turns, or 500 turns.", "Providing conductor traces on a PCB substrate permits long length of the conductor traces with little or minimal mechanical stress.", "The conductor traces can be etched from material on the PCB or deposited on the PCB to form desired patterns on the PCB board, thereby providing a large degree of flexibility.", "Alternatively, the conductor traces may be embedded or partially embedded into the PCB substrate.", "In some embodiments, the conductor traces may have a constant wire cross sectional area.", "Alternatively, the conductor traces may have a variable wire cross sectional area to control the current density, which may optimize or improve a reactant magnetic field.", "The conductor traces may be flat and precisely machined to a desired/correct shape.", "The high tolerance and high precision may lead to a small magnetic gap, which may provide high efficiency.", "Furthermore, this may be easy to automate in high volume production.", "Electrical connection wires, 32 AWG copper, silver coated, PVDF insulated may also be included (not shown).", "The length, width, and thickness and precise dimensional controls may be used to control the total impedance of the loudspeaker.", "These dimensions may be designed to control the magnetic field density at the same time to match the permanent magnetic air-gap.", "A method of forming a portion of a moving coil assembly may include selecting a desired total impedance or desired characteristics of a magnetic field.", "In response to the desired total impedance or desired characteristics of the magnetic field, one or more dimensions of a PCB substrate may be selected.", "Furthermore, one or more dimensions or arrangement of conductor traces on the PCB substrates may be selected.", "The conductor traces may be formed on the PCB substrate in response to the selection.", "For example, the conductor traces may be printed or etched into the PCB substrate in response to the selection.", "In one embodiment, a conductive material coating may be added to the conductor trace to decrease the impedance of the trace for improved performance at higher sound frequencies.", "Any selection described herein may be made with an aid of one or more processors.", "For instance, one or more processors may individually or collectively may make a calculation as described herein based on a desired magnetic field and/or acoustic property of the loudspeaker.", "FIG. 3B is the cross sectional view of the PCB substrate 4 and conductor trace 5 .", "In some embodiments, the conductor trace may be a copper trace provided on the PCB substrate.", "The conductor traces may form a racetrack shaped coil.", "Spaces may be provided between each portion of the coil so that the conductor trace forms a single line that does no intersect itself.", "In some instances, a single layer of conductor trace is provided to form a coil.", "In some instances at least a single layer of conductor trace is provided.", "Alternatively, multiple layers of conductor trace may be provided.", "A portion of the coil need not contact any other portion of the coil.", "In some instances, the spacing may be provided evenly between each wind of the coil.", "In some instances, the width of the spacing may be greater than or equal to a width of the conductor trace.", "Alternatively, the width of the spacing may be less than or equal to a width of the conductor trace.", "The PCB substrate may be formed from a single continuous solid piece.", "Alternatively, one or more holes may be provided on the PCB substrate.", "In some embodiments, the PCB substrate may have a hole in the middle of the racetrack shaped coil of the conductor traces.", "In some embodiments, insulation may be provided by a standard PCB process, which may remove or reduce problems in electrical shorting.", "FIG. 4A shows a moving coil module in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.", "FIG. 4B shows a cross-sectional view of the moving coil module.", "The moving coil module may include the PCB 4 with the conductor traces 5 as previously described.", "The moving coil module may also include a cover forming a rigid support structure that may enclose the PCB with the conductor traces.", "The cover may optionally form a T-shaped surface 7 for attaching to a diaphragm (e.g., diaphragm of a loudspeaker).", "The cover may enclose the PCB 4 and traces 5 by sandwiching them between layers of the cover.", "The cover may fold over the PCB and traces, or may be connected around the perimeter of the PCB and traces.", "For instance, two L-shapes may be brought together to form the T-shape.", "The cover may come together and then split into orthogonal portions to form the T-shaped (e.g., the split portion may form the top of the ‘T’).", "The split portion may contact a surface of the diaphragm.", "The other portion enclosing the PCB and traces (e.g., the bottom portion of the ‘T’) may be substantially orthogonal to the diaphragm surface.", "The cover may be formed from a non-conductive material.", "The cover may permit very little or no electrical conduction.", "The cover and support material may be formed from a carbon fiber fabric.", "The carbon fiber fabric may be unidirectional carbon fiber fabric sheets.", "In some embodiments, the coil cover and support material may be carbon fiber fabric that is unidirectional, plane, twill or other weave.", "The moving coil module may also include ferromagnetic strips with conformal coating or layer 8 .", "The ferromagnetic strips may also be enclosed by the cover.", "The ferromagnetic strips may contact the conductor traces 5 .", "For example, the ferromagnetic strips may be sandwiched between the conductor traces and the cover.", "The dimensions (e.g., length, width, thickness) and/or shape of the ferromagnetic strips may be selected to provide a desired magnetic property.", "The ferromagnetic strips may aid in tuning levitation force and focus the external magnetic field.", "In some embodiments, the ferromagnetic strips may be formed from steel, or another metal or metal alloy with ferromagnetic properties.", "In some instances, a ferromagnetic powder coating, such as an iron powder coating, may be used in place of the ferromagnetic strips or in addition to the ferromagnetic strips.", "The cover and/or support fabric may be coated or impregnated with a special formulation organic material that is compatible with high temperatures to form a rigid cross-linked polymer, such as epoxy.", "One embodiment may comprise two layers of carbon fiber fabric (e.g., unidirectional carbon fiber fabric) with specific orientation which are affixed together in order to sandwich the PCB assembly and form a T-shape structure of flange for attaching to the diaphragm.", "The treatment, baking and use of a carbon fiber fabric can achieve exceptional dimensional stability, strength, stiffness, fatigue resistance, high heat transfer and protection for the PCB coil.", "It can also be lightweight with max tensile strength.", "FIG. 4B is the cross sectional view of the cured and stiffened covering containing the moving coil.", "Two ferromagnetic strips 8 may focus the permanent magnetic field line through the encapsulated PCB coil structure 5 .", "This arrangement may create a magnetic levitation effect of the PCB coil in an air gap between magnetic pole in-line assemblies.", "The moving coil module may be located within an air gap of a magnet assembly, as illustrated further herein (e.g., FIG. 7C, 7D ).", "This may enable the PCB coil to quickly return to the original position inside the air gap after external excitation such as large bass signal to optimize sound quality.", "FIG. 5A is the side view of the diaphragm in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.", "The diaphragm may be formed of a diaphragm composite having a middle core 12 and one or more other layers 11 .", "Optionally, a diaphragm may include a thin film, thick film, man-made material such as Kevlar fiber fabric, carbon fiber fabric, natural or synthetic material such as cork, Rohacell, Dyvincell foam core or a combination of layered materials.", "The middle core 12 of the diaphragm may include polyvinyl chloride (PVC) foam core, Rohacell, Dyvincell, Corecork, or other specific structure material.", "In some embodiments, the middle core may be formed as a single layer of a single material or type of material.", "Alternatively, the middle core may include two or more layers which may be formed of the same material or type of material, or may be formed of different materials or types of materials.", "The middle core 12 may be covered, coated or fused with another material to form the one or more other layers 11 .", "The other layers may include Kevlar-like fiber fabric, unidirectional carbon fiber fabric or other materials to enhance various frequency response.", "In some instances, another layer may be formed on only one side of the middle core.", "Alternatively, the other layers may be provided on both sides of the middle core.", "Layers on both sides of the middle core may include the same materials, or may include different materials.", "FIG. 5B is a cross-section of the diaphragm 15 attached to a moving coil module (a.k.a. moving core module) 16 .", "The moving coil module may be encapsulated.", "The encapsulated portion of the moving coil module may be substantially orthogonal to the diaphragm.", "In some instances, the moving coil module may be attached to the diaphragm via use of adhesive, soldering, mechanical connection, or any other technique.", "Although a single moving coil module is depicted as being attached to the diaphragm, multiple moving coil modules may optionally be attached in other embodiments of the invention.", "The number and/or placement of the moving coil modules on the diaphragm may be selected to provide a desired acoustical effect.", "FIG. 6A shows a top view of a composite sound panel assembly in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.", "The composite sound panel assembly may include a diaphragm 15 , with the moving coil module 16 mounted, and surrounded by an edge material 17 .", "In some embodiments, the moving coil module may form a strip that may be placed on the diaphragm.", "In some instances, the moving coil module may be positioned at a central region of the diaphragm.", "The edge material may comprise rubber foam or other protecting and dampening materials.", "FIG. 6B shows a cross sectional view of the composite sound panel assembly.", "A portion of the moving coil module 16 that encapsulates a coil may be substantially orthogonal to a diaphragm surface.", "The edge material 17 may surround the diaphragm and may optionally form a U-shaped trough around the circumference of the diaphragm.", "FIG. 7A shows a side view of a support frame 21 in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.", "The support frame may be formed from any material or combination of materials, such as any variety of wood, metal, man-made material, plastic, or composite.", "In some instances, the support frame may be formed from a rigid or semi-rigid material.", "The support frame may form an exterior surface or portion of an exterior surface for a loudspeaker.", "The dimensions of the support frame may be selected to provide a desired design.", "In some instances, a loudspeaker may be a planar loudspeaker, where the width and length of the loudspeaker may substantially exceed a thickness of the loudspeaker.", "For example, the ratio of the width and/or length of the loudspeaker to the thickness of the loudspeaker may be greater than or equal to 2:1, 3:1, 4:1, 5:1, 6:1, 7:1, 8:1, 9:1, 10:1, 12:1, 15:1, 20:1, 40:1, 60:1, 80:1, 100:1, or 200:1.", "FIG. 7B shows a top view of the support frame 21 in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.", "The top view of the support frame 21 can show the placement and location in one embodiment of the composite sound panel assembly including the diaphragm 15 , and the edge material 17 that surrounds the edge of the diaphragm.", "FIG. 7B also shows the approximate location of art cover attachment points, shown as two circles in each corner.", "The art cover attachment points may comprise a recessed inner frame containing circular magnets, Velcro, adhesives, screws or other variety of fasteners, for either permanent or temporary attachment of a protective or artistic cover, which may be made from silk material for acoustic and light transmission properties (e.g., FIG. 8C, 8D ).", "The protective or artistic cover may be mounted on the opposite side of the composite sound panel assembly from the side having the attachment of the magnet assembly (e.g., FIG. 1A ) in a flat-panel, wall-mount loudspeaker.", "These corner attachments in a recessed area of the frame may serve the purpose of attaching a special, removable, customizable cover which may include art-on-silk acoustically matched to the speaker and faces away from the wall (or other surface) on which the loudspeaker may be mounted in one embodiment.", "FIG. 7C shows a cross-sectional interior view of the support frame 21 .", "The relative orientation and placement of the composite sound panel assembly including the diaphragm 15 , the moving coil module 16 , and the edge material 17 is also provided.", "Additionally, the relative placement of the magnet assembly is also provided, which may include the magnet support frames 1 .", "The support frame 21 may contact an edge of the edge material 17 .", "The edge material may be formed from foam rubber edging.", "Optionally, the support may contact one side of a U-shaped trough cross-section of the edge material.", "A diaphragm 15 may contact the other side of the U-shaped trough cross-section of the edge material.", "The support frame may surround an outer edge of the edge material, while the edge material may surround the diaphragm, which may contact an inner edge of the edge material.", "The diaphragm may be stretched out and supported by the edge material and the support frame.", "The diaphragm may be held in tension.", "A moving coil module 16 may be attached to the diaphragm 15 .", "Optionally, one, two or more moving coil modules may be attached to the diaphragm.", "Each moving coil may include an encapsulated PCB substrate with conductor traces thereon.", "The conductor traces may form a coil on the PCB substrate.", "The moving coil module may extend from a surface of the diaphragm (e.g., is not flat against a surface of the diaphragm).", "The moving coil module may be at any angle relative to the surface of the diaphragm.", "The moving coil module may be suspended substantially orthogonally relative to the diaphragm.", "Optionally, the moving coil module is not parallel relative to the diaphragm.", "The moving coil module may be suspended within a magnet assembly.", "The magnet assembly may include a pair of magnetic pole in-line assemblies, each comprising a magnet support frame 1 and one or more magnets.", "The magnet support frames may be formed as steel T-bars.", "An air gap may be provided between the T-bars.", "The moving coil module may be suspended within the air gap.", "FIG. 7D shows a close up of the cross-sectional interior view of the support frame 21 .", "As previously described the support frame may support an edge material 17 which may in turn support a diaphragm 15 that is stretched out.", "The edge material may have a dampening effect when the diaphragm vibrates.", "The support frame and edge material may help hold the diaphragm at a desired tension.", "A moving coil module 16 may be attached to the diaphragm 15 and used to drive vibration of the diaphragm, which generates the sound provided by loudspeaker.", "The moving coil module may be suspended within a magnet assembly.", "The magnet assembly may optionally have a fixed position relative to the support frame 21 .", "The magnet assembly may include a pair of magnet pole in-line assemblies, which may each include a magnet support frame 1 which may hold one or more magnets 2 thereon.", "In some embodiments, the magnet support frames may be T-bars, each supporting two or more longitudinal rows of magnets.", "The magnets may be permanent magnets which may be strong, permanent, rectangular, and may have neodymium composition.", "A quadrupole magnet assembly may be created.", "One or more spacers may be provided to position the magnet pole in-line assemblies relative to one another.", "An air gap may be provided between the magnet pole in-line assemblies.", "Thus, an air gap may be provided between the rows of magnets supported by different support frames.", "The moving coil module 16 may be positioned within the air gap between the different support frames 16 .", "The moving coil module may include a PCB substrate having a conductor trace.", "The conductor trace may be provided on the PCB substrate as a coil.", "The coil may have a racetrack shape and may include multiple windings.", "The conductor traces may be positioned between the rows of magnets 2 supported by the magnet support frames 1 .", "A magnetic field may be generated by the magnets of the magnet support assembly.", "The moving coil module may naturally levitate between the magnets of the magnet support assembly.", "The flow of current to the conductor traces may be controlled, which may cause the conductor traces to move relative to the magnets.", "The movement of the conductor traces on the PCB may cause the moving coil module to move, which may in turn cause the vibrations on the diaphragm.", "Optionally, one or more ferromagnetic strips may be positioned on the conductor traces, which may assist with controlling or tuning the magnetic field.", "The ferromagnetic strips may be encapsulated with the PCB substrate and coil using a non-conductive material to form the moving coil module.", "The ferromagnetic strips may also be positioned between the rows of magnets supported by different magnet support frames.", "FIG. 8A shows a top external view of a loudspeaker in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.", "The loudspeaker may have a diaphragm 15 , surrounded by a polyethylene (PE) rubber or other rubber foam around the diaphragm edge 17 , a support frame 21 and (showing from this top view) a recessed ledge 22 surrounding a hollow or empty central region of the support frame where the attachment area resides for placing a dust-cover (which may optionally be an artistic image cover) with permanent or temporary affixation.", "FIG. 8B shows a side view of the loudspeaker.", "The side-view may include the support frame 21 and the central area that is hollow 22 .", "FIG. 8C shows a front, oblique view of the loudspeaker with a dust cover.", "The loudspeaker may have a support frame 21 with the dust cover 23 .", "The dust cover may optionally be formed of artistic print-on silk.", "Any design or image may be provided on the dust cover.", "Alternatively, no design or image needs to be printed on the dust cover.", "The dust cover may be affixed to a smaller tensioning frame that fits precisely within the recessed region in the support frame 21 for permanent, temporary or removal attachment.", "In one embodiment the loudspeakers may be flat-panel loudspeakers that can be mounted on a wall and area substantially like art in a picture frame.", "The dust cover may have an artistic image thereon which may permit the loudspeaker function as an art piece and as a loudspeaker.", "In some instances, the loudspeaker functionalities may be visually hidden so that a viewer of the loudspeaker may not realize that the loudspeaker is more than a visual painting, decoration, or art.", "FIG. 8D shows an exploded front, oblique view of the loudspeaker with a dust cover.", "The loudspeaker may have a support frame 21 , the dust cover (e.g., digital printed-on-silk art cover) 23 , and a composite sound panel subassembly, which may include a diaphragm 15 .", "The magnet assembly for the electromagnetic coil driver system (e.g., as shown in FIG. 1A 1 B, 2 A, 2 B) may comprise a magnet support frame (e.g., long mild steel T-bar) 1 , and multiples of rectangular high gauss permanent magnets 2 , arranged in two rows.", "The first row of the magnets 2 may be oriented with the North poles faced up.", "The second row of the magnets 2 may be oriented with the South poles faced up.", "All magnets 2 may be attached (e.g., glued) to the steel T-bar 1 , optionally by use of high strength epoxy to fix their positions (e.g., FIG. 1B, 2B ).", "A cross sectional quadrupole magnetic assembly is illustrated in FIGS. 2A and 2B .", "Two steel T-bars 1 , with their pre-installed magnets 2 , are assembled together and separated by two end spacers 3 .", "The magnet assembly may provide a magnetic field that may aid in driving movement of the diaphragm 15 .", "A moving coil module may interact with the magnetic field provided by the magnet assembly, and may move relative to the magnet assembly, thus effecting vibrations of the diaphragm.", "One or more moving coil module may be attached to a diaphragm on a side of the diaphragm opposing the side of the diaphragm facing the dust cover.", "The diaphragm may be oriented to be substantially parallel to the dust cover.", "When a loudspeaker is mounted onto a surface, the dust cover may be provided on the exposed side away from the surface.", "The diaphragm may be provided between the dust cover and the surface.", "The moving coil module and magnet assembly may be provided between the diaphragm and the surface.", "The surface may optionally be a wall, ceiling, floor, surface of furniture or other structure, or any other surface.", "In some embodiments, a single diaphragm may be provided for a loudspeaker.", "Alternatively, multiple diaphragms may be provided within a single loudspeaker.", "Each diaphragm may optionally have one or more respective moving coil modules and magnet assemblies.", "In some instances, different diaphragms may be used to provide different ranges of sound (e.g., lower pitched sounds vs.", "higher pitched sounds).", "It should be understood from the foregoing that, while particular implementations have been illustrated and described, various modifications can be made thereto and are contemplated herein.", "It is also not intended that the invention be limited by the specific examples provided within the specification.", "While the invention has been described with reference to the aforementioned specification, the descriptions and illustrations of the preferable embodiments herein are not meant to be construed in a limiting sense.", "Furthermore, it shall be understood that all aspects of the invention are not limited to the specific depictions, configurations or relative proportions set forth herein which depend upon a variety of conditions and variables.", "Various modifications in form and detail of the embodiments of the invention will be apparent to a person skilled in the art.", "It is therefore contemplated that the invention shall also cover any such modifications, variations and equivalents." ]

[ "CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION [0001] This application claims the benefits of the Taiwan Patent Application Serial Number 102107479, filed on March 4, 2013, the subject matter of which is incorporated herein by reference.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1.", "Field of the Invention [0003] The present invention relates to a method for inhibiting spinocerebellar ataxia, and particularly to a method for inhibiting spinocerebellar ataxia relating to suppressing aggregation of polyglutamine with an extract of Paeonia lactiflora.", "[0004] 2.", "Description of Related Art [0005] Spinocerebellar atrophy is referred to spinocerebellar ataxias (SCAs), which are a complex group of heterogeneous autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disorders characterized by cerebellar dysfunction alone or in combination with other neurological abnormalities.", "[0006] On the current market, there is no drug for curing or suppressing polyglutamine related spinocerebellar ataxia progression, and the symptom thereof is irreversible: patients may fail to appropriately control their movements at the beginning;", "with the deterioration of disease condition, patients become failing to walk and write progressively, and finally become failing to talk and swallow.", "In the worst case, it may bring patients to an end with death.", "However, even though there is atrophy of the cerebellum, the brainstem, and the spinal cord, the intelligence is completely unaffected, so that patients can be clearly conscious of the fact that their bodies gradually become inactive.", "[0007] In addition, the surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, biopharmaceutical therapy, etc.", "used in Western therapy, usually bring strong side effects to patient's body, thereby causing weakness of patients gradually.", "Today, traditional Chinese herbal medicine is regarded as a relatively tender way for treatment and generally agreed with people so as to have a very high market acceptance.", "[0008] In view of the gradually increased global population suffering from spinocerebellar ataxia, if a pharmaceutical composition for inhibiting spinocerebellar ataxia can be found out from a variety of herbal medicines, it is bound to give assistance to the treatment of spinocerebellar ataxia, thereby slowing down disease progression and rendering better quality of life.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0009] The above and other objects, features and other advantages of the present invention will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.", "Other objects, advantages, and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.", "[0010] An object of the present invention is to provide a method for inhibiting spinocerebellar ataxia to give assistance to the treatment of spinocerebellar ataxia, and slow down disease progression.", "[0011] An object of the present invention is to provide a method for suppressing aggregation of polyglutamine to reduce abnormal aggregation of polyglutamine.", "[0012] To achieve above object, the present invention provides a method for inhibiting spinocerebellar ataxia, comprising: administering a pharmaceutical composition comprising an extract of Paeonia lactiflora to a subject in need, wherein a concentration of the extract of Paeonia lactiflora is in the range from 1 μg/mL to 80 μg/mL.", "[0013] The present invention also provides a pharmaceutical composition for inhibiting spinocerebellar ataxia, comprising: an extract of Paeonia lactiflora , wherein a concentration of the extract of Paeonia lactiflora is in the range from 1 μg/mL to 80 μg/mL.", "[0014] In spinocerebellar ataxia, the expansions of CAG trinucleotide repeats encoding a polyglutamine (polyQ) stretch have been shown to cause dominantly inherited SCA1, SCA2, SCA3, SCA6, SCAT, SCA17 and dentatorubropallidoluy-sianatrophy (DRPLA).", "These polyQ-mediated genetic disorders in SCAs have shown selective progressive degeneration of the cerebellum, brainstem, and spinal cord tract, with prominent pathological hallmark of intranuclear and cytoplasmic accumulation of aggregated polyQ proteins inside degenerated neurons, thereby causing the dysfunction and degeneration of specific neurons.", "[0015] Accordingly, the present invention further provides a method for suppressing aggregation of polyglutamine, comprising: administering a pharmaceutical composition comprising an extract of Paeonia lactiflora to a subject in need, wherein a concentration of the extract of Paeonia lactiflora is in the range from 1 μg/mL to 80 μg/mL.", "[0016] The present invention also provides a pharmaceutical composition for suppressing aggregation of polyglutamine, comprising: an extract of Paeonia lactiflora , wherein a concentration of the extract of Paeonia lactiflora is in the range from 1 μg/mL to 80 μg/mL.", "[0017] Preferably, the concentration of the extract of Paeonia lactiflora is in the range from 1.5 μg/mL to 55 μg/mL, and the extract of Paeonia lactiflora comprises at least one active component selected from a group consisting of paeoniflorin and albiflorin, but the present invention is not limited thereto.", "[0018] When the pharmaceutical composition of the present invention includes paeoniflorin and/or albiflorin, the concentration of the paeoniflorin and albiflorin are not particularly limited, and may be adjusted according to actual situation for use.", "Preferably, the paeoniflorin may have a concentration of 50 nM to 300 nM, and albiflorin may have a concentration of 3 μM to 10 μM.", "In other word, the effective doses of the paeoniflorin and albiflorin included in the pharmaceutical composition may be changed according to the administering pathway, the used excipient, and the possibility of combination with other pharmaceuticals, and those of ordinary skill in the art can modify the dose required for a subject to obtain expected treatment effect.", "[0019] According to the requirement for use, the pharmaceutical composition of the present invention may further comprise at least one of a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier, a diluent, or an excipient in the art.", "For example, the extract of Paeonia lactiflora is encapsulated into liposome to facilitate delivery and absorption;", "the extract of Paeonia lactiflora is diluted with aqueous suspension, dispersion or solution to facilitate injection;", "or the extract of Paeonia lactiflora is prepared in a form of a capsule or tablet for storage and carrying.", "In addition, the pharmaceutical composition of the present invention may also be administered with any conventional drug or additive together, as long as without reducing the treatment effect of the pharmaceutical composition of the present invention.", "[0020] The pharmaceutical composition of the present invention may be purchased on the market, or may be obtained by heating and extracting Paeonia lactiflora in water and filtering out a residue.", "For example, water which is in an amount of 10 to 20 times of the weight of the Paeonia lactiflora may be mixed with the Paeonia lactiflora to form a mixture, and the mixture is heated to a temperature of 90° C. to 100° C. for 30 minutes to 1 hour, or the mixture is directly heated to has a volume of ¼ to ½ the original volume thereof, to obtain an extract of Paeonia lactiflora .", "However, the present invention is not limited thereto, and may use any conventional technique to obtain the extract of Paeonia lactiflora .", "Furthermore, the extract of Paeonia lactiflora may be formed in a dry form by a drying process, such as spray drying method, freeze-drying method, scientific Chinese herbal medicine granulation method, to be prepared into a health food and a clinical therapeutic pharmaceutical for the treatment and the prevention of spinocerebellar ataxia.", "[0021] The term “inhibit”", "refers to the case that the pharmaceutical composition including the extract of Paeonia lactiflora of the present invention is applied to a subject suffering from spinocerebellar ataxia, having symptom of spinocerebellar ataxia, or having a tendency of development of spinocerebellar ataxia, in order to achieve the treatment, mitigation, slowing, therapy, improvement, or recovery of the tendency of the disease and symptoms.", "[0022] To implement the method according to the present invention, the above pharmaceutical composition can be administered via oral administering, parenteral administering, inhalation spray administering, topical administering, rectal administering, nasal administering, sublingual administering, vaginal administering, or implanted reservoir, and so on.", "The term “parenteral”", "used here refers to subcutaneous injection, intradermal injection, intravenous injection, intramuscular injection, intraarticular injection, intraarterial injection, joint fluid injection, intrathoracic injection, intrathecal injection, injection at morbid site, and intracranial injection or injection technique.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0023] FIG. 1A shows a Western blot analysis of ATXN3/Q 14-75 -GFP protein expression induced by doxycycline in 293 cells according to a preferable example of the present invention.", "[0024] FIG. 1B shows a real-time PCR quantification of RNA expression in ATXN3/Q 14-75 -GFP 293 cell induced by doxycycline according to a preferable example of the present invention.", "[0025] FIG. 2A shows chromatographic patterns from HPLC analysis (230 nm) of the extract of P. lactiflora ( Paeonia lactiflora ) according to a preferable example of the present invention.", "[0026] FIG. 2B shows the cytotoxicity of the extract of P. lactiflora , paeoniflorin, gallic acid, albiflorin and histone deacetylase inhibitor (HDAC inhibitor) SAHA (suberoylanilide suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid) against HEK-293 cells using MTT viability assay according to a preferable example of the present invention.", "[0027] FIG. 2C shows the cytotoxicity of the extract of P. lactiflora , paeoniflorin, gallic acid, albiflorin and SAHA against SH-SY5Y cells using MTT viability assay according to a preferable example of the present invention.", "[0028] FIG. 3 shows the aggregation analysis of ATXN3/Q 75 -GFP cells untreated or treated with extract of P. lactiflora (2˜200 μg/mL), paeoniflorin, gallic acid, albiflorin and SAHA (100 nM˜5 μM) according to a preferable example of the present invention.", "[0029] FIG. 4A shows Western blot analysis of protein expression in ATXN3/Q 75 -GFP SH-SY5Y cells induced by doxycycline according to a preferable example of the present invention.", "[0030] FIG. 4B shows the analysis of aggregation in ATXN3/Q 75 -GFP SH-SY5Y cells untreated or treated with P. lactiflora (10 μg/mL) or paeoniflorin (100 nM) according to a preferable example of the present invention.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT [0031] P. lactiflora Extract Preparation and HPLC Analysis [0032] The extract from P. lactiflora used in the following experiments was provided by Sun-Ten Pharmaceutical Company (Taipei, Taiwan).", "Briefly, 100 g of dried P. lactiflora was boiled with 1500 mL of water at 100° C. for 30 min and was sieved using a 100-mesh sieve.", "The extract was concentrated to 100 mL and filtered using a 200-mesh sieve.", "The extract was then dried by speed vacuum concentration and then stored at -20° C. until used.", "[0033] High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis was performed using a LaChoursom Elite HPLC system (Hitachi), consisting /f a photo diode array detector.", "The chromatographic separation of P. lactiflora extract (50 μL, 1 mg/mL) was carried out on a Hypersil ODS (C18) column (250×4.6 mm, 5 μm), eluted with the mixture of 0.1% formic acid in water (A) or acetonitrile (B).", "The linear gradient elution program for A:B (v/v) was set as follows: 95:5 (0-10 min), 95:5-70:30 (10-40 min), 70:30-15:85 (40-55 min), 15:85-95:5 (55-60 min), 95:5 (60-75 min) with a flow rate of 1 mL/min.", "Absorbance was monitored at 230, 250, 270 nm and the scan range for photo diode array was 190˜400 nm.", "Paeoniflorin, gallic acid and albiflorin ( 21[10 μL, 20 mM) were used as reference compounds for P. lactiflora.", "[0034] Cell Culture and Cell Proliferation Assay [0035] Human embryonic kidney HEK-293 cells (ATCC No. CRL-1573) were cultivated in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium (DMEM) containing 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS).", "Human neuroblastoma SH-SYSY cells (ATCC No. CRL-2266) were maintained in DMEM F12 supplemented with 10% FBS.", "Cells were cultivated at 37° C. incubator containing 5% CO 2 and cell proliferation was measured based upon the reduction of the tetrazolium salt, 3,[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyl-tetrazolium bromide (MTT).", "Cells were plated into 48-well (5×10 4 /well) dishes, grown for 20 hours and treated with different concentrations of the P. lactiflora extract (5˜30 mg/mL) or pure compound (100 nM˜1 mM).", "After one day, 20 μL MTT (5 mg/mL in PBS, Sigma) was added to cells and incubated for 2 hours.", "The absorbance of the purple formazan dye was measured at 570 nm by a Bio-Tek μQuant Universal Microplate Spectrophotometer.", "[0036] ATXN3 cDNA Constructs [0037] Polyadenylated RNA (200 ng) isolated from neuroblastoma SK-N-SH cells was reverse transcribed using the SuperScript™III reverse transcriptase (Invitrogen).", "The sense and antisense primers used for ATXN3/Q 14 cDNA (+826˜+1152, NM — 004993) amplification were 5′-ATTCAGCTAAGTATGCAAGGTAGTTCCA (codon for Met257 underlined, SEQ ID NO: 1) and 5′-CATGCCATGGCATGTTTTTTTCCTTCTGTT (NcoI site underlined, SEQ ID NO: 2).", "The amplified 3′ polyQ-containing cDNA fragment (translated into amino acids 2571[361) was cloned into pGEM-T Easy (Promega) and sequenced.", "The ATXN3/Q 14 cDNA was excised with EcoRI (in pGEM-T Easy vector) and NcoI and subcloned into pEGFP-N1 (Clontech).", "Then, DNA fragment containing in-frame ATXN3/Q 14 -EGFP was excised with HindIII-NotI and subcloned into the pcDNAS/FRT/TO.", "The ATXN3/Q 75 cDNA was made by replacing an 88 by ATXN3/Q 14 BsmBI-BsmFI fragment with a 271 by ATXN3/Q 75 fragment from the cDNA clone of a SCA3 patient.", "[0038] Isogenic 293 and SH-SY5Y Cell Lines [0039] Human 293-derived Flp-In™-293 cells (Invitrogen) were cultivated in DMEM containing 10% FBS as described.", "The cloned pcDNA5/FRT/TO-ATXN3/Q 14 and Q 75 plasmids were used to generate the isogenic ATXN3/Q 14˜75 cell lines by targeting insertion into Flp-In™-293 cells.", "These cell lines were grown in medium containing 5 μg/mL blasticidin and 100 μg/mL hygromycin (InvivoGen).", "In addition, human SH-SYSY-derived Flp-In host cell line was constructed as described, and the SH-SYSY host cells were used to generate isogenic ATXN3/Q 14˜75 lines and maintained as described above.", "ATXN3/Q 75 Aggregation Assay [0040] 293 ATXN3/Q 75 -GFP cells were plated into 96-well (2×10 4 /well) dishes, grown for 24 hours and treated with different concentrations of the P. lactiflora extract (2˜200 μg/mL) or suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA, Cayman Chemical), paeoniflorin (Sigma), gallic acid and albiflorin (Choursomadex) (100 nM˜5 μM) for 8 hours.", "Then, doxycycline (10 μg/mL, BD) was added to the medium in each well to induce ATXN3/Q 75 -GFP expression for 6 days.", "Oxaliplatin (5 μM, Sigma) was also added to increase aggregate accumulation through inhibition of cell division.", "Then, cells were stained with Hoechst 33342 (0.1 μg/mL, Sigma) and aggregation percentage was assessed by HCA system, with excitation/emission wavelengths at 482/536 (EGFP).", "[0041] SH-SYSY ATXN3/Q 75 -GFP cells were seeded in 6-well (2×10 5 /well) plate, with all trans-retinoic acid (10 μM, Sigma) added at seeding time.", "At day 2, cells were treated with paeoniflorin (100 nM) or the P. lactiflora extract (10 μg/mL) for 8 hours, and then doxycycline (5 μg/mL) was added to induce ATXN3/Q 75 -GFP expression.", "The cells were kept in the medium containing 10 μM trans-retinoic acid, doxycycline and paeoniflorin/ P. lactiflora extract for 6 days.", "After that, cells were stained with Hoechst 33342 (0.1 μg/mL) and aggregation percentage was assessed as described.", "[0042] Real-Time PCR [0043] Total RNA from 293 ATXN3 lines was extracted using Trizol reagent (Invitrogen).", "The RNA was DNase (Stratagene) treated, quantified, and reverse-transcribed to cDNA.", "Real-time quantitative PCR experiments were performed in the ABI PRISM® 7000 Sequence Detection System (Applied Biosystems).", "Amplification was performed on 100 ng cDNA with gene-specific TaqMan fluorogenic probes Hs00245259_ml for ATXN3 and 4326321E for HPRT1 (endogenous control) (Applied Biosystems).", "Fold change was calculated using the formula 2 ΔCt , ΔC T =C T (control)−C T (target), in which C T indicates cycle threshold.", "[0044] Western Blot Analysis [0045] Total proteins were prepared using lysis buffer containing 50 mM [0046] Tris-HCl, 150 mM NaCl, 1 mM EDTA, 1 mM EGTA, 0.1% SDS and 0.5% sodium deoxycholate, 1% Triton X-100, and protease inhibitor cocktail (Calbiochem).", "Proteins (25 μg) were separated on 10% SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and blotted onto nitrocellulose membranes by reverse electrophoresis.", "After blocking, the membrane was probed with GFP (1:500 dilution, Santa Cruz) or GAPDH (1:1000 dilution, MDBio) at 4° C. overnight.", "Then, the immune complexes were detected by horseradish peroxidase-conjugated goat anti-mouse IgG antibody (1:5000 dilution, Jackson ImmunoResearch) or goat anti-rabbit IgG antibody (1:5000 dilution, GeneTex) and chemiluminescent substrate (Millipore).", "[0047] Statistical Analysis [0048] For each set of values, data were expressed as the means±standard deviation (SD).", "Three independent experiments were performed and non-categorical variables were compared using the Student's t-test.", "All P-values were two-tailed, with values of P<0.05 considered significant.", "[0049] Results [0050] Construction of 293 Cells Expressing ATXN3/Q 75 Aggregates [0051] In the present example, GFP-tagged ATXN3 C-terminal Q 14˜75 -containing fragment was cloned to establish Flp-In 293 cells with ATXN3/Q 14˜75 -GFP expression in an inducible fashion.", "As shown in FIG. 1A , the GFP antibody detected 40 kDa ATXN3/Q 14 -GFP and 57 kDa ATXN3/Q 75 -GFP proteins in doxycycline (Dox) induced ATXN3 cells.", "Then, as shown in FIG. 1B , ATXN3-RNA levels were examined by real-time PCR using ATXN3-specific probe and primers, and in the presence of Dox, the two ATXN3 lines expressed about 20 times more ATXN3 RNA than in the absence of Dox.", "While the expressed ATXN3/Q 14 was mainly diffused, the expressed ATXN3/Q 75 -GFP formed aggregates in the fluorescence microscopy images (not shown).", "[0052] Extract of P. lactiflora and Constituents [0053] In the present example, the chemical profile of extract was analyzed and quantified by full-spectrum analytic HPLC.", "As shown in FIG. 2A , chromatographic patterns showed peaks at 230 nm corresponding to the retention time compatible with paeoniflorin, gallic acid and albiflorin.", "The amounts of paeoniflorin, gallic acid and albiflorin in extract of P. lactiflora were 2.27%, 0.30% and 0.73%, respectively, corresponding to 47.33 mM, 18.06 mM and 15.16 mM, respectively, in 1 g/mL extract.", "In MTT assays, the results of cytotoxicity, in which the treatment with the extract of P. lactiflora , paeoniflorin, gallic acid, albiflorin and SAHA against human embryonic kidney 293 and human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells treated with for 24 hours, were shown in FIGS. 2B and 2C .", "The histone deacetylase inhibitor SAHA known to reduce SDS-insoluble polyQ aggregates was included for comparison.", "The IC 50 of the P. lactiflora extract, paeoniflorin and albiflori were calculated using the interpolation method.", "Both P. lactiflora extract and its constituents paeoniflorin and albiflorin had an IC 50 higher than the highest concentration tested (>30 mg/mL for P. lactiflora and >1 mM for paeoniflorin and albiflorin), suggesting their very low cytotoxicity.", "[0054] P lactiflora Extract and Paeoniflorin Reduce ATXN3/Q 75 Aggregation on 293 Cell Model [0055] In the present example, the influences of the P. lactiflora extract and paeoniflorin in the ATXN3/Q 75 -GFP cells were respectively examined.", "After 6 days of the treatment of doxycycline and oxaliplatin, the fluorescence microscopy images were observed, and aggregation percentage of ATXN3/Q 75 -GFP cells untreated or treated with P. lactiflora (10 μg/mL), as well as paeoniflorin, gallic acid, albiflorin and HDAC inhibitor SAHA (100 nM) was assessed by high-content compound screen system.", "The result was shown in FIG. 3 , in which SAHA served as a control of reducing the ATXN3/Q 75 aggregation.", "Referring to FIG. 3 , HDAC inhibitor SAHA reduced the ATXN3/Q 75 aggregation to 85% (at 100 nM) as compared to untreated cells.", "While gallic acid did not display good aggregation-inhibitory potential (90˜95% at 100 nM˜1 μM), P. lactiflora (81˜82% at 2˜50 μg/mL), paeoniflorin (73% at 100 nM) and albiflorin (78% at 5 μM) had greater aggregation reduction potential than SAHA.", "The IC 50 cytotoxicity/effective (reduced the ATXN3/Q 75 aggregation to 85% or lower) dose ratio of SAHA, paeoniflorin, albiflorin and extract of P. lactiflora are 3800, >10000, >200 and >15000, respectively.", "Accordingly, paeoniflorin was regarded as a major active component for the aggregation inhibition in P. lactiflora.", "[0056] P lactiflora Extract and Paeoniflorin Reduced ATXN3/Q 75 Aggregation on SH-SY5Y Cell Model [0057] FIG. 4A shows Western blot analysis of protein expression in ATXN3/Q 75 -GFP SH-SY5Y cells induced by doxycycline, wherein GFP-tagged 40˜57 kDa ATXN3/Q 14˜75 protein in Dox-induced SH-SY5Y cells can be seen.", "Then, ATXN3/Q 14˜75 SH-SY5Y cells were differentiated using trans-retinoic acid, and it can be found that the induced ATXN3/Q 75 formed aggregates in about 1% neuronal cells.", "Referring to FIG. 4B , the treatment of paeoniflorin or P. lactiflora led to 21% to 16% of aggregation reduction (P=0.013˜0.035) in ATXN3/Q 75 expressed neuronal cells.", "[0058] Accordingly, these above results confirmed the aggregation-inhibitory effect of paeoniflorin and P. lactiflora in differentiated neurons.", "It is to be understood, however, that these examples are for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention.", "[0059] In summary, the pharmaceutical composition provided by the present invention can efficiently inhibit spinocerebellar ataxia, give assistance to the treatment of spinocerebellar ataxia and slow down disease progression in Chinese herbal medicine therapy, thereby rendering better quality of life to patients.", "[0060] Although the present invention has been explained in relation to its preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that many other possible modifications and variations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as hereinafter claimed." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to improving performance of and controlling oxide of nitrogen (NOx) emissions from a motor-generator set comprising a turbocharged diesel engine used to drive an electrical power generating machine.", "Turbocharged internal combustion engines may produce significant quantities of NOx emissions due to high combustion temperatures and incomplete burning of the petroleum-based fuel.", "These NOx emissions are harmful to the environment and to human health.", "Many localities have legislated limits on stationary motor-generator set NOx emissions, preventing installation of useful machines.", "Engineers have developed a number of systems which inject water or water-containing solutions into the combustion chambers of an engine to reduce NOx emissions and/or improve engine performance.", "Water injection inhibits formation of high-temperature pollutants such as NOx because the combustion process takes place at lower temperatures and the water also displaces a small amount of the air previously available for formation of NOx.", "Water injection produces some additional advantages.", "The fluid absorbs heat within the combustion chamber and provides for an even burning rate to prevent, or at least minimize, detonation of the fuel charge in the combustion chamber.", "In addition, the fluid diminishes the accumulation of carbon deposits in the combustion chambers.", "As an example of a prior-art water injection system, U.S. Pat. No. 4,424,676 to Meiners discloses a system which injects a water-alcohol-air mixture into the engine intake air stream through nozzles at the outlet side of a turbocharger compressor.", "This system responds to manifold pressure rather than to any direct engine load measurement and is primarily designed to improve engine performance rather than to reduce NOx emissions.", "U.S. Pat. No. 4,440,116 to Stevenson shows a similar system.", "U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,401,059 and 4,300,483 to Goodman et al.", "shows another water and air injection system responding to pressure in the intake manifold and/or engine speed.", "This system provides a continuously varying fluid injection rate, and is designed to reduce NOx emissions in a non-turbocharged engine.", "U.S. Pat. No. 4,311,118 to Slagle shows a water injection system adaptable to different diesel engines which provides a constant water injection flow rate above certain engine speed, throttle, and oil pressure settings to achieve known benefits.", "Other water injection systems that are even less similar to the present invention are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,834,359 (Ando) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,279,223 (Csonka).", "None of these systems are optimal for use in a stationary turbodiesel motor-generator set because pollution control on a stationary turbodiesel motor-generator set presents different problems than pollution control on other diesel engines such as vehicle engines.", "A generator engine operates at constant speed, and the load varies with the amount of power being generated.", "Most other diesel engines are operated at speeds and loads which vary depending on many factors.", "The systems described above for water injection were generally designed for vehicle engine systems, and some include means for dynamically varying the rate of water injection.", "These systems are more expensive than necessary and in fact do not produce optimal results in turbodiesel power generation systems.", "In particular, these variable flow systems may at some times inject more water than necessary into the intake air stream, resulting in poor engine operation, poor fuel economy, and waste of expensive distilled water, or these systems may not activate at the proper time to maintain NOx emissions within required levels.", "Further, the systems known in the art require complex, costly, and relatively unreliable sensors such as pressure sensors.", "Some systems actually use several sensors of different types, multiplying the number of potential breakdown points.", "Diesel motor-generator sets are normally used in continuous operation, and it is undesirable to shut the engine down to service the water injection system.", "There is a need for a simple, inexpensive, and reliable system which will allow turbodiesel power generation units to meet applicable emissions requirements.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is known that NOx emissions increase with increased engine loads.", "The inventors have discovered that the engine load in a motor-generator set can be measured most cheaply and effectively by measuring the power output of the attached generator.", "After determining the power output beyond which emissions exceed allowable levels, it is thus possible to provide an inexpensive system which injects water into the combustion chambers at a constant rate above a specified engine load.", "Further, this system can be easily adapted to a variety of engine-generator combinations, it being necessary only to adjust the activation set point and water flow rate to meet the requirements of each engine-generator combination.", "Therefore, it is a general object of this invention to provide a novel method and system for controlling NOx emissions in a turbocharged diesel-fueled motor-generator set, which will reduce engine emissions, improve engine performance, and increase the lief of the engine, in addition to providing other advantages.", "More specifically, it is an object of the present invention to provide a novel and unique fluid injection system and method by which fluid is injected at a continuous measured rate into an engine intake air stream, wherein the system is activated when the power output of the generator driven by the engine exceeds a specified level.", "It is another object of the present invention to provide a novel and unique engine intake air stream fluid injection system for motor-generator sets which is activated by a current-responsive relay in the generator switchgear when the generator load exceeds a specified value.", "A further object of the present invention is to provide a novel and unique engine intake air stream fluid injection system for motor-generator sets which is readily adapted to control engine emissions of a variety of motor-generator combinations.", "The present invention achieves these and other objects by providing a system for regulating the emissions output of a diesel engine having a turbocharger compressor and driving an electrical generator having controlling switchgear.", "A current-activated relay located in the generator switchgear becomes activated when the current output of the generator exceeds a predetermined value that corresponds to a permissible emissions level.", "The output of the relay activates a motor starter which controls a rotary vane pump.", "The pump draws distilled water from a water tank, forcing the water through a particle strainer, an adjustable flow regulator, a solenoid, a flow meter, and backflow check valves, to water injection nozzles located in the combustion airstream immediately after the turbocharger compressor.", "The nozzles provided include fine-mesh strainers and atomize the water to 100 micron particle sizes, and distribute the water particles in an 85-degree spray cone pattern.", "The resulting system is both reliable and cost-effective, and is readily adaptable to a variety of engine and generator combinations by modifying the current relay trip point and adjusting the flow regulator.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of the fluid flow control elements of a preferred embodiment of the present invention;", "FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the engine airflow intake elements of an engine showing the mounting of the fluid spray nozzles;", "and FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of the electrical control components of a preferred embodiment of the present invention.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The method and the system which effectively employs the method of the present invention may be applied generally to electrical power generation sets comprising an internal combustion engine and an electrical power generator.", "These devices are commonly known as motor-generator sets, gensets, or generator sets, and may form part of a cogeneration installation.", "For example, the system and method described herein may be applied to a motor-generator set such as a Cummins KTTA50 GCl stationary power generation unit which includes a sixteen-cylinder turbocharged diesel-fueled engine and a 950-kilowatt generator.", "The system includes both fluid flow control elements and electrical controls;", "the construction and operation of the fluid flow control elements will be described first with particular reference to FIG. 1 and a motor-generator set of the type mentioned in the preceding paragraph.", "In general, the fluid flow control elements are connected using hollow pipes to form a dedicated system which takes fluid from a water tank 2 and pumps the fluid toward with a V-type engine, for example, a left bank injection nozzle 60 and a right bank injection nozzle 62, where the fluid leaves the system.", "In describing the system, reference will be made to forward and reverse flow as well as to upstream and downstream directions.", "It will be understood that forward flow refers to the normal fluid flow in the system from water tank 2 toward nozzles 60 and 62, and that the nozzles 60 and 62 are downstream from the water tank 2.", "Reverse flow will be used to describe any flow in the direction from the nozzles 60 and 62 toward the water tank 2, the water tank 2 being upstream from the nozzles 60 and 62.", "Finally, while the system will be described in term s of water injection, any other suitable fluid such as a water-alcohol or water-ammonia solution could be used.", "Referring now to FIG. 1, the water tank 2 holds, for example, 500 gallons of water.", "This water is preferably distilled or deionized so as to prevent introduction of foreign material which may lead to corrosion or formation of deposits in the engine.", "The water tank 2 is connected by a pipe 6 to a conventional service shutoff valve 4 which may be opened and closed to respectively allow or prevent flow of water from the water tank 2 through pipe 6.", "The service shutoff valve 4 will ordinarily be left in the open position, but is provided so that the fluid transfer connection between water tank 2 and other portions of the system can be closed if it becomes necessary to remove and replace a system element.", "The service shutoff valve 4 is connected by a pipe 8 to the intake of a rotary vane pump 10.", "The rotary vane pump 10 may be of any appropriate design, but is preferably an electrically-operated positive-displacement type pump.", "For the Cummins KTTA50 engine, one appropriate pump is a Procon 2603, which is a one-half horsepower, 230 volt alternating current, 4.9 Ampere pump.", "The pump is preferably an on-off type that either operates to produce full rated pressure or is turned off, depending on the presence or absence of power from the control circuit, which will be described later in greater detail.", "The output of rotary vane pump 10 is connected to a pipe 12, which is connected by a T-fitting 14 to pipes 16 and 22.", "The pipe 16 is connected to a relief valve 18 having an outlet pipe 20 which drains into water tank 2.", "The relief valve 18 is preferably set to open when the pressure in pipe 16 exceeds 150 pounds per square inch (psi).", "Because the pump 10 is capable of producing pressures greater than 300 psi, the relief valve must provide a continuous bypass when the pump is running to maintain system pressure at 150 psi.", "Pressurized fluids released from the system through the relief valve will flow through the open relief valve 18 and through outlet pipe 20, thus draining back into water tank 2.", "One appropriate relief valve is a model 6815-1/2-AL-300 sold by Spraying Systems Co. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the pump 10 and relief valve 18 described work together to produce the optimum and desired system pressure of 150 psi.", "Because of the need for reliability in generator set applications, an industrial-grade pump must be used.", "In addition, the fluid injection system of the present invention w ill not produce smooth water injection spray unless system pressure is rigidly controlled.", "The combination of a large-capacity pump 10 and relief valve 18 provides reliability and system water pressure control which are superior to the reliability and pressure control of a lower-capacity pump operating alone.", "The pipe 22 is connected to a conventional service shutoff valve 24, which is normally open but may be closed during servicing of the system to eliminate the fluid transfer connection between the elements upstream of service shutoff valve 24 (including rotary vane pump 10 and water tank 2) and the elements downstream of service shutoff valve 24.", "When closed at the same time, the service shutoff valves 4 and 24 cooperate to remove the rotary vane pump 10 and relief valve 18 from fluid transfer connection with the other elements of the system, so that the pump 10 or valve 18 can be removed and replaced.", "The service shutoff valve 24 is connected to a pipe 26 which is connected to a conventional strainer 28.", "The strainer 28 is designed to catch any particulate matter trapped in the fluid, and preferably contains a 100-mesh filter element.", "The downstream side of strainer 28 is connected to one end of a pipe 30 which connects at its other end to the upstream side of a conventional flow regulator 32.", "The flow regulator 32 should be readily adjustable to allow various uniform downstream fluid flow rates between zero and one gallon per minute.", "The flow regulator will be set for a particular fluid flow rate.", "The fluid flow rate is chosen for the particular engine-generator combination in use so as to inject at least the amount of water required to maintain engine NOx emissions within regulatory guidelines at full generator load.", "The fluid flow rate is also chosen to be low enough so that the injected water spray will vaporize in the engine air intake stream prior to induction into the combustion chamber.", "For the Cummins engine-generator combination described previously, the water injection system m ay be set to inject approximately one half gallon of water per minute at generator loads greater than 800 kilowatts.", "The downstream side of flow regulator 32 is connected to one end of a pipe 34, the other end of the pipe 34 being connected to the upstream side of injector solenoid valve 38.", "The injector solenoid valve 38 is preferably electrically operated and is connected to circuitry which opens the valve 38 when the rotary vane pump 10 is running.", "This circuitry will be described later in more detail.", "The circuitry closes injector solenoid valve 38 when the pump 10 is not running.", "The closed valve 38 keeps the pressure generated by the depth of water in water tank 2 from producing a downstream flow in the system when the pump 10 is not functioning.", "The downstream side of the injector solenoid valve 38 is connected to one end of a pipe 40.", "The other end of the pipe 40 is connected to the upstream side of a flow meter 42.", "The flow meter 42 should be capable of displaying flow rates between zero and one gallon per minute.", "The flow meter allows maintenance personnel to verify that the flow regulator 32 is set to produce the proper flow rate to control emissions of the engine-generator combination as previously described.", "If flow regulator 32 needs to be adjusted, the adjustments can be made with reference to the flow meter 42.", "The inclusion of adjustable flow regulator 32 and flow meter 42 in the present system provides particular advantages.", "The flow adjustments enable fine-tuning of water injection system performance on a particular engine, including adjustments to meet changing emissions regulations.", "The flow adjustment capability also allows the same water injection system components to be used on a wide variety of engine-generator combinations.", "Thus, economies of scale can be realized in manufacture of the system, and new water injection systems need not be designed for new engine-generator combinations or engine-generator combinations existing in the field.", "The downstream side of flow meter 42 is connected to pipe 44, which is connected by a T-fitting 46 to pipes 48 and 50, which are connected to the upstream sides of check valve 54 and check valve 52, respectively.", "Check valves 54 and 52 are connected to pipes 56 and 58, respectively, which are connected at their other ends to the left bank water injection nozzle 60 and the right bank water injection nozzle 62 respectively.", "The check valves 54 and 52 allow downstream flow during operation of the pump 10 but close when pressure is greater downstream than upstream to prevent upstream fluid flow, including flow of water or air.", "Thus, when the rotary vane pump 10 is not operating, fluids will not be driven through the system in reverse by pressure in the engine intake stream impinging on the nozzles 60 and 62.", "In addition, because the check valves 54 and 52 are spring-biased to close when downstream pressure is minimal, they will restrict downstream flow when the pump 10 is not operating.", "Thus, the check valves work in a manner similar to injector solenoid valve 36 in that they prevent water flow through the injection nozzles 60 and 62 when the pump is not operating.", "The location of the check valves in close proximity to the nozzles 60 and 62 ensures a sharp cutoff of the water flow through the nozzles 60 and 62 when the fluid injection system is deactivated.", "Relatively unpressurized water will not drain through the nozzles 60 and 62 into the combustion air stream when pump 10 is not operating.", "This check valve operation also prevents hydraulic locking of the engine during shutdown of the system.", "In the Cummins KTTA50 engine, four turbocharging units are provided, comprising a high-pressure and a low-pressure stage on each of the left and right sides of the V-16 engine.", "Thus, there are two engine air intake streams.", "The water injection nozzles 60 and 62 are, preferably, mounted within a respective one of these two engine air intake streams, downstream from the high-pressure and low-pressure turbocharging compressors and upstream from the combustion chambers of the engine.", "Upon introduction to the combustion air stream, the liquid water sprayed from the nozzles 60 and 62 vaporizes, replacing some of the air in the air stream and cooling the air stream.", "A particular advantage of the present system lies in the placement of the nozzles downstream from the turbo compressors so that the nozzles spray into intake air which is highly compressed and thus heated.", "This compressed intake air is capable of absorbing more water vapor than intake air upstream from a turbocharging compressor or intake air in a non-turbocharged engine.", "The placement of the nozzles downstream from the turbocharging compressors is highly desirable to achieve the required NOx emissions reduction efficiently in the application described.", "The nozzles 60 and 62 are conventional and preferably include fine-mesh backup strainers to catch any solid particles that were not caught by strainer 28 to prevent injection of these particles into the engine intake air stream.", "The nozzles preferably discharge water particles in an 85-degree spray cone pattern with approximately 100-micron water particle size so that the water particles are widely dispersed in the intake air stream.", "One suitable nozzle is a Spraying Systems model number 1/4-LNND-SS14.", "The rotary vane pump 10 and relief valve 18 are chosen in conjunction with the nozzles 60 and 62 so that the system pressure produced by the combination of pump 10 and relief valve 18 works with the configuration and size of nozzles 60 and 62 to produce the desired 100-micron water particle size.", "FIG. 2 shows the mounting of the left bank injector nozzle 60.", "A turbocharger 64 has a circular airstream outlet 66 which is mounted to one end of a connector 68.", "The other end of connector 68 is mounted to a rectangular manifold port 69 of a manifold 70.", "The connector 68 thus forms a transition adapting the circular airstream outlet 66 to the rectangular manifold port 69 and permitting engine intake air to flow smoothly from the turbocharger 64 to the left engine intake manifold 70 as shown by the arrows in the illustration.", "The left bank injection nozzle 60 is mounted on the connector 68 at a right angle to the airflow through connector 68, so that the spray cone water output 71 of nozzle 60 is carried away and vaporized by the airflow through connector 68 and into manifold 70.", "The devices and connections on the left side of the engine, as shown in FIG. 2, are duplicated on the right side of the engine.", "Of course, any number of injection nozzles could be used within the scope of the invention depending on the configuration of the engine used.", "For example, a single injection nozzle could be provided for an inline cylinder engine, or individual injection nozzles could be provided for each cylinder.", "With the on-off pump control described briefly above and the flow regulator 32, the pump 10 can be activated to produce water injection into the engine air intake stream at the specified rate as displayed on flow meter 42.", "When the pump 10 is deactivated, no water injection will occur.", "While the system described can produce only these two alternate results, the system is particularly reliable because it contains few moving or complex parts.", "The parts used also require little regular maintenance.", "The system is much less expensive than systems which provide continuously varying injection rates, and is, therefore, more desirable for power generation applications since the engines involved operate at a constant speed and the generators are usually operated within a narrow load range.", "Thus, despite its simplicity, this fluid flow control system produces accurate and inexpensive water injection rate control suitable for generator sets.", "The method and means for controlling activation of the fluid flow control system just described will now be explained.", "It has been found that the NOx emissions of a turbocharged diesel engine increase with increased engine load.", "The engine load of an engine driving an electrical power generator varies directly with the electrical load on the generator.", "Thus, to maintain NOx emissions within required levels, the fluid flow control devices are activated when the generator power output exceeds a specified activation power level.", "This activation power level is determined experimentally for each motor-generator set by finding the power output level in kilowatts above which the engine violates NOx emissions requirements.", "Then, using well-known equations which vary depending on the generator switchgear configuration, this activation power level may be correlated with a specific current output level of a switchgear transformer.", "This current output level is the setpoint for a current-sensitive relay in the generator switchgear.", "This current-sensitive relay activates the fluid flow control elements when transformer current output exceeds the generator current threshold, i.e. when generator power output exceeds the activation power level.", "While the preferred embodiment measures output current to determine output power, other electrical measurements, such as wattage or voltage, could be used as long as these measurements reflect increased engine load in the specific application.", "The electrical controls which produce these results will now be described in detail with particular reference to FIG. 3. In FIG. 3, a portion of the center section of the diesel generator set switchgear is shown generally at 74.", "The switchgear portion 74 comprises a current transformer 76, a power transformer 78, and a current relay 80 with associated wires and terminals.", "Current relay 80 is equipped with sensing terminals 86, power terminals 90, and output terminals 92.", "In FIG. 3, a motor starter 98 has switch terminals 100, output terminals 102, and auxiliary output terminals 104.", "The output terminals 92 are connected to the switch terminals 100 of motor starter 98 by activating wires 94 which contain disconnect switch 96.", "The motor starter output terminals 102 are connected by wires 106 to the motor of the rotary vane pump 10.", "The motor starter auxiliary output terminals 104 are connected by power wires 108 to the solenoid electrical activator connection 38 of injector solenoid valve 36.", "The windings of the current transformer 76 sense current in one phase of the power generator output.", "The secondary winding of current transformer 76 is connected to terminals 82.", "Current sensing lines 84 are connected between terminals 82 and current relay sensing terminals 86.", "The current transformer 76 used to provide current relay sensing signals is preferably the current transformer already provided in the switchgear 74 for driving power level indicating devices.", "In the Cummins KTTA50 GSl generator set, this current transformer 76 has a primary-to-secondary turns ratio of 4000:5, so that the transformer 76 steps current down by a factor of 800.", "The primary windings of power transformer 78 are connected to an available source of single phase alternating current, such as one phase of the generator output.", "The secondary windings of power transformer 78 are connected to terminals 87.", "The power transformer 78 is selected to produce operating power for the current relay 80 at the voltage required by relay 80.", "In the preferred embodiment, the primary-to-secondary turns ratio of power transformer 78 is 480:120 so that when the primary windings of pow transformer 78 are connected to a 480 volt source, 120 VAC power will be available at terminals 87.", "Terminals 87 are connected by power lines 88 to the current relay power contacts 90.", "The current relay 80 is of conventional design.", "This relay responds to current flowing at sensing terminals 86, energizing the output terminals 92 whenever the current at sensing terminals 86 exceeds an adjustable setpoint.", "The current relay 80 is selected and set so that the output terminals 92 of relay 80 will be energized whenever the generator exceeds a specified power output, and will not be energized below the specified power output level.", "The setpoint of the current relay 80 is chosen in the following manner.", "If the water injection system is to be energized at a generator three phase output power P of 800 kilowatts (the activation setpoint), and the generator produces an output voltage V of 480 VAC, the internal relay contacts should close when the output current I of the generator is 962 amperes, this value being calculated using the formula P=V×I×√3.", "Since generator output current is reduced by a factor of 800 at current relay sensing terminals 86 because of the action of current transformer 76, the current relay 80 should be adjusted to energize output terminals 92 when a current of 962/800=1.2 amperes appears on sensing terminals 86.", "The current transformer 76 and current relay 80 must be selected and adjusted in tandem so that output terminals 92 are energized above the specified generator power output level.", "It will be appreciated that different setpoints for current relay 80 and different turns ratios for current transformer 76 could be used, as long as the new values selected provide proper energizing of current relay output terminals 92 according to the formulae above.", "When the load on the power generator exceeds the specified value, so that water injection must be provided to reduce NOx emissions, the current relay 80 will energize the output terminals 92.", "Provided that the disconnect switch 96 is in its normal closed position, the motor starter 98 will be activated by the signal from output terminals 92 passing through wires 94.", "The motor starter 98 will then provide 240 VAC power to output terminals 102 and auxiliary output terminals 104.", "The motor starter 98 obtains this 240 VAC power from a 240 VAC power source which is wired in a conventional manner through a fused disconnect switch to the motor starter 98.", "Preferably, this 240 VAC power source is available only when the engine of the generator set is running.", "For clarity, the 240 VAC power source and the power source connection to the motor starter are not shown in the drawing figure.", "When the motor starter 98 energizes output terminals 102, operating power is applied to the rotary vane pump 10, so that water is pumped through the water injection system (shown in FIG. 1).", "At the same time, auxiliary output terminals 104 are energized to provide power to injector solenoid valve 36, opening injector solenoid valve 36 to permit pumping of fluid to the nozzles 60 and 62 as was described previously with reference to FIG. 1. Thus, the present invention provides a method for economically and effectively controlling motor-generator set emissions, and further provides a system which implements the method disclosed." ]

[ "This application is a division of application Ser.", "No. 08/294,361 U.S. Pat. No. 5,486,738, filed Aug. 23, 1994, which is a divisional of application Ser.", "No. 07/934,326 U.S. Pat. No. 5,384,456 , filed Aug. 25, 1992.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electroluminescent device (hereinafter referred to as "EL device") for use in a liquid crystal display device or an image sensor for the purpose of generating illumination light, and to the image sensor which employs such an EL device.", "Related Background Art An image processing system such as a facsimile machine, a copying machine, or a computer peripheral device like an image reading apparatus, employs an image sensor for picking up an image or a liquid crystal device for displaying an image.", "With electronic office machines widely in use today, there is a growing need for a compact and low cost image sensor or liquid crystal device.", "One type of image sensor, for example, is the equal magnification image sensor which may be placed in direct contact with an original document in use, without an image formation system included or with an image formation system, if included, having a short optical path.", "In a contact type image sensor with so-called selfoc lens, an illumination system and a sensor system are disposed closely to each other.", "In the above quoted full contact image sensor without lens, a document is illuminated through a glass base plate, and thus a sensor system is even more closely disposed to a light source.", "One of the illumination systems employed in such a device is an LED array.", "To ensure a uniform illumination level across the full width of the document, an LED array must be compactly arranged.", "This increases the cost of the image sensor.", "To achieve a uniform illumination level even with a coarsely arranged array of LED, the illumination system must be placed substantially apart from the document.", "A desirable compact design of the sensor will not be achieved using such an arrangement.", "In view of these requirements, a surface light source EL device may be recognized as a promising candidate as a light source for an image sensor.", "As shown in FIG. 1, for example, an image sensor with an EL device comprises a transparent plate 1 made of glass or the like, wherein the transparent plate 1 supports a photoelectric transfer section formed of a thin film photosensor array 10 made of amorphous silicon (hereinafter referred to as "a-Si") and the like, storage capacitances, and thin film transistors (not shown).", "The transparent plate 1 has, on its top portion, a transparent insulating layer 2 serving as a spacer against an original document.", "An EL device 30 (not shown) is disposed beneath the transparent plate 1.", "The EL device 30 is glued onto the underside of the transparent plate 1 with an adhesive (not shown).", "As an alternative to the adhesive, a clamp member (not shown) may be employed to secure the EL device 30 onto the transparent plate 1.", "The EL device 30 is of a sandwich structure, wherein a metal electrode 32, an insulating layer 33, an EL emission layer 34, an insulating layer 33', and a transparent electrode 35 are stacked in that order from the bottom up onto a substrate 31.", "A protective film 36 covers the sandwich structure of the EL device 30.", "A driving signal is applied between the metal electrode 32 and the transparent electrode 35 (i.e., between terminals O and O'), and light is emitted by the EL emission layer 34 sandwiched between the electrodes.", "The light emitted by the EL emission layer 34 is transmitted through the transparent electrode 35, the transparent plate 1, and the transparent insulating layer 2, and then reaches a document 100.", "Light 50, reflected in response to the image on the document 100, enters the photosensor array 10 of the photoelectric transfer section.", "In response to the incident light, a photoelectric current is generated in the photosensor array 10.", "When an EL device constructed as mentioned above is employed as a source of light in an image reading apparatus, the photoelectric transfer section is disposed close to the metal electrode 32 and the transparent electrode 35, both of which serve as the driving electrodes for the EL device.", "Employed to drive the EL device 30 is a supply voltage with its amplitude ranging from ±100 V to ±250 V, its frequency ranging from 50 Hz to 5 kHz, and its waveform as shown in FIG. 2. An electric field appears between the photoelectric transfer section and the EL device 30, becoming a source of noise affecting signals such as a photoelectric current flowing in the photosensor and a voltage of the storage capacitance.", "Since the level of the signal derived from the photoelectric current is extremely low, the above described noise affects greatly the output signal from the photoelectric transfer section, thereby presenting a difficulty in accurately picking up a line of image data from the document.", "In an attempt to solve the above problem, the inventors of the present invention interposed, between an EL device 30 and a photoelectric transfer section, a transparent conductive layer 40 which is grounded as shown in FIG. 3. This arrangement, however, proved costly.", "The same problem arises in a liquid crystal display apparatus, with noise originating in an EL device disturbing a presented image on its display.", "Apart from the above problem, the design of an image sensor with an EL device is associated with another problem as described below.", "FIG. 4 illustrates a driving circuit for a conventional EL device.", "In the circuit, the EL device is driven by a self-excitement type inverter which outputs a signal with a constant frequency and a constant voltage to a transformer 9.", "Commonly used image sensors employ a CCD type sensor, or a charge storage type sensor made of amorphous silicon or the like.", "The charge storage type sensor integrates, over a unit time, charge in response to picture information containing light, such as light scattered from the surface of a document, stores in a capacitor a corresponding charge and converts this picture information to a voltage level for processing.", "FIG. 5 illustrates a conventional EL device and the circuit of a photoelectric transfer device using an image sensor.", "FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view showing roughly this photoelectric transfer device.", "The image sensor illustrated in FIG. 5 comprises an EL device 30 as a light source, a self-excitement type inverter 20 having a transformer 9, a plurality of storage type photosensors 3 arranged in a row, a sensor driving device 4 and an output signal processing circuit 5.", "Storage type photosensors S1-Sn are arrayed, with n representing the total number of photosensors.", "For example, when n, is set up to give a resolution of 8 pixels/mm, a sheet size of A4 includes 1728 bits of information, and a sheet size of B4 includes 2048 bits of information.", "These photosensors S1-Sn have power supplied by a sensor bias voltage supply 6.", "As shown in FIG. 6, light emitted alternately by the EL device 30 is directed to a document 7, and scattered by the surface of the document in response to the picture information of the document.", "The scattered light 50 then enters the storage type photosensors 3.", "The pulse supplied by the sensor driving device 4 causes SW1-SWn in the storage photosensors 3 to simultaneously be closed.", "Throughout this period, each of capacitors C1 through Cn stores each charge corresponding to the integrated value of each scattered light signal entering each of S1 through Sn.", "After stored charges are converted into voltages, the output signal processing circuit 5 outputs them sequentially to complete a reading operation over a full width of a line.", "In the above-described arrangement where a photoelectric transfer device is made of an EL device, a self-excitement type inverter, storage type reading sensors, a sensor driving device and an output signal processing circuit, integrated values of light quantities of the illumination of the document 111-1, 111-2 and 111-3 suffer variations when a storage timing 112 determined by the sensor driving device fluctuates as shown in FIGS. 7(a)-(c), thereby deteriorating the consistency of the sensors'", "responses.", "As illustrated in FIGS. 8(a)-(c), when the EL device is driven by a signal 110'", "whose frequency is high enough to make insignificant the error caused by fluctuations in the storage timing 112'", "of the reading sensor, the luminance characteristics of the EL device itself deteriorate rapidly, as expressed by the relationship between the driving frequency of the EL device and the resultant luminance of the EL device as in FIG. 9. Also, high frequency component noises develop, adversely affecting a resulting image.", "Furthermore, commonly used self-excitement type inverters are bulky in their volume, and contain a costly transformer.", "This presents a difficulty in implementing a compact and low cost design into an image sensor.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is a first object of the present invention to provide an EL device, an image sensor and a liquid crystal display device, all of which offer better luminance illumination than conventional devices.", "It is a second object of the present invention to provide a compact, low-cost image sensor in which the output of a photoelectric transfer section is not adversely affected by the driving signal for an EL device, and in which the EL device capable of suppressing the effect of noise, even if the EL device is disposed close to the photoelectric transfer section.", "It is a third object of the present invention to provide a compact, low-cost image sensor which is free from storage type sensors'", "inconsistent responses arising from fluctuations in the sensors'", "storage timing and free from the deterioration of luminance output of an EL device in connection with a high driving frequency for light emission.", "It is a fourth object of the present invention to provide an EL device which emits light by applying a voltage between two electrodes between which an EL emission layer is interposed, said EL device comprising a transparent electrode as one of the two electrodes on one side of the EL emission layer, whereby electroluminescence is performed by connecting the transparent electrode to a power supply for a reference voltage and by providing the other electrode with a driving voltage.", "It is a fifth object of the present invention to provide an EL device comprising a first electrode, a second electrode and an EL emission zone, the EL emission zone being made of a first EL emission layer, a second EL emission layer, and a transparent electrode which is interposed between the first EL emission layer and the second EL emission layer, at least either the first electrode or the second electrode being a transparent electrode, whereby the first EL emission layer and the second EL emission layer emit light by having a driving voltage applied to the transparent electrode with both the first electrode and the second electrode connected to a power supply for a reference voltage.", "It is a sixth object of the present invention to provide an image sensor having a light source and a photosensor for receiving light reflected by a document illuminated by the light source, said image sensor comprising: the light source, being an EL device, having a transparent electrode disposed on the light output side of the light source, an electrode opposite to the transparent electrode, and an EL emission layer interposed between the transparent electrode and the opposite electrode;", "voltage supply means connected to the transparent electrode in order to feed a reference voltage to the transparent electrode;", "and driving voltage application means for applying a driving voltage to the opposite electrode.", "It is a seventh object of the present invention to provide an image sensor having a light source and a photosensor for receiving light reflected by a document illuminated by the light source, said image sensor comprising: the light source having a first electrode, a first EL emission layer disposed atop the first electrode, a transparent electrode disposed atop the first EL emission layer, a second EL emission layer disposed atop the transparent electrode, and a second electrode being transparent and disposed atop the second EL emission layer, the light source being an EL device in which light is emitted from the second electrode side;", "voltage supply means connected between the first electrode and the second electrode in order to feed a reference voltage to the first electrode and the second electrode;", "and driving voltage application means for applying a driving voltage to the transparent electrode.", "It is an eighth object of the present invention to provide a liquid crystal device having a light source and liquid crystal elements which selectively transmit light emitted by the light source, said liquid crystal device comprising: the light source, being an EL device, having a transparent electrode disposed on the light output side of the light source, an electrode opposite to the transparent electrode, and an EL emission layer interposed between the transparent layer and the opposite electrode;", "voltage supply means connected to the transparent electrode in order to feed a reference voltage to the transparent electrode;", "and driving voltage application means for applying a driving voltage to the opposite electrode.", "It is a ninth object of the present invention to provide a liquid crystal device having a light source and liquid crystal elements which selectively transmit light emitted by the light source, said liquid crystal device comprising: the light source having a first electrode, a first EL emission layer disposed atop the first electrode, a transparent electrode disposed atop the first EL emission layer, a second EL emission layer disposed atop the transparent electrode, and a second electrode being transparent and disposed atop the second EL emission layer, the light source being an EL device in which light is emitted from the second electrode side;", "voltage supply means connected between the first electrode and the second electrode in order to feed a reference voltage to the first electrode and the second electrode;", "and driving voltage application means for applying a driving voltage to the transparent electrode.", "It is a tenth object of the present invention to provide an image sensor having a light source and a photosensor array for receiving light reflected from a document to be read, capable of storing charge in response to received light, said image sensor comprising: the light source, being an EL device, capable of emitting an alternate light, and an EL device driving circuit of a separate excitation type whose operation is synchronized with an external pulse, the EL device driving circuit employing capacitance components of the EL device itself, whereby the illumination operation by the EL device is synchronized with the reading operation by the photosensor array.", "In an EL device of a type which allows an EL emission layer to emit light by applying a voltage between two electrodes disposed on both sides of the EL emission layer, the EL device according to the present invention is characterized in that the EL emission layer emits light by grounding a transparent electrode which is one of the two electrodes on one side of the EL emission layer, and by supplying a driving voltage to the other electrode.", "In an EL device of a type which comprises a first electrode, a second electrode and an EL emission zone made of a transparent third electrode sandwiched between a first EL emission layer and a second EL emission layer, with the EL emission zone interposed between the first electrode and the second electrode, either or both of the first electrode and the second electrode being transparent, the EL device according to the present invention is characterized in that the first and second EL emission layers emit light by grounding the first and second electrodes, and by applying a driving voltage to the third electrode.", "The image sensor according to the present invention employs the above described EL device.", "According to the present invention, a transparent electrode disposed on one side of an EL emission layer is grounded with the other electrode fed with a driving voltage, so that the grounded electrode works as a shield against noise derived from the driving signal for the EL device, thereby preventing features disposed closely to the EL device from being affected by the noise.", "An image reading apparatus having the above EL device as a light source, may dispense with a noise suppressing member, such as the transparent conductive layer 40 as in FIG. 3. Since the grounded electrode may be readily interposed between the EL device and the photoelectric transfer section, even a low-cost design allows a structure in which the noise derived from the EL device is shut off by the grounded electrode so that the output of the photoelectric transfer section is kept free from the noise.", "According to the present invention, a first electrode, a second electrode and an EL emission zone made of a transparent third electrode sandwiched between a first EL emission layer and a second EL emission layer, are fabricated with the EL emission zone interposed between the first electrode and the second electrode, the first electrode and/or the second electrode are a transparent electrode, both the first and second electrodes are grounded, the third electrode is fed with a driving voltage, and thus, the first and second EL emission layers emit light;", "the noise derived from the EL device is shut off by the grounded electrodes so that the output of the photoelectric transfer section is kept free from the noise.", "Furthermore, since the light, emitted by one EL emission layer, and transmitted through the transparent third electrode, is added to the light emitted by the other EL emission layer, the quantity of output light may be doubled, compared to the prior art.", "An image sensor having the above EL device as a light source, may dispense with a noise suppressing member, such as the transparent conductive layer 40 in FIG. 3. Since the grounded electrode may be readily interposed between the EL device and the photoelectric transfer section, even a low-cost design allows a structure in which the noise derived from the EL device is blocked by the grounded electrode so that the output of the photoelectric transfer section is kept free from the noise.", "Furthermore, in the image sensor, a high luminance characteristic may be achieved in its light source.", "An image sensor, according to the present invention, comprises a light source for directing light to a document to be read, and an image reading sensor for receiving picture information containing light reflected from the document, wherein the image reading sensor is a charge storage type sensor which stores charge in response to the picture information, the light source is an EL device capable of emitting light in an alternate manner, an EL device driving circuit of a separate excitation type whose operation is synchronized with an external pulse is provided, and the EL device driving circuit employs capacitance components of the EL device itself, in order that the illumination operation by the EL device is synchronized with the reading operation by the photosensor array.", "According to the present invention, a separate excitation type, compact EL device driving apparatus capable of performing a synchronizing operation, is constructed by using capacitance components of the EL device itself, in order that the illumination operation by the EL device is synchronized with the reading operation by the storage type sensor;", "thus, the integrated value of the light quantity of a document per storage time may be kept constant.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic cross-sectional view of a conventional image sensor;", "FIG. 2 is a waveform diagram showing the driving signal of the EL device in FIG. 1;", "FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic cross-sectional view of one example of an image sensor;", "FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a self-excitation type inverter of a conventional EL device driving circuit;", "FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating the image sensor having the conventional EL device;", "FIG. 6 is a diagrammatic cross-sectional view of the conventional EL device;", "FIGS. 7(a)-(c) constitute a timing chart illustrating the relationship between the storage timing of the sensor and the light quantity of a document in the conventional image sensor;", "FIGS. 8(a)-(c) constitute a timing chart illustrating the relationship between the storage timing of the sensor and the light quantity of a document, in the image sensor having a high frequency self-excitation type inverter;", "FIG. 9 is a graph showing the relationship between the driving frequency of an EL device and the deterioration of the light quantity of the EL device in an image sensor;", "FIG. 10 is a diagrammatic cross-sectional view of the image sensor incorporating a first embodiment of the EL device, according to the present invention;", "FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram of the first embodiment of the image sensor according to the present invention;", "FIG. 12 is a diagrammatic cross-sectional view of the image sensor incorporating a second embodiment of the EL device, according to the present invention;", "FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating a third embodiment of the image sensor according to the present invention;", "FIGS. 14(a)-(f) constitute a timing chart illustrating the operation of the image sensor in FIG. 13;", "FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating a fourth embodiment of the image sensor according to the present invention;", "FIGS. 16(a)-(f) constitute a timing chart illustrating the operation of the image sensor in FIG. 15;", "and FIGS. 17(a) and 17(b) constitute a timing chart illustrating the operation of the image sensor in FIG. 15.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring now to the drawings, the embodiments of the present invention are described below.", "The present invention should in no way be limited to the specific embodiments disclosed below.", "It will be understood that modifications and changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention as set forth in the appended claims.", "Embodiment 1!", "FIG. 10 is a diagrammatic cross-sectional view of the image sensor incorporating a first embodiment of the EL device, according to the present invention.", "As FIG. 10 and FIG. 1 have several features in common, the same reference numerals are utilized to denote them.", "As shown in FIG. 10, a photosensor element 10 is fabricated by patterning and stacking a nontransparent lower electrode 11 made of a metal, such as A1, serving as a shield by shutting off direct illumination light, an insulating layer 12 made of SiO x , SiN x or the like, a semiconductor layer 13 made of a-Si:H or the like, a doped layer 14 for making an ohmic contact, and main electrodes 15, 16 (a source and a drain), in that order from the bottom on a transparent substrate 1 made of glass or the like.", "When reflected light 50 from a document 100 reaches the semiconductor layer 13 between the main electrodes 15, 16, via a transparent insulating layer 2 and an intermediate resin layer 17, a photoelectric current starts flowing between the main electrodes.", "An EL device 30 is formed of a sandwich structure by stacking a non-transparent metal electrode 32 made of a metal such as A1, an insulating layer 33 made of Y 2 O 3 , SiN x , BaTiO 2 or the like, an EL emission layer 34 made of ZnS:Mn or the like, another insulating layer 33'", "made of the material identical to that of the first insulating layer 33, and a transparent electrode 35 made of ITO, In 2 O 3 , SnO 2 or the like in that order, from the bottom up, on a substrate 31.", "The sandwich structure is then covered with a protective film 36.", "In FIG. 10, an EL driving power supply 20, as a driving voltage application means, provides the metal electrode 32 with a driving signal, with the transparent electrode 35 of the EL device 30 connected to a reference voltage supply V REF at its ground potential side.", "The ground potential level of the transparent electrode 35 is at the same level as the potential level (not shown) of the photoelectric transfer section including the photosensor element 10.", "The above arrangement means that an electrically grounded electrode is disposed between the EL device 30 and the photoelectric transfer section.", "This assures that no electric field is present between the EL device 30 and the photoelectric transfer section, even in the presence of an EL device 30 driving signal of 100-250 V, 50 Hz-5 kHz in the vicinity of the photoelectric transfer section.", "Therefore, there are no sources of noise which could affect signals such as photoelectric currents flowing through the photosensors or voltages developed across storage capacitances.", "Each line of full width of picture information can thus accurately be picked up from the document.", "In this embodiment of the image sensor, light 51 emitted by the light source, after passing through the transparent substrate 1 of the photoelectric transfer section, directly illuminates the document 100, and light 50 reflected and scattered by the document 100 is then received by the photosensor element 10 where the light 50 is converted into an electric signal.", "In this arrangement, the photoelectric transfer section is closest to the document 100, with the EL device 30, functioning as a light source, disposed slightly further away from the document 100.", "For the purpose of minimizing optical transmission loss, an adhesive is employed between the EL device 30 and the transparent substrate 1 of the photoelectric transfer block, securing the EL device 30 in place.", "The refractive index of the adhesive is made nearly equal to that of the transparent substrate 1, so that the possibility of reflection and refraction of illumination light, emitted by the EL 30, at the interface of the transparent substrate 1, is minimized.", "The photoelectric current developed between the main electrodes 15, 16, is picked up as an electric signal by a circuit made of storage capacitances and thin film transistors as shown in FIG. 11.", "A case shown in FIG. 11 is a photoelectric transfer section having nine photosensors.", "In FIG. 11, photosensors S11-S33 are grouped into three blocks, each block having three photosensors, and three blocks make up one photosensor array.", "The photosensors S11-S33 are associated, respectively, with storage capacitances CS11-CS33, and switching transistors T11-T33.", "Each of the switching transistors T11-T33 works in a manner that one photosensor within a block is connected to a photosensor in the next block which has the same serial number counted within that block as that of the first photosensor.", "Thus, as shown in FIG. 11, the electrodes of the identically serial-numbered photosensors are connected together to a common line 101, 102, or 103.", "The operation of the photoelectric transfer section constructed as above is described below.", "Each of the photosensors S11-S33 receives light, and, in response to the intensity of the input light, each of capacitors CS11-CS33 is charged by a power supply 105.", "A first parallel output terminal of a shift register 201 presents a high level output, causing switching transistors T11 through T13 to be conducting.", "With switching transistors T11 through T13 conducting, charges stored in capacitors C11 through C13 are transferred, respectively, to capacitors CL1 through CL3.", "A shift register 203 presents a high level output on its output terminal sequentially, causing switching transistors TS1 through TS3 to sequentially be conducting.", "Picture information picked up in the form of light by the first block of the photosensors is transferred to and stored by capacitors CL1 through CL3, and is then read out by an amplifier 204.", "When the first block's information is read out, a high level signal is applied to a terminal 104, causing switching transistors RS1 through RS3 to be simultaneously conducting.", "This operation allows capacitors CL1 through CL3 to be completely discharged, with their residual charges removed.", "When the residual charges are fully removed from capacitors CL1 through CL3, the shift register 201 shifts providing a high level output at its second parallel output terminal.", "This causes switching transistors T21 through T23 to be conducting, and charges stored in the second block's capacitors CS21 through CS23 are transferred, respectively, to capacitors CL1 through CL3.", "Simultaneously, a shift register 202 provides a high level output at its first parallel output terminal, causing switching transistors R11 through R13 to be conducting, and subsequently removing the residual charges from capacitors CS11 through CS13.", "The discharge operation of the capacitors CS11 through CS13 of the first block is thus performed in parallel with the transfer operation in which the charges stored in the capacitors CS21 through CS23 of the second block are transferred, respectively, to the capacitors CL1 through CL3.", "In the same manner as in the first block, each of switching transistors TS1 through TS3 is sequentially switched on as a result of the shifting output of the shift register 203, and the picture information stored in the second block is thus sequentially read out.", "Similarly, the charge transfer operation of the third block is performed in parallel with the discharge operation of the capacitors CS21 through CS23 of the second block.", "The above procedure is repeated.", "In this image sensor embodiment, which remains directly in contact with a document when in use, and which comprises no image formation system, an EL device functioning as a light source is typically disposed close to the photoelectric transfer section.", "The present invention is particularly useful in such an arrangement where noise developed by the EL device could adversely affect the sensor.", "The same is true in an image sensing apparatus with an image formation system, though the image sensing apparatus described above dispenses With any image formation system.", "Embodiment 2!", "FIG. 12 is a diagrammatic cross-sectional view of the image sensor incorporating a second embodiment of the EL device, according to the present invention.", "In FIG. 12, the same reference numerals are utilized to denote identical features used in the first embodiment illustrated in FIG. 10.", "Since the basic structure of the image sensing apparatus in this embodiment remains unchanged from the first embodiment, only an EL device 30 is described below because it is different from that in the first embodiment.", "The EL device 30 is fabricated by stacking an aluminum first metal electrode 32, a first EL emission layer 34-1, made of ZnS:Mn, a transparent third electrode 37, a second EL emission layer 34-2 made of ZnS:Mn like the first EL emission layer 34-1, and a transparent second electrode 35 made of In 2 O 3 or the like in that order, from the bottom up, on a substrate 31.", "The EL device 30 is covered with a protective film 36 made of ethylene trifluoride.", "In the above arrangement, both the metal first electrode 32 and the transparent second electrode 35 are connected to the reference electrode V REF , at its ground potential side.", "An EL driving power supply 20 as a driving voltage application means supplies a high frequency driving signal of 1 kHz, 100 V to the transparent electrode 37 interposed between the first and second EL emission layers 34-1, 34-2.", "An electric field developed by the driving signal is applied to the first EL emission layer 34-1 disposed between the transparent third electrode 37 and the metallic first electrode 32.", "The electric field is also applied to the second EL emission layer 34-2 disposed between the transparent third electrode 37 and the transparent second electrode 35.", "Both the first and second EL layers 34-1, 34-2 therefore emit light.", "About half the quantity of light emitted by the first EL emission layer 34-1 is transmitted through the transparent third electrode 37 and the second EL emission layer 34-2, and then output by the transparent second electrode 35.", "The rest of the light from the first emission layer 34-1 is reflected by the metal first electrode 32, and output by the transparent second electrode 35 after similar transmission through the transparent third electrode 37 and the second EL emission layer 24-2.", "The transparent second electrode 35 thus outputs the combined light, a portion of which is generated by the first EL emission layer 34-1 and the rest of which is generated by the second EL emission layer 34-2;", "thus, even with slight absorption loss by the EL emission layers and other layers considered, a resulting light quantity is almost twice as large as that obtained from a single EL layer construction.", "Since the first and second electrodes 32, 35 on both sides of the third electrode 37 are grounded, no electric field generated by the driving signal escapes outwardly, thereby presenting no electromagnetic interference.", "It may be perfectly acceptable to interpose an insulating layer made of Si 3 N 4 , Y 2 O 3 , SiO 2 or the like between an electrode and an EL emission layer as appropriate, as in the first embodiment, as long as the resulting structure basically agrees with this embodiment.", "To enhance the moisture resistant characteristic of an EL device, a moisture absorption layer may be interposed beneath a protective layer.", "In the same manner as in the first embodiment, the photoelectric current developed between the main electrodes 15, 16 of a photosensor element in FIG. 12 is read out as an electric signal by the electrical circuit made up of storage capacitances and thin film transistors shown in FIG. 11.", "According to the embodiments 1 and 2, as detailed above, grounded electrodes shield members disposed in the vicinity of an EL device from noise generated by an EL device driving signal, suppressing the adverse effect of noise.", "In an image sensor using such an EL device as a light source, the output of the photoelectric transfer section may be kept free from noise generated by the EL device in a structure available at low cost.", "According to the embodiments 1 and 2, by allowing both a first EL emission layer and a second EL emission layer to emit light with a first electrode and a second electrode grounded, and with a third electrode provided with a voltage, noise generated by an EL device is shut off by the grounded electrodes, preventing the noise from adversely affecting the members disposed in the vicinity of the EL device.", "Furthermore, since the light, emitted by one EL emission layer and transmitted through the third electrode, is added to the light emitted by the other EL emission layer, a resulting light quantity is almost twice as large as that of the prior art.", "In an image sensor using such an EL device as a light source, the driving signal of the EL device does not escape outward, presenting no interfering noise to the image sensor.", "A resulting light quantity is almost doubled, substantially enhancing a resulting image.", "As a result, a high S/N ratio image sensor may be fabricated.", "Embodiment 3!", "Referring to the drawings, a third embodiment of the present invention is described below.", "FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram showing the third embodiment of the image sensor according to the present invention.", "In the figure, a separate excitation type EL driver 113 generates an alternating current using the EL device's own capacitor components.", "Monostable multivibrators 114, 115 generate, at the timing of a trigger input, pulses having an appropriate duration determined by the values of C and R. In response to a control signal from a control circuit, a synchronizing signal generator 116 generates a synchronizing signal.", "FIGS. 14(a)-(f) show waveforms of related points of the circuit.", "The operation of this embodiment of the photoelectric transfer section is described below.", "In response to the control signal coming from the control circuit 136, the synchronizing signal generator 116 generates a synchronizing signal 119 illustrated in FIG. 14(a).", "At the timing of the synchronizing signal 119, a pulse generator 117 made of the monostable multivibrator 114, a capacitor C ext and a resistor R ext as shown in FIG. 13, generates an EL driving pulse (120 in FIG. 14) having a duration τ1=C ext R ext , during which the switch SW EL of the separate excitation type EL driver 113 is opened.", "Along with the open and close operations of the switch SW EL , the separate excitation type EL driver develops an alternating electric field 121 in FIG. 14(c), by means of the EL device's own capacitance component C EL , thereby causing the EL device 30 to emit light to illuminate a document.", "Similarly, in response to the synchronizing signal 119, the monostable multivibrator 115 of a sensor driving circuit 118 generates a pulse 123 having a duration τ2=C ext2 ×R ext2 , equal to storage time.", "This pulse 123 causes switches SW 1 -SW n in FIG. 13 to simultaneously open or simultaneously close, thereby allowing charges, generated in response to light 50 reflected from the document, to be stored in capacitors C 1 -C n .", "The charges stored in the capacitors C 1 -C n are then converted, by an output signal processing circuit 5 in FIG. 13, into an output signal whose waveform is indicated at 124 in FIG. 14(f).", "This completes a reading operation of one line of the document.", "A waveform 122 in FIG. 14(d) shows an EL light emission quantity over the document per storage time.", "By means of the synchronizing signal 119, the reading operation on each line of the document is synchronized with the illumination operation of the document, and integrated light quantities 122-1, 122-2 are kept constant.", "As detailed above, in the separate excitation type EL driver 113, using the EL device's own capacitance component C EL as in FIG. 13, a synchronizing operation is readily achieved.", "In a synchronizing operation as above, an EL device 30 is not driven at an unnecessarily high frequency, thereby preventing the EL device from suffering a rapid deterioration in its light emission quantity.", "The above embodiments employ a storage type reading sensor 3 which is made up of a capacitor and a photoelectric device characterized by its variation of resistance in accordance with input light.", "Alternatively, the storage type reading sensor may be formed of a capacitor and a photovoltaic device such as a photodiode.", "Embodiment 4!", "FIG. 15 is a schematic diagram illustrating a fourth embodiment of the image sensor according to the present invention.", "FIGS. 16(a)-(f) and FIGS. 17(a)-(b) illustrate waveforms at related points in the schematic diagram in FIG. 15.", "In this embodiment, a total of "n"", "photosensors arranged in a row, is grouped into "b"", "blocks, each block having "a"", "photosensors.", "Thus, n equals a×b.", "Each block performs its reading operation, i.e., charging operation, at a different timing, from block to block.", "In the same manner as in the embodiment 3, a synchronizing signal 119'", "generated by a synchronizing signal generator 116 causes a pulse generator 117 to output a pulse with a proper duration to a separate excitation type EL driver 113.", "Also, in response to the synchronizing signal 119', a sensor driving circuit 118 feeds a driving pulse with its waveform 123'", "illustrated in FIG. 16(e), to each of the blocks.", "According to such a synchronizing operation, in a burst driving photoelectric transfer device wherein the photosensors on a single line are grouped into a plurality of blocks, each block performing a reading operation at a different timing from the remaining blocks, integrated light quantities 122'-1, 122'-2, 122'-3, 122'-4 are kept constant.", "In the burst driving photoelectric transfer device, when each block has a storage timing 125 in FIG. 17(a), an EL device is activated for light emission during a period (waveform 126) equal to a block storage time divided by an integer number (5 in FIG. 17(b)), and the integrated light quantity of each block is kept constant.", "According to the embodiments 3 and 4, the use of a simple circuit eliminates variations of light quantity due to the storage timing of a storage type reading sensor, and an original picture is thus closely approximated in its reproduction.", "Unlike the prior art, an image sensor according to the present invention employs no costly driving circuit, and suffers no rapid deterioration of EL device light emission.", "Therefore, a compact image pickup device with excellent performance may be fabricated.", "It is noted that, in FIG. 10 and FIG. 12, if the members quoted as reference numerals 1, 2 and 10 are replaced with a known liquid crystal display device or a known liquid crystal shutter, the image sensor may become a liquid crystal display apparatus.", "It is also noted that if the driving method employed in the embodiment 3 or 4 is applied to drive the EL device and the photosensor in the embodiment 1 or 2, an image sensor may be obtained having all the above-mentioned advantages combined." ]

[ "FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to production of a cereal bar.", "More particularly, it relates to production of a cereal bar comprising a pressed mixture including (I) a cereal mixture including ready-to-eat cereal pieces and a first binder, (ii) a filler comprising a plurality of discrete agglomerates in which the agglomerates individually comprise a plurality of particles comprising milk protein product joined together with a second binder;", "wherein the first binder binds the cereal pieces and the agglomerates together.", "The cereal bars of the present invention provide nutritional value without sacrificing taste and flavor, as well as possess a reasonable shelf life during which the texture remains chewy without being sticky, hard, or crumbly.", "Among the more specific benefits and advantages accruing from the invention, moisture migration and protein hydration is essentially confined to the small discrete agglomerates dispersed throughout the bar containing the particles of milk protein product and their binder.", "This aspect of the invention provides and preserves a more desirable texture in the bar over time.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Hand-held cereal bars are well known in the art.", "These portable foods are consumed as a meal substitute or snack.", "These cereal bars ideally would provide nutritional value without sacrificing taste and flavor, as well as possess a reasonable shelf life during which the texture remains chewy without being sticky, hard, or crumbly.", "However, achieving all of these goals has been problematic in the prior cereal bars.", "For instance, a protein source is usually included in the cereal bars for nutritional value.", "However, the use of large amounts of soy proteins in cereal bars tends to impart an undesirable off-flavor.", "Milk protein products generally are more organoleptically acceptable if not beneficial flavor imparting.", "On the other hand, many useful milk protein products are water-soluble.", "Water absorption by or dissolution into water by the milk proteins over an extended period before consumption can lead to moisture migration, protein hydration problems, and hardness over time.", "The prior art has not satisfactorily proposed how to incorporate milk protein products into cereal bars.", "Cereal bars have been known which can contain a dairy protein product in a binder system used as a matrix to form the bar.", "For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 3,431,112 to Durst describes a food bar using a binder providing a structural matrix for discrete edible particles described as cereal particles, in which the binder is obtained as a water-based dispersion including a film-forming ingredient described as nonfat milk solids (e.g., sodium caseinate, among others) that is solubilized in the aqueous binder dispersion that is used in that form or in a spray dried form thereof, in which the binder is then mixed with cereal flakes from which food bars are formed.", "U.S. Pat. No. 4,055,669 to Kelly et al.", "describes high protein fat-occluded food compositions used as a binder to bind together cereal particles in a food or breakfast bar product.", "The binder composition includes protein, fat, and carbohydrate ingredients in which the protein ingredient preferably is either a dairy protein product (e.g., nonfat milk solids or sodium caseinate) or a vegetable protein product.", "The binder composition is prepared by initially preparing a dry blend of the carbohydrate and protein, which is mixed with molten fat at elevated temperature with mixing, and the resulting binder composition is then blended with cereal particles at a blending temperature above the crystallization temperature df the fat in the range of 100–140° F., and the resulting cereal-binder mixture is formed into bar shapes.", "In a preferred embodiment, the resulting crude mixture of molten fat and the dry blend of the carbohydrate and protein is milled to reduce the protein and carbohydrate particle sizes;", "the milled binder composition is then reheated and subjected to further mixing to enhance the fluidity of the mixture, before it is combined with the cereal pieces at the blending temperature above the crystallization temperature of the fat.", "U.S. Pat. No. 4,689,238 to Hitchner describes a composite food product comprising a dual-texture, low water activity binder having at least one-food flavoring material distributed therein, and comprising two binder materials.", "A crisp binder material comprising a whipped protein foam and a protein foam stabilizer and a chewy binder material comprising a gelled solution of gelatin in glycerol were used.", "The crisp binder material is a whipped aqueous solution containing sodium caseinate, soy protein isolate, gelatin, or other proteins that can be foamed from an aqueous solution.", "U.S. Pat. No. 3,903,308 to Ode describes a food bar made by distributing a sweetened low-moisture whole milk product as a binder over a cereal layer of toasted granola cereal.", "The milk product is described as sweetened condensed milk.", "U.S. Pat. No. 3,582,336 to Rasmussen describes cereal particles encapsulated with an oil-milk-sugar mixture in which sufficient cladding constituent can be applied to render the product in fixed bar-like form.", "Cereal and milk bars also are known that have included milk powder as a protein source in a cereal layer or a filling layer.", "For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 3,917,861 to Viera et al.", "describes a laminated, multi-phase food bar including a cereal-binder mixture forming a cereal layer on at least one side of a filling layer.", "The cereal-binder mixture has cereal particles bonded together by a fat-based binder system consisting essentially of a triglyceride-sugar matrix and colloidal silicon dioxide particles used as a fat gelling agent.", "The cereal layer is laminated on one or both sides of a filling layer that contains triglyceride-hydrogenated vegetable oil, colloidal silicon dioxide, and sugar.", "A protein source, such as soy protein isolate or extract and egg whites may be included in the cereal and/or filling layers for nutritional balance.", "The '861 patent describes a bar including 5 and 20 parts by weight dry milk solids, sodium caseinate and/or soy bean extract.", "WO 0122835 A1 to Froseth et al.", "describes a cereal bar that includes two outer cereal layers, and an inner milk filling layer including milk powder as an ingredient.", "Protein nuggets are dispersed with RTE cereal pieces in the cereal layers.", "The nuggets are described as high protein rice pieces and texturized vegetable protein made from soybeans.", "U.S. Pat. No. 4,543,262 to Michnowski describes a high protein, low or no lactose snack bar having a core composed of a corn syrup, a confectioner's coating material which is normally solid at room temperature, a wetting agent, a vitamin and mineral premix, at least one high carbohydrate content source, and at least one high protein content source such as caseinate, soy protein, and others.", "A chocolate surface coating and a granular granola topping are then applied.", "Cereal bars are also known that are made without milk products.", "For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 3,821,443 to Halladay et al.", "describes a cereal bar containing at least one filling layer composed of an oil normally liquid at body temperature, sugar, and a synergistic combination of protein source, such as soy protein and egg white solids.", "U.S. Pat. No. 4,451,488 to Cook et al.", "describes a food bar combining at least two different polyhydric alcohols in varying ratios comprising a sugar alcohol and either glycerol or propylene glycol with dry ingredients, shortening, and sugar.", "U.S. Pat. No. 6,303,163 to Wu describes a process for preparing a hand-held snack item in which a first edible, heat-sensitive food material to an initial formed hand-held food item selected from a granola bar, cereal bar, grain cake, or breakfast bar, to form a preliminarily coated food item, to which a second edible food coating material is applied which protects the first edible, heat sensitive material during a subsequent heat treatment conducted at from about 35–350° C. None of the above-listed references describes cereal and milk bars that include a system for confining moisture migration and protein hydration to discrete sites distributed throughout the bar.", "The present inventive method and product thereof significantly reduces, and in some cases essentially eliminates, the problems and shortcomings of the prior practice by including particulates within a cereal bar that effectively confine moisture migration and protein hydration so that the bar retains a more desirable texture over time, among other benefits.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to production of a cereal bar that comprises a pressed mixture including (I) a cereal mixture including ready-to-eat (RTE) cereal pieces and a first binder and (ii) a filler comprising a plurality of discrete agglomerates wherein the agglomerates individually comprise a plurality of particles comprising milk protein product joined together with a second binder, wherein the first binder binds the cereal pieces and the agglomerates together.", "The cereal bars of the present invention provide nutritional value without sacrificing taste and flavor, as well as possess a reasonable shelf life during which the texture remains chewy without being sticky, hard, or crumbly.", "As such, the cereal bars of the present invention are portable, shelf life-stable foods that can be used as a meal substitute, supplement, or snack food.", "Among the more specific benefits and advantages accruing from the invention, moisture migration and protein hydration is essentially confined to the small discrete agglomerates dispersed throughout the bar containing the particles of milk protein product and their binder.", "This provides and preserves a more desirable texture in the bar over time.", "In one preferred embodiment of this invention, a cold-pressed cereal bar is produced having baked or unbaked particulate inlays made of agglomerates containing particles of water-soluble, lactose-containing milk protein product bound together by a binder.", "One exemplary agglomerate composition contains NFDM, milk protein concentrate (MPC), and/or milk protein isolate as the milk protein product, and glycerine as the agglomerate binder.", "The agglomerates optionally can be baked to a preferred water activity (A w ) value of less than about 0.5.", "The agglomerates also can optionally include other milk product ingredients such as fat-free or essentially fat-free cream cheese products to intensify the flavor of the agglomerates.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a cereal bar and methods of its production, in which the cereal bar includes a cereal mixture containing ready-to-eat (“RTE”) cereal pieces and a filler bound together with a binder system, in which the filler comprises a plurality of discrete agglomerates wherein the agglomerates individually comprise a plurality of particles comprising milk protein product joined together with a binder.", "The cereal bar of the present invention is a “finger food”", "that is flavorful and chewy, and it may be eaten by hand without leaving substantial residues on the hands or other surfaces to which it comes into contact.", "Moisture migration and protein hydration is essentially confined to the small discrete agglomerates dispersed throughout the bar containing the particles of milk protein product and their binder.", "This provides and preserves a more desirable texture in the cereal bar.", "The filler part of the cereal bar mixture has agglomerates that are prepared in advance of the admixture of the filler part with the cereal mixture ingredients.", "The ingredients of the agglomerates include a milk protein product powder and binder that are mixed and formed into a particulate in which each discrete agglomerate comprises a cluster of milk protein product particles adhered together with a binder to form a self-supporting composite particle.", "As such, the agglomerates each contain a plurality of solid (non-solubilized) milk protein particles bound together with a suitable binder that will hold the particles together as a small composite cluster.", "The agglomerates generally have an average size of from 1 to 10 mm, and more specifically from 3 to 5 mm.", "For purposes herein, a “binder”", "refers to a material that essentially acts as an “edible glue”", "for combining and holding together relatively dry ingredients as a self-supporting body.", "Preferably, the agglomerate binder is also a water absorptive binding material.", "In the present invention, the binder used in forming the agglomerates preferably includes a polyhydric alcohol, such as, for example, glycerine, sorbitol, and/or mannitol, individually or in combinations thereof.", "The binder, such as glycerine, is generally used to make the high protein content bar stay soft and pliable, and thus chewy, by trapping water in the bar at the agglomerates.", "Shortening, such as vegetable shortening, also can be included in the agglomerate formulation as a binder.", "Carbohydrates, gelatin, and egg solid products also can be included in the binder.", "The agglomerate binder is used in sufficient amounts that the agglomerates will retain their self-supporting integrity during production of the cereal bar and its shelf life, and provide the water activity property desired, as described in more detail below.", "The amount of binder needed or useful for providing these properties can vary depending on the combinations of milk protein products and binding materials being used for a particular application.", "In general, the agglomerates individually may comprise about 10 to about 70 percent of a plurality of particles comprising milk protein product selected from the group consisting of non fat dry milk, milk protein concentrate, milk protein isolate, individually or any combination thereof, bound together with about 5 to about 60 percent of a binder.", "Once formed, the agglomerates can be baked to obtain a desired water activity A w of about 0.5 or less.", "Higher water activities can result in the agglomerates, and hence the bar as a whole, becoming too soft and less chewy in texture and mouthfeel.", "Higher water activities are also undesirable due to migration problems occurring between discrete food components having higher water content to food components of lower water content within the product, leading to loss in texture and/or flavor.", "The present invention significantly inhibits, and in some cases effectively eliminates, this water migration problem.", "Alternatively, unbaked agglomerates can be formulated to include supplemental ingredients such as humectants or additional small molecular weight materials to attain the desired water activity of about 0.5 or less.", "The milk protein products are selected based on the balance of nutritional value, e.g., protein content and/or calcium advantage, and flavor or other organoleptic attributes desired to be introduced by this ingredient.", "Examples of useful milk protein products that can be obtained in particle or powder form that are suitable for use in agglomerate production according to this invention include, for example, non fat dry milk, milk protein concentrate, milk protein isolates, casein, caseinates, milk protein hydrolysates, whey protein concentrates, whey protein isolates, individually or any combination thereof.", "For purposes herein, “non fat dry milk”", "or “NFDM”", "refers to a powder product obtained by removing water from pasteurized skim milk by drying (e.g., spray drying).", "NFDM often has a protein content of about 35 percent on a dry basis.", "The NFDM can be instant (i.e., agglomerated) or non-instant (i.e., regular).", "“Milk protein concentrate”", "or “MPC”", "refers a powder product containing about 42 to about 85 percent protein content on a dry basis produced from pasteurized skim milk by processes such as ultrafiltration, evaporation, and/or drying.", "“Milk protein isolate”", "or “MPI”", "refers a powder product containing greater than about 85 percent protein content on a dry basis produced from pasteurized skim milk by processes such as ultrafiltration, evaporation, and/or drying.", "“Casein”", "is commercially made from pasteurized skim milk by precipitation by acid, or by coagulation by rennet, followed by water washing and drying.", "Rennet casein usually contains about 89 percent protein content, while acid casein usually contains about 95 percent protein content.", "Neutralization of casein provides caseinate salts.", "“Caseinate salts”", "usually contain about 94 percent protein content.", "“Whey protein concentrates”", "or “WPC”", "are obtained from whey by processes such as ultrafiltration, evaporation, and/or drying.", "WPC usually contains about 34 to about 80 percent protein content.", "Also, “co-precipitates”", "of casein and whey proteins also have been conventionally made by adding calcium chloride or dilute acid to skim milk and heating the mixture to precipitate those substances.", "Co-precipitates usually contain about 89 to about 94 percent protein content.", "“Milk protein hydrolysates”", "are produced by enzymatic hydrolysis of casein, WPC, or MPI.", "Therefore, for purposes herein, “milk protein product”", "refers to one or more sources of milk proteins obtained from skim milk.", "Such sources of milk proteins include, for example, NFDM, MPC, MPI, casein, caseinates, hydrolysates, whey protein concentrates, and whey protein isolates, used individually or in combinations thereof.", "The fat content of these above-named milk protein content sources is relatively low.", "The fat content is generally less than about 2 percent for these products, other than WPC 34 or higher, which is about 3 to about 5 percent.", "Thus, these milk protein products have high nutritional value without adding high fat content.", "The lactose content of NFDM is about 52 percent;", "about 46 to about 4 percent for MPC 42 to MPC 80, respectively;", "and about 51 to about 4 percent for WPC 34 to WPC 80, respectively.", "Thus, these milk protein products in particular retain significant lactose content that can impart beneficial natural flavoring to a cereal bar.", "As generally known, since NFDM, MPC, MPI, and WPC production does not alter the proteins, they are soluble in water.", "By contrast, the processes used to make acid and rennet casein result in casein products which are insoluble in water.", "Caseinates, which are typically provided as salts of potassium or calcium are rendered water soluble by the neutralization treatment.", "Co-precipitates are water insoluble unless treated with neutralizers similar to that used for producing caseinates.", "However, since whey proteins are denatured during production of co-precipitates, the whey protein portion of the co-precipitates may remain incompletely soluble even after treatment with neutralizers.", "This invention is particularly well-suited for incorporating water soluble milk protein products having some lactose retained but relatively low fat content, such as NFDM and/or MPC, into a cereal bar in way in which the proteins are not prematurely hydrated during production.", "Such cereal bars generally have shelf lives of at least about 12 months under ambient storage conditions.", "In accordance with this invention, the introduction of the milk protein products in the form of agglomerates containing a water scavenging binder like glycerine achieves this goal.", "The agglomerates also can be formulated with additional functional additives and flavorings such as a dairy filler product such as fat-free or essentially fat-free cream cheese products, emulsifiers, salt, sugar, and the like.", "In one preferred embodiment, a fat-free or essentially fat-free cream cheese product can be used as the major component of the agglomerate formulation while the milk protein product(s) and binder are minor components thereof, yet used in sufficient amounts to provide their respective functions as described above.", "The agglomerates are premixed with ready-to-eat (“RTE”) cereal pieces to provide a uniform dry mixture.", "The resulting dry mixture is mixed with a binder system for the aggregate cereal bar mixture in sufficient amounts and manner to extensively distribute binder over the agglomerates and RTE cereal pieces.", "The resulting bar composition is cold pressed (i.e., pressed at or near room temperature) and cut into bar shapes.", "The resulting bars can be packaged in a conventional or otherwise suitable manner for such products.", "The ready-to-eat (“RTE”) cereal can contain any known or suitable RTE cereal, such as, for example, any type of Post Selects™, Cheerios®, Chex®), Wheaties®, Total®, Rice Crispies™, Cap'n Crunch™, K-Sentials™, and so forth, individually or in a combination thereof.", "The RTE cereal used in the present invention is not, however, limited to commercially available cereals.", "The RTE cereal is added as whole or crushed pieces, or a combination thereof.", "Crushed cereal pieces generally have a particle size of greater than about 30 mesh and less than about 6 mesh.", "The binder system used for the cereal mixture preferably includes a polyhydric alcohol, such as those previously described as being suitable for the agglomerate binder, alone or in combination with a carbohydrate-based binder such as, for example, one or more of corn syrup, corn syrup solids, molasses, honey, and the like.", "In this way, the binder system includes binding materials that also lend sweetening flavor to the cereal mixture.", "Other binding materials also can be included such as gelatin, hydrolyzed collagen, egg solids, and so forth.", "The cereal mixture, which is considered herein as comprising the RTE cereal pieces and binder system, generally comprises about 25 to about 75 percent RTE cereal pieces, and about 15 to about 60 percent binder system.", "In one preferred embodiment, the binder system introduced via the cereal mixture includes glycerine and corn syrup products, such as, for example, about 5 to about 15 percent glycerine, and about 20 to about 60 percent corn syrup-containing products.", "The cereal mixture and filler agglomerates are generally combined in about a 2:1 to about 4:1 ratio, respectively, and more particularly in about a 3:1 ratio, respectively.", "Vegetable oils and/or vegetable shortenings also can be included in the cereal mixture as binders and/or film formers.", "Soy lecithin can be included to adjust the fluidity of the cereal mixture/filler mixture to a desirable level.", "A sweetener can be added to the cereal mixture and/or the agglomerate formulation.", "The sweetener preferably is a carbohydrate-based sweetening material including mono-, di-, and polysaccharides and their derivatives.", "Suitable sweeteners include, for example, corn syrup, corn syrup solids, corn sweetener, sucrose, fructose, honey, molasses, malt syrups, starches, lactose, dextrose, maltose, maltodextrins, individually or in any combinations thereof.", "Other food-flavoring additives can be included in the cereal mixture and/or filler such as, for example, salt, spices, herbs, vanilla, cocoa, chocolate, cinnamon, cheese solids, fruit particles, nuts, seeds, candies, coconut, and so forth.", "Non-flavoring additives also can be included in the cereal mixture, such as vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, excipients like calcium carbonate, and so forth.", "Such additives can be included to the extent they do not introduce objectionable flavors or adversely impact the texture or water activity properties or processability of the cereal bar.", "Generally, such additives are added at levels of less than about 5 percent.", "In a preferred embodiment, no water or milk is separately added as an ingredient to the agglomerate or cereal mixture formulations.", "The mixture of the cereal mixture and filler is pressed, preferably cold-pressed (i.e., at ambient temperatures without heating the mixture or platens) sufficient to compact the mixture into a consolidated mixture of substantially uniform thickness.", "The compression can be applied by spreading the mixture onto a leveled surface and applying compression from above.", "Any convenient suitable means can be used in this respect, such as by a mold, pressure platen or platens, a compression roller or rollers, or a conveyor belt.", "The compression treatment will increase the density of the mixture.", "For example, the compression may increase the density of the mixture by about 25 to 150 percent.", "In one exemplary non-limiting embodiment, the compression increases the density of the mixture from about 0.2 to about 0.4 g/cc before compression to about 0.45 to about 0.65 cc after compression.", "The cereal bar can be formed in any suitable shape, size and thickness.", "It can have a regular or irregular geometric shape.", "Regular geometric shapes include, for example, rectangular, square, circular, or oval cross-sections.", "The bar also optionally can be formed including a continuous milk filling layer, a topping layer, or a coating, such as, for example, the types illustrated in WO 01/22835, which descriptions are incorporated herein by reference.", "Although not limited thereto, the cereal bars may be cut into sizes having a weight of about 20 g to about 100 g. The cereal bars can be packaged in any suitable manner.", "In one embodiment, the bars are individually wrapped such as in conventional flexible metallized film known in the art and used for this general purpose.", "The individually wrapped bars can be packaged in a secondary container, or a plurality of wrapped bars can be packaged in a common secondary container or carton.", "The following examples are intended to illustrate the invention and not to limit it.", "Unless otherwise indicated, all percentages, ratios, or parts used in the present specification are by weight.", "All patents and other publications cited in the present specification are hereby incorporated by reference.", "EXAMPLE 1 This example illustrates the production of a cereal bar containing baked, milk protein product-containing chips according to an embodiment of this invention.", "A milk filler composition was prepared by mixing the ingredients indicated in Table 1 into a uniform mixture.", "TABLE 1 Milk Filler Ingredient Percent Cheesekake Blend ® 1 58.7 Powdered Sugar (6x) 9.4 Shortening 2 4.7 Glycerine 4.7 Milk Protein Isolate 3 7.0 Milk Protein Concentrate 4 12.9 Non Fat Dry Milk (NFDM) 2.3 Emulsifier 5 0.15 Salt 0.15 1 A cream cheese analog that is a cream cheese derivative in which dairy fat has been removed from cream cheese, made by Kraft Foods.", "2 Tem-Tex ® 1225, partially hydrogenated soybean and cottonseed oils with mono-and diglycerides, SFI @ 70° F.: 19.5 ± 2.0, SFI @ 104° F.: 8.0 ± 1.5, alpha mono, %: 3.2 ± 0.2, Humkol Oil Products, Cordova, TN.", "3 Alapro ™ 4900, NZMP.", "4 Arla PSDL25, Arla Foods.", "5 Sodium stearoyl lactylate.", "The milk filler composition was baked at 350° F. (177° C.) until the internal temperature reaches or exceeds 185° F. (85° C.).", "The milk filler product obtained was cut into discrete chips having an average size of about 3 to about 5 mm.", "The cereal mixture contained the ingredients and respective proportions indicated in Table 2.", "TABLE 2 Cereal Mixture Ingredient Percent Post Selects ™ Cereal 6 53.3 Corn Syrup 63 DE 17.4 Corn Syrup Solids 42 DE 5.6 Corn Syrup Solids 20 DE 11.2 Glycerine 7.0 Partially Hydrogenated 3.5 Vegetable Oil 7 Calcium Carbonate 1.4 Soy Lecithin 0.5 Salt 0.12 6 “Cranberry Almond.”", "7 Apex B, partially hydrogenated soybean and cottonseed oils, SFI: 70° F., 2.5 max.", ", Humkol Oil Products, Cordova, TN.", "The baked milk filler chips were initially combined with dry ingredients of the cereal mixture with stirring to form a uniform mixture.", "Then, the remaining ingredients of the cereal mixture, which included the binder system and other additives, were added with mixing.", "One part baked milk filler chips were added per three parts cereal mixture.", "The resulting cereal bar mixture was cold pressed under 300 g platen pressure, and then was cut into bars.", "The cereal bar produced in this manner was subjected to organoleptic evaluations and was found to have a savory flavor and texture.", "While this example has been illustrated with a particular formulation, it will be appreciated that the milk filler formulation optionally can contain other ingredients such as, for example, soy, egg white, gelatin, and so forth.", "EXAMPLE 2 This example illustrates the production of a cereal bar containing unbaked, milk protein product-containing chips according to another embodiment of this invention.", "A milk filler composition was prepared by mixing the ingredients indicated in Table 3 into a uniform mixture.", "TABLE 3 Milk Filler Ingredient Percent NFDM 62.5 Glycerine 37.5 The glycerine was slowly poured into the NFDM while mixing.", "The mixture was mixed on low speed until crumbles of the mixture were formed (generally about 1 minute or less).", "The milk filler composition of Table 3 was not baked.", "A cereal mixture of the same formulation as described in Table 2 above was combined with the milk filler crumbles made according to this example.", "The milk filler chips were initially combined with dry ingredients of the cereal mixture with stirring to form a uniform mixture.", "Then, the remaining ingredients of the cereal mixture, which included the binder system and other additives, were added with mixing.", "One part unbaked milk filler chips were introduced per three parts cereal mixture.", "The resulting cereal bar mixture was cold pressed under 300 g platen pressure, and then was cut into bars.", "The cereal bar produced in this manner was subjected to organoleptic evaluations and also was found to have a savory flavor and texture.", "While this example has been illustrated with a particular formulation, it will be appreciated that the milk filler formulation optionally can contain other ingredients such as, for example, fat, sugar, and so forth.", "While the invention has been described in terms of preferred embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that the invention can be practiced with modification within the spirit and scope of the appended claims." ]

[ "RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is the U.S. National Phase of PCT/AU2006/000856 filed Jun. 19, 2006 and claims priority to Australian Provisional Patent Application Nos. 2005903230 filed Jun. 20, 2005 and 2005905012 filed Sep. 12, 2005, which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.", "TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention describes an improved membrane for Redox Flow Batteries, in particular for Vanadium Redox Batteries and energy storage systems and applications employing the Vanadium Redox Cells and Batteries.", "Redox Flow Batteries involve the use of two redox couple electrolytes separated by an ion exchange membrane that is the most important cell component.", "A stable, low cost cation exchange membrane is needed for all redox flow cells that operate with an acidic electrolyte and the use of a highly oxidising positive half-cell redox couple in all redox flow cell systems means that the membrane must be stable to oxidising agents.", "Perfluorinated membranes have been shown to provide excellent stability to oxidising agents, however, the early commercially available membranes have been very expensive and have also shown undesirable properties such as blistering or excessive expansion and water transfer in aqueous acidic electrolytes.", "The Vanadium Redox Batteries include All-Vanadium Redox Cells and Batteries employing a V(II)/V(III) couple in the negative half-cell and a V(IV)/V(V) couple in the positive half-cell (referred to as the V/VRB, and Vanadium Bromide Redox Cells and Batteries employing the V(II)/V(III) couple in the negative half-cell and a bromide/polyhalide couple in the negative half-cell (referred to as the V/BrRB).", "The highly oxidising V(V) or polyhalide ions in the charged positive half-cell of the V/VRB and V/BrRB systems respectively, leads to rapid deterioration of most polymeric membrane materials, so only limited types of membranes can be employed for long life.", "A suitable membrane should therefore possess good chemical stability in the acidic vanadium sulphate or vanadium bromide electrolytes, good resistance to the highly oxidising V(V) or polyhalide ions in the charged positive half-cell electrolyte, low electrical resistance, low permeability to the vanadium ions or polyhalide ions, high permeability to the charge-carrying hydrogen ions, good mechanical properties and low cost.", "BACKGROUND The All-Vanadium Redox Flow Battery, referred to here as the V/VRB is described in the following patents: Australian patent 575247, AU 696452, AU 704534, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,143,443 and 6,562,514, while the Vanadium Bromide Redox Flow cell, referred to here as the V/BrRB is described in PCT/AU02/01157, PCT/GB2003/001757 and PCT/AU2004/000310.", "Both batteries employ a vanadium electrolyte solution in both half-cells, but in the case of the V/VRB, a vanadium sulphate solution is used in both half-cells and the cell employs the V(II)/V(III) couple in the negative half-cell and a V(IV)/V(V) couple in the positive half-cell electrolyte.", "The Vanadium Bromide Redox Battery (V/BrRB) employs a vanadium bromide electrolyte solution in both half-cells and the cell employs the V(II)/V(III) couple in the negative half-cell and a Br − /Br 3 − or Br − /ClBr 2 − couple in the positive half-cell electrolyte.", "The positive half-cell couples are also referred to as halide/polyhalide couples.", "The highly oxidising V(V) or polyhalide ions in the charged positive half-cell solutions lead to rapid deterioration of most polymeric membrane materials, so only limited types of membranes can be employed for long life.", "The membrane it can be postulated is therefore the most important component of the Vanadium Redox Batteries (VRBs) and a great amount of effort has been put into the selection or development of a suitable membrane that can offer the following characteristics: good chemical stability in the acidic vanadium sulphate or vanadium bromide electrolytes, good resistance to the highly oxidising V(V) or polyhalide ions in the charged positive half-cell electrolyte, low electrical resistance, low permeability to the vanadium ions or polyhalide ions, high permeability to the charge-carrying hydrogen ions, good mechanical properties and low cost.", "To date, only limited membranes have been shown to possess all or most of these characteristics.", "The perfluorinated membranes such as Gore Select, Nafion 112, Nafion 115 and Nafion 117 have been used with some success in the Vanadium Sulphate Electrolyte V/VRB, but these have tended to show blistering or fouling and excessive water transfer behaviour during cycling.", "The degree of water transfer in the Vanadium Bromide Electrolyte Cell can be so high when these membranes are employed, that after only a small number of cycles, the capacity and coulombic efficiency drops dramatically.", "The high level of water or solution transfer is caused by the high level of swelling of the extruded Nafion membranes in water and in the acidic vanadium sulphate and vanadium bromide electrolytes that increases the pore size and therefore the transfer of water and vanadium or polyhalide ions across the membrane.", "The degree of swelling is a function of the ionic strength of the solution, but is most severe in distilled water.", "When a Nafion membrane is transferred from water to the vanadium electrolyte, considerable shrinkage can occur due to the differences in ionic strength between the pores and the external solution.", "This means that the Nafion membranes must first be equilibrated in the battery electrolytes prior to stack assembly since any shrinkage after assembly could give rise to ripping of the membrane sheets.", "Similarly Nafion membranes cannot be assembled dry since the high level of swelling, up to 10%, that occurs when subsequently immersed in the V/VRB and V/BrRB electrolytes, will lead to creasing and possible damage of the membrane in the cell stack.", "Furthermore, once wet, Nafion membranes should not be allowed to dry out as this could cause cracking of the resin and irreversible damage to the membrane.", "All of these issues give rise to considerable problems in the handling, storage, assembly and operation of redox flow batteries using Nafion membranes.", "Nafion membrane are also subject to fouling, so require higher purity electrolytes that significantly adds to the cost of the V-VRB and V/BrRB.", "These factors, combined with the high electrolyte volume transfer during charge-discharge cycling, has limited the performance of the Nafion membranes in the V/VRB and V/BrRB and combined with the high cost, has restricted its practical use to date.", "Gore Select membranes have also been tested in the Vanadium Redox Batteries, but significant blistering of the membrane was observed in both the vanadium sulphate and vanadium electrolytes after several weeks of cycling.", "This showed that the Gore Select perfluorinated membranes are unsuitable for use in the Vanadium Redox Batteries.", "Polysulphone membranes have also shown good chemical stability and good performance in the Vanadium Sulphate Electrolyte V/VRB, but have also been susceptible to fouling and loss of performance, requiring very high purity vanadium that adds to the cost of the electrolyte.", "In particular the presence of trace amounts of silica in the vanadium electrolyte can cause serious fouling, so that costly purification processes are needed to produce vanadium oxides with low silica levels.", "A further difficulty with this membrane is the need to keep the membrane wet at all times.", "If allowed to dry out, the membrane can crack and become damaged, but equally serious is the fact that many of the commercial membranes based on polysulphone, become hydrophobic on drying and require a long and sometimes difficult process to restore their hydrophilicity.", "Despite these problems, polysulphone membranes have been used successfully in the V/VRB, but their performance in the Vanadium Bromide Redox Cell has been very poor.", "This is due to their anion exchange properties that allow the polyhalide ions to pass through unimpeded, leading to rapid self discharge.", "To date, therefore, no single membrane has been found to perform well in both the V/VRB and V/BrRB.", "It is an object of the present invention to address or ameliorate one or more of the abovementioned disadvantages or at least provide a useful alternative.", "Any discussion of documents, publications, acts, devices, substances, articles, materials or the like which is included in the present specification has been done so for the sole purpose so as to provide a contextual basis for the present invention.", "Any such discussions are not to be understood as admission of subject matter which forms the prior art base, or any part of the common general knowledge of the relevant technical field in relation to the technical field of the present invention to which it extended at the priority date or dates of the present invention.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION In embodiments of the present invention, an improved perfluorinated membrane is described that has shown excellent performance in both the V/VRB and the V/BrRB redox flow batteries, thereby allowing the manufacture of a cell stack that can be used with either the Vanadium Sulphate or Vanadium Bromide electrolyte.", "Due to the different properties and fabrication method used, the behaviour of these membranes in the vanadium redox flow cells is vastly different from those of the corresponding Nafion or Gore Select perfluorinated membranes.", "Fabrication by dissolved resin solution casting has been found to be particularly advantageous since it results in a membrane with isotropic swelling and tensile strength properties and in particular the high level of swelling is considerably reduced compared to Nafion extruded membranes.", "The cast membranes show low linear expansion and insignificant swelling when wetted, can be allowed to dry out without any damage and can therefore be assembled in a dry or wet state.", "To maximise the performance of the cells, the improved perfluorinated membranes are typically pre-treated prior to use, this pre-treatment having the effect of reducing the resistance and therefore increasing the voltage efficiency during charge-discharge cycling.", "The membrane pre-treatment typically involves soaking the membrane in an aqueous solution for periods in excess of 20 minutes prior to use in the V/VRB or V/BrRB cell.", "The type of membrane treatment used has been found to be critical to the performance of the membrane in the V-VBR and V/BrRB and the inventors have found a number of excellent methods that give overall energy efficiencies of over 80% in both systems.", "Significantly, unlike all other membranes previously evaluated in the V/VRB or V/BrRB cells, this improved membrane shows good performance in both electrolytes, so that a redox cell stack for use with either electrolyte interchangeably can be manufactured, allowing significant manufacturing cost savings to be achieved.", "In order to minimise any possible bromine vapours from being formed during charging of the V/BrRB, complexing agents may be used to bind the bromine.", "A range of complexing agents are available for bromine, but any complexing agent used in the V/BrRB must not interfere with the V 3+ /V 2+ redox reactions in the negative half-cell, nor cause fouling of the ion-exchange membrane.", "PCT/AU2004/000310 describes the use of polyethylene glycol (PEG) as a binding agent for bromine in the vanadium bromide redox cell.", "In the presence of 25% and 50% PEG, during cycling, the cells containing PEG showed no bromine vapours, while that containing no PEG, showed significant amounts of bromine vapour in the electrolyte containers and tubes.", "PEG is therefore very effective in binding bromine to prevent or minimise the formation of vapours in the cell.", "Although the coulombic efficiency of the V/Br cell was unaffected by the presence of the PEG, the cells with solutions that contained PEG had much lower average voltage efficiencies in comparison with the solution that did not have any PEG present.", "It is suspected that the decreased voltage efficiency was due to an increase in resistance in the solutions containing the PEG due to the increased the viscosity of the PEG containing electrolyte solutions.", "Improved bromine binding or complexing agents are therefore needed for practical V/BrRB cell applications.", "Many potential complexing agents were evaluated, and good results were obtained with Tetrabutylammonium bromide (TBA), N-Ethyl-N-Methylpyrrolidiniumbromide (MEP), N-Ethyl-N-Methylmorpholiniumbromide (MEM), or mixtures of these, although the best results were given by mixtures of N-Ethyl-N-Methylpyrrolidiniumbromide (MEP) and N-Ethyl-N-Methylmorpholiniumbromide (MEM).", "During operation of the V-VRB and V/BrRB, an imbalance in the state of charge of the positive and negative half-cell electrolytes can occur due to the air oxidation of the V(II) ions in the negative half-cell, or to the generation of hydrogen at the negative electrode during charging.", "Both of these processes lead to capacity losses that cannot be corrected by simple electrolyte remixing, so a rebalance cell or process is needed to restore balance and therefore system capacity by restoring the correct approximately 1:1 ratio of V(II) to V(V) ions in the negative and positive half-cell solutions respectively of the V/VRB, or approximately 1:1 ratio of V(II) to Br 3 − ions in the negative and positive half-cell solutions respectively of the V/BrRB.", "The inventors have found that the addition of certain simple organic compounds to the positive electrolyte can rebalance both V-VRB and V/BrRB cells by partially reducing the V(V) or Br 3 − species to equalize the states of charge of the positive and negative half-cell electrolytes.", "The addition of ethanol or methanol as rebalancing agents is particularly advantageous since the product of the rebalancing reaction is carbon dioxide and water, so no impurities build up in the electrolyte.", "The amount of ethanol or methanol added can be readily calculated from the positive electrolyte volume and degree of imbalance in the positive and negative half-cell electrolytes.", "This invention also relates to Vanadium Redox Battery energy storage systems integrated into an energy system incorporating a photovoltaic array, wind turbines, diesel generators, electricity grid or other power generation equipment.", "The batteries are integrated with a battery controller that monitors battery condition and determines optimum operation.", "In contrast to the V/VRB that employs 1.5-2 molar vanadium electrolytes, the V/BrRB can operate with vanadium bromide concentrations of 2-3 M and bromide concentrations up to 9 M. This corresponds to a specific energy of 25-50 Wh/kg and an energy density range of 35-70 Wh/l for the V/BrRB compared with only 15-25 Wh/kg and 20-33 Wh/l respectively for the V/VRB.", "With close to twice the energy density, the V/BrRB is much better suited to electric and hybrid vehicle applications.", "In electric or hybrid vehicles or mobile applications the V/BrRB powers the vehicle and when the available energy is used up, can be either electrically recharged by connecting to a suitable source of DC electric power, including any of the power generation systems described above.", "Alternatively, the V/BrRB can be mechanically refueled by draining the discharged positive and negative half-cell electrolytes, the catholyte and anolyte respectively, into storage tanks and replacing these with freshly charged solutions.", "The drained solutions can then be recharged by pumping them through a separate charging V/BrRB stack connected to a power generation system such as any of the systems described above.", "Alternatively, the solutions can be recharged using off-peak electricity.", "Throughout the specification the term redox cell may also be referred to as a redox battery and the All-Vanadium Redox Cells or Batteries and the Vanadium Bromide Redox Cells or Batteries may be collectively referred to as Vanadium Redox Batteries.", "Disclosed are improved perfluorinated membranes for use in Redox Flow Cells and in particular, Vanadium Redox Cells and Batteries employing either a vanadium sulphate electrolyte in both half-cells (V/VRB) or a vanadium halide electrolyte in both half-cells (V/BrRB).", "These membranes differ from traditional extruded perfluorinated membranes in that they have low swelling or linear expansion in both directions and are typically prepared by casting from a solution of dissolved resin.", "These cast membranes have been developed for use in Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells in which the membrane is used as a solid electrolyte.", "Surprisingly however, the inventors have discovered that they can be successfully employed in redox flow cells that employ two different solutions containing soluble redox couples wherein the membrane prevents the two solutions from mixing.", "The inventors have discovered that unlike the traditional extruded perfluorinated membranes, the disclosed resin dissolved cast perfluorinated ion-exchange membranes not only provide good chemical stability in the electrolyte, but also show improved water transfer properties, reduced swelling, reduced fouling and high energy efficiency during cycling.", "To maximise the performance of the redox cells, the cast perfluorinated membranes are typically pre-treated prior to use, this pre-treatment having the effect of reducing the resistance and therefore increasing the voltage efficiency during charge-discharge cycling in the redox cells.", "Disclosed is a Vanadium Redox Battery employing a cast perfluorinated membrane and a 50:50 vanadium(III)/(IV) solution as the initial feed electrolyte solution in both the positive and negative half cells.", "Disclosed also is a Vanadium Redox Battery employing a cast perfluorinated membrane and a negative half-cell electrolyte solution comprising a supporting electrolyte selected from the group H 2 SO 4 , HBr or HBr/HCl mixtures and containing one or more vanadium ions selected from the group vanadium (IV), vanadium (III), and vanadium (II) and a positive half-cell solution comprising a supporting electrolyte selected from the group H 2 SO 4 , HBr or HBr/HCl mixtures and containing one or more ions selected from the group vanadium (III), vanadium (IV), vanadium (V), Br 3 − and ClBr 2 − .", "In addition, a method of producing electricity by discharging the fully charged or partially charged Vanadium Redox Cell or Battery is disclosed, as well as methods of recharging the discharged or partially discharged Vanadium Redox Cell or Battery by integrating into a system employing a wind turbine, photovoltaic array, wave generator, diesel generator or other power generating equipment.", "Methods for rebalancing the vanadium electrolyte solutions and for chemically regenerating the positive half-cell solution of the Vanadium Redox Batteries are also disclosed.", "A Vanadium Bromide Redox Cell employing a solution containing a complexing agent for bromine is also disclosed, this complexing agent being selected from Tetrabutylammonium bromide (TBA), N-Ethyl-N-Methylpyrrolidiniumbromide (MEP), N-Ethyl-N-Methylmorpholiniumbromide (MEM), or mixtures thereof.", "Also disclosed are methods of producing the electrolyte for the V/BrRB.", "An immobilised or gelled electrolyte vanadium redox cell employing the resin cast perfluorinated membrane is also disclosed as well as a method of producing electricity by discharging the fully charged or partially charged Vanadium Redox Cell or Battery or the gelled electrolyte cell or battery is disclosed, as well as methods of recharging the discharged or partially discharged gelled electrolyte Vanadium Redox Cell or Battery.", "According to a first particular aspect of this invention there is provided a Vanadium Redox Cell or Battery comprising: a positive half cell containing a positive half cell solution comprising a supporting electrolyte plus one or more ions selected from the group vanadium (III), vanadium (IV), vanadium (V) and polyhalide;", "a negative half cell containing a negative half cell solution comprising a supporting electrolyte plus one or more vanadium ions selected from the group vanadium (II), vanadium (III) and vanadium (IV);", "a perfluorinated ionically conducting membrane or separator disposed between the positive and negative half cells and in contact with the positive and negative half cell solutions, wherein the perfluorinated membrane has a thickness of between 0.5 and 5 mil, an acid capacity of between 0.5 and 2 mmol/g, a conductivity at 25° C. of between 0.01 and 1 S/cm, a water uptake of between 30% and 70% at 100° C. for 1 hour, a tensile strength of between 20 and 60 MPa and a melting point ranging from 180 to 240° C. The perfluorinated cation exchange membrane comprises a polymer selected from the group a PTFE, perfluorosulfonic acid and perfluorosulphonic acid/PTFE copolymer.", "Typically, the perfluorinated cation exchange membrane is in the acid form.", "The perfluorinated membrane is typically produced by casting from a solution of a resin that has an Equivalent Weight (EW) of between 800 and 1100 grams resin per equivalent SO3-, typically 1032 grams resin per equivalent SO3-, or an ion exchange capacity of between 1.25 and 0.91 milliequivalents SO3- per gram resin, typically 0.97 milliequivlanents SO3- per gram resin.", "In addition, inorganic micro particles may be added to the membrane to increase the water uptake and conductivity as well as decrease the linear expansion of membrane.", "The lower EW of this membrane (1032) compared with the corresponding Nafion 11N membrane (EW=1124), results in a higher ion exchange capacity (0.97 meq/g) which is higher than that of Nafion 11N (0.89 meq/g), and this also results in a higher conductivity, water uptake, and power density compared with Nafion.", "The membrane may be treated prior to use in the Vanadium Redox Battery.", "The improved membrane is preferably a resin dissolved cast membrane that shows isotropy, in contrast to the corresponding Nafion-11N that is resin fusing extruding membrane that exhibits anisotropy.", "The following table summarises the differences between the improved cast perfluorinated membrane and the corresponding Nafion membrane produced by extrusion.", "Perfluorinated PEM Nafion ®-112 Cast perfluorinated Thickness 50 microns 50 microns Equivalent Weight 1124 g/eq 1032 g/eq Acid capacity 0.89 meq/g 0.97 meq/g Conductivity 0.08 S/cm 0.1 S/cm Water uptake 38% 50% Linear expansion 10% (anisotropy) 1% (isotropy) tensile strength 32 MPa (anisotropy) 37 MPa (isotropy) Production Resin fusing extruding Dissolved Resin casting According to a second aspect of this invention there is provided a Vanadium Redox Cell or Battery which is fully or partially charged comprising: a positive half cell containing a positive half cell solution comprising a supporting electrolyte and one or more of the ions selected from vanadium (IV) ions, vanadium (V) ions and polyhalide ions;", "a negative half cell containing a negative half cell solution comprising a supporting electrolyte, vanadium (III) and vanadium (II) ions;", "a perfluorinated ionically conducting membrane or separator of the first aspect disposed between the positive and negative half cells and in contact with the positive and negative half cell solutions.", "According to a third aspect of this invention there is provided a discharged vanadium redox cell or battery comprising: a positive half cell containing a positive half cell solution comprising a supporting electrolyte and vanadium (IV) ions;", "a negative half cell containing a negative half cell solution comprising a supporting electrolyte and vanadium (III) ions;", "a perfluorinated ionically conducting membrane or separator of the first aspect disposed between the positive and negative half cells and in contact with the positive and negative half cell solutions.", "In the first to third aspects, the supporting electrolyte can be selected from the group H 2 SO 4 , HBr, or a mixture of HBr and HCl and the vanadium ion concentration can range from 0.1 to 5 Molar.", "More typically the vanadium ion concentration is between 1 and 4 M or between 1 and 3 M. The H 2 SO 4 or HBr concentration is typically between 2 and 9 M, 3 and 8 M, 4 and 6 M or 4 and 8 M and the HBr electrolyte may also contain HCl at a concentration level of between 0.5 and 3 M or 1 and 2 M. In the first to third aspects, the redox cells may be operated over one of the following temperature ranges −15 to 50, 0 to 50, 5 to 50, −10 to 45, 5 to 40, 0 to 40, −10 to 40, 5 to 35, 0 to 35, −10 to 35, 5 to 30, 0 to 30, 5 to 25, 5 to 20, 10 to 50, 15 to 50, 18 to 50, 15 to 40, 15 to 35 degrees centigrade.", "In a fourth aspect of this invention, there is provided a Vanadium Bromide Redox Cell comprising a vanadium bromide electrolyte solution in both half-cells, the vanadium bromide solution also including a complexing agent to bind the bromine and prevent any bromine vapours from being produced.", "Although the complexing agent may be included in both the anolyte and catholyte solutions, it is preferably added only to the catholyte or positive half-cell electrolyte where bromine is generated during charging.", "Any suitable bromine complexing agent can be used, but preferably, this is Tetrabutylammonium bromide (TBA), N-Ethyl-N-Methylpyrrolidiniumbromide (MEP), N-Ethyl-N-Methylmorpholiniumbromide (MEM), or mixtures of these.", "Even more preferably, the complexing agent is a mixture of N-Ethyl-N-Methylpyrrolidiniumbromide (MEP) and N-Ethyl-N-Methylmorpholiniumbromide (MEM) in a molar ratio ranging from 0:1.0 to 1.0:0, but preferably ranging from 0.1:1.0 to 1.0 to 0.1.", "The vanadium ion to total complexing agent ratio ranges from 0.25:1.0 to 1.0:0.25, but preferably from 1:1 to 1.0 to 0.5.", "In the first to fourth aspects, the vanadium electrolyte may be immobilised or gelled.", "A suitable immobilising agent or gelling agent is fumed silica.", "In the first to fourth aspects the redox cell may be a stirred or agitated redox cell or a static redox cell or a flow redox cell or other suitable redox cell such as an immobilised redox cell or a gelled redox cell or other redox cell.", "In the first to fourth aspects, the vanadium redox cell may be assembled into a bipolar vanadium redox cell stack assembly using bipolar electrodes.", "The positive and negative electrodes as well as the bipolar may be graphite plate, graphite board, carbon, glassy carbon, carbon felt (eg FMI, Toyoba, Sigri carbon or graphite felts), carbon fibre material (e.g. non-woven, type CFT-3000 Ahlstroem, Finland) cellulose carbon knit (e.g. GF-20, Nikon Carbon Company Limited, Japan), or conducting plastic comprising a carbon filled polyethylene, polypropylene or composite plastic onto which is heat and pressure bonded the carbon felt active layer to provide a high surface area bipolar or end electrode assembly.", "The bipolar electrode is preferably a carbon filled polyethylene or polypropylene conducting plastic substrate on each side of which is heat and pressure bonded a sheet of carbon felt or graphite felt active layer.", "The bipolar electrode may be welded to the flow-frame that distributes electrolyte into each half-cell cavity by vibration welding, infrared welding, ultrasonic welding, heat welding or laser welding.", "In a fifth aspect of this invention the Vanadium Bromide Redox Battery may also include a phase separation and reconstitution process whereby the organic phase containing the bromine complex is separated by gravity from the aqueous phase in the charged positive half-cell electrolyte of the charging cell, for separate storage and transportation so as to reduce the weight and volume of the stored energy for transportation cost reduction.", "Before extracting the energy from the charged, concentrated solutions, the organic phase is remixed with the corresponding aqueous phase in the positive half-cell of the discharge cell tanks.", "According to a sixth aspect of this invention there is provided a process of rebalancing the electrolytes of a vanadium redox cell comprising fully or partially mixing the positive half cell solution with the negative half cell solution to form a fully mixed solution or partially mixed solution in the positive half cell and the negative half cell.", "The positive half cell may be sealed air tight and the positive solution may be deaerated.", "The positive half cell may be deaerated.", "The positive half cell and the positive solution may be dearated with nitrogen, argon, helium, or other suitable gas.", "The positive half cell and the positive solution may be dearated with a non oxygen containing gas.", "The negative half cell may be sealed air tight and the negative solution may be deaerated.", "The negative half cell may be deaerated.", "The negative half cell and the negative solution may be dearated with nitrogen, argon, helium, or other suitable gas.", "The negative half cell and the negative solution may be dearated with a non oxygen containing gas.", "According to an seventh aspect of this invention there is provided a Vanadium Redox Battery system comprising a Vanadium Redox Battery of any one of the first to sixth aspects of the invention and further comprising a positive solution reservoir, positive solution supply and return lines coupled between the positive solution reservoir and the positive half cell, a negative solution reservoir, negative solution supply and return lines coupled between the negative solution reservoir and the negative half cell, and at least one pump in at least one of the positive solution supply and return lines and at least one pump in at least one of the negative solution supply and return lines.", "The system of the seventh aspects may further comprise an electrical charger electrically coupled to a positive electrode in the positive half cell and to a negative electrode in the negative half cell.", "The electrical charger may comprise a power supply and a switch.", "The system may further comprise an electricity withdrawing circuit electrically coupled to a positive electrode in the positive half cell and to a negative electrode in the negative half cell.", "The electricity withdrawing circuit may comprise a resistor and a switch.", "In an eighth aspect of this invention, a method of rebalancing the positive and negative electrolyte states of charge and system capacity is described.", "This method involves the addition of a predetermined volume of ethanol, methanol or other organic compound that can be chemically oxidised to carbon dioxide and water by V(V), Br 2 or Br 3 − in the positive electrolyte, whereby a proportion of the V(V), Br 2 or Br 3 − species is reduced so as to balance the state of charge of the positive and negative half-cell electrolytes.", "In a ninth aspect is a method of chemically regenerating the positive half-cell electrolytes of the vanadium redox flow cells using hydrogen peroxide to reduce the electrolyte volume required for each kWh of cell capacity.", "In a tenth aspect, a process for producing the vanadium bromide electrolyte for the vanadium bromide redox cell of the first to seventh aspects is described, involving the oxidative dissolution of vanadium trioxide powder using bromine liquid, bromine aqueous solution or bromine vapour as the oxidising agent.", "In an eleventh aspect of this invention, a Vanadium Redox Battery of the first to ninth aspects is integrated into an energy or power generation system incorporating a photovoltaic array, a wind turbine, a wave energy generator, a diesel generator or other power generation equipment.", "In a further broad form of the invention there is provided a redox cell having a positive half cell, a negative half cell, a positive half cell solution and a negative half cell solution further comprising: a perfluorinated ionically conducting membrane located between the positive half cell and the negative half cell and in contact with the positive half cell solution and the negative half cell solution wherein the membrane has a thickness selected from the group of consisting of 0.5 to 5 mil, 1 to 2 mil and 25 to 50 micron thickness.", "Preferably the membrane has an acid capacity selected from the group consisting of 0.5 to 2 meq/g and 0.9 to 1 meq/g.", "Preferably the membrane has a conductivity selected from the group consisting of 0.01 to 1 S/cm and 0.81 to 1 S/cm at 25° C. Preferably the membrane has a water uptake selected from the group consisting of 30% to 70% and 40 to 60% at 100° C. for 1 hour.", "Preferably the membrane has a tensile strength selected from the group consisting of 20 to 60 MPa and 35 to 50 MPa in both directions when water soaked at 23° C. Preferably the membrane has a linear expansion selected from the group consisting of less than 8%, less than 5% and less than 3% in both directions from 50% Relative Humidity at 23° C. to water soaked at 23° C. Preferably the membrane has a melting point selected from the group consisting of 180 to 240° C. and 200 to 230° C. Preferably the membrane is produced by casting from a solution of a resin that has an Equivalent Weight (EW) selected from the group consisting of 800 to 1100 grams resin per equivalent SO 3 − and 1032 grams resin per equivalent SO 3 − .", "Preferably the membrane is produced by casting from a solution of a resin that has an ion exchange capacity selected from the group consisting of 1.25 to 0.91 milliequivalents SO 3 − per gram resin and 0.97 milliequivlanents SO 3 − per gram resin.", "Preferably micro particles are added to the membrane to increase the water uptake and conductivity as well as decrease the linear expansion of the membrane.", "Preferably the first supporting electrolyte and the second supporting electrolyte are substantially identical.", "Preferably the membrane has isotropic swelling and tensile strength properties.", "In yet a further broad form of the invention there is provided a redox cell having a positive half cell, a negative half cell, a positive half cell solution and a negative half cell solution further comprising: a perfluorinated cationically conducting membrane located between the positive half cell and the negative half cell and in contact with the positive half cell solution and the negative half cell solution wherein the membrane has isotropic swelling and tensile strength properties.", "Preferably said cell has a perflourinated cationically conducting membrane wherein the membrane has a thickness selected from the group of consisting of 0.5 to 5 mil, 1 to 2 mil and 25 to 50 micron thickness.", "Preferably the membrane has an acid capacity selected from the group consisting of 0.5 to 2 meq/g and 0.9 to 1 meq/g.", "Preferably the membrane has a conductivity selected from the group consisting of 0.01 to 1 S/cm and 0.81 to 1 S/cm at 25° C. Preferably the membrane has a water uptake selected from the group consisting of 30% to 70% and 40 to 60% at 100° C. for 1 hour.", "Preferably the membrane has a tensile strength selected from the group consisting of 20 to 60 MPa and 35 to 50 MPa in both directions when water soaked at 23° C. Preferably the membrane has a linear expansion selected from the group consisting of less than 8%, less than 5% and less than 3% in both directions from 50% Relative Humidity at 23° C. to water soaked at 23° C. Preferably the membrane has a melting point selected from the group consisting of 180 to 240° C. and 200 to 230° C. Preferably the membrane is produced in use by casting from a solution of a resin that has an Equivalent Weight (EW) selected from the group consisting of 800 to 1100 grams resin per equivalent SO 3 − and 1032 grams resin per equivalent SO 3 − .", "Preferably the membrane is produced by casting from a solution of a resin that has an ion exchange capacity (1/EW) selected from the group consisting of 1.25 to 0.91 milliequivalents SO 3 − per gram resin and 0.97 milliequivlanents SO 3 − per gram resin.", "Preferably micro particles are added to the membrane to decrease the linear expansion of the membrane.", "In yet a further broad form of the invention there is provided a redox cell having a positive half cell, a negative half cell, a positive half cell solution and a negative half cell solution further comprising: a perfluorinated ionically conducting membrane located between the positive half cell and the negative half cell and in contact with the positive half cell solution and the negative half cell solution wherein the membrane has a thickness of between 0.5 to 5 mil;", "an acid capacity of between 0.5 and 2 meq/g;", "a conductivity at 25° C. of between 0.01 and 1 S/cm;", "a water uptake of between 30% and 70% at 100° C. for 1 hour;", "a tensile strength of between 20 and 60 MPa in both directions when water soaked at 23° C.;", "a linear expansion of less than 8% from 50% Relative Humidity at 23° C. to water soaked at 23° C. in both directions;", "a melting point ranging from 180 to 240° C., wherein the perfluorinated membrane is produced by casting from a solution of a resin selected from a group consisting of a resin that has an Equivalent Weight (EW) of between 800 and 1100 grams resin per equivalent SO 3 − and a resin having an ion exchange capacity of between 1.25 and 0.91 milliequivalents SO 3 − per gram resin.", "Preferably said cell has a perflourinated ionically conducting membrane wherein the membrane has a thickness selected from the group of consisting of approximately 1 to 2 mil and approximately 25 to 50 micron thickness.", "Preferably the membrane has an acid capacity of 0.9 to 1 meq/g.", "Preferably the membrane has a conductivity of 0.81 to 1 S/cm at 25° C. Preferably the membrane has a water uptake of 40 to 60% at 100° C. for 1 hour.", "Preferably the membrane has a tensile strength of 35 to 50 MPa in both directions when water soaked at 23° C. Preferably the membrane has a linear expansion selected from the group consisting of less than 5% and less than 3% in both directions from 50% Relative Humidity at 23° C. to water soaked at 23° C. Preferably the membrane has a melting point of 200 to 230° C. Preferably the membrane is produced by casting from a solution of a resin that has an Equivalent Weight (EW) of 1032 grams resin per equivalent SO3-.", "Preferably the membrane is produced by casting from a solution of a resin that has an ion exchange capacity of 0.97 milliequivlanents SO3- per gram resin.", "Preferably micro particles are added to the membrane to decrease the linear expansion of the membrane.", "Preferably the positive half cell solution includes a first supporting electrolyte selected from the group consisting of H 2 SO 4 , HBr and HBr/HCl mixtures and at least one vanadium ion selected from the group consisting of vanadium (III), vanadium (IV) and vanadium (V);", "and wherein the negative half cell solution includes a second supporting electrolyte selected from the group consisting of H 2 SO 4 , HBr and HBr/HCl mixtures and at least one vanadium ion selected from the group consisting of vanadium (II), vanadium (III) and vanadium (IV).", "Preferably the positive half cell solution includes at least one vanadium ion selected from the group consisting of vanadium (III), vanadium (IV) and vanadium (V);", "and the negative half cell solution includes at least one vanadium ion selected from the group consisting of vanadium (II), vanadium (III) and vanadium (IV).", "In a further broad form of the invention there is provided a method for treating the perfluorinated membranes of the redox cell described above comprising the step of soaking the membrane in an aqueous solution to reduce resistivity of the membrane and enhance voltage efficiency during charge-discharge cycling.", "Preferably the treatment is carried out at above room temperature.", "Preferably the membrane treatment is conducted in a process having at least one step and in at least one aqueous solution.", "Preferably the aqueous solution is selected from the group consisting of hydrogen peroxide, HCl, NaOH and sulphuric acid.", "Preferably said method further comprises boiling the membrane in water.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS FIG. 1 illustrates a vanadium redox flow cell employing a perfluorinated cation exchange membrane ( 1 ) to separate the positive and negative half-cells.", "Each half-cell includes a porous graphite felt or matte as the negative ( 2 ) or positive ( 3 ) flow-through electrode, each making electrical contact with a conducting substrate or current collector ( 4 and 5 ).", "The negative and positive electrolyte half-cell solutions are stored in separate external reservoirs ( 6 and 7 ) and pumps 8 and 9 are used to pump the electrolytes through the corresponding half-cells where the charge-discharge reactions occur.", "FIG. 2 illustrates a static or gelled electrolyte redox cell employing a perfluorinated membrane ( 1 ) to separate the positive and negative half-cells.", "In the gelled electrolyte redox cell, each half-cell contains a graphite felt porous electrode impregnated with the V(3.5+) vanadium electrolyte that also contains sufficient fumed silica such that a gel is formed in both the negative ( 2 ) and positive ( 3 ) half-cell graphite felt electrodes when allowed to set.", "The graphite felt electrodes make electrical contact to a conducting substrate that is used as current collector in both the negative ( 4 ) and positive ( 5 ) half-cells.", "FIG. 3 shows the voltage versus time curves obtained in a static vanadium bromide redox cell employing a polysulphone anion exchange membrane and 2 M vanadium ions in a supporting electrolyte of 6 M HBr plus 2 M HCl.", "FIG. 4 shows typical charge-discharge curves obtained in a static vanadium bromide redox cell employing 2 M vanadium ions in a supporting electrolyte of 6 M HBr plus 2 M HCl.", "The membrane was a 25 cm 2 piece of Nafion 112 and the cell was cycled at 500 mA.", "FIGS. 5( a ) and 5 ( b ) show typical charge-discharge curves obtained in a vanadium bromide flow cell employing a 25 cm 2 piece of Gore Select membrane and 70 ml of 2 M Vanadium in a supporting electrolyte of 6 M HBr plus 2 M HCl.", "FIG. 5( a ) shows results obtained at the beginning of cycling and FIG. 5( b ) shows results after a few weeks of cycling wherein decreased performance is seen.", "FIG. 6 shows typical charge-discharge curves obtained in a static vanadium bromide redox cell employing 2 M vanadium ions in a supporting electrolyte of 6 M HBr plus 2 M HCl.", "The membrane was a piece of 50 micron cast perfluorinated membrane.", "FIG. 7 shows a vanadium bromide redox flow cell employing a complexing agent to bind the bromine and allow gravity separation of the organic phase prior to transportation.", "FIG. 8 shows typical charge-discharge curves obtained in a vanadium bromide redox flow cell employing 2 M vanadium ions in a supporting electrolyte of 6 M HBr plus 2 M HCl.", "The membrane was a piece of 50 micron (20 mil) thick cast perfluorinated membrane and the cell employed graphite felt electrodes of area 25 cm2, approximately 60 mls of 2 M vanadium bromide electrolyte in each half-cell.", "The cell was charge-discharge cycled at 1000 mA.", "FIG. 9 shows typical charge-discharge curves obtained with a 50 mil thick cast perfluorinated membrane tested in the static Vanadium Bromide Redox Cell at a current of 500 mA.", "FIG. 10 shows the water transfer behaviour of the Nafion 112 membrane in a V-VRB redox cell arrangement FIG. 11 shows typical charge and discharge curves for a static cell employing the cast perfluorinated membrane and a 2 M vanadium solution in 5 M H 2 SO 4 supporting electrolyte as the electrolyte for both positive and negative half-cells.", "The membrane was boiled in distilled water for 45 minutes prior to use.", "FIG. 12 represents typical charge-discharge curves for the cycling of the static vanadium sulphate redox cell that employed a cell cavity of 2 mm thickness and a cast perfluorinated membrane that was treated by boiling in 10% hydrogen peroxide for 1 hour.", "FIG. 13 shows typical charge-discharge curves for a vanadium sulphate redox flow cell containing approximately 60 ml in each half-cell of 1.6 M vanadium solution in H 2 SO 4 .", "The membrane was a 50 micron thick cast perfluorinated membrane treated in 5 M H 2 SO 4 for 30 minutes prior to use.", "FIG. 14 shows typical charge-discharge curves obtained in a static cell containing 1.6 M vanadium in sulphuric acid and a 25 micron thick piece of perfluorinated membrane that was soaked in boiling H 2 SO 4 (removed from hotplate) for 30 minutes prior to use.", "FIG. 15 is a plot of capacity versus cycle number for a V-VRB redox flow cell to which 1 ml of ethanol was added to the positive half-cell electrolyte to rebalance the positive and negative half-cell electrolyte oxidation states and restore capacity.", "FIGS. 16 ( a ) and ( b ) show the effect of addition of hydrogen peroxide to chemically regenerate the positive half-cell electrolyte of a vanadium redox cell.", "FIG. 16( a ) shows discharge with hydrogen peroxide added to the positive half cell and FIG. 16( b ) shows discharge without hydrogen peroxide.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Throughout the specification and claims the term Vanadium Redox Battery is used to refer collectively to the All-Vanadium Redox Cell or Battery and the Vanadium Bromide Redox Cell or Battery.", "The supporting electrolytes used in the Vanadium Redox Batteries of the invention are preferably aqueous solutions selected from the group H 2 SO 4 , HBr or HBr/HCl mixtures.", "The Vanadium Redox Batteries can employ an initial feed solution of 0.1 to 5 M vanadium (III)/(IV) ions in both half-cells.", "The concentration of vanadium ions in both half-cells may be in the range 0.1 to 4.5M, 0.1 to 4M, 0.1 to 3.5M, 0.1 to 3M, 0.1 to 2.5M, 0.1 to 2M, 0.1 to 1.9M, 0.1 to 1.75M, 0.1 to 1.5M, 0.1 to 1.25M, 0.1 to 1M, 0.5 to 5M, 0.5 to 4 M, 0.5 to 3 M, 1 to 2 M, 1 to 3 M, 1 to 5M, 1.5 to 5M, 1.75 to 5M, 1.9 to 5M, 2 to 5M, 2.25 to 5M, 2.5 to 5M, 2.75 to 5M, 3 to 5M, 3.5 to 5M, 4 to 5M, 4.5 to 5M, 1.75 to 4.5M, 1.75 to 4M, 1.75 to 3.5M, 1.75 to 3.25M, 1 to 2, 1 to 3M, 1.5 to 3M, 1.75 to 3M, 1 to 2.75M, 1.5 to 2.75M 1.75 to 2.75, 1.5 to 2.5M, 1.75 to 2.5M, 1.75 to 2.25M, 1.75 to 2M, 1.9 to 3M, 1.9 to 2.75, 1.9 to 2.5M, 1.9 to 2.25M or 2 to 3M.", "The concentration of vanadium in both half-cells may be about 0.1, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1, 1.25, 1.5, 1.6, 1.75, 1.8, 1.9, 2, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 2.6, 2.7, 2.8, 2.9, 3, 3.25, 3.5, 3.75, 4, 4.25, 4.5, 4.75 or 5M, for example.", "An initial feed solution of 0.5 to 3 M vanadium solution consisting of approximately 50% V(III) and 50% V(IV) ions in a supporting electrolyte of H 2 SO 4 , HBr or HBr/HCl mixtures may be initially placed into the positive and negative half-cells.", "The initial feed solution for the V/VRB is typically 0.5 to 3 M V(III)/V(IV) ions in 2-8 M H 2 SO 4 , but more typically 1-2 M V(III)/V(IV) ions in 4-6 M or 4-5 M H 2 SO 4 .", "The Vanadium Sulphate electrolyte solution may also contain stabilising agents to prevent the thermal precipitation of V(V) ions at elevated temperatures.", "The electrolyte solution that is initially placed in both half-cells of the Vanadium Bromide Redox Bell may comprise 0.5 to 3 M V(III)/(IV) ions in a supporting electrolyte of 1 to 9 M HBr, for example, or 2 to 9 M HBr or 3 to 8 M HBr or 4 to 6 M HBr.", "The vanadium bromide electrolyte may also contain HCl at a concentration between 0.5 and 3 M or 0.5 to 2 M or 1 to 2 M or 0.1 to 3 M. The vanadium bromide electrolyte may also contain a complexing agent for bromine, this complexing agent being selected from Tetrabutylammonium bromide (TBA), N-Ethyl-N-Methylpyrrolidiniumbromide (MEP), N-Ethyl-N-Methylmorpholiniumbromide (MEM), or mixtures of these, preferably, N-Ethyl-N-Methylpyrrolidiniumbromide (MEP), N-Ethyl-N-Methylmorpholiniumbromide (MEM), or mixtures thereof.", "Even more preferably, the complexing agent is a mixture of N-Ethyl-N-Methylpyrrolidiniumbromide (MEP) and N-Ethyl-N-Methylmorpholiniumbromide (MEM) in a molar ratio ranging from 0:1.0 to 1.0:0, more preferably in a molar ration ranging from 0.25:0.75 to 0.75:0.25.", "The vanadium ion to total complexing agent molar ratio ranges from 10:1 to 1:1, but is preferably in the range 8:1 to 1:1 or 6:1 to 1:1 or 3:1 to 1:1.", "In a separate embodiment, the initial feed solution for the positive half-cell is 0.5 to 3 M V(IV) ions in a supporting electrolyte selected from the group 2-6 M H 2 SO 4 , 2-6 M total sulphate or 1 to 9 M HBr, while the initial feed solution for the negative half-cell comprises 0.5 to 3 M V(III) ions in a supporting electrolyte selected from the group 2-6 M H 2 SO 4 , 2-6 M total sulphate or 1 to 9 M HBr.", "The total vanadium ion concentration is 0.5 to 5 M or 0.5 to 4 M or 1 to 4 M or 1.5 to 4 M or 1.5 to 3 or 1.5 to 2 or 2 to 4 M or 2 to 3 M and the H 2 SO 4 , total sulphate or HBr concentration may be 2-9 M, 2-8 M, 2-7 M, 2-6 M, 2-5 M, 3-9 M, 3-8 M, 3-7 M, 3-6 M, 4-9 M, 4-8 M, 4-7 M, 4-6 M, 5-9 M, 5-8 M, 5-7 M, 5-6 M, 6-9 M, 6-8 M. The HBr electrolyte may also contain 0.5 to 3 M HCl, more typically 1-2 M HCl.", "The HBr electrolyte may also contain a complexing agent to bind the bromine, the total concentration of N-Ethyl-N-Methylpyrrolidiniumbromide (MEP) and N-Ethyl-N-Methylmorpholiniumbromide (MEM) ranging from 0.1 to 3 M, but more typically is 0.25 to 2 M or 0.25 to 1.5 M while the MEM to MEP ratio can range from between 0:1 to 1:0.", "Preferably, the MEM to MEP ratio is between 0.25:0.75 and 0.75:0.25, while the vanadium to total MEM/MEP molar ratio is in the range 10:1 to 1:1, or in the range 5:1 to 1:1, and more preferably in the range 4:1 to 2:1.", "In a separate embodiment of this invention, a gelled or immobilised vanadium redox cell is also disclosed.", "By immobilising or gelling the vanadium cell electrolytes with an immobilising or gelling agent such as silica, fumed silica, fumed alumina, fumed titania or polyacrylamide, it is also possible to stabilise a higher concentration of vanadium in the electrolyte.", "The immobilisation or gelling of the electrolyte also binds any bromine vapour produced in the positive half-cell during charging, preventing any bromine escaping from the cell.", "The electrolyte may also contain a complexing agent to bind the bromine and reduce any bromine vapour.", "The two half-cell electrolytes of the flow-cell are separated by a perfluorinated ion exchange membrane which prevents the bulk mixing of the 2 solutions as they are pumped through the cell or cell stack.", "The ion exchange membrane is a perfluorinated cation exchange membrane which allows the transfer of the charge carrying H + ions.", "The perfluorinated membrane has a thickness of between 0.5 and 5 mil, preferably between approximately 1 and 2 mil or between approximately 25 and 50 micron thickness, an acid capacity of between 0.5 and 2 meq/g, preferably between 0.9 and 1 meq/g, a conductivity at 25° C. of between 0.01 and 1 S/cm, preferably between 0.81 and 1 S/cm, a water uptake of between 30% and 70%, preferably between 40 and 60% at 100° C. for 1 hour, a tensile strength of between 20 and 60 MPa, preferably between 35 and 50 MPa in both directions when water soaked at 23° C., a linear expansion of less than 8% from 50% Relative Humidity at 23° C. to water soaked at 23° C., preferably less than 5% and more preferably less than 3% in both directions and a melting point ranging from 180 to 240° C., preferably between 200 and 230° C. The perfluorinated membrane is typically produced by casting from a solution of a resin that has an Equivalent Weight (EW) of between 800 and 1100 grams resin per equivalent SO 3 − , typically 1032 grams resin per equivalent SO 3 − , or an ion exchange capacity (1/EW) of between 1.25 and 0.91 milliequivalents SO 3 − per gram resin, typically 0.97 milliequivlanents SO 3 − per gram resin.", "In addition, micro particles may be added to the membrane to increase the water uptake and conductivity as well as decrease the linear expansion of membrane.", "The lower EW of this membrane (1032) compared with the corresponding Nafion 11N membrane (EW=1124), results in a higher ion exchange capacity (0.97 meq/g) which is higher than that of Nafion 11N (0.89 meq/g), and this also results in a higher conductivity, water uptake, and power density compared with Nafion.", "The cast membrane may be treated prior to use in the vanadium sulphate redox flow cell.", "The perfluorinated cation exchange membrane comprises a polymer selected from the group a PTFE, perfluorosulfonic acid and perfluorosulphonic acid/PTFE copolymer.", "Typically, the perfluorinated cation exchange membrane is a cast perfluorinated membrane in the acid form.", "Typically the perfluorinated membrane is treated by soaking in an aqueous solution for between 5 minutes and 24 hours.", "To speed up the treatment process, the membranes may be soaked in the aqueous solution at temperatures above room temperature.", "The membrane treatment can be a single step or a multi-step process involving the step-wise soaking the membrane in one or more of the treatment solutions at or above room temperature.", "The treatment solutions can include boiling or near boiling water, or solutions of H 2 SO 4 , H 2 O 2 , HCl or NaOH.", "The treatments in H 2 SO 4 , H 2 O 2 , HCl or NaOH can be at room temperature or at elevated temperature, but typically, the lower the treatment temperature, the longer the necessary treatment time and vice versa.", "Typically the thicker membranes require treatment at higher temperature and/or for longer periods than the thinner membranes.", "Suitable treatments for membranes of less than 50 microns thickness include soaking at or near room temperature in solutions of H 2 SO 4 , H 2 O 2 , HCl or NaOH for periods over 5 hours, preferably for more than 10 hours and even more preferably for more than 20 hours.", "Membranes of thickness equal to or greater than 50 microns are typically treated in solutions of H 2 SO 4 , H 2 O 2 , HCl or NaOH at above room temperature, more typically at above 50° C., for periods of between 5 and 90 minutes, or preferably for between 10 and 60 minutes or more preferably for between 20 and 60 minutes.", "The negative and positive electrode materials for the vanadium redox flow cell or redox cell may be porous carbon or graphite felt, matte or cloth materials on a graphite, glassy carbon or conducting plastic substrate.", "The positive electrode material can also be an oxide coated titanium metal sheet or expanded metal mesh.", "Multiple cells can also be incorporated into a cell stack consisting of bipolar electrodes, these bipolar electrodes comprising carbon or graphite felt, cloth or matte either pressed against or heat welded onto a conducting plastic substrate, this conducting plastic substrate comprising carbon filled polyethylene, polypropylene or other thermoplastic polymer that may also be mixed with a rubber material to impart good mechanical properties.", "The bipolar electrodes for the vanadium redox flow cell or redox cell can also be produced by heat bonding the porous carbon or graphite felt into each side of a polyethylene, polypropylene or other polymer sheet such that the conducting carbon or graphite felt fibres in each side of the insulating substrate contact each other through the plastic sheet, thereby making electrical contact without the need to add a conducting filler to the plastic substrate.", "The bipolar electrodes may be welded to the electrolyte flow-frame by infrared welding, vibration welding, ultrasonic welding, heat welding or laser welding.", "The two half-cell electrolytes are stored in external tanks and are pumped through the cell stack where the charging and discharging reactions occur.", "The electrolytes can be electrically charged by connecting the cell or battery terminals to a suitable power source, but can also be mechanically refueled by exchanging the discharged solutions with recharged solutions at a refueling station in the case of electric vehicle applications.", "The charging and discharging of the electrolytes can be performed by two separate stacks, one for charging and one for discharging and the electrolytes can be transported between the charging stacks and the discharging stacks either by road, train or ship.", "To reduce the cost of transportation, the organic MEM-bromine, MEP-bromine and/or MEM-MEP-bromine complex can be separated from the aqueous component of the electrolyte by simple gravity separation and transported to the discharge stack site where it is added to an equivalent aqueous solution and mixed together to produce an emulsion that is pumped through the discharging stacks to release the stored energy.", "The required proportion of the discharged solution is then transported to the charging station where the MEM-bromine, MEP-bromine or MEM-MEP-bromine active species is again produced in the positive half-cell electrolyte during the charging phase and again separated by gravity from the aqueous component of the positive electrolyte prior to transportation to the discharge station.", "In parallel, water can be removed from the charged negative half-cell electrolyte prior to transportation and reconstituted prior to use.", "To discharge the battery, the stack terminals are connected to a load and when the circuit is closed, electricity is produced by the flow of electrons from the negative terminal to the positive terminal of the cell or battery stack.", "Charging and discharging can be carried out either with the pumps switched on and the electrolytes recirculating through the external tanks and cell stack, or with the pumps off, allowing the solution in the stack itself to undergo discharge reactions.", "Periodically the two solutions may be remixed to produce the original V(3.5+) electrolyte in both tanks.", "This mixing allows any chemistry imbalance arising from the transfer of ions across the membrane to be corrected, so that the capacity of the system can be restored.", "The periodic mixing can be full or only partial mixing and also allows for any electrolyte level imbalance in each half-cell reservoir to be equalized.", "The electrolyte level equalization can be done by using pumps or by simply gravity rebalance.", "Periodically predetermined volumes of methanol or ethanol are added to the positive electrolyte to restore the balance in the state of charge of the positive and negative half-cell electrolytes.", "In a separate embodiment, the 2-4 M vanadium electrolyte may be gelled with 3-6 wt % fumed silica or other suitable gelling agent to produce a gelled or immobilised electrolyte Vanadium Redox Battery that permits greater stabilisation of the vanadium ions in the electrolyte and minimises electrolyte or in the case of the V/BrRB, bromine vapour leakage from the cell or cell stacks.", "In this embodiment, all of the solutions are stored in the cell stack and there are no external tanks or pumps.", "This invention also relates to Vanadium Redox Battery energy storage system and associated automated control systems to enhance performance.", "The vanadium bromide redox battery energy storage system (VBRES) of this invention includes reservoirs to store the vanadium electrolyte, an energy conversion mechanism defined as a cell stack, a piping and pumping flow system, and a power conversion system (PCS).", "A suitable energy storage system for remote or on-grid power system applications that are supplied by either photovoltaic arrays, wind turbine generators or wave generators would employ a V/BrRB redox battery of the present invention.", "The anolyte and catholyte solutions are pumped from the anolyte and catholyte tanks into the negative and positive half-cells of the cell stack via the anolyte and catholyte supply lines.", "The anolyte and catholyte supply lines each communicate with a variable speed pump and optionally a heat exchanger that transfers generated heat from the anolyte or catholyte solutions to a fluid or gas medium.", "The anolyte and catholyte supply lines include one or more supply line valves to control the volumetric flow of the solutions.", "The negative and positive electrodes are in electrical communication with a power source and a load.", "A power conversion system may be incorporated to convert DC power to AC power as needed.", "A control system may be embodied as a programmable logic computer with a processor in electrical communication with a memory that receives and stores executable applications and data.", "As load increases, the control system turns the pumps on or increases pump speeds to maintain supply of charged electrolyte species to the cells.", "As load decreases, the pump speeds are decreased or can be switched off for a preset time to allow the electrolyte in the cell stacks to provide the reactants for the discharge reactions.", "The pumps are automatically switched on once the stack or cell voltage reaches a predetermined lower limit during discharge, or as soon as the load exceeds a pre-set value.", "Temperature limits are typically set at a minimum of 5° C. and at a maximum of 40° C. If the temperature exceeds these limits, partial electrolyte mixing can be used as an emergency discharge method to bring the State of Charge (SOC) of the anolyte and catholyte down to a safe level for the corresponding temperature.", "The same system integration and operation can also be used with the V-VRB.", "If an imbalance between the negative and positive half-cell SOCs is created in either the V-VRB or V/BrRB, this can be rebalanced by exchanging charged solution with discharged solution, or by chemically reducing the positive half-cell electrolyte SOC with a chemical reductant such as ethanol or methanol.", "During operation of either the V-VRB or V/BrRB of this invention, the control module also monitors the levels of the anolyte and catholyte solutions and determines if equalization of solution reservoir levels is needed.", "The control module operates the equalization/mix control valve between the anolyte and catholyte tanks to adjust the reservoirs levels as needed.", "MODE OF OPERATION A 1-3 M vanadium solution comprising approximately 50% V(III) and 50% V(IV) ions in an electrolyte of either 3-6 M total sulphate or in a solution containing 4-9 M HBr plus 0.5-2 M HCl, is added in approximately equal volumes to both sides of the Vanadium Redox Cell or Battery.", "The cells or battery stacks comprise carbon or graphite felt electrodes heat and pressure bonded onto both sides of plastic or conducting plastic sheets as substrate materials and the two half cells are separated by a cast perfluorinated or modified resin extruded cation exchange membrane.", "The conducting plastic substrates are typically carbon-filled polyethylene or carbon-filled polypropylene.", "The carbon-filled composite may also include rubber to improve its mechanical properties.", "The bipolar electrodes may be attached to the electrolyte flow-frame by vibration welding, ultrasonic welding, heat welding or laser welding.", "The electrodes of the vanadium redox cell may also be made using carbon or graphite felt or matte compressed against a glassy carbon or graphite sheet substrate.", "The perfluorinated membrane has an approximate thickness of between 1 and 5 mil, preferably between 1 and 2 mil or between 25 and 50 microns, an acid capacity of between 0.5 and 2 mmol/g, a conductivity at 25° C. of between 0.01 and 1 S/cm, a water uptake of between 30% and 70% at 100° C. for 1 hour, a tensile strength of between 20 and 60 MPa and a melting point ranging from 180 to 240° C. The perfluorinated membrane is produced by casting from a solution of a resin that has an Equivalent Weight (EW) of between 800 and 1100 grams resin per equivalent SO 3 , or approximately 1032 grams resin per equivalent SO 3 − or an ion exchange capacity (1/EW) of between 1.25 and 0.91 milliequivalents SO 3 − per gram resin, typically 0.97 milliequivlanents SO 3 − per gram resin.", "In addition, micro particles may be added to the membrane to increase the water uptake and conductivity as well as decrease the linear expansion of membrane.", "The lower EW of this membrane (1032) compared with the corresponding Nafion 11N membrane (EW=1124), results in a higher ion exchange capacity (0.97 meq/g) which is higher than that of Nafion 11N (0.89 meq/g), and this also results in a higher conductivity, water uptake, and power density compared with Nafion.", "The cast membrane may be treated prior to use in the vanadium redox flow cell.", "The perfluorinated cation exchange membrane comprises a polymer selected from the group a PTFE, perfluorosulfonic acid and perfluorosulphonic acid/PTFE copolymer.", "Typically, the perfluorinated cation exchange membrane is in the acid form.", "To reduce its resistivity, the perfluorinated membrane is treated by soaking the membrane in an aqueous solution to enhance the voltage efficiency during charge-discharge cycling.", "Typically the treatment of the thicker membranes is carried out at above room temperature in a single or multi-step process in one or more aqueous solutions for a time ranging from 1 minute to 5 hours.", "The membrane can also be treated by soaking in an aqueous solution for 5 hours or more at or near room temperature.", "The two half-cell electrolytes are stored in external tanks and are pumped through the cell stack where the charging and discharging reactions occur.", "The electrolytes can be electrically charged by connecting the cell or battery terminals to a suitable power source selected from grid power, a wind generator, a photovoltaic array, diesel generator or wave generator, but can also be mechanically refueled by exchanging the discharged solutions with recharged solutions at a refueling station.", "The vanadium redox battery system includes an All Vanadium Redox Battery or a Vanadium Bromide Redox Battery which has a positive half cell containing a positive half cell solution and positive electrode, a negative half cell containing negative half cell solution and negative electrode and a cast perfluorinated ionically conducting separator which separates the positive half cell from the negative half cell and is in contact with the positive solution and the negative solution.", "A positive solution reservoir is coupled to the positive half cell by a positive solution supply line and return line.", "The positive solution return line incorporates a pump.", "The negative solution reservoir comprises a negative solution supply line and return line coupled between the negative solution reservoir and the negative half cell.", "The negative solution return line has a pump.", "A power supply is electrically coupled to the positive electrode in the positive half cell and to the negative electrode in the negative half cell.", "An electricity withdrawing circuit or load is electrically coupled to the positive electrode in the positive half cell and to negative electrode in the negative half cell.", "The half cells and solution reservoirs are sealed air tight and the positive and negative electrolyte solutions may be deaerated.", "The atmosphere above the solutions in the half cells and reservoirs may be an inert gas such as nitrogen, helium or argon, or mixtures thereof, for example.", "Typically, the positive and negative half cell solutions comprise vanadium (III) and vanadium (IV) ions in a V(III):V(IV) molar ratio of about 1:1 and the volumes of the negative half cell solution and the volume of the positive half cell solution are approximately equal.", "During the first charging step, sufficient electricity from the power supply is allowed to flow between the electrodes and the positive half cell solution is recirculated through the positive half cell and the negative half cell solution is recirculated through the negative half cell such that predominantly vanadium (IV) ions are formed in the positive half cell solution and predominantly V(III) ions is formed in the negative half cell solution where the cell is at a zero state of charge or near zero state of charge.", "The charging is allowed to continue in a second charging step so that the redox cell is fully or partially charged comprising vanadium (II) in the negative half cell solution.", "In the Vanadium Bromide Redox Cell or Battery, the fully or partially charged positive half-cell electrolyte includes Br 2 , Br 3 − or ClBr 2 − ions.", "Once the second charging step is completed (or partially completed) the redox battery may be used to deliver electricity by via the electricity withdrawing circuit.", "Once the redox cell is fully or partially discharged to a zero state of charge or near zero state of charge, the cell may be recharged by repeating the second charging step as described above.", "In an alternative way of operating the system, a predominantly vanadium (IV) solution in H 2 SO4, HBr, or HBr/HCl mixed electrolyte may be initially placed in the positive half cell and reservoir and a predominantly V(III) solution in H 2 SO 4 , HBr or HBr/HCl mixed electrolyte may be placed in the negative half cell and reservoir in equal volumes such that the cell is at a zero state of charge or near zero state of charge.", "The cell may then be charged in accordance with the second charging step described above and discharged as described above.", "More typically the Vanadium Redox Battery system incorporates several cells assembled into a monopolar or bipolar cell stack employing end electrodes and monopolar or bipolar electrodes separated by the cast perfluorinated membrane.", "The positive half-cell electrolyte is pumped through each positive half-cell, connected hydraulically in series or parallel, while the negative half-cell electrolyte is pumped through each negative half-cell, connected hydraulically in series or parallel.", "Preferably, the stack uses bipolar electrodes and parallel hydraulic connection of the electrolyte flow lines.", "The number of series connected bipolar cells can range from 2 to 200 in a single stack, although more typically, 5 to 50 cells are connected in a bipolar arrangements to produce one stack sub-module and several sub-stack modules are connected in series and or parallel to provide the current and voltage needed in the energy storage application.", "The electrolytes can be electrically charged by connecting the cell or battery terminals to a suitable power source selected from grid power, a wind generator, a photovoltaic array, diesel generator or wave generator, but can also be mechanically refueled by exchanging the discharged solutions with recharged solutions at a refueling station.", "The charging and discharging of the electrolytes can be performed by two separate stacks, one for charging and one for discharging and the electrolytes can be transported between the charging stacks and the discharging stacks either by road, train or ship.", "To facilitate and reduce the cost of transportation, the organic MEM-bromine, MEP-bromine and/or MEM-MEP-bromine complex can be separated from the aqueous component of the electrolyte by simple gravity separation and transported to the discharge stack site where it is added to an equivalent aqueous solution and mixed together to produce an emulsion that is pumped through the discharging stacks to release the stored energy.", "The required proportion of the discharged solution is then transported to the charging station where the MEM-bromine, MEP-bromine or MEM-MEP-bromine active species is again produced in the positive half-cell electrolyte during the charging phase and again separated by gravity from the aqueous component of the positive electrolyte prior to transportation to the discharge station.", "Simultaneously, water can be removed from the charged negative half-cell electrolyte prior to transportation and is reconstituted prior to use.", "EXAMPLES Example 1 A piece of polysulphone anion exchange membrane was placed into a static vanadium bromide redox cell.", "FIG. 3 shows the voltage versus time curves obtained at a current of 500 mA and electrode area of 25 cm 2 .", "No discharge curves could be obtained Example 2 A piece of Nafion 112 membrane was placed into a Vanadium Bromide static cell comprising 2 M Vanadium in 6 M HBr plus 2 M HCl electrolyte and graphite felt electrodes of area 25 cm 2 .", "The cell was cycled at a current of 500 mA and typical charge-discharge curves are presented in FIG. 4 .", "The Nafion initially showed a high voltage resistance and the following results were obtained: Voltage Efficiency—47% Columbic Efficiency—91% After only a few hours of cycling however, the cell capacity dropped dramatically and further cycling could not be obtained.", "When the Nafion 112 membrane was placed in a flow cell containing 70 ml of the same electrolyte in each half-cell, the positive electrolyte began to cross over to the negative half-cell during the initial charge cycle and continued to transfer from the positive half-cell with further cycling, requiring regular manual transfer of solution back to the positive to maintain the electrolyte levels in the two solution reservoirs.", "The flow cell was dismantled and the Nafion 112 membrane was replaced with a piece of Gore Select cation exchange membrane and cycling was continued at 1 Amp.", "Typical charge-discharge curves are shown in FIG. 5 .", "At the beginning of cycling, this membrane showed very good results with Voltage Efficiency—84% and Columbic Efficiency—92% as illustrated in FIG. 5( a ).", "After a few weeks of cycling, however, the performance decreased ( FIG. 5( b )) and when the cell was dismantled, the membrane was found to have blistered, showing that it is unstable in the acidic vanadium bromide electrolyte.", "The same behaviour was observed when this membrane was cycled in a V-VRB with a 2 M vanadium sulphate electrolyte.", "Example 3 A perfluorinated cation exchange membrane prepared by casting from a solution of a resin with EW (Equivalent Weight)=1032 g resin/eq SO 3 − , so the ion exchange capacity=1/EW=0.97 meq SO 3 − /g resin, was tested in a V/Br static cell.", "The 50 micron thick cast perfluorinated membrane had the following properties: Nominal Thickness: 2 mil or 50 microns Acid Capacity: 0.97 mmol/g Conductivity: 0.1 S/cm (25° C.) Water Uptake: 50% (100° C., 1 h) Linear Expansion: 1% (23° C., from 50% RH to water soaked) Tensile Strength: 37 MPa (50% RH, 23° C., Isotropy) Melting Point: 219° C. The membrane was soaked in sulphuric acid at 50° C. for 1 hour and then placed in a static V/Br cell for cycling.", "The Vanadium Bromide (V/Br) static cell comprised 2 M Vanadium in 6 M HBr plus 1.5 M HCl electrolyte and graphite felt electrodes of area 25 cm 2 .", "The cell was cycled at a current of 500 mA.", "This showed good, stable results with the following efficiencies as illustrated in FIG. 6 : Voltage Efficiency—90%;", "Coulombic Efficiency—90%.", "The cell was cycled for several days with no drop in capacity or efficiency.", "Several additional treatments were tested with the 50 micron, 25 micron and 125 micron cast perfluorinated membranes and the results are summarized in the following Table: Membrane Thickness Coulombic (microns) Treatment Eff.", "% Voltage Eff.", "% 125 1 hour @ 80° C. in 5% H 2 O 2 , rinse, No result due N/A then 1 hour @ 80° C. in 10% HNO 3 to high membrane resistance 125 Boiled in 5 M H 2 SO 4 for 1 hour 90% 60% 50 1 hour @ 80° C. in 5% H 2 O 2 , rinse, 50% 57% then 1 hour @ 80° C. in 10% HNO 3 50 Manufacturer's recommended 60% 90% Treatment: 1 hour @ 80° C. in 5% H 2 O 2 , 1 hr in dist.", "water @ 80°, 1 hr @ 80° C. in 10% HNO 3 , 1 hr in dist.", "water @ 80° C. 50 Boiled in 5 M H 2 SO 4 30 min 90% 90% 50 Boiled in 5% H 2 O 2 30 min 70% 90% 50 Boiled in water 1 hour 90% 90% 50 Boiled in water 45 min 88% 85% 50 Soaked in boiling water for 1 hour 79% 95% then soaked in 5 M H 2 SO 4 at room temp for 1 hour 50 Boiled 45 min.", "in 5 M HCl 82% 90% 50 Boiled 45 min.", "in 5 M NaOH 90% 87% 50 Soaked in 5 M H 2 SO 4 24 hours at No results - room temp high resistance 50 Soaked in 1 M H 2 SO 4 for 1 hour @ 74% 81% 90° C. 25 Boiled in H 2 SO 4 for 30 min No results - membrane damaged 25 Soaked in 5 M H 2 SO 4 for 5 hours @ 60% 86% room temp As above, but after 90 charge- 80% 79% discharge cycles 25 Soaked in boiling 5 M H 2 SO 4 for 20 min 26% 84% 25 Manufacturer's recommended 33% 85% treatment: 1 hour @ 80° C. in 5% H 2 O 2 then 1 hour in 0.5 M H 2 SO 4 @ 80° C. 25 Soaked for 24 hour in H 2 SO 4 at room 80% 78% temp 25 Soaked in 5% H 2 O 2 @ 80° C. for 1 65% 65% hour then rinsed in dist water 25 Soaked 10% HNO 3 @ 80° C. for 1 66% 75% hour then rinsed in water 25 Soaked in 0.5 M H 2 SO 4 @ 80° C. for 1 72% 58% hour then rinsed in dist water These results show that treatment with nitric acid as recommended by the manufacturer is detrimental to the performance of these membranes in the Vanadium Redox Cell and should be avoided.", "Excellent performance was obtained when the thicker membranes were boiled in water, H 2 SO 4 , H 2 O 2 , HCl or NaOH for periods up to 1 hour, however, the thinner 25 micron membrane could not withstand the harsh conditions of boiling for periods more than 30 minutes, so preferred treatment was at temperatures below 80° C. to avoid damage.", "In the case of the 25 micron membrane, good performance could be obtained by soaking the membrane in the aqueous electrolytes for periods above 12 hours, preferably for periods of 24 hours or more.", "Room temperature treatments could also be used with the 50 micron membrane, however the treatment time had to be extended to more that 24 hours in the H 2 SO 4 , H 2 O 2 , HCl or NaOH solutions.", "Example 4 A positive half-cell vanadium bromide electrolyte containing 3 M V in 8 M HBr plus 2 M HCl was prepared by adding 1.5 mole of V 2 O 5 powder to the HBr/HCl mixture.", "The V(V) powder reacted by the bromide ions to dissolve as V(IV) bromide while forming bromine in the solution that mainly dissolved as the Br 3 − or Br 2 Cl − species, but partly produced a red bromine vapour above the solution.", "Different amounts and ratios of N-Ethyl-N-Methylpyrrolidiniumbromide (MEP) and N-Ethyl-N-Methylmorpholiniumbromide (MEM) were added to the solution forming a red oily compound that separated from the aqueous phase of the electrolyte and completely removed the bromine vapour from above the solution mixture.", "Small volumes of HBr/HCl solution were added to bring the final vanadium electrolyte concentration to 2.0M.", "Samples of each solution/mixture were stored at different temperatures for several weeks.", "The mixture that contained 1 M MEP was found to produce an organic phase that was a liquid at 40° C., but solidified at below room temperature.", "When MEM was added to the positive electrolyte however, the organic phase that was produced tended to remain liquid at lower temperatures.", "By adjusting the MEM:MEP ratio, it is therefore possible to produced an organic bromine complex phase in the charged positive solution that can be separated for transportation as illustrated in FIG. 7 or solidified by lowering the temperature to allow easy storage, separation or transportation.", "By increasing the temperature, the organic phase becomes liquid again, thus allowing operation of the redox flow cell.", "When the MEM/MEP solution was tested in the Vanadium Redox Battery with the cast perfluorinated membrane, a coulombic efficiency of 86% was obtained.", "Example 5 A piece of 50 micron (2 mil) perfluorinated membrane was boiled in 5 M sulphuric acid for 30 minutes and placed in a V/Br flow cell with graphite felt electrodes of area 25 cm 2 and containing approximately 60 mls 2 M vanadium bromide electrolyte in each half-cell.", "The cell was charge-discharge cycled at 1000 mA.", "FIG. 8 shows typical charge-discharge curves.", "Average efficiencies from these curve are: Voltage Efficiency—78%, Coulombic Efficiency—91%.", "The slight drop in voltage efficiency of the flow cell compared with the earlier static cell is due to the fact that the flow cell tests were conducted at 1000 mA compared to 500 mA in the static cells and the half-cell cavity was 2.5 mm.", "Further voltage efficiency improvements should be possible with reduced electrode resistance using more compression in the half-cell cavity.", "The cell was cycled for several weeks with no drop in capacity or efficiency and negligible solution transfer.", "After 12 months of charge-discharge cycling, the cell was dismantled and the membrane was found to be in excellent condition with no fouling or blistering observed.", "Example 6 A piece of cast perfluorinated membrane with the following properties was tested in the above Vanadium Bromide Redox Cell: Nominal Thickness: 5 mil Acid Capacity: 0.97 mmol/g Conductivity: 0.1 S/cm (25° C.) Water Uptake: 50% (100° C., 1 h) Linear Expansion: 1% (23° C., from 50% RH to water soaked) Tensile Strength: 37 MPa (50% RH, 23° C., Isotropy) Melting Point: 219° C. This is a thick membrane, and therefore produced a very high resistance in the cell.", "The membrane was therefore soaked in the electrolyte overnight before being retested in the cell.", "Typical charge-discharge curves for the 5 mil thick cast perfluorinated membrane in a vanadium bromide redox cell at a current of 500 mA are shown in FIG. 9 .", "Results obtained are;", "Voltage Efficiency—68%, Coulombic Efficiency—90%.", "The preferred thickness of the cast membrane for Vanadium Redox Flow Cell applications is therefore less than 5 mil or 125 microns.", "Example 7 A 3 M vanadium bromide solution is prepared by slowly mixing 1.5 moles of vanadium trioxide powder with 0.75 moles of bromine liquid in a 1 liter flask containing a 6.5 M HBr/2 M HCl mixture.", "The bromine oxidises the vanadium trioxide powder allowing it to partially dissolve as V(IV) ions while the bromine is reduced to bromide ions.", "The remaining unreacted vanadium trioxide dissolves to form V(III) ions.", "On complete dissolution and reaction, the solution volume is made up to 1 liter by addition of the HBr/HCl stock solution to produce a final solution of composition: 1.5 M V(III) plus 1.5 M V(IV) (ie 3 M V(3.5+)) in 9 M HBr plus approximately 1.9 M HCl.", "To this solution is added 1 M MEM plus 0.5 M MEP to complex any bromine produced when the solution is charged in a vanadium bromide redox flow cell.", "Example 8 A vanadium bromide electrolyte for use in the V/BrRB is prepared by adding 0.5 mole of bromine solution to 1 mole V 2 O 3 powder in 1 liter volumetric flask that also contains 1 mole of a MEM/MEP mixture.", "A solution of 8 M HBr and 2 M HCl is then added to make the volume up to 1 liter.", "The bromine partially oxidises the vanadium trioxide powder, allowing is to dissolve rapidly while forming bromide ions and converting half of the V(III) to V(IV) ions in solution.", "This gives a final solution of 1 M V(III)+1 M V(IV) (referred to as 2 M V(3.5+)) that can be applied to both half-cells of a V/BrRB.", "When this electrolyte was fully charged in the V/BrRB, the bromine produced in the positive half-cell, combined with the MEM/MEP complexing agent to produce a red oily layer of the complexed bromine, which on mixing with the aqueous vanadium bromide layer, produced an emulsion.", "Samples of the positive half-cell emulsion were placed into sample tubes and stored at different temperatures to determine the stability of the bromine complex.", "The following table summarises the results obtained for different MEM to MEP ratios: Appearance of red organic complex layer MEP Solution MEM conc V conc After 7 days After 7 days After 7 days Number conc (M) (M) (M) Br 2 (M) at 11° C. at room temp at 40° C. 1 1.0 0 2 1 Solid Solid Solid 2 0.75 0.25 2 1 Liquid Liquid Liquid 3 0.5 0.5 2 1 Liquid Liquid Liquid 4 0.25 0.75 2 1 Solid Solid Liquid 5 0 1.0 2 1 Solid Solid Liquid Solution 2 and 3 are thus seen to be potentially suitable electrolyte compositions for the positive half-cell electrolyte, producing a liquid organic phase for the bromine complex that has good stability over the temperature range 11 to 40° C. An approximately 3 M vanadium bromide electrolyte for use in the V/BrRB is also prepared by adding 0.75 moles of bromine solution to 1.5 moles V 2 O 3 powder in 1 liter volumetric flask that also contains approximately 0.75 moles of a MEM/MEP mixture.", "A solution of 8 M HBr and 2 M HCl is then added to make the volume up to 1 liter.", "Again, the bromine partially oxidises the vanadium trioxide powder, allowing is to dissolve rapidly while forming bromide ions and converting half of the V(III) to V(IV) ions in solution.", "This gives a final solution of approximately 1.5 M V(III)+1.5 M V(IV) (referred to as 3 M V(3.5+)) that can be applied to both half-cells of a V/BrRB.", "When this electrolyte was fully charged in the V/BrRB, samples of the positive half-cell emulsion were removed and placed into sample tubes and stored at different temperatures to determine the stability of the bromine complex.", "The following table summarises the results obtained: Sample Solution 25° C. for 15 40° C. 11° C. for 10 Number composition days for 10 day days 1 3 M V(IV) Dark green N/A Dark green 1.5 M Br 2 aqueous layer liquid with 0.75 M MEM with some orange liquid brown gas and organic layer orange organic liquid layer 2 3 M V(IV) Dark green Dark green Dark green 1.5 M Br 2 liquid with liquid with liquid with 0.5 M MEM orange layer some brown orange layer 0.25 M MEP gas and orange layer 3 3 M V(IV) Dark green N/A Dark green 1.5 M Br 2 liquid with liquid with 0.38 M MEM some brown gas orange liquid 0.38 M MEP and orange organic layer liquid organic layer 4 3 M V(IV) Dark green N/A Dark green 1.5 M Br 2 liquid with liquid with 0.25 M MEM some brown gas orange liquid 0.5 M MEP and orange organic layer liquid organic layer 5 3 M V(IV) Dark green Dark green Dark green 1.5 M Br 2 liquid with liquid with liquid with 0.20 M MEM orange liquid some brown orange liquid 0.6 M MEP organic layer gas and organic layer orange layer 6 3 M V(IV) Dark green Dark green Dark green 1.5 M Br 2 liquid with liquid with liquid with 0.75 M MEP orange layer orange layer orange layer These results show that by reducing the Br 2 /complex ratio, the formation of a solid organic layer is reduced, however, some bromine vapour appears in some solutions at the higher temperatures.", "In the case of solution 6 , however, no bromide gas formation occurs at elevated temperature and no solid bromine complex is produced at the lower temperature.", "Example 9 The water transfer behaviour of the cast perfluorinated membrane of Example 3, was compared to that of Nafion 112 and the results are illustrated in FIG. 10 .", "The test was conducted by placing a 2 M V(III) sulphate solution on one side of the membrane and a 2 M V(IV) sulphate solution on the other side in a circular cell that was constructed from clear Perspex with a 40 ml cavity in each half-cell.", "The membrane area exposed to the electrolytes was 15.9 cm 2 .", "Each half-cell contained a long Perspex tube, 45 cm in length and an internal diameter of 4.2 mm, drilled through the cell into the cavity area.", "The solutions which corresponded to 0% state of charge V/VRB electrolytes, were at the same initial level about half-way up the tubes.", "The deviations in electrolyte level were monitored and recorded periodically.", "Every 72 mm height deviation equated to 1 ml of electrolyte volume difference.", "The graph shows a 200 mm height differential after about 400 hours testing in the case of the Nafion 112, while negligible height deviation was observed in the case of the cast membrane of the same chemical composition and thickness.", "Example 10 A piece of Nafion 112 membrane was tested in a vanadium redox flow cell employing 60 ml of 2 M vanadium in 5 M sulphuric acid solution in each half cell.", "The cell had an electrode and active membrane area of 25 cm 2 and was charge discharge cycled a 1 Amp.", "During the initial charge step a large volume transfer occurred from the positive half-cell to the negative half-cell.", "During discharge, some of the electrolyte moved back into the positive half-cell through the membrane, but a continuous net solution flow continued to occur into the negative half-cell until the solution level in the positive half-cell reservoir was too low and air began to be sucked into the tubes.", "To allow the cell to continue operating, 10 ml of solution had to be transferred from the negative back into the positive reservoir every 10 or so cycles, making cell operation very difficult.", "During continuous cycling the voltage efficiency was observed to decrease from an initial value of approximately 80% to less than 70%.", "After a few weeks of cycling, the cell was dismantled and a brown discoloration was observed on the membrane, showing that it had fouled.", "Example 11 FIG. 11 shows typical charge and discharge curves for a static cell employing the 50 micron cast perfluorinated membrane of Example 3 and a 2 M vanadium solution in 5 M H 2 SO 4 supporting electrolyte as the electrolyte for both positive and negative half-cells.", "The membrane was boiled in distilled water for 45 minutes prior to use.", "The cell employed a 3 mm thick graphite felt electrode in a 2.5 mm half-cell cavity.", "Charging and discharge current=0.5 Amp, electrode area=25 cm 2 .", "The cycles shown are cycles 65 to 70 .", "From these graphs, 72% voltage efficiency and 94% coulombic efficiency were calculated, giving an overall energy efficiency of 68%.", "The performance of the cell remained constant for more than 80 charge-discharge cycles and no fouling was observed when the membrane was removed from the cell.", "Example 12 FIG. 12 represents typical charge-discharge curves for the cycling of the same static vanadium sulphate redox cell as in Example 11, except that this cell employed a cell cavity of 2 mm thickness and the 50 micron cast perfluorinated membrane was treated by boiling in 10% hydrogen peroxide for 1 hour.", "The calculated voltage efficiency=93% and coulombic efficiency=86%.", "The overall energy efficiency of this static cell was approximately 80%.", "The capacity and performance of this cell remained constant for more than 80 charge-discharge cycles and no fouling was observed when the membrane was removed from the cell.", "Example 13 FIG. 13 shows typical charge-discharge curves for a vanadium sulphate redox flow cell containing approximately 60 ml in each half-cell of 1.6 M vanadium solution in H 2 SO 4 .", "The felt comprised a glassy carbon current collector onto which was contacted a 3 mm thick graphite felt of electrode area=25 cm 2 .", "The graphite felt was contained in a 2.5 mm flow-frame and the charging and discharging current=1 Amp.", "Cycles shown are cycle numbers 6 to 10 and the membrane was a 50 micron thick cast perfluorinated membrane of Example 3 that had been treated in 5 M sulphuric acid at 80° C. for 30 minutes prior to use.", "At twice the charge and discharge current as that for Example 13, the voltage and coulombic efficiencies of this cell were 81% and 90% respectively, giving an overall energy efficiency of 73%.", "By optimising the glassy carbon/graphite felt electrical contact by using higher compression in the cell cavity, a lower cell resistance would be expected, with an accompanying higher energy efficiency.", "The capacity and performance of this cell remained constant for more than 800 cycles with no significant electrolyte transfer observed from one half-cell to the other during the testing.", "No fouling was observed when the membrane was removed from the cell after more than 10 months of cycling.", "Example 14 A 25 micron thick piece of cast perfluorinated membrane was soaked in boiling H 2 SO 4 (removed from hotplate) for 30 minutes.", "Typical charge-discharge curves obtained in a static cell containing 1.6 M vanadium in sulphuric acid are shown in FIG. 14 .", "The average efficiencies obtained were Eff(Volt)=92.7%, Eff (coul)=87.2% and Eff (energy)=80.8%.", "In a separate experiment, a different sample of the same was soaked in 5 M H 2 SO 4 for 5 hours at room temperature, and the coulombic and voltage efficiencies were 80% and 60% respectively.", "Example 15 A polysulphone membrane was employed in the all-vanadium redox cell of Example 14.", "The cell was cycled at 1 Amp for several weeks and the initial energy efficiency was 80%.", "During cycling, however, the capacity was found to decrease and a steady movement of electrolyte from the positive to the negative half-cell reservoir was observed.", "To restore the capacity, solution had to be manually transferred from the negative to positive half-cell every 20 to 30 cycles, making operation difficult.", "After 2 weeks of cycling, a drop in voltage efficiency occurred.", "When the cell was dismantled a brown discoloration was observed on the membrane showing that fouling had occurred.", "Example 16 A V-VRB redox flow cell was cycled for several months and the capacity was seen to gradually decrease due to the air oxidation of the V(II) ions in the negative half-cell.", "One ml of ethanol was added to the positive half-cell electrolyte and the cell continued to cycle.", "FIG. 15 shows a graph of capacity versus cycle number after the addition of the ethanol.", "A gradual increase in the capacity is observed as the ethanol slowly reduces some of the V(V) ions to V(IV) in the positive half-cell electrolyte so as to equalize the molar ratio of V(V) to V(II) in the positive and negative half-cell solutions respectively and balance the state of charge of the positive half-cell relative to that of the negative half-cell.", "After approximately 20 charge-discharge cycles, however, the capacity of the cell started to decrease again as the ethanol had been consumed and air oxidation of the V(II) ions in the negative half-cell electrolyte began to dominate once again.", "The same effect was obtained with the V/BrRB and in the case of both the V-VRB and V/BrRB, the effect is independent of the type of membrane employed.", "Example 17 In one example, a V/BrRB is employed in a transportable energy system that transports energy from a remote wave platform, wind farm or solar array to the nearest grid, avoiding the need to install additional grid lines or submarine cables in the case of off-shore locations.", "The V/BrRB is typically installed in one or more large cargo ships with the electrolyte tanks located in the hull of the ship and the battery stacks on the deck.", "The power output from the wave generator, wind generators or solar arrays is used to charge the V/BrRB electrolytes and when fully charged, the ship transports the charged solutions to the nearest grid point for distribution into the electricity network.", "While one ship is transporting the energy and discharging it into the grid, a second ship with a similar V/BrRB systems connects to the solar array or to the wind or wave generator and absorbs the generated power until it is fully charged.", "The higher energy density offered by the V/BrRB makes this application more feasible since the transportation costs per kWh of energy is considerably reduced compared with the All Vanadium Redox Battery.", "Example 18 The Vanadium Redox Batteries of this invention are employed as energy storage systems integrated into an energy system incorporating a photovoltaic array, wind turbines, diesel generators, electricity grid or other power generation equipment.", "The batteries are integrated with a battery controller that monitors battery condition and determines optimum operation.", "Typical modes of operation and integration of the Vanadium Batteries of this invention are as described by K. Sato, S. Miyake and M. Skyllas-Kazacos in Features, Advantages and Applications of the Vanadium Redox Battery, 16th International Forum on Applied Electrochemistry, Amelia Island Plantation, Fla.", ", USA, 11 Nov. 2002 and by D. J. Hennessy in US2005158614, Publication date: 2005-07-21, US2005156432, 2005-07-21 and US2005156431, 2005-07-21.", "Example 19 Chemical regeneration of V(V) in the case of the V-VRB and of Br 3 − in the case of the V/BrRb is a means by which a small volume of the positive half-cell electrolyte can employed in combination with a larger volume of negative half-cell electrolyte so as to reduce the weight and volume of the vanadium redox flow cell for a particular cell capacity.", "Experiments were conducted with a cell employing 140 ml of a 2 M V(III) solution in 5 M H 2 SO 4 was added to the negative half-cell of a vanadium redox flow cell and 70 ml of the same solution was added to the positive half-cell.", "The cell had an electrode and membrane area of 25 cm 2 and was first charged at a current density of 20 mA/cm 2 to produce V(II) and V(V) ions in the negative and positive half-cell electrolytes respectively.", "The cell was then discharged at the same current density to a discharge voltage limit of 0.2 V. The discharge time for the cell is limited by the volume of the positive half-cell electrolyte and as seen from FIG. 16( a ) the discharge time is half the charge time.", "In a separate experiment, an identical cell was charged and discharged under the same conditions, but in this case, a 30% hydrogen peroxide solution was added dropwise to the positive half-cell electrolyte during discharge using a syringe.", "As seen in FIG. 16( b ), the discharge time is twice that obtained without the hydrogen peroxide addition and is due to the fact that as the V(V) ions are reduced to V(IV) in the positive half-cell during discharge, hydrogen peroxide is continually re-oxidising the V(IV) to V(V) so that the discharge capacity becomes limited by the volume of the negative half-cell electrolyte.", "The theoretical volume of 30% hydrogen peroxide needed to re-oxidise 70 ml of V(IV) to V(V) is 7.2 ml, so for a total positive electrolyte volume of 77.2 ml, it should be possible to obtain the same discharge capacity as for a cell containing 140 ml of positive electrolyte.", "This allows a significant reduction in the total electrolyte weight and volume per kWh.", "A similar result was obtained in the case of a vanadium redox cell employing a vanadium bromide electrolyte, the addition of peroxide successfully regenerating the Br 3 − ions in the positive electrolyte to allow the same cell capacity to be achieved with half or even lower volume of the positive half-cell electrolyte.", "Although the foregoing description has shown, described and pointed out novel features of the invention, it will be understood that various omissions, substitutions and changes in the form of the detail of the apparatus as illustrated as well as the uses thereof, may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the present invention.", "Consequently, the scope of the present invention should not be limited by the foregoing discussion but should be defined by the appended claims." ]

[ "OBJECTIVE OF THE INVENTION [0001] The present invention provides a simple method for obtaining promoted molybdenum sulfide catalyst (MMoS 2 ) and promoted molybdenum sulfide added with nanometric additive (MMoS 2 — nanometric oxide) starting off of the synthesis of ammonium thiomolybdate in aqueous solution assisted with ultrasound.", "The obtained catalysts exhibit an improved catalytic activity mainly in hydrotreatment reactions, hydrodesulfurization, hydrodenitrogenation, and hydrogenation.", "The synthesis method, described in the present invention, uses catalyst activation phase under a non-toxic gas atmosphere, which makes the method a simple, economic, and low environmental impact choice.", "The present invention also covers the catalysts obtained with molybdenum sulfide as a base and nanometric oxides particles, with or without promoting with Ni, Co, and other transition metals.", "[0002] The present invention impact for its application in the commercial context lies at the simplicity of the synthesis method, which will affect the catalyst's cost, as well as the environmental impact reduction from the synthesis, maintaining the catalytic activity of the current commercial catalysts and even featuring, in some cases, superior catalytic activities.", "BACKGROUND [0003] In recent years, a greater environmentalist awareness has been generated, from which surged a tendency for the development of investigation directed toward taking care of the environment, mainly for obtaining clean fuel from petroleum refining.", "Obtaining gasoline and diesel with deep desulfurization is becoming more difficult in view that the crude petroleum contains high contents of sulfur, nitrogen, oxygen, other pollutants, and higher density.", "On the other hand, environmental regulation tends toward lower levels of sulfur each time.", "This factor has been, in recent years, the main motor for the great increase in the implementation of catalysts development.", "The challenges faced by catalyst suppliers are mainly increased, catalytic activity in hydrotreatments (HT) required addressing the specific demands of fuel markets with ultra-low sulfur content (<10 PPM before 2010).", "[0004] In order to reach the regulated established levels, especially for the sulfur content, it is necessary to have catalytic materials able to be active even with the most refractory molecules present in the different raw materials.", "To do this, several attempts had been carried out for developing new and more active catalysts with appropriate functionality to produce HDS in these molecules.", "The strategies include: the use of new active phases such as carbides, nitrides, phosphides, or different transition metal sulfides of Mo and W, promoted with Ni or Co. The operation of these phases continues to be explored for practical uses.", "The development of various sophisticated synthesis methods, require extreme pressure and temperature conditions and the generation of very complex systems that include tri-metallic catalysts.", "[0005] Transitional metal sulfides (SMT) have been the more highly used systems due to their exceptional resistance to poisoning, as well as their catalytic characteristic on hydro processing reactions, mainly the catalysts formed by MoS 2 or WS 2 , which should be stable to hydrodesulfurization (HDS) conditions, commonly at temperatures between 300-400° C. and pressure of H 2 of 490 psi.", "[0006] The SMT, which can be supported or unsupported, have been prepared by diverse and very various synthesis methods among emphasize comaceration and homogeneous precipitation.", "However, the obtained materials, which are generally oxides, hardly reach a complete sulfidation, so the thiosalts precursor decomposition is a very interesting alternative preparation method, which may provide an easy way to achieve a high level of sulfidation in SMT final catalyst.", "This method may be applied to the development of both material types, meaning, unsupported and supported.", "[0007] For obtaining supported materials are mainly used as (γ)-alumina, mixed oxides, carbon, zeolites, mesostructured material based silicon oxide, etc.", "On the other hand, unsupported catalysts or “massic”", "only contain the active phase of SMT, bi-metallic and more recently as tri-metallic.", "The second and third metal, commonly referred to as promoters, enhance the catalytic performance of the HT.", "The transition metal sulfides are commonly promoted with elements of Group VIII B (cobalt and/or nickel) due to the balance between performance and economy.", "Regardless of the synthesis method used for HDS catalysts preparation, these materials should have specific characteristics such as high catalytic activity, low crystalline degree, or weak crystalline structure, as well as good texture properties, such as high surface area and homogeneous pore size distribution.", "[0008] Even though supported catalysts are more economically attractive materials for industrial use, in general they are less efficient than the unsupported, because an interaction exists between the metal and the support.", "This modifies the morphology of the active phase and affects the reducibility to be supplied by the sulfur, among other things.", "Therefore, there is great interest to develop unsupported catalysts through simple, economic methods with low environment impact.", "[0009] Recently, G. Alonso, J. Yang, M. H. Siadati and R. R. Chianelli, lnorg Chim Acta, Vol 3 25, (2001), Pages 193-194, G. Alonso, G. Aguirre, I. A. Rivero, S. Fuentes, lnorg.", "Chim.", "Act 274 (1998), Page 108, G. Alonso, G. Berhault, lnorg.", "Chim.", "Acta 316 (2001), Page 105, L. Alvarez, J. Espino, C. Ornelas, J. L. Rico, M. T. Cortez, G. Berhault and G. Alonso, J. of Mol.", "Catal.", "A: Chemical, Vol 210, (2004), page 105-117, G. Alonso, V. Petranovskii, M. Del Valle, J. Cruz-Reyes, a. Licea-Claverie, S. Fuentes, Appl.", "Catly A: Gral (2000), 1997, Pags.", "(87-90), prepared unsupported HDS catalysts based on the thiometalatos tetraalkylamonium synthesis.", "This synthesis is based on the methodology developed by J. W. McDonald, G. D. Friesen, I. D. Rosehein, W. E. Newton, lnorg, Chem.", "ACTA 72 (1983), Page.", "205, for the ammonium thyomolybdate synthesis (ATM) in aqueous solution, which subsequently is reacted with tetraalkylamonium salts to increase the catalyst surface area after its activation.", "Generally, the generated thiosalts are activated by using different routes such as: in situ activation, where the activation takes place simultaneously with the application or on extremely high hydrogen pressure conditions (up to 2000 psi);", "while activation ex situ, involves the previous decomposition of the precursors before the HDS reaction, which takes place at atmospheric pressure under a specific gas mixture flow (mainly H 2 S/H 2 ) at typical temperatures of 300-500° C. These synthesis and activation methods, widely reported, have some important disadvantages: the synthesis departs from costly molecules such as the salts of tetraalkylammonium, while in activation, the via in situ requires extreme pressure conditions to achieve good catalytic activities, on the other hand the ex situ way, requires a mixture of gases which includes H 2 S known for its high toxicity and environmental impact.", "[0010] Among the more active commercial unsupported catalysts in hydrodesulfurization are trimetallic materials composed by Ni—Mo—W (NEBULA and STAR catalyst developed by Exxon Mobil-Albemarle), in the case of NEBULA has been reported that presents a great activity (up to three times that of any other catalytic system, K NEBULA ≈31.2×10 −7 mol g −1 s −1 , evaluated in a reactor by batch at 350° C. and 490 psi) and high HDS stability.", "Even if the technological contribution of these materials is obvious, it is important to highlight that its use significantly increases the production cost for clean fuels, so its use is limited to certain beds or layers of the catalyst bed, which mission is to treat flows having high content of nitrogen compounds, the following layers are filled with cheaper materials, generally supported, that allow an overall result that complies with regulations.", "[0011] It is so obvious, the need for efficient and low-cost materials.", "In this light, Y. Gochi-Ponce, I. Alvarez-Contreras, f. Paraguay-Delgado and g. Alonso-Núñnez, Int.", "J. Materials and Product Technology, Vol. 27, Nos. 1/2 (2006), Pages 130-140, reported trimetallic catalysts Ni—Mo—W with 5, 25, and 50% by weight of AL 2 O 3 , using a multiple stage synthesis method with strict pH control, followed by calcination, and subsequent ex situ activation phase at 400° C. in the presence of a dimethyl-disulfide mixture (DMDS)/N 2 .", "This method is an alternative that prevents the use of high pressure for the generation of non-supported trimetallic catalysts.", "However, complex synthesis coupled with the use of DMDS, which may be fatal if inhaled, is highly toxic and irritating in contact with the skin and respiratory tract;", "creates a strong disadvantage.", "[0012] In summary, environmental regulations continually diminish the permitted level of emissions, which requires the generation of more efficient HDS catalytic systems.", "Today the most widely used catalysts at the industrial level are based on SMT, generally supported in Al 2 O 3 .", "Its great use is based on its low cost.", "However, considering the effectiveness required for sulfur removal, the most suitable option is the use of non-supported catalysts, which to be efficient normally requires complicated synthesis methods and compositions with a high metal content, which increases its cost and reduces the feasibility use.", "In this framework, a simple, safe, economic and environmentally friendly method to allow having competent catalytic materials with those obtained today by more complex methods, offers unsuspected possibilities from the industrial application point of view.", "Thus, the present invention from the commercial point of view, presents advantages when considering the simplicity of the synthesis method, which will affect the catalyst cost, as well as the reduction of the environmental impact from the synthesis.", "[0013] There are currently some patents describing methods for obtaining unsupported catalysts.", "In the description of such patents the high metal content of the catalytic is evident (with the consequent high cost) and the severe conditions required for the catalytic activation.", "The patents are as follows: [0014] In the U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,299,760;", "6,156,695;", "6,783,663;", "6,712,955 and 6,758,963 disclose preparation methods and the implementation of new unsupported catalysts NiMoW.", "It was found that new NiMoW catalysts exhibited a HDS activity three times higher than a commercial catalyst.", "The catalyst preparation method forms the NiMoW precursor using ammonia as a chelating agent, followed by calcination, and sulfuretion of the final NiMoW catalyst.", "The preparation method has several disadvantages such as the use of concentrated aqueous ammonia that causes environmental pollution and the synthesis method involves a high preparation cost of the catalysts.", "[0015] U.S. Pat. No. 7,223,713 B2 describes a producing method for molybdenum disulfide catalysts (MoS 2 ) and molybdenum disulfide with carbon, containing (MoS 2-x C x ) that show high values of surface area due to the hydrothermal processes involved in the synthesis.", "The catalysts are formed from precursor salts with the general formula A x MoS 4 , where A is an ammonium ion or tetraalkylammonium (x is 2 for each case).", "The obtained molybdenum disulfide can be used alone or with promoters such as cobalt, ruthenium, iron or nickel.", "The MoS 2 can be obtained in aqueous solutions or a mixture of aqueous and organic compounds under hydrothermal conditions.", "The process is suitable for large scale implementations such as batch reactors at high pressures (100-2000 psi) to 300 or 400° C. [0016] The U.S. Pat. No. 7,132,386 B2 describes a technique to improve the mass production of amorphous type sieve material which, among other things, are very useful as catalysts for a wide variety of applications such as a hydrotreatment process.", "The catalysts are obtained in aqueous solution of ammonium thiomolybdates and tetraalkylammonium salts activated under pressure from 20 up to 4950 psi.", "The disadvantage is the cost of reagents for the precursor's generation and activation under high pressure conditions that generally increase the cost of obtained material and limits their industrial exploitation.", "[0017] Patent United States No. 7,687,430 B2 describes a preparation process for a solution consisting of at least one cobalt or nickel salt, in at least one heteropolyanion combined with molybdenum and cobalt or molybdenum and nickel in its structure, the preparation process includes: a) the mixture for at least one molybdenum source and at least one oxidizing compound in aqueous solution for synthesizing paramolybdate ions in acid pH, with a molar relation range of 0.1 to 20;", "b) introduction of at least one cobalt precursor and/or at least one nickel precursor in the solution a) with a molar ratio (Ni+Co)/Mo between 0.25 and 0.85.", "[0018] The United States Patent Application Publication No. 2009/0145808 A1 describes a process catalyst synthesis for hydrodesulfurization by spray pyrolysis.", "The catalyst particles may include at least one metal selects between molybdenum, cobalt or nickel and a carbon dioxide support.", "The spray pyrolysis technique allows obtaining catalytic particles with high loading catalyst on the substrate.", "The support may be Aerosil 300, among others.", "[0019] The United States Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0193402 A1 describes a catalyst composed of metal oxide, having a particle size of 10 nm to 100 nm and the reactive species have a structure containing multi-metallic oxides, consisting of one metal of the group VIII and two metals of the group VIB, wherein the molar ratio of the metal of Group VIII to the metal of group VIB metal is 1:9 to 9:1 preferably 1:6 to 6:1 and more preferably 1:4 to 4:1 and the molar relationship between the two metals of group VIB is 1:5 to 5:1, preferably 1:3 to 3:1, more preferably of 1:2 to 2:1.", "Another aspect that describes this application is a method for obtaining a catalyst with multiple phases which include the formation of an aqueous suspension of a carbonate of the metal group, formation of aqueous salts solution of metals of group VIB adding a surfactant.", "The disadvantage is that there is a relatively long method that involves the surfactants use and various thermal treatments.", "[0020] The United States Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0210741 A1 describes a method for obtaining and a catalyst composition based on cobalt molybdenum sulfide, although the implementation of this catalyst is directed to the production of stable alcohol from synthesis gas.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES [0021] FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic representation of the catalyst synthesis method.", "[0022] FIG. 2A is an optical microscope micrograph that shows the thiosalts precursor crystals obtained by the traditional method and 2 B with the synthesis method of the present invention.", "[0023] FIG. 3 is a graphic of the X-rays diffraction patterns of catalysts CoMoS 2 —SiO 2 with a R Co =0.3 and different molar relationships Si/Mo.", "[0024] FIG. 4 is a graphic of the X-rays diffraction patterns of catalysts CoMoS 2 —SiO 2 with a R Co =0.5 and different molar relationships Si/Mo.", "[0025] FIG. 5 is a graphic of the specific surface area value of the catalysts CoMoS 2 —SiO 2 with a R Co =0.3 and different molar relationships Si/Mo.", "[0026] FIG. 6 is a graphic of the specific surface area values of catalysts CoMoS 2 —SiO 2 with a R Co =0.5 and different molar relationships Si/Mo.", "[0027] FIG. 7 is a selectivity graphic of the reaction HDS of DBT reaction at 350° C. and 490 psi of the catalysts CoMoS 2 —SiO 2 with different R Co and molar relationships Si/Mo.", "[0028] FIG. 8 is a catalytic activity graph in the HDS of DBT reaction at 350° C. and 490 psi of the catalysts for catalytic CoMoS 2 —SiO 2 with different R Co and molar relationships Si/Mo.", "[0029] FIG. 9 is a scanning electron microscope micrograph that shows the morphology characteristic of the type I catalyst.", "[0030] FIG. 10 is a scanning electron microscope micrograph that shows the morphology characteristic of the type II catalyst with an intermediate molar ratio Si/Mo of 0.25.", "[0031] FIG. 11 is a scanning electron microscope (SEM) micrograph that shows the morphology characteristic of type II catalyst with a molar ratio Si/Mo of 1.", "[0032] FIG. 12 is a microscope transmission micrograph showing the stacking of strips characteristic of the MoS 2 structure.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0033] The present invention relates to a catalyst synthesis method based on promoted transition metal sulfide, with added nanometric particles.", "The method represents a simple methodology that departs with obtaining metals transition thiosalts precursors in aqueous solution assisted with ultrasound as it can be seen in the schematic drawing of FIG. 1 , that allows the entry, reducing the precursor crystals size by 10 times with respect to the traditional method as shown in the micrographic of FIGS. 2A and 2B .", "[0034] To obtain the precursor thiosalt, a Group VIB transition metal inorganic salt (ammonium heptametalatos of Mo, W, etc.) is used with Group VIIIB transition metal inorganic salt (nitrate of Co, Ni, Ru, etc) in NH 4 OH solution and water (3:1 vol), the atomic relationship of Group VIIIB transition metal with respect to the Group VIB metal VIIIB/(VIIIB+VIB) may be from 0.01 to 1, preferably 0.3 to 0.5.", "The nanometric agent includes spherical oxide particles (silicon, aluminum, titanium, zirconium, magnesium) with sizes of 30 nm or less, which has molar relationships with respect to the group VIB transition metal from 0 to 1:−1.", "The produced mixture is subjected to ultrasound for 20 to 60 min, preferably 30 minutes.", "The sonification is a bath, therefore the sonification frequency required is not very high.", "[0035] The sonification time is used at this phase to ensure the dispersion of nanometric additive particles.", "A mechanical or magnetic high speed agitation system may be used, although the use of ultrasound is more efficient.", "[0036] The synthesis of precursor thiosalt is carried out in the ultrasonic bath at ambient temperature and pressure.", "The thiosalt crystals are formed with the bubbling of H 2 S at low flow of 0.2-0.5 mL/s in the mixture solution.", "The nanometric additive and ultrasonic mixing reduces or inhibits the growth of thiosalt crystals.", "The H 25 bubbling time may be 1 to 4 hours, preferably 2 hours.", "Ending the bubbling period, an aging period is given which could be from 1 to 36 hours, preferably 24 hours.", "The solids of the thiosalt crystals are filtered and dried at a temperature between 25 and 80° C. for two hours, preferably 80° C. [0037] The dried precursor thiosalt are activated ex situ, using any oven that allows a gas flow admission.", "The temperature may range from 350° C. to 550° C., preferably 400-450° C., at a pressure of 1 atm in a controlled atmosphere.", "Normally, at this stage, a reducing atmosphere is used having a mixture of gases formed by H 2 S/H 2 , however—the risk is well known in the use of H 2 S, by taking advantage of the high sulfur content of the thiosalt precusor, the present invention proposes a safer atmosphere, economically and environmentally friendly by using a mixture of N2/H 2 (90:10% vol).", "[0038] The method comprises the steps of: [0039] placing in a container a nanometric agent (spherical oxides particles, e.g. silicon, aluminum, titanium, zirconium, magnesium or mixtures thereof), adding NH 4 OH and water (vol 3-1) and sonicated for 20 to 60 minutes in an ultrasonic bath.", "Subsequently adding a Group VIB transition metal inorganic salt (ammonium heptametalatos of Mo, W, etc.) with a Group VIIIB transition metal inorganic (nitrate Co, Ni, Ru, etc).", "The atomic relationship of the Group VIIIB transition metal with respect to the Group VIB metal {VIIIB/(VIIIB+VIB)} may range from 0 to 1, preferably 0.3 to 0.5, the molar relationships with respect to the group VIB transition metal is from 0 to 1:1 [0040] Sealing the container and bubbling H 2 S flow of 0.2-0.5 mL/s for 2 hours in the ultrasonic bath.", "A trap system is mounted containing an aqueous solution of NaOH to the output of the reaction container in order to neutralize the H 2 S, which did not react.", "The thiosalt crystals are aged for 24 hours.", "[0041] Finishing the aging period, the thiosalts are filtered and dried at a temperature between 25 and 80° C. for 2 hours.", "[0042] The activation is carried out using an oven at a temperature from 350° C. to 550° C., preferably 400-450° C., at a pressure of 1 atm in a controlled atmosphere.", "Normally, at this stage a reducing atmosphere is used including a gas mixture formed by H 2 S/H 2 , however considering the risk of the use of H 2 S, advantage is taken of the high sulfur content in the thiosalt used as a precursor, and the treatment is carried out on a more secure, economic and environmentally friendly atmosphere using a mixture of N 2 /H 2 (90:10% vol).", "[0043] The catalysts are characterized by different techniques and to carry out the assessment of their catalytic performance they were tested in the reaction of hydrodesulfurization (HDS) using the model molecule of dibenzothiophene (DBT).", "The catalyst was introduced inside a high pressure batch reactor Parr 4520, with the DBT solution and the mixture of cis and trans decahydronaphalene (decalin).", "This hydrocarbon mixture was prepared with concentrations of 2.5 and 5% of DBT.", "The reactor was pressurized to 490 psi of H 2 , heated the room temperature to 350° C. and with mechanical agitation of 600 rpm.", "The progress of the reaction was monitored by samples collected in the liquid phase, taken from the reactor every 30 minutes during the reaction time;", "these samples are placed in small vials, which were analyzed by gas chromatography, with the purpose of determining the speed reaction constant.", "The samples were analyzed in a chromatograph by Perkin-Elmer model Auto System XL, fitted with packed column OV-17 3%.", "These conditions were also tested for commercial catalysts.", "The results of the reaction are summarized in the graphs in FIGS. 7 and 8 .", "[0044] The synthesized product showed a good specific surface area and low crystalline degree, as shown in the graphs in FIGS. 3-6 .", "The analysis of the product through scanning electron microscopy and electron transmission microscopy showed the morphology formation of the agglomerates of particles and the characteristic stacking of the transition metal sulfides as it can be seen in the micrographs of FIGS. 9-12 .", "Catalytic tests showed attractive results related to selectivity and constant reaction rate in HDS of DBT at the test conditions.", "EXAMPLES [0045] The synthesis method of promoted molybdenum sulfide catalyst (MMoS 2 ) in aqueous solution assisted with ultrasound: [0046] In a flask add NH 4 OH and water, dissolve a salt of H 24 Mo 7 N 6 O 24 :4 H 2 O. Place the solution in ultrasound for 30 min, then add Co(NO 3 ) 2 .", "Once the cobalt salt is dissolved, bubble H 2 S for two hours and let it rest at room temperature for 24 hours.", "Filtering the crystals and dried to 80° C. for 2 hours.", "Subsequently, precursor thiosalt is activated ex situ in a tubular oven at 400° C. for 2 hours in a stream of N 2 /H 2 (90:10% vol).", "The morphology of the type I catalyst is shown in FIG. 9 .", "[0047] 2.", "The synthesis method of promoted molybdenum sulfide catalyst promoted by adding a nanometric additive (MMoS 2 —SiO 2 ) in aqueous solution assisted with ultrasound: [0048] In a flask, add the nanometric additive (Aerosil 200 or 380), NH 4 OH, and water, dissolves a salt of H 24 Mo 7 N 6 O 24 :4 H 2 O. Placing the solution in Ultrasound for 30 min, then add Co(NO 3 ) 2 .", "Once cobalt salt is dissolved, bubble H 25 for two hours and let stand at room temperature for 24 hours.", "The crystals are filtered and dried to 80° C. for 2 hours.", "Subsequently, the precursor thiosalt is activated so ex situ in a tubular oven at 400° C. for 2 hours in a stream of N 2 /H 2 (90:10% vol).", "The morphology of the type II catalyst is shown in FIGS. 10-11 .", "[0049] FIG. 8 shows the catalysts by the present invention have an excellent performance in the reaction of hydrotreatment." ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 12/340,250, filed Dec. 19, 2008, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,881,114 which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 11/279,607, filed Apr. 13, 2006, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,480,178 which claims priority from Korean Patent Application No. 2005-0032829, filed Apr. 20, 2005, and Korean Patent Application No. 2006-0027595, filed Mar. 17, 2006, the contents of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to semiconductor memory devices, and more particularly, to NAND flash memory devices.", "Generally, a semiconductor memory device is a memory device for storing data and retrieving target data by reading stored data.", "Semiconductor memory devices may be classified as random access memory (RAM) and read only memory (ROM).", "RAM is volatile memory that loses stored data when power is interrupted.", "ROM is nonvolatile memory that holds stored data even when power is interrupted.", "RAM includes dynamic RAM and a static RAM.", "ROM includes programmable ROM, erasable ROM, electrically programmable ROM (EPROM), and flash memory.", "Flash memory devices may be classified as NOR type and NAND type.", "FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram showing a cell string structure of a conventional NAND flash memory device.", "The cell string structure 1 of a NAND flash memory device shown in FIG. 1 is described in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2004/0113199.", "Referring to FIG. 1 , one cell string includes 16 memory cells MC 0 -MC 15 connected in series.", "Word lines WL 0 -WL 15 are connected to respective gates of the memory cells MC 0 -MC 15 .", "Respective selection transistors ST 1 and ST 2 connect the cell string to a bit line BL and a common source line CSL.", "The selection transistor ST 1 connected to the bit line BL is called a string selection transistor, and the selection transistor ST 2 connected to the common source line CSL is called a ground selection transistor.", "The gate of the string selection transistor ST 1 is connected to a string selection line SSL and the gate of the ground selection transistor ST 2 is connected to a ground selection line GSL.", "A dummy memory cell DC 0 is connected between the string selection transistor ST 1 and the memory cell MC 0 , and another dummy memory cell DC 1 is connected between the ground selection transistor ST 2 and the memory cell MC 15 .", "Gates of the dummy memory cells DC 0 and DC 1 are connected to respective dummy word lines DWL 0 and DWL 1 .", "The dummy memory cells DC 0 and DC 1 have substantially the same structure as the memory cells MC 0 -MC 15 .", "However, the dummy memory cells DC 0 and DC 1 do not perform program and a read operations, that is, the dummy memory cells DC 0 and DC 1 are not used as a data storage elements.", "FIG. 2 is a table showing bias voltage conditions for read, erase and program operations for the cell string structure shown in FIG. 1 .", "Biasing for the read operation is as follows.", "The bit line BL is pre-charged by applying 0.5V thereto.", "A power supply voltage Vcc is applied to the string selection line SSL and the ground selection line GSL.", "0V is applied to the common source line CSL.", "A read voltage is applied to a selected word line and a predetermined voltage is applied to non-selected word lines and the dummy word line to turn on the memory cells.", "Then, 0V is applied to a P type substrate P_Well of the device.", "Biasing for the erase operation is as follows.", "The bit line BL, the string selection line SSL, the ground selection line GSL and the common source line CSL are placed in a floating state.", "An erase voltage of 18V is applied to the P type substrate P_Well.", "Then, 0V is applied to all of the word lines WL and dummy word lines DWL.", "Biasing for the program operation is as follows.", "0V is applied to a bit line of a memory cell to be programmed.", "A power supply voltage Vcc is applied to a bit line of cells that are not to be programmed.", "The power supply voltage Vcc is applied to the string selection line SSL, and 0V is applied to the ground source line GSL and the common source line CSL.", "The program voltage Vpgm, e.g., 18V, is applied to a selected word line, and a pass voltage Vpass, e.g., 8V, is applied to non-selected word lines.", "A voltage identical to the pass voltage Vpass is applied to the dummy word lines DWL.", "Because 18V is applied to the gate of a cell being programmed and the channel voltage is 0V, a strong electric field is generated between the gate and the channel of the cell being programmed.", "Electrons in the channel of the programmed cell are injected into the floating gate due to Fowler Nordheim (F-N) tunneling.", "An inhibited cell has a gate voltage of 18V and a channel voltage of (power supply voltage Vcc−threshold voltage Vth), where Vth is a threshold voltage of the selection transistor ST 1 .", "However, the channel voltage of the inhibited cell increases to about 8V due to a capacitive boosting effect formed between the gate and the channel, that is, an insufficient electric field is generated between the gate and the channel of program inhibit cell to cause F-N tunneling.", "Therefore, the inhibited cell is not programmed.", "FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the cell string structure shown in FIG. 1 under a bias condition for a program inhibit cell.", "Referring to FIG. 3 , 0V is applied to a common source line CSL and a ground selection line GSL, and 18V is supplied to a selected word line WL 15 .", "8V is applied to a non-selected word line WL 14 and a dummy word line DWL 1 .", "As a result, channel voltages of the memory cells and the dummy memory cell increase to about 8V.", "In order to prevent the program inhibit cell from being programmed, it is desirable that the channel voltage increase due to the capacitive boosting effect be substantially maintained.", "Therefore, 0V is supplied to the ground selection line GSL while programming in order to place the ground selection transistor ST 2 in a cut-off state, as shown in FIG. 3 .", "As a result, the channel voltage increase arising from the capacitive boosting effect may be maintained by preventing leakage through the ground selection transistor ST 2 while programming.", "Although not shown in FIG. 3 , such operations may be applied to the string selection transistor ST 1 .", "While programming, a power supply voltage Vcc is applied to a bit line BL and a string selection line SSL, and 18V is applied to a selected word line WL 0 .", "8V is applied to a non-selected word line WL 1 and a dummy word line DWL 0 .", "In this case, channel voltages of the memory cells and the dummy memory cell increase to 8V by the capacitive boosting effect.", "In order to prevent a program inhibited cell from being programmed, the string selection transistor may be placed in a cut-off state by applying a power supply voltage Vcc to the string selection line SSL while programming.", "Therefore, the channel voltage increase due to the capacitive boosting effect may be maintained by preventing leakage through the string selection transistor ST 1 while performing the program operation.", "However, the increased channel voltage of the program inhibit cell may leak due to various factors shown in FIG. 3 .", "When about an 18V program voltage is applied to a selected word line WL 15 and about an 8V pass voltage Vpass is applied to a dummy word line DWL 1 , the drain of the ground selection transistor ST 2 has the increased channel voltage of about 8V.", "If the ground selection transistor ST 2 has an insufficient channel length Ls, a leakage current IPNTR may be generated due to punch-through.", "As a result, the channel voltage may decrease.", "If the channel voltage decreases due to leakage current, the program inhibit cell may become programmed due to F-N tunneling.", "In order to prevent the program inhibit cell from being programmed, it is desirable to provide sufficient channel length Ls for the ground selection transistor ST 2 .", "However, a long channel may make it difficult to scale down the size of the cell string.", "While performing a program operation, the gate voltage of the ground selection transistor ST 2 is 0V and the drain voltage is about 8V, which is a relatively high voltage.", "If a high voltage of about 8V is applied between the drain and the gate of the ground selection transistor ST 2 , a leakage current IGIDL may flow from a drain region to a substrate region due to gate induced drain leakage (GIDL).", "The leakage current IGIDL generated by the GIDL may decrease the channel voltage.", "As a result, the program inhibit cell may be programmed.", "Such a problem of programming a program inhibit cell may occur at a memory cell MC 0 adjacent to the string selection transistor ST 1 .", "While performing the program operation, the gate voltage of string selection transistor ST 1 is substantially equal to the power supply voltage Vcc and the drain voltage is about 8V.", "As a result, a high voltage of about 6 to 8V is applied between the drain and the gate of the string selection transistor ST 1 .", "Therefore, leakage current IGIDL may be generated at the string selection transistor ST 1 .", "If about 8V is supplied to the dummy memory cell DC 1 and the dummy word line DWL 1 and 0V is supplied to the ground selection line GSL, a lateral electric field is formed between the channel of dummy memory cell DC 1 and the channel of the ground selection transistor ST 2 .", "The lateral electric field generates an electron-hole pair (EHP) between the dummy memory cell DC 1 and the ground selection transistor ST 2 .", "The electron of the EHP is accelerated to the channel of dummy memory cell DC 1 .", "The accelerated electron crashes into a silicon crystal Si, and another EHP is generated by the scattering.", "Such continuous scattering generates hot electrons, which may be injected to the floating gate of dummy memory cell DC 1 by the strong vertical electric field.", "In this case, the threshold voltage of dummy memory cell DC 1 may increase and the program inhibit cell may be programmed.", "FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the cell string structure shown in FIG. 1 .", "FIG. 4 shows a bias voltage condition for the erase operation.", "While performing the erase operation, a dummy memory cell DC 1 is erased with the memory cells MC 14 , MC 15 .", "However, the dummy memory cell DC 1 is repeatedly erased, while the memory cells MC 14 , MC 15 are erased and programmed.", "If erase operations are repeatedly performed on the dummy memory cell, a significant amount of positive charge may accumulate at the floating gate of the dummy memory cell.", "This may influence a cell current while performing a read operation, a program verification operation and an erase operation and, as a result, programming and erasing characteristics may be degraded.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In some embodiments of the present invention, a NAND flash memory device includes a plurality of memory cells connected in series, at least one dummy memory cell connected in series with the plurality of memory cells, and a selection transistor connected in series with the dummy memory cell and the plurality of memory cells.", "The memory device further includes a control circuit configured to apply, during a program operation, a first word line voltage to non-selected ones of the memory cells, a second word line voltage greater than the first word line voltage to a selected memory cell, and a third word line voltage lower than the first word line voltage to the dummy memory cell.", "The selected memory cell may be a program inhibit cell.", "The selection transistor may be connected between the dummy memory cell and a bit line, and the control circuit is configured to apply a power supply voltage to the bit line.", "The selection transistor may be connected between the dummy memory cell and a common source line.", "In further embodiments of the present invention, a NAND flash memory device includes a plurality of memory cells connected in series, at least one dummy memory cell connected in series with the plurality of memory cells, and a selection transistor connected in series with the dummy memory cell.", "The device further includes a control circuit configured to program the dummy memory cell before and/or after erase operations on the plurality of memory cells and the dummy memory cell.", "The control circuit may be configured to perform an erase verification operation after an erase operation on the plurality of memory cells and the dummy memory cell.", "The control circuit may be configured to apply, during the erase verification operation, a first erase verify voltage to the memory cells, and a second erase verify voltage greater than the first verify voltage to the dummy memory cell.", "The first erase verify voltage may be 0V, and the second erase verify voltage may be sufficient to turn on the dummy memory cell while performing an erase verification operation.", "In still further embodiments of the present invention, a NAND flash memory device includes a plurality of memory cells connected in series, at least one dummy memory cell connected in series with the plurality of memory cells, and a selection transistor connected in series with the dummy memory cell.", "The device further includes a control circuit configured not to erase the dummy memory cell while erasing the plurality of memory cells.", "The control circuit may be configured to float a word line of the dummy memory cell while erasing the plurality of memory cells.", "The control circuit may be configured to perform an erase verification operation after an erase operation on the plurality of memory cells and the dummy memory cell.", "The control circuit may be configured to apply, during the erase verification operation, a first erase verify voltage to the memory cells, and a second erase verify voltage greater than the first verify voltage to the dummy memory cell.", "The first erase verify voltage may be 0V and the second erase verify voltage may be sufficient to turn on the dummy memory cell while performing an erase verification operation.", "According to additional embodiments of the present invention, a NAND flash memory device includes a plurality of memory cells connected in series, at least one dummy memory cell connected in series with the plurality of memory cells, and a selection transistor connected in series with the dummy memory cell.", "The device further includes a control circuit configured to apply, during the erase verification operation, a first erase verify voltage to the memory cells, and a second erase verify voltage greater than the first verify voltage to the dummy memory cell.", "The first erase verify voltage may be 0V and the second erase verify voltage may be sufficient to turn on the dummy memory cell while performing an erase verification operation.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this application, illustrate embodiment(s) of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the principle of the invention.", "In the drawings: FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram showing a cell string structure of a conventional NAND flash memory;", "FIG. 2 is a table showing a bias voltage condition for a read, an erase and a program operation for the cell string structure shown in FIG. 1 ;", "FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the cell string structure shown in FIG. 1 under a bias condition for a program inhibit cell;", "FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the cell string structure shown in FIG. 1 under a bias condition for the erase operation;", "FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of a cell string structure of a NAND flash memory device according to some embodiments of the present invention;", "FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of a cell string structure of a NAND flash memory device according to some embodiments of the present invention showing a first bias condition for a dummy memory for an erase operation;", "FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of a cell storing structure of a NAND flash memory device according to some embodiments of the present invention showing a second bias condition for an erase operation;", "FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating programming operations according to some embodiments of the present invention;", "FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating programming operations according to further embodiments of the present invention;", "and FIG. 10 is a table showing bias conditions for a read operation, an erase operation and a program operation in a NAND flash memory device according to some embodiments of the present invention.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention will be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which embodiments of the invention are shown.", "However, this invention should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein.", "Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art.", "In the drawings, the thickness of layers and regions are exaggerated for clarity.", "Like numbers refer to like elements throughout.", "As used herein the term “and/or”", "includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.", "The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments and is not intended to be limiting of the invention.", "As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an”", "and “the”", "are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.", "It will be further understood that the terms “includes”", "and/or “including,” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.", "It will be understood that when an element is referred to as being “connected”", "or “coupled”", "to another element, it can be directly connected or coupled to the other element or intervening elements may be present.", "In contrast, when an element is referred to as being “directly connected”", "or “directly coupled”", "to another element, there are no intervening elements present.", "Like numbers refer to like elements throughout the specification.", "It will be understood that, although the terms first, second, etc.", "may be used herein to describe various elements, components, regions, layers and/or sections, these elements, components, regions, layers and/or sections should not be limited by these terms.", "These terms are only used to distinguish one element, component, region, layer or section from another region, layer or section.", "Thus, a first element, component, region, layer or section discussed below could be termed a second element, component, region, layer or section without departing from the teachings of the present invention.", "Embodiments of the present invention are described herein with reference to cross-section illustrations that are schematic illustrations of idealized embodiments of the present invention.", "As such, variations from the shapes of the illustrations as a result, for example, of manufacturing techniques and/or tolerances, are to be expected.", "Thus, embodiments of the present invention should not be construed as limited to the particular shapes of regions illustrated herein but are to include deviations in shapes that result, for example, from manufacturing.", "For example, an etched region illustrated or described as a rectangle will, typically, have rounded or curved features.", "Thus, the regions illustrated in the figures are schematic in nature and their shapes are not intended to illustrate the precise shape of a region of a device and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention.", "Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs.", "It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.", "It will also be appreciated by those of skill in the art that references to a structure or feature that is disposed “adjacent”", "another feature may have portions that overlap or underlie the adjacent feature, although other materials may be used.", "FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of a cell string structure of a NAND flash memory device according to some embodiments of the present invention, indicating an exemplary bias condition for a program operation controlled by a control circuit 510 .", "For purposes of illustration, the control circuit 510 is conceptually illustrated, but it will be appreciated that, in embodiments of the present invention, the control circuit 510 may be formed on and/or in the same microelectronic substrate as the cell string.", "The control circuit 510 applies 0V to a common source line CSL for a program inhibit.", "0V is applied to a ground selection line GSL in order to place a ground selection transistor ST 2 into a cut-off state to reduce channel leakage.", "About 18V is applied to a selected cell word line WL 15 and about 8V is supplied to a non-selected cell word line WL 14 .", "A dummy word line voltage, for example, about 3V, is applied to the dummy word line DWL 1 .", "The dummy word line voltage is lower than the voltage applied to the non-selected word line WL 14 .", "For example, if a threshold voltage of the dummy memory cell WL 14 is about −3V, a source voltage of the dummy memory cell DC 1 increases to about 6V.", "As a result, the dummy memory cell DC 1 is placed into a cut-off state, that is, the channel voltage of memory cells due to the capacitive boosting effect may not be significantly reduced due to leakage to the source of dummy memory cell DC 1 .", "The channel length Ls′ of the ground selection transistor ST 2 may be reduced in comparison to the prior art, as the voltage difference between the drain and the source of ground selection transistor ST 2 may be reduced compared to the prior art.", "The leakage current IGTDL′ generated by the GIDL may also be reduced, as the voltage difference between the drain and the gate of ground selection transistor ST 2 is less than about 6V.", "Furthermore, a vertical electric field formed between the channel and the gate of the dummy memory cell DC 1 may be weakened and the number of hot electrons (Hot e′) injected to the floating gate of dummy memory cell DC 1 may be reduced.", "Such operations may also be applied to the string selection transistor ST 1 , that is, a voltage lower than the voltage supplied to the non-selected word line may be applied to a dummy word line DWL 0 while performing a program operation.", "Accordingly, the channel length of string selection transistor ST 1 , the leakage current generated by GIDL, and the number of hot electrons injected to the floating gate of dummy memory cell DC 0 may be reduced.", "A NAND flash memory device according to some embodiments of the present invention applies a voltage to a dummy word line that is lower than a voltage supplied to non-selected word line while performing a program operation.", "Therefore, the channel length of selection transistor may be reduced and a program inhibit characteristic may be improved.", "FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of a cell string structure of a NAND flash memory device according to some embodiments of the present invention showing a first bias condition for a dummy memory for an erase operation controlled by a control circuit 610 .", "For purposes of illustration, the control circuit 610 is conceptually illustrated, but it will be appreciated that, in embodiments of the present invention, the control circuit 610 may be formed on and/or in the same microelectronic substrate as the cell string.", "The control circuit 610 places a dummy word line DWL 1 into a floating state for the erase operation.", "Therefore, the dummy memory cell DC 1 is not erased when the erase operation is performed.", "The erase operation is performed in a block unit in the NAND flash memory device.", "However, an over-erased dummy memory cell problem may arise, because the dummy memory cell may be repeatedly erased without being programmed.", "In order to prevent the dummy memory from being over-erased, a NAND flash memory device according to some embodiments of the present invention places the dummy word line DWL 1 into a floating state while performing an erase operation.", "The gate of the dummy memory cell DC 1 is not erased if 18V is applied to the substrate because the gate of dummy memory cell is in a floating state while the erase operation is performed.", "Therefore, a NAND flash memory device according to some embodiments of the present invention may reduce degradation of programming and erasing characteristics caused by over-erased dummy memory.", "FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of a cell storing structure of a NAND flash memory device according to some embodiments of the present invention showing a second bias condition for an erase operation controlled by a control circuit 710 .", "For purposes of illustration, the control circuit 710 is conceptually illustrated, but it will be appreciated that, in embodiments of the present invention, the control circuit 710 may be formed on and/or in the same microelectronic substrate as the cell string.", "The control circuit 710 applies 0V to a dummy word line DWL 1 while performing an erase operation.", "Therefore, the dummy memory cell DC 1 is also erased with the other memory cells.", "A flash memory device according to some embodiments of the present embodiment may program the dummy memory cell DC 1 for the erase operation in order to prevent degradation of characteristics caused by over-erasing of the dummy memory cell DC 1 .", "The dummy memory cell DC 1 performs a program operation instead of repeatedly performing an erase operation.", "FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating operations for programming a dummy memory cell before erasing memory cells according to some embodiments of the present invention.", "FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating operations for programming a dummy memory cell after erasing memory cells according to some embodiments of the present invention.", "Referring to FIG. 8 , a dummy memory cell is programmed in operation S 810 .", "After programming, all of memory cells in a block including the dummy memory cell are erased in an operation S 820 .", "After erasing the memory cells, an erase verification operation is performed in an operation S 830 .", "The block erasing operation is repeatedly performed according to the result of the erase verification operation S 830 .", "Referring to FIG. 9 , all of memory cells in a block including the dummy memory cell are erased at the same time in an operation S 910 .", "Then, an erase verification operation is performed in an operation S 920 .", "If there is a memory cell not erased, the block erase operation is repeatedly performed.", "If there is no memory cell found that is not erased in the block as a result of verification, the dummy memory cell is programmed in an operation S 930 .", "A NAND flash memory device according to some embodiments of the present invention may prevent the dummy memory cell from being over-erased by programming the dummy memory cell after or before erasing the memory cells.", "The dummy memory cells are erased with the memory cells during the erase operation.", "It will be appreciated that the dummy memory cell may be programmed before or after each erase operation, or may be programmed less frequently at a rate sufficient to reduce or prevent overerasing.", "Therefore, a NAND flash memory device according to some embodiments of the present invention can prevent the degradation of programming and erasing characteristics caused by over-erased dummy memory.", "FIG. 10 is a table showing a bias condition for a read operation, two erase operations, an erase verify operation and a program operation in a NAND flash memory device according to further embodiments of the present invention.", "Referring to FIG. 10 , a voltage, e.g., 3V, applied to a dummy word line DWL is lower than a voltage, e.g., 8V, applied to non-selected word line while a program operation is performed.", "The dummy word line DWL is placed in a floating state according to the first erase bias condition Erase 1 for the erase operation.", "Furthermore, 0V is supplied to the dummy word line DWL according to the second erase bias condition Erase 2 for the erase operation.", "The dummy memory cell is programmed before or after erasing the memory cells.", "In the erase verification operation, the bit line BL is pre-charged by applying Vbl(=0.5V) thereto.", "A power supply voltage Vcc is applied to the string selection line SSL and the ground selection line GSL.", "0V is applied to the common source line CSL and all word lines WL.", "A predetermined voltage Vread is applied to the dummy word line to turn on the dummy memory cell.", "If all of memory cells in a block are erased, memory cells have a negative threshold voltage Vth, e.g., −3V.", "However, the dummy memory cell DC 1 shown in FIG. 7 may have a positive threshold voltage, e.g., 0.5V, due to the effect of the ground selection transistor ST 2 .", "Referring to FIG. 7 , while performing an erase operation, the ground selection line GSL is placed in a floating state and an erase voltage Vera of 18V is applied to the P type substrate.", "Consequently the gate voltage of the ground selection transistor ST 2 increases to about 18V due to a capacitive boosting effect formed between the gate and the P type substrate.", "The increased gate voltage of the ground selection transistor ST 2 prevents electrons in a floating gate of the dummy memory cell DC 1 from going out to the channel.", "Thus, the dummy memory cell DC 1 can have a positive threshold voltage.", "If the threshold voltage of the dummy memory cell DC 1 is higher than 0V, even though memory cells MC 0 ˜MC 15 were erased, the erase verification operation may fail.", "To turn on the dummy memory cell DC 1 while performing an erase verification operation, a turn-on voltage Vread higher than 0V is applied to the dummy word line DWL 1 .", "As described above, a NAND flash memory device according to some embodiments of the present invention applies a voltage to a dummy word line that is lower than a voltage applied to non-selected word line.", "Therefore, the length of the channel of selection transistor may be reduced and program inhibit characteristics may be improved.", "In addition, a NAND flash memory device according to some embodiments of the present invention places a dummy word line in a floating state while performing an erase operation, or programs the dummy memory cell before or after erasing memory cells so that over-erasing of the dummy memory cell maybe prevented.", "Therefore, a NAND flash memory device according to some embodiments of the present invention may prevent degradation of programming and erasing characteristics caused by over-erased dummy memory while performing a read operation, the program verification operation and the erase verification operation.", "It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present invention.", "Thus, it is intended that the present invention covers the modifications and variations of this invention provided they come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents." ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is a divisional filing of U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 12/863,190 filed Jul. 16, 2010, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,394,276, which is a filing under 35 U.S.C. §371 and claims priority to international patent application number PCT/SE2009/000011 filed Jan. 15, 2009, published on Jul. 30, 2009, as WO 2009/093952, which claims priority to patent application number 0801212.2 filed in Great Britain on Jan. 23, 2008.", "FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to chromatography columns and methods for operating columns in industrial-scale chromatography.", "In particular, the invention is concerned with chromatography columns and safer methods for performing maintenance on such columns, such as cleaning and replacing bed supports, distributors and O-rings, without the need for heavy lifting equipment such as hoists or cranes to dismantle the columns.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Chromatography columns may be used in industrial processes to purify process liquids and separate substances of interest from process liquids;", "typical examples include large-scale preparative purification of fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals, together with biological products.", "Industrial-scale chromatography columns typically comprise a hollow, axially vertical tubular housing including a liquid inlet at the upper end and through which the buffer and substances to be separated are dispensed to the media bed located within the cavity of the tube, and a liquid collecting system at the lower end for collecting substances and buffer.", "The particulate chromatographic media or bed through which the buffer fluid and/or substances to be separated and purified percolates is located between the liquid inlet and collecting system.", "An adapter assembly is typically affixed to the upper end of the tubular housing and a base assembly to the lower end where it is bolted to the bottom flanges.", "Each of these assemblies typically comprises a strong backing plate and a distributor which further supports a bed support: a bed support is a layer of mesh, filter, sinter, screen or other fluid-permeable media-retaining material which permits process liquid flow into and out of the chromatography bed space or cavity while retaining the bed of particulate medium.", "To provide adjustability and control of the bed height and bed compression, the adapter assembly is typically made in the form of a piston or sliding adapter in the column tube interior.", "After the column is charged with bed media, typically through a nozzle, the adapter may be forced toward the bottom of the tube to compress or pressurize the media bed.", "Generally the base assembly is a fixed structure which is bolted against the bottom flange of the column tube but, in some instances, may also be in the form of a movably slidable piston or adapter.", "The backing plate of the base assembly generally acts as a support for the column, being itself supported on legs or some other stand arrangement which allows clearance for outlet pipe work projecting beneath the base assembly.", "When such a column requires maintenance to, or cleaning of, internal components, such as the valves, seals, meshes/screens, distribution systems etc.", ", heavy lifting gear such as a crane or hoist is necessary to lift the upper end/adapter assembly away from the column tube and the column tube away from the lower end/base assembly as these assemblies can weigh in excess of three tons.", "The use of heavy overhead lifting equipment to disassemble the column in order to carry out internal maintenance is not desirable.", "Operator safety is obviously a concern when heavy equipment is lifted overhead and technicians exposed below.", "Furthermore, alignment structures are required to keep the column and its base/adapter assemblies axially aligned as they are separated from each other, to avoid damage to the precision components.", "The presence of such alignment and lifting structures imposes significant obstructions around the tube and need to be carefully laid out to provide sufficient clearance at some point of the circumference for insertion/removal of the internal components.", "Furthermore, the requirement to use heavy lifting equipment imposes constraints on housing such columns, sufficient overhead space and support being required to accommodate hoists or cranes.", "As many chromatography columns are now run in “clean”", "environments under GMP, to avoid microbiological contamination, where it is extremely difficult to accommodate overhead equipment, the requirement of moving the column to another room for disassembly and maintenance is problematic.", "This problem is exacerbated by the need to clean and verify the column before returning it for use to the clean environment.", "The presence of hoists or cranes in GMP facilities used for biopharmaceutical manufacturing is thus highly undesirable for the above mentioned reasons, together with the fact that these machines shed particulate matter, in the form of dirt, during their operation and maintenance.", "U.S. Pat. No. 6,736,974 addresses some of the above problems by providing a column which is capable of lifting the adapter assembly above the column tube and/or raising the column tube above the base assembly by means of an hydraulic system which is integral to the column.", "However, the system described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,736,974 has significant disadvantages associated with it by virtue of its design.", "As can be seen from FIGS. 4 and 5 of U.S. Pat. No. 6,736,974 and described in column 4, lines 63-66 of that document, in order to remove the distributor plate ( 31 ) and/or mesh ( 28 / 60 ) from the interior of the column, the operator must work within the centre of the drum ( 18 ) to access and remove the fixing nut ( 30 ) which secures these component parts.", "As industrial columns typically have diameters ranging from about 200 mm to 2000 millimeters, this means that the operator must work below a suspended or supported load to unscrew the nut.", "This clearly poses a significant safety risk to the operator, particularly where the operator's arm or head is exposed below the suspended or supported load.", "Furthermore, once the column tube/cylinder or adapter assembly has been raised from the base assembly or tube, respectively, removal of the heavy bed support and/or distributor from the column can only be accomplished by tilting the bed support or distributor at an angle to negotiate the hydraulic drive pistons or safety rods.", "This can clearly be seen from, for example, FIGS. 3 , 4 and 5 in which the distance between any two safety rods ( 69 ) or between any two hydraulic pistons ( 36 ) is less than the diameter of the mesh ( 28 / 60 ) or distributor plate ( 31 ).", "The same problem would exist for the base or adapter bed support (not shown).", "Removal of these internal components, which could weigh in excess of 100 kg, requires considerable manhandling by the operator and necessitates their being exposed below the suspended column or adapter assembly.", "Once again, this represents a significant safety risk for the operator.", "The task of physically removing the heavy bed support or distributor, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,736,974, must be carried out by an operator, there being no disclosure of the use of any lifting aid to assist in this task.", "The configuration of the hydraulic pistons and the safety rods, and the need to tilt the bed support and/or distributor in order to avoid hitting these supporting structures in withdrawing these components from the column, would require the design of a bespoke lifting device.", "Furthermore, the method described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,736,974, necessitates raising the column tube/cylinder or adapter assembly from the base assembly or tube, respectively, a predetermined distance greater than three inches in order to carry out maintenance of the column, distances greater than six inches and most preferably about twelve inches being specified.", "WO 2005/056156 (Euroflow (UK) Limited) also discloses a column which can be accessed for maintenance without the need for a crane or hoist.", "The column is designed such that the tube and the base assembly can be separated by means of hydraulic drive cylinders to provide an access space between them to conduct maintenance or service on the base assembly.", "The piston of the adapter assembly can be advanced through the column tube to expose it at the open end of the column tube, i.e. in the space between the tube and the base assembly, for maintenance.", "However, as is evident from this document (for example, FIGS. 19 and 20 and related description on page 23) access to release the fastening screws retaining the bed support or mesh in place is provided by the space between the tube and the base assembly.", "Removal of the bed support necessitates the operator being exposed to a suspended load while retaining screws are removed.", "Furthermore, the distance between any two drive cylinders for maintenance access is less than the diameter of the bed support (see, for example, FIG. 7), which requires the operator to manhandle and tilt the bed support when removing or replacing it.", "Maintenance of the column thus imposes a significant safety risk for the operator.", "Accordingly, a need exists to improve the maintenance methods available for chromatography columns by providing columns which are safer and easier for operators to use and which do not expose them to a suspended or supported load, thereby reducing the risk of operator error and injury.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention recognises and addresses these needs and others.", "In a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for conducting maintenance on a chromatography column comprising the steps of: a) providing a chromatography column comprising;", "a dispersion system comprising a nozzle including a mobile phase pathway connected to a liquid inlet;", "a tube with an adapter assembly connected to a drive system, said adapter assembly moveable within a cavity of said tube in an operational mode;", "the adapter assembly comprising a distributor and a bed support fastened to each other by releasable fixing means, said drive system comprising one or more cylinders;", "a collection system opposing the dispersion system;", "and one or more seals;", "b) disconnecting the adapter assembly from the tube;", "c) lifting the adapter assembly a distance of no more than three inches or seventy six millimeters above the tube with the drive system to provide a gap for access therebetween;", "d) unfastening the bed support from the distributor by releasing the fixing means without accessing said gap;", "e) removing the bed support from the column;", "f) conducting maintenance on the column and/or the bed support and/or said one or more seals;", "g) returning the bed support to the column and fastening the bed support to the distributor;", "and h) lowering the adapter assembly with the drive system to an operational position within the tube and reconnecting the adapter assembly to the tube.", "The gap provided for access between the adapter assembly and the tube is no more than three inches or seventy six millimeters in height in order to permit removal of the bed support from the column or return thereto.", "In one aspect, the gap is no more than two inches or fifty millimeters in height to allow access to the column.", "In another aspect, the gap is less than two inches or fifty millimeters in height.", "In a further aspect, the gap is less than one inch or twenty five millimeters in height.", "In yet another aspect the gap is at least 0.4 inches or 10 millimeters in height.", "Restriction of the gap height to less than three inches or seventy six millimeters prevents the operator from working beneath the raised adapter assembly and being physically exposed to the suspended weight.", "In a preferred aspect, the fixing means are releasable from the exterior face of the distributor.", "This further reduces the exposure of the operator to a suspended or supported load as they do not need to enter the gap.", "In a particularly preferred aspect, the drive system comprises at least two cylinders and the distance between any two said cylinders for maintenance access is greater than the diameter of the bed support.", "This permits the use of a handling device to support and remove or replace the bed support and/or distributor from/to the column.", "Preferably cylinders are externally mounted to the column.", "This facilitates greater spacing between the cylinders.", "More preferably, each said cylinder is independently removable from the column.", "Preferably, the step of removing the bed support is carried out without substantially tilting the bed support.", "This reduces operator exposure beneath the suspended load and facilitates manhandling and/or mechanical handling of the bed support.", "The term ‘without substantially tilting’ as used herein means ‘tilting at an angle of no more than 5° to the horizontal’.", "More preferably, the step of removing the bed support involves use of a handling device.", "More preferably, the handling device comprises at least one arm and the method comprises supporting the bed support on or affixing the bed support to at least one arm of the handling device.", "Optionally, the step of conducting maintenance on the column further comprises removing the distributor without substantially tilting said distributor.", "The term ‘without substantially tilting’ as used herein means ‘tilting at an angle of no more than 5° to the horizontal’.", "It will be understood that the distributor and the bed support could be removed together and at the same time.", "Preferably, the column further comprises a locking system, the method further comprising the step of locking the adapter assembly with said locking system after lifting the adapter assembly no more than three inches or seventy six millimeters above the tube with the drive system.", "This provides for greater operator safety.", "According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for conducting maintenance on a chromatography column comprising the steps of: a) providing a chromatography column comprising a dispersion system comprising a nozzle including a mobile phase pathway connected to a liquid inlet;", "a tube with an adapter assembly and a base assembly connected to a drive system, said adapter assembly moveable within a cavity of said tube in an operational mode;", "the base assembly comprising a distributor and a bed support fastened to each other by releasable fixing means, said drive system comprising one or more cylinders;", "a collection system opposing the dispersion system;", "and one or more seals;", "b) releasing the tube from the base assembly;", "c) lifting the tube and the adapter assembly no more than three inches or seventy six millimeters above the base assembly with the drive system to provide a gap for access therebetween;", "d) unfastening the bed support from the distributor by releasing the fixing means without accessing said gap;", "e) removing the bed support from the column;", "f) conducting maintenance on the column and/or the bed support and/or said one or more seals;", "g) returning the bed support to the column and fastening the bed support to the distributor;", "and h) lowering the tube and the adapter assembly with the drive system and reconnecting the tube to the base assembly.", "The gap provided for access between the tube and adapter assembly and the base assembly is no more than three inches or seventy six millimeters in height in order to permit removal of the bed support from the column or return thereto.", "In one aspect, the gap is no more than two inches or fifty millimeters in height to allow access to the column.", "In another aspect, the gap is less than two inches or fifty millimeters in height to allow access to the column.", "In a further aspect, the gap is less than one inch or twenty five millimeters in height.", "In yet another aspect, the gap is at least 0.4 inches or ten millimeters in height.", "Restriction of the gap height to less than three inches or seventy six millimeters prevents the operator from working beneath the raised adapter assembly and tube and thus from being physically exposed to the suspended weight.", "Preferably, the fixing means are releasable from the exterior face of the distributor.", "This further reduces the exposure of the operator to a suspended load as they do not need to enter the gap.", "Preferably, the cylinders are externally mounted to the column.", "This facilitates greater spacing between the cylinders.", "More preferably, each said cylinder is independently removable from the column.", "Preferably, the distance between any two said cylinders for maintenance access is greater than the diameter of the bed support.", "This permits the use of a handling device to support and remove or replace the bed support and/or distributor from/to the column.", "Maintenance access is the access to the column and its component parts such as the bed support and/or distributor which is required in order to carry out maintenance or service.", "Preferably, the step of removing the bed support is carried out without substantially tilting the bed support.", "This reduces operator exposure beneath the suspended load and facilitates manhandling and/or mechanical handling of the bed support.", "The term ‘without substantially tilting’ as used herein means ‘tilting at an angle of no more than 5° to the horizontal’.", "Preferably, the step of removing the bed support involves use of a handling device.", "More preferably, the handling device comprises at least one arm and the method comprises supporting or affixing the bed support on at least one arm of the handling device.", "More preferably, the method comprises releasably affixing the outer rim of the bed support to at least one arm of said handling device.", "Optionally the step of conducting maintenance on the column further comprises removing the distributor without substantially tilting said distributor.", "The term ‘without substantially tilting’ as used herein means ‘tilting at an angle of no more than 5° to the horizontal’.", "It will be understood that the distributor and the bed support could be removed together and at the same time.", "Preferably, the column further comprises a locking system, the method further comprising the step of locking the adapter assembly and the tube above the base assembly with said locking system after lifting said adapter assembly and the tube no more than three inches or seventy six millimeters above the base assembly with the drive system.", "This provides for greater operator safety.", "According to a third aspect of the invention, there is provided a chromatography column comprising: a dispersion system and a nozzle including a mobile phase pathway connected to a liquid inlet;", "a tube with an adapter assembly and a base assembly connected to a drive system having at least one cylinder, said adapter assembly moveable within a cavity of said tube in an operational mode;", "the adapter assembly comprising a distributor and a bed support fastened to each other by releasable fixing means;", "the base assembly comprising a distributor and a bed support fastened to each other by releasable fixing means;", "a collection system opposing the dispersion system;", "and one or more seals;", "the fixing means fastening the distributor and bed support of the adapter assembly or the base assembly to each other are releasable from the exterior face of the distributor, wherein the adapter assembly is disconnectable from the tube to allow lifting by the drive system in order to provide a gap for maintenance access of no more than three inches or seventy six millimeters;", "and the tube and the adapter assembly are disconnectable from the base assembly to allow lifting by the drive system to provide a gap for maintenance access of no more than three inches or seventy six millimeters.", "Preferably, the drive system comprises at least two cylinders and the distance between any two said cylinders for maintenance access is greater than the diameter of the bed support.", "This permits the use of a handling device to support and remove or replace the bed support and/or distributor from/to the column Maintenance access is the access to the column and its component parts such as the bed support and/or distributor which is required in order to carry out maintenance or service.", "The gap provided for access between the adapter assembly and the tube, or between the tube and the adapter assembly and the base assembly, is no more than three inches or seventy six millimeters in height in order to permit removal of the bed support and/or the distributor from the column or return thereto.", "In one aspect, the gap is no more than two inches or fifty millimeters in height to allow access to the column.", "In another aspect, the gap is less than two inches or fifty millimeters in height.", "In a further aspect, the gap is less than one inch or twenty five millimeters in height.", "In yet another aspect, the gap is greater than 0.4 inches or ten millimeters in height.", "Restriction of the gap height to less than three inches or seventy six millimeters prevents the operator from working beneath the raised adapter assembly and thus from being physically exposed to the suspended weight.", "Preferably, the drive means comprises at least two hydraulic cylinders and most preferably three hydraulic cylinders.", "Other drive means include, for example, electrical or pneumatically powered cylinders.", "Preferably, the drive means is external to the column.", "Preferably, the column additionally comprises a locking system for securing the raised adapter assembly above the tube and/or securing the raised tube and adapter assembly above the base assembly.", "This improves operator safety.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of a column known in the art in a first maintenance position in cross sectional view.", "FIG. 2 is a cross sectional view showing the same embodiment of the column of FIG. 1 in a second maintenance position.", "FIG. 3 is a schematic exploded front view of an embodiment of the present invention.", "FIG. 4 a is a schematic front view of a column in accordance with the invention;", "FIG. 4 b is a side sectional view of the column of FIG. 4 a ;", "and FIG. 4 c is a top plan view of the column of FIG. 4 a. FIG. 5 a is a front perspective view showing the adapter assembly raised and secured into position to provide a gap for access;", "FIG. 5 b shows removal of the fastening means securing the distributor and bed support.", "FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a handling device used to remove/insert a distributor or a bed support from/into a column in accordance with the invention.", "FIG. 7 a and FIG. 7 b are perspective views of the column of FIG. 5 showing the removal of securing rods which fasten the bed support to the distributor.", "FIG. 8 a , FIG. 8 b and FIG. 8 c are perspective views showing the removal of the bed support from the column.", "FIG. 9 a is a perspective view of a column with an inset showing a locking system in accordance with the invention;", "FIG. 9 b shows the column tube raised above the base and in the process of being locked into position.", "FIG. 10 is a perspective view of a column with the column tube raised and locked into position in readiness for maintenance.", "FIG. 11 a and FIG. 11 b illustrate the process of removing the bed support from the column using a handling device.", "FIG. 12 shows the bed support having been removed from the column in readiness for maintenance.", "FIG. 13 is a perspective view of the column of FIGS. 10 and 11 with the column tube lowered awaiting bolting to the base.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention is concerned with a method and apparatus for enabling maintenance within a chromatography column.", "FIG. 1 shows a column 10 known in the art and described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,736,974 which permits maintenance within a chromatography column without the need for a hoist or crane.", "The column 10 comprises an elongated hollow cylindrical housing 12 , or tube, having a dispersion system 14 at the top and a collection system 16 at the bottom.", "The dispersion system 14 includes a cylindrical drum 18 having an upper cylindrical plunger head or adapter 20 formed at the lower or interior end (i.e. interior to the column).", "The adapter 20 is normally disposed within the upper portion of tube 12 such as is illustrated in the first operational position of FIG. 1 .", "The adapter 20 may be moved by a drive system 34 such as the hydraulic arrangement shown in FIG. 1 .", "The movement of the adapter 20 allows for the compression of chromatography media in order to produce a packed media bed of the optimum height within the column;", "a cavity 22 is formed between the dispersion and collection systems 14 , 16 and/or between the adapter 20 and the base 64 .", "The dispersion system 14 may include a mobile phase pathway connected to a liquid inlet 24 together with an inlet manifold 26 to distribute incoming liquid throughout a top portion of a media bed contained within the cavity 22 .", "A bed support (or inlet screen) 28 or filter is attached to the adapter 20 by connectors and/or by an inner clamp nut 30 which is accessible from the cavity 22 .", "The bed support 28 may be removed for maintenance purposes by release of the clamp nut 30 ;", "the distributor plate 31 may also be removable (see U.S. Pat. No. 6,190,560 for a description of a distributor plate design).", "A drive system is used to move the adapter 20 in an operational mode.", "The drive system is comprised of at least one and preferably three or more, drive cylinders 34 .", "The drive cylinders 34 move drive pistons 36 which are coupled to the drum 18 .", "A portion of the drive pistons 36 may by threaded 38 to allow for the drive piston 36 to connect or couple to connection arms 40 at specific locations relative to the drive piston 36 such as with nuts 42 , 44 .", "FIG. 1 shows a first maintenance position of the adapter 20 wherein the adapter 20 is raised a predetermined distance from a top 54 of the cavity 22 within the cylinder by means of the drive system 34 and piston 36 .", "The operator is thereby provided access with a hand to the centre of the drum 18 to release or affix nut 30 which retains the distributor plate 31 and bed support 28 to the adapter 20 .", "The distributor plate 31 and or/bed support 28 may then be removed for maintenance.", "These are then replaced by affixing them to the adapter 20 and the adapter 20 may be lowered to return to an operational mode, nuts 42 , 44 being reset to a proper operational configuration, if necessary.", "In order to perform a second maintenance operation, such as removal of the lower bed support (or screen) 160 which is typically positioned so that its outer edge 162 is between the tube 112 and the collection system 116 , the tube 112 may be raised by the drive system as illustrated in FIG. 2 .", "The bolts which normally secure the tube 112 to the base 164 are removed, and the nuts 142 , 144 may be coupled to the piston 136 to drive the tube 112 along with the drum 118 upwards as shown.", "A gap is thus provided which allows access for an operator to loosen nut 132 , which affixes the bed support 160 to the base 164 , and remove the bed support 160 for maintenance.", "Once maintenance has been completed, the bed support 160 is replaced, affixed by nut 132 to the base 164 by the operator, and the process reversed to lower tube 112 and the drum 118 into an operational position.", "The present invention will now be described with reference to FIGS. 3 to 13 ;", "FIGS. 3 to 8 relate to providing access to the upper adapter assembly and FIGS. 9 to 13 to providing access to the base assembly for maintenance.", "FIG. 3 is a schematic exploded front view of a column in accordance with the invention.", "The column is made of strong, inert materials such as stainless steel and other materials which are suitable for use in a GMP environment typical of the pharmaceutical industry.", "The column 210 is supported on legs 204 having feet 206 which are adjustable in order to modify the height and/or the level of the column.", "The legs 204 support the column 210 which comprises a cylindrical housing or tube 212 separating a base assembly 263 at one end from an adapter assembly 215 at the other.", "The tube 212 may typically be made from stainless steel, or other strong, inert materials.", "Adjacent to the adapter assembly 215 is a dispersion system comprising a nozzle 211 which includes a mobile phase pathway, for the introduction of buffer or other suitable mobile phase liquids or chemicals/materials to be separated, and a liquid inlet 209 .", "The tube 212 may be connected to the adapter assembly 215 and base assembly 263 by a drive system having one or more cylinders 234 .", "The drive system may be a hydraulic system, as shown, or may be powered by other suitable means, such as pneumatic or electrical means.", "The adapter assembly 215 is moveable within a cavity 222 of the tube 212 in an operational mode, for example, to pack or compress the bed of chromatographic media used to effect chromatographic separation of chemicals within the column.", "The adapter assembly 215 comprises an adapter flange 217 , one or more distance pillars 219 , a backing plate 220 made typically of stainless steel, a distributor 231 which may take the form of a plate having many channels to effect the even distribution of liquids, and a bed support 228 comprising a screen or mesh or filter and optionally a sealing ring (e.g. 229 ).", "The bed support may be made of an inert plastic or metal material such as stainless steel.", "The distributor 231 and bed support 228 are fastened to each other by releasable fixing means (not shown).", "Typical releasable fixing means include, but are not limited to, a screw, a nut or a clamp.", "The fixing means (not shown) may only be accessed and thus released from the exterior face of the distributor 231 or backing plate 220 , that is the face of the plate furthest away from the cavity 222 .", "In the present example, the nozzle 211 must first be removed to provide access to the fixing means (not shown).", "Additional releasable fixing means, accessible from the exterior face of the backing plate, may optionally be employed to fasten the backing plate, distributor and bed support together.", "These fixing means can take the form of bolts inserted through corresponding holes around the perimeter of the components.", "Access from the exterior face of the backing plate or distributor avoids unnecessary exposure of the operator to a suspended or supported load within the column.", "The base assembly 263 comprises a distributor 266 and a bed support 268 and optionally a backing plate 264 fastened to each other by releasable fixing means 269 .", "The bed support 268 comprises a screen or mesh or filter and optionally a sealing ring (e.g. 274 ).", "The bed support may be made of an inert plastic or metal material such as stainless steel.", "Releasable fixing means 269 are, for example, a screw, a nut, a bolt or a clamp;", "it will be appreciated that other releasable fixing means are also possible.", "As can be seen from the figure, the fixing means 269 secures bed support 268 and the distributor 266 through a central hole in each component.", "The fixing means 269 is only accessible and may therefore only be released from the exterior face of the distributor 266 .", "In FIG. 3 , nozzle 272 must first be removed to provide access to release fixing means 269 .", "Additional releasable fixing means, accessible from the exterior face of the backing plate, may optionally be employed to fasten the backing plate, distributor and bed support together.", "These fixing means can take the form of bolts inserted through corresponding holes around the perimeter of the components.", "Access from the exterior face of the backing plate 264 avoids operator exposure beneath a suspended load, were access only to be available from within the interior of the column.", "It will be understood that separation of chemical or biological materials on the column, when the tube 212 is full of chromatographic media, can be carried out in either a downward or upward flow.", "Thus, in a downward flow, liquid containing chemical or biological materials to be separated is introduced through nozzle 211 and moves in a downward direction through the bed of media, to be collected in the collection system at the base of the column via an outlet port (not shown).", "In upward flow mode, liquid containing materials to be separated is introduced via the bottom nozzle 272 and flows upwards through the media bed to be collected at the top of the column via an outlet port (not shown).", "In the interests of clarity, the maintenance or servicing of the column will be described in downward flow mode.", "In order to conduct maintenance on the adapter assembly 215 or distributor 231 , the adapter assembly 215 is disconnected from the column tube 212 by unscrewing the nuts which join the adapter flange 217 to the upper column flange 213 a .", "The drive system then raises the adapter assembly 215 a distance of no more than three inches or seventy six millimeters, typically a distance of no more than two inches or fifty millimeters by means of cylinders 234 to allow for access to the interior of the column for maintenance or service.", "The adapter assembly 215 is locked into position using the locking system 270 by means of plungers 237 which are inserted through aligned holes in the cylinder bracket 236 , cylinder 234 and assembly 215 .", "In this secured position, the adapter bed support and/or the distributor may be removed from the column for maintenance once the fixing means are released, release being effected by removal from the exterior face of the column following removal of the nozzle 211 as described above.", "Once maintenance has been carried out on the column (e.g. the bed support 228 has been replaced), the column 210 is made operational again by reversing the above procedure: the adapter assembly 215 is released from its secured position by removal of the plungers 237 and lowered by use of cylinders 234 to be reconnected to the column tube 212 by replacing the nuts which join the adapter flange 217 to the upper column flange 213 a. Maintenance or service is carried out on the bottom distributor 266 or base assembly 263 by releasing the tube 212 from the base assembly 263 and lifting the tube 212 and adapter assembly 215 a distance of no more than three inches or seventy six millimeters, typically a distance of no more than two inches or fifty millimeters, with the aid of the drive system.", "The bolts on the lower flange 213 b of the column tube 212 which join it to the bottom backing plate 264 are removed.", "The column tube 212 and adapter assembly 215 are then lifted by means of the drive cylinders 234 .", "The tube 212 and upper adapter assembly is secured in position by the locking system 270 above the base with the cylinder brackets 236 by inserting a plunger (not shown) through holes aligned in the locking pin 238 and bracket 236 .", "The bottom nozzle 272 is then disconnected from the back plate 264 and distributor 266 .", "The nozzle 272 is removed together with the distance ring 235 , to allow access to release the fixing means 269 which may be in the form of a nut.", "The nut 269 is removed from the exterior face of the distributor 266 , i.e. the face distant from the cavity 222 , and thus eliminates operator exposure to a suspended or supported load.", "If additional releasable fixing means, such as bolts inserted through the backing plate, distributor and bed support as described above are present, these must be removed from the exterior face of the backing plate.", "The interior of the column may now be accessed for maintenance or service, such as the replacement or cleaning of the bed support 268 and/or O-rings.", "To return the column to an operational mode, the above procedure is reversed.", "FIG. 4 a is a schematic front view of a column in accordance with the invention.", "The column 310 is supported on legs 304 and has a base assembly 363 separated from an adapter assembly 315 by a tube 312 .", "These components are made of strong, inert materials which are approved for GMP within the pharmaceutical industries, such as stainless steel.", "In the figure, the base assembly 363 and adapter assembly are connected to a drive system which takes the form of three hydraulic cylinders 334 .", "It will be understood that in other embodiments, different drive systems may be used to raise and lower the column, such as those powered by compressed air or electricity.", "Furthermore, it is not essential that three cylinders are used, in some cases one being sufficient.", "The column 310 has a top nozzle 311 and a bottom nozzle for the introduction of liquids into the column Δn electrical unit 378 for controlling the drive system is also shown.", "FIG. 4 b is a side sectional view of the column of FIG. 4 a showing one of the hydraulic cylinders 334 in cross section.", "The cavity 322 for containing the bed of chromatographic media can be seen in cross section.", "The liquid inlet 305 , 375 and outlet 306 , 376 of the top 311 and bottom 372 nozzle are shown, for the introduction and removal of liquids from the column 310 .", "The cylinder 334 is connected to the base assembly (seen here comprising backing plate 364 , distributor 366 and bed support 368 ) and the adapter assembly 315 (seen here comprising backing plate 320 , distributor 331 and bed support 328 ).", "FIG. 4 c is a top plan view of the column of FIG. 4 a which shows the three hydraulic cylinders 334 and nozzle 311 with liquid inlet 305 and outlet 306 .", "To raise the adapter assembly 315 for maintenance purposes, the nuts under the upper column flange, which join the adapter 315 and column flange 313 a , are loosened and removed.", "The drive system then lifts the adapter assembly 315 a distance of no more than three inches or seventy six millimeters, typically a distance of no more than two inches or fifty millimeters, by means of the hydraulic cylinders 334 .", "The adapter assembly 315 is raised until holes in the cylinder bracket (not shown), hydraulic cylinders 334 and the adapter assembly 315 are aligned and locked into position with plungers (not shown) to secure the assembly in the service or maintenance position (see FIG. 3 ).", "FIG. 5 a is a front perspective view showing the adapter assembly 415 raised and secured into position to provide a gap 427 for access to the interior of the column for service or maintenance.", "The gap 427 is clearly shown in the figure for illustrative purposes but it would be no more than three inches or seventy six millimeters and typically no more than two inches or fifty millimeters in size to prevent the operator inadvertently reaching into it and exposing his/her arm to a heavy suspended load.", "The column 410 has a drive system comprising three hydraulic cylinders 434 .", "The adapter bed support 428 , the distributor 431 and the backing plate 420 are now visible;", "the bed support 428 can be unfastened from the distributor 431 by releasing the fixing means (not shown) without accessing the gap 427 .", "In order to describe this process, reference is made to FIG. 4 in that the nozzle 311 is first removed to provide access to remove the retaining nut (not shown) which secures the bed support 328 to the distributor 331 without accessing the gap 427 .", "The fixing nut is removed from the exterior face of the distributor 331 .", "FIG. 5 b shows release of the fixing means from the backing plate 420 side of the adapter assembly using a spanner 446 .", "The fixing means (in the form of a retaining nut, obscured by the spanner) secures the adapter bed support to the distributor.", "The bed support 428 is heavy and requires the use of a special handling device to lift it once it has been separated from the adapter assembly.", "An embodiment of the handling device 580 is shown in FIG. 6 .", "The device 580 is in the form of a trolley or cart with a central pillar 581 supported on frame 582 having legs 583 .", "The device 580 is made of strong, inert materials;", "such materials include, but are not limited to, stainless steel and other materials which are suitable for use in a GMP environment typical of the pharmaceutical industry.", "Extendable arms 585 a, b, c project from the pillar 581 and can be raised or lowered relative to the pillar 581 by mechanical or other means.", "In the embodiment shown, the arms 585 a, b, c are raised or lowered by a manual jacking mechanism (not shown) adjacent to the handle 584 which provides the means to steer or control the device.", "The arms 585 a, b, c are designed to bear the weight of the distributor or bed support and are extendable to the diameter of these components.", "While the embodiment shown has three arms 585 a, b, c , it will be understood that the device is not so limited and that other embodiments may have less than or more than three arms (e.g. one, two, four, five) depending on the individual design.", "Holes 587 a, b, c at the extremities of the arms 585 a, b, c are provided for bolting or securing of the distributor and/or bed support to the arms for safety, particularly during transport.", "Pads (not shown) may be fitted to the arms 585 a, b, c to minimise any risk of damage to the bed support/distributor when these components come into contact with the arms.", "A raised, central element, 588 (typically of conical shape) for receipt of the central hole in the bed support or distributor provides a means for centralising these components on the arms 585 a, b, c of the device 580 .", "This element 588 may be fitted on either, or both, the upper or under side of the point where the arms 585 a, b, c intersect.", "In operation, the distributor and/or bed support is either suspended from the arms 585 a, b, c or supported on the arms.", "Pivotal wheels 586 allow easy movement and manoeuvrability of the handling device 580 .", "In the embodiment shown, the movement of the device 580 and the raising/extension of the arms 585 a, b, c are by manual means, but it will be understood that other embodiments are possible which incorporate powered systems (e.g. electrical, pneumatic or hydraulic systems) to drive the device 580 and lift/lower the arm 585 .", "It will also be understood that in other embodiments of the handling device (not shown), arm 585 a is capable of pivoting or rotation around pillar 581 to enable the arms 585 b and c to access a narrow gap between any two cylinders (e.g. 434 of FIG. 5 a ) and remove/insert a bed support and/or distributor which have a diameter which is greater than the distance between any two cylinders in the column (e.g. 434 of FIG. 5 a ).", "Other embodiments of the handling device are possible, for example in which the holes 587 b, c are configured to align with corresponding holes in the side of the bed support or distributor when the arms 585 b, c contact the outer rim of these components, thereby allowing affixment of the bed support or distributor to the arms simply by means of threading screws into the aligned holes.", "The operation of the device 580 in removing the bed support is shown in FIGS. 7 to 9 .", "FIG. 7 a and FIG. 7 b are perspective views of the column of FIG. 5 showing the handling device of FIG. 6 supporting the bed support 628 on one or more arms 685 .", "The arms 685 are raised into position below the bed support 628 , care being taken not to damage the bed support by positioning the pads (not shown) on the arms 685 of the handling device 680 under the outer rim of the bed support and then gently raising the arms 685 up to the bed support.", "Once the arms 685 are in position, the nuts on the threaded rods 633 that go through the back plate 620 and distributor 631 into the outer perimeter of the bed support 628 are loosened and the bed support can be removed on the handling device.", "The rods 633 are initially loosened with a spanner and finally removed by hand.", "As can be seen from the figures, the removal of the rods 633 is carried out from the exterior face of the backing plate 620 without accessing the gap and thus without exposing the operator to a suspended or supported overhead weight.", "FIG. 8 a and FIG. 8 b are perspective views showing the removal of the bed support 728 on the handling device 780 from the column 710 .", "In FIG. 8 a the bed support 728 , supported on the arms 785 of the device 780 , is removed from the column 710 without substantially tilting the support 728 .", "The device 780 can then be moved away from the column ( FIG. 8 b ) and the arms 785 lowered in order that the bed support 728 can be cleaned or replaced.", "Maintenance or servicing the column may now be carried out as required.", "For example, the bed support 728 may be cleaned or replaced, O-rings replaced and/or the distributor 731 may also be removed for cleaning.", "FIG. 8 c is a perspective view showing the removal of the bed support 728 from a column 710 using a different embodiment of a handling device 780 .", "The bed support 728 is secured or affixed to the arms 785 of the handling device 780 by inserting bolts or screws through holes 787 in the arms 785 of the handling device 780 into corresponding holes in the rim of the bed support 728 .", "To return to an operational mode, the above procedure is simply reversed.", "The bed support and/or distributor is returned to the column and affixed to each other and to the backing plate, the nozzle reattached, the adapter assembly lowered and bolted to the column tube.", "Access to the bottom bed support and interior of the column will now be described with reference to FIGS. 9 to 13 .", "To access the bottom bed support, the tube is released from the base assembly by unscrewing the bolts that join it to the base and then lifting the tube and upper adapter assembly with the hydraulic cylinders.", "FIG. 9 a shows a column 810 as previously described in FIGS. 3 to 5 and FIGS. 7 and 8 .", "The bolts on the lower flange 813 b of the column tube which fasten the tube 812 to the bottom backing plate 864 are loosened and unscrewed.", "The column tube 812 and adapter assembly 815 are lifted by the hydraulic cylinders 834 of the drive system no more than three inches or seventy six millimeters above the base assembly and secured into position by the locking system 870 (see inset of FIG. 9 a showing part of the locking system) as described previously.", "Plungers 837 are introduced into the aligned holes in the locking pin 838 and bracket 836 to secure the tube and adapter assembly in position ( FIG. 9 b ).", "After removal of the bolts securing the tube 812 to the bottom backing plate 864 , maintenance can now be carried out on the column in the gap 827 created by raising the tube and adapter assembly.", "This gap is no more than three inches and typically no more than two inches to restrict operator access to the gap.", "FIG. 10 shows the column 910 with the tube 912 raised and mechanically locked to the cylinders 934 in readiness for maintenance.", "The bottom nozzle (not shown—see 272 in FIG. 3 ) is first removed from the back plate 964 by unscrewing the retaining bolts.", "The retaining nut (or fixing means) which fastens the bed support 968 to the distributor 966 is released from the backing plate 964 side of the column 910 .", "If additional fixing means are present, such as bolts (not shown) which fasten the bed support to the distributor and the backing plate, and are located on the perimeter of the backing plate, these are released from the backing plate face of the column.", "The bed support 1068 can now be removed from the column by use of the handling device as shown in FIG. 11 a and FIG. 11 b .", "The handling device (as described in FIG. 6 above) 1080 is wheeled into position where the arms 1085 are no more than three inches and typically no more than two inches above the bed support 1068 .", "The bed support 1068 has a number of threaded holes that correspond to the holes used to bolt the bed support to the backing plate 1064 .", "The arms 1085 of the handling device 1080 have holes through which bolts are screwed into the bottom bed support 1068 ;", "these holes are aligned to those of the bed support 1068 and bolts affixed to secure the bed support to the arms 1085 .", "Once attached, the bed support 1068 can be removed from the column by raising the arms 1085 no more than three inches and typically no more than two inches and then wheeling the handling device 1080 away from the column 1010 .", "It will be understood that other embodiments of handling devices, such as that described in FIG. 8 c above, can be used to remove the bed support.", "The bed support 1068 can now be cleaned or new O-rings replaced as necessary.", "Generally the bed support will be moved away from the column, as shown in FIG. 12 , lowered onto a surface (such as a trolley or workbench) and released from the arms 1185 of the handling device 1180 to facilitate cleaning and servicing.", "The distributor ( 1066 in FIG. 11 ) can also be removed and serviced in a similar manner using the lifting device.", "Once maintenance or servicing has been completed, the column is returned to an operational mode by simply reversing the process as described above.", "This involves replacing the bed support/and or distributor in the column, affixing the components to the backing plate, reattaching the nozzle, lowering the tube and adapter assembly.", "FIG. 13 shows the column 1210 of FIG. 11 connected to the hydraulic control unit 1290 with the tube 1212 lowered and ready to be bolted to the backing plate 1264 .", "While preferred illustrative embodiments of the present invention are described, one skilled in the art will appreciate that the present invention can be practiced by other than the described embodiments, which are presented for purposes of illustration only and not by way of limitation.", "The present invention is limited only by the claims that follow." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a half-bridge inverter circuit and, in particular, to a half-bridge inverter circuit to which a load driven at a high voltage is connected.", "Description of the Related Art A configuration of a half-bridge inverter circuit for lighting is shown in FIG. 1 .", "Q 1 and Q 2 denote main switching elements, each including a power MOSFET.", "D 1 and D 2 are resonance current-commutating diodes, each including a parasitic diode between the drain and source of the power MOSFET.", "In a ballast circuit, L denotes a resonance reactor, C 1 denotes a direct current component-cutting capacitor, C 2 denotes a filament-preheating capacitor, and a circuit configuration is provided such that a fluorescent lamp 3 is connected in parallel with the filament-preheating capacitor C 2 .", "FIG. 2 shows operating waveforms when the lamp of the circuit of FIG. 1 is on.", "VGS 1 and VGS 2 denote gate-source voltages of the main switching elements Q 1 and Q 2 , respectively.", "During operation, the main switching elements Q 1 and Q 2 are alternately repeatedly turned on and off, and in order to prevent the main switching elements Q 1 and Q 2 from simultaneously being turned on, dead time periods, during which both main switching elements Q 1 and Q 2 are off, are provided.", "The high-side main switching element Q 1 is turned on when VGS 1 becomes high and a drain current shown by ID 1 flows.", "Thereby, a square wave voltage is applied to the ballast circuit composed of L, C 1 , C 2 and fluorescent lamp 3 , and a sine wave-shaped ballast current I 1 flows.", "The ballast current I 1 when the lamp is on is a composite current formed of a filament current I 2 and a lamp current I 3 .", "The low-side main switching element Q 2 is turned on when VGS 2 becomes high and a drain current ID 2 flows.", "When that happens, energy which has been accumulated in the ballast circuit is discharged and the ballast current I 1 , the filament current 12 , and the lamp current 13 decrease in the negative direction.", "In an ordinary half-bridge inverter circuit, operations are carried out at a frequency in a delayed phase band which is higher than a resonance frequency.", "Accordingly, since the ballast current I 1 can be changed by a switching frequency of the main switching elements Q 1 and Q 2 , it becomes possible to adjust brightness.", "Referring to FIG. 1, an input signal from a control circuit 1 is converted to appointed drive signals (for example, VGS 1 and VGS 2 ) at a drive circuit 2 , whereby the main switching elements Q 1 and Q 2 are driven.", "A detailed circuit block of this drive circuit 2 is shown in FIG. 6 .", "This drive circuit 2 includes a signal input circuit 21 , dead time control circuits 22 and 23 which perform dead time control on the high side and the low side, respectively, a pulse generating circuit 24 , a level shifting circuit 25 , a pulse filter circuit 26 , a latch circuit including an RS flip-flop circuit 27 , and output circuits 28 and 29 which supply drive signals HO and LO for driving the main switching elements Q 1 and Q 2 on the high side and the low side.", "In such a drive circuit 2 , an output signal from the control circuit 1 is shaped by the signal input circuit 21 , then inputted into the dead time control circuits 22 and 23 which perform dead time control on the high side and the low side, and as shown in FIG. 7, a high-side output signal HO, which is delayed from the input signal (output signal from the control circuit 1 ), and a low-side output signal LO, which falls before the high-side output signal HO rises, are formed.", "For the high-side output signal HO and the low-side output signal LO, dead time periods are provided during which both become low level so that the main switching elements Q 1 and Q 2 are not simultaneously turned on.", "In the drive circuit 2 on the high side, since the main switching element Q 1 is driven at a voltage of approximately 600V, it is necessary to form a drive signal VGS 1 by shifting the high-side output signal HO to a high voltage of approximately 600V.", "An output signal PGIN from the dead time control circuit 22 is inputted into the pulse generating circuit 24 and a set output signal OUT (Set) and a reset output signal OUT (Reset) are outputted therefrom.", "These signals are inputted into the subsequent level shifting circuit 25 for shifting to a high voltage and converted to a high-voltage set output signal OUT (Set) and a high-voltage reset output signal (Reset).", "These signals allow signals of a predetermined pulse width or longer to pass through the pass filter circuit 26 , thereby setting and resetting the latch circuit 27 , and a high side output signal HO is outputted from the output circuit 28 , thereby driving the main switching element Q 1 on the high side.", "In such a half-bridge inverter circuit, in order to prevent the main switching elements Q 1 and Q 2 from simultaneously being turned on, dead times are provided during which both drive signals (for example, VGS 1 and VGS 2 ) are off.", "However, at a start-up time, it is uncertain whether a high-side output signal is first outputted from the drive circuit or a low-side output signal is first outputted therefrom, and therefore a stable start-up condition cannot be obtained.", "A problem exists that if the high-side output signal is first outputted, the main switching elements Q 1 and Q 2 are simultaneously turned on.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is provided to solve the foregoing problem such that at a start-up time two main switching elements simultaneously may turn to the on-mode, and provides a half-bridge inverter circuit including dead time control circuits on the high side and the low side which form dead time periods based on an input signal to be inputted from a control circuit, and a start-up circuit including a latch circuit, which is reset upon detection of a rise in power supply on the low side, then set by a low-side output signal from the dead time control circuit on the low side, and a gate circuit, which receives the low-side output signal in response to an output from the latch circuit, then allows a high-side output signal from the dead time control circuit on the high side to pass.", "This configuration prevents the two main switching elements from being simultaneously turned on at a start-up time.", "According to the present invention, by providing the start-up circuit which prioritizes a low side signal, the main switching element on the low side is always first turned on at start-up.", "Thus, an advantage exists such that a stable start-up of the half-bridge inverter circuit can be performed.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining a half-bridge inverter circuit according to the present invention and prior art, FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining operating waveforms of a half-bridge inverter circuit according to the present invention and prior art, FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining a start-up circuit of the half-bridge inverter circuit according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining operating waveforms of a start-up circuit of the half-bridge inverter circuit according to the embodiment of FIG. 3, FIG. 5A is a diagram for explaining a start-up circuit and FIG. 5B is a diagram for explaining operating waveforms of the half-bridge inverter circuit including the circuit of FIG. 5A, FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining a drive circuit of the half-bridge inverter circuit according to the present invention and prior art, and FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining operations of a drive circuit of the half-bridge inverter circuit according to the present invention and prior art.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 3, 4 , 5 A and 5 B. The half-bridge inverter circuit of this invention includes a start-up circuit (denoted by the dotted rectangular in FIG. 3) and a power-supply voltage detection circuit 33 of FIG. 3, which cooperate with other components of the conventional driver circuit of FIG. 6 to operate as a driver circuit of this embodiment.", "Besides the driver circuit, the half-bridge inverter circuit of this invention also includes components of the conventional half-bridge inverter circuit of FIG. 1 .", "Many of the conventional components are omitted from FIG. 3 for simplicity.", "Accordingly, the half-bridge inverter circuit of this invention includes main switching elements Q 1 , Q 2 , each including a power MOSFET, and resonance current-commutating diodes D 1 , D 2 , each including a parasitic diode between the drain and source of the power MOSFET.", "In a ballast circuit, there provided a resonance reactor L, a direct current component-cutting capacitor C 1 , and a filament-preheating capacitor C 2 , so that a fluorescent lamp 3 is connected in parallel with the filament-preheating capacitor C 2 .", "The inverter circuit of this invention also includes a dead time control circuit on a high side 22 and a dead time control circuit on a low side 23 .", "Operating waveforms of the inverter circuit of this invention is similar to the one shown in FIG. 2, and operating waveforms of the start-up circuit are shown in FIG. 4 .", "Since the basic operation mechanism and circuit configuration are the same as those described in the section concerning prior arts, herein, a description will only be given of different aspects.", "FIG. 3 shows the input side of the driver circuit 2 of the inverter circuit of this invention, which includes the start-up circuit and the power-supply voltage detection circuit 33 .", "The signal input circuit 21 receives signals HIN and LIN from the control circuit 1 of FIG. 1 .", "The output signal PGIN from the dead time control circuit 22 is inputted to the pulse generating circuit 24 , which is connected to the level shifting circuit 25 of the driver circuit 2 of FIG. 6 .", "The start-up circuit shown in FIG. 3 comprises a latch circuit 31 which is reset upon detection of a rise in power source on the low side, then set by a low-side output signal from a dead time control circuit 23 on the low side, a gate circuit 32 , which receives the low-side output signal in response to an output from the latch circuit, then allows a high-side output signal from a dead time control circuit 22 on the high side to pass, and a start-up power-supply voltage detection circuit 33 (a UV circuit in the drawing) for detecting a rise in power-supply voltage V cc on the low side.", "The latch circuit 31 consists of an RS flip-flop circuit (FF in the drawing), which receives an input of a detection signal from the power-supply voltage detection circuit 33 at a reset terminal R, is reset when the power-supply voltage V cc on the low side rises, receives an input of a low-side output signal from the dead time control circuit 23 at a set terminal S, and operates so as to prioritize the low-side output signal.", "When the latch circuit 31 is set, a high-side output signal from the dead time control circuit 22 on the high side passes through the NOR gate circuit 32 , and is supplied to the pulse generating circuit 24 , resulting in outputting a high-side output signal HO.", "Although the drive circuit of FIG. 3 is a double-input type and receives two signals HIN and LIN from the control circuit 1 , a single-input type drive circuit, which receives only one signal from the control circuit 1 and outputs two signals corresponding to HIN and LIN, such as shown in FIG. 6, may be also used in the embodiment.", "Referring to FIG. 4, operations at start-up will be described.", "Before a rising signal in the power-supply voltage V cc exceeds a reference voltage V REF , the latch circuit 31 is reset by an output from the power-supply voltage detection circuit 31 .", "For input signals LIN and HIN into the input circuit 21 , dead times are provided so that simultaneous turning-on does not occur, and when the input signal HIN arrives first after the rising signal in the power-supply voltage V cc exceeds the reference voltage V REF , since the latch circuit 31 has not been set, this signal does not pass through the gate circuit 32 .", "The latch circuit 31 is set by the first arrival input signal LIN, whereby the next input signal HIN passes through the gate signal 32 .", "Now, referring to FIGS. 5A, 5 B, a detailed circuit configuration and operations of a comparator circuit 331 of the power-supply voltage detection circuit 33 will be described.", "First, the power-supply voltage detection circuit 33 shown in FIG. 5A comprises two split resistances R 1 and R 2 , which are connected between the power source voltage V cc on the low side and ground, a comparator circuit 331 which is provided with a noninverting input terminal (+in the drawing), into which a rising signal in the power-supply voltage V cc from the junction between the two split resistances R 1 and R 2 is inputted, and an inverting input terminal (−in the drawing), into which a reference voltage V REF is inputted, and an inverter circuit 332 for inverting an output from the comparator 331 .", "In such a comparator circuit 331 , as shown in FIG. 5B, at start-up, the rising signal in the power-supply voltage V cc from the junction between the two split resistance R 1 and R 2 and the reference voltage V REF are compared by the comparator circuit 331 , an output from the power supply detection circuit 33 becomes high level until the power-supply voltage V cc reaches the reference voltage V REF , and the output from the power supply detection circuit 33 becomes low level after the rising signal in the power-supply voltage V cc exceeds the reference voltage V REF .", "Accordingly, before the rising signal in the power-supply voltage V cc exceeds the reference voltage V REF , the latch circuit is reset and subsequently, the latch circuit 31 is set by a low-side output signal from the low-side dead time control circuit 23 .", "As a result, since operation is carried out, at a start-up time, while prioritizing the low-side signal, electric supply to the high-side boot-strap configuration is supplied after the main switching element Q 2 is turned on, therefore a sufficient initial charging can be given to the high-side boot-strap configuration.", "The above embodiment of the invention may be applied to various types of input circuits 21 including a self-excitation type with an internal oscillator, a double input/double output type and a single input/double output type, as described above.", "As a modification to the embodiment of the invention, when a double input/double output type is used as the input circuit 21 , signals in which dead time is already created may be inputted to the input circuit 21 for eliminating the dead time controller circuit 22 on the high side and the dead time controller circuit 23 on the low side.", "Other obvious modifications may occur to a person skilled in the art.", "Those modifications will be included in the scope of this invention." ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/382,744 titled “Trailer with Multi-Positional Gate,” filed on Sep. 14, 2010, the entire contents of which are herein incorporated by reference.", "FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates generally to the field of pull-behind equipment trailers, and more particularly relates to an adjustable rear trailer gate.", "BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0003] A trailer according to the present disclosure comprises a standard equipment trailer and a unique rear gate that is configurable to open in one of three different methods.", "Via the first method, the trailer gate opens downwardly and may act as a ramp such that equipment may be rolled from the trailer to the ground or vice versa.", "Via the second method, the trailer gate swings open from the left side of the trailer rear.", "Via the third method, the trailer gate swings open from the right side of the trailer rear.", "[0004] For purposes of summarizing the invention, certain aspects, advantages, and novel features of the invention have been described herein.", "It is to be understood that not necessarily all such advantages may be achieved in accordance with any one particular embodiment of the invention.", "Thus, the invention may be embodied or carried out in a manner that achieves or optimizes one advantage or group of advantages as taught herein without necessarily achieving other advantages as may be taught or suggested herein.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0005] The disclosure can be better understood with reference to the following drawings.", "The elements of the drawings are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon clearly illustrating the principles of the disclosure.", "Furthermore, like reference numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the several views.", "[0006] FIG. 1 is a side perspective view of a trailer according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.", "[0007] FIG. 2 is a side perspective view of the trailer of FIG. 1 , with the gate open downwardly.", "[0008] FIG. 3 is a side perspective view of the trailer of FIG. 1 , with the gate open to the left side of the trailer.", "[0009] FIG. 4 is an enlarged partial rear perspective view of the trailer of FIG. 1 .", "[0010] FIG. 5 is a left side partial plan view of the trailer of FIG. 4 .", "[0011] FIG. 6 is a rear plan view of the trailer of FIG. 4 .", "[0012] FIG. 7 is an enlarged detail view of the trailer of FIG. 6 , taken along detail line C of FIG. 6 .", "[0013] FIG. 8 is a top plan view of a hinge rod according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.", "[0014] FIG. 9 is a side plan view of a hinge rod of FIG. 8 .", "[0015] FIG. 10 is an enlarged detail view of the hinge rod of FIG. 8 , taken along detail line D of FIG. 8 .", "[0016] FIG. 11 is an enlarged detail view of the hinge rod of FIG. 9 , taken along detail line E of FIG. 9 .", "[0017] FIG. 12 is a cross-sectional view of the trailer of FIG. 6 , taken along section lines A-A of FIG. 6 .", "[0018] FIG. 13 is an enlarged detail view of the trailer of FIG. 12 , taken along detail line B of FIG. 12 [0019] FIG. 14 is an enlarged partial rear perspective view of the trailer of FIG. 2 .", "[0020] FIG. 15 is an enlarged partial rear perspective view of the trailer of FIG. 3 .", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0021] FIG. 1 is a side perspective view of a trailer 10 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.", "The trailer 10 comprises a frame 11 and a deck 8 for receiving cargo (not shown).", "A hitch 7 couples the trailer 10 to a vehicle (not shown) for towing.", "A plurality of wheels 9 (only one of which is shown) support the trailer 10 on a surface (not shown).", "A gate 12 is disposed at the rear of the trailer 10 , and is shown in a closed position, i.e., with the gate 12 oriented generally vertically.", "[0022] FIG. 2 is a side perspective view of the trailer 10 of FIG. 1 with the gate 12 opened in a downward orientation, i.e., such that the gate 12 is rotated down and rests against the surface, such as the ground (not shown).", "In this orientation, the gate 12 has swung open in the direction indicated by directional arrow 31 , around a generally horizontal axis (not shown).", "The gate 12 may be used as a ramp to load equipment onto the deck 8 .", "[0023] FIG. 3 is a side perspective view of the trailer 10 of FIG. 1 with the gate 12 opened in an alternative orientation, i.e., sideways.", "In this orientation, the gate 12 has swung open in the direction indicated by directional arrow 32 , around a generally vertical axis as shown.", "[0024] FIG. 4 is an enlarged rear perspective view of the trailer 10 of FIG. 1 .", "The trailer frame 11 comprises a rear support 39 that extends generally horizontally across a lower rear edge of the trailer 10 .", "The rear support comprises two (2) lengths of generally hollow rectangular tubing in the illustrated embodiment.", "[0025] The trailer frame 11 further comprises a left gate support 19 a and a right gate support 19 b. The left gate support 19 a extends generally vertically between and is rigidly affixed to a top left rail 30 a and the rear support 39 .", "The right gate support 19 b extends generally vertically between and is rigidly affixed to a top right rail 30 b and the support 39 .", "A bottom left rail 33 a extends longitudinally along the left side of the trailer 10 and a bottom right rail 33 b extends longitudinally along the right side of the trailer 10 .", "[0026] The left gate support 19 a comprises upper left trailer hinges 14 a and 14 b which are rigidly affixed to the left gate support 19 a, by welding in the illustrated embodiment.", "The right gate support 19 b comprises upper right trailer hinges 41 a and 41 b. The upper left trailer hinges 14 a and 14 b and the upper right trailer hinges 41 a and 41 b generally comprise a pair of generally cylindrical bushings rigidly affixed to the gate supports 19 a and 19 b. The generally cylindrical bushings comprising the upper left trailer hinges 14 a and 14 b are aligned with each other vertically, with a space therebetween for receiving an upper left gate hinge 15 a, as further discussed below.", "The upper right trailer hinges 41 a and 41 b are substantially similar to and a mirror image of the hinges 14 a and 14 b. [0027] The gate 12 comprises the upper left gate hinge 15 a and an upper right gate hinge 15 b. The upper left gate hinge 15 a and the upper right gate hinge 15 b each generally comprise a cylindrical bushing rigidly affixed to opposed sides 34 a and 34 b of the gate 12 .", "The upper left gate hinge 15 a is aligned with the upper left trailer hinges 14 a and 14 b when the gate 12 is closed, and between left trailer hinges 14 a and 14 b. The upper right gate hinge 15 b is aligned with the upper right trailer hinges 41 a and 41 b and fits between the upper right trailer hinges 41 a and 41 b when the gate 12 is closed as illustrated.", "[0028] The upper left trailer hinges 14 a and 14 b are releasably coupled to the upper left gate hinge 15 a via an upper left pin 18 a. To couple the left trailer hinges 14 a and 14 b to the upper left gate hinge 15 a, the upper left pin 18 a, which is generally L-shaped, passes through central openings (not shown) in the upper left trailer hinge 14 a, the upper left gate hinge 15 a, and the upper left trailer hinge 14 b. To decouple the left trailer hinges 14 a and 14 b from the upper left gate hinge 15 a, the upper left pin 18 a is removed.", "The upper right trailer hinges 41 a and 41 b are releasably coupled to the upper right gate hinge 15 b via an upper right pin 18 b in substantially the same manner.", "Opening the gate 12 in its downward position requires removal of the pins 18 a and 18 b. [0029] The trailer 10 further comprises lower left trailer hinges 16 a and 16 b, and lower right trailer hinges 42 a and 42 b, each of which comprises cylindrical bushings rigidly affixed to the trailer frame 11 , as further discussed herein.", "[0030] The gate 12 further comprises a hinge rod 23 rotatably coupled to bushings 20 , 21 , 22 and 24 .", "The bushings 20 , 21 , 22 and 24 each comprise generally cylindrical bushings rigidly affixed to a bottom edge 43 ( FIG. 6 ) of the gate 12 .", "The hinge rod 23 is received by the bushings 20 , 21 , 22 and 24 , which bushings 20 , 21 , 22 and 24 rotate with respect to the hinge rod when the gate 12 rotates into its downward position.", "[0031] The hinge rod 23 comprises a left end rod 25 a and a right end bar 25 b. The left and right end bars 25 a and 25 b each comprise an opening (not shown), as further discussed herein.", "The left end bar 25 a of the hinge rod 23 is releasably coupled to the lower left trailer hinges 16 a and 16 b via a lower left pin 17 a. To couple the left end bar 25 a to the lower left trailer hinges 16 a and 16 b, the lower left pin 17 a, which is generally L-shaped, passes through central openings (not shown) in the lower left trailer hinge 16 a, then through the opening in the left end bar 25 a, then through the hinge 16 b. To decouple the left end bar 25 a from the left trailer hinge 16 a, the user removes the lower left pin 17 a. The right end bar 25 b of the hinge rod 23 is rotatably and releasably coupled to the lower right trailer hinges 42 a and 42 b in substantially the same manner.", "The right end bar 25 b is releasably coupled to the lower right trailer hinges 42 a and 42 b via a lower right pin 17 b. [0032] When all four pins 18 a, 18 b, 17 a and 17 b are installed in their respective locations on the trailer 10 , the gate 10 is retained in a closed position.", "In order to open the gate 12 such that it rotates about the hinge rod 23 (i.e., around the z axis), the user removes the pins 18 a and 18 b and swings the gate 12 down to the ground as illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 7 .", "The user may then use the gate 12 as a ramp to assist in moving a load onto and off of the trailer 10 .", "[0033] A left angled support 44 a extends between and is rigidly affixed to the top left rail 30 a and the rear support 39 on the left rear side of the trailer 10 .", "Similarly, a right angled support 44 b extends between and is rigidly affixed to the top right rail 30 b and the rear support 39 on the right rear side of the trailer 10 .", "[0034] FIG. 5 is a partial enlarged side plan view of the left rear portion of the trailer 10 of FIG. 4 , with the gate 12 in its upright and closed position.", "The rear support 39 comprises two generally hollow tubing members 40 a and 40 b in this embodiment.", "The tubing members 40 a and 40 b are rigidly affixed together, 40 a atop 40 b, by welding.", "The left gate support 19 a extends upwardly from a top surface of the tubing member 40 a. The lower left hinges 16 a and 16 b are rigidly affixed to the left gate support 19 a and the tubing members 40 a and 40 b, by welding in the illustrated embodiment.", "The lower left hinge 16 a is aligned with and spaced apart from the hinge 16 b, forming a space therebetween for receiving the end bar 25 a of the hinge rod 23 ( FIG. 4 ).", "The lower left pin 17 a releasably couples the end bar 25 a to the lower left hinges 16 a and 16 b. [0035] The end bar 25 a of the hinge rod 23 is releasably coupled to the hinges 16 a and 16 b as illustrated, and remains in this position when the gate 12 is closed in its upward position and when the gate 12 is open in its downward position.", "The end bar 25 a of the hinge rod 23 is only released from this position when the left end of the gate 12 is swung open horizontally, as further discussed herein, or when the gate 12 is removed in its entirety.", "[0036] The hinges 16 a and 16 b each comprise a generally cylindrical opening 38 a and 38 b, respectively, extending generally vertically through the hinges 16 a and 16 b. The end bar 25 a of the hinge rod 23 comprises an opening (not shown) extending through the end bar 25 a .", "The openings 38 a, 38 b, and the opening of the end bar 25 a receive the lower left pin 17 a as illustrated.", "An opening 37 extends generally horizontally through the pin 18 a for receiving a standard cotter pin 35 which retains the lower left pin 17 a in place.", "[0037] The right rear portion of the trailer 10 is substantially similar to, and a mirror image of, the left rear portion of the trailer illustrated in FIG. 5 .", "[0038] FIG. 6 is a rear plan view of the trailer 10 of FIG. 4 .", "The gate 12 is generally rectangular with opposed left and right sides 34 a and 34 b which are generally parallel to one another.", "A top gate support 60 and a bottom gate support 61 are generally parallel to one another and generally perpendicular to the left and right gate sides 34 a and 34 b. A plurality of slats 62 are uniformly spaced apart from one another between the left and right sides 34 a and 34 b .", "Although five (5) slats 62 are shown in the illustrated embodiment, other embodiments may use more or fewer slats 62 .", "[0039] FIG. 7 is an enlarged detail view of the lower left portion of the trailer of FIG. 6 , taken along detail line C of FIG. 6 .", "The hinge rod 23 extends through and is rotatably coupled to the bushing 20 .", "The end bar 25 a comprises a flat plate rigidly affixed to the hinge rod 23 , by welding in the illustrated embodiment.", "The bushing 20 (as well as the bushings 21 , 22 , and 24 ( FIG. 4 ) is rotatably supported by a bushing support 13 that is rigidly affixed to the rear support 39 and extends beneath the bushing 20 .", "In this regard, the bushing support 39 is stationary and the bushing 20 slides against it as it rotates.", "The bushings 21 , 22 , and 24 are substantially similar to the bushing 20 .", "[0040] FIG. 8 is a top plan view of the hinge rod 23 of FIG. 7 .", "The hinge rod 23 comprises an elongated generally cylindrical rod, fabricated from steel in the illustrated embodiment.", "The end bars 25 a and 25 b are disposed on opposed ends of the hinge rod 23 .", "[0041] FIG. 9 is a side plan view of the hinge rod of FIG. 8 .", "[0042] FIG. 10 is an enlarged detail view of the hinge rod 23 of FIG. 8 , taken along detail line D of FIG. 8 .", "The end bar 25 a comprises a semi-circular free end 77 and an opening 76 that extends through the end bar 25 a. The opening 76 receives the pin 17 a ( FIG. 4 ) when the gate 11 ( FIG. 4 ) is closed.", "[0043] FIG. 11 is an enlarged detail view of the hinge rod 23 of FIG. 9 , taken along detail line E of FIG. 9 .", "The hinge rod 23 is fabricated from a generally flat plate of steel in the illustrated embodiment.", "[0044] FIG. 12 is a cross-sectional view of the trailer 10 of FIG. 6 , taken along section lines A-A of FIG. 6 .", "A gate support 45 extends beneath the gate 12 and is rigidly affixed to the gate 12 .", "The gate support 45 is comprised of angle iron in the illustrated embodiment.", "The bushing 22 is rigidly affixed to a bottom side 43 of the gate support 45 , by welding in this embodiment.", "The bushing 22 rotatably receives the hinge rod 23 .", "The hinge rod 23 is maintained in a stationary position by the end bars 25 a ( FIGS. 4) and 25 b ( FIG. 4 ) coupled with the hinges 16 a, 16 b and 42 a, 42 b as discussed above.", "The gate 12 is rotatable to its downward position when the bushing 22 rotates with respect to the hinge rod 23 in the direction indicated by directional arrow 36 .", "The bushings 20 , 21 , and 24 are substantially similar to the bushing 22 .", "[0045] FIG. 13 is an enlarged detail view of the trailer 10 of FIG. 12 , taken along detail line B of FIG. 12 .", "The bushing support 13 extends from the rear support 39 and supports the bushing 22 , as discussed above with respect to FIG. 7 .", "[0046] FIG. 14 is a rear perspective view of the trailer 10 of FIG. 4 , with the gate 12 opened in its downward position.", "When the gate 12 is open in this manner, the gate 12 is rotatably supported by the lower left hinges 16 a and 16 b coupled with the end bar 25 a and by the lower right hinges 42 a and 42 b coupled with the end bar 25 b the hinge rod 23 .", "The gate is further supported in this open position by the gate 12 resting against the ledge 13 on the lower side of the trailer 10 .", "Although the ledge 13 is illustrated as extending horizontally beneath the gate 12 , the ledge 13 may comprises smaller segments of metal extending underneath the bushings 20 - 22 against which the bushings 20 - 22 may rest when the gate 12 is open.", "[0047] To secure the gate 12 in its closed position, the user returns the gate 12 to its generally vertical orientation and reinstalls the pins 18 a and 18 b. [0048] FIG. 15 illustrates the trailer 10 with the gate 12 opened from the left side of the trailer 10 .", "In order to open the gate with this method, the user removes the pins 18 b and 17 b from the right side of the trailer 10 .", "Removal of the pin 18 b releases the hinge 15 b from between hinges 41 a and 41 b and releases the end bar 25 b of the hinge rod 23 from between the hinges 42 a and 42 b. The gate 12 will then rotate about the left trailer hinges 14 a, 14 b ( FIG. 4 ), the upper left gate hinge 15 a ( FIG. 4 ), the lower left trailer hinges 16 a and 16 b ( FIG. 4 ) and the left end bar 25 a ( FIG. 4 ) (i.e., the gate 12 will rotate around a generally vertical axis passing through the hinges 14 a, 14 b, 15 a, 16 a, and 16 b ).", "To close and latch the gate 12 , the user swings the gate 12 shut and reinstalls the pins 18 b and 17 b. [0049] In a similar manner (though not illustrated herein), the user may open the gate 12 from the right side of the trailer 10 by removing the pins 17 a and 18 a from the left side of the trailer 10 .", "Removal of the pins 17 a and 18 a releases the hinge 15 a from between hinges 14 a and 14 b and releases the end bar 25 a of the hinge rod 23 from between the hinges 16 a and 16 b. The gate 12 will then rotate about the right trailer hinges 41 a, 41 b, the upper right gate hinge 15 b, the lower right trailer hinges 42 a and 42 b, and the right end bar 25 b (i.e., the gate 12 will rotate around a generally vertical axis passing through the hinges 41 a, 41 b, 15 b, 42 a, and 42 b ).", "To close and latch the gate 12 , the user swings the gate 12 shut and reinstalls the pins 18 b and 17 b. [0050] The gate 12 may be removed from the trailer 10 entirely by removing all of the pins 18 a, 18 b, 17 a, and 17 b and pulling the gate 12 from the trailer." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Field of the Invention This invention relates to a control system for use with internal combustion engines and, more particularly, to a system including a microcomputer for processing information on various engine operating conditions.", "Description of the Prior Art There have been developed systems using a digital microcomputer for controlling various engine operating parameters such as the amount of fuel supplied for an engine, spark timing, the rate of exhaust gas recirculation.", "Such a control system is fed with information on various engine operating conditions in the form of analog signals representative of engine rotational speed, intake air flow rate, engine temperature, and the like.", "These analog signals are converted into digital signals for application to the microprocessor.", "The control system also receives on-off signals from various switches such as a throttle switch adapated to detect the fully closed position of the throttle valve, a neutral switch adapted to detect the neutral position of the power transmission, a starter switch adapted to detect the cranking operation of the engine, a switch adapted to detect the actuation of an air conditioner, and the like.", "These on-off signals are applied as interrupt signals to the microprocessor.", "As an example, when the signal from the throttle switch changes to its off state, the engine is accelerating.", "The throttle switch is adapted to provide an ON signal at the fully closed position of the throttle valve and an OFF signal at the open position of the throttle valve.", "This signal change is used as an interrupt signal to cause a temporary discontinuation in a routine being performed by the microprocessor;", "and directs the microprocessor to enter to another routine for making corrections required during acceleration.", "At the end of the routine, the interrupted routine is resumed from the point at which the discontinuation occurred.", "In such a conventional system where switch signals are used as interrupt signals a simple input circuit may be utilized.", "The system operates at a rapid response rate with respect to engine operating condition changes, but requires complicated hardware and software systems to give priority levels to the incoming switch signals as the number of the associated switches increases.", "In addition, due to an instantaneous change in the state of a switch which requires no actual interrupt of the program sequence, an unnecessary signal interrupt may occur to disturb other routines.", "For example, when the gear position of the transmission is changed, the throttle switch comes on and returns to its off state in a short time.", "Thus, each time the transmission is changed to another gear position, an interrupt occurs to cause entry into a routine required in acceleration such as to increase the amount of fuel supplied to the engine.", "When the gear position of the transmission is changed, however, this acceleration routine is unnecessary and spoils exhaust gas purifying performance.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is therefore one object of the present invention to provide an improved control system using a microcomputer which is free from the above described disadvantages found in conventional systems.", "Another object of the present invention is to eliminate the possibility of occurrence of any unnecessary interrupt in the microcomputer used for processing information on various operating conditions of an internal combustion engine.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS For a better understanding of the invention, as well as other objects and further features thereof, reference is made to the following detailed description of the invention to be read in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein: FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram showing one embodiment of a control system constructed in accordance with the present invention;", "FIG. 2 shows certain wave forms used in explaining the operation of the system of FIG. 1;", "FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram showing an alternative embodiment of the present invention;", "and FIG. 4 is a flowchart used to explain the operation of the system of FIG. 3. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring now to FIG. 1, there is illustrated one preferred embodiment of a control system of the present invention.", "The control system comprises an interrupt signal generating circuit which is shown as including a throttle switch SW for detecting the position of a throttle valve provided in an internal combustion engine.", "The throttle switch SW is on when the throttle valve is at its fully closed position and off at open throttle conditions.", "The throttle switch SW has one terminal connected through a resistor R 1 to a DC voltage source.", "The other terminal of the throttle switch SW is connected through a resistor R 2 to ground and also through a resistor R 3 to the non-inverting input terminal of a comparator COM, the inverting input terminal of which is connected through a resistor R 4 to the voltage source and also through a resistor R 5 to ground.", "The resistor R 2 is selected to have a magnitude much lower than the resistor R 3 .", "The non-inverting input terminal of the comparator COM is connected through a capacitor C 1 to ground.", "A diode D 1 is connected in parallel with the resistor R 3 .", "THe output of the comparator COM is connected to a microcomputer M. When the throttle valve is at the fully closed position to turn the throttle switch SW on, the voltage V 1 appearing at the point P 1 of FIG. 1 becomes high as shown by the waveform V 1 of FIG. 2 and the capacitor C 1 is charged through the resistor R 3 .", "The voltage V 2 at the point P 2 of FIG. 1 increases depending upon the time constant as shown by the waveform V 2 of FIG. 2. When the voltage V 2 reaches a reference voltage V 3 appearing at the point P 3 of FIG. 1, the output of the comparator COM changes to its high level as shown by the waveform V 4 of FIG. 2. If the throttle switch SW returns to the off state in a short time after changing to the on state, the voltage V 2 does not reach the reference voltage V 3 and thus the output of the comparator COM remains low.", "In other words, the output of the comparator COM changes to the high level only after the throttle switch SW remains on for a predetermined time or longer.", "A change of the output of the comparator to the low level represents that the throttle switch SW returns from the on state to the off state.", "The microcomputer M is responsive to the leading edge of the output signal of the comparator COM to handle an interrupt.", "That is, such an interrupt occurs only after the throttle switch SW remains in its on state for a predetermined time.", "This eliminates the possibility of occurrence of any unnecessary interrupt which has been found, in conventional systems, with an instantaneous change in the state of the throttle switch.", "Although in FIG. 1, an interrupt signal is applied to the microcomputer only after the throttle switch remains on for a predetermined time, it should be noted that the interrupt signal generating circuit may be designed to provide an interrupt signal only after the throttle switch remains off for a predetermined time.", "The microcomputer may then be designed to handle an interrupt in response to the trailing edge of the output signal of the comparator.", "In addition, although the above embodiment has been described in connection with a throttle switch, it is to be understood that the invention also contemplates that the interrupt signal generator circuit can be used with a neutral switch, starter switch, and any other suitable switch.", "Referring to FIG. 3, there is illustrated an alternative embodiment of the present invention, in which the throttle switch SW has one terminal connected through a resistor R 6 to a DC voltage source and the other terminal thereof connected through a resistor R 7 to ground and also through a resistor R 8 to the digital input port DP of a microcomputer M'.", "When the throttle switch SW is in its on state, a constant voltage V is applied to the digital input port of the microcomputer M'.", "The operation of the microcomputer M'", "will be described with reference to FIG. 4 which is a flowchart showing a routine entered every 10 microseconds.", "First, the value of the voltage applied to the digital input port DP of the microcomputer is sampled every 10 microseconds.", "The sampled value is V if the throttle valve is in the fully closed position to turn the throttle switch SW on, and is 0 if the throttle valve is in the open position to turn the throttle switch SW off.", "The on or off state of throttle switch is then tested.", "If the throttle switch is on and the idle flag is at 0, the idle flag is set to 1 and the counter ACC is cleared.", "Thereafter, the counter ACC advances by one each time the routine is repeated as long as the throttle switch SW remains on until its content reaches a predetermined value TD.", "If the throttle switch SW is off, the content of counter ACC is tested for the predetermined value TD.", "If the content of counter ACC is larger than the predetermined value TD, the acceleration flag is set to 1 and then the idle flag is set to 0.", "Otherwise, the idle flag is set to 0.", "That is, the acceleration flag is set to 1 when the throttle switch SW changes to its off state after it remains on for a time represented by the predetermined number of sampling operations.", "If the acceleration flag is set to 1, another routine is performed for controlling spark timing, fuel timing advance and any other engine operating factor required during acceleration.", "Although in FIG. 4, the routine specified by the state of the throttle switch is performed only after the number of times that the on state of the throttle switch is continuously sampled reaches or exceeds a predetermined value, it is to be noted that the microcomputer may be designed to perform the routine only after the number of times that the off state of the throttle switch is continuously sampled reaches or exceeds a predetermined value.", "In addition, the microcomputer may be designed to perform the routine specified by the state of the throttle switch simultaneously with the arrival of the sampling number at the predetermined value.", "Although the above embodiment has been described in connection with a throttle switch, it is to be understood that the invention also contemplates use with a neutral switch, starter switch, air conditioner switch, and any other suitable switch solely and in combination.", "With the present invention, it is possible to prevent the microcomputer from handling any interrupt until sufficient time lapses after a condition is established which requires that control should pass temporarily to another routine.", "This eliminates the possibility of occurrence of any unnecessary interrupt and holds engine running and exhaust gas purifying performances high.", "While the invention has been described in conjunction with specific embodiments thereof, it is evident that many alternatives, modifications and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art.", "Accordingly, it is intended to embrace all alternatives, modifications and variations that fall within the spirit and broad scope of the appended claims." ]

[ "TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present invention relates to a family of power transmissions having two input clutches which selectively connect an input shaft to first and second pairs of planetary gear sets to provide at least six forward speed ratios and one reverse speed ratio.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] Passenger vehicles include a powertrain that is comprised of an engine, multi-speed transmission, and a differential or final drive.", "The multi-speed transmission increases the overall operating range of the vehicle by permitting the engine to operate through its torque range a number of times.", "[0003] A primary focus of transmission and engine design work is in the area of increasing vehicle fuel efficiency.", "Manual transmissions typically provide improved vehicle fuel economy over automatic transmissions because automatic transmissions use a torque converter for vehicle launch and multiple plate hydraulically-applied clutches for gear engagement.", "Clutches of this type, left unengaged or idling, impose a parasitic drag torque on a drive line due to the viscous shearing action which exists between the plates and discs rotating at different speeds relative to one another.", "This drag torque adversely affects vehicle fuel economy for automatic transmissions.", "Also, the hydraulic pump that generates the pressure needed for operating the above-described clutches further reduces fuel efficiency associated with automatic transmissions.", "Manual transmissions eliminate these problems.", "[0004] While manual transmissions are not subject to the above described fuel efficiency related problems, manual transmissions typically provide poor shift quality because a significant torque interruption is required during each gear shift as the engine is disengaged from the transmission by the clutch to allow shafts rotating at different speeds to be synchronized.", "[0005] So called “automated manual”", "transmissions provide electronic shifting in a manual transmission configuration which, in certain circumstances, improves fuel efficiency by eliminating the parasitic losses associated with the torque converter and hydraulic pump needed for clutching.", "Like manual transmissions, a drawback of automated manual transmissions is that the shift quality is not as high as an automatic transmission because of the torque interruption during shifting.", "[0006] So called “dual-clutch automatic”", "transmissions also eliminate the torque converter and replace hydraulic clutches with synchronizers but they go further to provide gear shift quality which is superior to the automated manual transmission and similar to the conventional automatic transmission, which makes them quite attractive.", "However, most known dual-clutch automatic transmissions include a lay shaft or countershaft gear arrangement, and have not been widely applied in vehicles because of their complexity, size and cost.", "For example, a dual clutch lay shaft transmission could require eight sets of gears, two input/shift clutches and seven synchronizers/dog clutches to provide six forward speed ratios and a reverse speed ratio.", "An example of a dual-clutch automatic transmission is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,385,064, which is hereby incorporated by reference.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0007] The invention provides a low content multi-speed dual-clutch transmission family utilizing planetary gear sets rather than lay shaft gear arrangements.", "In particular, the invention includes four planetary gear sets, two input/shift clutches, and nine selectable torque transmitting mechanisms to provide at least six forward speed ratios and a reverse speed ratio.", "[0008] According to one aspect of the invention, the family of transmissions has four planetary gear sets, each of which includes a first, second and third member, which members may comprise a sun gear, ring gear, or a planet carrier assembly member.", "[0009] In referring to the first, second, third and fourth gear sets in this description and in the claims, these sets may be counted “first”", "to “fourth”", "in any order in the drawings (i.e. left-to-right, right-to-left, etc.).", "[0010] In another aspect of the present invention, each of the planetary gear sets may be of the single pinion type or of the double pinion type.", "[0011] In yet another aspect of the present invention, the first member of the first planetary gear set is continuously connected with the first member of the second planetary gear set through a first interconnecting member.", "[0012] In yet another aspect of the present invention, a member of the first or second planetary gear set is continuously connected with the first member of the third planetary gear set and with the output shaft through a second interconnecting member.", "[0013] In yet another aspect of the present invention, the second member of the third planetary gear set is continuously connected with the first member of the fourth planetary gear set through a third interconnecting member.", "[0014] In accordance with a further aspect of the invention, a first input clutch selectively connects the input shaft with members of the first or second planetary gear set, through other torque-transmitting mechanisms, such as rotating synchronizers.", "[0015] In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a second input clutch selectively connects the input shaft with the third member of the third planetary gear set.", "[0016] In another aspect of the invention, first and second torque transmitting mechanisms, such as rotating synchronizers, selectively connect members of the first and second planetary gear sets with the first input clutch.", "[0017] In another aspect of the invention, a third torque transmitting mechanism, such as a rotating synchronizer, selectively connects a member of the first or second planetary gear sets with another member of the first or second planetary gear set or with the first input clutch.", "[0018] In still a further aspect of the invention, fourth and fifth torque transmitting mechanisms, such as rotating synchronizers, selectively connect members of the third planetary gear set with members of the fourth planetary gear set.", "[0019] In still another aspect of the invention, sixth and seventh torque transmitting mechanisms, such as braking synchronizers, selectively connect members of the first or second planetary gear set with a stationary member (transmission housing).", "[0020] In still another aspect of the invention, eighth and ninth torque transmitting mechanisms, such as braking synchronizers, selectively connect members of the fourth planetary gear set with the stationary member.", "[0021] In accordance with a further aspect of the invention, the input clutches and torque transmitting mechanisms are selectively engaged in combinations of at least three to provide at least six forward speed ratios and a reverse speed ratio.", "[0022] In accordance with a further aspect of the invention, the first input clutch is applied for odd number speed ranges, and the second input clutch is applied for even number speed ranges, or vice versa.", "[0023] In another aspect of the invention, the first input clutch and the second input clutch are interchanged (i.e. alternately engaged) to shift from odd number speed range to even number speed range, or vice versa.", "[0024] In accordance with a further aspect of the invention, each selected torque transmitting mechanism for a new speed ratio is engaged prior to shifting of the input clutches to achieve shifts without torque interruptions.", "[0025] In accordance with a further aspect of the invention, at least one pair of synchronizers is executed as a double synchronizer to reduce cost and package size.", "[0026] In accordance with a further aspect of the invention, the first input clutch can be eliminated and the first and second rotating synchronizers can be used as input clutches to further reduce content.", "[0027] In accordance with a further aspect of the invention, at least one of the torque transmitting mechanisms can be eliminated to realize five forward speed ratios and a reverse speed ratio.", "[0028] The above objects, features, advantages, and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention are readily apparent from the following detailed description of the best modes for carrying out the invention when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0029] [0029 ]FIG. 1 a is a schematic representation of a powertrain including a planetary transmission incorporating a family member of the present invention;", "[0030] [0030 ]FIG. 1 b is a truth table and chart depicting some of the operating characteristics of the powertrain shown in FIG. 1 a;", "[0031] [0031 ]FIG. 2 a is a schematic representation of a powertrain having a planetary transmission incorporating another family member of the present invention;", "[0032] [0032 ]FIG. 2 b is a truth table and chart depicting some of the operating characteristics of the powertrain shown in FIG. 2 a;", "[0033] [0033 ]FIG. 3 a is a schematic representation of a powertrain having a planetary transmission incorporating another family member of the present invention;", "[0034] [0034 ]FIG. 3 b is a truth table and chart depicting some of the operating characteristics of the powertrain shown in FIG. 3 a;", "[0035] [0035 ]FIG. 4 a is a schematic representation of a powertrain having a planetary transmission incorporating another family member of the present invention;", "[0036] [0036 ]FIG. 4 b is a truth table and chart depicting some of the operating characteristics of the powertrain shown in FIG. 4 a;", "[0037] [0037 ]FIG. 5 a is a schematic representation of a powertrain having a planetary transmission incorporating another family member of the present invention;", "[0038] [0038 ]FIG. 5 b is a truth table and chart depicting some of the operating characteristics of the powertrain shown in FIG. 5 a;", "[0039] [0039 ]FIG. 6 a is a schematic representation of a powertrain having a planetary transmission incorporating another family member of the present invention;", "[0040] [0040 ]FIG. 6 b is a truth table and chart depicting some of the operating characteristics of the powertrain shown in FIG. 6 a;", "[0041] [0041 ]FIG. 7 a is a schematic representation of a powertrain having a planetary transmission incorporating another family member of the present invention;", "[0042] [0042 ]FIG. 7 b is a truth table and chart depicting some of the operating characteristics of the powertrain shown in FIG. 7 a;", "[0043] [0043 ]FIG. 8 a is a schematic representation of a powertrain having a planetary transmission incorporating another family member of the present invention;", "[0044] [0044 ]FIG. 8 b is a truth table and chart depicting some of the operating characteristics of the powertrain shown in FIG. 8 a;", "[0045] [0045 ]FIG. 9 a is a schematic representation of a powertrain having a planetary transmission incorporating another family member of the present invention;", "[0046] [0046 ]FIG. 9 b is a truth table and chart depicting some of the operating characteristics of the powertrain shown in FIG. 9 a;", "[0047] [0047 ]FIG. 10 a is a schematic representation of a powertrain having a planetary transmission incorporating another family member of the present invention;", "[0048] [0048 ]FIG. 10 b is a truth table and chart depicting some of the operating characteristics of the powertrain shown in FIG. 10 a;", "[0049] [0049 ]FIG. 11 a is a schematic representation of a powertrain having a planetary transmission incorporating another family member of the present invention;", "[0050] [0050 ]FIG. 11 b is a truth table and chart depicting some of the operating characteristics of the powertrain shown in FIG. 11 a;", "[0051] [0051 ]FIG. 12 a is a schematic representation of a powertrain having a planetary transmission incorporating another family member of the present invention;", "[0052] [0052 ]FIG. 12 b is a truth table and chart depicting some of the operating characteristics of the powertrain shown in FIG. 12 a;", "[0053] [0053 ]FIG. 13 a is a schematic representation of a powertrain having a planetary transmission incorporating another family member of the present invention;", "[0054] [0054 ]FIG. 13 b is a truth table and chart depicting some of the operating characteristics of the powertrain shown in FIG. 13 a;", "[0055] [0055 ]FIG. 14 a is a schematic representation of a powertrain having a planetary transmission incorporating another family member of the present invention;", "and [0056] [0056 ]FIG. 14 b is a truth table and chart depicting some of the operating characteristics of the powertrain shown in FIG. 14 a. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS [0057] Referring to the drawings, wherein like characters represent the same or corresponding parts throughout the several views, there is shown in FIG. 1 a a powertrain 10 having a conventional engine 12 , a planetary transmission 14 , and a conventional final drive mechanism 16 .", "[0058] The planetary transmission 14 includes an input shaft 17 continuously connected with the engine 12 , a planetary gear arrangement 18 , and an output shaft 19 continuously connected with the final drive mechanism 16 .", "The planetary gear arrangement 18 includes four planetary gear sets 20 , 30 , 40 and 50 .", "[0059] The planetary gear set 20 includes a sun gear member 22 , a ring gear member 24 , and a planet carrier assembly member 26 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 26 includes a plurality of intermeshing pinion gears 27 , 28 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 29 and disposed in meshing relationship with the ring gear member 24 and the sun gear member 22 , respectively.", "[0060] The planetary gear set 30 includes a sun gear member 32 , a ring gear member 34 , and a planet carrier assembly member 36 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 36 includes a plurality of pinion gears 37 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 39 and disposed in meshing relationship with both the sun gear member 32 and the ring gear member 34 .", "[0061] The planetary gear set 40 includes a sun gear member 42 , a ring gear member 44 , and a planet carrier assembly member 46 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 46 includes a plurality of pinion gears 47 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 49 and disposed in meshing relationship with both the sun gear member 42 and the ring gear member 44 .", "[0062] The planetary gear set 50 includes a sun gear member 52 , a ring gear member 54 , and a planet carrier assembly member 56 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 56 includes a plurality of pinion gears 57 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 59 and disposed in meshing relationship with both the sun gear member 52 and the ring gear member 54 .", "[0063] As a result of the dual clutch arrangement of the invention, the four planetary gear sets 20 , 30 , 40 and 50 are divided into first and second transmission subsets 60 , 61 which are alternatively engaged to provide odd number and even number speed ranges, respectively.", "Transmission subset 60 includes planetary gear sets 20 and 30 , and transmission subset 61 includes planetary gear sets 40 and 50 .", "The output shaft 19 is continuously connected with members of both subsets 60 and 61 .", "[0064] As mentioned above, the first and second input clutches 62 , 63 are alternatively engaged for transmitting power from the input shaft 17 to transmission subset 60 or transmission subset 61 .", "The first and second input clutches 62 , 63 are controlled electronically, and the disengaged input clutch is gradually engaged while the engaged input clutch is gradually disengaged to facilitate transfer of power from one transmission subset to another.", "In this manner, shift quality is maintained, as in an automatic transmission, while providing better fuel economy because no torque converter is required, and hydraulics associated with “wet”", "clutching are eliminated.", "All speed ratios are preselected within the transmission subsets 60 , 61 prior to engaging the respective input clutches 62 , 63 .", "The preselection is achieved by means of electronically controlled synchronizers.", "As shown, the planetary gear arrangement includes nine torque transmitting mechanisms 64 , 65 , 66 , 67 , 68 , 69 , 70 , 71 and 72 .", "The torque transmitting mechanisms 64 , 65 , 69 and 70 comprise braking synchronizers, and the torque transmitting mechanisms 66 , 67 , 68 , 71 and 72 comprise rotating synchronizers.", "[0065] By way of example, synchronizers which may be implemented as the rotating and/or braking synchronizers referenced herein are shown in the following patents, each of which are incorporated by reference in their entirety: U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,651,435;", "5,975,263;", "5,560,461;", "5,641,045;", "5,497,867;", "6,354,416.", "[0066] The braking synchronizers and rotating synchronizers are referenced in the claims as follows: first and second torque transmitting mechanisms 66 , 67 ;", "third torque transmitting mechanism 68 ;", "fourth and fifth torque transmitting mechanisms 71 , 72 ;", "sixth and seventh torque transmitting mechanisms 64 , 65 ;", "eighth and ninth torque transmitting mechanisms 69 , 70 .", "Other family members are similarly referenced in the claims (i.e. rotating synchronizers of left, then right, transmission subsets in Figures, and braking synchronizers of left, then right, transmission subsets in Figures).", "[0067] Accordingly, the input shaft 17 is alternately connected with the first and second transmission subsets 60 , 61 (i.e. through the clutch 62 to the rotating synchronizers 66 , 67 and through the clutch 63 to the sun gear member 42 ).", "The sun gear member 22 is continuously connected with the sun gear member 32 through the interconnecting member 74 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 46 is continuously connected with the ring gear member 34 and the output shaft 19 through the interconnecting member 76 .", "The ring gear member 44 is continuously connected with the planet carrier assembly member 56 through the interconnecting member 78 .", "[0068] The planet carrier assembly member 26 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 80 through the braking synchronizer 64 .", "The ring gear member 24 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 80 through the braking synchronizer 65 .", "The sun gear member 22 is selectively connectable with the input shaft 17 through the input clutch 62 and the rotating synchronizer 66 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 36 is selectively connectable with the input shaft 17 through the input clutch 62 and the rotating synchronizer 67 .", "The ring gear member 24 is selectively connectable with the planet carrier assembly member 36 through the rotating synchronizer 68 .", "The sun gear member 52 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 80 through the braking synchronizer 69 .", "The ring gear member 54 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 80 through the braking synchronizer 70 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 46 is selectively connectable with the sun gear member 52 through the rotating synchronizer 71 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 46 is selectively connectable with the ring gear member 54 through the rotating synchronizer 72 .", "[0069] As shown in FIG. 1 b, and in particular the truth table disclosed therein, the input clutches and torque transmitting mechanisms are selectively engaged in combinations of at least three to provide six forward speed ratios and a reverse speed ratio.", "[0070] The reverse speed ratio is established with the engagement of the input clutch 62 , the braking synchronizer 65 and the rotating synchronizers 66 , 68 .", "The input clutch 62 and the rotating synchronizer 66 connect the sun gear member 22 to the input shaft 17 .", "The braking synchronizer 65 connects the ring gear member 24 to the transmission housing 80 .", "The rotating synchronizer 68 connects the ring gear member 24 to the planet carrier assembly member 36 .", "The sun gear members 22 , 32 rotate at the same speed as the input shaft 17 .", "The ring gear member 24 and the planet carrier assembly member 36 do not rotate.", "The ring gear member 34 and the planet carrier assembly member 46 rotate at the same speed as the output shaft 19 .", "The ring gear member 34 , and therefore the output shaft 19 , rotates at a speed determined from the speed of the sun gear member 32 and the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 30 .", "The numerical value of the reverse speed ratio is determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 30 .", "[0071] The first forward speed ratio is established with the engagement of the input clutch 63 and the braking synchronizers 69 , 70 .", "The input clutch 63 connects the sun gear member 42 to the input shaft 17 .", "The braking synchronizer 69 connects the sun gear member 52 to the transmission housing 80 .", "The braking synchronizer 70 connects the ring gear member 54 to the transmission housing 80 .", "The sun gear member 42 rotates at the same speed as the input shaft 17 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 46 rotates at the same speed as the output shaft 19 .", "The ring gear member 44 and the planetary gear set 50 do not rotate.", "The planet carrier assembly member 46 , and therefore the output shaft 19 , rotates at a speed determined from the speed of the sun gear member 42 and the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 40 .", "The numerical value of the first forward speed ratio is determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 40 .", "[0072] The second forward speed ratio is established with the engagement of the input clutch 62 , the braking synchronizer 64 and the rotating synchronizers 66 , 68 .", "The input clutch 62 and the rotating synchronizer 66 connect the sun gear member 22 to the input shaft 17 .", "The braking synchronizer 64 connects the planet carrier assembly member 26 to the transmission housing 80 .", "The rotating synchronizer 68 connects the ring gear member 24 to the planet carrier assembly member 36 .", "The sun gear members 22 , 32 rotate at the same speed as the input shaft 17 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 26 does not rotate.", "The ring gear member 24 rotates at the same speed as the planet carrier assembly member 36 .", "The ring gear member 24 rotates at a speed determined from the speed of the sun gear member 22 and the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 20 .", "The ring gear member 34 and the planet carrier assembly member 46 rotate at the same speed as the output shaft 19 .", "The ring gear member 34 , and therefore the output shaft 19 , rotates at a speed determined from the speed of the planet carrier assembly member 36 , the speed of the sun gear member 32 and the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 30 .", "The numerical value of the second forward speed ratio is determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratios of the planetary gear sets 20 , 30 .", "[0073] The third forward speed ratio is established with the engagement of the input clutch 63 , the braking synchronizer 69 and the rotating synchronizer 72 .", "The input clutch 63 connects the sun gear member 42 to the input shaft 17 .", "The braking synchronizer 69 connects the sun gear member 52 to the transmission housing 80 .", "The rotating synchronizer 72 connects the planet carrier assembly member 46 to the ring gear member 54 .", "The sun gear member 42 rotates at the same speed as the input shaft 17 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 46 and the ring gear member 54 rotate at the same speed as the output shaft 19 .", "The ring gear member 44 rotates at the same speed as the planet carrier assembly member 56 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 46 , and therefore the output shaft 19 , rotates at a speed determined from the speed of the ring gear member 44 , the speed of the sun gear member 42 and the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 40 .", "The sun gear member 52 does not rotate.", "The planet carrier assembly member 56 rotates at a speed determined from the speed of the ring gear member 54 and the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 50 .", "The numerical value of the third forward speed ratio is determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratios of the planetary gear sets 40 , 50 .", "[0074] The fourth forward speed ratio is established with the engagement of the input clutch 62 , the braking synchronizer 64 and the rotating synchronizers 67 , 68 .", "The input clutch 62 and the rotating synchronizer 67 connect the planet carrier assembly member 36 to the input shaft 17 .", "The braking synchronizer 64 connects the planet carrier assembly member 26 to the transmission housing 80 .", "The rotating synchronizer 68 connects the ring gear member 24 to the planet carrier assembly member 36 .", "The sun gear member 22 rotates at the same speed as the sun gear member 32 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 26 does not rotate.", "The ring gear member 24 and the planet carrier assembly member 36 rotate at the same speed as the input shaft 17 .", "The sun gear member 22 rotates at a speed determined from the speed of the ring gear member 24 and the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 20 .", "The ring gear member 34 and the planet carrier assembly member 46 rotate at the same speed as the output shaft 19 .", "The ring gear member 34 , and therefore the output shaft 19 , rotates at a speed determined from the speed of the planet carrier assembly member 36 , the speed of the sun gear member 32 and the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 30 .", "The numerical value of the fourth forward speed ratio is determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratios of the planetary gear sets 20 , 30 .", "[0075] The fifth forward speed ratio is established with the engagement of the input clutch 63 and the rotating synchronizers 71 , 72 .", "In this configuration, the input shaft 17 is directly connected to the output shaft 19 .", "The numerical value of the fifth forward speed ratio is 1.", "[0076] The sixth forward speed ratio is established with the engagement of the input clutch 62 , the braking synchronizers 64 , 65 and the rotating synchronizer 67 .", "The input clutch 62 and the rotating synchronizer 67 connect the planet carrier assembly member 36 to the input shaft 17 .", "The braking synchronizer 64 connects the planet carrier assembly member 26 to the transmission housing 80 .", "The braking synchronizer 65 connects the ring gear member 24 to the transmission housing 80 .", "The planetary gear set 20 and the sun gear member 32 do not rotate.", "The planet carrier assembly member 36 rotates at the same speed as the input shaft 17 .", "The ring gear member 34 and the planet carrier assembly member 46 rotate at the same speed as the output shaft 19 .", "The ring gear member 34 , and therefore the output shaft 19 , rotates at a speed determined from the speed of the planet carrier assembly member 36 and the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 30 .", "The numerical value of the sixth forward speed ratio is determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 30 .", "[0077] As set forth above, the engagement schedule for the torque transmitting mechanisms is shown in the truth table of FIG. 1 b. This truth table also provides an example of speed ratios that are available utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratios given by way of example in FIG. 1 b. The R1/S1 value is the tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 20 ;", "the R2/S2 value is the tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 30 ;", "the R3/S3 value is the tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 40 ;", "and the R4/S4 value is the tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 50 .", "Also, the chart of FIG. 1 b describes the ratio steps that are attained utilizing the sample of tooth ratios given.", "For example, the step ratio between first and second forward speed ratios is 1.54, while the step ratio between the reverse and first forward ratio is −0.67.", "Those skilled in the art will recognize that since torque transmitting mechanisms 66 and 67 are connected to a common member, input clutch 62 , and they are not engaged at the same time for any of the speed ratios, the pair can be executed as a double synchronizer to reduce content and cost.", "Similarly, torque transmitting mechanisms pair 70 and 72 can be implemented as a double synchronizer.", "[0078] [0078 ]FIG. 2 a shows a powertrain 110 having a conventional engine 12 , a planetary transmission 114 , and a conventional final drive mechanism 16 .", "The planetary transmission 114 includes an input shaft 17 connected with the engine 12 , a planetary gear arrangement 118 , and an output shaft 19 connected with the final drive mechanism 16 .", "The planetary gear arrangement 118 includes four planetary gear sets 120 , 130 , 140 and 150 .", "[0079] The planetary gear set 120 includes a sun gear member 122 , a ring gear member 124 , and a planet carrier assembly member 126 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 126 includes a plurality of intermeshing pinion gears 127 , 128 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 129 and disposed in meshing relationship with the ring gear member 124 and the sun gear member 122 , respectively.", "[0080] The planetary gear set 130 includes a sun gear member 132 , a ring gear member 134 , and a planet carrier assembly member 136 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 136 includes a plurality of intermeshing pinion gears 137 , 138 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 139 and disposed in meshing relationship with the ring gear member 134 and the sun gear member 132 , respectively.", "[0081] The planetary gear set 140 includes a sun gear member 142 , a ring gear member 144 , and a planet carrier assembly member 146 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 146 includes a plurality of intermeshing pinion gears 147 , 148 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 149 and disposed in meshing relationship with the ring gear member 144 and the sun gear member 142 , respectively.", "[0082] The planetary gear set 150 includes a sun gear member 152 , a ring gear member 154 , and a planet carrier assembly member 156 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 156 includes a plurality of pinion gears 157 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 159 and disposed in meshing relationship with both the sun gear member 152 and the ring gear member 154 .", "[0083] As a result of the dual clutch arrangement of the invention, the four planetary gear sets 120 , 130 , 140 and 150 are divided into first and second transmission subsets 160 , 161 which are alternatively engaged to provide odd number and even number speed ranges, respectively.", "Transmission subset 160 includes planetary gear sets 120 and 130 , and transmission subset 161 includes planetary gear sets 140 and 150 .", "The output shaft 19 is continuously connected with members of both subsets 160 and 161 .", "[0084] As mentioned above, the first and second input clutches 162 , 163 are alternatively engaged for transmitting power from the input shaft 17 to transmission subset 160 or transmission subset 161 .", "The first and second input clutches 162 , 163 are controlled electronically, and the disengaged input clutch is gradually engaged while the engaged input clutch is gradually disengaged to facilitate transfer of power from one transmission subset to another.", "In this manner, shift quality is maintained, as in an automatic transmission, while providing better fuel economy because no torque converter is required, and hydraulics associated with “wet”", "clutching are eliminated.", "All speed ratios are preselected within the transmission subsets 160 , 161 prior to engaging the respective input clutches 162 , 163 .", "The preselection is achieved by means of electronically controlled synchronizers.", "As shown, the planetary gear arrangement includes nine torque transmitting mechanisms 164 , 165 , 166 , 167 , 168 , 169 , 170 , 171 and 172 .", "The torque transmitting mechanisms 164 , 165 , 169 and 170 comprise braking synchronizers, and the torque transmitting mechanisms 166 , 167 , 168 , 171 and 172 comprise rotating synchronizers.", "[0085] Accordingly, the input shaft 17 is alternately connected with the first and second transmission subsets 160 , 161 (i.e. through the clutch 162 to the rotating synchronizers 166 , 167 and through the clutch 163 to the ring gear member 144 ).", "The sun gear member 122 is continuously connected with the sun gear member 132 through the interconnecting member 174 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 146 is continuously connected with the ring gear member 134 and the output shaft 19 through the interconnecting member 176 .", "The sun gear member 142 is continuously connected with the sun gear member 152 through the interconnecting member 178 .", "[0086] The planet carrier assembly member 126 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 180 through the braking synchronizer 164 .", "The ring gear member 124 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 180 through the braking synchronizer 165 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 126 is selectively connectable with the input shaft 17 through the input clutch 162 and the rotating synchronizer 166 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 136 is selectively connectable with the input shaft 17 through the input clutch 162 and the rotating synchronizer 167 .", "The ring gear member 124 is selectively connectable with the planet carrier assembly member 136 through the rotating synchronizer 168 .", "The ring gear member 154 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 180 through the braking synchronizer 169 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 156 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 180 through the braking synchronizer 170 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 146 is selectively connectable with the ring gear member 154 through the rotating synchronizer 171 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 146 is selectively connectable with the planet carrier assembly member 156 through the rotating synchronizer 172 .", "[0087] As shown in FIG. 2 b, and in particular the truth table disclosed therein, the input clutches and torque transmitting mechanisms are selectively engaged in combinations of at least three to provide six forward speed ratios and a reverse speed ratio.", "[0088] The reverse speed ratio is established with the engagement of the input clutch 162 , the braking synchronizer 165 and the rotating synchronizers 166 , 168 .", "The input clutch 162 and the rotating synchronizer 166 connect the planet carrier assembly member 126 to the input shaft 17 .", "The braking synchronizer 165 connects the ring gear member 124 to the transmission housing 180 .", "The rotating synchronizer 168 connects the ring gear member 124 to the planet carrier assembly member 136 .", "The sun gear member 122 rotates at the same speed as the sun gear member 132 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 126 rotates at the same speed as the input shaft 17 .", "The ring gear member 124 and the planet carrier assembly member 136 do not rotate.", "The sun gear member 122 rotates at a speed determined from the speed of the planet carrier assembly member 126 and the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 120 .", "The ring gear member 134 and the planet carrier assembly member 146 rotate at the same speed as the output shaft 19 .", "The ring gear member 134 , and therefore the output shaft 19 , rotates at a speed determined from the speed of the sun gear member 132 and the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 130 .", "The numerical value of the reverse speed ratio is determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratios of the planetary gear set 120 , 130 .", "[0089] The first forward speed ratio is established with the engagement of the input clutch 162 , the braking synchronizer 165 and the rotating synchronizers 166 , 167 .", "The input clutch 162 and the rotating synchronizers 166 , 167 connect the planet carrier assembly members 126 and 136 to the input shaft 17 .", "The braking synchronizer 165 connects the ring gear member 124 to the transmission housing 180 .", "The sun gear member 122 rotates at the same speed as the sun gear member 132 .", "The planet carrier assembly members 126 , 136 rotate at the same speed as the input shaft 17 .", "The ring gear member 124 does not rotate.", "The sun gear member 122 rotates at a speed determined from the speed of the planet carrier assembly member 126 and the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 120 .", "The ring gear member 134 and the planet carrier assembly member 146 rotate at the same speed as the output shaft 19 .", "The ring gear member 134 , and therefore the output shaft 19 , rotates at a speed determined from the speed of the planet carrier assembly member 136 , the speed of the sun gear member 132 and the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 130 .", "The numerical value of the first forward speed ratio is determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratios of the planetary gear sets 120 , 130 .", "[0090] The second forward speed ratio is established with the engagement of the input clutch 163 , the braking synchronizer 169 and the rotating synchronizer 172 .", "The input clutch 163 connects the ring gear member 144 to the input shaft 17 .", "The braking synchronizer 169 connects the ring gear member 154 to the transmission housing 180 .", "The rotating synchronizer 172 connects the planet carrier assembly member 146 to the planet carrier assembly member 156 .", "The sun gear member 142 rotates at the same speed as the sun gear member 152 .", "The planet carrier assembly members 146 , 156 rotate at the same speed as the output shaft 19 .", "The ring gear member 144 rotates at the same speed as the input shaft 17 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 146 , and therefore the output shaft 19 , rotates at a speed determined from the speed of the ring gear member 144 , the speed of the sun gear member 142 and the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 140 .", "The ring gear member 154 does not rotate.", "The planet carrier assembly member 156 rotates at a speed determined from the speed of the sun gear member 152 and the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 150 .", "The numerical value of the second forward speed ratio is determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratios of the planetary gear sets 140 , 150 .", "[0091] The third forward speed ratio is established with the engagement of the input clutch 162 , the braking synchronizers 164 , 165 and the rotating synchronizer 167 .", "The input clutch 162 and the rotating synchronizer 167 connect the planet carrier assembly member 136 to the input shaft 17 .", "The braking synchronizer 164 connects the planet carrier assembly member 126 to the transmission housing 180 .", "The braking synchronizer 165 connects the ring gear member 124 to the transmission housing 180 .", "The planetary gear set 120 and the sun gear member 132 do not rotate.", "The planet carrier assembly member 136 rotates at the same speed as the input shaft 17 .", "The ring gear member 134 and the planet carrier assembly member 146 rotate at the same speed as the output shaft 19 .", "The ring gear member 134 , and therefore the output shaft 19 , rotates at a speed determined from the speed of the planet carrier assembly member 136 and the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 130 .", "The numerical value of the third forward speed ratio is determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 130 .", "[0092] The fourth forward speed ratio is established with the engagement of the input clutch 163 and the rotating synchronizers 171 , 172 .", "In this configuration, the input shaft 17 is directly connected to the output shaft 19 .", "The numerical value of the fourth forward speed ratio is 1.", "[0093] The fifth forward speed ratio is established with the engagement of the input clutch 162 , the braking synchronizer 164 and the rotating synchronizers 167 , 168 .", "The input clutch 162 and the rotating synchronizer 167 connect the planet carrier assembly member 136 to the input shaft 17 .", "The braking synchronizer 164 connects the planet carrier assembly member 126 to the transmission housing 180 .", "The rotating synchronizer 168 connects the ring gear member 124 to the planet carrier assembly member 136 .", "The sun gear member 122 rotates at the same speed as the sun gear member 132 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 126 does not rotate.", "The ring gear member 124 and the planet carrier assembly member 136 rotate at the same speed as the input shaft 17 .", "The sun gear member 122 rotates at a speed determined from the speed of the ring gear member 124 and the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 120 .", "The ring gear member 134 and the planet carrier assembly member 146 rotate at the same speed as the output shaft 19 .", "The ring gear member 134 , and therefore the output shaft 19 , rotates at a speed determined from the speed of the planet carrier assembly member 136 , the speed of the sun gear member 132 and the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 130 .", "The numerical value of the fifth forward speed ratio is determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratios of the planetary gear sets 120 , 130 .", "[0094] The sixth forward speed ratio is established with the engagement of the input clutch 163 and the braking synchronizers 169 , 170 .", "The input clutch 163 connects the ring gear member 144 to the input shaft 17 .", "The braking synchronizer 169 connects the ring gear member 154 to the transmission housing 180 .", "The braking synchronizer 170 connects the planet carrier assembly member 156 to the transmission housing 180 .", "The sun gear member 142 and the planetary gear set 150 do not rotate.", "The planet carrier assembly member 146 rotates at the same speed as the output shaft 19 .", "The ring gear member 144 rotates at the same speed as the input shaft 17 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 146 , and therefore the output shaft 19 , rotates at a speed determined from the speed of the ring gear member 144 and the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 140 .", "The numerical value of the sixth forward speed ratio is determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 140 .", "[0095] As set forth above, the truth table of FIG. 2 b describes the engagement sequence of the torque transmitting mechanisms utilized to provide a reverse drive ratio and six forward speed ratios.", "The truth table also provides an example of the ratios that can be attained with the family members shown in FIG. 2 a utilizing the sample tooth ratios given in FIG. 2 b. The R1/S1 value is the tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 120 ;", "the R2/S2 value is the tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 130 ;", "the R3/S3 value is the tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 140 ;", "and the R4/S4 value is the tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 150 .", "Also shown in FIG. 2 b are the ratio steps between single step ratios in the forward direction as well as the reverse to first ratio step.", "For example, the first to second step ratio is 1.90.", "Those skilled in the art will recognize that since torque transmitting mechanisms 164 and 166 are connected to a common member, planet carrier assembly member 126 , and they are not engaged at the same time for any of the speed ratios, the pair can be executed as a double synchronizer to reduce content and cost.", "Similarly, torque transmitting mechanisms pair 169 and 171 can be implemented as a double synchronizer.", "[0096] Turning the FIG. 3 a, a powertrain 210 having a conventional engine 12 , a planetary transmission 214 , and conventional final drive mechanism 16 is shown.", "[0097] The planetary transmission 214 includes an input shaft 17 continuously connected with the engine 12 , a planetary gear arrangement 218 , and an output shaft 19 continuously connected with the final drive mechanism 16 .", "The planetary gear arrangement 218 includes four planetary gear sets 220 , 230 , 240 and 250 .", "[0098] The planetary gear set 220 includes a sun gear member 222 , a ring gear member 224 , and a planet carrier assembly member 226 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 226 includes a plurality of intermeshing pinion gears 227 , 228 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 229 and disposed in meshing relationship with the ring gear member 224 and the sun gear member 222 , respectively.", "[0099] The planetary gear set 230 includes a sun gear member 232 , a ring gear member 234 , and a planet carrier assembly member 236 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 236 includes a plurality of intermeshing pinion gears 237 , 238 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 239 and disposed in meshing relationship with the ring gear member 234 and the sun gear member 232 , respectively.", "[0100] The planetary gear set 240 includes a sun gear member 242 , a ring gear member 244 , and a planet carrier assembly member 246 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 246 includes a plurality of pinion gears 247 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 249 and disposed in meshing relationship with both the sun gear member 242 and the ring gear member 244 .", "[0101] The planetary gear set 250 includes a sun gear member 252 , a ring gear member 254 , and a planet carrier assembly member 256 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 256 includes a plurality of pinion gears 257 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 259 and disposed in meshing relationship with both the sun gear member 252 and the ring gear member 254 .", "[0102] As a result of the dual clutch arrangement of the invention, the four planetary gear sets 220 , 230 , 240 and 250 are divided into first and second transmission subsets 260 , 261 which are alternatively engaged to provide odd number and even number speed ranges, respectively.", "Transmission subset 260 includes planetary gear sets 220 and 230 , and transmission subset 261 includes planetary gear sets 240 and 250 .", "The output shaft 19 is continuously connected with members of both subsets 260 and 261 .", "[0103] As mentioned above, the first and second input clutches 262 , 263 are alternatively engaged for transmitting power from the input shaft 17 to transmission subset 260 or transmission subset 261 .", "The first and second input clutches 262 , 263 are controlled electronically, and the disengaged input clutch is gradually engaged while the engaged input clutch is gradually disengaged to facilitate transfer of power from one transmission subset to another.", "In this manner, shift quality is maintained, as in an automatic transmission, while providing better fuel economy because no torque converter is required, and hydraulics associated with “wet”", "clutching are eliminated.", "All speed ratios are preselected within the transmission subsets 260 , 261 prior to engaging the respective input clutches 262 , 263 .", "The preselection is achieved by means of electronically controlled synchronizers.", "As shown, the planetary gear arrangement includes nine torque transmitting mechanisms 264 , 265 , 266 , 267 , 268 , 269 , 270 , 271 and 272 .", "The torque transmitting mechanisms 264 , 265 , 269 and 270 comprise braking synchronizers, and the torque transmitting mechanisms 266 , 267 , 268 , 271 and 272 comprise rotating synchronizers.", "[0104] Accordingly, the input shaft 17 is alternately connected with the first and second transmission subsets 260 , 261 (i.e. through the clutch 262 to the rotating synchronizers 266 , 267 and through the clutch 263 to the sun gear member 242 ).", "The sun gear member 222 is continuously connected with the sun gear member 232 through the interconnecting member 274 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 246 is continuously connected with the ring gear member 234 and the output shaft 19 through the interconnecting member 276 .", "The ring gear member 244 is continuously connected with the ring gear member 254 through the interconnecting member 278 .", "[0105] The planet carrier assembly member 226 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 280 through the braking synchronizer 264 .", "The ring gear member 224 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 280 through the braking synchronizer 265 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 226 is selectively connectable with the input shaft 17 through the input clutch 262 and the rotating synchronizer 266 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 236 is selectively connectable with the input shaft 17 through the input clutch 262 and the rotating synchronizer 267 .", "The ring gear member 224 is selectively connectable with the planet carrier assembly member 236 through the rotating synchronizer 268 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 256 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 280 through the braking synchronizer 269 .", "The sun gear member 252 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 280 through the braking synchronizer 270 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 246 is selectively connectable with the planet carrier assembly member 256 through the rotating synchronizer 271 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 246 is selectively connectable with the sun gear member 252 through the rotating synchronizer 272 .", "[0106] As shown in FIG. 3 b, and in particular the truth table disclosed therein, the input clutches and torque transmitting mechanisms are selectively engaged in combinations of at least three to provide six forward speed ratios and a reverse speed ratio.", "[0107] The reverse speed ratio is established with the engagement of the input clutch 262 , the braking synchronizer 265 and the rotating synchronizers 266 , 268 .", "The input clutch 262 and the rotating synchronizer 266 connect the planet carrier assembly member 226 to the input shaft 17 .", "The braking synchronizer 265 connects the ring gear member 224 to the transmission housing 280 .", "The rotating synchronizer 268 connects the ring gear member 224 to the planet carrier assembly member 236 .", "The sun gear member 222 rotates at the same speed as the sun gear member 232 .", "The planet carrier assembly,member 226 rotates at the same speed as the input shaft 17 .", "The ring gear member 224 and the planet carrier assembly member 236 do not rotate.", "The sun gear member 222 rotates at a speed determined from the speed of the planet carrier assembly member 226 and the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 220 .", "The ring gear member 234 and the planet carrier assembly member 246 rotate at the same speed as the output shaft 19 .", "The ring gear member 234 , and therefore the output shaft 19 , rotates at a speed determined from the speed of the sun gear member 232 and the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 230 .", "The numerical value of the reverse speed ratio is determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratios of the planetary gear sets 220 , 230 .", "[0108] The first forward speed ratio is established with the engagement of the input clutch 262 , the braking synchronizer 265 and the rotating synchronizers 266 , 267 .", "The input clutch 262 and the rotating synchronizers 266 , 267 connect the planet carrier assembly members 226 , 236 to the input shaft 17 .", "The braking synchronizer 265 connects the ring gear member 224 to the transmission housing 280 .", "The sun gear member 222 rotates at the same speed as the sun gear member 232 .", "The planet carrier assembly members 226 , 236 rotate at the same speed as the input shaft 17 .", "The ring gear member 224 does not rotate.", "The sun gear member 222 rotates at a speed determined from the speed of the planet carrier assembly member 226 and the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 220 .", "The ring gear member 234 and the planet carrier assembly member 246 rotate at the same speed as the output shaft 19 .", "The ring gear member 234 , and therefore the output shaft 19 , rotates at a speed determined from the speed of the planet carrier assembly member 236 , the speed of the sun gear member 232 and the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 230 .", "The numerical value of the first forward speed ratio is determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratios of the planetary gear sets 220 , 230 .", "[0109] The second forward speed ratio is established with the engagement of the input clutch 263 , the braking synchronizer 269 and the rotating synchronizer 272 .", "The input clutch 263 connects the sun gear member 242 to the input shaft 17 .", "The braking synchronizer 269 connects the planet carrier assembly member 256 to the transmission housing 280 .", "The rotating synchronizer 272 connects the planet carrier assembly member 246 to the sun gear member 252 .", "The sun gear member 242 rotates at the same speed as the input shaft 17 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 246 and the sun gear member 252 rotate at the same speed as the output shaft 19 .", "The ring gear member 244 rotates at the same speed as the ring gear member 254 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 246 , and therefore the output shaft 19 , rotates at a speed determined from the speed of the ring gear member 244 , the speed of the sun gear member 242 and the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 240 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 256 does not rotate.", "The ring gear member 254 rotates at a speed determined from the speed of the sun gear member 252 and the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 250 .", "The numerical value of the second forward speed ratio is determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratios of the planetary gear sets 240 , 250 .", "[0110] The third forward speed ratio is established with the engagement of the input clutch 262 , the braking synchronizers 264 , 265 and the rotating synchronizer 267 .", "The input clutch 262 and the rotating synchronizer 267 connect the planet carrier assembly member 236 to the input shaft 17 .", "The braking synchronizer 264 connects the planet carrier assembly member 226 to the transmission housing 280 .", "The braking synchronizer 265 connects the ring gear member 224 to the transmission housing 280 .", "The planetary gear set 220 and the sun gear member 232 do not rotate.", "The planet carrier assembly member 236 rotates at the same speed as the input shaft 17 .", "The ring gear member 234 and the planet carrier assembly member 246 rotate at the same speed as the output shaft 19 .", "The ring gear member 234 , and therefore the output shaft 19 , rotates at a speed determined from the speed of the planet carrier assembly member 236 and the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 230 .", "The numerical value of the third forward speed ratio is determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 230 .", "[0111] The fourth forward speed ratio is established with the engagement of the input clutch 263 and the rotating synchronizers 271 , 272 .", "In this configuration, the input shaft 17 is directly connected to the output shaft 19 .", "The numerical value of the fourth forward speed ratio is 1.", "[0112] The fifth forward speed ratio is established with the engagement of the input clutch 262 , the braking synchronizer 264 and the rotating synchronizers 267 , 268 .", "The input clutch 262 and the rotating synchronizer 267 connect the planet carrier assembly member 236 to the input shaft 17 .", "The braking synchronizer 264 connects the planet carrier assembly member 226 to the transmission housing 280 .", "The rotating synchronizer 268 connects the ring gear member 224 to the planet carrier assembly member 236 .", "The sun gear member 222 rotates at the same speed as the sun gear member 232 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 226 does not rotate.", "The ring gear member 224 and the planet carrier assembly member 236 rotate at the same speed as the input shaft 17 .", "The sun gear member 222 rotates at a speed determined from the speed of the ring gear member 224 and the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 220 .", "The ring gear member 234 and the planet carrier assembly member 246 rotate at the same speed as the output shaft 19 .", "The ring gear member 234 , and therefore the output shaft 19 , rotates at a speed determined from the speed of the planet carrier assembly member 236 , the speed of the sun gear member 232 and the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 230 .", "The numerical value of the fifth forward speed ratio is determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratios of the planetary gear sets 220 , 230 .", "[0113] The sixth forward speed ratio is established with the engagement of the input clutch 263 , the braking synchronizer 270 and the rotating synchronizer 271 .", "The input clutch 263 connects the sun gear member 242 to the input shaft 17 .", "The braking synchronizer 270 connects the sun gear member 252 to the transmission housing 280 .", "The rotating synchronizer 271 connects the planet carrier assembly member 246 to the planet carrier assembly member 256 .", "The sun gear member 242 rotates at the same speed as the input shaft 17 .", "The planet carrier assembly members 246 , 256 rotate at the same speed as the output shaft 19 .", "The ring gear member 244 rotates at the same speed as the ring gear member 254 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 246 , and therefore the output shaft 19 , rotates at a speed determined from the speed of the ring gear member 244 , the speed of the sun gear member 242 and the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 240 .", "The sun gear member 252 does not rotate.", "The planet carrier assembly member 256 rotates at a speed determined from the speed of the ring gear member 254 and the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 250 .", "The numerical value of the sixth forward speed ratio is determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratios of the planetary gear sets 240 , 250 .", "[0114] As previously set forth, the truth table of FIG. 3 b describes the combinations of engagements utilized for six forward speed ratios and one reverse speed ratio.", "The truth table also provides an example of speed ratios that are available with the family member described above.", "These examples of speed ratios are determined the tooth ratios given in FIG. 3 b .", "The R1/S1 value is the tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 220 ;", "the R2/S2 value is the tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 230 ;", "the R3/S3 value is the tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 240 ;", "and the R4/S4 value is the tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 250 .", "Also depicted in FIG. 3 b is a chart representing the ratio steps between adjacent forward speed ratios and the reverse speed ratio.", "For example, the first to second ratio interchange has a step of 1.53.", "[0115] A powertrain 310 , shown in FIG. 4 a, includes the engine 12 , a planetary transmission 314 , and the final drive mechanism 16 .", "The planetary transmission 314 includes an input shaft 17 continuously connected with the engine 12 , a planetary gear arrangement 318 , and an output shaft 19 continuously connected with the final drive mechanism 16 .", "The planetary gear arrangement 318 includes four planetary gear sets 320 , 330 , 340 and 350 .", "[0116] The planetary gear set 320 includes a sun gear member 322 , a ring gear member 324 , and a planet carrier assembly member 326 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 326 includes a plurality of pinion gears 327 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 329 and disposed in meshing relationship with both the sun gear member 322 and the ring gear member 324 .", "[0117] The planetary gear set 330 includes a sun gear member 332 , a ring gear member 334 , and a planet carrier assembly member 336 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 336 includes a plurality of intermeshing pinion gears 337 , 338 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 339 and disposed in meshing relationship with the ring gear member 334 and the sun gear member 332 , respectively.", "[0118] The planetary gear set 340 includes a sun gear member 342 , a ring gear member 344 , and a planet carrier assembly member 346 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 346 includes a plurality of pinion gears 347 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 349 and disposed in meshing relationship with both the sun gear member 342 and the ring gear member 344 .", "[0119] The planetary gear set 350 includes a sun gear member 352 , a ring gear member 354 , and a planet carrier assembly member 356 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 356 includes a plurality of pinion gears 357 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 359 and disposed in meshing relationship with both the sun gear member 352 and the ring gear member 354 .", "[0120] As a result of the dual clutch arrangement of the invention, the four planetary gear sets 320 , 330 , 340 and 350 are divided into first and second transmission subsets 360 , 361 which are alternatively engaged to provide odd number and even number speed ranges, respectively.", "Transmission subset 360 includes planetary gear sets 320 and 330 , and transmission subset 361 includes planetary gear sets 340 and 350 .", "The output shaft 19 is continuously connected with members of both subsets 360 and 361 .", "[0121] As mentioned above, the first and second input clutches 362 , 363 are alternatively engaged for transmitting power from the input shaft 17 to transmission subset 360 or transmission subset 361 .", "The first and second input clutches 362 , 363 are controlled electronically, and the disengaged input clutch is gradually engaged while the engaged input clutch is gradually disengaged to facilitate transfer of power from one transmission subset to another.", "In this manner, shift quality is maintained, as in an automatic transmission, while providing better fuel economy because no torque converter is required, and hydraulics associated with “wet”", "clutching are eliminated.", "All speed ratios are preselected within the transmission subsets 360 , 361 prior to engaging the respective input clutches 362 , 363 .", "The preselection is achieved by means of electronically controlled synchronizers.", "As shown, the planetary gear arrangement includes nine torque transmitting mechanisms 364 , 365 , 366 , 367 , 368 , 369 , 370 , 371 and 372 .", "The torque transmitting mechanisms 364 , 365 , 369 and 370 comprise braking synchronizers, and the torque transmitting mechanisms 366 , 367 , 368 , 371 and 372 comprise rotating synchronizers.", "[0122] Accordingly, the input shaft 17 is alternately connected with the first and second transmission subsets 360 , 361 (i.e. through the clutch 362 to the rotating synchronizers 366 , 367 and through the clutch 363 to the sun gear member 342 ).", "The planet carrier assembly member 326 is continuously connected with the ring gear member 334 through the interconnecting member 374 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 346 is continuously connected with the ring gear member 324 and the output shaft 19 through the interconnecting member 376 .", "The ring gear member 344 is continuously connected with the sun gear member 352 through the interconnecting member 378 .", "[0123] The planet carrier assembly member 326 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 380 through the braking synchronizer 364 .", "The sun gear member 322 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 380 through the braking synchronizer 365 .", "The sun gear member 332 is selectively connectable with the input shaft 17 through the input clutch 362 and the rotating synchronizer 366 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 336 is selectively connectable with the input shaft 17 through the input clutch 362 and the rotating synchronizer 367 .", "The sun gear member 322 is selectively connectable with the sun gear member 332 through the rotating synchronizer 368 .", "The ring gear member 354 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 380 through the braking synchronizer 369 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 356 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 380 through the braking synchronizer 370 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 346 is selectively connectable with the ring gear member 354 through the rotating synchronizer 371 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 346 is selectively connectable with the planet carrier assembly member 356 through the rotating synchronizer 372 .", "[0124] The truth tables given in FIGS. 4 b, 5 b, 6 b, 7 b, 8 b, 9 b, 10 b, 11 b, 12 b, 13 b and 14 b show the engagement sequences for the torque transmitting mechanisms to provide at least five forward speed ratios and one reverse speed ratio.", "As shown and described above for the configurations in Figures la, 2 a and 3 a, those skilled in the art will understand from the respective truth tables how the speed ratios are established through the planetary gear sets identified in the written description.", "[0125] The truth table shown in FIG. 4 b describes the engagement combination and engagement sequence necessary to provide the reverse drive ratio and six forward speed ratios.", "A sample of the numerical values for the ratios is also provided in the truth table of FIG. 4 b. These values are determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratios also given in FIG. 4 b. The R1/S1 value is the tooth ratio for the planetary gear set 320 ;", "the R2/S2 value is the tooth ratio for the planetary gear set 330 ;", "the R3/S3 value is the tooth ratio for the planetary gear set 340 ;", "and the R4/S4 value is the tooth ratio for the planetary gear set 350 .", "Also given in FIG. 4 b is a chart describing the step ratios between the adjacent forward speed ratios and the reverse to first forward speed ratio.", "For example, the first to second forward speed ratio step is 1.48.", "[0126] Those skilled in the art will recognize that the numerical values of the reverse and sixth forward speed ratios are determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 320 .", "The numerical value of the first forward speed ratio is determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 340 .", "The numerical values of the second and fourth forward speed ratios are determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratios of the planetary gear sets 320 , 330 .", "The numerical value of the third forward speed ratio is determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratios of the planetary gear sets 340 , 350 .", "The numerical value of the fifth forward speed ratio is 1.", "[0127] A powertrain 410 shown in FIG. 5 a includes a conventional engine 12 , a planetary transmission 414 , and a conventional final drive mechanism 16 .", "The planetary transmission 414 includes an input shaft 17 connected with the engine 12 , a planetary gear arrangement 418 , and an output shaft 19 continuously connected with the final drive mechanism 16 .", "The planetary gear arrangement 418 includes four planetary gear sets 420 , 430 , 440 and 450 .", "[0128] The planetary gear set 420 includes a sun gear member 422 , a ring gear member 424 , and a planet carrier assembly member 426 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 426 includes a plurality of intermeshing pinion gears 427 , 428 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 429 and disposed in meshing relationship with the ring gear member 424 and the sun gear member 422 , respectively.", "[0129] The planetary gear set 430 includes a sun gear member 432 , a ring gear member 434 , and a planet carrier assembly member 436 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 436 includes a plurality of intermeshing pinion gears 437 , 438 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 439 and disposed in meshing relationship with the ring gear member 434 and the sun gear member 432 , respectively.", "[0130] The planetary gear set 440 includes a sun gear member 442 , a ring gear member 444 , and a planet carrier assembly member 446 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 446 includes a plurality of pinion gears 447 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 449 and disposed in meshing relationship with both the sun gear member 442 and the ring gear member 444 .", "[0131] The planetary gear set 450 includes a sun gear member 452 , a ring gear member 454 , and a planet carrier assembly member 456 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 456 includes a plurality of pinion gears 457 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 459 and disposed in meshing relationship with both the sun gear member 452 and the ring gear member 454 .", "[0132] As a result of the dual clutch arrangement of the invention, the four planetary gear sets 420 , 430 , 440 and 450 are divided into first and second transmission subsets 460 , 461 which are alternatively engaged to provide odd number and even number speed ranges, respectively.", "Transmission subset 460 includes planetary gear sets 420 and 430 , and transmission subset 461 includes planetary gear sets 440 and 450 .", "The output shaft 19 is continuously connected with members of both subsets 460 and 461 .", "[0133] As mentioned above, the first and second input clutches 462 , 463 are alternatively engaged for transmitting power from the input shaft 17 to transmission subset 460 or transmission subset 461 .", "The first and second input clutches 462 , 463 are controlled electronically, and the disengaged input clutch is gradually engaged while the engaged input clutch is gradually disengaged to facilitate transfer of power from one transmission subset to another.", "In this manner, shift quality is maintained, as in an automatic transmission, while providing better fuel economy because no torque converter is required, and hydraulics associated with “wet”", "clutching are eliminated.", "All speed ratios are preselected within the transmission subsets 460 , 461 prior to engaging the respective input clutches 462 , 463 .", "The preselection is achieved by means of electronically controlled synchronizers.", "As shown, the planetary gear arrangement includes nine torque transmitting mechanisms 464 , 465 , 466 , 467 , 468 , 469 , 470 , 471 and 472 .", "The torque transmitting mechanisms 464 , 465 , 469 and 470 comprise braking synchronizers, and the torque transmitting mechanisms 466 , 467 , 468 , 471 and 472 comprise rotating synchronizers.", "[0134] Accordingly, the input shaft 17 is alternately connected with the first and second transmission subsets 460 , 461 (i.e. through the clutch 462 to the rotating synchronizers 466 , 467 and through the clutch 463 to the ring gear member 444 ).", "The sun gear member 422 is continuously connected with the sun gear member 432 through the interconnecting member 474 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 446 is continuously connected with the ring gear member 434 and the output shaft 19 through the interconnecting member 476 .", "The sun gear member 442 is continuously connected with the ring gear member 454 through the interconnecting member 478 .", "[0135] The planet carrier assembly member 426 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 480 through the braking synchronizer 464 .", "The ring gear member 424 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 480 through the braking synchronizer 465 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 426 is selectively connectable with the input shaft 17 through the input clutch 462 and the rotating synchronizer 466 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 436 is selectively connectable with the input shaft 17 through the input clutch 462 and the rotating synchronizer 467 .", "The ring gear member 424 is selectively connectable with the planet carrier assembly member 436 through the rotating synchronizer 468 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 456 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 480 through the braking synchronizer 469 .", "The sun gear member 452 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 480 through the braking synchronizer 470 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 446 is selectively connectable with the planet carrier assembly member 456 through the rotating synchronizer 471 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 446 is selectively connectable with the sun gear member 452 through the rotating synchronizer 472 .", "[0136] As shown in FIG. 5 b, and in particular the truth table disclosed therein, the input clutches and torque transmitting mechanisms are selectively engaged in combinations of at least three to provide six forward speed ratios and a reverse speed ratio.", "[0137] [0137 ]FIG. 5 b also provides a chart of the ratio steps between adjacent forward ratios and between the reverse and first ratio.", "For example, the ratio step between the first and second forward ratios is 1.62.", "Those skilled in the art will recognize that the numerical values of the reverse, first and fifth forward speed ratios are determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratios of the planetary gear sets 420 , 430 .", "The numerical values of the second and sixth forward speed ratios are determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratios of the planetary gear set 440 , 450 .", "The numerical value of the third forward speed ratio is determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 430 .", "The numerical value of the fourth forward speed ratio is 1.", "[0138] A powertrain 510 , shown in FIG. 6 a, includes a conventional engine 12 , a powertrain 514 , and a conventional final drive mechanism 16 .", "The powertrain 514 includes an input shaft 17 connected with the engine 12 , a planetary gear arrangement 518 , and an output shaft 19 continuously connected with the final drive mechanism 16 .", "The planetary gear arrangement 518 includes four planetary gear sets 520 , 530 , 540 and 550 .", "[0139] The planetary gear set 520 includes a sun gear member 522 , a ring gear member 524 , and a planet carrier assembly member 526 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 526 includes a plurality of intermeshing pinion gears 527 , 528 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 529 and disposed in meshing relationship with the ring gear member 524 and the sun gear member 522 , respectively.", "[0140] The planetary gear set 530 includes a sun gear member 532 , a ring gear member 534 , and a planet carrier assembly member 536 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 536 includes a plurality of pinion gears 537 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 539 and disposed in meshing relationship with both the sun gear member 532 and the ring gear member 534 .", "[0141] The planetary gear set 540 includes a sun gear member 542 , a ring gear member 544 , and a planet carrier assembly member 546 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 546 includes a plurality of intermeshing pinion gears 547 , 548 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 549 and disposed in meshing relationship with the ring gear member 544 and the sun gear member 542 , respectively.", "[0142] The planetary gear set 550 includes a sun gear member 552 , a ring gear member 554 , and a planet carrier assembly member 556 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 556 includes a plurality of pinion gears 557 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 559 and disposed in meshing relationship with both the sun gear member 552 and the ring gear member 554 .", "[0143] As a result of the dual clutch arrangement of the invention, the four planetary gear sets 520 , 530 , 540 and 550 are divided into first and second transmission subsets 560 , 561 which are alternatively engaged to provide odd number and even number speed ranges, respectively.", "Transmission subset 560 includes planetary gear sets 520 and 530 , and transmission subset 561 includes planetary gear sets 540 and 550 .", "The output shaft 19 is continuously connected with members of both subsets 560 and 561 .", "[0144] As mentioned above, the first and second input clutches 562 , 563 are alternatively engaged for transmitting power from the input shaft 17 to transmission subset 560 or transmission subset 561 .", "The first and second input clutches 562 , 563 are controlled electronically, and the disengaged input clutch is gradually engaged while the engaged input clutch is gradually disengaged to facilitate transfer of power from one transmission subset to another.", "In this manner, shift quality is maintained, as in an automatic transmission, while providing better fuel economy because no torque converter is required, and hydraulics associated with “wet”", "clutching are eliminated.", "All speed ratios are preselected within the transmission subsets 560 , 561 prior to engaging the respective input clutches 562 , 563 .", "The preselection is achieved by means of electronically controlled synchronizers.", "As shown, the planetary gear arrangement includes nine torque transmitting mechanisms 564 , 565 , 566 , 567 , 568 , 569 , 570 , 571 and 572 .", "The torque transmitting mechanisms 564 , 565 , 569 and 570 comprise braking synchronizers, and the torque transmitting mechanisms 566 , 567 , 568 , 571 and 572 comprise rotating synchronizers.", "[0145] Accordingly, the input shaft 17 is alternately connected with the first and second transmission subsets 560 , 561 (i.e. through the clutch 562 to the rotating synchronizers 566 , 567 and through the clutch 563 to the ring gear member 544 ).", "The sun gear member 522 is continuously connected with the sun gear member 532 through the interconnecting member 574 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 546 is continuously connected with the ring gear member 534 and the output shaft 19 through the interconnecting member 576 .", "The sun gear member 542 is continuously connected with the sun gear member 552 through the interconnecting member 578 .", "[0146] The planet carrier assembly member 526 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 580 through the braking synchronizer 564 .", "The ring gear member 524 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 580 through the braking synchronizer 565 .", "The sun gear member 522 is selectively connectable with the input shaft 17 through the input clutch 562 and the rotating synchronizer 566 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 536 is selectively connectable with the input shaft 17 through the input clutch 562 and the rotating synchronizer 567 .", "The ring gear member 524 is selectively connectable with the planet carrier assembly member 536 through the rotating synchronizer 568 .", "The ring gear member 554 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 580 through the braking synchronizer 569 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 556 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 580 through the braking synchronizer 570 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 546 is selectively connectable with the ring gear member 554 through the rotating synchronizer 571 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 546 is selectively connectable with the planet carrier assembly member 556 through the rotating synchronizer 572 .", "[0147] As shown in FIG. 6 b, and in particular the truth table disclosed therein, the input clutches and torque transmitting mechanisms are selectively engaged in combinations of at least three to provide six forward speed ratios and a reverse speed ratio.", "The chart of FIG. 6 b describes the ratio steps between adjacent forward speed ratios and the ratio step between the reverse and first forward speed ratio.", "[0148] Those skilled in the art, upon reviewing the truth table and the schematic representation of FIG. 6 a can determine that the numerical values of the reverse and fifth forward speed ratios are determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 530 .", "The numerical values of the first and third forward speed ratios are determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratios of the planetary gear sets 520 , 530 .", "The numerical value of the second forward speed ratio is determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratios of the planetary gear sets 540 , 550 .", "The numerical value of the fourth forward speed ratio is 1.", "The numerical value of the sixth forward speed ratio is determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 540 .", "[0149] The sample speed ratios given in the truth table are determined utilizing the tooth ratio values also given in FIG. 6 b. R1/S1 value is the tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 520 ;", "the R2/S2 value is the tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 530 ;", "the R3/S3 value is the tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 540 ;", "and the R4/S4 value is the tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 550 .", "[0150] A powertrain 610 , shown in FIG. 7 a, has the engine 12 , a planetary transmission 614 , and the final drive mechanism 16 .", "The planetary transmission 614 includes the input shaft 17 , a planetary gear arrangement 618 , and the output shaft 19 .", "The planetary gear arrangement 618 includes four planetary gear sets 620 , 630 , 640 and 650 .", "[0151] The planetary gear set 620 includes a sun gear member 622 , a ring gear member 624 , and a planet carrier assembly member 626 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 626 includes a plurality of pinion gears 627 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 629 and disposed in meshing relationship with both the sun gear member 622 and the ring gear member 624 .", "[0152] The planetary gear set 630 includes a sun gear member 632 , a ring gear member 634 , and a planet carrier assembly member 636 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 636 includes a plurality of intermeshing pinion gears 637 , 638 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 639 and disposed in meshing relationship with the ring gear member 634 and the sun gear member 632 , respectively.", "[0153] The planetary gear set 640 includes a sun gear member 642 , a ring gear member 644 , and a planet carrier assembly member 646 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 646 includes a plurality of intermeshing pinion gears 647 , 648 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 649 and disposed in meshing relationship with the ring gear member 644 and the sun gear member 642 , respectively.", "[0154] The planetary gear set 650 includes a sun gear member 652 , a ring gear member 654 , and a planet carrier assembly member 656 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 656 includes a plurality of pinion gears 657 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 659 and disposed in meshing relationship with both the sun gear member 652 and the ring gear member 654 .", "[0155] As a result of the dual clutch arrangement of the invention, the four planetary gear sets 620 , 630 , 640 and 650 are divided into first and second transmission subsets 660 , 661 which are alternatively engaged to provide odd number and even number speed ranges, respectively.", "Transmission subset 660 includes planetary gear sets 620 and 630 , and transmission subset 661 includes planetary gear sets 640 and 650 .", "The output shaft 19 is continuously connected with members of both subsets 660 and 661 .", "[0156] As mentioned above, the first and second input clutches 662 , 663 are alternatively engaged for transmitting power from the input shaft 17 to transmission subset 660 or transmission subset 661 .", "The first and second input clutches 662 , 663 are controlled electronically, and the disengaged input clutch is gradually engaged while the engaged input clutch is gradually disengaged to facilitate transfer of power from one transmission subset to another.", "In this manner, shift quality is maintained, as in an automatic transmission, while providing better fuel economy because no torque converter is required, and hydraulics associated with “wet”", "clutching are eliminated.", "All speed ratios are preselected within the transmission subsets 660 , 661 prior to engaging the respective input clutches 662 , 663 .", "The preselection is achieved by means of electronically controlled synchronizers.", "As shown, the planetary gear arrangement includes nine torque transmitting mechanisms 664 , 665 , 666 , 667 , 668 , 669 , 670 , 671 and 672 .", "The torque transmitting mechanisms 664 , 665 , 669 and 670 comprise braking synchronizers, and the torque transmitting mechanisms 666 , 667 , 668 , 671 and 672 comprise rotating synchronizers.", "[0157] Accordingly, the input shaft 17 is alternately connected with the first and second transmission subsets 660 , 661 (i.e. through the clutch 662 to the rotating synchronizers 666 , 667 and through the clutch 663 to the ring gear member 644 ).", "The planet carrier assembly member 626 is continuously connected with the ring gear member 634 through the interconnecting member 674 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 646 is continuously connected with the ring gear member 624 and the output shaft 19 through the interconnecting member 676 .", "The sun gear member 642 is continuously connected with the sun gear member 652 through the interconnecting member 678 .", "[0158] The planet carrier assembly member 626 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 680 through the braking synchronizer 664 .", "The sun gear member 622 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 680 through the braking synchronizer 665 .", "The sun gear member 632 is selectively connectable with the input shaft 17 through the input clutch 662 and the rotating synchronizer 666 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 636 is selectively connectable with the input shaft 17 through the input clutch 662 and the rotating synchronizer 667 .", "The sun gear member 622 is selectively connectable with the sun gear member 632 through the rotating synchronizer 668 .", "The ring gear member 654 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 680 through the braking synchronizer 669 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 656 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 680 through the braking synchronizer 670 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 646 is selectively connectable with the ring gear member 654 through the rotating synchronizer 671 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 646 is selectively connectable with the planet carrier assembly member 656 through the rotating synchronizer 672 .", "[0159] As shown in FIG. 7 b, and in particular the truth table disclosed therein, the input clutches and torque transmitting mechanisms are selectively engaged in combinations of at least three to provide six forward speed ratios and a reverse speed ratio.", "The ratio values given are by way example and are established utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratios given in FIG. 7 b. For example, the R1/S2 value is the tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 620 ;", "the R2/S2 value is the tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 630 ;", "the R3/S3 value is the tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 640 ;", "and the R4/S4 value is the tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 650 .", "The ratio steps between adjacent forward ratios and the reverse to first ratio are also given in FIG. 7 b. [0160] Those skilled in the art will, upon reviewing the truth table of FIG. 7 b, recognize that the numerical values of the reverse and fifth forward speed ratios are determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 620 .", "The numerical values of the first and third forward speed ratios are determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratios of the planetary gear sets 620 , 630 .", "The numerical value of the second forward speed ratio is determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratios of the planetary gear sets 640 , 650 .", "The numerical value of the fourth forward speed ratio is 1.", "The numerical value of the sixth forward speed ratio is determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 640 .", "[0161] A powertrain 710 , shown in FIG. 8 a, has the conventional engine 12 , a planetary transmission 714 , and the conventional final drive mechanism 16 .", "The engine 12 is continuously connected with the input shaft 17 .", "The planetary transmission 714 is drivingly connected with the final drive mechanism 16 through the output shaft 19 .", "The planetary transmission 714 includes a planetary gear arrangement 718 that has a first planetary gear set 720 , a second planetary gear set 730 , a third planetary gear set 740 , and a fourth planetary gear set 750 .", "[0162] The planetary gear set 720 includes a sun gear member 722 , a ring gear member 724 , and a planet carrier assembly member 726 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 726 includes a plurality of intermeshing pinion gears 727 , 728 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 729 and disposed in meshing relationship with the ring gear member 724 and the sun gear member 722 , respectively.", "[0163] The planetary gear set 730 includes a sun gear member 732 , a ring gear member 734 , and a planet carrier assembly member 736 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 736 includes a plurality of intermeshing pinion gears 737 , 738 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 739 and disposed in meshing relationship with the ring gear member 734 and the sun gear member 732 , respectively.", "[0164] The planetary gear set 740 includes a sun gear member 742 , a ring gear member 744 , and a planet carrier assembly member 746 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 746 includes a plurality of pinion gears 747 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 749 and disposed in meshing relationship with both the sun gear member 742 and the ring gear member 744 .", "[0165] The planetary gear set 750 includes a sun gear member 752 , a ring gear member 754 , and a planet carrier assembly member 756 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 756 includes a plurality of pinion gears 757 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 759 and disposed in meshing relationship with both the sun gear member 752 and the ring gear member 754 .", "[0166] As a result of the dual clutch arrangement of the invention, the four planetary gear sets 720 , 730 , 740 and 750 are divided into first and second transmission subsets 760 , 761 which are alternatively engaged to provide odd number and even number speed ranges, respectively.", "Transmission subset 760 includes planetary gear sets 720 and 730 , and transmission subset 761 includes planetary gear sets 740 and 750 .", "The output shaft 19 is continuously connected with members of both subsets 760 and 761 .", "[0167] As mentioned above, the first and second input clutches 762 , 763 are alternatively engaged for transmitting power from the input shaft 17 to transmission subset 760 or transmission subset 761 .", "The first and second input clutches 762 , 763 are controlled electronically, and the disengaged input clutch is gradually engaged while the engaged input clutch is gradually disengaged to facilitate transfer of power from one transmission subset to another.", "In this manner, shift quality is maintained, as in an automatic transmission, while providing better fuel economy because no torque converter is required, and hydraulics associated with “wet”", "clutching are eliminated.", "All speed ratios are preselected within the transmission subsets 760 , 761 prior to engaging the respective input clutches 762 , 763 .", "The preselection is achieved by means of electronically controlled synchronizers.", "As shown, the planetary gear arrangement includes nine torque transmitting mechanisms 764 , 765 , 766 , 767 , 768 , 769 , 770 , 771 and 772 .", "The torque transmitting mechanisms 764 , 765 , 769 and 770 comprise braking synchronizers, and the torque transmitting mechanisms 766 , 767 , 768 , 771 and 772 comprise rotating synchronizers.", "[0168] Accordingly, the input shaft 17 is alternately connected with the first and second transmission subsets 760 , 761 (i.e. through the clutch 762 to the rotating synchronizers 766 , 767 and through the clutch 763 to the sun gear member 742 ).", "The sun gear member 722 is continuously connected with the sun gear member 732 through the interconnecting member 774 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 746 is continuously connected with the ring gear member 734 and the output shaft 19 through the interconnecting member 776 .", "The ring gear member 744 is continuously connected with the sun gear member 752 through the interconnecting member 778 .", "[0169] The planet carrier assembly member 726 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 780 through the braking synchronizer 764 .", "The ring gear member 724 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 780 through the braking synchronizer 765 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 726 is selectively connectable with the input shaft 17 through the input clutch 762 and the rotating synchronizer 766 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 736 is selectively connectable with the input shaft 17 through the input clutch 762 and the rotating synchronizer 767 .", "The ring gear member 724 is selectively connectable with the planet carrier assembly member 736 through the rotating synchronizer 768 .", "The ring gear member 754 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 780 through the braking synchronizer 769 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 756 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 780 through the.", "braking synchronizer 770 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 746 is selectively connectable with the ring gear member 754 through the rotating synchronizer 771 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 746 is selectively connectable with the planet carrier assembly member 756 through the rotating synchronizer 772 .", "[0170] As shown in FIG. 8 b, and in particular the truth table disclosed therein, the input clutches and torque transmitting mechanisms are selectively engaged in combinations of at least three to provide six forward speed ratios and a reverse speed ratio.", "Also given in the truth table is a set of numerical values that are attainable with the present invention utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratios given in FIG. 8 b. The R1/S1 value is the tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 720 ;", "the R2/S2 value is the tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 730 ;", "the R3/S3 value is the tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 740 ;", "and the R4/S4 value is the tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 750 .", "[0171] [0171 ]FIG. 8 b also provides a chart of the ratio steps between adjacent forward ratios and between the reverse and first forward ratio.", "For example, the ratio step between the first and second forward ratios is 1.41.", "[0172] Those skilled in the art will recognize that the numerical values of the reverse, second and sixth forward speed ratios are determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratios of the planetary gear sets 720 , 730 .", "The numerical value of the first forward speed ratio is determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratios of the planetary gear sets 740 , 750 .", "The numerical value of the third forward speed ratio is determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 740 .", "The numerical value of the fourth forward speed ratio is determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 730 .", "The numerical value of the fifth forward speed ratio is 1.", "[0173] A powertrain 810 , shown in FIG. 9 a, has the conventional engine 12 , a planetary transmission 814 , and the final drive mechanism 16 .", "The engine 12 is continuously connected with the input shaft 17 .", "The planetary transmission 814 is drivingly connected with final drive mechanism 16 through output shaft 19 .", "The planetary transmission 814 includes a planetary gear arrangement 818 that has a first planetary gear set 820 , a second planetary gear set 830 , a third planetary gear set 840 , and fourth planetary gear set 850 .", "[0174] The planetary gear set 820 includes a sun gear member 822 , a ring gear member 824 , and a planet carrier assembly member 826 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 826 includes a plurality of intermeshing pinion gears 827 , 828 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 829 and disposed in meshing relationship with the ring gear member 824 and the sun gear member 822 , respectively.", "[0175] The planetary gear set 830 includes a sun gear member 832 , a ring gear member 834 , and a planet carrier assembly member 836 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 836 includes a plurality of pinion gears 837 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 839 and disposed in meshing relationship with both the sun gear member 832 and the ring gear member 834 .", "[0176] The planetary gear set 840 includes a sun gear member 842 , a ring gear member 844 , and a planet carrier assembly member 846 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 846 includes a plurality of pinion gears 847 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 849 and disposed in meshing relationship with both the sun gear member 842 and the ring gear member 844 .", "[0177] The planetary gear set 850 includes a sun gear member 852 , a ring gear member 854 , and a planet carrier assembly member 856 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 856 includes a plurality of intermeshing pinion gears 857 , 858 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 859 and disposed in meshing relationship with the ring gear member 854 and the sun gear member 852 , respectively.", "[0178] As a result of the dual clutch arrangement of the invention, the four planetary gear sets 820 , 830 , 840 and 850 are divided into first and second transmission subsets 860 , 861 which are alternatively engaged to provide odd number and even number speed ranges, respectively.", "Transmission subset 860 includes planetary gear sets 820 and 830 , and transmission subset 861 includes planetary gear sets 840 and 850 .", "The output shaft 19 is continuously connected with members of both subsets 860 and 861 .", "[0179] As mentioned above, the first and second input clutches 862 , 863 are alternatively engaged for transmitting power from the input shaft 17 to transmission subset 860 or transmission subset 861 .", "The first and second input clutches 862 , 863 are controlled electronically, and the disengaged input clutch is gradually engaged while the engaged input clutch is gradually disengaged to facilitate transfer of power from one transmission subset to another.", "In this manner, shift quality is maintained, as in an automatic transmission, while providing better fuel economy because no torque converter is required, and hydraulics associated with “wet”", "clutching are eliminated.", "All speed ratio selection is preselected within the transmission subsets 860 , 861 prior to engaging the respective input clutches 862 , 863 .", "The preselection is achieved by means of electronically controlled synchronizers.", "As shown, the planetary gear arrangement includes nine torque transmitting mechanisms 864 , 865 , 866 , 867 , 868 , 869 , 870 , 871 and 872 .", "The torque transmitting mechanisms 864 , 865 , 869 and 870 comprise braking synchronizers, and the torque transmitting mechanisms 866 , 867 , 868 , 871 and 872 comprise rotating synchronizers.", "[0180] Accordingly, the input shaft 17 is alternately connected with the first and second transmission subsets 860 , 861 (i.e. through the clutch 862 to the rotating synchronizers 866 , 867 and through the clutch 863 to the sun gear member 842 ).", "The sun gear member 822 is continuously connected with the sun gear member 832 through the interconnecting member 874 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 846 is continuously connected with the ring gear member 834 and the output shaft 19 through the interconnecting member 876 .", "The ring gear member 844 is continuously connected with the ring gear member 854 through the interconnecting member 878 .", "[0181] The planet carrier assembly member 826 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 880 through the braking synchronizer 864 .", "The ring gear member 824 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 880 through the braking synchronizer 865 .", "The sun gear member 822 is selectively connectable with the input shaft 17 through the input clutch 862 and the rotating synchronizer 866 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 836 is selectively connectable with the input shaft 17 through the input clutch 862 and the rotating synchronizer 867 .", "The ring gear member 824 is selectively connectable with the planet carrier assembly member 836 through the rotating synchronizer 868 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 856 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 880 through the braking synchronizer 869 .", "The sun gear member 852 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 880 through the braking synchronizer 870 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 846 is selectively connectable with the planet carrier assembly member 856 through the rotating synchronizer 871 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 846 is selectively connectable with the sun gear member 852 through the rotating synchronizer 872 .", "[0182] As shown in FIG. 9 b, and in particular the truth table disclosed therein, the input clutches and torque transmitting mechanisms are selectively engaged in combinations of at least three to provide six forward speed ratios and a reverse speed ratio.", "A sample of numerical values for the individual ratios is also given in the truth table of FIG. 9 b. These numerical values have been calculated using the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratios also given by way of example in FIG. 9 b. The R1/S1 value is the tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 820 ;", "the R2/S2 value is the tooth ratio of planetary gear set 830 ;", "the R3/S3 value is the tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 840 ;", "and the R4/S4 value is the tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 850 .", "FIG. 9 b also describes the ratio steps between adjacent forward ratios and between the reverse and first forward ratio.", "For example, the ratio step between the first and second forward ratios is 1.46.", "[0183] Those skilled in the art will recognize that the numerical values of the reverse and sixth forward speed ratios are determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 830 .", "The numerical value of the first forward speed ratio is determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 840 .", "The numerical values of the second and fourth forward speed ratios are determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratios of the planetary gear sets 820 , 830 .", "The numerical value of the third forward speed ratio is determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratios of the planetary gear sets 840 , 850 .", "The numerical value of the fifth forward speed ratio is 1.", "[0184] Referring to FIG. 10 a, a powertrain 910 is shown having a conventional engine 12 , a planetary transmission 914 , and a conventional final drive mechanism 16 .", "The planetary transmission 914 includes an input shaft 17 connected with the engine 12 , a planetary gear arrangement 918 , and an output shaft 19 continuously connected with the final drive mechanism 16 .", "The planetary gear arrangement 918 includes four planetary gear sets 920 , 930 , 940 and 950 .", "[0185] The planetary gear set 920 includes a sun gear member 922 , a ring gear member 924 , and a planet carrier assembly member 926 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 926 includes a plurality of intermeshing pinion gears 927 , 928 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 929 and disposed in meshing relationship with the ring gear member 924 and the sun gear member 922 , respectively.", "[0186] The planetary gear set 930 includes a sun gear member 932 , a ring gear member 934 , and a planet carrier assembly member 936 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 936 includes a plurality of pinion gears 937 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 939 and disposed in meshing relationship with both the sun gear member 932 and the ring gear member 934 .", "[0187] The planetary gear set 940 includes a sun gear member 942 , a ring gear member 944 , and a planet carrier assembly member 946 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 946 includes a plurality of intermeshing pinion gears 947 , 948 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 949 and disposed in meshing relationship with the ring gear member 944 and the sun gear member 942 , respectively.", "[0188] The planetary gear set 950 includes a sun gear member 952 , a ring gear member 954 , and a planet carrier assembly member 956 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 956 includes a plurality of pinion gears 957 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 959 and disposed in meshing relationship with both the sun gear member 952 and the ring gear member 954 .", "[0189] As a result of the dual clutch arrangement of the invention, the four planetary gear sets 920 , 930 , 940 and 950 are divided into first and second transmission subsets 960 , 961 which are alternatively engaged to provide odd number and even number speed ranges, respectively.", "Transmission subset 960 includes planetary gear sets 920 and 930 , and transmission subset 961 includes planetary gear sets 940 and 950 .", "The output shaft 19 is continuously connected with members of both subsets 960 and 961 .", "[0190] As mentioned above, the first and second input clutches 962 , 963 are alternatively engaged for transmitting power from the input shaft 17 to transmission subset 960 or transmission subset 961 .", "The first and second input clutches 962 , 963 are controlled electronically, and the disengaged input clutch is gradually engaged while the engaged input clutch is gradually disengaged to facilitate transfer of power from one transmission subset to another.", "In this manner, shift quality is maintained, as in an automatic transmission, while providing better fuel economy because no torque converter is required, and hydraulics associated with “wet”", "clutching are eliminated.", "All speed ratios are preselected within the transmission subsets 960 , 961 prior to engaging the respective input clutches 962 , 963 .", "The preselection is achieved by means of electronically controlled synchronizers.", "As shown, the planetary gear arrangement includes nine torque transmitting mechanisms 964 , 965 , 966 , 967 , 968 , 969 , 970 , 971 and 972 .", "The torque transmitting mechanisms 964 , 965 , 969 and 970 comprise braking synchronizers, and the torque transmitting mechanisms 966 , 967 , 968 , 971 and 972 comprise rotating synchronizers.", "[0191] Accordingly, the input shaft 17 is alternately connected with the first and second transmission subsets 960 , 961 (i.e. through the clutch 962 to the rotating synchronizers 966 , 967 and through the clutch 963 to the ring gear member 944 ).", "The sun gear member 922 is continuously connected with the sun gear member 932 through the interconnecting member 974 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 946 is continuously connected with the ring gear member 934 and the output shaft 19 through the interconnecting member 976 .", "The sun gear member 942 is continuously connected with the sun gear member 952 through the interconnecting member 978 .", "[0192] The planet carrier assembly member 926 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 980 through the braking synchronizer 964 .", "The ring gear member 924 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 980 through the braking synchronizer 965 .", "The sun gear member 922 is selectively connectable with the input shaft 17 through the input clutch 962 and the rotating synchronizer 966 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 936 is selectively connectable with the input shaft 17 through the input clutch 962 and the rotating synchronizer 967 .", "The ring gear member 924 is selectively connectable with the planet carrier assembly member 936 through the rotating synchronizer 968 .", "The ring gear member 954 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 980 through the braking synchronizer 969 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 956 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 980 through the braking synchronizer 970 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 946 is selectively connectable with the ring gear member 954 through the rotating synchronizer 971 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 946 is selectively connectable with the planet carrier assembly member 956 through the rotating synchronizer 972 .", "[0193] As shown in FIG. 10 b, and in particular the truth table disclosed therein, the input clutches and torque transmitting mechanisms are selectively engaged in combinations of at least three to provide six forward speed ratios and a reverse speed ratio.", "The truth table also provides a set of examples for the numerical values for each of the reverse and forward speed ratios.", "These numerical values have been determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratios given in FIG. 10 b. The R1/S1 value is the tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 920 ;", "the R2/S2 value is the tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 930 ;", "the R3/S3 value is the tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 940 ;", "and the R4/S4 value is the tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 950 .", "[0194] Those skilled in the art, upon reviewing the engagement combinations, will recognize that the numerical values of the reverse and fifth forward speed ratios are determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 930 .", "The numerical values of the first and third forward speed ratios are determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratios of the planetary gear sets 920 , 930 .", "The numerical value of the second forward speed ratio is determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratios of the planetary gear sets 940 , 950 .", "The numerical value of the fourth forward speed ratio is 1.", "The numerical value of the sixth forward speed ratio is determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 940 .", "[0195] Referring to FIG. 11 a, a powertrain 1010 is shown having a conventional engine 12 , a planetary transmission 1014 , and a conventional final drive mechanism 16 .", "The planetary transmission 1014 includes an input shaft 17 connected with the engine 12 , a planetary gear arrangement 1018 , and an output shaft 19 continuously connected with the final drive mechanism 16 .", "The planetary gear arrangement 1018 includes four planetary gear sets 1020 , 1030 , 1040 and 1050 .", "[0196] The planetary gear set 1020 includes a sun gear member 1022 , a ring gear member 1024 , and a planet carrier assembly member 1026 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 1026 includes a plurality of intermeshing pinion gears 1027 , 1028 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 1029 and disposed in meshing relationship with the ring gear member 1024 and the sun gear member 1022 , respectively.", "[0197] The planetary gear set 1030 includes a sun gear member 1032 , a ring gear member 1034 , and a planet carrier assembly member 1036 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 1036 includes a plurality of intermeshing pinion gears 1037 , 1038 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 1039 and disposed in meshing relationship with the ring gear member 1034 and the sun gear member 1032 , respectively.", "[0198] The planetary gear set 1040 includes a sun gear member 1042 , a ring gear member 1044 , and a planet carrier assembly member 1046 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 1046 includes a plurality of pinion gears 1047 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 1049 and disposed in meshing relationship with both the sun gear member 1042 and the ring gear member 1044 .", "[0199] The planetary gear set 1050 includes a sun gear member 1052 , a ring gear member 1054 , and a planet carrier assembly member 1056 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 1056 includes a plurality of intermeshing pinion gears 1057 , 1058 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 1059 and disposed in meshing relationship with the ring gear member 1054 and the sun gear member 1052 , respectively.", "[0200] As a result of the dual clutch arrangement of the invention, the four planetary gear sets 1020 , 1030 , 1040 and 1050 are divided into first and second transmission subsets 1060 , 1061 which are alternatively engaged to provide odd number and even number speed ranges, respectively.", "Transmission subset 1060 includes planetary gear sets 1020 and 1030 , and transmission subset 1061 includes planetary gear sets 1040 and 1050 .", "The output shaft 19 is continuously connected with members of both subsets 1060 and 1061 .", "[0201] As mentioned above, the first and second input clutches 1062 , 1063 are alternatively engaged for transmitting power from the input shaft 17 to transmission subset 1060 or transmission subset 1061 .", "The first and second input clutches 1062 , 1063 are controlled electronically, and the disengaged input clutch is gradually engaged while the engaged input clutch is gradually disengaged to facilitate transfer of power from one transmission subset to another.", "In this manner, shift quality is maintained, as in an automatic transmission, while providing better fuel economy because no torque converter is required, and hydraulics associated with “wet”", "clutching are eliminated.", "All speed ratios are preselected within the transmission subsets 1060 , 1061 prior to engaging the respective input clutches 1062 , 1063 .", "The preselection is achieved by means of electronically controlled synchronizers.", "As shown, the planetary gear arrangement includes nine torque transmitting mechanisms 1064 , 1065 , 1066 , 1067 , 1068 , 1069 , 1070 , 1071 and 1072 .", "The torque transmitting mechanisms 1064 , 1065 , 1069 and 1070 comprise braking synchronizers, and the torque transmitting mechanisms 1066 , 1067 , 1068 , 1071 and 1072 comprise rotating synchronizers.", "[0202] Accordingly, the input shaft 17 is alternately connected with the first and second transmission subset 1060 , 1061 (i.e. through the clutch 1062 to the rotating synchronizers 1066 , 1067 and through the clutch 1063 to the ring gear member 1044 ).", "The sun gear member 1022 is continuously connected with the sun gear member 1032 through the interconnecting member 1074 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 1046 is continuously connected with the ring gear member 1034 and the output shaft 19 through the interconnecting member 1076 .", "The sun gear member 1042 is continuously connected with the planet carrier assembly member 1056 through the interconnecting member 1078 .", "[0203] The planet carrier assembly member 1026 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 1080 through the braking synchronizer 1064 .", "The ring gear member 1024 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 1080 through the braking synchronizer 1065 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 1026 is selectively connectable with the input shaft 17 through the input clutch 1062 and the rotating synchronizer 1066 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 1036 is selectively connectable with the input shaft 17 through the input clutch 1062 and the rotating synchronizer 1067 .", "The ring gear member 1024 is selectively connectable with the planet carrier assembly member 1036 through the rotating synchronizer 1068 .", "The ring gear member 1054 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 1080 through the braking synchronizer 1069 .", "The sun gear member 1052 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 1080 through the braking synchronizer 1070 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 1046 is selectively connectable with the ring gear member 1054 through the rotating synchronizer 1071 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 1046 is selectively connectable with the sun gear member 1052 through the rotating synchronizer 1072 .", "[0204] As shown in FIG. 11 b, and in particular the truth table disclosed therein, the input clutches and torque transmitting mechanisms are selectively engaged in combinations of at least three to provide six forward speed ratios and a reverse speed ratio.", "The truth table also provides a set of examples for the numerical values for each of the reverse and forward speed ratios.", "These numerical values have been determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratios given in FIG. 11 b. The R1/S1 value is the tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 1020 ;", "the R2/S2 value is the tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 1030 ;", "the R3/S3 value is the tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 1040 ;", "and the R4/S4 value is the tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 1050 .", "[0205] Those skilled in the art, upon reviewing the engagement combinations, will recognize that the numerical values of the reverse, first and fifth forward speed ratios are determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratios of the planetary gear sets 1020 , 1030 .", "The numerical values of the second and sixth forward speed ratios are determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratios of the planetary gear sets 1040 , 1050 .", "The numerical value of the third forward speed ratio is determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 1030 .", "The numerical value of the fourth forward speed ratio is 1.", "[0206] [0206 ]FIG. 12 a shows a powertrain 1110 having a conventional engine 12 , a planetary transmission 1114 , and a conventional final drive mechanism 16 .", "The planetary transmission 1114 includes an input shaft 17 connected with the engine 12 , a planetary gear arrangement 1118 , and an output shaft 19 connected with the final drive mechanism 16 .", "The planetary gear arrangement 118 includes four planetary gear sets 1120 , 1130 , 1140 and 1150 .", "[0207] The planetary gear set 1120 includes a sun gear member 1122 , a ring gear member 1124 , and a planet carrier assembly member 1126 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 1126 includes a plurality of intermeshing pinion gears 1127 , 1128 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 1129 and disposed in meshing relationship with the ring gear member 1124 and the sun gear member 1122 , respectively.", "[0208] The planetary gear set 1130 includes a sun gear member 1132 , a ring gear member 1134 , and a planet carrier assembly member 1136 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 1136 includes a plurality of pinion gears 1137 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 1139 and disposed in meshing relationship with both the sun gear member 1132 and the ring gear member 1134 .", "[0209] The planetary gear set 1140 includes a sun gear member 1142 , a ring gear member 1144 , and a planet carrier assembly member 1146 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 1146 includes a plurality of pinion gears 1147 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 1149 and disposed in meshing relationship with both the sun gear member 1142 and the ring gear member 1144 .", "[0210] The planetary gear set 1150 includes a sun gear member 1152 , a ring gear member 1154 , and a planet carrier assembly member 1156 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 1156 includes a plurality of pinion gears 1157 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 1159 and disposed in meshing relationship with both the sun gear member 1152 and the ring gear member 1154 .", "[0211] As a result of the dual clutch arrangement of the invention, the four planetary gear sets 1120 , 1130 , 1140 and 1150 are divided into first and second transmission subsets 1160 , 1161 which are alternatively engaged to provide odd number and even number speed ranges, respectively.", "Transmission subset 1160 includes planetary gear sets 1120 and 1130 , and transmission subset 1161 includes planetary gear sets 1140 and 1150 .", "The output shaft 19 is continuously connected with members of both subsets 1160 and 1161 .", "[0212] As mentioned above, the first and second input clutches 1162 , 1163 are alternatively engaged for transmitting power from the input shaft 17 to transmission subset 1160 or transmission subset 1161 .", "The first and second input clutches 1162 , 1163 are controlled electronically, and the disengaged input clutch is gradually engaged while the engaged input clutch is gradually disengaged to facilitate transfer of power from one transmission subset to another.", "In this manner, shift quality is maintained, as in an automatic transmission, while providing better fuel economy because no torque converter is required, and hydraulics associated with “wet”", "clutching are eliminated.", "All speed ratios are preselected within the transmission subsets 1160 , 1161 prior to engaging the respective input clutches 1162 , 1163 .", "The preselection is achieved by means of electronically controlled synchronizers.", "As shown, the planetary gear arrangement includes nine torque transmitting mechanisms 1164 , 1165 , 1166 , 1167 , 1168 , 1169 , 1170 , 1171 and 1172 .", "The torque transmitting mechanisms 1164 , 1165 , 1169 and 1170 comprise braking synchronizers, and the torque transmitting mechanisms 1166 , 1167 , 1168 , 1171 and 1172 comprise rotating synchronizers.", "[0213] Accordingly, the input shaft 17 is alternately connected with the first and second transmission subsets 1160 , 1161 (i.e. through the clutch 1162 to the rotating synchronizers 1166 , 1167 and through the clutch 1163 to the sun gear member 1142 ).", "The sun gear member 1122 is continuously connected with the sun gear member 1132 through the interconnecting member 1174 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 1146 is continuously connected with the ring gear member 1134 and the output shaft 19 through the interconnecting member 1176 .", "The ring gear member 1144 is continuously connected with the planet carrier assembly member 1156 through the interconnecting member 1178 .", "[0214] The planet carrier assembly member 1126 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 1180 through the braking synchronizer 1164 .", "The ring gear member 1124 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 1180 through the braking synchronizer 1165 .", "The sun gear member 1122 is selectively connectable with the input shaft 17 through the input clutch 1162 and the rotating synchronizer 1166 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 1136 is selectively connectable with the input shaft 17 through the input clutch 1162 and the rotating synchronizer 1167 .", "The ring gear member 1124 is selectively connectable with the planet carrier assembly member 1136 through the rotating synchronizer 1168 .", "The sun gear member 1152 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 1180 through the braking synchronizer 1169 .", "The ring gear member 1154 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 1180 through the braking synchronizer 1170 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 1146 is selectively connectable with the sun gear member 1152 through the rotating synchronizer 1171 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 1146 is selectively connectable with the ring gear member 1154 through the rotating synchronizer 1172 .", "[0215] As shown in FIG. 12 b, and in particular the truth table disclosed therein, the input clutches and torque transmitting mechanisms are selectively engaged in combinations of at least three to provide six forward speed ratios and a reverse speed ratio.", "[0216] Those skilled in the art will recognize that the numerical values of the reverse and sixth forward speed ratios are determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 1130 .", "The numerical value of the first forward speed ratio is determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 1140 .", "The numerical values of the second and fourth forward speed ratios are determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratios of the planetary gear sets 1120 , 1130 .", "The numerical value of the third forward speed ratio is determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratios of the planetary gear sets 1140 , 1150 .", "The numerical value of the fifth forward speed ratio is 1.", "[0217] As set forth above, the truth table of FIG. 12 b describes the engagement sequence of the torque transmitting mechanisms utilized to provide a reverse drive ratio and six forward speed ratios.", "The truth table also provides an example of the ratios that can be attained with the family members shown in FIG. 12 a utilizing the sample tooth ratios given in FIG. 12 b. The R1/S1 value is the tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 1120 ;", "the R2/S2 value is the tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 1130 ;", "the R3/S3 value is the tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 1140 ;", "and the R4/S4 value is the tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 1150 .", "Also shown in FIG. 12 b are the ratio steps between single step ratios in the forward direction as well as the reverse to first ratio step.", "For example, the first to second step ratio is 1.60.", "[0218] Turning the FIG. 13 a, a powertrain 1210 having a conventional engine 12 , a planetary transmission 1214 , and conventional final drive mechanism 16 is shown.", "[0219] The planetary transmission 1214 includes an input shaft 17 continuously connected with the engine 12 , a planetary gear arrangement 1218 , and an output shaft 19 continuously connected with the final drive mechanism 16 .", "The planetary gear arrangement 1218 includes four planetary gear sets 1220 , 1230 , 1240 and 1250 .", "[0220] The planetary gear set 1220 includes a sun gear member 1222 , a ring gear member 1224 , and a planet carrier assembly member 1226 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 1226 includes a plurality of intermeshing pinion gears 1227 , 1228 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 1229 and disposed in meshing relationship with the ring gear member 1224 and the sun gear member 1222 , respectively.", "[0221] The planetary gear set 1230 includes a sun gear member 1232 , a ring gear member 1234 , and a planet carrier assembly member 1236 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 1236 includes a plurality of pinion gears 1237 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 1239 and disposed in meshing relationship with both the sun gear member 1232 and the ring gear member 1234 .", "[0222] The planetary gear set 1240 includes a sun gear member 1242 , a ring gear member 1244 , and a planet carrier assembly member 1246 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 1246 includes a plurality of pinion gears 1247 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 1249 and disposed in meshing relationship with both the sun gear member 1242 and the ring gear member 1244 .", "[0223] The planetary gear set 1250 includes a sun gear member 1252 , a ring gear member 1254 , and a planet carrier assembly member 1256 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 1256 includes a plurality of pinion gears 1257 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 1259 and disposed in meshing relationship with both the sun gear member 1252 and the ring gear member 1254 .", "[0224] As a result of the dual clutch arrangement of the invention, the four planetary gear sets 1220 , 1230 , 1240 and 1250 are divided into first and second transmission subsets 1260 , 1261 which are alternatively engaged to provide odd number and even number speed ranges, respectively.", "Transmission subset 1260 includes planetary gear sets 1220 and 1230 , and transmission subset 1261 includes planetary gear sets 1240 and 1250 .", "The output shaft 19 is continuously connected with members of both subsets 1260 and 1261 .", "[0225] In this family member, rather than having two input clutches alternatively engaged for transmitting power from the input shaft 17 to transmission subset 1260 or 1261 , the first input clutch is operatively replaced by the first and second input clutches 1266 , 1267 .", "The first and second input clutches 1266 , 1267 and third input clutch 1263 are controlled electronically, and the disengaged input clutch is gradually engaged while the engaged input clutch is gradually disengaged to facilitate transfer of power from one transmission subset to another.", "In this manner, shift quality is maintained, as in an automatic transmission, while providing better fuel economy because no torque converter is required, and hydraulics associated with “wet”", "clutching are eliminated.", "All speed ratios are preselected within the transmission subsets 1260 , 1261 prior to engaging the respective input clutch 1263 , 1266 , 1267 .", "The preselection is achieved by means of electronically controlled synchronizers.", "As shown, the planetary gear arrangement includes seven torque transmitting mechanisms 1264 , 1265 , 1268 , 1269 , 1270 , 1271 and 1272 .", "The torque transmitting mechanisms 1264 , 1265 , 1269 and 1270 comprise braking synchronizers, and the torque transmitting mechanisms 1268 , 1271 and 1272 comprise rotating synchronizers.", "[0226] Accordingly, the input shaft 17 is alternately connected with the first and second transmission subsets 1260 , 1261 (i.e. through the clutch 1266 to sun gear member 1222 or through the clutch 1267 to the planet carrier assembly member 1236 and through the clutch 1263 to the sun gear member 1242 ).", "The sun gear member 1222 is continuously connected with the sun gear member 1232 through the interconnecting member 1274 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 1246 is continuously connected with the ring gear member 1234 and the output shaft 19 through the interconnecting member 1276 .", "The ring gear member 1244 is continuously connected with the planet carrier assembly member 1256 through the interconnecting member 1278 .", "[0227] The planet carrier assembly member 1226 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 1280 through the braking synchronizer 1264 .", "The ring gear member 1224 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 1280 through the braking synchronizer 1265 .", "The sun gear member 1222 is selectively connectable with the input shaft 17 through the input clutch 1266 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 1236 is selectively connectable with the input shaft 17 through the input clutch 1267 .", "The ring gear member 1224 is selectively connectable with the planet carrier assembly member 1236 through the rotating synchronizer 1268 .", "The sun gear member 1252 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 1280 through the braking synchronizer 1269 .", "The ring gear member 1254 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 1280 through the braking synchronizer 1270 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 1246 is selectively connectable with the sun gear member 1252 through the rotating synchronizer 1271 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 1246 is selectively connectable with the ring gear member 1254 through the rotating synchronizer 1272 .", "[0228] As shown in FIG. 13 b, and in particular the truth table disclosed therein, the input clutches and torque transmitting mechanisms are selectively engaged in combinations of three to provide six forward speed ratios and a reverse speed ratio.", "[0229] Those skilled in the art will recognize that the numerical values of the reverse and sixth forward speed ratios are determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 1230 .", "The numerical value of the first forward speed ratio is determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 1240 .", "The numerical values of the second and fourth forward speed ratios are determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratios of the planetary gear sets 1220 , 1230 .", "The numerical value of the third forward speed ratio is determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratios of the planetary gear sets 1240 , 1250 .", "The numerical value of the fifth forward speed ratio is 1.", "[0230] As previously set forth, the truth table of FIG. 13 b describes the combinations of engagements utilized for six forward speed ratios and one reverse speed ratio.", "The truth table also provides an example of speed ratios that are available with the family member described above.", "These examples of speed ratios are determined the tooth ratios given in FIG. 13 b. The R1/S1 value is the tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 1220 ;", "the R2/S2 value is the tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 1230 ;", "the R3/S3 value is the tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 1240 ;", "and the R4/S4 value is the tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 1250 .", "Also depicted in FIG. 13 b is a chart representing the ratio steps between adjacent forward speed ratios and the reverse speed ratio.", "For example, the first to second ratio interchange has a step of 1.60.", "[0231] [0231 ]FIGS. 14 a and 14 b illustrate a transmission wherein one of the torque transmitting mechanisms from a previously described configuration is eliminated to realize five forward speed ratios and a reverse speed ratio.", "Specifically, the powertrain 1310 , shown in FIG. 14 a is identical to that shown in FIG. 2 a, except that the braking synchronizer 170 of FIG. 2 a has been eliminated.", "[0232] A powertrain 1310 , shown in FIG. 14 a, includes the engine 12 , a planetary transmission 1314 , and the final drive mechanism 16 .", "The planetary transmission 1314 includes an input shaft 17 continuously connected with the engine 12 , a planetary gear arrangement 1318 , and an output shaft 19 continuously connected with the final drive mechanism 16 .", "The planetary gear arrangement 1318 includes four planetary gear sets 1320 , 1330 , 1340 and 1350 .", "[0233] The planetary gear set 1320 includes a sun gear member 1322 , a ring gear member 1324 , and a planet carrier assembly member 1326 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 1326 includes a plurality of intermeshing pinion gears 1327 , 1328 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 1329 and disposed in meshing relationship with the ring gear member 1324 and the sun gear member 1322 , respectively.", "[0234] The planetary gear set 1330 includes a sun gear member 1332 , a ring gear member 1334 , and a planet carrier assembly member 1336 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 1336 includes a plurality of intermeshing pinion gears 1337 , 1338 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 1339 and disposed in meshing relationship with the ring gear member 1334 and the sun gear member 1332 , respectively.", "[0235] The planetary gear set 1340 includes a sun gear member 1342 , a ring gear member 1344 , and a planet carrier assembly member 1346 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 1346 includes a plurality of intermeshing pinion gears 1347 , 1348 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 1349 and disposed in meshing relationship with the ring gear member 1344 and the sun gear member 1342 , respectively.", "[0236] The planetary gear set 1350 includes a sun gear member 1352 , a ring gear member 1354 , and a planet carrier assembly member 1356 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 1356 includes a plurality of pinion gears 1357 rotatably mounted on a carrier member 1359 and disposed in meshing relationship with both the sun gear member 1352 and the ring gear member 1354 .", "[0237] As a result of the dual clutch arrangement of the invention, the four planetary gear sets 1320 , 1330 , 1340 and 1350 are divided into first and second transmission subsets 1360 , 1361 which are alternatively engaged to provide odd number and even number speed ranges, respectively.", "Transmission subset 1360 includes planetary gear sets 1320 and 1330 , and transmission subset 1361 includes planetary gear sets 1340 and 1350 .", "The output shaft 19 is continuously connected with members of both subsets 1360 and 1361 .", "[0238] As mentioned above, the first and second input clutches 1362 , 1363 are alternatively engaged for transmitting power from the input shaft 17 to transmission subset 1360 or transmission subset 1361 .", "The first and second input clutches 1362 , 1363 are controlled electronically, and the disengaged input clutch is gradually engaged while the engaged input clutch is gradually disengaged to facilitate transfer of power from one transmission subset to another.", "In this manner, shift quality is maintained, as in an automatic transmission, while providing better fuel economy because no torque converter is required, and hydraulics associated with “wet”", "clutching are eliminated.", "All speed ratios are preselected within the transmission subsets 1360 , 1361 prior to engaging the respective input clutches 1362 , 1363 .", "The preselection is achieved by means of electronically controlled synchronizers.", "As shown, the planetary gear arrangement includes eight torque transmitting mechanisms 1364 , 1365 , 1366 , 1367 , 1368 , 1369 , 1371 and 1372 .", "The torque transmitting mechanisms 1364 , 1365 and 1369 comprise braking synchronizers, and the torque transmitting mechanisms 1366 , 1367 , 1368 , 1371 and 1372 comprise rotating synchronizers.", "[0239] Accordingly, the input shaft 17 is alternately connected with the first and second transmission subsets 1360 , 1361 (i.e. through the clutch 1362 to the rotating synchronizers 1366 , 1367 and through the clutch 1363 to the ring gear member 1344 ).", "The ring gear member 1322 is continuously connected with the ring gear member 1332 through the interconnecting member 1374 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 1346 is continuously connected with the ring gear member 1334 and the output shaft 19 through the interconnecting member 1376 .", "The sun gear member 1342 is continuously connected with the sun gear member 1352 through the interconnecting member 1378 .", "[0240] The planet carrier assembly member 1326 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 1380 through the braking synchronizer 1364 .", "The ring gear member 1324 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 1380 through the braking synchronizer 1365 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 1326 is selectively connectable with the input shaft 17 through the input clutch 1362 and the rotating synchronizer 1366 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 1336 is selectively connectable with the input shaft 17 through the input clutch 1362 and the rotating synchronizer 1367 .", "The ring gear member 1324 is selectively connectable with the planet carrier assembly member 1336 through the rotating synchronizer 1368 .", "The ring gear member 1354 is selectively connectable with the transmission housing 1380 through the braking synchronizer 1369 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 1346 is selectively connectable with the ring gear member 1354 through the rotating synchronizer 1371 .", "The planet carrier assembly member 1346 is selectively connectable with the planet carrier assembly member 1356 through the rotating synchronizer 1372 .", "[0241] The truth table shown in FIG. 14 b describes the engagement combination and engagement sequence necessary to provide the reverse drive ratio and five forward speed ratios.", "A sample of the numerical values for the ratios is also provided in the truth table of FIG. 14 b. These values are determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratios also given in FIG. 14 b. The R1/S1 value is the tooth ratio for the planetary gear set 1320 ;", "the R2/S2 value is the tooth ratio for the planetary gear set 1330 ;", "the R3/S3 value is the tooth ratio for the planetary gear set 1340 ;", "and the R4/S4 value is the tooth ratio for the planetary gear set 1350 .", "Also given in FIG. 14 b is a chart describing the step ratios between the adjacent forward speed ratios and the reverse to first forward speed ratio.", "For example, the first to second forward speed ratio step is 1.90.", "[0242] Those skilled in the art will recognize that the numerical values of the reverse, first and fifth forward speed ratios are determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratios of the planetary gear sets 1320 , 1330 .", "The numerical value of the second forward speed ratio is determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratios of the planetary gear sets 1340 , 1350 .", "The numerical value of the third forward speed ratio is determined utilizing the ring gear/sun gear tooth ratio of the planetary gear set 1330 .", "The numerical value of the fourth forward speed ratio is 1.", "[0243] While the best modes for carrying out the invention have been described in detail, those familiar with the art to which this invention relates will recognize various alternative designs and embodiments for practicing the invention within the scope of the appended claims." ]

[ "TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention concerns instruments for setting a prosthesic acetabular cup intended to replace the natural acetabular cup of the hip.", "A total hip prosthesis comprises two parts constituting a ball-joint, namely a female part intended to replace the natural acetabular cup of the hip and a male part intended to replace the head of the femur.", "The male part of the joint generally includes a rod intended to penetrate into the medullary canal of the femur and the proximal end whereof is connected by a neck to a spherical head intended to penetrate into the acetabular cup.", "The female part of the joint, which has to replace the natural acetabular cup of the hip, and will be generally referred to as the acetabular cup, usually comprises a hemispherical metallic cup with a convex proximal face and a concave distal face, the convex proximal face being accommodated in a prepared acetabular cavity in the pelvic bone, the concave distal face receiving the hemispherical convex proximal face of an insert made from a plastic material with a low coefficient of friction such as polyethylene or a ceramic, the insert itself having a coaxial hemispherical distal cavity that receives the spherical head of the male part of the joint.", "Single mobility prostheses have already been provided, in which the polyethylene or ceramic insert is fixed in the concave distal face of the metallic cup, the rotation movements of the joint occurring between the spherical head of the male part of the prosthesis and the hemispherical distal cavity of the insert.", "Dual mobility prostheses have also been proposed already, in which the polyethylene or ceramic insert itself has some capacity for rotation in the concave distal face of the metallic cup, so that the rotation movements of the joint occur on the one hand between the convex proximal face of the insert and the concave distal face of the metallic cup and on the other hand between the hemispherical distal cavity of the insert and the spherical head of the male joint part.", "In all cases, one problem is positioning and fixing the metallic cup in the acetabular cavity in the bone.", "The quality of fitting and fixing the cup into the acetabular cavity is in fact essential for the longevity of the prosthesis, i.e. for the durability of the connection between the bone and the metallic cup.", "Accordingly, when setting the cup in the acetabular cavity, it must be possible to use an impactor to apply a force to drive the cup into the acetabular cavity in the bone, to apply rotation torques for adjusting the orientation of the cup, and in particular to hold the cup in a fixed position long enough for a cement to set between the convex proximal face of the cup and the acetabular cavity in the bone.", "It must then be possible to withdraw the impactor without applying force to the cup, in order not to degrade the quality of its fixing into the acetabular cavity.", "However, and especially in the case of dual mobility prostheses in which the concave distal face of the cup constitutes a sliding surface that must be perfectly smooth, and which for this purpose generally receives a mirror polish, for the insert to be able to pivot freely in the cup, it is necessary to prevent all risk of deterioration of this concave distal face of the cup by the instruments for setting the cup into the acetabular cavity.", "For example, an instrument able to expand and contract radially and bearing on a plurality of discontinuous areas of the concave distal face of the cup to hold the cup during setting would necessarily cause permanent and localized deformation of the concave distal face of the cup or insufficient retention, and so this way of holding it is not acceptable.", "The document EP 0 504 521 A1 teaches the provision of an impactor having a convex proximal face that clips into the concave distal face of the cup.", "After fixing the cup into the acetabular cavity, the impactor is separated from the cup by means of a sliding axial bar that bears axially on the center of the convex distal sliding face of the cup and is set in motion by means of a trigger operated by the surgeon.", "The bearing engagement of the sliding bar locally degrades the sliding face of the cup, which is not acceptable.", "The document FR 2 809 305 A1 teaches holding a cup onto a head at the end of an impactor by creating a vacuum in a free space left between the head and the concave distal face of the cup.", "For this purpose the impactor body is provided with a manually operated piston pump that is used to aspirate air from the free space via a hole passing through the head.", "An O-ring opposes entry of air into the free space.", "The percussive force is applied by the head to the concave distal face portion of the cup around the free space.", "The device is complex, necessitating assembly of many parts, with a plurality of gas sealing means, and the document does not mention or solve the problem of deformation of the concave distal face of the cup as a result of unequal bearing stresses.", "Various other means for holding the cup without bearing on its concave distal face have been envisaged.", "A first such means consists in holding the cup by its circular lip and by the adjacent portion of its external surface.", "However, this locally degrades the bone in the retaining area around the cup, which weakens the subsequent retention of the cup in the bone.", "The document U.S. Pat. No. 4,632,111 A describes means adapted to be used for fixing an undercut cup.", "The impactor comprises a hemispherical head mounted at the end of a handle and engaging in the concave distal face of the cup.", "An annular flange is mounted to slide on the handle and is pushed toward the head by a bush screwed onto the handle.", "An elastomer ring is compressed axially between the head and the flange and expands radially, thus coming to bear against an annular undercut portion of the concave distal face of the cup to fix the impactor.", "The bush is unscrewed to withdraw the flange, to retract the elastomer ring and then to withdraw the impactor.", "This device is complex, consisting of an assembly of a relatively large number of parts, and is not suited to fixing cups that are not undercut.", "Moreover, the screwing maneuver induces unwanted torques on the cup, with the risk of degrading the quality of its fixing into the acetabular cavity.", "The document DE 196 28 193 A describes an impactor head with a peripheral O-ring and a centering tenon engaging in a hole passing through the bottom of the cup.", "This pierced cup structure is not applicable to a dual mobility prosthesis.", "Thus the cup setting instruments known at present do not provide satisfactory retention of the cup for free orientation thereof and sufficient bearing engagement thereof in the bone without degrading the cup or the adjacent bone.", "After setting the cup in the acetabular cavity, the surgeon generally needs to fit a trial insert into the cup, this insert having substantially the same shape as the permanent insert of the prosthesis, and being intended to receive the male part of the joint one or more times.", "This enables the surgeon to try out several sizes of the male part of the joint and to carry out mobility tests.", "The aim is to enable the surgeon to choose the most appropriate size of the male part of the joint, as a function of the morphology of the patient.", "He then removes the trial insert to fit the permanent insert in which the head of the chosen male part of the joint will be accommodated.", "For these operations, using the devices described in the documents referred to hereinabove, the surgeon must therefore have available a relatively large number of parts to be assembled, each part having to be sterile: an acetabular cup prosthesis, a trial insert, a permanent insert, a plurality of prosthesis male parts, and complex instruments for holding the cup while setting it.", "In particular, none of the above documents describes or imparts to the impactor head a trial insert function such that the trial insert is able to receive a femoral head.", "Given that patients come in diverse sizes, the surgeon must necessarily have a relatively large stock of parts, which increases the overall amount tied up in this way.", "STATEMENT OF THE INVENTION The problem addressed by the present invention is to avoid the drawbacks of known acetabular cup prosthesis setting instruments by proposing a new instrument structure that combines mechanically strong retention of the cup on an impactor for manipulating the cup and setting it in an acetabular cavity and total absence of deformation or deterioration of the concave distal face of the cup by the instruments.", "With the means according to the invention, it must be possible to impact the cup into the acetabular cavity, orient it in a precise and satisfactory way and fix it correctly into the acetabular cavity, without degrading the concave distal sliding surface of the cup and without any excrescence on the external surface of the cup or deterioration of the peripheral area of bone around the cup.", "The means according to the invention must be applicable without distinction to single mobility prostheses and dual mobility prostheses.", "Another object of the invention is to reduce the number of sterile parts that the surgeon must assemble when setting a prosthesis.", "Thus the stocks of instruments can be reduced and the work of the surgeon facilitated, whilst reducing the risks associated with the operation.", "According to another object of the invention, to guarantee a high quality of the fixing of the cup into the bone, it must be possible to separate the instruments from the cup without applying to the cup a mechanical force tending to move it in translation or rotation relative to the bone into which it is fixed.", "To achieve the above and other objects, the invention proposes a set of acetabular cup prosthesis setting means, comprising a cup delimited by a convex proximal face, a concave distal face with a sliding surface, and a peripheral lip, and further comprising an adapter for fastening the cup to an impactor, the adapter including: fixing means for detachably fixing the adapter to the impactor, fixing means on the cup, leaving a free space between the adapter and the cup once the adapter is fixed to the cup, an access hole through which the free space between the adapter and the cup communicates with the outside, wherein: the cup comprises, on its concave distal face, a cylindrical or slightly conical annular retaining surface extending the sliding surface toward the peripheral lip, the adapter comprises a cylindrical or slightly conical annular engagement surface the same shape as the annular retaining surface of the cup, with the result that the adapter may be forcibly retained in fluid-tight manner with its annular engagement surface gripped radially in the annular retaining surface of the cup.", "Because the adapter is conformed to be forcibly retained in fluid-tight manner in the cup around its periphery, it bears only on the annular retaining surface of the concave distal face of the cup, away from the sliding surface, avoiding the production of any irregularity on the sliding surface of the cup.", "Moreover, because a free space remains between the adapter and the cup once the adapter is forcibly retained in the cup in fluid-tight manner by its annular engagement surface, and because the adapter includes an access hole, the adapter may subsequently be withdrawn from the cup by injecting a fluid under pressure, advantageously a liquid under pressure, through the access hole into the free space between the adapter and the cup.", "The fluid under pressure produces a symmetrical resultant axial force that ejects the adapter from the cup and applies to the sliding surface of the cup a mechanical stress that is regularly distributed because it is a fluid pressure.", "This again avoids any localized deformation of the sliding surface of the cup and prevents the application of any traction, oscillation or rotation stress to the cup.", "The forcible immobilization of the adapter in the cup may be sufficient to ensure strong fastening of the adapter and thus strong fastening of the cup onto the impactor.", "Further providing abutment means on the adapter intended to bear axially on the peripheral lip of the cup to limit the penetration of the adapter into the cup may nevertheless be preferred.", "The impactor can then apply a higher impacting force to the adapter, which force is transmitted to the cup on the one hand by the annular surface of the adapter engaged in the cup and on the other hand by the abutment means bearing on the peripheral lip of the cup.", "Improved fastening of the cup to the adapter may advantageously be obtained by providing for the annular retaining surface of the cup to comprise at least one annular groove and for the annular engagement surface of the adapter to comprise at least one corresponding annular rib adapted to be engaged in the annular groove.", "The depth of the groove and the rib is made relatively small to improve the fastening, but without compromising subsequent separation of the adapter from the cup.", "The cup may preferably comprise a substantially hemispherical sliding surface that is advantageously mirror polished, extended by a short cylindrical or slightly conical annular retaining surface.", "The adapter is then able to bear on the annular retaining surface, which is not a sliding surface of the cup, which reduces the mechanical stresses applied to the hemispherical sliding surface.", "The adapter may be fastened to the impactor by any means.", "However, means for fixing the adapter to the impactor may be preferred that comprise a threaded fixing hole in the adapter for screwing in a corresponding threaded portion of the impactor.", "If the fixing hole is not the access hole, it must be a blind hole.", "The adapter according to the invention is used as connecting means between the impactor and the cup.", "However, the adapter may advantageously have a second function, namely a temporary trial insert function, by providing an adapter that comprises, on its distal face, a hemispherical cavity dimensioned to enable the engagement of the head of a femoral prosthesis.", "The hemispherical cavity may be concentric with the convex proximal face of the adapter, especially in the case of dual mobility prostheses.", "Clearly this reduces the number of parts to be assembled by the surgeon to set the prosthesis, since there is no longer any need for a specific trial insert separate from the adapter.", "The access hole to the free space between the cup and the adapter is advantageously conformed and dimensioned for the fluid-tight engagement therein of the end of a syringe.", "In this way, fluid under pressure can be injected by means of a simple syringe, an instrument that is generally available to the surgeon, without necessitating further equipment.", "The access hole of the adapter may preferably be threaded to fulfill simultaneously the adapter fixing hole function by enabling a corresponding threaded portion of the impactor to be screwed into the adapter.", "The access hole of the adapter may then advantageously be located in the bottom of a hemispherical cavity dimensioned to allow the engagement of the head of a femoral prosthesis.", "As in the known prostheses, the trial insert type adapter may be made of polyethylene.", "On the other hand, the permanent insert may be made of polyethylene or ceramic.", "There is further provided an impactor having a threaded portion for screwing it into a threaded fixing hole in the adapter.", "The impactor may preferably further include, at the base of the threaded portion, a hemispherical portion conformed and dimensioned to be accommodated in a corresponding hemispherical cavity of the adapter.", "This provides a more regular distribution of mechanical stresses between the impactor and the adapter, which stresses are relatively high and occur on impacting the cup into the acetabular cavity.", "According to the invention, there may advantageously be supplied to the surgeon a temporary trial insert type adapter with its engagement annular surface previously forcibly immobilized in fluid-tight manner in the annular retaining surface of the cup, this assembly advantageously being sterile and packaged in a sealed protective envelope.", "At the time of assembling the adapter and the cup, which assembly may be carried out at the production factory, the following succession of steps may advantageously be used: a) cooling the adapter to reduce its dimensions, b) positioning the adapter in the cup, c) allowing the adapter, once in place in the cup, to return to room temperature to expand it so that the annular engagement surface of the adapter is forcibly immobilized in fluid-tight manner in the annular retaining surface of the cup.", "There is preferably further provided a step of sterilizing the adapter and the cup by means of gamma rays once they have been fastened together.", "After setting the cup, the adapter may be separated from the cup by a step during which a fluid under pressure, advantageously a liquid under pressure, is injected through the access hole into the free space between the adapter and the cup.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will emerge form the following description of particular embodiments, given with reference to the appended drawings, in which: FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an assembly according to one embodiment of the invention comprising an acetabular cup prosthesis in which is forcibly engaged an impaction and temporary trial insert type adapter;", "FIG. 2 is a side view of the assembly from FIG. 1 , inserted into a sealed protective envelope;", "FIG. 3 is a front view of the assembly from FIG. 1 ;", "FIG. 4 is a side view in diametral section taken along the line A-A in FIG. 3 ;", "FIG. 5 is a side view in section showing an impactor engaged in the temporary insert of the insert-cup assembly from FIG. 4 ;", "and FIG. 6 is a side view in section showing a syringe engaged in the passage of the temporary insert in an insert-cup assembly according to the invention.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 to 4 , the acetabular cup prosthesis setting instruments comprise a cup 1 and an adapter 2 conformed as an impaction and temporary trial insert.", "The cup 1 constitutes the permanent cup intended to be fixed into an acetabular cavity in the pelvic bone.", "On the other hand, the adapter 2 has at least the function of an intermediate part between the cup 1 and an impactor that is used to manipulate the cup 1 when setting it in the acetabular cavity, and the adapter 2 is intended then to be replaced by a permanent insert.", "The cup 1 is a hemisphere with a relatively thin wall, having a convex proximal face 3 , seen better in FIG. 4 , of generally hemispherical shape, optionally with anchoring fins 4 , and a concave distal face 5 comprising a hemispherical sliding surface 5 a extended by a cylindrical or slightly conical annular retaining surface 5 b extending to a peripheral lip 6 .", "The hemispherical surface 5 a of the cup 1 is perfectly smooth and regular, preferably mirror polished, in order to constitute a sliding surface in which a hemispherical permanent insert subsequently introduced into the cup 1 after it is fitted in the acetabular cavity can pivot perfectly.", "The adapter 2 has a generally rounded shape delimited by a convex proximal face 7 and a distal face 11 with a hemispherical cavity 8 .", "The convex proximal face 7 of the adapter 2 has a cylindrical or slightly conical annular engagement surface 7 a and a central dome 7 b set back from the hemispherical shape consisting of the hemispherical sliding surface 5 a of the cup 1 .", "As a result of this, in the force-fitted position shown in FIG. 4 , there remains a free space 9 between the temporary insert 2 and the cup 1 .", "The annular engagement surface 7 a has a shape that corresponds to that of the annular retaining surface 5 b and a diameter such that it is forcibly retained in the annular retaining surface 5 b of the cup 1 , so that the adapter 2 and the cup 1 are able to constitute a subassembly able to withstand, without relative movement with respect to each other, high mechanical stresses, greater than the forces that must be applied to a cup when setting it in the acetabular cavity.", "In FIGS. 5 and 6 , the annular engagement surface 7 a and the annular retaining surface 5 b are smooth.", "Alternatively, in the FIG. 4 embodiment, the annular retaining surface 5 b of the cup 1 comprises at least one annular groove 5 c and the annular engagement surface 7 a of the adapter 2 comprises at least one corresponding annular rib 7 c adapted to be engaged in the annular groove 5 c. The hemispherical cavity 8 of the adapter 2 is dimensioned to receive a ball-joint head of a femoral joint male part.", "The adapter 2 can therefore constitute a temporary trial insert.", "At the bottom of the adapter 2 is an access hole 10 through which the free space 9 between the adapter 2 and the cup 1 communicates with the outside.", "The distal face 11 of the adapter 2 is flanked by a circular peripheral rib 12 that constitutes abutment means bearing on the peripheral lip 6 of the cup 1 in the force-fitted position shown in FIG. 4 .", "As a result of this, the peripheral rib 12 opposes further penetration of the adapter 2 into the cup 1 .", "In the embodiment shown in the figures, the access hole 10 also constitutes means for detachably fixing an impactor.", "For this purpose it includes an internal thread 10 a. Consider now FIG. 5 , which shows again the cup 1 , the temporary trial insert type adapter 2 , the hemispherical cavity 8 of the adapter 2 , and the threaded access hole 10 .", "This figure also shows an impactor 13 comprising a handle 13 a , a stem 13 b and a threaded end 13 c that is screwed into the threaded access hole 10 .", "The impactor 13 preferably includes, at the base of the threaded portion 13 c , a hemispherical portion 13 d conformed and dimensioned to be accommodated in the corresponding hemispherical cavity 8 of the adapter 2 .", "Thus, the impactor 13 is used to manipulate the cup 1 during its insertion into and positioning in the acetabular cavity.", "FIG. 6 shows a step of separation of the adapter 2 from the cup 1 .", "In this embodiment, a syringe 14 is provided containing an appropriate liquid, for example physiological serum, and having an end-piece 14 a that is engaged in fluid-tight manner in the access hole 10 of the adapter 2 .", "The syringe 14 is then used to inject a liquid under pressure into the free space 9 , causing separation of the adapter 2 from the cup 1 .", "Alternatively, to avoid the use of a supplementary syringe, the impactor 13 may comprise a tubular handle: thus FIG. 5 shows an impactor 13 including an axial passage 13 e .", "During the separation step, liquid may be introduced into the axial passage 13 e and then a piston-rod 13 f that forces the liquid into the free space 9 .", "In the embodiment shown in the figures, the adapter 2 includes the hemispherical cavity 8 , to fulfill the temporary trial insert function.", "Nevertheless, without departing from the scope of the invention, the adapter 2 could have no such hemispherical cavity, serving only as an adapter for positioning the cup 1 in the acetabular cavity by means of the impactor 13 .", "Likewise, in the embodiment shown, the access hole 10 simultaneously serves as means for fixing the impactor 13 to the adapter 2 .", "Alternatively, a hole could be provided in the central portion of the adapter 2 for fixing the impactor 13 , whereas the access hole 10 for injecting fluid could be moved.", "The hole for fixing the impactor must be a blind hole in this case.", "The use of the instruments according to the invention is explained hereinafter.", "In the factory, the adapter 2 may be assembled into the cup 1 by a procedure comprising the following steps: a) the adapter 2 is cooled to a sufficiently low temperature to reduce its dimensions slightly, said dimensions being initially such that the diameter of the annular engagement surface 7 a of the adapter 2 is slightly greater than the diameter of the annular retaining surface 5 b of the cup 1 at the same temperature;", "lowering the temperature of the adapter 2 reduces its outside diameter, in order to facilitate its engagement with the entry of the cup 1 , which itself remains at room temperature;", "b) the adapter 2 is then positioned in the cup 1 , so that the peripheral rib 12 abuts against the peripheral lip 6 ;", "c) once in place in the cup 1 , the adapter 2 is allowed to return to room temperature to expand it, so that the adapter 2 is force-fitted into and forcibly retained in fluid-tight manner in the cup 1 by its annular engagement surface 7 a. The adapter-cup assembly is then sterilized by gamma rays in a sealed protective envelope 15 ( FIG. 2 ).", "From this moment onwards the adapter-cup assembly is packaged in the sterile state in the sealed protective envelope 15 .", "At the place of use, i.e. in the operating theatre, the surgeon removes the sealed protective envelope 15 and can screw a sterile impactor 13 into the access hole 10 .", "The surgeon can then manipulate the cup 1 by means of the impactor 13 and the force-fitted adapter 2 , imparting to the cup 1 all of the mechanical forces necessary for positioning it and orienting it.", "The surgeon then removes the impactor 13 by unscrewing it.", "The surgeon can then fit into the hemispherical cavity 8 of the adapter 2 a ball-joint head of the temporary insert type, which then serves as the temporary trial insert.", "Once the prosthesis male part has been chosen, the surgeon can remove the temporary insert 2 from the cup 1 by introducing a liquid or other fluid under pressure, by means of a syringe 14 as shown in FIG. 6 , or into the impactor 13 with the piston-rod 13 f and the axial passage 13 e , as shown in FIG. 5 .", "He then fits a permanent insert into the cup 1 which is itself in place in an acetabular cavity.", "All the above operations are carried out with no risk of deformation of the hemispherical sliding surface 8 of the cup 1 and with no unwanted forces on the cup 1 .", "The present invention is not limited to the embodiments that have been explicitly described, and encompasses variants and generalizations thereof within the scope of the following claims." ]

[ "FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention concerns dew point hygrometers for determining the dew point of gas and dew sensors for determining the neutral dew condensation.", "More specifically the present invention concerns hygrometers comprising optic fibers, or hygrometers based on change of capacitance.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION State of the art hygrometers used in agriculture, notably in greenhouses, operate by usually falling into one of the following three types.", "The first is a psychrometer which requires a very high degree of maintenance.", "The second is a relative humidity meter which principle of operation is based on the change of capacity, which is very problematic when determining relatively high humidity.", "Cheap instruments based on capacitance measuring are unreliable since the reading changes in time independently of changes in the humidity content of the air.", "The third type of sensors are dew point hygrometers based on optic mirrors, which are very expensive, and unsuitable for routine work at greenhouse conditions since the require constant cleaning of the mirror's surface.", "In the past decade, with the availability of thermoelectric coolers and solid state instrumentations the optical condensation type dew point hygrometer has become one of the most accurate and reliable humidity instruments, offering broad dew point range and excellent repeatability.", "In the optical dew point hygrometer, a condensation surface which is usually a mirror is cooled by a thermoelectric or Peltier cooler until dew or frost begins to condense on the mirror.", "The condensation surface is maintained in vapor pressure equilibrium with the surrounding gas, and the amount of condensation on the surface is detected by optical techniques.", "The temperature of the condensation surface at which the rate of the condensate exactly equals the evaporation, is defined as the dew point temperature.", "The temperature of the surface when so controlled is typically measured with a platinum resistance thermometer, a thermocouple or thermistor embedded in the mirror surface.", "This condensation-type dew point hygrometer is suitable for applications in which a maximum accuracy of the water vapor content is needed over a fairly wide range of dew points, and is suitable for applications in which there is a chance of routine contamination with oils, corrosive gases, salts or similar contaminants that are known permanently damage other types of hygrosensors.", "Typically, optical dew points are used in industries where precise determination of water vapor in the gas is necessary, such as in pharmaceutical manufacture, electronic, chemical and gas/oil refinery industries, meteorology and food industries, in greenhouses and the like.", "One of the main drawbacks of optical condensation-type dew point hygrometers is contamination by materials other than the water condensing on the cooled surface, for example, contamination by various salt solutes.", "This contamination generally reduces the accuracy of the dew point measurement to a degree which depends on the amount of the contaminant present and its solubility in water.", "Both soluble and insoluble materials, if allowed to build up on the condensing surface, will eventually cause the system to go out of control because of reduced mirror reflectance.", "In prior art systems, heating of the mirror to the dry state for manual or automatic rebalancing of the optical detection circuit, overcomes the loop offset problem associated with reduced reflectance, but does not address the problem of measurement error associated with vapor pressure modification as induced by soluble mater.", "The soluble materials such as salts precipitate out and form a thin layer on the mirror surface.", "The salts tend to absorb water vapor at temperatures above the dew point and dissolve back into dew layer when the mirror recools.", "The temperature of the contaminated mirror therefore does not reach the true dew point even after compensating for the reduced reflectance.", "The resultant dew layer contains salts which cause the saturation vapor pressure to decrease.", "Several patents were designed to address this problem.", "U.S. Pat. No. 3,623,356 is directed to a dew point hygrometer in which there is manual or automatic disabling of the feedback control system which controls the temperature of the mirror, thus forcing the mirror surface to heat to a dry state at which time an additional current is injected into the control loop amplifier at the photodetector bridge circuit.", "The bridge circuit compensates for changes in the reflective characteristics of the mirror due to accumulation of contamination.", "U.S. Pat. No. 4,216,669 periodically interrupts control of the condensing temperature, by periodically cooling the condensing surface (i.e. the mirror) to a temperature well below the prevailing dew point for a time sufficient to provide a heavy growth and coalescence of the condensate so as to dissolve all the soluble material and create a medium by which molecules of solute can migrate.", "Immediately after cooling the condensing surface is heated to a temperature well above the prevailing dew point so as to cause total evaporation of the solvent (condensate) and recrystallization or precipitation of solute into relatively large clusters or isolated colonies.", "This leaves most of the area of the condensing surface clear or solid deposits and extends the time period required between mirror cleanings by a factor of 10 to 100 times.", "Pieter R. Wiederhold in “ The Cycling Chilled Mirror Dew Point Hygrometer.”", "Sensors, July 1966, pp. 25-27 discusses the cycling chilled mirror (CCM) hygrometer, wherein the mirror temperature is lowered at a precisely controlled rate until dew formation is detected.", "Before the dew sample can form a continuous layer on the mirror, the mirror is heated and the dew on the mirror surface is evaporated.", "The mirror is therefore almost always (95% of the time) in the drop state and contains a dew, layer for only 5% of the time, when a dew point is made.", "The measurement cycle is typically once every 20 s. Because dew is present on the mirror surface for only a very short time, contaminant build-up on the mirror is kept at an absolute minimum.", "Surrounding the mirror is the cylindrical, 40 micron filter.", "In contrast to the in-line filters used with conventional hygrometer systems, this filter does not require that 100% of the total sample gas pass through its element.", "Instead, sample gas circulates around the outside of the element and is measured by means of convection across the filter element.", "Because most particulates circulate freely around the filter and exit the measurement chamber, the filter is slow to become contaminated.", "This arrangement has a slow response time and is relatively inaccurate.", "For high-temperature applications, a model has been developed that uses fiber-optic bundles that isolate the temperature-sensitive electro-optical components from the high-temperature environment.", "Prior art also teaches optical dew point hygrometers in which the ends of optic fibers are used as the condensing surface.", "Use of optic fibers instead of mirrors features the advantage of high resistance to a wide variety of chemicals and considerably decrease the cost of producing said hygrometers.", "However, the problems of contaminant, due to build up of solid deposits on the surfaces of the optic fibers, is very similar to that encountered in dew point hygrometers wherein mirrors are the condensing surfaces, and is a major obstacle in providing dew point hygrometers that are accurate and reliable over long periods of time.", "Another device for sensing humidity is a dew sensor (as opposed to a dew point hygrometer).", "This sensor in fact mimics the condensation of humidity on a natural surface such as on leaves, without control of the temperature of the sensor, and thus in fact is very reliable since it directly mimics the natural process of condensation.", "Various measurements have shown a good correlation between the temperature of the leaf and the temperature of the dew sensor at night.", "Thus, such a sensor is suitable for use in detecting condensation of water on various surfaces, such as leaves in greenhouses, giving a warning when a humidity of the air is too high, a situation which occurs for example at night, which is a cause of many plant diseases.", "Such a warning may operate various drying mechanisms in order to lower again Greenhouse humidity.", "In fact at night the dew sensor, is more suitable for use than dew point hygrometers in greenhouses, since it indeed reflects the true and natural situation of condensation on surfaces, which is a better predictor to the state of the leaves than humidity content detected by dew point hygrometers.", "Conventional dew sensors such as those used in greenhouses typically employ a pair of spaced electrical wires, the resistance between which drops from approximately 19 megohms to 3 megohms when dew bridges the two wires.", "But such devices are electrically noisy and have changable sensitivity that depends on salts precipitation on the sensor.", "Another problem with such devices is that generally require high voltage and the explosure of the conductors and leads which features renders them vulnerable to corrosion by the weather.", "The corrosion is especially rapid in the presence of high voltages used in the range of 1 to 20 volts.", "U.S. Pat. No. 4,948.263 is directed, to a dew point sensor for a dew-point measuring device for measuring the water vapor dew point in gases comprising a sensor surface which is exposed to the gas to be measured and on which, upon cooling, the dew-point temperature water vapor condenses.", "Mounted on the sensor surface are two electrode structures which comprise electrode portions which are arranged a uniform interval parrallel to each other and which are covered with a moisture-insentive insulating layer.", "The reaching of the dew-point temperature is determined by measuring the impedance or capacitance between the two electrode structures.", "The distance between the electrode portions, arranged parallel to each other, of the two electrode structures is of the order of magnitude of the diameter of the largest condensation droplet forming on reaching the dew-point temperature, or smaller than said diameter, and the thickness of the insulating layer is small compared with the distance between the electrode portions.", "U.S. Pat. No. 4,626,774 is directed to a dew-point measuring instrument which has a capacitive dew-point sensor which is cooled by a cooling device to the dew-point temperature measured by, a temperature sensor.", "A phase measuring circuit measures the phase angle of the impedance of the capacitive dew-point sensor.", "The measured phase angle is used as a gauge for the contamination of the dew-point sensor.", "U.S. Pat. No. 5.402.075 is directed to a capacitive moisture sensor includes insulator means;", "capacitance means including a sensing capacitor having a plurality of spaced capacitive sensor conductors mounted with the insulator means for exposure to the atmosphere;", "and first and second electrodes mounted with the insulator means remote from the spaced capacitive sensor conductors: means for applying a periodic input current across the first and second electrodes;", "and means for detecting a change in capacitance between the first and second electrodes indicative of moisture bridging at least two of the capacitive sensor conductors.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Bat a first embodiment termed the “fiber optical dew point hygrometer”", "the present invention concerns dew point hygrometers for determining dew point of a gas, comprising optic fibers, in which the problem of solid contaminants deposited on the condensing surface is significantly reduced by periodically restoring the end of the optic fiber, which serves as the condensing surface, to its original contamination-free state.", "The present invention provides a dew point hygrometer for determining dew point of a gas, comprising: a light emitter and a light detector optically coupled through a light path defined by at least one optic fiber, the path comprising at least one sensing gap, said gap is formed between the ends of two optic fibers, between the end of an optic fiber and the light emitter or between the end of an optic fiber and the light detector;", "at least one end of an optic fiber forming the sensing gap is a dew forming end in contact with said gas, on which dew can form, changing light transmitted through the gap to the light detector: temperature control devices for controlling temperature of the dew forming end and the air adjacent to said dew forming end: restoration means for essentially restoring original light transmittance through the dew forming end, which can otherwise be impaired by solid deposits thereon during operation, and control mechanism for controlling operation of said temperature control devices and for automatic activation of said restoration means after an operation phase of the hygrometer.", "The gas which vapor contact or dew point is to be determined may be any type of gas typically air, or N 2 O, CO 2 , O 2 and monitoring of dryness of inert gases.", "By a second embodiment termed the “fiber optical dew sensor embodiment”", "the present invention concerns a sensor for determining the natural dew condensations, i.e. the dew condensation on surfaces such as leaves in greenhouses.", "This sensor s temperature changes freely with the change of ambient temperature, humidity and cooling by radiation and is not controlled, thus truly reflecting the natural state of dew.", "By this embodiment the present invention concerns a dew sensor for determining the natural dew condensation on a surface comprising: a light emitter and a light detector optically coupled through a light path defined by at least one optic fiber, the path comprising at least one sensing gap which is formed between the two ends of two optic fibers or between the end of an optic fiber and the light detector;", "at least one end of an optic fiber forming the sensing gap is a dew forming end in contact with said air, on which the dew can form, chancing light transmitted from the light emitter through the gap to the light detector;", "the optic fibers being embedded into a plate, having a temperature essentially similar to that of the surface: and control mechanism for monitoring of said light path condition, elimination of sun radiation and contamination influence and controlling of said light emitter and detector operation.", "The plate's temperature mimics as close as possible the temperature of the leaf at night For example, when used in greenhouses it is cooled by infrared emission directed from the plate to a cooler region, for example, during the night from the plate to the cool sky.", "An example of such a plate is PVC plate.", "According to said second embodiment, it is preferable that the deal forming ends are rough, in order to speed the dew condensation onset.", "In addition, said rough ends, increase the sensitivity of the sensor, since accumulation of liquid, serves to “smooth ”", "said rough ends, thus increasing the difference between the dry and wet conditions.", "The dew sensitivity of the sensor may be changed by varying the roughness of the dew forming end, for example by replacing said end with another end having a different degree of roughness.", "In addition, in accordance with the second embodiment, it is preferable that the sensor also comprises means for protecting the light path from contamination, such as various sieves, filters, protection tubes, surrounding the light path and avoiding penetration of contaminants to the light path.", "The dew sensitivity of the sensors may be changed by changing one or more of the following parameters: optic fiber diameters;", "gap size;", "change of post-period to post duration ratio of the light transmitter, so that the light transmitted through the zap heats the dew forming end an, evaporates the dew condensed on the end: the dew sensitivity and contamination protection value of the sensor may be changed by the change of the means for protecting from contamination, for example where the protecting means is a tube having a filter at its end by the change in protecting the tube's length;", "the dew sensitivity of the sensor may be changed by cooling the plate with a thermoelectric cooler;", "the dew sensitivity of the sensor may be also changed by changing the infrared emission and the heat conduction range of the plate in which the optic fibers are embedded, for example by changing the material, color or roughness of the plate.", "The control mechanism of the second embodiment subtracts sun radiation signal from the total signal on the light detector (which reaches both light emitted from the light transmitter plus sun radiation signal), interrupts the dew onset monitoring at day according to the light transmitter and sun radiation ratio, measures the optical transmittance when the sensor is at dry state, and calibrates the sensor's threshold sensitivity according to “dry ends light transmittance.”", "The dew which the sensor detects is usually water condensation.", "By a preferable option the dew sensor may also comprise restoring means as will be explained hereinbelow.", "Light emitters according to optical embodiments are any means capable of emitting visible or infrared light, for example, HFBR-2524 Hewlett Packard Transmitter (Hewlett Packard.", "Components, USA).", "The light detector according to optical embodiments is a device capable of receiving light and transducing the light received to an easily detectable signal such as electrical currents, which may be digitally represented.", "Examples of light detectors are HFBR-1524 receiver (Hewlett Packard Components, USA).", "The light emitter and light detector are coupled through a light path defined by at least one optic fiber.", "The path comprises at least one sensing gap which is in contact with the gas (in case of hygrometer) or air (in case of dew sensor).", "When the hygrometer or the dew sensor is composed of a single optic fiber the sensing gap may be between the fiber and the light emitter (when the fiber is attached to the light detector);", "the fiber and the light detector (when the fiber is attached to the light emitter);", "or the hygrometer or dew sensor may comprise at least two gaps, one between the optic fiber and the light emitter and the other between the optic fiber and the light detector (when the optic fiber is spaced both from the light emitter and the light detector).", "The gap(s) may also be formed between ends of two or more optic fibers, for example where the hygrometer or dew sensor comprises two optic fibers a single gap may be formed between a first optic fiber attached to the light emitter and a second optic fiber attached to the light detector.", "Alternatively, when the hygrometer or dew sensor comprises two optic fibers two gaps may be formed: one between a first optic fiber (attached to the light emitter) and a second unattached optic fiber, and the other between the unattached optic fiber and the light detector.", "The hygrometer or dew sensor of the invention may also comprise three optic fibers: one coupled to the light emitter (a first peripheral optic fiber) one coupled to the light detector (a second peripheral optic fiber) and one present in between the two and spaced therefrom (an intermediate optic fiber) so as to form at least two sensing gaps, between the end intermediate optic fiber and each of the uncoupled end peripheral optic fibers.", "Each sensing gap is formed by at least one end of the optic fiber, on which dew can form.", "This end is termed “the dew forming end.”", "Formation of dew on said end changes the light transmitted from the light emitter through the gap to the light detector.", "Where the surfaces of the dew forming ends are smooth, i.e. polished, formation of dew thereon decreases the light transmitted through the gap.", "Where the surfaces of the dew forming ends are rough (grinded) dew formed thereon increases light transmittance.", "In connection with the first embodiment “the dew point hygrometer”", "the temperature control device comprises a heating/cooling means such as a thermoelectric cooler, for example, SP1652.", "Harlox Industries Inc. (USA) thermoelectric cooler can control the temperature of the dew forming end.", "The control mechanism of the dew point hygrometer is typically capable of controlling the temperature control device by a servo mechanism.", "In addition the control mechanism can activate the restoration means automatically, either by activating it periodically, for example, utilizing a timer, or activating it after a certain amount of contamination has build up on the dew forming end, which build up is detected by decrease of the optical transmittance when the hygrometer is at a dry state.", "Both types of activation (after specific time periods or after a certain amount of contamination has built up) are termed “an operation phase.”", "The detection of the dew in gas can be determined by maintaining the temperature of the dew forming end in vapor pressure equilibrium with the surrounding gas, i.e. the dew forming end is maintained at the temperature at which the rate of condensate exactly equals the evaporation, and this temperature is then defined as the dew point temperature and correlates exactly to the dew contents of the gas.", "The restoring means, are intended to restore the dew forming end(s) to its/their original form.", "i.e. without the contamination of various solid deposits thereon, so as to restore original light transmittance through the dew forming end.", "According to a first option of the invention suitable mostly for the dew point hygrometer embodiment, the restoring means comprise a gas blower, capable of blowing gas on the dew forming end.", "According to this embodiment, the temperature control device, periodically cools the dew forming ends of the optic fiber to a temperature well below the dew forming temperature, so that a heavy growth and coalescence of the condensate is formed, thereby dissolving all of the soluble material deposited on the optic fiber ends or loosening non-soluble material.", "Immediately after said cooling, the air blower blows an air stream strong enough to blow away the condensate together with the solid deposits contained or dissolved therein, and thus the dew forming ends of the optic fiber are cleared.", "The cooling, of the end forming end and the blowing of the gas are controlled and timed by the controlling mechanism.", "According to a second option of the invention, the restoring means comprise a displaceable transparent film covering the end of the optic fiber, so that said displaceable film actually constitutes the condensing surface.", "The dew forms on a portion of the film instead of directly on the end of the optic fiber.", "Periodically, the film is displaced, so that another clean portion of the film comes into contact with the end of the optic fiber, said end being clear of deposited contaminants.", "The film may be for example a transparent band made of Polyester™ (Lee Filters (U.K.)) linearly displaceable over the end of the optic fiber.", "According to a third option of the invention, the restoring means are capable of periodically breaking a small segment of the optic fiber at the dew forming end, and thus exposing a new, uncontaminated dew forming end.", "Said restoring means, may be for example in the form of a cutting knife, capable of slicing a small section of the optic fiber containing contaminants deposited thereon, and exposing a new and clean end.", "According to a fourth option of the invention, at least one of the optic fibers, which form the sensing gap, is a member of a plurality of optic fibers, for example, arranged in a battery.", "Periodically, the previously used optic fiber is replaced by a new optic fiber from the batter), which is clean and has no deposits of contaminants on its end.", "By a third embodiment of the invention.", "called “condensation film embodiment”", "a condensation film, for example made of transparent synthetic film, is placed on a thermoelectric cooler to increase the sensitivity of the dew point hygrometer or dew sensor.", "While cooling the condensation film, vapor, such as water vapor condenses on the film.", "Two optic fibers are placed in an angle in respect to the film.", "one connected to a light emitter and one to a light detector measuring the light reflected from the film.", "Condensation of liquid on external side of the film (i.e. the side not in contact with the thermoelectric cooler) leads to change in the reflected light from both sides of the film.", "The temperature of the film and the air is measured and the result is calibrated to give the amount of humidity in the air.", "Periodically the film is mobilized.", "so that each period of time (for example each couple of days) a new and clean portion of the film is available for condensation and measurement of reflector thereon.", "23.", "In a preferred embodiment of the dew point hygrometer, operating under a stable temperature condition as, for example.", "in a refrigerator, the temperature control device is a thermoelectrical cooler capable of measuring the relative humidity of the air by measuring the current of the thermoelectrical cooler in the course of dew condensation on the film.", "By a fourth embodiment of the invention called “condensation prism embodiment”", "an optical prism is placed on a thermoelectric cooler to increase the sensitivity of the dew point hygrometer.", "A light emitter and a light detector optically coupled through a light path defined by a least two surfaces of the prism.", "The humidity condenses on the surfaces of said prism, thus changing the amount of light sensed by the light detector.", "The thermoelectric cooler's temperature can be controlled by control mechanism.", "which when determining the temperature at which condensation begins to form can deform the dew point.", "By a fifth embodiment of the invention termed the “capacitive dew sensor embodiment”", "the present invention concerns a capacitive dew sensor, in which the problem of solid contaminants (salts, dust and so on) deposited on the outside surface of the sensor and electrode's corrosion are significantly reduced by using a water layer as a one of the capacitor's electrodes.", "The sensor includes two electrode structures separated from each other by an insulator and wires, connecting each of the electrodes to a measuring circuit.", "The first electrode structure is a conductive plate mounted on one surface of the insulator.", "The first electrode is isolated from the ambient atmosphere by a coating which does not allow penetration of water and electrolytes therethrough.", "An example of such a coating is lacquer.", "The second electrode structure is in fact not formed.", "a priori in the sensor but is formed when a water layer (including some electrolytes which are naturally present in the atmosphere) condenses or precipitates on the ex posed outer surface of the insulator (i.e. the surface which is not in contact with said first electrode).", "A measuring circuit is connected through wires to apply a current to both first and second electrode structures to detect a chance in capacitance between them.", "According to said fifth embodiment it is preferable that the exposed outer surface of the insulator on which the second electrode.", "(being the water layer), is formed would be rough.", "in order to speed the dew condensation onset and to increase the sensitivity of the sensor.", "In addition said rough surface eliminates the salt contamination influence on the sensor's sensitivity.", "since only an essentially continuous water layer (not water drops alone which do not constitute a continuous layer) forms the second electrode structure.", "The dew sensitivity of the sensor may be changed by varying the roughness of the insulator outer surface, on which the water condenses.", "For example, several detachable insulators with varying roughnesses may be used.", "The dew sensitivity of the sensor may be also be changed by changing the infrared emission from the insulator outside surface.", "for example by changing the material.", "color or roughness of the surface.", "The salt contamination influence may be eliminated by using a net (made either from conducting or insulating material) mounted on the outside surface of the insulator, which protects the insulator.", "The measuring circuit measures resistance between two or more leads connecting the circuit to the second and first electrodes, when the water layer forming the first electrode is present.", "The resistance is used as a gauge for the salt contamination of the sensor.", "Printed circuit board.", "for example 0.5 mm thickness and 59×54 mm area may be used for the carrying out the sensor In the following, the present invention will be further described with reference to some non limiting drawings and examples.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. I shows a fiber-optical dew point hygrometer in accordance with a first option of the invention comprising a as blower as the restoring means;", "FIG. 2 shows a fiber-optical dew point hygrometer in accordance with a second option of the invention comprising a displaceable transparent film as the restoring means;", "FIG. 3 shows a fiber-optical dew point hygrometer in accordance with a third option of the invention comprising a cutter as the restoring means;", "FIG. 4 shows a fiber-optical dew point hygrometer in accordance with a fourth option of the invention in which an intermediate optic fiber belongs to a battery of optic fibers and can be periodically replaced by another member in the battery;", "FIG. 5 shows a fiber-optical dew sensor in accordance with the second embodiment of the invention;", "FIG. 6 shows a film dew point hygrometer or a dew sensor in accordance with the third embodiment of the invention;", "FIG. 7 shows a prism dew point hygrometer in accordance with the fourth embodiment of the invention;", "FIG. 8 shows a capacitive dew sensor in accordance with the fifth embodiment of the invention;", "and FIG. 9 shows a schematic representation of the electric circuit of FIG. 8 .", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Reference is first made to FIG. I which shows a dew point hygrometer 1 in accordance with the first option of the first embodiment of the invention.", "The hygrometer comprises a light emitter 2 for example HFBR-1524 transmitter (Hewlett Packard Components.", "USA).", "a light detector 3 for example HFBR-2524 receiver (Hewlett Packard Components.", "USA).", "Light emitter 2 and light detector 3 are coupled through a light path defined by two optic fibers.", "a first optic fiber 4 coupled to the light emitter and a second optic fiber 5 coupled to the light detector.", "Optic fibers 4 and 5 are spaced from each other so as to form sensing gap 6 therebetween.", "The optic fibers are for Hewlett Packard plastic fiber optic cable HFBR-PUS001 diameter 1.0 mm (Hewlett Packard Components, USA).", "The uncoupled end of the first optic fiber 7 and the uncoupled end of the second optic fiber 8 serve as dew forming ends.", "These ends are in contact with the gas which dew point is to be determined.", "Formation of dew on ends 7 and 8 changes the light transmittance from light emitter 2 to light detector 3 .", "Dew forming ends lay on temperature control device 9 .", "for example SP 1652 Harlow Industries Inc. (USA) thermoelectric cooler which device can control the temperature of dew forming ends 7 and 8 to a desired temperature.", "The hygrometer further comprises thermometers 10 which determines the temperature of dew forming ends 7 and 8 .", "A gas blower 11 is positioned in the vicinity of dew forming ends 7 and 8 and can blow a gas stream strong enough to clear away liquid drops from dew forming ends 7 and 8 .", "The system comprises a control mechanism 12 which constantly receives input from light detector 3 , and controls the operation of light emitter 2 temperature control device 9 and of gas blower 11 .", "Temperature control device 9 is under servo .", "control by control mechanism 12 .", "Control mechanism 12 constantly controls the temperature of temperature control device 9 so that the input received from light detector 3 is essentially constant or in oscillations near the constant.", "As the dew contact of the gas rises temperature of control device 9 also rises in order to eliminate change of the light perceived by light detector 3 .", "The changes in temperature displayed in the measurement process is used for dew point temperature calculations.", "Periodically, for example every hour, the control mechanism 12 causes temperature control device 9 to substantially cool dew forming ends 7 and 8 so that a heavy coalescence.", "in the form of a water drop forms on dew forming ends, dissolving all solid deposits present thereon.", "Gas blower 11 is then activated and blows an air stream strong enough to clear away the water drop contain the dissolved deposits so that dew forming ends 7 and 8 are essentially restored to their original, contamination-free condition.", "Hygrometer 1 is enclosed within a container 13 .", "having an opening, so that only dew forming ends 7 and 8 are exposed to the Has while the remaining parts of the hygrometer are protected from contaminants.", "FIG. 2 shows a second option of the fiber-optical dew point hygrometer 21 .", "The hygrometer comprises a light emitter 22 , a light detector 23 .", "a first optic fiber 24 coupled to the light emitter and a second optic fiber 25 spaced therefrom.", "The hygrometer comprises two sensing gaps, a first sensing gap 26 positioned between optic fibers 24 and 25 and a second sensing gap 27 between optic fiber 25 and light detector 23 .", "Both ends of optic fiber 25 , which are end 28 (forming sensing gap 26 ) and end 29 (forming sensing gap 27 ) serve as dew forming ends and lay on temperature control device 30 and their temperature is monitored by thermometers 31 .", "A transparent band 32 , made for example of Polyester™ (Lee Filters, UK) is linearly displaceable over dew forming end 28 and 29 .", "The band is displaced by movement of pulley block 33 .", "Control mechanism 34 is connected to the light emitter 22 , light detector 23 , temperature control means 30 , thermometer 31 and the pulley block 33 .", "Dew forming essentially on the transparent band 32 present on dew forming end 28 and 29 .", "Periodically, the control mechanism activates pulley block 33 so that band 32 is displaced and a new portion of the band.", "free of contamination is placed over the dew forming end.", "Protecting container 35 ensures that all parts of the hygrometer save for the dew forming ends of the portion of the band present thereon are protected from contamination.", "FIG. 3 shows a fiber-optical dew point hygrometer 41 in accordance with the third option of the invention.", "The hygrometer comprises a light emitter 42 .", "light detector 43 and a single optic fiber 44 coupled to the light emitter.", "The sensing gap 45 is formed between the uncoupled end of optic fiber 44 and the light detector.", "said uncoupled end 47 serves as the dew forming end and lays on temperature control device 48 and is in contact with thermometer 49 .", "The hygrometer also comprises a movable cutter 50 capable of periodically slicing a very thin slice.", "for example several microns thick from the dew forming end 47 and thus eliminating a slice having solid deposits thereon and exposing a clean.", "contaminated-free end.", "After each slicing cutter 50 retraces exactly the distance it has eliminated so as to be in a position to cut another slice of the same size.", "Control mechanism 51 is coupled to light emitter 42 , light detector 43 .", "temperature control mechanism 48 and cutter 50 and periodically activates the cutter so that a new contamination free dew forming end is periodically exposed.", "and protecting container 52 protects part of the hygrometer from contamination.", "When calculation of the dew point is carried out the fact that the gap is progressively increased is taken into consideration when calculating the changes in light transmittance.", "FIG. 4 shows a fiber-optical dew point hygrometer 61 in accordance with the fourth option of the invention.", "The hygrometer comprises a light emitter 62 and light detector 63 and three optic fibers.", "A first peripheral optic fiber 64 coupled to the light emitter, a second peripheral optic fiber 65 coupled to the light detector and an intermediate optic fiber 66 positioned between the two peripheral optic fibers.", "Two sensing gaps are formed, a first sensing gap 67 between peripheral optic fiber 64 and the intermediate optic fiber 66 and a sensing gap 68 between intermediate optic fiber 66 and peripheral optic fiber 65 .", "The ends of the intermediate optic fiber 69 and 70 serve as the dew forming ends and lay on temperature control device 71 and in contact with thermometers 72 .", "Intermediate optic fiber 66 is a member of a plurality of other.", "identical optic fibers 73 .", "formed as a batten.", "for example on a conveyor belt 74 which identical optic fibers are advanced by movement of pulley, block 75 .", "Control mechanism 75 is coupled to temperature control device 71 .", "to light emitter 62 .", "light detector 63 and to pullets block 75 .", "Periodically control mechanism 76 activated pulley block 75 so that conveyor belt 74 is advanced and used optic fiber 66 having solid deposits thereon is replaced by contaminated-free optic fibers 73 .", "Protecting container 77 ensures that the optic fibers 73 before usage are free from contamination.", "Reference is now made to FIG. 5 which shows a fiber-optical dew sensor in accordance with the second embodiment of the invention.", "for sensing the natural condensation.", "for example use in greenhouses.", "The dew sensor 80 comprises two optic fibers 81 .", "having rough ends 88 .", "The optic fibers have a gap therein-between 89 .", "The optic fibers are embedded in a PVC white plate 82 which temperature is similar to the natural temperature of the ambient environment.", "One optic fiber 81 is connected to a light emitter 83 , for example.", "HFBR-1524 transmitter (Hewlett Packard, Components, USA) and one optic fiber 81 is connected to a light detector 84 .", "At night, while there is cooling.", "due to infrared emission of the plate 82 to the direction of the sky, the optic fibers 81 embedded in the plate are also cooled, and water condensates on the rough edges 88 of the optic fibers.", "filling the rough edges.", "and as a result the light transmitter in the optic system is increased.", "An electronic control system 85 controls parameters of the light emitter 83 and light detector 84 and optionally, where the reading of humidity content is high, can give a warning to activate drying means in the greenhouse.", "The light enters gap 89 , through protector tube 86 .", "which is fitted at both ends with filters 87 .", "which filter out various contamination.", "and protects the ends of the fibers against dust and contamination.", "According to experiments carried out with the above dew sensor.", "the temperature at night of the optic fiber placed in the white PVC plate.", "is smaller than the temperature of rose leafs only at 0.1-0.2° C. so that the plate actually mimics quite accurately the natural condition of the leaf.", "Where there is contamination of the ends of the fibers of a water soluble compound (such as sulfur) and the water condensates on the rough edges of the optic fibers.", "the compound becomes soluble in the water.", "and produces a solution which fills the rough ends.", "The transmittance of light through a solution is not much different than transmission of a light through clean water (not containing sulfur).", "Since the plastic material from which the optic fibers is made is resistant to corrosive and aggressive solutions, the dew sensors can still continue working even under quite extreme conditions typical of greenhouses.", "Reference is now made to FIG. 6 .", "which shows a film dew point hygrometer according to the third embodiment of the invention.", "comprising a condensation film.", "The dew point hygrometer 90 comprises a condensation film, for example a nylon transparent film 91 placed on a thermoelectric cooler 92 .", "The film reflects light sent from light emitter 94 .", "through optic fiber 93 into optic fiber 95 connected to light detector 96 .", "With the use of a fan 97 .", "air is mobilized on the condensation film, and cools the warm side of the thermometric cooler 92 .", "While cooling condensation film 91 , by thermoelectric cooler 92 , water condensates on external side (i.e. the side facing upward) of the film and changes the light reflection from both sides of the film, which change is detected by light detector 96 .", "Temperature sensors 98 and 99 measure the temperature of the condensation film and the air, respectively.", "An electronic control system 100 controls the work of the cooler 92 .", "the light emitter 94 and the light detector 96 .", "measures the temperature of the dew point (i.e. the temperature of the film in which dew forms thereon) and the air temperature obtained by sensors 98 and 99 , and thus calculates the dew point of the measured air.", "A mobilizing system (not shown in the figure) advances each period of time.", "for example each week.", "film 91 which is present as a long continuous film, so that a new film is used every period for condensation and light reflector purposes.", "This ensures, that even if a specific portion of film is contaminated, distorting the reflection of light therefrom, a new film is used without said distortion.", "Of course new unused film is protected by contamination, for example by being placed in a protective container.", "FIG. 7 shows a prism dew point hygrometer 101 in accordance to the fourth embodiment of the invention.", "comprising an optical prism.", "The hygrometer comprises a light emitter 102 .", "a light detector 103 and the prism 104 which is placed on a thermoelectric cooler 105 .", "The prism reflects light sent from the light emitter to the light detector.", "While cooling the prism 104 by thermoelectric cooler 105 .", "water condensates on the prism surfaces and changes the light reflection therefrom.", "Control mechanism (not shown) can control the temperature of the thermoelectric cooler to a temperature which causes condensation on the surfaces of the prism and as a result a change in the light detected.", "FIG. 8 shows a capacitive dew sensor 106 in accordance to the fifth embodiment of the invention.", "The sensor includes an insulator 107 .", "a first electrode structure 108 isolated from the ambient atmosphere by a protective coat such as lacquer which protective coat does not allow penetration of humidity and electrolytes therethrough.", "The sensor comprises a second electrode structure 109 formed by water layer which condensates on the exposed outer surface of the insulator 107 .", "The waters are conductive due to the fact that they contain naturally appearing salts present in the air.", "The sensor is connected to the measuring circuit (not shown) by wires 110 and 111 .", "When water is present as shown in FIG. 8 .", "electrode 109 is formed.", "and as a result the capacitance changes somewhat from 0.1 to 160 picofarads and said change in capacitance can be measured.", "By another option.", "it is possible to add a net covering outside surfaces of insulator 107 in order to decrease the effect of air-born salts on the sensitivity of the sensor.", "FIG. 9 illustrates the schematic equivalent circuit of the capasitive sensor created by the first electrode structure 108 ′ with constant area and the second electrode structure 109 ′.", "created by water layer.", "with variable area where 110 ′ and 111 ′ are the wires connecting to the measuring circuit (not shown)." ]

[ "BACKGROUND The disclosures herein relate generally to computer systems and more particularly to controlling keyboard deflection associated with such systems.", "As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information.", "One option available to users is information handling systems.", "An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information.", "Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated.", "The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications.", "In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.", "A problem associated with the use of keyboards is that keyboards are often spongy and springy when the user depresses the keyboard keys.", "Attempts have been made to avoid this through added support under the keyboard and by increasing the stiffness of the keyboard by means of material selection and thickness.", "Therefore, what is needed is a keyboard constructed in a manner which provides a keyboard which is substantially firm and avoids the spongy springy feeling associated with keyboard use.", "SUMMARY One embodiment, accordingly, provides a keyboard including a support plate having a first surface and a second surface.", "The second surface is convex.", "A membrane is mounted on the first surface and a plurality of keys are mounted on the first surface adjacent the membrane.", "A plurality of retainer members extend from the support plate.", "A principal advantage of this embodiment is that the underside of the keyboard support plate is continuously biased into contact with a keyboard base or chassis so that the spongy or springy feeling of previous keyboards is removed.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic view illustrating an embodiment of a computer system.", "FIG. 2 is a perspective view illustrating an embodiment of a portable computer.", "FIG. 3 is a perspective view illustrating an embodiment of a portable computer including an exploded view of a keyboard assembly.", "FIGS. 4A and 4B are end views illustrating alternate embodiments of a keyboard support plate as seen from the line 4 AB— 4 AB of FIG. 3 .", "FIG. 5 is an exaggerated view illustrating the keyboard assembly in the unattached and attached positions with the base.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION For purposes of this disclosure, an information handling system may include any instrumentality or aggregate of instrumentalities operable to compute, classify, process, transmit, receive, retrieve, originate, switch, store, display, manifest, detect, record, reproduce, handle, or utilize any form of information, intelligence, or data for business, scientific, control, or other purposes.", "For example, an information handling system may be a personal computer, a network storage device, or any other suitable device and may vary in size, shape, performance, functionality, and price.", "The information handling system may include random access memory (RAM), one or more processing resources such as a central processing unit (CPU) or hardware or software control logic, ROM, and/or other types of nonvolatile memory.", "Additional components of the information handling system may include one or more disk drives, one or more network ports for communicating with external devices as well as various input and output (I/O) devices, such as a keyboard, a mouse, and a video display.", "The information handling system may also include one or more buses operable to transmit communications between the various hardware components.", "In one embodiment, computer system 10 , FIG. 1, includes a microprocessor 12 , which is connected to a bus 14 .", "Bus 14 serves as a connection between microprocessor 12 and other components of computer system 10 .", "An input device 16 is coupled to microprocessor 12 to provide input to microprocessor 12 .", "Examples of input devices include keyboards, touchscreens, and pointing devices such as mouses, trackballs and trackpads.", "Programs and data are stored on a mass storage device 18 , which is coupled to microprocessor 12 .", "Mass storage devices include such devices as hard disks, optical disks, magneto-optical drives, floppy drives and the like.", "Computer system 10 further includes a display 20 , which is coupled to microprocessor 12 by a video controller 22 .", "A system memory 24 is coupled to microprocessor 12 to provide the microprocessor with fast storage to facilitate execution of computer programs by microprocessor 12 .", "It should be understood that other busses and intermediate circuits can be deployed between the components described above and microprocessor 12 to facilitate interconnection between the components and the microprocessor.", "Referring to FIG. 2, illustrated is a portable, notebook size computer chassis designated 26 comprising a self-contained system, such as that illustrated at 10 in FIG. 1, and including a hinged top or lid 28 , FIG. 2, rotatable about a hinge or hinges 30 , from a nested position N, with a horizontal base 32 , to a substantially vertical or open position V. The base 32 includes a base surface 31 .", "Opening of the notebook computer 26 reveals a keyboard 36 including a plurality of keys 36 a mounted on surface 31 of base 32 , and a monitor screen 40 mounted in lid or top 28 .", "A touchpad or other input 42 is mounted in a palmrest area 44 adjacent keys 36 .", "In FIG. 3, a keyboard assembly 46 is illustrated and includes a plurality of retainer members or tabs 48 and 50 which extend outwardly from a support plate 52 of the keyboard assembly 46 .", "The support plate 52 includes the tabs 48 and 50 as a means for attaching the support plate 52 to the base 32 .", "Tabs 48 extend from an edge 52 a of plate 52 and tabs 50 extend from another edge 52 b of plate 52 , which is opposite to the edge 52 a .", "The tabs 50 each include a fastener aperture 54 formed therein.", "In this manner, attaching the support plate 52 to the base 32 is accomplished by inserting the tabs 48 under a portion P 1 of the base 32 which is adjacent the palmrest area 44 .", "The tabs 50 are then attached to the base 32 by means of fasteners 56 which extend through each fastener aperture 54 and into an aligned aperture 58 provided in a portion P 2 of the base 32 which is adjacent to the hinges 30 .", "In FIG. 4A, it can be seen that support plate 52 includes a first surface 60 , a second surface 62 , the edge 52 a including tabs 48 and the edge 52 b including tabs 50 having aperture 54 .", "In the FIG. 4A embodiment, the first surface 60 is substantially planar and the second surface 62 is substantially convex.", "In FIG. 4B, it can be seen that support plate 52 includes first surface 60 , second surface 62 , edge 52 a including tabs 48 and edge 52 b including tabs 50 having aperture 54 .", "In the FIG. 4B embodiment, the plate 52 has a bowed cross-section such that first surface 60 is substantially concave and second surface 62 is substantially convex.", "It is understood that the plate 52 of FIGS. 4A and 4B is exaggerated for purposes of illustration.", "The keyboard assembly 46 , referred to above and illustrated in FIG. 3, includes the support plate 52 , FIG. 5, a membrane 64 mounted on first surface 60 and the keyboard 36 including keys 36 a also mounted on the first surface 60 adjacent the membrane 64 , in the well-known manner.", "However, the second surface 62 is advantageously convex so that when tabs 48 are inserted and retained under portion P 1 of base 32 , and tabs 50 are fastened to portion P 2 of base 32 by fasteners 56 as described above, the convex surface 62 is flexed, and firmly abuts the base 32 so as to limit flexure of the keyboard assembly 46 during use.", "The same desired result may be achieved with either of the embodiments illustrated, i.e., FIGS. 4A and 4B.", "Although illustrative embodiments have been shown and described, a wide range of modification, change and substitution is contemplated in the foregoing disclosure and in some instances, some features of the embodiment may be employed without a corresponding use of other features.", "Accordingly, it is appropriate that the appended claims be construed broadly and in a manner consistent with the scope of the embodiments disclosed herein." ]

[ "RELATED PATENT APPLICATION [0001] This application claims priority to commonly owned U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser.", "No. 61/238,718;", "filed Sep. 1, 2009;", "entitled “Backlighting Inductive Touch Buttons,” by Stephen B. Porter and Keith E. Curtis;", "and is hereby incorporated by reference herein for all purposes.", "TECHNICAL FIELD [0002] The present disclosure relates to inductive touch sensor keys or buttons, and, more particularly, to backlighting of the inductive touch sensor keys or buttons.", "BACKGROUND [0003] Each inductive touch sensor key or button comprises an inductive sensor on a substrate, a thin non-magnetic spacer layer over the inductive touch sensor, and a deformable metal target layer (e.g., key or button) over the thin non-magnetic spacer layer.", "When the deformable metal target layer is depressed, the inductive sensor detects a change in its impedance.", "This change in impedance is detected and is used to indicate that the key or button has been pressed.", "A problem exists however in that the deformable metal target layer is light opaque and therefore precludes backlighting thereof.", "Existing published solutions for inductive touch sensor designs are mechanically very thin.", "They rely on simple flat spacer layers less than 0.020 inch thick and continuous conductive metal sheets for targets that do not allow light to pass therethrough.", "SUMMARY [0004] Therefore what is needed is a way to backlight inductive touch sensor keys or buttons.", "According to the teachings of this disclosure, a molded spacer layer and a discrete metal disk may be used for the inductive target.", "By using either reverser mount or side illuminating LED(s) with a suspended metal target, inductive touch sensor keys may be backlit.", "Backlighting of inductive touch sensor keys or buttons is especially desirable for use in appliances, automotive controls, consumer products such as television set top box converters for cable or satellite television reception, security entry pads, intercom buttons, computers, industrial control panels, etc.", "Backlighting of the keys or buttons may be used to indicate that the key or button has been pressed, e.g., visual feedback, and/or improved visibility under poor lighting conditions.", "[0005] There are several things that are needed to complete backlighting for inductive touch buttons.", "Inductive touch buttons in most cases require that the metal fascia be the target, but according to the teachings of this disclosure it would be moved away from the inductive coil to the point where it will not work as the target.", "To counteract this, a suspended target proximate to the inductive sensor coil is used.", "By configuring the lighted inductive touch buttons as such, height may be added to the inductive touch panel design that will allow placement of light emitting diodes (LEDs) on the top and/or bottom side(s) of the circuit board comprising the inductive sensor coil.", "[0006] By moving the front button layer farther from the substrate, e.g., inductive touch printed circuit board (PCB), a molded plastic layer(s) may be used to create light pipes that allow for backlighting of the inductive touch sensor buttons.", "A metallic target layer is attached and/or molded on the plastic layer proximate to the inductive sensor coil.", "As this metallic target layer moves closer to the inductor sensor coil when the button is depressed, the impedance of the inductor sensor coil thereby changes and is detected.", "The metallic target layer may also be used as a shield to prevent or reduce hot (bright) spots in the lighting of the inductive touch sensor button.", "[0007] The material that holds the suspended metallic target may be translucent and function as a light pipe for the light from a light source, e.g., light emitting diodes (LEDs).", "This translucent material may also function as a seal for the holes that may now be placed in the metal cover to allow light to pass therethrough.", "The material that is used as the spacer surrounding the inductive coil may be of a non-translucent material so as to prevent bleeding of light from one adjacent button to the next.", "[0008] The light source LEDs do not have to be mounted on the top side of the circuit board, as they can be mounted elsewhere as needed.", "Also the top layer does not have to be flat or even metal, and it may be curved or use an over-mold process for sealing of the button.", "[0009] According to a specific example embodiment of this disclosure, a backlit inductive touch sensor key comprises: a substrate;", "an inductive sense coil on the substrate;", "a light source;", "a spacer layer on the substrate and having an opening that surrounds the inductive sense coil and the light source;", "and a over-layer having opening therein to allow light to pass therethrough from the light source, the over-layer is attached to the spacer layer and forms a light transmission cavity between the substrate and the over-layer;", "and an over-mold button attached to a side of the over-layer opposite to the light transmission cavity, the over-mold button being light transmissive;", "wherein when the over-mold button is biased toward the inductive sense coil, an impedance value of the inductive sense coil changes.", "[0010] According to another specific example embodiment of this disclosure, a backlit inductive touch sensor key comprises: a substrate;", "an inductive sense coil on the substrate;", "a light source;", "a spacer layer on the substrate and having an opening that surrounds the inductive sense coil and the light source;", "and a flexible layer of light transmissive material, the flexible layer is over the inductive sense coil and light source, and is attached to the spacer layer wherein a light transmission cavity is formed between the substrate and the flexible layer;", "wherein when the flexible layer is biased toward the inductive sense coil, an impedance value of the inductive sense coil changes.", "[0011] According to yet another specific example embodiment of this disclosure, a backlit inductive touch sensor key comprises: a substrate;", "an inductive sense coil on the substrate;", "a light source;", "a spacer layer on the substrate and having an opening that surrounds the inductive sense coil and the light source;", "a flexible fascia layer adapted to allow light therethrough, the flexible fascia layer is over the inductive sense coil and light source, and is attached to the spacer layer wherein a light transmission cavity is formed between the substrate and the flexible fascia layer;", "a light translucent layer attached to a side of a portion of the flexible fascia layer facing and inside of the light transmission cavity;", "and a metal target attached to a face of the light translucent layer proximate to the inductive sense coil;", "wherein when the flexible fascia layer is biased toward the inductive sense coil, an impedance value of the inductive sense coil changes.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0012] A more complete understanding of the present disclosure thereof may be acquired by referring to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein: [0013] FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of an electronic system having an inductive touch keypad, an inductive touch analog front end and a digital processor, according to the teachings of this disclosure;", "[0014] FIG. 2 is a schematic elevational view of a back-lighted inductive touch key comprising a light transmissive button in combination with an over-layer having holes therein for light to pass therethrough, according to a specific example embodiment of this disclosure;", "[0015] FIG. 3 is a schematic elevational view of a back-lighted inductive touch key comprising a light transmissive layer and a protective over-layer adapted for light to pass therethrough, according to another specific example embodiment of this disclosure;", "and [0016] FIG. 4 is a schematic elevational view of a back-lighted inductive touch key comprising a flat fascia adapted for light to pass therethrough, according to yet another specific example embodiment of this disclosure.", "[0017] While the present disclosure is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific example embodiments thereof have been shown in the drawings and are herein described in detail.", "It should be understood, however, that the description herein of specific example embodiments is not intended to limit the disclosure to the particular forms disclosed herein, but on the contrary, this disclosure is to cover all modifications and equivalents as defined by the appended claims.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0018] Referring now to the drawings, the details of an example embodiment is schematically illustrated.", "Like elements in the drawings will be represented by like numbers, and similar elements will be represented by like numbers with a different lower case letter suffix.", "[0019] Referring to FIG. 1 , depicted is a schematic block diagram of an electronic system having an inductive touch keypad, an inductive touch analog front end and a digital processor, according to the teachings of this disclosure.", "A digital processor 106 , e.g., a microprocessor, microcomputer, digital signal processor (DSP), application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), programmable logic array (PLA), etc.", ", is coupled to an inductive touch analog front end (AFE) 104 and a matrix of inductive touch sensor keys 102 , e.g., pushbuttons, levers, toggles, targets, handles, knobs, etc.", "Typical inductive touch sensor keys 102 may comprise Microchip inductive mTouch™ sensors more fully described at www.", "microchip.com.", "The digital processor 106 and AFE 104 may be part of a mixed signal (analog and digital circuits) integrated circuit device.", "[0020] The inductive touch AFE 104 facilitates, with a single low-cost integrated circuit device, all active functions used in determining when there is actuation of inductive sensors, e.g., by pressing and deflecting a target key that changes the impedance value of an associated inductive sensor.", "The inductive touch AFE 104 measures the impedance value of each sensor of the matrix of inductive touch sensor keys 102 and converts the impedance values into respective analog direct current (dc) voltages that are read and converted into digital values by the digital processor 106 .", "[0021] The digital processor 106 supplies clock and control functions to the inductive touch AFE 104 , reads the analog voltage detector output of the inductive touch AFE 104 , and selects each key of the matrix of inductive touch sensor keys 102 .", "When actuation of a key of the matrix of inductive touch sensor keys 102 is determined, the digital processor 106 will take an appropriate action.", "[0022] According to the teachings of this disclosure, each key (touch buttons) of the matrix of inductive touch sensor keys 102 is illuminated, as more fully disclosed hereinafter.", "[0023] Referring to FIG. 2 , depicted is a schematic elevational view of a back-lighted inductive touch key comprising a light transmissive button in combination with an over-layer having holes therein for light to pass therethrough, according to a specific example embodiment of this disclosure.", "A back-lighted inductive touch key 102 a comprises a substrate 210 , e.g., printed circuit board (PCB);", "an inductive sense coil 220 , a light source, e.g., light emitting diodes (LEDs) 218 ;", "a non-translucent (opaque) molded spacer layer 212 surrounds the inductive sense coil 220 and LEDs 218 , an over-layer 214 having openings therein for light from the LEDs 218 to pass therethrough, and an over-mold button 216 that is translucent for illumination thereof by the light from the LEDs 218 .", "In addition, if the over-layer 214 is non-metallic then a metallic target 222 is disposed on a surface of the over-layer 214 proximate to the inductive sense coil 220 .", "A metallic over-layer 214 may be for example, but is not limited to, aluminum, steel, stainless steel, copper, titanium, etc.", "A non-metallic over-layer 214 may be for example, but is not limited to, plastic, Teflon, polyamide, etc.", "[0024] The molded spacer layer 212 surrounding the inductive sense coil 220 and LEDs 218 is substantially non-translucent (opaque) so that light does not bleed over to another adjacent back-lighted inductive touch key (not shown).", "The LEDs 218 (light source) may be mounted on top of the substrate 210 , and inside of a cavity 226 formed by the substrate 210 , the molded spacer layer 212 and the over-layer 214 .", "The LEDs 218 may also be mounted in the substrate 210 or on the opposite side thereof (e.g., LED 318 a or LED 318 , respectively, of FIG. 3 ).", "LEDs 218 may be on either side and/or inside of the inductive sense coil 220 .", "[0025] The over-mold button 216 is flexible wherein when pushed (actuated) by an external force, e.g., push from a finger, the over-layer 214 portion over inductive sense coil 220 moves closer thereto and thereby changes the impedance thereof.", "If the over-layer 214 is non-metallic and does not affect the impedance of the inductive sense coil 220 , then a metallic target 222 may be attached to the over-layer 214 proximate to the inductive sense coil 220 .", "The inductive touch AFE 104 ( FIG. 1 ) detects this change in impedance of the sense coil 220 and indicates this event to the digital processor 106 for appropriate action to be taken.", "For example, but not limited to, a change in intensity and/or color of the light from the LEDs 218 may indicate successful actuation of this specific inductive touch sensor key 102 a .", "It is contemplated and within the scope of this disclosure that the over-layer 214 portion over the inductive sense coil 220 and/or the target 222 may be any type of material that affects the impedance value of the inductive sense coil 220 when there is a change in distance therebetween.", "[0026] Referring to FIG. 3 , depicted is a schematic elevational view of a back-lighted inductive touch key comprising a light transmissive layer and a protective over-layer adapted for light to pass therethrough, according to another specific example embodiment of this disclosure.", "A back-lighted inductive touch key 102 b comprises a substrate 310 , e.g., a printed circuit board (PCB);", "an inductive sense coil 320 , a light source, e.g., light emitting diodes (LEDs) 318 and/or 318 a ;", "a non-translucent (opaque) molded spacer layer 312 surrounds the inductive sense coil 320 and LEDs 318 , a light transmissive layer 316 , a metallic target 322 attached to the layer 316 and proximate to the inductive sense coil 320 , and an over-layer 314 that a portion thereof is either light transmissive or has openings therein for light from the LEDs 318 to pass therethrough.", "[0027] The molded spacer layer 312 surrounding the inductive sense coil 320 and LEDs 318 and/or 318 a is substantially non-translucent (opaque) so that light does not bleed over to another adjacent back-lighted inductive touch key (not shown).", "The LEDs 318 (light source) may be mounted on top of the substrate 310 (e.g., LED 218 of FIG. 2 ) and inside of a cavity 326 formed by the substrate 310 , the molded spacer layer 312 and the light transmissive layer 316 .", "The LEDs 318 a may also be mounted in the substrate 310 or on the opposite side thereof, e.g., LED 318 .", "LEDs 318 may be on either side and/or inside of the inductive sense coil 320 .", "[0028] The light transmissive layer 316 may be flexible wherein when pushed (actuated) by an external force, e.g., push from a finger, the light transmissive layer 316 portion over inductive sense coil 320 moves closer thereto and thereby changes the impedance thereof.", "If the light transmissive layer 316 is not made of a flexible and/or light transmissive material then openings or gaps 324 may be disposed within a portion of the light transmissive layer 316 for light from the LEDs 318 to pass therethrough.", "[0029] The over-layer 314 may be used for protection from physical abuse and/or harmful water and/or chemical infiltration.", "The over-layer 314 may comprise a thin metal layer, e.g., aluminum, steel, stainless steel, copper, titanium, etc.", "or a non-metallic layer, e.g., plastic, Teflon, polyamide, etc.", "If the material of the over-layer 314 is not light transmissive then opening may be placed therein (not shown) for light transmission therethrough.", "[0030] If the light transmissive layer 316 is non-metallic and does not affect the impedance of the inductive sense coil 320 , then a metallic target 322 may be attached to the light transmissive layer 316 proximate to the inductive sense coil 320 .", "The inductive touch AFE 104 ( FIG. 1 ) detects a change in impedance of the sense coil 320 and indicates this event to the digital processor 106 for appropriate action to be taken.", "For example, but not limited to, a change in intensity and/or color of the light from the LEDs 318 may indicate successful actuation of this specific inductive touch sensor key 102 b .", "It is contemplated and within the scope of this disclosure that the light transmissive layer 316 and/or the target 322 over the inductive sense coil 320 may be any type of material that affects the impedance value of the inductive sense coil 320 when there is a change in distance therebetween.", "The target 322 may also provide light shielding an light diffusion from the light source, e.g., LED 318 a , so as to prevent light intensity “hot spots”", "in the back-lighted inductive touch key 102 b. [0031] Referring to FIG. 4 , depicted is a schematic elevational view of a back-lighted inductive touch key comprising a flat fascia adapted for light to pass therethrough, according to yet another specific example embodiment of this disclosure.", "A back-lighted inductive touch key 102 c comprises a substrate 410 , e.g., a printed circuit board (PCB);", "an inductive sense coil 420 , a light source, e.g., light emitting diodes (LEDs) 418 ;", "a non-translucent (opaque) molded spacer layer 412 surrounds the inductive sense coil 420 and LEDs 418 , a light transmissive (translucent) layer 416 , a metallic target 422 attached to the layer 416 and proximate to the inductive sense coil 420 , and an over-layer fascia 414 that a portion thereof is either light transmissive or has openings therein for light from the light transmissive layer 416 to pass therethrough.", "[0032] The over-layer fascia 414 may be substantially flat and attached to the non-translucent (opaque) molded spacer layer 412 for support thereof.", "The light transmissive layer 416 is attached to the over-layer fascia 414 and in cooperation therewith moves the metallic target 422 closer to the inductive sense coil 420 when a force is applied to the over-layer fascia 414 proximate to the light transmissive layer 416 .", "The light transmissive layer 416 serves as a light pipe for illumination of an information area of the over-layer fascia 414 .", "The material of the over-layer fascia 414 may comprise metal or be nonmetallic as desired, and if this material is opaque (non-light transmissive), openings 428 therein may be provided for light to pass therethrough.", "[0033] The molded spacer layer 412 surrounding the inductive sense coil 420 and LEDs 418 is substantially non-translucent (opaque) so that light does not bleed over to another adjacent back-lighted inductive touch key (not shown).", "The LEDs 418 (light source) may be mounted on top of the substrate 410 (e.g., LED 218 of FIG. 2 ) and inside of a cavity 426 formed by the substrate 410 , the molded spacer layer 412 and the over-layer fascia 414 .", "The LEDs 418 may also be mounted in the substrate 410 , e.g., LED 318 a .", "LEDs 418 may be on either side and/or inside of the inductive sense coil 420 .", "The over-layer fascia 414 may be used for protection from physical abuse and/or harmful water and/or chemical infiltration.", "The over-layer fascia 414 may comprise a thin metal layer such as for example, but is not limited to, aluminum, steel, stainless steel, copper, titanium, etc.", ", or a non-metallic layer such as for example, but is not limited to, plastic, Teflon, polyamide, etc.", "[0034] The inductive touch AFE 104 ( FIG. 1 ) detects a change in impedance of the sense coil 420 and indicates this event to the digital processor 106 for appropriate action to be taken.", "For example, but not limited to, a change in intensity and/or color of the light from the LEDs 418 may indicate successful actuation of this specific inductive touch sensor key 102 c .", "It is contemplated and within the scope of this disclosure that the light transmissive layer 416 and/or the target 422 over the inductive sense coil 420 may be any type of material that affects the impedance value of the inductive sense coil 420 when there is a change in distance therebetween.", "[0035] While embodiments of this disclosure have been depicted, described, and are defined by reference to example embodiments of the disclosure, such references do not imply a limitation on the disclosure, and no such limitation is to be inferred.", "The subject matter disclosed is capable of considerable modification, alteration, and equivalents in form and function, as will occur to those ordinarily skilled in the pertinent art and having the benefit of this disclosure.", "The depicted and described embodiments of this disclosure are examples only, and are not exhaustive of the scope of the disclosure." ]

[ "CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application claims the benefit of provisional application Serial No. 60/204,936 filed May 17, 2000 and provisional application Serial No. 60/204,938 filed May 17, 2000.", "FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] This invention is related to ion sources that are suitable for use in ion implanters and, more particularly, to ion sources having indirectly heated cathodes.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] An ion source is a critical component of an ion implanter.", "The ion source generates an ion beam which passes through the beamline of the ion implanter and is delivered to a semiconductor wafer.", "The ion source is required to generate a stable, well-defined beam for a variety of different ion species and extraction voltages.", "In a semiconductor production facility, the ion implanter, including the ion source, is required to operate for extended periods without the need for maintenance or repair.", "[0004] Ion implanters have conventionally used ion sources with directly heated cathodes, wherein a filament for emitting electrons is mounted in the arc chamber of the ion source and is exposed to the highly corrosive plasma in the arc chamber.", "Such directly heated cathodes typically constitute a relatively small diameter wire filament and therefore degrade or fail in the corrosive environment of the arc chamber in a relatively short time.", "As a result, the lifetime of the directly heated cathode ion source is limited.", "[0005] Indirectly heated cathode ion sources have been developed in order to improve ion source lifetimes in ion implanters.", "An indirectly heated cathode includes a relatively massive cathode which is heated by electron bombardment from a filament and emits electrons thermionically.", "The filament is isolated from the plasma in the arc chamber and thus has a long lifetime.", "Although the cathode is exposed to the corrosive environment of the arc chamber, its relatively massive structure ensures operation over an extended period.", "[0006] The cathode in the indirectly heated cathode ion source must be electrically isolated from its surroundings, electrically connected to a power supply and thermally isolated from its surroundings to inhibit cooling which would cause it to stop emitting electrons.", "Known prior art indirectly heated cathode designs utilize a cathode in the form of a disk supported at its outer periphery by a thin wall tube of approximately the same diameter as the disk.", "The tube has a thin wall in order to reduce its cross sectional area and thereby reduce the conduction of heat away from the hot cathode.", "The thin tube typically has cutouts along its length to act as insulating breaks and to reduce the conduction of heat away from the cathode.", "[0007] The tube used to support the cathode does not emit electrons, but has a large surface area, much of it at high temperature.", "This area loses heat by radiation, which is the primary way that the cathode loses heat.", "The large diameter of the tube increases the size and complexity of the structure used to clamp and connect to the cathode.", "One known cathode support includes three parts and requires threads to assemble.", "[0008] The indirectly heated cathode ion source typically includes a filament power supply, a bias power supply and an arc power supply and requires a control system for regulating these power supplies.", "Prior art control systems for indirectly heated cathode ion sources regulate the supplies to achieve constant arc current.", "A difficulty in using a constant arc current system is that, if the beamline is tuned, beam current measured at the downstream end of the beamline can increase either due to the tuning, which increases the percent of current transmitted through the beamline, or due to an increase in the amount of current extracted from the source.", "Since beam current and transmission are influenced by the same plurality of variables, it difficult to tune for maximum beam current transmission.", "[0009] A prior art approach that has been utilized in ion sources with directly heated cathodes is to control the source for constant extraction current rather than constant arc current.", "In all cases where the source is controlled for constant extraction current, the control system drives a Bernas type ion source where the cathode is a directly heated filament.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0010] According to an aspect of the invention, a cathode assembly for use in an indirectly heated cathode ion source includes a cathode sub-assembly, including a cathode and a support rod fixedly mounted thereto;", "a filament for emitting electrons, that is positioned outside the arc chamber in close proximity to the support rod of the cathode sub-assembly;", "and a cathode insulator for electrically and thermally isolating the cathode from an arc chamber housing, that is disposed around the cathode of the cathode sub-assembly.", "[0011] The cathode sub-assembly may include an indirectly heated cathode and a support rod fixedly attached to the indirectly heated cathode for supporting the cathode within an arc chamber of the ion source.", "In one embodiment, the support rod is attached to a surface of the cathode facing away from the arc chamber.", "The support rod may mechanically support the cathode and conduct electrical energy thereto.", "The cathode may be in the shape of a disk, and the support rod may be attached at or near the center of the cathode, along its axis.", "The support rod may be in the shape of a cylinder, and the diameter of the cathode may be larger than the diameter of the cylindrical support rod.", "In one example, the diameter of the cathode is at least four times larger than the diameter of the support rod.", "The cathode sub-assembly may further include a spring loaded clamp for holding the support rod.", "[0012] A filament may be disposed around the support rod, in close proximity to the cathode, and isolated from a plasma in the arc chamber.", "The filament may be fabricated of an electrically conductive material and include an arc-shaped turn having an inside diameter greater than or equal to the diameter of the support rod.", "A cross-sectional area of the filament may vary along the length of the filament, being smallest along the arc-shaped turn.", "[0013] A cathode insulator may be provided to electrically and thermally isolate the cathode from a housing of the arc chamber.", "In one embodiment, the cathode insulator includes an opening having a diameter that is larger than or equal to the diameter of the cathode.", "A vacuum gap may be provided between the cathode insulator and the cathode to limit thermal conduction.", "The cathode insulator may have a generally tubular shape with a sidewall and include a flange for shielding the sidewall of the cathode insulator from plasma in the arc chamber.", "This flange may be provided with a groove, on a side of the flange facing away from the plasma, for increasing the path length between the cathode and the arc chamber housing.", "[0014] According to another aspect of the invention, a method for supporting and heating a cathode of an ion source includes supporting the cathode by a rod fixedly attached to the cathode, and bombarding the cathode with electrons.", "According to a further aspect of the invention, a cathode assembly for an ion source includes a cathode, a support rod fixedly attached to the cathode, a cathode insulator for electrically and thermally isolating the cathode from an arc chamber housing, and an indirect heating means for indirectly heating the cathode.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0015] For a better understanding of the present invention, reference is made to the accompanying drawings, which are incorporated herein by reference and in which: [0016] [0016 ]FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of an indirectly heated cathode ion source in accordance with an embodiment of the invention;", "[0017] [0017 ]FIGS. 2A and 2B are front and perspective views, respectively, of an embodiment of the cathode in the ion source of FIG. 1;", "[0018] FIGS. 3 A- 3 D are perspective, front, top and side views, respectively, of an embodiment of the filament in the ion source of FIG. 1;", "[0019] FIGS. 4 A- 4 C are perspective, cross-sectional and partial cross-sectional views, respectively, of an embodiment of the cathode insulator in the ion source of FIG. 1;", "[0020] [0020 ]FIG. 5 schematically illustrates a feedback loop used to control extraction current for the ion source controller;", "[0021] [0021 ]FIG. 6 schematically illustrates the operation of the ion source controller of FIG. 1 according to a first control algorithm;", "and [0022] [0022 ]FIG. 7 schematically illustrates the operation of the ion source controller of FIG. 1 according to a second control algorithm.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0023] An indirectly heated cathode ion source in accordance with an embodiment of the invention is shown in FIG. 1. An arc chamber housing 10 having an extraction aperture 12 defines an arc chamber 14 .", "A cathode 20 and a repeller electrode 22 are positioned within the arc chamber 14 .", "The repeller electrode 22 is electrically isolated.", "A cathode insulator 24 electrically and thermally insulates cathode 20 from arc chamber housing 10 .", "The cathode 20 optionally may be separated from insulator 24 by a vacuum gap to prevent thermal conduction.", "A filament 30 positioned outside arc chamber 14 in close proximity to cathode 20 produces heating of cathode 20 .", "[0024] A gas to be ionized is provided from a gas source 32 to arc chamber 14 through a gas inlet 34 .", "In another configuration, not shown, arc chamber 14 may be coupled to a vaporizer which vaporizes a material to be ionized in arc chamber 14 .", "[0025] An arc power supply 50 has a positive terminal connected to arc chamber housing 10 and a negative terminal connected to cathode 20 .", "Arc power supply 50 may have a rating of 100 volts at 10 amperes and may operate at about 50 volts.", "The arc power supply 50 accelerates electrons emitted by cathode 20 into the plasma in arc chamber 14 .", "A bias power supply 52 has a positive terminal connected to cathode 20 and a negative terminal connected to filament 30 .", "The bias power supply 52 may have a rating of 600 volts at 4 amperes and may operate at a current of about 2 amperes and a voltage of about 400 volts.", "The bias power supply 52 accelerates electrons emitted by filament 30 to cathode 20 to produce heating of cathode 20 .", "A filament power supply 54 has output terminals connected to filament 30 .", "Filament power supply 54 may have a rating of 5 volts at 200 amperes and may operate at a filament current of about 150 to 160 amperes.", "The filament power supply 54 produces heating of filament 30 , which in turn generates electrons that are accelerated toward cathode 20 for heating of cathode 20 .", "A source magnet 60 produces a magnetic field B within arc chamber 14 in a direction indicated by arrow 62 .", "The direction of the magnetic field B may be reversed without affecting the operation of the ion source.", "[0026] An extraction electrode, in this case a ground electrode 70 , and a suppression electrode 72 are positioned in front of the extraction aperture 12 .", "Each of ground electrode 70 and suppression electrode 72 have an aperture aligned with extraction aperture 12 for extraction of a well-defined ion beam 74 .", "[0027] An extraction power supply 80 has a positive terminal connected through a current sense resistor 110 to arc chamber housing 10 and a negative terminal connected to ground and to ground electrode 70 .", "Extraction power supply 80 may have a rating of 70 kilovolts (kV) at 25 milliamps to 200 milliamps.", "Extraction supply 80 provides the voltage for extraction of ion beam 74 from arc chamber 14 .", "The extraction voltage is adjustable depending on the desired energy of ions in ion beam 74 .", "[0028] A suppression power supply 82 has a negative terminal connected to suppression electrode 72 and a positive terminal connected to ground.", "Suppression power supply 82 may have an output in a range of −2 kV to −30 kV.", "The negatively biased suppression electrode 72 inhibits movement of electrons within ion beam 74 .", "It will be understood that the voltage and current ratings and the operating voltages and currents of power supplies 50 , 52 , 54 , 80 and 82 are given by way of example only and are not limiting as to the scope of the invention.", "[0029] An ion source controller 100 provides control of the ion source.", "The ion source controller 100 may be a programmed controller or a dedicated special purpose controller.", "In a preferred embodiment, the ion source controller 100 is incorporated into the main control computer of the ion implanter.", "[0030] The ion source controller 100 controls arc power supply 50 , bias power supply 52 and filament power supply 54 to produce a desired level of extraction ion current from the ion source.", "By fixing the current extracted from the ion source, the ion beam is tuned for best transmission, which is beneficial for ion source life and defect reduction, because of fewer beam generated particles, less contamination and improved maintenance due to reduced wear from beam incidence.", "An additional benefit is faster beam tuning.", "[0031] The ion source controller 100 may receive on lines 102 and 104 a current sense signal which is representative of extraction current I E supplied by extraction power supply 80 .", "Current sense resistor 110 may be connected in series with one of the supply leads from extraction power supply 80 to sense extraction current I E .", "In another arrangement, extraction power supply 80 may be configured for providing on a line 112 a current sense signal which is representative of extraction current I E .", "The electrical extraction current I E supplied by extraction power supply 80 corresponds to the beam current in ion beam 74 .", "The ion source controller 100 also receives a reference signal I E REF which represents a desired or reference extraction current.", "The ion source controller 100 compares the sensed extraction current I E with the reference extraction current I E REF and determines an error value, which may be positive, negative or zero.", "[0032] A control algorithm is used to adjust the outputs of the power supplies in response to the error value.", "One embodiment of the control algorithm utilizes a Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) loop, illustrated in FIG. 5. The goal of the PID loop is to maintain the extraction current I E , used for generating the ion beam, at the reference extraction current I E REF.", "The PID loop achieves this result by continually adjusting the output of a PID calculation 224 as required to adjust the sensed extraction current I E toward the reference extraction current I E REF.", "The PID calculation 224 receives feedback from the ion generator assembly 230 (FIG.", "1) in the form of an error signal I E ERROR, generated by subtracting the sensed extraction current I E and reference extraction current I E REF.", "The output of the PID loop may be fed from the ion source controller 100 to arc power supply 50 , bias power supply 52 and filament power supply 54 to maintain the extraction current I E at or near the reference extraction current I E REF.", "[0033] According to a first control algorithm, the bias current I B supplied by bias power supply 52 (FIG.", "1) is varied in response to the extraction current error value I E ERROR so as to control the extraction current I E at or near the reference extraction current I E REF.", "The bias current I B represents the electron current between filament 30 and cathode 20 .", "In particular, the bias current I B is increased in order to increase the extraction current I E , and the bias current I B is decreased in order to decrease the extraction current I E .", "The bias voltage V B is unregulated and varies to supply the desired bias current I B .", "Further, according to the first control algorithm, the filament current I F supplied by filament power supply 54 is maintained at a constant value, with the filament voltage V F being unregulated, and the arc voltage V A supplied by arc power supply 50 is maintained at a constant value, with the arc current I A being unregulated.", "The first control algorithm has the benefits of good performance, simplicity and low cost.", "[0034] An example of the operation of the ion source controller 100 according to the first control algorithm is schematically illustrated in FIG. 6. Inputs V 1 , V 2 , and R, designated in FIG. 1, are used to perform an extraction current calculation 220 .", "Input voltages V 1 and V 2 are measured values, while input resistance R is based on the value of the resistor 110 (FIG.", "1).", "The sensed extraction current I E is calculated as follows: I E =( V 1 −V 2 )/ R [0035] The above calculation may be omitted if the extraction power supply 80 is configured to provide a current sense signal, representative of extraction current I E , to the ion source controller 100 .", "The sensed extraction current I E and reference extraction current I E REF are inputs to an error calculation 222 .", "The reference extraction current I E REF is a set value based on a desired extraction current.", "The extraction current error value I E ERROR is calculated by subtracting the reference extraction current I E REF from the sensed extraction current I E , as follows: I E ERROR= I E −I E REF [0036] The extraction current error value I E ERROR and three control coefficients (K PB , K IB , and K DB ) are inputs for the PID calculation 224 a .", "The three control coefficients are optimized to obtain the best control effect.", "In particular, K PB , K IB , and K DB are chosen to produce a control system having a transient response with acceptable rise time, overshoot, and steady-state error.", "The output signal of the PID calculation is determined as follows: O b ( t )= K PB e ( t )+ K IB ∫e ( t ) dt+K DB de ( t )/ dt [0037] where e(t) is the instantaneous extraction current error value and O b (t) is the instantaneous output control signal.", "The instantaneous output signal O b (t) is provided to the bias power supply 52 , and provides information on how the bias current I B should be adjusted to minimize the extraction current error value.", "The magnitude and polarity of the output control signal O b (t) depends on the control requirements of bias power supply 52 .", "In general, however, the output control signal O b (t) causes the bias current I B to increase when the sensed extraction current I E is less than the reference extraction current I E REF and causes the bias current I B to decrease when the sensed extraction current I E is greater than the reference extraction current I E REF.", "[0038] The filament current I F and the arc voltage V A are maintained constant by a filament and arc power supply controller 225 , shown in FIG. 6. Control parameters, chosen according to desired source operating conditions, are input to the filament and arc power supply controller 225 .", "Control signals O f (t) and O a (t) are output by the controller 225 and are provided to the filament power supply 54 and the arc power supply 50 , respectively.", "[0039] In accordance with a second control algorithm, the filament current I F supplied by filament power supply 54 (FIG.", "1) is varied in response to the extraction current error value I E ERROR so as to control the extraction current I E at or near the reference extraction current I E REF.", "In particular, the filament current I F is decreased in order to increase the extraction current I E , and the filament current I F is increased in order to decrease the extraction current I E .", "The filament voltage V F is unregulated.", "Further, according to the second control algorithm, the bias current I B supplied by bias power supply 52 is maintained constant, with bias voltage V B being unregulated, and arc voltage V A supplied by arc power supply 50 is maintained constant, with arc current I A being unregulated.", "[0040] The operation of the ion source controller 100 according to the second control algorithm is schematically illustrated in FIG. 7. The extraction current calculation 220 is performed as in the first control algorithm, based on inputs V 1 , V 2 , and R, to determine the sensed extraction current I E .", "The sensed extraction current I E and reference extraction current I E REF are inputs to an error calculation 226 .", "The extraction current error value I E ERROR is calculated by subtracting the sensed extraction current I E from the reference extraction current I E REF, as follows: I E ERROR= I E REF− I E [0041] This calculation differs from the error calculation of the first algorithm, in that the order of the operands is reversed.", "The operands are reversed so that the control loop creates an inverse relationship between the extraction current I E and the controlled variable (in this case, I F ), rather than a direct relationship, as in the first algorithm.", "The extraction current error value I E ERROR and three control coefficients are inputs to a PID calculation 224 b .", "The coefficients K PF , K IF , and K DF do not necessarily have the same values as the control coefficients of the first algorithm, as they are chosen to optimize the performance of the ion source according to the second control algorithm.", "However, the PID calculation 224 b may be the same, as follows: O F ( t )− K PF e ( t )+ K IF ∫e ( t ) dt+K DF de ( t )/ dt [0042] An instantaneous output control signal O F (t) is provided to the filament power supply, and provides information on how the filament current I F should be adjusted to minimize the extraction current error value.", "The magnitude and polarity of the output control signal O F (t) depends on the control requirements of filament power supply 54 .", "In general, however, the output control signal O F (t) causes the filament current I F to decrease when the sensed extraction current I E is less than the reference extraction current I E REF and causes the filament current I F to increase when the sensed extraction current I E is greater than the reference extraction current I E REF.", "[0043] The bias current I B and the arc voltage V A are maintained constant by a bias and arc power supply controller 229 , shown in FIG. 7. Control parameters, chosen according to desired source operating conditions, are input to the bias and arc power supply controller 229 .", "Control signals O B (t) and O A (t) are output by the controller 229 and are provided to the bias power supply 52 and the arc power supply 50 , respectively.", "[0044] It should be appreciated that while the first control algorithm and second control algorithm are schematically represented separately, the ion source controller 100 may be configured to perform either or both algorithms.", "In the case where the ion source controller 100 is capable of performing both, a mechanism can be provided for selecting a particular algorithm to be implemented by the controller 100 .", "It will be understood that different control algorithms may be utilized to control the extraction current of an indirectly heated cathode ion source.", "In a preferred embodiment, the control algorithm is implemented in software in controller 100 .", "However, a hard-wired or microprogrammed controller may be utilized.", "[0045] When the ion source is in operation, the filament 30 is heated resistively by filament current I F to thermionic emission temperatures, which may be on the order of 2200° C. Electrons emitted by filament 30 are accelerated by the bias voltage V B between filament 30 and cathode 20 and bombard and heat cathode 20 .", "The cathode 20 is heated by electron bombardment to thermionic emission temperatures.", "Electrons emitted by cathode 20 are accelerated by arc voltage V A and ionize gas molecules from gas source 32 within arc chamber 14 to produce a plasma discharge.", "The electrons within arc chamber 14 are caused to follow spiral trajectories by magnetic field B. Repeller electrode 22 builds up a negative charge as a result of incident electrons and eventually has a sufficient negative charge to repel electrons back through arc chamber 14 , producing additional ionizing collisions.", "The ion source of FIG. 1 exhibits improved source life in comparison with directly heated cathode ion sources, because the filament 30 is not exposed to the plasma in arc chamber 14 and cathode 20 is more massive than conventional directly heated cathodes.", "[0046] An embodiment of indirectly heated cathode 20 is shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B.", "FIG. 2A is a side view, and FIG. 2B is a perspective view of cathode 20 .", "Cathode 20 may be disk shaped and is connected to a support rod 150 .", "In one embodiment, the support rod 150 is attached to the center of disk shaped cathode 20 and has a substantially smaller diameter than cathode 20 in order to limit thermal conduction and radiation.", "In another embodiment, multiple support rods are attached to the cathode 20 .", "For example, a second support rod, having a different size or shape than the first support rod, may be attached to the cathode 20 to inhibit incorrect installation of the cathode 20 .", "A cathode sub-assembly including cathode 20 and support rod 150 may be supported within arc chamber 14 (FIG.", "1) by a spring loaded clamp 152 .", "The spring loaded clamp 152 holds in place the support rod 150 , and is itself held in place by a supporting structure (not shown) for the arc chamber.", "Support rod 150 provides mechanical support for cathode 20 and provides an electrical connection to arc power supply 50 and bias power supply 52 , as shown in FIG. 1. Because support rod 150 has a relatively small diameter, thermal conduction and radiation are limited.", "[0047] In one example, cathode 20 and support rod 150 are fabricated of tungsten and are fabricated as a single piece.", "In this example, cathode 20 has a diameter of 0.75 inch and a thickness of 0.20 inch.", "In one embodiment, the support rod 150 has a length in a range of about 0.5 to 3 inches.", "For example, in a preferred embodiment, the support rod 150 has a length of approximately 1.75 inches and a diameter in a range of about 0.04 to 0.25 inch.", "In a preferred embodiment, the support rod 150 has a diameter of approximately 0.125 inch.", "In general, the support rod 150 has a diameter that is smaller than the diameter of the cathode 20 .", "For example, the diameter of the cathode 20 may be at least four times larger than the diameter of the support rod 150 .", "In a preferred embodiment, the diameter of the cathode 20 is approximately six times larger than the diameter of the support rod 150 .", "It will be understood that these dimensions are given by way of example only and are not limiting as to the scope of the invention.", "In another example, cathode 20 and support rod 150 are fabricated as separate components and are attached together, such as by press fitting.", "[0048] In general, the support rod 150 is a solid cylindrical structure and at least one support rod 150 is used to support cathode 20 and to conduct electrical energy to cathode 20 .", "In one embodiment, the diameter of the cylindrical support rod 150 is constant along the length of the support rod 150 .", "In another embodiment, the support rod 150 may be a solid cylindrical structure having a diameter that varies as a function of position along the length of the support rod 150 .", "For example, the diameter of the support rod 150 may be smallest along the length of the support rod 150 at each end thereof, thereby promoting thermal isolation between the support rod 150 and the cathode 20 .", "The support rod 150 is attached to the surface of cathode 20 which faces away from arc chamber 14 .", "In a preferred embodiment, support rod 150 is attached to cathode 20 at or near the center of cathode 20 .", "[0049] An example of filament 30 is shown in FIGS. 3 A- 3 D. In this example, filament is 30 is fabricated of conductive wire and includes a heating loop 170 and connecting leads 172 and 174 .", "Connecting leads 172 and 174 are provided with appropriate bends for attachment of filament 30 to a power supply, shown as filament power supply 54 in FIG. 1. In the example of FIGS. 3 A- 3 D, heating loop 170 is configured as a single arc-shaped turn having an inside diameter greater than or equal to the diameter of the support rod 150 , so as to accommodate the support rod 150 .", "In the example of FIGS. 3 A- 3 D, heating loop 170 has an inside diameter of 0.36 inch and an outside diameter of 0.54 inch.", "Filament 30 may be fabricated of tungsten wire having a diameter of 0.090 inch.", "Preferably the wire along the length of the heating loop 170 is ground or otherwise reduced to a smaller cross-sectional area in a region adjacent to the cathode 20 (FIG.", "1).", "For example, the diameter of the filament along the arc-shaped turn may be reduced to a smaller diameter, on the order of 0.075 inch, for increased resistance and increased heating in close proximity to cathode 20 , and decreased heating of connecting leads 172 and 174 .", "Preferably, heating loop 170 is spaced from cathode 20 by about 0.020 inch.", "[0050] An example of cathode insulator 24 is shown in FIGS. 4 A- 4 C. As shown, insulator 24 has a generally ring-shaped configuration with a central opening 200 for receiving cathode 20 .", "Insulator 24 is configured to electrically and thermally isolate cathode 20 from arc chamber housing 10 (FIG.", "1).", "Preferably, central opening 200 is dimensioned slightly larger than cathode 20 to provide a vacuum gap between insulator 24 and cathode 20 to prevent thermal conduction.", "Insulator 24 may be provided with a flange 202 which shields sidewall 204 of insulator 24 from the plasma in arc chamber 14 (FIG.", "1).", "The flange 202 may be provided with a groove 206 on the side facing away from the plasma, which increases the path length between cathode 20 and arc chamber housing 10 .", "This insulator design reduces the risk of deposits on the insulator causing a short circuit between cathode 20 and arc chamber housing 10 .", "In a preferred embodiment, cathode insulator 24 is fabricated of boron nitride.", "[0051] While there have been shown and described what are at present considered the preferred embodiments of the present invention, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made therein without departing from the scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.", "It should further be understood that the features described herein may be utilized separately or in any combination within the scope of the present invention." ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser.", "No. 60/848,252 filed Sep. 29, 2006.", "FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] This invention relates to semiconductor devices, and, specifically, to a protection network for dealing with voltage and current waveforms created from electrostatic discharge (ESD) events.", "BACKGROUND [0003] Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) presents a special problem for semiconductor devices and particularly for metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) types of structures.", "The high voltage transient signal from a static discharge can bias an object with more than 10,000 volts and several amps of peak current.", "The unique hazard in MOS devices is the high electric field that can develop across a relatively thin gate dielectric used in the normal course of operation of the device.", "The gate dielectric, which is often oxide, can rupture under high electric field conditions, when the charge built up on the gate ruptures the gate oxide which normally acts as an insulator.", "The effects of the permanent damage caused by the rupture may not be immediately apparent;", "therefore, the possibility of gate oxide rupture constitutes a realistic reliability concern.", "[0004] Common power MOSFETs have no protection against ESD or other excessive voltage signals applied to the gate.", "Silicon dioxide (SiO 2 ) is often used as the gate dielectric in MOS devices.", "Typically, the rupture voltage for SiO 2 can be as high as 10,000,000 Volts per centimeter.", "Modern MOS devices may have operational gate oxide of 400 Angstroms thickness.", "Therefore, the realistic rupture voltage for such a device is only about 40 V. One of the primary causes of ESD is contact with the human body during product assembly or maintenance.", "The “human body model”", "for ESD conditions typically involves a resistor in series with a capacitor.", "In the human body model (HBM), the effective body capacitance is charged to several thousand volts through even the simplest interaction with the environment.", "It is this charge that must be dissipated in the device.", "Thus, the human body appears to the power device as a high voltage battery during an ESD event.", "[0005] Because ESD conditions are common in many working environments, many commercial MOS devices are equipped with self-contained ESD protection systems.", "These can be discrete or integrated with the main functional circuitry.", "[0006] One method for protecting the gate of the devices from voltage above the oxide breakdown employs back-to-back diodes constructed in the polysilicon gate and then connected between the gate, source and/or drain terminals.", "This method is effective in improving the ESD rating of the MOSFET gate, and for avoiding over voltage damage.", "However, gate-source leakage current increases significantly since diodes constructed in polysilicon have much greater leakage current than in monocrystalline silicon.", "Maximum gate leakage current typically increases from 100 nanoamps to 10 microamps using this method.", "Some manufacturers have constructed other components in conjunction with the polysilicon diodes thus adding some limited control functions such as over current protection.", "[0007] An example of a typical ESD protection structure commonly implemented on a CMOS IC is the circuit of FIG. 1 a. There zener diodes 10.1 and 10.2 protect the gate of the N-mos power transistor 20 from very high voltages.", "Each zener diode pair is configured to point in opposite directions so that for current to flow in either direction across the pair, one zener breakdown voltage (plus one forward-biased diode drop) must be incurred.", "The reverse breakdown voltage in a zener diode is dependent upon the characteristics of the diode, but is typically much higher (on the order of several volts to tens of volts) than the forward-biased diode (on the order of 0.6 to 0.8 Volts).", "For extremely high voltages, the diode pair may conduct until the input voltage reaches a sufficiently low voltage so as to cause the pair to turn off.", "The zener diodes are fabricated such that they their reverse breakdown voltage plus one forward-biased diode drop is less than the rupture voltage for power transistor 20 .", "[0008] However, the use of polysilicon to produce a diode suitable for ESD protection circuitry has the disadvantages that the diodes are leaky, and thus a substantial leakage current may result.", "Others have proposed multiple polysilicon diode stacks with current limiting resistors between the stacks.", "See, for example U.S. Pat. No. 6,172,383.", "However, such proposals still have unacceptable leakage current.", "What the art needs is a protection circuit with limited or controlled leakage for normal operating conditions and ESD or high voltage protection for extraordinary conditions.", "SUMMARY [0009] The subject matter of this invention is an ESD protections circuit, in particular ESD protection circuit for a MOSFET or other power device with source, gate and drain terminals.", "The protection circuit has a primary and a secondary branch.", "The two branches are electrically in parallel with each other and are coupled between a gate input line and the source terminal.", "The primary branch has a small series buffer resistance and at least one pair of back to back (cathode to cathode) zener diodes.", "The back to back zener diodes set the breakdown voltage for the primary branch.", "The total voltage is thus the sum of the voltage drop across the series resistance, the reverse breakdown voltage of the first zener diode and the forward voltage drop across the second zener diode.", "The primary breakdown voltage is set slightly above the normal gate to source operating voltage of the device.", "For example, if the device operates at 8 volts, then the primary breakdown voltage will be set at about 11 or 12 volts.", "[0010] The invention provides a second resistor termed a gate ballast resistor is disposed between the gate electrode and the secondary branches.", "The primary branch first buffer resistor cuts down the leakage current in the primary branch but its presence during an ESD event causes voltage to build up on the gate.", "The gate ballast resistor prevents that voltage build up and applies the voltage across the secondary branch which breaks down for high ESD.", "[0011] The primary branch has a well-defined series resistance which serves two purposes.", "First, it reduces the current into the primary branch when the diode stack(s) in that branch breaks down.", "The voltage drop across the primary branch will increase proportional to the applied voltage due to the presence of the small resistance in the primary branch.", "That voltage will appear across the secondary branch.", "As the secondary branch approaches breakdown the ESD current will be shared by the two branches.", "[0012] A second purpose is to reduce leakage current.", "The breakdown of the secondary branch is offset and greater than the breakdown voltage of the primary branch.", "As mentioned above, polysilicon diodes are leaky.", "When leakage is measured at 80% of the target gate rating (e.g. 8 volts) that same voltage appears across the secondary branch.", "Since the breakdown of the secondary branch is set higher than the breakdown voltage of the primary branch, the leakage generated from the secondary branch can be an order of magnitude lower than the leakage of the primary branch.", "In the case of DC voltage, the leakage value is comparable to leakage of a single diode.", "[0013] The secondary branch has a higher breakdown voltage.", "In one embodiment, it includes two or more pairs of back to back zener diodes.", "Each pair of back to back zener diodes has an individual reverse zener diode breakdown voltage and a forward zener diode voltage drop.", "The breakdown voltage of the second branch is the reverse zener and forward zener voltage drops of the back to back pairs of zener diodes.", "In a typical embodiment, the breakdown voltage of the secondary branch is set to be between 15 and 20 volts or from two to three times the normal operating voltage.", "The second branch will conduct current away from the gate and protect the gate oxide from rupture before the applied gate voltage reaches a critical value.", "In other embodiments, the secondary branch includes a series ballast resistance.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0014] The present invention is disclosed with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein: [0015] FIG. 1 a is a schematic view of a single diode branch protective circuit with no series ballast resistor.", "[0016] FIG. 1 b is schematic view of a single diode branch protective circuit with a series ballast resistor.", "[0017] FIG. 1 c is a graph showing the performance under test of the circuits shown in FIGS. 1 a and 1 b with the graphs A and B representing the results, respectively.", "[0018] FIG. 2 a is a schematic view of one embodiment of the present invention.", "[0019] FIG. 2 b is a graph showing the performance of the circuit shown in FIG. 2 a. [0020] FIG. 3 is a schematic view of an embodiment of the present invention;", "[0021] FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a device with a polysilicon diode;", "[0022] FIG. 5 is a graphical depiction of lattice temperature over time in a control device with a single diode branch and a device embodying the present invention;", "[0023] FIG. 6 is a graphical depiction of voltage at gate input in a control device with a single diode branch and a device embodying the present invention;", "[0024] FIG. 7 is a graphical depiction of voltage at MOS-interface in a control device with a single diode branch and a device embodying the present invention.", "[0025] FIG. 8 shows a plan view of the integrated circuit shown in FIG. 2 a. [0026] The examples set out herein illustrate a few embodiments of the invention but should not be construed as limiting the scope of the invention in any manner.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0027] FIG. 1 a shows how a typical back to back diode stack without a series zener ballast resistance and FIG. 1 b shows the same diode stack with a series zener resistance 11 .", "In both figures the zener diode stack has cathode to cathode zener polysilicon diodes 10 .", "1 and 10 .", "2 coupled at one end to the drain of the mosfet 20 and at the other end to the gate input line 14 .", "In FIG. 1 b the stack 10 is connected via series zener ballast resistor 11 to the gate input line 14 .", "[0028] A voltage V is applied to the input terminal 15 and the results of two trials are shown in FIG. 1 c. There a first graph A shows results when no series zener ballast resistance 11 is used and a second graph B representative of results when a series zener ballast resistance 11 as shown in FIG. 1 b is used.", "When there is no series zener ballast resistance, the breakdown voltage of the diode stack in graph A is about 12 volts (BV1) and at 15 volts, the current rises rapidly to 1 amp.", "The sharp knee in the curve at 12 volts indicates the quick response time of the diode stack.", "However, the stack 10 generates substantial leakage current, especially for breakdown voltages as low as 13 or 14 volts.", "When a series zener ballast resistance 11 is added to the diode stack, the leakage current is much less.", "See graph B. It shows that when the diode stack of FIG. 1 b has a series zener ballast resistance 11 as low as two ohms, the current at 15 volts is only 0.4 amps or 60% less than the current for a the diode stack without a series zener ballast resistance.", "[0029] Turning to FIG. 2 a, there is shown one embodiment of the invention.", "The input terminal 150 is connected via nodes 151 and 152 to first and second branches 103 , 105 .", "The output terminal 160 of the protection circuit is connected to the gate of the power mosfet.", "One or more optional resistors, e.g. 170 may be disposed between the nodes 151 , 152 that connect the branches 103 , 105 to the gate line that extends from the input terminal 150 to the output terminal 160 .", "The protected device 100 is a MOSFET with a gate region 110 , a source region 112 , and a drain region 114 .", "The gate 110 has an electrode of metal or a highly doped polysilicon.", "Underneath the gate electrode is an insulating layer, typically a layer of silicon dioxide.", "The gate oxide layer is over a channel region disposed between the source and drain and on the silicon.", "[0030] The ESD protection network 101 has primary and secondary parallel branches 103 , 105 .", "These branches 103 , 105 are placed so as to protect the gate oxide.", "The gate oxide layer is a vulnerable component in the semiconductor device, and the gate oxide is susceptible to rupture where there is a surge of voltage.", "The first branch 103 is the primary branch.", "The primary branch has a breakdown voltage set to the target gate protection rating, typically this is in the range of 8-25V.", "The primary branch contains a zener ballast resistor 102 and two cathode to cathode zener diodes 104 a, 104 b. The diodes and resistors are polysilicon.", "The primary branch 103 is substantially identical to the corresponding gate to drain structure shown in FIG. 1 b. As mentioned above, the primary branch has two purposes.", "The first purpose is to reduce the current into the branch, thereby functioning as a ballast resistor.", "The second purpose is to increase the voltage across the branch as it conducts more current at breakdown.", "[0031] The secondary branch 105 has a higher breakdown voltage than the first or primary branch 103 .", "The secondary branch 105 has four zener diodes 106 a, 106 b, 108 a, 108 b. The voltage appears across the secondary branch 105 , and as it approaches the breakdown voltage of this branch, it will begin to conduct current.", "The two branches share a common path leading to the source 114 .", "Voltage is dissipated by removing voltage that could rupture the gate and allowing voltage to travel across the branches to ground, thereby protecting the device.", "[0032] A gate ballast resistor 120 is connected between the secondary branch 105 and the gate electrode.", "As mentioned above, as voltage builds up on the gate, the gate ballast resistor applies that voltage to the secondary branch and thus protects the gate for transient high voltages generated by the zener ballast resistor 102 .", "[0033] Graph B of FIG. 1 c is instructive of how to add the secondary branch of two pair of back to back diodes 106 a, 106 b, 108 a, 108 b to protect the mosfet 100 .", "Note the circled region C with the notation BV2.", "Between 15 and 20 volts, the second branch should breakdown and rapidly conduct current away from the gate before the voltage on the gate reaches the gate rupture voltage (about 40 volts).", "In order to achieve this result the diode stack comprising two pair of back to back diodes 106 a, 106 b, 108 a, 108 b create the secondary branch 105 .", "The breakdown voltage (BV2) of that branch is constructed to be between 15 and 20 volts.", "Thus, at, for example, 17 volts, the secondary branch will breakdown and the current will be shorted to ground.", "The section of the graph in FIG. 2 b labeled D shows how the circuit behaves when the applied voltage exceeds BV2.", "In summary, at a voltage over about 12 volts (BV1) the primary branch breaks down and begins conducting.", "The current carried to ground continues to rise gently along the slope of the graph B of FIG. 2 b. At the breakdown voltage (BV2) of the secondary branch, about 17 volts, the protection circuit realizes that the applied voltage is not a small transient but may be the beginning of a larger ESD pulse.", "Accordingly, at BV2, the secondary branch breaks down and higher current is shunted to ground.", "However, shunting more current to ground, the protection circuit protects the gate from experiencing a rupture voltage.", "[0034] Referring to FIG. 3 , there is another embodiment of the device.", "The input terminal 250 is connected via nodes 251 and 252 to first and second branches 203 , 205 .", "The output terminal 260 of the protection circuit is connected to the gate of the power mosfet.", "One or more optional resistors, e.g. 270 may be disposed between the nodes 251 , 252 that connect the branches 203 , 205 to the gate line that extends from the input terminal 250 to the output terminal 260 .", "The protected device is a MOSFET with a gate region 210 , source region 212 , and drain region 214 .", "In this embodiment, the diode network 201 has two parallel branches 203 , 205 , each having its own path leading to the source region 212 .", "The first branch 203 has a series ballast resistor 202 and two zener diodes 204 a, 204 b. The second branch 205 has the same configuration, which is a series ballast resistor 206 and two zener diodes 208 a, 208 b. Again, the second branch 205 has a higher breakdown voltage than the first branch 203 .", "This voltage appears across the secondary branch and as it approaches the breakdown voltage of this branch, it will begin to conduct current, and the total current will now be shared between the two branches.", "The significance of offsetting the breakdown voltage is for the benefit of leakage.", "When the leakage is measure at 80% of the target gate rating, 8V for example, this voltage also appears across the secondary branch.", "Since the secondary branch has a higher breakdown voltage, the leakage generate by the secondary branch can be an order of magnitude lower than the leakage current in the primary branch.", "Again, the ESD protection network uses polysilicon diodes and resistors.", "[0035] A gate ballast resistor 220 is connected between the secondary branch 205 and the gate electrode.", "As mentioned above, as voltage builds up on the gate, the gate ballast resistor applies that voltage to the secondary branch and thus protects the gate for transient high voltages generated by the zener ballast resistor 202 .", "[0036] Referring to FIG. 4 , there is a partial cross-sectional view of a device 300 embodying the present invention.", "The gate electrode 310 is separated from the source electrode 312 by a passivating layer 322 .", "In addition, there is an inter-layer dielectric (ILD) layer 320 between the gate electrode 310 and the source electrode 312 .", "Below the ILD layer 320 is a portion of the diode structure 304 with alternating N+ regions 304 a and P− regions 304 b. Under the diode structure 304 is a field oxide layer 318 .", "Further, under the field oxide layer 318 is the substrate 324 .", "Lastly, there is a thermal contact 326 at the bottom of the device from this perspective.", "[0037] The ESD protection network shown in these various embodiments can be used in all active and passive devices.", "For instance, the device has been shown in MOSFET devices, but may also be used in thyristors, bipolar junction transistors, and insulated gate bipolar transistors.", "It will be understood by those skilled in the art that other devices may use the disclosed ESD protection network.", "[0038] FIG. 8 shows a plan layout of the circuit 100 .", "The first branch 103 with diodes 104 a, 104 b and resistor 102 are formed in the inner ring 803 / 802 and the second branch 105 composed of diodes 106 a,b and 108 a,b are in the outer ring 805 .", "The zener series ballast resistor 102 is about 4 ohms and is indicated by trace line 802 ;", "the gate ballast resistor 120 is represented by trace line 820 .", "Internal source metal forms ground connections.", "Those skilled in the art understand that one or more diode rings made be added to the structure of circuit 200 to provide a three or more secondary branches to further handle an ESD event.", "[0039] FIG. 5 is a graphical illustration of Maximum Lattice Temperature.", "It has two traces.", "One trace shows the expected lattice temperature for a device with a single branch and the other trace shows the expected lattice temperature for a device with parallel branches as described above.", "As is visible in the illustration, the lattice temperature is greatly reduced in the device with the dual branch diode network as compared to the device with a single diode branch.", "In particular, the device with a single branch has lattice temperature over 900 degrees Kelvin, with a rapid rise incline to that temperature.", "The device using the parallel branches has a maximum temperature of slightly over 500 degrees Kelvin with a more moderate rise over time to that temperature.", "The reduced lattice temperature increases the operability of the device, thereby creating an advantage over the prior art.", "Referring to FIGS. 6 and 7 , the graphs represent the voltage at gate input and MOS-interface, respectively.", "Both figures show that the second branch of the diode network helps to clamp voltage to about 20V.", "The device with single diode branch have a peak between 26-28V.", "[0040] While the invention has been described with reference to particular embodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes may be made and equivalents may be substituted for elements thereof without departing from the scope of the invention.", "In addition, many modifications may be made to adapt a particular situation or material to the teachings of the invention without departing from the scope of the invention.", "For example, the protection circuits of the invention may have more than two branches.", "However, the breakdown of the entire protection circuit is set by the lowest breakdown voltage of all the branches.", "In the preferred embodiment the branch closest to the input node is the normally selected to be the controlling branch and it will have the lowest breakdown voltage.", "Other branches may have breakdown voltages equal to or greater than the first branch.", "[0041] Therefore, it is intended that the invention not be limited to the particular embodiments disclosed herein for carrying out this invention, but that the invention will include all embodiments falling within the scope and spirit of the appended claims." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to color picture tubes of the type having a color selection electrode or shadow mask attached to a frame which is suspended in relation to a cathodoluminescent screen, and particularly to a support structure for suspending the mask-frame assembly within the tube.", "In these color picture tubes, the accuracy with which the electron beams strike the individual elemental cathodoluminescent screen areas depends, to a great extent, upon the accuracy with which the apertures in the shadow mask are aligned with the elemental screen areas during the operation of the tube.", "Thus, as the mask expands outwardly, i.e., radially, by reason of thermal effects occasioned by the impact thereon of the electron beams, the resulting misalignment of the mask apertures and elemental screen areas cause a portion of the electron beams to misregister, that is, to impinge upon elemental screen areas other than the ones upon which they are intended to impinge.", "Most present day color picture tubes utilize a mask mounting assembly, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,803,436, issued to Morrell on Apr. 9, 1974, to move the mask longitudinally towards the screen, as the mask is heated, to compensate for radial mask expansion.", "In FIGS. 1-4 of the Morrell patent, bimetallic elements are connected between studs embedded in the faceplate panel and the mask electrode.", "The bimetallic elements may be springs welded directly to the frame or intermediate members located between the springs and the frame.", "In the Morrell patent, the studs are located along the major and minor axes of the faceplate panel.", "Such a structure produces some instability and loss of rigidity in the mask electrode.", "A more complete description of mask mounting structures and temperature compensation may be found in A. Morrell, H. Law, E. Ramberg and E. Herold, Color Television Picture Tubes, 100-102, 104-107 (Academic Press, 1974).", "In a four-spring support arrangement, wherein each spring has the same orientation, e.g., all extending either clockwise or counterclockwise relative to the mask-frame assembly, thermal expansion of the springs and frame causes the mask-frame assembly to rotate about the longitudinal axis of the tube.", "This rotation also causes misregister of the electron beams with the elemental screen areas.", "The direction of rotation is determined by the location of the spring assemblies of the support structure relative to the major and minor axes of the faceplate panel.", "If the spring assemblies of the support structure are located to the right of the major and minor axes, the rotation will be oppositely directed, or clockwise.", "However, if the spring assemblies are located to the left of the axes, the rotation will be counterclockwise.", "A structure which corrects the aforementioned problem of rotation while providing for thermal expansion of the mask-frame assembly along the longitudinal axis is proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,528,475 issued on July 9, 1985 to F. R. Ragland, Jr. In the structure in that patent, an edge-to-edge bimetallic spring is angled with respect to the frame such that the angle between the spring and the frame is of an amount to align the spring-to-frame attachment point when the spring and the frame are unheated with the same attachment point when the spring and the frame are heated.", "In the aforementioned patent, when four studs are used to support the mask-frame assembly, the studs are located adjacent to the major and minor axes of the faceplate panel.", "However, if the studs which support the mask-frame assembly were to be moved adjacent to the corners of the faceplate panel to increase the stability of the mask, it would be necessary to determine an angle for the springs attached along the long side of the faceplate and a different angle for the springs attached along the short side of the faceplate.", "The reason for the different spring angles is because of the difference in spacing from the major and minor axes to the corners of the rectangular faceplate.", "Thus, to date, the problem of rotation in tubes having the mask assembly support studs located adjacent to the corners of the faceplate panel has not been fully addressed.", "The present invention provides an improvement in the various spring support systems so as to minimize or eliminate rotation while providing longitudinal compensation during tube operation.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An improved color picture tube according to the invention has a longitudinal axis and includes an evacuated envelope enclosing a substantially rectangular cathodoluminescent screen, a color selection electrode suspended in register with the screen by support means and an electron gun.", "The support means include a plurality of studs attached to the envelope adjacent to the corners of the screen and a plurality of spring assemblies.", "Each spring assembly includes a first bimetal member attached to the color selection electrode and a second bimetal member having an aperture therein for engaging one of said studs.", "The first and second bimetal members provide longitudinal and rotational compensation, respectively, for maintaining the color selection electrode in register with the screen when the electrode and the spring assemblies are heated.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a plan view in axial section of an apertured mask cathode-ray tube (CRT).", "FIG. 2 is a back view of the faceplate and mask-frame assembly of the tube of FIG. 1 having a counterclockwise oriented novel support structure adjacent to each of the corners of the faceplate.", "FIG. 3 is a back view of the faceplate and mask-frame assembly of the tube of FIG. 1 having a clockwise oriented novel support structure adjacent to each of the corners of the faceplate.", "FIG. 4 is an enlarged plan view of a fragment of the structure of FIG. 2. FIG. 5 is an enlarged perspective view of an improved spring assembly of the novel support structure of FIG. 2 attached to the mask-frame assembly.", "FIG. 6 is a side view of the novel support structure taken along line 6--6 of FIG. 4. FIG. 7 is an enlarged plan view of a fragment of the structure of FIG. 3. FIG. 8 is a perspective view of another embodiment of the novel spring assembly.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 illustrates a substantially rectangular color picture tube 18 having an evacuated glass envelope 20 comprising a faceplate panel 22 and a tubular neck 24 joined by a funnel 26.", "The panel 22, having a major axis (X--X) and a minor axis (Y--Y), comprises a viewing faceplate 28 and a peripheral flange or sidewall 30, which is sealed to the funnel 26 by a frit material 27.", "A substantially rectangular three-color cathodoluminescent line screen 32 is located on the inner surface of the faceplate 28.", "The screen 32 comprises an array of phosphor lines extending substantially parallel to the minor axis of the panel 22, so that the major and minor axes of the screen 32 are aligned with the major and minor axes of the panel.", "Portions of the screen 32 may be covered with a light-absorbing material (not shown) in a manner known in the art.", "A mask-frame assembly 33, comprising a multiapertured color selection electrode or shadow mask 34 made of cold-rolled steel having a thermal expansion of about 33×10 -6 centimeters per °C.", "at 20° C., is attached to a frame 35 of cold-rolled steel, having an L-shaped cross-section.", "The mask-frame assembly 33 is removably mounted within the panel 22 in predetermined spaced relationship to the screen 32.", "The mask-frame assembly 33 must be removed from the panel 22 several times in the process of fabricating the screen 32.", "A novel support structure for this mask-frame assembly 33 is described in detail below.", "The mask 34 includes a multiplicity of slit-shaped apertures, which are aligned in substantially parallel vertical columns, and web portions separating the slits of each column.", "An inline electron gun 36 (illustrated schematically) is mounted within the neck 24 to generate and direct three inline electron beams 38B, 38R and 38G along convergent paths through the mask 34 to the screen 32.", "The longitudinal axis (Z--Z) of the tube 18 passes through the center of the electron gun 36 and through the center of the screen 32.", "The tube 18 is designed to be used with an external magnetic deflection yoke 40 surrounding the neck 24 and funnel 26 in the vicinity of their junction.", "When appropriate voltages are applied to the yoke 40, the three beams 38B, 38R and 38G are subjected to orthogonal magnetic fields that cause the beams to scan in the direction of the major screen axis, and in the direction of the minor screen axis, in a rectangular raster over the screen 32.", "The major and minor axes of the screen 32 are mutually perpendicular to one another and to the longitudinal axis (Z--Z) of the tube 18.", "For simplicity, the actual curvature of the paths of the deflected beams in the deflection zone is not shown in FIG. 1. Instead, the beams are schematically shown as having an instantaneous bend at the plane of deflection (P--P).", "A portion of the screen 32, partially covered by the mask 34, is illustrated in FIG. 2. The screen 32 comprises alternate lines 42 of red-, green- and blue-emitting phosphor elements.", "Also shown in FIG. 2 are four counterclockwise oriented novel mask-frame support means 44 (one of which is shown in FIG. 1) that suspend the mask-frame assembly 33 within the panel 22.", "Alternatively, four mask-frame support means 44'", "can be disposed in a clockwise orientation, as shown in FIG. 3. The frame 35 has an L-shaped cross-section with a first flange 46 extending toward the screen 32 and a second flange 48 extending inwardly toward the longitudinal axis (Z--Z) of the tube 18, as shown in FIG. 1. The frame 35 lies in a plane which is transverse to the longitudinal axis (Z--Z) of the tube 18.", "The frame 35 is substantially rectangular and comprises two oppositely disposed long sides and two oppositely disposed short sides.", "As shown in FIG. 2, the center of each long side of the frame 35 is bisected by the minor axis (Y--Y) of the panel 22, and the center of each short side of the frame 35 is bisected by the major axis (X--X) of the panel 22.", "The frame 35 is generally thicker than the mask 34 to provide adequate support for the latter.", "As shown in FIG. 4, each mask-frame support means 44 includes a conventional metal stud 50 embedded into the sidewall 30 of the panel 22 adjacent to one of the corners thereof, and a novel resilient spring assembly 52.", "Each spring assembly 52 is welded at one end to the first flange 46 of the frame 35.", "An aperture 54 is formed through the major surfaces of the spring assembly 52 at the other end thereof, as best shown in FIG. 5. The aperture 54 is pivotably disposed over the tapered end of the stud 50.", "The major surfaces of each spring assembly 52 lie in planes that are substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis (Z--Z) of the tube 18 and substantially perpendicular to the transverse plane (X-Y).", "The novel spring assembly 52, shown in perspective in FIG. 5, comprises a first bimetal member 56 of edge-to-edge construction, and a second bimetal member 58 of laminated, contiguous layer construction.", "One rectangular strip 60 of the first bimetal member 56 has a higher coefficient of thermal expansion than the other rectangular strip 62.", "The strips 60 and 62 each have a given longitudinal axis and are secured together along adjacent edges, extending in a direction parallel to the longitudinal axis of each strip.", "The first bimetal member 56 has a distal end 64 and a proximal end 66 which is welded to the first flange 46 of the frame 35 at weld points 68 and 69.", "The second bimetal member 58 has a substantially rectangular configuration and includes a first layer 70, which has a lower coefficient of thermal expansion than the other layer 72 which is contiguous therewith.", "The layers 70 and 72 are joined together along facing major surfaces.", "The second bimetal member 58 has a distal end 74 with the aperture 54 formed therein, and a proximal end 76 which is attached, for example, by welding at a weld point 78 to the distal end 64 of the first bimetal member 56.", "The lower coefficient of expansion layer 70 of the second bimetal member 58 abuts the first bimetal member 56.", "Preferably, the long edges of the members 56 and 58 are parallel to one another.", "A step-like portion 80 of substantially constant width extends between the ends 74 and 76 of the second bimetal member 58.", "By way of illustration, and not limitation, in the preferred embodiment, the first bimetal member 56 has a thickness of about 0.76 mm (0.03 inches) and a width of about 1 cm (0.39 inches), with each of the strips 60 and 62 having equal width.", "The second bimetal member 58 has a thickness of about 0.76 mm (0.03 inches), equally divided between layers 70 and 72, and a width of about 1 cm (0.39 inches).", "The first bimetal member 56 has an active length, A, defined as the distance between weld points 68 and 78, of about 2 cm (0.79 inches).", "The second bimetal member 58 has an effective length, L, defined as the distance from the weld point 78 to the step portion 80, of about 2.5 cm (0.98 inches), and a step height, S, of about 3.05 mm (0.12 inches).", "The edge-to-edge bimetal of the first bimetal member 56 and the laminated bimetal of the second bimetal member 58 are formed of low expansion Invar (36% Ni, 64% Fe) and high expansion, non-magnetic stainless steel.", "When the color picture tube 18 is operated, the mask-frame assembly 33 and the spring assemblies 52 expand due to the heat produced by electron bombardment.", "The expansion also causes a rotation of the four-corner supported mask-frame assembly 33, such that the centers of the short and long sides of the mask-frame assembly 33 are no longer aligned with the major and minor axes, respectively, of the panel 22.", "The expansion thus causes color impurity in the three-color picture on the screen 32 due to misalignment or misregister of the apertures in the mask 34 with the phosphor lines 42 on the screen.", "In order to eliminate or minimize such misregister, the spring assemblies 52 are adapted to cause the mask-frame assembly 33 to move toward the screen, while expanding outwardly and to move in a compensating direction to offset the clockwise rotation induced by the four-corner mounted shadow mask support structure.", "With reference to FIGS. 4 and 6 when the mask-frame assembly 33 and the spring assembly 52 are heated by the impingement of the electron beams, they expand outwardly to the heated locations indicated by the dashed lines.", "The second bimetal member 58, comprising the lower coefficient of expansion layer 70 and the higher coefficient of expansion layer 72, will bend in the direction of the lower expansion layer 70.", "The step-like offset portion 80 will also bend in the direction of the lower expansion layer 70, but since the aperture 54 is pivotably engaged with the stud 50, the bending translates to a transverse displacement of the offset portion 80 to its heated location 80'", "which is clearly shown in FIG. 6. The displacement effectively moves the frame 35 such that weld points 68 and 69 are displaced a distance D to locations 68'", "and 69', respectively.", "The offset portion 80 effectively produces a displacement in the counterclockwise direction (i.e., to the right), which compensates for the normal clockwise rotation of the four-corner, mask-frame support means 44.", "Heating the spring assembly 52 also causes a bending in the first bimetal member 56 in the direction of the lower coefficient of expansion strip 62, as is shown in FIG. 6. Since the aperture 54 of the second bimetal member 58 pivots about the stud 50, the bending of the first bimetal member 56 causes the end of the spring assembly 52 that is welded to the first flange 46 of the frame 35 to move in the longitudinal direction Z toward the tube screen to the location indicated by the dashed lines.", "Thus, the first and second bimetal members 56 and 58, respectively, of spring assembly 52 act in concert to provide both longitudinal and transverse displacement of the shadow mask-frame assembly 33.", "In a test performed with a temperature change of 30° C., and the spring assembly 52 having the parameters described herein, the spring assembly 52 expanded about 0.1 mm (0.004 inches) in the longitudinal or Z direction, i.e., toward the screen and contracted about 0.05 mm in a transverse direction, Y. The expansion toward the screen corrects for the expansion of the frame and mask.", "Since the aperture 54 pivotably encompasses the stud 50, the contraction in the transverse direction compensates for the rotation caused by the four-corner spring support structure.", "Thus, rotation of the mask can be compensated or at least minimized by using the novel spring assembly 52.", "Additional longitudinal compensation can be achieved by attaching the second bimetal member 58 to the first bimetal member 56 at an angle so that the long edges of the members 56 and 58 are not parallel to one another.", "However, such an arrangement increases the complexity of the support structure.", "As shown in FIG. 3, the mask-frame support means 44'", "may also be affixed to the mask frame 35 in such a manner that the spring assemblies 52'", "are oriented in a clockwise manner.", "In this orientation, the weld points, which attach the first bimetal member 56 to the mask frame 35, are closer to the corner of the frame than in the embodiment of FIG. 2. Since the frame 35 is stiffer near the corners than along the sides, the orientation of FIG. 3 provides a sturdier support than that provided in FIG. 2. The studs 50 must be positioned, as shown in FIG. 3, to accommodate the clockwise orientation of the support means.", "A mask-frame support means 44'", "is shown in FIG. 7. The support means 44'", "is similar to the above-described support means 44 and includes a conventional metal stud 50 embedded into the sidewall 30 of the panel 22 and a resilient spring assembly 52'.", "The spring assembly 52'", "comprises the above-described, first bimetal member 56 of edge-to-edge construction, and a second bimetal member 58'", "of laminated, contiguous layer construction.", "The second bimetal member 58'", "differs from the member 58 in that the second metal layer 72, which has a higher coefficient of thermal expansion than the first metal layer 70, abutts the first bimetal member 56.", "In other words, the bimetal layers 70 and 72 of the second bimetal member 58'", "are disposed opposite to those of member 58.", "As a result of the bimetal members 70 and 72 being reversed, when the electron beams impinge on the mask-frame assembly 33 and heat the mask-frame assembly and the spring assembly 52', they expand outwardly to the heated locations indicated by the dashed lines.", "The step-like offset portion 80 of the second bimetal member 58'", "bends in the direction of the lower expansion layer 70, but since the aperture 54 is pivotably engaged with the stud 50, the bending translates to a transverse displacement of the offset portion 80 to its heated position 80'.", "This displacement in the counterclockwise direction (i.e., to the right) compensates for the normal clockwise rotation of the four-corner, mask-frame support means 44', which are located to the right of the major and minor axes of the panel 22.", "Another embodiment of a novel spring assembly 152 is shown in FIG. 8. The spring assembly 152 comprises a substantially rectangular strip-shaped first bimetal member 156 of laminated construction, which is fixedly attached, for example, by welding, to a side 146 of a frame 135.", "The bimetal member 156 includes a first portion 156a and a second portion 156b joined together along facing surfaces.", "The first portion 156a has a lower coefficient of thermal expansion and is positioned in contact with the frame 135.", "The second portion 156b has a higher coefficient of thermal expansion than portion 156a and is positioned to face the inner wall of the glass envelope (not shown).", "The facing surfaces of the first bimetal member 156 extend substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis (Z--Z) of the tube 18.", "A substantially rectangular leaf spring 157, having a longitudinal axis, is welded to the portion 156b of the bimetal member 156, so that the longitudinal axis of the leaf spring 157 is substantially parallel to the adjacent long edge of the bimetal member 156 and substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the tube.", "A second bimetal member 158 of laminated construction, comprising a first portion 170 and a second portion 172, are joined together along facing surfaces.", "The second bimetal member 158 has a rectangular configuration substantially identical to the previously described bimetal member 58', and a step-like portion 180 formed therein.", "The second bimetal member 158 is affixed to the free end of the leaf spring 157 so that the higher coefficient of thermal expansion portion 172 of the second bimetal member 158 is in contact with the leaf spring 157.", "Preferably, the long edges of the second bimetal member 158 are parallel to the longitudinal axis of the leaf spring 157.", "The lower coefficient of thermal expansion portion 170 of the second bimetal member 158 faces the inner wall of the glass envelope (not shown).", "A stud engaging aperture 154 is formed in the free end of the second bimetal member 158.", "When the mask-frame assembly 133 comprising shadow mask 134 and frame 135 expands, the first bimetal member 156 deflects inwardly toward the frame 135 urging the shadow mask 134 along the longitudinal axis (Z--Z) toward the screen (not shown).", "The step-like portion 180 of the second bimetal member 158 provides an expansion in the counterclockwise direction, as described for bimetal member 58', which compensates for the clockwise rotation of the mask-frame assembly 133 induced by the four-corner mounting structures which are located to the right of the major and minor axes of the faceplate panel (not shown)." ]

[ "This application is a continuation application of U.S. application Ser.", "No. 12/137,245 filed on Jun. 11, 2008 now U.S. Pat. No. 8,215,136 which claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2007-57876, filed on Jun. 13, 2007, which are hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a multiple laundry machine, and more particularly to a multiple laundry machine capable of separately washing a small amount of laundry.", "Discussion of the Related Art Generally, a laundry machine means an apparatus for washing, drying, or washing and drying laundry.", "One laundry machine can perform only a washing function or a drying function or can perform both the washing and drying functions.", "Recently, a laundry machine, which includes a steam supplier, to have a refresh function for, for example, removal of wrinkles, odor, static electricity, etc.", "from laundry, has been available.", "Meanwhile, conventional laundry machines are classified into a front loading type and a top loading type in accordance with the direction that laundry is taken out.", "Also, conventional laundry machines are classified into a vertical-axis type, in which a pulsator or an inner tub rotates, and a horizontal-axis type, in which a horizontally-extending drum rotates.", "The representative example of such a horizontal-axis type laundry machine is a drum washing machine or a drum drying machine.", "Such laundry machines have a tendency to have a large size, in order to meet the recent demand of users.", "That is, laundry machines used for domestic purposes have a tendency to have a large outer size.", "Generally, only one large-capacity washing machine is equipped in a home.", "When it is desired to wash different kinds of laundry in an independent manner, using the washing machine, it is necessary to operate the washing machine several times.", "For example, when it is desired to wash laundry such as adult clothes and laundry such as underclothes or baby clothes in an independent manner, the washing machine operates two times to individually wash the two different kinds of laundry.", "For this reason, the washing time increases.", "Furthermore, it is undesirable to use the large-capacity washing machine in washing a small amount of laundry, in terms of saving of energy, as in conventional cases.", "This is because the washing course set in the large-capacity washing machine is typical for the case, in which the amount of laundry to be washed is large, so that the amount of water to be consumed in the washing course is large.", "Also, a large amount of electricity is consumed because it is necessary to rotate a large-size drum or pulsator.", "In additional, since the washing course set in the large-capacity washing machine is typical for the case, in which the amount of laundry to be washed is large, the washing time is relatively long.", "Also, the washing course set in the large-capacity washing machine is typical for general clothes.", "For this reason, the large-capacity washing machine may be unsuitable for the washing of delicate clothes such as underclothes or baby clothes.", "In addition, the large-capacity washing machine is unsuitable in the case in which washing of a small amount of laundry should be frequently performed.", "Generally, users collect laundry for several days, in order to wash the collected laundry at one time.", "However, leaving laundry, in particular, underclothes or baby clothes, without immediately washing them, is undesirable in terms of cleanliness.", "Furthermore, when such clothes are left for a long period of time, there is a problem in that they cannot be cleanly washed because dirt may be fixed to the clothes.", "In this regard, it is necessary to use a small-size washing machine having a capacity much smaller than the conventional large-capacity washing machine.", "However, where two small-size washing machines are equipped in a home, and they are laterally arranged in parallel, there are problems associated with space utility and beauty, even though the size of the washing machines is small.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a multiple laundry machine that substantially obviates one or more problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the related art.", "An object of the present invention is to provide a multiple laundry machine capable of achieving a washing operation for a small amount of laundry, and separately washing laundry in accordance with the kind of the laundry.", "In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a multiple laundry machine comprises: a casing;", "and a plurality of laundry machines arranged in the casing, to conduct washing operations in different manners, respectively.", "The casing may comprise an accommodating space defined in the casing, to accommodate the plurality of laundry machines.", "The accommodating space may be vertically partitioned into sub-spaces to receive the laundry machines, respectively.", "The plurality of laundry machines may comprise a first laundry machine to conduct a washing operation for laundry while maintaining the laundry in a fixed state, and a second laundry machine to conduct a washing operation for laundry while applying a rotating force to the laundry.", "The first laundry machine may comprise a drainage pipe, and the second laundry machine may comprise a water supply pipe connected to the drainage pipe of the first laundry machine.", "The first and second laundry machines may be forwardly slidable from the casing.", "Alternatively, the first laundry machine may be of a top loading type, and the second laundry machine may be slidably installed.", "The first laundry machine may comprise: a tub for providing a washing space;", "a rack for holding laundry in a fixed state;", "and a sprayer rotatably installed to spray wash water to the rack.", "The tub may be formed to be partially opened at a front side of the tub.", "The first laundry machine may further comprise a door for opening/closing the opened portion of the tub.", "The rack may be provided with guide protrusions, and the tub may be provided with guide grooves engaged with the guide protrusions, to allow the rack to be outwardly ejectable through the opened portion of the tub, and to allow the rack to be adjusted in level.", "The first laundry machine may comprise: a tub for providing a washing space;", "a rack for holding laundry in a fixed state in the tub;", "and a plurality of spray ports formed through a wall of the tub, to spray wash water to the rack.", "The first laundry machine may comprise: a tub for receiving wash water;", "and an ultrasonic washer for vibrating the wash water received in the tub, to wash laundry.", "The second laundry machine may comprise: a tub for receiving wash water;", "a pulsator rotatably mounted in the tub, to pulsate the wash water;", "and a motor for applying a rotating force to the pulsator.", "The second laundry machine may comprise: an outer tub for receiving wash water;", "an inner tub rotatably installed in the outer tub, to pulsate laundry contained in the inner tub;", "and a motor for providing a rotating force to the inner tub.", "The second laundry machine may comprise a steam generator for supplying steam to the tub.", "Each of the laundry machines may comprise a heater for heating wash water, to achieve a laundry boiling function.", "The multiple laundry machine may further comprise: a controller for controlling overall operation of each of the laundry machines such that the laundry machines are simultaneously controlled;", "a key input unit for inputting a user command associated with each of the laundry machines;", "and a display for displaying the user command input through the key input unit or an operation state.", "The multiple laundry machine may further comprise: a controller for controlling operations of each of the laundry machines such that the laundry machines are independently controlled;", "a key input unit for inputting a user command associated with each of the laundry machines;", "and a display for displaying the user command input through the key input unit or an operation state.", "At least one of the laundry machines may be forwardly slidable from the casing.", "At least one of the laundry machines may comprise a door mounted to a portion of the casing corresponding to an upper portion of the laundry machine.", "It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description of the present invention are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this application, illustrate embodiment(s) of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the principle of the invention.", "In the drawings: FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating a multiple laundry machine according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;", "FIG. 2 is a perspective view illustrating a multiple laundry machine according to another embodiment of the present invention;", "FIG. 3 is a sectional view illustrating a connecting pipe for re-use of wash water according to the present invention;", "FIG. 4 is a sectional view illustrating a first laundry machine according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;", "FIG. 5 is a perspective view illustrating a rack provided in accordance with the embodiment of FIG. 4 ;", "FIG. 6 is a sectional view illustrating a first laundry machine according to another embodiment of the present invention;", "FIG. 7 is a sectional view illustrating a first laundry machine according to another embodiment of the present invention;", "FIG. 8 is a sectional view illustrating a second laundry machine according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;", "and FIG. 9 is a sectional view illustrating a second laundry machine according to another embodiment of the present invention.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of the present invention associated with a multiple laundry machine, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings.", "FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating a multiple laundry machine according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.", "As shown in FIG. 1 , the multiple laundry machine 10 according to the present invention includes a casing 20 , and a plurality of laundry machines arranged in the casing 20 , to conduct washing operations in different manners, respectively.", "An accommodating space 30 is defined in the casing 20 , to accommodate the plural laundry machines therein.", "The multiple laundry machine 10 according to the present invention includes a plurality of laundry machines to separately wash a small amount of laundry, different from conventional laundry machines.", "In detail, the plural laundry machines comprise a first laundry machine 100 capable of washing easily-deformable delicate clothes such as underclothes or baby clothes, and a second laundry machine 200 capable of washing laundry requiring a strong washing operation, for example, shoes, etc.", "The first laundry machine 100 conducts a washing operation under the condition in which laundry is in a fixed state.", "On the other hand, the second laundry machine 200 conducts a washing operation under the condition in which a rotating force is applied to laundry.", "Preferably, the accommodating space 30 is vertically partitioned, for efficient space utility.", "Since the second laundry machine 200 generates high vibration, as compared to the first laundry machine 100 , it is preferred that the second laundry machine 200 be arranged in an accommodating space defined in a lower portion of the accommodating space 30 , and the first laundry machine 100 be arranged in an accommodating space defined in an upper portion of the accommodating space 30 .", "The first and second laundry machines 100 and 200 are slidably installed such that it is forwardly slidable along the casing 20 .", "As shown in FIG. 2 , the first laundry machine 100 may be of a top loading type, in which a door 120 is mounted at a top side of the casing 20 , whereas the second laundry machine 200 may be slidably installed such that it is forwardly slidable.", "The multiple laundry machine 100 may include a control panel 140 .", "That is, as shown in FIG. 1 , the control panel 140 may comprise a plurality of control panels to independently control respective laundry machines.", "Thus, the laundry machines 100 and 200 , which are installed at upper and lower positions, include control panels 140 , respectively.", "Accordingly, the laundry machines 100 and 200 are independently controlled to perform desired operations in an independent manner, respectively.", "Preferably, each control panel 140 is arranged at a front side of the corresponding laundry machine 100 or 200 .", "Of course, each control panel 140 may be arranged at any position, as long as there is no restriction in arranging the control panel 140 at the position.", "Meanwhile, as shown in FIG. 2 , for the control panel 140 , a single control panel may be provided at the multiple laundry machine 100 , to control both the overall operation of the first laundry machine 100 and the overall operation of the second laundry machine 200 .", "In this case, the control panel 140 includes a controller (not shown) for controlling operations of the laundry machines 100 and 200 , a key input unit 141 for inputting a user command associated with each of the laundry machines 100 and 200 , and a display 142 for displaying the user command input through the key input unit 141 , and operation states.", "The control panel 140 may also include a sound output unit (not shown) for audibly outputting information representing operation states of the laundry machines 100 and 200 .", "When the laundry machines 100 and 200 simultaneously conduct washing operations, the multiple laundry machine 10 according to the present invention may be controlled such that wash water used for a rinsing operation in the first laundry machine 100 arranged at the upper position can be selectively re-used in the second laundry machine 200 arranged at the lower position.", "Referring to FIG. 3 , the first laundry machine 100 arranged at the upper position includes a drainage pipe 101 connected to a water supply pipe 201 of the second laundry machine 200 arranged at the lower position.", "A connecting pipe 102 is provided to connect the drainage pipe 101 of the first laundry machine 100 and the water supply pipe 201 of the second laundry machine 200 .", "A first valve 101 is arranged in the drainage pipe 101 of the first laundry machine 100 .", "A second valve 112 is arranged in the connecting pipe 102 .", "A third valve 113 is arranged in the water supply pipe 201 of the second laundry machine 200 .", "Since the drainage pipe 101 of the first laundry machine 100 arranged at the upper position and the water supply pipe 201 of the second laundry machine 200 arranged at the lower position are connected, wash water used to rinse delicate clothes contaminated in a low contamination degree can be re-used.", "Accordingly, there is an advantage in that saving of resources can be achieved.", "When the first laundry machine 100 arranged at the upper position washes laundry contaminated in a high contamination degree, the first valve 101 is opened, and the second valve 112 is closed, to drain wash water used in the first laundry machine 100 , through the drainage pipe 430 , without re-use of the wash water.", "In this case, the third valve 113 is opened under the condition in which the second valve 112 is in a closed state, to supply water from an external water supply source to the second laundry machine 200 .", "When it is desired to re-use, in the second laundry machine 200 , wash water used in the first laundry machine 100 , the first valve 111 and third valve 113 are closed, and the second valve 112 is opened.", "Accordingly, wash water used in the first laundry machine 100 is supplied to the second laundry machine 200 .", "Hereinafter, an exemplary embodiment of the multiple laundry machine, in particular, each laundry machine, will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 4 to 8 .", "First, an exemplary embodiment of the first laundry machine 100 according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 4 .", "In the illustrated embodiment, the first laundry machine 100 may include a tub 121 for providing a washing space, a rack 128 for holding laundry in a fixed state, and a sprayer 126 rotatably installed to spray wash water to the rack 128 .", "The tub 121 may be formed to be partially opened at a front side thereof.", "As shown in the drawings, it is preferred that the tub 121 be opened at an upper portion of the front side thereof, to receive wash water and to allow loading and unloading of laundry and insertion and ejection of the rack 128 .", "It is also preferred that the first laundry machine 100 be provided with a door 129 for opening/closing an opening formed through the front side of the tub 121 .", "The door 129 may be hinged to the casing such that it is vertically pivotable about a hinge in accordance with an operation of the user.", "The mounting of the door 129 may be achieved through various methods, as long as it does not interfere with the operation of the first laundry machine 100 .", "The sprayer 126 functions to spray wash water at a high pressure toward laundry held by the rack 128 .", "A plurality of spray nozzles 126 a are mounted on a top surface of the sprayer 126 , to spray wash water.", "Lower nozzles (not shown) are mounted to a bottom surface of the sprayer 126 at opposite sides of the sprayer 126 , respectively, to cause the sprayer 126 to be rotated in accordance with the hydraulic pressure of the wash water.", "The sprayer 126 may have a structure enabling the sprayer 126 to be movable in a vertical direction and in a forward/rearward direction.", "As wash water is sprayed onto the laundry held by the rack 128 , a washing operation is carried out.", "On the other hand, the washing operation may be carried out under the condition in which wash water is contained in the tub 121 such that laundry is sunk under the wash water.", "In this case, the washing operation is achieved through pulsation of the wash water generated by the rotating force of the sprayer 126 .", "The first laundry machine 100 further includes a water supply pipe 122 connected to the external water supply source, to supply wash water to the tub 121 .", "As described above, the drainage pipe 101 is also included in the first laundry machine 100 , to drain wash water contaminated after being used in a washing operation.", "When wash water is supplied via the water supply pipe 122 , a sump 125 collects the supplied wash water, and supplies the collected wash water to the tub 121 via the sprayer 126 .", "Although not shown, a washing pump is arranged in the sump 125 , to pump the wash water collected in the sump 125 , and thus to supply the wash water to the sprayer 126 .", "The first laundry machine 100 may further include a steam generator 124 a for supplying steam.", "The steam generator 124 a may have the same structure as that of a steam generator used in a conventional washing machine.", "In order to control the amount of wash water supplied to the tub 121 , the first laundry machine 100 preferably includes a tub-side valve 122 b for opening/closing the water supply pipe 122 , and a steam-side valve 124 b connected to the steam generator 124 a. The rack 128 is configured such that laundry is seated on the rack 128 .", "The rack 128 is also configured such that it can be outwardly ejected through the opening of the tub 121 , and can be adjusted in level within the tub 121 .", "The rack 128 will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 5 .", "The rack 128 includes guide protrusions 128 a formed at opposite lateral ends of the rack 128 .", "Guide grooves 128 b are formed on an inner surface of the tub 121 at opposite sides of the tub 121 , in order to receive the guide protrusions 128 a such that the guide protrusions 128 a are movable along the guide grooves 128 b. It is preferred that the guide grooves 128 b be inclined toward the bottom surface of the tub 121 as they extend inwardly from the opening of the tub 121 , as shown in FIG. 5 , such that the rack 128 can be forwardly ejected through the opening of the tub 121 , to allow the user to lay laundry on the ejected rack 128 , and the laundry laid on the rack 129 can be sunk under the wash water, to be effectively washed.", "Thus, before the execution of a washing operation, the rack 128 is outwardly ejected through the opening of the tub 121 , to allow laundry to be laid on the rack 128 .", "Thereafter, the rack 128 is inserted into the tub 121 such that the laid laundry is sunk under the wash water in the tub 121 .", "In this state, the washing operation is executed.", "Another embodiment of the first laundry machine 100 according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 6 .", "As shown in FIG. 6 , the first laundry machine 100 includes a tub 150 for receiving wash water therein, and an ultrasonic washer 160 for vibrating the wash water received in the tub 150 , to wash laundry.", "Preferably, the first laundry machine 100 further includes a drawer 130 forwardly ejectable from the casing 20 .", "The casing 20 of the first laundry machine 100 is opened at a top side thereof, to allow loading/unloading of laundry.", "A door is mounted to the top side of the casing 20 .", "The tub 150 is opened at a top side thereof.", "A tub door 151 is mounted to the top side of the tub 150 around the opening of the tub 150 .", "Since the first laundry machine 100 has a relatively low height, wash water contained in the tub 150 may be splashed away from the tub 150 .", "The tub door 151 prevents such a phenomenon.", "Although not shown, the ultrasonic washer 160 includes a vibrator for converting electrical energy into mechanical vibration energy, to generate ultrasonic waves, a booster coupled to the vibrator, to magnify the amplitude of the ultrasonic waves generated from the vibrator, and a horn coupled to the booster, to transfer the amplitude-magnified, namely, amplified, ultrasonic waves to the wash water contained in the tub 150 .", "When an electrical signal is applied to the vibrator, piezoelectric ceramics arranged in the vibrator vibrate while repeating retraction and expansion.", "Since the vibration of the piezoelectric ceramics has a low amplitude, the booster coupled to the vibrator receives the vibration of the piezoelectric ceramics, and magnifies the amplitude of the vibration.", "The amplified vibration is transferred to the wash water contained in the tub 150 , by the horn.", "As the vibration is transferred to the wash water, cavitating air bubbles are created in the wash water.", "The interior of the cavitating air bubbles is at a high temperature and under a high pressure, so that it is possible to sterilize bacteria existing in the wash water by the cavitating air bubbles.", "The high temperature and pressure of the cavitating air bubbles are generated for a short time of several hundredths of a second to several thousandths of a second.", "By such a strong force, contaminants are dispersed and decomposed.", "Thus, a desired washing effect is obtained.", "A drainage pipe 155 is connected to the bottom of the tub 150 , to drain wash water from the tub 150 .", "It is preferred that the drainage pipe 155 include a longitudinally-extendable/contractible bellows tube 156 forming a portion of the drainage pipe 155 .", "When the drawer 130 is forwardly ejected, the bellows tube 156 is extended.", "In place of the bellows tube structure, a telescopic structure may be used.", "A water supply pipe 153 is connected to an upper portion of the tub 150 , to supply water.", "Similarly to the drainage pipe 155 , the water supply pipe 153 includes a bellows tube 154 .", "Another embodiment of the first laundry machine according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 7 .", "As shown in FIG. 7 , the first laundry machine 100 includes a tub 131 for providing a washing space, a rack 138 for holding laundry in a fixed state in the tub 131 , and a plurality of spray ports 132 formed through a wall of the tub 131 , to spray wash water to the rack 128 .", "Preferably, the first laundry machine 100 further includes a drawer 130 forwardly ejectable from the casing 20 .", "The casing 20 of the first laundry machine 100 is opened at a top side thereof, to allow loading/unloading of laundry.", "A door is mounted to the top side of the casing 20 .", "The tub 131 is opened at a top side thereof.", "A tub door 139 is mounted to the top side of the tub 131 around the opening of the tub 131 .", "Since the first laundry machine 100 has a relatively low height, wash water contained in the tub 131 may be splashed away from the tub 131 .", "The tub door 139 prevents such a phenomenon.", "The spray ports 132 sprays wash water into the tub 131 at a high pressure.", "The sprayed wash water is again supplied to the spray ports 132 , so that the wash water is circulated.", "The sprayed wash water is used to achieve a washing operation.", "In order to circulate the wash water, the first laundry machine 100 includes a circulating pump 134 a , a discharge pipe 134 connected to the circulating pump 134 a , and a supply pipe 133 connected to an outlet end of the circulating pump 134 a .", "The supply pipe 133 extends along the periphery of the tub 131 .", "Preferably, the supply pipe 133 and discharge pipe 134 include longitudinally-extendable/contractible bellows tube 133 a and 134 b forming portions of the supply pipe 133 and discharge pipe 134 , respectively.", "When the drawer 130 is forwardly ejected, the bellows tubes 133 a and 134 b are extended.", "In place of the bellows tube structure, a telescopic structure may be used.", "A drainage pipe 135 is connected to the bottom of the tub 131 , to drain wash water.", "Similarly to the pipes 133 and 134 , the drainage pipe 135 includes a bellows tube 135 a. A steam generator 137 may be provided to supply steam to the tub 131 .", "Although not shown, an air supplier may also be provided to spray air bubbles through the spray ports 132 , together with wash water.", "Since wash water and air bubbles are simultaneously sprayed into the tub 131 , it is possible to perform a washing operation, using friction generated between the laundry and the wash water and air bubbles.", "The washing operation may also be performed under the condition in which wash water is filled in the tub 131 .", "In this case, the wash water pulsates due to the air bubbles.", "Accordingly, the washing operation can be more effectively achieved by the sprayed wash water and the pulsation of the wash water.", "The steam generator 175 and air supplier may have the same structures as those of a steam generator and an air supplier used in a conventional washing machine.", "Hereinafter, a first embodiment of the second laundry machine 200 according to the present invention will be described.", "In this embodiment, the second laundry machine 200 includes an outer tub 240 for receiving wash water, an inner tub 250 rotatably installed in the outer tub 240 , to pulsate laundry contained in the inner tub 250 , and a motor 290 for providing a rotating force to the inner tub 250 .", "Preferably, the second laundry machine 200 further includes a drawer 220 forwardly ejectable from the casing 20 .", "The outer tub 240 is supported by the drawer 220 .", "To support the outer tub 240 , supporters 260 and 262 are preferably provided.", "Preferably, a gasket 222 , which is made of a flexible sealing material, is provided to prevent water and foreign matter from penetrating between the outer tub 240 and the drawer 220 .", "The outer tub 240 is opened at a top side thereof.", "An outer tub door 241 is mounted to the top side of the outer tub 240 around the opening of the outer tub 240 .", "Since the second laundry machine 200 has a relatively low height, wash water contained in the outer tub 240 may be splashed away from the outer tub 240 .", "The outer tub door 241 prevents such a phenomenon.", "The inner tub 250 is arranged within the outer tub 240 .", "A plurality of through holes are formed through the inner tub 250 , to allow wash water to enter and exit the inner tub 250 .", "A motor 290 is fixedly mounted to a lower surface of the bottom of the outer tub 240 .", "The motor 290 includes a rotating shaft 291 extending through the bottom of the outer tub 240 so that it is directly connected to the bottom of the inner tub 250 .", "A drainage pipe 270 is connected to the bottom of the outer tub 240 , to drain wash water.", "A drainage pump 272 is connected to the drainage pipe 270 .", "It is preferred that the drainage pipe 270 include a longitudinally-extendable/contractible bellows tube 271 forming a portion of the drainage pipe 270 .", "When the drawer 220 is forwardly ejected, the bellows tube 271 is extended.", "In place of the bellows tube structure, a telescopic structure may be used.", "A water supply pipe 280 is connected to an upper portion of the outer tub 240 , to supply water.", "A water supply valve 282 is arranged in the water supply pipe 280 .", "Similarly to the drainage pipe 270 , the water supply pipe 280 includes a bellows tube 281 .", "A steam generator 285 may be provided to supply steam to the outer tub 240 .", "A heater 290 may also be provided to heat wash water contained in the outer tub 240 , and thus to achieve a laundry boiling function.", "The steam generator 285 and heater 290 have the same structures as those of a steam generator and a heater used in a conventional washing machine.", "Another embodiment of the second laundry machine 200 according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 9 .", "As shown in FIG. 9 , the second laundry machine 200 includes a tub 340 for receiving wash water, a pulsator 350 rotatably mounted in the tub 340 , to pulsate the wash water, and a motor 390 for applying a rotating force to the pulsator 350 .", "Preferably, the second laundry machine 200 further includes a drawer 320 forwardly ejectable from the casing 20 .", "The tub 340 is supported by the drawer 320 .", "To support the tub 340 , supporters 360 and 362 are preferably provided.", "Preferably, a gasket 322 , which is made of a flexible sealing material, is provided to prevent water and foreign matter from penetrating between the tub 340 and the drawer 320 .", "The tub 340 is opened at a top side thereof.", "A tub door 341 is mounted to the top side of the tub 340 around the opening of the tub 340 .", "Since the second laundry machine 200 has a relatively low height, wash water contained in the tub 340 may be splashed away from the tub 340 .", "The tub door 341 prevents such a phenomenon.", "The pulsator 350 is arranged in the tub 340 such that it can wobble.", "Preferably, a guide 345 having a concave shape is formed in the tub 340 .", "The motor 390 is fixedly mounted to a lower surface of the bottom of the tub 340 .", "The motor 390 includes a rotating shaft 391 extending through the bottom of the tub 340 so that it is directly connected to the bottom of the pulsator 350 .", "A drainage pipe 370 is connected to the bottom of the tub 340 , to drain wash water.", "A drainage pump 372 is connected to the drainage pipe 370 .", "It is preferred that the drainage pipe 370 include a longitudinally-extendable/contractible bellows tube 371 forming a portion of the drainage pipe 370 .", "When the drawer 320 is forwardly ejected, the bellows tube 371 is extended.", "In place of the bellows tube structure, a telescopic structure may be used.", "A water supply pipe 380 is connected to an upper portion of the tub 340 , to supply water.", "A water supply valve 382 is arranged in the water supply pipe 380 .", "Similarly to the drainage pipe 370 , the water supply pipe 380 includes a bellows tube 381 .", "A steam generator 3285 may be provided to supply steam to the tub 340 .", "Although not shown, a heater 290 may also be provided to heat wash water contained in the tub 340 , and thus to achieve a laundry boiling function.", "The steam generator 385 and heater have the same structures as those of a steam generator and a heater used in a conventional washing machine.", "As apparent from the above description, the multiple laundry machine according to the present invention can perform a washing operation for a small amount of laundry, and can separately wash laundry in accordance with the kind of the laundry.", "When the laundry machines of the multiple laundry machine operate simultaneously, it is possible to re-use wash water used for a rinsing operation, and thus to save resources.", "It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit or scope of the inventions.", "Thus, it is intended that the present invention covers the modifications and variations of this invention provided they come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents." ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is a U.S. national phase application under 35 USC 371 of PCT/JP97/00770 filed Mar. 12, 1997 which in turn claims priority from Japanese Application Hei-8-84712 filed Mar. 12, 1996.", "TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to the bioactive substance TKR1785 which is of value as a therapeutic agent for mycoses, allergic diseases, and immune diseases, a method of producing said bioactive substance, and further a microorganism producing the bioactive substance TKR1785.", "BACKGROUND ART It is known that fungi infect man, animals, and plants to cause various diseases.", "In man, for instance, some fungi cause superficial mycosis of the skin and mouth cavity, while others cause systemic mycosis of the viscera and brain or the like.", "Fungi also cause similar infectious diseases in pet animals and livestock.", "There also are fungi which induce various diseases in crop plants such as orchard trees and vegetables.", "Among those pathogenic fungi which cause systemic mycosis in man are fungal species of the genera Candida, Cryptococcus, and Aspergillus.", "Referring to superficial mycosis, candidal species which infect the skin, mouth cavity, and vagina, trichophytons infecting the skin of the limbs (the causative organisms of athlete's foot), and Malassezia species (the causative organisms of tinea versicolor) are regarded as representative pathogenic fungi.", "In addition to those fungi, a variety of other fungi also inhabit the earth 's ecology and suspected to do harm to animals and plants.", "Recent years have seen a dramatic increase in the incidence of allergic diseases such as asthma, atopic dermatitis, and allergic rhinitis.", "The pathogenesis of many of those allergic diseases is generally explained as follows.", "As the host is sensitized by a disease-inducing antigen, an IgE antibody (reagin) specific to antigen, i.e. allergen, is produced in the host's serum and tissues.", "As the host is reexposed to the allergen, the IgE coupled to the mast cells or basophils and the specific allergen form complexes and the IgE-complex crosslinks on the cell surface, and triggers physiological events arising from IgE-antigen interactions.", "Substances known as chemical mediators are involved in those physiological events.", "Some of them are the chemical mediators preexisting in the granules of mast cells and eosinophils but released extracellularly by degranulation upon activation, such as histamine, serotonin, eosinophilic factors, etc.", ", while others are synthesized de novo by the activation of mast cells.", "As to the latter mediators, activation of phospholipase A 2 entails activation of lipoxigenase and cyclooxigenase which act upon the arachidonic acid derived from the membrane phospholipid to produce various leukotrienes and thromboxanes.", "Those chemical mediators cause long-term allergic inflammentions such as contraction of bronchial smooth muscle and mucosal edema, or the like.", "Those events may be either systemic or local according to the route by which the antigen enters into the body and the pattern of deposition of IgE on the mast cells or basophils.", "The local symptoms generally occur on the surface of the epithelium at the site of entry of the allergen.", "The systemic event includes anaphylactic shock which is the result of response of the IgE-basophil to the antigen in the vasculature.", "There are many allergic diseases in which various substances in the environment, inclusive of ticks and pollens, and antigenic substances contained in foods act as allergens.", "Among them, allergic diseases caused by fungi are also numerous and allergens derived from fungi of various genera such as Candida, Aspergillus, Alternaria, Cladosporium, Malassezia, and Penicillium act as the etiologic factors.", "Few antifungal agents are known today which can be used in the treatment and prevention of those fungal infections and contaminations for which such fungi are responsible.", "Among those agents, amphotericin B, flucytosine, miconazole, fluconazole, etc.", "can be mentioned as therapeutic agents for systemic infections in men and animals.", "However, those substances are not fully satisfactory in efficacy, toxicity, and/or antibacterial spectrum and have not proved sufficiently useful as therapeutic agents.", "Meanwhile, there are various kinds of therapeutic agents for allergic diseases, such as lipoxigenase inhibitors which inhibit production of said various chemical mediators, thromboxane synthase inhibitors, antihistaminics which antagonize the chemical mediator, and leukotriene receptor antagonists.", "In addition, steroids not only inhibit production of chemical mediators but have various physiological activities, thus being the most important of antiallergic agents.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Under the circumstances, the object of the present invention is to provide a novel bioactive substance of value as a therapeutic agent for mycosis, allergic diseases, and immune diseases.", "The inventors of the present invention isolated a large number of microorganisms from the natural kingdom in their exploration of new bioactive substances, screened for the bioactive substances they produced, and studied their biological properties.", "As a result, they discovered bioactive substances showing antifungal activity against pathogenic fungi such as Candida, Aspergillus, Cryptococcus, Malassezia, etc.", "in culture broths of a strain of microorganism belonging to the genus Penicillium.", "Then, the inventors isolated the bioactive substances and investigated their physicochemical properties.", "As a result, they could establish that the substance actually comprises novel substance having some unique physicochemical properties and named them TKR1785 (hereinafter referred to as TKR1785-I) and TKR1785-II (the two substances will hereinafter be referred to collectively as TKR1785).", "Furthermore, it was found that TKR1785 not only inhibits the enzymes associated with allergic reactions but also exerts other physiological activities on the immune system.", "The present invention has been developed on the basis of the above finding.", "The present invention, therefore, is directed, in the first aspect, to the novel bioactive substance TKR1785 which is represented by the following general formula (A): ##STR2## (wherein R represents --CH(CH 3 ) 2 or --CH(CH 3 )C 2 H 5 ) The present invention is further directed, in the second aspect, to a method of producing the novel bioactive substance TKR1785 which comprises culturing a strain of microorganism belonging to the genus Penicillium and capable of elaborating said novel bioactive substance TKR1785 and isolating said substance from the resulting culture broth.", "In the third aspect, the present invention is directed to a microorganism belonging to the genus Penicillium and capable of producing the bioactive substance TKR1785.", "In the fourth aspect, the present invention is directed to a pharmaceutical composition comprising the bioactive substance TKR1785.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is an ultraviolet absorption spectrum of the bioactive substance TKR1785-I.", "The ordinate represents wavelength (nm).", "FIG. 2 is an infrared absorption spectrum of the bioactive substance TKR1785-I.", "The abscissa represents wavenumber (cm -1 ).", "FIG. 3 is an 1 H-NMR spectrum of the bioactive substance TKR1785-I.", "The abscissa represents chemical shift (ppm).", "FIG. 4 is a 13 C-NMR spectrum of the bioactive substance TKR1785-I.", "The abscissa represents chemical shift (ppm).", "FIG. 5 shows an HPLC elution pattern of the bioactive substance TKR1785-I.", "The ordinate represents retention time (min.) and the abscissa represents the relative intensity of ultraviolet absorption.", "FIG. 6 is a 1 H-NMR spectrum of the bioactive substance TKR1785-II.", "The abscissa represents chemical shift (ppm).", "FIG. 7 is a 13 C-NMR spectrum of the bioactive substance TKR1785-II.", "The abscissa represents chemical shift (ppm).", "FIG. 8 shows an HPLC elution pattern of the bioactive substance TKR1785-II.", "The ordinate represents retention time (min.) and the abscissa represents the relative intensity of ultraviolet absorption.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The bioactive substance TKR1785-I has the following physicochemical characteristics (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), and (7).", "(1) Mass spectrum (FAB-MS): m/z 518 [M+H] + (2) Molecular formula: C 27 H 55 N 3 O (3) UV spectrum (in methanol), terminal absorptions as shown in FIG. 1. (4) IR spectrum (KBr);", "dominant absorption wavenumbers: 3410 cm -1 , 2920 cm -1 , 2850 cm -1 , 1670 cm -1 , 1540 cm -1 , 1470 cm -1 , 1210 cm -1 , 1140 cm -1 , 1050 cm -1 , 840 cm 800 cm -1 , 720 cm -1 .", "(5) Soluble in methanol and water, sparingly soluble in chloroform and hexane.", "(6) 1 H-NMR spectrum: FIG. 3 and C-NMR spectrum: FIG. 4. (7) Reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography: elution pattern as shown in FIG. 5. Structural analysis based on the above characteristics revealed that TKR1785-I has the chemical structure of formula (I).", "##STR3## The bioactive substance TKR1785-II has the following physicochemical characteristics (8), (9), (10), and (11).", "(8) Mass spectrum (FAB-MS): m/z 532 [M+H ] + (9) Molecular formula: C 28 H 57 N 3 O (10) 1 H-NMR spectrum: FIG. 6 and 13 C-NMR spectrum: FIG. 7. (11)Reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography: elution pattern as shown in FIG. 8. Structural analysis based on the above characteristics revealed that the bioactive substance TKR1785-II has the chemical structure of formula (II).", "##STR4## The above TKR1785 can be produced by culturing a strain of microorganism belonging to the genus Penicillium and capable of elaborating said TKR1785 and isolating said substance from the resulting culture broth.", "The above-mentioned strain of microorganism is not particularly restricted provided that it belongs to the genus Penicillium and is capable of producing said TKR1785.", "Thus, for example, Penicillium sp.", "TKR1785 (hereinafter referred to as the TKR1785 strain) can be mentioned.", "The TKR1785 strain is a novel fungal strain isolated from a sample collected in Hyogo Prefecture and characterized.", "It has the property to produce TKR1785 with good efficiency.", "The mycological characteristics of this TKR1785 strain are now described in detail.", "The colony colors of the TKR1785 strain on various media are presented in Table 1.", "The color descriptions in the table are based on the color nomenclature defined in JIS Z 8102 (1985) and represent the results of observation after 7 days of culture at 25° C. TABLE 1______________________________________ Colony Texture diameter Surface color of the Medium (mm) Colony color of the colony colony______________________________________Malt extract 32 Dark grayish Grayish yellow Velvety agar yellow green green 5GY4/2 10Y6/2 Potato 29 Dark grayish Grayish yellow Velvety dextrose agar green green 2.5G4/2 5GY6/2 Czapek's agar 29 Grayish green Greenish gray Velvety 10G5/2 5GY6/1 Sabouraud's 40 Dark grayish Grayish yellow Velvety agar green green 10GY4/3 5GY6/2 YpSs agar 25 Grayish yellow Dull yellow Deeply green 2.5Y8/4 Velvety 5GY6/2______________________________________ The TKR1785 strain cultures rapidly on malt extract agar, potato dextrose agar, and Czapek's agar, giving colonies showing a velvety surface texture and a slightly elevated center.", "The conidiophore of the TKR1785 strain measures 90 to 270×1.8 to 3.0 μm and has a glabrous surface, usually forming symmetrically bivertillate penicilli.", "The metula measures 12.0 to 14.0×2.8 to 3.2 μm, occurring in groups of 2 to 4, and the phialides are whorled and sized 9.0 to 10.0×1.8 to 2.4 μm.", "The conidia are globose to subglobose, each having a glabrous surface and measuring 2.2 to 3.2×2.4 to 4.0 μm.", "Among the mycological characters of the TKR1785 strain, its physiological characteristics are as follows.", "Temperature range for growth: The temperature range for growth is 10 to 30° C. and the optimum range of temperature for growth is about 25° C. The pH range for growth: The pH range for growth is pH 3 to 9 and the optimum range of temperature for growth is pH about 5.", "When the above mycological characters are compared with the descriptions of Penicillium species in Carlos Ramirez, Manual and Atlas of the Penicillia, Elsevier Biomedical Press, 1982, among other literature, the TKR1785 strain can be identified to be a strain belonging to the genus Penicillium.", "However, no report was available on a strain of microorganism having the ability to produce TKR1785 among fungi of the genus Penicillium.", "Therefore, the inventors of the present invention regarded it as a novel strain and named Penicillium sp.", "TKR1785.", "The strain was deposited with National Institute of Bioscience and Human Technology (Address, 1-3, Higashi 1-chome, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki, Japan (Zip code 305)) under the accession number of FERM BP-5788 (original date of deposit: May 17, 1995;", "date of request for transfer to international deposit: Jan. 17, 1997).", "In the practice of the invention, not only the above TKR1785 strain but also spontaneous or artificial mutants of the TKR1785 strain as well as other strains of the genus Penicillium which are capable of producing TKR1785 can be employed with success.", "The efficiency of production of the bioactive substance TKR1785 by the above-mentioned microorganism in a suitable culture system can be easily determined by the way of applying reversed phase partition high performance liquid chromatograph using the same conditions as used for generating the data plotted in FIG. 5 for confirming the elution position, measuring ultraviolet absorption spectrometry with a photodiode array or the like device, comparison of the physicochemical properties of the product with those mentioned for TKR1785, and where necessary, measuring molecular weight of the eluate from the reversed phase partition high performance liquid chromatograph with a reasonable molecular-mass measuring apparatus.", "In accordance with the invention, TKR1785 can be produced by inoculating a nutrient medium with said TKR1785-producing strain of microorganism and incubating the inoculated medium.", "Referring to the nutrients which can be used, the carbon source includes but is not limited to glucose, fructose, saccharose, starch, dextrin, glycerin, molasses, malt syrup, oils, and organic acids.", "The nitrogen source, among said nutrients, includes but is not limited to soybean flour, cottonseed flour, corn steep liquor, casein, peptone, yeast extract, meat extract, germs, organic or inorganic nitrogeneous compounds such as urea, amino acids, and ammonium salts.", "The salt, which is also among said nutrients, includes inorganic salts such as salts of sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and phosphates.", "Those nutrients may respectively be used each independently or in a suitable combination.", "Where necessary, the above nutrient medium may be supplemented with heavy metals such as iron salts, copper salts, zinc salts, cobalt salts, etc.", ", vitamins such as biotin, vitamin B 1 , etc.", ", and other organic or inorganic substances for assisting in the growth of the microorganism and promoting the production of TKR1785.", "Where necessary, the nutrient medium may be further supplemented with an antifoam or a surfactant, such as silicone oil, polyalkylene glycol ethers, and the like.", "Cultivation of said TKR1785-producing strain in the above nutrient medium can be carried out by the routine cultural technology for incubating microorganisms for the production of bioactive substances.", "Preferred is a liquid cultural method, particularly shake culture or submerged aerobic culture.", "The cultivation is preferably carried out in the temperature range of 15 to 25° C., and the pH of the medium is generally pH 3 to 8 and preferably about pH 5.", "A sufficient output can be expected generally within 3 to 11 days of culture.", "As the microorganism is thus cultivated, TKR1785 is accumulated in both the supernatant fraction and cellular fraction of the culture broth.", "In the present invention, the TKR1785 accumulated in the culture broth can be obtained by being separated from the broth by taking advantage of the physicochemical properties and biological characteristics of this bioactive substance and, where necessary, be further purified.", "The above-mentioned separation can be accomplished by extracting the whole culture broth with a non-hydrophilic organic solvent such as ethyl acetate, butyl acetate, chloroform, butanol, or methyl isobutyl ketone.", "As an alternative, the broth can be fractionated into a supernatant and cells by filtration or centrifugation and the bioactive substance be then isolated from each of the supernatant and the cells.", "Separation of TKR1785 from the culture broth can be achieved not only by the above extraction procedure using a non-hydrophilic organic solvent but also by the procedure which comprises contacting the broth with an adsorbent stationary phase to let TKR1785 adsorbed and eluting the bioactive substances from the stationary phase with a solvent.", "The stationary phase includes but is not limited to activated carbon, cellulose powder, and adsorbent resin and the like.", "The solvent can be used either singly or in a combination of two or more species according to the type and properties of the stationary phase selected.", "Thus, for example, aqueous solutions of water-soluble organic solvents, such as aqueous acetone and aqueous alcohols can be used.", "For separation of TKR1785 from the cells, an extraction procedure using a hydrophilic organic solvent such as acetone may for example be used.", "In the present invention, a crude extract of TKR1785 thus separated from the culture broth can be further purified as desired.", "This purification can be carried out by the technology used generally in the separation and purification of lipid-soluble bioactive substances, for example by column chromatography or high performance liquid chromatography using such a stationary phase such as silica gel, activated alumina, activated carbon, or adsorbent resin.", "The eluent for use in silica gel column chromatography, for instance, includes chloroform, ethyl acetate, methanol, acetone, and water, among other solvents, and those solvents can be used each alone or in combination.", "In the case of high performance liquid chromatography, the stationary phase that can be used includes but is not limited to chemically bonded silica gels such as octadecylated, octylated, or phenylated silica gels and polystyrene series porous polymer gels.", "As the mobile phase, aqueous solutions of water-soluble organic solvents such as aqueous methanol, aqueous acetonitrile, etc.", "can be used.", "TKR1785 according to the invention can be used in medicinal applications, either as it is or in the form of a pharmacologically acceptable salt.", "The pharmaceutical composition comprising TKR1785 or a pharmacologically acceptable salt thereof is not particularly restricted but includes antifungal, antiallergic, and immunomodulators.", "Although antiallergic and/or immunomodulators are preferred applications of the invention, the scope of applicability of the invention is not limited to such uses but all kinds of medicinal compositions comprising TKR1785 or its pharmacologically acceptable salt, even if intended for other applications, fall within the scope of the invention.", "The salt mentioned above is not particularly restricted provided that it is pharmacologically acceptable.", "Thus, the salt includes but is not limited to salts with mineral acids such as hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, nitric acid, phosphoric acid, hydrofluoric acid, hydrobromic acid, etc.", "salts with organic acids such as formic acid, acetic acid, tartaric acid, lactic acid, citric acid, fumaric acid, maleic acid, succinic acid, methanesulfonic acid, ethanesulfonic acid, benzenesulfonic acid, toluenesulfonic acid, naphthalenesulfonic acid, camphorsulfonic acid, etc.", "and salts with alkali metals or alkaline earth metals such as sodium, potassium, and calcium.", "TKR1785 or its pharmacologically acceptable salt according to the invention can be administered either as it is or in the form of a pharmaceutical composition containing it in a proportion of 0.1 to 99.5%, preferably 0.5 to 90%, in a pharmaceutically acceptable, nontoxic and inert excipient, typically as an antifungal, an antiallergic agent or an immunomodulator, to animals including men.", "The excipient mentioned above includes solid, semi-solid, or liquid diluents, fillers, and other formulating auxiliaries and those substances can be used either singly or in combination.", "The above pharmaceutical composition is preferably administered in unit dosage forms and can be administered orally, parenterally, locally (e.g. transdermally), or rectally.", "Of course, the above-mentioned pharmaceutical composition is administered in dosage forms suited to respective routes of administration.", "In the medicinal application of TKR1785 or its pharmacologically acceptable salt according to the invention, the dosage as an antifungal, an antiallergic, or an immunomodulator, is preferably adjusted according to patient factors such as age and body weight, the route of administration, and the nature and severity of illness, among other factors, but the usual daily dosage for an adult patient is 10 to 2000 mg as the active ingredient, namely TKR1785 or a pharmacologically acceptable salt thereof.", "Whereas doses below the above-mentioned range may be sufficient in certain cases, higher doses may be needed in other cases.", "In high-dose administration, the daily dosage is preferably administered in several divided doses.", "The oral administration can be made in solid, powdery, or liquid unit dosage forms such as bulk powders, powders, tablets, dragees, capsules, drops, and sublingual tablets, among other dosage forms.", "For example, bulk powders can be manufactured by comminuting TKR1785 or its pharmacologically acceptable salt of the invention into a finely divided form.", "The above-mentioned powders can be manufactured by comminuting TKR1785 or its pharmacologically acceptable salt into a finely divided form and blending the resulting powder with a similarly comminuted pharmaceutical excipient, e.g. an edible carbohydrate such as starch, mannitol, or the like.", "Where necessary, a corrigent, preservative, dispersant, coloring agent, perfume, and/or other additive may also be formulated.", "The parenteral administration can be made by using liquid dosage form, for example, a solution or suspension for subcutaneous, intramuscular, or intravenous administration, among other forms.", "Those dosage forms can be manufactured by suspending or dissolving a predetermined amount of TKR1785 or its pharmacologically acceptable salt of the invention in a nontoxic liquid vehicle suited for injection of an aqueous or oily medium or the like, and sterilizing the suspension or solution.", "The local administration (e.g. transdermal administration) can be made using external dosage forms such as a liquid, cream, powder, paste, gel, or ointment.", "Those dosage forms can be manufactured by formulating a predetermined amount of TKR1785 or its pharmacologically acceptable salt of the invention with at least one topical formulating agent selected from among a perfume, coloring agent, filler, surfactant, humectant, emolient, gelling agent, support, preservative, stabilizer, and so on.", "The rectal administration can be made using suppositories prepared by mixing a predetermined amount of TKR1785 or its pharmacologically acceptable salt of the invention into a low-melting solid base, e.g. a higher ester such as myristyl palmitate ester, polyethylene glycol, cacao butter, or a mixture thereof.", "BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The following examples illustrate the present invention in further detail but are not intended to define the scope of the invention.", "EXAMPLE 1 From a slant culture of TKR1785 strain (FERM BP-5788), a loop was taken to inoculate a 500 ml conical flask containing 100 ml of a liquid medium [Difco yeast nitrogen base 0.67% (w/v) and glucose 2.0% (w/v)] and cultured under shaking at 25° C. for 5 days to provide a seed culture.", "A 1.0 ml portion of this seed culture was inoculated into 18 conical flasks of 500 ml capacity each containing 125 ml of the above liquid medium and cultured under shaking (220 rpm) at 25° C. for 9 days.", "The resulting culture was centrifuged to separate a supernatant and a cellular fraction from each other.", "The cellular fraction was well mixed and extracted with 1 L of methanol and the extract was concentrated under reduced pressure.", "The residue was diluted with 300 ml of water and, after sufficient mixing, adjusted to pH 2.", "Then, 300 ml of ethyl acetate was added and mixed thoroughly for washing.", "The aqueous layer was adjusted to pH 9 and extracted with 300 ml of ethyl acetate.", "The extract was concentrated under reduced pressure to provide 52 mg of a residue.", "This residue was dissolved in 0.4 ml of methanol and subjected to high performance liquid chromatography to provide two antifungal fractions I and II.", "Those active fractions were respectively concentrated under reduced pressure to provide 16 mg of TKR1785-I and 3 mg of TKR1785-II both as white powders.", "The high performance liquid chromatography was carried out under the following conditions.", "Apparatus: LC8A (Shimadzu) Column: YMCpack C 18 (2.0 cm×25 cm) (Y.M.C.) Mobile phase: 0.05% trifluoroacetic acid-55% (v/v) acetonitrile/water Physicochemical properties JMS-DX302 Mass Spectrometer (Jeol Ltd.) was used for mass spectrometry.", "JNM-A500 Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectrometer (Jeol Ltd.) was used for 1 H-NMR spectrometry (in deuterated dimethyl sulfoxide;", "reference: deuterated dimethyl sulfoxide) and 13 C-NMR spectrometry (in deuterated dimethyl sulfoxide;", "reference: deuterated dimethyl sulfoxide).", "For ultraviolet absorption spectrometry (in methanol), UV-250 self-recording spectrophotometer (Shimadzu) was used.", "For infrared absorption spectrometry (KBr), 270-30 Infrared Spectrophotometer (Hitachi) was used.", "L-8500 (Hitachi) was used for amino acid analysis.", "The physicochemical properties of TKR1785-I are as follows.", "FAB-MS of the purified white powder of fraction-I obtained by high performance liquid chromatography and concentration under reduced pressure shows m/z 518 [M+H] + .", "Recording of 1 H-NMR and 13 C-NMR spectra and analysis thereof indicate that this substance has 27 carbon atoms and 3 nitrogen atoms.", "The 1 H-NMR spectrum and 13 C-NMR spectrum are presented in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, respectively.", "The ultraviolet adsorption spectrum of this substance in methanol shows the terminal absorptions represented in FIG. 1. The KBr infrared absorption wavenumbers (KBr) are listed below.", "The IR absorption spectrum of the substance is presented in FIG. 2. IR (KBr) (cm -1 ): 3410, 2920, 2850, 1670, 1540, 1470, 1210, 1140, 1050, 840, 800, 720.", "The solubility of this substance in various solvents was such that the substance is soluble in methanol and water and only sparingly soluble in chloroform and hexane.", "The above analytical data revealed that the purified white powder obtained by high performance liquid chromatography and subsequent concentration of fraction I under reduced pressure is TKR1785-I.", "Detailed analysis of the 1 H-NMR spectrum presented in FIG. 3 and the 13 C-NMR spectrum presented in FIG. 4 revealed that TKR1785-I has the chemical structure of formula (I).", "TKR1785-I was subjected to reversed phase partition high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) using LC-10A High performance Liquid Chromatograph (Shimadzu).", "The high performance liquid chromatography was carried out under the following conditions.", "Column: CAPCELL PACK C 18 (6 mm×150 mm) (Shiseido) Mobile phase: 0.05% trifluoroacetic acid-50% (v/v) acetonitrile/water Column temperature: 40° C. Detection UV wavelength: 220 nm The analysis showed that TKR1785-I is eluted in the position indicated in FIG. 5. The physicochemical constants of TKR1785-II are as follows.", "The purified white powder obtained by high performance liquid chromatography and concentration of fraction II under reduced pressure was analyzed for various physicochemical properties.", "FAB-MS of this substance gave m/z532 [M+H] + , indicating that it is larger than TKR1785-I by 14 mass units.", "This substance was hydrolyzed with hydrochloric acid and analyzed for amino acids.", "As a result, it was found that whereas TKR1785-I contains L-valine, this substance contains L-isoleucine.", "There was little difference between the UV absorption spectra of the two substances.", "The solubility of this substance in various solvents was also similar to that of TKR1785-I.", "Global analysis of the 1 H-NMR spectrum (FIG.", "6) and 13 C-NMR spectrum (FIG.", "7) of this substance revealed that the substance has the chemical structure of formula (II).", "Based on the above analytical data, the purified white powder obtained by high performance liquid chromatography and concentration of active fraction II under reduced pressure was found to be TKR1785-II.", "TKR1785-II was subjected to HPLC analysis using LC-10A High performance Liquid Chromatograph (Shimadzu).", "The HPLC conditions were the same as those used in the analysis or TKR1785-I.", "The analysis revealed that TKR1785-II was eluted in the position indicated in FIG. 8. Biological Properties (1) Antifungal activity The antifungal activity of the above substance TKR1785 against various microorganisms was investigated.", "Using the liquid medium dilution method, the concentration which caused substantially complete Inhibition of growth was determined as minimal inhibitory concentration (μg/ml).", "The results are presented in Table 2.", "The concentration causing a partial inhibition of growth was also determined as 50% inhibitory concentration (μg/ml) and is shown in parentheses of table 2.", "In the table, YNBG represents a medium containing 0.67% of yeast nitrogen base (Difco) and 1% of glucose.", "BHI represents a medium containing 0.5% of brain heart infusion bouillon (Nissui Pharmaceutical).", "YNBG-Tween represents a medium containing 0.67% of yeast nitrogen base, 0.5% bactocasitone, 2% of glucose, and 1% of Tween 40.", "TABLE 2______________________________________ Minimal inhibitory concentration (μg/ml)Tester strain Medium TKR1785-I TKR1785-II______________________________________Candida albicans YNBG 12.5 12.5 TIMM0136 (6.25) (6.25) Candida kefir YNBG 6.25 12.5 TIMM0301 (6.25) Cryptococcus neoformans YNBG 6.25 12.5 TIMM0354 (3.13) (6.25) Aspargillus fumigatus BHI 25 50 TIMM1776 (3.13) (25) Malassezia furfur YNBG- * TIMM2782 Tween (12.5)______________________________________ --*;", "not determined It is apparent from the results in Table 2 that the bioactive substances TKR1785 of the invention have antifungal activity against pathogenic fungi such as Candida albicans, Candida kefir, Cryptococcus neoformans, and Malassezia furfur.", "(2) Enzyme inhibitory activity The inhibitory activity of TKR1785-I against phospholipase A 2 (derived from porcine pancreas) and leukotriene (LT) C 4 synthase (derived from the guinea-pig lung), which are enzymes related to the immune system, was determined.", "Phospholipase A 2 activity was assayed for a hexane extract under acidic conditions by determining the [ 14 C]palmitic acid released from [ 14 C]phosphatidylcholine.", "LTC 4 synthase activity was assayed by determining the yield of LTC 4 from LTA 4 by the RIA method.", "The results are shown in Table 3.", "TABLE 3______________________________________ Test concen- tration Inhibition Enzyme (μg/ml) (%)______________________________________Phospholipase A.sub[.", "].2 100 92 Phospholipase A.sub[.", "].2 10 33 Leukotriene C.sub[.", "].4 synthase 300 98 Leukotriene C.sub[.", "].4 synthase 30 21______________________________________ TKR1785-I inhibited phospholipase A 2 and LTC 4 synthase, both of which are enzymes associated with allergic reactions.", "(3) Mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR) inhibitory activity From C57BL/6 and BALB/c mice, the spleen was isolated and homogenized in a medium to provide a cell suspension.", "The cell suspension derived from C57BL/6 mice was passed through a nylon wool column to prepare a T cell-rich fraction (responder cells).", "The BALB/c-derived cell suspension was irradiated with X-rays to prepare stimulator cells.", "The responder cells and stimulator cells were mixed in a ratio of 1:1 and incubated in a CO 2 incubator for 4 days.", "Following addition of 3H-thymidine, the cells were further culturen overnight.", "The cells were then recovered and the amount of 3 H-thymidine uptake was determined.", "The samples (500, 125, 31.2, and 7.8 μg/ml solutions of dimethyl sulfoxide diluted with the medium) were respectively added in a proportion of 0.5% at mixing the responder cells with the stimulator cells to final concentrations of 25 to 0.039 μg/ml.", "The inhibitory activity was determined by comparison with the 3H-thymidine uptake in the sample-free group.", "TKR1785-I showed concentration-dependent MLR-inhibitory activity and its 50% inhibitory concentration was 0.41 μg/ml.", "It was, thus, clear that the substances are effective in suppressing allergic and other immune reactions.", "(4) Toxicity The TKR1785-I and TKR1785-II obtained were respectively administered to ICR mice intraperitoneally in a dose of 50 mg/kg but no toxic response was found.", "Dosage Form Example 1 ______________________________________TKR1785-I 50 mg Lactose 46 mg Corn starch 20 mg Low-substitution hydroxypropylcellulose 8 mg Hydroxypropylmethylcellulose 5 mg Magnesium stearate 1 mg Total 130 mg______________________________________ The above components other than hydroxypropylmethylcellulose and magnesium stearate were evenly mixed and using an 8% (w/w) aqueous solution of hydroxypropylmethylcellulose as binder, the mixture was wet-granulated to provide a granulation for compression.", "Then, magnesium stearate was mixed with the granulation and using a tablet machine the whole composition was compressed into tablets for oral administration, each measuring 7 mm in diameter and weighing 130 mg.", "Dosage Form Example 2 ______________________________________TKR1785-I 1 g Absorptive ointment 99 g (listed in The Pharmacopoeia of Japan) Total 100 g______________________________________ TKR1785-I was thoroughly kneaded with a small amount of absorptive ointment and, then, the remainder of the ointment was added gradually, followed by thorough kneading to provide a homogeneous ointment.", "This ointment was to be applied to the affected area 4 to 5 times daily.", "INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY According to the present invention, the bioactive substances TKR1785 of clinical value as, for example, therapeutic agents for fungal infections, allergic diseases and immune diseases as well as a method for its production can be provided." ]

[ "This application is a division of application Ser.", "No. 10/884,944, filed Jul. 7, 2004, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in this application.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a frame assembly, such as a window frame assembly, including clip(s) for temporarily securing the frames of the assembly for storage and transport and for locking the frames of the assembly upon installation.", "Fixed frame window assemblies such as so-called door lights are typically manufactured at a manufacturing facility and then shipped for ultimate installation at another location.", "Referring to FIG. 1 , a typical fixed frame window assembly 10 includes an insulated glass panel 12 and a pair of frame halves 14 , 16 that sandwich the glass panel and support it in a corresponding opening defined e.g., through a door or wall.", "The glass panel is typically comprised of a pair of transparent panes sealed to a spacer frame.", "It is desirable to secure the frame halves to capture the glass panel therebetween during transportation to protect the glass panel from damage, and to ensure that the delivered unit is complete.", "At the time of installation, screws 20 are threaded through aligned bosses 22 , 24 of the frame halves to mount the frame assembly to the door with the glass panel captured therebetween.", "Although the frame halves can be secured for transport using the mounting screws 20 , such a process would be labor intensive, requiring additional man hours to secure the frame halves with screws for transport and to detach the frame halves for assembly to the door or other structure.", "Also, the conventional screw boss assembly of the type illustrated in FIG. 1 has the disadvantage that the final product has visible screw heads which may need to be capped for aesthetic reasons and which, even if capped, may detract from the aesthetics of the final product.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides an attachment structure in the form of one or more clips to temporarily secure the frame halves during transport and to effectively permanently secure the halves during final installation.", "By providing a clip for final installation, additional fasteners such as screws may be omitted, thereby simplifying and expediting the final assembly process.", "Thus, the invention may be embodied in a frame assembly comprising: a pair of frame halves, each including an inner frame portion, an outer frame portion, and an axially extending attachment rib aligned with the attachment rib of the other frame half and terminating in a free edge remote from said inner and outer frame portions;", "a plurality of spaced locking ribs, each said locking rib extending along a portion of the attachment rib of one of said frame halves, substantially in parallel to said free edge of said attachment rib and remote from said inner and outer frame portions thereof;", "and a clip structure projecting axially from the attachment rib of the other of said frame halves and engaging one of said locking ribs of the one of said frame halves to secure said frame halves together.", "The invention may also be embodied in a method for securing a frame assembly, comprising: providing a frame assembly comprising a pair of frame halves, each including an inner frame portion, an outer frame portion, and an axially extending attachment rib aligned with the attachment rib of the other frame half and each terminating in a free edge remote from said inner and outer frame portions;", "a plurality of spaced locking ribs, each said locking rib extending along a portion of the attachment rib of one of said frame halves, substantially in parallel to said free edge of said attachment rib and remote from said inner and outer frame portions thereof;", "providing a clip structure to project axially from the attachment rib of the other of said frame halves;", "and engaging said clip structure with the attachment rib of the one of said frame halves to secure said frame halves together.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS These and other objects and advantages of this invention, will be more completely understood and appreciated by careful study of the following more detailed description of the presently preferred exemplary embodiments of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating a prior art window frame assembly;", "FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a frame half embodying the invention;", "FIG. 3 is a side elevational view of a locking clip embodying the invention;", "FIG. 4 is a front elevational view of the clip of FIG. 3 ;", "FIG. 5 is a schematic perspective view of a frame assembly secured for storage and/or transport in an embodiment of the invention;", "FIG. 6 is a schematic cross sectional view taken along line 6 - 6 of FIG. 5 ;", "FIG. 7 is a schematic perspective view similar to FIG. 5 showing the frame halves axially aligned and clipped;", "and FIG. 8 is a view taken along line 8 - 8 of FIG. 7 and also illustrating the glass panel and door slab to which the frame assembly is installed.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION As mentioned above with reference to FIG. 1 , conventionally, a fixed frame assembly is comprised of first and second frame halves that are configured to capture a glass panel therebetween.", "As illustrated, the frame halves may be secured by screws threaded through respectively axially aligned bosses of the frame halves.", "In an embodiment of the invention, to temporarily secure the frame halves for storage and transport and to effectively permanently secure the frame halves on installation, a plurality of spaced locking ribs have been provided to extend along discrete segments of the attachment rib of each frame half and clip structure(s) are provided to project from one frame half to selectively lockingly engage the locking rib of the axially opposed frame half.", "Thus, referring to FIGS. 2 and 5 , in an embodiment of the invention, a frame assembly is provided that is comprised of a pair of frame halves 114 , 116 , each including an inner frame portion 126 , 136 an outer frame portion 128 , 138 and an axially extending attachment rib 130 axially aligned with the attachment rib 140 of the other frame half 116 and terminating in a free edge 132 , 142 remote from said inner and outer frame portions.", "A panel 112 , such as an insulated glass panel, is supported by and between the inner frame portions 126 , 136 of the pair of frame halves 114 , 116 .", "Locking ribs 134 , 144 are provided to extend along a portion of the attachment rib of at least one of the frame halves, substantially in parallel to the free edge 132 , 142 of the attachment rib and remote from the inner and outer frame portions.", "Further, a clip structure 146 projects axially from the attachment rib of one of the frame halves to selectively engage one of the locking ribs of the other of the frame halves to secure the frame halves together with the panel therebetween.", "Conventional screw bosses 122 , 124 may be provided to extend in the axial direction of the attachment ribs 130 , 140 in a conventional manner and thus are illustrated in FIG. 5 and in phantom in FIG. 2 .", "As will be appreciated, however, the snap attachment provided by the clip structure 146 of the invention may eliminate the need for screw threaded attachment of the frame halves, so that these bosses 122 , 124 may be omitted if deemed necessary or desirable.", "In the alternative, a screw may be threaded through one or more of the pairs of axially aligned bosses to augment the security with which the frame assembly is mounted.", "As mentioned above, to secure the frame halves with respect to each other, clip structure 146 is provided to project from one of the frame halves 114 and includes a receptacle 150 for engaging the attachment rib 140 of the opposing frame half 116 .", "In the illustrated embodiment, the clip structure is a separately formed component that is lockingly engaged with the locking rib 134 of one frame half 114 to project axially therefrom.", "In the illustrated embodiment, the locking clip is axially symmetrical with respect to its centerline.", "Thus, the locking clip includes first and second receptacles 148 , 150 that are generally U-shaped in cross-section for respectively receiving the attachment ribs of the respective frame halves.", "Locking tabs 152 , 154 are provided for lockingly engaging a locking rib of the respective attachment rib.", "In an exemplary embodiment, the free ends of the legs 156 , 158 , 160 , 162 of the “U-shaped”", "receptacles 148 , 150 are respectively flared to facilitate alignment and mounting to the respective attachment rib, particularly during final assembly through the hole in the door slab or the like.", "In the illustrated embodiment, the locking clip is formed by stamping a metal plate, so that one of the legs 156 , 160 of each U-shaped receptacle is effectively a frame of material surrounding an opening 159 , 161 from which the other leg 158 , 162 has been stamped and then laterally offset by base segment 164 , 166 , as shown and understood from FIGS. 3 and 4 .", "Locking tabs 152 , 154 are formed as well, e.g. during the stamping and forming process, and may be generally rectangular in form as illustrated or formed as spaced triangular prongs.", "Although the locking clip is in an exemplary embodiment formed from metal, it is to be appreciated that as an alternative, a molded, plastic clip could be provided with departing from the invention.", "In the illustrated embodiment the clip is provided as a separate component that receives and engages the attachment rib of each frame half in a respective receptacle.", "However, as an alternative, a clip structure may be provided to integrally project from the attachment rib of one of the frame halves to define a receptacle for receiving the other of the frame halves.", "It is also to be appreciated that although the clip structure is illustrated as defining a locking tab for engaging a locking rib on an attachment rib of the frame half, the so-called locking rib may be configured as a cavity having a surface for the tab of the clip to engage.", "Accordingly, locking rib as used herein may be construed as a protrusion on the attachment rib or a recess or cavity on the attachment rib.", "Similarly, the so-called locking tab(s) of the clip structure may be defined as a protrusion or a recess or cavity, provided that the locking rib and locking tab are configured in a complementary manner so that the locking tab of the clip can slide to or past the locking rib and the locking tab and locking rib can engage to lock the clip structure to the attachment rib.", "Referring to FIGS. 5 and 6 , in an exemplary embodiment, the frame assembly 110 is shaped as a polygon having a plurality of diametrically opposed straight sides.", "For ease of illustration, a particularly small frame is shown.", "It is to be appreciated, however, that the panel and frame assembly may be substantially larger than the illustrated structure and/or may have a shape differing from that shown.", "To provide for a temporary attachment of the frame halves during storage and transport and an effectively permanent attachment on installation, in an embodiment of the invention the locking ribs are disposed asymmetrically with respect to one another on the diametrically opposite straight sides of each frame half and the two frame halves are substantially identical.", "Thus, as will be appreciated from FIG. 5 , in the storage/transport orientation of the frame halves, each discrete locking rib 134 , 144 is disposed so as to correspond to a locking rib-free portion 234 , 244 of the axially facing frame half.", "In this configuration, as illustrated in FIG. 6 , the locking clip 146 is lockingly engaged with the locking rib 134 of one frame half 114 but receives a locking rib-free portion 244 of the axially aligned attachment rib 140 of the other frame half 116 .", "As such, the locking clip 146 is locked to one frame half 114 and secured, but not locked, to the other frame half 116 .", "At the time of final installation, when it is desired to effectively permanently attach the frame halves, the detachably secured frame half 116 is axially shifted to disengage from the clip 146 and is rotated, e.g., by 180 degrees to the position shown in FIG. 7 , so that the diametrically opposite side thereof is now aligned with the respective side of the first frame.", "Because the diametrically opposite side of the second frame 116 has locking ribs 144 that axially align with the locking ribs 134 of the first frame 114 , if the second frame half is then axially displaced towards the first frame half, the attachment rib 144 will be received in the receptacle 150 of the clip and the clip will lockingly engage the locking rib as illustrated in FIGS. 7 and 8 .", "To effectively and securely hold the frame halves together, a plurality of clips 146 are provided about the periphery of the frame assembly.", "In the illustrated embodiment, each locking rib has an inclined surface and a straight locking surface to effectively displace the resilient locking tab(s) 152 , 154 of the clip on insertion and to lockingly engage with the locking tab following insertion.", "It is to be understood that as an alternative, the locking ribs may be rectangular in cross-section, or may define a recess or cavity as mentioned above.", "Moreover, although the locking tabs are characterized as resilient hereinabove, as an alternative, the respective leg of the clip may deflect on engagement of the locking tab with a protruding locking rib, so that the tab can pass and engage the locking surface of the locking rib.", "As can be seen and as will be understood, with the structure of the invention, respective halves 114 , 116 of a fixed frame assembly 110 may be temporarily secured for storage and transport ( FIGS. 5 and 6 ) and by detaching, rotating, e.g., 180 degrees, and re-engaging ( FIGS. 7 and 8 ) can be permanently secured to support the glass panel or other central panel 112 in a hole defined through a structural slab 118 , such as a door in the case of a door light or a wall or ceiling in the case of a window or sky-light.", "It will be appreciated that the frame rotation required between the transport and installation configurations will depend on the shape of the frame assembly and the symmetrical locking rib pattern provided.", "Thus, where the frame assembly has more than two axes of symmetry, e.g. if it is circular, hexagonal, or square, then the rotation angle can be 90 degrees or less, whereas if the frame assembly has only two axes of symmetry, e.g. if it is an oblong rectangle or elliptical, then the rotation angle will be 180 degrees.", "In an exemplary embodiment, each locking rib has a dimension in the axial direction of the frame assembly of about 2 mm and is disposed so that the locking surface thereof is approximately 6.5 mm from the free edge of the attachment rib.", "Moreover, in an exemplary embodiment, the locking rib has a transverse height of approximately 1 mm.", "Finally, in an exemplary embodiment, each discrete locking rib has a length in a direction transverse to the axial direction of the frame of about 35 mm.", "It is to be appreciated that the dimensions given are by way of example only and are not to be considered limiting with respect to the disclosed invention.", "While the invention has been described in connection with what is presently considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that the invention is not to be limited to the disclosed embodiment, but on the contrary, is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims." ]

[ "FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001] The present invention relates to a method for operating a data processing system and a data processing system which is designed for carrying out the operating method.", "BACKGROUND INFORMATION [0002] Systems for digital data processing are increasingly used for controlling complex, safety-critical processes, in particular in the automobile industry.", "To ensure the safety of the users of such a system, i.e., a motor vehicle in which such a system is used, even in the event of malfunction, the occurrence of a malfunction must be recognized as rapidly as possible and, if necessary, suitable corrective measures must be taken.", "These corrective measures often depend on disabling the data processing system or at least those parts of the system which are affected by the malfunction.", "For example, German Published Patent Application No. 100 63 934 discloses a data processing system in the form of a network having a plurality of control units running a plurality of monitoring routines which trigger different shut-off strategies for control units of the network when an error is detected.", "The different shut-off strategies prevent the need for shutting off the entire network when an error is detected so that those components not affected by the error may continue to run.", "However, even the shut-off of individual components results in a limitation of the reliability performance of the network.", "[0003] German Published Patent Application No. 102 20 811 proposes the implementation of a flexible response to different types of errors which may occur in a data processing system with the aid of a modular monitoring method oriented toward the structure of the monitoring method being dependent on the system to be monitored.", "Adapting this method to a new application is therefore laborious.", "SUMMARY [0004] Example embodiments of the present invention provide a method for operating a data processing system which is easily adaptable to data processing systems for different tasks and ensures high availability of the data processing system itself in the event that certain errors are detected in the system.", "[0005] These advantages are achieved in that a method for operating a data processing system includes the following steps a) reading of a data word from a memory cell;", "b) checking of the integrity of the data word on the basis of redundant additional information;", "and c) in the case in which the data word turns out to be corrupted, performing of an error handling procedure having the following steps: d) checking of the reliability performance of the memory cell and, if the memory cell is found to be operational, e) restoring of its contents.", "[0011] The method is independent of a weight content which the data word has for an application program running on the data processing system.", "It may therefore contain either a program instruction or also parameters.", "[0012] Restoration may be restoration to its original state or, if the data value is time-variable, also updating of the contents of the memory cell.", "[0013] When the contents of the memory cell have been restored, the data processing system may continue to perform its actual function;", "it is no longer necessary to shut off the data processing system or parts thereof.", "[0014] This property of the method is advantageous in particular in modern data processing systems which use memories having high integration density because in these memories the likelihood of spontaneous data loss due to the effect of particle radiation, in particular of alpha particles, increases as the dimensions of a memory cell affected by a radiation particle decrease.", "[0015] To check the reliability performance of the memory cell, preferably the following steps are performed: [0000] d1) writing to the memory cell;", "d2) reading back of the memory cell written to;", "and d3) comparing of the read-back data word with the one previously written to the memory cell.", "[0016] If agreement is found in the comparison, it may be assumed that previous data loss of the memory cell was caused by a transient external effect and not by a defect of the memory cell itself, i.e., that the memory cell may continue to be used and the risk of repeat data loss is not greater in this case than for other cells of the memory.", "[0017] The data word written to the memory cell in step d1) is preferably the binary complement of the data word read in step a) because then a single write operation is sufficient for checking that each bit of the memory cell is capable of assuming the values 0 and 1.", "[0018] While it is also possible to write a predefined data word to the memory cell, two write-read-back and comparison operations each with binarily complementary data words would be required to verify the reliability performance of the memory cell.", "[0019] In an example embodiment, the contents of the memory cell may therefore be restored by writing the data word read in step a) back to the memory cell in step e).", "This is practicable if the data word being briefly corrupted may not have any safety-relevant effect on the system and it has been ensured that the possibly corrupted data word is corrected at a later point in time via an update.", "[0020] It is safer to update the contents of the memory cell in step e).", "This alternative is, however, more complicated to implement because procedures for updating the contents may be different from one memory cell to the other;", "the error handling procedure is therefore unable to handle all memory cells in the same manner.", "If periodic updating of the memory cell is provided anyway by an application running on the data processing system, it may be sufficient to simply discard the corrupted data value and wait for the update.", "[0021] An alternative that is easy to use on any memory cell is that the redundant information contains error correction information (such as ECC) and the contents of the memory cell are corrected in step e) on the basis of the error correction information.", "[0022] Two or more of the above-described alternatives may be used jointly in a method in that the mode of performing step e) is selected on the basis of the address of the memory cell.", "[0023] If the memory cell is found not to be operational in step d), a routine accessing the memory cell should be terminated in order to avoid malfunctions of this routine that may jeopardize safety.", "[0024] If step a) is performed by a programmable circuit under the control of an application program, steps c) through e) are preferably performed within an interrupt of the application program.", "Access of the application program to the memory cell prior to restoration of the memory cell's contents is thus impossible.", "[0025] If the application program includes a real-time function and a data word is identified as corrupted during an access by the real-time function, an interrupt of the application program for checking the reliability performance of the memory cell, and possibly restoring its contents, may negatively affect the real-time function by delaying it.", "To prevent such a case whenever possible, the application program may include a background function which is interruptible by any real-time function and which performs step a) for a plurality of memory cells one immediately after the other.", "An aspect of the background function is therefore to read the memory cells so that an error in a memory cell is detected, if possible, during a non-time-critical access of the background function to the memory cell and may be corrected by an interrupt.", "It is not necessary for the background function to further process the read data words.", "[0026] The subject matter hereof is also a data processing system having a data memory and a program-controlled circuit which is programmed to carry out the above-described method.", "Such a data processing system may be a motor vehicle control unit in particular.", "[0027] Further features and advantages of example embodiments of the present invention are derived from the following description taking into account the appended drawings.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0028] FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a data processing system according to an example embodiment of the present invention;", "[0029] FIG. 2 shows a flow chart of the operating method according to an example embodiment of the present invention.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0030] FIG. 1 schematically shows a data processing system in which an example embodiment of the present invention is implemented.", "The system includes a microprocessor 1 , a read-only memory 2 , a read-write memory 3 , and various sensors 4 and actuators which are connected to each other via a data bus 5 and an address bus.", "Sensors 4 and actuators are used for detecting and affecting performance parameters of a device to be controlled, for example, a motor vehicle engine.", "The manner in which the measured values generated by sensors 4 are processed by microprocessor 1 to activate the actuators is determined by an application program stored in area 6 of ROM 2 .", "[0031] Data bus 5 between memories 2 , 3 and processor 1 has a width of 16 bits, for example.", "[0032] The width of read-write memory 3 is 1 bit greater than that of data bus 5 ;", "the additional bit is used for storing a parity bit for each 16-bit data word.", "Read-write memory 3 is shown in the figure divided into sections 3 - 0 through 3 - 16 , each of which receives one of bits 0 through 15 of each data word and the corresponding parity bit.", "Section 3 - 16 receiving the parity bit has a data input and data output which are connected to a parity controller 7 , which generates the correct parity bit for each data word to be written to read-write memory 3 and outputs it to section 3 - 16 , so that it is stored together with the data word, and calculates the parity of each data word read from the memory, comparing it with the parity read from section 3 - 16 at the same time.", "In the event of non-agreement, there is an error in memory 3 , and parity controller 7 generates an error signal which is supplied to an interrupt input 9 of microprocessor 1 via a line 8 .", "[0033] An error handling routine which is to be run by microprocessor 1 in the event of an error signal occurring at interrupt input 9 is stored in an area 10 of ROM 2 .", "The application program controls and/or regulates the engine via a loop executed in regular time intervals, in which it reads measuring results which were previously stored by sensors 4 at the addresses of memory 3 assigned to them, processes these measuring results and activates the actuators on the basis of the processing results.", "When this activation is completed and there is time left until the start of the next loop, the application program reads the individual memory locations of read-write memory 3 , not to further process the contents read, but only to enable parity controller 7 to check the correctness of the contents of the individual memory cells.", "While an interrupt triggered by parity controller 7 during control and regulation processing may result in a delay of time-critical tasks of microprocessor 1 , this is not the case in successive readings of the memory cells after the completion of the control and regulation tasks.", "The time during which this reading takes place represents the capacity reserve of microprocessor 1 and it may, if necessary, also be used for performing error handling without negatively affecting the other functions of the microprocessor.", "[0034] FIG. 2 is a flow chart of an error handling procedure of microprocessor 1 triggered by an interrupt of parity controller 7 .", "Step S 0 designates a read step of contents [M] of a memory cell having address M in a register R of microprocessor 1 , in which parity controller 7 identifies a parity error.", "The error signal subsequently output by parity controller 7 results in an interrupt of the application program being executed by microprocessor 1 and in the execution of an error handling procedure in whose first step S 1 the contents of register R are replaced by their binary complement inv(R).", "In step S 2 the contents of register R are written to the memory cell having address M. [0035] When the identified parity error has been caused by a defective bit of the memory cell which may assume only one of the two possible logical values, the write procedure of step S 2 for this bit remains without effect.", "[0036] In step S 3 the contents [M] of memory cell M are read again and compared to register R. If the memory cell actually has a corrupted bit, non-agreement is identified and the method branches off to step S 4 , in which the application program or at least separable portions of this program which access memory cell M are terminated.", "[0037] When agreement is found in step S 3 , it may be assumed that the parity error is caused by spontaneous information loss in a bit of memory cell M, for example, due to the effect of ionizing radiation, and indicates no permanent defect of memory cell M. In this case memory cell M may continue to be used.", "[0038] The manner in which the contents of memory cell M are to be restored is then decided in step S 5 .", "The way this is to be done may differ depending on the meaning of the data word stored in memory cell M and may be determined at the time the application program is developed, for example, in the variables of the application program which are stored in the address areas associated with the type of error handling and are to be handled the same way in the event of an error.", "[0039] When an error in the variables stored in memory cell M may be tolerated, for example, because the variable is regularly recalculated on the basis of the measuring results of sensors 4 and a briefly corrupted value of the variables may not result in safety-relevant miscontrol, it is sufficient if the method branches off to step S 6 in which, however, the register is inverted and subsequently in step S 7 memory cell M is overwritten with the value thus obtained.", "Memory cell M then has the same contents again as in step S 0 .", "While there is a high probability of these contents being corrupted, as long as the error does not affect the most significant bits, it is at least a better approximation of the correct value than an arbitrarily defined constant.", "[0040] It is also possible to replace a value of a memory cell determined to be corrupted with a predefined value such as 0x0000 or 0xFFFF which is recognized as invalid by the application program accessing the corresponding memory cell.", "The appropriate response to the error may then be left to the application program and it may turn out to be different depending on which values other variables currently have or the phase of the application program from which the defective memory cell was accessed.", "[0041] There may be another group of memory cells whose contents may be remeasured by sensors 4 or recalculated without major effort in the event of an error.", "Routines for recalculating or measuring these values are, in general, part of the application program.", "A table T(M) in ROM 2 provides a start address A of a routine for each memory cell M of this type, via which contents [M] may be recalculated or measured.", "This address A is ascertained in step S 8 , and a jump to it is performed in step S 9 to execute the corresponding routine and restore [M].", "[0042] There may be another group of memory cells M in which the risk associated with the use of a corrupted value is unacceptably high, so that simple restoration of [M] via steps S 6 , S 7 is out of the question, and which are inaccessible even for rapid redetermination via steps S 8 , S 9 .", "These may include variables obtained by averaging over a longer period, or discrete variables whose effects do not continuously change with their numerical value.", "When the memory cell which triggered the parity error belongs to this group, a warning signal is output to a user in step S 10 to prompt him to restart the data processing system, and subsequently the method goes to step S 4 in which functions using memory cell M are blocked until the correct contents of M are restored by a system reboot.", "[0043] Another possibility is to make backup copies of certain variables so that, when defective memory cell M contains such a variable, its backup copy S may be simply read and written back to memory cell M (S 11 ).", "[0044] An example embodiment of the present invention may include further options for correcting contents of a memory cell identified as corrupted or also a subset of the above-described options.", "In the simplest case, decision step S 5 may also be omitted and only a single option may be provided.", "[0045] According to an example embodiment of the present invention, memory 3 has not only one redundant bit 3 - 16 for each data word, but multiple bits, whose contents are determined from the associated data word with the aid of an error correction code such as a Reed-Solomon code, and the redundant bits are addressable by microprocessor 1 , so that the microprocessor may also read them.", "In the example embodiment of FIG. 1 , parity controller 7 is used for identifying errors in the read data words on the basis of the redundant bits it receives simultaneously with each data word and for triggering an interrupt of processor 1 in the event of an error.", "During such an interrupt—or as one of the plurality of possible options available in step S 5 of this interrupt for eliminating the memory error—processor 1 reads the redundant bits for the corrupted data word, corrects the corrupted data word on the basis of these bits, and writes it back to the memory cell affected by the error." ]

[ "TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] This invention relates generally to educational appliances and methods for providing a user with a fun interactive learning experience.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] It's been a long time that people desire to learning with fun.", "To date, all attempts to have a fun learning through the use of educational tools.", "A conventional learning tool, for example, a jigsaw puzzle or a spelling game is familiar.", "[0003] However, no matter what the spelling result comes out, it suffers from a disadvantage of providing pleasant looking only but not teaching anything else.", "The meanings of the outcome need to be analyzed and interpreted by a human being.", "For example, the characters, such as B-O-O-K spelled by a child, need to be read and explained by an adult.", "A further example is a famous-painting puzzle which could only be understood through a manual specifying an author, a background and a comment of the famous painting.", "[0004] No matter what, these kinds of toys, such as the jigsaw puzzles or the spelling games have the common object to provide with a fun learning experience, but the learning efficiency is inferior.", "A user needs assistance from other persons to obtain satisfied learning effect.", "From the foregoing, there is still room for providing a new learning appliance and method that improves the learning efficiency in fun, easy-to-use way.", "SUMMARY OF INVENTION [0005] It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a method and an appliance with mainly a plurality of pieces and a stage.", "After a user places at least one selected piece on the stage, the stage will identify and judge the meaning of the combination formed by the selected pieces and then render immediate feedback of explaining the meaning of the combination.", "[0006] The present invention discloses plural embodiments for identifying the combination in accordance with the information of the positions and identifications of the selected pieces placed on the stage via plural technologies, such as photographic technologies, graphics technologies, barcode identification technologies, radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies or optical detection technologies.", "After the combination is determined to be meaningful, an output module installed in the stage is driven so as to output a content package which explains the meaning of the combination via an audio or a video device.", "For example, when pre-shaped selected pieces are placed on the stage and arranged as a combination as B-O-O-K, the stage correspondingly renders immediate feedback with a pronunciation, an explanation, an instruction and an example sentence of the word “book.”", "Comparing with the conventional jigsaw puzzle or spelling toy which is just for pleasant looking only, the present invention expresses the meanings of the combination via audio, video or other method so that the user may have the interactive learning with more fun and improve the learning efficiency.", "It is also very helpful especially for preschool-aged children or blind people.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS [0007] These and other features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with reference to the following description, appended claims, and accompanying drawings wherein: [0008] FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a preferred embodiment of the present invention, showing an interactive learning appliance comprising plural pieces and a stage;", "[0009] FIGS. 2 to 5 show different practices of the pieces of the interactive learning appliance;", "[0010] FIG. 6 is block diagram of the present invention;", "and [0011] FIGS. 7 to 10 are block diagrams of the present invention, showing different practices of identification modules.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS [0012] As shown in FIG. 1 , a learning appliance embodied in the present invention mainly comprises plural pieces 1 and one stage 2 .", "Although the FIG. 1 shown here has four different pieces (pieces of one B-shaped, two O-shaped and one K-shaped), it is to be understood that any other shape for educational and entertaining purpose can be devised, such as other English characters, Chinese characters, phonetic symbols, animals, plants or jigsaws.", "Moreover, the plural pieces 1 are devised to be selected and arranged on the stage 2 to form a combination of the selected pieces 1 , and the stage 2 is designed to identify the meaning of the combination and then to output and specify the meaning of the combination in a percipient way.", "[0013] On the other hand, the present invention discloses an improved method for interactive learning, and the method comprises the following steps: providing the stage 2 and the plural pieces 1 arranged for placing on the stage 2 ;", "creating a corresponding content package for each of possible meaningful combinations of the plural pieces 1 ;", "identifying whether a combination formed by the selected pieces 1 is meaningful, wherein the selected pieces 1 are chosen from the plural pieces 1 and are arranged on the stage 2 by a user;", "and outputting the corresponding content package for explaining the meaning of the combination of the selected pieces 1 in a percipient way.", "[0014] FIGS. 2 to 5 illustrate how to identify the combination according to the preferred embodiment of this subject invention.", "[0015] In a first practice, each of the plural pieces 1 facing to the stage 2 is formed of a shaped face 10 as shown in FIG. 2 .", "First, recognize each of the positions and the shaped faces 10 of the selected pieces 1 placed on the stage via imaging and photographic technologies and graphics technologies so that identifications of the pieces 1 are created.", "According to the positions of the selected pieces 1 and the identifications transformed via the shaped faces 10 of the selected pieces 1 , create information about the combination of the selected pieces 1 , such as the combination of “BOOK”, as shown in FIG. 1 .", "Then, identify whether the combination is within a pre-built database made up of plural meaningful combinations, such as text combinations, graphic combinations or text-graphic mixed combinations so as to determine whether the combination of the selected pieces 1 placed on the stage 2 is meaningful.", "[0016] In a second practice, each of the plural pieces 1 facing to the stage 2 has a barcode 11 as shown in FIG. 3 .", "And the stage 2 has plural defined areas (not shown) in advance.", "First, recognize each of the barcodes 11 of the selected pieces 1 placed on the stage 2 via Barcode Scanning System Identification Technologies.", "Second, create information about the combination of the selected pieces 1 according to positions and the barcodes 11 of the selected pieces 1 .", "Then, identify whether the combination of the selected pieces 1 is within a pre-built database described as above so as to determine if the combination is meaningful.", "[0017] In a third practice, each piece 1 facing to the stage 2 has a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag 12 as shown in FIG. 4 .", "The RFID tag 12 can receive a first electromagnetic wave and transmit a second electromagnetic wave by using the energy provided by the first electromagnetic wave.", "The second electromagnetic wave carries an RFID code set in the RFID tag 12 .", "And the stage 2 has plural defmed areas in advance.", "First, recognize each of the RFID codes of the selected pieces 1 placed on the stage 2 via RFID Technologies.", "Second, create information about the combination of the selected pieces 1 according to the positions and the RFID codes of the selected pieces 1 .", "Then, identify whether the combination of the selected pieces 1 is within a pre-built database described as above so as to determine if the combination is meaningful.", "[0018] In a fourth practice, each of the plural pieces 1 facing to the stage 2 has an Identification (ID) code formed of a certain amount of through holes 13 as shown in FIG. 5 .", "For examples, let an A-shaped piece has one through hole, a B-shaped piece has two through holes 13 and the like.", "And the stage 2 has plural defmed areas in advance.", "First, detecting the light passing through each of the through holes 13 of the selected pieces 1 placed on the stage via Optical Detection Technologies so as to recognize the ID codes of the selected pieces 1 .", "Second, create information about the combination of the selected pieces according to positions and the ID codes of the selected pieces 1 .", "Then, identify whether the combination of the selected pieces 1 is within a pre-built database described as above so as to determine if the combination is meaningful.", "[0019] Referred to hereinabove, it has disclosed many simple methods for recognizing the positions and the identifications of the selected pieces 1 placed on the stage 2 as described above.", "Therefore, the stage 2 can automatically identify the selected pieces 1 being arranged as a “BOOK”", "word as shown in FIG. 1 .", "After outputting a corresponding content package, such as an audio file or a video file, the user can understand the meaning of the combination of the selected pieces through a specification of the content package, such as explaining the pronunciation, the meaning, the instruction and the example sentence or the like about the combination and enjoy it with fun.", "[0020] Most notably, it should be known that the stage 2 of the FIG. 1 and FIG. 6 comprises: a body 20 ;", "a panel 21 , disposed on the top of the body 20 for receiving the selected pieces 1 which are chosen from the plural pieces 1 and are arrange on the panel 21 by a user, wherein the panel 21 and/or the plural pieces 1 are magnetic so as to couple to each other;", "and a control circuit 22 , located in the body 20 .", "[0021] Referring to FIG. 6 , the control circuit 22 comprises: an identification module 22 a is provided for determining whether the combination of the selected pieces 1 placed on the panel 21 is meaningful so as to generate a corresponding information;", "a storage module 22 b is provided for storing plural content packages, such as audio files or video files, wherein each of the content packages is to interpret the meaning of each of possible meaningful combinations of the plural pieces 1 ;", "and an output module 22 c for receiving the information and retrieve the corresponding content package according to the information so as to output the corresponding content package.", "[0022] Wherein, the storage module 22 b is preferred as a memory card (A) as shown in FIG. 1 .", "And the output module 22 c is preferred to be a removable MP3 player (B).", "Thus, after identifying the combination of the selected pieces 1 placed on the stage 2 is a form of the word “BOOK”", "which is meaningful via the identification module 22 a , and the output module 22 c then retrieves a corresponding content package from the storage module 22 b and runs the content package which includes the pronunciation, the meaning, the instruction and some example sentences of the word “Book.”", "If the content package is an MP 3 format and the output module 22 c is an Mp3 player, the content package can be played in Mp3 manner.", "[0023] FIG. 7 shows a first practice of the identification module 22 a .", "It's acted on the premise that the panel 21 is transparent and each of the plural pieces 1 is the type of the pieces 1 shown in FIG. 2 .", "Wherein, the identification module 22 a comprises: a photographic circuit 221 , provided for retrieving the images of the selected pieces 1 placed on the panel 21 so as to identify the shaped faces of the selected pieces 1 and to form a set of image information;", "an identification circuit 222 , provided for identifying the identifications of the selected pieces 1 according to the shaped faces of the selected pieces through analyzing the image information;", "and a judging circuit 223 , provided for recognizing the positions where the selected pieces 1 placed and for determining whether the combination of selected pieces 1 is meaningful in accordance with the positions and the identifications of the selected pieces 1 so as to generate information.", "[0024] Referring now to FIG. 8 , a second practice of the identification module 22 a is disclosed.", "It's acted on the premise that the panel 21 is transparent and has plural defined areas (not shown) for receiving the selected pieces 1 which areas shown in FIG. 3 .", "Furthermore, the identification module 22 a comprises: a barcode identification circuit 224 , for scanning the barcodes 11 of the selected pieces 1 placed on the panel 21 ;", "and a judging circuit 225 , provided for recognizing the positions where the selected pieces 1 placed and for determining whether the combination of selected pieces 1 is meaningful in accordance with the positions and the barcodes of the selected pieces so as to generate information.", "[0025] Referring now to FIG. 9 , a third practice of the identification module 22 a is disclosed.", "It's acted on the premise that the panel 21 is transparent and has plural defined areas (not shown) for receiving the selected pieces 1 as shown in FIG. 4 .", "Furthermore, the identification module 22 a comprises: a host 226 , provided for transmitting the first electromagnetic wave, and both receiving and demodulating the second electromagnetic wave so as to obtain the RFID codes of the selected pieces placed 1 on the panel 21 ;", "and a judgment circuit 227 , provided for recognizing the positions where the selected pieces 1 are placed and for determining whether the combination of the selected pieces 1 is meaningful according to the positions and the RFID codes of the selected pieces 1 so as to create the corresponding information.", "[0026] Referring now to FIG. 10 , a fourth practice of the identification module 22 a is disclosed.", "It's acted on the premise that the panel 21 is transparent and has plural defined areas (not shown) for receiving the selected pieces as shown in FIG. 5 .", "Furthermore, the identification module 22 a comprises: a photodetector 228 , provided for scanning the through holes 13 of the selected pieces 1 placed on the panel 21 so as to identify identifications of the selected pieces 1 according to light passing through the through holes 13 of the selected pieces 1 ;", "and a judgment circuit 229 , provided for recognizing the positions where the selected pieces 1 are placed and for determining whether the combination of the selected pieces is meaningful according to the positions and the identifications of the selected pieces 1 so as to create the corresponding information.", "[0027] As described above, the present invention discloses the stage 2 which can automatically identify the positions and the identifications of the selected pieces 1 placed on the stage 2 and determine the meaning of the combination of the selected pieces 1 , and further output the content package, such as audio files or video files to explain the meaning of the combination.", "For examples, convey the pronunciation, the meaning, the instruction and the example sentence of the combination if the combination is a form of a word.", "Or if the combination is a form of a picture such a picture with three pigs and a wolf, then express the story of “the three pigs and the wolf”", "via audio or video manner.", "Yet if the combination is form of a famous painting, then specify the author, history, background, and the meaning via an audio.", "[0028] Comparing with the conventional jigsaw puzzles or the spelling toys that are just pleasant to one's eyes only, the subject invention teaches the user in a fun way via the audios or videos so as to increase the learning efficiency.", "It's very helpful especially for preschool-aged children or blind people.", "[0029] Numerous characteristics and advantages of the invention have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structure and function of the invention, and the novel features thereof are pointed out in appended claims.", "The disclosure, however, is illustrative only, and changes may be made in detail, especially, in matters of shape, size and arrangement of parts, materials and the combination thereof within the principle of the invention, to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed." ]

[ "TECHNICAL FIELD The present disclosure relates to pressure limiting the hydraulic circuits, and more particularly to controlling the pilot signal pressure of the compensator.", "BACKGROUND This disclosure relates generally to hydraulic systems, and more particularly, but not exclusively, this disclosure relates to a method and system to control the flow and pressure in a hydraulic system.", "With the advancement in the field of hydraulics, there has been an interest in development of a hydraulic system capable of performing a plurality of functions efficiently.", "One of the basic functions is too regulate the pressure and flow of the fluid passing through the hydraulic system.", "It is relatively common requirement, for hydraulic post compensated implement systems, to limit work port pressure to a value below the maximum system pressure.", "This requirement is typically met by adding work port relief valves, however the work port relief valves result in high flow losses and therefore reduces the efficiency.", "In another method, pre-pressure compensated circuits can also be used in a similar method to limit pressure.", "While various hydraulic compensators have been developed, there is still room for improvement.", "Thus, a need persists for further contributions in this area of technology.", "SUMMARY This disclosure provides for removing the work port relief valves used in the prior art to control the pressure.", "The pressure is limited in a particular circuit by controlling and closing the compensator when the desired pressure setting is achieved.", "As the compensator closes flow will be reduced in the circuit resulting in improved efficiency.", "One illustrated embodiment of the disclosure provides a relief valve in the pilot signal for a compensator.", "The method relates to limiting the pressure on the open side of the compensator, such that the pressure on the other side closes the compensator thereby limiting the pressure and also flow in the hydraulic circuit.", "In other words, the pressure on the open side is limited by the relief valve.", "Thus, the pressure on the other side increases thereby regulating the flow and pressure through the compensator.", "In another embodiment of the disclosure, instead of reducing the pressure on the open side, the pressure on the closed side is increased, thereby controlling the flow and pressure of the hydraulic circuit.", "The pressure can be increased by a pump or any other suitable source of external pressure.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a first embodiment of the present invention;", "and FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of a second embodiment of the present invention.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION A compensated hydraulic system 100 according to one illustrative embodiment of the current disclosure is shown in FIG. 1 .", "The hydraulic system 100 , can be used for example in machines such as track type tractors, wheel loader or similar equipment (not shown), for bucket or blade lifting systems, includes a source of hydraulic fluid such as a pump 12 , an operational valve 14 and a pressure compensator 16 or a compensator valve 16 , and a hydraulic actuator assembly 18 .", "The pump 12 is configured to provide hydraulic fluid at a pressure head.", "The pressurized fluid from the pump 12 is pumped through the hydraulic system 100 to a load or to perform various functions by using the hydraulic actuator assembly 18 .", "In this embodiment the hydraulic actuator assembly 18 is a piston cylinder arrangement 18 .", "Further, in this embodiment the operational valve 14 is a control spool 14 .", "The control spool 14 is configured to control the direction of the piston cylinder arrangement 18 .", "In other words the, the control spool 14 directs the hydraulic fluid to the piston cylinder arrangement 18 to expand or retract the pistons.", "It should be appreciated that the hydraulic system 100 includes only one control spool 14 according to an embodiment of the disclosure.", "However, plurality of operational valves or control spools can be provided in a circuit as per the requirement in the circuit.", "Further, the system 100 is shown to include the compensator 16 .", "The compensator 16 is arranged on the top of the control spool 14 .", "The compensator 16 is provided to maintain a constant pressure drop across the control spool 14 .", "The compensator 16 has two inlets, first inlet 16 a and a second inlet 16 b .", "The first inlet 16 a is located on the open end of the compensator 16 .", "The first inlet 16 a is subjected to pressure tending to open the compensator and thereby allow the flow of hydraulic pressure.", "The second inlet 16 b is located at the closed end of the compensator 16 .", "The second inlet 16 b is subjected to a spring force and additional pressure sources (if any) to close the opening of the compensator, thereby limiting the flow of hydraulic fluid.", "The term first inlet 16 a and open end 16 a have been used interchangeably in the description and refer to the same inlet/same end of the compensator 16 .", "The term second inlet 16 b and closed end 16 b have been used interchangeably in the description and refer to the same inlet/same end of the compensator 16 .", "The control spool 14 can control the direction of the fluid to direct the hydraulic fluid to expand or retract the cylinder piston arrangement 18 .", "Further, the compensator 16 is provided to maintain a constant pressure drop across the control spool 14 .", "Further, the hydraulic system 100 can include a supply line 20 connecting the control spool 14 with an inlet 16 c of the pressure compensator 16 through a load drop check valve 22 .", "The load drop check valve 22 prevents the backflow of fluid to the control spool 14 when the pump 12 is not functioning.", "The inlet 16 c is connected to the supply line 20 from the pump 12 .", "The hydraulic system 100 further includes a first signal line 24 and a second signal line 26 .", "The first signal line 24 is located upstream of control spool 14 .", "The first signal line 24 provides the fluid pressure head, and allows the hydraulic fluid to bias the spool member (not shown) of the control spool 14 through the closed end 16 b of compensator 16 .", "The first signal line 24 on the closed side 16 b tends to close the compensator 16 .", "The first signal 24 act in the same direction of the compensator spring 28 tending to close the compensator 16 .", "The second signal line 26 is connected with the open end 16 a of the compensator 16 and allows flow of fluid, to bias the pressure compensator 16 in the opposite direction of compensator spring 28 and the first signal line 24 .", "The second signal line 26 is located on the open side 16 a of the compensator and tends to open the compensator 16 .", "The second signal line 26 works opposite to the force of the first signal line 24 on the closed end 16 b and the compensator spring 28 .", "Further, the hydraulic system 100 includes a regulating valve 30 .", "In this embodiment, the regulating valve 30 is essentially a pressure relief valve.", "The pressure relief valve 30 is arranged at the open side 16 a of the compensator 16 in the second signal line 26 .", "Thus, the relief valve 30 is arranged on the pilot passage 26 which is tending to open the compensator.", "Accordingly, an increase in the pressure in the second signal line 26 , in the open side 16 a of the compensator 16 , is limited to pressure value set by relief valve 30 .", "Consequently, the pressure tending to open the compensator 16 is limited to a desired pressure value set through the relief valve 30 .", "Thus limiting the pressure on the open side 16 a , relatively causes the pressure from the first signal line 24 and the compensator spring 28 to increase and close the compensator 16 .", "This leads to controlling of both the pressure and the flow of the hydraulic fluid in the circuit 100 when the pressure in the signal line 26 increases beyond the set threshold value of the relief valve 30 .", "To provide a better understanding, consider the scenario, where the pump 12 is provided with a pump inlet line 32 leading to the control spool 14 .", "The pressure from the pump 12 is passed to the compensator 16 from the control spool 14 , and the supply line 20 .", "Further, the system is shown to include a check valve 34 which is connected to the actuator 18 .", "The check valve 34 acts as a sensor for determining the load condition of the actuator 18 during expansion or retraction.", "Downstream the control spool 14 , the supply line 20 is subjected to the relief valve 30 through the second signal line 26 .", "Pressure in the supply line 20 tends to open the compensator thereby allowing flow of hydraulic fluid through the control spool 14 .", "The pressure line 20 is subjected to the relief valve 30 , which operates beyond a set pressure threshold.", "Thus, when the pressure exceeds the desired pressure value or the set pressure threshold of the relief valve 30 , the relief valve 30 opens and drains the hydraulic fluid to a reservoir/tank.", "This results in decrease in the pressure of the hydraulic fluid on the open side 16 a of the compensator 16 .", "Thereby, relatively increasing the pressure from the first signal line 24 and the compensator spring 28 and allowing the combined force of the spring 28 and the pressure from the first signal line 24 on the closed side 16 b to close the compensator 16 .", "Therefore, such arrangement results in pressure limiting and leads to control of pressure head and the flow of the hydraulic fluid without affecting the other function of the hydraulic system 100 .", "In other words, the system is more efficient as it provides the pre-compensated control of the pressure and the flow to the cylinder piston arrangement 18 .", "FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of a hydraulic system 200 in a second embodiment of the present invention.", "The hydraulic system 200 is similar to the hydraulic system 100 as described in FIG. 1 .", "However, the hydraulic system 200 does not include the relief valve 30 .", "Instead, the hydraulic system 200 includes a pressure controlling means.", "In this embodiment, the pressure controlling means includes a control valve 202 and external pressure source 204 .", "In an embodiment, the pressure control valve 202 can be electronically controlled or mechanically controlled, as shown.", "The control valve 202 has an open side 202 a and closed side 202 b .", "The open side 202 a is subjected to a pressure tending to open the flow through the control valve 202 from pressure source 204 , whereas the closed side 202 b is subjected to a spring pressure tending to close the flow from pressure source 204 through the control valve 202 .", "The control valve 202 is connected to direct the fluid from the external source 204 towards the closed end 16 d of the compensator 16 .", "In other words, the control valve 202 causes the pressure from the pressure source 204 to act in the same direction of the compensator spring 28 .", "Further, the control valve 202 includes a control spring 206 , which is tending to close the control valve 202 .", "It is to be noted that the external pump can be any suitable pressure source 204 .", "Furthermore, the control valve 202 is operated based on the signal from the signal line 208 and 210 .", "The signal line 208 and 210 are connected to the opens side 202 a of the control valve 202 .", "The signal lines 208 and 210 are connected through a check valve arrangement 212 .", "The signal line 208 and 210 senses the fluid pressure in the piston cylinder arrangement 18 during expansion and retraction, respectively.", "The signal line 208 and 210 signals the increase in pressure on the work side of the piston cylinder arrangement 18 to the open side 202 a of the control valve 202 , through the check valve 212 .", "In the current arrangement, the signal from the signal line 208 or 210 during expansion or retraction is passed to the open side 202 a of the control valve 202 .", "The pressure signal from the signal line 208 or 210 tends to open the control valve 202 against the force of the control spring 206 .", "Thereby, connecting the pressure from the pressure source 204 with the closed side 16 d of the compensator 16 .", "The increase in pressure on the closed side 16 d leads to closing of the compensator thereby controlling the pressure and flow of hydraulic fluid through the control spool 14 .", "Consequently, the pressure in the cylinder piston arrangement 18 is reduced and controlled.", "Vice-versa, any decrease in the pressure in the pressure signal line 208 or 210 causes the closing of the control valve 202 , thereby disconnecting the pressure source 204 with the closed side 16 d of the compensator 16 .", "This leads to relative decrease in pressure on the closed side 16 d of the compensator and hence the pressure on the open side 16 a of the compensator opens the compensator and increase the flow through the control spool 14 .", "Thus as compared to FIG. 1 , the embodiment described in FIG. 2 , increases the pressure on the closed side 16 d of the compensator 16 to control the pressure and flow in the hydraulic fluid.", "To summarize, first embodiment as described in FIG. 1 is configured to reduce the pressure on the open side 16 a of the compensator 16 , whereas the second embodiment as described in FIG. 2 , senses the pressure in the piston cylinder arrangement 18 and accordingly, controls the compensator by providing an additional pressure on the closed side 16 b of the compensator 16 .", "It is to be noted the hydraulic system 100 or hydraulic system 200 as described above can be used in any hydraulic circuit, such as circuits in hydraulic machine, loader, tractors, backhoe loaders, wheel loader, mine trucks, and the like.", "Industrial Applicability The hydraulic system 100 described above provides for improvement in capability of pressure limiting a hydraulic circuit without significant losses.", "The system 100 provides for utilizing the compensator 16 to pressure limit and at the same time minimizing the flow losses.", "The disclosed hydraulic system 100 includes a regulating valve 30 .", "The regulating valve 30 is configured to pressure limit the hydraulic system 100 by controlling the pilot signal which is tending to open the compensator 16 .", "For a better understanding, consider a scenario, where the system 100 is supplied with high pressure hydraulic fluid from the pump 12 .", "High hydraulic pressure, beyond the safety limits, can cause damage to the hydraulic machinery, such as it may cause damage to the seals and piston rings in the actuators 18 .", "Thus, it is mandatory to limit the maximum hydraulic pressure in the system 100 .", "The disclosed system 100 provides for controlling the opening aperture of the compensator 16 as compared to releasing the extra pressure through a relief valve.", "Thus, in any hydraulic system, the energy generated from the pump 12 is not wasted by releasing the pressure through the relief valve, but the energy is controlled by controlling the compensator 16 .", "As described above, a relief valve 30 is hydraulically connected to the pilot signal line 20 of the compensator 16 .", "The pilot signal which is tending to open the compensator is subjected to the regulating valve 30 .", "The regulating valve 30 is configured to relieve the additional pressure beyond a set limit.", "Thus, the regulating valve 30 regulates the pressure in the pilot signal line 20 .", "Therefore, when the pressure in the hydraulic circuit increases beyond a safety limit, the regulating valve 30 opens and reduces the pressure on signal line tending to open the compensator 16 , which in turn allows the pressure 24 and the spring force 28 tending to close the compensator to close the compensatory.", "Hence, the flow rate and the pressure through the compensator is controlled and the pressure in the hydraulic system 100 is controlled.", "Such system provides for controlling the pressure from the pump instead of wasting the work done by the pump 12 through a safety release valve.", "In an alternate embodiment, to achieve the same objective, instead of reducing the pressure on the side tending to open the compensator, the pressure on the side tending to close the compensator is boosted.", "As described above, it is required to maintain a safety limit of the pressure in the hydraulic circuit.", "In this embodiment, an additional pressure source 204 is provided in the system 200 .", "The pressure source can be any suitable source already present in the system 200 .", "The pressure source 204 is connected through a control valve 202 .", "The control valve on one side is connected with the pressure line for expanding and contracting the actuators 18 .", "On the other side the control valve 202 is biased by the spring 206 .", "Any increase in pressure beyond a set limit on the side of pressure line is sensed and is transmitted to the control valve 202 .", "Thus the control valve 202 connects the pressure source 204 to the side 16 d of the compensator 16 .", "The pressure from the pressure source 204 together with the spring force 28 closes the compensator, thereby reducing the flow rate and pressure of hydraulic fluid through the spool 14 .", "In an alternate embodiment, the control valve 202 can be controlled electronically by using strain gauges and other suitable pressure sensors.", "In summary, the hydraulic system 100 is disclosed for automatically pressure limiting any hydraulic circuit without energy loss from the pump and minimal flow losses.", "The system 100 is configured to control both the flow rate and pressure through the compensator 16 by controlling the opening and closing of the compensator 16 by sensing the pressure in the actuation line.", "Aspects of this disclosure may be applied to any hydraulic circuit, specifically in hydraulically circuits drawing power driven by engines, as increase in engine speed can speed the pump thereby resulting in continuous fluctuation in the pressure.", "Aspects of this disclosure may also be applied to hydraulic system in machines such as excavators, track type tractors, backhoe loaders, wheel loaders, pipe layers, compactors, and trucks.", "Although the embodiments of this disclosure as described herein may be incorporated without departing from the scope of the following claims, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made.", "Other embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the disclosure.", "It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope being indicated by the following claims and their equivalents." ]

[ "CROSS RELATED APPLICATION This application is a divisional of and claims priority to U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 10/712,991 filed Nov. 17, 2003 now U.S. Pat. No. 7,032,388.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates generally to controllers for a combustion system for a gas turbine.", "In particular, the invention relates to a combustor control algorithm for a Dry Low NOx (DLN) combustor.", "Industrial and power generation gas turbines have control systems (“controllers”) that monitor and control their operation.", "These controllers govern the combustion system of the gas turbine.", "To minimize emissions of carbon-monoxide and nitric-oxides (NOx), DLN combustion systems may include control scheduling algorithms that receive as inputs measurements of the exhaust temperature of the turbine, the actual operating compressor pressure ratio, and the actual emissions levels.", "Emissions sensors are needed to monitor emission levels in the turbine exhaust.", "Industrial gas turbine engine control systems generally employ triplex redundancy for control process and safety critical sensors.", "Triplex redundancy is often needed to satisfy safety and reliability expectations and requirements of customers and governmental agencies.", "Providing three emission sensors for a turbine exhaust is expensive, and adds to the maintenance and calibration requirements of the gas turbine.", "There is a need for a cost effective approach to directly controlling emission levels in a gas turbine.", "BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention may be embodied as a method for determining an estimated operating parameter for a gas turbine including the steps of: determining an estimated operating parameter using an algorithm have an input from a sensor, wherein the algorithm includes a trim factor;", "determining a first trim factor based on a comparison of the first estimated operating parameter and the output of the sensor when a condition of the sensor is in a first mode, and during a subsequent determination of the estimated operating parameter, applying the first trim factor to subsequently determine the estimated operating condition if the condition of second sensor is in a second mode.", "The invention may also be embodied as a method for determining an estimated operating emission level in the exhaust stream of a gas turbine comprising: periodically determining an estimated emission level from an output of emissions transfer algorithm, wherein said algorithm includes a trim factor;", "determining a current trim factor based on a ratio of a current output of a healthy emission sensor monitoring the exhaust and of the estimated emission level from a prior determination, and applying a prior trim factor previously applied to determine the estimated operating condition if the emission sensor is unhealthy.", "The invention may be further embodied as a system for determining an estimated operating parameter for a gas turbine having an exhaust and a fuel controller comprising: a controller including a processor executing a combustion temperature scheduling algorithm and emissions transfer function stored in electronic memory of the controller, wherein said scheduling algorithm outputs a temperature request signal applied to generate a fuel control command for said fuel controller and said scheduling algorithm receives as an input a trim factor based on an estimated emission level generated by the emissions transfer function, wherein said emissions transfer function includes a emissions correction factor;", "a emission sensor measuring a emission level in the exhaust, wherein said sensor has an operating mode and a suspended mode;", "a trim factor switch selectively operating said sensor in said modes, wherein said switch selects a current emissions correction factor or a prior emissions correction factor to be applied to the emissions transfer function on a sensor condition input signal applied to the switch.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The accompanying drawings in conjunction with the text of this specification describe an embodiment(s) of the invention.", "FIG. 1 is a schematic depiction of a gas turbine having a fuel control system.", "FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an emission limiting system including a closed-loop control temperature scheduling algorithm to trim a reference exhaust temperature request applied to control the gas turbine.", "FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a conventional emissions-trim temperature scheduling algorithm.", "FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a emissions-trim temperature scheduling algorithm having a emission model-based trim factor.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION FIG. 1 depicts a gas turbine 10 having a compressor 12 , combustor 14 , turbine 16 drivingly coupled to the compressor and a control system 18 .", "An inlet duct 20 to the compressor feeds ambient air and possibly injected water to inlet guide vanes (IGVs) 28 and to the compressor.", "The turbine may drive a generator 22 to produce electrical power.", "The operation of the gas turbine may be monitored by several sensors 24 detecting various conditions of the turbine, generator and environment.", "For example, temperature sensors may monitor compressor discharge temperature, turbine exhaust gas temperature, and other temperature measurements of the gas stream through the gas turbine.", "Pressure sensors may monitor static and dynamic pressure levels at the compressor inlet and outlet, and turbine exhaust, as well as at other locations in the gas stream.", "The sensors 24 may also comprise flow sensors, speed sensors, flame detector sensors, valve position sensors, guide vane angle sensors, or the like that sense various parameters pertinent to the operation of gas turbine 10 .", "Typically, pressure, temperature, flow, speed, IGV and many other sensors on a gas turbine are extremely reliable, require infrequent calibration and maintenance and are inexpensive, at least as compared to some of the more recent emission sensors that are available for monitoring emissions.", "As used herein, “parameters”", "and similar terms refer to items that can be used to define the operating conditions of turbine, such as temperatures, pressures, and flows at defined locations in the turbine that can be used to represent a given turbine operating condition.", "The controller may be a General Electric SPEEDTRONIC™ Gas Turbine Control System, such as is described in Rowen, W. I., “SPEEDTRONIC™ Mark V Gas Turbine Control System”, GE-3658D, published by GE Industrial &", "Power Systems of Schenectady, N.Y. The controller 18 may be a computer system having a processor(s) that executes programs to control the operation of the gas turbine using sensor inputs and instructions from human operators.", "The programs executed by the controller 18 may include scheduling algorithms for regulating fuel flow to the combustor 14 and the angle of the inlet guide vanes (IGV).", "The commands generated by the controller cause a fuel controller 27 on the gas turbine to, for example, adjust valves 31 between the fuel supply and combustors that regulate the flow and type of fuel, and actuators 29 to adjust the angle of the IGVs 28 on the compressor.", "The controller 18 regulates the gas turbine based, in part, on algorithms stored in computer memory of the controller.", "These algorithms enable the controller 18 to maintain the NOx and CO emissions in the turbine exhaust to within certain predefined limits, and to maintain the combustor firing temperature to within predefined temperature limits.", "The combustor 14 may be a DLN combustion system.", "The control system 18 may be programmed and modified to control the DLN combustion system.", "Gas turbine engines with ultra-low emissions combustors, e.g., DLN combustion systems, require precise control so that the turbine gas emissions are within limits established by the turbine manufacturer, and to ensure that the gas turbine operates within certain operability boundaries, e.g., lean blowout, combustion dynamics, and other parameters.", "Control systems for ultra-low emission combustors generally require highly accurate and calibrated emission sensors.", "In the past, calibration of these sensors required field service engineers to regularly adjust settings on the controller and emissions sensors to accommodate changes in the operation of the gas turbine due to wear and other conditions.", "Conventional closed-loop systems employ emission sensors to measure emissions levels in the turbine exhaust and provide feedback data used by control algorithms.", "For example, emissions sensors at the turbine exhaust provide data on current emissions levels that is applied in determining a turbine exhaust temperature request.", "Emissions sensors are expensive, have relatively large processing delay (on the order of minutes), can be unreliable, and generally require frequent calibration and maintenance.", "The expense, delay, reliability, maintenance, and calibration issues associated with emissions sensing equipment pose unique problems for a closed-loop approach.", "Operation of an industrial gas turbine engine requires the control system to set the total fuel flow, compressor inlet guide vane (IGV), inlet bleed heat (IBH), and combustor fuel splits to achieve the desired cycle match point (i.e. generate the desired output and heat-rate while observing operational boundaries).", "Total fuel flow and IGV position are dominant effectors in achieving the desired result.", "A typical part-load control mode involves setting fuel flow and the IGV angle to satisfy the load (generator output) request, and to observe an exhaust temperature profile (temperature control curve).", "When base-load operation is achieved, the IGV is typically at an angle of maximum physical limit.", "At base-load, fuel flow alone is generally adjusted to observe an exhaust temperature profile needed to satisfy emission limits and other gas turbine operating limits.", "FIG. 2 shows a high-level block diagram of an exhaust temperature controller 30 .", "At this high level, the controller appears as a conventional exhaust temperature controller.", "Sensors and surrogates are provided to a temperature scheduling algorithm 32 to define an exhaust temperature request 34 .", "The temperature scheduling algorithm 32 receives input signals regarding the operation conditions of the gas turbine directly from sensors and from surrogates.", "Sensor signals provide data regarding parameters of the gas turbine that are directly monitored by the sensors.", "For example, temperature and pressure sensors may directly measure the temperatures and pressures at the gas turbine inlet, at various stages of the compressor and at the turbine exhaust.", "Similarly, speed sensors may measure the rotational speed of the gas turbine and flow sensors may measure the fuel flow into the combustor.", "Surrogates are parameters of the gas turbine that are not directly sensed, but are rather parameters determined based on algorithms and correlations based on sensor data regarding other operating conditions.", "The exhaust temperature request 34 is compared to an actual exhaust temperature level 36 to generate a difference signal 38 that is applied to a proportional integral compensation unit 40 which generates control values for operating the gas turbine.", "The control values may be inlet guide vane (IGV) settings and fuel settings that are applied to adjust the IGVs and to the fuel controller for the combustor of the gas turbine.", "The proportional integral compensation unit may be conventional.", "FIG. 3 depicts a conventional emissions-trim temperature scheduling algorithm 42 that includes a emissions trim function ( 49 , 50 and 52 ).", "A reference exhaust temperature 41 is determined based on the compressor pressure ratio (CPR) and a graph, look-up table or other correlation 46 that converts the CPR to the reference exhaust temperature 41 .", "The reference exhaust temperature 41 is trimmed (added to or subtracted from) by an output of a proportional plus integral (P+I) compensation algorithm 48 that outputs a trim value 47 to be summed with the reference exhaust temperature 44 .", "The trim value 47 is determined by the P+I unit based on a emission error value 49 which is a difference between a target emission value 50 and a sensed emission level 52 that is measured by emissions sensors 54 , e.g., NOx sensors.", "Given the need for triple redundancy in critical components, three emissions sensors 54 are employed in a conventional emissions-trim temperature scheduling algorithm.", "The trimmed reference exhaust temperature 44 is compared to a maximum allowable exhaust temperature in a minimum check algorithm 56 generate an exhaust temperature request 58 .", "The difference 60 between the reference exhaust temperature 44 and the exhaust temperature request 58 is used to reset the integral part of the P+I unit 48 to guard against integrator wind-up.", "Generally, the emissions trim function has only limited authority to guard against sensor failure or extreme sensor drift.", "If the emissions sensors fail or become uncalibrated, the emissions control system may become disabled.", "Industrial gas turbine engine control systems generally employ triplex redundancy for control process and safety critical sensors.", "Triplex redundancy is often needed to satisfy safety and reliability expectations and requirements of customers and governmental agencies.", "Providing three emission sensors 54 for a turbine exhaust can be extremely expensive, and increase the maintenance requirements of the gas turbine.", "If a closed-loop control system for emission could be relieved of the requirement for triple redundancy in sensor signals and only a single emissions sensor employed, then significant product cost could be avoided and the maintenance requirements reduced.", "However, employing an emissions sensor in a conventional closed-loop fashion places a significant system safety and reliability burden on that sensor.", "The processing delay inherent with stat-of-the-art emissions sensing equipment is typically on the order of several minutes.", "Emissions compliance requirements will typically allow short periods of non-compliance (on the order of seconds), but not significant periods of non-compliance.", "The time delay associated with emissions sensing equipment is such that the sole reliance on the sensor is not sufficient to ensure compliance when operational and environmental conditions are changing.", "Emissions sensors 54 must be regularly maintained to ensure that they are operating properly and that emission levels do not exceed allowable limits.", "In particular, emissions sensing equipment requires frequent calibration to ensure accuracy in emission measurements.", "Sensor drift is usually caused by changes in ambient temperature.", "If only a single sensor is employed in the control system shown in FIG. 3 , then special operational restrictions would necessarily be placed on the gas turbine while the sensor was being calibrated.", "Such operational restrictions would be required to avoid violation of gas system operability boundaries, and would have a negative impact on the continuous operation of the gas turbine.", "Where there is a single emission sensor failure of that one sensor can result in the benign problems (such as non-compliance with emissions requirements, slight over or under-fire) and serious problems (blow-out, trip, failure).", "A method is needed to reduce the cost of closed-loop control of emissions that does not sacrifice system safety and reliability, and does not impose operational restrictions on the operation of the gas turbine.", "FIG. 4 depicts a closed loop, model-based emissions-trim temperature scheduling algorithm 70 that generates an estimated emission level 72 that is applied to trim 47 an exhaust temperature request 41 .", "The estimated emission level 72 is used instead of the sensed emission level 52 of the conventional system shown in FIG. 3 .", "In the emissions model-based algorithm, the closure of the emission control system 70 is performed on an estimated emissions level 72 that is the output of a physics-based emissions transfer function 74 .", "The emissions transfer function 74 receives as inputs data from sensors and surrogates, such as, compressor discharge temperature, specific humidity of ambient air, fuel split ratio and firing temperature.", "The transfer function 74 models the relationship between emissions and the cycle match point of the gas turbine.", "The sensors 24 used to generate the sensor data and the surrogates data for the emissions transfer function may be conventional sensors, e.g., temperature pressure and specific humidity sensors, that are typically used with a gas turbine and which are typically triple redundant.", "The emissions transfer function 74 is tuned (K) to match a sensed emission level 76 , when the emissions sensor 78 is deemed to be “healthy.”", "The correction factor (K) that is applied to the emissions transfer function to adjust the estimated emission level 72 .", "The correction factor (K) is determined from a comparison, e.g., ratio, of the estimated emissions value 72 to a sensed emissions value 76 .", "In the example shown here, the correction factor (K) is a ratio of the estimated emissions value for a preceding determination (Z −1 ) by the emissions transfer function 74 and the sensed emissions value 76 .", "The emissions transfer function 74 determines the estimated emissions level 72 periodically, such as every compute cycle of the controller (40 ms).", "A correction factor (K) of 1.0 indicates that the estimated emissions and sensed emissions values are the same.", "The extent to which the correction factor K is smaller or greater than 1.0 indicates the extent to which the estimated emissions value differs from the sensed emissions value.", "The correction factor need not be a ratio.", "It may be a difference between the estimated and sensed emissions values, or determined by a look-up table or function.", "For example, further, the correction factor (K) need not be a constant, but may be vary exponentially or a function of another parameter.", "There may be multiple correction factors applied to the emissions transfer function based on a multitude of accumulated data.", "A sensor condition signal 80 is provided that indicates whether the emissions sensor 78 is “healthy”", "or “unhealthy.”", "A healthy emissions sensor may be a sensor that is operating within an expected range and is not undergoing calibration.", "The conditions for which a sensor is deemed healthy may be determined for each gas turbine or class of gas turbines.", "For example, the sensor condition signal may be set to “healthy”", "if the sensor is not currently undergoing maintenance and calibration, the gas turbine has not recently changed its operating conditions, and the sensor is operating within the expected range.", "The sensor 78 may be a single NOx emissions sensor and the transfer function 74 may predict a NOx emissions level.", "When the sensor 78 is deemed to be un-healthy, the tuning process is switched 82 (F) to suspend the emissions sensor and apply a previous value 84 (Z −1 of K) of the correction factor (K).", "This previous K-value is maintained until sensor health is restored.", "The switch 82 determines whether the correction factor (K) is a prior K-value 84 or a value determined from the actual emission level currently sensed by the emissions sensor 78 .", "The switch 82 may also suspend the operation of the emissions sensor, while a prior K-value us applied to the emissions transfer function 74 .", "The prior value 84 of K is repeatedly used as the correction factor for the trim temperature function 70 until the switch 82 is reset by a signal 80 that the sensor is healthy.", "The switch 82 may hold the emissions sensor 78 in an suspended mode during steady state operation of the gas turbine and while ambient conditions, e.g., specific humidity remain relatively constant;", "while the emissions sensor is being calibrated, and while the sensor is producing out of range levels.", "By suspending emission sensing during extended periods of gas turbine operation, the emissions sensor 78 requires less frequent maintenance and calibration and the amount of wear on the sensor is reduced.", "The model-based approach reduces the emission system dependency on the single emissions sensor 78 by only periodically using the sensor to tune the correction factor (K).", "At other times, the same correction factor 84 is reused by the control-resident physics-based emissions transfer function 74 .", "The correction factor (K) may be applied (while the switch is set to F) even if the emissions sensor 78 has failed or is out of calibration.", "The use of an estimated emission level and a correction factor (K) that is periodically tuned using a emissions sensor maintains the overall gas turbine system safety and reliability, while simultaneously providing relief from the need for triple redundant emissions sensors.", "The dependency on redundant sensors is shifted to existing triple redundant gas turbine sensors, e.g., compressor discharge temperature (TCD), compressor discharge pressure (PCD), temperature sensors (Tx), and output power sensors.", "With the model-based approach for the emission level, the need is lessened to impose operational restrictions to accommodate emissions sensor calibration is, and there is less risk of gas turbine operating limit boundary violations resulting from emissions sensor failures.", "While the invention has been described in connection with what is presently considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that the invention is not to be limited to the disclosed embodiment, but on the contrary, is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims." ]

[ "FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001] The invention relates to a soothing lotion, which cleanses, moisturizes and protects the skin and controls odor from feces and urine on skin.", "The invention also relates to a cloth comprising said lotion.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] Baza Cleanse &", "Protect® with Odor Control is a well-known cleansing lotion comprising dimethicone as a skin protectant.", "For easy application to the skin, the product is typically provided in spray bottles.", "However, due to the reverse thixotrophic property of the lotion, plugging of the nozzle of the spray bottle can be a re-occurring problem.", "[0003] It has now been found that it is possible to alter the recipe for the Baza Cleanse &", "Protect® with Odor Control to provide a new lotion with good odor control having a lower viscosity, which does not cause plugging of the nozzle in spray bottles.", "[0004] It has also been found that the new lotion with lower viscosity may easily be incorporated in a cloth or wipe fabric.", "Lotions with higher viscosity may not be as easily incorporated into a cloth or wipe fabric.", "[0005] Sage Products, Inc. and Medline Industries, Inc. market disposable washcloths comprising dimethicone.", "The disposable washcloth from Sage Products, Inc. is known as Sage® Comfort™ Shield™ Perineal-Care Washcloths, which comprises 3% dimethicone in a rayon/polyester blend needle-punch cloth.", "The product from Medline Industries, Inc. is known as Aloetouch One-Step Total Perineal Care, which comprises 3.2% dimethicone in a thin non-needlepunch cloth of a rayon/polyester blend.", "[0006] It is well known in the industry, that rayon is blended with polyester to enhance absorption characteristics.", "A disadvantage of using a polyester/rayon blend can be that a cloth of a polyester/rayon blend comprising a cleansing lotion may tend to not release as much lotion to a surface during a cleansing event as a cloth comprised of 100% polyester.", "[0007] It has been found that the new lotion of the invention is particularly suitable for incorporation into cloths or wipe fabric for preparing products useful for cleaning the surface, in particular the skin of a living being, and for controlling the odor from feces and urine on the skin, and for further providing a protective barrier to the skin.", "[0008] In addition needle-punch cloth made of 100% polyester has been found to be particularly useful as it is capable of delivering twice as much lotion to the skin compared to the above mentioned polyester/rayon blended products, and is capable of maintaining comparable absorption characteristics.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0009] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a cleansing lotion in the form of an emulsion comprising 75-85% w/w water, one or more skin protectants, such as dimethicone, one or more cleansing agents, and one or more odor control agents where the viscosity of the lotion is below 50,000 centipoise (cps) when measured on a Brookfield Digital viscometer models DV-1+ and DV-11+ at a temperature of 25° C.±1° C., using spindle T-C at a speed of 1.5 rpm.", "[0010] The invention also relates to a cloth and a spray bottle comprising the new lotion.", "In particular the invention relates to a needle-punch, 100% polyester fiber cloth comprising the above mentioned lotion.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0011] Baza Cleanse &", "Protect® with Odor Control is a well-known cleansing lotion comprising dimethicone as a skin protectant agent.", "[0012] It has been found, that by lowering the amount of cetearyl alcohol from 3% w/w and in particular by lowering the amount of zinc ricinoleate from 1% w/w in the known product, a lotion in the form of a stable emulsion with a viscosity suitable for incorporation of the lotion into a cloth may be obtained.", "[0013] Surprisingly, it has been found that a good odor control may be achieved even when the amount of zinc ricinoleate is reduced considerably by the use of fragrances, such as Ordenone™.", "Ordenone™ is a fragrance available from Belle Aire Fragrances, Inc. [0014] Accordingly, the present invention relates to a cleansing lotion in the form of an emulsion comprising 75-85% w/w water, one or more skin protectants, such as dimethicone, one or more cleansing agents, and one or more odor control agents where the viscosity of the lotion is below 50,000 centipoise (cps) as measured on a Brookfield Digital viscometer models DV-1+ and DV-11+ at a temperature of 25° C.±1° C., using spindle T-C at a speed of 1.5 rpm.", "[0015] In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the cleansing lotion as above comprises zinc ricinoleate as an odor control agent and the amount of zinc ricinoleate in the lotion is below 1% w/w.", "[0016] According to one embodiment of the invention, the new lotion comprises water, one or more emulsifiers or emulsion stabilizers, one or more skin protectants, such as dimethicone, one or more humectants, one or more emollients, one or more skin conditioners, one or more cleansing agents, one or more odor control agents, one or more preservatives, and optionally one or more pH controlling agents, in the form of an emulsion, where the composition comprises zinc ricinoleate as an odor control agent and the zinc ricinoleate is present in an amount below 1% w/w.", "[0017] Suitably, the cleansing lotion of the invention comprises 75 to 85% w/w water, 3.0-5.5% w/w of one or more emulsifiers or emulsion stabilizers, 1-3% w/w of one or more skin protectants, such as dimethicone, 1-4% w/w of one or more humectants, 4-7% w/w of one or more emollients, 0.5-4% w/w of one or more skin conditioners, 1-3% w/w of one or more cleansing agents, 0.01-1.0% % w/w of one or more odor control agents, 0.42-0.8% w/w of one or more preservatives, and optionally one or more pH controlling agents.", "Preferably, the cleansing lotion as above comprises 1-3% w/w dimethicone.", "[0018] The cleansing lotion of the invention may comprise cetearyl alcohol and glyceryl stearate as emulsifiers or emulsion stabilizers, isopropyl palmitate and glycine soja (soybean oil) as emollients, glycerin and panthenol as humectants, sodium lauroyl lactylate and propylene glycol as cleansing agent, allantoin and tocopheryl acetate as skin conditioners, methylparaben, propylparaben and diazolidinyl urea as preservatives, zinc ricinoleate, Ordenone™ and fragrance as odor control agents, and citric acid as pH controlling agent.", "[0019] According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the amount of cetearyl alcohol is below 3% w/w.", "[0020] In the new recipe the amount of diazolidinyl urea may be also increased from 0.15% w/w to for example 0.30% w/w, compared to Baza Cleanse &", "Protect® with Odor Control.", "[0021] Suitably, the cleansing lotion of the invention comprises 0.005-0.9% w/w zinc ricinoleate, suitably 0.005-0.1% w/w zinc ricinoleate, more preferred 0.005-0.05% w/w zinc ricinoleate, and most preferred 0.01% w/w zinc ricinoleate.", "[0022] The lotion of the invention suitably comprises 0.1-0.5% w/w Ordenone™, preferably 0.1-0.3% w/w Ordenone™ or most preferred 0.2% w/w Ordenone™.", "[0023] Thus, according to one preferred embodiment of the invention, the cleansing lotion comprises 0.005-0.05 w/w zinc ricinoleate, 0.1-0.5% w/w Ordenone™ and optionally an additional fragrance.", "If present, the additional fragrance is present in an amount of 0.1-0.3% W/w.", "[0024] According to another preferred embodiment of the invention, the cleansing lotion comprises 0.005-0.05 w/w zinc ricinoleate, 0.1-0.3% w/w Ordenone™ and optionally an additional fragrance.", "If present, the additional fragrance is present in an amount of 0.1-0.3% w/w.", "[0025] Even more preferred, the cleansing solution comprises 0.01 w/w zinc ricinoleate, 0.2% w/w Ordenone™ and optionally an additional fragrance.", "If present, the additional fragrance is present in an amount of 0.2% w/w.", "[0026] The additional fragrance may suitably be Extra Fresh from Belle Aire Fragrances, Inc. [0027] In a most preferred embodiment of the invention the composition of the new lotion is as stated in example 1 below.", "[0028] With the cleansing lotion of the invention, plugging of the nozzles of the spray bottles containing the lotion may be avoided.", "An additional advantage of the lower viscosity of the new lotion is that it is particularly useful in allowing for easier impregnation of the lotion into the fiber-based cloths intended to be used as cleansing cloths.", "[0029] Thus the invention also relates to a spray bottle and a cloth comprising the new cleansing lotion as described above.", "[0030] The lotion of the invention may be incorporated into to the cloth by well known industrial processes for incorporation of emulsions into a cloth, e.g. by spraying, dipping, roller graver, etc.", "[0031] The cloth is suitably made from one single type of synthetic polymer fiber, e.g. polypropylene or polyester fibers.", "Preferably, the cloth is made from 100% w/w polyester fiber, and suitably the polyester is a poly(oxy-1,2-ethanediyloxycarbonyl-1,4-phenylenecarbonyl).", "[0032] The cloth may be a woven or non-woven cloth.", "Most preferred the cloth is a non-woven needle-punch cloth.", "[0033] In a preferred embodiment the cloth is a 100% polyester (e.g. a poly(oxy-1,2-ethanediyloxycarbonyl-1,4-phenylenecarbonyl), staple fiber, crimped, needle-punch cloth, with the dimensions approximately 6-7 inches×10-11 inches with a weight of 2.25-3.85 oz/sy, preferably 2.5 oz/sy (85 g/m 2 ) and comprising 20-40 g, preferably 25-35 g, or most preferred 30 g of the new cleansing lotion of the invention.", "[0034] Preferably the cloth is made from the 100% polyester fiber web, CS85PET-XX, CAS #25038-59-9 available from Sage Products, Inc. [0035] The above mentioned, needle-punch cloth made of 100% polyester has been found to be particularly useful as it is capable of delivering twice as much lotion to the skin compared to the above mentioned polyester/rayon blended products.", "[0036] The invention also relates to the use of the new cleansing lotion as described above for cleaning the surface, in particular the skin of a living being, and for controlling the odor from feces and urine on the skin, and for further providing a protective barrier to the skin.", "[0037] The invention also relates to the use of the cloth as described above for cleaning the surface, in particular the skin of a living being, and for controlling the odor from feces and urine on the skin, and for further providing a protective barrier to the skin.", "EXAMPLE 1 [0038] A modified cleansing lotion with lower viscosity may be prepared by mixing the following ingredients: [0039] 80.53-80.73% w/w water, USP grade [0040] 2.50% w/w cetearyl alcohol [0041] 2.50% w/w glyceryl stearate [0042] 2.00-2.20% w/w Dimethicone, NF grade, 1000 cs (centistokes) at 25° C. [0043] 2.00% w/w glycerin, USP grade [0044] 1.00% w/w panthenol [0045] 2.00% w/w sodium lauroyl lactylate and propylene glycol mixture (58% w/w sodium lauroyl lactylate and 42% w/w propylene glycol) [0046] 5.00% w/w isopropyl palmitate [0047] 0.20% w/w glycine soja (soybean) oil, USP grade [0048] 0.50% w/w allantoin [0049] 0.40% w/w tocopheryl acetate [0050] 0.01% w/w zinc ricinoleate [0051] 0.20% w/w Ordenone™, (Belle Aire Fragrances, Inc.) [0052] 0.20% w/w fragrance, Extra Fresh (Belle Aire Fragrances, Inc.) [0053] 0.30% w/w diazolidinyl urea [0054] 0.20% w/w methylparaben, NF/FCC grade [0055] 0.06% w/w propylparaben, NF/FCC grade [0056] 0.20% w/w citric acid, USP grade EXAMPLE 2 [0057] A modified cleansing lotion with lower viscosity may be prepared by mixing the following ingredients: [0058] 82.13% w/w water, USP grade [0059] 1.00% w/w cetearyl alcohol [0060] 2.50% w/w glyceryl stearate [0061] 2.00% w/w Dimethicone, NF grade, 1000 cs (centistokes) at 25° C. [0062] 2.00% w/w glycerin, USP grade [0063] 1.00% w/w panthenol [0064] 2.00% w/w sodium lauroyl lactylate and propylene glycol mixture (58% w/w sodium lauroyl lactylate and 42% w/w propylene glycol) [0065] 5.00% w/w isopropyl palmitate [0066] 0.20% w/w glycine soja (soybean) oil, USP grade [0067] 0.50% w/w allantoin [0068] 0.40% w/w tocopheryl acetate [0069] 0.01% w/w zinc ricinoleate [0070] 0.20% w/w Ordenone™, (Belle Aire Fragrances, Inc.) [0071] 0.20% w/w fragrance, Extra Fresh (Belle Aire Fragrances, Inc.) [0072] 0.30% w/w diazolidinyl urea [0073] 0.20% w/w methylparaben, NF/FCC grade [0074] 0.06% w/w propylparaben, NF/FCC grade [0075] 0.30% w/w citric acid, USP grade EXAMPLE 3 [0076] 30 g of the lotion in example 1 is incorporated into a needlepunch cloth of 100% polyester fiber web, CS85PET-XX, CAS #25038-59-9 (Sage Products, Inc.), with the dimensions 6-7 inches×10-11 inches with a weight of 2.5 oz/sy (85 g/m 2 ).", "EXAMPLE 4 [0077] 25 g of the lotion in example 1 is incorporated into a needlepunch cloth of 100% polyester fiber web, CS85PET-XX, CAS #25038-59-9 (Sage Products, Inc.) with the dimensions 6-7 inches×10-11 inches with a weight of 2.5 oz/sy (85 g/m 2 ).", "EXAMPLE 5 [0078] 20 g of the lotion in example 1 is incorporated into a needlepunch cloth of 100% polyester fiber web, CS85PET-XX, CAS #25038-59-9 (Sage Products, Inc.) with the dimensions 6-7 inches×10-11 inches with a weight of 2.5 oz/sy (85 g/m 2 ).", "EXAMPLE 6 [0079] 35 g of the lotion in example 1 is incorporated into a needlepunch cloth of 100% polyester fiber web, CS85PET-XX, CAS #25038-59-9 (Sage Products, Inc.) with the dimensions 6-7 inches×10-11 inches with a weight of 2.5 oz/sy (85 g/m 2 ).", "EXAMPLE 7 [0080] 40 g of the lotion in example 1 is incorporated into a needlepunch cloth of 100% polyester fiber web, CS85PET-XX, CAS #25038-59-9 (Sage Products, Inc.) with the dimensions 6-7 inches×10-11 inches with a weight of 2.5 oz/sy (85 g/m 2 ).", "EXAMPLE 8 [0081] 40 g of the lotion in example 1 is incorporated into a needlepunch cloth of 100% polyester fiber web, (Sage Products, Inc.) with the dimensions 6-7 inches×10-11 inches with a weight of 3.5 oz/sy.", "EXAMPLE 9 [0082] 35 g of the lotion in example 1 is incorporated into a needlepunch cloth of 100% polyester fiber web, (Sage Products, Inc.) with the dimensions 6-7 inches×10-11 inches with a weight of 3.5 oz/sy.", "EXAMPLE 10 [0083] 30 g of the lotion in example 1 is incorporated into a needlepunch cloth of 100% polyester fiber web, (Sage Products, Inc.) with the dimensions 6-7 inches×10-11 inches with a weight of 3.5 oz/sy.", "EXAMPLE 11 [0084] 10 g of the lotion in example 1 is incorporated into a cloth of 100% polyester with the dimensions 6-7 inches×10-11 inches with a base weight of 2.0 oz.", "EXAMPLE 12 [0085] 15 g of the lotion in example 1 is incorporated into a cloth of 100% polyester with the dimensions 6-7 inches×10-11 inches with a base weight of 2.0 oz.", "EXAMPLE 13 [0086] 20 g of the lotion in example 1 is incorporated into a cloth of spunbound 100% polypropylene with the dimensions 6-7 inches×10-11 inches with a base weight of 1.0 oz.", "EXAMPLE 14 [0087] 15 g of the lotion in example 1 is incorporated into a cloth of spunbound 100% polypropylene with the dimensions 6-7 inches×10-11 inches with a base weight of 1.25 oz." ]

[ "This is a Continuation-in-Part of U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 11/163,223, filed Oct. 11, 2005, which application claims priority from Provisional U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 60/618,488 filed Oct. 13, 2004.", "FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates generally to the field of systems for cleaning the interiors of tanks by removing scale build-up using a fluid at high pressure and, more particularly, to a system and method for altering the axis of rotation and diameter of spray nozzles in such a cleaning system to maximize the efficiency of the cleaning process.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Most tanks in chemical plants, refineries, and similar factories are custom designed vessels that have to be cleaned periodically.", "Since the tanks are custom designed and thus may have different interior geometries, no one cleaning system will work adequately for all tanks.", "Furthermore, vessels are typically divided with dividing plates which include centered through-holes or partially removable dividing plates.", "Also, many processes in these types of plants or factories leave a hard, tenacious scale on interior surfaces of tanks, which presents an especially difficult cleaning problem.", "Commonly, such a tank has an entry point or access way which is small relative to the interior diameter and height of the tank.", "On the other hand, a typical tank has relatively large inner surface areas which require periodic cleaning to remove the buildup of materials left by the material kept in the tank, such as calcium and magnesium carbonates and similar residues.", "Thus, a single manufacturing facility may have a wide variety of tanks of varying sizes, each requiring this sort of periodic maintenance and at least some of the tanks presenting a different aspect of interior geometry versus the size of the entry point or access way.", "That restriction presents the engineering dilemma of having to insert the tool through a small opening (so the tool has to be small), but requiring a substantial distance for a water jet from the tool, in order to reach the farthest surfaces of the interior of the tank.", "To remove hard scale from the interior surfaces of a tank, the water jet must be operated at a high pressure, for example at least 9,000 psi, and the jet must be positioned in close proximity to the tank wall surface, for example at six inches or closer, in order to be effective.", "With all of these factors in mind, one can see that it is difficult to find a single cleaning tool that fits all tank sizes and applications while doing a good job of cleaning the interiors of all of the tanks.", "One current proposed solution available on the market uses a small volume, high pressure water cleaning tool that is positioned inside the vessel and moved along the center axis of the tank while several water jets rotate around one or two axes simultaneously.", "Since the water jets are directed more or less radially from one point inside the tank, the distances from the water jet exit ports to the vessel walls are substantial and change continuously.", "For portions of the interior tank wall that are more than six inches from the water jet, hard scale is not removed and remains on the wall For this type of water jet cleaning system, surface coverage cannot be exactly controlled since the water jet tracks contact the interior surface of the tank at more or less random locations.", "For proper surface coverage, each track of the water jet should overlap the previous track by a small amount.", "If the track does not overlap a previous track, then a portion of the interior surface of the tank will not be cleaned.", "If there is too great an overlap, then the track will be directed too much to a portion of the interior surface which has already been cleaned and the process is therefore inefficient.", "However, in many known systems, the tracks of the jets are directed more or less randomly.", "That means that in order to insure that the entire interior surface of the tank is cleaned, the cleaning process must be continued for a much longer period of time than would be required if the direction of the spray of the jets could be more closely controlled.", "Such systems are also inefficient since the majority of time the spray from the jets is not effective directed to the wall of the vessel, but either up or down away from the surface to be cleaned.", "Furthermore, since the distance from the center axis of the tank, where the jets are typically located, to the interior surface of the tank may be several feet, hard deposits cannot be adequately removed and thus the cleaning process is more a flushing process.", "Systems for cleaning the interior surfaces of a tank encounter another serious problem in that the inside of the tank typically includes structural support plates extending laterally inwardly toward the axis of the tank.", "These plates represent surfaces which must be cleaned, and also present obstacles for the movement of the cleaning tool within the tank or vessel.", "As the cleaning tool is lowered into a tank from an access point at or near the top of the tank, the interior obstacles within the tank must be considered when directing a high velocity jet from a point off the axis of the tank.", "Another proposed solution to the problem of the variations in interior geometries of tanks to be cleaned takes advantage of automation technology.", "The interior geometry of the tank, including inside diameter, height, and interior obstacles, are set into a programmable controller and the tool is then run into the tank.", "Unfortunately, such systems are highly complex, require a long setup time, and are very heavy and expensive.", "Further, the time and expense required to program and debug the programmable controller is often longer and greater than the total cost of a satisfactory cleaning job without such a controller.", "Since the system must be re-programmed for each tank geometry, such systems are currently not cost effective.", "Thus, there remains a need for a system for cleaning the interior surfaces of tanks which is flexible, effective, and efficient.", "The present invention is directed to filling this long felt need in the art.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention addresses these and other drawbacks in the art to improve high pressure water cleaning of inner surfaces of tanks or vessels.", "This improvement is achieved by the tool's ability to unfold and fold so that the tool easily fits through small access openings and at the same time allowing the water jets to be positioned at optimal distances relative to the vessel wall for superior cleaning results, i.e. six inches or less from the water jets to the vessel wall, preferably between one and six inches.", "The folding and unfolding process is powered only by the water jet force and water pressure supplied to the jets.", "The folding and unfolding process is speed controlled using dampening devices.", "In the present invention, no electric or electronic components are used.", "This invention synchronizes the transversal and rotational movements of water jets.", "While the jets are directed at a pre-adjusted distance to the vessel wall, they are moved in three dimensions.", "This movement results in a controlled spiral or helical cleaning track along the vessel walls.", "The travel speed of the water jets and the distance between adjacent cleaning tracks can be adjusted to match the cleaning needs so that there is a predetermined overlap from one cleaning track to the next.", "In this way, the entire inner surface of the vessel can be covered precisely.", "Once the cleaning tool has been moved from one end of the vessel to the other with the travel of the water jets controlled in that manner the vessel wall will have been thoroughly cleaned.", "The exact positioning of the water jets allows the removal of very hard deposits.", "The rotational movement is powered either by water or air flow.", "A pneumatic-hydraulic device is used to convert the rotational movement into the additional transversal movement.", "Thus, the present invention provides a vessel cleaning system for cleaning storage tanks, reactors, etc.", "in all industries.", "The system of this invention is directed to cleaning many different types of deposits, especially very hard deposits from vessel walls using high pressure water jets.", "A spray sub-system comprises a tool carrier with water jet nozzles attached thereto which unfolds by rotating and telescoping inside the vessel at the start of a cleaning cycle and folds up at the end of the cleaning cycle.", "The unfolding and folding procedure is required to get the tool carrier in and out of the tank through a relatively small access so that the cleaning system is still able to position water jets at a required distance to a vessel wall and therefore deposits to be removed from the vessel wall.", "The unfolding and folding procedure is speed controlled and simultaneously used to clean certain areas inside the vessel.", "The unfolding and folding operation is strictly a mechanic and/or hydraulic process initiated with the starting and stopping of and powered by the high pressure water flow only.", "A combined rotational and transverse movement of the tool carrier and the unfolding and folding movement is controlled in a way that results in a spiral movement of the water jets when cleaning two dimensional flat surfaces and in a helical movement of the water jets when cleaning cylinder walls.", "All movements are speed controlled: the travel speed of jets and the pitch of the spiral and the helix are adjusted depending on the cleaning requirements for the deposit to be removed from the vessel wall.", "Impact properties of water jets on deposited materials can be maintained constant throughout the cleaning operation.", "These and other features and advantages of this invention will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS So that the manner in which the above recited features, advantages and objects of the present invention are attained and can be understood in detail, more particular description of the invention, briefly summarized above, may be had by reference to embodiments thereof which are illustrated in the appended drawings.", "FIG. 1 is a side section view of a tank cleaning system of the present invention in use within a tank having horizontally disposed dividing plates with vertical channels through the plates.", "FIG. 2 is a side section view of the tank cleaning system within a tank with no internal dividing plates.", "FIG. 3A is a side view of a tank cleaning sub-system.", "FIG. 3B is a front view of the tank cleaning sub-system of FIG. 3A .", "FIG. 3C is a detail view of an alternative spray nozzle for use on the tank cleaning sub-system.", "FIG. 4 is a section view of a damping device for controlling the rate of rotation of a spray sub-system.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 illustrates a presently preferred embodiment of the tank cleaning system 10 of this invention in a tank 12 with dividing plates 14 and a center hole 16 in each dividing plate.", "The tank is circular in cross section and oriented vertically along an axis 13 .", "It should be understood that only a portion of the tank 12 is illustrated, and it may extend a substantial distance above and/or below the portion illustrated in FIG. 1 .", "The system 10 comprises a feed sub-system 20 , a support 22 , and a nozzle jet sub-system 24 .", "The feed sub-system 20 includes a prime mover 26 which imparts lateral movement to a feed tube 28 as shown by an arrow 30 .", "The prime mover 26 also imparts rotational movement to the feed tube 28 , as shown by an arrow 32 .", "The feed tube carries fluid, typically water, under high pressure for cleaning the interior of the tank 12 as described in greater detail below.", "The high pressure fluid is provided by a high pressure source, typically a compressor (not shown) at at least 9,000 psi.", ", and preferably at least 10,000 psi.", "in order to cut hard scale from the interior surface of the tank 12 .", "The prime mover thus controls the lateral and rotational movement of the feed tube.", "The lateral movement of the tube is controlled at such a rate as to create a controlled helical movement of the spray from the nozzle jet sub-system 24 for complete and efficient cleaning, as described further below.", "The feed tube 28 passes through and is supported by a feed pedestal 34 which also serves to support a feed tube sheath 36 .", "The feed tube sheath is a flexible, non-rotating conduit through which the rotating feed tube passes.", "The other end of the feed tube sheath 36 is coupled to the support 22 , which is typically mounted to a structural member 38 in the vicinity of the tank 12 .", "The feed tube sheath 36 has an opening 40 through which the feed tube 28 passes.", "The feed tube 28 is then directed downwardly into the tank 12 , where it continues to rotate as shown by an arrow 42 .", "Also, movement back and forth of the prime mover 26 as shown by the arrow 30 results in lateral movement of the feed tube 28 as shown by an arrow 44 .", "Thus, the jet sub-system 24 is supported by the feed tube and pulls down on the feed tube by force of gravity.", "Further, the jet sub-system 24 travels within the tank 12 coincident with the axis 13 of the tank.", "The nozzle jet sub-system 24 is illustrated in FIG. 1 already deployed within the tank 12 .", "While FIG. 1 is not necessarily to scale, it should be recognized that the horizontal diameter of the tank is large compared to the horizontal diameter of the center hole 16 , so that the nozzle jet sub-system must be small enough in its own horizontal diameter to pass through the center hole 16 .", "Once through the center hole 16 , however, the nozzle jet sub-system must then direct high pressure fluid against the interior surfaces of the tank in order to adequately clean these surfaces.", "The present invention accomplishes this difficult task by providing two motions to the nozzle jet sub-system, to be described below in greater detail.", "The nozzle jet sub-system 24 comprises a centrally disposed swivel 50 with at least two arms 52 extending therefrom.", "It should be noted that each such arm 52 must have a corresponding arm extending in the opposite direction (i.e. 180° therefrom) in order to counteract the thrust created by the jets.", "While the nozzle jet sub-system is being deployed within the tank 12 , the arms 52 extend substantially vertically, i.e. parallel with the direction of travel of the system and coincident with the axis 13 of the tank.", "Once the nozzle jet sub-system is properly positioned about midway between dividing plates 16 , the arms are rotated to a horizontal positioned, as shown in phantom in FIG. 1 .", "Then, nozzle extensions 54 telescope out to a deployed position, carrying a nozzle jet 56 on the end of each nozzle extension 54 to a position six inches or less from an interior surface 58 of the tank 12 .", "It should be noted that the arms 54 may also be flexible to assist in drawing them through small access holes or center holes in dividing plates.", "To clean vessel walls 58 , the sub-system 24 must be properly positioned within the tank between divider plates.", "Once a portion of the tank is cleaned, the sub-system 24 is collapsed, repositioned through center hole 16 , and redeployed to clean the next portion of the tank.", "Thus, the distance between dividing plates within the tank must be greater than the length between nozzle jets before the extension arms are extended so that the sub-system 24 can freely rotate into position between divider plates.", "Further, once the sub-system 24 is horizontally deployed with the jets near the interior surface of the tank, the sub-system is then lifted until the extension arms, which are now parallel to the dividing plates, are as close as possible to the dividing plate immediately above the sub-system 24 so that the portion of the inside surface of the tank immediately beneath the divider plate will be properly cleaned.", "Once the sub-system 24 is properly positioned within the tank, the feed tube 28 is pressurized with fluid, typically water at 9,000 psi or more, preferably at least 10,000 psi.", "The nozzle jets 56 are then activated and the telescopic extension arms 54 extend, thereby positioning the nozzle jets 56 to within 6″ of the vessel wall 58 .", "No dampening of extension arm movement is applied.", "With the activation of the nozzle jets, the sub-system 24 is then rotated about the vertical axis of the tank to direct the jet spray around the interior surface of the tank, as controlled by the feed system 20 .", "With the start of the rotation of the sub-system 24 , the sub-system 24 is then lowered by feeding the high pressure feed hose 28 at a controlled feed rate.", "The feed rate is determined by a predetermined length of feed for each rotation of the sub-system 24 to provide some overlap for each track of the spray against the interior surface of the tank.", "Since there are two opposing jets, the track of one jet is interleaved with the track of the opposing jet.", "Each jet thus forms a spiral track that overlaps the next adjacent track formed by the other jet, and the spiral centers on the axis 13 .", "As used herein, the term “track”", "refers to the area contacted by one jet spray.", "Once the sub-system 24 has been lowered as much as possible, thereby cleaning the portion of the tank between the dividing plates, the nozzle jets are stopped and the telescopic arms are retracted.", "The sub-system 24 is then centered between the dividing plates and the extension arms are rotated into a vertical position.", "The tank cleaner can now be lowered in the next tank section between the next set of dividing plates.", "Note that the preceding detailed description was directed to cleaning the interior surfaces of the tank in between dividing plates.", "However, the dividing plates themselves must also be cleaned.", "To clean dividing plate surfaces, two jets per extension arm are installed with the jet direction vertically up and down parallel to the vessel center axis 13 when in operation.", "The sub-system 24 is positioned along the axis of the tank and then lowered into the individual tank sections with the extension arms in a vertical position as previously described.", "When the sub-system 24 is positioned in the center between two dividing plates, the extension arms are rotated into a horizontal position.", "The sub-system is then lifted until the extension arms, which are now parallel to the dividing plate, are as close as necessary to the upper dividing plate for proper cleaning results.", "The nozzle jets are then activated and the telescopic extension arms extend at a preset speed, determined by a dampening system.", "The system then operates as previously described, this time to spray a high pressure fluid against the bottom surface of the dividing plate above the sub-system 24 and the top surface of the dividing plate below the sub-system 24 .", "The rotational speed of the sub-system 24 is coordinated with the extension speed of the telescopic arms 54 so that the resulting movement of the water nozzle jets is a spiral pattern with some overlap from one spray track to the next.", "We have found that the jets which face in a downward direction have less of a cleaning effect on the lower dividing plate than the upwardly directed jets.", "However, the downwardly direction jets must be active as a counter force to the jets facing up to provide a balanced force acting upon the ends of the extension arms.", "Once the extension arms have extended all the way to their full extent, water pressure through the feed tube 28 is stopped and the extension arms retract.", "The sub-system 24 is then lowered until the extension arms are as close as necessary to the lower dividing plate.", "The process is then repeated with the cleaning of the top surface of the lower dividing plate in a manner just described in respect of the dividing plate above the sub-system 24 .", "After cleaning both dividing plate surfaces, the system is centered between the dividing plates and the extension arms are rotated into a vertical position.", "The sub-system 24 is then lowered into the next tank section.", "FIG. 2 illustrates the application of the tank cleaning system 10 in an open tank 60 without dividing plates or internally installed moving parts.", "As previously described, the system 10 comprises the feed sub-system 20 , the support 22 , and the nozzle jet sub-system 24 .", "The feed sub-system 20 includes the prime mover 26 which imparts lateral movement to the feed tube 28 as shown by the arrow 30 .", "The prime mover 26 also imparts rotational movement to the feed tube 28 , as shown by the arrow 32 .", "The feed tube 28 is flexible and passes through and is supported by the feed pedestal 34 which also serves to support the feed tube sheath 36 .", "The other end of the feed tube sheath 36 is coupled to the support 22 , which in the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 2 is adapted to mate with an upper access port 62 of the tank 60 .", "The feed tube 28 is then directed downwardly into the tank 60 , where it continues to rotate as shown by the arrow 42 .", "Also, movement back and forth of the prime mover 26 as shown by the arrow 30 results in up and down movement of the feed tube 28 as shown by the arrow 44 .", "In the embodiment of FIG. 2 , the cleaning apparatus is positioned along the center axis of the tank 60 near the top of the tank, with the distance of sub-system 24 to the top of the tank equal to the radius of the vertical part of vessel.", "The length from the center of the sub-system 24 to the water jet outlet nozzles equals the horizontal radius of the vessel minus the distance for an individual jet outlet to the vessel wall for best cleaning results, from one to six inches.", "If the nozzle is too close to the vessel wall, the jet is too narrow, resulting in a pencil beam of water against the vessel wall and inadequate overlap from one track to the next.", "If the nozzle is too far from the vessel wall, the water spray has too little force to clean certain tenacious depots on the vessel wall.", "With the initial positioning of the sub-system 24 , the extension arms are vertical, one jet facing the top of the vessel and one jet facing the bottom.", "When activated, the lower jet will typically be too far from the bottom of the tank to have much of a cleaning effect.", "Once the water jets are activated, the extension arms will rotate to a horizontal position.", "Also, simultaneously with the activation of the jets, the sub-system 24 will begin to rotate about the vertical axis, beginning a cleaning action along the inside top surface of the tank.", "This additional rotation is provided by the prime mover 26 through rotation of the feed tube 28 .", "The rotational speed around the vertical axis is coordinated with extension arm rotational speed around the sub-system 24 , so that the resulting spiral pattern track of water jets on the vessel wall provides an overlap of one jet track to the next.", "The distance between tracks and traveling speed of the water jets may require some adjustment, depending on type of material that has to be removed from the tank walls.", "Once the extension arms have reached a horizontal position, the sub-system 24 is lowered into the tank with its rotation around the tank vertical axis maintained, thus creating a spiral cleaning track down the wall of the vessel.", "The cleaning apparatus is lowered by feeding the high pressure water feed tube at a controlled feed rate in relation to the rotational speed of the sub-system 24 .", "The prime mover 26 coordinates the rotation of the cleaning apparatus around the vertical tank axis and the downward movement of apparatus.", "The downward movement of the apparatus is stopped once the apparatus reaches a position in the center of the vessel with a distance of the sub-system 24 to the bottom of the vessel equal to the radius of the vertical part of the vessel, thus the distance of the jet outlet to the vessel wall required for best cleaning results will be reached.", "Now the extension arms will be rotated back into vertical position at the same rotational speed as they were rotated into horizontal position at the beginning of the cleaning process with the high pressure water pump continuing to run.", "With the tank cleaner rotation along the tank vertical axis maintained the jet moving towards the lower center of the tank will clean the bottom in a spiral pattern.", "Alternatively, the supply of pressurized water through the feed tube may be stopped, and the extension arms rotated into a vertical position and the same procedure as in the very beginning is repeated to clean the bottom of the tank by starting at a vertical position and moving in a controlled fashion to a horizontal position.", "However, at the end of the cleaning process, the arms are returned to a vertical position in order to pull the tank cleaner out of the tank.", "FIGS. 3A and 3B depict a presently preferred embodiment of the sub-system 24 , which may be referred to herein as the “tank cleaner.”", "FIG. 3C depicts an alternative spray nozzle for use on the sub-system 24 for cleaning dividing plates within a tank as described above, in which spray outlets from the nozzle are directed in diametrically opposed directions.", "The sub-system 24 includes a frame 70 suspended by the rotating high pressure water hose or feed tube 72 in the center of the tank.", "A center plate 74 is held by the suspended frame and supported by a bearing 76 that allows the plate to rotate around an axis perpendicular to the vessel center axis 13 .", "The two extension arms 54 are coupled to the center plate, with one water jet insert 76 each at the end of each extension arm.", "The extension arms may vary in length, depending on the specific cleaning job or application.", "The jet directions and extension arm length axes are in the same geometrical plane perpendicular to the rotational axis of the center plate, and jet forces of the two jets match each other and are directed in opposite directions with one jet presenting the counter force to the other jet.", "The jet and extension arm length axes are offset, thus, the jet reaction forces generate a torque with a direction perpendicular to the vertical tank center axis.", "This torque rotates the center plate with the extension arms.", "The rotational movement is dampened by a hydraulic cylinder 78 and restricted to 90° between vertical and horizontal extension arm positions.", "The damping can be adjusted with an adjustable orifice 80 in order to control the rotational speed of extension arms.", "FIG. 4 depicts a schematic view illustrating the damping feature of the spray sub-system 24 .", "As previously described, the sub-system 24 is fed with high pressure fluid from a tube 28 , which is coupled into the swivel 50 .", "Fluid pressure is directed through the arms 52 and the extensions 54 , creating a moment to rotate the swivel as shown by the arrows in FIG. 4 .", "Rotation of the swivel 50 rotates a pinion gear 92 which meshes with a rack 94 .", "The rack 94 is joined to a piston 96 within a cylinder 98 .", "Moving the rack to the right pushes hydraulic fluid from the cylinder to the right out through the adjustable orifice 80 to the other side of the piston 96 .", "Thus, the rate of rotation of the swivel is controlled by the setting on the orifice 80 .", "Preferably, the orifice 80 is an adjustable throttle check valve.", "The spray sub-system 24 is shown in FIG. 4 at the full horizontal position.", "Once the spray process with the spray sub-system in the horizontal position is complete, the arm extensions retract and the swivel rotates to place the arms in a vertical position.", "A weight 90 provides a biasing means to pull the arms to a vertical position.", "To aid in this movement, the orifice includes a check valve which permits unrestricted flow from left to right as seen in FIG. 4 to more quickly move the arms to a vertical position.", "The arm extensions 54 also include a biasing means to assist in retracting the arm extensions when the high pressure fluid is no longer being supplied to the spray nozzles 56 .", "The principles, preferred embodiment, and mode of operation of the present invention have been described in the foregoing specification.", "This invention is not to be construed as limited to the particular forms disclosed, since these are regarded as illustrative rather than restrictive.", "Moreover, variations and changes may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] 1.", "Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to cyclohexyl prostaglandin analogs as EP 4 -receptor agonists.", "These compounds are potent ocular hypotensives and are particularly suited for the management of glaucoma.", "[0003] 2.", "Description of Related Art [0004] Ocular hypotensive agents are useful in the treatment of a number of various ocular hypertensive conditions, such as post-surgical and post-laser trabeculectomy ocular hypertensive episodes, glaucoma, and as presurgical adjuncts.", "[0005] Glaucoma is a disease of the eye characterized by increased intraocular pressure.", "On the basis of its etiology, glaucoma has been classified as primary or secondary.", "For example, primary glaucoma in adults (congenital glaucoma) may be either open-angle or acute or chronic angle-closure.", "Secondary glaucoma results from pre-existing ocular diseases such as uveitis, intraocular tumor or an enlarged cataract.", "[0006] The underlying causes of primary glaucoma are not yet known.", "The increased intraocular tension is due to the obstruction of aqueous humor outflow.", "In chronic open-angle glaucoma, the anterior chamber and its anatomic structures appear normal, but drainage of the aqueous humor is impeded.", "In acute or chronic angle-closure glaucoma, the anterior chamber is shallow, the filtration angle is narrowed, and the iris may obstruct the trabecular meshwork at the entrance of the canal of Schlemm.", "Dilation of the pupil may push the root of the iris forward against the angle, and may produce pupilary block and thus precipitate an acute attack.", "Eyes with narrow anterior chamber angles are predisposed to acute angle-closure glaucoma attacks of various degrees of severity.", "[0007] Secondary glaucoma is caused by any interference with the flow of aqueous humor from the posterior chamber into the anterior chamber and subsequently, into the canal of Schlemm.", "Inflammatory disease of the anterior segment may prevent aqueous escape by causing complete posterior synechia in iris bombe, and may plug the drainage channel with exudates.", "Other common causes are intraocular tumors, enlarged cataracts, central retinal vein occlusion, trauma to the eye, operative procedures and intraocular hemorrhage.", "[0008] Considering all types together, glaucoma occurs in about 2% of all persons over the age of 40 and may be asymptotic for years before progressing to rapid loss of vision.", "In cases where surgery is not indicated, topical b-adrenoreceptor antagonists have traditionally been the drugs of choice for treating glaucoma.", "[0009] Certain eicosanoids and their derivatives have been reported to possess ocular hypotensive activity, and have been recommended for use in glaucoma management.", "Eicosanoids and derivatives include numerous biologically important compounds such as prostaglandins and their derivatives.", "Prostaglandins can be described as derivatives of prostanoic acid which have the following structural formula: [0010] Various types of prostaglandins are known, depending on the structure and substituents carried on the alicyclic ring of the prostanoic acid skeleton.", "Further classification is based on the number of unsaturated bonds in the side chain indicated by numerical subscripts after the generic type of prostaglandin [e.g. prostaglandin E 1 (PGE 1 ), prostaglandin E 2 (PGE 2 )], and on the configuration of the substituents on the alicyclic ring indicated by α or β [[e.g. prostaglandin F 2α (PGF 2α )].", "[0011] Prostaglandins were earlier regarded as potent ocular hypertensives, however, evidence accumulated in the last decade shows that some prostaglandins are highly effective ocular hypotensive agents, and are ideally suited for the long-term medical management of glaucoma (see, for example, Bito, L. Z. Biological Protection with Prostaglandins , Cohen, M. M., ed.", ", Boca Raton, Fla.", ", CRC Press Inc., 1985, pp. 231-252;", "and Bito, L. Z., Applied Pharmacology in the Medical Treatment of Glaucomas Drance, S. M. and Neufeld, A. H. eds.", ", New York, Grune &", "Stratton, 1984, pp. 477-505.", "Such prostaglandins include PGF 2α , PGF 1α , PGE 2 , and certain lipid-soluble esters, such as C 1 to C 2 alkyl esters, e.g. 1-isopropyl ester, of such compounds.", "[0012] Although the precise mechanism is not yet known experimental results indicate that the prostaglandin-induced reduction in intraocular pressure results from increased uveoscleral outflow [Nilsson et.", "al.", ", Invest.", "Ophthalmol.", "Vis.", "Sci.", "(suppl), 284 (1987)].", "[0013] The isopropyl ester of PGF 2α has been shown to have significantly greater hypotensive potency than the parent compound, presumably as a result of its more effective penetration through the cornea.", "In 1987, this compound was described as “the most potent ocular hypotensive agent ever reported”", "[see, for example, Bito, L. Z., Arch.", "Ophthalmol.", "105, 1036 (1987), and Siebold et.", "al.", ", Prodrug 5 3 (1989)].", "[0014] Whereas prostaglandins appear to be devoid of significant intraocular side effects, ocular surface (conjunctival) hyperemia and foreign-body sensation have been consistently associated with the topical ocular use of such compounds, in particular PGF 2□ and its prodrugs, e.g., its 1-isopropyl ester, in humans.", "The clinical potentials of prostaglandins in the management of conditions associated with increased ocular pressure, e.g. glaucoma are greatly limited by these side effects.", "[0015] In a series of co-pending United States patent applications assigned to Allergan, Inc. prostaglandin esters with increased ocular hypotensive activity accompanied with no or substantially reduced side-effects are disclosed.", "The co-pending U.S. Ser.", "No. 596,430 (filed 10 Oct. 1990), now U.S. Pat. No. 5,446,041, relates to certain 11-acyl-prostaglandins, such as 11-pivaloyl, 11-acetyl, 11-isobutyryl, 11-valeryl, and 11-isovaleryl PGF 2α .", "Intraocular pressure reducing 15-acyl prostaglandins are disclosed in the co-pending application U.S. Ser.", "No. 175,476 (filed 29 Dec. 1993, now abandoned).", "Similarly, 11,15- 9,15 and 9,11-diesters of prostaglandins, for example 11,15-dipivaloyl PGF 2α are known to have ocular hypotensive activity.", "See the co-pending patent applications U.S. Ser.", "No. 385,645 (filed 7 Jul. 1989, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,994,274), U.S. Ser.", "No. 584,370 (filed 18 Sep. 1990, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,028,624) and U.S. Ser.", "No. 585,284 (filed 18 Sep. 1990, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,034,413).", "The disclosures of all of these patent applications are hereby expressly incorporated by reference.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0016] The present invention concerns a method of treating ocular hypertension and/or glaucoma which comprises administering to a mammal having ocular hypertension and/or glaucoma a therapeutically effective amount of a compound of formula I wherein the wavy segment represents α or β bond, a dashed line represents the presence or absence of a bond, R is selected from the group consisting of CO 2 R 4 , CONR 4 2 , CH 2 OR 4 , CONR 4 SO 2 R 4 , P(O)(OR 4 ) and wherein R 4 is selected from the group consisting of H, phenyl and lower alkyl having from one to six carbon atoms and n is 0 or an integer of from 1 to 4, R 1 and R 2 are independently selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, hydroxyl, a lower alkyloxy radical having up to six carbon atoms, or a lower acyloxy radical having up to six carbon atoms, R 3 is selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, a lower alkyl radical having up to six carbon atoms and a lower acyl radical having up to six carbon atoms, W is ═O or halogen, Y is a covalent bond or is selected from the group consisting of CH 2 , O, S and N and Z is a alkyl or cycloalkyl radical including from three to ten carbon atoms or an aromatic radical including a hydrocarbyl aromatic radical having from six to ten carbon atoms or a heterocyclic aromatic radical having from four to ten carbon atoms and including a heterocyclic atom selected from the group consisting of nitrogen, oxygen and sulfur;", "and pharmaceutically-acceptable salts and esters thereof.", "[0017] In a further aspect, the present invention relates to an ophthalmic solution comprising a therapeutically effective amount of a compound of formula (I), wherein the symbols have the above meanings, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, in admixture with a non-toxic, ophthalmically acceptable liquid vehicle, packaged in a container suitable for metered application.", "[0018] In a still further aspect, the present invention relates to a pharmaceutical product, comprising a container adapted to dispense its contents in a metered form;", "and an ophthalmic solution therein, as hereinabove defined.", "[0021] Finally, certain of the compounds represented by the above formula, disclosed below and utilized in the method of the present invention are novel and unobvious.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES [0022] FIG. 1 is a schematic of a general chemical synthesis of preparing compounds of the invention including those having an alpha chain that includes a double or triple bond.", "[0023] FIG. 2 is a schematic of the chemical synthesis of certain compounds of the invention specifically disclosed as Example 1.", "[0024] FIG. 3 is a schematic of the chemical synthesis of certain compounds of the invention specifically disclosed as Example 6.", "[0025] FIG. 4 is a schematic of the chemical synthesis of certain compounds of the invention specifically disclosed as Example 7.", "[0026] FIG. 5 is a schematic of the chemical synthesis of certain compounds of the invention specifically disclosed as Example 9.", "[0027] FIG. 6 is a schematic of the chemical synthesis of certain compounds of the invention specifically disclosed as Example 10.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0028] The present invention relates to the use of cyclohexyl prostaglandin analogs as EP 4 -receptor agonists.", "The compounds used in accordance with the present invention are encompassed by the following structural formula I: wherein the wavy segment represents α or β bond, a dashed line represents the presence or absence of a bond, R is selected from the group consisting of CO 2 R 4 , CONR 4 2 , CH 2 OR 4 , CONR 4 SO 2 R 4 , P(O)(OR 4 ) and wherein R 4 is selected from the group consisting of H, phenyl and lower alkyl having from one to six carbon atoms and n is 0 or an integer of from 1 to 4.", "R 1 and R 2 are independently selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, hydroxyl, a lower alkyloxy radical having up to six carbon atoms, or a lower acyloxy radical having up to six carbon atoms, R 3 is selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, a lower alkyl radical having up to six carbon atoms and a lower acyl radical having up to six carbon atoms, W is ═O or halogen, Y is a covalent bond or is selected from the group consisting of CH 2 , O, S and N and Z is a alkyl or cycloalkyl radical including from three to ten carbon atoms or an aromatic radical including a hydrocarbyl aromatic radical having from six to ten carbon atoms or a heterocyclic aromatic radical having from four to ten carbon atoms and including a heterocyclic atom selected from the group consisting of nitrogen, oxygen and sulfur;", "and pharmaceutically-acceptable salts and esters thereof.", "[0029] A preferred group of the compounds of the present invention includes compounds that have the following structural formula II: wherein the hatched segment represents an α bond and the solid triangle represents a β bond.", "[0030] Another preferred group includes compounds having the formula III: [0031] The most preferred group of compounds utilized in the method of the present invention are selected from the group wherein Z is phenyl or represented by the formula IV wherein U is selected from the group consisting of O and S, A is selected from the group consisting of N, —CH and C, R 5 is selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, halogen, lower alkyl having from 1 to 6 carbon atoms and lower alkoxy having from 1 to 6 carbon atoms, R 6 and R 7 are selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, halogen, lower alkyl having from 1 to 6 carbon atoms and lower alkoxy having from 1 to 6 carbon atoms, or, together with , R 6 and R 7 forms a condensed aryl ring.", "[0032] Preferably R is CO 2 R 4 and more preferably R 4 is H or methyl.", "[0033] The above compounds of the present invention may be prepared by methods that are known in the art or according to the working examples below.", "The compounds, below, are especially preferred representative of the compounds of the present invention.", "(Z)-7-{(1R,2R)-2-[(E)-5-(3-Chloro-benzo[b]thiophen-2-yl)-3-hydroxy-pent-1-enyl]-6-oxo-cyclohexyl}-hept-5-enoic acid (Z)-7-{(1R,6R)-6-[(E)-5-(3-Chloro-benzo[b]thiophen-2-yl)-3-hydroxy-pent-1-enyl]-2-oxo-cyclohex-3-enyl}-hept-5-enoic acid 7-[(1R,2R,3R)-3-Hydroxy-2-((S)-3-hydroxy-octyl)-6-oxo-cyclohexyl]-heptanoic acid 7-[(1R,2R,3R)-3-Hydroxy-2-((E)-3-hydroxy-5-phenyl-pent-1-enyl)-6-oxo-cyclohexyl]-hept-5-ynoic acid (Z)-7-{(1R,2R,3R)-2-[(E)-5-(3-Chloro-benzo[b]thiophen-2-yl)-3-hydroxy-pent-1-enyl]-3-hydroxy-6-oxo-cyclohexyl}-hept-5-enoic acid (Z)-7-[(1R,2R,3R)-3-Hydroxy-2-((E)-3-hydroxy-4-phenyl-but-1-enyl)-6-oxo-cyclohexyl]-hept-5-enoic acid 7-[(1R,2R,3R)-2-((E)-4-Benzo[b]thiophen-3-yl-3-hydroxy-but-1-enyl)-3-hydroxy-6-oxo-cyclohexyl]-hept-5-ynoic acid (Z)-7-[(1R,2R,3R)-2-((E)-4-Benzo[b]thiophen-3-yl-3-hydroxy-but-1-enyl)-3-hydroxy-6-oxo-cyclohexyl]-hept-5-enoic acid (Z)-7-[(1R,2R,4S)-4-Hydroxy-2-((E)-3-hydroxy-4-phenyl-but-1-enyl)-6-oxo-cyclohexyl]-hept-5-enoic acid (Z)-7-{(1R,2R,3R,6R)-6-Chloro-2-[(E)-5-(3-chloro-benzo[b]thiophen-2-yl)-3-hydroxy-pent-1-enyl]-3-hydroxy-cyclohexyl}-hept-5-enoic acid [0044] A pharmaceutically acceptable salt is any salt which retains the activity of the parent compound and does not impart any deleterious or undesirable effect on the subject to whom it is administered and in the context in which it is administered.", "Of particular interest are salts formed with inorganic ions, such as sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium and zinc.", "[0045] Pharmaceutical compositions may be prepared by combining a therapeutically effective amount of at least one compound according to the present invention, or a pharmaceutically acceptable acid addition salt thereof, as an active ingredient, with conventional ophthalmically acceptable pharmaceutical excipients, and by preparation of unit dosage forms suitable for topical ocular use.", "The therapeutically efficient amount typically is between about 0.0001 and about 5% (w/v), preferably about 0.001 to about 1.0% (w/v) in liquid formulations.", "[0046] For ophthalmic application, preferably solutions are prepared using a physiological saline solution as a major vehicle.", "The pH of such ophthalmic solutions should preferably be maintained between 6.5 and 7.2 with an appropriate buffer system.", "The formulations may also contain conventional, pharmaceutically acceptable preservatives, stabilizers and surfactants.", "[0047] Preferred preservatives that may be used in the pharmaceutical compositions of the present invention include, but are not limited to, benzalkonium chloride, chlorobutanol, thimerosal, phenylmercuric acetate and phenylmercuric nitrate.", "A preferred surfactant is, for example, Tween 80.", "Likewise, various preferred vehicles may be used in the ophthalmic preparations of the present invention.", "These vehicles include, but are not limited to, polyvinyl alcohol, povidone, hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose, poloxamers, carboxymethyl cellulose, hydroxyethyl cellulose and purified water.", "[0048] Tonicity adjustors may be added as needed or convenient.", "They include, but are not limited to, salts, particularly sodium chloride, potassium chloride, mannitol and glycerin, or any other suitable ophthalmically acceptable tonicity adjustor.", "[0049] Various buffers and means for adjusting pH may be used so long as the resulting preparation is ophthalmically acceptable.", "Accordingly, buffers include acetate buffers, citrate buffers, phosphate buffers and borate buffers.", "Acids or bases may be used to adjust the pH of these formulations as needed.", "[0050] In a similar vein, an ophthalmically acceptable antioxidant for use in the present invention includes, but is not limited to, sodium metabisulfite, sodium thiosulfate, acetylcysteine, butylated hydroxyanisole and butylated hydroxytoluene.", "[0051] Other excipient components which may be included in the ophthalmic preparations are chelating agents.", "The preferred chelating agent is edentate disodium, although other chelating agents may also be used in place or in conjunction with it.", "[0052] The ingredients are usually used in the following amounts: Ingredient Amount (% w/v) active ingredient about 0.001-5 preservative 0-0.10 vehicle 0-40 tonicity adjustor 1-10 buffer 0.01-10 pH adjustor q.s. pH 4.5-7.5 antioxidant as needed surfactant as needed purified water as needed to make 100% [0053] The actual dose of the active compounds of the present invention depends on the specific compound, and on the condition to be treated;", "the selection of the appropriate dose is well within the knowledge of the skilled artisan.", "[0054] The ophthalmic formulations of the present invention are conveniently packaged in forms suitable for metered application, such as in containers equipped with a dropper, to facilitate the application to the eye.", "Containers suitable for dropwise application are usually made of suitable inert, non-toxic plastic material, and generally contain between about 0.5 and about 15 ml solution.", "[0055] The invention is further illustrated by the following non-limiting Examples, which are summarized in the reaction schemes of FIGS. 1 and 2 , wherein the compounds are identified by the same designator in both the Examples and the Figures.", "EXAMPLE 1 (Z)-7-{(1R,2R,3R)-2-[(E)-5-(3-Chloro-benzo[b]thiophen-2-yl)-3-hydroxy-pent-1-enyl]-3-hydroxy-6-oxo-cyclohexyl}-hept-5-enoic acid (7H and 7L, FIG. 2 ) [0000] Step 1.", "Three Component Coupling of 1a, 2a and 3 to give 4.", "[0056] tert-Butyl lithium (1.7 M in pentane, 1.93 mL, 3.3 mmol) was added to a solution of {(E)-1-[2-(3-chloro-benzo[b]thiophen-2-yl)-ethyl]-3-iodo-allyloxy}-tert-butyldimethylsilane (2a, 740 mg, 1.5 mmol) in THF (3.0 mL) at −78° C. under nitrogen.", "(2a was prepared as disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 365,369 which was filed on Feb. 11, 2003 and is hereby incorporated by reference.) After 15 min at −78° C., dimethylzinc (2.0 M in PhMe, 0.73 mL, 1.5 mmol) was added and the reaction solution was warmed to 0° C. After 15 min at 0° C. the reaction was recooled to −78° C. A solution of enone 1a (226 mg, 1.0 mmol) in THF (1.0 mL) was added over 50 min via syringe pump, rinsing the syringe with THF (0.5 mL).", "la was prepared as disclosed in (López-Pelegrín, J. A.;", "Janda, K. D. Chem.", "Eur.", "J. 2000, 6, 1917-1922 and references therein.) After 15 min, HMPA (1.74 mL, 10.0 mmol) was added.", "After an additional 15 min, a solution of propargyl iodide 3 (1.33 g, 5.0 mmol) in THF (3.0 mL) was added.", "(3 was prepared from the corresponding propargylic alcohol [Casy, G.;", "Petersen, J. W.;", "Taylor, R. J. K. Org.", "Synth.", "1993, Collect.", "Vol. VIII, 415-420] using iodine, triphenylphosphine and imidazole in dichloromethane solvent.) [0057] The reaction was then placed into a cryobath at −40° C. and maintained at that temperature for 21 h. The reaction was quenched with saturated aqueous NH 4 Cl (40 mL) and extracted with EtOAc (3×25 mL).", "The combined organic phases were washed with brine (50 mL), dried (Na 2 SO 4 ), filtered and concentrated in vacuo.", "Purification of the resulting residue by flash column chromatography on silica gel (0→7% EtOAc/Hex, gradient) afforded 335 mg (46%) of desired product 4.", "[0000] Step 2.", "Deprotection to Give 5H and 5L.", "[0058] HF-pyridine (0.6 mL) was added to a solution of the bis-silyl ether from step 1 (4, 150 mg, 0.21 mmol) in MeCN (4.0 mL) in a plastic scintillation vial.", "After stirring overnight at rt, the reaction was quenched with saturated aqueous NaHCO 3 (20 mL) and extracted with EtOAc (3×25 mL).", "The organic phase was washed with brine (10 mL), dried (Na 2 SO 4 ), filtered and concentrated in vacuo.", "Purification of the resulting residue by flash column chromatography on silica gel (50→100% EtOAc/Hex, gradient) afforded 29.2 mg (28%) of the high Rf diastereomer (5H) and 26.5 mg (26%) of the low Rf diastereomer (5L).", "[0000] Step 3.", "Reduction of Alkyne to Give Alkene 6H and 6L.", "[0059] Method A. [0060] Pd/C (10 mol %, 2 mg) was added to a solution of the high Rf alkyne from step 2 (5H, 6.0 mg, 0.012 mmol) in MeOH (1.5 mL).", "A hydrogen atmosphere was established by evacuating and refilling with hydrogen (3×) and the reaction mixture was stirred under a balloon of hydrogen for 1.25 h. The reaction mixture was filtered through celite and the filtrate was concentrated in vacuo.", "Purification of the resulting residue by preparative thin layer chromatography (silica, 100% EtOAc) afforded 4.6 mg (76%) of 6H with 1.0 mg of recovered 5H.", "[0061] Method B. [0062] Lindlar catalyst (20 mg) was added to a solution of the low Rf alkyne from step 2 (5L, 20 mg, 0.04 mmol) in EtOAc (2.0 mL).", "A hydrogen atmosphere was established by evacuating and refilling with hydrogen (3×) and the reaction mixture was stirred under a balloon of hydrogen for 19 h. The reaction mixture was filtered through celite, washing with EtOAc, and the filtrate was concentrated in vacuo.", "Purification of the resulting residue by preparative thin layer chromatography (silica, 100% EtOAc) afforded 4.8 mg (24%) of 6L along with 10 mg of recovered 5L.", "[0000] Step 4.", "Conversion of Ester to Acid 7H and 7L.", "[0063] Method A. [0064] A solution of the ester from step 3A (6H, 2.6 mg, 0.005 mmol), MeCN (0.1 mL), pH 7.2 phosphate buffer (2.0 mL) and pig liver esterase (50 μL) were stirred together overnight at rt.", "The mixture was extracted with EtOAc (2×10 mL).", "The combined extracts were washed with brine (10 mL), dried (Na 2 SO 4 ), filtered and concentrated in vacuo to afford 2.0 mg (79%) of the title compound (7H).", "[0065] Method B. [0066] A solution of the ester from step 3B (6L, 3 mg, 0.006 mmol), MeCN (0.1 μL), pH 7.2 phosphate buffer (3.0 mL) and rabbit liver esterase (1 mg) were stirred together overnight at rt.", "The mixture was concentrated in vacuo to dryness.", "Purification of the resulting residue by preparative thin layer chromatography (silica, 10% MeOH/CH 2 Cl 2 ) afforded 0.8 mg (27%) of the title compound (7L).", "EXAMPLE 2 (Z)-7-[(1R,2R,3R)-3-Hydroxy-2-((E)-3-hydroxy-4-phenyl-but-1-enyl)-6-oxo-cyclohexyl]-hept-5-enoic acid [0067] Prepared from ((E)-1-Benzyl-3-iodo-allyloxy)-tert-butyldimethylsilane (2b) and enone 1a in accordance with the procedures in Example 1 (steps 1, 2, 3B and 4B).", "(2b was prepared analogously to 2a, above.) EXAMPLE 3 (Z)-7-((1R,2R,3R)-2-((E)-4-Benzo[b]thiophen-3-yl-3-hydroxy-but-1-enyl)-3-hydroxy-6-oxo-cyclohexyl]-hept-5-enoic acid [0068] Prepared from ((E)-1-Benzo[b]thiophen-3-ylmethyl-3-iodo-allyloxy)-tert-butyldimethylsilane (2c) and enone 1a in accordance with the procedures in Example 1 (steps 1, 2 and 4B) and 3C (see below).", "(2c was prepared analogously to 2a, above.) [0000] Step 3.", "Reduction of Alkyne to Give Alkene.", "[0069] Method C. [0070] Sodium borohydride (8.0 mg, 0.21 mmol) was added to a suspension of nickel (II) chloride (55 mg, 0.43 mmol) in 95% ethanol (2.0 mL) and the mixture immediately turned black.", "After 5 min at rt, ethylenediamine (46 μL, 0.69 mmol) was added.", "After 15 min at rt, the alkyne from step 2 (40 mg, 0.085 mmol) was added in 95% ethanol (2.0 mL).", "A hydrogen atmosphere was established by evacuating and refilling with hydrogen (3×) and the reaction mixture was stirred under a balloon of hydrogen for 19 h. The reaction mixture was filtered through celite, washing with ethanol, and the filtrate was concentrated in vacuo.", "Purification of the resulting residue by flash column chromatography (50→100% EtOAc/Hex, gradient) afforded 20 mg (50%) of the desired alkene.", "EXAMPLE 4 7-[(1R,2R,3R)-3-Hydroxy-2-((E)-3-hydroxy-5-phenyl-pent-1-enyl)-6-oxo-cyclohexyl]-hept-5-ynoic acid [0071] Prepared from ((E)-3-iodo-1-phenethyl-allyloxy)-tert-butyldimethylsilane (2d) and enone 1a in accordance with the procedures in Example 1 (steps 1, 2 and 4B).", "(2d was prepared analogously to 2a, above.) EXAMPLE 5 (Z)-7-[(1R,2R,4S)-4-Hydroxy-2-((E)-3-hydroxy-4-phenyl-but-1-enyl)-6-oxo-cyclohexyl]-hept-5-enoic acid [0072] Prepared from (2b) and (S)-5-(tert-butyldimethylsiloxy)-2-cyclohexenone (1b) in accordance with the procedures in Examples 1 and 3 (steps 1, 2, 3C and 4B).", "(1b was prepared as described in Hareau, G. P-J.", "et.", "al.", "J. Am.", "Chem.", "Soc.", "1999, 121, 3640-50.) EXAMPLE 6 (Z)-7-{(1R,2R,3R,6R)-6-Chloro-2-[(E)-5-(3-chloro-benzo[b]thiophen-2-yl)-3-hydroxy-pent-1-enyl]-3-hydroxy-cyclohexyl}-hept-5-enoic acid (11L, FIG. 3 ) [0000] Step 1.", "Conversion of Ketone 4 to α-alcohol 8.", "[0073] L-selectride (1.0 M in THF, 0.76 mL, 0.76 mmol) was added to a solution of the product of Example 1, step 1 (4, 370 mg, 0.51 mmol) in THF (5.0 mL) at −78° C. under nitrogen.", "After 30 min, formic acid (0.4 ml) was added and the reaction was allowed to warm to 0° C. After 30 min, aqueous HCl (1.0 M, 5 mL) was added and the mixture was extracted with EtOAc (3×30 mL).", "The combined organic phase was washed with brine then dried (Na 2 SO 4 ), filtered and concentrated in vacuo.", "Purification of the resulting residue by flash column chromatography on silica gel (10→15% EtOAc/Hex, gradient) afforded 194 mg (53%) of 8.", "[0000] Step 2.", "Conversion of Alcohol 8 to Mesylate 9.", "[0074] Methanesulfonyl chloride (24 μL, 0.31 mmol) and triethylamine (54 μL, 0.39 mmol) were added sequentially to a solution of the alcohol from step 1 (8, 188 mg, 0.26 mmol) in CH 2 Cl 2 (2.0 mL) at rt.", "After 5 h, an additional portion of methanesulfonyl chloride (40 μL, 0.51 mmol) and triethylamine (54 μL, 0.39 mmol) were added.", "After stirring overnight at rt, saturated aqueous NaHCO 3 (10 mL) was added and the reaction mixture was extracted with CH 2 Cl 2 (3×15 mL).", "The combined organic phase was dried (Na 2 SO 4 ), filtered and concentrated in vacuo.", "Purification of the resulting residue by flash column chromatography on silica gel (10→20% EtOAc/Hex, gradient) afforded 134 mg (64%) of 9.", "[0000] Step 3.", "Conversion of α-mesylate 9 to β-chloride 10.", "[0075] The mesylate from step 2 (9, 130 mg, 0.16 mmol), tetrabutylammonium chloride (445 mg, 1.6 mmol) and toluene (5.0 mL) were combined and stirred together at 40° C. under nitrogen overnight.", "The reaction was cooled to rt, brine (10 mL) was added, and the mixture was extracted with EtOAc (3×15 mL).", "The combined organic phase was dried (Na 2 SO 4 ), filtered and concentrated in vacuo.", "Purification of the resulting residue by flash column chromatography on silica gel (10% EtOAc/Hex) afforded 31 mg (26%) of 10 along with 53 mg of recovered 9.", "[0076] The product of step 3 was then converted to the title product (11) in accordance with the procedures in Examples 1 and 3 (steps 2, 3C and 4B).", "EXAMPLE 7 (Z)-7-{(1R,2R)-2-[(E)-5-(3-Chloro-benzo[b]thiophen-2-yl)-3-hydroxy-pent-1-enyl]-6-oxo-cyclohexyl}-hept-5-enoic acid (15L, FIG. 4 ) [0000] Step 1.", "Three Component Coupling of 1b, 2a and 3 to give 12.", "[0077] The three component coupling product 12 was obtained from vinyl iodide 2a and enone 1b in accordance with the procedure in Example 1 (step 1).", "[0000] Step 2.", "Deprotection and Elimination to Give 13H and 13L.", "[0078] A mixture of the β-silyloxy ketone (12, 198 mg, 0.27 mmol) and acetic acid/THF/H 2 O (2:1:1, 2.0 mL) was heated at 70° C. overnight.", "The reaction was cooled to rt, saturated aqueous NaHCO 3 (20 mL) was added and the mixture was extracted with EtOAc (2×20 mL).", "The combined organic phase was washed with brine (20 mL), dried (Na 2 SO 4 ), filtered and concentrated in vacuo.", "1 H NMR analysis showed that the elimination reaction was incomplete, so the crude material was resubmitted to the reaction conditions for 3 d. The reaction was cooled to rt, saturated aqueous NaHCO 3 (15 mL) was added and the mixture was extracted with EtOAc (3×10 mL).", "The combined organic phase was dried (Na 2 SO 4 ), filtered and concentrated in vacuo.", "Purification of the resulting residue by preparative thin layer chromatography (silica, 50% EtOAc/Hex) afforded 7.4 mg (6%) of 13H and 3.7 mg (3%) of 13L.", "[0000] Step 3.", "Reduction to Give 14L.", "[0079] Pd/C (10 mol %, 1 mg) was added to a solution of the low Rf diastereomer from step 2 (13L, 3.7 mg, 0.0076 mmol) in MeOH (1.0 mL).", "A hydrogen atmosphere was established by evacuating and refilling with hydrogen (3×) and the reaction mixture was stirred under a balloon of hydrogen for 1 h. The reaction mixture was filtered through celite and the filtrate was concentrated in vacuo.", "Purification of the resulting residue by preparative thin layer chromatography (silica, 30% EtOAc/Hex) afforded 2.3 mg (61%) of 14L.", "[0080] The product of step 3 was then converted to the title product 15L in accordance with the procedure in Example 1 (step 4B).", "EXAMPLE 8 7-[(1R,2R,3R)-2-((E)-4-Benzo[b]thiophen-3-yl-3-hydroxy-but-1-enyl)-3-hydroxy-6-oxo-cyclohexyl]-hept-5-ynoic acid [0081] Prepared from vinyl iodide 2c and enone 1a in accordance with the procedures in Example 1 (steps 1, 2 and 4B).", "EXAMPLE 9 7-[(1R,2R,3R)-3-Hydroxy-2-((S)-3-hydroxy-octyl)-6-oxo-cyclohexyl]-heptanoic acid (20, FIG. 5 ) [0000] Step 1.", "Three Component Coupling to Give 17 via enoxysilane 16.", "[0082] A solution of [(S)-1-((E)-2-iodo-vinyl)-hexyloxy]-tert-butyldimethylsilane (2e, 500 mg, 1.36 mmol) in Et 2 O (7.0 mL) at −78° C. under nitrogen was treated with tert-butyl lithium (1.7 M in pentane, 1.6 mL, 2.72 mmol).", "(2e was purchased from Nissan Chemical Industries.) After 30 min at −78° C., lithium 2-thienylcyanocuprate (0.25 M in THF, 5.44 mL, 1.36 mmol) was added.", "After 30 min at −78° C., a solution of enone 1a (237 mg, 1.05 mmol) in Et 2 O (1.0 mL) was added dropwise.", "After 1.5 h min at −78° C., TMSCl (0.80 mL, 6.3 mmol) was added.", "After 15 min at −78° C., Et 3 N (1.9 mL, 13.6 mmol) was added and the solution was allowed to warm to rt.", "The mixture was poured into hexanes and water.", "The phases were separated and the aqueous phase was extracted with additional hexanes (3×50 mL).", "The combined organic phases were dried (Na 2 SO 4 ), filtered and concentrated in vacuo.", "A solution of crude enoxysilane 16 (˜1.0 mmol) in THF (6.0 mL) at −23° C. under nitrogen was treated with methyl lithium (1.4 M in Et 2 O, 1.1 mL, 1.5 mmol).", "After 30 min, the solution was cooled to −78° C. then a solution of iodide 3 (1.06 g, 4.0 mmol) in THF (7.0 mL) was added via cannula.", "After 1 h at −78° C., the reaction was warmed to −23° C. for 2 h then allowed to warm to rt.", "The reaction was quenched with saturated aqueous NH 4 Cl (50 mL) and extracted with EtOAc (3×30 mL).", "The combined organic phases were washed with brine (75 mL), dried (Na 2 SO 4 ), filtered and concentrated in vacuo.", "Purification of the resulting residue by flash column chromatography on silica gel (0→10% EtOAc/Hex) afforded 157 mg (25%) of 17.", "[0000] Step 2.", "Deprotection to Give 18.", "[0083] HF-pyridine (0.3 mL) was added to a solution of the bis-silyl ether from step 1 (17, 150 mg, 0.25 mmol) in MeCN (3.0 mL) in a plastic scintillation vial.", "After stirring overnight at rt, the reaction was quenched with saturated aqueous NaHCO 3 (20 mL) and extracted with EtOAc (2×25 mL).", "The organic phase was washed with brine (25 mL), dried (Na 2 SO 4 ), filtered and concentrated in vacuo.", "Purification of the resulting residue by flash column chromatography on silica gel (40→80% EtOAc/Hex, gradient) afforded 61 mg (65%) of 18.", "[0000] Step 3.", "Reduction of the Alkyne and the Alkene to Give 19.", "[0084] Pd/C (10 mol %, 5 mg) was added to a solution of the product from step 2 (18, 15 mg, 0.039 mmol) in MeOH (1.5 mL).", "A hydrogen atmosphere was established by evacuating and refilling with hydrogen (3×) and the reaction mixture was stirred under a balloon of hydrogen overnight.", "The reaction mixture was filtered through celite and the filtrate was concentrated in vacuo.", "Purification of the resulting residue by flash column chromatography (30%→50% EtOAc/Hex, gradient) afforded 3.7 mg (25%) of 19.", "[0000] Step 4.", "Conversion of Ester to Acid 20.", "[0085] The product of step 3 was converted to the title product (20) in accordance with the procedure in Example 1 (step 4B).", "EXAMPLE 10 (Z)-7-{(1R,6R)-6-[(E)-5-(3-Chloro-benzo[b]thiophen-2-yl)-3-hydroxy-pent-1-enyl]-2-oxo-cyclohex-3-enyl}-hept-5-enoic acid (24L, FIG. 6 ) [0000] Step 1.", "Deprotection to Give 21H and 21L.", "[0086] HF-pyridine (1.5 mL) was added to a solution of the bis-silyl ether from Example 7, step 1 (12, 421 mg, 0.58 mmol) in MeCN (5.0 mL) in a plastic scintillation vial.", "After stirring 3 h at rt, the reaction was quenched with saturated aqueous NaHCO 3 (25 mL) and extracted with EtOAc (3×25 mL).", "The organic phase was washed with brine (25 mL), dried (Na 2 SO 4 ), filtered and concentrated in vacuo.", "Purification of the resulting residue by preparative thin layer chromatography (silica, 70% EtOAc/Hex) afforded 37 mg (13%) of 21H and 22 mg (8%) of 21L.", "[0000] Step 2.", "Reduction of Alkyne to Alkene 22L.", "[0087] Pd/C (10 mol %, 2 mg) was added to a solution of the product from step 1 (21L, 13 mg, 0.026 mmol) in MeOH (1.0 mL).", "A hydrogen atmosphere was established by evacuating and refilling with hydrogen (3×) and the reaction mixture was stirred under a balloon of hydrogen for 4.5 h. The reaction mixture was filtered through celite, washing with MeOH, and the filtrate was concentrated in vacuo.", "Purification of the resulting residue by preparative thin layer chromatography (silica, 90% EtOAc/Hex) afforded 7.5 mg (57%) of 22L.", "[0000] Step 3.", "Elimination of β-hydroxy Ketone to Enone 23L.", "[0088] A mixture of the product from step 2 (22L, 7.5 mg, 0.015 mmol) and acetic acid/THF/H 2 O (2:1:1, 1.0 mL) was heated at 70° C. overnight.", "The reaction was cooled to rt, saturated aqueous NaHCO 3 (7 mL) was added and the mixture was extracted with EtOAc (2×6 mL).", "The combined organic phase was washed with brine (5 mL), dried (Na 2 SO 4 ), filtered and concentrated in vacuo.", "Purification of the resulting residue by preparative thin layer chromatography (silica, 50% EtOAc/Hex) afforded 5.0 mg (69%) of 23L.", "[0000] Step 4.", "Conversion of Ester to Acid 24L [0089] The product of step 3 was then converted to the title product (24L) in accordance with the procedure in Example 1 (step 4B).", "[0090] Human Recombinant EP 4 Receptor: Stable Transfectants.", "[0091] Plasmids encoding the human EP 4 receptor were prepared by cloning the respective coding sequences into the eukaryotic expression vector pCEP4 (Invitrogen).", "The pCEP4 vector contains an Epstein Barr virus (EBV) origin of replication, which permits episomal replication in primate cell lines expressing EBV nuclear antigen (EBNA-1).", "It also contains a hygromycin resistance gene that is used for eukaryotic selection.", "The cells employed for stable transfection were human embryonic kidney cells (HEK-293) that were transfected with and express the EBNA-1 protein.", "These HEK-293-EBNA cells (Invitrogen) were grown in medium containing Geneticin (G418) to maintain expression of the EBNA-1 protein.", "HEK-293 cells were grown in DMEM with 10% fetal bovine serum.", "(FBS), 250 μg ml −1 G418 (Life Technologies) and 200 μg ml −1 gentamicin or penicillin/streptomycin.", "Selection of stable transfectants was achieved with 200 kg ml −1 hygromycin, the optimal concentration being determined by previous hygromycin kill curve studies.", "[0092] For transfection, the cells were grown to 50-60% confluency on 10 cm plates.", "The plasmid pCEP4 incorporating cDNA inserts for the respective human prostanoid receptor (20 μg) was added to 500 μl of 250 mM CaCl 2 .", "HEPES buffered saline×2 (2×HBS, 280 mM NaCl, 20 mM HEPES acid, 1.5 mM Na 2 HPO 4 , pH 7.05-7.12) was then added dropwise to a total of 500 μl, with continuous vortexing at room temperature.", "After 30 min, 9 ml DMEM were added to the mixture.", "The DNA/DMEM/calcium phosphate mixture was then added to the cells, which had been previously rinsed with 10 ml PBS.", "The cells were then incubated for 5 hr at 37° C. in humidified 95% air/5% CO 2 .", "The calcium phosphate solution was then removed and the cells were treated with 10% glycerol in DMEM for 2 min.", "The glycerol solution was then replaced by DMEM with 10% FBS.", "The cells were incubated overnight and the medium was replaced by DMEM/10% FBS containing 250 μg ml −1 G418 and penicillin/streptomycin.", "The following day hygromycin B was added to a final concentration of 200 μg ml −1 .", "[0093] Ten days after transfection, hygromycin B resistant clones were individually selected and transferred to a separate well on a 24 well plate.", "At confluence each clone was transferred to one well of a 6 well plate, and then expanded in a 10 cm dish.", "Cells were maintained under continuous hygromycin selection until use.", "[0094] Certain of the above compounds were tested for activity in the recombinant human EP 4 receptor assay described above and the results are reported in Table 1, below.", "TABLE 1 Binding Data Functional Data (IC50 in nM) (EC50 in nM) Example # Structure Comment hEP4 hEP4 2 low Rf 100 11 1 low Rf 400 67 1 high Rf 200 136 3 low Rf 1300 168 4 low Rf 1000 214 5 low Rf 500 251 6 low Rf 35 314 7 low Rf 1500 358 8 high Rf 3500 362 9 600 387 10 low Rf 1800 456 [0095] EP activity indicates that the compounds of this invention are useful in treating asthma, dysmenorrhea as well as glaucoma and lowering intraocular pressure.", "[0096] Other potential therapeutic applications are in osteoporosis, constipation, renal disorders, sexual dysfunction, baldness and in disorder of immune regulation.", "[0097] EP receptor agonists may be useful for prevention and/or treatment of the following diseases: [0098] acute hepatitis, asthma, bronchitis, burn, chronic obstructive respiratory diseases, Crohn's disease, digestive ulcer, glaucoma (and other diseases related to elevated intraocular pressure), hemophagous syndrome, hepatopathy, hypercytokinemia at dialysis, hypertension, immunological diseases (autoimmune diseases, organ transplantation, etc.), inflammation (such as rheumatoid arthritis), Kawasaki disease, liver injury, macrophage activation syndrome, myocardial ischemia, nephritis, nerve cell death, osteoporosis and diseases associated with bone disorders, premature birth, pulmonary emphysema, pulmonary fibrosis, pulmonary injury, renal failure, sepsis, sexual dysfunction, shock, sleep disorder, Still disease, stomatitis, systemic granuloma, systemic inflammatory syndrome, thrombosis and stroke, ulcerative colitis.", "[0099] The compounds of the invention may also be useful in the treatment of various pathophysiological diseases including acute myocardial infarction, vascular thrombosis, hypertension, pulmonary hypertension, ischemic heart disease, congestive heart failure, and angina pectoris, in which case the compounds may be administered by any means that effect vasodilation and thereby relieve the symptoms of the disease.", "For example, administration may be by oral, transdermal, parenterial, subcutaneous, intravenous, intramuscular, intraperitoneal, transdermal, or buccal routes.", "[0100] The compounds of the invention may be formulated into an ointment containing about 0.10 to 10% of the active ingredient in a suitable base of, for example, white petrolatum, mineral oil and petrolatum and lanolin alcohol.", "Other suitable bases will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art.", "[0101] The pharmaceutical preparations of the present invention are manufactured in a manner which is itself known, for example, by means of conventional dissolving or suspending the compounds, which are all either water soluble or suspendable.", "For administration in the treatment of the other mentioned pathophysiological disorders.", "The pharmaceutical preparations which can be used orally include push-fit capsules made of gelatin, as well as soft, sealed capsules made of gelatin and a plasticizer such as glycerol or sorbitol.", "The push-fit capsules can contain the active compounds in liquid form that may be mixed with fillers such as lactose, binders such as starches, and/or lubricants such as talc or magnesium stearate and, optionally, stabilizers.", "In soft capsules, the active compounds are preferably dissolved or suspended in suitable liquids, such as in buffered salt solution.", "In addition, stabilizers may be added.", "[0102] In addition to being provided in a liquid form, for example in gelatin capsule or other suitable vehicle, the pharmaceutical preparations may contain suitable excipients to facilitate the processing of the active compounds into preparations that can be used pharmaceutically.", "Thus, pharmaceutical preparations for oral use can be obtained by adhering the solution of the active compounds to a solid support, optionally grinding the resulting mixture and processing the mixture of granules, after adding suitable auxiliaries, if desired or necessary, to obtain tablets or dragee cores.", "[0103] Suitable excipients are, in particular, fillers such as sugars, for example lactose or sucrose, mannitol or sorbitol, cellulose preparations and/or calcium phosphates, for example tricalcium phosphate or calcium hydrogen phosphate, as well as inders such as starch, paste using for example, maize starch, wheat starch, rice starch, potato starch, gelatin, tragacanth, methyl cellulose, hydroxypropylmethylcellulose, sodium carboxymethylcellulose, and/or polyvinyl pyrrolidone.", "If desired, disintegrating agents may be added such as the above-mentioned starches and also carboxymethyl-starch, crosslinked polyvinyl pyrrolidone, agar, or algenic acid or a salt thereof, such as sodium alginate.", "Auxiliaries are, above all, flow-regulating agents and lubricants, for example, silica, talc, stearic acid or salts thereof, such as magnesium stearate or calcium stearate, and/or polyethylene glycol.", "Dragee cores are provided with suitable coatings which if desired, are resistant to gastric juices.", "For this purpose, concentrated sugar solutions may be used, which may optionally contain gum arabic, talc, polyvinyl pyrrolidone, polyethylene glycol and/or titanium dioxide, lacquer solutions and suitable organic solvents or solvent mixtures.", "In order to produce coatings resistant to gastric juices, solutions of suitable cellulose preparations such as acetylcellulose phthalate or hydroxypropylmethyl-cellulose phthalate, are used.", "Dye stuffs or pigments may be added to the tablets or dragee coatings, for example, for identification or in order to characterize combinations of active compound doses.", "[0104] Suitable formulations for intravenous or parenteral administration include aqueous solutions of the active compounds.", "In addition, suspensions of the active compounds as oily injection suspensions may be administered.", "Aqueous injection suspensions may contain substances which increase the viscosity of the suspension include, for example, sodium carboxymethyl cellulose, soribitol, and/or dextran.", "Optionally, the suspension may also contain stabilizers.", "[0105] The foregoing description details specific methods and compositions that can be employed to practice the present invention, and represents the best mode contemplated.", "However, it is apparent for one of ordinary skill in the art that further compounds with the desired pharmacological properties can be prepared in an analogous manner, and that the disclosed compounds can also be obtained from different starting compounds via different chemical reactions.", "Similarly, different pharmaceutical compositions may be prepared and used with substantially the same result.", "Thus, however detailed the foregoing may appear in text, it should not be construed as limiting the overall scope hereof;", "rather, the ambit of the present invention is to be governed only by the lawful construction of the appended claims." ]

[ "FIELD The present disclosure relates to the field of hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) and battery electric vehicles (BEV), and more particularly to a method and system for automated maximum torque per ampere trajectory generation for interior permanent magnet (IPM) motors used in said vehicles.", "BACKGROUND Permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSM) are widely used in hybrid electric vehicles and battery electric vehicles.", "Among the permanent magnet synchronous motors, interior permanent magnet (IPM) motors are the most commonly used motors for HEV/BEV applications due to their high power density, high efficiency and wide speed range.", "In automotive traction applications, operating an IPM motor at its maximum efficiency is necessary to maximize the use of the vehicle battery's limited power and energy.", "This can be achieved by optimizing the motor's control algorithm to provide maximum torque at a minimum motor current value.", "“Maximum torque per ampere”", "(MTPA) control algorithms maximize the IPM motor drive torque capability when the motor is operating below its rated speed.", "The MTPA control algorithms also minimize copper losses, thereby increasing the overall efficiency of the IPM motor (because copper losses are proportional to the square of the current).", "Proper selection of the current vector is needed to develop an MTPA control algorithm.", "Referring to FIG. 1 , the current vector is represented by the current magnitude ‘I’ and the current phase angle ‘α’ or, equivalently, by the d-axis current ‘Id’ and the q-axis current ‘Iq’ (in the Id-Iq axis plane).", "The current phase angle α is measured with respect to the positive Iq-axis in a counterclockwise direction with the d-axis current Id being equal to −I*Sin(α) and the q-axis current Iq being equal to I*Cos(α).", "The torque of an interior permanent magnet motor is defined as: T = 3 ⁢ P 2 * [ Φ mag * I * Cos ⁡ ( α ) + ( Lq - Ld ) * I 2 * Sin ⁡ ( α ) * Cos ⁡ ( α ) ] ( 1 ) Where P is the rotor pole pairs of the motor;", "Φ mag is the permanent magnet flux;", "Ld is the d-axis inductance;", "and Lq is the q-axis inductance.", "The first term in Equation (1) represents the magnet torque and the second term represents the reluctance torque due to saliency (i.e., the difference between the d-axis and q-axis inductances).", "To find the maximum torque per ampere, Equation (1) is differentiated with respect to the current and equated to zero.", "The optimal value of the current phase angle α at which the torque per current I becomes maximum is given below in Equation (2): α = sin - 1 [ - ϕ mag + ( ϕ mag ) 2 + 8 * ( Ld - Lq ) 2 * I 2 4 * ( Ld - Lq ) * I ] ( 2 ) Where Ld and Lq vary depending on the phase angle α and the current magnitude I. The MTPA trajectory is shown in FIG. 1 .", "The MTPA trajectory points (I, α) correspond to the intersection between the constant current circles and the constant torque loci (given by Equation 1).", "The trajectory points P 1 , P 2 and P 3 correspond to the optimal operating points for torques T 1 , T 2 , T 3 .", "FIG. 1 illustrates one set of points (I, α), (Id, Iq) that correspond to point P 1 .", "It should be appreciated that there are points (I, α), (Id, Iq) that correspond to points P 2 and P 3 as well.", "Generally, to use the MTPA algorithm described above, specific knowledge of three motor parameters is required (see Equation (2) above).", "These parameters are the d-axis inductance (Ld), q-axis inductance (Lq) and permanent magnet flux (Φ mag ).", "The relationship between the torque and motor currents in IPM motors, however, is non-linear (see Equation (1) above).", "Thus, any error in the estimation and computation of machine parameters will affect the control performance, resulting in less efficiency.", "Motor manufacturers do not provide operating range values for these parameters;", "even if they were provided, the parameters would only represent one operating point, which is not enough to optimize the control algorithm.", "The d-axis inductance (Ld), q-axis inductance (Lq) and permanent magnet flux (Φ mag ) parameters are non-linear and vary significantly as the machine is loaded;", "this presents a significant challenge in determining the minimum current magnitude for a given torque command.", "Moreover, most of today's current IPM control schemes have additional shortcomings.", "For example, current online MTPA schemes are based on the injection of an additional pulsating current signal superimposed on a fundamental current vector, which causes additional copper losses, noise, vibration, torque pulsation and may cause additional problems in the control process.", "Most of the current online optimized MTPA schemes are based on derivatives, which are not very efficient and may get stuck in local minima/maxima during the optimization process.", "In addition, most of today's schemes use offline parameter estimation methods, which are very time consuming, not accurate and may increase control development time.", "Some of the schemes use online parameter estimation techniques that are computational intensive and become an additional burden on the processor while some parameter estimation schemes need additional hardware (e.g., filters) that may not be available and may increase control development time.", "Accordingly, there is a need and desire for an optimized maximum torque per ampere control scheme for an interior permanent magnet motor, such as the IPM motors used in hybrid electric and battery electric vehicles.", "SUMMARY In one form, the present disclosure provides a method of calibrating a motor controller used to control an interior permanent magnet (IPM) motor for a vehicle.", "The method comprises setting a current magnitude value for a current of the IPM motor;", "measuring a torque of the IPM motor;", "determining a maximum torque per ampere trajectory point for the IPM motor based on optimizing a current phase angle using particle swarm optimization;", "and repeating said current setting step to said maximum torque per ampere trajectory point determining step for a predetermined number of current magnitude values to create a maximum torque per ampere trajectory curve.", "The present disclosure also provides a system for calibrating a motor controller used to control an interior permanent magnet (IPM) motor for a vehicle.", "The system comprises an inverter comprising the motor controller and being connected to control the IPM motor;", "a dynamometer controller connected to a dynamometer machine;", "a torque sensor connected between the IPM motor and the dynamometer machine;", "and a host computer coupled to the inverter.", "The host computer is programmed to set the current magnitude and a phase angle for a current of the IPM motor;", "input a measured a torque of the IPM motor from the torque sensor;", "determine a maximum torque per ampere trajectory point for the IPM motor based on optimizing a current phase angle using a real-time particle swarm optimization;", "and repeat said current setting step to said maximum torque per ampere trajectory point determining step for a predetermined number of current magnitude values to create a maximum torque per ampere trajectory curve.", "Further areas of applicability of the present disclosure will become apparent from the detailed description and claims provided hereinafter.", "It should be understood that the detailed description, including disclosed embodiments and drawings, are merely exemplary in nature intended for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention, its application or use.", "Thus, variations that do not depart from the gist of the invention are intended to be within the scope of the invention.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 illustrates an interior permanent magnet motor current Id-Iq operating plane;", "FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a system for automated maximum torque per ampere trajectory generation to be used for interior permanent magnet (IPM) motors in accordance with an embodiment disclosed herein;", "FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a method of automated maximum torque per ampere trajectory generation to be used for interior permanent magnet (IPM) motors in accordance with an embodiment disclosed herein;", "and FIG. 4 is a flowchart of processing to determine best particle position and the best position of a group of particles used by the FIG. 3 method.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION The embodiments disclosed herein provide a method and system for automated maximum torque per ampere trajectory generation to be used for interior permanent magnet (IPM) motors.", "The disclosed technology converts the MTPA control scheme into an optimization problem that is solved in real-time using a “particle swarm optimization”", "(PSO) technique (explained in more detail below).", "The disclosed processing is implemented on a system 100 such as e.g., the one illustrated in FIG. 2 .", "The system 100 includes a host computer (“host PC”) 110 , an inverter 120 , a dynamometer computer (“Dyno PC”) 130 , an IPM traction motor 140 , a torque transducer 142 and a dynamometer machine (“Dyno machine”) 144 .", "The IPM traction motor 140 is connected to the torque transducer 142 , which is also connected to the Dyno machine 144 .", "In a desired embodiment, the host PC 110 includes an ETAS-INCA MATLAB integration package (“INCA-MIP”) 112 that communicates with a MATLAB application/workspace 114 .", "The MATLAB application 114 issues Id and Iq current commands to the INCA-MIP 112 and inputs observed torque from the INCA-MIP 112 .", "The host PC 110 communicates with the inverter 120 via the INCA-MIP 112 and an ETAS ETK driver 122 .", "The inverter 120 also includes a motor control processor (“MCP”) 124 .", "The ETAS ETK driver 122 allows the host PC 110 to directly read from and write to the MCP's 124 memory.", "This way, the Id and Iq current commands can be set and calibration tables can be populated by the host PC 110 (discussed below).", "In addition, torque feedback can be readout from the MCP 124 .", "The MCP 124 includes control code, pulse width modulation (PWM) commands and input/output (I/O) capabilities to control the Id and Iq current and torque of the traction motor 140 and for receiving the observed torque from the transducer 142 .", "The Dyno PC 130 includes a speed control application 132 for regulating the Dyno machine 144 to e.g., a constant speed below the traction motor's 140 rated speed.", "The system 100 , particularly the host PC 110 , is used to execute the processing 200 illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4 (described below in more detail) using MATLAB scripts.", "As is described more in detail with respect to FIGS. 3 and 4 , a fitness function for fixed current values is used in the disclosed method 200 to automatically generate a maximum torque per ampere trajectory in a much more advantageous manner than today's IPM motor control mechanisms.", "The fitness function is defined as: Maximize ⁢ ⁢ J I = Mean ⁢ { ∑ t = 0 1 ⁢ s ⁢ ( T measured ⁡ ( t ) I ) } ( 3 ) Where J I is the fitness function for fixed values of the current I and T measured (t) is the sample of the steady state torque measured at time ‘t’observed by the torque transducer 142 (i.e., the observed torque illustrated in FIG. 2 ).", "The current phase angle a will be the variable to be optimized and is constrained as follows: α min ≦α≦α max (4) Where α min is the minimum value of the current angle and α max is the maximum value to be considered during the optimization.", "As is discussed below, an optimal value of a is found for each value of the current I, in increments of ΔI.", "The current range is constrained as follows: I min ≦|≦I max (5) Where I min is the minimum current magnitude and I max is the maximum current value determined by the inverter and the motor's maximum current ratings.", "“Particle swarm optimization”", "is a robust stochastic optimization technique.", "It is based on the movement and intelligence of animals exhibiting swarm behavior.", "The swarm consists of group of particles moving within a search space, looking for a best fitness value J I (i.e., Equation (3)).", "Each particle moves with adjustable velocity V I (shown below in Equation (6)).", "Each particle in the PSO technique remembers the position where it reached its best fitness value so far, referred to as “pbest”", "(personal best).", "The swarm particles cooperate with each other and exchange information about its fitness value and position.", "Each particle tracks the best value obtained by its neighbor particles referred to as “gbest”", "(global best).", "At each iteration, each particle adjusts it velocity and moves to a new position.", "Velocity adjustment (Equation (6)) is the sum of the current velocity, a weighted random vector in the direction of its personal best and a weighted random vector in direction of the global best.", "V i k+I =w*V i k +C 1 *rand 1 *( p best−X i k ) C 2 *rand 2 *( g best− X i k ) (6) Where V i k+1 is the velocity of particle ‘i’ at iteration ‘k’;", "w is a weighting function;", "C 1 , C 2 are weighting factors known as cognitive and social factors, respectively;", "rand 1 , rand 2 are uniformly distributed random numbers between 0 and 1;", "X i k is the current position of particle ‘i’ at iteration ‘k’;", "pbest is the best position achieved by the particle ‘i’ so far;", "and gbest is the best position achieved by group of particles so far.", "The new position of each particle is determined by simply adding its old position to its new velocity as shown below in Equation (7).", "X i k+1 =X i k +V i k+1 (7) As will be discussed below, to find the maximum torque output for a specific current magnitude, the method 200 disclosed herein uses a set of finite iterations to command sets of current phase angles (i.e., particles), and measures the corresponding torque responses from the dynamometer.", "At each iteration, the current magnitude is held fixed while a set of angles are commanded and the resulting torque outputs at each point are observed.", "Before the next iteration, the fitness function (mean of torque samples collected) is evaluated and the set of phase angles is adjusted to seek the point of maximal torque output.", "In this manner, the method 200 actively adapts the current magnitude vector command until the optimal phase angle for the specific magnitude is found.", "Once the phase angle has been optimized, the method 200 moves on to the next current magnitude and repeats the process.", "In practice, the disclosed method 200 is used to determine the MTPA trajectory for an IPM motor in real time.", "To do so, however, it is necessary to modify the value of the motor controller's current vector command (i.e., the magnitude I and phase angle α) and observe the measured torque values in real-time from the host PC 110 executing the method 200 .", "This is all done from the host PC's 110 MATLAB workspace 114 .", "The INCA-MIP 112 provides an interface between the MATLAB workspace 114 and the motor control processor 124 .", "Torque is measured by the torque transducer 142 and the values are captured by the motor control processor 124 and stored in its memory.", "The torque value is then read from the memory by the INCA-MIP 112 and stored in the MATLAB workspace 114 .", "Similarly, current vector commands are issued to the processor 124 via the INCA-MIP 112 interface by writing directly to the processor memory.", "Finally, the obtained MTPA trajectory is used to populate a calibration look-up table in the control processor memory for the optimal current vector.", "It should be appreciated that this optimization process could be embedded within the control processor;", "however, doing so would introduce extra computational burden on the control processor and is not preferred.", "Referring to FIG. 3 , the method 200 begins by setting initial values of the current magnitude I, change in current ΔI, and the maximum current I max (step 202 ).", "The values of the current magnitude I, change in current ΔI, and the maximum current I max will depend on the inverter and specifications of the IPM motor being controlled.", "At step 204 , the Equation (6) PSO parameters C 1 ,C 2 , rand 1 , rand 2 , and w are initialized.", "A present iteration ‘Ier’ variable and a maximum iteration variable ‘Iter(max)’ are also initialized at this step.", "The following are example values for the parameters that were determined based on simulations with an IPM motor having a maximum current I max .", "For the first iteration k=1, the cognitive factor C 1 is set to 2.5;", "the social factor C 2 is set to 1.5;", "and the weighting factor w is set to 1.", "For iteration number k greater than or equal to 2 until k is equal to the maximum iteration “kmax”, C 1 ( k ) is set to C 1 ( k− 1)-δC 1 ;", "C 2 ( k ) is set to C 2 ( k− 1)-δC 2 , where δC 1 is 1/(kmax−1) and δC 2 is −1/(kmax−1);", "w(k) is set to w(k−1)-δw, where δw is 0.9/(kmax−1);", "rand1 and rand2 are random values drawn from a uniform distribution on the unit interval [0,1];", "the maximum number of Iterations kmax=10;", "and the number of particles in each iteration is 10.", "At step 206 , the particle position X and velocity vector V parameters are initialized with random numbers.", "Step 206 will also output control parameters I and α.", "At step 208 , the dynamometer experiment is run, resulting in a torque transducer reading (T measured ).", "A particle fitness evaluation (i.e., Equation (3) torque and current) is then made at step 210 .", "The method 200 continues by updating the pbest and gbest values at step 212 (discussed in more detail below with respect to FIG. 4 ).", "Step 214 updates the particle velocity V i k+1 (Equation (6)) using the updated information and step 216 updates the particle position X i k+1 (Equation (7)).", "Step 218 determines if all particles have been updated.", "If it is determined that all of the particles have not been updated, the method 200 continues at step 214 , where steps 214 and 216 are repeated for the next particle.", "If step 218 determines that all of the particles have been updated, the method 200 continues at step 220 , where it is determined if the present iteration Iter is greater than the maximum iteration Iter(max).", "If at step 220 it is determined that the present iteration Iter is not greater than the maximum iteration Iter(max), the method 200 increments the present iteration Iter and continues at step 208 (described above).", "If at step 220 it is determined that the present iteration Iter is greater than the maximum iteration Iter(max), the method 200 continues at step 222 , where the optimal current angle is set to gbest.", "At step 224 it is determined if the current magnitude I is greater than the maximum current I max .", "If at step 224 it is determined that the current magnitude I is not greater than the maximum current I max , the method 200 increments the current magnitude by ΔI and continues at step 202 (described above).", "Otherwise, the method 200 is completed.", "Referring now to FIG. 4 , the process of updating pbest and gbest (step 212 ) is now discussed in more detail.", "Step 212 a inputs the fitness value determined at step 210 .", "A local variable p is set to the particle's position X i k+1 at step 212 b .", "Step 212 c determines if the fitness value for particle p is better than the best recorded fitness value for particle pbest.", "If it is determined that that the fitness value for particle p is not better than the best recorded fitness value for particle pbest, the process 212 continues at step 212 d where the present pbest and gbest values are maintained (step 212 is completed).", "If, however, it is determined at step 212 c that that the fitness value for particle p is better than the best recorded fitness value for particle pbest, the process 212 continues at step 212 e, where pbest is set to the particle p. Step 212 f determines if the fitness value for particle p is better than the best recorded fitness value for the group gbest.", "If it is determined that that the fitness value for particle p is not better than the best recorded fitness value for the group gbest, the process 212 continues at step 212 b (described above).", "If, however, it is determined at step 212 f that that the fitness value for particle p is better than the best recorded fitness value for the group gbest, the process 212 continues at step 212 g , where gbest is set to pbest.", "The disclosed system 100 and method 200 provide several advantages over the known MTPA schemes discussed above.", "The disclosed method 200 does not need to estimate values of the d-axis inductance Ld, q-axis inductance Lq, permanent magnet flux φ mag and other motor parameters, which is very cumbersome and time consuming task.", "The present method 200 can be used for any motor (even if it's parameters are unknown).", "In addition, there are no injections of the additional pulsating current signal, which is currently done in existing MTPA schemes.", "This means that the present system 100 and method 200 do not incur additional copper losses, noise, vibration and torque pulsation.", "Using the disclosed system 100 and method 200 , the MTPA trajectory can be obtained quickly and without the need to manually inject different current vectors at different angles to find the maximum torque.", "The current phase angle accuracy can be improved further, depending on the application's requirements, by increasing the number of iterations and decreasing tolerance in successive fitness values to decimal values.", "The disclosed method 200 is only limited by the accuracy of the torque sensor (i.e., transducer 142 ), and its accuracy can be increased by using more precise and accurate torque sensors.", "Furthermore, the disclosed method 200 is less likely to get stuck in local minima/maxima as compared to other derivative based optimized MTPA schemes due to its stochastic nature.", "The disclosed technique can significantly reduce MTPA control algorithm development time and calibration time, which is extremely desirable.", "In addition, the optimization portion of the method 200 resides in a HOST PC 110 and does not result in an extra computational burden on the processor 124 , and at the same time can be used in real-time.", "Moreover, any other function related to IPM control, and associated variables, can be added to the existing optimization method and optimized, providing additional flexibility and functionality not available in the prior art." ]