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[ "CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 13/220,306, filed on Aug. 29, 2011, entitled “Readout Circuit for Self-Balancing Capacitor Bridge,” which is incorporated herein by reference.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This patent relates to capacitive transducers, and more particularly to techniques for attenuation of unwanted disturbances in capacitive transducers.", "Transducers convert a general physical quantity (for example, acceleration, pressure, etc.) to quantities that can be processed by electronic circuits.", "In particular, capacitive transducers produce a change of capacitance, corresponding to the magnitude of the measured input signal.", "Readout circuits for capacitive transducers transform the capacitance change produced by the transducer to an electrical signal.", "In the process, the circuits apply voltage waveforms to the transducer electrodes.", "A capacitive accelerometer, a capacitive transducer for measuring acceleration, includes a mechanical sensing element and a readout circuit.", "FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a mechanical sensing element 100 of a capacitive accelerometer.", "In this embodiment, the mechanical sensing element 100 includes a mass 102 suspended between a first spring 104 and a second spring 106 , a first electrode 110 and a second electrode 112 .", "A proximal end of the mass 102 is coupled to the first spring 104 and a distal end of the mass 102 is coupled to the second spring 106 .", "The first spring 104 has two ends;", "a first end coupled to the proximal end of the mass 102 and a second end coupled to a substrate.", "The second spring 106 has two ends;", "a first end coupled to the distal end of the mass 102 and a second end coupled to the substrate.", "A common electrode 108 is coupled to the mass 102 and moves with the mass 102 relative to the substrate.", "The first and second electrodes 110 , 112 are stationary relative to the substrate.", "In this embodiment a positive reference voltage V S is applied to the first electrode 110 and the negative reference voltage −V S is applied to the second electrode 112 .", "A first variable capacitor C 1 is formed between the first electrode 110 and the common electrode 108 , and a second variable capacitor C 2 is formed between the second electrode 112 and the common electrode 108 .", "In this embodiment, when the system is at rest, there is a substantially equal nominal gap g 0 between the first electrode 110 and the common electrode 108 and between the second electrode 112 and the common electrode 108 , creating substantially equal capacitances in the first variable capacitor C 1 and the second variable capacitor C 2 .", "An input acceleration moves the mass 102 relative to the substrate which varies the gaps between the electrodes and varies the capacitance of the variable capacitors C 1 , C 2 .", "Acceleration in the direction of arrow 120 deflects the mass 102 a distance Δx that is proportional to the input acceleration.", "This movement of the mass 102 increases the distance between the first electrode 110 and the common electrode 108 to g 0 +Δx, and decreases the distance between the second electrode 112 and the common electrode 108 to g 0 −Δx, which changes the capacitance of capacitors C 1 and C 2 .", "The capacitance C of variable capacitors C 1 and C 2 can be determined by: C 1 / 2 = ɛ 0 ⁢ A g 0 ± Δ ⁢ ⁢ x ( 1 ) where ∈ 0 is dielectric permittivity, A is the area of the capacitive plates (which extend into the paper), g 0 is the nominal gap and Δx is the displacement due to the acceleration.", "The readout circuit determines the value of Δx based on the capacitance change in capacitors C 1 and C 2 .", "FIG. 2 is a schematic of an exemplary embodiment of a self-balancing capacitive bridge 200 .", "The switched-capacitor implementation shown in FIG. 2 has the advantage of straightforward DC biasing of the input without the need for a high resistance path, as well as a stable and well-defined transfer function over process and temperature.", "It also provides a discrete-time output signal, which can be digitized directly by an analog-to-digital converter (ADC).", "FIG. 2 shows a single-ended embodiment of a self-balancing bridge.", "The self-balancing bridge 200 includes a sensor core 210 with two variable capacitors, C 1 and C 2 , and a readout or interface circuit 220 .", "The sensor core 210 represents a capacitive sensor element, for example the sensing element 100 shown in FIG. 1 or one of various other capacitive sensor elements known in the art.", "The readout circuit 220 includes a forward path that passes the output of the sensor core 210 through an integrator 222 , which provides gain, to the output V 0 .", "In this embodiment, the integrator 222 includes an amplifier 224 with an integrating capacitor C i .", "The inverting input of the amplifier 224 is coupled to the common node M between the variable capacitors C 1 and C 2 , the non-inverting input of the amplifier 224 is coupled to ground, and the output of the amplifier 224 provides the output voltage V o .", "The integrating capacitor C i couples the inverting input of the amplifier 224 to the output of the amplifier 224 .", "The self-balancing bridge 200 also includes a first feedback path 230 and a second feedback path 240 that feedback the output voltage V o to the sensor core 210 .", "The first feedback path 230 feeds back the output voltage V o through a first inverting amplifier 232 to a first summing node 234 .", "The first summing node 234 sums the inverted output voltage −V 0 and inverted reference voltage −V S , and outputs the resulting voltage −V S −V 0 to the first variable sensor capacitor C 1 .", "The second feedback path 240 feeds back the output voltage V o through a second inverting amplifier 242 to a second summing node 244 .", "The second summing node 244 sums the inverted output voltage −V 0 and reference voltage V S , and outputs the resulting voltage V S −V 0 to the second variable sensor capacitor C 2 .", "The self-balancing bridge 200 tries to equalize the absolute charge on the two sensor capacitors, C 1 and C 2 .", "Under these conditions the output voltage is proportional to the ratio between the difference and the sum of the measured capacitors: V o = - V S ⁢ C 1 - C 2 C 1 + C 2 ( 2 ) Measuring the above ratio is of interest for a variety of applications, acceleration sensors being only one particular example.", "In addition to producing the result in Eq.", "(2), equalizing the absolute charge on the transducer capacitors has the advantage of creating equal electrostatic forces, acting on the moving plates of the variable capacitors, C 1 and C 2 , in opposite directions.", "The net force on the transducer is reduced;", "hence the interface circuit does not disturb the measurement by inducing spurious deflection of the capacitor plates.", "In order for this condition to be fulfilled, however, the absolute charge on the transducer capacitors must be maintained equal at any given point of time.", "Implementing the summing nodes to simply equalize the time-average charge on the transducer capacitors does not maintain equal charge at all times during operation.", "Applying the same absolute voltage to the sensor capacitors results in different absolute charges, and therefore different electrostatic forces when C 1 and C 2 are different.", "The charge balance is achieved only on average, which does not result in zero net force.", "Using active summing circuits for the summing amplifiers 234 , 244 helps maintain the correct voltage for equalizing the charge on C 1 and C 2 .", "However, it is well known that amplifiers introduce disturbances, such as noise and offset, to the signals they process.", "While switched-capacitor techniques such as Correlated Double-Sampling (CDS) can eliminate low-frequency noise and offset, the broad-band noise, which is aliased near DC by the sampling process, cannot be rejected.", "Furthermore, CDS roughly doubles the amount of broad-band noise, which appears near DC.", "It would be desirable to attenuate these unwanted disturbances so that they have reduced impact on the output measurement of the circuit.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A readout circuit is disclosed for processing a transducer signal from a capacitive transducer and producing a circuit output signal.", "The readout circuit includes a high gain circuit element, two summing amplifiers implemented by active circuitry, two feedback paths and output circuitry.", "The high gain circuit element receives the transducer signal and generates an amplified transducer signal.", "The first summing amplifier sums the amplified transducer signal with a positive reference voltage and generates a first summation signal.", "The second summing amplifier sums the amplified transducer signal with a negative reference voltage and generates a second summation signal.", "The negative reference voltage has substantially the same magnitude but opposite polarity of the positive reference voltage.", "The first feedback path feeds back the first summation signal to the capacitive transducer, and the second feedback path feeds back the second summation signal to the capacitive transducer.", "The output circuitry generates the circuit output signal based on the first summation signal and the second summation signal.", "The high gain circuit element can be a switched capacitor integrator.", "Each of the first and second summing amplifiers can include an operational amplifier, and the input signals to the summing amplifier can be coupled to the inverting input of the respective operational amplifier.", "The readout circuit can also include an inverting amplifier that inverts the amplified transducer signal.", "The output circuitry can generate the circuit output signal as the average of the first summation signal and the second summation signal.", "A readout circuit is disclosed for processing a transducer signal from a capacitive transducer and producing a circuit output signal, where the readout circuit includes a forward path and two feedback paths.", "The forward path includes a high gain circuit element and two summing amplifiers.", "The high gain circuit element receives the transducer signal and generates an amplified transducer signal.", "The summing amplifier sums the amplified transducer signal with a reference voltage and generates a summation signal.", "The first summing amplifier sums the amplified transducer signal with a positive reference voltage and generates a first summation signal.", "The second summing amplifier sums the amplified transducer signal with a negative reference voltage and generates a second summation signal.", "The negative reference voltage has substantially the same magnitude but opposite polarity of the positive reference voltage.", "The first feedback path feeds back the first summation signal to the capacitive transducer, and the second feedback path feeds back the second summation signal to the capacitive transducer.", "Output circuitry generates the circuit output signal based on the summation signals.", "The high gain circuit element can be a switched capacitor integrator.", "The summing amplifier can include an operational amplifier.", "At least one of the summing amplifiers can be implemented by active circuitry.", "The readout circuit can also include an inverting amplifier that inverts the amplified transducer signal.", "The output circuitry can generate the circuit output signal as the average of the first and second summation signals.", "A capacitive transducer system is disclosed that includes a capacitive sensing element, a high gain circuit element, first and second summing amplifiers, first and second feedback paths and output circuitry.", "The capacitive sensing element generates a transducer signal based on a physical quantity.", "The high gain circuit element receives the transducer signal and generates an amplified transducer signal.", "The first summing amplifier, implemented by active circuitry, sums the amplified transducer signal with a reference voltage and generates a first summation signal.", "The second summing amplifier, implemented by active circuitry, sums the amplified transducer signal with a negative reference voltage and generates a second summation signal.", "The negative reference voltage has substantially the same magnitude but opposite polarity of the reference voltage.", "The first feedback path feeds back the first summation signal to the capacitive sensing element.", "The second feedback path feeds back the second summation signal to the capacitive sensing element.", "The output circuitry generates a circuit output signal based on the first summation signal and the second summation signal.", "The high gain circuit element can be a switched capacitor integrator.", "The system can also include an inverting amplifier that inverts the amplified transducer signal.", "The output circuitry can generate the circuit output signal as the average of the first and second summation signals.", "The capacitive sensing element can include a sensor core including a first variable capacitor having a first movable capacitive plate and a second variable capacitor having a second movable capacitive plate, where the first movable capacitive plate is coupled to the second movable capacitive plate.", "The capacitive transducer system can be a fully differential system where the capacitive sensing element includes first and second capacitive cores, and differential signals are generated.", "The transducer signal includes a first transducer signal generated by the first capacitive core and a second transducer signal generated by the second capacitive core.", "The amplified transducer signal is based on the first and second transducer signals.", "The first feedback path feeds back the first summation signal to the first capacitive core and to the second capacitive core.", "The second feedback path feeds back the second summation signal to the first capacitive core and to the second capacitive core.", "The capacitors of the first and second capacitive cores can be tuned to react substantially identically.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The above mentioned and other features and objects of this invention, and the manner of attaining them, will become more apparent and the invention itself will be better understood by reference to the following description of embodiments of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein: FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a mechanical sensing element of a capacitive transducer;", "FIG. 2 is a schematic of an exemplary embodiment of a self-balancing capacitive bridge;", "FIG. 3 is a schematic of an exemplary implementation of a summing amplifier implemented by an active circuit;", "FIG. 4 is a schematic of an exemplary capacitive transducer system and illustrates the introduction of a disturbance V n1 from one of the summing amplifiers;", "FIG. 5 shows a simplified feedback system corresponding to the system of FIG. 4 ;", "FIG. 6 shows a feedback system with a first input signal S A that is amplified by forward-path gain block “a”", "and a second input signal S B that is introduced in the forward path after the gain block “a”;", "FIG. 7 is a schematic of an exemplary capacitive transducer system in which the summing amplifiers are located in the forward path of the system after the high gain of the switched-capacitor integrator;", "and FIG. 8 is a schematic of an exemplary fully-differential capacitive feedback system in which the summing amplifiers are located in the forward path of the system after the high gain block.", "Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views.", "Although the exemplification set out herein illustrates embodiments of the invention, in several forms, the embodiments disclosed below are not intended to be exhaustive or to be construed as limiting the scope of the invention to the precise forms disclosed.", "DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS Using active circuits to implement the summing nodes in FIG. 2 provides better equalization of the absolute charge on the transducer capacitors C 1 and C 2 , which reduces the impact of the readout or interface circuit on the sensor.", "However, using active amplifiers for implementing the summing nodes introduces unwanted disturbances, noise and offset, to the signals they process.", "Attenuating the disturbances introduced by the active amplifiers reduces the impact of these disturbances on the output signal.", "FIG. 3 shows an exemplary implementation of a summing amplifier 300 implemented by an active circuit that accepts input signals V S and V 0 and produces an output signal V X .", "In this case, V S is the system reference voltage and V 0 is the system output voltage.", "The summing amplifier 300 also introduces an unwanted disturbance signal V n that is included in the output signal V X .", "The offset cancellation has been omitted for simplicity.", "Conventional analysis of switched-capacitor amplifiers shows that the input signals V S and V 0 experience a gain “α”", "to the output, while the disturbance V n is amplified by (1+2α)/α.", "FIG. 4 shows an exemplary capacitive transducer system 400 and illustrates the introduction of a disturbance V n1 from one of the summing amplifiers.", "The system 400 includes a sensing element 402 , a forward path 410 and two feedback paths 420 , 430 .", "The forward path 410 takes the output signal from the sensing element 402 , passes it through a switched-capacitor integrator 412 and provides it as an output signal V 0 .", "The integrator 412 can provide high gain to the signals passing through it in the forward path 410 .", "Each of the feedback paths takes the output signal V 0 and feeds it back to the sensor element 402 .", "The first feedback path 420 takes the output signal V 0 , passes it through an inverting amplifier 422 , and a summing amplifier 424 .", "The summing amplifier 424 sums a negative reference voltage −V S with the inverted output signal −V 0 and introduces an unwanted disturbance signal V n1 , and outputs a first combined signal with the disturbance V n1 .", "The second feedback path 430 takes the output signal V 0 , passes it through an inverting amplifier 432 , and a summing amplifier 434 .", "The summing amplifier 434 sums the positive reference voltage V S with the inverted output signal −V 0 and introduces another unwanted disturbance signal V n2 , and outputs a second combined signal with the disturbance V n2 .", "The transfer function of the system 400 for the reference voltage V S and the first disturbance V n1 (ignoring the second disturbance V n2 ) can be calculated as: V o = - V S ⁢ C 1 - C 2 C 1 + C 2 + ( 1 + 2 ⁢ α ) α ⁢ V n ⁢ ⁢ 1 ⁢ C 1 C 1 + C 2 ( 3 ) For the particular case of α=1 and small displacements (C 1 ≈C 2 ), the reference voltage V S disappears and the disturbance V n1 appears at the output with a gain of 3/2.", "Thus, this configuration of the summing amplifier does not provide the desired attenuation of the unwanted disturbances V n .", "FIG. 5 shows a simplified feedback system 500 corresponding to the system 400 of FIG. 4 .", "The system 500 has forward-path gain “a”", "and feedback coefficient “f.”", "The feedback system 500 has two inputs, S A and S B , and an output S 0 .", "The input signal S B is introduced in the feedback path, and both input signals S A and S B are amplified by the high-gain block “a.”", "The transfer function for system 500 is: S o = - a 1 + af ⁢ S A - af 1 + af ⁢ S B ( 4 ) In a typical feedback system a>>1 and f<=1.", "For the case of f=1, the transfer function for the system 500 simplifies to: S 0 ≈−S A −S B (5) We see that in the system 500 both S A and S B appear at the output with equal weight.", "If S A is the signal we are interested in and S B is an unwanted disturbance, then we are not achieving the desired attenuation of the unwanted disturbance S B in the feedback system 500 .", "FIG. 6 shows another feedback system 600 that has forward-path gain “a”", "and feedback coefficient “f.”", "The system 600 also has two inputs, S A and S B , and an output S 0 .", "However in the system 600 , unlike the system 500 , the input signal S B is introduced in the forward path after the high-gain block “a.”", "The transfer function of the system 600 is: S o = - a 1 + af ⁢ S A + 1 1 + af ⁢ S B ( 6 ) Again assuming a>>1 and f=1, the transfer function of the system 600 simplifies to: S 0 ≈S A +(1/ a ) S B (7) Eq.", "(7) shows that the signal S A , introduced before the high-gain block “a”, appears directly at the output, while the signal S B , introduced after the high-gain block, is highly attenuated.", "Thus, it would be desirable to attenuate the disturbances introduced by the summing amplifiers of the measurement circuit before they reach the output, like the signal S B , instead of allowing these disturbances to reach the output largely unattenuated, like the signal S A , to reduce the impact of these disturbances on the measurements of the system.", "Comparing equations (5) and (7) we see that in the system 500 the unwanted signal S B will appear directly at the output with the same attenuation as the useful signal S A , while in the system 600 the unwanted signal S B will be attenuated by a>>1 without attenuation of the useful signal S A .", "Therefore, it would be desirable to implement a system that attenuates the unwanted disturbances like the system 600 .", "In the feedback systems of FIGS. 2 and 4 , the summing amplifiers appear in the feedback path.", "Therefore, the disturbance V n introduced by the summing amplifiers behaves similarly to S B in FIG. 5 and is amplified by the high gain in the forward path.", "The feedback system of FIG. 4 can be redesigned in a way that makes the disturbance V n , behave similarly to S B of FIG. 6 , and therefore does not amplify the disturbance V n by the high gain in the forward path.", "This can be achieved by placing the summing amplifiers in the forward path of the feedback system after the high gain block.", "FIG. 7 shows an exemplary system 700 in which the summing amplifiers are located in the forward path of the system after the high gain of the switched-capacitor integrator.", "The system 700 includes a sensing element 702 , a forward path 710 and two feedback paths 720 , 730 .", "The forward path 710 takes the output signal from the sensing element 702 , passes it through a switched-capacitor integrator 712 and an inverting amplifier 714 and produces an intermediate output signal V 0 ′, then the forward path 710 splits into a first branch 740 and a second branch 750 .", "The first branch 740 takes the intermediate output signal V 0 ′ and passes it to a summing amplifier 742 .", "The summing amplifier 742 sums a negative reference voltage −V S with the intermediate output signal V 0 ′ and introduces an unwanted disturbance signal V n1 , and outputs a first combined signal V 0 ′−V S which includes the disturbance V n1 .", "The second branch 750 takes the intermediate output signal V 0 ′ and passes it to a summing amplifier 752 .", "The summing amplifier 752 sums the positive reference voltage V S with the intermediate output signal V 0 ′ and introduces an unwanted disturbance signal V n2 , and outputs a second combined signal V 0 ′+V S which includes the disturbance V n2 .", "The output signals of the first branch 740 and the second branch 750 are combined and halved to provide an output signal V 0 .", "The first feedback path 720 takes the output signal V 0 ′−V S from the first branch 740 and feeds it back to the sensor element 702 .", "The second feedback path 730 takes the output signal V 0 ′+V S from the second branch 750 and feeds it back to the sensor element 702 .", "The first and second branches 740 , 750 of the forward path 710 also show a summing amplifier gain α.", "The integrator 712 can provide high gain to the signals passing through it in the forward path 710 .", "Like the feedback system 600 , the unwanted disturbances are introduced in the forward path 710 after the integrator 712 .", "The transfer function for the signal and first branch disturbance in the system 700 is: V o ⁢ ⁢ _ ⁢ ⁢ new = α ⁢ ⁢ V S ⁢ C 1 - C 2 C 1 + C 2 - ( 1 + 2 ⁢ α ) 2 ⁢ V n ⁢ ⁢ 1 ⁢ C 1 - C 2 C 1 + C 2 ( 8 ) After normalizing the output of the systems in FIGS. 4 and 7 to the same signal level (first terms in Eq.", "(3) and Eq.", "(8)), the relative contribution of the disturbance V n1 (second term in Eq.", "(3) and Eq.", "(8)) to the output of the two systems can be calculated.", "as: V o ⁢ ⁢ _ ⁢ ⁢ n ⁢ ⁢ 1 ⁢ ⁢ _ ⁢ ⁢ new V o ⁢ ⁢ _ ⁢ ⁢ n ⁢ ⁢ 1 ⁢ ⁢ _ ⁢ ⁢ o ⁢ ⁢ ld = ( 1 + 2 ⁢ α ) 2 ⁢ V n ⁢ ⁢ 1 ⁢ C 1 - C 2 C 1 + C 2 α ⁢ ( 1 + 2 ⁢ α ) α ⁢ V n ⁢ ⁢ 1 ⁢ ⁢ C 1 C 1 + C 2 = C 1 - C 2 2 ⁢ C 1 ( 9 ) The following numerical example shows the additional attenuation of the disturbance in the system 700 of FIG. 7 versus the system 400 of FIG. 4 .", "A parallel-plate transducer (for example, an accelerometer) can have a typical maximum signal level of (C 1 −C 2 )/(C 1 +C 2 )=0.2.", "This relationship can be rearranged to yield C 1 =(3/2)C 2 , and substituting this into Eq.", "(9) yields V 0 — n1 — new/ V 0 — n1 — old =⅙.", "Thus, the system 700 attenuates the contribution of the summing amplifier disturbance V n1 by a factor of 6 relative to the system 400 .", "This analysis naturally applies to the disturbances introduced by both summing amplifiers.", "Placement of summing amplifiers in the forward path of a capacitive feedback system after a high gain block can also be done in a fully-differential system, such as the exemplary system 800 shown in FIG. 8 .", "The system 800 includes a sensing element 802 , a dual forward path 810 and two dual feedback paths 820 , 830 .", "In the system 800 , the transducer 802 is implemented as two separate cores.", "A first core C 1 includes variable capacitors C 1A and C 1B , a second core C 2 includes variable capacitors C 2A and C 2B .", "The corresponding capacitors of the two cores react to the input signal in a substantially identical way (i.e., C 1A =C 1B and C 2A =C 2B ).", "However, the electrical signals processed by the two cores have opposite polarity.", "The forward path 810 takes the output signals from the cores of the sensing element 802 , passes them through a capacitor integrator 812 and produces intermediate output signals, then the forward path 810 splits into a first branch 840 and a second branch 850 .", "Unlike the switched-capacitor integrator 712 depicted in FIG. 7 wherein the integrator 712 is a single-ended amplifier, the capacitor integrator 812 depicted in FIG. 8 is a fully differential amplifier.", "Thus, the capacitor integrator 812 does not require a separate inverting amplifier.", "The first branch 840 takes a first intermediate output signal and passes it to a summing amplifier 842 .", "The summing amplifier 842 sums a positive reference voltage V S with the first intermediate output signal and introduces unwanted disturbances V n1 , and outputs a first combined signal −V 0 +V S which includes the disturbances V n1 .", "The second branch 850 takes an intermediate output signal and passes it to a summing amplifier 852 .", "The summing amplifier 852 sums the inverted reference voltage −V S with the intermediate output signal and introduces unwanted disturbances V n2 , and outputs a second combined signal −V 0 −V S which includes the disturbances V n2 .", "The output signals of the first branch 840 and the second branch 850 are combined and halved to provide an output signal V 0 .", "The first feedback path 820 takes the output signal −V 0 +V S from the first branch 840 and feeds it back to the sensor element 802 .", "The second feedback path 830 takes the output signal −V 0 −V S from the second branch 850 and feeds it back to the sensor element 802 .", "The system 800 assumes summing amplifier gain α=1 for simplicity, however the principle applies to the general case as well.", "Like the system 700 , the output signals from the cores of the sensing element 802 pass through the integrator 812 which can provide high gain, but the unwanted disturbances from the summing amplifiers 842 , 852 do not pass through the integrator 812 in the forward path 810 .", "Thus the unwanted disturbances from the summing amplifiers are highly attenuated.", "While this invention has been described as having an exemplary design, the present invention may be further modified within the spirit and scope of this disclosure.", "This application is therefore intended to cover any variations, uses, or adaptations of the invention using its general principles." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Field of the Invention This invention relates to a flip-flop, an integrated circuit using the same, and a flip-flop resetting method capable of resetting a flip-flop (hereinafter referred to as FF) by changing a power supply voltage.", "Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there are known a variety of techniques of resetting an FF.", "For example, as an integrated circuit capable of initializing an FF included therein, there is known an integrated circuit including: a selection signal sending section that sends a selection signal for a predetermined time period after power-on of the integrated circuit;", "a first selection section that sends a logic signal of a certain level to a master set terminal when the selection signal is sent, and sends an original logic signal to the master set terminal when the selection signal is not sent;", "and a second selection section that sends a logic signal having an inverse value of the logic signal of the certain level to the master set terminal when the selection signal is sent, and sends the original logic signal to the master set terminal when the selection signal is not sent.", "(refer to Patent Document 1: Jpn.", "Pat. Appln.", "Laid-Open Publication No. 2-100413).", "As described above, the conventional FF is designed to reset its data.", "As described above, however, to reset the data of the FF, it is necessary to provide a reset terminal in the FF for distributing a reset signal in an integrated circuit (e.g., an LSI), for example.", "Therefore, a wiring in the LSI is complicated.", "Further, space for wiring a reset signal line is required, and thus there is a limit in adding other signal wirings.", "As a result, it becomes difficult to increase the number of channels used for a signal wiring.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is made to solve the above described problems, and it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a flip-flop which eliminates a reset wiring to prevent complication of the wiring in the LSI or to increase the number of the channels used for a signal wiring, an integrated circuit using the same, and a flip-flop resetting method.", "To solve the above described problems, in the present invention, a power supply wiring already distributed in the LSI is used also as a wiring for performing a reset operation so that the reset signal of the FF is generated by changing the power supply voltage.", "That is, according to one aspect of the present invention, a flip-flop performs a reset operation by detecting a change in a power supply voltage.", "The flip-flop includes a state retaining node that stores a HIGH level voltage or a LOW level voltage, and a reset signal generation circuit that detects a change in a power supply voltage exceeding a predetermined value to generate a reset signal for resetting a data storing state of the state retaining node.", "In the flip-flop, the reset signal generation circuit is provided for the individual state retaining node.", "Further, in the flip-flop, the reset signal generation circuit is provided for a plurality of the state retaining nodes.", "According to another aspect of the present invention, an integrated circuit includes a flip-flop.", "The flip-flop includes a state retaining node that stores a HIGH level voltage or a LOW level voltage, and a reset signal generation circuit that detects a change in a power supply voltage exceeding a predetermined value to generate a reset signal for resetting a data storing state of the state retaining node.", "In the integrated circuit, the reset signal generation circuit is provided for the individual state retaining node.", "Further, in the integrated circuit, the reset signal generation circuit is provided for a plurality of the state retaining nodes.", "Further, in the integrated circuit, the flip-flop is provided by a plural number, and the plurality of the flip-flops are divided into a plurality of groups such that different power supply voltages are separately introduced to the respective groups.", "Further, the integrated circuit further includes a power supply circuit capable of changing the power supply voltage.", "Further, in the integrated circuit, the power supply voltages can be separately changed.", "Further, the integrated circuit further includes a reset logic circuit for changing the power supply voltage output by the power supply circuit in accordance with a signal sent by an operation system or a predetermined hardware.", "According to still another aspect of the present invention, a flip-flop resetting method is used for performing a reset operation by detecting a change in a power supply voltage.", "The flip-flop resetting method includes the steps of: detecting a change in a power supply voltage exceeding a predetermined value;", "generating a reset signal for resetting a data storing state of a state retaining node of a flip-flop;", "and resetting the flip-flop in accordance with the reset signal.", "The present invention can provide a flip-flop which eliminates a. reset wiring to prevent complication of the wiring in the LSI or to increase the number of the channels used for a signal wiring, an integrated circuit using the same, and a flip-flop resetting method.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram of an FF according to a first embodiment of the present invention;", "FIGS. 2A to 2C are time charts illustrating operations according to the first embodiment of the present invention;", "FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram of an FF according to a second embodiment of the present invention;", "FIG. 4 is a circuit diagram of an FF according to a third embodiment of the present invention;", "FIGS. 5A to 5C are time charts illustrating operations according to the third embodiment of the present invention;", "FIG. 6 is a circuit diagram of an FF according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention;", "FIG. 7 is a circuit diagram of an FF according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention;", "and FIG. 8 is a circuit diagram of an FF according to a sixth embodiment of the present invention.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below by referring to the accompanying drawings.", "First Embodiment FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram of an FF according to a first embodiment of the present invention.", "The FF shown in FIG. 1 is provided in an integrated circuit, and includes a pull-up generation circuit (i.e., a reset signal generation circuit) 1 that generates a reset signal and a state retaining node 2 that stores a HIGH level voltage or a LOW level voltage as data.", "In the pull-up generation circuit 1 , two NFETs 3 and 4 and a PFET 5 are connected in cascade to one another between a power supply (Vdd) and the ground, and an inverter 6 is connected between the NFET 4 and the PFET 5 .", "An output terminal of the inverter 6 (i.e., a node n 2 ) is connected to a reset terminal 7 of the state retaining node 2 .", "The reset terminal 7 of the state retaining node 2 is formed by the gate of a PFET.", "In the present embodiment, the number of NFET stages is two (i.e., NFETs 3 and 4 ).", "In some cases, however, the number of NFET stages may be one or three or more, depending on Vth of NFETs.", "In the configuration described above, if a usually used power supply voltage is 1.0 volts, for example, a content of the FF (i.e., data retained by the state retaining node 2 ) can be reset to 0 by changing the power supply voltage from 1.0 volts to 1.8 volts and then to 1.0 volts.", "Operations according to the first embodiment will be described in detail below by referring to FIGS. 2A to 2C .", "FIG. 2A represents a relationship between Vdd, Vdd/2, and a ground voltage vss.", "FIG. 2B represents a relationship between Vdd/2 and a voltage (i.e., electric potential) at a node n 1 .", "FIG. 2C represents a relationship between a voltage (i.e., electric potential) at the node n 2 and the ground voltage vss.", "If the power supply voltage is Vdd, a voltage at a node n 0 (i.e., a point between the NFETs 3 and 4 ) is expressed as Vdd−Vth, since the node n 0 is connected to the power supply by the NFET 3 .", "Similarly, a voltage at the node n 1 (i.e., a point between the NFET 3 and the PFET 5 ) is expressed as Vdd−2Vth.", "In this case, the Vth is a voltage representing a voltage drop caused by an FET, and is determined by a process.", "It is now assumed that the Vth is 400 millivolts, for example.", "The voltage at the node n 1 is always lower than the power supply voltage by 800 millivolts.", "Therefore, if the power supply voltage is changed from 1.0 volts to 1.8 volts, as illustrated in FIG. 2A , the voltage at the node n 1 changes from 0.2 volts to 1.0 volts, as illustrated in FIG. 2B .", "In view of the above, if the threshold value of the next-stage inverter 6 is set to be Vdd/2, the voltage at the node n 2 , i.e., an output voltage of the inverter 6 , changes from a HIGH level (i.e., 1.0 volts) to a LOW level (i.e., 0.0 volt), as illustrated in FIG. 2C .", "Similarly, if the power supply voltage is changed from 1.8 volts to 1.0 volts, as illustrated in FIG. 2A , the voltage at the node n 2 changes from the LOW level (i.e., 0.0 volt) to the HIGH level (i.e., 1.0 volts), as illustrated in FIG. 2C .", "In this way, as the voltage at the node n 2 changes from the HIGH level to the LOW level and then to the HIGH level, the FF (i.e., the data retained by the state retaining node 2 ) can be reset.", "Second Embodiment In the circuit configuration shown in FIG. 1 , the pull-up generation circuit (i.e., the reset signal generation circuit) is included in a single FF.", "Alternatively, as in a second embodiment, the pull-up generation circuit 1 can be shared by a plurality of the state retaining nodes (i.e., FFs) 2 , as illustrated in FIG. 3 .", "That is, in this case, a single pull-up generation circuit 1 is provided for the plurality of the state retaining nodes 2 included in an integrated circuit.", "According to the second embodiment, the plurality of the state retaining nodes (i.e., FFs) 2 can be reset by the single pull-up generation circuit 1 .", "Accordingly, the plurality of the state retaining nodes 2 can be effectively reset.", "Third Embodiment FIG. 4 is a circuit diagram of an FF according to a third embodiment.", "In the third embodiment, a pull-down generation circuit (i.e., a reset signal generation circuit) 1 includes one NFET 3 and one PFET 5 .", "A node n 1 connecting the NFET 3 and the PFET 5 is connected to an inverter 6 .", "A reset terminal 7 ′ of a state retaining node 2 is formed by the gate of an NFET.", "In some cases, however, the number of PFET stages in the pull-down generation circuit 1 may be two or more, depending on Vth of PFETs.", "According to the third embodiment, the content of the FF can be reset to 0 by changing the power supply voltage from 1.0 volts to 0.6 volts and then to 1.0 volts.", "Operations according to the third embodiment will be described in detail below by referring to FIGS. 5A to 5C .", "FIG. 5A represents a relationship between Vdd, Vdd/2, and a ground voltage vss.", "FIG. 5B represents a relationship between Vdd/2 and a voltage (i.e., electric potential) at the node n 1 .", "FIG. 5C represents a relationship between a voltage (i.e., electric potential) at a node n 2 and the ground voltage vss.", "First, if the power supply voltage Vdd is changed from 1.0 volts to 0.6 volts, as illustrated in FIG. 5A , the voltage at the node n 1 changes from 0.6 volts to 0.2 volts, as illustrated in FIG. 5B .", "Further, as illustrated in FIG. 5C , the voltage at the node n 2 changes from the LOW level (i.e., 0.0 volt) to the HIGH level (i.e., 0.6 volts).", "Similarly, if the power supply voltage is changed from 0.6 volts to 1.0 volts, as illustrated in FIG. 5A , the voltage at the node n 2 changes from the HIGH level (i.e., 0.6 volts) to the LOW level (i.e., 0.0 volt), as illustrated in FIG. 5C .", "In this way, as the voltage at the node n 2 changes from the LOW level to the HIGH level and then to the LOW level, the FF (i.e., the data retained by the state retaining node 2 ) can be reset.", "Fourth Embodiment FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating an LSI according to a fourth embodiment.", "The LSI includes a plurality of the FFs described above in the first to third embodiments.", "The LSI shown in FIG. 6 includes the plurality of the FFs, a power supply circuit 11 connected to the plurality of the FFs, and a reset logic circuit 12 which resets the plurality of the FFs by changing the power supply voltage of the power supply circuit 11 .", "A connection configuration of the power supply circuit 11 and each of the plurality of the FFs is the same as the connection configuration described above in the first to third embodiments.", "Operations according to the fourth embodiment will be described below.", "The reset logic circuit 12 generates a reset signal in accordance with a command sent by an OS or hardware (not illustrated).", "Upon receipt of the reset signal, the power supply circuit 11 changes the power supply voltage.", "Thereby, the plurality of the FFs (i.e., an FF group) connected to the power supply circuit 11 are reset.", "Fifth Embodiment FIG. 7 illustrates an LSI according to a fifth embodiment.", "While the power supply circuit 11 is included in the LSI according of the fourth embodiment, the power supply circuit 11 is provided outside the LSI according to the fifth embodiment.", "Sixth Embodiment FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating an LSI according to a sixth embodiment.", "According of the sixth embodiment, the LSI includes a plurality of the FFs.", "The plurality of the FFs are divided into three groups G 1 to G 3 , and wiring is designed to introduce power supply voltages V 1 to V 3 output by different power supply circuits 11 A to 11 C into the respective groups G 1 to G 3 .", "That is, FIG. 8 illustrates a configuration in which a plurality of the FFs are divided into the groups each including those FFs desired to be reset at one time.", "Accordingly, the FFs included in one group can be reset at one time independently from the FFs included in the other groups.", "In this case, the pull-up generation circuit may be shared by the state retaining nodes of the respective FFs, as illustrated in FIG. 3 , or the pull-up generation circuit may be provided for the state retaining node of the individual FF, as illustrated in FIG. 1 .", "Accordingly, to reset the FFs of the FF group G 1 connected to the power supply circuit 11 A, only the power supply voltage V 1 of the power supply circuit 11 A is changed.", "Similarly, to reset the FFs of the FF group G 2 connected to the power supply circuit 11 B, the power supply voltage V 2 of the power supply circuit 11 B is changed.", "Further, to reset the FFs of the FF group G 3 connected to the power supply circuit 11 C, the power supply voltage V 3 of the power supply circuit 11 C is changed.", "According to the embodiments of the present invention, by using an existing independent power supply wiring or a newly divided wiring, an arbitrary group of FFs can be reset with no need to distribute a reset signal." ]

[ "STATUS OF RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a non-provisional application claiming priority of provisional U.S. Ser.", "No. 61/013,675, filed on Dec. 14, 2007, the contents hereby incorporated by reference as if set forth in its entirety.", "FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] This invention relates to a composition and method of increasing the substantivity of a fragrance deposited on to a human substrate and to a fluid composition for use therein.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] There is an ongoing need in the fragrance industry to increase the substantivity of fragrance composition to increase the longevity of the fragrances for consumers.", "[0004] It is known in the art is that a fragrance is built according to the following pattern, a top note, also known as a head note, a middle note also called heart note and a base note, also called dry-down note or sould note as described for instance in “Perfume Legends”, 1996, by Michael Edwards or explained in “All in a Day's Work, Career using Science”, 2007, pp 73-74, by Megan Sullivan and edited by the National Science Teachers'", "Association.", "[0005] The biggest challenge of perfumery is the lack of the prediction.", "The explanations are always found after the facts.", "Traditionally, scents are classified as notes based on their olfactory character.", "Top notes are detected and fade first, providing freshness, such as light scents that are usually citrus or wet greens lasting five to thirty minutes.", "Middle notes last sometimes a few hours and are the most prominent within the fragrances, usually combinations of floral, spicy, or fruit scents.", "Base notes give a perfume depth, last the longest, and are generally musky or woodsy notes.", "The classification of top, middle, and base notes designed to give a particular harmony is presently being challenged with a more exact approach.", "[0006] It has been previously disclosed in the art to increase substantivity by including silicones into the base of a perfume product.", "United States No. 5,623,017 to Hill, assigned to Dow Corning Corporation, discloses a clear silicone gel which is used to improve the characteristics of various cosmetic products.", "One such cosmetic product is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,919,437 to Lee, et al.", ", assigned to Colgate-Palmolive Company, which utilizes a combination of the silicone gel material with an active ingredient such as deodorant, antiperspirant, sunscreen, insect repellant or anti-fungal agent.", "Also see U.S. Pat. No. 4,673,570 to Soldati, assigned to Carter-Wallace, Inc., for an antiperspirant gel composition.", "[0007] U.S. Pat. No. 5,654,362 to Schulz, Jr., et al.", ", assigned to Dow-Corning Corporation, discloses a silicone oil and solvent composition for use in cosmetics.", "[0008] United States Nos. 5,623,017 and 5,654,362 are incorporated here by reference for their teaching of cyclomethicone/dimethicone crosspolymer gels.", "[0009] Nowhere in the prior art has it been disclosed that one may combine a particular fragrance with a range of other fragrances to increase substantivity without the two fragrances interfering and clashing with each other.", "Accordingly, it has been surprisingly discovered that a fragrance can be created to be combined with a large array of existing fragrances for an enhanced effect and increased substantivity.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0010] According to one embodiment of the invention, a fragrance primer is disclosed comprising fragrance material and a suitable carrier wherein the fragrance material comprises up to 50% of a fruity material, up to 90% of a floral material, up to 50% of a marine/aldehydic/ozonic material, up to 50% of an animalic leathery material, up to 90% of a musky material, up to 90% of a woody material, up to 90% of a sweet ambery material, up to 90% of a citrus material, up to 50% of a green material, up to 50% of a spicy material and up to 50% of a herbaceous material.", "[0011] In yet another embodiment of the invention, a method of increasing the substantivity of a fragrance is disclosed comprising the steps of applying a fragrance primer to the skin with an applicator comprising a fragrance formulation in a suitable carrier and then applying a fragrance formulation over the fragrance primer.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0012] FIG. I illustrates the substantivity of the fragrance primer by itself.", "[0013] FIG. I illustrates the increased substantivity of a commercially available soft, floral, rich, and bouquet fragrance when used in combination with the fragrance primer.", "[0014] FIG. III illustrates the increased substantivity of a commercially available soft floral classical bouquet fragrance when used in combination with the fragrance primer.", "[0015] FIG. IV illustrates the increased substantivity of a commercially available woody, oriental, fresh, citrus and fruity fragrance when used in combination with the fragrance primer.", "[0016] FIG. V illustrates the increased substantivity of a commercially available woody and crispy fragrance when used in combination with the fragrance primer.", "[0017] FIG. VI illustrates the increased substantivity of a commercially available oriental and classical fragrance when used in combination with the fragrance primer.", "[0018] FIG. VII illustrates the increased substantivity of a commercially available aromatic, fougere, fresh, and fruity fragrance when used in combination with the fragrance primer.", "[0019] FIG. VIII illustrates the increased substantivity of a commercially available soft, oriental, and rich fragrance when used in combination with the fragrance primer.", "[0020] FIG. IX illustrates the increased substantivity of a commercially available soft, oriental, and classical fragrance when used in combination with the fragrance primer.", "[0021] FIG. X illustrates the increased substantivity of commercially available aromatic, fougere, and fresh fragrance when used in combination with the fragrance primer.", "[0022] FIG. XI illustrates the increased substantivity of a commercially available water and crisp fragrance when used in combination with the fragrance primer.", "[0023] FIG. XII illustrates the increased substantivity of a commercially available citrus and classical fragrance when used in combination with the fragrance primer.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0024] According to the present invention, a fragrance is integrated into a suitable carrier such as silicone base or in a hydroalcoholic solution to provide a fragrance primer.", "The fragrance primer may contain any number of fragrance materials from all twelve fragrance families, which include fruity, floral, marine/ozonic, aldehydic, animalic leathery, musky, woody, sweet ambery, citrus, green, spicy and herbaceous.", "[0025] The fragrance is not “built”, as known by one skilled in the art and described above, with a top middle and base structure, but the fragrance composition of the present invention is designed so the fragrance is rounded and not one ingredient is pronounced, which would give a specific odor or the family character.", "[0026] When used in combination with certain commercially available fragrances, the fragrance primer of the present invention makes them longer lasting, more susbstantive and more diffusive.", "For other commercially available fragrances it pushes and reveals a facet forgotten by the habituated user of the fine fragrance.", "For other commercially available fragrances, the fragrance primer provides a new facet to that fragrance, such as more body for a fresh fragrance, more top note for a heavy fragrance, more modernity to an old-fashioned fragrance.", "This is supported by the analytical data presented in FIGS. I to XII, which illustrate that the fragrance primer of the present invention is long lasting and that it adds something to other fragrances.", "[0027] Any number of the fragrances ingredients from the twelve fragrance families can be employed in the present invention, the only limitation being the compatibility with the carrier material.", "[0028] Suitable fragrances include but are not limited to fruits such as almond, apple, cherry, grape, pear, pineapple, orange, strawberry, raspberry;", "musk, flower scents such as lavender-like, rose-like, iris-like, and carnation-like.", "Other pleasant scents include herbal scents such as rosemary, thyme, and sage;", "and woodland scents derived from pine, spruce and other forest smells.", "Fragrances may also be derived from various oils, such as essential oils or absolutes, or from plant materials such as peppermint and the like, from resins such as incense or galbanum resinoids or as described in “The perfume plants and essential oils in Grasse”, 1997, by Guy Gilly or from various molecules as described in “The Chemistry of Fragances”", "1999 by David H. Pybus and Charles S. Sell, or in “Perfume and Flavor Chemicals”", "vol I and II, 1969, by Steffen Arctander.", "[0029] A list of suitable fragrances is also provided in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,534,891, 5,112,688 and 5,145,842, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.", "Another source of suitable fragrances is found in Perfumes Cosmetics and Soaps , Second Edition, edited by W. A. Poucher, 1959.", "Among the fragrances provided in this treatise are acacia, cassie, chypre, cylamen, fern, gardenia, hawthorn, heliotrope, honeysuckle, hyacinth, jasmine, lilac, lily, magnolia, mimosa, narcissus, freshly-cut hay, orange blossom, orchids, reseda, sweet pea, trefle, tuberose, vanilla, violet, wallflower, and the like.", "[0030] As used herein olfactory effective amount is understood to mean the amount of compound in perfume compositions the individual component will contribute to its particular olfactory characteristics, but the olfactory effect of the fragrance composition will be the sum of the effects of each of the fragrance ingredients.", "Thus the compounds of the invention can be used to alter the aroma characteristics of the perfume composition by modifying the olfactory reaction contributed by another ingredient in the composition.", "The amount will vary depending on many factors including other ingredients, their relative amounts and the effect that is desired.", "[0031] According to one embodiment of the invention the fragrance primer may contain a fragrance material selected from one or all twelve of the fragrance families.", "[0032] In a one embodiment the fragrance primer may contain the following amounts of fragrance ingredients, up to 50% of a fruity material, up to 90% of a floral material, up to 50% of a marine/aldehydic/ozonic material, up to 50% of an animalic leathery material, up to 90% of a musky material, up to 90% of a woody material, up to 90% of a sweet ambery material, up to 90% of a citrus material, up to 50% of a green material, up to 50% of a spicy material and up to 50% of a herbaceous material.", "[0033] In a preferred embodiment the fragrance primer may contain the following amounts of fragrance ingredients, up to 5% of a fruity material, up to 25% of a floral material, up to 5% of a marine/aldehydic/ozonic material, up to 2% of an animalic leathery material, up to 60% of a musky material, up to 10% of a woody material, up to 5% of a sweet ambery material, up to 15% of a citrus material, up to 5% of a green material, up to 5% of a spicy material and up to 5% of a herbaceous material.", "[0034] According to one embodiment of the invention the fragrance primer comprises from about 0.01% to about 15% and more preferably about 3% to about 9% of fragrance, with the remainder being a suitable carrier.", "[0035] In additional embodiments, the fragrance primer can also be sprayed dried in combination with a starch material.", "Spray-drying is the most common encapsulation technique used to stabilize volatile substances such as flavors or fragrances, by encapsulating them in a solid form that is suited to many applications.", "Spray-dried powders are commonly made in the usual spray-drying equipment.", "Spray-drying is usually effected by means of a rotating disc or of multi-component nozzles.", "The fragrance primer may be dispersed in a polymeric carrier material.", "Non limiting examples of the latter include polyvinyl acetate, polyvinyl alcohol, dextrins, natural or modified starch, vegetable gums, pectins, xanthanes, alginates, carragenans or yet cellulose derivatives such as for example carboxymethyl cellulose, methylcellulose or hydroxyethylcellulose, and generally all materials currently used for encapsulation of volatile substances.", "The fragrance primer is then spray-dried in order to form a powder.", "This technique does not require a more detailed description herein, as it relies on conventional spray-drying techniques, which are perfectly well documented in the prior art, such as is described, e.g., in the Spray-Drying Handbook, 3rd ed.", ", K. Masters;", "John Wiley (1979), and as is currently applied in the food industry or in the flavor and perfume industries.", "[0036] In this embodiment the fragrance primer may contain from about 0.01% to about 15%, more preferably about 3% to about 8% neat fragrance and from about 0.01% to 8%, more preferably about 3% to about 6% spray dried fragrance, with the remainder being the silicone oil base.", "[0037] According to one embodiment of the invention, any suitable carrier or vehicle may be employed.", "[0038] The appropriate carrier materials include but are not limited to an aqueous or hydroalcoholic bases which includes alcohols such as ethanol, methanol, and the like;", "dipropylene glycol, dipropylene glycol ethers, diethyl phthalate and isopropyl myristate.", "The level of water in these systems is intentionally kept to a minimum, preferably below 5 weight percent of the fragrance composition, more preferably below 1 weight percent and most preferably less than 0.1 weight percent.", "Persons with skill in the art will be able to formulate fragrance compositions within the scope of the present invention that contain no intentionally added water.", "[0039] In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the hydroalcoholic solution for use in this invention can be a mixture 0-90 parts alcohol, or 0-90 parts water.", "[0040] According to another embodiment of the invention, the carrier may be a “silicone oil”", "which is defined as any liquid silicone known to be useful in personal care products.", "The silicone oil may be selected from but not limited to, cyclopentasiloxane, dimethicone, cyclomethicone, dimethiconol, ethyl perfluorobutyl ether, polydimethylsiloxane and mixtures thereof.", "This material is commonly used in the making of shampoos, because it is known to be especially good at depositing on hair.", "However, any other suitable silicone oil may also be used, and the skilled person can readily provide such an oil.", "[0041] In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the silicone oils for use in this invention are linear polydimethylsiloxanes having a molecular weight of from about 5970 to about 116500 g/mol.", "It is also contemplated by this invention that mixtures of such polydimethylsiloxanes may also be used.", "[0042] The linear polydimethylsiloxane is additionally characterized by a viscosity from about 100 cst to about 60000 cst, preferably from about 2000 cst to about 15000 cst.", "All viscosities mentioned herein are measured at 25° C. by means of a Brookfield RVT Viscometer.", "Spindles and speeds appropriate to the particular viscosity were used, as is the well-known practice in the art;", "for example, Spindle No. 5 and speed 20 were used for measurements in the preferred range between from about 6000 to about to about 12000 centipoise.", "[0043] Another preferred silicone oil is a solution of polydimethylsiloxane gum in polydimethylsiloxane fluid, in an especially preferred version of this oil, the viscosity of the gum is greater than about 1,000,000 centistokes, the viscosity of the fluid is from about 10 to about 100,000 centistokes and the ratio of gum to fluid is from about 30:70 to about 70:30, preferably from about 40:60 to about 60:40.", "[0044] A simple method to determine the solubility of fragrance raw materials in silicone is to determine it experimentally.", "However, in view of the vast number of perfumery materials available and since they can be mixed in various proportions to form a complete fragrance, it is desirable to have a theoretical method of determining the solubility of perfumery raw materials into silicone.", "[0045] One such method is the Hansen solubility parameter (HSP) method, which is useful in predicting the solubility of perfumery materials.", "HSP may be evaluated as disclosed, for 5 example, in “Hansen Solubility Parameters: A User's Handbook”", "(Charles M. Hansen, CRC Press, 2000) or/and by using a software available on the market, such as Molecular Modeling Pro from www.", "Chemistry-Software.com or Hansen Solubility from Dynacomp Software.", "EXAMPLE Ia Composition of the Fragrance Primer Oil [0046] A sample fragrance formulation was prepared to used in the fragrance primer system.", "The amounts are listed as percentages in weight.", "[0000] Fragrance Family Weight Percent Fruity 1.52% Floral 20.67% Marine/Aldehydic/Ozonic 4.17% Animalic Leathery 0.14% Musky 51.04% Woody 5.06% Sweet Ambery 4.54% Citrus 10.25% Green 1.71% Spicy 0.07% Herbaceous 0.15% Preservatives (BHT, Tinogard) 0.68% Total 100% EXAMPLE Ib Composition of the Fragrance Primer Oil [0047] A sample fragrance formulation was prepared to used in the fragrance primer system.", "The amounts are listed as percentages in weight.", "[0000] Fragrance Family Weight Percent Fruity 0.13% Floral 24.37% Marine/Aldehydic/Ozonic 1.51% Animalic Leathery 0.21% Musky 61.86% Woody 1.90% Sweet Ambery 0.77% Citrus 8.73% Green 0.26% Spicy 0.19% Herbaceous 0.07% Total 100% EXAMPLE II Analytical Study of the Increased Substantivity of Fragrance when Used in Combination with Fragrance Primer Applied Dosage: [0048] Fragrance Primer 50 μl at 10% in the silicone base Fragrances: depends on the concentration in alcohol of the fragrance oil, for instance the commercially available soft, floral, rich and bouqouet fragrance was applied at a level of 100 μl.", "Results illustrated in FIGS. I to XII are expressed in nanograms of materials emitted from the skin per second, between 0 and 30 minutes, 30 and 60 minutes and 1 hour and hour." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] 1.", "Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to an image generation apparatus, an image file generation method, an image verification apparatus, an image verification method and the like, capable of verifying whether addition information of an image data was falsified.", "[0003] 2.", "Related Background Art [0004] Digital cameras are in practical use nowadays to digitalize an optical image of a subject and storing it.", "[0005] Although image data photographed with a digital camera can be easily loaded in a personal computer, there is a problem that the image data can also be falsified easily on the personal computer.", "Reliability of image data photographed with a digital camera is therefore lower than that of a silver salt photograph, resulting in an insufficient admissibility.", "To avoid this, a digital camera system has recently been proposed which has the function of adding a digital signature to image data photographed with a digital camera.", "Conventional digital camera systems are disclosed, e.g., in U.S. Pat. No. 5,499,294 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-200730.", "[0006] A conventional digital camera system is, however, associated with a problem that a digital signature or Message Authentication Codes (MAC) of image data cannot be created independently from a digital signature or MAC of addition information of image data.", "It is therefore impossible to independently verify whether image data was falsified and whether addition information was falsified.", "A user cannot distinguish among whether image data was falsified, whether addition information of image data was falsified, and whether the image data and addition information were falsified.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0007] An object of the invention is to solve the above-described problems.", "[0008] Another object of the present invention solving the above-described problems is to provide an image generation apparatus, an image file generation method, a verification apparatus, an image verification method, a program and a storage medium, capable of independently verifying verification data (digital signature, MAC or the like) of image data and addition information of the image data to identify which data or information was falsified.", "[0009] An image generation apparatus according to a preferred embodiment of the invention comprises: image generating means for generating image data;", "verification data generating means for generating first verification data necessary for verifying whether the image data was falsified and second verification data necessary for verifying whether addition information of the image data was falsified;", "and image file generating means for generating an image file which contains the image data, the addition information, the first verification data and the second verification data.", "[0010] An image file generating method according to a preferred embodiment of the invention, comprises steps of: generating image data;", "generating first verification data necessary for verifying whether the image data was falsified and second verification data necessary for verifying whether addition information of the image data was falsified;", "and generating an image file which contains the image data, the addition information, the first verification data and the second verification data.", "[0011] An image verification apparatus according to a preferred embodiment of the invention, comprises: verifying means including a function of verifying whether image data was falsified, by using first verification data necessary for verifying whether the image data was modified and a function of verifying whether addition information of the image data was falsified, by using second verification data necessary for verifying whether the addition information of the image data was modified.", "[0012] An image verification method according to a preferred embodiment of the invention, comprises: a first verifying step of verifying whether image data was falsified, by using first verification data necessary for verifying whether the image data was modified;", "and a second step of verifying whether addition information of the image data was falsified, by using second verification data necessary for verifying whether the addition information of the image data was modified.", "[0013] Still other objects of the present invention, and the advantages thereof, will become fully apparent from the following detailed description of the embodiments.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0014] [0014 ]FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of the structure of an image verification system according to an embodiment.", "[0015] [0015 ]FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating the main functional structure of an image generation apparatus 10 of the embodiment.", "[0016] [0016 ]FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating the main functional structure of a verification apparatus 20 of the embodiment.", "[0017] [0017 ]FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating the procedure to be performed by the image verification system of the embodiment.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS [0018] Preferred embodiments of the invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawing.", "[0019] [0019 ]FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of the structure of an image verification system according to a first embodiment.", "In the first embodiment, a digital signature of image data is used as verification data necessary for verifying whether image data was falsified.", "[0020] An image generation apparatus 10 has a function of generating image data of a subject and a function of executing a signature mode A, B or C. [0021] In the signature mode A, an image file having a digital signature of a first type is generated (hereinafter called an image file A).", "An image file A contains data such as image data, addition information of the image data, a digital signature for the image data and a peculiar ID of the image generation apparatus 10 .", "[0022] In the signature mode B, an image file having a digital signature of a second type is generated (hereinafter called an image file B).", "An image file B contains data such as image data, addition information of the image data, a digital signature for the addition information and the peculiar ID of the image generation apparatus 10 .", "[0023] In the signature mode C, an image file having a digital signature of a third type is generated (hereinafter called an image file C).", "An image file C contains data such as image data, addition information of the image data, a digital signature for the image data, a digital signature of the addition information and the peculiar ID of the image generation apparatus 10 .", "[0024] The image generation apparatus 10 may be an image pickup apparatus such as a digital camera, a digital video camera and a scanner, or an apparatus with a camera unit.", "Alternatively, it may be an apparatus such as a facsimile apparatus and a copy apparatus with an image reading unit.", "[0025] A verification apparatus 20 has a function of executing a verification mode A, B or C. [0026] In the verification mode A, it is verified whether image data was falsified.", "In the verification mode A, the verification apparatus 20 can verify image data of the image file A or C. [0027] In the verification mode B, it is verified whether addition information of the image data was falsified.", "In the verification mode B, the verification apparatus 20 can verify addition information of the image file B or C. [0028] In the verification mode C, it is verified whether image data was falsified and whether addition information of the image data was falsified.", "In the verification mode C, the verification apparatus 20 can verify image data and addition information of the image file C. [0029] The verification apparatus 20 may be an information processing apparatus such as a personal computer.", "[0030] [0030 ]FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating the main functional structure of the image generation apparatus 10 of the embodiment.", "[0031] In FIG. 2, reference numeral 201 represents an image generation unit for generating image data I of a subject, the image generation unit having a micro processor and the like for controlling an optical system and an optical sensor such as charge coupled devices (CCDs).", "[0032] Reference numeral 202 represents an addition information generation unit for generating addition information to be added to the image data I. This addition information contains information on the image data I and/or information on the image generation apparatus 10 .", "Specifically, the addition information includes a date (year, month, day and time) when the image data I is generated, a data size of image data, a contrast, a distance to the subject, a shutter speed, an aperture value, a manufacture number, information on a lens unit, presence/absence of an electronic flush, a photometry method, an exposure control method, an owner, a version of firmware, and the like.", "[0033] Reference numeral 203 represents a memory for storing secret information Ks.", "This secret information Ks corresponds to information on a secret key of a public key cryptographic scheme (such as RSA cryptographic scheme).", "[0034] Reference numeral 204 represents a calculation unit which executes first and second calculation processes.", "The first calculation process generates a Hash value (also called a message digest or digest data) H 11 of image data I by using a Hash function HF.", "The second calculation process converts the Hash value H 11 generated by the first calculation process into a digital signature A, by using secret information Ks read from the memory 203 .", "The first and second calculation processes are executed while the image generation apparatus 10 is in the signature mode A or C. [0035] The calculation unit 204 also executes third and fourth calculation processes.", "The third calculation process generates a Hash value H 21 of addition information of the image data I by using the Hash function HF.", "The fourth calculation process converts the Hash value H 21 generated by the third calculation process into a digital signature B, by using the secret information Ks read from the memory 203 .", "The third and fourth calculation processes are executed while the image generation apparatus 10 is in the signature mode B or C. [0036] The Hash function HF may be any one of MD-2, MD-5, SHA-1, RIPEMD-128 and RIPEMD-160 or another Hash function.", "[0037] Reference numeral 205 represents a memory for storing the peculiar ID (such as a manufacture number and a serial number of the image generation apparatus 10 ) which is information specific to the image generation apparatus.", "[0038] Reference numeral 206 represents an image file generation unit for generating the image file A, B or C. The file format of each image file may be any one of a JPEG File Interchange Format (JFIF), a Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) and a Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) or another image file format.", "[0039] Reference numeral 207 represents a removable storage medium for storing the image files A, B and C. The removable storage medium 207 may be a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a memory card or the like.", "[0040] Reference numeral 208 represents a media control unit having a function of writing the image file A, B or C into the removable medium 207 and a function of reading the image file A, B or C from the removable medium 207 .", "[0041] Reference numeral 209 represents an interface unit having a function of transmitting the image file A, B or C stored in the removable medium 207 to the verification apparatus 20 .", "[0042] Reference numeral 210 represents an operation unit having switches for instructing to generate image data of a subject, photograph the subject, and read the image data, selection switches for selecting one of the signature modes A, B and C and the like.", "The selection switches may be realized by a graphical user interface such as a menu screen [0043] Reference numeral 211 represents a control unit for controlling the operation of each portion of the image generation apparatus 10 .", "The control unit 211 has a memory and a micro computer for executing a control program stored in the memory.", "The memory of the control unit 211 stores the control program to control the procedure to be executed by the image generation apparatus 10 to be described with reference to FIG. 4. [0044] [0044 ]FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating the main functional structure of a verification apparatus 20 of the embodiment.", "[0045] Reference numeral 301 represents a media control unit having a function of reading the image file A, B or C from the removable medium 207 .", "[0046] Reference numeral 309 represents an interface unit having a function of receiving the image file A, B or C transmitted from the image generation apparatus 10 .", "[0047] Reference numeral 302 represents a storage unit for storing the image file A, B or C supplied from the media control unit 301 or interface unit 309 .", "[0048] Reference numeral 304 represents a memory for storing a plurality of peculiar IDs and public information Kp corresponding to each peculiar ID.", "The public information Kp corresponds to the secret information Ks and to the public ky of the public key cryptographic scheme (such as RSA cryptographic scheme).", "[0049] Reference numeral 305 represents a calculation unit which executes first and second calculation processes.", "The first calculation process converts the digital signature A into a Hash value H 12 by using the public information Kp.", "The second calculation process generates a Hash value H 13 of the image data I by using the Hash function HF.", "The first and second calculation processes are executed while the verification apparatus 20 is in the signature mode A or C. [0050] The calculation unit 305 also executes third and fourth calculation processes.", "The third calculation process converts the digital signature B into a Hash value H 22 by using the public information Kp.", "The fourth calculation process generates a Hash value H 23 of addition information of the image data I by using the Hash function HF.", "The third and fourth calculation processes are executed while the verification apparatus 20 is in the signature mode B or C. [0051] Reference numeral 306 represents a verification unit having a function of verifying image data I and/or addition information of the image data I. In the verification mode A of the verification apparatus 20 , the verification unit 306 verifies the image data I contained in the image file A or C. In the verification mode B of the verification apparatus 20 , the verification unit 306 verifies addition information of the image data I contained in the image file B or C. In the verification mode C of the verification apparatus 20 , the verification unit 306 verifies independently the image data contained in the image file I and the addition information of the image data I. [0052] Reference numeral 307 represents a display unit for displaying information representative of verification results given by the verification unit 306 .", "[0053] Reference numeral 308 represents a control unit for controlling the operation of each portion of the verification apparatus 20 .", "The control unit 308 has a memory and a micro computer for executing a control program stored in the memory.", "The memory of the control unit 308 stores the control program to control the procedure to be executed by the verification apparatus 20 to be described with reference to FIG. 4. [0054] [0054 ]FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating the procedure to be performed by the image verification system of the embodiment.", "[0055] Step S 401 : In response to a user operation, the image generation unit 201 generates image data I of a subject.", "If the image generation apparatus 10 is in the signature mode A or C, the image data I is supplied to the calculation unit 204 and image file generation unit 206 .", "If the image generation apparatus 10 is in the signature mode B, the image data I is supplied to the image file generation unit 206 .", "[0056] Step S 402 : The calculation unit 204 generates the Hash value H 11 of the image data I by using the Hash function HF.", "This Step is not executed if the image generation apparatus 10 is in the signature mode B. [0057] Step S 403 : The calculation unit 204 converts the Hash value H 11 into the digital signature A by using the secret information Ks stored in the memory 203 .", "The calculation unit 204 supplies the digital signature A to the image file generation unit 206 .", "This Step is not executed if the image generation apparatus 10 is in the signature mode B. [0058] Step S 404 : The addition information generation unit 202 generates addition information of the image data I. If the image generation apparatus 10 is in the signature mode A, the addition information of the image data I is supplied to the image file generation unit 206 .", "If the image generation apparatus 10 is in the signature mode B or C, the addition information of the image data I is supplied to the calculation unit 204 and image file generation unit 206 .", "[0059] Step S 405 : The calculation unit 204 generates the Hash value H 21 of the image data I by using the Hash function HF.", "This Step is not executed if the image generation apparatus 10 is in the signature mode A. [0060] Step S 406 : The calculation unit 204 converts the Hash value H 21 into the digital signature B by using the secret information Ks stored in the memory 203 .", "This Step is not executed if the image generation apparatus 10 is in the signature mode A. [0061] Step S 407 : The image file generation unit 206 generates the image file A, B or C. If the image generation apparatus 10 is in the signature mode A, the image file generation unit 206 generates the image file A. This image file A contains data such as the image data I, digital signature A, addition information of the image data I and peculiar ID of the image generation apparatus 10 .", "If the image generation apparatus 10 is in the signature mode B, the image file generation unit 206 generates the image file B. This image file B contains data such as the image data I, digital signature B, addition information of the image data I and peculiar ID of the image generation apparatus 10 .", "If the image generation apparatus 10 is in the signature mode C, the image file generation unit 206 generates the image file C. This image file C contains data such as the image data I, digital signature A, addition information of the image data I, digital signature B and peculiar ID of the image generation apparatus 10 .", "The image file A, B or C generated by the image file generation unit 206 is written in the removable medium 207 .", "[0062] Step S 408 : The user inputs the image file A, B or C stored in the removable medium 207 to the verification apparatus 20 via the removable medium 207 or interface unit 209 .", "If the image file is to be input via the removal medium 207 , the media control unit 301 reads the image file A, B or C from the removable medium 207 and stores it in the storage unit 302 .", "If the image file is to be input via the interface unit 209 , the interface unit 209 receives the image file A, B or C transmitted from the image generation apparatus 10 and stores it in the storage unit 302 .", "[0063] Step S 409 : If the verification apparatus 20 is in the verification mode A or C, the verification apparatus 20 executes the processes from Step S 409 to Step S 411 .", "First, the calculation unit 305 derives the image data I, peculiar ID and digital signature A from the image file A or C, and acquires the public information Kp corresponding to the peculiar ID from the memory 304 .", "Next, the calculation unit 305 converts the digital signature A into the Hash value H 12 by using the public information Kp acquired from the memory 304 .", "[0064] Step S 410 : The calculation unit 305 generates the Hash value H 13 of the image data I by using the Hash function HF.", "[0065] Step S 411 : The verification unit 306 compares the Hash value H 12 obtained at Step S 409 with the Hash value H 13 obtained at Step S 410 to thereby verify whether the image data I was falsified.", "[0066] If the two Hash values are equal (i.e., perfectness of the image data I can be verified correctly), the verification unit 306 detects that the image data I was not falsified.", "At the same time, the verification unit 306 detects that the image data I was generated at the image generation apparatus 10 .", "The verification apparatus 20 displays on the display unit 307 the information representative of that the image data I was not falsified.", "[0067] If the two Hash values are not equal (i.e., perfectness of the image data I cannot be verified correctly), the verification unit 306 detects that the image data I was falsified.", "The verification apparatus 20 displays on the display unit 307 the information representative of that the image data I was falsified.", "[0068] Step S 412 : If the verification apparatus 20 is in the verification mode B or C, the verification apparatus 20 executes the processes from Step S 412 to Step S 414 .", "First, the calculation unit 305 derives the addition information of the image data I, peculiar ID and digital signature B from the image file A or C, and acquires the public information Kp corresponding to the peculiar ID from the memory 304 .", "Next, the calculation unit 305 converts the digital signature B into the Hash value H 22 by using the public information Kp acquired from the memory 304 .", "[0069] Step S 413 : The calculation unit 305 generates the Hash value H 23 of the image data I by using the Hash function HF.", "[0070] Step S 414 : The verification unit 306 compares the Hash value H 22 obtained at Step S 412 with the Hash value H 23 obtained at Step S 413 to thereby verify whether the addition information of the image data I was falsified.", "[0071] If the two Hash values are equal (i.e., perfectness of the addition information of the image data I can be verified correctly), the verification unit 306 detects that the addition information of the image data I was not falsified.", "At the same time, the verification unit 306 detects that the addition information of the image data I was generated at the image generation apparatus 10 .", "The verification apparatus 20 displays on the display unit 307 the information representative of that the addition information of the image data I was not falsified.", "[0072] If the two Hash values are not equal (i.e., perfectness of the addition information of the image data I cannot be verified correctly), the verification unit 306 detects that the addition information of the image data I was falsified.", "The verification apparatus 20 displays on the display unit 307 the information representative of that the addition information of the image data I was falsified.", "[0073] As described above, according to the image verification system of this embodiment, it is possible to create the image file which contains the digital signature of image data and/or the digital signature of addition information.", "It is therefore possible to independently verify whether the image data was falsified and whether the addition information was falsified.", "[0074] Furthermore, according to the image verification system of this embodiment, it is possible to create the image file which contains the digital signature of image data and/or the digital signature of addition information.", "It is therefore possible to distinguish between whether the image data was falsified, whether the addition information was falsified and whether the image data and addition information were falsified.", "[0075] In this embodiment, the image verification system has been described which uses the digital signature of image data and/or the digital signature of addition information as the verification data of the image data and/or addition information.", "The invention is applicable to other different systems.", "For example, the invention is applicable to the system which uses MAC (Message Authentication Codes) of image data and/or MAC of addition information as the verification data of the image data and/or addition information.", "In this case, the secret information Ks corresponds to a common key of the common key cryptographic scheme which is necessary for generation and verification of MAC.", "Since calculations necessary for generation and verification of verification data become simple, the process speed of the system can be speeded up and the system cost can be lowered.", "[0076] The embodiment may be realized by making a computer to execute program codes providing the embodiment functions.", "Embodiments of the invention may include means for supplying such program codes to a computer, e.g., a storage medium such as a CD-ROM storing such program codes, a transmission medium such as the Internet transmitting such program codes, and the like.", "The program codes, recording media and transmission media are intended to fall within the scope of the invention.", "Storage media may be a flexible disk, a hard disk, an optical disk, a magneto optical disk, a CD-ROM, a magnetic tape, a non-volatile memory card, a ROM and the like.", "[0077] The above-described embodiments are merely exemplary of this invention, and are not be construed to limit the scope of the present invention.", "[0078] The scope of the present invention is defined by the scope of the appended claims, and is not limited to only the specific descriptions in this specification.", "Furthermore, all the modifications and changes belonging to equivalents of the claims are considered to fall within the scope of the present invention." ]

[ "This is a continuation of application Ser.", "No. 878,896, filed Feb. 17, 1978 and now abandoned.", "BACKGROUND AND OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to sealing elements for effecting a seal employable, for instance, when a rotatable shaft is to be sealed towards a stationary housing.", "In this connection, a tight seal is produced between a stationary sealing element connected to the static part and a second sealing element connected to the rotatable part.", "In order to provide good durability for these sealing elements the sealing ring, i.e., a part of one sealing element that is in contact with a corresponding sealing ring part of the other sealing element, usually is made of cemented carbide or another hard material.", "It has, however, turned out to be difficult to manufacture sealing rings of solid cemented carbide having diameters greater than 300 mm.", "This has led to the fact that such sealing rings are manufactured of a more malleable but also considerably less wear-resistant material than cemented carbide.", "The consequence of this has been that the sealing elements in the machines involve more frequent replacement with long shut-down periods as a result, which means high operating costs of these machines.", "The object of the present invention is to solve this problem and permit use of cemented carbide or another hard material even in sealing rings having diameters greater than 300 mm.", "THE DRAWING Two embodiments of the invention shall be described more closely below with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which FIG. 1 shows a sealing element according to one embodiment;", "FIG. 2 shows a sealing segment;", "FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along line III--III in FIG. 1;", "FIG. 4 shows a sealing element according to another embodiment;", "FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view taken along line V--V in FIG. 4;", "and FIG. 6 depicts an embodiment wherein a cemented carbide rod is curved.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 2 there is shown a sealing element 1 comprising an annular holder 2 of steel or another suitable material into which are fastened curved plates 7 of steel or another suitable material by means of screws or the like.", "The fastening of the plates 7 into the holder 2 can, instead of a screw joint, be made by means of welding or a shrinkage fit.", "In the last case the plate 7 is shrunk and/or the holder 2 is expanded.", "Actually, any suitable fastening can be used.", "The two ends 7A, B of the plates 7 are formed, such as by grinding for example, in such a way that they are oriented radially relative to the holder 2, i.e., are directed towards the center of the holder.", "Due to that fact, the plates 7 can be pressed closely to each other when fastened which is of greatest importance for the sealing function.", "The outer and inner sides 7C, D of the plate are curved in such a manner that the curve centers are coincident with the center of the holder.", "Onto the plates 7 are soldered rods 8 of cemented carbide or another suitable material.", "The rods 8 are thus oriented in annular fashion to form a sealing ring 3 which contacts a sealing ring of the cooperating sealing element (not shown).", "The rods 8 include short ends 8A, B ground in such a way that they are directly adapted to the ends of the plate 7, i.e., are radially disposed.", "The rods 8 are preferably made straight for technical and economic reasons, since it is both complicated and expensive, although possible, to make curved rods of cemented carbide.", "A curved rod 38 is depicted in FIG. 6 wherein the rod includes curved outer and inner sides 38A, B. The straight rods are then bevelled when in place in the holder so that after the bevelling they form a continuously curved annular contact surface 3A which is axially facing and is planar, i.e., disposed in a plane perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the holder.", "In order to obtain a curved contact surface the upper edge 13 of the cemented carbide rod 8 is, for the most part, bevelled at its ends at 15, 16 (FIG.", "1), while its lower edge 14 is for the most part bevelled at a zone 17 in the middle of the rod (FIG.", "3).", "When producing the sealing element the sealing segments are placed between two radially spaced annular flanges 5, 6 in the holder 2, whereby good contact is obtained between the sides 7C, D and the flanges 5, 6.", "After that the segments are screwed up closely to each other with screws 4, the screws 4 being received in the holder 2.", "In this connection it has turned out to be very important that the screws are evenly fastened, and that the material of which the screws 4, plate 7 and the holder 2 are formed has about the same coefficient of thermal expansion which coefficient must not differ much from that of cemented carbide in order that the contact surface of the sealing ring 3 shall remain completely planar during work.", "Otherwise, the risk of leakage between the sealing rings of the sealing elements is very great.", "In FIG. 4, there is shown another embodiment of the invention.", "In this case the sealing ring comprises a great number of straight cemented carbide rods 20 which are fastened directly into an annular slot in the holder 21 by means of soldering.", "It is to be noted that instead of being fastened into a slot, the rods can be directly fastened on the holder.", "In order to obtain a curved contact surface the rod is bevelled in the same way as in the former case.", "Instead of being straight, the rods 20 can be curved.", "It is, however, as stated before, more complicated and expensive to make rods curved rather than straight.", "The short ends 22 of the rods shall be ground so as to be radial.", "In this way, the rods form a tight ring that eliminates leakage.", "In this connection it is important to note that the holder shall be made of a material, for instance alloyed steel, having a coefficient of thermal expansion which does not differ so much from that of cemented carbide.", "The fastening of the rods 8 to the plates 7 and the rods 20 directly to the holder 21 is preferably made by soldering.", "The invention is, however, not limited to soldering.", "Thus, other fastening methods can be used, for instance shrinkage fit, gluing and welding.", "Although the invention has been described in connection with a preferred embodiment thereof, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that additions, modifications, substitutions and deletions not specifically described may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims." ]

[ "FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to the use of chloroacetyl chloride as an alternative or substitute reagent for acetoxyacetylchloride in the synthesis of Ioversol.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Ioversol is disclosed as a useful nonionic x-ray contrast agent in U.S. Pat. No. 4,396,598.", "5-acetoxyacetamido-N,N'-bis(2,3-diacetoxypropyl)-2,4,6-triiodoisophthalamide having the following structure: ##STR1## is an intermediate compound in the production of Ioversol.", "The compound of Formula I and its use in the production of ioversol is likewise disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,396,598 incorporated herein by reference.", "5-acetoxyacetamido-N,N'-bis(2,3-diacetoxypropyl)-2,4,6-triiodoisophthalamide, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,396,598, may be produced by adding acetoxyacetylchloride (AAC) to a N,N-dimethylacetamide solution of a compound of the following structure: ##STR2## and stirring until the reaction is complete.", "The reaction mixture is then diluted with 1,1,2-trichloroethane and extracted with aqueous sodium bicarbonate solutions and aqueous sodium chloride solutions.", "The dilution procedure using 1,1,2-trichloroethane may alternatively be carried out using an organic solvent such as, but not limited to, carbon tetrachloride, dichloromethane, chloroform, 1,2-di-chloroethane, 1,1,2-trichloroethylene, 1,1,2-trichloro-ethane, 1,1,1trichloroethane and tetrachloroethylene, but most preferably 1,1,2-trichloroethane.", "The procedure for producing 5-acetoxyacetamidoN,N'-bis(2,3-diacetoxypropyl)-2,4,6-triiodoisophthalamide has become well known in the art and heretofore required the use of acetoxyacetyl chloride (AAC) for the intermediate synthetic step just described.", "An improved procedure that eliminates the need for acetoxyacetyl chloride (AAC) in the intermediate synthetic step used to produce 5-acetoxyacetamido-N,N'-bis(2,3-diacetoxypropyl)-2,4,6-triiodoisophthalamide is desired as an alternate and/or a more cost efficient method of producing Ioversol.", "It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to meet these needs.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION One method of producing ioversol without the use of acetoxyacetylchloride (AAC) begins with a solvent solution of 5-amino-N,N'-bis(2,3-diacetoxypropyl)-2,4,6-triiodoisophthal-amide(1).", "Compound 1 may be prepared for use in this reaction by distilling off some of the solvent to remove and/or reduce impurities, or alternatively, the solvent solution may be used directly without distillation.", "N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMAC) and chloroacetyl-chloride (CAC), which is an impurity found in AAC, are then added to the 5-amino-N,N,-bis(2,3-diacetoxypropyl)-2,4,6-triiodoisophthalamide(1) and the solution is stirred at 37° C. until the reaction is complete.", "Hydrochloric acid is produced as a waste product of this reaction.", "The DMAC present in the solution is mildly basic and thereby reacts with the hydrochloric acid generated to form a DMAC complex.", "After dilution with an organic solvent, the reaction solution is extracted with aqueous sodium bicarbonate solutions and aqueous sodium chloride solutions.", "The resulting 5-(chloroacetamido)-N,N'-bis(2,3-diacetoxypropyl)-2,4,6-triiodoisophthalamide(2)may be used without further purification as an intermediate in the production of N,N'-bis(2,3-dihydroxypropyl)-5-[N-(2-hydroxyethyl)glycolamido]-2,4,6-triiodoisophthalamide (Ioversol)(4) according to the reactions illustrated in Scheme 1 below.", "The final product, ioversol (4), produced through the use of CAC has an equivalent purity, approximately 95%, as that produced through the use of the more costly solvent AAC.", "##STR3## Another method of producing ioversol using chloroacetylchloride (CAC) instead of acetoxyacetylchloride (AAC) uses dried 5-amino-N,N,bis(2,3-dihydroxypropyl)2,4,6-triiodoisophthalamide(5) which normally serves as a precursor to 5-amino-N,N,bis(2,3-diacetoxypropyl)-2,4,6-triiodoisophthalamide(1) in the ioversol process.", "Therefore, this particular method eliminates one step, the production of 5-amino-N,N,-bis(2,3-diacetoxypropyl)-2,4,6-triiodoisophthalamide(1), in the production of ioversol(4).", "This step-saving method begins by adding N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMAC) and chloroacetylchloride (CAC) to 5-aminoN,N'-bis(2,3-dihydroxypropyl)-2,4,6-triiodoisophthalamide (5) and stirring until the reaction is complete.", "(4-dimethyl-aminopyridine (DMAP) may also be used as a catalyst and added to compound (5) along with the DMAC and CAC although it is not necessary.) Hydrochloric acid is produced as a waste product of this reaction.", "After dilution with an organic solvent, the reaction solution is extracted with aqueous sodium bicarbonate solutions and aqueous sodium chloride solutions.", "The resulting pentachloro-derivative of 5-acetoxyacetamido-N,N,-bis(2,3-diacetoxypropyl)-2,4,6-triiodoisophthalamide(6) may be used without further purification in the production of N,N'-bis(2,3-dihydroxy-propyl)-5-[N-(2-hydroxyethyl)glycolamido]-2,4,6-triiodo-isophthalamide(Ioversol)(4)according to the reactions illustrated in Scheme 2 below.", "##STR4## Both of the above-described processes have the advantage of eliminating the need for acetoxyacetyl chloride in the intermediate synthetic steps used in the production of N,N'-bis(2,3-dihydroxypropyl)-5-[N-(2-hydroxyethyl)glycolamido]-2,4,6-triiodoisophthalamide (Ioversol).", "Elimination of acetoxyacetyl chloride and substitution with chloroacetylchloride (CAC) is important to reduce the costs of production, to decrease impurities and to provide alternative routes of production for N,N'-bis(2,3-dihydroxypropyl)-5-[N-(2-hydroxyethyl)glycolamido]-2,4,6-triiodoisophthalamide(4).", "Additionally, the need for acetic anahydride is likewise eliminated through the process illustrated in Scheme 2 which reduces the cost of production even further.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 5-chloroacetamido-N,N'-bis(2,3-diacetoxypropyl)-2,4,6-triiodoisophthalamide(2) may be prepared according to the present invention by first distilling off some of the solvents from 5-amino-N,N,-bis(2,3-diacetoxypropyl)-2,4,6-triiodoisophthalamide(1) to reduce and/or remove any solvent impurities therefrom.", "This distillation of solvent(s) from compound 1 is optional.", "N,N-Dimethylacetamide (DMAC) and chloroacetylchloride (CAC), an impurity found in AAC, are then added to the previously distilled solution and stirred until the acylation reaction is complete.", "The solution which is highy viscous is then diluted to improve fluidity, and thereby ease workability, with an organic solvent such as for example toluene, a halocarbon solvent or a chlorocarbon solvent.", "Examples of such solvents include but are not limited to carbon tetrachloride, dichloromethane, chloroform, 1,2-dichloroethane, 1,1,2-trichloroethylene, 1,1,2-dichloroethane, 1,1,1-trichloroethane and tetrachloroethylene, but preferably 1,1,2-trichloroethane.", "After dilution, the solvent is extracted with aqueous sodium bicarbonate solutions (preferably containing approximately 10-15% sodium bicarbonate) and/or aqueous sodium chloride solutions (preferably containing approximately 10-15% sodium chloride).", "This usually results in a mixture of 5-chloroacetamido-N,N'-bis(2,3-diacetoxypropyl)-2,4,6-triiodoisophthalamide(2) in 1,1,2-trichloroethane at approximately 25 to 30 percent solids.", "The resulting 5-chloroacetamido-N,N'-bis(2,3-diacetoxypropyl)-2,4,6-triiodoisophthalamide(2) may be used as an intermediate to produce N,N'-bis(2,3-dihydroxypropyl)-5-[N-(2-hydroxyethyl)glycolamido]-2,4,6-triiodoisophthalamide (Ioversol)(4) as illustrated in Scheme 1 above.", "The same is true for the production of N,N'-bis(2,3-dihydroxypropyl)-5-[N-(2-hydroxyethyl)glycolamido]-2,4,6-triiodoisophthalamide (Ioversol)(4) from 5-amino-N,N'-bis(2,3-dihydroxypropyl)-2,4,6-triiodoisophthalamide(5) stirred with chloroacetylchloride (CAC), N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMAC) and optionally 4-dimethylaminopyridine (DMAP).", "This reaction is likewise illustrated in Scheme 2 above.", "The present invention as described above is further illustrated by the following examples, but is not intended to be limited thereby.", "EXAMPLE 1 The Preparation of 5-chloroacetamido-N,N'-bis-(2,3-diacetoxypropyl)-2,4,6-triiodoisophthalamide A solution of 5-amino-N,N'-bis(2,3-diacetoxypropyl)-2,4,6-triiodoisophthalamide (69.8 g) in 1,1,2-trichloroethane was prepared (total volume 177 ml).", "N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMAC) (17.4 ml) and chloroacetyl chloride (CAC) (18.1 g) were added to the reaction flask and the reaction was stirred until the reaction was complete.", "The reaction mixture was then diluted by approximately a factor of 3 with 1,1,2-trichloroethane (82 ml) and extracted with aqueous approximately 10% sodium bicarbonate solutions (313 ml:31 g NaHCO 3 ) and aqueous approximately 10% sodium chloride solutions (145 ml:14.5 g NaCl).", "The resulting solution of 5-chloroacetamido-N,N'-bis(2,3-diacetoxypropyl)-2,4,6-triiodoisophthalamide(2) is used as an intermediate in the production of ioversol without further purification.", "EXAMPLE 2 The Preparation of 5-chloroacetamido-N,N-bis[2,3di(chloroacetoxypropyl)]-2,4,6-triiodoisophthalamide N,N-dimethylacetamide (75.2 ml), 4-dimethylaminopyridine (0.005 g moles, 0.61 g) and granular 5-amino-N,Nbis(2,3-dihydroxypropyl)-2,4,6-triiodoisophthalamide (0.1 g mole, 70.5 g) are placed into a 500 ml, 3-necked round bottomed flask.", "The mixture is stirred and heated to approximately 55° C. to dissolve the solids.", "Chloroacetylchloride (0.55 g mole, 62.1 g) is added slowly with stirring and the reaction temperature is controlled at 50°-70° C. After completing the addition, the reaction solution is allowed to stir at approximately 60° C. to complete the reaction, approximately 3 hr.", "After the reaction is completed, 1,1,2-trichloroethane (TCE) is added (approximately 152 ml) diluting the solution by approximately a factor of 3 and the solution is stirred and cooled to approximately 20° C. Stirring and cooling are continued and aqueous sodium carbonate solution (approximately 0.6 moles, 52 g in a 13% w/v solution is slowly added to the stirred TCE solution at a rate which will maintain the temperature at less than 27° C. After stirring for 30 minutes, the reaction mixture containing TCE, DMAC, CAC, 5-amino-N,N-bis(2,3-dihydroxypropyl)-2,4,6-triiodoisophthalamide is transferred to a separatory funnel and the organic layer is separated from the aqueous layer.", "The organic layer is washed with a 10% w/v sodium chloride solution in a similar manner.", "The resulting TCE solution of the product is suitable for conversion to N,N-bis(2,3-dihydroxypropyl)-5-[N-(2-hydroxyethyl)glycolamido]-2,4,6-triiodoisophthalamide (Ioversol) as shown above.", "The process of the present invention is less expensive, easier to perform and results in fewer impurities." ]

[ "[0001] The invention relates to a photocurable dental coating material, suitable for color correction of dental restorations or artificial teeth.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] In order to satisfy the esthetic elements in dental prosthetic treatment, methods of using not only metals but also ceramics and resins for facings can recreate corona color.", "Among them, the development of resins is remarkable, and some with the capability of having physical strength with sufficient abrasion resistance (chewing resistance, withstanding tooth brushing) have started to appear.", "To further improve the esthetics of such rigid resin for dental use, dental technicians are hard at work on the production of prosthetic materials by employing various methods.", "[0003] One such method is staining, in which colored gel state stain material is used to perform the desired shade adjustment and to characterize the facing.", "In this method, gel state paste will be colored with a brush, so the operability of the stain material must be high.", "For that reason, the viscosity and degree of polymerization has been regarded as more important than abrasion resistance, and thus either filler would not be filled in, or even if it were, it was limited only to a small amount of fine filler.", "Therefore, the brush abrasion resistance on the prosthetic surface was at such a low level that it could not be used clinically, and thus the staining was used only in the rigid resin sandwich method (internal stain method).", "[0004] However, the sandwich method had negative factors such as those below: [0005] 1.", "The stain shade nuance changed depending on the hue and thickness of the rigid resin covering the stain, and therefore, [0006] 2.", "the sandwich method only allowed skilled technicians to use it precisely, and [0007] 3.", "it could not be used for the final adjustment.", "[0008] In many countries the law prohibits dental technicians who are the principal technicians in dental technique to see the patient directly and participate in treatment.", "Therefore, the prosthetic is produced strictly under the instructions of a dentist.", "At such time, in many cases the hue specifications, are conducted according to a hue guide, e.g. the VITA® Shade Guide which is classified into 16 colors.", "However, this cannot reflect the natural tooth color of a patient accurately, and thus a small offset in color and aberration has resulted in many cases.", "Also, natural teeth have opaque bands and dots, topological hue variations as well as discoloration from external factors (such as smoking), and thus differences between individuals are great.", "[0009] Since rigid resin in dentistry requires a high surface smoothness, it is the general practice to use a small as possible diameter particle filler.", "“In the early days of the conventional product, although there were some dentists using poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) spherical particle, they had a big problem with durability (abrasion resistance) due to severe wear in the PMMA area.", "Ultra fine silica of approximately 40 nm in mean particle diameter that is produced through spray thermal decomposition of tetrachlorosilane is generally used for conventional products in recent years.", "For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,009,597 proposes a shell or jacket material for crowns which contains 30-70% by weight of microdispersed silicon dioxide, preferably of a particle size from 0.01-0.04 micrometers.", "EP 475 239 B1 concerns a filler mixture of (A) nano-sized spherical SiO 2 with 20% high refractive index oxides and (B) micro-sized quartz, ceramic or glass powder, as well as optionally pyrogenic silica as Theological modifier.", "DE 196 157 63 A1 describes a filler of porous SiO 2 glass of 20-120 nm which is purported to give good abrasion resistance in dental composite materials.", "DE 44 46 033 C2 relates to fine particle silica fillers with a sheet crystal structure.", "[0010] However, when such ultra fine particles are used, the completed resin paste increases the viscosity rapidly when the amount of ultra fine particle increases, and thus the resin paste becomes very difficult to handle in terms of dental technique operation.", "Therefore, the conventional product generally has a problem of not being able to increase the filler content higher than a certain amount.", "[0011] In rigid resin for dental technique (for crown restoration), to some degree a solution has been found thanks to the development of organic composite filler.", "The organic composite filler was created by crushing the paste with a high content ratio of thoroughly kneaded ultra fine particle filler after it was cured.", "Since it was a filler with a mean particle diameter of several μm or more, the paste containing the filler shows characteristics and conditions as if it were a crushed type of filler containing resin.", "It behaves like an ultra fine filler containing resin when grinding it that makes it easy to obtain a very smooth surface.", "Nonetheless, from the viewpoint of the inorganic filler content's amount, it remains at approximately 50% by mass, and the mechanical characteristic was not all that high.", "[0012] However, for the light curing type of paint resin for shade adjustment, it is desirable to have a paint resin for the purpose of hue adjustment of the rigid resin veneered crown.", "In other words, it is necessary to make a paste having sufficient viscosity to make an application work with use of a brush possible while improving the mechanical strength.", "In particular, wear and abrasion resistance capability is indispensable.", "[0013] Conventional rigid resins have to be built up by use of such means as a spatula for shaping, the paste must be in clay form with a certain shape retaining capability.", "However, since the stain material for such purpose, as the light curing type of paint resin for shade adjustment in this patent application, requires a paint resin application and fine manipulation with use of a brush, it must be in a gel form paste.", "[0014] DE 38 39 069 A1 describes a method for coating dental restorative parts produced by CAD/CAM methods.", "A thin pigmented coating is applied, followed by a second glossy anti-abrasive transparent sealant.", "The sealant has a preferred inorganic filler content of more than 40% and is preferably ultra fine particle silica.", "The pigmented coating should be of low viscosity to give a very thin layer.", "Abrasion resistance is not a requirement for the pigmented coating.", "[0015] The object of the present invention is to develop stain material for the final shade adjustment as a tool which can be used for a prosthetic surface (e.g. all kinds of crowns, bridges, veneers, inlays) and artificial teeth (e.g. removable or fixed, partial- and full dentures), enabling the user to produce a prosthetic with a hue of more natural appearance close to the natural dental color of a patient.", "Desired is a photocurable coating material for color correction of dental restorations or teeth, which is flowable, of paste-like or paint-like viscosity, applicable by a brush or similar instrument, capable to give a smooth and glossy surface after curing, and which produces an abrasion resistant coating on the surface of a tooth or a dental restoration in a desired color shade.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0016] In one embodiment the object of the present invention is achieved by a material comprising a matrix resin and an inorganic filler—while maintaining sufficient fluidity for making an application of the paint resin with a brush possible.", "The material comprises (A) 40-60% by mass of matrix resin, (B) 60-40% by mass of a filler mixture;", "(C) 0.1-1% by mass of one or more polymerization initiator(s);", "and (D) trace quantities of one or more dental pigments.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0017] When implementing the invention, an existing widely known matrix resin can be used (Shin Zairyo Shin Sozai Series Saishin Shika Zairyo Oyobi Gijutsu Kiki (New Materials Series: Latest Dental Materials), edited by Hasegawa Jiro (Jiro Hasegawa) and published by Kabushikigaisha CMC, Pages 7 18).", "Normally, methacrylate monomer, especially polymerizable multifunctional methacrylate, which can form a bridge structure after curing, is used as the matrix monomer by considering safety for the organism.", "[0018] Suitable free radically-polymerizable monomers may contain at least one ethylenically-unsaturated bond, can be oligomers or polymers, and are capable of undergoing addition polymerization.", "Such monomers include mono-, di- or poly- acrylates and methacrylates such as methyl acrylate, methyl methacrylate, ethyl acrylate, isopropyl methacrylate, n-hexyl acrylate, stearyl acrylate, allyl acrylate, glycerol diacrylate, glycerol triacrylate, ethyleneglycol diacrylate, diethyleneglycol diacrylate, triethyleneglycol dimethacrylate, 1,3-propanediol diacrylate, 1,3-propanediol dimethacrylate, trimethylolpropane triacrylate, 1,2,4-butanetriol trimethacrylate, 1-4-cyclohexanedio diacryl ate, pentaerythritol triacrylate, pentaerythritol tetraacrylate, pentaerythritol tetramethacrylate, sorbitol hexacrylate, bis[1-(2-acryloxy)]-p-ethoxyphenyldimethylmethane, bis[1-(3-acryloxy-2-hydroxy)]-p-propoxyphenyldimethylmethane, tris(hydroxyethylisocyanurate)-trimethacrylate;", "the bis-acrylates and bis-methacrylates of polyethylene glycols of molecular weight 200-500, copolymerizable mixtures of acrylated monomers such as those of U.S. Pat. No. 4,652,274, incorporated herein by reference, and acrylated oligomers such as those of U.S. Pat. No. 4,642,126, incorporated herein by reference;", "unsaturated amides such as methylene bis-acrylamide, methylene bis-methacrylamide, 1,6-hexamethylene bisacrylamide, diethylene triamine tris-acrylamide and beta-methacrylamino-ethyl methacrylate;", "and vinyl compounds such as styrene, diallyl phthalate, divinyl succinate, divinyl adipate and divinylphthalate.", "Mixtures of two or more monomers can be used if desired.", "Preferably, the free radically polymerizable material used is mono-, di-, or poly-acrylates and methacrylates such as methyl acrylate, methyl methacryle, ethyl acrylate, glycidyl methacrylate, 2-isocyanatoethyl methacrylate, limonene oxide, isopropyl methacrylate, n-hexyl acrylate, stearyl acrylate, allyl acrylate, glycerol diacrylate, glycerol triacrylate, ethyleneglycol diacrylate, diethyleneglycol diacrylate, triethyleneglycol dimethacrylate, 1,3-propanediol diacrylate, 1,3-propanediol dimethacrylate, trimethylolpropane triacrylate, 1,2,4-butanetriol trimethacrylate, 1,4-cyclhexanediol diacrylate, penterythritol triacrylate, pentaerythritol tetracrylate, pentaerythritol tetramethacrylate, sorbitol hexacrylate, bis[1-929acryloxy)]-p-ethosyphenyl dimethylmethane, bis[1-(3-acryloxy-2-hydroxy)}-p-propoxyphenyldimethylmethane, and trihydroxyethyliso-cyanurate trimethacrylate;", "the bisacrylates and bis-methacryles of polyethylene glycols of molecular weight 200-500, copolymerizable mixtures of acrylated monomers such as those in U.S. Pat. No. 4,652,274, and acrylated oligomers such as those of U.S. Pat. No. 4,642,126;", "and vinyl compounds such as styrene, diallyl phthalate, divinyl succinate, divinyl adipate and divinylphthalate.", "Mixtures of two or more of these free radically polymerizable materials can be used if desired.", "[0019] Two types of matrix monomers are mainly used, and they are: bisphenol A, having a relatively large molecular weight and small shrinkage after cure, as the fundamental structure and another one having a urethane structure.", "It is common practice to combine them with monomers such as a dimethacrylate monomer having an ethylene glycol chain for the purpose of adjusting viscosity and, refraction index for use.", "[0020] Preferred monomers are bisphenol-A-glycidyldimethacrylate (bis-GMA), Bisphenol-A-Ethoxydimethacrylate, 2,2-bis[4-(2-hydroxy-3-methacryloxypropoxy)phenyl]propane, polymeric ethoxylated Bisphenol A dimethacrylates (Bis-EMA), Bis EMA (2,6), Bis EMA(6), triethylene glycol dimethacrylate (TEGDMA), 1,6-bis(methacryloxy-2-ethoxycarbonylamino)-2,4,4-trimethylhexan (UDMA).", "[0021] A widely known existing initiator (light polymerization catalysis) can be used (New Materials Series: Latest Dental Materials), edited by Hasegawa Jiro (Jiro Hasegawa) and published by Kabushikigaisha CMC, Page 19).", "Radical polymerization is normally employed for a composite resin curing reaction.", "The initiators are classified into the chemical polymerization type products that use a redox initiator composed of a combination of benzoyl peroxide/aromatic amine (R3N), and the light curing type of products that use a visible light polymerization initiator composed of a combination of camphorquinone/aromatic amine (R3N).", "However, single pastes of them are possible, and thus the mainstream is the light curing type products with no grinding required and no air bubble contamination.", "Examples of suitable photoinitiators are benzophenone, benzoin and their derivatives or alpha-diketones and their derivatives, such as 9,10-phenanthrenequinone, diacetyl or 4,4-dichlorobenzil;", "and alpha-diketones in combination with amines as reducing agents, such as e.g. cyanoethylmethylaniline, methylaminoethylmethacrylate, triethanolamine, N,N-dimethyl-sym.", "-xylidine.", "Further suitable photoinitiators are acyl phosphines, such as e.g. 2,4,6-trimethylbenzoyl-diphenyl- or bis(2,6-dichlorobenzoyl)-4-N-propylphenylphosphinoxide.", "[0022] Camphorquinone is especially suitable.", "[0023] A widely known existing filler mixture, which is made of silicon dioxide and surface treated silicon dioxide, can be used (New Materials Series: Latest Dental Materials), edited by Hasegawa Jiro (Jiro Hasegawa) and published by Kabushikigaisha CMC, Pages 16 17).", "A typical composite resin can be classified by the type of a large amount of the filler used for filling it.", "For example, it can be classified by particle diameter such as follows: [0024] (1) Larger than 1 μm (macro particle filling type) [0025] (2) 0.1 μm-1 μm (sub micron particle filling type) [0026] (3) Smaller than 0.1 μm (ultra fine particle filling type) [0027] (4) A mixture of different diameter particle fillers of the above.", "[0028] In some cases, it is classified by a diameter of 3 μm.", "As for particle geometry, there are shape-less, spherical shape and fabric shape.", "[0029] When viewed from the composition aspect, barium aluminosilicate glass, silica, zirconia, metal and non metal oxides and their mixtures and cracked polymer (splinter poylmer) containing ultra fine particles can be listed.", "Although various treatment agents as well as methods are employed for such surface treatment, normally a polymerizable functional group is introduced to the silanol on the filler surface by a silane compound such as a gamma-methacryl oxypropyl trimethoxy silane (Silane A 174) in order to gain affinity to the matrix.", "[0030] The filler mixture of the present invention is preferably made up of silicon dioxide 40-60% by mass and silicone dioxide splinter polymer 60-40% by mass.", "The silicon dioxide splinter polymer is preferably silicon dioxide/polydodecanediol dimethacrylate.", "Of course similar splinter polymers will also be suitable for the compositions of the invention.", "Suitable splinter polymers are produced by polymerizing (meth)acrylate monomers in the presence of silicon dioxide powders an subsequent grinding of the resulting material.", "[0031] A preferred composition comprises about 50% by mass matrix resin, about 49% by mass filler mixture, and about 1% by mass initiator.", "[0032] Especially preferred are compositions comprising: 19% by mass bisphenol A diglycidyl acrylate, 11% by mass urethane methacrylate, triethylene glycol dimethacrylate, silicon dioxide 23% by mass, 22% by mass silicon dioxide/polydodecanediol dimethacrylate 24,4% by mass, and 0.6% by mass initiator.", "[0033] The intended use for shade adjustment purposes usually requires the presence of pigments, that are common in the dental field.", "[0034] Especially preferred pigments are iron-oxides, chromium-iron-zinc-spinelles, titanium-dioxides, copper-chromium-iron-spinelles, cobalt-alumina-spinelles and zirconium oxides.", "[0035] Pastes especially suitable for the described usage have preferably the following viscosic behaviour: [0036] Viscosity Test: [0037] Equipment: Universal Dynamic Rheometer UDS 200 (dynamic viscosity.", "measuring device) Measuring apparatus: [0038] Plate plate system;", "upper plate MP30, 25 mm diameter, 0°, sand blasted;", "lower plate sand blasted [0039] Conditions: temperature when measuring was conducted: 23° C.;", "gap width 0.5 mm;", "waiting time before measurement starts: 3 min.", "[0040] Description: Verify that material is filled evenly in the gap and let the upper plate rotate to initiate measurement.", "Measure the average viscosity over 180 sec at a shear rate of 10 sec −1 .", "Reduce the shear rate to 0.1 sec −1 .", "Collect the recovery of the viscosity 40 sec after the reduction of the shear rate.", "Repeat measurements several times with freshly applied material.", "[0041] The results are shown in Table 2.", "TABLE 1 Material Value Average viscosity at a shear rate of 1.0 × 10 4 to 4 × 10 4 [mPas] 10 sec −1 Average viscosity at 0.1 sec −1 10 × 10 4 to 160 × 10 4 [mPas] measured 40 sec after shear rate reduction (viscosity recoverage) [0042] Pastes Especially Suitable for the Described Usage Have the Following Abrasive Behavour: [0043] Tooth Brush Wear and Abrasion Test.", "Comparison of Physical Properties with a Conventional Material [0044] Medium: Odolmed (tooth paste): Water=2:1 Cycles: 100,000 [0045] Load: 200 grams Motion: Slow [0046] Material in this Test: [0047] Bisphenol A diglycidyl acrylate 19% by mass, urethane methacrylate 11% by mass, triethylene glycol dimethacrylate 22% by mass, silicon dioxide 23% by mass, silicon dioxide/polydodecanediol dimethacrylate 24,4% by mass, and initiator 0.6% by mass.", "[0048] Dentacolor Sirius (Registered Trademark);", "Composition: [0049] Matrix resin (urethane dimethacrylate, triethylene glycol dimethacrylate, dodecane diol methacrylate) 25.5% by mass;", "filler (silicon dioxide/polydodecanedioldimethacrylate, silicon dioxide) 74% by mass;", "catalyst (camphorquinone) 0.5% by mass;", "and trace quantity of pigment.", "[0050] Comparison of physical properties data of preferred material and Dentacolor Sirius are shown in Table 2 TABLE 2 Filling Surface Wear amount Wear depth ration [%] roughness Preferred material 0.1040 mm 3 6.6 μm 47.4 0.41 μm Dentacolor Sirius 0.1985 mm 3 13.8 μm 78 0.85 μm" ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is a continuation of Upright Gaming Machine Having a Dual Chute, U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 12/717,126 filed Mar. 3, 2010 which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/157,561, filed Mar. 3, 2009, which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.", "COPYRIGHT NOTICE A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material that 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 files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.", "BACKGROUND This invention relates to gaming machine cabinets and, more particularly, to an upright gaming machine cabinet having a dual chute for both receiving and dispensing currency and/or various currency representative media.", "Traditional gaming machines include one opening for receiving currency or other credit-adding media, and another, separate opening for dispensing winnings in some form.", "This is often confusing for a player, who may incorrectly attempt to insert currency into the dispensing opening in the machine, and/or conversely trying to locate his winnings from the receiving opening of the machine, which will be empty.", "A gaming machine cabinet having one opening for both receiving and dispensing currency or the like would be a stark improvement in the field of gaming.", "SUMMARY Briefly, and in general terms, the present invention provides a gaming machine including a cabinet housing having an opening extending through at least one side thereof, with both a receiving chute and a dispensing chute extending away from the opening.", "That is, one opening is configured to both receive and dispense currency and other currency- or credit-indicating media.", "In one embodiment, a receiving chute extends between the opening and a receiver, while a dispensing chute extends between the opening and a dispenser.", "A bezel may extend through the opening.", "The receiving chute may be defined by a receiving mechanism, with the dispensing chute being defined by a dispensing mechanism.", "In this embodiment, the receiving mechanism and the dispensing mechanism may be the same.", "The present invention also provides a gaming machine including a cabinet housing which houses a receiver and a dispenser.", "An opening extends through the housing.", "A receiver chute extends between the opening and the receiver, with the receiver chute having a first receiver portion.", "Similarly, a dispenser chute extends between the opening and the dispenser, with the dispenser chute having a first dispenser portion.", "The first receiver portion and the first dispenser portion are coextensive, such that the cabinet housing both receives and dispenses currency and currency-type media at the opening.", "Other features and advantages will become apparent from the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, which illustrate by way of example, the features of the various embodiments.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 presents a perspective view of an upright gaming machine in accordance with the present invention;", "FIG. 2 presents a perspective view of a bezel of the gaming machine of FIG. 1 ;", "FIG. 3 presents a perspective view of a dispensing mechanism of the gaming machine of FIG. 1 ;", "FIG. 4 presents a perspective view of a receiving mechanism of the gaming machine of FIG. 1 ;", "FIG. 5 presents a cross-section of a portion of the gaming machine of FIG. 1 ;", "and FIG. 6 presents a cross-section of a portion of that shown in FIG. 5 .", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION Referring now to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals denote like or corresponding parts throughout the drawings, and more particularly to FIG. 1 , an upright gaming machine for play by at least one player (not shown) is generally shown at 10 in accordance with the present invention.", "In the preferred embodiment, the gaming machine 10 may present a video slot machine, a video keno game, a lottery game, a bingo game, a Class II bingo game, a roulette game, a craps game, a blackjack game, a video representation of a wheel or, or some other game of chance.", "The game could also involve a varying degree of player skill.", "The gaming machine 10 includes a cabinet housing 12 preferably defined as the interior of a first side 14 , a second side (not shown), a front wall 16 and a rear wall (not shown).", "The cabinet housing 12 may also include a base and a top, neither of which are explicitly shown in FIG. 1 .", "The gaming machine 10 further includes a player control area 18 and a display 20 .", "Typically, the player control area 18 will be a button deck or button area having one or more buttons to facilitate game play.", "Player control areas are well known in the art, and are usable to receive input from a player for various purposes including such things as selection of wager denomination, initiation of a game, or cashing out winnings from the gaming machine.", "The display 20 is used to present information, including presenting a game for play.", "In the preferred embodiment, the gaming machine 10 includes a door 22 having a bezel 24 extending therethrough.", "The door 22 is preferably movable to reach the interior of the cabinet housing 12 for service or other maintenance.", "It should be noted that the bezel 24 need not extend through the door 22 to practice the present invention.", "It matters only that there be an opening of some sort, in the preferred embodiment the bezel 24 , through the cabinet housing 12 .", "Turning to FIG. 2 , a perspective view of the bezel 24 is shown.", "The bezel 24 includes mounting portions 26 for mounting the bezel 24 to the door 20 , or to another part of the cabinet housing 12 .", "The bezel 24 defines an opening 28 which extends through the cabinet housing 12 .", "FIG. 3 shows a receiving mechanism 30 which defines a receiving chute at 32 .", "In the preferred embodiment, the receiving mechanism 30 further defines a receiving slot 34 , with the receiving slot 34 nestable within the opening 28 in the bezel 24 .", "A lip 40 on the receiving slot 34 helps align the receiving mechanism 30 within the opening 28 in the preferred embodiment.", "The receiving mechanism 30 also includes a mounting portion 36 for mounting the receiving mechanism 30 to a receiver 38 .", "In the preferred embodiment, the receiver 38 is a currency acceptor, which may receive currency or any other currency- or credit-indicating media such as a ticket or a smart card as known in the art.", "In the preferred embodiment, the receiving mechanism 30 also includes a routing portion 41 , the purpose of which will be discussed in conjunction with FIG. 5 .", "FIG. 4 shows a perspective view of a dispensing mechanism 42 which defines a dispensing chute at 44 and a dispensing slot 46 which opens at opening 28 in bezel 24 .", "The dispensing slot 46 is disposed such that items proceed down through the dispensing chute 44 and exit the cabinet housing 12 at opening 28 .", "The dispensing mechanism 42 includes a mounting portion 48 for mounting the dispensing mechanism 42 to a dispenser 50 .", "In the preferred embodiment, the dispenser 50 is a printer.", "However, the dispenser 50 can be anything designed to dispense winnings to a player within the scope of the present invention.", "In the preferred embodiment, a lip 52 on the dispensing mechanism 42 helps align the dispensing mechanism 42 within the opening 28 .", "FIG. 5 shows a cross-section of the bezel 24 , the receiving mechanism 30 and the dispensing mechanism 42 nested together within the opening 28 , as in the preferred embodiment of the present invention.", "In operation, a player may input currency or other credit-indicating media through opening 28 .", "The routing portion 41 of the receiving mechanism 30 , along with the overall geometry resulting from fitting the parts together, helps ensure the currency remains within the receiving chute 32 and does not inadvertently travel up the dispensing chute 44 .", "While the preferred embodiment utilizes the routing portion 41 and the overall geometry to prevent misrouting, other ways of ensuring proper routing can be used within the scope of the present invention.", "The currency travels through the receiving chute 32 to the receiver 38 .", "When a player chooses to cash out, a ticket or some other sort of credit-indicating media is generated by the dispenser 50 .", "The ticket travels through the dispensing chute 44 , with routing portion 41 of the receiving mechanism 30 again acting to prevent misrouting.", "The ticket then travels out through opening 28 , here through the bezel 24 .", "It should be noted that in the present invention, the bezel 24 has been designed to move with the door 22 to allow access to the interior of the cabinet housing 12 (shown in FIG. 1 ) without disturbing the assembly described herein.", "Additionally, the dispensing mechanism 42 has been designed to rotate away from the assembly to provide access to the dispenser 50 , which is a printer in the preferred embodiment.", "It should be noted that while for aesthetic purposes the preferred embodiment of the present invention contemplates the use of the bezel 24 to define the opening 28 , the opening 28 can easily be present in the cabinet housing 12 without the use of the bezel 24 .", "That is, the cabinet housing 12 can define the opening 28 without the use of the bezel 24 .", "Additionally, while the opening 28 in the preferred embodiment is shown through the front wall 16 of the gaming machine 10 , the opening 28 could be through and wall of the gaming machine 10 within the scope of the present invention.", "Additionally, while the preferred embodiment includes a separate receiver 38 and dispenser 50 , the present invention can be utilized with a combination receiver/dispenser, such that the receiving chute and the dispensing chute are coextensive.", "It matters only that at least some portion of a receiving chute and a dispensing chute be coextensive to practice the present invention.", "FIG. 6 further illustrates this point.", "In FIG. 6 , an opening 28 ′ is defined within a gaming cabinet wall 16 ′.", "A receiving chute 32 ′ extends between the opening 28 ′ and a receiver 38 ′, while a dispensing chute 44 ′ extends between the opening 28 ′ and a dispenser 50 ′.", "The receiving chute 32 ′ includes an opening portion 32 ″, while the dispensing chute 44 ′ also includes an opening portion 44 ″.", "The opening portions 32 ″ and 44 ″ are coextensive, within the scope of the present invention.", "One of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that not all gaming machines have all these components and may have other components in addition to, or in lieu of, those components mentioned here.", "Furthermore, while these components are viewed and described separately, various components may be integrated into a single unit in some embodiments.", "The preferred embodiment described above is provided by way of illustration only and should not be construed to limit the claimed invention.", "Those skilled in the art will readily recognize that the claimed invention can be practiced in a substantially equivalent way with various modifications and changes that may be made to the claimed invention without following the example embodiments and applications illustrated and described herein, and without departing from the true spirit and scope of the claimed invention, which is set forth in the following claims." ]

[ "RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This Application claims rights under 35 USC § 119(e) from U.S. Application Ser.", "No. 60/711,325 filed Aug. 25, 2005 by Steve A. Hedges and Kenneth R. Erikson, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.", "FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] This invention relates to the use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags for tracking items during shipping, receiving the items at final destination and inventory control of items, and more specifically to methods for mounting multiple microscopic RFID microradio chips onto a larger antenna and programming them in such a way that they cooperate to provide maximum gain and so that the signal from one microradio chip will reinforce rather than cancel out that of another microradio chip.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] Presently in RFID tagging, there is interest in inexpensive item-level tags that require microradio chips, or microradios, coupled in some manner to an associated antenna.", "The reason for the utilization of these microradio chips and their associated antennas is that the major cost of the RFID tag is embodied in the integrated circuit chip.", "By making the RFID chips smaller, one can cost-effectively mass-produce them by fabricating millions of microradio chips on a single semiconductor wafer.", "[0004] Conventionally, the problem with RFID chips is the cost associated with mounting and electrically connecting them to the feed point of the antenna so that RP energy may be effectively coupled from the antenna to the RFID chip and vice versa.", "[0005] As described in U.S. Application Ser.", "No. 60/711,217 filed Aug. 25, 2005 by Kenneth R. Erickson, one of the ways to connect the RFID tag electronics to its associated antenna is to apply a multitude of microradio chips, suspended in a slurry, at the vicinity of the feed port of the antenna.", "In one approach to the coupling of the RFID electronics to the antenna, each microradio chip is provided with opposed electrically conductive end pieces or tabs, one of which is embedded in a conductive ink trace for one side of the antenna, whereas an opposing electrically conductive tab is embedded in an overlying patterned conductive trace for the other side of the antenna.", "In this way the RFID chips may be directly DC coupled to the antenna at its feed points.", "[0006] Because of the large number of microradio chips contained in the slurry, it is indeed probable that at least one of them will be oriented appropriately so as to connect one of the conductive tabs to one portion of the antenna at its feed point and the tab at the other end of the microradio chip to the overlying conductive stripe that is connected to the portion of the antenna.", "[0007] While it is recognized that direct DC coupling is a more robust way of coupling RF energy into and out of the microradio chip, it is also possible to provide a non-DC contact electromagnetic coupling between a collection of microradio chips in suspension within a slurry and the associated antenna feed points.", "[0008] Regardless of whether the microradio chips have opposing conductive contacts, as required for the direct DC-couple case, or whether they couple electromagnetically, each will naturally exhibit a polarity.", "In the electromagnetic coupling case, the microradio chip will form an electric field dipole regardless of the antenna topology, be it a slot, a dipole, a patch, or a loop, employed in its design and construction.", "This electric field dipole, and hence the microradio chip, has a polarity depending upon which way the signal generator within the chip is connected to its internal antenna's feed port.", "[0009] In both the direct DC-coupled and the electromagnetically-coupled cases, when many of these microradio chips are utilized to couple to a single RF tag antenna, there needs to be a method to ensure that they operate coherently, that is that their respective contributions add constructively rather than canceling each other out.", "The orientation, and hence the polarization, of microradios suspended within the slurry will tend to be random, statistically resulting in a significant degree of signal cancellation.", "In the direct DC-coupled case, for example, roughly half of the microradio chips contacting the tag antenna leads will have a polarization that opposes that of the other half.", "[0010] It is important to be able to reverse the polarity of all of those suspended microradio chips that are oriented in one of these two polarization states so that all chips contributing to the RFID function electrically point in the same direction and so that their outputs add constructively.", "[0011] Put another way, with the fluid suspension of the small electromagnetically-coupled microradio chips, each of these microradios has an associated electrical orientation because of the way it radiates through its electric dipole structure.", "Thus, when viewing the microradio chip, it is appropriate to say that one side of the chip has an electrical “north”", "and the opposite side has an electrical “south.”", "When thousands of these microradio chips are suspended in a fluid and deposited in the vicinity of the feed port of the tag antenna, their north ends will tend to be in a random physical orientation relative to each other.", "Some will have their north ends closer to the upper tag antenna contact, while others will have their north ends closer to the lower tag antenna contact.", "[0012] There therefore needs to be a way to first select the microradio chips whose north-south orientation is such that a significant portion of their radiating effects will contribute to the excitation of the tag antenna Secondly, there needs to be a way to selectively reverse the north-south polarization, so that when they radiate they will all radiate coherently with the other microradio chips in the suspension.", "[0013] When these microradio chips are probed by an REID tag reader, all of them transmit simultaneously.", "If they are not oriented substantially parallel to each other, then it is possible that the radiation from one of the microradio chips would cancel out the other.", "Thus it is a requirement that one activate only those micro RFID devices that have a roughly similar physical orientation (i.e. north-south axis within say 30° of being perpendicular to the planes of the RF tag antenna leads) and among those, it is a requirement that the polarization direction be set so that all north axes align.", "SUMMARY OF INVENTION [0014] In order to permit coherent coupling of all of the microradios to the associated antenna feed in the subject invention, an electromagnetic signal is applied to the RP tag antenna so that all microradio chips suspended in the proper orientation (plus or minus some angle) within a slurry between the tag antenna's feed points are activated and configured for the proper polarity sense.", "The microradios that are outside a prescribed angular range are not activated and do not contribute the tag function.", "Thus when the suspended microradios function, only the activated chips will transmit because they are in a like orientation and polarization setting.", "This allows their transmissions to be constructively added to each other.", "[0015] Since the integrated microradio chips discussed herein have a specific polarity relative to their physical structure, they form an electric dipole.", "This electric dipole is characterized by an orientation and a polarity sense.", "Two microradio chips that have the same (i.e. parallel) orientations may either have the same or the opposite polarity sense relative to each other .", "[0016] It is the desideratum of the subject invention that one wants to single out all those devices that have their orientation approximately the same, for instance within plus or minus 30 degrees of vertical, and activate them to the exclusion of all other ones.", "In addition, it is the desideratum of the subject invention that all of the activated microradio chips that have one of the two polarity senses be programmed to reverse their polarity so that all activated chips end up with the same polarity sense.", "The result is that when the tag goes into operation, the transmissions of all microradio chips will add constructively.", "[0017] As part of the subject invention, it is possible to transmit to each of these microradio chips a digital activation code to which each chip responds.", "If the chip is appropriately oriented and has the proper polarization direction, then the activation code is utilized to activate the particular microradio chip when this signal is transmitted from a programming stage.", "[0018] However, if the microradio chip receives an inverted digital activation code, then it knows that it must reverse its connection to the internal dipole feed port so as to change a vertically down or south electrical polarization to a vertically up or north polarization, or vice versa.", "[0019] While the direct DC-connection technique described in the aforementioned patent application can assure that the active microradio chips will be vertically oriented, it is nonetheless necessary to assure that the polarity sense of these vertical DC-coupled devices also be the same.", "After the RP tags are assembled (with the microradio slurry applied between the printed antenna tabs), they are subjected to a one-time programming operation that activates selected microradio chips and configures their polarity sense.", "DC-coupled microradio chips within the slurry that are not sufficiently oriented so that their conductive end-caps contact each tab of the tag antenna are never activated and remain functionally inert.", "Those microradio chips that are long enough to bridge the gap between the printed-on antenna traces have their polarity sense properly configured through the aforementioned digital programming.", "[0020] Similarly, for those microradios that are designed to be electromagnetically coupled to the antenna feed points, those devices that are within a certain vertical angle range of the proper orientation and that share the same polarity sense, will add constructively during operation of the RF tag.", "Since the microradio chips are randomly oriented in the slurry, one must first select for activation only those devices that are properly oriented.", "This can be done in a programming step similar to that described for the direct DC-coupled microradio chips in which only those that are properly oriented will see enough of the electric field across the tag antenna pads that they can actually receive the activation signal.", "[0021] Thus, in the subject invention one selectively activates the microradio chips that are roughly in the appropriate orientation so that one can apply an RF field to them, noting that only those devices that receive enough of the RF signal will be activated.", "This in essence selects which of the devices are to become active versus those to remain inactive.", "The second part of the process is to set the polarization direction of those that are active;", "and this is done by reversing the signal source connection to its internal dipole connection tabs so that one can selectively correct for a 180-degrees out-of-phase polarity sense.", "[0022] Note, during the transmission of the polarization controlling signal, the power level of the programming source must be very carefully set such that off-axis devices, while they will still receive some signal, will receive a signal that is below their activation threshold.", "[0023] As will be appreciated, in the programming process one step is the selective activation to select microradio chips with vertically-oriented electrical dipoles;", "and the other step is the polarity sense selection.", "The polarity sense selection is more important of the two operations because if one activates a device that is even 45 or 50 degrees off angle, this is permissible as long as it has the appropriate polarity sense direction.", "Thus, even if in operation that particular device transmits or receives, it will receive some of the signal and contribute to the constructive collaboration of the other microradio devices as long as it is operating in the appropriate up-down polarization.", "[0024] In summary, whether or not one utilizes direct DC coupling of the microradio chips to the antenna feed points or couples the RF energy from the electrical dipoles associated with the electromagnetically-couple microradio chips, in the subject invention one selects only those microradio chips that are optimally oriented and polarized to enhance the collective operation.", "In one embodiment, polarity sense direction control is accomplished through a digital coded sequence so that individual microradio chips can differentiate from an inverted (180-degree out of phase) version of itself.", "Receipt of the inverted coded sequence instructs the microradio device to invert its internal connection to its respective internal dipole connection points.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0025] These and other features of the subject invention will be better understood in connection with the Detailed Description, in conjunction with the Drawings, of which: [0026] FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic illustration of an RFID tag integrated circuit or microradio chip, illustrating conductive end caps that form conductive tabs that establish the coupling of the microradio to its associated antenna;", "[0027] FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic illustration of the polarization direction of the microradio chip of FIG. 1 , illustrating a north or up polarization associated with a particular E-field vector for one of the microradio chip, which is parallel to the E-field vector of an adjacent vertically oriented microradio chip.", "The result is parallel E-field vectors such that the outputs from the two microradio chips will coherently add;", "[0028] FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an electromagnetically-coupled microradio chip connected to its internal antenna through a programmable device that functions as an RF transfer switch, with this transfer switch providing a mechanism for reversing the polarity of the connection to the chip's internal antenna port upon receipt of an inverted digital coding sequence;", "[0029] FIG. 4 is a diagrammatic illustration of the provision of a multiplicity of microradio chips suspended in a non-conductive slurry between opposing traces at the feed point of the tag antenna, indicating that some of the microradios in the slurry are oriented vertically with respect to the plane of the antenna;", "[0030] FIG. 5 is a diagrammatic illustration of one of the microradio chips in the slurry, which is vertically oriented but which may be polarized such that it either has an afield up orientation or an E-field down orientation depending upon the way in which the signal generator within the microradio chip is attached to its internal antenna dipole;", "[0031] FIGS. 6A and 6B are diagrammatic illustrations of a microradio chip in the form of a miniature cube having a signal generator that drives the opposed end tabs out of phase, in which in FIG. 6A , the connection of the signal generator to the end tabs produces a north or up polarity sense while in FIG. 6B , the connection produces a down or south polarity sense direction;", "[0032] FIG. 7 is a diagrammatic illustration of the programming of a microradio chip utilizing a programming source that is provided with a code to which the chip is to respond, coupled to a transmitter and thence to an antenna that irradiates the chip with a programming code at a power level determined by a power level control circuit, with the detected code in the chip either detecting a predetermined digital code or its inverse;", "and, [0033] FIGS. 8A and 8B are diagrammatic illustrations of the changing of the coupling of a signal source to its associated end pieces based on whether a non-inverted or an inverted code is detected at the RFID chip of FIG. 6A or 6 B. DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0034] By way of further background and prior to describing the operation of the subject invention to select microradio chip orientation and polarity direction, RFID tags have been utilized extensively to be able to trace pallets from a point of shipment through a destination, with the RFID tags being passive devices that are read-out with RF energy, usually in the 900 MHz range.", "These passive devices are parasitically powered by the energy impinging upon the antenna of the tag that is harvested by the integrated circuits within the tag, with the result that the tag transmits the identity of the pallet in response to a probing signal.", "[0035] While such RFID tags are now mandated for pallets in some industries, there is increased level of interest in item-level tagging, which involves placing a tag on the item itself as opposed to on a pallet of items.", "[0036] However, in order to be able to make such tagging strategies possible for low-value items such as toothpaste and the like, techniques are required to be able to manufacture and deposit the tags on items at an overall cost of no more than 5 cents per item.", "[0037] Cost in general is dictated by the size of the integrated circuit chips involved.", "As to the size of the tags that are currently placed on pallets, they are on the order of 2 inches by 2 inches, with the antenna dimensions being the dominating factor.", "It is noted that the larger the antenna, the greater the range, since a larger tag antenna can capture more energy from a reader.", "For short-range applications such as monitoring pill bottle inventories, the antenna can be indeed quite small.", "[0038] If one could make the integrated circuits very, very small, in the tens of micron size range, the cost per IC die goes down dramatically.", "This is because one can make millions of individual ICs per wafer.", "With processing costs constant and sufficient yields, one can reduce the cost of the tag under 5 cents.", "[0039] Assuming that one can successfully separate the microscopic ICs from the host wafer, of particular importance in the provision of RFID tags are techniques to connect microradio integrated circuits to corresponding antennas with very little or no touch labor.", "While a co-pending application describes one method for coupling RFID circuits to an antenna at its feed point, there is a requirement for more efficient manufacturing methods and to obtain maximum gain and maximum output for the tag.", "[0040] Referring now to FIG. 1 , a microradio chip 10 is manufactured as having an integrated circuit 12 located on a substrate 14 , with the integrated circuit chip being connected to metallized ends 15 and 16 at opposite ends of the rectilinear chip structure.", "In one embodiment, the ratio of length to width is 2:1 to establish proper connection to spaced-apart antenna feed traces.", "[0041] It is noted that there is a longitudinal axis 18 for such a microradio chip, and a lateral axis 20 as well as a vertical axis 22 as illustrated.", "[0042] In a preferred embodiment, the chip has a 2:1 aspect ratio, with the metal ends manufactured as a modification of conventional chip manufacturing techniques.", "The chip can be mounted face up or facedown and achieve contact with the antenna for the tag.", "Alternatively, a chip can be mounted in a “capsule”", "fabricated using three-dimensional etch techniques.", "The capsule would then have large metal caps on the ends to provide the aforementioned pads or tabs.", "[0043] In one embodiment, the microradio RFID chip is composed of several sublayers of integrated circuit materials and conductive materials, not shown in this figure.", "The insulating layer is normally applied over the chip area except for the metal pad regions.", "It is noted that the smaller the RFID chip that can be fabricated, the more chips that can be manufactured on a single wafer and lower the part cost for each chip.", "[0044] It is noted that the structure in FIG. 1 is a three-dimensional contact structure in which the contact pads or tabs are not in a single XY plane but also have contact material in the Z direction with respect to the chip.", "As will be seen, the purpose of the three-dimensional contact structure when these microradio chips are deposited over an antenna feed is that they can make electrical contact to the antenna feed regardless of orientation of the microradio to the antenna feed.", "For instance, it is not necessary to have the microradio chip have its contacts or pads or tabs on a single plane, which must be married to the contact pads of the feed of the antenna.", "[0045] Rather, the attachment of randomly oriented microradio chips can be established in accordance with the technique described in patent application entitled “RFID Tag and Method and Apparatus For Manufacturing Same,” by Kenneth R. Erickson, assigned to the assignee hereof and incorporated herein by reference.", "In this patent application, randomly oriented microradios can be attached to an antenna feed by having one end of the microradio attached to one feed point, with an insulating layer placed on top of it followed by a conductive printed layer or trace to attach the other end of the microradio to the other feed point of the antenna.", "This technique is described in Provisional Patent Application Ser.", "No. 60/711,217 filed Aug. 25, 2005.", "[0046] With such a rectilinear structure for the RFID chip, and as illustrated in FIG. 1 , this type of structure having opposed contact pads or tabs results in a preferential polarization direction for the RFID chip.", "[0047] In essence, the opposed metallic end caps 14 and 15 provide a dipole structure for the transmission of information to and from the RFID chip.", "[0048] Referring to FIG. 2 , assuming that one has two chips, namely chip 10 and chip 10 ′, located at the feed point of a tag antenna, then it is important that the polarization direction of these chips be aligned one with the other.", "To this end, chip 10 has an E-field vector at time T 0 , here labeled by reference character 24 , to be parallel to the E-field vector 24 ′ of RFID chip 10 ′.", "[0049] Thus at time T 0 the E-field vectors are parallel to each other and in the same direction.", "[0050] As noted by the dotted vectors 26 and 26 ′, these E-fields will exist at T 0 +π radians, with a change in the direction of the RF signal applied to the end tabs.", "[0051] Due to the instantaneous E-field direction at time T 0 and the opposed field direction at time T 0 +π radians, the outputs of these two identically constructed microradios or RFID chips will add coherently.", "[0052] Should, however, the chips be oriented such that one has a north orientation for its E-field vector and the other a south orientation, then it is quite clear that the energy from these chips will cancel each other.", "[0053] Prior to describing the coupling of the RFID chip microradio to an antenna, and referring now to FIG. 3 , an RFID tag 48 includes inter alia an antenna 50 designed according to well-known principles.", "This antenna is responsive to RF energy in the chosen frequency band for the tag.", "As described below, this antenna is fabricated utilizing electrically conductive ink in one embodiment or any type of metallizing structure on an item to be tagged.", "[0054] An integrated circuit microradio with conductive surfaces 36 and 38 contains a programmable device 54 together with an RF interface 56 .", "Also included are an energy storage device 58 , a controller 60 and a memory 62 .", "The functions of the RF interface, energy storage, controller and memory are typical of passive RFID tags to provide the performance described hereinbefore.", "[0055] Here it can be seen that it is important to be able to connect the REID chip 10 to antenna 50 by virtue of the direct DC contact of pads 36 and 38 to feed points 64 and 66 of antenna 50 .", "[0056] Having described in the broadest terms the functional components of the microradio and its coupling to its associated antenna, and referring now to FIG. 4 , microradios 10 can be electromagnetically coupled to the feed point of an antenna described by conductive traces 50 and 100 by providing a substrate 80 with a conductive trace 52 that connects to one side of the antenna and forms a feed point to the antenna, whereas a conductive trace 54 connects to the other side of the antenna at its feed point.", "[0057] As illustrated, a non-conductive slurry 56 contains randomly oriented microradios 10 that are disposed in the slurry or fluid.", "[0058] The conductive trace 54 is coupled to the microradios through an overlying conductive ink trace 58 , which overlies the slurry containing the microradios such that RF energy from the microradios will be coupled to the feed point of the antenna 50 due to RF coupling techniques to be described.", "[0059] The gain of the individual microradios may not be sufficient to enable coupling energy to and from the microradios to the antenna and vice versa.", "However, by providing a large number of microradios in the gap between traces 52 and 58 , if coherent operation is achieved, one can increase overall output so that when added together there is sufficient signal strength.", "[0060] There are two issues that must be addressed in order to obtain sufficient gain for this non-direct DC coupled embodiment and that is that one needs to be able to select microradios that have a predetermined orientation, in this case a vertical orientation as indicated by vertical dotted lines 60 .", "It will be noted that the shaded microradios 62 are oriented such that they are, for instance, within 10 degrees of a vertical established as being perpendicular to the top surface of substrate 80 and the plane of the antenna feed traces.", "[0061] The ability to select for activation only microradios having this vertical orientation or indeed any predetermined orientation is critical to the obtaining of the maximum amount of gain from the ensemble of microradios in the slurry.", "[0062] In one embodiment this is simply accomplished by activating only those microradios having a vertical orientation, meaning that the programming power picked up by antenna 50 will only be of sufficient level to activate microradios in a predetermined orientation.", "Other radios that are located at orientations that are non-optimal will not receive enough of a signal from the programming step to cause the programming code to be received by the microradios.", "Assuming improper physical orientation, also the microradios may not be able to be parasitically powered.", "Thus if the orientation direction of the microradios is suboptimal such as, for instance, as illustrated by the orientation of microradio 64 , it may not be able to be parasitically powered.", "[0063] Referring to FIG. 5 and taking, for instance, microradio 70 , which is vertically oriented with respect to traces 52 and 58 , this microradio can have a polarization direction as illustrated at 72 such that north points up and south points down, with the E-field associated therewith oriented as illustrated at 74 .", "Alternatively, the orientation can be as illustrated at 76 , with the south pointing up and the E-field vector 78 pointed down.", "[0064] As mentioned hereinbefore, if vertically oriented microradios in one embodiment have opposite polarization directions, then there will be phase cancellation of the outputs of these radios, which deleteriously affects the operation.", "[0065] In short and referring to FIGS. 6A and 6B , if the microradios are envisaged as having a cubic structure as illustrated at 80 and 82 , with opposed conductive tabs respectively 84 and 86 or 88 and 90 .", "Then for a north-facing polarization orientation, a signal source 92 is connected as illustrated with the polarization likewise indicated.", "[0066] Referring to FIG. 6B , if the connection from the signal source is reversed, then the polarization of the microradio will be in a southerly or down position.", "[0067] Referring to FIG. 7 , how one controls the connection of, for instance, vertically oriented microradios so that the connection from the signal source and the opposed end caps or tabs can be controlled, one has a programming unit 100 supplied with a code 102 that is to be detected by an RFID chip 104 , both for activation and to control its polarization direction.", "[0068] The output of the programming unit is coupled to a transmitter 106 , in turn coupled to an antenna 108 , with the power level of transmitter 106 being controlled by power level control 110 .", "[0069] In the illustrated embodiment, the code to which the RFID chip is to respond is a digital code 0110001.", "[0070] In a programming step, upon receipt of this 0110001 code, chip 104 is activated.", "The chip will also respond to the inverse of this digital code, namely 1000110, likewise to activate the RFID chip.", "[0071] If the chip receives the 0110001 code, the original polarity of the chip is preserved;", "whereas if the chip receives a 1000110 code, then switching circuits within the chip switch the signal source polarity so as to be opposite that which it originally had.", "[0072] As shown in FIGS. 8A and 8B , signal source 92 in FIG. 8A is coupled to opposed tabs or end caps 94 and 96 as illustrated, whereas if a polarization reversal is required, then as illustrated in FIG. 8B , a signal source 92 is connected inversely to tabs 94 and 96 as illustrated.", "[0073] Thus what can be seen is that through the programming step, one can select by the power level those RFID chips or microradios which are appropriately oriented in an optimal direction such that only these chips will be activated whereas the others will not be.", "Likewise and at the same time, utilizing the digital programming technique described, the polarization of the chip that has already been activated by virtue of its preferential orientation may be either left unchanged or inverted depending on whether or not the code received is the original code or the inverse code.", "[0074] While the present invention has been described in connection with the preferred embodiments of the various figures, it is to be understood that other similar embodiments may be used or modifications or additions may be made to the described embodiment for performing the same function of the present invention without deviating therefrom.", "Therefore, the present invention should not be limited to any single embodiment, but rather construed in breadth and scope in accordance with the recitation of the appended claims." ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 14/935,050, filed Nov. 6, 2015, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 14/327,925, filed Jul. 10, 2014, each of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.", "TECHNICAL FIELD [0002] The disclosed subject matter relates to methods, systems, and media for controlling a bi-directional HDMI port.", "BACKGROUND [0003] Typical High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) ports are either an output of data from a source device (e.g., a source of audio and/or video data such as a set-top box, a digital media receiver, an optical media player, etc.) or an input of data to a sink device (e.g., a receiver of audio and/or video data such as an A/V receiver, monitors, entertainment systems, television sets, speakers, headphones etc.).", "In general, an HDMI port in a device is connected to an HDMI connector and uses a unidirectional interface to transmit audio and/or video data, for example from an HDMI source to an HDMI sink so that the audio and/or video data can be presented.", "In such an implementation, for a device to receive audio and/or video data and also output audio and/or video data, separate HDMI ports are required for each function.", "[0004] Moreover, particular devices, such as an A/V receiver or a monitor, have the capability of supporting both the input and the output of data.", "This can be a source of confusion for users, particularly when these users are setting up or configuring such devices.", "[0005] Accordingly, it is desirable to provide methods, systems and media for controlling a bi-directional HDMI port.", "SUMMARY [0006] In accordance with various implementations of the disclosed subject matter, methods, systems, and media for controlling a bi-directional HDMI port are provided.", "[0007] In accordance with some implementations of the disclosed subject matter, a method for controlling a bi-directional HDMI port are provided, the method comprising: generating a first voltage at a first pin of the HDMI port;", "detecting a second voltage at the first pin of the HDMI port;", "detecting a third voltage at a second pin of the HDMI port;", "comparing the second voltage to the first voltage;", "comparing the second voltage to the third voltage;", "determining based on the comparison of the second voltage to the third voltage that the HDMI port of the device is connected to an HDMI source;", "causing the HDMI port to act as an HDMI sink based on the determination that the HDMI port is connected to the HDMI source;", "determining based on the comparison of the second voltage to the first voltage that the HDMI port of the device is connected to an HDMI sink;", "and causing the HDMI port to act as an HDMI source based on the determination that the HDMI port is connected to the HDMI sink.", "[0008] In accordance with some implementations of the disclosed subject matter, a system for controlling a bi-directional HDMI port are provided, the system comprising: a switch having a first side coupled to a first pin and a second side coupled to a second pin of the HDMI port;", "a voltage source coupled to the first side of the switch;", "a diode with a first side coupled to the first side of the switch and a second side coupled to a signal source;", "a resistor with a first side coupled to the second pin of the HDMI port and a second side coupled to ground;", "and at least one hardware processor that: calculates a first voltage difference between the node and the signal source;", "calculates a second voltage difference between the node and the second side of the switch;", "compares the first voltage and the second voltage;", "determines based on the comparison that the HDMI port of the device is connected to an HDMI source;", "causes the HDMI port to act as an HDMI sink based on the determination that the HDMI port is connected to the HDMI source;", "determines based on the comparison that the HDMI port of the device is connected to an HDMI sink;", "and causes the HDMI port to act as an HDMI source based on the determination that the HDMI port is connected to the HDMI sink.", "[0009] In accordance with some implementations of the disclosed subject matter, a non-transitory computer readable medium containing computer executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method for controlling a High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) port in a device connected to an HDMI connector, the method comprising: generating a first voltage at a first pin of the HDMI port;", "detecting a second voltage at the first pin of the HDMI port;", "detecting a third voltage at a second pin of the HDMI port;", "comparing the second voltage to the first voltage;", "comparing the second voltage to the third voltage;", "determining based on the comparison of the second voltage to the third voltage that the HDMI port of the device is connected to an HDMI source;", "causing the HDMI port to act as an HDMI sink based on the determination that the HDMI port is connected to the HDMI source;", "determining based on the comparison of the second voltage to the first voltage that the HDMI port of the device is connected to an HDMI sink;", "and causing the HDMI port to act as an HDMI source based on the determination that the HDMI port is connected to the HDMI sink.", "[0010] In accordance with some implementations of the disclosed subject matter, a system for controlling a High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) port in a device connected to an HDMI connector is provided, the system comprising: switching means for interrupting a flow of current, having a first side coupled to a first pin and a second side coupled to a second pin of the HDMI port;", "means for generating a voltage at the first side of the switch;", "means for allowing a unidirectional flow of current from a voltage signal source to the first side of the switch;", "means for coupling the second pin of the HDMI port to ground;", "means for calculating a first voltage difference between the first pin and the signal source;", "means for calculating a second voltage difference between the first pin and the second side of the switch;", "means for comparing the first voltage and the second voltage;", "means for determining based on the comparison that the HDMI port of the device is connected to an HDMI source;", "means for causing the HDMI port to act as an HDMI sink based on the determination that the HDMI port is connected to the HDMI source;", "means for determining based on the comparison that the HDMI port of the device is connected to an HDMI sink;", "and means for causing the HDMI port to act as an HDMI source based on the determination that the HDMI port is connected to the HDMI sink.", "[0011] In some implementations, the system further comprises means for determining based on the comparison of the first voltage and the second voltage that the HDMI port of the device is connected to a bi-directional HDMI port;", "and means for causing the device comprising the HDMI port to prompt a user to set the HDMI port to act as an HDMI source or an HDMI sink based on the determination that the HDMI port is connected to the bi-directional HDMI port.", "[0012] In some implementations, the system further comprises means for causing the HDMI port to act as a sink for multimedia data during a first period of time during which the HDMI port is connected to an HDMI source and act as a source during a second period of time during which the HDMI port is connected to an HDMI sink.", "[0013] In some implementations, the first pin is pin 18 .", "[0014] In some implementations, the second pin is pin 19 .", "[0015] In some implementations, the means for generating a voltage generates a voltage with a magnitude of 5 Volts.", "[0016] In some implementations, the voltage signal source is a 3.3 Volt signal with a frequency of 1 Hertz.", "[0017] In some implementations, the system further comprises means for determining that the HDMI port is set as a sink based on the second voltage difference being between 5 Volts.", "[0018] In some implementations, the system further comprises means for determining that the HDMI port is set as a source based on the first voltage difference being 0 Volts.", "[0019] In some implementations, the system further comprises means for determining that the device comprising the HDMI port is a sink or a source based on prompting the user to set the HDMI port to act as a sink or a source if the second voltage difference is a 3.3 Volt pulse signal.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0020] Various objects, features, and advantages of the disclosed subject matter can be more fully appreciated with reference to the following detailed description of the disclosed subject matter when considered in connection with the following drawings, in which like reference numerals identify like elements.", "[0021] FIGS. 1A-1B show an example of a circuit for a bi-directional HDMI port connected to an HDMI source device and corresponding waveforms in accordance with some implementations of the disclosed subject matter.", "[0022] FIGS. 2A-2B show an example of a circuit for a bi-directional HDMI port connected to an HDMI sink device and corresponding waveforms in accordance with some implementations of the disclosed subject matter.", "[0023] FIGS. 3A-3B show an example of a circuit for a bi-directional HDMI port connected to a device having a bi-directional HDMI port and corresponding waveforms in accordance with some implementations of the disclosed subject matter.", "[0024] FIG. 4 shows an example of an illustrative system suitable for implementation of the mechanisms described herein for controlling a bi-directional HDMI port in accordance with some implementations of the disclosed subject matter.", "[0025] FIG. 5 shows an example of a process for controlling a bi-directional HDMI port in accordance with some implementations of the disclosed subject matter.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0026] In accordance with various implementations, mechanisms which include methods, media and systems for controlling a bi-directional HDMI port are provided.", "[0027] In some implementations, the mechanisms described herein can be used to determine that a bi-directional HDMI port outputs data or inputs data and is connected to either an HDMI sink device (e.g., a receiver of audio and/or video data such as an A/V receiver, monitors, entertainment systems, television sets, speakers, headphones etc.), an HDMI source device (e.g., a source of audio and/or video data such as a set-top box, a digital media receiver, an optical media player, etc.), and/or a device with another bi-directional HDMI port.", "Additionally, the device that includes the bi-directional HDMI port can be set to act as an HDMI source and/or an HDMI sink based on the determination that the HDMI port is connected to an HDMI sink and/or an HDMI source.", "[0028] In some implementations, the bi-directional HDMI port can be used in a device that can act as an HDMI sink during a first period of time and an HDMI source during a second period of time.", "For example, the HDMI port can be used in a device, such as a personal computer, a general purpose computer, a server, a mobile phone, a tablet and/or any suitable device that can act as a source and/or a sink.", "In some such implementations, the HDMI port can prompt the device to request a user to set the HDMI device as a source or a sink.", "As a further example, in some implementations, a personal computer with a bi-directional HDMI port connected to the output data port of a set-box acts as a sink device and a personal computer with a bi-directional HDMI port connected to the input data port of a monitor acts as a source device.", "[0029] FIG. 1A shows an example 100 of a circuit with a bi-directional HDMI port connected to an HDMI source device in accordance with some implementations of the disclosed subject matter.", "As shown in FIG. 1A , a bi-directional HDMI port 130 in an HDMI device is connected to a source HDMI port 132 of a source device.", "In some such implementations, source HDMI port 132 can be connected to HDMI port 130 using an HDMI connector 122 that includes a number of pins.", "For example, HDMI port 132 of a source device can include line 124 that carries a power supply voltage, and can be electrically coupled to pin 18 of a type A HDMI port or any other suitable pin and/or combination of pins in any suitable type of port.", "As another example, line 126 of HDMI port 132 of a source device can receive a voltage from a corresponding pin of a connector 118 of bi-directional HDMI port 130 .", "The voltage received on line 126 can be used to determine whether HDMI port 132 is connected to an HDMI sink by acting as a Hot-Plug Detection (HPD) line.", "[0030] In some implementations, HDMI port 132 of a source device can include a resistor 128 with a first side coupled to line 126 of HDMI port 132 and a second side coupled to ground.", "[0031] In some implementations, bi-directional HDMI port 130 can include a number of pins that correspond to HDMI connector 118 .", "For example, bi-directional HDMI port 130 of an HDMI device can include line 114 that carries a power supply voltage, such as pin 18 of a type A HDMI port or any other suitable pin and/or combination of pins in any suitable type of port.", "As another example, bi-directional HDMI port 130 can include line 116 that can provide a voltage to a corresponding pin of connector 122 and can be used when HDMI port 130 is connected to an HDMI source by acting as a Hot-Plug Detection (HPD) line.", "[0032] In some implementations, bi-directional HDMI port 130 can include a resistor 120 with a first side coupled to line 116 of HDMI port 130 and a second side coupled to ground.", "[0033] In some such implementations, HDMI port 130 can include switch 112 having a first side connected to line 114 and a second side connected to line 116 .", "[0034] In some implementations, bi-directional HDMI port 130 can include a voltage power source 102 coupled to the first side of switch 112 .", "For example, a voltage power source that produces a DC voltage of +5 Volts can be connected to switch 112 .", "When switch 112 is closed, voltage supplied by voltage source 102 can be present at line 116 and can be measured at point 108 , for example.", "In some implementations, switch 112 can be any suitable circuitry for determining the flow of current throughout the circuit, such as a relay, a mechanical switch, a MOSFET switch, and/or any other suitable component.", "[0035] In some implementations, bi-directional HDMI port 130 can be controlled based on voltage measurements at points 104 , 106 , and/or 108 .", "For example, to determine whether bi-directional HDMI port 130 is to be set as a sink or a source, a hardware processor and/or any other suitable logic or circuit can use measurements of a voltage difference between points 104 and 106 and/or points 104 and 108 .", "[0036] FIG. 1B shows examples of waveforms corresponding to voltage measurements at points 104 , 106 , and 108 and measurements of voltage differences between point 104 and point 106 (labeled as ( 104 )-( 106 )) and point 104 and point 108 (labeled as ( 104 )-( 108 )) when bi-directional HDMI port 130 is connected to port 132 in an HDMI source device.", "For example, waveform 140 shows a voltage at point 104 for different periods of time.", "In some such implementations, a voltage at point 106 , through diode 110 , can be applied to a voltage at point 104 (e.g., 1 Hertz pulse signal at 3.3 Volts) and as such without another voltage being applied to point 104 , the voltage can be the same as voltage at point 106 .", "When port 132 is an active source, a voltage power supply of +5 Volts supplied by line 124 of HDMI port 132 can be transmitted via an HDMI cable and/or any other suitable connection between port 132 and connector 118 and can be reflected in the voltage at line 114 and point 104 of bi-directional HDMI port 130 , as shown in waveform 140 after time t 2 .", "[0037] An example of a waveform 150 shows a voltage at point 106 in accordance with some implementations of the disclosed subject matter.", "For example, a voltage at point 106 can be a 3.3 Volts pulse signal with a 1 Hertz frequency generated by a signal generator coupled to point 106 .", "[0038] An example of a waveform 160 shows a voltage at point 108 in accordance with some implementations of the disclosed subject matter.", "In some implementations, the voltage at point 108 can be at zero while switch 112 is open (e.g., before “CLOSE SW”", "at time t 3 of FIG. 1B ).", "When switch 112 is closed, a voltage at point 108 can correspond to a voltage from line 124 arriving at line 114 .", "For example, when switch 112 is closed, the voltage measured at 108 can be +5 Volts.", "[0039] An example of a waveform 170 shows a voltage difference between point 104 and point 106 (labeled as ( 104 )-( 106 )) in accordance with some implementations of the disclosed subject matter.", "In some implementations, the voltage difference can be zero when bi-directional HDMI port 130 is not connected to another HDMI port or while connected, for example, using an HDMI cable, to an HDMI source device that is turned off (e.g., before “SOURCE TURNED ON”", "at time t 2 of FIG. 1B ).", "When the source device is turned on and HDMI port 132 is an active source, a voltage difference between point 104 and point 106 can correspond to the difference between a voltage from line 124 arriving at line 114 and a voltage from a signal generator received at point 106 .", "For example, when switch 112 is closed, the voltage difference between point 104 and point 106 can be a pulse signal with a low amplitude of 1.7 Volts, corresponding to when point 106 is 3.3 Volts, a high amplitude of 5 Volts corresponding to when 106 is 0 Volts, and a frequency of 1 Hertz.", "[0040] An example of a waveform 180 shows a voltage difference between point 104 and point 108 in accordance with some implementations of the disclosed subject matter.", "In some implementations, a voltage difference between point 104 and point 108 can correspond to the voltage measurement at point 104 while HDMI port 130 is connected to a source device, but the device is turned off (e.g., before “SOURCE TURNED ON”", "at time t 2 of FIG. 1B ).", "When switch 112 is closed, a voltage difference between point 104 and point 108 can correspond to the difference between a voltage from line 124 arriving at line 114 and a voltage at point 104 .", "For example, when switch 112 is open and HDMI port 132 is acting as a source while source device is turned on (e.g., after “SOURCE TURNED ON”", "at time t 2 of FIG. 1B ), a voltage difference between point 104 and point 106 can be a signal with an amplitude of +5 Volts (e.g., a DC voltage of +5 Volts).", "As another example, when switch 112 is closed (e.g., after “CLOSE SW”", "at time t 3 of FIG. 1B ), the voltage difference between point 104 and point 106 can be 0 Volts, as switch 112 provides a short between point 104 and point 106 .", "[0041] In some implementations, as described below in connection with process 500 of FIG. 5 , a determination can be made that bi-directional HDMI port 130 is connected to a source device based on a voltage difference shown in waveform 170 and/or a voltage difference shown in waveform 180 when the device is turned on (e.g., after “SOURCE TURNED ON”", "at time t 2 of FIG. 1B ).", "For example, in some implementations, waveform 170 during a period of time (e.g., “T 1 ”", "at 170 ) can be a pulse signal with a low amplitude of 1.7 Volts and a high amplitude of 5 Volts, with a frequency of 1 Hertz, and waveform 180 during the same period of time can be a signal with an amplitude of +5 Volts.", "[0042] FIG. 2A shows an example 200 of a circuit with a bi-directional HDMI port connected to an HDMI sink device, in accordance with some implementations of the disclosed subject matter.", "As shown in FIG. 2A , a bi-directional HDMI port 130 in an HDMI device is connected to an HDMI port 202 of a sink device.", "In some such implementations, HDMI port 202 can be connected to HDMI port 130 using an HDMI connector 222 that includes a number of pins.", "For example, HDMI port 202 of a sink device can include line 224 that can receive a voltage power supply from line 114 of a connector 118 , such as pin 18 of a type A HDMI port or any other suitable pin and/or combination of pins in any suitable type of port.", "As another example, HDMI port 202 can include line 226 that can receive the voltage power supply from line 224 and can determine whether HDMI port 202 is connected to an HDMI source.", "[0043] In some implementations, HDMI port 202 of a sink device can include a resistor 204 with a first side coupled to line 224 and a second side coupled to line 226 of HDMI port 202 .", "[0044] In some implementations, as described above in connection with FIG. 1A , bi-directional HDMI port 130 can be controlled based on voltage measurements at points 104 , 106 , and/or 108 .", "[0045] FIG. 2B shows examples of waveforms corresponding to voltage measurements at points 104 , 106 , 108 and measurements of voltage differences between point 104 and point 106 (labeled as ( 104 )-( 106 )) and point 104 and point 108 (labeled as ( 104 )-( 108 )) when bi-directional HDMI port 130 is connected to HDMI sink port 202 in an HDMI sink device using an HDMI cable.", "For example, waveform 210 shows a voltage at point 104 for different periods of time.", "In particular, in some implementations, HDMI ports 130 and 202 can be connected or disconnected.", "In some such implementations, a voltage at point 104 can correspond to a voltage at point 106 (e.g., 1 Hertz pulse signal at 3.3.", "Volts) that passes through diode 110 (e.g., at least before “TURN ON +5V”", "at t 3 of FIG. 2B ).", "For example, when HDMI sink port 202 is connected, a voltage power supply of +5 Volts can be generated at 102 of HDMI port 130 and can be applied to point 104 of bi-directional HDMI port 130 , as shown in 210 .", "[0046] An example of a waveform 220 shows a voltage at point 106 in accordance with some implementations of the disclosed subject matter.", "In some implementations, for example, a voltage at point 106 can be a 3.3 Volts pulse signal with a 1 Hertz frequency generated by a signal generator coupled to point 106 .", "[0047] An example of a waveform 230 shows a voltage at point 108 in accordance with some implementations of the disclosed subject matter.", "In some implementations, a voltage at point 108 can be zero until HDMI sink port 202 of a sink device is plugged in (e.g., before “HDMI SINK CONNECTED”", "at t 1 of FIG. 2B ).", "For example, when the HDMI sink port 202 is plugged in and a voltage from power supply 102 is not applied to 104 , a voltage at point 108 can correspond to voltages at point 104 and point 106 .", "In some implementations, in particular, when HDMI sink port 202 is plugged in, and a voltage from power supply 102 is not applied to 104 , the pulse signal generated at point 104 (e.g., a 1 Hertz pulse signal at 3.3 Volts) can be transmitted via line 114 to connector 222 and then back to point 108 via line 116 .", "In some such implementations, voltage power supply 102 can be turned on (e.g., at “TURN ON +5V”", "at t 3 of FIG. 2B ) and the voltage at point 108 can be +5 Volts.", "[0048] An example of a waveform 240 shows a voltage difference between point 104 and point 106 in accordance with some implementations of the disclosed subject matter.", "In some implementations, measurements of the voltage difference can be zero until voltage power supply 102 is turned on (e.g., at “TURN ON +5V”", "at t 3 of FIG. 2B ) and the voltage difference between point 104 and point 106 can correspond to a difference between voltages from line 114 and voltage from a signal generator coupled to point 106 .", "For example, when voltage power supply 102 is turned on, the voltage difference measured between point 104 and point 106 can be a pulse signal with a low amplitude of 1.7 Volts corresponding to when voltage at point 106 is 3.3 Volts, a high amplitude of +5 Volts corresponding to when voltage at point 106 is 0 Volts, and a frequency of 1 Hertz.", "[0049] An example of a waveform 250 shows a voltage difference between point 104 and point 108 in accordance with some implementations of the disclosed subject matter.", "In some implementations, measurements of the voltage difference can correspond to a voltage at point 104 when HDMI sink port 202 is not plugged in to HDMI port 130 via a cable and/or any other suitable connector (e.g., before “HDMI SINK CONNECTED”", "at t 1 of FIG. 2B ).", "When the HDMI sink port 202 is plugged in, measurements of the voltage difference between point 104 and point 108 can correspond to the difference between voltages from line 114 that arrive at point 108 via lines 224 , 226 , and voltage at point 104 .", "For example, when the HDMI sink port 202 is connected through a cable to HDMI port 130 and the voltage power supply is turned on (e.g., “TURN ON +5V”", "at t 3 of FIG. 2B ) the voltage difference measured between point 104 and point 106 can be a signal with an amplitude of 0 Volts.", "[0050] In some implementations, as described below in connection with process 500 of FIG. 5 , a determination can be made that bi-directional HDMI port 130 is connected to a sink device based on a voltage difference shown in waveform 240 and/or a voltage difference shown in waveform 250 when the HDMI sink port 202 is plugged in to HDMI port 130 via a cable (e.g., “HDMI SINK CONNECTED”", "at t 3 of FIG. 2B ).", "For example, in some implementations, waveform 240 during a period of time (e.g., “T 1 ”", "at 240 ) can be a signal with an amplitude of 0 Volts and waveform 250 during the same period of time can be a signal with an amplitude of 0 Volts.", "[0051] FIG. 3A shows an example 300 of a circuit with a first bi-directional HDMI port connected to a second bi-directional HDMI port in accordance with some implementations of the disclosed subject matter.", "As shown in FIG. 3A , a first bi-directional HDMI port 130 in a first HDMI device is electrically coupled to a second bi-directional HDMI port 130 - 1 in a second HDMI device.", "In some such implementations, first bi-directional HDMI port 130 is connected to second bi-directional HDMI port 130 - 1 using an HDMI cable and/or any other suitable connection, where first HDMI port 130 can include a connector 118 including a number of pins.", "[0052] FIG. 3B shows examples of waveforms corresponding to voltages at points 104 , 104 - 1 , 106 and 106 - 1 of bi-directional HDMI ports 130 and 130 - 1 .", "Also, FIG. 3B shows waveforms of measurements of voltage differences between point 104 and point 106 (labeled as ( 104 )-( 106 )) and point 104 and point 108 (labeled as ( 104 )-( 108 )) when a first bi-directional HDMI port 130 is connected to a second bi-directional HDMI port 130 - 1 that can be active as a sink at one time and a source at another time.", "For example, waveform 310 shows a voltage at point 106 for different periods of time.", "In some implementations, a voltage at point 106 corresponds to a generated pulse signal received at point 106 (e.g., 1 Hertz pulse signal at 3.3 Volts).", "[0053] An example of a waveform 320 shows a voltage at point 106 - 1 of bi-directional HDMI port 130 - 1 in accordance with some implementations of the disclosed subject matter.", "In some implementations, for example, a voltage at point 106 - 1 can be a 3.3 Volts pulse signal with a 1 Hertz frequency generated by a signal generator coupled to point 106 - 1 and that starts at a different time than waveform 310 (e.g., that has a different phase from waveform 310 ).", "[0054] An example of a waveform 330 shows a voltage at point 104 and point 104 - 1 in accordance with some implementations of the disclosed subject matter.", "In some implementations, points 104 and 104 - 1 can have a common voltage beginning when bi-directional HDMI ports 130 and 130 - 1 are connected (e.g., after “PORTS CONNECTED”", "at t 1 of FIG. 3B ).", "For example, voltage from point 106 can be received at both points 104 and 104 - 1 through lines 114 and 114 - 1 and similarly voltage from point 106 - 1 can be received at both points 104 and 104 - 1 using the same lines.", "In some such implementations, for example, a voltage at points 104 and 104 - 1 can correspond to a sum of pulse signals at point 106 and point 106 - 1 , resulting in a signal at points 104 and 104 - 1 that may have a different frequency, pulse width and/or duty cycle than the signal at point 106 and the signal at point 106 - 1 .", "[0055] An example of a waveform 340 shows a voltage difference between point 104 and point 106 (labeled as ( 104 )-( 106 )) in accordance with some implementations of the disclosed subject matter.", "In some implementations, measurements of a voltage difference can be zero while bi-directional HDMI ports 130 and 130 - 1 are not connected (e.g., before “PORTS CONNECTED”", "at t 1 of FIG. 3B ).", "For example, when bi-directional HDMI ports 130 and 130 - 1 are connected, the measurements of voltage difference between point 104 and point 106 can be a pulse signal at 3.3 Volts with a different a different frequency, pulse width and/or duty cycle to the one generated by a signal generator and received at point 106 .", "[0056] An example of a waveform 350 shows a voltage difference between point 104 and point 108 (labeled as ( 104 )-( 108 )) in accordance with some implementations of the disclosed subject matter.", "In some implementations, measurements of the voltage difference can correspond to a voltage at point 106 while bi-directional HDMI ports 130 and 130 - 1 are not connected (e.g., before “PORTS CONNECTED”", "at t 1 of FIG. 3B ).", "For example, in some implementations, the voltage difference measured between point 104 and point 106 can be a signal corresponding to the waveform shown at 330 .", "[0057] In some implementations, as described below in connection with process 500 of FIG. 5 , a determination that a first bi-directional HDMI port 130 is connected to a second bi-directional HDMI port 130 - 1 can be based on a voltage shown in waveform 340 and/or a voltage shown in waveform 350 while bi-directional HDMI ports 130 and 130 - 1 are connected (e.g., after “PORTS CONNECTED”", "at t 1 of FIG. 3B ).", "For example, in some implementations, the comparison of waveforms 340 and 350 during a period of time (e.g., “T 1 ”", "at 340 ) can be pulse signals each having an amplitude of 3.3 Volts, but at different frequencies, pulse widths, and/or duty cycles.", "[0058] Mechanisms for controlling a bi-directional HDMI port can be implemented using any suitable hardware in some implementations.", "For example, in some implementations, comparing the first voltage to the second voltage and determining based on the comparison that the HDMI device is connected to an HDMI source and/or sink can be implemented using any suitable general purpose computer or special purpose computer and/or server.", "In a more particular example, a bi-directional HDMI port can be included in a mobile device (e.g., mobile phone, tablet etc.) and may be controlled using a special purpose computer that includes a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA).", "In yet another example, a bi-directional HDMI port can be included in a mobile device and may be controlled using a general purpose computer that includes a Central Processing Unit (CPU).", "Any such special purpose computer or general purpose computer can include any suitable hardware.", "For example, as illustrated in example hardware 400 of FIG. 4 , such hardware can include hardware processor 402 , memory and/or storage 404 , an input device controller 406 , an input device 408 , display/audio drivers 410 , display and audio output circuitry 412 , communication interface(s) 414 , an antenna 416 , a bus 418 , and a bi-directional HDMI port 420 .", "[0059] In some implementations, hardware processor 402 can include any suitable hardware processor, such as a microprocessor, a micro-controller, digital signal processor(s), dedicated logic, and/or any other suitable circuitry for controlling the functioning of a general purpose computer or a special purpose computer.", "In some implementations, hardware processor 402 can be controlled by a computer program stored in memory and/or storage 404 .", "For example, the computer program can cause hardware processor 402 to determine whether a bi-directional HDMI port is connected to another HDMI port, determine whether the port is electrically coupled to an HDMI sink, an HDMI source, or another bi-directional HDMI port, cause the device having the bi-directional HDMI port to be set as a source and/or sink, and/or perform any other suitable actions.", "As another example, the computer program can cause hardware processor 402 to request that a user to set a device that includes a bi-directional HDMI port as a source and/or a sink based on instructions associated with a comparison of voltage differences at connector 118 , and/or perform any other suitable actions.", "[0060] Memory and/or storage 404 can be any suitable memory and/or storage for storing programs, data, and/or any other suitable information in some implementations.", "For example, memory and/or storage 404 can include random access memory, read-only memory, flash memory, hard disk storage, optical media, and/or any other suitable computer-readable medium.", "[0061] Input device controller 406 can be any suitable circuitry for controlling and/or receiving input from one or more input devices 408 in some implementations.", "For example, input device controller 406 can be circuitry for receiving input from: a touch screen;", "one or more buttons;", "a computer mouse;", "a remote control;", "a computer keyboard;", "a voice recognition circuit;", "a microphone;", "a camera;", "an optical sensor;", "an accelerometer;", "a temperature sensor;", "a near field communication sensor, and/or any other type of input device.", "[0062] Display/audio drivers 410 can be any suitable circuitry for controlling and/or driving output to one or more display/audio output circuitries 412 in some implementations.", "For example, display/audio drivers 410 can be circuitry for driving an LCD display, one or more speakers and/or audio outputs, an LED, or any other type of output device.", "[0063] Communication interface(s) 414 can be any suitable circuitry for interfacing with one or more communication networks.", "For example, interface(s) 414 can include network interface card circuitry, wireless communication circuitry, and/or any other suitable type of communication network circuitry.", "[0064] Antenna 416 can be any suitable one or more antennas for wirelessly communicating with a communication network in some implementations.", "In some implementations, antenna 416 can be omitted when not needed.", "[0065] Bus 418 can be any suitable mechanism for communicating between two or more components 402 , 404 , 406 , 410 , and 414 in some implementations.", "[0066] Bi-directional port 420 can be any suitable circuitry for communicating with a device through an HDMI connection for transmitting and/or receiving audio content and/or video content, and/or any other suitable content or instructions.", "For example, bi-directional port 420 can include any suitable HDMI circuitry (e.g., for receiving audio and/or video, receiving and/or sending CEC messages, etc.).", "In some implementations, hardware processor 402 can send and receive data through bi-directional port 420 or any other communication links using, for example, a transmitter, receiver, transmitter/receiver, transceiver, or any other suitable communication device.", "As another example, bi-directional port 420 can be connected to another bi-directional port and send request data to hardware processor 402 for a user to set the device as an HDMI sink or a source.", "Hardware processor 402 can retrieve data such as a user interface from memory and/or storage 404 and present the information to a user through a display and audio output 412 .", "[0067] Any other suitable components can be included in hardware 400 in accordance with some implementations.", "[0068] FIG. 5 shows an example 500 of a process for controlling a bi-directional HDMI port (such as bi-directional HDMI port 130 as described above) in accordance with some implementations of the disclosed subject matter.", "Process 500 can detect that bi-directional HDMI port 420 is connected to another device, determine voltage differences between pins in connector 118 , compare the voltage differences, and cause the device to be set as a source or a sink based on the comparison.", "Process 500 can be executed by any suitable device in some implementations, such as a general purpose computer, a portable computer, a tablet computer, and/or a mobile phone, in some implementations.", "As shown, at 502 , process 500 can begin when bi-directional HDMI port 420 is connected, for example, using an HDMI cable to an HDMI port of a sink, an HDMI port of a source, a bi-directional HDMI port of a sink/source, and/or any other suitable device.", "[0069] At 504 , process 500 can cause a 3.3 Volts pulse signal with a frequency of 1 Hertz to be generated.", "For example, in some implementations a signal generator can be coupled to point 106 .", "Any suitable technique or combination of techniques can be used to generate the pulse signal.", "[0070] At 506 , process 500 can detect voltage differences at points 104 and 106 and points 104 and 108 in the circuit of bi-directional HDMI port 130 as shown in and described in connection with FIGS. 1A-1C .", "In some implementations, process 500 can use any suitable technique or combinations of techniques to detect the voltages and/or voltage differences.", "For example, detection of the voltage can be done using any suitable voltage detector, such as a CMOS voltage detector, a comparator, and/or a non-contact voltage detector.", "[0071] At 508 , process 500 can determine whether bi-directional HDMI port 130 is connected to an HDMI connector and/or any other suitable connector and/or that a previously detected connection is no longer detected.", "Process 500 can detect a connection based on the values of the voltage differences ( 104 )-( 106 ) and ( 104 )-( 108 ) and the voltage at point 106 .", "[0072] If process 500 determines, at 508 , that the voltage difference ( 104 )-( 106 ) is 0 Volts and that the voltage difference ( 104 )-( 108 ) has the same frequency as the voltage at point 106 (“NO”", "at 508 ) then process 500 can determine that bi-directional HDMI port 420 is not connected to a device such as an HDMI source and/or sink.", "Process 500 can return to 502 where bi-directional HDMI port 420 can connect using an HDMI cable or other suitable connection to an HDMI port of a sink, an HDMI port of a source, a bi-directional HDMI port of a sink/source, and/or any other suitable device.", "[0073] Otherwise, if process 500 determines at 508 that a connection is detected (“YES at 508 ”), process 500 can proceed to 510 and determine whether voltage differences between points 104 and 106 and points 104 and 108 in the circuit of bi-directional HDMI port 130 is 0 Volts during a period of time (e.g., period T 1 of FIGS. 1B, 2B, and 3B ) after the connection is established.", "[0074] If process 500 determines at 510 that the voltage difference between points 104 and 106 and points 104 and 108 during period of time T 1 is 0 Volts (“YES”", "at 512 ), process 500 can set the device that includes the bi-directional HDMI port to act as a source using any suitable hardware, firmware and/or software at 512 .", "For example, in some implementations, hardware processor 402 can retrieve instructions from memory and/or storage 404 that can cause audio data and/or video data to be transmitted by HDMI port 420 of the device executing process 500 .", "As another example, hardware processor 402 can execute instructions to disable display and/or audio output because the audio data and/or video data that would be presented is not being presented by the same device.", "[0075] Process 500 can return to 506 from setting the device as a source at 512 in order to determine if the device continues to be connected to a sink using bi-directional HDMI port 420 .", "For example, in some implementations, as long as voltage difference ( 104 )-( 106 ) is a pulse signal with a high value of 5 Volts and a low value of 1.7 Volts and voltage difference ( 104 )-( 108 ) is at 0 Volts, process 500 can determine that the source device continues to be detected as connected to a sink using bi-directional HDMI port 420 and process 500 can return to 506 .", "Otherwise, if different values are detected, process 500 can determine that the device is no longer connected to a sink and can return to 506 to determine whether another connection is detected.", "[0076] Otherwise, if process 500 determines at 510 that the voltage differences between points 104 and 106 and points 104 and 108 during the period of time T 1 in the circuit of bi-directional HDMI port 130 is not 0 Volts (“NO”", "at 510 ), process 500 can proceed to 514 .", "[0077] Process 500 can proceed to 514 and determine whether a voltage difference between points 104 and 106 is a pulse with a high value at 5 Volts and a low value at 1.7 Volts in the circuit of bi-directional HDMI port 130 and voltage difference between points 104 and 108 is 5 Volts during a period of time T 1 beginning when an HDMI sink cable is plugged in.", "[0078] If process 500 determines at 514 that the voltage difference between points 104 and 106 is a pulse with a high value at 5 Volts and a low value at 1.7 Volts and the voltage difference between points 104 and 108 is 5 Volts (“YES”", "at 514 ), process 500 can set the device that includes the bi-directional HDMI port to act as a sink device at 516 .", "The device can be set using any suitable hardware, firmware and/or software.", "For example, in some implementations, hardware processor 402 can retrieve instructions from memory and/or storage 404 that can disable certain communication interfaces because the audio data and/or video data that would be presented is being presented by the same device.", "[0079] Process 500 can return to 506 from setting the device as a sink at 516 in order to determine if the device continues to be connected to a source using bi-directional HDMI port 420 .", "For example, in some implementations, as long as voltage difference ( 104 )-( 106 ) is a pulse signal with a high value of 3.3 Volts and a low value of 1.7 Volts and voltage difference ( 104 )-( 108 ) is at 0 Volts, process 500 can determine that the device can continue to be detected as connected to a source using bi-directional HDMI port 420 and process 500 can return to 506 .", "Otherwise, if different values are detected, process 500 can determine that the device is no longer connected to a source and can return to 506 to determine whether another connection is detected [0080] Otherwise, if process 500 determines at 514 that the voltage difference between points 104 and 106 is not a pulse with a high value at 5 Volts and a low value at 1.7 Volts and the voltage difference between point 104 and point 108 during a period of time T 1 in the circuit of bi-directional HDMI port 130 is not 5 Volts (“NO”", "at 514 ), process 500 can proceed to 518 and request that a user set the device to act as a sink or a source.", "In some implementations, for example, a user can be prompted by a user interface to input a selection for a device using any suitable input device, select a position of a mechanical switch, and/or in any other suitable manner.", "Upon selection of whether to set the device including bi-directional HDMI port 420 as a sink or source device at 520 , process 500 can set the bi-directional HDMI port to act as a sink or a source based on the selection and then proceed to return to 506 to determine whether bi-directional HDMI port 130 is connected to an HDMI connector and/or any other suitable connector.", "[0081] In some implementations, any suitable computer readable media can be used for storing instructions for performing the functions and/or processes described herein.", "For example, in some implementations, computer readable media can be transitory or non-transitory.", "For example, non-transitory computer readable media can include media such as magnetic media (such as hard disks, floppy disks, etc.), optical media (such as compact discs, digital video discs, Blu-ray discs, etc.), semiconductor media (such as flash memory, electrically programmable read only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM), etc.), any suitable media that is not fleeting or devoid of any semblance of permanence during transmission, and/or any suitable tangible media.", "As another example, transitory computer readable media can include signals on networks, in wires, conductors, optical fibers, circuits, and any suitable media that is fleeting and devoid of any semblance of permanence during transmission, and/or any suitable intangible media.", "[0082] It should be understood that the above described steps of the process of FIG. 5 can be executed or performed in any order or sequence not limited to the order and sequence shown and described in the figures.", "Also, some of the above steps of the process of FIG. 5 can be executed or performed substantially simultaneously where appropriate or in parallel to reduce latency and processing times.", "[0083] It should be noted that, as used herein, voltages and measurements of voltage differences are approximate values and may vary slightly in a device.", "The voltages and voltage differences, used herein, are merely given as examples, and any suitable value, or any suitable combination of values can be used with the mechanisms described herein.", "[0084] It should also be noted that, as used herein, the term mechanism can encompass hardware, software, firmware, or any suitable combination thereof [0085] Accordingly, methods, systems, and media for controlling a bi-directional HDMI port are provided.", "[0086] Although the invention has been described and illustrated in the foregoing illustrative implementations, it is understood that the present disclosure has been made only by way of example, and that numerous changes in the details of implementation of the invention can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, which is limited only by the claims that follow.", "Features of the disclosed implementations can be combined and rearranged in various ways." ]

[ "This is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 09/093,459, filed June 8, 1998, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,110,373, which in turn is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 09/047,648 filed Mar. 25, 1998, now abandoned.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Field of the Invention The present invention relates to the separation of oxides of heavy isotopes of hydrogen, and in particular to a process and apparatus for separating deuterium oxide (HDO, D 2 O), tritium oxide (HTO, T 2 O) and oxides of deuterium and tritium (DTO) from light water (H 2 O) contaminated with heavy isotopes of water.", "In addition, this process addresses separation of heavy water isotopes, e.g. DTO from D 2 O, and HTO from D 2 O. Separation is effected by passing the contaminated water through a molecular separation material containing hydration sites, i.e., sites with associated waters of hydration.", "The heavy isotopic water is held at higher concentrations within the waters of hydration than in the contaminated water thus providing a separation effect.", "Heavy isotopic water can also replace adsorbed light water.", "Separation of the isotope molecules may also be effected with a separation membrane that selectively allows passage of light water molecules in preference to the other heavy isotope molecules.", "These two procedures may also be combined.", "Description of the Prior Art Nuclear power plants must routinely deal with the replacement and disposal of contaminated water taken from the core reactor that is laden with heavy isotopes of hydrogen, namely deuterium oxides, tritium oxides and deuterium-tritium oxides.", "Tritium in particular is highly radioactive having a half-life of about twelve and one half years emitting beta rays to form helium.", "Periodically, the contaminated water from nuclear reactors must be replaced.", "It has become industry practice of dispose of the old contaminated water by simply dispersing it over adjacent ground areas or evaporating the contaminated water into the atmosphere.", "This is stressful to the environment as the deuterium oxides and tritium oxides are now known to have contaminated ground water sources.", "One alternative is to sequester contaminated water in concrete at a considerable expense.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with the present invention, a process and related apparatus are described for separating deuterium oxide (HDO, D 2 O) and tritium oxide (HTO, T 2 O), i.e. heavy water and tritiated water, and deuterium-tritium oxides, from waste water.", "As used herein, water molecules of the formula H 2 O will be referred to as light water molecules, or simply water molecules, while water molecules in which one or both of the hydrogen atoms have been replaced by one of these hydrogen isotopes will be referred to as isotope water molecules or isotope molecules.", "In the described process, a portion of the isotope water molecules are removed from contaminated water, i.e., water containing a small amount of isotope water molecules, through selective adsorption by contacting the contaminated water with a molecular separation material containing hydration sites carrying one or more associated waters of hydration.", "In the process, isotope water molecules present in the contaminated water selectively replace a portion of the waters of hydration associated with the hydration sites.", "The molecular separation material can then be separated from the water, reducing the percentage of isotope molecules in the water.", "After separation, the molecular separation material can be regenerated by removing the isotope molecules for long-term storage, and reused repeatedly to separate isotope molecules.", "In order to improve the efficiency of the selective adsorption process, the percentage of isotope molecules in the contaminated water can be increased, thereby increasing the exposure of isotope molecules to hydration sites, by removing a portion of the light water molecules, before or during the selective adsorption, by bringing the contaminated water into contact with a porous film or membrane that exhibits a greater permeability for light water molecules than for the larger isotope molecules.", "For some purposes, adequate separation may be effected through membrane separation alone.", "THE MOLECULAR SEPARATION MATERIAL Generally, the molecular separation material of the present invention is comprised of a support medium having a plurality of hydration sites, i.e., sites with associated waters of hydration.", "The effectiveness of the molecular separation material is determined by the number of hydration sites exposed to the contaminated water, and to the number of waters of hydration at each site.", "The support medium used to carry the hydration sites is not critical to the invention so long as exposure of the contaminated water to numerous sites containing multiple waters of hydration is provided.", "In general, this objective is preferably achievable with a high surface area support medium having a plurality of hydration attachment sites.", "The support medium or medium may be, for example, a polymer, such as polystyrene/divinyl benzene (PSDVB), or polyacrylic/divinyl benzene (PADVB).", "These polymers are commonly used as supports in ion exchange resins in the preparation of ion exchange resins.", "The polymer may be functionalized for example, by being sulfonated or phosphonated to provide the sites for attachment of metal or other cations with the required associated waters of hydration.", "Both strong and weak acid resins have been shown to be effective.", "It is important to note that the present invention involves the preferential adsorption or substitution of the waters of hydration associated with the hydration sites, and not the replacement of the cation or anion as is normally practiced in using this type of resin.", "Thus, while the resins employed are referred to in some instances as ion exchange resins, since this is the purpose for which they are commonly employed, their function in the present invention is to facilitate molecular exchange of isotope water molecules with the associated light water molecules attached to the hydration sites.", "Also, while the present invention will be exemplified by the use of the above resins, it will also become apparent that other materials having a large surface area and hydration sites can be used.", "That is, the present invention involves the interaction between the hydration sites and the isotope molecules, in which one or more light water molecules initially associated with a hydration site are replaced by isotope molecules in the contaminated water.", "Thus, the support medium serves essentially as a carrier for the hydration sites.", "Thus, various high surface area materials can be used, so long as they are water insoluble and provide a large number of accessible hydration sites.", "For example, the support medium can be other kinds of synthetic polymers, or natural materials, such as zeolites, aluminas, silicas, etc.", "Each hydration site will have at least one, and preferably from about 7 to about 25 waters of hydration and even higher up to almost 50 waters of hydration.", "Various molecules that form associations with water molecules, i.e., waters of hydration can be used in the present invention.", "The cationic portion of the hydration site may be non-metallic, e.g., an ammonium cation (NH 4 + ), or a metallic cation.", "Of the metal cations, aluminum is especially suitable due to the large number of waters of hydration associated with aluminum salts.", "However, other cations, such as sodium, magnesium, copper, zinc, cobalt, iron, nickel, manganese, potassium or chromium can also be employed.", "Depending upon the structure of the support and the manner of its production, the anionic portion of the hydration site molecule can include nitrates, sulfates, chlorides, acrylates, hydroxides, or phosphates.", "Moreover, a broad array of physical constants for inorganic compounds having varying waters of hydration are to be found in reference handbooks such as Handbook of Chemistry N. A. Lange, Ph.D. Revised 10th Edition, or CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics , D. R. Lide, Ph.D., 77th Edition.", "The molecular separation material may be in various physical forms, so long as a large surface area with hydration sites is exposed to the contaminated water.", "For ease of manufacture and subsequent regeneration, and the availability of a large surface area, the molecular separation material is preferably in the particulate form.", ", e.g. beads of from about 15 mesh to about 400 mesh.", "Other physical forms, such as gels, can also be used.", "THE SEPARATION MEMBRANE Separation of the isotopes may also be effected with the use of a separation membrane, or a separation membrane may be used simultaneously, or in sequence with selective adsorption.", "Suitable separation membranes have a porosity that is selective for light water molecules.", "That is, the membrane will allow a greater percentage of light water molecules than isotope water molecules to pass through the membrane when the contaminated water is placed against one side of the membrane.", "The separation membrane may be formed of various materials, such as cellulose acetate.", "Other suitable separation membrane materials will become apparent to one skilled in the use of such materials for molecular separation.", "When used, the waste or contaminated water is passed against one side of the membrane surface, causing light water molecules, and a relative small percentage of isotope water molecules to pass through the membrane wall.", "As a result, the percentage of isotope water in the remaining contaminated water is increased.", "Therefore, the membrane can be used alone to reduce the volume of the contaminated water for subsequent storage, or to concentrate the isotope for treatment with the above-described molecular separation material.", "The separation membrane may be positioned for contact with the contaminated water in various ways known to one skilled in the art of using separation membranes, so long as the contaminated water can be conveyed on one side of the membrane, with the light water molecules being permitted to pass through the membrane to the opposite side.", "Other conditions being the same, the permeation rate of the membrane is directly proportional to the surface area of membrane exposed to the contaminated water.", "A preferred configuration for purposes of the present invention is to use a separation membrane in the form of one or more hollow fibers, with the contaminated water being passed through the interior of these fibers.", "As a result, the light water molecules preferentially pass through the walls of the fibers to the exterior of the fibers for collection.", "The separation membrane may be used in combination with the above molecular separation material for sequential or simultaneous water treatment.", "For example, the contaminated water may be first exposed to the separation membrane to remove a portion of the light water, thereby concentrating the contaminated water stream.", "The concentrated stream can then be exposed to the molecular separation material, thereby increasing the effectiveness of the molecular separation, since the isotopes comprise a relatively higher percentage of the waste stream.", "Alternatively, the contaminated water may be simultaneously subjected to membrane and molecular separation.", "For example, the membrane can be in tubular form, e.g., lengths of hollow core fiber, and the molecular separation material can be packed into the interior of fiber or tube.", "The contaminated water can then be conveyed through lengths of the filled tube or hollow core fiber, discharging substantially purified water therefrom with the isotope water molecules, i.e., the oxides of heavy isotopes of hydrogen, being held or trapped within the tube or hollow core fiber for appropriate disposal or regeneration.", "Thus, in one embodiment of the invention, the heavy water or tritiated water content of a contaminated water stream is reduced by exposing the stream to a single elongated length or a bundle of hollow core fibers, each of which is at least partially filled or packed with beads of an exchange resin, or other molecular separation material.", "APPARATUS AND PROCESS The configuration of the apparatus used to practice the process of the invention will vary depending on whether the molecular separation material, the separation membrane, or both, are used.", "The exact nature of the apparatus will also depend upon the volume of water being treated, the manner of disposal of the water discharge streams, and whether or not the molecular separation material, if used, is to be regenerated.", "In general, however, the apparatus will include at least one separation chamber, a supply conduit for conveying contaminated water into the separation chamber from a supply source, and a first discharge conduit for removing treated contaminated water from the separation chamber.", "For example, when the molecular separation material is used alone, the apparatus may include a separation chamber to hold the molecular separation material, a conduit to feed contaminated water into the separation chamber from a supply source, and a discharge conduit for removing treated water from which a portion of the isotope molecules has been removed.", "Provision may also be made for periodic replacement of the molecular separation material.", "The apparatus may also include a means for regeneration of the molecular separation material to remove adsorbed isotope molecules and regular water molecules.", "For example, the loaded molecular separation material can be placed in a heated chamber to drive off the isotope molecules and the light water molecules by evaporation.", "This desorbed or dehydrated molecular separation material can then be used directly, or rehydrated with light water molecules prior to use.", "When the separation membrane is used alone, the apparatus will also include a separation chamber in which the contaminated water is passed on one side of the membrane.", "The apparatus will also include a supply conduit, a first discharge conduit for conveying the treated water passing through the membrane, and a second conduit for conveying the remaining concentrated water.", "When the separation membrane is in tubular form such as a hollow fiber, the first discharge conduit is in communication with the exterior of the tubes or fibers, while the second discharge conduit is in communication with the interior of the tubes or fibers.", "The two types of apparatus can be joined together for the combined treatment of the contaminated water with the molecular separation material and the separation membrane.", "For example, a supply conduit can convey water from a supply source to a first treatment chamber containing the separation membrane.", "Concentrated water from this first stage treatment can then be conveyed to a second separation chamber holding the molecular separation material.", "Thus, in one embodiment, the percentage of isotope water molecules in water is reduced by the steps of (a) conveying water containing a percentage of isotope molecules into contact with a molecular separation material having a plurality of hydration sites, (b) substituting or hydrating a portion of the waters of hydration with isotope water molecules, and (c) separating the molecular separation material with associated isotope waters of hydration from the contaminated water.", "In another embodiment of the invention, isotope water molecules in water is reduced by the steps of (a) conveying water containing a percentage of isotope molecules into engagement with one side of a permeable membrane, that allowing selective passage of light water molecules in preference to isotope water molecules, whereby light water molecules and a relatively minor percentage of isotope molecules pass through the membrane, and (b) collecting the concentrated water that did not pass through the membrane.", "In the combined process, isotope water molecules in water are reduced by the steps of (a) conveying water containing a percentage of isotope molecules into engagement with one side of a permeable membrane, that allowing selective passage of light water molecules in preference to isotope water molecules, whereby light water molecules and a relatively minor percentage of isotope molecules pass through the membrane, (b) conveying concentrated water that did not pass through the membrane into contact with a molecular separation material having a plurality of hydration sites, (c) substituting a portion of the waters of hydration with isotope water molecules, and (d) separating the molecular separation material with associated isotope waters of hydration from the contaminated water.", "Each of the above processes may include additional steps.", "For example, the first or combined process may further include the steps of (a) regenerating the molecular separation material to separate at least some waters of hydration, (b) collecting isotope water molecules separated from the molecular separation material, and (c) returning the regenerated molecular separation material, with or without rehydration, to the separation chamber.", "The present invention is presumed to be based upon a molecular exchange principle of either adsorption or selective adsorption to accomplish the experimental results reported herebelow.", "Although the co-inventors herein differ on the precise theory of the operation, it is understood that the test results below speak for themselves with respect to the efficacy of the various embodiments of the invention.", "OBJECTS OF INVENTION It is therefore an object of this invention to provide an environmentally safe alternative to the ground or air dispersion of water contaminated with heavy isotopes of hydrogen.", "It is yet another object of this invention to provide means for separating heavy isotopes of hydrogen from light water (H2 0 ) and tritiated water from heavy water.", "It is still another object of this invention to provide a commercially viable apparatus containing a bundle of filled hollow core fiber lengths in a housing for separating heavy isotopes of hydrogen, including tritium, from contaminated water and a method for regenerating said apparatus.", "It is another object of the invention to provide a process for separating isotope molecules from water by contacting the water with a molecular separation material that includes hydration sites with associated waters of hydration and methods of regenerating same for reuse.", "Another object of the invention is to provide a process for separating isotope molecules from water by concentrating the isotope molecules using a separation membrane, and contacting the concentrated water with a molecular separation material that includes cation sites with associated waters of hydration and regeneration thereof.", "In accordance with these and other objects, which will become apparent hereinafter, the instant invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a simplified schematic view of the apparatus 10 shown in FIG. 1B, enlargements of portions thereof shown in FIGS. 1A and 1C.", "FIG. 2 is a graphic summary or composite of the effectiveness of the invention in reducing the deuterium oxide level in contaminated water using a cross linked (X-L) ion exchange resin loaded with aluminum.", "FIG. 3 is a perspective schematic view depicting one aspect of the tritium and deuterium oxide separation process of the present invention, that being permeation through the walls of the hollow core fiber.", "FIGS. 4A, 4 B and 4 C show simplified schematic views of the invention depicting a resin particle selectively adsorbing heavy water isotopes, in this example HTO.", "The adsorption is selective in three instances, 4 A starting from a dry condition, 4 B starting from an initially prewet with pure water condition, 4 C in an intermediate condition where the resin has additional capacity to adsorb before saturation.", "FIG. 5 is a simplified example of a typical set of water contaminate adsorption curves with respect to both contaminant separation aspects or mechanisms of the present invention.", "FIG. 6 is a simplified perspective view of one commercial embodiment of the invention using separation membranes.", "FIG. 7 is a graphic presentation of the test performance of a prototype apparatus similar to the embodiment of the invention shown in FIG. 10 showing a graphic comparison between the feed and exit stream concentrations of D2O contaminated water.", "FIG. 8 is a graphic presentation of the test performance of a prototype apparatus similar to the embodiment of the invention shown in FIG. 10 showing a graphic comparison between the feed and permeate stream concentrations of D2O contaminated water.", "FIG. 9 is a graphic presentation of the test performance of a prototype apparatus similar to the embodiment of the invention shown in FIG. 10 showing a graphic comparison between the feed and exit stream concentrations of D2O contaminated water during a second test run after regeneration.", "FIG. 10 is a graphic presentation of the test performance of a prototype apparatus similar to the embodiment of the invention shown in FIG. 6 showing a graphic comparison between the feed and permeate stream concentrations of D2O contaminated water during a second test run after regeneration.", "FIG. 11 is a graphic presentation of a typical set of performance curves of the invention depicting the various stages of performance effectiveness of both the exit stream and the permeate.", "FIG. 12 is one example of a typical commercial system embodying the invention.", "FIG. 13 is an example of a commercial system for regeneration of the contaminate separation apparatus of the invention.", "FIG. 14 is a schematic view of a commercial system for both contaminate adsorption and sequential regeneration.", "FIGS. 15A and 15B are schematic views of another commercial system in which the isotope molecules are separated by using multiple modules or chambers that contain the molecular separation material and internal and external regeneration.", "FIG. 15C is a schematic view of a counterflow commercial system suitable for larger scale, high feed rate applications.", "FIG. 16 is a graphical comparison of the adsorption effectiveness of PSDVB resins loaded with aluminum, magnesium, chromium and sodium metal sites.", "FIG. 17 is a graphical comparison of various PSDVB and PADVB resins loaded with aluminum.", "FIG. 18 is a graphical comparison of the separation of D 2 O and HTO showing the similarity in results.", "FIG. 19 is a graph of the adsorption curve observed with the use of a 2 meter TEFLON column filled with 250 g of dry Al loaded PSDVB resin.", "FIG. 20 is a graphical comparison of the separation properties of an initially dry resin in comparison to a pre-wet resin.", "FIG. 21 is a graphical representation of isotope separations using one separation module, two separation modules, and four separation modules, when operated in series.", "FIG. 22 is a graph of the results achieved in regenerating tritium oxide saturated acrylic resin loaded with sodium and aluminum hydration sites using a microwave oven.", "FIG. 23 is a graph of the results achieved in regenerating tritium oxide saturated PSDVB resin loaded with sodium and aluminum hydration sites using a fluidized bed dryer.", "FIG. 24 is a graph of the results achieved in regenerating tritium oxide saturated acrylic resin loaded with sodium and aluminum hydration sites using a fluidized bed dryer.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION In the following description, terms such as horizontal, upright, vertical, above, below, beneath and the like, are used solely for the purpose of clarity in illustrating the invention, and should not be taken as words of limitation.", "The drawings are for the purpose of illustrating the invention and are not intended to be to scale.", "Referring now to the drawings, the apparatus is shown generally at numeral 10 in FIG. 1 B and includes a length or coil of hollow core fiber 12 which is formed of cellulose acetate and is otherwise well known in the industry.", "The particular features of this hollow core fiber 12 used in the experiments reported below are an inside diameter of 1.3 mm (range of 1-3 mm), a wall thickness of 0.2 mm (range of 0.05 to 0.20 mm), an outside diameter of 1.7 mm, and a density of 1.20 g/cm 3 .", "An inlet end of the hollow core fiber length 12 is connected to a plastic feed line 18 leading to a tank 14 filled with water contaminated with heavy isotopes of hydrogen, namely deuterium oxide.", "This contaminated water 36 is pumped in the direction of the arrow by pump 16 through connecting plastic tubing 18 into the hollow core fiber length 12 .", "Radioactive tritium is unavailable for routine, unregulated use, but because the tritium oxide molecule is much larger than both hydrogen oxide and deuterium oxide, the results reported herebelow for deuterium oxide separation apply at least equally well for tritium separation.", "It should be noted that other water permeable membranes may be utilized, the requirement being having a pore size and molecular composition sufficient to substantially allow permeation of H2O therethrough while substantially preventing permeation of heavy isotopes of water, namely deuterium and tritium in their oxide forms.", "The hollow core fiber 12 as best seen in FIG. 1C is filled or packed with separate beads 28 which are formed form an ion exchange resin as described herebelow.", "The outlet end of the hollow core fiber length 12 is connected to a length of plastic tubing 20 which discharges the processed and purified water into a separate container 22 as it flows from the hollow core fiber 12 .", "To prevent the exchange beads 28 from being forced out of the hollow core fiber length 12 , a filter or trap is connected at the discharge end thereof as shown in FIG. 1A, an enlargement of area 26 of FIG. 1 B. Two spaced apart plastic tubes 30 and 32 each having a small longitudinal aperture centrally therethrough, are positioned within the outlet end of the hollow core fiber length 12 .", "These plastic tubes 30 and 32 are spaced apart by a quantity of packed cotton 34 so that none of the exchange beads 28 will flow beyond plastic tubing member 30 , yet without substantially restricting the flow of processed water flowing out of the hollow fiber core length 12 into tube 20 in the direction of the arrow.", "EXCHANGE RESIN BEADS Details of the content and method of producing the ion exchange beads formed of cross linked styrene divinyl benzene polymer are disclosed in detail in Patterson's earlier U.S. Pat. No. 5,036,031 which is incorporated herein by reference.", "LOADING PROCEDURE FOR ION EXCHANGE RESIN BEADS The procedure described herebelow was used to load cross-linked ion exchange beads with aluminum.", "It will be understood that the same reaction will be used to add other metal sites instead of aluminum and basically required reaction of the sulfonated or phosphonated resin with a salt, e.g., a sulfate or nitrate salt, in which the metal to be used for the site is cation.", "The procedure was applied for R SO 3 H with 2%, 3%, 3.25%, 4%, 8%, 10% and 12% cross-linking, 60 mesh, 100-200 mesh and 200-400 mesh screened for size.", "Pretreat Beads The beads were first cleaned with hydrochloric acid (2% HCI) to take out all residual cations.", "Ion exchange with HCI will take out Al and other metal ions which were on the beads as shown by the formula: The beads are then rinsed with D.I. water until the pH returns to 5-6.", "This will remove the XCI.", "Load Beads with Al Prepare a solution of Al 2 (SO 4 ) 3 and, preferably warmed D.l water.", "Apply this solution to the beads to produce this reaction: Rinse the loaded beads with D.I. water until the pH returns to 5-6.", "The beads were initially treated prior to loading into the hollow core fiber.", "After the ion exchange beads 28 were pretreated as above described, the hollow core fiber length 12 was loaded therewith.", "The loaded hollow core fiber length 12 was dried in an oven at approximately 100° C. for three days in order to drive out all residual water.", "Three separate lengths of hollow core fiber 12 were then filled with a prepared mixture of light water (H 2 O) and deuterium oxide in a ratio of approximately 61% D 2 O by volume which was taken from a supply bottle used for the entire experiment to insure consistency.", "The pump rate of the deuterium oxide contaminated water was set at 2 ml per hour using a constant rate high pressure pump 16 .", "The effluent discharging into container 22 was then analyzed.", "This effluent was split into separate samples taken at specific time periods from the start of each experiment.", "These time spaced samples were taken to provide an indication of the variability of the separation capability of the apparatus 10 over time.", "The test data taken is shown in Table I herebelow.", "TABLE I HOLLOW CORE FIBER PACKED WITH ION EXCHANGE RESIN BEADS ION EXCHANGE VOLUME OF ELAPSED TIME FREEZING CORRES.", "ACCUM.", "RESIN AFFLUENT (ml) (HRS) POINT(C) % OF H 2 O VOL.", "(ml) (RSO 3 ) 3 Al (12% x-L) 2 1 2.011 52.64 2 ″ 2 2 1.801 47.15 4 ″ 2 3 1.983 51.91 6 ″ 0.5 3 1/4 1.701 44.53 6.5 (RSO 3 ) 3 Al (4% x-L) 0.5 2 0.312 8.17 0.5 ″ 2 3 1.979 51.81 2.5 ″ 2 4 2.248 58.85 4.5 ″ 1 5 2.255 59.03 5.5 ″ 0.5 5 1/4 2.254 59.01 6 (RSO 3 ) 3 Al (2% x-L) 0.25 2 0.148 3.87 0.25 ″ 6.3 5 2.028 53.09 6.55 ″ 0.9 5 1/2 2.101 55.00 7.45 ″ [.", "].8 6 1.856 48.59 8.25 (RSO 3 ) NH 4 (2% x-L) 1 2 1.777 46.52 1 ″ 3 4 2.267 59.35 4 ″ 1.5 5 2.264 59.27 5.5 GRAPHIC DISPLAY OF DATA This test data is also shown graphically in FIG. 2 which is a composite of all of the performance data taken depicting separation capability of each of the ion exchange resins utilized in these experiments.", "Again, the contaminated test water was all taken from a common prepared source.", "The concentration of deuterium oxide is depicted as a volumetric percentage of the total affluent sample volume and is determined by carefully establishing the freezing point of each sample.", "The freezing point of pure light water is 0.0° C. while the freezing point of pure deuterium oxide (D 2 O) is 3.820° C. The freezing point measurements were taken utilizing an Advanced Instruments Osmometer, Model 5600.", "The conversion from freezing point to percent deuterium oxide was shown to be a linear relationship.", "In reviewing these graphic performance data shown in FIG. 2, the 2% cross-linked sample with aluminum showed the greatest change or decrease in the deuterium oxide level from 61% by volume down to less than 4% deuterium oxide concentration in the first sample taken after two hours of system operation.", "Note that with respect to both the 2% and 4% cross-linked exchange resin combined with aluminum, after three to five hours of operation, the second and subsequent samples taken demonstrate substantially higher concentrations of deuterium oxide, indicating that the apparatus is most effective in removing deuterium oxide (and presumably oxides of tritium) from the contaminated water within the first period of operation.", "COMBINED EXCHANGE-MEMBRANE SEPARATION The separation of isotopes and molecules as above described is affected by the combination of the process of selective adsorption on a resin and the selective permeation through the walls of the hollow core fiber membrane.", "The resin particles or beads as above-described are contained within the hollow core fibers and, of particular importance, may be regenerated without the need for removal of the resin from the hollow core fibers.", "Referring now to FIG. 3, a pictorial view of a section of hollow core fiber 12 is there shown as previously described.", "Water molecules HOH depicted as circles at 40 permeate through the hollow core fiber wall faster than do the tritium oxide (TOH) molecules shown as triangles at 38 .", "A substantially higher number of water molecules 40 permeate outwardly through the hollow core fiber wall than do the larger tritium oxide molecules 38 .", "In FIG. 4A, 4 B and 4 C the adsorption aspect of the present invention is there depicted as a second separation agent.", "Each of the above described resin beads or particles 28 shown in FIG. 4A include cation sites M having the ability to hydrate.", "Each resin particle also contains hydrogen H as an essential aspect of these polymer resins.", "The resin can be in three typical initial states.", "In FIG. 4A, the resin is initially dry.", "When contacted with a mixture of water isotopes, the tritium oxide (HTO) is preferentially adsorbed as a water of hydration and the feed solution is thus depleted in HTO.", "In FIG. 4B, the resin is initially prewet with water and the tritiated water replaces some of the existing waters of hydration.", "In FIG. 4C, the resin is initially partially saturated with respect to the feed concentration.", "An additional tritiated water replaces a preexisting water of hydration.", "In all cases shown above, there is the probability of some tritium replacement of hydrogen on the molecular structure.", "This is depicted as one T atom on the final resin particle.", "Some supports will have cation sites and no exchangeable hydrogen atoms, such as alumina or silica with and without additional cations.", "In these cases, there would be no tritium atomic exchange with the support.", "Note also that the adsorption is reversible;", "thus, a resin which was saturated at a high HTO concentration would desorb HTO if contacted with water having a lower concentration of HTO.", "Test performance results may be generalized as shown in FIG. 5. A section of resin filled hollow core fiber 12 is shown in the insert of this graph for reference.", "The feed stream flows into one end while the exit stream flows out of the other end of the hollow core fiber 12 as shown.", "The permeate passing through the hollow core fiber walls is also shown.", "The feed stream has an initial and constant concentration of tritium oxide as shown by the symbols F. The typical level of tritium oxide in the permeate is shown by the letter P over time, while the concentration level of tritium oxide in the exit stream over time is shown by the letters E. Note that the tritium oxide level in the permeate P does not raise or increase to the concentration level of the feed stream F but, at some point in time, the exit stream tritium oxide concentration E exceeds that of the feed stream F. This is likely due to the fact that the resin beads 28 initially absorb and hold a high level of tritium oxide, but eventually become saturated.", "A commercially viable embodiment of the invention is shown generally at numeral 50 in FIG. 6 .", "This commercial module 50 includes an elongated tubular housing 52 having a header 58 sealingly connected at each end thereof which supports an inlet tube 54 and an outlet tube 56 , respectively.", "Positioned within the housing 52 is a bundle of elongated hollow core fibers 60 , each of which is filled with ion exchange resin beads as previously described.", "This bundle of hollow core fibers 60 is held together by header 62 at each end thereof and positioned within housing 52 .", "The feed stream enters the device 50 at inlet 54 in the direction of arrow E, while the exit stream flows into the direction of arrow F from outlet 56 .", "Headers 62 insure that all of the feed stream liquid flows through and not outside of the hollow core fiber members 60 .", "Separately, permeate flows from permeate outlet 64 in the direction of arrow G to a condenser 66 .", "The experimental test results reported herebelow utilize this experimental module in developing the data shown in FIGS. 11 to 14 .", "The test module 50 includes thirty two such hollow core fibers 60 filled with ion exchange resin particles 61 .", "Each of the fibers were eight feet in length.", "The feed stream had a D 2 O concentration of 4.85 percent by weight within water.", "The experimental results are described more fully herebelow.", "Still referring to FIG. 6, the apparatus 50 may be regenerated when the ion exchange resin bead 61 packed within each hollow core fiber member 60 becomes saturated as previously described in FIG. 9 .", "Saturation may be determined by sensing the D2O and/or the TOH concentrations in the exit stream.", "To regenerate the resin, the feed stream is interrupted and, preferably, the apparatus 50 is emptied of fluid.", "Thereafter, a stream of hot air is forced into inlet 68 in the direction of arrow H. Heated air can also be introduced through inlet 54 and removed through outlet 56 and/or outlet 64 .", "The heat releases waters of hydration TOH and H2O.", "When the humidity of the heated air exiting the housing 52 at outlet 64 reaches a predetermined humidity level, the exit gas would flow to a separate high capacity condenser (not shown in FIG. 10) to condense the maximum amount of water from this exit airstream.", "Referring now to FIGS. 7 and 8, the above described module 50 , having thirty two columns of hollow core fiber members 60 longitudinally arranged and packed therein, were test run utilizing a feed stream of light water contaminated with 4.85% D2O by weight.", "The D2O concentration of the exit stream was monitored and is shown in FIG. 11 with respect to the exit stream flow shown by weight (g) over time.", "In FIG. 8, during the same experiment, the concentration of the permeate as a function of total permeate flow by weight (g) is there shown.", "With respect to both the exit stream and the permeate, the D2O concentrations were initially very low indicating a very high efficiency in D2O separation from water which gradually decreased over time.", "Referring now to FIGS. 9 and 10, the same experiment utilizing the same module 50 having thirty two columns of hollow core fiber members filled with the same ion exchange resin was retested.", "Prior to this retest, the airflow regeneration process above described was completed.", "In comparing the test results of the first run to the second run after regeneration, it is noted that, with respect to the exit stream concentrations shown in FIGS. 7 and 9, the greatest reduction in D 2 O was 90% on the first run, increasing to virtually 100% in the second run after regeneration.", "Likewise, comparing FIGS. 12 and 14, the permeate concentration on the first run showed a maximum near test onset of 55%, increasing to above 60% D2O reduction in the initial sampling after regeneration.", "COMMERCIAL SYSTEM To commercialize the present invention, it is useful to divide the separation performance curves with respect to both the exit stream and permeate into sections or segments as shown in FIG. 11 .", "With respect to the exit stream, the first exit product with the highest reduction in heavy water concentration ends at time S. Second exit product and third exit product stages end at times T and U, respectively.", "After time U, it is recommended that each module be taken out of service and regenerated as above described.", "With respect to the permeate, there is also a high efficiency time period ending at time R during which the contaminant reduction is at a maximum.", "During the second permeate stage between time R and U, the decrease in contaminate removal is generally steady and of a very useful nature.", "Obviously, although the permeate would continue to be at a contaminate level below that of the feed stream, the module should be regenerated because the exit stream would then contain a higher contamination level than that of the feed stream.", "Putting these concepts of stages into effect, referring to FIG. 12, one example of a commercial system is shown generally at numeral 70 .", "The feed stream enters a stage 1 absorber 72 , the exit stream therefrom being monitored for contamination level at sensor/valve 74 .", "The first exit product will be directed to a clean water product tank 76 .", "When the sensor/valve 74 indicates that the contaminate removal level is declining as after time S in FIG. 15, the exit stream will then be redirected as a second exit product to a stage 3 absorber at 78 .", "When the sensor 74 detects a contaminate concentration level at time T in FIG. 15, the exit stream is again redirected into a stage 2 absorber 80 .", "The permeate from the stage 1 absorber 72 will be directed into a stage 1 condenser 82 .", "Condensed liquid will pass through sensor 84 which will direct the first permeate having a relatively low level of contamination up to time R as shown in FIG. 15 into, for example a stage 8 absorber 86 .", "At time R, when the concentration of contaminates begins to rise, the second permeate will then be redirected into a stage four absorber 88 .", "A typical plant or commercial facility of this nature may have between five and fifteen absorber stages dependent upon overall separation desired, each of which will receive different specified amounts of contaminate concentration for further processing or use as desired.", "REGENERATION In a typical regeneration process shown in FIG. 13, each stage or module in a typical system like that shown in FIG. 12 is shown typically at numeral 92 .", "During regeneration, hot air from a hot air generator 94 is directed into the module 92 as shown by the arrows.", "Hot air flowing through the module 92 will remove the liquid within the exchange resin of each of the hollow core fiber members by releasing waters of hydration H2O, HTO, D2O, DTO and HDO which are carried from the module 92 into a regeneration condenser 96 .", "The liquid condensed and discharging from regeneration condenser 96 during the initial time portion of the regeneration cycle will have the least amount of contaminants in this first regeneration stream and may be returned to the system 70 of FIG. 12 for reprocessing.", "The second regeneration stream carrying higher amounts of contaminants would be collected at 98 , while the third or last regeneration condensate stream would likely be carrying the greatest amount of contaminants such as tritiated water and would be directed to storage tank 100 for appropriate disposal.", "To further distinguish the contaminant levels of each of these permeate condensate regeneration streams, the temperature of the air exiting the hot air generator 94 may be gradually increased and/or pressure reduced in steps to provide a greater driving force for contaminant removal.", "The regenerated resin and fiber system is returned to the adsorption cascade and is rehydrated by the feed stream.", "The adsorption and regeneration cycles are repeated as desired.", "FIG. 14 illustrates an overall system for both deuterium and tritium removal from the water contaminated with same is there shown.", "This system 100 may include prefilters 102 and 104 in the form of either commercial reverse osmosis units or deionization units for pretreating the feed stream entering the stage 1 contaminate separating module 106 .", "Its exit stream enters the stage 2 module 110 and so forth in upward cascade fashion until the final feed stream exits into a container 122 which collects the purest of the processed contaminated water.", "Permeate from each of the modules is typically collected at condenser 108 and then collected into condensed permeate tank 112 or exiting from 114 or 116 as other stages of contaminated permeate previously described.", "Each of the modules may be selectively bypassed as the exit stream contamination level reaches the contamination level of the feed stream for regeneration.", "Disconnected from the system 100 , a typical hot dry air feed 118 forces hot air directly into each separation module during the regeneration cycle previously described.", "To further decontaminate the condensed permeate collecting in each permeate tank 112 , it may be reintroduced at 120 into the feed stream between adjacent modules 110 according to the contamination level of the permeate condensate.", "FIGS. 15A and 15B illustrate commercial systems in which the isotope molecules are separated by using three modules or chambers that contain the molecular separation material.", "The contaminated water is conveyed through the first module until the molecular separation material is saturated.", "The flow is then switched to the second module until the material in the second module is saturated, and then to the third module.", "Alternately, the flow may proceed through several modules in series.", "As the contaminated water flow is switched from a given module, the non-bound water, i.e., the water in the module that is not held as waters of hydration is substantially removed by blowing air through the module.", "The separated non-bound water can then be recycled for additional separation, or removed from the system.", "After removal of non-bound water, at least a portion of the waters of hydration are removed by heating the molecular separation material.", "The separated waters of hydration are then collected for disposal, with or without further concentration.", "The dehydrated resin, with or without rehydration with light water, is then used for further separation.", "It will also be understood that the saturated resins, before or after removal of non-bound water, can be removed from the modules for regeneration at a separate site, and then returned to the module as shown in FIG. 15 B. Referring specifically to FIG. 15A, it will be seen that contaminate water is fed to feed tank 150 from a source of contaminated water, identified as the “Client HTO Feed,” and from various recycle feeds in the system.", "The contaminated water is then fed by feed pump 152 to one of modules 154 , 156 or 158 .", "More than three modules may also be used.", "Each module is filled with a resin having a plurality of hydration sites, e.g., beads of polystyrene cross-linked with divinyl benzene and loaded with a combination of sodium and aluminum sites.", "Various valves 160 are present in the system to control flow through the water or air lines.", "For this example, filled valves 160 are closed, while outlined valves 160 are open.", "In operation of the system, each module has a saturation stage, a dewatering stage, and a regeneration stage.", "Contaminated water from feed tank 150 passes through a module, e.g., module 154 , to remove a part of the isotope molecules, with the water discharged from the tank being directed to one or more finished water tanks 162 , and from tanks 162 to the Client via pump 164 .", "An HTO monitor 166 is placed in-line between the modules and finish water tanks to monitor the isotope content of the discharged water.", "When the isotope content reaches a level indicating the resin in the module being used has reached a saturation level, valves 160 are reset to direct flow of contaminated water to the next module in the series, e.g., module 156 .", "When the module is in the dewatering mode or stage, as illustrated by module 156 , air is blown through the module to remove non-bound water that is carried via dewatering pump 168 back to feed tank 150 .", "After the dewatering stage, the module is switched to the regeneration stage, as illustrated by module 158 , in which the module is heated with an external heating jacket 170 .", "Heated air from heater 172 is also blown by blower 174 through module 158 to condenser 178 .", "The condensed molecules are separated from the air and stored in condensate tank 182 .", "The air is recycled to heater 172 .", "In a second, higher temperature stage of drying, the isotope water exiting from condenser 178 is then trapped on the molecular sieve 180 or other system for storage or disposal.", "Moisture/humidity probe 184 monitors the quantity of water entering condenser 178 , to determine if the stream is collected or recycled.", "FIG. 15B illustrates a typical arrangement where the resin is regenerated external to the adsorption modules 154 , 156 , and 158 .", "In this case, the resin after saturation is slurried to the spent resin tank 186 using feed water which is returned by dewatering pump 168 to the feed tank 150 .", "The resin is then transferred to the resin dryer 188 where, as before, heated air from 172 is used to dry the resin.", "The dryer can be a fluidized bed, a rotating drum or other suitable device.", "Microwaves from 190 can also be supplied to the dryer to augment the drying process.", "The dry resins are then transferred to tank 192 where they may be mixed with finished water and reintroduced to an adsorption module using sluice pump 194 .", "The dry resins can also be air transferred to the adsorption module (not shown).", "The majority of the systems and operations are similar with the two drying options as evident from inspection of FIGS. 15A and 15B.", "FIG. 15C illustrates a major variation suitable for larger scale (high feed rate) applications.", "Supporting systems are similar to those in FIGS. 15A and 15B.", "The adsorption module 198 , however, is a tall column where the resins descend in a countercurrent fashion in the direction of arrow R as the feed water flows up the column in the direction of arrow S. Dry resins from hopper 196 are introduced at the top of the column 198 .", "Saturated resins are removed at the bottom to a wet resin hopper 200 .", "The resins are continuously dewatered, transferred to resin dryer 202 and in a second drying stage to dryer 204 .", "When dry, they are returned to the dry resin hopper 196 .", "The feed water is fed by pump 152 up the column and the treated water flows to the finished water tank 162 .", "The resin and water feed rates are set to achieve the desired removal of tritiated water.", "FIGS. 16-24 further illustrate the experimental results achieved in the practice of the invention.", "Specifically, FIG. 16, is a comparison of the adsorption effectiveness of PSDVB resins loaded with aluminum, magnesium, chromium, and sodium metal sites.", "As will be seen from the adsorption curves, the resin with aluminum sites absorbs a greater amount of deuterium.", "That is, while all of the resins became saturated at about the same time after being exposed to the contaminated water, the aluminum absorbed a greater quantity of deuterium oxide from the stream as shown by the change of the exit stream from the feed stream, at points measured prior to saturation.", "Magnesium was the next most effective metal site, followed by sodium with chromium being the least effective.", "FIG. 17 illustrates the test results obtained in testing various PSDVB and PADVB resins loaded with aluminum.", "The resins were either semi-macroporous, macroporous, or gel type resins, and were obtained from different suppliers.", "For example, resin R 7 is PSDVB resin obtained from Biorad that was sulfonated and loaded with aluminum cations.", "As can be seen from FIG. 17, there was variability in effectiveness among these tested resins.", "As shown in Table II, similar test results were achieved in a “beaker test”", "using 5 g dry Al loaded resin and 20 g contaminated water.", "TABLE II HTO Resin Adsorption Capacities 330 micro Ci/L HTO, 30° C., Glass Beakers % HTO Reduction Resin R7-PSDVB, Gel 4.69 R4-PSDVB, Gel 2.22 P7-PADVB, Gel 1.94 P9-PSDVB, Macroporous 0.96 Other carrier Zeolite, molecular sieve 4A, Na 2.43% Aluminum oxide granules 1.60% Silica gel 2.57% The tests with other carriers were similarly performed with 5 g of dry carrier and 2 g of contaminated water.", "FIG. 18 compares the separation of D2O and HTO using an Al resin packed in a bundle of 30 fibers, each about 8 feet long.", "As will be seen from a comparison of the two curves, the removal of the two isotopes is at approximately the same level, confirming that experimental results achieved in removal of deuterium is a valid approximation of what would be achieved under comparable conditions in separating tritium.", "The strength and number of waters of hydration associations will vary with the selected cation, with the selected anions to which the cation is bonded and with the physical and chemical characteristics of the carrier.", "In general, the maximum number of hydration points selective to HTO or the contaminants to be removed is preferred.", "However, a lower threshold for selective adsorption in the range of at least 1% HTO reduction is desired when performing the above beaker test at 30° C. with 5 grams of adsorbent and 20 grams of contaminated water.", "This reduction is considered to be sufficient for obtaining economically substantial and useful results.", "FIG. 19 illustrates the adsorption curve observed with the use of a 2 meter Teflon column filled with 250 g of dry Al loaded PSDVB resin.", "As shown, the resins selectively remove a portion of the isotope molecules in the stream until the resin is saturated.", "Therefore, depending upon the level of separation desired, the stream can be stopped or switched to another resin bed when about 75% saturation has been reached, as indicated by a rise in the curve, after about 100% saturation has been reached, as indicated by leveling of the curve at approximately 0%, or at some point in between.", "FIG. 20 illustrates the test results obtained when using an initially dry resin in comparison to a pre-wet resin.", "In the pre-wet case, the majority of the light water originally on the resin is displaced by the feed stream containing tritiated water.", "The amount of water on the resin before contacting the contaminated water feed stream was predetermined by accounting for all water used to pre-wet the resin, slurry the resin into the column, and subtracting the water collected from the blowdown step before feeding tritiated water.", "The zero point on the horizontal axis marks the point where the exit stream equals the initial water on the resin.", "In the initially dry case, there was no water on the resin and thus the entire curve starts at zero.", "It can be seen that the net selective tritiated water adsorption is similar for the two cases.", "In some commercial embodiments, it may be preferential to start with a pre-wet resin, for example where the water is used to transfer the resin from a separate regeneration vessel back to the adsorption column.", "In other cases, the resin may be initially dry, for example, when regenerated within the adsorption column or when transferred via an air slurry rather than a water slurry.", "FIG. 21 compares separations using one separation module, two separation modules, and four separation modules, when operated in series.", "As seen, the two module system removes about twice the isotopes on a percent of feed basis of the one module system, and the four module system removes approximately twice the isotopes of the two module system again on a percent of feed basis.", "Thus, the efficiency of the overall separation is shown to be essentially linear with the amount of resin used.", "FIG. 22 illustrates the results achieved in regenerating tritium oxide saturated acrylic resin loaded with sodium and aluminum hydration sites using a microwave oven.", "FIG. 23 illustrates the results achieved in regenerating tritium oxide saturated PSDVB resin loaded with sodium and aluminum hydration sites using a fluidized bed dryer.", "FIG. 24 illustrates the results achieved in regenerating tritium oxide saturated acrylic resin loaded with sodium and aluminum hydration sites using a fluidized bed drier.", "While the instant invention has been shown and described herein in what are conceived to be the most practical and preferred embodiments, it is recognized that departures may be made therefrom within the scope of the invention, which is therefore not to be limited to the details disclosed herein, but is to be afforded the full scope of the claims so as to embrace any and all equivalent apparatus and articles." ]

[ "FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a collector for the primary pipes of an exhaust manifold of an internal combustion engine.", "More particularly, the present invention relates to collectors for five-cylinder engines of turbocharged and normally-aspirated types.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION A collector for the primary pipes of an exhaust manifold of an internal combustion engine is known from French Patent No. 2,378,178.", "It is common practice to connect the exhaust ports of a multi-cylinder internal combustion engine of light vehicles to a single exhaust system.", "This occurs by use of an exhaust manifold which is a single unit fitted to the face of the cylinder head comprising the exhaust ports.", "The exhaust manifold is normally a casting having a plurality of primary exhaust pipes each feeding into a connection point, for example through a grouping device which first groups together pairs of primary pipes.", "The grouping device then leads, by means of a single pipe, to a further grouping device and then into the exhaust pipe, possibly through a turbocharger.", "Such grouping devices are normally manufactured as castings.", "These types of arrangements, particularly on five-cylinder engines, have proven to be difficult to design in a compact manner, unless pipe paths with reduced efficiency are adopted.", "Additionally, a further problem which is encountered when trying to group all of the primary pipes in a compact fashion is that of protecting each of the exhaust ports of the engine against compression waves from neighboring exhaust ports.", "This problem is worsened when the primary pipes have to be short, which would typically be the case for example when a turbocharger is fitted, or when a catalytic converter has to be located relatively close to the engine.", "An object of the present invention is thus to provide a solution to the aforementioned problems such that a space-saving and yet efficient device can be achieved.", "In particular, the solution should be one which does not reduce performance characteristics of an engine to which the collector of the invention is fitted, and should even provide increased performance.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with the present invention, this and other objects have now been realized by the invention of a collector for the primary pipes of an exhaust manifold of an internal combustion engine, the primary pipes leading exhaust gases directly from the cylinders of the engine, the collector comprising a common cavity and a plurality of the primary pipes, each of the plurality of primary pipes including an inlet end and an outlet end, the outlet ends of each of the primary pipes including an inner wall and outer wall and having a first cross-sectional area and an upstream location of the primary pipes having a second cross-sectional area, the first cross-sectional area being less than the second cross-sectional area, the outlet ends of the primary pipes being in direct contact with the common cavity of the collector, the plurality of pipes further arranged to include a single central pipe and the remainder of the plurality of pipes being spaced around the central pipe, the outlet end of the central pipe being formed substantially as a conically tapering portion, and the outer wall of the central pipe forming part of the inner wall of each of the remainder of the pipes.", "In accordance with one embodiment of the collector of the present invention, each of the plurality of pipes is directed parallel to others of the plurality of pipes at its intersection with the common cavity, so as to allow substantially axial flow into the common cavity.", "In accordance with another embodiment of the collector of the present invention, the cavity has a circular cross-section.", "In accordance with another embodiment of the collector of the present invention, each of the plurality of pipes has a substantially constant cross-sectional area along at least 60% of its length, and preferably along at least 80% or more of its length.", "In accordance with another embodiment of the collector of the present invention, each of the plurality of pipes is made from steel tubing.", "In accordance with another embodiment of the collector of the present invention, each of the plurality of pipes has a gradually reducing cross-sectional area at its end region.", "In accordance with another embodiment of the collector of the present invention, the number of the plurality of pipes is five, and the end of the central pipe projects outwardly beyond the end of the remainder of the plurality of pipes.", "With the collector according to the present invention, the ends of all the primary pipes have a reduced cross-sectional area feeding into a common cavity.", "This induces a pulse conversion effect, whereby the disadvantageous compression wave effects on other exhaust ports are greatly reduced or even eliminated.", "At the same time, a compact arrangement is achieved in an efficient manner.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The present invention will now be described in more detail with reference to the following detailed description, which refers to the accompanying drawings, in which: FIG. 1 is a front, perspective view showing a collector according to the present invention;", "FIG. 2 is a side, perspective view of a portion of the collector shown in FIG. 1, in which the cavity housing of the collector has been removed;", "FIG. 3 is a front end, elevational view of the collector portion shown in FIG. 2;", "FIG. 4 is a side, elevational view of the collector portion shown in FIG. 2;", "and FIG. 5 is a side, plan view of the collector portion shown in FIG. 2, with the common cavity and connection flange added in dashed lines.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION Referring to the drawings, in which like reference numerals refer to like elements thereof, FIG. 1 depicts a collector of the present invention denoted generally by reference numeral 2.", "The collector arrangement is connected to a flange I which, together with the pipes 3-7 welded thereto, forms an exhaust manifold for connection to the engine cylinder head.", "Attachment means in the form of attachment openings, e.g. 8 and 9, for the passage of bolts (not shown) are provided in the flange 1.", "As can be seen, the flange 1 is provided with five separate primary pipes 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 and is thus adapted for use with a five-cylinder engine (not shown).", "Each of pipes 3-7 has an inlet end denoted with the suffix "b,"", "as 3b, 4b, 5b, 6b and 7b, and an outlet end (see FIG. 2) denoted similarly with the suffix "a".", "Each of the pipes 3-7 is preferably made of steel tubing and has a substantially constant, circular cross-section over the majority of its length (e.g. more than 60%, preferably more than 80% of the pipe length).", "However, each of the outlet ends 3a-7a has a reduced cross-sectional area with respect to the substantially constant cross-section of the majority of the pipe.", "Additionally, the inlet end of the pipes 3b-7b may also be deformed into a more oval-type shape (not shown) so that it better conforms to the shape of the exhaust ports on the engine and flange 1.", "The substantially constant cross-section and gently curving primary pipe runs of pipes 3-7 will provide smooth gas flow from the exhaust port all the way to the outlets.", "Each of the primary pipes 3-7 is collected together at its outlet end 3a-7a in a collector arrangement 2 which will be described in more detail with respect to FIG. 5. The connector arrangement as shown in FIG. 1 is preferably provided with an attachment flange 10 with threaded attachment holes 11 for attachment to, for example, a turbocharger (not shown).", "Alternatively, the flange 10 may be connected directly to an exhaust pipe (not shown).", "Between the pipe outlets 3a-7a and the flange 10 is a cavity 17 (see FIG. 5).", "The cavity is formed, in this embodiment, by a conically sloping outer wall 13 of thin steel joined to the flange 10 at one end, and to the base 18 at the other.", "Each of the pipe outlets 3a-7a thus feeds directly into this cavity 17, the cavity thus forming a common cavity for ail the pipe outlets.", "In order for the exhaust gases to reach the turbocharger or the like, a circular aperture 12 is provided in the flange 10, through which the outlet ends 3a-7a of the primary pipes 3-7 and the upper surface is of base 19 (see also FIG. 5) are partly visible.", "FIGS. 2 to 4 show a partial view of the arrangement of FIG. 1, whereby the conical housing 13, the flange 10 and the base 18 of the collector housing have been removed for reasons of clarity.", "As can be seen in FIG. 2, each of the pipes 3-7 is smoothly curved and the pipe ends 3a to 7a are clearly visible.", "In this embodiment the outlet end 7a of pipe 7 projects forwardly beyond the remainder of the pipe ends.", "This projecting relationship is not a requirement, but it has been found that it is desirable to have a minimum primary pipe length, in particular with five-cylinder arrangements.", "Thus, due to the placement of the pipe and the need to keep the overall width of the arrangement as small as possible, the pipe 7 extends a short distance (e.", "g. 1 cm or so) beyond the ends of the others.", "The central pipe 7 may be straight but, in the embodiment shown, has a small curvature close to its inlet end 7b.", "The outlet end 7a of the pipe 7 is however directed so that the gas flow out of it and the gas flow out of its neighboring outlet pipe ends 3a-6a will be substantially parallel with one another (see arrows "y"", "in FIG. 2).", "In order to produce a compact arrangement, the pipe 7 has been left substantially unaltered, whilst the pipes 3 to 6 have been cut away at their radially inner sides and welded to the exterior of pipe 7.", "Thus, in FIG. 2, the exterior surface 14 of pipe 7 is visible inside the pipe 4 and thus forms part of the internal wall of pipe 4.", "This is similarly the case for pipes 3, 5 and 6.", "As is clear from FIG. 3, this compact connection of the pipes produces, at the same time, a required reduction in the cross-sectional area of each of the pipes 3 to 6 compared to the cross-sectional area of the main part of their length.", "Thus the cross-sectional area of the majority of the pipe length-of pipes 3-6 is shown as "X", whereas the reduced area in FIG. 3 is shown as "XR", where XR<X'", "The reduction in area should not be too great such that a severe restriction of flow through the outlet occurs, but at the same time the restriction must be sufficient to provide a pulse conversion effect so that the pressure waves of one cylinder do not negatively affect the gas flows of other cylinders.", "The optimal area reduction for any particular engine can be determined by the skilled man by simple trial and error.", "In the arrangement shown, the area reduction is of the order of 5-10% of "x".", "Since the cross-sectional area of the central primary pipe 7 is not reduced by the connection with the other pipes per se, the area is reduced by forming a slight conical taper 15 at the end of the pipe.", "The conical taper as depicted thus has inner and outer surfaces 16 and 15 respectively which are both tapered.", "The outlet end 7a of the tapered portion thus also has an area of substantially XR (see also FIG. 3) and the pipe is directed such that flow direction "y"", "will be substantially parallel to the flow direction in the remained of the pipes 3-6.", "It is however not a requirement that a projecting portion is added to, or formed on the end of, the pipe 7, since other means of producing a reduced cross-sectional area of the pipe end are also possible which will allow the end 7a of pipe 7 to be flush with the other pipe ends 3a-6a.", "FIG. 4 shows a side view of the arrangement in FIG. 2, whereby it can be seen that the ends 4a and 5a of pipes 4 and 5 lie substantially in the same plane.", "The pipes 3 and 6 are not visible in the Figure as they are hidden by the pipes 4 and 5, but these pipes too will have their ends 3a and 6a substantially flush with ends 4a and 5a.", "FIG. 5 shows a plan view of the arrangement in FIG. 2, whereby the housing or body of the collector arrangement, denoted generally as 2 in FIG. 1, has been depicted in dashed lines.", "A truncated conical cavity 17 having an outer wall 13 is formed between the exhaust pipe/turbocharger connection flange 10 and a base flange 19.", "Each of the pipe ends 3a to 7a thus feeds directly into the cavity 17 without intermediary arrangements.", "The base flange 19 is preferably circular and suitably has five holes placed therein for connection of the pipe ends 3a to 6a such that these will be substantially flush with the surface 18 of the base flange 19.", "For manufacture, this base flange 19 may be simply positioned over the five pipes 3-7 such that the upper ends are substantially flush with the surface 18.", "The arrangement can then be welded.", "The distance between the inner surfaces of flanges 10 and 19 is kept as small as possible in order to allow as much space as possible behind the collector so that easy access to, and sufficient space for, the exhaust system and/or turbocharger is provided.", "The distance depends to a large extent an the size of the turbine inlet, or where no turbocharger is fitted, on the size of the exhaust pipe inlet.", "It is thus possible that if the turbocharger inlet is the same size as that of the grouped primary pipe ends, the common cavity can then be formed by the turbocharger inlet.", "The entire arrangement is preferably made from steel tubing and all connections are preferably welded connections, such that the unit is relatively lightweight compared to conventional cast manifold systems.", "However, the unit may also be formed as a cast unit.", "By use of the aforegoing collector arrangement on a current Volvo, five-cylinder, 2.3 liter, turbocharged spark-ignition engine, it has been found that not only is performance not impaired, but an increase of maximum power of some 7-9 kW can be obtained (during laboratory testing).", "A general increase over the whole power curve and of course torque curve is also produced.", "This is accounted for, to a large extent, by the increase in volumetric efficiency obtained from the arrangement in comparison to the standard arrangement.", "Additionally, if the pipes 3-7 are made with lightweight steel tubing and welded connections, the catalytic light-off time of a standard catalytic converter (i.e. one without an afterburner arrangement or the like) fitted to the engine can be reduced by some 15 seconds.", "Whilst the invention has been described only with reference to certain embodiments, it should be understood that the scope of the invention is not limited to said embodiments and that many variations of the invention are encompassed within the scope of the appended claims.", "Although the invention herein has been described with reference to particular embodiments, it is to be understood that these embodiments are merely illustrative of the principles and applications of the present invention.", "It is therefore to be understood that numerous modifications may be made to the illustrative embodiments and that other arrangements may be devised without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims." ]

[ "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a coded control system for a vehicle engine ignition circuit.", "Various anti-theft arrangements have been proposed heretofore to prevent the engine of an automotive vehicle from being started unless a coded signal, known by an authorized driver of the vehicle, has enabled the engine ignition circuit.", "In some of these prior proposals a code transmitter is wired into the engine ignition circuit while in others the code transmitter is a radio transmitter which broadcasts the coded signal to a receiver wired into the engine ignition circuit.", "The present invention is directed to a coded control system for a vehicle engine ignition system which uses a self-contained radio transmitter unit for broadcasting a coded signal to a receiver/controller unit on the vehicle which is wired into the vehicle's engine ignition circuit.", "The preferred embodiment of the present coded control system has the following features which contribute to the security it provides against unauthorized starting of the vehicle engine: (1) the coded signal required to enable the engine ignition circuit on the vehicle must be the correct single code out of 128 possibilities;", "(2) the bits of the coded signal must be transmitted at a predetermined baud rate;", "(3) the carrier frequency at which the transmitter unit operates must be at a particular frequency which corresponds to the frequency to which the receiver is tuned;", "and (4) the vehicle ignition switch must be closed before the transmitter unit broadcasts the coded signal, otherwise the coded signal will not be effective to enable the engine ignition circuit.", "An advantageous feature of the present control system is that, once it has enabled the engine ignition circuit, it keeps this circuit enabled for a short time interval after the vehicle driver has opened the ignition switch, so that if the driver recloses the ignition switch during this time interval the engine will restart immediately without the necessity of operating the code transmitter again.", "Another advantageous feature of the present system is that, when the ignition switch is closed after being open for several minutes, the receiver/controller unit is reset to a starting condition in which it is ready to respond to the next transmitted coded signal.", "A principal object of this invention is to provide a novel and improved coded control system for the ignition circuit of a vehicle engine to prevent unauthorized starting of the vehicle.", "Further objects and advantages of this invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of a presently preferred embodiment which is shown schematically in the accompanying drawing.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a schematic electrical circuit diagram of the coded transmitter unit in the present control system;", "and FIG. 2 is a schematic electrical circuit diagram of the receiver/controller unit and the engine ignition circuit which it controls.", "Before explaining the disclosed embodiment of the present invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of the particular arrangement shown since the invention is capable of other embodiments.", "Also, the terminology used herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION Referring to FIG. 1, the transmitter unit in the present system has an asynchronous transmitter 10 which receives a 7 bit coded address from an address source 11, which is adjustable to select any one of 128 different address codes.", "The asynchronous transmitter 10 is controlled by a baud rate oscillator 12 which determines the speed at which the transmitter produces discrete signal bits.", "When the push-button switch 13 is closed, an internal battery 14 in the transmitter unit applies a command signal via line 15 to the asynchronous transmitter after a delay interval, determined by the R-C delay circuit 16, 17, long enough for the oscillator and other circuitry in the asynchronous transmitter 10 to stabilize.", "This command signal loads the coded address into the asynchronous transmitter 10 and it produces, in sequence, a start bit, the seven bits which make up the coded address to be transmitted, and a stop bit.", "These bits are applied sequentially to a modulator and amplifier 18 at a predetermined baud rate under the control of oscillator 12.", "A carrier frequency oscillator 19 is turned on when the push-button switch 13 is closed.", "This oscillator produces an RF carrier signal at a predetermined frequency which is applied to the modulator in block 18 and is modulated therein by the coded address coming from the asynchronous transmitter 10.", "The amplifier in block 18 delivers this modulated carrier to a broadcast antenna 20.", "Preferably, the entire transmitter unit of FIG. 1 is enclosed in a small, portable housing which an authorized driver of the vehicle may carry on his person and hold in his hand.", "Referring to FIG. 2, the receiver/controller unit which controls the engine ignition circuit includes an antenna 21 for receiving the signal broadcast by antenna 20.", "The received signal is applied to one input of a demodulator and amplifier 22.", "Another input to the demodulator in block 22 is provided by a carrier frequency oscillator 23, which operates at the same frequency as the carrier frequency oscillator 19 in the transmitter unit of FIG. 1. The demodulator in block 22 recovers the incoming signal, including the coded address which modulated the transmitted carrier at the baud rate determined by oscillator 12.", "This recovered signal is applied to one input of an asynchronous receiver 24, which has a second input from a baud rate oscillator 25 operating at the same rate as the baud rate oscillator 12 in the transmitter unit.", "The seven bits which make up the received coded address are applied via a seven line output port 26 from the asynchronous receiver 24 to one input port of an address comparator 27.", "A second input to this comparator is a coded address stored in block 28, which also may be any one of the same 128 codes which the coded address source 11 in the transmitter may be adjusted to produce.", "The address comparator 27 compares the two coded address signals after receiving an "address available"", "signal via line 29 from the asynchronous receiver 24 after receipt of the stop bit which immediately followed the 7-bit address code in the signal broadcast by the transmitter.", "If the two coded addresses are the same, the comparator 27 will produce an "address compares"", "signal on its output line 30.", "This signal sets a latch circuit 31 which closes an electronic switch 32.", "The engine ignition circuit enclosed within the dashed-line box in FIG. 2 is shown in simplified form as including the vehicle battery 34, ignition switch 33, ignition coil 35, distributor 36 and spark plugs S. Not shown are the usual distributor points and condenser, connected in parallel with each other between the primary winding of the ignition coil 35 and ground.", "The secondary winding of the ignition coil is connected to the distributor 36.", "In accordance with the present invention, the electronic switch 32 is interposed between the ignition switch 33 and the ignition coil 35.", "An input line 37 to the electronic switch 32 is connected to the ignition switch 33, and an output line 32a from the electronic switch is connected to the primary of the ignition coil 35.", "The electronic switch 32 closes, and consequently the engine ignition circuit is enabled, whenever the coded address received from the remote transmitter unit matches the coded address stored at 28 in the receiver, provided also that the following separate and independent conditions are met: (1) the carrier frequency oscillator 19 in the transmitter unit operates at the same frequency as the carrier frequency oscillator 23 in the receiver/controller unit;", "and (2) the baud rate oscillator 12 in the transmitter unit provides the same signalling speed as the baud rate oscillator 25 in the receiver/controller unit.", "From FIG. 2 it will be apparent that the demodulator/amplifier 22, the carrier frequency oscillator 23, baud rate oscillator 25, asynchronous receiver 24, address comparator 27, and latch circuit 31 in the receiver/controller unit all are powered by the vehicle battery 34 when the ignition switch 33 is closed.", "The power supply circuit includes lines 37 and 38 and a power storage network made up of a rectifier 39 in series with line 38 and a capacitor 40 connected between the cathode of rectifier 38 and the grounded negative terminal of the vehicle battery 34.", "The various components of the receiver/controller unit are turned on by closing the ignition switch 33.", "After the ignition switch is opened, these components remain on for a brief interval, such as a minute or so, in case the driver closes the ignition switch 33 again during this interval.", "The capacitor 40 in the power storage network provides this time delay between the opening of the ignition switch 33 and the de-energization of the demodulator/amplifier 22, the carrier frequency oscillator 23, the baud rate oscillator 25, the asynchronous receiver 24, the address comparator 27 and the latch circuit 31.", "A power on reset network, made up of a resistor 41 and a capacitor 42, determines the initial power-on reset state of the latch circuit 31.", "Resistor 41 is connected between the cathode of rectifier 39 in the power storage network and the reset terminal 43 of the latch circuit 31.", "Capacitor 42 is connected between this reset terminal and ground.", "A normally-open manual switch 44 bypasses the entire remote control system.", "This bypass switch is connected between the ignition switch 33 and the ignition coil 35, so that when closed it puts the engine ignition entirely under the control of the ignition switch 33 and independent of the electronic switch 32.", "Switch 44 would be used only if a malfunction occurs in the present coded control system or if for some other reason the user wants to bypass the coded control system altogether.", "The lines 37 and 32a, connected respectively to the input and output of the electronic switch 32, may have special connectors to facilitate their connection in the engine ignition circuit.", "Everything shown in FIG. 2 preferably is in or close to the engine compartment of the vehicle.", "OPERATION Assuming that the ignition switch 33 has been closed but the "address compares"", "signal has not appeared on line 30, the vehicle battery potential applied via resistor 41 to terminal 43 of the latch circuit 31 will reset this latch circuit to a condition in which it maintains the electronic switch 32 open, so that the engine ignition circuit is not enabled.", "Also, this same potential is applied via line 24a to the asynchronous receiver 24 to remove any signals which may be present at its output terminals.", "When the "address compares"", "signal does appear on line 30, in response to the operation of the transmitter unit of FIG. 1, as described, it sets the latch circuit 31 to the condition in which it closes the electronic switch 32 and thereby enables the engine ignition circuit.", "From the foregoing description it will be apparent that the present coded control system incorporates the following practical safety features: (1) the ignition switch 33 must be turned on before the transmitter unit (FIG.", "1) is turned on;", "otherwise the coded control system will not start the engine;", "(2) the coded address broadcast by the transmitter unit must be the correct one of 128 possible codes;", "(3) the coded address broadcast by the transmitter unit must be on a carrier whose frequency matches that of the carrier frequency oscillator 23 in the receiver/controller unit (FIG.", "2);", "and (4) the bits of the coded address broadcast by the transmitter unit must occur sequentially at a baud rate which matches that of the baud rate oscillator 25 in the receiver/controller unit." ]

[ "BACKGROUND This invention relates to computer peripheral devices.", "A peripheral port, such as a keyboard port, a mouse port, or a serial interface port, is used in a computer system to connect to a peripheral device.", "Generally, each peripheral port is designed for connection to a specific type of peripheral device and is connectable to only one peripheral device.", "Solutions exist in which customized hardware interfaces are attached to an existing computer peripheral port to allow different types of and multiple peripheral devices to be attached to the computer port.", "Installation of the customized hardware requires that the computer case be opened.", "SUMMARY In general, in one aspect, the invention features a system for allowing a peripheral device to be inserted directly into a port of the computer system while the computer system is powered on.", "The insertion of a peripheral device into the computer system port is automatically detected, and a configuration operation is automatically performed when insertion of the peripheral device is detected.", "Implementations of the invention include the following features.", "The configuration operation may also automatically be performed once removal of the peripheral device from the computer system port is detected.", "The computer system may include a storage device which contains a device driver, which is retrieved during the configuration operation.", "The computer system may also include a memory, which is loaded with the device driver during the configuration operation.", "In addition, the configuration operation may also check for a device type of the peripheral device, with the device driver retrieved from this first device based on the device type.", "The configuration operation may also include determining a logical address of the peripheral device.", "The second peripheral device can be connected to the first peripheral device.", "The configuration operation may include issuing a configuration command to the first peripheral device.", "If the first peripheral device receives the configuration command and determines that the second peripheral device is connected, the first peripheral device may forward the configuration command to the second peripheral device.", "The logical address for the first peripheral device may be set according to whether the second peripheral device is connected to the first peripheral device.", "In addition, the peripheral device may also perform a self test during the configuration operation.", "In general, in another aspect, the invention features a system for allowing a plurality of peripheral devices to be connected to a single port of a computer system.", "The number of peripheral devices connected to the single port is automatically determined, and an unique address is assigned to each of the peripheral devices.", "Implementations of the invention include the following features.", "Data may be routed between the computer system and the peripheral devices based on an address associated with the data.", "The type of each peripheral device may also be automatically determined.", "The computer system may include a memory, and the plurality of device drivers may be automatically loaded into the computer system memory with each device driver corresponding to a peripheral device.", "A routing table may also be set up having a plurality of entries, with each entry corresponding to a peripheral device and containing a device driver name and the address of the corresponding peripheral device.", "Data may be routed between the device drivers and the peripheral devices based on the routing table and an address associated with the data.", "Entries may be added to the routing table as additional peripheral devices are added, and entries may be removed from the routing table as peripheral devices are removed.", "Peripheral devices may be connected in one of the plurality of hardware configurations.", "A first peripheral device may be connected directly to the computer system port, with at least one other peripheral device being connected to the computer system port through the first peripheral device.", "The computer system port may be a serial port.", "In general, according to another aspect, the inventions features a peripheral device for use with a computer system.", "The peripheral device has a host port for communicating with the computer system, a slave port for connecting to a slave device, and a device manager which identifies if a slave device is connection.", "Implementations of the invention include the following features.", "The device manager may also route data between the computer system, the peripheral device, and the slave device.", "Automatic address assignment may be performed by the device manager based on whether the slave device is connected.", "The device manager may perform a power on sequence to determine if it is functioning properly.", "The device manager may also notify the computer system if the slave device is added to or removed from the slave port.", "In general, according to another aspect, the invention features a peripheral device for use with a computer system having a peripheral port.", "The peripheral device includes a host port for directly connecting to the computer system peripheral port, a user interface connected to the host port, a slave port connected to the host port, and a device manager which notifies the computer system when it is inserted into the computer system peripheral port.", "In general, according to another aspect, the invention features a port manager in a computer system having a device driver, a configuration manager, and a peripheral port for connecting to a peripheral device.", "The port manager includes a first device interfaced to the peripheral port for communicating with the peripheral device, and a second device interfaced to the device driver and the configuration manager for routing data between the device driver and the peripheral device and for routing configuration information between the configuration manager and the peripheral device.", "In general, according to another aspect, the invention features a configuration manager in a computer system having a port manager and a peripheral port for connecting directly to a peripheral device.", "The configuration manager includes a first device interfaced to the port manager for receiving the notification.", "The configuration also includes a second device which responds to the notification by performing a configuration operation.", "Implementations of the invention have one or more of the following advantages.", "Different types of peripheral devices may be connected to a single existing port.", "Multiple peripheral devices which may be arranged in a plurality of different configurations may be connected to the existing port.", "The peripheral devices may be inserted into or removed from the port while the computer system remains powered on.", "No additional hardware need be added to the computer system to support the features listed above.", "Other advantages and features will become apparent from the following description and from the claims.", "DESCRIPTION FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of a peripheral device attachment scheme.", "FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of a serial chain of peripheral devices.", "FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram of peripheral devices attached in a "star"", "arrangement.", "FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a data packet.", "FIG. 5 is a timing diagram of a data transfer.", "FIGS. 6A and 6B are a flow diagram of an configuration manager for performing auto-configuration cycles.", "FIGS. 7A, 7B and 7C are a flow diagram of a device manager for controlling a peripheral device.", "FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of the device manager of FIGS. 7A, 7B and 7C for handling data transfer requests.", "Referring to FIG. 1, a so-called Q-PORT system includes the following layers: a device chain 100, a port controller 110, a port manager 114, a configuration manager 122, and device drivers 118 and 120.", "All the layers are contained in a host computer system C except the device chain 100.", "The port controller 110 (e.g., an 8042 microcontroller from Intel Corporation) is the hardware interface in the Q-PORT system and its associated software.", "The port controller 110 converts the serial bitstream used by the device chain 100 into a byte format used by software in the host computer system C. The port manager 114, which interfaces to the port controller 110 using a byte-oriented, interrupt driven software interface, is a low level software program which routes packetized data to and from the appropriate device driver.", "The port controller 110 signals the port manager 114 when a byte has been received from the device chain 100 and the port manager 114 can write a byte into the port controller 110 for distribution down the device chain 100.", "The configuration manager 122, which can be considered a special-purpose device driver for the Q-PORT system S, is a software program which keeps track of the hardware configuration of the Q-PORT system S and searches for and attaches the appropriate device drivers for the peripheral devices 101 and 102.", "The device drivers 118 and 120, which communicate with the port manager 114 using a packet-oriented, interrupt driven software interface, act as the interface for data transferred between the device chain 100 and programs in the host computer system C, such as applications programs.", "With the exception of the configuration manager's interface, the interfaces to the device drivers 118 and 120 are standard.", "The port manager 114 signals a device driver when a packet destined for that device driver is received from the device chain 100.", "Header information is removed from the packet before it is transmitted to the device driver.", "The port manager 114 accepts a packet from a device driver and passes it on to the port controller 110, after header information is added to the packet, for transmission to the appropriate device in the device chain 100.", "The operations of the port manager 114, configuration manager 122, and port controller 110 are transparent to the device drivers 118 and 120.", "The device chain 100 is made up of physical peripheral devices 101 and 102, which may be either legacy devices or Q-PORT devices that communicate serially.", "The legacy devices and Q-PORT devices can be standard peripheral devices such as a keyboard, a mouse or a joystick, or special-purpose peripheral devices such as game input devices (e.g. video game input pads), medical input devices (e.g. input control pads, sensors), or remote communication devices (e.g. infrared, microwave, or radio devices) for communicating with remote input devices.", "Each of the peripheral devices includes a user interface.", "In FIG. 1, the peripheral device 102 is a legacy device and the peripheral device 101 is a Q-PORT device.", "The peripheral devices 101 and 102 can be added or removed and the Q-PORT system can reconfigure dynamically in an auto-configuration cycle.", "Each device is associated with a unique logical device address and device type set during the auto-configuration cycle.", "The legacy and Q-PORT devices can be connected by chaining, as shown by examples in FIGS. 1 and 2, or by attaching chains in a star configuration using a star concentrator, as shown by the example in FIG. 3. The Q-PORT device 101 has a host port 108 connected to a computer port 112 and a slave port 106 connected to a host port 104 of the legacy device 102.", "The computer port 112 can be a standard port, such as a PS/2 style mouse port.", "Q-PORT and legacy devices can be inserted and removed from the computer port 112 while the computer system remains powered on, without requiring additional hardware interface.", "The various ports may be connected using standard connectors such as 6-Pin Mini-DIN connectors.", "Each connector has a data or DAT signal and a clock or CLK signal.", "A device plugged into the slave port 106 is referred to as a "slave"", "or "down from"", "or "below"", "that Q-PORT device, and a device plugged into the host port 108 is referred to as a "host"", "or "up from"", "or "above"", "that Q-PORT device.", "The host computer system C is defined as being at the top of the chain.", "A Q-PORT device which has nothing connected to its slave port is at the bottom of the chain.", "In each of the configurations shown in FIGS. 1-3, only one computer port 112 is needed to connect to multiple peripheral devices.", "The functions performed by the Q-PORT device are controlled by a device manager in the Q-PORT device.", "The Q-PORT device is an "intelligent"", "peripheral device, and the device manager may be implemented with a microcontroller and associated software in the Q-PORT device.", "Multiple Q-PORT devices each having a distinct logical address can be connected in a chain.", "The device at the bottom of the chain has a logical device address of 0×00.", "Each device above increments the logical device address from the one below it (excluding reserved logical device addresses).", "For example, a chain with four devices is shown in FIG. 2, in which three Q-PORT devices 100A, 100B and 100C and the legacy device 102 are connected in series.", "Information issued from the top of the chain will either be acted upon by the device if it is addressed to that device, or it will be passed along to lower devices.", "Broadcast commands are both acted on as well as passed on.", "Information coming up the chain will be passed on without alteration (except in the case of a legacy device handler).", "As shown in FIG. 3, in another example, three device chains 130A, 130B and 130C are connected together using a star concentrator 126, which appears as a host to the device chains 130A-C and which makes the chains appear as one long chain to its host.", "The star concentrator 126 translates the logical device addresses of the peripheral devices in the chains and passes data from the peripheral devices to the host computer system C. The star concentrator 126 may optionally be incorporated in the port controller 110 and perform the logical device address translations after the serial-to-byte conversion, thus relieving the bandwidth requirements on the port controller's serial interface.", "The bandwidth would increase at the port controller's port-manager interface instead.", "With this option, the host computer system C sees multiple, functionally equivalent, slave ports and mechanical space, power supply limitations, and system bandwidth becomes the limiting factors on the fanout of the star connection rather than the bandwidth of the serial interface.", "In the star configuration shown in FIG. 3, the star concentrator 126 performs the following logical device address translations for the port controller 110: address 0×00 of a legacy device 138 in device chain 130A is translated to address 0×00;", "address 0×00 of a legacy device 140 in the device chain 130C is translated to address 0×04;", "and so forth.", "In the example shown, the legacy device 138 and the legacy device 140 are of the same device type, e.g., device type 0×00.", "To allow proper routing by the port manager 114, each of the legacy devices 138 and 142 is associated with an individual device driver, as are Q-PORT devices 132, 134, 136 and 140.", "Referring again to FIG. 1, the legacy device 102 has no slave port and is therefore, by definition, at the bottom end of the chain (logical device address of 0×00) as nothing can be plugged into it.", "The legacy device 102 can be connected directly to the computer system C or the last Q-PORT device in a device chain.", "The Q-PORT device 101 is capable of recognizing that the legacy device 102 is connected to its slave port 101 and supporting the legacy device 102 as a legacy device handler.", "Data going up the chain from the legacy device 102 is packetized by the legacy device handler and transported up the chain.", "Data coming down the chain has the header information removed by the legacy device handler before going to the legacy device 102.", "Since a legacy device handler does not know the format and length of the packets of the legacy device 102, it may consider each byte received as a one-byte packet.", "Once the port manager 114 receives these packets, it passes the bytes on to the appropriate device driver individually.", "The device driver then re-assembles this stream of single bytes into a complete message.", "Devices communicate with each other and with the port controller 110 through a serial bitstream directed through the host and slave ports.", "Each host port will have a male 6-Pin Mini-DIN connector, and each slave port will have a female 6-Pin Mini-DIN connector.", "Both the host and slave ports are bi-directional.", "In addition, each port includes a CLK line and a DAT line, with each line connected to a pull-up resistor having a value of 2.2k ohm, for example.", "Host-to-slave transfers take priority over slave-to-host transfers.", "Q-PORT and legacy devices each has a buffer of sufficient size to hold an entire packet.", "Once the transfer of a packet begins, the entire packet must be transferred before any other information can be transferred from that port.", "Slave-to-host transfer bytes may interleave with host-to-slave bytes if the serial arbitration protocol allows for it, but all bytes in each packet must be received in each link without disturbing their order.", "Referring to FIG. 5, a host-to-slave transfer is initiated by the host device first verifying that the serial interface is idle by checking that both the CLK and DAT lines are high.", "The host device then pulls the CLK line low and, within time period T0 (e.g. 5 μs), it drives the start bit by pulling the DAT line low.", "The CLK line is held low for about time period T1 (e.g. 100 μs) and then released which signals the slave device to clock the start bit in.", "The slave device then waits for about time period T2 (e.g. 40 μs +/-10 μs!) with the CLK line released before the slave device pulls the CLK line low for about time period T3 (e.g. 40 μs +/-10 μs!).", "After less than about time period T4 (e.g. 5 μs), the host device places data bit 0 on the DAT line by pulling the DAT line low if a "0"", "and releasing the DAT line if a "1.", """, "When the slave device releases the CLK line again, it samples the DAT line.", "The slave device then leaves the CLK line released for about time period T5 (e.g. 40 μs +/-10 μs!) before pulling it low to initiate the transfer of data bit 1.", "The process is repeated for data bits 0-7, an odd parity bit, and a stop bit (which is a 1).", "After the stop bit is transferred, the slave device pulls the CLK line low for about time period T6 (e.g. 40 μs +/-10 μs!) and then the slave device places an acknowledge bit (0=ACK, 1=NAK) on the DAT line.", "The DAT line is released about time period T7 (e.g. 40 μs +/-10 μs!) after the CLK line is released.", "If the host device samples a NAK acknowledge bit, which occurs if a parity error is detected, for example, then the host device can assume the transfer was unsuccessful and it can retry the transfer.", "If a slave device does not cycle the CLK line within about time period T9 (e.g. 50 μs) after the host device releases the CLK line in the start bit cycle, then a slave device is no longer connected to the host device's slave port.", "The host device detects this as the disconnected port state.", "A slave-to-host transfer is performed in the same manner as the host-to-slave transfer, except that the slave device rather than the host device initiates the transfer by checking for an idle interface, the slave device drives the data bits, odd parity bit, and stop bit on the DAT line, and an acknowledge bit is not placed at the end.", "At the end of a slave-to-host transfer, if the host device needs extra time to process the received byte, it may inhibit or hold off further transfers by pulling the CLK line low within about a time period T8 (e.g. 50 μs) after the slave device has pulled the CLK line low to begin the stop bit transfer.", "When the slave device releases the CLK line, it will notice that the CLK line remains driven, indicating that the transfer has been inhibited.", "The interface remains inhibited until the host device releases the CLK line, at which time the interface returns to the idle state.", "If a parity error is detected in a slave-to-host transfer, then the host device may issue a REQUEST -- RESEND command to the slave device for re-transmission.", "If, during a slave-to-host transfer, the host device finds that it is out of synchronization with the slave device, the host device can signal a "framing error"", "condition by holding the DAT line low.", "This will be noticed by the slave device as soon as it attempts to drive a "1"", "on the DAT line, yet sees a "0"", "there instead.", "To regain synchronization, the slave device leaves the DAT line released and cycles the CLK line until it samples the DAT line pulled high again.", "The transfer then can be retried once the serial interface returns to the idle state.", "While a host-slave interface is in the idle state, if either the host or slave device is unable to accept incoming data, or will be busy with another task long enough that it may miss the start bit, the device may inhibit the transfer by holding the CLK line low.", "Communication in the Q-PORT system S takes the form of either broadcast communications or packet communications.", "Broadcast communications are single, double, or triple byte commands passed around the Q-PORT system S, such as during the logical device address assignment phase of the auto-configuration cycle.", "A packet moving down from the host computer system C is addressed to a specific device in a chain and a packet moving up from a device has the logical device address of the device which originated the packet.", "Each packet includes header information followed by an optional data block.", "The header information contains a logical device address field to designate the target or source peripheral device and a packet descriptor field to specify the number of bytes in the data block.", "An example of a packet is shown in FIG. 4. The packet width is 8 bits and the data block can be from 0 to 16 bytes long, and the logical address field can be any 8-bit value except those reserved for broadcast commands.", "Broadcast commands are used during the logical device address assignment phase of the auto-configuration cycle performed by the configuration manager 122.", "Broadcast commands are only used by the configuration manager 122 and are not be used be the device drivers 118 and 120.", "One broadcast command is the RESET command byte, which is issued by the configuration manager 122 in an auto-configuration cycle to cause every device in the device chain 100 to go to a known state and to recursively assign all the logical device addresses in the device chain.", "Each of the following command bytes in the Q-PORT system S are transmitted as part of the data block in a packet.", "A SET -- DEFAULT command is sent by the host computer system C to restore all settings in the peripheral device to its default value and to disable the device.", "A DISABLE command is sent to disable a peripheral device from sending any unsolicited packets while in periodic or event driven modes.", "The ENABLE command is sent to enable a device to send unsolicited packets while in periodic or event driven modes.", "After each of the above commands is received and executed, the device acknowledges by returning an ACK command in a packet to the host computer system C. A READ -- DEVICE -- TYPE command causes the receiving device to respond with a packet containing the device's device type.", "The device type information is used during the auto-configuration cycle by the configuration manager 122.", "The host computer system C recognizes that this command was received and executed when it receives the device type packet.", "The port manager 114 signals the configuration manager 122 to perform the auto-configuration cycle in response to several events: on initial entry of the port manager 114;", "when a RESET -- REQ byte is received from some device;", "or by sending an unexpected RESET -- ACK byte to the configuration manager 122.", "During the auto-configuration cycle, the port manager 114 communicates only with the configuration manager 122 and ignores any other device drivers.", "Referring to the flow diagram of FIGS. 6A-6B, the configuration manager 122 starts 202 an auto-configuration cycle when the port manager 114 informs it that the device chain configuration has changed.", "The configuration manager 122 first issues 204 a RESET command and waits 206 for a reset response.", "If a RESET -- NAK byte is received, indicating a non-functional Q-PORT device, or a time-out is detected, the configuration manager 122 notifies 208 the port manager 114 that nothing is connected and also notifies 246 the port manager 114 that the auto-configuration cycle is complete.", "If the port controller code is not written to check for time-out conditions, a small piece of software may monitor the functions of the port controller 110 and check for time-outs.", "This software could report these errors to the port controller 110, which would pass these on to the port manager 114.", "The time-out checking function can also be included directly in the port controller code.", "If the configuration manager 122 receives a RESET -- ACK or LEGACY -- RESET -- ACK byte, it waits 210 for a logical device address NADDR to be transmitted from the device chain 100.", "A legacy device responds to a RESET command by issuing a 3-byte sequence: a LEGACY -- RESET -- ACK byte, a LEGACY -- ACK byte, and a LEGACY -- DEVICE -- TYPE byte.", "The RESET -- ACK, RESET -- NAK, LEGACY -- RESET -- ACK, LEGACY -- ACK, LEGACY -- DEVICE -- TYPE and logical device address bytes are transmitted as broadcast commands by the peripheral devices.", "After a logical device address is received, the configuration manager 122 resets 212 an increment variable I to zero.", "If the configuration manager 122 determines 214 that the variable I is less than or equal to the value of the received logical device address NADDR, it transmits 216 a READ -- DEVICE -- TYPE command packet to the device at logical device address I. The configuration manager 122 then waits 218 for the receipt of a device type packet.", "During the auto-configuration cycle, the port manager 114 forwards the data block portion of any received packet to the configuration manager 122.", "After receipt of data, the configuration manager 122 determines 220 if the device type is a valid type.", "A legacy device responds to the READ -- DEVICE -- TYPE command by first issuing a LEGACY -- ACK byte, which is an invalid device type.", "If an invalid type is detected 220, the configuration manager 122 waits 218 for another packet.", "Once a valid device type packet is received, the configuration manager 122 checks 222 host computer system memory (not shown) to determine 224 if the device driver associated with the device type is loaded.", "If the device driver does not exist, the configuration manager 122 opens 226 the appropriate device driver file from the mass storage device, e.g., hard disk drive, of the host computer system C and loads 228 the device driver into host computer system memory.", "The configuration manager 122 then adds 230 an entry associated with the new device type into a packet routing table for use by the port manager 114.", "Each entry of the packet routing table includes the device driver name and the associated logical device address and device type of the physical peripheral device associated with the device driver.", "The configuration manager 122 then increments 232 the value of the variable I by one and checks 214 if the variable I is less than or equal to the received logical device address NADDR.", "If the configuration manager 122 determines 224 that a device driver is already loaded in host computer system memory, it checks 234 the routing table to compare the received logical device address with the stored logical device address.", "If the addresses are different, then the configuration manager 122 modifies the appropriate routing table entry to associate the device driver to the correct logical device address.", "If the configuration manager 122 determines 214 that the variable I has a value greater than the address NADDR, and if it determines 240 that the address NADDR has the value 0×00 and the connected peripheral device is a legacy device, the configuration manager 122 notifies 242 the port manager 114 that the legacy device is directly connected.", "A directly-connected legacy device does not have a Q-PORT device to act as its legacy device handler, which would require the port manager 114 to essentially act as a byte pipeline between the legacy device and the legacy device driver, performing no interpretation, other than handling broadcast commands.", "The configuration manager 122 then sends 244 ENABLE command packets to each of the peripheral devices in the device chain to enable the peripheral devices.", "Next, the configuration manager 122 notifies 246 the port manager 114 that the auto-configuration cycle is complete.", "The flow diagram of FIGS. 7A-C shows the response of the Q-PORT device to certain command bytes.", "If the Q-PORT device receives 302 a RESET command, it performs 304 a power-on reset cycle which includes a Built-In-Test (BIT) procedure.", "If the Q-PORT device determines 306 that it is functioning properly, it issues 308 a RESET -- ACK byte to the host and issues 312 a RESET command to its slave.", "Any packets received by the slave port of the Q-PORT device must be flushed before the RESET command can be sent by the Q-PORT device.", "The Q-PORT device expects the slave to respond in one of the following ways: a disconnected port state, indicating that the device is not connected to a slave;", "a RESET -- NAK command, indicating a non-functional slave;", "a LEGACY -- RESET -- ACK command, indicating a legacy device is connected as the slave and has passed its BIT procedure;", "or a RESET -- ACK command, indicating the slave is a Q-PORT device and has passed its BIT procedure.", "If the Q-PORT device receives 314 the LEGACY -- RESET -- ACK command, then the Q-PORT device sets 316 its legacy internal flag to identify itself as the legacy device handler and sets 318 its logical device address at 0×01.", "If instead the Q-PORT device receives 320 a RESET -- ACK command, indicating that the slave device is another Q-PORT device, it waits 322 for the slave device to send its logical device address.", "The Q-PORT device sets 324 its logical device address as the slave's logical device address plus one.", "However, if the Q-PORT device discovers 326 that its slave port is disconnected, the slave is not functional, or an unexpected response is received, then the Q-PORT device assumes it is the last functional device in the device chain and sets 328 its logical device address at 0×00.", "After setting its logical device address, the Q-PORT device sends 330 the address to the host.", "If the Q-PORT device receives 302 a reset response (RESET -- ACK or LEGACY -- RESET -- ACK) from its slave without having first issued a RESET command to that slave, or it detects that the slave has become disconnected, then the Q-PORT device sends 303 a RESET -- REQ byte (a broadcast command) up the device chain to the configuration manager 122, which responds by performing an auto-configuration cycle.", "If the Q-PORT device receives 302 a READ -- DEVICE -- TYPE command and the command is addressed 332 to the Q-PORT device, the Q-PORT device sends 334 a packet containing its device type to the host.", "Normally, if the command packet is not addressed 332 to the Q-PORT device, it would simply forward 338 the packet to the slave, but if the internal legacy flag is set 336, the Q-PORT device strips 340 the header off the packet before passing 342 it on to the slave.", "The legacy device will respond to the READ -- DEVICE -- TYPE command by issuing a LEGACY -- ACK byte followed by a LEGACY -- DEVICE -- TYPE byte.", "Referring to the flow diagram of FIG. 8, the device manager in a Q-PORT device handles pending data transfer requests.", "The host port of the Q-PORT device contains a host FIFO queue for storing upstream data, and the slave port of the Q-PORT device contains a slave FIFO queue for storing downstream data.", "The host and slave FIFO queues each has the capacity to store at least one data packet.", "Initially, the device manager transmits 402 any upstream host data pending in the host FIFO queue.", "After a byte of data has been transmitted, if a host device transfer is pending 404 (i.e., host device has taken control of DAT line), priority is given to the host-to-slave transfer and the host device data transfer is processed 406.", "If upstream data is pending 408 in the host FIFO queue, the device manager transmits 402 the next byte of the upstream data.", "However, if upstream data byte is not pending 408, any input from the user interface is processed 410.", "For example, if the Q-PORT device is a keyboard, the pressing of a keyboard by the user would be processed in this step.", "Next, if upstream data is pending 412 in the host FIFO queue, the data is transmitted 402.", "If upstream data is not pending 412, then all downstream data pending in the slave FIFO queue are transmitted 414.", "Next, if a data transfer request is pending 416 from a slave device, the slave-to-host data is transmitted 418.", "The following provides an example of an auto-configuration cycle.", "To begin with, the host computer system C is unconnected with any peripheral devices.", "On power-up, the configuration manager 122 is initiated and issues a RESET command to the port manager 114.", "The port manager 114 passes this RESET command to the port controller 110, but as there are no devices present, the transfer times out and the port controller software responds with a RESET -- REQ byte, which indicates to the configuration manager 122 that nothing is connected.", "Next, a Q-PORT device (having a device type of 0×80) is inserted into the computer port 112.", "When the Q-PORT device receives power, it runs its power-on reset cycle, which (assuming BIT passed) sends a RESET -- ACK byte back through the port controller 110.", "The port manager 114 recognizes the RESET -- ACK byte as being a broadcast command and routes it to the configuration manager 122.", "The configuration manager 122 is not expecting receipt of the RESET -- ACK byte, as the previous configuration cycle showed no devices were connected.", "In response, the configuration manager 122 issues a RESET command through the port manager 114 and port controller 110 to start an auto-configuration cycle.", "If the Q-PORT device had already issued its logical device address, the port controller 110 ignores the RESET command.", "Otherwise, since the host transfer takes precedence, the RESET command is sent on to the Q-PORT device.", "Upon receipt of the RESET command, the Q-PORT device again does a BIT and responds with the RESET -- ACK byte followed by a logical device address of 0×00.", "The port manager 114 again recognizes these two bytes as being broadcast commands and routes them both to the configuration manager 122.", "This time, the configuration manager 122 is expecting a RESET response of some sort, and so recognizes that there is one device in the device chain located at logical device address 0×00.", "The configuration manager 122 then issues a READ -- DEVICE -- TYPE command and the Q-PORT device returns a packet containing a device type of 0×80.", "The port manager 114 recognizes the incoming data as a packet, but realizes that the configuration manager 122 is still performing an auto-configuration cycle, so it routes the data block portion of the packet containing the device type to the configuration manager 122.", "Next, the configuration manager 122 opens the device driver file in the mass storage device corresponding to a device type of 0×80.", "This device driver is loaded into memory, and the configuration manager 122 sets up a routing table for the port manager 114 to route packets having a logical device address of 0×00 to the loaded device driver, and conversely, that data from the device driver be packetized and sent to logical device address 0×00.", "The configuration manager 122 then issues an ENABLE command to both the device driver and the port manager 114 to start the connection.", "Next, the configuration manager 122 exits from auto-configuration.", "Packets to and from the Q-PORT device are transferred according to the routing table until a hardware configuration change occurs.", "Next, a legacy device (having device type 0×00) is connected to the slave port of the previously inserted Q-PORT device.", "When the Q-PORT device performed a power-on reset sequence after it was inserted, it determined that there was no device connected to its slave port.", "If a legacy device gets plugged into the slave port, the legacy device also runs a power-on reset sequence and a BIT.", "If the BIT passed, the legacy device issues to a LEGACY -- RESET -- ACK byte, a LEGACY -- ACK byte, and a LEGACY -- DEVICE -- TYPE byte to its host, the Q-PORT device.", "As the Q-PORT device is not expecting receipt of the bytes, it realizes that its slave port connection has changed.", "As a result, it sends a RESET -- REQ byte to its host port.", "When the port manager 114 receives the RESET -- REQ byte, it recognizes it as a broadcast command and routes it to the configuration manager 122.", "In response, the configuration manager 122 issues a RESET command to the port manager 114, which forwards this through the port controller to the device chain.", "The Q-PORT device receives this RESET command and performs a BIT.", "If successful, the Q-PORT device sends a RESET -- ACK byte to its host port.", "Next, it sends the RESET command to its slave port.", "In response to the RESET command, the legacy device runs another BIT and resends the sequence containing the LEGACY -- RESET -- ACK byte, LEGACY -- ACK byte, and LEGACY -- DEVICE -- TYPE byte.", "The Q-PORT device sees this sequence and recognizes that its slave device is a legacy device because of the LEGACY -- RESET -- ACK byte, so the Q-PORT device sets an internal legacy flag to set itself as the legacy handler for its slave.", "At this point, the Q-PORT device knows that its slave device has a logical device address of 0×00, and it, therefore, must have a logical device address of 0×01.", "The Q-PORT device then issues the logical device address of 0×01 to its host port.", "The port manager 114 had previously received the Q-PORT device's RESET -- ACK byte, and so it was expecting the logical device address next.", "Both the RESET -- ACK byte and the logical device address are passed on to the configuration manager 122.", "The configuration manager 122 now knows there are two devices in the device chain.", "It first issues a packet containing the READ -- DEVICE -- TYPE command to the device at logical device address 0×00, which is received by the Q-PORT device.", "Normally, since the packet is not addressed to the Q-PORT device, it would simply pass it along to its slave port.", "However, since the Q-PORT device is the legacy device handler, and the logical device address on the packet is 0×00, the Q-PORT device strips the header off the packet and passes it on to its slave port.", "Upon receipt of the READ -- DEVICE -- TYPE command, the legacy device first issues a LEGACY -- ACK byte to its host port.", "When the Q-PORT device receives this, it adds the header with a logical device address of 0×00 and a byte count of 0×1.", "The port manager 114 receives this packet and does not pass it on to the device driver indicated in its routing table for device 0×00;", "instead, it sends the data (which is the LEGACY -- ACK byte) to the configuration manager 122 as the auto-configuration cycle is still in progress.", "The configuration manager 122 knows that the LEGACY -- ACK byte is an invalid device type, so it ignores it.", "Next, the legacy device issues the real LEGACY -- DEVICE -- TYPE byte, which the Q-PORT device packetizes and sends via the port controller 110 and port manager 114 to the configuration manager 122.", "The configuration manager 122 sees that the device driver for this device type is not loaded in memory, so it searches the mass storage device for the corresponding device driver and loads it into memory.", "The configuration manager 122 then sets up the packet routing table for the port manager 114 to direct packets to and from the device at logical device address 0×00 to the new device driver.", "Next, the configuration manager 122 issues a packet containing a READ -- DEVICE -- TYPE command to the device at logical device address 0×01.", "The Q-PORT device receives this and responds with a packet containing the device type of 0×80.", "The configuration manager 122 receives this byte, and sees that it already has this device driver in memory, so all it need do is point the packet routing table in the port manager 114 to this device driver for all packets to or from logical device address 0×01.", "As the configuration manager 122 has attached all the relevant device drivers to the Q-PORT system, it sends ENABLE commands to each device and device driver in turn and signals the port manager 114 that the auto-configuration cycle has finished and the configuration manager 122 exits.", "Next, the legacy device at logical device address 0×00 is removed.", "Nothing happens until something is sent to the legacy device.", "The transmitted packet arrives at the Q-PORT device, which removes the header from the packet and sends the first byte of the data block to the Q-PORT device's slave port.", "The Q-PORT device detects that its slave port has become disconnected.", "In response, the Q-PORT device sends a RESET -- REQ byte out its host port.", "The RESET -- REQ byte is routed to the configuration manager 122, which initiates an auto-configuration cycle by sending the RESET command out.", "The RESET response indicates that only one device is in the device chain and it is at logical device address 0×00.", "The configuration manager 122 queries this device and discovers it is the Q-PORT device with the device type of 0×80.", "The configuration manager 122 recognizes that the device driver is in memory for the device type of 0×80.", "The configuration manager 122 modifies the packet routing table by changing the logical device address associated with the Q-PORT device's device driver.", "The unused device driver for device type 0×00 is unloaded from memory and the configuration manager 122 signals the end of the auto-configuration cycle to the port manager 114 and exits.", "Other embodiments are also within the scope of the claims.", "For example, other types of serial interfaces can be used and the packet and broadcast command widths can be varied." ]

[ "RELATED CASE This application is a continuation-in-part of copending application, Ser.", "No. 824,525, filed Jan. 31, 1986.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to gas flow in aid of the arc discharge of an electric-arc discharge device, wherein the arc discharge is established to a workpiece which is electrically conductive.", "Cutting and gouging are common uses of electric-arc discharge devices.", "With some processes, to do a clean piece of work has been almost impossible due to accumulation of dross products on the workpiece.", "Efforts to avoid this problem have involved use of gas jets, variously arranged, depending upon the job to be done.", "For example, to gouge a channel on the exposed face of a workpiece, plural gas jets have been clustered beneath the electrode tip of the device, the jets being directed at the region of arc discharge to the workpiece, all in the hope and expectation of removing a maximum quantity of arc-melted metal.", "However, as a practical matter, whether the plural jets are clustered beneath the electrode, or circumferentially distributed around the electrode, as in Bulgarian Pat. No. 51,405, published Feb. 15, 1983, the arc discharge is noisy and the worked product is encumbered by dross which includes hardened droplets of melt of workpiece material, strongly adhered to the workpiece, or excessive fuming is encountered.", "And this is so even when operating the torch with a consumable, automatically fed electrode, whereby to enhance the ability to develop thermal energy at the point of arc delivery to the workpiece;", "a discussion of such consumable electrodes is contained in pending patent applications Ser.", "Nos. 780,031 and 780,033, filed Sept.", "25, 1985.", "BRIEF STATEMENT OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the invention to provide a new and improved method and means for utilizing gas flow to shape and position the discharge of an electric arc.", "A specific object is to realize the above object in a manner to establish relatively quiet and stable arc action, while accumulating next to no dross, and with much-reduced fuming, as compared with prior techniques.", "Another specific object is to realize the above objects while at the same time enabling adjustably controllable constriction of the arc, at far greater offset from the gas nozzle than has hitherto been possible, to thereby provide better visible access for viewing arc action on the workpiece.", "A further specific object is to provide a nozzle configuration of general utility in application to an electric-arc discharge device whereby the same nozzle can serve for realizing the above objects, for a variety of operations, including sheet-metal cutting and workpiece gouging.", "A general object is to achieve the foregoing objects with a construction enabling much faster and more efficient electric-arc discharge operations, while also substantially extending the limits within which electric-arc discharge operations are feasible.", "The invention achieves the foregoing objects in an electric-arc discharge device wherein an annular nozzle surrounds the electrode and is configured for discharging gas flows at trans-sonic speeds, with circumferential uniformity of the gas flow around the axis of the electrode, and directed downstream to surround and radially inwardly confine and shape the arc.", "The trans-sonic speeds of gas discharge are the result of special annular gas-nozzle design and suitable pressure of gas supply thereto, whereby a region of criticality characterizes gas flow within the nozzle, i.e., prior to discharge at trans-sonic speeds, which are to be taken to range from high subsonic to relatively low supersonic, at discharge around the electrode and toward the region of electric-arc development.", "In a particularly advantageous general-purpose embodiment of the invention, means are provided for additionally developing a further annulus of discharged gas flow, concentrically around the trans-sonic velocity flow and in the same axial direction, but at lesser gas-flow rate, whereby pressure of arc-confining gas flow can be controlled in surrounding adjacency to the electrode and its arc, and whereby the action of atmospheric pressure on the trans-sonic annular flow can be buffered by said further annulus of gas flow.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION The invention will be illustratively described in detail for several embodiments, in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: FIG. 1 is a view in longitudinal section through an electrode nozzle for general purpose use;", "FIG. 2 is an exploded view in longitudinal section of three internal components of the configuration of FIG. 1;", "FIG. 3 is a view similar to FIG. 1, for a different embodiment, representing essentially a single-purpose use;", "FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 2, for the corresponding three internal components of the configuration of FIG. 3;", "FIG. 5 is a fragmentary view in longitudinal section, to show an alternative construction;", "FIG. 6 is a view similar to FIG. 1, to show a modification;", "FIGS. 7 and 7A are respectively a partly sectioned longitudinal elevation and a cross-section for one of the parts of FIG. 6, the cross-section being taken at 7A--7A in FIG. 7;", "FIG. 8 is a partly sectioncd longitudinal elevation of another part of FIG. 6;", "and FIG. 9 is a cross-section taken at 9--9 in FIG. 6, for another of the parts of FIG. 6. The electrode-nozzle construction of FIG. 1 comprises an electrode member 10, a two-part body member 11a-11b and a shroud member 12 in mutually supported concentric relation about a central axis which extends from an upstream end to a downstream end of the nozzle.", "The body member is tubular and has internal threads 13 at its upstream end for connection to the outlet 14 of a host torch.", "The body member is also configurated for removable support of the upstream end of electrode member 10, whereby the downstream remainder of the electrode member derives cantilevered support from the body member over at least an axially downstream nozzle region A of circumferentially continuous radially spaced overlap with the body member.", "In the form shown, the body-member parts 11a-11b have complementary frusto-conical adjacent ends 15a-15b the electrode member 10 and body part 11a have complementary frusto-conical formations 16-16a, and the electrode member 10 is threaded at its upstream end 17 for removable engagement to the threaded downstream end 18 of body part 11b, whereby close tolerance of concentricity between lapped body-member and electrode-member surfaces is assured upon completion of the thread engagement at 17-18.", "In this connection, it is noted that the relatively gentle convergence angle α 1 of conical surfaces 16-16a, compared to the steeper and opposite convergence angle α 2 of conical surfaces 15a-15b enables relatively great torsional friction to develop at 16-16a, thereby facilitating disengagement of threads 17-18 upon relative rotation of the body-member parts 11a-11b, i.e., without having to apply a tool of any kind to the electrode member.", "The shroud member 12 is elongate and tubular and establishes an electrically insulated circumferential enclosure of the electrode and body members;", "member 12 may be a single piece of suitable molded plastic, but as shown it is a metal tube with a tubular liner 19 of insulating material such as a fiber-glass reinforced plastic.", "At its downstream end, shroud member 12 converges conically, in concentrically spaced relation with the downstream end of the body member and with the downstream end of the electrode member 10.", "Shroud-member support on the body member is via upstream and downstream lands 20-21 which are peripherally grooved for an elastomeric O-ring seal 20'-21'", "of each land engagement.", "Between the lands 20-21, the body member is of reduced diameter to thereby define with shroud liner 19 an annular manifold 23 for gas-flow supply via plural radial ports 22 to a plenum 24 at the upstream end of the region A of spaced concentric overlap of electrode member 10 by the downstream end of the body member.", "A suitable supply 25 of pressurized gas is schematically shown to be connected to the host torch and to be fed via the outlet 14 to the upstream counterbore region 26 of the body member and then, via plural radial ports 27, to the manifold 23.", "The host-torch outlet 14 will be understood to be electrically conductive and to be connected to an electrical source 28 of arc-supply power.", "Both parts of the body member may also be conductive, suitably of brass, and part 11b is the means of applying arc power to electrode member 10.", "If the arc to be struck to a conductive workpiece (not shown) is to involve a non-consumable electrode, then electrode member 10 may be internally configured for releasably chucked retention of a suitable electrode rod, projecting at substantial downstream offset beyond electrode member 10, as shown for the projecting rod end 30 in FIG. 1;", "alternatively, the electrode member 10 may be of suitable high-temperature alloy and integrally formed with a forwardly projecting tip end from which the arc is to be struck.", "In the form shown, however, electrode member 10 is suitably of copper, with a continuous central bore 31 for forwardly cantilevered support of a consumable electrode rod or tube, as of the nature disclosed in said pending patent applications, in which case the numeral 30 will be understood to identify the visibly exposed end of the electrode rod or tube;", "in this event, rod 30 will be understood to be continuously fed from the host torch, being shown at 30'", "to be continuously guided within a Bowden-wire flexible sheath 32 which derives central piloting support via the concave axially inner-end wall 33 of body-member cavity 26.", "It is an important feature of the invention that, within the nozzle region A, axially lapped concentric surfaces of the electrode member and of the body member coact to define an annular supersonic nozzle which is characterized by a circumferentially continuous annular throat at the constricted downstream end of a zone 35 of convergence from plenum 24, the convergence being such, in conjunction with the gas-flow rate and pressure available from supply 25, that critical flow is established at the throat;", "generally involved supersonic velocities are in the range Mach 1 to Mach 3.", "As shown, the circumferentially continuous condition is also maintained in a diffuser zone 36 wherein gas velocity increases for discharge at trans-sonic or supersonic velocity into the larger annulus 37 of axial extent B, where the downstream end of the shroud member 12 laps only the downstream convergent end of the electrode member 10.", "This supersonic-nozzle discharge is in part relied upon, within the annulus 37, to induce a substantial and further gas flow in an annular convergent-passage zone 38, of axial extent C, defined by and between the convex downstream-end taper of the body member and the concave inner-wall taper of the downstream end of shroud member 12.", "Gas supply to the passage zone may be a suitably regulated pick-off from source 25, or from another gas source, but as shown plural arcuate ports 39 afford induction of ambient air as the gas flow in zone 38.", "The net effect and result of the described configuration of FIGS. 1 and 2 is to establish two concentric annular flows at nozzle discharge.", "The greatest velocity, and therefore lowest pressure, characterizes an inner annulus bounded by the projecting electrode end and by a generally cylindrical margin 40 of adjacency to an outer annulus (within an outer margin suggested at 41) of induced second flow of substantial velocity, which is less than the velocity within the inner annulus 40.", "Since this second annulus of induced gas flow is of lesser velocity, it must be characterized by pressure which is intermediate near-ambient pressure (at margin 41) and the much lower pressure within annulus 40.", "Thus, for any transverse section taken along and beyond the projected extent of electrode 30, a substantial and circumferentially uniformly distributed radially compressing pressure gradient exists.", "This gradient is found to be so circumferentially uniform and strong as to dictate the focus and sectional width of the arc itself, rendering the FIG. 1 configuration useful to gouge or to cut a given workpiece, for the circumstance of compressed air from supply 25, merely by varying the feed-air pressure, the wire (30) feed rate (amperage) and the arc voltage.", "The nozzle configuration of FIGS. 3 and 4 is preferred for the single purpose application of cutting a sheet-metal workpiece, as when delineating a locally damaged vehicle-body panel area for removal and replacement.", "FIGS. 3 and 4 also illustrate an alternative technique for removably mounting an electrode member 110 to a body member, which again comprises two parts 111a-111b.", "For simplicity of description, parts of the electrode nozzle of FIGS. 3 and 4 which correspond to those of FIGS. 1 and 2 are identified by the same reference numbers, in a 100-series.", "In terms of the FIG. 3/4 alternative mounting of electrode member 110, the upstream end thereof is characterized by a radial shoulder 101 at the base end of a frusto-conical mounting head 116, which derives coaxial positioning reference from a complementary concave frusto-conical seating surface 116b in body-member part 111b.", "To retain the seated relation, the bore of body-member part 111a is characterized by a radially inward shoulder 102 which axially drives head 116 into seated position, upon relative rotation of parts 111a-111b to advance their threaded engagement at 103-104.", "Flats 105 on part 111a and on the flanged end 106 of part 111b will be understood to facilitate wrenched fastening and release of the seated relation of head 116.", "For the primarily cutting purpose to be served by the nozzle electrode of FIGS. 3 and 4, it is preferred to characterize the supersonic-nozzle region so that, beyond the critical-flow region at the throat, and in the expanding zone 136, the mean radius of supersonic flow is convergent in the downstream direction.", "This convergence, in the context of elevated pressure of gas-flow supply to the plenum for the annular supersonic nozzle, is found to provide such strong and well-focused delivery of supersonic flow along an annulus closely adjacent the consumable electrode 30, for at least as much axial distance as 5 times the mean exit diameter of zone 136, as to require no additional pinch-control effect from any other annular flow.", "The downstream end of shroud member 112 of FIG. 3 therefore is for protection purposes only, in that no flow can be induced therein, beyond the supersonic discharge from zone 136.", "And the radially compressed arc struck from this nozzle provides a very stable and narrow path of line-cutting of a metal workpiece.", "The embodiment of FIG. 5 provides all the performance features of FIGS. 1 and 2, and is solely illustrative of the employment of a one-piece body member 11, which is counterbored from its downstream end to match the taper of the frusto-conical seating surface of electrode member 10, and which is suitably tapped for threaded reception of the upstream end 17 of the electrode member 10.", "Illustrative dimensions will be given for the convergent/divergent zones of the supersonic-nozzle portions of the respective embodiments of FIGS. 1 (5) and 3, for the case of connection to a host-torch output bore of 0.75-in.", "diameter, a shroud-member diameter of 0.875 inch, and an assembled electrode-nozzle length of 3 inches, within which the annular supersonic-nozzle portion is of 0.50-inch axial length, i.e., the overall length (A) spanned by ends of its zones 35 and 36.", "In the configuration of FIGS. 1 and 5, the throat is at the half-way point, and the zone 35 is defined by a 0.375-in.", "diameter cylindrical bore in part 11a, and by a convex frusto-conical surface (of electrode member 10) which slopes at 15° from the longitudinal axis, to a maximum diameter which establishes a 0.012-inch, circumferentially continuous annular clearance at the throat;", "the mean slope of the convergent zone 35 is thus an expanding cone of 7.5° slope.", "Downstream from the throat, the bore in part 11a slopes outward at 5°, and the lapped convex frusto-conical surface of electrode member 10 slopes at substantially 6°, so that the mean slope of the divergent zone 36 is a very slightly converging cone.", "At its point of discharge into the zone 37 of inducing further gas flow from passage 38, the discharge area from zone 36 is preferably in the range 1:1 to 1:5 as compared to the area of passage 38 at entry into zone 37.", "In an illustrative case of the primarily cutting embodiment of FIG. 3, the overall length of the annular supersonic-nozzle configuration is again 0.50 inch, but the bore at the throat is of 0.281-in.", "diameter, the same being located on the upstream side of the midpoint so as to provide a convergent zone 135 of 0.18-in.", "length and a divergent zone 136 of 0.32-in.", "length.", "The convergent zone 135 is characterized by virtually zero mean slope, but the divergent zone is characterized by a mean slope with converges at 2.5° in the downstream direction, whereby to achieve greater confinement of its supersonic-flow discharge along the electrode 30 and in radial compression of the arc struck therefrom.", "The described configurations will be seen to achieve the stated objects.", "Although instrumentation has not been available to make exact measurement of flow speeds, it can be said that the supersonic nozzle of the FIG. 1 configuration is designed theoretically to produce an exit velocity of Mach 2.63 with as low as 5-psi pressure differential over the axial span A of the supersonic-nozzle region of zones 35 and 36.", "The induced-flow nozzle is configured to employ like opposed concave and convex slopes to establish an induced-flow passage of section area which converges along a single outer confining surface, from its largest area at ambient-air entry, to the inside pocket which characterizes zone 37.", "This enables the induced-air flow to enter zone 37 in coaxial relation to the greater speed of discharge flow from the supersonic nozzle.", "The converging subsonic coaxial flow of the induced air coacts with the convergent tip of the electrode member 10 (reducing to the diameter of the electrode wire 30) to restrain deceleration of the higher-velocity flow from the supersonic nozzle, while drawing the higher-velocity flow smoothly down to the electrode wire 30.", "The induced-air flow provides a protective or sacrificial coaxial sheath of high-speed flow which reduces or moderates the compressive effects of atomospheric air on the primary flow;", "it also delays, and therefore axially offsets beyond the torch, the flow-degrading effect of turbulence.", "A side benefit is that overall air flow is increased without need for additional high-pressure air;", "indeed, the result is a lesser volumetric demand for high-pressure air flow.", "In tests to date, the FIG. 1 (5) configuration has provided easily variable thrust compression of the arc, by varying air-feed pressure at 25.", "The resulting electric arc is quiet and stable, producing uniform displacement of melted workpiece metal, with reduced fuming (because most displaced melted metal is not atomized), and with little or no adhering dross.", "The reduced feed-air volume requirement is accompanied by superior control of gouging and cutting operations, it being possible to control the degree of arc-thrust constriction, and therefore width of the arc, over a 10:1 range of pressures (10 psi to 100 psi) as delivered by the source 25.", "The modification of FIGS. 6 to 9 embodies certain refining features which render the same preferred over the construction of FIGS. 1 and 2, and these features will be seen to be additionally applicable to the constructions of FIGS. 3 to 5.", "To simplify description, and where applicable, parts in FIGS. 6 to 9 which correspond to parts in FIGS. 1 and 2 are given the same reference number, with primed notation.", "The most striking FIG. 6 departure from FIG. 1 is the use of a single all-metal shroud member 12'", "which is preferably of aluminum, with a so-called hard-anodized finish or coat.", "The hard-anodized coat is so thin, approximately 0.002-in.", "thick, that it cannot realistically be shown in the drawing.", "But with such a coating, the inner and outer surfaces of shroud member 12'", "are tough, fracture-resistant and scratch-resistant;", "and, most importantly, there is no need for the electrically insulative liner 19 of FIG. 1, in that such hard-anodizing results in superior dielectric properties, which are in the order of 1000 volts/mil of anodized thickness.", "As best seen in FIGS. 6 and 8, the downstream frusto-conical convex profile 50 of body member 11a'", "is cut away to define a circumferentially continuous land 51 adjacent the land 52 of downstream support of shroud member 12', such support being completed at sealed fit of O-ring 21'", "in the groove 53 of land 51;", "land 51 is in axial registry with the arcuate-port formations 39'", "of shroud member 12', thereby establishing a circumferentially continuous plenum for induced air flow via ports 39', prior to axially directing and accelerating such air flow in zone 38'", "between the convergent shroud-member end 54 and the lapped profile 50 of body member 11a'.", "Body member 11a'", "is also preferably of aluminum, with a hard-anodized coat as described for the anodized coat of shroud member 12'.", "Further differences in the FIG. 6 construction will be seen in the provision of extended axial length of the threads 17'", "at the upstream end of electrode member 10', which is suitably of copper, being of course relied upon for establishing continuous good electrical-supply connection to the continuously fed consumable electrode 30.", "For fidelity of such electrical-supply connection, the other body part 11b'", "is highly conductive, suitably of brass, and the axial extent of threaded engagement to electrode member 10'", "is deliberately great, for assurance of good electrical power delivery to member 10'.", "In FIG. 6, the electrode-member fit (16'/16a') to body member 11a'", "remains as described for 16/16a in FIG. 1, but the direction of steep frusto-conical engagement 15a'-15b'", "reversed from that at 15a-15b in FIG. 1. The reason for the reversal is that the body-member conical surface 16a', being hard-anodized, is a hard surface compared to that of the relatively soft copper of the electrode-member surface 16'", "which it engages.", "It is found that this combination of relatively hard to relatively soft surfaces, at electrode-centering engagement, establishes such friction as to preclude inadvertent vibrational loss of the engagement;", "in fact, for having merely hand-tightened electrode member 10'", "into threaded engagement with body member 11b', and with the other body member 11a'", "engaged therebetween, the locked assembly of these parts is so great as to require wrenched engagement to flats 55 of body member 11b'", "(see FIGS. 6 and 9), in order to dislodge the locked relation, the lock at 16'-16a'", "being so strong that unthreading torque applied to body members 11a'/11b'", "is effectively an unthreading torque applied to electrode member 10'", "with respect to body member 11b'.", "A still further feature of FIG. 6 departure from FIG. 1 is the provision of an intermediate cylindrical counterbore 56 in body member 11b', the same being axially intermediate threads 18'", "and the larger plenum-defining counterbore 26'.", "The counterbore 56 will be seen to establish an axial guide for the downstream end of the Bowden-cable sheath 32', so that this downstream end will remain concentrically located regardless of such displacements of sheath 32'", "as may occur by reason of manipulation of the torch body to which the described electrode-nozzle configuration is mounted.", "Preferably, the Bowden-cable sheath 32'", "is coated with low-friction flexible plastic, such as a shrink-plastic coating for substantially sealed and smooth engagement in counterbore 56, thus avoiding pressurized-gas leakage via clearance between the consumable electrode 30 and the electrode-member bore 31 (see FIG. 2) in which it is guided, it being appreciated that any such leakage can degrade the continuity and/or fidelity of electrical-power delivery to the consumable electrode 30.", "Also preferably, the downstream end of cable sheath 32'", "is formed rounded or with a bevel (not shown), for ease of initial self-piloting entry into counterbore 56.", "The construction of FIG. 6, particularly with its use of hard electrically insulative coating on shroud member 12'", "and body member 11a', is found to produce a truly surprising result, which is best appreciated in the event of a gouging entry of the gas-constricted arc in close proximity to workpiece material.", "In such circumstances, some of the particulate metal which is dislodged as metal droplets in the gouging process can find its way back to the vicinity of the arcuate induced-air ports 39 of FIG. 1 and, in FIG. 1, dross deposit of the particulate material can accumulate upon one or the other of the convergent surfaces which define the convergent induced-air passage 38.", "Not only does such dross accumulation spoil the intended flow of induced air, but a potential short-circuit path develops from electrode member 10 to shroud member 12, should the latter happen to contact the workpiece, or other electrical ground;", "and any such short-circuit path can be totally destructive of the discharge end of the nozzle configuration.", "On the other hand, with the FIG. 6 construction, any workpiece or other electrical-ground contact with shroud member 12'", "must necessarily be a contact that is electrically well protected by the dielectric strength of the hard-anodized coating.", "Further, dross accumulation within internal passages is virtually non-existent, perhaps because the anodized surfaces of members 11a'", "and 12'", "have a greatly elevated melting temperature (which exceeds any temperature of the particulate material, and these surfaces do not offer heat-sink properties to the entrained particulate material, so that there is little or no encouragement for any particulate material to adhere to such surfaces.", "Also, the much faster inner annulus of trans-sonic flow discharge, concentrically within the annular discharge of induced air flow into zone B, is such that no entrained particulate material could possibly reach the electrode member 10'", "of FIG. 6. The inherent dielectric strength of the anodic film which coats the shroud member 12'", "and the body member 11a'", "provides insulative properties which prevent nozzle destruction by arcing between these parts.", "And the virtual elemination of particle accumulation within the nozzle insures that aerodynamic integrity of the nozzle will be maintained, thereby providing uniform performance and extended life.", "Although in the case of FIG. 6, the preference has been indicated for a hard-anodic coating, it should be noted that much the same desired dielectric-coat properties may be achieved by other techniques such as ceramic coatings, and epoxy or other resin-based coatings.", "The preference for anodic coating is attributable to inherently low cost and precision of the process, with degradation of the aerodynamic properties which are essential to trans-sonic nozzle performance.", "Also, in connection with FIG. 6, the fact that aluminum is indicated to be suitable for the shroud 12'", "and for body-member part 11a'", "does not mean that aluminum is necessarily to be preferred for all shrouded torch configurations.", "For example, in the FIG. 6 embodiment, aluminum well serves the purpose because the gas-constricted arc configuration is in the nature of a refrigerator, producing such cooling action that a relatively low melting metal such as aluminum is not deleteriously affected.", "On the other hand, a conventional fixed-electrode torch with a shielding-gas shroud must use a shroud material which can withstand temperatures that could melt aluminum;", "often, such shrouds are of ceramic, which is necessarily subject to breakage, but a hard anodic coating applied to a titanium shroud will provide not only the desired dielectric strength but also a tough structure with greatly enhanced resistance to mechanical shock, as well as the above-noted resistance to spatter or dross accumulation." ]

[ "FIELD AND BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to impulse radio type Ultra-Wideband (UWB) communication systems and, in particular, it concerns a method and device for generating a very short and high power bandpass pulse with low power consumption, with an inherent capability for binary phase shift keying (BPSK) modulation.", "Ultra-wideband (UWB) communication is an attractive technology for personal and local wireless networks.", "Instead of transmitting and receiving continuous modulated sinusoidal waveforms as in carrier-based systems, impulse radio type UWB communication systems transmits short pulses with gaps of no energy between them.", "Such pulses are designed to occupy wide bandwidth, up to several GHz of spectrum.", "For UWB systems occupying a large portion of the 3.1 GHz to 10.6 GHz band allowed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules a pulse width of 50-100 ps would be required.", "Other UWB systems using narrower spectrum, but still within the minimum bandwidth requirements of the FCC, would require longer pulses but still in duration of less than 1-2 ns.", "The wide bandwidth in turn allows a low power spectral density for a given transmission power, leading to the claim that it will not interfere with other users of that band.", "Some (but not all) advantages of UWB technology are: 1.", "UWB provides a wide bandwidth signal more simply than other techniques.", "Self interference in a UWB network is very low, allowing a large number of UWB terminals to operate in a given area.", "The use of narrow pulses makes UWB very tolerant to multipath use.", "UWB can provide accurate range information between a transmitter and a receiver, even down to a few centimeters.", "In some UWB systems, like those described in patents application WO 2003/098528 entitled METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DISTANCE DETERMINATION OF RF TAGS, the UWB pulses are organized in short bursts of relatively close pulses, i.e. about 10 ns between pulses, modulated with a Barker sequence.", "The use of a burst of pulses allows a reduction in the pulse peak power, however relatively large pulses may still be required to achieve a decent power while at the same time conforming to the FCC UWB limits.", "One technical difficulty to solve when designing UWB devices is how to generate high power pulses of short duration under the constraint of low power consumption from the power supply.", "Prior art systems for generating pulses are known and there are many possible methods to generate UWB pulses.", "One method is a pulsed oscillator.", "In this method there is an oscillator with fast turn on and turn off times, and the output of this oscillator is the desired pulse, which can be further amplified or upconverted if necessary.", "Traditional LC oscillator topology includes a reference current that creates high gain in the active device in order to obtain oscillation conditions.", "When these conditions are obtained, stable oscillations are generated.", "One method for generating a pulsed oscillator is describe in the article found at Webpage [http://www.", "eecs.", "berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2006/EECS-2006-136.", "pdf] In this method, turning on and off the reference current will turn the oscillation on and off such that a pulse is generated.", "A drawback of this method is that the turn on and off times of the oscillator are high, so wide bandwidth pulses necessary for UWB cannot be achieved.", "Fast turn on and off is achieved by a switch that shortcuts the inductor, and when the switch is released, the oscillation starts.", "When the switch is closed, the oscillations decay.", "In order to create fast start up of the oscillations, reset switches short the outputs temporarily to two different voltages (e.g. one to VDD and other to ground (GND)).", "This reset circuit should operate for a very short time, less than half a cycle, to avoid reducing the Q of the tank and disturbing the oscillation condition.", "Generating such short pulses (on the order of 100 ps) with the load of large switch transistors is a technological challenge.", "In another method described in US Patent Application No. 2006/0039448 A1, a baseband pulse is generated by a ring oscillator topology and then the baseband pulse is upconverted by mixing with a continuously working oscillator generating the radio frequency (RF) frequency.", "This method has disadvantages of high power consumption and low output power.", "In U.S. Pat. No. 3,649,918, a high Q cavity resonator is used in order to achieve oscillations in high energy.", "A short pulse is obtained by connecting the oscillator to the load by a switch for a short duration.", "The disadvantage of such approach is that the oscillator is consuming high power for a long duration, much longer than the needed pulse.", "In addition, a high Q resonator is required, which is not available in current Very-large-scale integration (VLSI) technology, so expensive external devices would be necessary.", "Other methods to generate RE pulses do not rely on a pulsed oscillator.", "In U.S. Pat. No. 4,873,499, the pulse is generated by a step recovery diode (SRD) connected to the base of a transistor, which generates a fast rising electrical voltage step that is then converted into an impulse by one or more capacitors, which differentiate the step.", "The transistor is also driving a resonant circuit that generates the pulse.", "Design with a SRD diode suffers from variations in pulse position with temperature, and it also has a drawback of low output power.", "Another requirement for a UWB pulser is an ability to control the pulse duration, hence its bandwidth.", "The operating frequency of systems is increasing due to technological improvements, so the need for narrower or “ultra fast”", "circuits is important.", "Representative prior methods for controlling the pulse duration include U.S. Pat. No. 6,433,720, which describes the pulse duration being determined by the level of the control signal.", "This is achieved by level-activated switching elements, which can be transistors or diodes.", "However, for VLSI implementation, using Gallium arsenide (GaAs) technology is much more expensive than utilizing Complimentary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) technology.", "Other pertinent prior systems include U.S. Pat. No. 5,274,271, which describes a narrow and high power pulse that is generated by a nonlinear transmission line with series inductors and variable capacitors coupled to ground made from reverse biased diodes.", "This method is implemented by discrete components and requires a sophisticated board design (because of high power level 100 kW) so it is more expensive than the device of the present invention.", "In addition the short pulses are generated by optimizing the length of the nonlinear transmission line.", "This is more complicated than the present invention.", "Also, the pulse repetition rate is limited mainly by the speed of the driver circuit.", "In other systems, like U.S. Pat. No. 6,586,999, a low power pulse generator is amplified by a high power amplifier, but this power amplifier is turned on for about the duration of the transmitted pulse to save power consumption.", "Disadvantages of this method include using a high power amplifier that often demands a driver amplifier so additional current and chip size are needed.", "Further, there is no ability to control turning on the amplifier with the transmitted pulse.", "Therefore, the amplifier will open and close some time before and after the transmitted pulse which requires more current consumption.", "In the device of the present invention, there is an optional class C amplifier 103 , therefore, there is no current consumption until there is a high signal level at the input.", "There is therefore a need for a method and device for generating a very short and high power bandpass pulse with low power consumption.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a method and device for generating a very short and high power bandpass pulse with low power consumption.", "According to the teachings of the present invention there is provided, a method for producing a high power Radio Frequency pulse for a very short duration, the method comprising: (a) providing an oscillator having a symmetric topology;", "(b) activating a first branch of a differential pair of branches of the symmetric topology for a short duration so as to break circuit symmetry and thereby create a large asymmetry in initial voltages;", "(c) activating a second branch of the symmetric topology to begin oscillations;", "and (d) deactivating at least one of the first branch and the second branch to terminate oscillations.", "According to a further teaching of the present invention, the oscillator is implemented having a cross coupled oscillator topology.", "According to a further teaching of the present invention, at least one of the activating the first branch and the activating the second branch includes closing at least one switch associated with at least one of the first branch and the second branch.", "According to a further teaching of the present invention, the deactivating includes opening at least one the switch associated with at least one of the first branch and the second branch.", "According to a further teaching of the present invention, there is also provided controlling a bandwidth of the Radio Frequency pulse by modifying a duration of oscillator activation.", "According to a further teaching of the present invention, there is also provided providing at least one inductor and at least one capacitor such that the oscillator is based on resonance of the at least one inductor and the at least one capacitor.", "According to a further teaching of the present invention, the at least one capacitor is implemented as a parasitic capacitor.", "According to a further teaching of the present invention, the inductor is implemented using chip bond-wires.", "According to a further teaching of the present invention, there is also provided selecting on which one of the first branch and the second branch to create the asymmetry and thereby allow for bi-phase modulation.", "According to a further teaching of the present invention, there is also provided consuming power only for a duration of the Radio Frequency pulse, which is achieved by not using a reference current to operate the oscillator.", "According to a further teaching of the present invention, there is also provided implementing all components in a single VLSI circuit.", "There is also provided according to the teachings of the present invention, a high power Radio Frequency pulse generator for generating a high power Radio Frequency pulse for a very short duration, the pulse generator comprising: (a) an oscillator having a symmetric topology;", "(b) at least a first switch configured in a first branch of a differential pair of branches of the symmetric topology;", "and (c) at least a second switch configured in a second branch of the differential pair of branches of the symmetric topology;", "wherein closure of one of the first and the second switches breaks a circuit symmetry of the symmetric topology so as to create an asymmetry in initial voltages of the differential pair of branches and subsequent closure of another of the first and the second switches begins oscillations and opening of at least one of the first and the second switches terminates oscillations.", "According to a further teaching of the present invention, the oscillator has a cross coupled oscillator topology.", "According to a further teaching of the present invention, the first branch of the cross coupled topology includes at least a first transistor and the second branch of the cross coupled topology includes at least a second transistor and the first switch connects a gate of the first transistor to a drain of the second transistor and the second switch connects a gate of the second transistor to a drain of the first transistor and a third switch connects the gate of the first transistor to ground and a fourth switch connects the gate of the second transistor to ground.", "According to a further teaching of the present invention, the first branch of the cross coupled topology includes at least a first transistor and the second branch of the cross coupled topology includes at least a second transistor and the first switch connects a source of the first transistor to ground and the second switch connects a source of the second transistor to ground.", "According to a further teaching of the present invention, there is also provided two optional bypass capacitors that short the first switch and the second switch.", "According to a further teaching of the present invention, there is also provided a third switch that connects the sources of the first switch and the second switch to ground.", "According to a further teaching of the present invention, the pulse generator is configured to operate by relying on mutual inductance between two branches of the inductor.", "According to a further teaching of the present invention, there is also provided a control unit configured for controlling a bandwidth of the Radio Frequency pulse by modifying a duration of oscillator activation.", "According to a further teaching of the present invention, there is also provided at least one inductor and at least one capacitor such that the oscillator is based on resonance of the at least one inductor and the at least one capacitor.", "According to a further teaching of the present invention, the at least one capacitor is a parasitic capacitor.", "According to a further teaching of the present invention, the inductor uses chip bond-wires.", "According to a further teaching of the present invention, there is also provided a mechanism configured for selecting on which one of the first branch and the second branch to create the asymmetry and thereby allow for bi-phase modulation.", "According to a further teaching of the present invention, no reference current is used to operate the oscillator, therefore, power is consumed only for a duration of the Radio Frequency pulse.", "According to a further teaching of the present invention, all components are included in a single VLSI circuit.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The invention is herein described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein: FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a pulser constructed and operational according to the teachings of the present invention;", "FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the control logic for a pulser constructed and operational according to the teachings of the present invention;", "FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a preferred pulse timing for a pulse generator constructed and operational according to the teachings of the present invention;", "FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a preferred embodiment of a pulse generator constructed and operational according to the teachings of the present invention;", "FIGS. 5 and 6 are waveform diagrams illustrating the operation of a pulse generator of the present invention over time, in which FIG. 6 is a detail of FIG. 5 ;", "FIG. 7 is a graph depicting spectrum specification definitions and illustrates the pulse generator wave frequency within that spectrum;", "FIG. 8 is a graph depicting spectrum requirements of UWB devices due to regulations;", "FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of a first alternative embodiment of a pulse generator constructed and operational according to the teachings of the present invention;", "FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of a second alternative embodiment of a pulse generator constructed and operational according to the teachings of the present invention;", "FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating CNT levels of pulse generator switches according to the teachings of the present invention;", "FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating the time intervals of the Digital control of FIG. 1 ;", "and FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram of a third alternative embodiment of a pulse generator constructed and operational according to the teachings of the present invention.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention is a pulse generator and a method for generating a very short and high power bandpass pulse with low power consumption.", "The principles and operation of a pulse generator and method for generating a very short and high power bandpass pulse with low power consumption according to the present invention may be better understood with reference to the drawings and the accompanying description.", "By way of introduction, the present invention discloses a pulse generator and method for generating a very short and high power bandpass pulse with low power consumption, with an inherent capability for BPSK modulation.", "As used herein, very short pulses are in the order of 1 nsec and a high power pulse is in the order of +20 dBm.", "The present invention is based on LC (L is an inductor and C is a capacitor) oscillator topology and includes a number of novel features that when combined work in synthesis to generate a very short and high power RF pulse with low power consumption.", "These novel features include fast turn on of the oscillator, which is achieved by creating large voltage asymmetry in a normally symmetrical topology as is used in a typical differential type oscillator.", "The creation of the voltage asymmetry constitutes a “startup”", "phase of the present invention.", "The present invention also allows for a very simple way of generating BPSK modulation.", "Further, the present invention activates a high power oscillator for a very short duration, while consuming power only for the duration of the pulse, by non-limiting example, generating a pulse of about +20 dBm for duration of less 1 nsec.", "Since the oscillator output is high, a class C amplifier is used, which conserves power consumption.", "In the present invention, since the oscillator consumes power only when the switches that activate it are closed, no reference current is needed in order to operate the oscillator, thereby eliminating the need for generating a reference current, which also lowers power consumption, and operating the oscillator at the highest power level as possible.", "Controlling the pulse duration, hence its bandwidth, is easy achieved in the present invention by closing and opening switches and controlling the duration of oscillator operation.", "The present invention may be implemented as an RF Integrated Circuit (RFIC), in which all the pulse generator components are integral to the chip, thereby lowering costs of manufacture and installation.", "The device of the present invention is very robust and operates well in diverse conditions of Process changes, VDD changes and Temperature changes (PVT).", "A fast turn on time is achieved by using switches that break the circuit symmetry during a startup phase creating large asymmetry in the initial voltages.", "After the short startup phase, other switches are closed for normal oscillator operation.", "The same switches or additional ones are used for fast stopping of the oscillations by opening and turning off the oscillator.", "Using low resistance switches leads to very fast charging of the capacitances needed for creating the large voltage difference needed for the fast startup.", "Controlling the pulse duration, hence its bandwidth is easy in the present invention The timing of the switches controls the width of the pulse.", "The necessary control signals are very easy to generate by a simple digital timing circuit based on an R-C delay.", "The timing circuit further includes a digital control of the pulse duration by use of a control word as will be discussed below.", "Still another important feature of the present invention is the ability to accurately control the oscillation phase between two options separated by 180 degrees, allowing BPSK, or generating a Barker code composed of several bipolar pulses.", "The polarity control is simply achieved by selecting the polarity of the asymmetry in the initial startup conditions in the otherwise symmetric structure.", "This is achieved, by non-limiting example, by selecting which side of the oscillator will have its switches activated in the startup phase.", "The duration of the startup phase should be approximately equal to half an oscillation cycle for best operation.", "However, the design is not sensitive to the exact timing, and simple and inaccurate timing circuits can generate the required control signals.", "A preferred embodiment of the present invention will have the startup phase implemented using the same switches that turn on the oscillations.", "In such embodiment the startup phase begins when the switch, or switches, on one side of the oscillator is closed so that one branch of the oscillator circuitry is connected.", "Normal operation of the oscillator occurs when the switch, or switches, on both sides of the oscillator are closed and both branches of the oscillator circuitry are connected.", "Thus the time at which each of the switches close is all that differentiates between the startup phase and normal operation of the oscillator.", "Since the control signals to the switches are simply a delayed version of a reference pulse, their generation is very simple.", "It should be noted that no very short duration pulse to the switch is necessary for the duration of the startup phase, merely a delay between the control signals will do the job.", "The frequency of the oscillator is determined by the value of the inductor and the capacitors, some of which may be of parasitic capacitance.", "Tuning of the oscillator frequency, if needed, can be achieved through a few bits of binary signal in a weighted switched capacitor array.", "Turning now to the drawings, FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a preferred embodiment of an overall system of the present invention that includes: a. A digital control circuit 102 that generates control signals.", "b. A pulsed oscillator circuit 101 c. Power amplifier 103 (optional).", "d. Impedance matching circuit 104 (optional) and band pass filter (BPF) 106 (optional) in order to match the output to the antenna for highest power and meeting regulations.", "FIG. 2 illustrates a preferred embodiment of the digital control 102 , which will be discussed with relation to the waveform diagram of FIG. 3 illustrating the operation of the pulsed oscillator of the present invention.", "A reference pulse transmit trigger (TX_TRIGGER) 203 of relatively large duration is differentiated to generate a narrow pulse (NP) 204 which its length is set according to a given control word “S”", "205 , 206 .", "NP 204 is logically combined with transmit binary phase shift keying right control signal (TX_BPSK_RIGHT 207 ) and transmit binary phase shift keying left (TX_BPSK_LEFT 208 ) control signal that are used to determine the output pulse polarity.", "The control logic creates clock left n (ClkLn) 210 , clock left (ClkL) 209 , clock right n (ClkRn) 212 and clock right (ClkR) 212 pulses that determine which switch will be closed in the pulsed oscillator circuit (see FIG. 4 ).", "Power amplifier 103 is a cascode amplifier which increases the signal power and isolate pulse oscillator 101 from output impedance changes.", "Matching circuit 104 insures that out put from power amplifier 103 will be stable, match antenna impedance and that the design meets the FCC requirements.", "FIG. 4 schematically illustrates the main components of the pulse oscillator 101 according to the teaching of the present invention.", "Inductor 401 , capacitor 402 , tuning cell 409 and additional parasitic capacitances (not shown) determine the center frequency of the oscillator 101 .", "Tuning cell 409 is used to change the center frequency if the frequency is shifted due to temperature or process variations, for example.", "Transistors 403 and 406 are connected in cross couple topology to create an oscillator circuit as is currently known in the art.", "It should be noted that all of the switches illustrated in the drawings are preferably implemented as n-type metal-oxide-semiconductor (NMOS) type, in which a control level of logical “1”", "is closed and “0”", "is open.", "When the oscillator 101 is off, or reset state, switches 405 and 408 are open and 404 and 407 are closed, see FIG. 11 .", "The voltage level at the gate of transistors 403 and 405 is zero so no current is flowing.", "The output pulses are generated by operating switches 405 and 407 or 404 and 408 according to their controls respective ClkLn 210 , ClkL 209 , ClkRn 212 and ClkR 212 .", "Diagrams of waves generated by the operation of switches 404 , 405 , 407 and 408 are illustrated in FIGS. 3 , 5 , 6 and 11 .", "The phase of the oscillation is determined by the start-up phase in which only one branch of the oscillator 101 is activated and the opposite branch is connected to GND.", "The phase of the output pulses is determined by a logical combination of NP 204 and TX_BPSK_RIGHT 207 and TX_BPSK_LEFT 208 controls.", "If TX_BPSK_LEFT 208 is “1”, ClkL 209 will be active in the startup phase and if TX_BPSK_RIGHT 207 is “1”, ClkR 211 will be active in the startup phase.", "To start the pulse, TX_TRIGGER 203 rises, and the digital control 102 generates the signal NP 204 which in turn generates ClkLn 210 , ClkL 209 , ClkRn 212 and ClkR 212 in the right polarity and the startup phase begins.", "FIG. 12 illustrates be wave diagram of the output of digital control 102 .", "For illustration purposes solely, with no limitation to the scope of the present invention intended, we will describe operation of the circuit of FIG. 4 assuming TX_BPSK_LEFT 208 is “1.”", "During the startup phase switch 405 closes and 404 opens, so voltage level at gate of 403 starts to increase as a beginning of the first cycle of the oscillations.", "After a delay time that is approximately equal to half an oscillation cycle the voltage at 403 reaches a maximum level.", "At this time, the digital control 102 enters the full power state, in which ClkR 211 is raised to “1”", "so as to close switch 408 and ClkRn 212 is set to “0”", "to open switch 407 .", "This setting of the switches effectively creates a well connected cross coupled oscillator, which operates at the highest power possible.", "In order to terminate the RF pulse NP 204 , the digital control 102 issues the control signals to end the pulse by setting both ClkL 209 and ClkR 211 to “0”", "and ClkLn 210 and ClkRn 212 to “1.”", "This setting not only cuts the connections that allows the cross coupling, but also brings the gates of the transistors 403 and 406 to zero voltage as fast as possible to bring them to an off condition.", "FIGS. 9 , 10 and 13 illustrate alternative embodiments of the present invention.", "The first alternative embodiment of the present invention, as illustrated in FIG. 9 , utilizes switches 901 and 902 that connect or disconnect the source of transistors 403 and 406 , respectively, to GND.", "These switches control activation of their respective branch of the oscillator circuitry, thus switches on the gates are not necessary.", "As discussed with regard to the embodiment of FIG. 4 , oscillation phase is determined by which branch is activated first, and the second branch is activated after half an oscillation cycle delay for the duration of the pulse.", "This topology can provide a higher frequency of oscillations because of decreasing the parasitic capacitance on the oscillator nodes (no switches).", "In addition, the resistance of the switch, which can reduce the output power, is eliminated.", "The disadvantage of this topology is that there is no strong connection to GND because of the resistance of switches 901 and 902 .", "In order to reduce these resistances, 901 and 902 should be implemented using relatively big transistors.", "Such big transistors require a strong drive in the control logic in order to switch them quickly.", "Some of the disadvantages noted above can be overcome by using capacitors 903 and 904 in parallel to the switches.", "The switches 901 , 902 are bypassed by the capacitors 903 and 904 since the capacitors impedance for RF frequency can be made very low, and by this the resistance of the switches can be ignored.", "Still, switches 901 and 902 need to have sufficiently low resistance in order to discharge the capacitor fast enough.", "FIG. 10 illustrates a variant of the first alternative embodiment above.", "Here, an additional switch to GND 1001 is added.", "Although this increases the total resistance to GND, a perfect differential point (Xpoint 1002 ) enables low losses from this switch.", "In this embodiment, switch 901 (for example) is closed some time before the pulse generation.", "The pulse starts when switch 1001 is closed, and switch 902 will be closed half an oscillation cycle afterwards.", "The advantage of this topology is that pulse timing is controlled only from one signal, the signal that controls switch 1001 , thus pulse timing, and thereby pulse phase, can be more accurate.", "Another option, which is not illustrated in the drawings but can be applied to most topologies of the present invention, is to activated only one branch, and oscillations rely only on one transistor (either 403 or 406 ).", "Oscillations are achieved in such an option by relying on the mutual inductance between the two branches of the inductor 401 a and 401 b , which provides the signal to the gate of the transistor.", "It should be noted that the inductor may be implemented as a central tap inductor type.", "In this option, the circuit that provides the controls with appropriate half an oscillation cycle delay can be avoided in expense of power generated.", "It will be appreciated that the pulse generator of the present invention is designed for use with VLSI technology, so the size of the internal inductor of the oscillator may very significant with respect to the chip area.", "A second alternative embodiment of the present invention, in which the topology is designed without an internal inductor of the oscillator and without the TX amplifier which enable a decrease the chip area, is illustrated in FIG. 13 .", "Here, instead of using an internal inductor, a bond wire 1301 can be used as an inductor.", "Alternatively, an external inductor 1302 can be used.", "The disadvantage of not using TX amplifier is that it will not protect the pulse generator from changing load.", "It will be appreciated that the above descriptions are intended only to serve as examples and that many other embodiments are possible within the spirit and the scope of the present invention." ]

[ "REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This application is a continuation-in-part of my application Ser.", "No. 614,445 filed Sept.", "8, 1975, now U.S. Pat. No. 3,986,519.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Field of the Invention This invention relates to a flexible structure having a broad range of utility.", "Illustratively, the structure may be embodied in a tent or enclosure, a kite, a boat, or other environments wherein a concave-convex body is employed.", "Statement of the Prior Art This invention is to some extent an extension or improvement on the subject matter shown in my prior U.S. Pat. No. 3,863,659.", "Other pertinent prior patents known to me include the following: ______________________________________Patent No. Patentee Issued______________________________________2,914,074 Fuller Mar. 1, 19573,006,670 Schmidt Oct. 31, 19613,269,398 Holbitz Aug. 30, 19663,710,806 Kelly et al.", "Jan. 16, 19733,744,191 Bird Jly.", "10, 19733,838,703 Zeigler Oct. 1, 1974______________________________________ SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a concave-convex structure of unlimited utility and features a flexible membrane or body portion having a series of rods or poles arranged in intersecting rows.", "These are stabilized at intersection points by fittings which permit slidable movement.", "Such sliding movement may be effected in several manners, but preferably is through the use simply of an annular element of sufficient dimension to accomodate the poles in sliding fashion.", "The structure provided hereby is characterized by a substantial strength to weight ratio in relation to its enclosed volume.", "This is believed to result from a synergetic inter-action between the outwardly stressed poles or rods, and the annular elements secured to the membrane.", "The slidable nature of the association of these components, with the annular elements attached to the membrane, permits the formation of multi-faceted, complex structures with ease and speed.", "Such structures are easily disassembled as well.", "Other and further objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from a consideration of the following specification when read in conjunction with the annexed drawings.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a dome-like structure formed in accordance with the present invention;", "FIG. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary view of the structure;", "FIG. 3 is a further enlarged sectional view taken substantially on line 3 -- 3 of FIG. 2, looking in the direction of the arrows;", "FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 3 showing a modification employed in forming a multi-layer structure;", "FIG. 5 is another fragmentary top perspective view showing a first modified form of intersection;", "FIG. 6 shows another type of crossover;", "FIG. 7 discloses another modification;", "and FIG. 8 shows still another form of intersection.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The dome shown in FIG. 1 and identified by reference character 10 is representative of the forms in which the structure hereof may be embodied.", "The tent-like form is of a broad range of utility as an enclosure.", "Other environments of employment of the structure are set forth herein-above.", "A basic component of the structure is a flexible membrane or sheath 12 having an inner surface 14 and an outer surface 16.", "The membrane is formed of plastic or other material and has the characteristic of being stretchable in multiple directions.", "Throughout its extent the membrane has connection locations such as apertures 18 formed therein, said apertures being arranged in rows.", "FIGS. 2 and 3 disclose a first basic form of fitting assembly 20 hereof.", "A fitting assembly 20 is provided for each of the apertures.", "The assemblies 20 each comprise an outer base 22 and an inner base 24.", "The bases have inside walls 26, 28, respectively, provided about their outer circumferences with projecting teeth 30 and 32.", "These teeth grip the material of the membrane to insure a tightly sealed relation between the fitting and the membrane.", "The fitting further includes means extending through the aperture to clampingly secure the fitting to the membrane.", "In FIG. 3, such means is shown as comprising a shaft 34 extending vertically from the inner base 24.", "The shaft has an enlarged, tapered plug 36 on its outer end.", "Formed in the outer base 22 is a chamber 38 shaped to correspond to the configuration of the shaft 34 and plug 36.", "The fitting is of rubber or a similar material, and thus, the plug is engageable in the chamber.", "The plug and shaft are extended through the aperture and into engagement in the chamber, thus locking the bases on opposite sides of the membrane.", "Extending vertically from the outer base 22 is a vertical stem 40.", "The stem is provided with a plug 41 similar to the plug 36.", "The plug 41 is detachably seated in a chamber 43 formed in an upper stem section 45.", "An enlarged annular ring member 42 is mounted on the upper stem section 45.", "This permits detachment of the fitting from the membrane without complete dis-assembly thereof.", "The fitting is rotatable to permit variance in the orientation of the ring member, for accomodation of the intersecting rods at varous angles.", "The base 24 is formed with an interior hole 47 from which items may be suspended.", "The invention has, as an important structural feature thereof, two intersecting series of support rods which co-act with the membrane 12 and fittings 20 to form the structure hereof.", "This includes a first series of rods 44 which extend substantially parallel to one another, and a second series of rods 46, also mutually generaly parallel.", "The rods of each series are constructed of material, such as a solid resinous substance, which is rigid and yet permits flexation.", "The rods are flexed in arch form during assembly and are of varying lengths depending upon location.", "The rods are positioned along the rows of apertures, and extend in sliding relation through the ring member 42 of the fittings.", "The rods of the second series 46 intersect those of the first series and pass under those of the first series, there being a relatively close fit through the ring members 42.", "This establishes a stabilized condition between the membrane, the fittings and the rods.", "FIG. 4 shows a modified form of fitting, components corresponding to those in the first described form being identified by like reference characters with a letter "a"", "appended thereto.", "The fittings 20a have an outer base 22a which is snap fit to an inner base 24a.", "Depending integrally from the inner base is a spacer extension 100 having a disc member 102 thereof.", "The disc member 102 has a flat lower face 104 with teeth 106 and contacts an inner membrane layer 108 about an aperture 110 therein.", "The apertures 110 in the inner membrane layer are vertically aligned with the apertures of the outer layer.", "The disc member 102 is secured to the inner membrane layer 108 by a lower disc 112 having an inside face 114 with teeth 116, and having a prong 118 with an enlarged head 120 -- a suspension hole 47a being provided therein.", "The prong and head extend through the aperture 110 and seat in a correspondingly shaped socket 122 formed in the disc 102.", "The second form of the invention threfore provides for two layers of membrane, for insulation or added strength.", "In FIG. 5, still another modification is shown.", "Here, the intersection of the rods from the first and second series thereof is accomplished with a fitting 20b similar to the fitting 20.", "The ring member 42b is of reduced diameter however and will accommodate only a single rod.", "A swivel pin 200 is extended through an opening formed in the top of the ring member, and has an enlarged end 202 to prevent withdrawal.", "A second ring member 204 has an opening in its lower end, and the pin extends therethrough again having an enlarged end 206.", "This constitutes another means to permit limited relative sliding movements of the rods at their intersection points.", "In some configurations of a more complex nature than the basic concave-convex form shown in FIG. 1, additional series of rods may be required.", "FIG. 6 illustrates an embodiment wherein three intersecting series of rods 44c, 46c and 300 are employed.", "There a third ring ring member 302 is added above the ring members 204c and 42c.", "This is accomplished through a swivel pin 304 identical to the pin 200 described above.", "This arrangement may be further modified by adding rings to provide for any number of tiers of rods.", "FIG. 7 shows yet another form in which the membrane 12d is imperforate.", "Fittings 20d comprise a central body 400 having shallow outwardly threaded end portions 402 and 404.", "An upper body 406 has a socket 408 with threads 410 interfitting with the end portion 402.", "A ring member 412 has a base 414 which seats against a corresponding stem 416 on the upper body.", "Both the base and stem 414, 416 have sockets therein 418, 420 which receive a connector 422 with enlarged socket engaging heads 424 and 426.", "Thus, the ring member 412 is detachable from the body 406.", "A lower body 428 is formed with a threaded socket (not specifically shown) and has a depending oval ring 430.", "This central body 400 engages the imperforate outer membrane 12d and clampingly engages it in the socket 408 between the loosely fitting screw threads, while the lower body socket is clamped to the inner membrane 108d in similar fashion.", "The connection is established at connection locations which are suitably determined on the respective membranes.", "Finally, in FIG. 8 a non-complex form of fitting 20e is used wherein the member 12e is formed with slits 18e comprising the connection locations.", "The fittings comprise discoidal bases 500 having a punched or struck tab 502.", "The tab includes a stem 504 bent to substantially perpendicular relation to the base and having a ring member 506.", "The tabs extend through the slits 18e to receive the appropriate poles." ]

[ "This application is a continuation of application Ser.", "No. 09/307,403 filed May. 7, 1999 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,113,390) FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention generally relates to orthodontic appliances and, more specifically, to appliances for treating malocclusions of the upper and lower jaws of a patient.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Malocclusions between the upper and lower jaws of a patient generally fall within three classes.", "Class I malocclusions are those in which the individual teeth are not aligning well with each other and with the corresponding teeth in the opposite jaw.", "This malocclusion is commonly corrected with braces applied to the teeth for gradual realignment.", "Class II malocclusions relate to those cases in which the lower jaw is not developing in the manner which allows the upper and lower arches of teeth to come together with a proper bite or alignment to one another.", "More specifically, in this type of malocclusion an overbite condition exists and must be corrected by moving the lower jaw forward to obtain a proper bite.", "Corrective appliances are therefore used to hold the lower jaw in a proper bite position so that the jaw bones and muscles will support the proper bite.", "Class III malocclusions occur when the lower jaw is positioned too far forward with respect to the upper jaw.", "This condition, often referred to as an underbite, is typically corrected with the use of braces and rubber bands and, in some cases, through surgery.", "The present invention generally relates to appliances for treating Class II or Class III malocclusions or, respectively, overbite and underbite conditions.", "In the past, rubber bands and springs extending in tension between upper and lower sets of brackets have been used to move the jaws into alignment as the patient closes their mouth.", "Over time, this corrective movement will permanently realign the upper and lower teeth of the patient through muscle development and/or proper bone growth.", "External head gear attached to the braces of the patient has been used for similar purposes.", "One main disadvantage with these treatment options is that they each require cooperation on the part of the patient.", "In other words, the patient is required to regularly maintain the rubber bands or head gear in place.", "Patients may choose not to apply the corrective appliances because they are unsightly or uncomfortable or may forget to apply them.", "In either case, the lack of diligence in using the corrective appliances reduces the effectiveness of the treatment.", "Various bite fixing appliances have also been developed to overcome the disadvantages of rubber bands, springs, head gear or other methods of treating Class II and Class III malocclusions.", "Several of these appliances involve the use of coil springs connected between upper and lower sets of braces in a patient's mouth.", "Examples may be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,618,214;", "4,708,646;", "5,352,116;", "and 5,846,074.", "These and other similar bite correcting appliances each suffer from various disadvantages.", "For example, the appliance described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,618,214 uses superimposed springs to pull a patient's lower jaw forward.", "This design is prone to mechanical failure and is undesirable for at least this reason.", "Also, this device is designed to apply a constant pulling force when the patient's mouth is in a closed position and this pulling force increases as the patient opens their mouth.", "This can be uncomfortable for many patients.", "The device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,708,646 attempted to alleviate some of these concerns, however, the coil spring of this patent is an open coil spring secured within a resilient plastic so as to be nonstretchable.", "This design is prone to increased incidents of breakage or, in other words, subject to a short fatigue life.", "The open coil spring and the nonstretchable properties of the appliance increase the amount of stress on the spring and cause the stress to be applied over a shorter length of spring wire.", "Thus, the spring breaks with undesirable frequency.", "U.S. Pat. No. 5,352,116 similarly relates to the use of a sheathed coil spring connected between upper and lower teeth of a patient to provide a pushing force to the lower jaw.", "As with the appliance shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,708,646, this appliance can be difficult to install and reinstall.", "Also, although this appliance uses a stretchable spring, the spring is an undesirable open coil spring design.", "U.S. Pat. No. 5,846,074 discloses the use of a coil wire sheath, however, the sheath is configured as an open coil compression spring.", "This spring presses against opposite connecting pieces as an internal straight wire spring element contained within the sheath is flexed when the mouth moves to a closed position.", "As stated in the patent, the coil spring does not supply significant pushing force and is not connected to the attachment structure at each end.", "The function of the coil sheath is to promote comfort and capture any broken pieces of the internal straight wire spring.", "In general, the prior bite fixing appliances have provided inadequate treatment options for many patients and even the best appliances are in need of improvement in such areas as increasing fatigue life, easing installation and removal, and simplifying the overall construction.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention generally relates to a bite correction appliance for overcoming various deficiencies of past appliances.", "In one aspect, the bite correction appliance of the invention generally includes a first attachment structure adapted to be secured to at least one upper or lower tooth of the patient and a second attachment structure adapted to be secured to a tooth of the opposite jaw which is located in a more forward position.", "The attachment structures may take many different forms and may be secured to the teeth either directly or indirectly.", "It is presently contemplated that orthodontic archwires, brackets and auxiliary wires or elements will be used as the attachment structures.", "In accordance with this aspect of the invention, a stretchable, close coil extension spring is connected between the first and second attachment structures for exerting a pushing force as the patient's mouth closes.", "When used to correct overbites, the spring will push the lower jaw forward.", "When used to correct underbites, the spring will push the lower jaw rearward.", "The close coil extension spring is substantially non-prestressed and includes a maximum gap of 0.015″ between adjacent coils in the preferred embodiment.", "This includes the case in which adjacent coils touch one another.", "While typical extension springs may be prestressed or preloaded such that adjacent coils exert forces toward one another, the spring of the present invention is substantially non-prestressed.", "This, along with the additional wire resulting from the use of a close coil spring design, provides a longer fatigue life for the spring.", "In the preferred embodiment, the maximum gap between adjacent coils is 0.010″ and, more preferably, 0.005″.", "To further increase the fatigue life of the spring, the spring is formed from double vacuum melted stainless steel.", "Another advantageous material for the spring is superelastic material such as nickel titanium.", "At least some of the adjacent coils are preferably exposed or not encased in other structure.", "This allows stretching of the extension spring during use.", "The appliance further comprises a flexible rod, such as a polymeric rod, contained within the adjacent coils.", "This rod prevents food from being entrapped with the spring and provides some support for the coil spring.", "In another aspect of the invention, a coil spring assembly is formed with first and second attachment members affixed to opposite ends of the spring.", "The first attachment member is connected with the first attachment structure and the second attachment member is connected with the second attachment structure.", "At least one of the attachment members includes a connecting portion movable between locked and unlocked positions relative to its corresponding attachment structure.", "This allows at least one end of the spring to be selectively attached to and released from attachment structure, such as an archwire.", "In the preferred embodiment, the connecting portion is a deformable portion communicating with a hole in the first and/or second attachment member.", "This deformable portion may be moved between the locked and unlocked positions to allow connection and disconnection with respect to the corresponding attachment structure.", "As another aspect of the invention, the first and second attachment members are threaded onto respective first and second ends of a coil spring, such as the close coil extension spring of the invention.", "After being rotated to the proper orientation with respect to one another, each of the attachment members is crimped to the coil spring to prevent further rotation relative to the coil spring.", "In this manner, flat connecting portions may be oriented, for example, approximately 90° with respect to each other about the axis of the spring.", "These and various other objectives, advantages and features will become more readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon review of the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of an appliance constructed in accordance with the preferred embodiment and shown partially connected to the braces of a patient;", "FIG. 2 is a side elevational view similar to FIG. 1, but showing the appliance fully connected and correcting an overbite condition of the patient;", "FIG. 2A is an enlarged view of encircled portion 2 A in FIG. 2;", "FIG. 3 is a partially fragmented, side elevational view of the coil spring assembly of the appliance;", "and FIG. 4 is a cross sectional view taken along line 4 - 4 of FIG. 3 .", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring generally to FIGS. 1 and 2, an appliance 10 is shown constructed in accordance with one preferred embodiment of the invention.", "Appliance 10 will be shown and described with respect to this preferred embodiment in terms of a device for correcting an overbite condition or Class II malocclusion.", "Those of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate that the device is easily adapted to correct underbite conditions or Class III malocclusions as well.", "Generally, the upper and lower connections of the device merely need to be reversed to reconfigure appliance 10 as a Class III corrective device.", "Other modifications of the structure and use of appliance 10 are also within the scope of the inventive concepts as will become more readily apparent upon reading the description of this preferred embodiment.", "Appliance 10 generally includes upper attachment structure 12 and lower attachment structure 14 .", "In a typical case, this will include upper brackets 16 connected with an upper archwire 18 and lower brackets 20 connected with a lower archwire 22 .", "These comprise typical braces secured to upper and lower teeth 24 , 26 of a patient.", "Other attachment structures may be substituted to perform this connecting function, for example, when braces are not worn by the patient.", "As shown in FIG. 1, the lower teeth 26 and lower jaw of the patient have an underbite with respect to the upper teeth 24 and upper jaw.", "A bracket 16 at the rear of the patient's mouth includes a tube 28 receiving a pin 30 having a hook-shaped portion 30 a .", "A ball or stop member 32 is disposed on the opposite end of pin 30 .", "A similar ball or stop member 34 is contained on lower archwire 22 at a more forward position.", "Appliance 10 further includes a close coil extension spring assembly 40 connected between the upper and lower attachment structures 12 , 14 .", "More specifically, upper and lower attachment members 42 , 44 are respectively connected to pin 30 and archwire 22 (FIG.", "2 ).", "Thus, as the patient's mouth closes to the position shown in FIG. 2, a pushing force is exerted to the lower jaw in a forward direction against stop member or ball 34 .", "If a corrective device for Class III malocclusions is desired, then upper attachment member 42 would be connected to a lower tooth and lower attachment member 44 would be connected to an upper tooth.", "This would provide a forward pushing force to the upper jaw and a rearward pushing force to the lower jaw during mouth closure.", "Referring to FIGS. 3 and 4, upper and lower attachment members 42 , 44 each include flat portions 42 a , 44 a and internally threaded portions 42 b , 44 b .", "Flat portions 42 a , 44 a include respective holes 46 , 48 for connection with archwires 18 , 22 (FIGS.", "1 and 2 ).", "Hole 48 contained in flat portion 44 a communicates with a slot 50 for attachment purposes as will be described below.", "FIG. 3 illustrates flat portions 42 a , 44 a in a preferred orientation rotated approximately 90° apart relative to the longitudinal axis of assembly 40 .", "Close coil spring 52 is formed by coils 54 either touching or spaced very closely apart by a gap D. Gap D is preferably less than 0.015″ and, most preferably, less than 0.005″.", "As shown in FIG. 3, coils 54 at opposite ends of spring 52 are threaded into threaded portions 42 b , 44 b of members 42 , 44 .", "These coils are also very closely spaced or touching as previously described.", "A flexible rod 68 is contained with a close fit within spring 52 .", "Rod 68 may be formed of polyurethane and provides support for spring 52 .", "Rod 68 also prevents food from becoming trapped in spring 52 .", "As best shown in FIG. 1, after attachment members 42 , 44 are rotated to the proper orientation by threading onto the ends of spring 52 , attachment members 42 , 44 are lightly crimped as indicated by crimps 60 , 62 to retain the desired orientation.", "The crimping is preferably not forceful enough to retain members 42 , 44 on the ends of spring 52 since the threading action will provide this function in a less stressful manner.", "Crimps 60 , 62 are simply used to prevent further rotation of attachment members 42 , 44 with respect to spring 52 as such rotation would inhibit the desired swivelling characteristics of spring assembly 40 during use.", "Appliance 10 may be affixed to teeth 24 , 26 in various manners other than the one shown in the drawings.", "Referring to FIG. 2, as one preferred manner, attachment member 44 is applied to lower archwire 22 by hooking archwire 22 into hole 48 and crimping flat portion 44 a to a closed or locked position as shown in FIG. 2 A. Within this configuration, slot 50 is not large enough to allow archwire 22 to escape from hole 48 .", "The opposite attachment member 42 is then connected with pin 30 by sliding pin 30 through hole 46 .", "Pin 30 is then inserted into tube 28 and bent to form hook-shaped end 30 a .", "The distance of stop member or ball 32 from tube 28 may be adjusted to some extent to adjust the amount of forward pushing force provided by appliance 10 .", "To make this adjustment, pin 30 may be straightened and moved to the right or left as viewed in FIG. 2 and end 30 a may be rebent to retain the adjusted position.", "Thus, it will be appreciated that a forward pushing force on the lower jaw will be exerted through coil spring 52 as spring assembly 40 is retained between stop members 32 and 34 during mouth closure.", "When the patient's mouth is opened, spring 52 will stretch to some extent to relieve stress in the opposite direction.", "To remove coil spring assembly 40 , lower flat portion 44 a is uncrimped or moved to an unlocked position as shown in FIG. 1 allowing removal from archwire 22 .", "Pin 30 may then be either clipped or straightened to allow removal from tube 28 .", "A new appliance 10 may then be easily applied in the manner described above.", "This aspect of the invention avoids the necessity to cut the archwire to remove the appliance.", "It will be appreciated that other quick release connectors are within the scope of this invention as well.", "While the present invention has been illustrated by a description of the preferred embodiment and while this embodiment has been described in some detail, it is not the intention of the Applicant to restrict or in any way limit the scope of the appended claims to such detail.", "Additional advantages and modifications will readily appear to those skilled in the art.", "This has been a description of the present invention, along with the preferred methods of practicing the present invention as currently known.", "Various aspects of this invention may be used alone or in different combinations." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an electric contact arrangement with movable contact elements disposed opposite to associated stationary contacts wherein the movable contact elements are supported on a carrier and are biased by means of pressure springs in the direction toward the associated opposite stationary contacts.", "Electric contact arrangements such as, for example, contact spring assemblies for relays, frequently employ elastic contact elements which, as a result of the inherent elasticity of the element, store forces and thus can generate a desired contact pressure.", "For specific applications, however, such as high current relays, longitudinally extended contact springs cannot be used because of the lack of voltage stability associated with such contacts.", "In these applications, rigid contact elements, which are biased or prestressed by means of associated separate pressure springs, are employed for switching.", "Such rigid contact elements are used in so-called bridge contact assemblies, wherein generally two stationary opposite contacts are connected by means of a common movable contact bridge during a switching process, in order to maintain relatively large clearances.", "The pressure springs utilized in such high current assemblies are generally coil springs which are employed in order to attain a relatively weak spring constant in a narrow space.", "Such coil springs, for reasons of voltage stability, are customarily arranged in individual chambers of a carrier containing the contact elements, or containing the bridge contacts.", "This construction requires that not only must a relatively large number of individual parts be manufactured and assembled, but also that for such parts additional special refinements in shape must be undertaken in order to guarantee a satisfactory voltage stability.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a contact arrangement having a plurality of associated movable and fixed contacts wherein the movable contacts are supported on a carrier and are biased in the direction toward the associated opposite stationary contact which has a high degree of voltage stability and yet can be easily manufactured and assembled with as few parts as possible.", "The above object is inventively achieved in a contact arrangement wherein the pressure springs are connected to the contact carrier and the contact elements and consist of elastic plastic.", "By forming of the pressure springs from plastic, a simplification of the manufacturing process results because the springs are not electrically conducting and thus can be shaped without consideration of distances which would normally have to be maintained between conducting parts.", "Such plastic pressure springs can, for example, be leaf springs and thereby assume a significantly simpler shape than the customarily-used coil springs.", "Moreover, special insulating shields on the carrier, as are employed in conventional assemblies, are not necessary for the plastic pressure springs.", "The plastic springs may be manufactured in a work step, for example, in an injection molding process, so that the overall assembly and manufacturing process is significantly simplified in contrast to the manufacture of metal springs.", "The above shape and insulating advantages of the plastic springs can be attained even if the springs are manufactured individually as separate parts and subsequently fastened to the carried by means of plug fastenings, ultrasonic welding, or any other suitable manner known to those skilled in the art.", "In a preferred embodiment of the invention, however, which simplifies manufacture and assembly to the greatest degree, the pressure springs are manufactured in one piece with the carrier for the contact elements.", "This embodiment is all the more desirable in those applications wherein a large number of contact elements and pressure springs are provided on a common carrier.", "In a further embodiment of the invention, two pressure springs which are symmetrically carried on the contact carrier at their free ends upon a single contact element which is slidably supported on the carrier as a contact bridge.", "The carrier has a middle bar having a plurality of recesses therein each receiving one contact bridge.", "In this embodiment, the pressure springs are fastened laterally on the middle bar.", "In a further embodiment, cross bars may be provided on the carrier which are parallel to the contact elements and which have outer ends on which the pressure springs are formed as leaf springs which run toward the contact elements.", "In those embodiments wherein the pressure springs are leaf springs, the springs are angled so as to form two sides of an isosceles triangle between the end which is fastened to the carrier and the free end which abuts the contact element.", "In this manner, a particularly large spring length and thus a relatively weak spring characteristic can be attained while the spring can still be housed in a narrow space.", "It is preferable that the cross section of the plastic pressure springs between the fastening point and the free end of the springs is nonuniformly tapered so as to correspond to the bending stress curve for the plastic material comprising the spring so that a substantially equal bending stress is achieved over the entire spring length by means of increasing spring thickness or spring width from the actuation point, that is the free end, to the point where the maximum bending stress occurs.", "The contact carrier may further carry a restoring spring which is isomorphic to the pressure springs and is also comprised of plastic.", "The restoring spring can, where applicable, also be formed on the carrier with the pressure springs.", "The plastic restoring spring has the same advantages as the pressure springs in simplification of manufacture and assembly and elimination of insulating problems.", "The pressure springs and/or the restoring spring are comprised of a tough elastic plastic which has a relaxation which is as small as possible.", "Such springs exhibit a service life comparable to metal springs.", "The springs may, for example, be comprised of polyamide with fillers.", "Useful fillers are preferably taken from the group of polyimides (marketed under the trade name Aramid fibers), glass fibers, and carbon fibers.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a plan view of a carrier with contact bridges and plastic springs for a bridge contact assembly constructed in accordance with the principles of the present invention.", "FIG. 2 shows the contact carrier of FIG. 1 in a fully-assembled bridge contact assembly.", "FIG. 3 is a plan view of the contact carrier shown in FIG. 1 isolated.", "FIG. 4 is a side view of the contact carrier shown in FIG. 3. FIG. 5 is a plan view of a cover for the contact carrier shown in FIG. 1 isolated.", "FIG. 6 is a second embodiment of the contact carrier with contact bridges and plastic springs for a bridge contact assembly.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A contact bridge carrier is shown in FIG. 1 which can be employed in a bridge contact assembly as is shown in FIG. 2, wherein the contact bridge carrier serves as a slide for moving certain contact elements.", "The bridge contact assembly 1 is inserted in a housing 2 which has a number of stationary fixed contact elements 3 anchored therein which cooperate with associated movable contact bridges 4 of the assembly 1 to make and break electrical connections.", "As shown in FIG. 2, the contact bridges 4 and the associated fixed contact elements 3 can be disposed so as to form a normally open or normally closed current path.", "The locations of the contacts 3 with respect to the assembly 1 are shown in dashed lines in FIG. 1, although it will be understood that the contacts 3 are not actually present in the planned view of the assembly 1.", "The contact bridges 4 are individually supported in a like number of recesses 5a in a middle bar 5 of the carrier 1.", "The contact bridges 4 are biased by means of a plurality of pressure springs 6 which force each of the bridges 4 against a stop 5b.", "Depending upon the actuation of the carrier 1 which moves the middle bar 5, the contact bridges 4 are brought into connection with the associated opposite fixed contacts 3, at a contact pressure which is determined by the pressure springs 6.", "The pressure springs 6 are in each case formed on the middle bar 5 of the carrier 1 and are symmetric about a longitudinal axis of the bar 5.", "A symmetrical contact pressure on the contact bridges 4, which are also disposed symmetrically with respect to the middle bar 5, is guaranteed.", "The individual pressure springs 6 are leaf springs which proceed from a fixed end 6a connected to the bar 5 to respective free ends 6b which abut the contact bridges 4.", "The pressure springs 6 are angled so as to form two sides of an isosceles triangle.", "By such a triangular shape a large spring length with a relatively weak spring characteristic is attained.", "At an end 1a of the carrier 1 are additionally disposed two symmetric restoring springs 7 which correspond in shape to the pressure springs 6.", "The restoring springs 7 support the carrier 1 in the housing 2 and reset the carrier 1 after the carrier 1 is actuated.", "The pressure springs 6 and/or the restoring springs 7 can be separately molded out of plastic, such as by injection molding, and subsequently fastened on the bar 5 of the carrier 1 by plugs, welding, or any other suitable means known to those skilled in the art.", "The contact bridges 4 must also be attached to the carrier.", "From a manufacturing standpoint, however, it is preferable to manufacture the individual springs in one piece with the carrier 1, or at least with a portion of the carrier 1, such as the middle bar 5.", "When the carrier 1, as in the present example, has a middle bar 5 and a cover plate 8 over the contact bridges, it is preferable to design the carrier in two parts so that one part can be injected with the springs more easily.", "The other part, such as in the present case the cover plate 8, can then be subsequently connected in a simple manner with the middle bar 5.", "FIGS. 3 through 5 show such an embodiment.", "The carrier in this embodiment consists of the middle bar 5 which is shown in two views in FIGS. 3 and 4, as well as the cover plate 8 shown separately in FIG. 5. The middle bar 5 with the pressure springs 6 and the restoring springs 7 formed thereon has recesses 5a into which the contact bridges 4 are inserted so as to slide with respect to the bar 5.", "The middle bar 5 additionally carries a plurality of fastening stems 9, each having a hooked end 10 for locakbly fastening the stems 9 in recesses 11 of the cover plate 8.", "By such fastening to the cover plate 8, the contact bridges 4 are simultaneously secured from falling out of the recesses 5a.", "For this purpose, additional projections 12 are formed on the plate 8 which, when the middle bar 5 is connected with the plate 8, lie above the contact bridges 4.", "A cam 13 on the opposite side of the plate 8 serves in a known manner for actuating the carrier 1 as a slide element by means of the armature of a magnet system of the type well known to those skilled in the art which is not shown in the Figures and which forms no part of the invention herein.", "FIG. 6 shows a second embodiment of the carrier referenced at 26.", "The carrier 26 has a plate 21 which covers a middle bar 22 in a manner identical to that shown in FIG. 1. The carrier 26 shown in FIG. 6 differs from the carrier 1 shown in the remaining Figs.", "by the spring construction.", "The carrier 26 has a plurality of side bars 23 which project substantially perpendicularly from the middle bar 22 on opposite sides thereof.", "The side bars 23 each have an outer end 23a to which one end of a pressure spring 24, or a restoring spring 25 is attached.", "The pressure springs 24 and the restoring springs 25 are each in the form of a leaf spring which are disposed at an inwardly running angle toward the middle bar 22 and have free ends which abut the contact bridges 4 or the side of a housing in which the carrier is placed.", "The embodiment shown in FIG. 6 is simpler to construct than the triangular-shaped springs shown in the remaining Figs.", "and can be employed when space considerations permit a spring length as is shown in the embodiment of FIG. 6 not to interfere with the remaining construction.", "In order to assure a uniform spring constant over the entire length of the pressure spring 6 and the restoring spring 7, the cross section of those springs can be of a tapering design in accordance with a curve for the elastic characteristics of the plastic material comprising the springs representing the spring force versus the distance from the fixed end of the spring.", "Although modifications and changes may be suggested by those skilled in the art it is the intention of the inventor to embody within the patent warranted hereon all changes and modifications as reasonably and properly come within the scope of his contribution to the art." ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application 61/711,336 filed on Oct. 9, 2012 and is also a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser.", "No. 12/876,570 filed on Sep. 7, 2010, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application 61/240.079 filed on Sep. 4, 2009, the teachings of all three of which are incorporated herein by reference.", "FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates generally to emission control systems and methods.", "More particularly, the present invention discloses an electrostatic emission control system and related device that is capable of removing fine particulates from engine exhaust.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] Diesel combustion engines are widely used in heavy-duty trucks, stationary engines (e.g., agriculture engines, water pumps, etc.), and for power generation.", "They have better efficiency compared to gasoline internal combustion engines and offer better mileage in automotive applications.", "However, diesel engines tend to have higher nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) emissions, which are critical pollutants.", "With the advent of common rail injection systems and many performance-enhancing modifications, modern diesel engines have decreased their emissions, but still emit relatively high concentrations of particulate matter within a wide range of particle sizes.", "To meet the emission regulations, a number of diesel particulate filters (DPF) have been developed and implemented as viable devices to minimize diesel soot emission.", "[0004] Most of the particles from diesel exhaust are less than 2.5 μm in diameter with a substantial fraction of particles being less than 100 nm in diameter.", "The diesel particulate filters are capable of capturing a substantial fraction of the exhaust particles and can be an effective means of reducing both the particulate mass and particulate number of emissions.", "However, the current DPFs are not very effective for capturing ultrafine (i.e., less than 100 nm) particles, which have been linked with increased morbidity and mortality.", "In addition, during the continuous operation of the filter, the captured particles continue to accumulate inside the DPF and cause the pressure in the exhaust system (called backpressure) to increase.", "Increased backpressure reduces fuel economy and reduces engine performance, thus creating the need for a regenerative or cleansing process.", "In all traditional DPFs, the regeneration is achieved by burning off the collected matter, which requires consumption of fuel and creates secondary aerosol emission, especially in the 10 to 30 nm size range.", "The particles produced during DPF regeneration are not captured and contribute ultrafine particles to air pollution.", "[0005] There therefore exists a need for alternative emission control systems and methods that can reduce engine exhaust particulates.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0006] An embodiment method removes particulates suspended in an exhaust stream.", "The particulates are electrically charged and then passed through a plurality of meshes.", "The meshes are arranged so that meshes immediately adjacent to each other have different electric potentials.", "In preferred embodiments the electric potentials are ground and 0.2-20 kV.", "[0007] Various embodiments are directed to electrostatic screen battery for emission control (ESBEC) systems and methods.", "A preferred embodiment ESBEC system is a device for capturing airborne particulate matter emissions from a variety of mobile and stationary sources, such as diesel engines used in automobiles, marine engines, agricultural equipment, power generation equipment, etc.", ", and aids in entrapment and subsequent collection of airborne particulate matter.", "[0008] An embodiment system includes a fluidic pathway comprising an opening for accepting the exhaust stream and an exit.", "First screen and second screens are disposed in the fluidic pathway and electrically connected to respective first and second electric potentials.", "In preferred embodiments a plurality of first screens and a plurality of second screens are employed, the first screens and second screens alternately disposed with respect to each other within the fluidic pathway, and an ionizer (to provide electrical charge to incoming particles) is disposed in the fluidic pathway upstream of the first pair of first and second screens.", "Various embodiments of ESBEC systems employ metal screens coated with hydrophobic materials and supplied with high voltage.", "The hydrophobic coating on the screen surfaces enhances the removal of material collected on the meshes, such as by way of a liquid medium, and helps in regeneration of the screens for continued use.", "[0009] Various embodiment systems may remove above 95% of the engine exhaust particles, including those in nano-sized range.", "Some embodiments may be used in place of existing Diesel Particulate Filters (DPFs) in automotive diesel engines.", "Unlike traditional DPFs, the ESBEC device creates minimal resistance to the engine exhaust;", "this virtually zero pressure drop ensures smooth operations when employed downstream of systems that are maintaining a low backpressure to avoid increased fuel consumption, which may thus boost engine power and, in the case of mobile engines, improve mileage.", "[0010] Preferred embodiment systems and methods eliminate the secondary aerosol emissions.", "(especially in the 10-30 nm range) produced during thermal regeneration (burning off collected mater) of current DPF devices, thus further reducing air pollution.", "[0011] Further, preferred embodiment systems provide an economical alternative to ceramics-based particulate filters, and the unique liquid based recovery and regeneration system of the some embodiments can provide residual material such as carbon black that can be utilized in other industrial applications.", "Hence, beyond being cost effective, preferred embodiments may provide added economic advantage by generating secondary raw materials.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0012] FIG. 1 is schematic view of an embodiment electrostatic screen battery for emission control (ESBEC).", "[0013] FIG. 2 is a photograph of the embodiment ESBEC depicted in FIG. 1 .", "[0014] FIG. 3 .", "illustrates an engine exhaust system employing the ESBEC shown in FIG. 1 .", "[0015] FIG. 4 is a table showing test data of the embodiment ESBEC shown in FIG. 1 using 0.2 μm polystyrene latex particles.", "[0016] FIG. 5 is a table showing bench scale test conditions for an embodiment ESBEC shown FIG. 1 .", "[0017] FIG. 6 is a schematic view of one embodiment of an ESBEC.", "[0018] FIG. 7 is a series of photographs of the ESBEC embodiment depicted in FIG. 6 .", "[0019] FIG. 8 shows collection efficiency of the ESBEC depicted in FIGS. 6 and 7 at different collection voltages.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0020] Various embodiment engine exhaust control devices provide high particle collection efficiencies, including those in the nanometer size range, without adding to the exhaust backpressure and without the need for thermal regeneration of collected particles.", "These embodiments may employ the following emission control method: airborne particles are electrically charged, such as by way of an ionizer like a corona charger, and then are passed through an alternating succession of differently charged screens, preferably grounded screens and charged screens.", "That is, in preferred embodiments a grounded screen is followed by a charged screen, which is followed by another grounded screen, and so forth.", "These screens preferably have hydrophobic surfaces.", "This alternating succession of differently charged screens, which may be viewed as a battery of screens, is termed herein as an electrostatic screen battery for emission control (ESBEC) device.", "Other possible electrical arrangements include a charged screen followed by a grounded screen.", "The polarity of the charged screen is preferably opposite the polarity of the electrical charge imparted by the ionizer.", "Specific voltage values may be varied depending on the desired collection efficiency and safety concerns.", "[0021] In some embodiment systems, several ESBEC batteries may operate in parallel to split the exhaust flow thus reducing its velocity and improve particle capture efficiencies.", "Yet another embodiments comprise a “carrousel”", "of ESBEC batteries, in which while one is operating, one or more are undergoing regenerative processes and removal of collected particles via liquid or other means.", "[0022] Any suitable arrangement may be employed to provide a battery of screens, and one specific arrangement is described in the following.", "It will be appreciated, however, that many other mechanical and electrical configurations are possible to provide such screen batteries.", "With reference to FIG. 1 , an embodiment ESBEC device 10 comprises a plurality of screen sets 12 , each screen set 12 having a charged screen 14 following a grounded screen 16 , or vice versa.", "The sets 12 are serially coupled together to provide an ESBEC device 10 of the desired length, number of screens 14 , 16 , or both.", "The screens 14 , 16 provide a mesh through which an exhaust stream may easily flow.", "Larger mesh sizes may present less exhaust backpressure at the expense of particle collection efficiencies, whereas the reverse may be true of smaller mesh sizes.", "Although pressure drop may depend on the mesh size (e.g., 24×24 versus 100×100), this pressure drop is still on the order of about 10 −3 in H 2 O, and thus is minimal.", "The mesh sizes of the screens 14 , 16 can vary and are preferably from 10×10 to 24×24 openings per inch.", "For example, 24×24 per inch mesh with wire 0.028 inches thick may be beneficially employed that is, 24 openings vertically per inch by 24 openings horizontally per inch, using wire 0.028 inches in thickness).", "Such mesh size ranges are readily commercially available for woven wire screens;", "for example, medium mesh (17×17 up to (60×60 mesh) and coarse mesh (2×2 mesh up to 16×16 mesh).", "The wire diameter varies depending on the mesh density and porosity (fraction of open space).", "Example suppliers of suitable mesh include InterNet Inc., Anoka, Minn.", "[0023] For the embodiment ESBEC device 10 , each of the sets 12 is formed by two screen units 13 , which are coupled together to form the respective set 12 .", "An O-ring 19 , or any other suitable sealing device may be disposed between the screen units 13 , and by extension between the sets 12 , to provide a fluidically tight seal between each of the serially connected screen units 13 in the ESBEC device 10 .", "Each of the units 13 comprises a body 15 , which is hollow in shape, such as an .", "annular shape, so that when serially connected to each other an enclosed fluidic pathway 1 is formed, which has an opening 8 for accepting an exhaust stream with suspended particulates and an exit 9 for exhausting a filtered stream.", "Hence, each body 15 defines an interior surface 15 a and an exterior surface 15 b .", "The body 15 may be made from any suitable material, preferably non-conductive and heat resistant materials such as ceramics.", "An electrical conductor 17 passes through the body 15 from the exterior surface 15 b to the interior surface 15 a to establish an electrical connection with the corresponding screen 14 , 16 .", "In some embodiments an auxiliary conductor 17 a , such as solder, a wire, or a combination thereof, may be employed to electrically connect the conductor 17 to its respective screen 14 , 16 .", "[0024] For each unit 13 , the corresponding screen 14 , 16 is preferably arranged perpendicularly to the fluidic pathway 1 , and subtends across the entire cross-section of the fluidic pathway 1 .", "The exterior boundaries of the screens 14 , 16 are thus preferably in contact with, of bonded with, the interior surface 15 a of the screen unit 13 .", "The screens 14 , 16 are preferably made from any suitable electrically conductive material, such as copper, stainless steel, brass or others with suitable properties.", "Additionally, the surfaces of the screens 14 , 16 are preferably hydrophobic.", "This may be an intrinsic property of the material from which the screen 14 , 16 is made, or may be provided by, for example, a suitable coating applied to the external surfaces of the screen 14 , 16 .", "Preferred coatings are materials with superhydrophobic properties (high water contact angle) while being thermally stable, durable, with high adhesion strength and resistance to temperature changes;", "by way of example, HIREC-1450 of NTT Corporation Inc., Tokyo, Japan, may be employed.", "All or a portion of the surface of the screen 14 , 16 may be hydrophobic.", "In preferred embodiments at least 80% of the entire surface of the screen 14 , 16 is hydrophobic.", "In more preferred embodiments at least 90% of the entire surface of the screen 14 , 16 is hydrophobic.", "In the most preferred embodiments the entire surface of the screen 14 , 16 is hydrophobic.", "[0025] The electrical conductors 17 in each set 12 are respectively used to couple one of the screens 14 to a high-voltage DC power source 3 and the other of the screens 16 to ground 2 .", "The high-voltage DC power source 3 may be any suitable power supply, such as stationary power supply 205B-10R made by Bertan Associates Inc., Valhalla, N.Y. For mobile and compact applications, such as for engines, any suitable compact DC-to-DC converter may be used.", "The high-voltage DC power source 3 preferably provides a voltage from 0.2 kV to 20 kV to the charged screens 14 , although other voltage may be used as long as it provides an electrostatic.", "field of sufficient strength to deposit particles on the mesh.", "Voltages between 4 and 18 kV are typically used, with voltages between 8 and 16 kV being more typical.", "An electrical field is thus produced across the screens 14 , 16 in each set 12 , and by extension between each set 12 in the ESBEC device 10 .", "[0026] As charged particles pass through the ESBEC device 10 , they are removed by attachment to the screens 14 , 16 via the electrostatic field.", "Use of multiple screen sets 12 ensures high collection efficiencies.", "The strength of electrostatic field between the screens 14 , 16 is directly proportional to the voltage and inversely proportional to the distance between the screens 14 , 16 .", "Thus, the voltage can be varied depending on the particular embodiment of the ESBEC.", "The voltage is preferably not so high that it produces corona discharge on the screens 14 , 16 .", "Upper voltage range is limited by dielectric breakdown of air, i.e. when voltage is too high, it will cause sparking between screens thereby reducing effectiveness of the system.", "The number of screens.", "may be varied depending on the operating conditions, such as exhaust flow rate and exhaust particle concentration.", "[0027] By way of example, testing indicated high collection efficiencies with five sets (10 screens), for which the length of the battery was about 10 inches.", "Preliminary testing indicates that in certain embodiments 99% of 200 nm polystyrene latex particles may be removed, which included embodiments having ten 24×24 mesh sized screens tested at 8 kV, and ten 100×100 mesh sized screens tested at 8 kV.", "The removal efficiency can be further improved by adjusting charging conditions and by increasing the number of screen sets 12 .", "The adjustment of charging conditions may also be employed to adjust collection efficiencies.", "For example, increased amounts of electrical charge may be achieved by having multiple ionizers/chargers 54 (shown in FIG. 3 ) or having just one with a higher ion output capacity.", "A higher electrical charge imparted to the exhaust particles may reduce the voltage magnitude from the source 3 needed to achieve high collection efficiencies.", "Moreover, the flow resistance through the ESBEC device 10 is minimal.", "The pressure drop is estimated to be much less than a 1 cm water gauge.", "A photograph of an embodiment ESBEC device is shown in FIG. 2 , with one of the screen units separated from the device for ease of viewing.", "[0028] A system 100 employing the ESBEC device 10 is shown in FIG. 3 .", "The system 100 includes an engine exhaust path 20 through which an exhaust gas stream 101 flows.", "A charge neutralizer 40 may be disposed in the exhaust path 20 in some embodiments to reduce exhaust particle charge to Boltzmann equilibrium to ensure their more uniform charging by charger 54 .", "[0029] A charging system 50 is set up within the system 100 upstream of ESBEC and downstream from the charge neutralizer 40 of present).", "The charging system 50 comprises a DC power supply 52 electrically connected to an ionizer 54 that is disposed within the exhaust path 20 downstream from the charge neutralizer 40 .", "The electrically neutralized particles pass through, for example, a vertically oriented ionizer 54 (such as an AS 150, Wein Products Inc., Los Angeles, Calif.) which imparts positive charge on the particles under controlled voltage (such as 12V) and current settings (such as 50 mA).", "The DC power supply 52 (such as a BK Precision, Yorba Linda, Calif.) provides power to the ionizer 54 .", "Any other ion source or multiple sources may be used to achieve the desired electrical charging of the exhaust particles, and it will be appreciated that other ionizers may employ different voltage and current drive values based upon their respective designs.", "The charger 54 maybe located separately upstream of collector 10 or may be integrated with collector 10 to form one unit.", "[0030] In one embodiment where the charger is integrated with the collector ( FIG. 7 ), the ionizer is a carbon fiber brush 60 that is disposed within the exhaust path 20 in front of the collector 10 .", "Alternatives to the carbon fiber brush 60 include carbon band, multiple carbon strands forming a web (like a screen) across the collector (cylinder), tungsten wire, and tungsten wire web.", "In a particular embodiment in FIG. 7 , an electrically grounded screen 62 is positioned between the carbon fiber brush 60 and the first screen 14 , 16 in the series of screens 14 , 16 .", "The carbon fiber brush 60 is situated perpendicular to the direction of air flow.", "The carbon fiber blush 60 can contain any suitable number of carbon fibers.", "[0031] In one embodiment, the carbon fiber brush 60 contains about 400 carbon fibers.", "The carbon fiber brush 60 is connected to high voltage of the sign opposite to the high voltage connected to the battery of screens.", "High voltage between the electrically grounded screen 62 and the tips of the carbon fibers creates a strong electrical field which causes the emission of ions from the carbon fiber brush 60 .", "These ions attach to the incoming airborne particles.", "As the charged particles move further into the battery, the screens 14 , 16 connected to the voltage opposite to the sign of charge on particles attract the particles and remove them from the air stream onto meshes.", "[0032] FIGS. 6 and 7 illustrate several components of a particular embodiment that includes the carbon fiber brush 60 .", "In this embodiment the collector can be made from any suitable material, including, but not limited to, plastic or ceramic.", "The collector includes two half-cylinder shells.", "66 a and 66 b to hold the electrically grounded screen 62 and screens 14 , 16 .", "The carbon fiber brush 60 is positioned in an outer shell 64 which is slid over the collector to form an air-tight unit.", "The performance of the device can be modified by adjusting any of the following: length of the collector (cylinder), number of screen sets, number and position of carbon brushes, number of fibers in each brush, particular configuration of carbon brushes or strands, strength of the electrical field for the charger, strength of the electrical field for the collector, and air velocity and/or flow rate through the collector.", "Tungsten wire or tungsten wire webs can also be used for charging.", "[0033] Performance of a particular embodiment presented in FIG. 7 , when challenged with diesel exhaust of three different concentrations and at different collection voltages (−8 to −16 kV) is presented in FIG. 8 .", "The charging voltage was fixed at +10 kV.", "The diesel exhaust concentration ranges were determined by an aerosol photometer pDR-1200 (Thermo Fisher, Franklin, Mass.): low: <10 mg/m 3 , medium: 80-140 mg/m 3 and high: 320-400 mg/m 3 .", "As illustrated by the figure be seen from this figure, collection efficiency above 80% was achieved for collection voltages >12 kV at short-term sampling tests (5 min).", "Collection efficiency reached 90% when collection voltage of −16 kV was used.", "A diesel electrical generator (6000 watt diesel generator, Central Maine Diesel Inc.) was used as a source of diesel exhaust.", "This result was confirmed when collecting diesel exhaust on filter with ESBEC power ON and OFF.", "[0034] An embodiment ESBEC device, such as the device 10 illustrated in FIG. 1 , is then fluidically coupled to the exhaust path 20 downstream from the charging system 50 .", "In other embodiments.", "ESBEC device is coupled with charging system.", "As indicated earlier, the charge imparted by the charging system 50 is preferably of a polarity that is opposite that used for the screen battery 10 .", "The air carrying particulate matter within the exhaust stream 101 which is electrostatically charged by the charging unit 50 , then successively passes through the alternating arrangement of screens at different electric potentials.", "Hence, with respect to the specific device 10 , the exhaust stream 101 passes through successive pairs of electrically neutral (grounded) screens 16 and charged screens 14 before exiting the system 100 at exhaust port 102 .", "The particulate matter suspended in the exhaust stream 101 is deposited onto the screens 14 , 16 , thereby cleaning the stream 101 .", "[0035] FIG. 4 is a table showing test data collected from an embodiment ESBEC device ( FIGS. 1 and 2 ) with 0.2 μm polystyrene latex particles.", "FIG. 5 is a table indicating bench scale test conditions for the tests performed in relation to the data of FIG. 4 .", "As shown in FIG. 4 , particulate collection abilities improve with the number of screens, the amount of current of the ionizer and, to somewhat of a lesser extent, the screen mesh size.", "[0036] Once the exhaust particles, such as diesel exhaust particles, accumulate they can be washed off of the screens 14 , 16 using a liquid, such as water or other liquids capable of removing collected particles.", "The hydrophobic nature the surface of the screens 14 , 16 may allow easy cleaning without the need for thermal regeneration and the attendant release of nano-sized particles.", "Cleaning can be achieved using spray nozzles or submerging the ESBEC device in a wash vessel.", "This can involve rotating one, more or all of the battery sets 12 , for example, when one battery 12 is being washed-off, an alternative one 12 is used, or it can involve periodic replacement of the one, more or all of the battery sets 12 .", "In addition, non-thermal regeneration avoids the use of additional fuel to provide the heat for burn-off as is done in thermal regeneration.", "Moreover, non-thermal regeneration avoids production of additional particles attendant to the burn-off process.", "These advantages boost engine power and, for mobile systems, improve mileage.", "In one embodiment, when the ESBEC device is used with stationary engines, the carbon soot may be extracted from the screens and used as a raw material in allied industries such as tire manufacturing.", "[0037] In summary, the devices and methods employed by various embodiments of the present invention possess the following advantages over existing technologies: 1) Unlike traditional DPFs, high porosity of the ESBEC device screens does not create any resistance to the engine.", "exhaust.", "This boosts engine power and improves mileage.", "2) Since no thermal regeneration is involved, the ESBEC device eliminates secondary aerosol emissions, especially in the 10-30 nm range, which are produced during thermal regeneration (burning off collected matter) of current DPFs and that contribute to air pollution.", "3) The carbon soot captured on the ESBEC device screens can be extracted via washing and used as a raw material in allied industries like.", "tire manufacturing.", "Finally, 4) use of screen-based devices creates virtually no pressure drop and does not reduce engine power during operation.", "[0038] Although the invention herein has been described with reference to particular embodiments, it is to be understood that these embodiments are merely illustrative of the principles and applications of the present invention.", "It is therefore to be understood that numerous modifications may be made to the illustrative embodiments and that other arrangements may be devised without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the following claims." ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S) [0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 10/800,393 entitled “Alerting Users To Items Of Current Interest”", "filed Mar. 12, 2004, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 09/656,638 entitled “Alerting Users To Items Of Current Interest”", "filed Sep. 7, 2000 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,757,682) which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/178,627 entitled “Alerting Users To Web Sites Of Current Interest And Handling Large Increases In User Traffic”", "filed Jan. 28, 2000, all of which are incorporated herein by reference for all purposes.", "[0002] This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 09/656,518 entitled “Quantifying The Level Of Interest Of An Item Of Current Interest”", "filed Sep. 7, 2000 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,556,989), which is incorporated herein by reference for all purposes;", "and U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 09/658,346 entitled “Normalizing A Measure Of The Level Of Current Interest Of An Item Accessible Via A Network”", "filed Sep. 7, 2000 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,721,744), which is incorporated herein by reference for all purposes.", "TECHNICAL FIELD [0003] The present invention relates generally to communications and computer networks.", "More specifically, alerting users to dynamic content accessible via a communications or computer network that is of interest at the time of the alert is disclosed.", "BACKGROUND [0004] The use of the Internet, and in particular the World Wide Web, and other communication and computer networks has grown dramatically in recent years.", "The emergence of technologies for broader bandwidth communications, better compression technology, and new and less expensive digital recording and imaging technology, have all contributed to explosive growth in the volume and diversity of content available via communication and/or computer networks, such as the World Wide Web.", "[0005] However, this proliferation of content, such as audio, image, and video content, presents certain challenges from the perspective of users seeking content of current interest.", "First, the shear volume of content available makes it difficult for users to find the content in which they are most interested in accessing at any given time.", "Apart from having to sort through the enormous volume of content available, much of the content of potentially greatest interest, at least to many users, is dynamic.", "At certain times, a file or other electronic resource may be of great interest while at other times, or perhaps even most of the time, it is not of great interest or not interesting at all.", "[0006] For example, thousands of and perhaps in excess of a hundred thousand web cameras, or “webcams”, are in use.", "Webcams are cameras used to provide images of a target of interest via a site on the World Wide Web.", "Images are updated in varying manners and at varying intervals, depending on the site.", "A webcam might be used, for example, to provide images of a watering hole in Africa.", "Typically, users would access a website associated with the webcam to view activity at the watering hole.", "However, there would be many periods during which nothing of particular interest (e.g., no animals, etc.) would be happening at the watering hole.", "Conversely, there would be occasional periods when activity of great interest would be occurring, such as the presence of a rare or endangered animal at the watering hole.", "Users would have no way of knowing when such activity would be occurring and might miss the most interesting images if they did not happen to check the website at the right time.", "The same problems arise with respect to files or other electronic resources other than webcam content provided via the World Wide Web, including other media such as audio.", "[0007] As a result, there is a need for a way to alert users to web content or other electronic resources available via a communications or computer network that are of interest at a particular time.", "To meet this latter need, there is a need to provide a way to become aware that dynamic web content or an electronic resource other than web content is of interest at a given time, and to quantify the degree or level of current interest.", "In addition, there is a need to consider the interests of a user when determining which web content or other electronic resources likely will be of the greatest interest to the user.", "[0008] There is also a need to ensure that interested users receive alerts with respect to web content or other electronic resources that are of interest only to a relatively small community of users, or that are of interest on only relatively rare or infrequent occasions.", "There is a risk, otherwise, that indications of current interest regarding such files and other electronic resources would be masked by more voluminous or frequent activity with respect to more widely popular or pervasive resources or types of resources (such as pornography sites on the World Wide Web).", "SUMMARY [0009] Accordingly, alerting users of items of current interest is disclosed.", "The level of current interest of a particular file or other electronic resource is determined based on indications received from alerting users.", "One or more users receive an alert that the item is of current interest.", "Normalization of the level of current interest of a file or other resource, such as to adjust for items of current interest to a small community or for items of current interest only infrequently, also is described.", "[0010] It should be appreciated that the present invention can be implemented in numerous ways, including as a process, an apparatus, a system, a device, a method, or a computer readable medium such as a computer readable storage medium or a computer network wherein program instructions are sent over optical or electronic communication links.", "Several inventive embodiments of the present invention are described below.", "[0011] Disseminating to a participant an indication that an item accessible by the participant via a network is of current interest is disclosed.", "In one embodiment, an indication that the item is of current interest is received in real time.", "The indication is processed.", "The participant is informed that the item is of current interest.", "[0012] In one embodiment, a computer is configured to receive in real time an indication that an item is of current interest;", "process the indication;", "and inform a participant that the item is of current interest.", "A database, associated with the computer, is configured to store data relating to the item.", "[0013] In one embodiment, a computer program product for disseminating to a participant an indication that an item accessible by the participant via a network is of current interest comprises computer instructions for receiving in real time an indication that the item is of current interest;", "processing the indication;", "and informing the participant that the item is of current interest.", "[0014] These and other features and advantages of the present invention will be presented in more detail in the following detailed description and the accompanying figures, which illustrate by way of example the principles of the invention.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0015] The present invention will be readily understood by the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals designate like structural elements, and in which: [0016] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a system used in one embodiment to alert users to dynamic content of interest at the time of the alert (also referred to herein as an “item of current interest”).", "[0017] FIG. 2A is a series of three screen shots showing three different states of an alert submission display 200 used in one embodiment.", "[0018] FIG. 2B is an illustration of the data structure used in one embodiment for alerts submitted by an alerting user.", "[0019] FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating a process used in one embodiment to alert users of items of current interest.", "[0020] FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating a process used in one embodiment to receive an alert, as in step 302 of FIG. 3 .", "[0021] FIG. 5 is an illustration of the data structure used in one embodiment for the alert object.", "[0022] FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a process used in one embodiment to process an alert, as in step 304 of FIG. 3 .", "[0023] FIG. 7 is an illustration of six database tables 700 used in one embodiment to store data concerning alerts received with respect to items of current interest associated with URLs.", "[0024] FIG. 8A is a flowchart illustrating a process used in one embodiment to update the intensity sum for a URL, as in step 606 of FIG. 6 .", "[0025] FIG. 8B is a flowchart illustrating a process used in one embodiment to update the intensity rank for a URL to reflect the intensity of the current alert.", "[0026] FIG. 8C is a flowchart illustrating a process used in one embodiment to update the interest category weight for a URL with respect to the interest category indicated in an alert.", "[0027] FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a process used in one embodiment to purge records for URLs that are determined to be no longer of current interest by calculating a time decayed intensity rank at intervals, even if no new alert has been received, and purging from the database the records for a URL if the time decayed intensity rank is below a prescribed threshold.", "[0028] FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating a process used in one embodiment to disseminate an alert to a participant, as in step 306 of FIG. 3 .", "[0029] FIG. 11 shows an exemplary participant display 1100 used in one embodiment to disseminate alert information to a participant.", "[0030] FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating a process used in one embodiment to build a list of hot URLs responsive to a request, as in step 1008 of FIG. 10 .", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0031] A detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the invention is provided below.", "While the invention is described in conjunction with that preferred embodiment, it should be understood that the invention is not limited to any one embodiment.", "On the contrary, the scope of the invention is limited only by the appended claims and the invention encompasses numerous alternatives, modifications and equivalents.", "For the purpose of example, numerous specific details are set forth in the following description in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention.", "The present invention may be practiced according to the claims without some or all of these specific details.", "For the purpose of clarity, technical material that is known in the technical fields related to the invention has not been described in detail so that the present invention is not unnecessarily obscured.", "[0032] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a system used in one embodiment to alert users to dynamic content of interest at the time of the alert (also referred to herein as an “item of current interest”).", "The system 100 includes at least one alerting user 102 who accesses dynamic content associated with a uniform resource locator (URL), determines the content is of current interest, and sends an alert indicating that the URL is of current interest, as described more fully below.", "The system 100 also includes at least one participant 104 .", "In one embodiment, participant 104 provides an indication of the participant's interests and receives a list of URLs providing the location of dynamic content, such as web content on the World Wide Web, that may be of interest to the participant at the time of the alert, as described more fully below.", "Both the alerting user 102 and the participant 104 are connected to a web server 105 via the Internet.", "Web server 105 is a computer system configured to present web pages and other web browser readable files, and to receive data from users, via the World Wide Web.", "Web server 105 is connected to an application server 106 and is configured to provide data to and receive data and instructions from application server 106 .", "Application server 106 is configured to perform the application logic functions described more fully below.", "In one embodiment, the functions performed by the application server, as described more fully below, are divided among two or more computers so as to optimize the distribution of work load among the computers and to minimize the time the system takes to respond to inputs and queries from users.", "[0033] When an alert has been received and is being processed, as described more fully below, the application server 106 comprises an alert software object 108 used to store data relating to and perform certain processing with respect to an alert, as described more fully below.", "The alert software object 108 uses data provided in an alert sent by alerting user 102 , along with data retrieved from database 110 associated with the application server 106 , to process the alert.", "Certain of the data that results from the processing performed by alert software object 108 is then stored in database 110 .", "In one embodiment, database 110 is stored in memory in application server 106 .", "In one embodiment, database 110 is stored in a separate structure, such as a database server, connected, either directly or through a communication link, with application server 106 .", "[0034] In one embodiment, when a request from a participant for a list of URLs for items of current interest is received, the application server 106 comprises a hot list software object 112 used to store certain data concerning and perform certain operations with respect to the request from the participant and the response thereto.", "In one embodiment, the hot list object 112 comprises an interest category array 114 .", "In one embodiment, the interest category array 114 is comprised of one or more interest category objects, each of which stores data relating to one interest category identified in the participant's request as being of interest to the participant.", "In one embodiment, the hot list object 112 comprises a hot token array 116 .", "The hot token array 116 is comprised of a hot token object for each URL of current interest in the database for the category or categories indicated in the participant's request.", "[0035] As indicated in FIG. 1 , an alert sent by an alerting user includes, in one embodiment, at least the URL of the web content considered by the alerting user to be of current interest.", "In one embodiment an alert may also include an interest selection, meaning a category or subject area to which the alerting user believes the web content relates, and/or a caption in which the alerting user may provide text indicating what the alerting user believes to be of current interest in the web content.", "[0036] FIG. 2A is a series of three screen shots showing three different states of an alert submission display 200 used in one embodiment.", "One view is comprised of blank alert submission display 202 .", "Blank alert submission display 202 includes a submission button 204 used to submit an alert with respect to the URL of the web content currently being accessed by the alerting user.", "Blank alert submission display 202 also includes an interest category selection area 206 .", "In one embodiment, as illustrated in FIG. 2A , the interest category selection area 206 is configured as a pull down menu activated by selecting the downward arrow on the right side of interest category selection area 206 .", "Blank alert submission display 202 also includes a caption area 208 in which an alerting user may enter text associated with the alert, such as text indicating why the alerting user believes the URL to be of current interest.", "As shown in interest category selection display 212 , when the downward arrow button on the right side of interest category selection area 206 is selected, a pull down menu 214 is presented, and an alerting user may select one of the interest categories listed in the pull down menu 214 in the manner well known in the art.", "As shown in the completed alert submission display 222 of FIG. 2A , the interest category selected by the alerting user is shown in the interest category selection area 206 .", "In the example shown in FIG. 2A , the category selected is “NATURE.”", "In addition, the caption entered by the alerting user, the comment “rhino!”", "in the example shown in FIG. 2A , appears in the caption area 208 of the alert submission display.", "As noted above, the alerting party posts the alert to the application server via the Internet and the web server by selecting the submission button 204 .", "[0037] FIG. 2B is an illustration of the data structure used in one embodiment for alerts submitted by an alerting user.", "The alert includes an ALERTER_ID field 240 in which data identifying the alerting user is provided.", "The alert also includes a URL field 242 in which the URL of the web content or other electronic resource being accessed by the alerting user when the alert was sent is stored.", "The alert also includes an INTEREST SELECTION field 244 in which the interest category selected by the alerting user, if any, is provided.", "Finally, the alert includes a CAPTION field 246 in which the caption entered by the alerting user, if any, is provided.", "[0038] FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating a process used in one embodiment to alert users of items of current interest.", "The process begins in step 302 in which an alert indicating that an item is of current interest is received.", "Next, in step 304 , the alert is processed.", "Finally, in step 306 , the alert is disseminated to one or more participants, as described more fully below.", "[0039] FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating a process used in one embodiment to receive an alert, as in step 302 of FIG. 3 .", "The process begins with step 402 in which a transmission comprising an alert is received from an alerting user.", "As noted above, in one embodiment an alert includes at least the URL of the web content being accessed by the alerting user at the time the alert was sent.", "In one embodiment, as described above, the alert also includes data indicating the identity of the alerting user.", "In addition, as noted above, the alert may include, at the option of the alerting user, an interest selection and/or a caption for the alert.", "The process shown in FIG. 4 continues with step 404 in which a new alert software object is created at the application server, such as application server 106 of FIG. 1 .", "Next, in step 406 , the data provided in the alert is stored in the alert object.", "In step 408 , a time stamp indicating the time when the alert was received is stored in the alert object.", "Finally, in step 410 , an ALERT_ID, which uniquely identifies the alert and distinguishes the alert and its associated object from other alerts and their associated objects, is obtained and stored in the alert object.", "[0040] FIG. 5 is an illustration of the data structure used in one embodiment for the alert object.", "Data field 502 is used to store the ALERT_ID described above.", "Data field 504 is used to store the time stamp described above.", "Data fields 506 - 512 are used to store the ALERTER_ID, URL, INTEREST SELECTION, and CAPTION described above, respectively.", "ALERT INTENSITY field 514 is used to store a number indicating the intensity or weight to be afforded to the incoming alert.", "The ALERT INTENSITY is determined as described below.", "The alert object also stores properties retrieved from various database tables, described more fully below.", "For example, the alert object includes a LAST_TIME field 516 used to store data retrieved from the database indicating the time of the most recent prior alert.", "The alert object also includes a LAST_RANK field 518 used to store a numerical ranking retrieved from the database that indicates the overall level or degree of current interest of an item as indicated by all of the alerts that have been submitted with respect to a URL during the current period of activity with respect to the URL through the most recent prior alert.", "The alert object also includes a LAST_WEIGHT field 520 used to store data retrieved from a database table, as described below, that represents the number of prior alerts received for the URL in the interest category indicated by the current alert, as described more fully below.", "The alert object also includes a LAST_INTENSITY_SUM field 522 in which the sum of the intensities of all prior alerts for the URL during the current period of activity with respect to the URL, which sum is retrieved from a database table described more fully below, is stored.", "Finally, the alert object includes a LAST_NORMAL_TIME field 524 used to store the time, retrieved from a database table as described more fully below, when the last normalization calculation was performed.", "[0041] FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a process used in one embodiment to process an alert, as in step 304 of FIG. 3 .", "The process begins with step 602 in which the intensity of the alert is determined.", "The term intensity as used herein refers to the weight or value to be assigned to a particular alert regarding an item.", "In one embodiment, the intensity is a value between 0 and 1.", "In one embodiment, the value assigned for the intensity is higher if the alerting user selects an interest category for the alert than it would have been if the same alerting party had not selected an interest category.", "In one embodiment, the intensity value is higher if the alerting party provides a caption for the alert than it would have been if the alerting party had not provided a caption.", "In one embodiment, the intensity of an alert is increased if it is determined that the alerting party is a party that has provided particularly relevant or helpful alerts in the past, or is trusted for some other reason, such as expertise, academic credentials, or reputation within a particular community of interest.", "In one embodiment, the intensity of an alert is decreased if it is determined that the alerting party has provided unhelpful or erroneous alerts in the past, or if it is determined that the alerting party cannot be trusted as much as other alerting parties for other reasons, such as reputation in the relevant community.", "In one embodiment, it is possible to provide both an active alert by selecting an alert button and to provide a passive alert by merely accessing a URL with respect to which an alerting party previously submitted an active alert.", "In one embodiment, an active alert is assigned a higher intensity value than a passive alert.", "[0042] For example, a passive alert may be arbitrarily assigned a baseline intensity value of 0.3 and an active alert a baseline intensity value of 0.5.", "For an active alert, 0.1 could be added for each of the following conditions that is satisfied by the alert: an interest category selection was included in the alert;", "a caption was included in the alert;", "and/or the source of the alert is particularly trusted.", "Conversely, 0.1 could be subtracted from the intensity of an alert from a source known to be unreliable.", "Alternatively, alerts from sources known to be unreliable may be blocked and not assigned any intensity value.", "[0043] The process illustrated in FIG. 6 continues with step 604 in which data values for the alert object data fields described above that are not included in the alert transmission received from the alerting party are retrieved from the database.", "[0044] Next, in step 606 , the intensity sum for the URL, which is the sum of the intensity values for all of the alerts with respect to the URL, is updated.", "Next, in step 608 , the intensity rank for the URL is updated to reflect the new alert.", "In step 610 , the interest weight value, which represents the number of alerts for a particular URL in which a particular category of interest was indicated, is updated.", "Finally, in step 612 , the updated data values are stored to the database.", "[0045] FIG. 7 is an illustration of six database tables 700 used in one embodiment to store data concerning alerts received with respect to items of current interest associated with URLs.", "The database tables 700 include an INTEREST_ID table 702 used to provide a unique identifier, labeled INTEREST_ID in FIG. 7 , for each interest category, denominated INTEREST_CAT in FIG. 7 .", "Database tables 700 also include a URL_ID table 704 used to provide a unique identifier, labeled URL_ID in FIG. 7 , for each URL.", "[0046] Database tables 700 also include an INTERESTS table 706 used to store the interest weight, denominated WEIGHT in FIG. 7 , for each interest category with respect to which an alert has been submitted for a URL.", "As noted above, in one embodiment, the weight is the total number of alerts received within a given interest category for a URL.", "For example, if five alerts indicating the interest category People and three alerts indicating the interest category Nature have been submitted for a URL, there will be two entries for the URL in the interest table, one for each interest category.", "The weight in the entry for the category People would be “5”", "and the weight for the URL in the category Nature would be “3.”", "[0047] The database tables 700 also include a RANK table 708 used to store a rank value for each URL associated with an item of current interest, a time stamp when the rank was last calculated, and a data entity denominated NUM_ALERT in FIG. 7 , which represents the total number of alerts submitted for the URL.", "[0048] The database tables 700 also include a COMMENTS table 710 used to store any comment submitted with an alert and to associate each comment with the corresponding URL.", "Finally, the database tables 700 include a NORMALIZE table 712 used to store the sum of the intensities of the alerts submitted for a URL (INTENSITY_SUM) and a time stamp indicating when the last normalization was performed.", "[0049] FIG. 8A is a flowchart illustrating a process used in one embodiment to update the intensity sum for a URL, as in step 606 of FIG. 6 .", "The process begins with step 802 in which the current intensity sum is retrieved from the database, as in step 604 of FIG. 6 .", "If there is no existing record for the URL in the NORMALIZE table (i.e., the alert being processed is the first alert for the URL), a URL_ID is assigned for the URL, a record for the URL is created in the NORMALIZE table, and the retrieved current intensity sum is set to zero.", "Next, in step 804 , the intensity sum is incremented by the amount of the intensity of the current alert.", "For example, if the previous intensity sum was 4.7 and the intensity for the current alert was 0.5, the intensity sum would be incremented to the value of 4.7+0.5=5.2.", "Finally, in step 806 , the intensity sum time stamp stored in NORMALIZE table 712 shown in FIG. 7 (which is the same as the LAST_NORMAL_TIME stored in field 524 of FIG. 5 ) is updated to the time stamp of the current alert.", "In one embodiment, the intensity sum is updated, and a normalization is performed as described more fully below, each time a new alert is received for a URL.", "In such an embodiment, the time stamp stored in the NORMALIZE table 712 of FIG. 7 will be the same as the time stamp stored in the RANK table 708 of FIG. 7 , as both the rank and the intensity sum are updated each time an alert is received.", "[0050] FIG. 8B is a flowchart illustrating a process used in one embodiment to update the intensity rank for a URL to reflect the intensity of the current alert.", "The process begins with step 822 in which the current intensity rank is retrieved from the database, as in step 604 of FIG. 6 .", "As shown in FIG. 7 , in one embodiment, this value is retrieved from the RANK table 708 .", "If there is no entry in the RANK table for the URL, i.e., the alert being processed is the first alert for the URL, a record in the RANK table is created for the URL (identified by the URL_ID assigned to the URL) and the current intensity rank is set to zero.", "Next, in step 824 , the intensity rank is updated to reflect the intensity of the current alert.", "In one embodiment, if the current alert has been received within a predetermined time interval τ after the last alert for the URL, the updated intensity rank is a function of the last rank and the intensity of the current alert in accordance with the following formula: [0000] r ′=( k−r )* I alert +r [0000] Where k is the maximum intensity value, which as noted above is one in one embodiment, r is the last rank, r′ is the updated rank, and I alert is the intensity value for the current alert.", "Restating the formula to reflect the fact that in one embodiment, the maximum intensity level k=1, the formula becomes: [0000] r ′=(1 −r )* I alert +r [0051] If an alert is the first alert received for a URL, the last rank is considered to be zero (r=0) and the above formula results in the new rank being equal to the intensity value for the current alert.", "For example, if the intensity value for the current alert is 0.5, the updated heat rank r′=(1−0)*0.5+0=0.5.", "If a subsequent alert of intensity 0.6 is received, the formula results in the updated intensity rank being calculated as follows: [0000] r ′=(1−0.5)*0.6+0.5=0.8 [0052] As the example illustrates, so long as additional alerts are received within the time interval each incoming alert will cause the intensity rank for the URL to increase until the intensity rank approaches the maximum intensity value k (in the example, the rank would approach k=1).", "The speed with which the intensity rank for a particular URL approaches the maximum value k depends on the intensity value of the incoming alerts and the frequency with which alerts are received.", "[0053] In one embodiment, if the predetermined time interval r referred to above has expired between the last alert and the current alert, the updated intensity rank is calculated by a modified formula which reduces the updated intensity rank in accordance with an exponential decay function that effectively adjusts the updated intensity rank downward to account for the passage of time between the last alert and the current alert.", "All other things being equal, this adjustment would result in a site that received alerts more frequently to have a higher rank than a site that received alerts separated by more than the predetermined time interval.", "To determine the updated intensity rank as adjusted for the passage of time, the following formula is used in one embodiment: [0000] r ′=[( k− 4)* I alert +r]*e −a(Δt−τ) [0054] In this formula, k, r, and I alert are the same as above, a is the weight assigned to the decay function (a higher value for a will result in a greater amount of decay per unit time), Δt is the amount of time that has elapsed between the current alert and the previous alert, and τ is the predetermined time interval referred to above.", "[0055] In one embodiment, the updated intensity rank is normalized by multiplying the updated intensity rank by two factors.", "The first factor is a low frequency enhancement factor designed to enhance the intensity rank of URLs with respect to which alerts are received relatively less frequently relative to the intensity rank of URLs regarding which alerts are received more frequently.", "The purpose of this enhancement factor is to ensure that sites that are of current interest only from time to time are not masked by the intensity ranking calculated for sites that are of current interest more frequently.", "In one embodiment, the low frequency enhancement factor is the time of the current alert minus the time of the last update to the intensity rank.", "[0056] The second factor by which the updated intensity rank is multiplied is a low volume enhancement factor The purpose of this factor is to ensure that the intensity rank of URLs that are of current interest only to a smaller community of users will not be overshadowed by the intensity rank of URLs that are of current interest to a large community.", "In one embodiment, the low volume enhancement factor is the inverse of the intensity sum for the URL.", "Accordingly, in one embodiment, the normalized intensity rank is determined by the following formula: [0000] r″=r ′*( t current −t first )*1/ n Where [0057] r″=normalized intensity rank [0058] r′=updated intensity rank before normalization [0059] t current =timestamp of current alert [0060] t first =timestamp of first alert for URL [0061] n=intensity sum=sum of all alert intensities for URL.", "[0062] Once the intensity rank has been updated and normalized, the process shown in FIG. 8B continues with step 826 in which the time stamps for the normalization and intensity rank tables are updated to the time stamp of the current alert.", "[0063] FIG. 8C is a flowchart illustrating a process used in one embodiment to update 20 the interest category weight for a URL with respect to the interest category indicated in an alert.", "The process begins with step 842 in which the database is queried to determine if a record exists for the URL for the interest category indicated in the alert.", "In step 844 , it is determined whether the query performed in step 842 identified an existing database table entry for the URL for the interest category indicated in the alert (i.e., whether a prior alert indicated the same interest category for the URL).", "If it is determined in step 844 that a database entry does not exist for the interest category with respect to the URL, the process proceeds to step 846 in which a record in the INTEREST table is created for the URL with respect to the interest category of the alert.", "The process then proceeds to step 850 in which the weight value is incremented for the URL with respect to the interest category by increasing the value from zero to one for the new record.", "[0064] If it is determined in step 844 that there is an existing record for the interest category for the alert with respect to the alert URL, the process proceeds to step 848 in which the weight value stored in the record is retrieved.", "The process then continues to step 850 in which the retrieved weight is incremented by one to reflect the current alert.", "For example, if the retrieve weight were 7, the weight would be incremented to 8 in step 850 to reflect the current alert.", "[0065] FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a process used in one embodiment to purge records for URLs that are determined to be no longer of current interest by calculating a time decayed intensity rank at intervals, even if no new alert has been received, and purging from the database the records for a URL if the time decayed intensity rank is below a prescribed threshold.", "The process shown in FIG. 9 begins with step 902 in which the intensity rank for a URL is retrieved.", "In one embodiment, the intensity rank is retrieved and the process shown in FIG. 9 is performed, at a predetermined arbitrary time interval τ.", "[0066] The process shown in FIG. 9 continues with step 904 in which an intensity rank adjusted for time decay is calculated for the URL.", "In one embodiment, the time decayed 5 intensity rank is determined by the following formula: [0000] r t =e −a(Δt−τ) *r Where [0067] r t =time decayed intensity rank a=weight of decay function Δt=time elapsed since last alert τ=predetermined time interval referred to above r=stored intensity rank.", "[0068] As can be seen from the above formula, the time decayed intensity rank decays exponentially over time if no new alerts are received.", "If it is determined in step 906 of the process shown in FIG. 9 that the time decayed intensity rank is below the intensity rank threshold, the process proceeds to step 908 in which the record for the URL is deleted.", "If it is determined in step 906 that the time decayed intensity rank is not below the intensity rank threshold, the process proceeds to step 910 in which the intensity rank as stored in the database is left unchanged.", "[0069] FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating a process used in one embodiment to disseminate an alert to a participant, as in step 306 of FIG. 3 .", "The process begins with step 1002 in which a request containing interest category filter selections made by the participant is received.", "Next, in step 1004 , a hot list software object is created at the application server, as shown in FIG. 1 and described above.", "Then, in step 1006 , an array of interest categories, such as the interest category array 114 described above with respect to FIG. 1 , is created within the hot list object.", "Next, in step 1008 , a list of hot URLs responsive to the request is built.", "Finally, in step 1010 , the list of hot URLs responsive to the request is sent to the participant.", "[0070] FIG. 11 shows an exemplary participant display 1100 used in one embodiment to disseminate alert information to a participant.", "The display 1100 includes a URL entry and display area 1102 .", "The URL for the web content or other electronic resource currently being accessed by the participant is displayed in the URL entry and display area 1102 , and the participant may enter the URL for the web content or other electronic resource the participant wishes to access manually in the URL entry and display area 1102 , as in the URL or address field for a World Wide Web browser.", "The display 1100 also includes a content display area 1104 in which the web or other content for the URL listed in URL entry and display area 1102 is displayed.", "For example, if the URL is the URL of web content accessed via the Internet, the web content associated with the URL will be displayed in URL display area 1104 .", "[0071] The display 1100 also includes an interest category filter selection area 1106 in which interest categories are listed along with a check box for each category listed.", "The participant selects the check box for each interest category for which the participant would like URLs of current interest to be included in the participant's hot list.", "[0072] In one embodiment, filter selection area 1106 includes for each category a sensitivity entry area (not shown in FIG. 11 ) to be used to provide an indication of the participant's degree or level of interest.", "For example, in one embodiment a participant may enter a whole number from 1 to 5, with 1 indicating the lowest level of sensitivity (e.g., the participant does not want to receive a notification regarding a URL in the category unless a significant number of alerts have been received regarding the URL, or only when the intensity rank for the URL exceeds a predetermined, relatively high threshold) and 5 representing the highest level of sensitivity (e.g., the participant wants to receive a notification even if there has only been one or relatively few alerts concerning a URL, or if one or more alerts have been received but the intensity rank for the URL is relatively low).", "[0073] In one embodiment, a request is sent to the application server automatically at predetermined intervals.", "The request contains the interest categories that are in the selected state at the time the request is sent.", "In one embodiment, the display 1100 includes a submit button (not shown in FIG. 11 ) that, when selected, causes a request containing the interest categories selected by the participant at the time to be posted to the application server via the Internet.", "[0074] The display 1100 also includes a hot list display area 1108 in which the hot list of URLs returned by the system to the participant in response to a request is presented.", "As shown in FIG. 11 , in one embodiment, each URL is represented by a hypertext link that, when selected, causes the URL of the listed cite to appear in the URL entry and display area 1102 and the content associated with the URL to be displayed in the URL display area 1104 .", "[0075] In one embodiment, the display 1100 is modified to include an alert submission display area such as the alert submission display shown in FIG. 2A .", "This would permit a participant to send an active alert to the application server if the participant encounters a URL of current interest.", "[0076] FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating a process used in one embodiment to build a list of hot URLs responsive to a request, as in step 1008 of FIG. 10 .", "The process begins with step 1202 in which all URLs of current interest within the categories indicated in the request are found.", "[0077] Next, in step 1204 , a “hot token”", "object is created in a hot token array within the hot list object for each URL found in step 1202 , as described above with respect to hot token array 116 shown in FIG. 1 .", "Each hot token object holds the URL_ID, the WEIGHT for the URL with respect to the interest category indicated in the request, the sum of the WEIGHT values for each category associated with the URL in the database, and the intensity rank (RANK) for the URL.", "[0078] Next, in step 1206 , a list rank is determined for each URL retrieved in response to the request.", "In one embodiment, a list rank value is calculated for each URL and is used to determine the list rank (or the order in which the responsive URLs will be placed to determine which URLs will be provided).", "In one embodiment, an initial list rank value is calculated for each URL based on the interest category weight(s) for the URL with respect to the interest category or categories in the request, along with the interest weight for any interest category or categories that are associated with the URL in the database but which are not among the categories indicated in the request.", "In one embodiment, the initial list rank value “v”", "of a URL number “n”", "(v n ) is calculated according to the following formula: [0000] v n = ∑   f k ∑   f m Where [0079] v n =initial list rank value of URL “n”", "[0080] f k =interest weight for URL for each request category [0081] f m =interest weight for each category associated with URL in database [0082] For example, if at the time of the request there had been ten alerts submitted for a particular URL and three of the alerts were associated with a first category, two with a second category and five with a third category, and if a request were received that included among the request categories the first and third categories, the initial list rank value “v”", "for URL number “n”", "calculated in accordance with the above formula would be as follows: [0000] v n = 3 + 5 3 + 2 + 5 ≈ 0.74 [0083] It should be noted that the use of the square root of the weight for each category tends to give relatively greater effect to the weight of interest categories associated with the URL by a minority of alerting users because using the square root reduces the net effect of the greater weight value associated with interest categories indicated by the majority of alerting users.", "As with the normalization of the intensity rank described above, this has the effect of giving more visibility to matters of interest to a relatively smaller community.", "[0084] In an embodiment in which the participant indicates a level of sensitivity with respect to each selected interest category, as described above, the formula for the initial list rank value is modified to take into consideration the sensitivity “s”", "indicated for each category of interest.", "In one embodiment, the initial list rank value formula is modified as follows: [0000] v n = ∑   s k * f k ∑   s m * f m Where [0000] v n =initial list rank value of URL “n”", "f k =interest weight for URL for each request category f m =interest weight for each category associated with URL in database s k =sensitivity indicated for request category “k”", "s m =sensitivity indicated for request category corresponding to interest category “m”, if any (s m =1 for interest categories not in request).", "[0090] For example, in the example described above, assume the participant indicated a sensitivity level of 1 with respect to the first category and 5 with respect to the third category, the initial list rank value would be calculated as follows: [0000] v n = 1 * 3 + 5 * 5 1 * 3 + 1 * 2 + 5 * 5 ≈ 0.83 [0091] (As noted above, the sensitivity level s m used for the second category, having weight “2”", "in the denominator, is set at “1”", "because in the example the participant did not select that category).", "[0092] The initial list rank value determined by this calculation (0.83) is greater than the initial list rank value found in the above calculation of an initial list rank value in an embodiment in which sensitivity levels are not assigned or considered (0.74).", "This illustrates the effect of assigning sensitivity levels.", "The initial list rank value determined in the second calculation, which takes into account a sensitivity level for each category, is higher than it would have been found to be without regard to sensitivity because the participant indicated a higher sensitivity for one of the categories with respect to which alerts had been received for the URL.", "[0093] In this way, high-sensitivity users are more likely to become aware of and access a URL with respect to which one or more alerts have been received in a category for which the user has indicated a high sensitivity.", "If such a high-sensitivity user chose to send alerts of their own with respect to the URL, such activity would increase the intensity rank for the URL (as described above) and would tend to propagate the original alert or alerts to lower-sensitivity users (because the intensity rank is factored into the final list rank used to identify the final list of URLs to be provided to a participant, as described below).", "If such lower-sensitivity users were to send even more alerts, the original alerts would be further propagated to even lower-sensitivity users, and so on.", "[0094] In one embodiment, the initial list rank value determined by the interest category weights, as described above, is used along with the intensity rank for the URL to calculate a final list rank value for the URL.", "In one embodiment, the final list rank value for URL number “n”", "is calculated in accordance with the following formula: [0000] v n ′=r n (α+(1−α) v n ) Where [0095] v n ′=final list rank value [0096] r n =intensity rank for URL [0097] α=weight factor (0≦α≦1) [0098] v n =initial list rank value [0099] In the above equation, the weight factor α determines the relative weight afforded to the intensity rank for the URL and the initial list rank calculated based on the interest category weights as described above.", "If the value for α is selected to be 1, the final list rank would be equal to the intensity rank for the URL and the initial list rank would not factor into the final list rank at all.", "Therefore, a higher weight factor will tend to increase the influence of the intensity rank for the URL and decrease the effect of the initial list rank.", "Stated another way, a low weight factor tends to give more effect to the extent to which the interest categories associated with the URL in the database match the interest categories indicated in the request from the participant.", "Conversely, a higher weight factor tends to give greater effect to the overall popularity of the URL as measured by the intensity rank.", "[0100] Once the list rank for each retrieved URL has been calculated in step 1206 , in step 1208 the retrieved URLs are sorted by list rank.", "Then, in step 1210 , the top ten URLs by list rank are selected as the hot list of URLs to be sent to the participant in response to the request.", "The number ten is an arbitrary number and either a fewer number or greater number of URLs may be included.", "[0101] Although the foregoing invention has been described in some detail for purposes of clarity of understanding, it will be apparent that certain changes and modifications may be practiced within the scope of the appended claims.", "It should be noted that there are many alternative ways of implementing both the process and apparatus of the present invention.", "Accordingly, the present embodiments are to be considered as illustrative and not restrictive, and the invention is not to be limited to the details given herein, but may be modified within the scope and equivalents of the appended claims." ]

[ "TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present invention relates to a hyperthermostable protease useful as an enzyme for industrial use, a gene encoding the same and a method of producing the enzyme by genetic engineering technique.", "BACKGROUND ART [0002] A protease is an enzyme that cleaves peptide bonds in proteins.", "A number of such enzymes have been found in animals, plants and microorganisms.", "The protease is used as a reagent for laboratory use and as a pharmaceutical, as well as in industrial fields, for example, as an additive for a detergent, for processing foods and for chemical synthesis utilizing a reverse reaction.", "Therefore, it can be said that the protease is an extremely important enzyme for industries.", "Since high physical and chemical stability is required for a protease used in industrial fields, a thermostable enzyme is preferably used among others.", "Since proteases produced by bacteria of genus Bacillus exhibit relatively high thermostability, they are mainly used as proteases for industrial use.", "However, in search of a more superior enzyme, attempts have been made to obtain an enzyme from a microorganism growing at high temperature, for example, a thermophilic bacterium of genus Bacillus or a hyperthermophile.", "[0003] For example, a hyperthermophile Pyrococcus furiosus is known to produce a protease (Appl.", "Environ.", "Microbiol.", ", 56:1992-1998 (1990);", "FEMS Microbiol.", "Letters, 71:17-20 (1990);", "J. Gen.", "Microbiol.", ", 137:1193-1199 (1991)).", "[0004] In addition, a hyperthermophile, Pyrococcus sp.", "strain KOD1, is reported to produce a thiol protease (a cysteine protease) (Appl.", "Environ.", "Microbiol.", ", 60:4559-4566 (1994)) Hyperthermophiles of genus Thermococcus, genus Staphylothermus and genus Thermobacteroides are also known to produce proteases (Appl.", "Microbiol.", "Biotechnol.", ", 34:715-719 (1991)).", "[0005] The proteases from the hyperthermophiles as described above have high thermostability.", "Therefore, it is expected that they may be used in place of the thermostable proteases currently in use or in a field in which use of a protease has not been considered.", "[0006] However, most of the microorganisms producing these enzymes grow only at high temperature.", "For example, Pyrococcus furiosus needs to be cultured at 90-100° C. Culturing at such high temperature is disadvantageous in view of energy cost.", "Furthermore, the productivities of the proteases from the hyperthermophiles are lower than the productivities of the conventional microbial proteases.", "Thus, the methods for industrially producing the proteases from the hyperthermophiles have problems.", "[0007] By the way, production of an enzyme by genetic engineering technique by isolating the gene for the enzyme of interest and introducing it into a host microorganism that can readily be cultured is currently common in the art.", "However, the gene for the enzyme introduced into the host is not always expressed so efficiently as expected.", "It is believed that the main cause is that the GC content or the codon usage of the introduced gene is different from those of the genes of the host.", "Therefore, it is necessary to optimize the expression method for each gene to be introduced and/or each host in order to accomplish a suitable productivity of an enzyme for the intended use.", "OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION [0008] The objects of the present invention are to provide a protease from a hyperthermophile which is advantageous for industrial use, to isolate a gene encoding the protease from the hyperthermophile, and to provide a method of producing the hyperthermostable protease using the gene by genetic engineering technique in order to solve the problems as described above.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0009] Among proteases produced by hyperthermophiles, some may be classified into the subtilisin-type of alkaline proteases based on the amino acid sequence homology.", "When a gene for such a protease is introduced into Bacillus subtilis which is generally used for production by genetic engineering technique, the productivity of this enzyme is much less than that of a protein inherently produced by Bacillus subtilis.", "[0010] The present inventors have studied intensively and found that, by placing a gene encoding a signal peptide (signal sequence) derived from a subtilisin upstream a protease gene derived from a hyperthermophile to be expressed, and modifying the amino acid sequence around the cleavage site, the gene of interest is expressed in Bacillus subtilis with high efficiency.", "Furthermore, it has been found that the expression level of the enzyme can be increased by deleting a portion that is not essential for the enzymatic activity in the protease gene derived from the hyperthermophile of interest.", "Thus, the present invention has been completed.", "[0011] The present invention is outlined as follows.", "The first invention of the present invention is a thermostable protease having an amino acid sequence represented by the SEQ ID NO:1 of the Sequence Listing, and a protease having an amino acid sequence in which one or several amino acid residues are deleted, substituted, inserted or added in the amino acid sequence represented by the SEQ ID NO:1 of the Sequence Listing and having a thermostable protease activity.", "[0012] The second invention of the present invention is a gene encoding the thermostable protease of the first invention, and a thermostable protease gene that hybridizes with the gene.", "[0013] The third invention of the present invention is a gene to be used for producing a thermostable protease derived from a hyperthermophile by genetic engineering technique, characterized in that the gene encodes an amino acid sequence represented by formula I: SIG-Ala-Gly-Gly-Asn-PRO [I] [0014] wherein SIG represents an amino acid sequence of a signal peptide derived from a subtilisin, PRO represents an amino acid sequence of a protein to be expressed.", "Preferably, SIG is the amino acid sequence represented by the SEQ ID NO:3 of the Sequence Listing.", "Preferably, PRO is an amino acid sequence of a hyperthermostable protease derived from a hyperthermophile, more preferably, an amino acid sequence of a protease derived from Pyrococcus furiosus.", "[0015] The fourth invention of the present invention relates to a method of producing a protein by genetic engineering technique, characterized in that the method comprises culturing a bacterium of genus Bacillus into which the gene of the third invention is introduced, and collecting the protein of interest from the culture.", "[0016] The fifth invention of the present invention is a plasmid used for producing a protein by genetic engineering technique, characterized in that the gene of the third invention is inserted into the plasmid.", "[0017] A mutation such as deletion, substitution, insertion or addition of one to several amino acid residues in an amino acid sequence may be generated in a naturally occurring protein including the protein disclosed by the present invention.", "Such mutation may be generated due to a polymorphism or a mutation of the gene encoding the protein, or due to a modification of the protein in vivo or during purification after synthesis may occur.", "Nevertheless, it is known that such a mutated protein may exhibit physiological and biological activities equivalent with those of a protein without a mutation.", "This is applicable to a protein in which such a mutation is introduced into its amino sequence artificially, in which case it is possible to generate a wide variety of mutations.", "For example, it is known that a polypeptide in which a cysteine residue in the amino acid sequence of human interleukin-2 (IL-2) is substituted with a serine residue retains an interleukin-2 activity (Science, 224:1431 (1984)).", "Thus, a protease having an amino acid sequence in which one or several amino acid residues are deleted, substituted, inserted or added in the amino acid sequence disclosed by the present invention and having a protease activity equivalent with that of the protease of the present invention is within the scope of the present invention.", "[0018] As used herein, “a gene which hybridizes (with a particular gene)”", "is a gene having a base sequence similar to that of the particular gene.", "It is likely that a gene having a base sequence similar to that of a particular gene encodes a protein having an amino acid sequence and a function similar to those of the protein encoded by the particular gene.", "Similarity of base sequences of genes can be examined by determining whether or not the genes or portions thereof form a hybrid (hybridize) each other under stringent conditions.", "By utilizing this procedure, a gene that encodes a protein having a similar function with that of the protein encoded by the particular gene can be obtained.", "That is, a gene having a similar base sequence with that of the gene of the present invention can be obtained by using the gene obtained by the present invention or a portion thereof as a probe to carry out hybridization according to a known method.", "Hybridization can be carried out according to the method, for example, as described in T. Maniatis et al.", "eds.", ", Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual 2nd ed.", ", published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 1989.", "More specifically, hybridization can be carried out under the following conditions.", "Briefly, a membrane onto which DNAs are immobilized is incubated in 6×SSC (1×SSC represents 0.15 M NaCl, 0.015 M sodium citrate, pH 7.0) containing 0.5% SDS, 0.1% bovine serum albumin (BSA), 0.1% polyvinylpyrorridone, 0.1% Ficoll 400, 0.01% denatured salmon sperm DNA at 50° C. for 12-20 hours with a probe.", "After incubation, the membrane is washed until the signals for the immobilized DNAs can be distinguished from background, starting from washing in 2×SSC containing 0.5% SDS at 37° C. while decreasing the SSC concentration down to 0.1× and raising the temperature up to 50° C. [0019] Alternatively, instead of hybridization, a gene amplification method (e.g., PCR method) which employs portions of the base sequence of the gene obtained by the present invention as primers can be utilized.", "Whether or not the gene thus obtained encodes a protein having the function of interest can be determined by expressing the gene utilizing a suitable host and a suitable expression system and examining the activity of the resulting protein.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0020] [0020 ]FIG. 1 is the restriction enzyme map of the plasmid pSTC3.", "[0021] [0021 ]FIG. 2 compares the amino acid sequences of Protease PFUS, Protease TCES and a subtilisin.", "[0022] [0022 ]FIG. 3 compares the amino acid sequences of Protease PFUS, Protease TCES and a subtilisin.", "[0023] [0023 ]FIG. 4 compares the amino acid sequences of Protease PFUS, Protease TCES and a subtilisin.", "[0024] [0024 ]FIG. 5 compares the amino acid sequences of Protease PFUS, Protease TCES and a subtilisin.", "[0025] [0025 ]FIG. 6 is the restriction enzyme map of the plasmid pSNP1.", "[0026] [0026 ]FIG. 7 is the restriction enzyme map of the plasmid pPS1.", "[0027] [0027 ]FIG. 8 is the restriction enzyme map of the plasmid pNAPS1.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0028] The hyperthermostable protease according to the present invention includes proteases from various hyperthermophiles.", "For example, WO 95/34645 describes proteases from Pyrococcus furiosus and Thermococcus celer.", "[0029] A protease gene from Pyrococcus furiosus DSM3638 was isolated from a genomic DNA library of the strain based on the expression of a thermostable protease activity.", "A plasmid containing this gene is designated as the plasmid pTPR12.", "Escherichia coli JM109 transformed with this plasmid is designated and indicated as Escherichia coli JM109/pTPR12, and deposited on May 24, 1994 (the date of the original deposit) under Budapest Treaty at the National Institute of Bioscience and Human-Technology, Agency of Industrial Science and Technology, Ministry of International Trade and Industry, 1-3, Higashi 1-chome, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki-ken, Japan under accession number FERM BP-5103.", "[0030] This protease is designated as Protease PFUL hereinafter.", "Protease PFUL is a protease having high thermostability and exhibits a protease activity even at 95° C. [0031] The base sequence of the DNA fragment derived from Pyrococcus furiosus inserted into the plasmid pTPR12 has been determined.", "The base sequence of the portion of approximately 4.8 kb bordered by two DraI sites in the DNA fragment inserted into the plasmid pTPR12 is shown in the SEQ ID NO:5 of the Sequence Listing.", "Furthermore, the amino acid sequence of the gene product deduced from the base sequence is shown in the SEQ ID NO:6 of the Sequence Listing.", "In other words, the amino acid sequence as shown in the SEQ ID NO:6 of the Sequence Listing is the amino acid sequence of Protease PFUL.", "As shown in the sequence, Protease PFUL consists of 1398 amino acid residues and is a protease with a high molecular weight of over 150,000.", "[0032] Comparison of the amino acid sequence of Protease PFUL as shown in SEQ ID NO:6 of the Sequence Listing with known amino acid sequences of proteases from microorganisms has revealed that the amino acid sequence of the first half portion of Protease PFUL is homologous to those of a series of alkaline serine proteases represented by a subtilisin (Protein Engineering, 4:719-737 (1991)), and that there is extremely high homology around the four amino acid residues which are believed to be important for the catalytic activity of the protease.", "[0033] As described above, it has been found that a region common among proteases derived from mesophiles is conserved in the amino acid sequence of Protease PFUL produced by a hyperthermophile Pyrococcus furiosus.", "Thus, it is expected that a homologous protease produced by a hyperthermophile other than Pyrococcus furiosus also has this region.", "[0034] For example, a gene for a hyperthermostable protease can be screened by performing PCR using a chromosomal DNA from various hyperthermophiles as a template and the oligonucleotides PRO-1F, PRO-2F, PRO-2R and PRO-4R in combination as primers.", "These oligonucleotides are synthesized based on the base sequence in the Protease PFUL gene which encodes a region exhibiting high homology with subtilisins or the like within the amino acid sequence of Protease PFUL.", "The base sequences of oligonucleotides PRO-1F, PRO-2F, PRO-2R and PRO-4R are shown in the SEQ ID NOS:7, 8, 9 and 10 of the Sequence Listing, respectively.", "[0035] As a hyperthermophile from which the protease according to the present invention is derived, a bacterium belonging to genus Pyrococcus, genus Thermococcus, genus Staphylothermus, genus Thermobacteroides and the like can be used.", "As a bacterium belonging to genus Thermococcus, for example, Thermococcus celer DSM2476 can be used.", "This strain is available from Deutsche Sammlung von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen GmbH.", "When performing PCR using a chromosomal DNA from Thermococcus celer DSM2476 as a template and a combination of the oligonucleotides PRO-1F and PRO-2R or the oligonucleotide PRO-2F and Pro-4R as primers, specific DNA fragments are amplified, indicating the presence of a protease gene.", "Furthermore, by creating recombinant plasmids in which the DNA fragments are inserted into an appropriate plasmid vector and determining the base sequences of the inserted DNA fragments by dideoxy method, the amino acid sequences encoded by the fragments can be deduced.", "As a result, it proved that such DNA fragments encode an amino acid sequence that is homologous to the amino acid sequences of Protease PFUL and alkaline serine proteases from various microorganisms and that the PCR-amplified DNA fragments were amplified from a protease gene as a template.", "[0036] Next, a gene for a hyperthermostable protease (for example, a gene for a hyperthermostable protease produced by Thermococcus celer ) can be obtained by screening a gene library from a hyperthermophile using the PCR-amplified DNA fragment or the oligonucleotide as described above as a probe.", "[0037] For example, a phage clone containing the gene of interest can be obtained by performing plaque hybridization against a library using the PCR-amplified DNA fragment as a probe.", "Such library is generated by ligating lambda GEM-11 vector (Promega) and DNA fragments resulting from partial digestion of the chromosomal DNA from Thermococcus celer DSM2476 with a restriction enzyme Sau3AI, then packaging them into lambda phage particles by in vitro packaging method.", "[0038] It is found that a protease gene exists in a SacI fragment of approximately 1.9 kb by analyzing a DNA fragment contained in a phage clone thus obtained.", "Furthermore, it is found that this fragment lacks the 5′ region of the protease gene by determining its base sequence.", "The 5′ region can be obtained by PCR using a cassette and cassette primers (Takara Shuzo Gene Technology Product Guide, 1994-1995, pp[.", "].250-251).", "Thus, a DNA fragment which covers the 5′ region of the hyperthermostable protease gene which is absent in the plasmid pTCS6 can be obtained.", "Furthermore, the base sequence of the entire hyperthermostable protease gene derived from Thermococcus celer can be determined from the base sequences of the two DNA fragments.", "[0039] The base sequence of an open reading frame found in the determined base sequence is shown in the SEQ ID NO:11 of the Sequence Listing, and the amino acid sequence deduced from the base sequence is shown in the SEO ID NO:12 of the Sequence Listing.", "The base sequence of the gene encoding the hyperthermostable protease from Thermococcus celer and the amino acid sequence of the protease were thus determined.", "This protease is designated as Protease TCES.", "[0040] An expression vector in which the entire Protease TCES gene is reconstituted by combining the two DNA fragments can be constructed.", "However, when using Escherichia coli as a host, a transformant into which the expression plasmid of interest had been introduced was not obtained, probably because the generation of the product expressed from the gene in cells may be harmful or lethal to Escherichia coli.", "In such a case, for example, it is possible to use Bacillus subtilis as a host for extracellular secretion of the protease and to determine the activity.", "[0041] As a Bacillus subtilis strain, Bacillus subtilis DB104 can be used, which is a known strain as described in Gene, 83:215-233 (1989).", "As a cloning vector, the plasmid pUB18-P43 can be used, which is a generous gift from Dr. Sui-Lam Wong, University of Calgary.", "The plasmid contains a kanamycin-resistance gene as a selectable marker.", "[0042] A recombinant plasmid in which the Protease TCES gene is inserted downstream the P43 promoter in the plasmid vector pUB18-P43 is designated as the plasmid pSTC3.", "Bacillus subtilis DB104 transformed with this plasmid is designated and indicated as Bacillus subtilis DB104/pSTC3, and was deposited on Dec. 1, 1995 (the date of the original deposit) under Budapest Treaty at the National Institute of Bioscience and Human-Technology, Agency of Industrial Science and Technology, Ministry of International Trade and Industry, 1-3, Higashi 1-chome, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki-ken, Japan under accession number FERM BP-5635.", "[0043] The restriction enzyme map of the plasmid pSTC3 is shown in FIG. 1. In FIG. 1, the bold line indicates the DNA fragment inserted into the plasmid vector pUB18-P43.", "[0044] A thermostable protease activity is found in either of the culture supernatant and the cell extract of the culture of Bacillus subtilis DB104/pSTC3.", "[0045] Main properties of a crude enzyme preparation of the protease obtained from the culture of the transformant are as follows.", "[0046] (1) Action: [0047] Degrades casein and gelatin to generate short chain polypeptides.", "[0048] Hydrolyzes succinyl-L-leucyl-L-leucyl-L-valyl-L-tyrosine-4-methylcoumarin-7-amide (Suc-Leu-Leu-Val-Tyr-MCA) to generate a fluorescent substance (7-amino-4-methylcoumarin).", "[0049] Hydrolyzes succinyl-L-alanyl-L-alanyl-L-prolyl-L-phenylalanine-p-nitroanilide (Suc-Ala-Ala-Pro-Phe-p-NA) to generate a yellow substance (p-nitroaniline).", "[0050] (2) Optimal temperature: [0051] Exhibits an enzymatic activity at 37-95° C., with the optimal temperature being 70-80° C. [0052] (3) Optimal pH: [0053] Exhibits an enzymatic activity at pH 5.5-9, with the optimal pH being pH 7-8.", "[0054] (4) Thermostability: [0055] Retains 90% or more of its enzymatic activity after treatment at 80° C. for 3 hours.", "[0056] When aligning the amino acid sequences of Protease PFUL, Protease TCES and a subtilisin (subtilisin BNP′;", "Nucl.", "Acids Res.", ", 11:7911-7925 (1983)) such that homologous regions match each other as shown in FIGS. 2 - 5 , it is found that, at the C-terminus and between the homologous regions of Protease PFUL, there are sequences which are not found in Protease TCES or the subtilisin.", "From these results, a protease having a molecular weight lower than that of Protease PFUL and similar to Protease TCES or subtilisins may exist in Pyrococcus furiosus in addition to Protease PFUL.", "[0057] Thereupon, Southern hybridization against a chromosomal DNA prepared from Pyrococcus furiosus was carried out using a DNA probe from the homologous region;", "and a signal other than that for the Protease PFUL gene was observed, indicating the existence of another protease gene.", "[0058] This novel protease gene can be isolated by the following procedure.", "[0059] For example, a DNA fragment containing a gene encoding the novel protease is obtained by digesting a chromosomal DNA from Pyrococcus furiosus with an appropriate restriction enzyme and performing Southern hybridization against the digested DNA as described above.", "The base sequence of the DNA fragment is determined to confirm that the base sequence encodes an amino acid sequence homologous to the above-mentioned protease.", "If the DNA fragment does not contain the entire gene of interest, the remaining portion is further obtained by inverse PCR method or the like.", "[0060] For example, when a chromosomal DNA from Pyrococcus furiosus is digested with restriction enzymes SacI and SpeI (Takara Shuzo) and is used for Southern hybridization, a signal of approximately 0.6 kb in size is observed.", "DNA fragments of this size are recovered, inserted between the SpeI-SacI sites in the plasmid vector pBluescript SK(−) (Stratagene), and Escherichia coli JM 109 is transformed with the resulting recombinant plasmids.", "A clone into which the fragment of interest is incorporated can be obtained from the transformants by colony hybridization using the same probe as that used for the Southern hybridization as described above.", "Whether or not the plasmid harbored by the obtained clone has the sequence that encodes the protease can be confirmed by determining the base sequence of the DNA fragment inserted into the plasmid.", "The presence of the protease gene in the plasmid was thus confirmed.", "This plasmid is designated as the plasmid pSS3.", "[0061] It is found that the amino acid sequence deduced from the base sequence of the DNA fragment inserted into the plasmid pSS3 has homology with sequences of subtilisins, Protease PFUL, Protease TCES and the like.", "The product of the protease gene distinct from the Protease PFUL gene, a portion of which was newly obtained from Pyrococcus furiosus as described above, is designated as Protease PFUS.", "The regions which encode the N-terminal and C-terminal regions of the protease can be obtained by inverse PCR method.", "[0062] Primers used for inverse PCR can be prepared based on the base sequence of the DNA fragment inserted into the plasmid pSS3.", "A chromosomal DNA from Pyrococcus furiosus is digested with an appropriate restriction enzyme, and the resulting DNA fragments are then subjected to an intramolecular ligation reaction.", "By performing PCR using the reaction mixture as a template and the above-mentioned primers, DNA fragments corresponding to the regions flanking the fragment for the protease gene contained in the plasmid pSS3 can be obtained.", "The amino acid sequence of the enzyme protein encoded by these regions can be deduced by analyzing the base sequences of the DNA fragments thus obtained.", "Furthermore, primers capable of amplifying the entire Protease PFUS gene using a chromosomal DNA from Pyrococcus furiosus as a template can be prepared.", "The primers NPF-4 and NPR-4 can be designed.", "The primer NPF-4 has the base sequence immediately upstream the initiation codon of the Protease PFUS gene and can introduce a BamHI site 5′ to the sequence.", "The primer NPR-4 has a sequence complementary to the 3′ portion of the Protease PFUS gene and can introduce a SphI site 5′ to the sequence.", "[0063] The base sequences of the primers NPF-4 and NPR-4 are shown in the SEQ ID NOS:13 and 14 of the Sequence Listing.", "These two primers can be used to amplify the entire Protease PFUS gene using a chromosomal DNA from Pyrococcus furiosus as a template.", "[0064] Like Protease TCES, Protease PFUS can be expressed in Bacillus subtilis as a host.", "A plasmid for expressing Protease PFUS can be constructed based on the expression plasmid for Protease TCES, pSTC3.", "Specifically, a plasmid for expressing Protease PFUS can be constructed by replacing the Protease TCES gene in the plasmid pSTC3 with the DNA fragment containing the entire Protease PFUS gene amplified by PCR with the primers as described above.", "The expression plasmid thus constructed is designated as the plasmid pSNP1.", "Bacillus subtilis DB104 transformed with this plasmid is designated and indicated as Bacillus subtilis DB104/pSNP1, and was deposited on Dec. 1, 1995 (the date of the original deposit) under Budapest Treaty at the National Institute of Bioscience and Human-Technology, Agency of Industrial Science and Technology, Ministry of International Trade and Industry, 1-3, Higashi 1-chome, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki-ken, Japan under accession number FERM BP-5634.", "The restriction enzyme map of the plasmid pSNP1 is shown in FIG. 6. [0065] The base sequence corresponding to an open reading frame in the gene encoding Protease PFUS and the amino acid sequence of Protease PFUS deduced from the base sequence are shown in the SEQ ID NOS: 15 and 16 of the Sequence Listing, respectively.", "[0066] A thermostable protease activity is found in either of the culture supernatant and the cell extract from the culture of Bacillus subtilis DB104/pSNP1.", "That is, a portion of the expressed Protease PFUS is secreted into the culture supernatant.", "[0067] Main properties of the protease obtained from the culture of the transformant are as follows.", "[0068] (1) Action: [0069] Degrades casein and gelatin to generate short chain polypeptides.", "[0070] Hydrolyzes succinyl-L-leucyl-L-leucyl-L-valyl-L-tyrosine-4-methylcoumarin-7-amide (Suc-Leu-Leu-Val-Tyr-MCA) to generate a fluorescent substance (7-amino-4-methylcoumarin).", "[0071] Hydrolyzes succinyl-L-alanyl-L-alanyl-L-prolyl-L-phenylalanine-p-nitroanilide (Suc-Ala-Ala-Pro-Phe-p-NA) to generate a yellow substance (p-nitroaniline).", "[0072] (2) Optimal temperature: [0073] Exhibits an enzymatic activity at 40-110° C., with the optimal temperature being 80-95° C. [0074] (3) Optimal pH: [0075] Exhibits an enzymatic activity at pH 5-10, with the optimal pH being pH 6-8.", "[0076] (4) Thermostability: [0077] Retains 90% or more of its enzymatic activity after treatment at 95° C. for 8 hours.", "[0078] (5) pH stability [0079] Retains 95% or more of its activity after treatment at pH 5-11 at 95° C. for 60 minutes.", "[0080] (6) Molecular weight [0081] Exhibits a molecular weight of approximately 45 kDa on SDS-PAGE.", "[0082] Protease genes homologous to the Protease TCES gene and the Protease PFUS gene can be obtained from hyperthermophiles other than Pyrococcus furiosus and Thermococcus celer using a method similar to that used to obtain the Protease TCES gene and the Protease PFUS gene.", "[0083] A DNA fragment of approximately 1 kb which encodes a sequence from the residue at position 323 to the residue at position 650 of the amino acid sequence of Protease PFUL as shown in the SEQ ID NO:6 of the Sequence Listing can be prepared and used as a probe for genomic Southern hybridization against chromosomal DNAs from Staphylothermus marinus DSM3639 and Thermobacteroides proteoliticus DSM 5265.", "As a result, signals are observed at the position of approximately 4.8 kb for the chromosomal DNA from Staphylothermus marinus digested with PstI (Takara Shuzo) and at the position of approximately 3.5 kb for the chromosomal DNA from Thermobacteroides proteoliticus digested with XbaI.", "[0084] From these results, it proved that there are sequences homologous to those of the genes for Protease PFUL, Protease PFUS and Protease TCES and the like on the chromosomal DNAs from Staphylothermus marinus and Thermobacteroides proteoliticus.", "The genes encoding the hyperthermostable proteases in Staphylothermus marinus and Thermobacteroides proteoliticus can be isolated and identified from the DNA fragments thus detected by using a method similar to that used to isolate and identify the genes encoding Protease TCES and Protease PFUS.", "[0085] In general, it is believed that use of a promoter that acts effectively in a host rather than a promoter that is inherently associated with the gene encoding the protein of interest would be advantageous in order to prepare a protein in a large quantity by genetic engineering technique.", "Although the P43 promoter used to construct the expression systems for Protease TCES and Protease PFUS is a promoter derived from Bacillus subtilis, it was not sufficiently effective to express the two proteases.", "[0086] Thereupon, a gene that is expressed at high level in Bacillus subtilis, particularly a gene for a secreted protein, may be utilized in order to increase the expression level.", "Genes for α-amylase or various extracellular proteases can be used.", "For example, it is expected that use of a promoter and a signal peptide-encoding region of a subtilisin gene may increase the expression level of Protease PFUS.", "[0087] Specifically, Protease PFUS can be expressed as a fused protein under control of the promoter of the subtilisin gene by placing the entire Protease PFUS gene downstream the region encoding the signal peptide of the subtilisin gene including the promoter region such that the translational frames of the two genes match each other.", "[0088] For example, the gene encoding subtilisin E can be used as the subtilisin gene used in the present invention.", "The promoter and the signal peptide-encoding region of the subtilisin E gene inserted in the plasmid pKWZ as described in J. Bacteriol.", ", 171:2657-2665 (1989) can be used.", "The base sequence of the 5′ upstream region including the promoter sequence is described in the reference (supra) and the base sequence of the region encoding the subtilisin is described in J. Bacteriol.", ", 158:411-418 (1984).", "[0089] Based on these sequences, the primer SUB4 for introducing an EcoRI site upstream the promoter sequence of the gene and the primer BmR1 for introducing a BamHI site downstream the region encoding the signal peptide of subtilisin E are synthesized.", "The base sequences of the primers SUB4 and BmR1 are shown in the SEQ ID NOS:17 and 18 of the Sequence Listing, respectively.", "The primers SUB4 and BmR1 can be used to amplify a DNA fragment of approximately 0.3 kb containing the promoter and the signal peptide-encoding region of the subtilisin E gene by PCR using the plasmid pKWZ as a template.", "[0090] The Protease PFUS gene to be placed downstream the DNA fragment can be obtained from a chromosomal DNA from Pyrococcus furiosus by PCR method.", "The primer NPF-4 can be used as a primer that hybridizes with the 5′ region of the gene.", "The primer NPM-1, which is designed based on the base sequence downstream from the termination codon of the gene and has a SphI site, can be used as a primer which hybridizes with the 3′ region of the gene.", "The sequence of the primer NPM-1 is shown in the SEQ ID NO:19 of the Sequence Listing.", "[0091] One BamHI site present in the gene would become a problem for a procedure in which a BamHI site is utilized for joining the Protease PFUS gene to the 0.3 kb DNA fragment.", "The primers mutRR and mutFR for eliminating the BamHI site by PCR-mutagenesis method can be prepared based on the base sequence of the Protease PFUS gene as shown in the SEQ ID NO:15 of the Sequence Listing.", "The base sequences of the primers mutRR and mutFR are shown in the SEQ ID NOS:20 and 21 of the Sequence Listing, respectively.", "When these primers are used to eliminate the BamHI site, the amino acid residue encoded by this site, i.e., glycine at position 560 in the amino acid sequence of Protease PFUS as shown in the SEQ ID NO:16 of the Sequence Listing, is substituted by valine due to the base substitution introduced into the site.", "[0092] The Protease PFUS gene to be joined to the promoter and the signal peptide-encoding region of the subtilisin E gene can be obtained by using these primers.", "Specifically, two PCRs are performed using a chromosomal DNA from Pyrococcus furiosus as a template and the pair of the primers mutRR and NPF-4 or the pair of the primers mutFR and NPM-1.", "In addition, a second round of PCR is performed using a heteroduplex formed by mixing the respective PCR-amplified DNA fragments as a template and the primers NPF-4 and NPM-1.", "Thus, the entire Protease PFUS gene of approximately 2.4 kb which does not contain an internal BamHI site can be amplified.", "[0093] A DNA fragment of approximately 2.4 kb obtained by digesting the PCR-amplified DNA fragment with BamHI and SphI is isolated and used to replace a BamHI-SphI fragment in the plasmid pSNP1 which contains the Protease PFUS gene.", "An expression vector thus constructed is designated as the plasmid pPS1.", "Bacillus subtilis DB104 transformed with this plasmid is designated as Bacillus subtilis DB104/pPS1.", "A similar protease activity is found in either of the culture supernatant and the cell extract of the culture of this transformant as observed for the transformant harboring the plasmid pSNP1, demonstrating that the amino acid substitution does not influence the enzymatic activity.", "The restriction enzyme map of the plasmid pPS1 is shown in FIG. 7. [0094] The DNA fragment of approximately 0.3 kb containing the promoter and the signal peptide-encoding region of the subtilisin E gene is digested with EcoRI and BamHI and is used to replace the EcoRI-BamHI fragment containing the P43 promoter and a ribosome binding site in the plasmid pPS1.", "An expression plasmid thus constructed is designated as pNAPS1.", "Bacillus subtilis DB/104 transformed with this plasmid is designated as Bacillus subtilis DB104/pNAPS1.", "A thermostable protease activity is found in either of the culture supernatant and the cell extract of the culture of the transformant, with the expression level being increased as compared with that of Bacillus subtilis DB104/pSNP1.", "The restriction enzyme map of the plasmid pNAPS1 is shown in FIG. 8. [0095] The protease expressed from the transformant exhibits enzymological properties equivalent to those of the protease expressed by Bacillus subtilis DB104/pSNP1 as described above.", "The protease expressed by the transformant was purified.", "The analysis of the N-terminal amino acid sequence of the purified protease provided the amino acid sequence as shown in the SEQ ID NO:22 of the Sequence Listing.", "This sequence is identical with the sequence from position 133 to position 144 of the amino acid sequence of Protease PFUS as shown in the SEQ ID NO:15 of the Sequence Listing, indicating that the mature Protease PFUS is an enzyme consisting of a polypeptide starting from this portion.", "The amino acid sequence of the mature Protease PFUS assumed from these results is shown in the SEQ ID NO:4 of the Sequence Listing.", "[0096] Although the amount of the protease produced by Bacillus subtilis DB104/pNAPS1 is increased as compared with the amount of the protease produced by Bacillus subtilis DB104/pSNP1 (FERM BP-5634), higher productivity is desired.", "It is expected that the expression level of the protease is increased by modifying the junction of the fused peptide encoded by pNAPS1 between the signal peptide of the subtilisin and Protease PFUS to make the removal of the signal peptide more efficient.", "In the plasmid pNAPS1, a peptide consisting of three amino acid residues Ala-Gly-Ser is inserted between the C-terminal amino acid residue of the signal peptide of subtilisin E as shown in the SEQ ID NO:3 of the Sequence Listing (Ala) and the N-terminal amino acid residue of Protease PFUS (Met).", "A transformant with increased expression level of the protease can be obtained by introducing a mutation into the DNA encoding this peptide in the plasmid pNAPS1 and examining the protease productivity of the transformant into which the mutant plasmid is introduced.", "[0097] First, a mutant plasmid is prepared in which the portion encoding Ser in the three amino acid peptide in the gene encoding the-fused protein: subtilisin E-Protease PFUS, in the plasmid pNAPS1 is modified such that the base sequence of the portion encodes random two amino acid residues.", "Such a mutant plasmid can be created by means of PCR.", "For example, the primers SPOF0 and SPOR0 having sequences in which the codon encoding Ser (TCC) is substituted by random six bases (the base sequences of the primers SPOF0 and SPOR0 are shown in the SEQ ID NOS:24 and 25 of the Sequence Listing, respectively) and the primers SUB3 and NPR-10 which are prepared based on the base sequence around this region (the base sequences of the primers SUB3 and NPR-10 are shown in the SEQ ID NOS:26 and 27 of the Sequence Listing, respectively) can be used to perform PCR to obtain a DNA fragment into which the intended mutation at the portion corresponding to the codon encoding Ser (TCC) is introduced.", "A mutant plasmid containing the protease gene with the introduced mutation can be obtained by replacing the resulting fragment for the corresponding region in the plasmid pNAPS1.", "[0098] A transformant with increased expression level can be then obtained by introducing the mutant plasmids thus obtained into an appropriate host, for example, Bacillus subtilis DB104, and determining the level of the protease expressed by the transformants.", "The expression level of the protease can be confirmed by determining the activity in the independent culture of the isolated transformant.", "Alternatively, a transformant with increased expression level can be readily selected by using an agar plate containing a substrate.", "[0099] Specifically, the transformants into which the mutant plasmids are introduced are grown on agar plates containing skim milk.", "Thereafter, the plates are incubated at temperature at which Protease PFUS exhibits its activity, for example, at 70° C. Skim milk around a colony of a transformant expressing a protease is degraded to become clear.", "The expression level of the protease can be estimated from the size of the clear zone.", "[0100] One of the transformants thus obtained which express high level of protease activity as compared with Bacillus subtilis DB104/pNAPS1 is designated as Bacillus subtilis DB104/pSPO124.", "The plasmid contained in this transformant was prepared (this plasmid is designated as pSPO124).", "Analysis of the base sequence of the plasmid revealed that the portion encoding Ser was changed into a base sequence GGGAAT, that is, that a protein in which Ser was changed into Gly-Asn was encoded by the plasmid.", "[0101] Thus, it proved that the expression level of the protein of interest can be increased in a bacterium of genus Bacillus as a host by placing a peptide consisting of four amino acid residues Ala-Gly-Gly-Asn downstream the signal peptide of a subtilisin, fusing it to the N-terminus of the protein of interest and expressing the fused protein.", "In addition to subtilisin E (from Bacillus subtilis ) which is used in the present invention, subtilisin BPN′ from Bacillus amyloliquefaciens (Nucl.", "Acids Res.", ", 11:7911-7925 (1983)), subtilisin Carlsberg from Bacillus licheniformis (Nucl.", "Acids Res.", ", 13:8913-8926 (1985)) and the like are known as subtilisins produced by bacteria of genus Bacillus.", "The signal peptides from them can be preferably used for the present invention although their amino acid sequences slightly vary each other.", "Various promoters which function in a bacterium of genus Bacillus can be used in place of the promoter from the subtilisin E gene which is used in the present invention for controlling expression.", "[0102] There is no limitation regarding the protein to be expressed.", "It is possible to express a protein at high level by genetic engineering technique by applying the present invention as long as the gene for the protein is available.", "It is evident that the present invention can be utilized to express a protein derived from an organism other than the host from the fact that a protein derived from Pyrococcus furiosus, which is taxonomically different from bacteria of genus Bacillus, is expressed at high level.", "The present invention is preferably used to produce Protease PFUL, Protease TCES as well as proteases from Staphylothermus marinus and Thermobacteroides proteoliticus that are structurally similar to Protease PFUS by genetic engineering technique.", "[0103] Based on the homology with subtilisins, it is considered that Protease PFUS is expressed as a precursor protein having a signal peptide and a propeptide and then subjected to processing to generate a mature enzyme.", "Furthermore;", "based on the results of the N-terminal amino acid sequence analysis of the mature Protease PFUS enzyme, it may be assumed that the mature enzyme is an enzyme consisting of the amino acid sequence as shown in the SEQ ID NO:4 of the Sequence Listing.", "However, the molecular weight of the purified mature Protease PFUS is approximately 45 kDa which is smaller than that calculated from the amino acid sequence, suggesting that Protease PFUS expressed as a precursor is converted to a mature protease after being subjected to processing of its C-terminal peptide as well.", "[0104] If the C-terminal peptide removed by the processing is not essential to the enzymatic activity or the folding of the enzyme protein into proper structure, it is expected that the expression level of Protease PFUS can be also increased by deleting the region encoding this portion from the gene and expressing the protease.", "[0105] The molecular weight of the mature Protease PFUS obtained from Bacillus subtilis DB104/pNAPS1 can be precisely measured, for example, by using a mass spectrometer.", "It is found from the measured molecular weight and the N-terminal amino acid sequence of the mature Protease PFUS determined as described above that the protease is a polypeptide corresponding to Ala at position 133 to Thr at position 552 of the amino acid sequence as shown in the SEQ ID NO:15 of the Sequence Listing.", "Furthermore, a plasmid which expresses Protease PFUS lacking a polypeptide nonessential for its enzymatic activity can be constructed by introducing a termination codon in the vicinity of the portion encoding Thr at position 552 in the Protease PFUS gene contained in the plasmid pNAPS1.", "Specifically, a DNA fragment having a base sequence into which the intended termination codon is introduced can be obtained by PCR using the primer NPR544 which can introduce a termination codon (TGA) on the C-terminal side of the 544th amino acid residue encoding codon from the initiation codon in the Protease PFUS gene in the plasmid pNAPS1 (Ser) (the base sequence of the primer NPR544 is shown in the SEQ ID NO:28 of the Sequence Listing) and the primer NPFE81 which has the base sequence of the region upstream from the NspV site in the gene (the base sequence of the primer NPFE81 is shown in the SEQ ID NO:29 of the Sequence Listing).", "A mutant plasmid containing the protease gene into which the mutation of interest is introduced can be then obtained by replacing the fragment for the corresponding region in the plasmid pNAPS1.", "This plasmid is designated as the plasmid pNAPSΔC.", "Bacillus subtilis DB104 transformed with this plasmid is designated as Bacillus subtilis DB104/pNAPSΔC.", "[0106] This transformant expresses a protease activity having properties equivalent to those of Protease PFUS, with the expression level being higher than that of Bacillus subtilis DB104/pNAPS1.", "[0107] Thus, it was found that the Protease PFUS gene contained in the plasmid pNAPSΔC has a sufficient region to express the activity of the enzyme.", "The base sequence of the region encoding Protease PFUS present in the plasmid is shown in the SEQ ID NO:2 of the Sequence Listing.", "The amino acid sequence encoded by the base sequence is shown in the SEQ ID NO:1 of the Sequence Listing.", "[0108] Furthermore, Protease PFUS lacking its C-terminal peptide can be expressed by introducing a mutation similar to that in the plasmid pNAPSΔC into the Protease PFUS gene in the plasmid pSPO124.", "[0109] Specifically, the plasmid of interest can be constructed by mixing and ligating a DNA fragment of approximately 13 kb obtained by digesting the plasmid pNAPSΔC with NspV and SphI with the plasmid pSPO124 that has been digested with NsnV and SphI.", "This plasmid is designated as the plasmid pSO124ΔC.", "Bacillus subtilis DB104 transformed with this plasmid is designated and indicated as Bacillus subtilis DB104/pSO124ΔC, and deposited on May 16, 1997 (the date of the original deposit) under Budapest Treaty at the National Institute of Bioscience and Human-Technology, Agency of Industrial Science and Technology, Ministry of International Trade and Industry, 1-3, Higashi 1-chome, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki-ken, Japan under accession number FERM BP-6294.", "The expression level of protease of this transformant is increased as compared with that of Bacillus subtilis DB104/pNAPS1.", "[0110] The enzymological properties as well as the physical and chemical properties of the proteases produced by the transformants, Bacillus subtilis DB104/pNAPSΔC and Bacillus subtilis DB104/pSPO124ΔC appear to be identical with those of the protease produced by Bacillus subtilis DB104/pSNP1.", "The main properties of the proteases obtained from the cultures of the two transformants are as follows: [0111] (1) Action: [0112] Degrades casein and gelatin to generate short chain polypeptides.", "[0113] Hydrolyzes succinyl-L-leucyl-L-leucyl-L-valyl-L-tyrosine-4-methylcoumarin-7-amide (Suc-Leu-Leu-Val-Tyr-MCA) to generate a fluorescent substance (7-amino-4-methylcoumarin).", "[0114] Hydrolyzes succinyl-L-alanyl-L-alanyl-L-prolyl-L-phenylalanine-p-nitroanilide (Suc-Ala-Ala-Pro-Phe-p-NA) to generate a yellow substance (p-nitroaniline).", "[0115] (2) Optimal temperature: [0116] Exhibits an enzymatic activity at 40-110° C., with the optimal temperature being 80-95° C. [0117] (3) Optimal pH: [0118] Exhibits an enzymatic activity at pH 5-10, with the optimal pH being pH 6-8.", "[0119] (4) Thermostability: [0120] Retains 90% or more of its enzymatic activity after treatment at 95° C. for 8 hours.", "[0121] (5) pH stability [0122] Retains 95% or more of its activity after treatment at pH 5-11 at 95° C. for 60 minutes.", "[0123] (6) Molecular weight [0124] Exhibits a molecular weight of approximately 45 kDa on SDS-PAGE.", "[0125] Thus, proteases having high thermostability and genes therefor are provided.", "Also, a novel system for expressing a protein, which enables the expression of the protease in large quantity is disclosed by the present invention.", "The expression system is useful in production of the protease of the present invention as well as various [0126] The following Examples illustrate the present invention in more detail, but are not to be construed to limit the scope thereof.", "Example 1 [0127] (1) Preparation of a chromosomal DNA from Pyrococcus furiosus [0128] [0128] Pyrococcus furiosus DSM3638 was cultured as follows.", "[0129] A medium containing 1% Tryptone, 0.5% yeast extract, 1% soluble starch, 3.5% Jamarine S Solid (Jamarine Laboratory), 0.5% Jamarine S Liquid (Jamarine Laboratory), 0.003% MgSO 4 , 0.001% NaCl, 0.0001% FeSO 4 [.", "].7H 2 O, 0.0001% CoSO 4 , 0.0001% CaCl 2 [.", "].7H 2 O, 0.0001% ZnSO 4 , 0.1 ppm CuSO 4 [.", "].5H 2 O, 0.1 ppm H 3 BO 3 , 0.1 ppm KAl(SO 4 ) 2 , 0.1 ppm Na 2 MoO 4 [.", "].2H 2 O, 0.25 ppm NiCl 2 .", "H 2 O was placed in a 2 L medium bottle, 'sterilized at 120° C. for 20 minutes, bubbled with nitrogen gas to remove dissolved oxygen, then the strain was inoculated into the medium and cultured at 95° C. for 16 hours without shaking.", "After cultivation, cells were collected by centrifugation.", "[0130] The resulting cells were then suspended in 4 mL of 50 mM Tris-HCl (pH 8.0) containing 25% sucrose.", "2 mL of 0.2 M EDTA and 0.8 mL of lysozyme (5 mg/mL) were added to the suspension.", "The mixture was incubated at 20° C. for 1 hour.", "24 mL of SET solution (150mM NaCl, 1mM EDTA, 20 mM Tris-HCl, pH 8.0), 4 mL of 5% SDS and 400 μL of proteinase K (10 mg/mL) were then added to the mixture.", "Incubation was further carried out at 37° C. for 1 hour.", "The reaction was terminated by extracting the mixture with phenol-chloroform.", "Then, ethanol precipitation was carried out to obtain approximately 3.2mg of chromosomal DNA.", "EXAMPLE 2 [0131] (1) Synthesis of primers for constructing the plasmid pNSP1 [0132] In order to synthesize primers used to amplify the entire Protease PFUS gene, the plasmid pSNP1 that contains the entire gene was isolated from Bacillus subtilis DB104/pSNP1 (FERM BP-5634) and the base sequence of the required region was determined.", "Based on the base sequence, the primer NPF-4 for introducing a BamHI site immediately upstream the initiation codon of the Protease PFUS gene and the primer NPM-1 which hybridizes with the 3′ region of the gene and contains a recognition site for SphI were synthesized.", "The base sequences of the primers NPF-4 and NPM-1 are shown in the SEQ ID NOS:13 and 19 of the Sequence Listing, respectively.", "[0133] The primers mutRR and mutFR for removing the BamHI site present approximately 1.7 kb downstream from the initiation codon in the Protease PFUS gene were also synthesized.", "The base sequences of the primers mutRR and mutFR are shown in the SEQ ID NOS:20 and 21 of the Sequence Listing, respectively.", "[0134] (2) Preparation of the plasmid pPS1 [0135] Two sets of LA-PCR reaction mixtures each of which containing a chromosomal DNA from Pyrococcus furiosus as a template and a combination of the primers NPF-4 and mutRR or a combination of the primers mutFR and NPM-1 were prepared and subjected to 30 cycles of reactions of 94° C. for 30 seconds-55° C. for 1 minute-68° C. for 3 minutes.", "LA PCR Kit Ver.", "2 (Takara Shuzo) was used to prepare the LA-PCR reaction mixtures.", "Aliquots of the reaction mixtures were subjected to agarose gel electrophoresis, and amplification of a DNA fragment of approximately 1.8 kb with the primers NPF-4 and mutRR and a DNA fragment of approximately 0.6 kb with the primers mutFR and NPM-1 were observed, respectively.", "[0136] The primers were removed from the two PCR reaction mixtures using SUPREC-02 (Takara Shuzo) to prepare amplified DNA fragments.", "An LA-PCR reaction mixture which contained these two amplified DNA fragments and did not contain the primers or LA Taq was prepared, heat-denatured at 94° C. for 10 minutes, cooled to 30° C. within 30 minutes, then incubated at 30° C. for 15 minutes to form a to the reaction mixture to react at 72° C. for 30 minutes.", "The primers NPF-4 and NPM-1 were then added to the reaction mixture, which was then subjected to 25 cycles of reactions of 94° C. for 30 seconds-55° C. for 1 minute-68° C. for 3 minutes.", "Amplification of a DNA fragment of approximately 2.4 kb was observed in the reaction mixture.", "[0137] The DNA fragment of approximately 2.4 kb was digested with BamHI and SphI (both from Takara Shuzo).", "The fragment was mixed and ligated with the plasmid pSNP1 which had been digested with BamHI and SphI to remove the entire Protease PFUS gene, then introduced into Bacillus subtilis DB104.", "Plasmids were prepared from resulting kanamycin-resistant transformants, and a plasmid into which only one molecule of the fragment of approximately 2.4 kb was inserted was selected and designated as the plasmid pPS1.", "Bacillus subtilis DB104 transformed with this plasmid pPS1 was designated as Bacillus subtilis DB104/pPS1.", "[0138] The restriction enzyme map of the plasmid pPS1 is shown in FIG. 7. [0139] (3) Amplification of a DNA fragment for the promoter-signal peptide-encoding region of the subtilisin E gene.", "[0140] Primers for obtaining the promoter-signal peptide-encoding region of the subtilisin E gene were on the base sequence of the promoter region of the subtilisin E gene as described in J. Bacteriol.", ", 171:2657-2665 (1989), which hybridizes with the sequence upstream this region and contains an EcoRI site (the base sequence of the primer SUB4 is shown in the SEQ ID NO:17 of the Sequence Listing).", "The primer BmR1 which is capable of introducing a BamHI site immediately downstream the signal peptide-encoding region was synthesized based on the base sequence of the subtilisin E gene as described in J. Bacteriol.", ", 158:411-418 (1984) (the base sequence of the primer BmR1 is shown in the SEQ ID NO:18 of the Sequence Listing).", "[0141] A PCR reaction mixture containing the plasmid pKWZ, which contains the subtilisin E gene as described in J. Bacteriol.", ", 171:2657-2665, as a template and the primers SUB4 and BmR1 was prepared and subjected to 30 cycles of reactions of 94° C. for 30 seconds-55° C. for 1 munute-68° C. for 2 minutes.", "An aliquot of the reaction mixture was subjected to agarose gel electrophoresis, and amplification of a DNA fragment of approximately 0.3 kb was observed.", "[0142] (4) Construction of the protease expression plasmid pNAPS1.", "[0143] The DNA fragment of approximately 0.3 kb as described above was digested with EcoRI (Takara Shuzo) and BamHI, mixed and ligeted with the plasmid pPS1 described in Example 3 which had been digested with EcoRI and BamHI, then introduced into Bacillus subtilis DB104.", "Plasmids were prepared from resulting kanamycin-resistant transformants, and a plasmid into which only one molecule of the fragment of approximately 0.3 kb was inserted was selected and designated as the plasmid pNAPS1.", "Bacillus subtilis DB104 transformed with the plasmid pNAPS1 was designated as Bacillus subtilis DB104/pNAPS1.", "[0144] The restriction enzyme map of the plasmid pNAPS1 is shown in FIG. 8. [0145] (5) Construction of the plasmid pSNP2 [0146] The primer SUB17R for introducing a BamHI site upstream the signal peptide-encoding region of the subtilisin E gene in the above-mentioned plasmid pNAPS1 was synthesized (the base sequence of the primer SUB17R is shown in the SEQ ID NO:23 of the Sequence Listing).", "A PCR reaction mixture containing the plasmid pNAPS1 as a template and the primers SUB17R and SUB4 was prepared and subjected to 25 cycles of reactions of 94° C. for 30 seconds-55° C. for 1 munute-72° C. for 1 minute.", "The amplified DNA fragment of approximately 0.21 kb was digested with EcoRI and BamHI to obtain a DNA fragment of approximately 0.2 kb that contains the promoter and the SD sequence of the subtilisin E gene.", "This fragment was mixed and ligated with the plasmid pAPS1 that had been digested with EcoRI and BamHI.", "The reaction mixture was used to transform Bacillus subtilis DB104.", "Plasmids were prepared from resulting kanamycin-resistant transformants, and a plasmid into which the DNA fragment of approximately 0.2 kb was inserted was selected and designated as the plasmid pSNP2.", "[0147] (6) Generation of a mutant plasmid which expresses a protease at high level [0148] The primers SPOF0 and SPOR0 for substituting the sequence encoding the amino acid residue Ser (base sequence: TCC) at the junction between the signal peptide-encoding region of the subtilisin E gene in the plasmid pNAPS1 and the initiation codon of the Protease PFUS gene with a sequence for two random amino acid residues were synthesized (the base sequences of the primers SPOF0 and SPOR0 are shown in the SEQ ID NOS:24 and 25 of the Sequence Listing, respectively).", "The primer SUB3 for introducing a BamHI site immediately upstream the signal peptide-encoding region in the subtilisin E gene in the plasmid pNAPS1 and the primer NPR-10 which contains a SpeI site within the Protease PFUS encoding region were synthesized (the base sequences of the primers SUB3 and NPR-10 are shown in the SEQ ID NOS:26 and 27 of the Sequence Listing, respectively).", "[0149] PCR reaction mixtures each of which containing the plasmid pNAPS1 as a template and a combination of the SUB3 and SPOR0 were prepared and subjected to 20 cycles of reactions of 94° C. for 30 seconds-50° C. for 1 munute-72° C. for 1 minute.", "DNA fragments of approximately 0.13 kb and approximately 0.35 kb amplified in the two reaction mixtures were mixed together, denatured at 94° C. for 10 minutes, cooled gradually to 37° C. to form a heteroduplex.", "A double-stranded DNA was then generated from the heteroduplex by means of Taq polymerase (Takara Shuzo) .", "A PCR reaction mixture containing the double-stranded DNA thus obtained as a template and the primers SUB3 and NPR-10 was prepared and subjected to 25 cycles of reactions of 94° C. for 30 seconds-50° C. for 1 minute-72° C. for 1 minute.", "A DNA fragment obtained by digesting the amplified DNA fragment of approximately 0.43 kb with BamHI and SpeI (Takara Shuzo) was mixed and ligated with the plasmid pSNP2 that had been digested with BamHI and SpeI.", "The reaction mixture was used to transform Bacillus subtilis DB104.", "[0150] Resulting kanamycin-resistant transformants were inoculated on skim milk plates (LB-agar medium for high temperature cultivation containing 10 μg/mL of kanamycin and 1% skim milk) to form colonies.", "Subsequently, the plates were incubated at 70° C. and the protease activities expressed by the respective transformants were examined based on the degree of degradation of the skim milk around particularly high activity was isolated and a plasmid, which was designated as the plasmid pSPO124, was prepared from the clone.", "Bacillus subtilis DB104 transformed with this plasmid was designated as Bacillus subtilis DB104/pSPO124.", "The base sequence of the plasmid pSPO124 was analyzed, and it was found that the base sequence which encodes Ser in the plasmid pNAPS1 was substituted by a base sequence GGGAAT, that is, that a protein in which Ser was changed to two amino acid residues Gly-Asn was encoded.", "Additionally, it proved that the 25th codon from the initiation codon corresponding to Pro (CCA) of the Protease PFUS gene was changed to a codon encoding Leu (CTA) simultaneously with the mutation as described above.", "[0151] (7) Construction of the protease expression plasmid pNAPSΔC.", "[0152] A termination codon was introduced on the C-terminal side of the 544th amino acid residue from the initiation codon of the Protease PFUS gene in the plasmid pNAPS1 to construct a plasmid which expresses a protease lacking downstream from this site.", "The primer NPR544 which introduces a termination codon (base sequence: TGA) on the C-terminal side of the codon encoding the 544th amino acid residue in the gene and has an SphI site was synthesized (the base sequence of the primer NPR544 is shown in the SEQ ID NO:28 of the Sequence Listing).", "In addition, the primer NPFE81 was synthesized based on the base sequence of the portion upstream from the NspV site in the gene (the base sequence of the primer NPFE81 is shown in the SEQ ID NO:29 of the Sequence Listing).", "[0153] A PCR reaction mixture containing the plasmid pNAPS1 as a template and the primers NPFE81 and NPR544 was prepared and subjected to 20 cycles of reactions of 94° C. for 30 seconds-50° C. for 1 minute-72° C. for 1 minute.", "The amplified DNA fragment of approximately 0.61 kb was digested with NspV (Takara Shuzo) and SpeI to obtain a DNA fragment of approximately 0.13 kb containing the termination codon.", "This DNA fragment was mixed and ligated with the plasmid pNAPS1 that had been digested with restriction enzymes NspV and SphI.", "The reaction mixture was used to transform Bacillus subtilis DB104.", "Plasmids were prepared from the resulting kanamycin-resistant transformants, a plasmid into which the DNA fragment of approximately 0.13 kb was inserted was selected and designated as the plasmid pNAPSΔC.", "Bacillus subtilis DB104 transformed with the plasmid pNAPSΔC was designated as Bacillus subtilis DB104/pNAPSΔC.", "[0154] (8) Construction of the protease expression plasmid pSPO124ΔC.", "[0155] A DNA fragment of approximately 1.3 kb obtained by digesting the plasmid pNAPSΔC with NspV and SphI was isolated, then mixed and ligated with the plasmid pSPO124 that had been digested with NspV and SphI.", "The reaction mixture was used to transform Bacillus subtilis DB104.", "Plasmids were prepared from the resulting kanamycin-resistant transformants, a plasmid into which the DNA fragment of approximately 1.3 kb was inserted was selected and designated as the plasmid pSPO124ΔC.", "Bacillus subtilis DB104 transformed with the plasmid pSPO124ΔC was designated as Bacillus subtilis DB104/pSPO124ΔC.", "EXAMPLE 3 [0156] (1) Cultivation of Bacillus subtilis transformed with a plasmid containing the Protease PFUS gene and preparation of a crude enzyme solution [0157] [0157] Bacillus subtilis DB104/pNAPS1, which is Bacillus subtilis DB104 into which the plasmid pNAPS1 containing the Protease PFUS gene was introduced as described in Example 2, was cultured in 2 mL of LB medium (Tryptone 10 g/L, yeast extract 5g/L, NaCl 5g/L, pH 7.2) containing 10 μg/mL of kanamycin at 37° C. for 24 hours.", "The culture was centrifuged to obtain a culture supernatant (the preparation 1-S) and cells.", "[0158] The cells were suspended in 100 μL of 50 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.5 and digested at 37° C. for 45 minutes after an addition of 2 mg of lysozyme (Sigma).", "The digested sample was heat-treated at 95° C. for 10 minutes, and then a supernatant was collected by centrifugation to obtain a cell-free extract (the preparation 1-L).", "[0159] Similarly, culture supernatants and cell-free extracts were obtained from Bacillus subtilis DB104/pSPO124 containing the plasmid pSPO124, Bacillus subtilis DB104/pNAPSΔC containing the plasmid pNAPSΔC or Bacillus subtilis DB104/pSPO124ΔC containing the plasmid pSPO124ΔC.", "The culture supernatant and the cell-free extract from Bacillus subtilis DB104/pSPO124 were designated as 124-S and 124-L, respectively.", "The culture supernatant and the cell-free extract from Bacillus subtilis DB104/pNAPSΔC were designated as ΔC-S and ΔC-L, respectively.", "The culture supernatant and the cell-free extract from Bacillus subtilis DB104/pSPO124ΔC were designated as 124ΔC-S and 124ΔC-L, respectively.", "Protease activities were determined with these preparations and the concentration of the protease contained in each preparation was determined.", "[0160] (2) Comparison of protease productivities [0161] The activity of Protease PFUS was determined by spectroscopically measuring the amount of p-nitroaniline generated in an enzymatic hydrolysis reaction using Suc-Ala-Ala-Pro-Phe-p-NA (Sigma) as a substrate.", "Briefly, an enzyme preparation to be measured for its enzymatic Ala-Pro-Phe-p-NA solution in 100 mM phosphate buffer, pH 7.0 was added to 50 μL of the diluted sample solution.", "Then, the reaction was allowed to proceed at 95° C. for 30 minutes.", "After terminating the reaction by cooling on ice, absorbance at 405 nm was measured to calculate the amount of p-nitroaniline generated.", "One unit of the enzyme was defined as the amount of the enzyme which generated 1 μmole of p-nitroaniline per 1 minute at 95° C. The amount of enzyme protein expressed in the culture supernatant or the cells was calculated based on the measured enzymatic activity assuming the specific activity as 9.5 unit/mg protein of Protease PFUS.", "[0162] The protease activity of each enzyme preparation prepared in Example 3-(1) was measured.", "The productivity of Protease PFUS per 1 L of culture of each transformant calculated from the measurement is shown in Table 1.", "[0163] In Bacillus subtilis DB104/pSPO124, the productivity of Protease PFUS in the cells increased by 3.6 fold as compared with that of Bacillus subtilis DB104/pNAPS1.", "In Bacillus subtilis DB104/pNAPSΔC, the productivity of Protease PFUS increased in the culture supernatant by 2.4 fold and in the cells by 2.2 fold, respectively.", "Also, in Bacillus subtilis DB104/pSPO124ΔC, the productivity of Protease PFUS increased in the culture supernatant by 2 fold and in the cells by 2.4 fold, respectively.", "The productivity per cells also increased.", "[0164] The total amount of Protease PFUS produced in the culture supernatant and the cells increased by 2.1 fold for Bacillus subtilis DB104/pSPO124, by 2.1 fold for Bacillus subtilis DB104/pNAPSΔC and by 2.2 fold for Bacillus subtilis DB104/pSPO124ΔC, respectively, as compared with that of Bacillus subtilis DB104/pNAPS1.", "TABLE 1 The productivity of Protease PFUS (mg/L of culture) Culture Transformant Culture Supernatant (Plasmid) Supernatant Cells + Cells pNAPS1 15.1 12.5 27.6 pSPO124 13.1 45.4 58.5 pNAPSΔC 35.5 28.1 63.6 pSPO124ΔC 30.5 30.1 60.6 EXAMPLE 4 [0165] (1) Preparation of purified enzyme preparation of the mature Protease PFUS.", "[0166] [0166] Bacillus subtilis DB104/pNAPS1 and Bacillus subtilis DB104/pSPO124ΔC, both of which are Bacillus subtilis DB104 into which the gene for the hyperthermostable protease of the present invention was introduced as described in Example 2, were separately inoculated into 5 mL of LB medium containing 10 μg/mL kanamycin and cultured with shaking at 37° C. for 7 hours.", "The cultures of 5 mL were inoculated into 500 mL of TM medium (soybean powder 5 g/L, Polypeptone 10 g/L, meat extract 5 g/L, yeast extract 2 g/L, glucose 10 g/L, FeSO 4 [.", "].7H 2 O 10 mg/L, MnSO 4 [.", "].4H 2 O 10 mg/L, ZnSO 4 [.", "].7H 2 O 1 mg/L, pH 7.0) containing 10 μg/mL of kanamycin in 5 L Erlenmeyer flasks and cultured with shaking at 30° C. for 3 days.", "The resulting cultures were sonicated, heat-treated at 95° C. for 30 minutes, then centrifuged to collect supernatants.", "Ammonium sulfate was added to the supernatants to 25% saturation, then the supernatants obtained by subsequent centrifugation were applied to Micro-Prep Methyl HIC columns (Bio-Rad) equilibrated with 25 mM Tris-HCl buffer (pH 7.6) containing 25% saturated ammonium sulfate.", "After washing the gel with the same buffer, Protease PFUS adsorbed to the columns was eluted by stepwise elution using 25 mM Tris-HCl buffer (pH 7.6) containing 40% ethanol.", "The fractions containing Protease PFUS thus obtained were subjected to gel filtration using NAP-25 columns (Pharmacia) equilibrated with 0.05% trifluoroacetic acid containing 20% acetonitrile, desalted while denaturing Protease PFUS, then purified preparations of Protease PFUS were obtained.", "The preparations obtained from Bacillus subtilis DB104/pNAPS1 and Bacillus subtilis DB104/pSPO124ΔC were designated as NAPS-1 and SPO-124≢C, respectively.", "[0167] Electrophoresis of both of the purified enzyme preparations on 0.1% SDS-10% polyacrylamide gel followed by staining with Coomassie Brilliant Blue R-250 revealed single bands for both of the purified enzyme preparations NAPS-1 and SPO-124ΔC with an estimated molecular weight of approximately 45 kDa.", "[0168] (2) Analysis of the N-terminal amino acid sequence of the mature Protease PFUS.", "[0169] N-terminal amino acid sequences of the purified enzyme preparations NAPS-1 and SPO-124ΔC were analyzed by automated Edman method using G1000A protein sequencer (Hewlett-Packard).", "Both of the N-terminal amino acid sequences of the two purified enzyme preparations were as shown in the SEQ ID NO:22 of the Sequence Listing.", "This sequence coincides with the sequence from position 133 to position 144 of the amino acid sequence of Protease PFUS as shown in the SEQ ID NO:15 of the Sequence Listing, indicating that both of NAPS-1 and SPO-124ΔC are enzymes consisting of a polypeptide starting from this portion.", "[0170] (3) Mass spectrometric analysis of the mature Protease PFUS.", "[0171] Mass spectrometric analysis on the purified enzyme preparations NAPS-1 and SPO-124ΔC was carried out using API300 quadrupole triple mass spectrometer (Perkin-Elmer Sciex).", "Based on the estimated molecular weight of NAPS-1, 43,744 Da, it was demonstrated that the mature Protease PFUS produced by Bacillus subtilis DB104/pNAPS1 is an enzyme consisting of a polypeptide from Ala at position 133 to Thr at position 552 of the amino acid sequence of Protease PFUS as shown in the SEQ ID NO:15 of the Sequence Listing.", "Furthermore, based on the estimated molecular weight of SPO-124ΔC, 42,906 Da, it was demonstrated that the mature Protease PFUS produced by Bacillus subtilis DB104/pSPO124ΔC is an enzyme consisting of a polypeptide from Ala at position 133 to Ser at position 544 of the amino acid sequence of Protease PFUS as shown in the SEQ ID NO:15 of the Sequence Listing, i.e., the amino acid sequence as shown in the SEQ ID NO:2 of the Sequence Listing.", "1 33 1 412 PRT Pyrococcus furiosus 1 Ala Glu Leu Glu Gly Leu Asp Glu Ser Ala Ala Gln Val Met Ala Thr 1 5 10 15 Tyr Val Trp Asn Leu Gly Tyr Asp Gly Ser Gly Ile Thr Ile Gly Ile 20 25 30 Ile Asp Thr Gly Ile Asp Ala Ser His Pro Asp Leu Gln Gly Lys Val 35 40 45 Ile Gly Trp Val Asp Phe Val Asn Gly Arg Ser Tyr Pro Tyr Asp Asp 50 55 60 His Gly His Gly Thr His Val Ala Ser Ile Ala Ala Gly Thr Gly Ala 65 70 75 80 Ala Ser Asn Gly Lys Tyr Lys Gly Met Ala Pro Gly Ala Lys Leu Ala 85 90 95 Gly Ile Lys Val Leu Gly Ala Asp Gly Ser Gly Ser Ile Ser Thr Ile 100 105 110 Ile Lys Gly Val Glu Trp Ala Val Asp Asn Lys Asp Lys Tyr Gly Ile 115 120 125 Lys Val Ile Asn Leu Ser Leu Gly Ser Ser Gln Ser Ser Asp Gly Thr 130 135 140 Asp Ala Leu Ser Gln Ala Val Asn Ala Ala Trp Asp Ala Gly Leu Val 145 150 155 160 Val Val Val Ala Ala Gly Asn Ser Gly Pro Asn Lys Tyr Thr Ile Gly 165 170 175 Ser Pro Ala Ala Ala Ser Lys Val Ile Thr Val Gly Ala Val Asp Lys 180 185 190 Tyr Asp Val Ile Thr Ser Phe Ser Ser Arg Gly Pro Thr Ala Asp Gly 195 200 205 Arg Leu Lys Pro Glu Val Val Ala Pro Gly Asn Trp Ile Ile Ala Ala 210 215 220 Arg Ala Ser Gly Thr Ser Met Gly Gln Pro Ile Asn Asp Tyr Tyr Thr 225 230 235 240 Ala Ala Pro Gly Thr Ser Met Ala Thr Pro His Val Ala Gly Ile Ala 245 250 255 Ala Leu Leu Leu Gln Ala His Pro Ser Trp Thr Pro Asp Lys Val Lys 260 265 270 Thr Ala Leu Ile Glu Thr Ala Asp Ile Val Lys Pro Asp Glu Ile Ala 275 280 285 Asp Ile Ala Tyr Gly Ala Gly Arg Val Asn Ala Tyr Lys Ala Ile Asn 290 295 300 Tyr Asp Asn Tyr Ala Lys Leu Val Phe Thr Gly Tyr Val Ala Asn Lys 305 310 315 320 Gly Ser Gln Thr His Gln Phe Val Ile Ser Gly Ala Ser Phe Val Thr 325 330 335 Ala Thr Leu Tyr Trp Asp Asn Ala Asn Ser Asp Leu Asp Leu Tyr Leu 340 345 350 Tyr Asp Pro Asn Gly Asn Gln Val Asp Tyr Ser Tyr Thr Ala Tyr Tyr 355 360 365 Gly Phe Glu Lys Val Gly Tyr Tyr Asn Pro Thr Asp Gly Thr Trp Thr 370 375 380 Ile Lys Val Val Ser Tyr Ser Gly Ser Ala Asn Tyr Gln Val Asp Val 385 390 395 400 Val Ser Asp Gly Ser Leu Ser Gln Pro Gly Ser Ser 405 410 2 1236 DNA Artificial Sequence Synthetic 2 gcagaattag aaggactgga tgagtctgca gctcaagtta tggcaactta cgtttggaac 60 ttgggatatg atggttctgg aatcacaata ggaataattg acactggaat tgacgcttct 120 catccagatc tccaaggaaa agtaattggg tgggtagatt ttgtcaatgg taggagttat 180 ccatacgatg accatggaca tggaactcat gtagcttcaa tagcagctgg tactggagca 240 gcaagtaatg gcaagtacaa gggaatggct ccaggagcta agctggcggg aattaaggtt 300 ctaggtgccg atggttctgg aagcatatct actataatta agggagttga gtgggccgtt 360 gataacaaag ataagtacgg aattaaggtc attaatcttt ctcttggttc aagccagagc 420 tcagatggta ctgacgctct aagtcaggct gttaatgcag cgtgggatgc tggattagtt 480 gttgtggttg ccgctggaaa cagtggacct aacaagtata caatcggttc tccagcagct 540 gcaagcaaag ttattacagt tggagccgtt gacaagtatg atgttataac aagcttctca 600 agcagagggc caactgcaga cggcaggctt aagcctgagg ttgttgctcc aggaaactgg 660 ataattgctg ccagagcaag tggaactagc atgggtcaac caattaatga ctattacaca 720 gcagctcctg ggacatcaat ggcaactcct cacgtagctg gtattgcagc cctcttgctc 780 caagcacacc cgagctggac tccagacaaa gtaaaaacag ccctcataga aactgctgat 840 atcgtaaagc cagatgaaat agccgatata gcctacggtg caggtagggt taatgcatac 900 aaggctataa actacgataa ctatgcaaag ctagtgttca ctggatatgt tgccaacaaa 960 ggcagccaaa ctcaccagtt cgttattagc ggagcttcgt tcgtaactgc cacattatac 1020 tgggacaatg ccaatagcga ccttgatctt tacctctacg atcccaatgg aaaccaggtt 1080 gactactctt acaccgccta ctatggattc gaaaaggttg gttattacaa cccaactgat 1140 ggaacatgga caattaaggt tgtaagctac agcggaagtg caaactatca agtagatgtg 1200 gtaagtgatg gttccctttc acagcctgga agttca 1236 3 29 PRT Bacillus subtilis 3 Met Arg Ser Lys Lys Leu Trp Ile Ser Leu Leu Phe Ala Leu Thr Leu 1 5 10 15 Ile Phe Thr Met Ala Phe Ser Asn Met Ser Ala Gln Ala 20 25 4 522 PRT Pyrococcus furiosus misc_feature (428)..", "(428) Xaa at position 428 is Gly or Val.", "4 Ala Glu Leu Glu Gly Leu Asp Glu Ser Ala Ala Gln Val Met Ala Thr 1 5 10 15 Tyr Val Trp Asn Leu Gly Tyr Asp Gly Ser Gly Ile Thr Ile Gly Ile 20 25 30 Ile Asp Thr Gly Ile Asp Ala Ser His Pro Asp Leu Gln Gly Lys Val 35 40 45 Ile Gly Trp Val Asp Phe Val Asn Gly Arg Ser Tyr Pro Tyr Asp Asp 50 55 60 His Gly His Gly Thr His Val Ala Ser Ile Ala Ala Gly Thr Gly Ala 65 70 75 80 Ala Ser Asn Gly Lys Tyr Lys Gly Met Ala Pro Gly Ala Lys Leu Ala 85 90 95 Gly Ile Lys Val Leu Gly Ala Asp Gly Ser Gly Ser Ile Ser Thr Ile 100 105 110 Ile Lys Gly Val Glu Trp Ala Val Asp Asn Lys Asp Lys Tyr Gly Ile 115 120 125 Lys Val Ile Asn Leu Ser Leu Gly Ser Ser Gln Ser Ser Asp Gly Thr 130 135 140 Asp Ala Leu Ser Gln Ala Val Asn Ala Ala Trp Asp Ala Gly Leu Val 145 150 155 160 Val Val Val Ala Ala Gly Asn Ser Gly Pro Asn Lys Tyr Thr Ile Gly 165 170 175 Ser Pro Ala Ala Ala Ser Lys Val Ile Thr Val Gly Ala Val Asp Lys 180 185 190 Tyr Asp Val Ile Thr Ser Phe Ser Ser Arg Gly Pro Thr Ala Asp Gly 195 200 205 Arg Leu Lys Pro Glu Val Val Ala Pro Gly Asn Trp Ile Ile Ala Ala 210 215 220 Arg Ala Ser Gly Thr Ser Met Gly Gln Pro Ile Asn Asp Tyr Tyr Thr 225 230 235 240 Ala Ala Pro Gly Thr Ser Met Ala Thr Pro His Val Ala Gly Ile Ala 245 250 255 Ala Leu Leu Leu Gln Ala His Pro Ser Trp Thr Pro Asp Lys Val Lys 260 265 270 Thr Ala Leu Ile Glu Thr Ala Asp Ile Val Lys Pro Asp Glu Ile Ala 275 280 285 Asp Ile Ala Tyr Gly Ala Gly Arg Val Asn Ala Tyr Lys Ala Ile Asn 290 295 300 Tyr Asp Asn Tyr Ala Lys Leu Val Phe Thr Gly Tyr Val Ala Asn Lys 305 310 315 320 Gly Ser Gln Thr His Gln Phe Val Ile Ser Gly Ala Ser Phe Val Thr 325 330 335 Ala Thr Leu Tyr Trp Asp Asn Ala Asn Ser Asp Leu Asp Leu Tyr Leu 340 345 350 Tyr Asp Pro Asn Gly Asn Gln Val Asp Tyr Ser Tyr Thr Ala Tyr Tyr 355 360 365 Gly Phe Glu Lys Val Gly Tyr Tyr Asn Pro Thr Asp Gly Thr Trp Thr 370 375 380 Ile Lys Val Val Ser Tyr Ser Gly Ser Ala Asn Tyr Gln Val Asp Val 385 390 395 400 Val Ser Asp Gly Ser Leu Ser Gln Pro Gly Ser Ser Pro Ser Pro Gln 405 410 415 Pro Glu Pro Thr Val Asp Ala Lys Thr Phe Gln Xaa Ser Asp His Tyr 420 425 430 Tyr Tyr Asp Arg Ser Asp Thr Phe Thr Met Thr Val Asn Ser Gly Ala 435 440 445 Thr Lys Ile Thr Gly Asp Leu Val Phe Asp Thr Ser Tyr His Asp Leu 450 455 460 Asp Leu Tyr Leu Tyr Asp Pro Asn Gln Lys Leu Val Asp Arg Ser Glu 465 470 475 480 Ser Pro Asn Ser Tyr Glu His Val Glu Tyr Leu Thr Pro Ala Pro Gly 485 490 495 Thr Trp Tyr Phe Leu Val Tyr Ala Tyr Tyr Thr Tyr Gly Trp Ala Tyr 500 505 510 Tyr Glu Leu Thr Ala Lys Val Tyr Tyr Gly 515 520 5 4765 DNA Artificial Sequence Synthetic 5 tttaaattat aagatataat cactccgagt gatgagtaag atacatcatt acagtcccaa 60 aatgtttata attggaacgc agtgaatata caaaatgaat ataacctcgg aggtgactgt 120 agaatgaata agaagggact tactgtgcta tttatagcga taatgctcct ttcagtagtt 180 ccagtgcact ttgtgtccgc agaaacacca ccggttagtt cagaaaattc aacaacttct 240 atactcccta accaacaagt tgtgacaaaa gaagtttcac aagcggcgct taatgctata 300 atgaaaggac aacccaacat ggttcttata atcaagacta aggaaggcaa acttgaagag 360 gcaaaaaccg agcttgaaaa gctaggtgca gagattcttg acgaaaatag agttcttaac 420 atgttgctag ttaagattaa gcctgagaaa gttaaagagc tcaactatat ctcatctctt 480 gaaaaagcct ggcttaacag agaagttaag ctttcccctc caattgtcga aaaggacgtc 540 aagactaagg agccctccct agaaccaaaa atgtataaca gcacctgggt aattaatgct 600 ctccagttca tccaggaatt tggatatgat ggtagtggtg ttgttgttgc agtacttgac 660 acgggagttg atccgaacca tcctttcttg agcataactc cagatggacg caggaaaatt 720 atagaatgga aggattttac agacgaggga ttcgtggata catcattcag ctttagcaag 780 gttgtaaatg ggactcttat aattaacaca acattccaag tggcctcagg tctcacgctg 840 aatgaatcga caggacttat ggaatacgtt gttaagactg tttacgtgag caatgtgacc 900 attggaaata tcacttctgc taatggcatc tatcacttcg gcctgctccc agaaagatac 960 ttcgacttaa acttcgatgg tgatcaagag gacttctatc ctgtcttatt agttaactcc 1020 actggcaatg gttatgacat tgcatatgtg gatactgacc ttgactacga cttcaccgac 1080 gaagttccac ttggccagta caacgttact tatgatgttg ctgtttttag ctactactac 1140 ggtcctctca actacgtgct tgcagaaata gatcctaacg gagaatatgc agtatttggg 1200 tgggatggtc acggtcacgg aactcacgta gctggaactg ttgctggtta cgacagcaac 1260 aatgatgctt gggattggct cagtatgtac tctggtgaat gggaagtgtt ctcaagactc 1320 tatggttggg attatacgaa cgttaccaca gacaccgtgc agggtgttgc tccaggtgcc 1380 caaataatgg caataagagt tcttaggagt gatggacggg gtagcatgtg ggatattata 1440 gaaggtatga catacgcagc aacccatggt gcagacgtta taagcatgag tctcggtgga 1500 aatgctccat acttagatgg tactgatcca gaaagcgttg ctgtggatga gcttaccgaa 1560 aagtacggtg ttgtattcgt aatagctgca ggaaatgaag gtcctggcat taacatcgtt 1620 ggaagtcctg gtgttgcaac aaaggcaata actgttggag ctgctgcagt gcccattaac 1680 gttggagttt atgtttccca agcacttgga tatcctgatt actatggatt ctattacttc 1740 cccgcctaca caaacgttag aatagcattc ttctcaagca gagggccgag aatagatggt 1800 gaaataaaac ccaatgtagt ggctccaggt tacggaattt actcatccct gccgatgtgg 1860 attggcggag ctgacttcat gtctggaact tcgatggcta ctccacatgt cagcggtgtc 1920 gttgcactcc tcataagcgg ggcaaaggcc gagggaatat actacaatcc agatataatt 1980 aagaaggttc ttgagagcgg tgcaacctgg cttgagggag atccatatac tgggcagaag 2040 tacactgagc ttgaccaagg tcatggtctt gttaacgtta ccaagtcctg ggaaatcctt 2100 aaggctataa acggcaccac tctcccaatt gttgatcact gggcagacaa gtcctacagc 2160 gactttgcgg agtacttggg tgtggacgtt ataagaggtc tctacgcaag gaactctata 2220 cctgacattg tcgagtggca cattaagtac gtaggggaca cggagtacag aacttttgag 2280 atctatgcaa ctgagccatg gattaagcct tttgtcagtg gaagtgtaat tctagagaac 2340 aataccgagt ttgtccttag ggtgaaatat gatgtagagg gtcttgagcc aggtctctat 2400 gttggaagga taatcattga tgatccaaca acgccagtta ttgaagacga gatcttgaac 2460 acaattgtta ttcccgagaa gttcactcct gagaacaatt acaccctcac ctggtatgat 2520 attaatggtc cagaaatggt gactcaccac ttcttcactg tgcctgaggg agtggacgtt 2580 ctctacgcga tgaccacata ctgggactac ggtctgtaca gaccagatgg aatgtttgtg 2640 ttcccatacc agctagatta tcttcccgct gcagtctcaa atccaatgcc tggaaactgg 2700 gagctagtat ggactggatt taactttgca cccctctatg agtcgggctt ccttgtaagg 2760 atttacggag tagagataac tccaagcgtt tggtacatta acaggacata ccttgacact 2820 aacactgaat tctcaattga attcaatatt actaacatct atgccccaat taatgcaact 2880 ctaatcccca ttggccttgg aacctacaat gcgagcgttg aaagcgttgg tgatggagag 2940 ttcttcataa agggcattga agttcctgaa ggcaccgcag agttgaagat taggataggc 3000 aacccaagtg ttccgaattc agatctagac ttgtaccttt atgacagtaa aggcaattta 3060 gtggccttag atggaaaccc aacagcagaa gaagaggttg tagttgagta tcctaagcct 3120 ggagtttatt caatagtagt acatggttac agcgtcaggg acgaaaatgg taatccaacg 3180 acaaccacct ttgacttagt tgttcaaatg acccttgata atggaaacat aaagcttgac 3240 aaagactcga ttattcttgg aagcaatgaa agcgtagttg taactgcaaa cataacaatt 3300 gatagagatc atcctacagg agtatactct ggtatcatag agattagaga taatgaggtc 3360 taccaggata caaatacttc aattgcgaaa atacccataa ctttggtaat tgacaaggcg 3420 gactttgccg ttggtctcac accagcagag ggagtacttg gagaggctag aaattacact 3480 ctaattgtaa agcatgccct aacactagag cctgtgccaa atgctacagt gattatagga 3540 aactacacct acctcacaga cgaaaacggt acagtgacat tcacgtatgc tccaactaag 3600 ttaggcagtg atgaaatcac agtcatagtt aagaaagaga acttcaacac attagagaag 3660 accttccaaa tcacagtatc agagcctgaa ataactgaag aggacataaa tgagcccaag 3720 cttgcaatgt catcaccaga agcaaatgct accatagtat cagttgagat ggagagtgag 3780 ggtggcgtta aaaagacagt gacagtggaa ataactataa acggaaccgc taatgagact 3840 gcaacaatag tggttcctgt tcctaagaag gccgaaaaca tcgaggtaag tggagaccac 3900 gtaatttcct atagtataga ggaaggagag tacgccaagt acgttataat tacagtgaag 3960 tttgcatcac ctgtaacagt aactgttact tacactatct atgctggccc aagagtctca 4020 atcttgacac ttaacttcct tggctactca tggtacagac tatattcaca gaagtttgac 4080 gaattgtacc aaaaggccct tgaattggga gtggacaacg agacattagc tttagccctc 4140 agctaccatg aaaaagccaa agagtactac gaaaaggccc ttgagcttag cgagggtaac 4200 ataatccaat accttggaga cataagacta ttacctccat taagacaggc atacatcaat 4260 gaaatgaagg cagttaagat actggaaaag gccatagaag aattagaggg tgaagagtaa 4320 tctccaattt ttcccacttt ttcttttata acattccaag ccttttctta gcttcttcgc 4380 tcattctatc aggagtccat ggaggatcaa aggtaagttc aacctccaca tctcttactc 4440 ctgggatttc gagtactttc tcctctacag ctctaagaag ccagagagtt aaaggacacc 4500 caggagttgt cattgtcatc tttatatata ccgttttgtc aggattaatc tttagctcat 4560 aaattaatcc aaggtttaca acatccatcc caatttctgg gtcgataacc tcctttagct 4620 tttccagaat catttcttca gtaatttcaa ggttctcatc tttggtttct ctcacaaacc 4680 caatttcaac ctgcctgata ccttctaact ccctaagctt gttatatatc tccaaaagag 4740 tggcatcatc aattttctct ttaaa 4765 6 1398 PRT Pyrococcus furiosus 6 Met Asn Lys Lys Gly Leu Thr Val Leu Phe Ile Ala Ile Met Leu Leu 1 5 10 15 Ser Val Val Pro Val His Phe Val Ser Ala Glu Thr Pro Pro Val Ser 20 25 30 Ser Glu Asn Ser Thr Thr Ser Ile Leu Pro Asn Gln Gln Val Val Thr 35 40 45 Lys Glu Val Ser Gln Ala Ala Leu Asn Ala Ile Met Lys Gly Gln Pro 50 55 60 Asn Met Val Leu Ile Ile Lys Thr Lys Glu Gly Lys Leu Glu Glu Ala 65 70 75 80 Lys Thr Glu Leu Glu Lys Leu Gly Ala Glu Ile Leu Asp Glu Asn Arg 85 90 95 Val Leu Asn Met Leu Leu Val Lys Ile Lys Pro Glu Lys Val Lys Glu 100 105 110 Leu Asn Tyr Ile Ser Ser Leu Glu Lys Ala Trp Leu Asn Arg Glu Val 115 120 125 Lys Leu Ser Pro Pro Ile Val Glu Lys Asp Val Lys Thr Lys Glu Pro 130 135 140 Ser Leu Glu Pro Lys Met Tyr Asn Ser Thr Trp Val Ile Asn Ala Leu 145 150 155 160 Gln Phe Ile Gln Glu Phe Gly Tyr Asp Gly Ser Gly Val Val Val Ala 165 170 175 Val Leu Asp Thr Gly Val Asp Pro Asn His Pro Phe Leu Ser Ile Thr 180 185 190 Pro Asp Gly Arg Arg Lys Ile Ile Glu Trp Lys Asp Phe Thr Asp Glu 195 200 205 Gly Phe Val Asp Thr Ser Phe Ser Phe Ser Lys Val Val Asn Gly Thr 210 215 220 Leu Ile Ile Asn Thr Thr Phe Gln Val Ala Ser Gly Leu Thr Leu Asn 225 230 235 240 Glu Ser Thr Gly Leu Met Glu Tyr Val Val Lys Thr Val Tyr Val Ser 245 250 255 Asn Val Thr Ile Gly Asn Ile Thr Ser Ala Asn Gly Ile Tyr His Phe 260 265 270 Gly Leu Leu Pro Glu Arg Tyr Phe Asp Leu Asn Phe Asp Gly Asp Gln 275 280 285 Glu Asp Phe Tyr Pro Val Leu Leu Val Asn Ser Thr Gly Asn Gly Tyr 290 295 300 Asp Ile Ala Tyr Val Asp Thr Asp Leu Asp Tyr Asp Phe Thr Asp Glu 305 310 315 320 Val Pro Leu Gly Gln Tyr Asn Val Thr Tyr Asp Val Ala Val Phe Ser 325 330 335 Tyr Tyr Tyr Gly Pro Leu Asn Tyr Val Leu Ala Glu Ile Asp Pro Asn 340 345 350 Gly Glu Tyr Ala Val Phe Gly Trp Asp Gly His Gly His Gly Thr His 355 360 365 Val Ala Gly Thr Val Ala Gly Tyr Asp Ser Asn Asn Asp Ala Trp Asp 370 375 380 Trp Leu Ser Met Tyr Ser Gly Glu Trp Glu Val Phe Ser Arg Leu Tyr 385 390 395 400 Gly Trp Asp Tyr Thr Asn Val Thr Thr Asp Thr Val Gln Gly Val Ala 405 410 415 Pro Gly Ala Gln Ile Met Ala Ile Arg Val Leu Arg Ser Asp Gly Arg 420 425 430 Gly Ser Met Trp Asp Ile Ile Glu Gly Met Thr Tyr Ala Ala Thr His 435 440 445 Gly Ala Asp Val Ile Ser Met Ser Leu Gly Gly Asn Ala Pro Tyr Leu 450 455 460 Asp Gly Thr Asp Pro Glu Ser Val Ala Val Asp Glu Leu Thr Glu Lys 465 470 475 480 Tyr Gly Val Val Phe Val Ile Ala Ala Gly Asn Glu Gly Pro Gly Ile 485 490 495 Asn Ile Val Gly Ser Pro Gly Val Ala Thr Lys Ala Ile Thr Val Gly 500 505 510 Ala Ala Ala Val Pro Ile Asn Val Gly Val Tyr Val Ser Gln Ala Leu 515 520 525 Gly Tyr Pro Asp Tyr Tyr Gly Phe Tyr Tyr Phe Pro Ala Tyr Thr Asn 530 535 540 Val Arg Ile Ala Phe Phe Ser Ser Arg Gly Pro Arg Ile Asp Gly Glu 545 550 555 560 Ile Lys Pro Asn Val Val Ala Pro Gly Tyr Gly Ile Tyr Ser Ser Leu 565 570 575 Pro Met Trp Ile Gly Gly Ala Asp Phe Met Ser Gly Thr Ser Met Ala 580 585 590 Thr Pro His Val Ser Gly Val Val Ala Leu Leu Ile Ser Gly Ala Lys 595 600 605 Ala Glu Gly Ile Tyr Tyr Asn Pro Asp Ile Ile Lys Lys Val Leu Glu 610 615 620 Ser Gly Ala Thr Trp Leu Glu Gly Asp Pro Tyr Thr Gly Gln Lys Tyr 625 630 635 640 Thr Glu Leu Asp Gln Gly His Gly Leu Val Asn Val Thr Lys Ser Trp 645 650 655 Glu Ile Leu Lys Ala Ile Asn Gly Thr Thr Leu Pro Ile Val Asp His 660 665 670 Trp Ala Asp Lys Ser Tyr Ser Asp Phe Ala Glu Tyr Leu Gly Val Asp 675 680 685 Val Ile Arg Gly Leu Tyr Ala Arg Asn Ser Ile Pro Asp Ile Val Glu 690 695 700 Trp His Ile Lys Tyr Val Gly Asp Thr Glu Tyr Arg Thr Phe Glu Ile 705 710 715 720 Tyr Ala Thr Glu Pro Trp Ile Lys Pro Phe Val Ser Gly Ser Val Ile 725 730 735 Leu Glu Asn Asn Thr Glu Phe Val Leu Arg Val Lys Tyr Asp Val Glu 740 745 750 Gly Leu Glu Pro Gly Leu Tyr Val Gly Arg Ile Ile Ile Asp Asp Pro 755 760 765 Thr Thr Pro Val Ile Glu Asp Glu Ile Leu Asn Thr Ile Val Ile Pro 770 775 780 Glu Lys Phe Thr Pro Glu Asn Asn Tyr Thr Leu Thr Trp Tyr Asp Ile 785 790 795 800 Asn Gly Pro Glu Met Val Thr His His Phe Phe Thr Val Pro Glu Gly 805 810 815 Val Asp Val Leu Tyr Ala Met Thr Thr Tyr Trp Asp Tyr Gly Leu Tyr 820 825 830 Arg Pro Asp Gly Met Phe Val Phe Pro Tyr Gln Leu Asp Tyr Leu Pro 835 840 845 Ala Ala Val Ser Asn Pro Met Pro Gly Asn Trp Glu Leu Val Trp Thr 850 855 860 Gly Phe Asn Phe Ala Pro Leu Tyr Glu Ser Gly Phe Leu Val Arg Ile 865 870 875 880 Tyr Gly Val Glu Ile Thr Pro Ser Val Trp Tyr Ile Asn Arg Thr Tyr 885 890 895 Leu Asp Thr Asn Thr Glu Phe Ser Ile Glu Phe Asn Ile Thr Asn Ile 900 905 910 Tyr Ala Pro Ile Asn Ala Thr Leu Ile Pro Ile Gly Leu Gly Thr Tyr 915 920 925 Asn Ala Ser Val Glu Ser Val Gly Asp Gly Glu Phe Phe Ile Lys Gly 930 935 940 Ile Glu Val Pro Glu Gly Thr Ala Glu Leu Lys Ile Arg Ile Gly Asn 945 950 955 960 Pro Ser Val Pro Asn Ser Asp Leu Asp Leu Tyr Leu Tyr Asp Ser Lys 965 970 975 Gly Asn Leu Val Ala Leu Asp Gly Asn Pro Thr Ala Glu Glu Glu Val 980 985 990 Val Val Glu Tyr Pro Lys Pro Gly Val Tyr Ser Ile Val Val His Gly 995 1000 1005 Tyr Ser Val Arg Asp Glu Asn Gly Asn Pro Thr Thr Thr Thr Phe 1010 1015 1020 Asp Leu Val Val Gln Met Thr Leu Asp Asn Gly Asn Ile Lys Leu 1025 1030 1035 Asp Lys Asp Ser Ile Ile Leu Gly Ser Asn Glu Ser Val Val Val 1040 1045 1050 Thr Ala Asn Ile Thr Ile Asp Arg Asp His Pro Thr Gly Val Tyr 1055 1060 1065 Ser Gly Ile Ile Glu Ile Arg Asp Asn Glu Val Tyr Gln Asp Thr 1070 1075 1080 Asn Thr Ser Ile Ala Lys Ile Pro Ile Thr Leu Val Ile Asp Lys 1085 1090 1095 Ala Asp Phe Ala Val Gly Leu Thr Pro Ala Glu Gly Val Leu Gly 1100 1105 1110 Glu Ala Arg Asn Tyr Thr Leu Ile Val Lys His Ala Leu Thr Leu 1115 1120 1125 Glu Pro Val Pro Asn Ala Thr Val Ile Ile Gly Asn Tyr Thr Tyr 1130 1135 1140 Leu Thr Asp Glu Asn Gly Thr Val Thr Phe Thr Tyr Ala Pro Thr 1145 1150 1155 Lys Leu Gly Ser Asp Glu Ile Thr Val Ile Val Lys Lys Glu Asn 1160 1165 1170 Phe Asn Thr Leu Glu Lys Thr Phe Gln Ile Thr Val Ser Glu Pro 1175 1180 1185 Glu Ile Thr Glu Glu Asp Ile Asn Glu Pro Lys Leu Ala Met Ser 1190 1195 1200 Ser Pro Glu Ala Asn Ala Thr Ile Val Ser Val Glu Met Glu Ser 1205 1210 1215 Glu Gly Gly Val Lys Lys Thr Val Thr Val Glu Ile Thr Ile Asn 1220 1225 1230 Gly Thr Ala Asn Glu Thr Ala Thr Ile Val Val Pro Val Pro Lys 1235 1240 1245 Lys Ala Glu Asn Ile Glu Val Ser Gly Asp His Val Ile Ser Tyr 1250 1255 1260 Ser Ile Glu Glu Gly Glu Tyr Ala Lys Tyr Val Ile Ile Thr Val 1265 1270 1275 Lys Phe Ala Ser Pro Val Thr Val Thr Val Thr Tyr Thr Ile Tyr 1280 1285 1290 Ala Gly Pro Arg Val Ser Ile Leu Thr Leu Asn Phe Leu Gly Tyr 1295 1300 1305 Ser Trp Tyr Arg Leu Tyr Ser Gln Lys Phe Asp Glu Leu Tyr Gln 1310 1315 1320 Lys Ala Leu Glu Leu Gly Val Asp Asn Glu Thr Leu Ala Leu Ala 1325 1330 1335 Leu Ser Tyr His Glu Lys Ala Lys Glu Tyr Tyr Glu Lys Ala Leu 1340 1345 1350 Glu Leu Ser Glu Gly Asn Ile Ile Gln Tyr Leu Gly Asp Ile Arg 1355 1360 1365 Leu Leu Pro Pro Leu Arg Gln Ala Tyr Ile Asn Glu Met Lys Ala 1370 1375 1380 Val Lys Ile Leu Glu Lys Ala Ile Glu Glu Leu Glu Gly Glu Glu 1385 1390 1395 7 35 DNA Artificial Sequence Synthetic 7 ggwwsdrrtg ttrrhgthgc dgtdmtygac acbgg 35 8 32 DNA Artificial Sequence Synthetic 8 kstcacggaa ctcacgtdgc bgghacdgtt gc 32 9 33 DNA Artificial Sequence Synthetic 9 ascmgcaach gtkccvgcha cgtgagttcc gtg 33 10 34 DNA Artificial Sequence Synthetic 10 chccgsyvac rtgbggagwd gccatbgavg tdcc 34 11 1977 DNA Artificial Sequence Synthetic 11 atgaagaggt taggtgctgt ggtgctggca ctggtgctcg tgggtcttct ggccggaacg 60 gcccttgcgg cacccgtaaa accggttgtc aggaacaacg cggttcagca gaagaactac 120 ggactgctga ccccgggact gttcaagaaa gtccagagga tgaactggaa ccaggaagtg 180 gacaccgtca taatgttcgg gagctacgga gacagggaca gggcggttaa ggtactgagg 240 ctcatgggcg cccaggtcaa gtactcctac aagataatcc ctgctgtcgc ggttaaaata 300 aaggccaggg accttctgct gatcgcgggc atgatagaca cgggttactt cggtaacaca 360 agggtctcgg gcataaagtt catacaggag gattacaagg ttcaggttga cgacgccact 420 tccgtctccc agataggggc cgataccgtc tggaactccc tcggctacga cggaagcggt 480 gtggtggttg ccatcgtcga tacgggtata gacgcgaacc accccgatct gaagggcaag 540 gtcataggct ggtacgacgc cgtcaacggc aggtcgaccc cctacgatga ccagggacac 600 ggaacccacg ttgcgggtat cgttgccgga accggcagcg ttaactccca gtacataggc 660 gtcgcccccg gcgcgaagct cgtcggcgtc aaggttctcg gtgccgacgg ttcgggaagc 720 gtctccacca tcatcgcggg tgttgactgg gtcgtccaga acaaggacaa gtacgggata 780 agggtcatca acctctccct cggctcctcc cagagctccg acggaaccga ctccctcagt 840 caggccgtca acaacgcctg ggacgccggt atagtagtct gcgtcgccgc cggcaacagc 900 gggccgaaca cctacaccgt cggctcaccc gccgccgcga gcaaggtcat aaccgtcggt 960 gcagttgaca gcaacgacaa catcgccagc ttctccagca ggggaccgac cgcggacgga 1020 aggctcaagc cggaagtcgt cgcccccggc gttgacatca tagccccgcg cgccagcgga 1080 accagcatgg gcaccccgat aaacgactac tacaccaagg cctctggaac cagcatggcc 1140 accccgcacg tttcgggcgt tggcgcgctc atcctccagg cccacccgag ctggaccccg 1200 gacaaggtga agaccgccct catcgagacc gccgacatag tcgcccccaa ggagatagcg 1260 gacatcgcct acggtgcggg tagggtgaac gtctacaagg ccatcaagta cgacgactac 1320 gccaagctca ccttcaccgg ctccgtcgcc gacaagggaa gcgccaccca caccttcgac 1380 gtcagcggcg ccaccttcgt gaccgccacc ctctactggg acacgggctc gagcgacatc 1440 gacctctacc tctacgaccc caacgggaac gaggttgact actcctacac cgcctactac 1500 ggcttcgaga aggtcggcta ctacaacccg accgccggaa cctggacggt caaggtcgtc 1560 agctacaagg gcgcggcgaa ctaccaggtc gacgtcgtca gcgacgggag cctcagccag 1620 tccggcggcg gcaacccgaa tccaaacccc aacccgaacc caaccccgac caccgacacc 1680 cagaccttca ccggttccgt taacgactac tgggacacca gcgacacctt caccatgaac 1740 gtcaacagcg gtgccaccaa gataaccggt gacctgacct tcgatacttc ctacaacgac 1800 ctcgacctct acctctacga ccccaacggc aacctcgttg acaggtccac gtcgagcaac 1860 agctacgagc acgtcgagta cgccaacccc gccccgggaa cctggacgtt cctcgtctac 1920 gcctacagca cctacggctg ggcggactac cagctcaagg ccgtcgtcta ctacggg 1977 12 659 PRT Thermococcus celer 12 Met Lys Arg Leu Gly Ala Val Val Leu Ala Leu Val Leu Val Gly Leu 1 5 10 15 Leu Ala Gly Thr Ala Leu Ala Ala Pro Val Lys Pro Val Val Arg Asn 20 25 30 Asn Ala Val Gln Gln Lys Asn Tyr Gly Leu Leu Thr Pro Gly Leu Phe 35 40 45 Lys Lys Val Gln Arg Met Asn Trp Asn Gln Glu Val Asp Thr Val Ile 50 55 60 Met Phe Gly Ser Tyr Gly Asp Arg Asp Arg Ala Val Lys Val Leu Arg 65 70 75 80 Leu Met Gly Ala Gln Val Lys Tyr Ser Tyr Lys Ile Ile Pro Ala Val 85 90 95 Ala Val Lys Ile Lys Ala Arg Asp Leu Leu Leu Ile Ala Gly Met Ile 100 105 110 Asp Thr Gly Tyr Phe Gly Asn Thr Arg Val Ser Gly Ile Lys Phe Ile 115 120 125 Gln Glu Asp Tyr Lys Val Gln Val Asp Asp Ala Thr Ser Val Ser Gln 130 135 140 Ile Gly Ala Asp Thr Val Trp Asn Ser Leu Gly Tyr Asp Gly Ser Gly 145 150 155 160 Val Val Val Ala Ile Val Asp Thr Gly Ile Asp Ala Asn His Pro Asp 165 170 175 Leu Lys Gly Lys Val Ile Gly Trp Tyr Asp Ala Val Asn Gly Arg Ser 180 185 190 Thr Pro Tyr Asp Asp Gln Gly His Gly Thr His Val Ala Gly Ile Val 195 200 205 Ala Gly Thr Gly Ser Val Asn Ser Gln Tyr Ile Gly Val Ala Pro Gly 210 215 220 Ala Lys Leu Val Gly Val Lys Val Leu Gly Ala Asp Gly Ser Gly Ser 225 230 235 240 Val Ser Thr Ile Ile Ala Gly Val Asp Trp Val Val Gln Asn Lys Asp 245 250 255 Lys Tyr Gly Ile Arg Val Ile Asn Leu Ser Leu Gly Ser Ser Gln Ser 260 265 270 Ser Asp Gly Thr Asp Ser Leu Ser Gln Ala Val Asn Asn Ala Trp Asp 275 280 285 Ala Gly Ile Val Val Cys Val Ala Ala Gly Asn Ser Gly Pro Asn Thr 290 295 300 Tyr Thr Val Gly Ser Pro Ala Ala Ala Ser Lys Val Ile Thr Val Gly 305 310 315 320 Ala Val Asp Ser Asn Asp Asn Ile Ala Ser Phe Ser Ser Arg Gly Pro 325 330 335 Thr Ala Asp Gly Arg Leu Lys Pro Glu Val Val Ala Pro Gly Val Asp 340 345 350 Ile Ile Ala Pro Arg Ala Ser Gly Thr Ser Met Gly Thr Pro Ile Asn 355 360 365 Asp Tyr Tyr Thr Lys Ala Ser Gly Thr Ser Met Ala Thr Pro His Val 370 375 380 Ser Gly Val Gly Ala Leu Ile Leu Gln Ala His Pro Ser Trp Thr Pro 385 390 395 400 Asp Lys Val Lys Thr Ala Leu Ile Glu Thr Ala Asp Ile Val Ala Pro 405 410 415 Lys Glu Ile Ala Asp Ile Ala Tyr Gly Ala Gly Arg Val Asn Val Tyr 420 425 430 Lys Ala Ile Lys Tyr Asp Asp Tyr Ala Lys Leu Thr Phe Thr Gly Ser 435 440 445 Val Ala Asp Lys Gly Ser Ala Thr His Thr Phe Asp Val Ser Gly Ala 450 455 460 Thr Phe Val Thr Ala Thr Leu Tyr Trp Asp Thr Gly Ser Ser Asp Ile 465 470 475 480 Asp Leu Tyr Leu Tyr Asp Pro Asn Gly Asn Glu Val Asp Tyr Ser Tyr 485 490 495 Thr Ala Tyr Tyr Gly Phe Glu Lys Val Gly Tyr Tyr Asn Pro Thr Ala 500 505 510 Gly Thr Trp Thr Val Lys Val Val Ser Tyr Lys Gly Ala Ala Asn Tyr 515 520 525 Gln Val Asp Val Val Ser Asp Gly Ser Leu Ser Gln Ser Gly Gly Gly 530 535 540 Asn Pro Asn Pro Asn Pro Asn Pro Asn Pro Thr Pro Thr Thr Asp Thr 545 550 555 560 Gln Thr Phe Thr Gly Ser Val Asn Asp Tyr Trp Asp Thr Ser Asp Thr 565 570 575 Phe Thr Met Asn Val Asn Ser Gly Ala Thr Lys Ile Thr Gly Asp Leu 580 585 590 Thr Phe Asp Thr Ser Tyr Asn Asp Leu Asp Leu Tyr Leu Tyr Asp Pro 595 600 605 Asn Gly Asn Leu Val Asp Arg Ser Thr Ser Ser Asn Ser Tyr Glu His 610 615 620 Val Glu Tyr Ala Asn Pro Ala Pro Gly Thr Trp Thr Phe Leu Val Tyr 625 630 635 640 Ala Tyr Ser Thr Tyr Gly Trp Ala Asp Tyr Gln Leu Lys Ala Val Val 645 650 655 Tyr Tyr Gly 13 28 DNA Artificial Sequence Synthetic 13 agagggatcc atgaaggggc tgaaagct 28 14 30 DNA Artificial Sequence Synthetic 14 agaggcatgc gctctagact ctgggagagt 30 15 1962 DNA Artificial Sequence Synthetic 15 atgaaggggc tgaaagctct catattagtg attttagttc taggtttggt agtagggagc 60 gtagcggcag ctccagagaa gaaagttgaa caagtaagaa atgttgagaa gaactatggt 120 ctgctaacgc caggactgtt cagaaaaatt caaaaattga atcctaacga ggaaatcagc 180 acagtaattg tatttgaaaa ccatagggaa aaagaaattg cagtaagagt tcttgagtta 240 atgggtgcaa aagttaggta tgtgtaccat attatacccg caatagctgc cgatcttaag 300 gttagagact tactagtcat ctcaggttta acagggggta aagctaagct ttcaggtgtt 360 aggtttatcc aggaagacta caaagttaca gtttcagcag aattagaagg actggatgag 420 tctgcagctc aagttatggc aacttacgtt tggaacttgg gatatgatgg ttctggaatc 480 acaataggaa taattgacac tggaattgac gcttctcatc cagatctcca aggaaaagta 540 attgggtggg tagattttgt caatggtagg agttatccat acgatgacca tggacatgga 600 actcatgtag cttcaatagc agctggtact ggagcagcaa gtaatggcaa gtacaaggga 660 atggctccag gagctaagct ggcgggaatt aaggttctag gtgccgatgg ttctggaagc 720 atatctacta taattaaggg agttgagtgg gccgttgata acaaagataa gtacggaatt 780 aaggtcatta atctttctct tggttcaagc cagagctcag atggtactga cgctctaagt 840 caggctgtta atgcagcgtg ggatgctgga ttagttgttg tggttgccgc tggaaacagt 900 ggacctaaca agtatacaat cggttctcca gcagctgcaa gcaaagttat tacagttgga 960 gccgttgaca agtatgatgt tataacaagc ttctcaagca gagggccaac tgcagacggc 1020 aggcttaagc ctgaggttgt tgctccagga aactggataa ttgctgccag agcaagtgga 1080 actagcatgg gtcaaccaat taatgactat tacacagcag ctcctgggac atcaatggca 1140 actcctcacg tagctggtat tgcagccctc ttgctccaag cacacccgag ctggactcca 1200 gacaaagtaa aaacagccct catagaaact gctgatatcg taaagccaga tgaaatagcc 1260 gatatagcct acggtgcagg tagggttaat gcatacaagg ctataaacta cgataactat 1320 gcaaagctag tgttcactgg atatgttgcc aacaaaggca gccaaactca ccagttcgtt 1380 attagcggag cttcgttcgt aactgccaca ttatactggg acaatgccaa tagcgacctt 1440 gatctttacc tctacgatcc caatggaaac caggttgact actcttacac cgcctactat 1500 ggattcgaaa aggttggtta ttacaaccca actgatggaa catggacaat taaggttgta 1560 agctacagcg gaagtgcaaa ctatcaagta gatgtggtaa gtgatggttc cctttcacag 1620 cctggaagtt caccatctcc acaaccagaa ccaacagtag acgcaaagac gttccaagga 1680 tccgatcact actactatga caggagcgac acctttacaa tgaccgttaa ctctggggct 1740 acaaagatta ctggagacct agtgtttgac acaagctacc atgatcttga cctttacctc 1800 tacgatccta accagaagct tgtagataga tcggagagtc ccaacagcta cgaacacgta 1860 gaatacttaa cccccgcccc aggaacctgg tacttcctag tatatgccta ctacacttac 1920 ggttgggctt actacgagct gacggctaaa gtttattatg gc 1962 16 654 PRT Pyrococcus furiosus 16 Met Lys Gly Leu Lys Ala Leu Ile Leu Val Ile Leu Val Leu Gly Leu 1 5 10 15 Val Val Gly Ser Val Ala Ala Ala Pro Glu Lys Lys Val Glu Gln Val 20 25 30 Arg Asn Val Glu Lys Asn Tyr Gly Leu Leu Thr Pro Gly Leu Phe Arg 35 40 45 Lys Ile Gln Lys Leu Asn Pro Asn Glu Glu Ile Ser Thr Val Ile Val 50 55 60 Phe Glu Asn His Arg Glu Lys Glu Ile Ala Val Arg Val Leu Glu Leu 65 70 75 80 Met Gly Ala Lys Val Arg Tyr Val Tyr His Ile Ile Pro Ala Ile Ala 85 90 95 Ala Asp Leu Lys Val Arg Asp Leu Leu Val Ile Ser Gly Leu Thr Gly 100 105 110 Gly Lys Ala Lys Leu Ser Gly Val Arg Phe Ile Gln Glu Asp Tyr Lys 115 120 125 Val Thr Val Ser Ala Glu Leu Glu Gly Leu Asp Glu Ser Ala Ala Gln 130 135 140 Val Met Ala Thr Tyr Val Trp Asn Leu Gly Tyr Asp Gly Ser Gly Ile 145 150 155 160 Thr Ile Gly Ile Ile Asp Thr Gly Ile Asp Ala Ser His Pro Asp Leu 165 170 175 Gln Gly Lys Val Ile Gly Trp Val Asp Phe Val Asn Gly Arg Ser Tyr 180 185 190 Pro Tyr Asp Asp His Gly His Gly Thr His Val Ala Ser Ile Ala Ala 195 200 205 Gly Thr Gly Ala Ala Ser Asn Gly Lys Tyr Lys Gly Met Ala Pro Gly 210 215 220 Ala Lys Leu Ala Gly Ile Lys Val Leu Gly Ala Asp Gly Ser Gly Ser 225 230 235 240 Ile Ser Thr Ile Ile Lys Gly Val Glu Trp Ala Val Asp Asn Lys Asp 245 250 255 Lys Tyr Gly Ile Lys Val Ile Asn Leu Ser Leu Gly Ser Ser Gln Ser 260 265 270 Ser Asp Gly Thr Asp Ala Leu Ser Gln Ala Val Asn Ala Ala Trp Asp 275 280 285 Ala Gly Leu Val Val Val Val Ala Ala Gly Asn Ser Gly Pro Asn Lys 290 295 300 Tyr Thr Ile Gly Ser Pro Ala Ala Ala Ser Lys Val Ile Thr Val Gly 305 310 315 320 Ala Val Asp Lys Tyr Asp Val Ile Thr Ser Phe Ser Ser Arg Gly Pro 325 330 335 Thr Ala Asp Gly Arg Leu Lys Pro Glu Val Val Ala Pro Gly Asn Trp 340 345 350 Ile Ile Ala Ala Arg Ala Ser Gly Thr Ser Met Gly Gln Pro Ile Asn 355 360 365 Asp Tyr Tyr Thr Ala Ala Pro Gly Thr Ser Met Ala Thr Pro His Val 370 375 380 Ala Gly Ile Ala Ala Leu Leu Leu Gln Ala His Pro Ser Trp Thr Pro 385 390 395 400 Asp Lys Val Lys Thr Ala Leu Ile Glu Thr Ala Asp Ile Val Lys Pro 405 410 415 Asp Glu Ile Ala Asp Ile Ala Tyr Gly Ala Gly Arg Val Asn Ala Tyr 420 425 430 Lys Ala Ile Asn Tyr Asp Asn Tyr Ala Lys Leu Val Phe Thr Gly Tyr 435 440 445 Val Ala Asn Lys Gly Ser Gln Thr His Gln Phe Val Ile Ser Gly Ala 450 455 460 Ser Phe Val Thr Ala Thr Leu Tyr Trp Asp Asn Ala Asn Ser Asp Leu 465 470 475 480 Asp Leu Tyr Leu Tyr Asp Pro Asn Gly Asn Gln Val Asp Tyr Ser Tyr 485 490 495 Thr Ala Tyr Tyr Gly Phe Glu Lys Val Gly Tyr Tyr Asn Pro Thr Asp 500 505 510 Gly Thr Trp Thr Ile Lys Val Val Ser Tyr Ser Gly Ser Ala Asn Tyr 515 520 525 Gln Val Asp Val Val Ser Asp Gly Ser Leu Ser Gln Pro Gly Ser Ser 530 535 540 Pro Ser Pro Gln Pro Glu Pro Thr Val Asp Ala Lys Thr Phe Gln Gly 545 550 555 560 Ser Asp His Tyr Tyr Tyr Asp Arg Ser Asp Thr Phe Thr Met Thr Val 565 570 575 Asn Ser Gly Ala Thr Lys Ile Thr Gly Asp Leu Val Phe Asp Thr Ser 580 585 590 Tyr His Asp Leu Asp Leu Tyr Leu Tyr Asp Pro Asn Gln Lys Leu Val 595 600 605 Asp Arg Ser Glu Ser Pro Asn Ser Tyr Glu His Val Glu Tyr Leu Thr 610 615 620 Pro Ala Pro Gly Thr Trp Tyr Phe Leu Val Tyr Ala Tyr Tyr Thr Tyr 625 630 635 640 Gly Trp Ala Tyr Tyr Glu Leu Thr Ala Lys Val Tyr Tyr Gly 645 650 17 25 DNA Artificial Sequence Synthetic 17 tctgaattcg ttcttttctg tatgg 25 18 20 DNA Artificial Sequence Synthetic 18 tgtactgctg gatccggcag 20 19 30 DNA Artificial Sequence Synthetic 19 agaggcatgc gtatccatca gatttttgag 30 20 20 DNA Artificial Sequence Synthetic 20 agtgaacgga tacttggaac 20 21 20 DNA Artificial Sequence Synthetic 21 gttccaagta tccgttcact 20 22 12 PRT Pyrococcus furiosus 22 Ala Glu Leu Glu Gly Leu Asp Glu Ser Ala Ala Gln 1 5 10 23 24 DNA Artificial Sequence Synthetic 23 tcatggatcc accctctcct ttta 24 24 46 DNA Artificial Sequence Synthetic 24 gtctgcgcag gctgccggan nnnnnatgaa ggggctgaaa gctctc 46 25 49 DNA Artificial Sequence Synthetic 25 gagagctttc agccccttca tnnnnnntcc ggcagcctgc gcagacatg 49 26 27 DNA Artificial Sequence Synthetic 26 agagggggat ccgtgagaag caaaaaa 27 27 20 DNA Artificial Sequence Synthetic 27 gatgactagt aagtctctaa 20 28 20 DNA Artificial Sequence Synthetic 28 aagcctgagg ttgttgctcc 20 29 29 DNA Artificial Sequence Synthetic 29 gggcatgctc atgaacttcc aggctgtga 29 30 4 PRT Artificial Sequence Synthetic 30 Ala Gly Gly Asn 1 31 382 PRT Bacillus subtilis 31 Met Arg Gly Lys Lys Val Trp Ile Ser Leu Leu Phe Ala Leu Ala Leu 1 5 10 15 Ile Phe Thr Met Ala Phe Gly Ser Thr Ser Ser Ala Gln Ala Ala Gly 20 25 30 Lys Ser Asn Gly Glu Lys Lys Tyr Ile Val Gly Phe Lys Gln Thr Met 35 40 45 Ser Thr Met Ser Ala Ala Lys Lys Lys Asp Val Ile Ser Glu Lys Gly 50 55 60 Gly Lys Val Gln Lys Gln Phe Lys Tyr Val Asp Ala Ala Ser Ala Thr 65 70 75 80 Leu Asn Glu Lys Ala Val Lys Glu Leu Lys Lys Asp Pro Ser Val Ala 85 90 95 Tyr Val Glu Glu Asp His Val Ala His Ala Tyr Ala Gln Ser Val Pro 100 105 110 Tyr Gly Val Ser Gln Ile Lys Ala Pro Ala Leu His Ser Gln Gly Tyr 115 120 125 Thr Gly Ser Asn Val Lys Val Ala Val Ile Asp Ser Gly Ile Asp Ser 130 135 140 Ser His Pro Asp Leu Lys Val Ala Gly Gly Ala Ser Met Val Pro Ser 145 150 155 160 Glu Thr Asn Pro Phe Gln Asp Asn Asn Ser His Gly Thr His Val Ala 165 170 175 Gly Thr Val Ala Ala Leu Asn Asn Ser Ile Gly Val Leu Gly Val Ala 180 185 190 Pro Ser Ala Ser Leu Tyr Ala Val Lys Val Leu Gly Ala Asp Gly Ser 195 200 205 Gly Gln Tyr Ser Trp Ile Ile Asn Gly Ile Glu Trp Ala Ile Ala Asn 210 215 220 Asn Met Asp Val Ile Asn Met Ser Leu Gly Gly Pro Ser Gly Ser Ala 225 230 235 240 Ala Leu Lys Ala Ala Val Asp Lys Ala Val Ala Ser Gly Val Val Val 245 250 255 Val Ala Ala Ala Gly Asn Glu Gly Thr Ser Gly Ser Ser Ser Thr Val 260 265 270 Gly Tyr Pro Gly Lys Tyr Pro Ser Val Ile Ala Val Gly Ala Val Asp 275 280 285 Ser Ser Asn Gln Arg Ala Ser Phe Ser Ser Val Gly Pro Glu Leu Asp 290 295 300 Val Met Ala Pro Gly Val Ser Ile Gln Ser Thr Leu Pro Gly Asn Lys 305 310 315 320 Tyr Gly Ala Tyr Asn Gly Thr Ser Met Ala Ser Pro His Val Ala Gly 325 330 335 Ala Ala Ala Leu Ile Leu Ser Lys His Pro Asn Trp Thr Asn Thr Gln 340 345 350 Val Arg Ser Ser Leu Glu Asn Thr Thr Thr Lys Leu Gly Asp Ser Phe 355 360 365 Tyr Tyr Gly Lys Gly Leu Ile Asn Val Gln Ala Ala Ala Gln 370 375 380 32 4 PRT Artificial Sequence Synthetic 32 Leu Leu Val Tyr 1 33 4 PRT Artificial Sequence Synthetic 33 Ala Ala Pro Phe 1" ]

[ "BACKGROUND 1.", "Field of the Invention The present invention relates generally to infant support seats, and more particularly to an infant support seat with an attached mobile.", "Discussion of the Related Art Conventional infant support seats provide support for infants who are unable to support themselves in an upright position.", "Typically, the support seats provide some sort of stimulation for the infant in the form of vibration or music.", "Many infant support seats are also supported by resilient frames that flex under an infant's weight and provide soothing bouncing or rocking motion with the infant in the seat.", "Additionally, there are infant seats that incorporate a bar or similar structure that arches over the seat and is configured to suspend toys to stimulate the infant in the seat.", "Such toy bars are typically removably coupled to opposite sides of the support seat frame.", "With the toy bar in place, it is difficult to place an infant in the seat, and likewise, difficult to remove the infant from the seat.", "Removal and replacement of the toy bar can be burdensome, especially when holding an infant.", "Thus, there is a need for an infant seat that includes an entertainment device, such as a mobile, that is selectively positioned above the infant seat so that an infant may be easily placed in and removed from the seat without detaching the entertainment device.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention solves the problems with, and overcomes the disadvantages of, conventional infant seats.", "In particular, the present invention relates to an infant seat that has an attached entertainment device that is selectively positionable above the seat.", "The invention includes a resilient support frame having a ground engaging portion and an upper portion.", "The upper portion is moveable with respect to the ground engaging portion.", "A suspension assembly is coupled to the upper portion of the support frame such that motion of the upper portion imparts motion to the suspension assembly.", "In another aspect of the invention, the invention includes a seat supported on a resilient support frame having a ground engaging portion and an upper portion moveable with respect to the ground engaging portion.", "A mobile is coupled to the upper portion such that motion of the upper portion imparts a corresponding motion to the mobile.", "These and other aspects of the present invention will become apparent from the following drawings and description.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The present invention is described with reference to the accompanying drawings.", "In the drawings, like reference numbers indicate identical or functionally similar elements.", "FIG. 1 is a perspective view of one embodiment of a support assembly with an attached entertainment device embodying the principles of the present invention.", "FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the support assembly illustrated in FIG. 1 with the entertainment device positioned away from the support assembly.", "FIG. 3 is an exploded view of detail A in FIG. 1 .", "FIG. 4 is a top plan view of a socket of the mounting bracket of the suspension assembly embodying the principles of the present invention.", "FIG. 5 is a bottom plan view of an end post of the support arm of suspension assembly embodying the principles of the present invention.", "FIG. 6 is an exploded view of detail B in FIG. 1 .", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION FIGS. 1-6 illustrate one embodiment of an infant support assembly 100 .", "The infant support assembly 100 includes a support frame 110 , a seat 240 , a suspension assembly 300 , and an entertainment device 500 .", "The support frame 110 is a generally peripheral frame and includes a ground-engaging base member 112 that is configured to elevate the seat 240 above a supporting surface.", "An upper portion 114 is coupled to the base member 112 and is configured to support the seat 240 in an inclined position relative to the supporting surface.", "The upper portion 114 includes a leg support 116 that is coupled above the base member 112 and is configured to support a portion of the seat 240 in a forwardly extended position.", "The upper portion 114 of the frame 110 , including leg support 116 , is movable with respect to the ground engaging portion or base 112 to provide a bouncing or rocking motion to soothe the infant positioned in the seat 240 .", "A stimulation device 119 may be attached to the leg support 116 to provide stimulation for an infant in the seat.", "The stimulation device 119 may include a vibrator or music producing apparatus or any combination thereof as would be known to the skilled artisan.", "The support frame 110 can include feet 111 located on the base member 112 to engage the supporting surface to inhibit the support assembly 100 from sliding.", "The seat 240 is substantially elliptical or oval in plan view and includes an upper seating surface 242 upon which an infant can be positioned and a lower foot portion 244 adjacent the upper seating surface 242 .", "The foot portion 244 and the seating surface 242 may be integrally formed or removably coupled.", "The seat 240 is coupled to the frame 110 according to conventional methods known to the skilled artisan.", "To maintain the infant securely in seat 240 , a belt 270 is coupled to the seat 240 .", "The belt 270 is provided with separable buckles for easy operation.", "Any infant restraint device known to the skilled artisan may be utilized with the seat 240 without departing from the scope of the invention.", "A suspension assembly 300 is coupled to the upper portion 114 of the frame 110 such that motion of the upper portion 114 imparts a motion to the suspension assembly 300 .", "As will be apparent, the configuration of the support assembly 300 (described in detail below) allows the translating motion of the support assembly 300 to result in a rotating motion of the entertainment device 500 .", "The suspension assembly 300 is coupled to one of a pair of opposing sides of the unshaped upper portion 114 of frame 110 .", "The suspension assembly 300 includes a mount or mounting bracket 400 that is coupleable to the upper portion 114 of the support frame 110 and a support arm 310 pivotably coupled to the mount 400 .", "As best seen in FIG. 3, mount 400 includes a first side 401 and a second side 402 , which together form a channel 420 for receiving the upper portion 114 of the frame 110 .", "The first and second sides of mounting bracket 400 include openings 422 that receive nuts and bolts 440 to maintain the position of the mount 400 on the support frame 110 .", "Similarly, upper portion 114 and lower portion 112 of the frame 110 include openings 108 , 118 respectively that are in registry with openings 422 when the infant support assembly 100 is in the assembled configuration.", "As can be appreciated, the nuts and bolts 440 can be utilized to secure the upper and lower portion of the frame 110 regardless of whether the mounting bracket 400 is attached.", "Any other suitable fastener may be used to couple the upper and lower portion of frame 110 and/or to couple mounting bracket 400 to upper portion 114 .", "The suspension assembly 300 is movable with respect to the mounting bracket between a first position in which the entertainment device 500 is disposed above an infant positioned on the upper seating surface 242 , (as illustrated in FIG. 1) and a second position in which the entertainment device 500 is disposed away from the infant (as illustrated in FIG. 2 ).", "The mounting bracket 400 includes a body 408 that extends from the frame 110 and terminates in a socket 410 that receives support arm 310 .", "As best seen in FIG. 4, socket 410 includes a post 420 to guide the support arm 310 into position.", "The mounting bracket 400 includes a face 430 that is adjacent a face 315 of the support arm 310 when in the assembled configuration.", "As best seen in FIG. 5, support arm 310 includes a post 370 that mates with socket 410 to maintain the support arm in an upright configuration.", "The post 370 is able to rotate within socket 410 along an arc defined by stop surfaces 470 in the socket 410 and stop surfaces 390 on the post 370 .", "In the illustrated embodiment, the mounting bracket 400 is positioned on the upper portion 114 of the frame 110 adjacent the seat 240 , between the upper seating surface 242 and the lower foot portion 244 .", "It will be appreciated that the mounting bracket can be positioned at any point along the upper portion 114 of the frame 110 provided that motion of the upper portion 114 imparts a motion to the support arm 310 of the suspension assembly 300 .", "Alternatively, mounting bracket 400 could be coupled to leg support 116 .", "Further, in the illustrated embodiment, the support arm 310 is pivotably connected with respect to the mounting bracket 400 about an axis disposed at an acute angle with respect to the upper portion of the frame engaged by the connector 400 .", "Accordingly, the support arm 310 extends upwardly in a direction perpendicular to the supporting surface, in a position best viewed by the infant positioned in the seat 240 .", "The support arm 310 is able to suspend an entertainment device 500 above an infant positioned on the seat 240 .", "As best illustrated in FIG. 6, the support arm 310 terminates at its uppermost end in a post 330 that mates with an opening 525 of a collar on the entertainment device 500 .", "In the illustrated embodiment, the entertainment device 500 is configured as a mobile that rotates about post 330 when the upper portion 114 of the frame 110 is moved with respect to the ground engaging portion 112 of the frame 110 .", "The mobile 500 includes fasteners 530 which support articles 535 that are pleasing and/or soothing to an infant positioned in the seat.", "In the illustrated embodiment, support arm 310 extends upwardly from connector or mounting bracket 400 and terminates in a downward direction facing the seat 240 .", "This configuration, along with the flexibility of the support arm 310 , allows the desired movement of the entertainment device 500 .", "As described above, articles 535 are suspended from fasteners 530 .", "The articles may be fixedly coupled to fasteners 530 or may be removably attached by hook and loop type fasteners, mating rings, loops, snaps, buckles, etc.", "In use, when an adult user desires to position an infant in the seat 240 or remove an infant from the seat 240 , the support arm 310 may be pivoted to its second position as illustrated in FIG. 2 .", "When an infant is positioned in the seat 240 , the adult user can pivot the support arm 310 such that entertainment device 500 is positioned above the infant positioned in the seat.", "While particular, illustrative embodiments of the invention have been described, numerous variations and modifications exist that would not depart from the scope of the invention.", "For example, mount 400 , as described above, can be attached to the frame by screws as illustrated.", "However, any connector that enables the support arm 310 to be pivotally coupled to the frame 110 would be appropriate.", "The attachment of the entertainment device 500 is described above as being rotatably coupled to the support arm.", "Alternatively, the entertainment device 500 may be fixedly coupled or coupled to a swivel connector.", "Additionally, entertainment device 500 need not be configured as a mobile.", "Entertainment device 500 may take many configurations known to those skilled in the art that are soothing and/or entertaining to children.", "For example, entertainment device may be a static figure that produces lights and/or sounds.", "The various features of the invention have been described in relation to an infant bouncer seat.", "However it will be appreciated that many of the features, such as the connector and the entertainment device may also be implemented on various infant support devices including car seats, swings, high chairs, etc.", "Moreover, variations and modifications exist that would not depart from the scope of the invention.", "A number of these variations have been set forth above.", "CONCLUSION While various embodiments of the present invention have been described above, it should be understood that they have been presented by way of example only, and not limitation.", "Thus, the breadth and scope of the present invention should not be limited by any of the above-described exemplary embodiments, but should be defined only in accordance with the following claims and their equivalents.", "The previous description of the preferred embodiments is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the present invention.", "While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to preferred 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 invention." ]

[ "FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to novel designs for color twisted nematic liquid crystal displays.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Color liquid crystal displays (LCDs) are usually made by putting color filters onto the individual pixels of a liquid crystal display.", "These color filters are resins with color pigments.", "Full color displays can be made by a combination of the red, green and blue primary colors.", "This coloring scheme is the predominant technology for active matrix as well as passive matrix LCDs currently in use.", "Many colors can be obtained.", "For many applications, multiple colors rather than a full range of colors may be sufficient.", "This is especially true for low cost products not requiring full video displays.", "There have been several proposals to produce a color effect without the use of color filters.", "The advantages of colors without color filters are many, the most important one being cost and ease of manufacturing.", "Yamaguchi et al, Yamaguchi et al and Yang et al teach the generation of color by the addition of a birefringent film inside the LCD.", "The birefringence color is due to the interference effect and dispersion effect of the transmission of the LC cell.", "While most of the attention is concentrated on the supertwisted nematic (STN) display with a twist angle of larger than 180°, there is nevertheless a need for similar techniques for low twist angles.", "Such displays have not been studied systematically.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a proper set of values for the twist angle, the cell birefringence and the input/output polarizer angles, from which it is possible to obtain vivid colors in low twist LCDs without the use of color filters.", "Such displays have many applications in situations requiring only a few colors without gray scales.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Some embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a transmittive LCD cell, FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a transflective LCD cell, FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a reflective LCD cell, FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of the various directions and vectors of a LCD cell, FIG. 5 is the transmission spectrum of the zero volt state of the first preferred embodiment, FIG. 6 is the color coordinate of the liquid crystal display output of the first preferred embodiment as the voltage is changed, FIG. 7 is the transmission spectrum of the zero volt state of the second preferred embodiment, FIG. 8 is the color coordinate of the liquid crystal display output of the second preferred embodiment as the voltage is changed, FIG. 9 is the transmission spectrum of the zero volt state of the third preferred embodiment, FIG. 10 is the color coordinate of the liquid crystal display output of the third preferred embodiment as the voltage is changed, FIG. 11 is the transmission spectrum of the zero volt state of the fourth preferred embodiment, FIG. 12 is the color coordinate of the liquid crystal display output of the fourth preferred embodiment as the voltage is changed, FIG. 13 is the transmission spectrum of the zero volt state of the fifth preferred embodiment, FIG. 14 is the color coordinate of the liquid crystal display output of the fifth preferred embodiment as the voltage is changed, FIG. 15 is the transmission spectrum of the zero volt state of the sixth preferred embodiment, FIG. 16 is the color coordinate of the liquid crystal display output of the sixth preferred embodiment as the voltage is changed, FIG. 17 is the transmission spectrum of the zero volt state of the seventh preferred embodiment, FIG. 18 is the color coordinate of the liquid crystal display output of the seventh preferred embodiment as the voltage is changed, FIG. 19 is the transmission spectrum of the zero volt state of the eighth preferred embodiment FIG. 20 is the color coordinate of the liquid crystal display output of the eighth preferred embodiment as the voltage is changed, FIG. 21 is the transmission spectrum of the zero volt state of the ninth preferred embodiment, and FIG. 22 is the color coordinate of the liquid crystal display output of the ninth preferred embodiment as the voltage is changed.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A liquid crystal display is composed of a liquid crystal layer 3 and a front polarizer 1 .", "The liquid crystal layer is held between two pieces of glass 2 and 4 .", "On these glasses, there can be conductive transparent electrodes, alignment layers and other coatings necessary for making the display.", "For a transmittive display, a rear polarizer 5 is added as shown in FIG. 1 .", "For the case of a transflective display, a diffusive reflector 6 can also be added as shown in FIG. 2 .", "In the case of a single polarizer reflective display, the rear polarizer 5 is eliminated as shown in FIG. 3 .", "A special reflector 7 , which does not produce any depolarization effect, will then have to be used.", "The transmission or reflection properties of a LCD is completely characterized by its input polarizer angle α, the cell gap d—birefringence Δn product, dΔn, the twist angle of the liquid crystal φ, and the output polarizer angle γ.", "All these angles are measured relative to the input director of the LCD cell which is defined as the x-axis.", "The various directions inside a LC cell are shown in FIG. 4 .", "The twist angle φ is the angle between the input and output directors.", "The input and output polarizers are at angles relative to the input director.", "By varying the set of values (α, γ, φ, dΔn) one can obtain any color for the display at the no voltage bias V=0 state.", "The transmission spectrum is simply given by the Jones matrix calculation T =  ( cos ⁢ ⁢ γ ⁢ ⁢ sin ⁢ ⁢ γ ) · M LC · ( cos ⁢ ⁢ α sin ⁢ ⁢ α )  2 ( 1 ) where ⁢ ⁢ ⁢ M LC = ( A - iB - C - iD C - iD A + iB ) ⁢ ⁢ and ( 2 ) A = cos ⁢ ⁢ ϕcosχ + ϕ χ ⁢ sin ⁢ ⁢ ϕsinχ ( 3 ) B = δ χ ⁢ cos ⁢ ⁢ ϕsinχ ( 4 ) C = sin ⁢ ⁢ ϕcosχ - ϕ χ ⁢ cos ⁢ ⁢ ϕsinχ ( 5 ) D = δ χ ⁢ sin ⁢ ⁢ ϕsinχ ⁢ ⁢ and ( 6 ) χ = ( δ 2 + ϕ 2 ) 1 / 2 ( 7 ) δ = π ⁢ ⁢ d ⁢ ⁢ Δ ⁢ ⁢ n / λ ( 8 ) Δ ⁢ ⁢ n = n e ⁡ ( θ ) - n o ( 9 ) where λ is the wavelength.", "By varying the parameters (α, γ, φ, dΔn), combinations can be found that will produce color LCDs without requiring any color filters.", "The search can then be further refined by applying a voltage to the LCD and finding its color change.", "This requires the calculation of the deformation of the liquid crystal director arrangement by solving the Euler-Lagrange equations.", "In the optimization procedure, the deformation of the liquid crystal alignment may be calculated as a function of applied voltage.", "Then the transmission spectra as a function of the applied voltage are calculated.", "The results are evaluated in terms of its colors.", "Finally, several modes where the color changes are vividly obtained as a function of applied voltage are recorded.", "For the case of the single polarizer reflective display, the reflectivity is given by R =  ( cos ⁢ ⁢ α ⁢ ⁢ sin ⁢ ⁢ α ) · R ϕ ⁢ M LC * ⁢ R ϕ - 1 ⁢ M LC · ( cos ⁢ ⁢ α sin ⁢ ⁢ α )  2 where the transformation matrix R is given by R ϕ = ( cos ⁢ ⁢ ϕ - sin ⁢ ⁢ ϕ sin ⁢ ⁢ ϕ cos ⁢ ⁢ ϕ ) The same procedure of varying (α, φ, dΔn) to find the best combination with the best colors can be performed as in the transmittive display.", "For the reflective display, the search is simpler because of the reduction of one variable.", "All the new combinations of (α, φ, dΔn) are recorded here.", "In its preferred embodiments the present invention provides values of (α, γ, φ, dΔn) for obtaining vivid color LCDs without using color filters.", "These results can be generalized into several categories.", "In the first category, the background of the display is yellowish green or light colors.", "This is the color of the display without an applied voltage or before the applied voltage affects the liquid crystal alignment.", "The other colors such as purple, blue, red, orange are obtained by applying a higher voltage.", "Within this group, the value of can take on 2 values depending on the brightness contrast required.", "In general, for this group of displays, the following rules are obeyed: α˜45° γ˜135°−φ φ can be any value dΔn˜1.3 μm or 0.79 μm In the second group of displays, the background of the display is light yellow.", "This is the color of the display without an applied voltage or before the applied voltage affects the liquid crystal alignment.", "The other colors such as purple, blue, red, orange are obtained by applying a higher voltage.", "In general, for this group of displays, the following rules are obeyed: α˜45° γ˜45°−φ φ can be any value dΔn˜1.1 μm In the third category, the display is of a single polarizer reflective type.", "In this case, the general rules discovered are α˜45° φ can be any value smaller than 60° dΔn˜0.5-0.6 μm In the first preferred embodiment of this invention, the LCD is of a transmittive type.", "The (α, γ, φ, dΔn) values are (45°, 30°, 75°, 1.3 μm).", "The transmission spectrum of this display can be calculated using equation (1).", "The result is shown in FIG. 5 .", "This display is green when the applied voltage is zero.", "When a voltage bias is applied, the color will change to blue, purple, yellow, orange, pink and other colors depending on the voltage.", "FIG. 6 shows the trajectory of the color coordinates in the CIE (Commission International de l'Eclairage) chart when the applied voltage is varied.", "In the second preferred embodiment of this invention, the LCD is of a transmittive type.", "The (α, γ, φ, dΔn) values are (45°, 45°, 90°, 1.3 μm).", "The transmission spectrum of this display can be calculated using equation (1).", "The result is shown in FIG. 7 .", "This display is green when the applied voltage is zero.", "When a voltage bias is applied, the color will change to blue, purple, yellow, orange, pink and other colors depending on the voltage.", "FIG. 8 shows the trajectory of the color coordinates in the CIE chart when the applied voltage is varied.", "In the third preferred embodiment of this invention, the LCD is of a transmittive type.", "The (α, γ, φ, dΔn) values are (45°, −45°, 90°, 1.1 μm).", "The transmission spectrum of this display can be calculated using equation (1).", "The result is shown in FIG. 9 .", "This display is yellow when the applied voltage is zero.", "When a voltage bias is applied, the color will change to blue, purple, yellow, orange, pink and other colors depending on the voltage.", "FIG. 10 shows the trajectory of the color coordinates in the CIE chart when the applied voltage is varied.", "In the fourth preferred embodiment of this invention, the LCD is of a transmittive type.", "The (α, γ, φ, dΔn) values are (45°, 90°, 130°, 1.3 μm).", "The transmission spectrum of this display can be calculated using equation (1).", "The result is shown in FIG. 11 .", "This display is yellowish green when the applied voltage is zero.", "When a voltage bias is applied, the color will change to blue, purple, yellow, orange, pink and other colors depending on the voltage.", "FIG. 12 shows the trajectory of the color coordinates in the CIE chart when the applied voltage is varied.", "In the fifth preferred embodiment of this invention, the LCD is of a transmittive type.", "The (α, γ, φ, dΔn) values are (45°, 30°, 75°, 0.79 μm).", "The transmission spectrum of this display can be calculated using equation (1).", "The result is shown in FIG. 13 .", "This display is green when the applied voltage is zero.", "When a voltage bias is applied, the color will change to blue, purple, yellow, orange, pink and other colors depending on the voltage.", "FIG. 14 shows the trajectory of the color coordinates in the CIE chart when the applied voltage is varied.", "This is actually similar to the first preferred embodiment except for a lower value of dΔn.", "In the sixth preferred embodiment of this invention, the LCD is of a transmittive type.", "The (α, γ, φ, dΔn) values are (45°, 45°, 90°, 0.79 μm).", "The transmission spectrum of this display can be calculated using equation (1).", "The result is shown in FIG. 15 .", "This display is green when the applied voltage is zero.", "When a voltage bias is applied, the color will change to blue, purple, yellow, orange, pink and other colors depending on the voltage.", "FIG. 16 shows the trajectory of the color coordinates in the CIE chart when the applied voltage is varied.", "This is actually similar to the second preferred embodiment except for a lower value of dΔn.", "In the seventh preferred embodiment of this invention, the LCD is of a transmittive type.", "The (α, γ, φ, dΔn) values are (45°, 45°, 90°, 0.85 μm).", "The transmission spectrum of this display can be calculated using equation (1).", "The result is shown in FIG. 17 .", "This display is yellow when the applied voltage is zero.", "When a voltage bias is applied, the color will change to blue, purple, yellow, orange, pink and other colors depending on the voltage.", "FIG. 18 shows the trajectory of the color coordinates in the CIE chart when the applied voltage is varied.", "This is actually similar to the third preferred embodiment except for a lower value of dΔn.", "In the eighth preferred embodiment of this invention, the LCD is of a transmittive type.", "The (α, γ, φ, dΔn) values are (45°, −45°, 5°, 0.9 μm).", "The transmission spectrum of this display can be calculated using equation (1).", "The result is shown in FIG. 19 .", "This display is yellow when the applied voltage is zero.", "When a voltage bias is applied, the color will change to blue, purple, yellow, orange, pink and other colors depending on the voltage.", "FIG. 20 shows the trajectory of the color coordinates in the CIE chart when the applied voltage is varied.", "This is actually similar to the third preferred embodiment except for a lower value of dΔn.", "In the ninth preferred embodiment of this invention, the LCD is of a reflective type.", "The (α, φ, dΔn) values are (45°, 10°, 0.56 μm).", "The transmission spectrum of this display can be calculated using equation (1).", "The result is shown in FIG. 21 .", "This display is yellow when the applied voltage is zero.", "When a voltage bias is applied, the color will change to blue, purple, yellow, orange, pink and other colors depending on the voltage.", "FIG. 22 shows the trajectory of the color coordinates in the CIE chart when the applied voltage is varied.", "This is actually similar to the third preferred embodiment except for a lower value of dΔn." ]

[ "THE TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001] The present invention relates to a nozzle for providing a spray mist of water or liquid into a space, room or a cavity to function as a fire-fighting extinguisher.", "More specifically, but not exclusively, the present invention relates method and a nozzle for fire-fighting for providing a spray of crushed, vaporized liquid into a space, room or a cavity.", "The nozzle comprises a number of openings in the exterior surface of the nozzle, the openings communicating with a liquid source through one or more small diameter drilled holes in a nozzle material, enabling liquid to be directed at least partly in lateral direction and/or at least partly in a sector axially out from the nozzle and preferably also in a more or less axial direction, the nozzle also being associated with trigger mechanism, initiating the liquid mist effect by allowing an extinguishing liquid to flow through the system when heat or fumes are detected.", "[0002] The invention relates also to a method for fabricating a nozzle intended to produce a spray of vaporized liquid into a space, room or a cavity by providing at least one, preferably a number of holes in the exterior surface of the nozzle, the holes communicating with a liquid source through at least one small diameter drilled hole in the nozzle material, enabling liquid to be directed at least partly in laterally sectored direction and/or at least partly in a sector axially out from the nozzle.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] On installations, for example offshore and/or in buildings where a fire may occur, it is common practice to incorporate or install a fire-extinguishing system, the fire extinguishing fluid often being water delivered through nozzles installed in the space or the rooms to be protected.", "The extinguishing liquid may be delivered at a pressure from a liquid source through a piping system.", "[0004] Typical areas of use are installation in buildings, such as for example hotels, offices, houses, or the like or in process plants either onshore or offshore.", "Another typical installation where the fire-fighting extinguishing system of this type may be installed, may be very old buildings of historical interest or onboard vessels of any type.", "[0005] US 2011/0061879 describes an extinguishing nozzle body for spraying extinguishing fluid into a room.", "The extinguishing nozzle body is provided with at least two spray nozzles arranged along the periphery of the extinguishing nozzle body and at least one deflector arranged in the area of spray jet of the extinguishing fluid emerging from the spray nozzle.", "Effective fire-fighting is achieved in that a spray angle of the spray jet relative to the lateral surface of the extinguishing nozzle body, an angle of attack of the deflector relative to the direction of the spray jet, a clearance between the deflector and the lateral surface of the extinguishing nozzle body and a high pressure of the extinguishing fluid is set in such way that a cone-shaped spray pattern ensues.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0006] A main principle used according to the invention is to create the mist in a region of the nozzle where the extinguishing fluid still is subjected to a higher pressure than the atmospheric pressure of the surrounding environment.", "As a consequence the mist is produced inside the nozzle or in the region just upstream of the openings of the nozzle where the extinguishing fluid still is subjected to the pressure inside the fire extinguisher system.", "[0007] Hence, an object of the invention is to utilize the pressure energy of the extinguishing system to produce the mist.", "[0008] Another object of the invention is to provide an improved low-pressure fine droplet water mist nozzle, i.e. a nozzle working at a liquid pressure in the region 2,5 to 12 bar.", "[0009] A further object of the invention is to provide a nozzle suitable to be installed on a vertical wall, and still covering all relevant surfaces in a room, also including the wall on which the nozzle(s) are mounted.", "[0010] A still further object of the invention is to provide a nozzle assembly having an esthetic appearance, without to any substantial degree, projecting out from the surface on which it is installed.", "[0011] Another object of the present invention is to provide a more simplified, more efficient and cost effective way of producing an enhanced nozzle for fire-fighting extinguishing, providing the required fine droplet mist, able to cover all relevant surfaces in a room or a cavity.", "[0012] A still further object of the present invention is to provide a nozzle able to work with low pressure liquid and still being able to efficiently produce a fine mist with optimal coverage of all possible surfaces to be protected.", "[0013] Another object is to provide a nozzle which, when in installed state, may more or less be flush with the surface, such as a wall or a ceiling, on which it is mounted, thus not extending to any degree out from the surface.", "[0014] Another object of the present invention is to fabricate a nozzle assembly where the nozzle house, including the holes and apertures, but excluding possible release mechanisms, may be made of one single work piece, such fabrication being suited for a robot machine.", "[0015] Another object of the invention, is to provide an enhanced method for producing a small particle mist of a combined mixture of small, minute and somewhat larger droplets, the mist being sprayed in such way that the mist is able to cover the entire space to be covered.", "[0016] Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved method for fabricating such nozzle assembly, requiring a limited number of parts to be assembled.", "[0017] The objects are achieved by means of a nozzle and method of use and a method for fabrication as further defined by the independent claims herein, while alternatives and detailed embodiments are defined by the dependent claims.", "[0018] According to one embodiment of the present invention it is provided a fire-fighting extinguisher nozzle configured to direct a produced spray of a liquid mist into a space, room or a cavity.", "The nozzle comprises a number of apertures or openings in the exterior surface of the nozzle.", "The openings or apertures communicate with a liquid source through small diameter drilled holes in a nozzle material, enabling liquid in the form of a mist to be directed at least partly in lateral direction and/or at least partly in a sector axially out from the nozzle.", "The nozzle may also be associated with a trigger mechanism, initiating the crushing effect of a liquid by allowing a liquid to be sprayed out through the openings of the nozzle when heat or fumes are detected.", "At least some of the drilled holes are configured in such way that a deflecting surface and crushing zone are provided inside the drilled holes in the nozzle material in the vicinity of the outlet, intended to produce the mist spray of fine particle or droplet liquid mist just inside the drilled holes.", "[0019] The deflecting surfaces may preferably be arranged immediately upstream the outlet of the drilled holes, the deflecting surfaces being formed by the tip of the drill bit, providing an internally arranged, slanted surface just inside the drilled hole at its opening or aperture.", "[0020] The aperture of at least some of these openings of the drilled holes in the nozzle may be different in size, have different inclined or slanted surface(s) and/or orientation, the lateral extent of the slanted surface being decisive for the size of the exposed aperture area of the opening.", "[0021] According to one embodiment, the slanted surfaces may be configured in such way that the apertures are displaced sideways away from the center of the drilled hole, facing away from the main center of the nozzle body, allowing the spray of the mist to be directed more or less sideways away from the nozzle.", "[0022] The nozzle indicated above may also be provided with radially oriented holes, drilled in the radial plane, allowing laterally orientation of the spray, so as to provide spraying in all directions.", "[0023] According to one embodiment, for example every second drilled hole may be drilled as far out towards the periphery of the nozzle body as possible, while other drilled holes may be arranged with a center line placed closer to the center line of the nozzle body, thus providing apertures with different radial positions and/or exposed cross section areas.", "[0024] Further, the inner end of the hole is provided with a cone shape, the angle of inclination between the coned end surfaces either being oblique or acute, dependent upon the required inclination of the slanted surface and/or the size of the aperture, in order to vary the size of the aperture and the direction of the emitted spray of small and fine droplet mist.", "[0025] According to the present invention also a method for producing a spray of liquid crushed into a mist of fine, small droplets is provided, enabling a fine-droplet mist to be sprayed into a space, room or a cavity.", "The mist is produced by allowing a liquid at a low pressure, for example in the region of 2.5-12 bar, to flow out through a number of apertures or openings in the exterior surface of the nozzle.", "The apertures or the openings communicate with a liquid source through small diameter drilled holes in the nozzle material, producing a mist and enabling the mist to be directed at least partly in lateral direction and/or possibly at least partly in a sector axially out from the nozzle.", "The nozzle also provided with trigger mechanism, initiating the crushing effect when heat or fumes are detected, the trigger mechanism initiating the flow of extinguishing liquid through the opening(s) of the nozzle.", "According to the present invention, at least a part of the liquid flowing through the small diameter drilled holes is allowed to hit a slanted surface provided inside the holes, displaced laterally with respect to the aperture.", "Further, at least another part of the liquid flowing through the drilled holes is allowed to be impacted by the deflected liquid, such impact causing formation of the mist spray in the aperture region of the drilled holes, the impact being caused in a part of the nozzle where the impact still is subjected to the pressure inside the fire-extinguisher system, prior to being subjected to the atmospheric pressure in the surrounding environment and prior to the stage where the pressure energy of the fluid is converted to kinetic energy.", "[0026] The invention also comprises a method for fabricating such nozzle, intended to produce a spray of liquid crushed into the form of mist, the fabrication starting with a solid, massive rod shaped metal work piece having cylindrical walls, open at one end and closed at the other end by a closed metal bottom.", "At least one axially aligned small diameter hole is drilled into the metal bottom of the work piece to a certain depth, avoiding penetration through the bottom, starting from inner side of the tube.", "Upon completed drilling of hole(s), the material at the opposite, external side of the metal bottom of the work piece is partly lathed or machined away, so that just a part of the tip of the drilled hole is exposed, leaving an internally arranged slanted or sloped surface inside the drilled hole, sloping down towards the exposed aperture at the end of the drilled small diameter holes.", "[0027] According to one preferred embodiment of the invention, several axially aligned small diameter holes are drilled in the end wall of the nozzle body, the holes being drilled to different depths and/or arranged at different radial position with respect to the center line of the nozzle body, and/or having different diameter and/or different inner end slope, caused by drills bits with a different cone at the drill tip, thereby providing for different aperture sizes, different deflection surfaces and areas and/or spraying direction of the exposed apertures in the nozzle surface.", "[0028] The nozzle according to the present invention is suitable for working at a low pressure, for example in the region of 2.5-12 bars, i.e. low pressure extinguishers.", "It should be noted, however, that the nozzle 10 also may operate at even lower pressure down to a range between 0.5-4 bar.", "By choosing the right size of the bore and appropriate machining, such nozzle may function as a residential sprinkler, producing somewhat larger droplets and thus requiring a larger consume of water.", "[0029] One major advantage of the invention is that the fluid pressure of the system is used to produce the required mist, such mist production being caused prior to the fluid having left the apertures of the nozzle and prior to the liquid being subjected to the atmospheric pressure of the room into which the fluid is directed.", "Hence, the mist is produced at a stage prior to the energy of the fluid being converted to kinetic energy [0030] Another advantage with the solution according to the present invention resides in that the nozzle, apart from the internally arranged valve and the release mechanism, may be machined from one work piece only, applying drilling of straight holes together with lathing and/or milling the external end surface of the work piece, thus providing the slanted surfaces inside the drilled holes.", "SHORT DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0031] In the following, embodiments of the invention will be described in further details by way of examples;", "wherein: [0032] FIG. 1 a and 1 b show a section through one embodiment of the present invention, also indicating a release mechanism;", "a valve;", "and valve seat, where [0033] FIG. 1 a shows the nozzle in position prior to release of the sealing valve, while [0034] FIG. 1 b shows the nozzle subsequent to said release;", "[0035] FIG. 2 shows an end view of a nozzle according to the invention, configured for installation in a wall;", "[0036] FIG. 3 shows an end view of a nozzle according to the invention according to a second embodiment, configured for installation in a ceiling;", "[0037] FIG. 4 shows a section through the nozzle seen along the lines C-C in FIG. 2 or FIG. 3 ;", "[0038] FIG. 5 shows in enlarged scale details of the nozzle openings indicated by the circle marked AA in FIG. 4 ;", "[0039] FIG. 6 shows in enlarged scale details of the nozzle openings marked BB in FIG. 5 ;", "[0040] FIG. 7 shows another embodiment of the nozzle according to the invention, showing an end view of a point nozzle according to the present invention;", "[0041] FIG. 8 shows a section through the nozzle shown in FIG. 7 , seen along the line D-D in FIG. 7 ;", "[0042] FIG. 9 shows in enlarged scale details of the openings indicated by the circle AA in FIG. 8 ;", "and [0043] FIGS. 10 a - 10 c show three stages in machining a work piece for producing a nozzle according to the present invention, where FIG. 10 a shows the initial stage where a central hole is drilled out in the work piece, forming a cylindrical body having for example a circular cross sectional shape and a bottom end plate;", "FIG. 10 b shows the stage where radial holes are drilled and where two axial holes also are drilled;", "and FIG. 10 c shows the final stage where part of the material at the peripheral end on the external side of the bottom is machined out, producing the end shape of the drilled holes with a slanted or inclined surface pointing laterally out from the centerline of the cylindrical body.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION [0044] In the following description, the same reference numbers are used throughout the description for the same or similar features and elements.", "Further, it should be noted that the same principle for crushing the liquid flowing through the holes 16 is used, creating liquid jets impacting each other under a pressure between 0.5 bar and 12 bars, preferably between 2.5 bar and 12 bar, thus causing a mist which preferably may consist of a mixture of a large number of very small, minute droplets and droplets of somewhat larger diameter, thus creating an effective fire-fighting extinguishing mist which may travel trough the room in all required directions.", "[0045] It should also be noted that the liquid used preferably, but not necessarily, may be water.", "[0046] FIGS. 1 a and 1 b show a section through one embodiment of the nozzle 10 according to the present invention, also indicating a release mechanism 31 and a valve 19 and valve seat 20 , where FIG. 1 a shows the nozzle 10 in position prior to release of the valve 19 , while FIG. 1 b shows the nozzle 10 subsequent to said release.", "FIGS. 1 a and 1 b shows a section an assembled nozzle 10 , also indicating a release mechanism 18 and a closing/opening valve 19 and valve seat 20 inside the nozzle body 10 .", "The nozzle 10 has a cylindrical shape with a circular cross section area.", "The nozzle 10 is provided with a threaded sleeve 11 , intended to be screwed or coupled to a supply pipe (not shown), communicating with a fluid reservoir (not shown).", "The means for coupling to the supply pipe is of a type well known to the person skilled in the art and will not be further described herein.", "In order to enhance correct and proper fitting of the nozzle 10 to the supply line, the nozzle 10 is provided with a hexagonally shaped flange 15 (see FIG. 4 ), allowing the plumber to screw the nozzle on to the fittings (not shown) at the end of the supply line, applying conventional torque and wrench tools.", "The nozzle 10 is provided with a number of small radially arranged diameter holes 14 , communicating fluidly with a large diameter hole 13 , centrally arranged in the nozzle body 10 .", "Further, the nozzle 10 is also provided with holes 16 extending more or less in axial direction of the nozzle 10 .", "[0047] Since the holes 14 , 16 and their apertures are small diameter holes, the nozzle 10 is provided with an internally arranged fine masked strainer 22 , arranged upstream the holes 14 , 16 , preventing particles, such as sand or the like, from blocking the holes 14 , 16 or their apertures.", "[0048] The nozzle 10 is also provided with an internally arranged valve 19 , comprising a valve body 23 with a first upper and second lower sealing surface, the valve body 23 being fixed to a valve stem 26 , the valve body 23 also being provided with a sealing O-ring 24 , resting against a valve seat, fixed internally in the large diameter hole 13 .", "At the other side of the valve body 23 , a second sealing surface is formed, intended to rest in a sealing manner against a sealing seat 27 on the nozzle body 10 when the trigger rod 31 is broken, said sealing surface and sealing seat 27 preventing water to flow out through the central hole 29 of the trigger pin containing housing 28 , forcing all the liquid to flow out through the holes 14 , 16 .", "[0049] The releasing mechanism 18 comprises a threaded portion configured to be screwed into a corresponding threaded hole in the surface 27 of the nozzle.", "The releasing mechanism comprises a trigger rod 31 containing housing 28 projecting outwards from the valve 10 , the housing 28 being provided with an axially extending drilled hole 29 , extending in the entire length of the releasing mechanism 18 and elongate holes 30 in the sides of the body 28 , a trigger rod 31 being positioned inside the axially extending hole 30 in the releasing mechanism 18 .", "The body 28 may for example be provided with two pairs of opposite facing openings, i.e. four elongate holes 30 .", "[0050] Referring to the FIGS. 1 a and 1 b , the releasing mechanism 18 , and the valve 19 functions as follows.", "When installed, coupled to the liquid supply pipe (not shown), the inner closing sealing valve sealing surface 23 is pressed towards the corresponding inner valve sealing seat 20 by the trigger rod 31 , forming a water tight seal able to resist the pressure acting in the supply pipe.", "The pressure acting on the sealed surface may for example be in the region 2.5-12 bar ( FIG. 1 a ).", "When the trigger rod 31 breaks due to the existence of fire or fume, the liquid pressure acting on one side of the valve body 23 , will force the valve 19 to move axially inside the large diameter hole 13 , bringing the opposite surface of the valve body 23 against the lower valve seat 27 , sealing the centrally arranged large diameter hole in the end wall, the stem 26 of the valve having entered the space of the release mechanism.", "When the upper sealing surface of the valve body 23 is moved away from its sealing contact with the upper valve seat 20 , while a sealing effect is produced at the opposite end of the valve 10 , low pressure water at a pressure in the region of 2.5-12 barwill be forced out trough the openings 14 , 16 and their apertures, the water being crushed into small droplet mist in the apertures, just before entering the surrounding area exposed to atmospheric pressure ( FIG. 1 b ).", "The principle used according to the present invention for transforming the liquid into the mist will be described in further details below.", "[0051] FIG. 2 shows a front view of one embodiment of a nozzle 10 according to the invention, configured for installation in a wall (not shown) with its front, i.e. the front depicted in the Figure, facing towards the room or space to be covered by the nozzle 10 .", "[0052] The nozzle 10 is provided with a number of small radially arranged diameter holes 14 , communicating with a large diameter hole 13 , centrally arranged in the nozzle body 10 .", "According to the embodiment shown in FIG. 2 , the radially arranged holes 14 are only positioned on the lower half of the circular surface facing the room in which it is to be installed, arranged along the periphery of the nozzle 10 at its front.", "The radial holes 14 are configured with apertures formed in such way that the apertures will have an inclined or slanted surface which will cause crushing of the liquid when passing through the aperture, forming a misty spray in sideways direction when leaving the apertures and entering the room.", "The crushing mechanism functions in the following way: Portions of the fluid will tend to flow directly through the aperture while a portion will hit the inclined or slanted surface, such surface causing a change in direction of the flow so that the re-directed flow hits the flow directed straight through the aperture, thus causing a crashing zone just upstream of the aperture where the pressure energy is utilized to produce the mist producing effect.", "Further, the drilled radial holes 14 and their apertures are configured in such way that the pressure drop occurs in the interface between the drilled holes 14 and their apertures, i.e. at the outlet of the holes 14 .", "At this interface the pressure will drop from 2.5-12 bar to atmospheric pressure the static pressure being transformed to kinetic energy, forming a small droplet mist which is spread sideways out from the wall (not shown) on which the nozzle 10 is installed, wetting said wall surface.", "[0053] As further indicated in FIG. 2 , the nozzle 10 is also provided with apertures 16 in the front face of the nozzle 10 , these apertures 16 also being positioned on the same half of the front surface as the radial holes 14 .", "As indicated in FIG. 2 , and more clearly seen in FIGS. 4 and 5 , the apertures 14 on the front have different exposed cross sectional area.", "As further seen, the shape of the apertures of the holes 16 do not have a fully circular cross section, but are more or less semi-circular shaped, possibly with different cross section areas.", "[0054] FIG. 3 shows an end view of a nozzle 10 according to the invention, configured for installation in a ceiling.", "The only major differences between the nozzle 10 shown in FIG. 2 and the nozzle 10 shown in FIG. 3 are the number and positions of both the radial holes 15 and the axially arranged holes with apertures 16 .", "Since the nozzle according to FIG. 3 is intended to be positioned in a ceiling, the radial holes 14 and the “centrally”", "arranged holes 16 are more or less evenly distributed along the entire periphery of the nozzle 10 or along a circle on the front face respectively.", "[0055] Although the distance between two consecutive holes 14 , 16 are shown to be even, it should be noted that also such distance may vary both with respect to lateral and radial position without deviating from the scope of protection.", "[0056] FIG. 4 shows a section through the nozzle 10 , seen along the lines C-C in FIG. 2 or FIG. 3 .", "As shown, the cylindrical sleeve 11 of the nozzle 10 body is provided with a threaded portion 17 , a hexagonal part 15 ;", "radially oriented holes 14 extending through the cylindrical sleeve 11 in the vicinity of the bottom 18 of the nozzle body 10 .", "At the external side of the lower part of the sleeve 11 provided with the radial holes 14 , a collar 33 is fixed just on the upper side of the holes 14 , the surface of the collar 33 facing down towards the holes 14 has a slanted surface, so that parts of the fluid jet just prior to coming out of the holes 14 , first hits the downwards and outwards slanted surface and then is hit by the remaining jet from the hole, creating an crashing effect producing a fine, minute droplet mist of the liquid flowing out through the apertures.", "[0057] FIG. 5 shows in enlarged scale details of the nozzle openings 14 , 16 shown in the circle marked AA in FIG. 4 .", "As shown, the laterally arranged holes 14 are at their aperture provided with a liquid crushing means 33 , the crushing means 33 being in the form of a flange fixed to the exterior of the nozzle body, the crushing means being configured in such way that an outwards and downwards sloped surface is established, said surface covering a portion of the external apertures of the holes 14 producing a flow restricted zone in the aperture , whereby part of the liquid jet is flowing through the aperture without hitting the sloped surface, while the remaining part of the liquid jet parts hits the sloped surface and is deflected, hitting the straight through flowing part, the impact between the two liquid jets causing the required mist consisting of very fine, minute liquid particles, directing such mist sideways with respect to the valve 10 .", "[0058] FIG. 5 also disclose one embodiment of the axially arranged hole 16 according to the present invention.", "According to the embodiment shown, the lower end of the axially aligned hole 16 is provided with a conical surface, whereby part of the liquid flow flowing along the periphery of the hole 16 through such lower end will be deflected towards the center of the hole and thus crush at the meeting point in the middle of the aperture of the hole 16 , while the central portion of the flow will crush against the deflected liquid flow in the same region, thus creating the required mist of fine, minute droplets.", "According to this embodiment the direction of ejection of the sprayed mist will be a symmetrical spray perpendicular out from the aperture.", "[0059] FIG. 6 shows in enlarged scale details of the nozzle openings marked BB in FIG. 4 .", "The only major difference compared to the embodiment shown in FIG. 5 is the configuration of the axially aligned hole 16 .", "According to the embodiment shown in FIG. 6 , the hole 16 has a sector of the periphery being slanted or inclined, while the remaining part of the periphery sector is straight.", "With such configuration of the hole and the aperture, the direction of the mist emitted from the aperture will be directed outwards and also laterally from the aperture, since the fluid flow along the inclined or slanted surface will deflect from the main direction of the liquid flow, hitting the non-deflected flow approximately at the aperture of the hole 16 .", "[0060] FIG. 7 shows an end view of a point nozzle 10 according to the present invention.", "According to this embodiment, the holes 16 with their apertures according to the invention, are centrally positioned, the nozzle being configured to direct the spray of mist more or less straight forward in a narrow sector.", "The embodiment shown in FIGS. 7-9 may not, as indicated, be equipped with radially directed holes 14 .", "[0061] FIG. 8 shows a section through the nozzle 10 shown in FIG. 7 , seen along the line D-D.", "According to this embodiment the holes 16 may have a sector with a slanted surface while the remaining surface of the hole 16 may be straight.", "The holes are provided by drilling four axially oriented holes, partly into the end plate of the nozzle work piece, the depth of the four holes for example being slightly different, and/or their radial distance from the center for example being slightly different, and/or the end cone of the drill bit having different inclination and/or the diameter of the drill being different.", "Once the holes 16 are drilled a central part of the end plate is milled out, forming a central part 27 ′ with a reduced thickness, thus forming an indent and creating the holes 16 with their various apertures.", "[0062] FIG. 9 shows in enlarged scale details of the openings indicated by the circle AA in FIG. 8 .", "A mist is created at the end of the apertures of the holes 16 , caused in the same manner as specified above, the arrows showing typical main directions of the various sector flows.", "[0063] FIGS. 10 a - 10 c show three stages in the process of machining a work piece for producing a nozzle 10 according to the present invention, where FIG. 10 a shows the initial stage where a central hole 13 is drilled or milled out in a work piece being in the form of a cylindrical massive rod, thus forming a hollow cylindrical body having for example a circular cross sectional shape and obtaining a closed bottom end or plate 27 .", "FIG. 10 b shows the stage where a number of radial holes 14 are drilled through the side wall, just above the bottom end or plate 27 and where any suitable number of axial holes 16 also are drilled partly into the bottom end or plate 27 .", "As shown the drilling of the axial holes 17 is stopped prior to penetration through the bottom end or plate 27 .", "FIG. 10 c shows the final stage where part of the material of the bottom plate 27 on the external side of the bottom is machined out, thereby producing the apertures of the axially arranged holes 16 as further described above and disclosed in detail in FIGS. 2-9 .", "As a further step, a circumferential ring 33 is also fixed to the exterior of the nozzle, just above the apertures of the radial holes, the lower surface of such ring 33 being flush with the upper boundary of the aperture of the holes 14 .", "Said lower surface is inclined downwards and outwards, thus causing the require production of the mist as described above.", "[0064] Although the nozzle is described in conjunction with fire-fighting, it should be noted that the nozzle also may be configured to introduce a mist mixture of minute and a bit larger droplets into a process in a process plant where appropriate.", "[0065] The embodiment of the nozzle 10 shown in FIGS. 1 a and 1 b is based on the use of a loop shaped body containing the trigger rod.", "It should be noted, however that a conventional releasable lid, placed in front of the nozzle 10 , may be used instead of the looped shaped body.", "[0066] In FIGS. 1 a and 1 b , the nozzle is shown with a release mechanism 18 comprising a housing 28 and a trigger rod, the trigger rod 31 functioning as a temporary locking means until it is broken due to increased temperature in the surroundings.", "In the remaining Figures, said release mechanism 18 is omitted due to clarity reasons.", "It should be appreciated, however that the embodiments shown in FIGS. 2-10 also may be equipped with such release mechanism 18 attached to the nozzle 10 .", "[0067] Alternatively, the nozzles shown in the Figures may be configured without any such release mechanism 18 attached to the nozzle as such.", "In such case the extinguisher system may be triggered from a remote position, also opening a remote set of valves for supplying water at a pressure for example between 2.5-12 bar to the nozzle system.", "In such latter case the system functions as a deluge system where the nozzles functions as described above, i.e. produces a fine droplet mist.", "[0068] It should also be appreciated that the nozzle according to the invention may be provided with any other suitable locking means attached to the nozzle, enabling release of the valve 19 for supply of water at a pressure so that water may be pulverized by the nozzle creating the required fine droplet mist." ]

[ "This is a division, of application Ser.", "No. 07/290,671 filed Dec. 27, 1988 now U.S. Pat. No. 4,909,321.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Field of the Invention The present invention relates to wireline operations which are typically performed within the production tubing within a well casing of a subsurface oil or gas well.", "More specifically, the invention is directed to a more efficient and dependable method and apparatus for retrieving long lengths of wireline, or running string, from the well when a well tool, which is attached to the remote end of the wireline, becomes lodged within the well and must be fished therefrom.", "Description of Background and Relevant Information Wireline operations in connection with oil and gas wells can require the use of great lengths of running string, or wireline, to the end of which can be attached any of a number of tools for performing any of a number of operations.", "Such operations are typically performed within the production tubing within the well casing.", "On occasion during the wireline operation, the tool can become lodged downhole such that the tool and the wireline connected thereto cannot be further moved within the tubing.", "Prior to the present invention, the wireline operator merely had one release tool for removing the wireline, namely, the rope socket.", "The rope socket is simply a weak link in the wireline in the vicinity of the tool.", "If the tool becomes stuck downhole, tension in the wireline will either result in the dislodging of the tool or the parting of the wireline at the rope socket, so that when the lodged tool is attempted to be "fished"", "from the tubing, the "fishing"", "operation is not complicated by thousands of feet of wireline which might be coiled above the tool In many cases, however, when wireline equipment becomes stuck downhole, and the operator elects to "pull-out"", "of the rope socket, the wireline parts at a location other than at the rope socket.", "Due to this likelihood, or at least the great possibility that the wireline will part at some location other than at the rope socket, the wireline operator frequently elects, instead, to disconnect the wireline at the surface and to unthread the wireline from the tubing as the tubing is pulled out.", "This necessarily results in increasing the time required for wireline operations and it delays subsequent well operations, thereby reducing efficiency.", "The prior art includes various tools which are designed for remote release from a wireline or other particular devices which suspend such tools, such as, for example, a well casing section or a casing hanger or other downhole tools.", "Typically, however, these release tools are complicated assemblies of parts which are specifically designed for certain operations and are not intended merely for the selective disconnection of the wireline from the remote device or tool attached thereto.", "For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,003,434 to GARRETT et al.", "discloses a release tool for use with well tools such as packoffs and casing heads.", "A split ring (or spring-biased locking pistons) engages under a lip on the well tool to be positioned downhole.", "Fluid pressure in the casing acts on the upper surface of a piston to cam the split ring (or locking pistons) inwardly to disengage the release tool and permit its removal.", "U.S. Pat. No. 4,273,372 to SHESHTAWY discloses a tool for lowering casing strings into the sea to a position near the ocean floor.", "Dogs which engage the internal surface of the casing are cammed inwardly and outwardly by a conical piston that is interconnected to said dogs by dovetail slots.", "The dogs are pre-loaded to the engagement position by spring pressure.", "Fluid pressure is applied from the surface through the handling string engaging the lower operative face of the conical piston, moving it upwardly to cam the dogs inwardly for disengagement.", "U.S. Pat. No. 4,576,230 to TAPP et al.", "discloses an apparatus to temporarily set tools in a portion of a well casing.", "Toothed engaging elements are cammed outwardly from the body of the apparatus to frictionally engage the inner surface of the casing.", "U.S. Pat. No. 4,603,743 to LINDSEY discloses an apparatus for setting a liner hanger in a well casing.", "Toothed engaging elements are hydraulically cammed outwardly to frictionally engage the inner surface of the casing.", "Consequently, prior to the present invention there was a need for a releasable coupling device for use during wireline operation for universal use with various well tools, whose sole function is to permit the wireline to be selectively disconnected.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for overcoming the aforementioned problems in wireline operations, particularly the problems encountered when a wireline tool becomes jammed downhole.", "The apparatus of the present invention can be used, for example, when attempting to set or retrieve tubing plugs, when setting or placing wireline retrievable gas lift valves or other flow controlling tools such as, e.g., safety release valves, and could be run with swab cups.", "The present invention permits the wireline operator to more dependably ensure the release of the wireline immediately above the tool to which it is connected, when the tool becomes lodged in an oil or gas well, and which gives the wireline operator a third option from the two mentioned above.", "That is, rather than having to rely upon the parting of the wireline at the rope socket, or, having to remove the wireline together with the production tubing from the well and then unthreading the wireline from the tubing, the operator can, with the present invention, dependably effect the disconnection of the wireline immediately above the bottommost tool.", "The present invention permits wireline operations to be performed more efficiently by reducing the time required for resolving the problem of a jammed tool.", "Further, once the wireline is disconnected at the point of the device of the present invention, the operator can change out the wireline being used to a larger or newer line or can move in a larger line and the necessary tool for "fishing"", "the jammed tool.", "According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the wireline uncoupling device includes an upper tubular portion for connection to a length of wireline which will be extended downhole from the surface of the well.", "The upper section of the lower tubular portion is telescopically received and is releasably connected to the upper tubular portion and is connected on top of the bottommost tool.", "The tubular portions are preferably cylindrical.", "The lower tubular portion carries a releasing mechanism, in the form of a piston assembly which reciprocates within the lower tubular portion and which selectively extends and retracts at least one dog through aligned apertures in the upper and lower tubular portions of the device.", "The releasing mechanism is actuated by applying hydraulic or pneumatic pressure to the device from the well surface.", "The device includes a precharge chamber below the piston assembly against which the applied surface pressure acts.", "The precharge chamber is pressurized at the surface before the release device of the invention are lowered together with the tool and wireline, within the well.", "The pressure at which the precharge chamber is set is dependent upon the depth of the well operation and the fluid gradient to be encountered and is selectively set by the wireline operator.", "As an alternative to pneumatic pressure, a variable rate spring may be used to precharge the chamber.", "By preselecting a desired surface releasing pressure and by precharging the tool prior to running the tool in the well with the well equipment attached thereto, the wireline operator can release the wireline, when and if necessary, by selectively applying a pressure greater than the precharge to the tubing, or casing.", "It is a further object of the present invention to permit the wireline release device to be operable in substantially any well and fluid density configuration likely to be encountered.", "For this purpose, the lower tubular portion of the device is removable as is at least a lower piston segment which is sealingly guided therein.", "This feature allows the operator to select a lower body diameter and accompanying piston segment and sealing rings of different effective cross-sectional areas to thereby alter the configuration of the precharge chamber.", "The lowermost piston segment or balancing piston, includes an upper periphery which is in communication with the precharge chamber.", "The balancing piston segment is configured to include a passageway which extends from its lower part to the precharge chamber and is adapted to be connected to a pressure source for precharging the device to the selected pressure.", "A check valve is located in the passageway and a safety plug is provided on the end of the passageway after the releasing device has been precharged, to prevent any changes in precharge pressure.", "The diameter of the balancing piston and accompanying sealing rings is less than that of the remaining pistons of the piston assembly so that under hydrostatic pressure conditions, the tool will be maintained in a locked, unstroked position.", "The device is moved to its released position, and the piston assembly is stroked, upon the application of the predetermined hydraulic or pneumatic pressure which is applied from the surface of the well and which acts against the upper releasing piston segment which is located in the upper section of the lower tubular portion.", "Ports are provided in the wall of the upper tubular portion for communication with the upper piston segment.", "Likewise, ports are provided in the lower tubular portion for draining fluid therefrom as the piston assembly moves downwardly therein.", "According to a further aspect of the present invention, the releasing mechanism preferably includes a pair of symmetrically located dogs which extend from slots within the upper releasing piston segment.", "Each of the dogs includes a radial portion and an inclined portion which mate with respective radial and inclined portions of the slots in the upper piston segment.", "Upon the application of the necessary hydraulic or pneumatic pressure, the upper piston segment cams the inclined portion of the dogs inwardly to thereby retract the dogs from their respective openings in the upper tubular portion, to permit the uncoupling of the upper tubular portion from the lower tubular portion.", "According to a further aspect of the present invention, the lower tubular portion of the releasing device includes a lower enlarged section which is preferably integral with the upper section.", "The outer diameter of the enlarged section is preferably the same as that of the upper tubular portion.", "A center piston segment is sealingly guided in the enlarged section and carries sealing rings which define the upper boundary of the precharge chamber.", "The diameter of the center piston segment, including its sealing rings, is the largest piston segment of the three.", "According to a further aspect of the present invention, the upper tubular portion of the release device preferably includes vertical guides which mate with splines located on the telescopically received upper section of the lower tubular portion so that the upper and lower tubular portions of the release device do not rotate relative to each other, to thereby prevent the dogs from cocking and jamming within the device.", "Various other features, advantages, and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading the following description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1a is a cross-sectional elevation view of the release device in its locked, unstroked position;", "FIG. 1b is a cross-sectional elevation view of the release device in its released, stroked position;", "FIG. 2a is a exploded perspective view of the piston assembly of the releasing device;", "FIG. 2b is a perspective view of the upper and lower tubular portions of the releasing device;", "FIG. 3 is a plan view of the piston assembly;", "FIG. 4a is a cross-sectional elevation view of the upper part of the releasing device, illustrating the upper releasing piston segment holding the dogs in their extended position;", "FIG. 4b is a similar view to that of FIG. 4a, illustrating the upper part of the releasing device with the upper releasing piston segment holding the dogs in their retracted position;", "FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a dog;", "FIG. 6 is a plan view of a dog;", "FIG. 7 is a schematic illustration of the precharge chamber and piston assembly under hydrostatic pressure conditions, the piston assembly being in its unstroked position;", "FIG. 8 is a schematic illustration of the precharge chamber and piston assembly with hydraulic or pneumatic pressure applied to move the piston assembly to its stroked position;", "FIG. 9 is a cut-away perspective view of the upper tubular portion of the releasing device illustrating a dog opening and a guide for receiving a spline on the upper section of the lower tubular portion of the releasing device;", "FIG. 10 is a perspective view of the upper section of the lower tubular portion illustrating the manner by which the section is constructed after the dogs are put in place;", "FIG. 11 is a view similar to that of FIG. 10, illustrating an alternative construction;", "and FIG. 12 is a schematic side view in partial section of yet another embodiment of the present invention.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The releasing device of the present invention is shown in its entirety in the cross sectional views of FIGS. 1a and 1b.", "FIGS. 2a and 2b illustrate, in exploded views, the components of the piston assembly and upper and lower tubular portions of the releasing device of the invention.", "The remaining figures illustrate particular aspects of the invention.", "The releasing device of the present invention includes four primary, relatively movable components.", "Upper tubular portion 1 constitutes the first primary component and is connectable to a length of wireline by either a pin or a box connection X located in the top surface of upper tubular portion 1.", "A threaded female connection, e.g., is illustrated in FIGS. 1a, 1b.", "The outer diameter of upper tubular portion 1 is preferably no greater or not substantially greater than that of the wireline to which it is attached for tubing applications but can be substantially larger for use with larger tools.", "The second primary component of the releasing device is the lower tubular portion 2 which includes an upper end section 3 which is telescopically received within the upper tubular portion 1 when the device is in its locked position, illustrated in FIG. 1a.", "The lower tubular portion 2 further includes an enlarged section 6 which includes a middle section 7 and a lower body or end section 8 which is releasably connected to middle section 7.", "The lower end of the middle section 7 has integral type threads 60 cut on the inside which mate with similar type threads 61 cut on the upper end of the lower end section 8.", "Further, the lower end of the middle section 7 butts up against a torque shoulder 62 on the lower end section 8 as the middle section 7 and end section 8 are screwed together to form a metal to metal seal.", "The diameter of inner surface 16 of middle section 7 is larger than the diameter of inner surface 15 of upper end section 3 and, preferably, the diameter of inner surface 17 of lower end section 8 is less than that of the inner surfaces of each of the upper and middle sections.", "The third primary component of the releasing device of the present invention is the piston assembly which includes, in the preferred embodiment, an upper releasing piston segment 9, a center piston segment 11, and a lower balancing piston segment 13.", "Each of the piston segments can be disconnected from the assembly by means of a respective threaded connection as shown.", "However, it is contemplated that for certain applications the upper releasing piston and the center piston can be made as a unitary segment.", "A plurality of ports 18 are provided through the walls of the upper tubular portion 1 to allow hydraulic or pneumatic pressure to enter interior 20 of the upper tubular portion to actuate the tool, as explained more fully here below.", "Another plurality of ports 18'", "are provided in middle section 3 to permit that same pressure to have access to interior 20'", "of the lower tubular portion.", "Likewise, ports 19 are provided in the wall of the lower end section 8 to permit the fluid located within the interior 21 of end section 8 to drain therefrom.", "In addition, ports 19 permit borehole fluid pressure access to the bottom side of piston 13 enabling the required precharge pressure, discussed infra, to be reduced.", "The upper releasing piston segment 9 is guided for movement in the upper section 3 against inner surface 15 by seal elements 10.", "Likewise, the center piston segment 11 is guided for movement within middle section 7 against inner surface 16 by seal elements 12.", "Further, the balancing piston segment 13 is guided for movement within lower end section 8 against inner surface 17 by seal elements 14.", "The seal elements 10, 12, and 14 are preferably formed from a suitable fairly rigid elastomeric material and are seated within respective peripheral grooves located within the outer peripheries of the respective piston segments.", "For each piston segment, the seal elements preferably comprise a plurality of adjacent seals (e.g., chevron seals).", "More preferably, an annular serpentine spring (not shown) may be used to axially compress the seals forcing them laterally outward into engagement with surfaces 15, 16 and 17.", "With specific reference to FIGS. 4a and 4b, the releasable connection between upper tubular portion 1 and lower tubular portion 2 will be discussed, together with the fourth primary component of the present invention, viz.", ", dogs 22.", "The cutaway view of FIG. 4a depicts the releasing device of the present invention in its locked position and the upper releasing piston in its unstroked position.", "The releasing mechanism of the present invention consists of at least one dog 22, but preferably consists of a plurality of dogs 22 symmetrically arranged around the piston assembly.", "In the preferred embodiment, two such dogs 22 are employed.", "In their extended position, as illustrated in FIG. 4a, the dogs 22 project through aligned openings 4 and 5 located through the walls of upper tubular section 1 and upper end section 3 of lower tubular portion 2, respectively.", "In their retracted position, dogs 22 are withdrawn from openings 4 to a position at which their outer peripheries 36 are at least flush with the outer surface of upper end section 3, although still located within openings 5.", "As illustrated in FIGS. 5 and 6, each dog 22 includes an inclined portion 26 and a radially projecting portion or nose 32.", "The nose 32 includes an arcuate surface 36 which is of a radius substantially equal to the radius of the outer surface of upper end section 3.", "Each of the dogs 22 is received within a respective slot 23 located in upper releasing piston 9.", "Each of the slots 23 includes a radial opening portion 24 and an inclined opening portion 25.", "Under normal hydrostatic conditions, within the wellbore fluid, as illustrated in FIG. 4a, substantially horizontal support surface 40 in each slot engages bottom surface 33 of its respective dog 22 and lower inclined surface 38 in each slot engages back surface 28 of a respective dog 22 to retain the dog 22 in its extended position, maintaining the releasing device in its locked, unstroked position.", "When the upper releasing piston 9 is moved downwardly, by means which is explained below, upper inclined surface 37 in each slot of upper releasing piston 9 cams against front surface 27 of a respective dog 22, while nose 32 of the dog 22 is retained in opening 5, so that the dog 22 moves within upper releasing piston 9 to its retracted position, while support surface 40 moves downwardly away from dog 22, as shown in FIG. 4b.", "Inclined portion 25 of slot 23 is preferably disposed at a relatively steep angle relative to the longitudinal center line A--A of the piston assembly to facilitate the force transmission from the upper releasing piston 9 to the dogs 22.", "This angle, according to the preferred embodiment, is in the range of approximately 10 degrees to 30 degrees.", "Further, the dogs 22 fit relatively snugly within the slots 23 of the upper releasing piston 9 to prevent the possibility of their cocking therein.", "Further, upper tubular portion 1 and upper tubular end section 3 are preferably guided by a spline 63 and guide 64 arrangement.", "See FIGS. 9-11.", "The seals 10 of upper releasing piston 9 have a composite length such that when the releasing device is completely stroked, as illustrated in FIG. 1b, the seals remain in contact with the inner surface 15 of upper section 3.", "As illustrated in the exploded view of FIG. 2a, the upper releasing piston 9 is constructed in two pieces 9a, 9b so that the dogs 22 can be placed in slots 23 during the assembly of the device.", "The two pieces 9a, 9b, can be fastened together, after placement of dogs 22, with e.g., threaded fasteners 42, which are inserted through, and recessed within, openings in part 9b to be engagable with complementary threaded openings 43 in part 9a.", "Positioning studs 44 and complementary openings 45 are, preferably, also provided to facilitate proper alignment.", "The center piston segment 11, according to the preferred embodiment, is screwed flush into the bottom of the upper releasing piston segment 9, as can be seen in FIGS. 1a, 1b.", "A threaded stud 47 can be provided in the center piston segment for reception in threaded receptacle 46 in upper releasing piston segment 9.", "Although, as indicated above, the center piston segment 11 can be made integrally with the upper releasing piston segment 9, it is preferable that it be made a discrete part so that it can be removed, if desired, and exchanged for a center piston segment having a different configuration for a purpose which will become apparent in the following description.", "According to the preferred embodiment, the balancing piston segment 13 is screwed into the bottom of the center piston 11 by means of a threaded receptacle 48 and threaded stud 49.", "Seals 14 are positioned at a relatively low position on balancing piston segment 13 to thereby be spaced from the seals 12 on the center piston segment 11.", "The distance between the lowermost seal surface on the center piston segment 11 and the uppermost seal surface on the balancing piston segment 13 defines the height of a precharge chamber 50.", "The remainder of the precharge chamber 50 is defined by the inner surface 16 of middle section 7, the outer periphery of the balancing piston segment 13 located above the uppermost seal surface of seals 14, the lower peripheral portion of center piston segment located beneath the bottommost seal surface of seals 12, and the upper portion 51 of inner surface 17 of end section 8, particularly when the piston assembly is in its stroked position.", "When the piston assembly is in its unstroked position, and the releasing device is in its locked position, the seals 14 of the balancing piston segment 13 are preferably substantially flush with the top 51 of the end section 8.", "The precharge chamber 50 is pressurized at a preselected magnitude by the wireline operator.", "For this purpose, a passageway 52 is provided in the balancing piston segment 13 which extends from the upper periphery of the balancing piston 13, through the balancing piston and to a receptacle 53 which opens in the lower portion of the balancing piston segment 13.", "In the receptacle 53, a check valve 54 is provided which is preferably screwed into receptacle 53.", "The check valve 54 is offset into the balancing piston segment 13 so that a nipple 55, which is connected to a pressure source 56, can be screwed into the balancing piston segment so that the precharge chamber 50 can be suitably pressurized.", "After the precharge chamber 50 has been pressurized, a plug 57 is preferably screwed into the receptacle 53 to prevent any changes in the precharge pressure.", "A connection Y is provided for connecting the lower tubular portion 2 to the top of the well tool to be run.", "A female threaded connection is shown.", "As indicated above, a significant aspect of the present invention is that the balancing piston segment 13 and lower end section 8 can be changed out to different sizes, thereby providing an end section 8 having a smaller or larger inner diameter, together with a balancing piston segment 13 likewise having a correspondingly smaller or larger diameter.", "In operation, preferably before the releasing device of the present invention is connected to the wireline, the wireline operator suitably selects an appropriate balancing piston segment 13 and lower end section 8 combination, dependent upon the depth of the well and the liquid gradient.", "Also, the operator ensures that the balancing piston segment 13 is secured to the remainder of the piston assembly, middle piston 11 in the preferred embodiment illustrated, and that the lower end section 8 is securely fastened onto the lower tubular portion 2.", "If necessary, the operator can also exchange the center piston segment 13 to thereby alter the configuration of the precharge chamber 50.", "The operator then precharges the device to a selected pressure by inserting nipple 55 into the receptacle 53 located in the balancing piston segment 13 until the desired pressure is reached.", "The nipple 55 is then removed and plug 57 is inserted in the receptacle 53 to maintain the pressure level within the precharge chamber 50.", "Once the releasing device is appropriately assembled and pressurized, the device is then attached to the top of the tool with which the releasing device of the present invention is to be run.", "The releasing device and tool are then attached to the wireline by means of connection X located at the top of the upper tubular portion 1, and the releasing device and tool are then lowered within the production tubing of the well.", "Of course the connecting sequence of the wireline, the releasing device, and the bottom tool can be varied from that indicated above.", "An explanation of the operation of the device once it is placed within the well is made with reference to the schematic diagrams of FIGS. 7 and 8.", "FIG. 7 illustrates lower tubular portion 2 and the piston assembly to which the dogs 22 are connected for releasable connection between upper tubular portion 1 and lower tubular portion 2.", "FIG. 7 depicts the normal hydrostatic condition of the device, i.e., before pressure is exerted from the surface of the well.", "In FIGS. 7 and 8, force FH1 is the hydrostatic pressure acting upon the upper releasing piston segment 9;", "force FH2 is the hydrostatic force acting upon the balancing piston segment 13;", "force Fp is the force acting upon center piston segment 11 due to the pressure within precharge chamber 50;", "and force F is the resulting force which, in FIG. 7, retains the piston assembly in its unstroked position and the releasing device of the present invention in its locked position.", "Preferably, the cross-sectional area of the seals on the balancing piston segment 13 is slightly less than that of the seals on the upper releasing piston segment 9.", "It is apparent that without the ambient hydrostatic fluid acting on the balancing piston segment 13 by means of ports 19, the precharge pressure would be required to be extremely large, particularly in deep wells, to prevent the hydrostatic force from releasing the device.", "Should the lowermost tool with which the device of the present invention is run become stuck within the tubing during wireline operations, and the wireline operator be unsuccessful in dislodging the tool, he can, by means of the present invention, choose to disconnect the wireline immediately above the tool by disconnecting the releasing device of the present invention.", "To accomplish the disconnection, the operator applies the preselected surface pressure to the tubing, whereby the hydraulic or pneumatic fluid enters the interior 20 of upper tubular portion 1 through ports 18 and 19, thereby exerting a greater downward force F H1 on releasing piston segment 9 to thereby overcome the force F p and force F H2 acting in opposition, as is schematically illustrated in FIG. 8. As the piston assembly moves downwardly, fluid is drained from the interior 21 of lower end section 8 through ports 19.", "It will be understood that the forces acting on opposite surfaces of seal 14 will balance out because of the equal pressures.", "By applying the selected releasing pressure, the operator accomplishes the disconnection of the releasing device by means of the upper releasing piston segment 9 moving downwardly in upper tubular end section 3 such that inclined surfaces 37 of the slots 23 in the upper releasing piston segment cam the dogs 22 inwardly to thereby permit the upper tubular portion 1 to be released from lower tubular portion 2.", "Subsequently, the wireline operator can then change out the wireline he was using to a larger or newer line or move in a larger unit to fish the tool which is lodged within the tubing.", "It is to be noted in this regard, that the upper tubular end section 3 of lower tubular portion 2 has a relatively long neck 70 that an overshot of a fishing tool can easily catch and adhere to, to thereby permit the stuck tool to be removed.", "Alternatively, the operator can trip the tubing, but at least he will, by means of the present invention, be able to remove the great lengths of wireline inside the tubing and will not thereby need to unthread the wireline from the tubing once the tubing is removed.", "FIGS. 10 and 11 depict two methods by which the upper tubular end section of the lower tubular portion 1 of the device according to the present invention can be constructed, depending upon the size of the releasing device.", "For devices which are 1 11/16 inches or smaller in outer diameter, it has been found that the upper tubular end section 3 is preferably made in two pieces above slots 5, as illustrated in FIG. 10, so that the dogs 22, held by upper releasing piston segment 9, can be inserted in the openings 5.", "The upper tubular end section is then welded together.", "Alternatively, the dogs 22 can be made with a smaller width than that shown in connection with the preferred embodiment, and longitudinal slots 65 can be provided in the upper end section 3, along which the dogs can be moved during assembly.", "In this configuration, the splines 63 and guides 64 between the upper tubular portion 1 and the upper end section 3 ensure that the dogs stay in place when the tool is assembled and operated.", "Releasing devices having an outer dimension of approximately 1 11/16 inches or smaller must be constructed in the aforementioned manner since, as explained above with regard to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, when in their retracted position, the dogs 22 are still retained within openings 5 such that, if the dogs are attempted to be placed within the upper tubular end section 3 without utilizing one of the aforementioned two methods, the dogs will strike together at the top of the upper releasing piston 9 before their noses 32 can be retracted sufficiently to clear the inside surface 15 of the upper tubular end section 3.", "Alternatively, the length of inclined portion 26 of the dogs 22 could be shortened to allow the dogs to clear the inner surface of the upper tubular end section 3.", "However, the possibility that the dogs 22 will then become cocked and jammed inside the upper releasing piston 9 during operation of the device becomes increasingly likely.", "Releasing devices having an outer diameter greater than approximately 1 11/16 inches can be constructed such that the dogs 22 are placed inside the upper tubular end section 3 without any special construction of end section 3 as mentioned above and illustrated in FIGS. 10 and 11.", "That is, for such larger sized devices, once the dogs have been located within the upper releasing piston 9, the piston assembly can then be inserted within the lower tubular portion and the dogs 22 can be retracted such that they will clear inner surface 15 of the upper tubular end section 3.", "As mentioned earlier, a variable rate spring can be used to create a portion or all of the preload on piston 11.", "FIG. 12 depicts a combination of several methods which may be used to vary the amount of preload.", "As shown there, a first inner spring 71 is comparitively soft with a first spring rate.", "A second outer spring 72 may be added to spring 71, outer spring 72 being stiffer with a second higher spring rate.", "It is preferred that an annular lip 73 be provided on surface 51 to maintain the position of inner spring 71.", "A similar protrusion could be provided to position outer spring 72.", "In addition or in lieu of adding a second spring to provide the desired variability in spring rate, a series of spacer rings 74 may be added to effectively decrease the rate of a particular spring by backing reaction surface 51 away from piston 11.", "These spacer rings will preferably be threaded to engage threads 61 of end section 8 and have a plurality of thickness to adjust the position of surface 51 to provide the desired preload to correspond with the particular borehole conditions.", "Thus, it is seen that the method and apparatus of the present invention achieves the objects and advantages mentioned as well as those which are inherent therein.", "While certain preferred embodiments of the present invention have been illustrated and described for the purposes of the present disclosure, changes in the arrangement and construction of parts may be made by those skilled in the art, which changes are encompassed within the scope and spirit of the present invention as defined by the following claims." ]

[ "THE PRIOR ART My previously issued U.S. Pat. No. 3,584,444 and the art cited therein.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION There are many commercially available corn harvesting apparatuses available on the market, as for example, a self-propelled John Deere Model 7700 Combine with a Model 645 corn header.", "Generally these prior art corn harvesters are capable of harvesting corn from four or more rows.", "The corn harvesting apparatus usually is removably attached to the forward end of a self-propelled vehicle so that the vehicle can be utilized for other purposes, as for example, harvesting and threshing wheat and baling alfalfa.", "The corn harvesting apparatus of the prior art includes a plurality of forwardly directed snouts having snapping rolls located therebetween so that the snouts can travel between the rows of corn stalks, thereby causing the stalks of corn to be drawn between the snapping rolls, whereupon the ears of corn are pulled from the stalks and subsequently transferred into a lateral conveyor.", "The conveyor transports the ears of corn into the interior of the harvesting apparatus whereupon the ears are shucked, the kernels of corn removed from the corn cob, the shelled corn transferred into a storage hopper, and the shucks and corn cobs are ground, shredded, and redeposited on the field as a mulch.", "During the growing and harvesting season there are many critical periods of time when the farm is potentially profitable at one moment and potentially bankrupt at another merely because of the whims of nature and fate.", "Probably the most critical moment for the corn farmer is that time immediately preceding the harvest operation when one can observe vast quantities of corn standing beautiful and upright in the field, but alas this person may awaken the next day to discover the stalks of corn lying haphazardly about in disarray because wind and rain has descended upon the heretofore beautiful field of corn consequently tangling and tearing the stalks into complete disarray.", "This situation causes a tremendous loss in yield because many of the stalks are left lying on the ground, while other stalks have been left broken and can no longer be properly manipulated by the snapping rows, so that the ears of corn cannot be removed therefrom.", "Further, other stalks will subsequently become broken loose from the root system during the snapping operation.", "The above loss in yield because of ears of corn left lying in the field can sometime equal or exceed all of the farmer's profit for his entire years work.", "Therefore it is advantageous to be able to combine still another mechanical apparatus with the corn harvesting apparatus wherein the two mechanisms complement each other in such a manner that the broken and fallen stalks are picked up and guided into the snapping rolls or directly into the lateral conveyor so that substantially all of the corn grown in the field is passed through the harvester and saved.", "This new combination of elements is especially desirable at this particular time in history when farm help is exceedingly difficult to obtain because of the many poverty programs and the farmer must therefore resort to mechanized expedients if he is to continue to feed both the parasites as well as the workers of our nation.", "Heretofore, long before the present invention was divulged to those skilled in the art, the operator of a harvesting machine occasionally would be forced to stop his machine in the field, climb out upon the corn harvesting apparatus, and rake broken stalks of corn, weeds and other interfering materials into the lateral conveyor before the machine could efficiently proceed with the harvesting operation.", "From time to time an operator has slipped and fallen into the lateral conveyor where he is conveyed into the interior of the harvester, or caught by the snapping rolls.", "Such a bizarre accident usually results in fatalities.", "The present apparatus eliminates the necessity of the operator ever being forced into this dangerous situation.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A corn saver apparatus adapted to be combined with a corn harvester apparatus.", "The corn saver apparatus causes broken and fallen stalks of corn to be conveyed into the harvesting apparatus rather than left lying on the field.", "The apparatus of the present invention is removably affixed to a conventional corn harvesting apparatus by the arrangement of a laterally positioned drive shaft mounted in superimposed relationship above the lateral conveyor of a corn harvester, thereby providing a drive means as well as a support means for a series of endless conveyors made in accordance with the present invention.", "The endless conveyors are supported by a cantilever arm with the arm being superimposed over a plurality of centrally located corn gathering snouts.", "The arms include a free end forwardly disposed in proximity of the snouts with there being a series of outwardly disposed lugs carried by the endless conveyor.", "Broken and fallen stalks are engaged and transported rearwardly towards the lateral conveyor by the endless conveyor thereby enabling the snapping rolls to remove the ears of corn from the stalks, or alternatively, transporting the ear laden stalks to a beater device which facilitates the handling of broken stalks of corn by the harvester.", "A pair of augers are arranged in opposition and cooperate with the action of the snouts, lateral conveyor, beater, and endless conveyor.", "The augers are arranged in a particular manner so that a stalk of corn is engaged and moved toward the marginal central area of the auger, whereupon a knocker device impacts the ear of corn, knocking the ear inwardly toward the centrally located snouts, whereupon the ear is subsequently conveyed to the lateral conveyor and into the threshing apparatus.", "The auger, beater, and endless conveyor are all supported by a common framework and driven by a common shaft.", "The beater device is supported by the common drive shaft and includes a driven shaft.", "Accordingly, a primary object of the present invention is the provision of improvements in corn harvesting apparatus which enables damaged corn laden stalks to be transported into a corn harvesting apparatus.", "Another object of this invention is the provision of improvements wherein stalks of corn which have fallen to the ground are picked up and the ears of corn removed therefrom.", "Still another object of this invention is the provision of a new combination wherein stalks of corn are efficiently transported from overlying relationship respective to a series of snouts.", "A still further object of this invention is to provide an improved apparatus which is attachable to a conventional corn harvester and which prevents the upper surface of the snouts thereof from becoming overburdened with corn stalks and weeds.", "Still another object of the present invention is the provision of improvements associated with corn harvesting apparatus that picks up fallen corn stalks and moves the stalk upwardly along the incline of the snout in order that the stalks of corn can be forced to pass between the snapping rolls and thereafter into the thresher so that the kernels of corn can be removed from the corn cob.", "A further object of this invention is the provision of an auger like apparatus for lifting fallen stalks in such a manner that the ears of corn are engaged and impacted so that the ears are forced laterally of the harvester into proximity of the centrally arranged snouts.", "The above objects are attained in accordance with the present invention by the provision of a combination of elements which are fabricated in a manner substantially as described in the above abstract and summary.", "These and various other objects and advantages of the invention will become readily apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading the following detailed description and claims and by referring to the accompanying drawings.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a front perspective view of a corn harvesting apparatus which includes the corn saver apparatus made in accordance with the present invention;", "FIG. 2 is an enlarged, fragmentary, perspective view which discloses additional details of the apparatus seen in FIG. 1;", "FIG. 3 is an enlarged top plan view of part of the apparatus disclosed in FIGS. 1 and 2, with some parts being broken away therefrom, and other parts being shown in phantom so as to more clearly disclose the details of the present invention;", "FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 4--4 of FIG. 3;", "FIG. 5 is an enlarged, fragmentary, side elevational view of part of the apparatus seen in the foregoing figures;", "FIG. 6 is an enlarged, fragmentary, perspective view having some parts removed therefrom so as to better disclose the essence of the present invention;", "FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 7--7 of FIG. 6, with a minimum of parts being shown for clarity;", "FIG. 8 is an isolated view which discloses the operative relationship of part of the application previously disclosed in FIGS. 6 and 7;", "and, FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 9--9 of FIG. 8. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Throughout the various figures of the drawings wherever possible or logical to do so, like or similar numerals will refer to like or similar elements.", "In FIG. 1 there is disclosed a corn harvesting apparatus 10 which includes a John Deere Model 7700 combine to which there is affixed a John Deere Model 645 corn harvester.", "The apparatus 10 includes the present invention in combination therewith as will be better appreciated later on as this specification is more fully digested.", "The combine 12 includes a driver's cab, thresher, and untold numbers of other parts and mechanisms known to those skilled in the art.", "Forwardly mounted respective to the combine is the corn saver apparatus 14 made in accordance with the present invention.", "The corn saver apparatus is mounted in superimposed relationship respective to the corn harvester which includes a plurality of snouts 16 of conventional design.", "The snouts terminate in a shoe or nose 18.", "The starboard side of the combination includes an outermost snout 20 to which there is operatively associated an auger 22 rotatably mounted and aligned longitudinally respective to the directon of travel of the combine.", "The port side of the apparatus includes a similar auger 24 with the latter rotating anticlockwise and the former rotating clockwise as viewed from the forward end of the entire assemblage.", "The corn saver apparatus of the present invention comprises a main support frame, generally illustrated by the arrow at numeral 25, fabricated from longitudinally extended, laterally disposed, parallel members 26 and 27 which are cross braced and affixed to one another in such a manner that the frame 25 can support the entire corn saver apparatus.", "A main drive shaft 28 is driven by the illustrated hydraulic motor and is supportingly disposed coextensive with the main frame work.", "As best seen in FIGS. 6 and 7, the shaft is supported in spaced relationship respective to the frame by means of a plurality of spaced apart journals 29.", "Opposed terminal ends of the shaft terminate in attached relationship respective to a plate member 30 which drives a wheel 31 placed normal thereto so that plate 30 is a drive wheel while plate 31 is a driven wheel.", "As best seen in FIGS. 1 and 3, journal 32 is affixed to the main frame and supports the upper enlarged end of the auger device 22.", "A cover 33 forms the forward terminal end of the auger device 22 and the snout 20 with there being a journal means underlying the cover by which the forward reduced diameter end of the auger device 22 is supported by the snout, as will be discussed in greater detail later on in this disclosure.", "As seen in various figures of the drawings, a yoke assembly 34 extends upwardly in spaced relationship respective to the frame 25 and includes a rearwardly directed strut number 35.", "The strut enables the yoke to be adjustably affixed in spaced relation respective to member 27.", "The yoke includes the illustrated spaced legs, each of which are journaled to the main shaft 28 as seen at 36 in FIGS. 1 and 3.", "Accordingly, the main shaft 28 is supported in journaled relationship respective to the main frame 25, while the plurality of spaced yokes 34 are supported by the shaft 28 with part of the load thereof being carried by the adjusting strut 35.", "The journals 29 include a plurality of spaced apart load carrying trunions 37, 37'", "by which the main drive shaft is suitably supported in the aforesaid spaced relationship respective to the main frame 25.", "Rigidly affixed to the lower end portion of the yoke is a cantilever arm 38 and an idler arm 40.", "One end of the cantilever arm is attached equidistant along the shaft at a location between the spaced legs of the yoke, with the cantilever arm depending or extending away from the yoke to present a free end which can be pivoted into close proximity of the shoe 18.", "Accordingly, adjustable change in the length of the strut 35 pivots the yoke 34 about the main shaft 28 while at the same time the cantilever arm 38 is pivoted about said shaft.", "As seen in FIGS. 3 and 6 together with other figures of the drawings, a sprocket 39 is affixed to the main shaft 28 at a location between the legs of the yoke, and is rotated thereby.", "Idler arm 40 is affixed to and extends in opposition respective to the yoke and the cantilever arm.", "The idler arm includes a sprocket therewithin.", "The free end of the cantilever arm includes sprocket 39'.", "Endless chain 41 is driven by sprocket 39 and is maintained in the illustrated configuration of FIGS. 6 and 7 by the idler sprockets at 39'", "and 40.", "Lugs 42 are welded to the master links of the chain and interposed in spaced relationship respective to one another within the endless chain.", "One lug 43 of each endless chain includes a weed remover apparatus 44 welded in the illustrated manner seen at 45.", "As seen in FIG. 2, a conventional corn snapper device 46 is located near the lower extremity and between each of the snouts.", "Lateral conveyor 48 has the spirals thereof arranged in opposite pitch on each marginal end thereof so that ears of corn are conveyed towards the center of the machine where they are transferred into the thresher thereof in the conventional manner.", "Wear strip 50 is replacably affixed to the upper surface of the snout in the illustrated manner of FIGS. 6 and 7.", "The lugs 42 engage the wear strip rather than the upper thin metal surface of the snout, thereby preventing damage thereto.", "As seen in FIGS. 2 and 3, journal 51 underlies the cover 33 and rotatably supports the forward end of the auger in a pivotal manner.", "The opposed enlarged terminal end of the auger is provided with a plate member 52 concentrically arranged with respect to the elongated marginal central constant diameter portion 53.", "The auger device tapers at 54 into a conical configuration.", "The medial part of the auger includes a flat plate member 55 which is affixed to the outer peripheral wall surface of the constant diameter portion 53 and arranged parallel to the axial centerline of the auger.", "Each end of the plate continues in opposed directions in a manner to provide spirals 56 and 57 of opposite pitch so that, as the shaft 58 imparts axial rotation to the auger, a stalk of corn located at either marginal end of the auger device will be forced toward the plate member 55.", "Plate member 55 of auger 22 rotates clockwise so that when the plate contacts an ear of corn, the ear of corn will be knocked toward the centrally located snouts where it ultimately will be forced into the thresher.", "As seen in FIGS. 3 and 4, the shaft 58 is telescopingly received within an elongated tubular member 59 to thereby provide a telescoping driven shaft so that as the nose member pivots respective to the main frame 25, telescoping motion between the driven shaft 58 and driven member 59 takes place to thereby account for the motion between the main frame and the end of the snout.", "As seen in FIGS. 6 and 7, a trough like monocoque structure 60 forms the major support for the frame, snouts, and lateral conveyor 48.", "Overlying the lateral conveyor 48 is a novel beater device 62.", "The beater device is driven by chain 63 by means of the main shaft 28.", "A secondary shaft 64 supports a plurality of radially spaced vanes 66 which are arranged in the form of elongated fins.", "The fins extend from end to end of the beater device except for interruptions caused by the intermediate spaced apart marginal portions which enable the spaced bearings 68 to maintain the beater device in rotatable spaced relationship respective to the main frame, the trough, and the lateral conveyor.", "As seen in FIGS. 7-9, the beater device 62 is supported in journaled relation at several spaced locations by the provision of journal means 68 and 69, and arm 70, in such a manner that the main shaft 28 essentially supports the secondary shaft 64.", "The arm 70 includes a telescoping reduced diameter portion 72 sideably received therewithin.", "The bearing 68 is connected to chain 74 so that hook 75 can receive the remaining marginal end of the chain, thereby permitting proper positioning of the beater device 62 respective to the remaining coacting apparatus.", "Drive sprocket 76 is affixed to shaft 28 and drives sprocket 78 by means of the aforesaid drive chain 63.", "The opposed ends 80, 82 of shaft 64 are preferably arranged to dispose the driven shaft parallel to the axial centerline of the lateral conveyor 48 so that the beater can extend in superimposed parallel relationship essentially along the entire length of the trough 60.", "The ends of the beater at 84 and 88 are arranged so that essentially any stalk of corn entering the trough will be broken up into convenient lengths so that they can be received along with the ears of corn and suitably processed by the thresher.", "In this disclosure, and especially in the claims, the terms "chains 63, sprocket 76,"", "are intended to include other devices, as for example, a fan belt and pulley or a shaft having bevel gears on the extremities thereof, for example.", "Furthermore, it is contemplated that the endless conveyor chain 41 could intead be belting, or other similar apparatus which achieves the same purpose as the illustrated embodiment of the invention and accordingly these variations are deemed to lie within the comprehension of the claim subject matter.", "OPERATION In operation the apparatus disclosed in FIG. 1 moves along a field of corn with the snouts 16 being arranged such that the stalks of corn are guided between the snouts and towards the snap rolls 46.", "Consequently, the action of the snap rolls remove the ears of corn from the stalks and transfers the ears into the lateral conveyor 48.", "The lateral conveyor moves material towards the central marginal portion thereof so that all of the corn is delivered through a single opening into the thresher.", "The details of the thresher, the lateral conveyor 48, the snouts 16 and 20, and the snap rolls 46 are known and appreciated by those skilled in the art, reference having already been made to one commercially available example thereof.", "Many stalks of corn are partially broken near the ground by the action of insects and other vermin.", "These stalks are usually broken from the root system during or before harvesting and consequently the snap rolls cannot engage the ears thereof with sufficient force to pull the ear from the stalk.", "Consequently, in the absence of the present invention, this stalk often causes a log jam wherein a large pile of stalks and weeds commences to overburden the upper surface of the plurality of the snouts.", "The present invention avoids this undesirable situation by transferring the broken stalks directly to the beater 62 and auger 48 wherein the stalks are either separated from the ears for subsequent processing or the stalks are reduced in size so that the flow thereof through the remainder of the processing equipment occurs more efficiently.", "Many stalks lying at an angle respective to the vertical will be engaged by the auger whereupon the oppositely pitched spiral will move the stalk towards plate 55.", "This action enables the plate 55 to strike the ear of corn, knocking the ear laterally toward the centrally located snouts.", "The weed remover 44 prevents large tumble weeds and the like from accumulating top side of the equipment by continually forcing the overburden of weeds back toward the forward end of the snout, where ultimately the weeds reach the ground and pass away from the combine.", "The cooperative action between the known harvesting apparatus and the improved continuous conveyor 41, beater 62, and auger 22 provide unexpected advantageous heretofore unattainable in the prior art apparatus.", "The corn saver apparatus of the present invention can be readily removed from a corn harvester by disconnecting the hydraulic pump at 90, unbolting bearings 51, and unbolting the main frame from the harvester structure whereupon the entire corn saver apparatus can be lifted free of the corn harvester implement." ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS (CLAIMING BENEFIT UNDER 35 U.S.C. 120) [0001] This patent application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. ______, filed on ______ (to be amended when serial number and filing date have been assigned), docket number AUS920040971US2;", "which was a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 11/127,846 filed on May 12, 2005, docket number AUS920040973US1, which was a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 11/109,038 filed on Apr. 19, 2005, docket number AUS920040971US1, and of of U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 11/109,069, filed on Apr. 19, 2005, docket number AUS920040974US1, which were a continuations of U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 11/101,604, filed on Apr. 7, 2005, docket number AUS920040977US1, all of which are commonly assigned.", "INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE [0002] The related U.S. patent applications are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties: Ser.", "No. ______, filed on ______ (to be amended when serial number and filing date have been assigned), docket number AUS920040971US2;", "Ser.", "No. 11/127,846 filed on May 12, 2005, docket number AUS920040973US1;", "Ser.", "No. 11/109,038 filed on Apr. 19, 2005, docket number AUS920040971US1;", "Ser.", "No. 11/109,069, filed on Apr. 19, 2005, docket number AUS920040974US1;", "and Ser.", "No. 11/101,604, filed on Apr. 7, 2005, docket number AUS920040977US1.", "FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT STATEMENT [0003] This invention was not developed in conjunction with any Federally sponsored contract.", "MICROFICHE APPENDIX [0004] Not applicable.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0005] 1.", "Field of the Invention [0006] This invention relates to a Solution Builder Wizard that utilizes templates and interfaces with predefined intelligence to allow speedy assembly of various software components into one cohesive product form, and further to prepare customary documentation to accompany this product form as often required by service contracts, for quality testing, and for maintenance of the product.", "[0007] 2.", "Background of the Invention [0008] Recently, a shift has occurred among enterprise computing supplies to address “vertical markets.”", "These “solutions”", "targeted to the specific needs, business processes, and problems for a certain industry, such as insurance claim processing, health care insurance filing, mortgage application handling, etc.", "Industry solutions often consists of one or more operating systems and middleware products that are packaged along with customized, industry specific, data, and code that are installed and configured to function as one cohesive business solution.", "There are many software and consulting firms who are focused on implementing vertical industry solutions using a collection of disparate products produced by a wide array of vendors.", "[0009] To implement a vertical industry solution, a single expert is not sufficient to complete the project because it requires expert level skills and knowledge of such a wide array of products, systems, platforms, configurations, options, protocols, etc.", "Further, all of these different components must integrated and cooperate with each other in specific, often proprietary ways.", "[0010] As a result, a team of specialists are usually required to install and deploy the entire project.", "To mitigate risk, customers often request that a prototype or proof of concept system be installed or demonstrated in order to provide concrete evidence of viability of the solution, and of the business value of the solution, prior to purchase.", "[0011] This places much engineering and development work up front and before a formal purchase order is issued, which increases the financial risk to the supplier or suppliers.", "In some cases, it can take eight weeks or even more to gather requirements, and to create a prototype that solves the customer's problems.", "Then, it can take months to implement and test a prototype, including producing some sort of data which simulates various scenarios and test cases.", "[0012] This “up front”", "effort requires a massive amount of time and expenditures in some cases.", "Because it lasts so long, there is a very real possibility that components (e.g. software applications, operating systems, etc.) will be revised and patched, so the final configuration, if ordered, will have unknown characteristics as the newer releases and patches will also have to be integrated and tested before formal deployment.", "[0013] Thus, the processes currently employed in the industry place a heavy risk and financial burden on the supplier prior to a sale being completed, which is reflected in the pricing of the final systems to the customers, the increased cost of which must be either absorbed by the customers or passed on to their own clients.", "In either situation, the customer may either experience reduced profitability, reduced ability to compete on price, or both.", "[0014] Typically, when a computing solution is produced incorporating multiple software products, software tools and application programs, a comprehensive package of all the related documents such as installation guides, user guides, and administration guides are bundled together, and shipped to the client for use or archival.", "This process is manually completed, and is often labor intensive.", "Further, in some situations, not all of the optional components within a family of products are purchased, used, or licensed, which case, excessive paper documents are delivered to users even when it is not applicable to the specific client or project.", "Moreover, solutions developers often spend an exorbitant amount of time sorting and scanning through all the available documentation that may not even be applicable to the problems at hand.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0015] The present invention utilizes a Graphical User Interface driven model in integrated development environments (“IDEs”), such as IDEs based upon the open-sourced Eclipse platform, to create diverse end-to-end computing solutions from building block components.", "The building block components are available in the GUI to the solution developer on a “solution component palette.”", "The solution developer selects, drags and drops instances of each required solution component into a “solution design area”, and then connects them together in a logical manner according to system interactions and data flow.", "[0016] Each time the solution developer specifies or creates a “connection”", "between two components in the design area, the invention invokes specific logic which determines the needed configuration and option parameters to interface the selected components to each other.", "This logic provides a “pop-up”", "dialogue to the solution developer to prompt the user for selections and input.", "The input information is then used by the logic to configure the two components to interact with each other within the pre-defined constraints and conditions of the logic, thereby relieving the user of needing to be an expert in the configuration and installation of either of the components.", "[0017] For example, a component palette may include an IBM DB/2 database icon, an IBM WebSphere web server application icon, and an IBM MQ server icon with a backend server such as an IBM 390.", "The solution developer can drag an instance of the DB/2 icon from the palette to the solution design area of the display, thus making it a component of the current solution.", "Next, the developer can drag an instance of the WebSphere from the palette to the design area, followed by connecting it to the DB/2 instance, or followed by dragging and dropping more instances of more components.", "[0018] When a connection between two or more components is made or defined, the invention automatically recognizes the need for customization information for this type of connection, and prompts the developer to enter the required configuration data necessary to make the connection valid and functional, such as user id and password, data source, network address, encryption options, etc.", "This information is then saved to configuration files which can later be used during actual installation of the system components into the solution.", "[0019] Prior to deployment or installation of the system solution, the present invention allows the designer to simulate operation and interactions of all of the components using actual data collected from existing customer solutions, simulated data, or a combination of both types of data.", "During simulation, the solution under design can be debugged using the present invention, which monitors data flow between system components and provides certain diagnostic and analysis capabilities.", "[0020] According to the present invention, when utilized with the related inventions, documentation which is related to the incorporated software programs, tools, and application programs is automatically aggregated into a deliverable package electronically, omitting unrelated documentation for product features or options which were not employed in the solution.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0021] The following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the figures presented herein provide a complete disclosure of the invention.", "[0022] FIG. 1 shows a sample view of the Solution Builder Wizard GUI.", "[0023] FIGS. 2 a , 2 b and 3 depict how the cursor is used to drag and drop solution components from the component palette to a design area.", "[0024] FIG. 4 illustrates how interfaced between components are defined.", "[0025] FIG. 5 shows an example user prompt for defining connection options and configuration parameters.", "[0026] FIG. 6 illustrates a logical process for intelligent interface definition between components.", "[0027] FIG. 7 shows the process in saving a partial sub-system using the GUI tool.", "[0028] FIG. 8 depicts a generalized computing platform architecture, such as a personal computer, server computer, personal digital assistant, web-enabled wireless telephone, or other processor-based device.", "[0029] FIG. 9 shows a generalized organization of software and firmware associated with the generalized architecture of FIG. 8 .", "[0030] FIG. 10 shows an example DB2 database model in UML.", "[0031] FIG. 11 shows an Item Description DTD according to the preferred embodiment for the model of FIG. 10 .", "[0032] FIGS. 12 a and 12 b show an example item description in XML for an MQ Series server component, also according to the example DTD of FIG. 11 .", "[0033] FIGS. 13 a - 13 g show an example item description in XML for a WAS component according to the example DTD of FIG. 11 .", "[0034] FIG. 14 shows the pre-selected properties file being invoked when relationships between solution components are established.", "[0035] FIG. 15 illustrates pre-selected properties file using the customized simple option.", "[0036] FIG. 16 shows pre-selected properties file using the customized advanced option.", "[0037] FIG. 17 illustrates pre-selected properties file using customized automatically pre-fills the required parameters for automatic configuration.", "[0038] FIG. 18 depicts the logical process to select custom configuration method in relation to intelligence properties files.", "[0039] FIG. 19 illustrates selection of solution components for subsequent testing and simulation using actual customer data.", "[0040] FIG. 20 depicts logical process according to the present invention of an automated real time testing of a prototyped solution in a Solution Builder Wizard environment using actual customer data.", "[0041] FIG. 21 sets forth a logical process for debugging a prototyped solution as performed by the present invention.", "[0042] FIG. 22 illustrates the deployment descriptor process performed by the present invention.", "[0043] FIG. 23 shows a typical organization of application components and deployment descriptors when packaged for deployment.", "[0044] FIG. 24 illustrates the user perspective process to generate desired documentation.", "[0045] FIG. 25 depicts the logical process of the Document Generation module according to the present invention.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0046] Our invention, referred to as the “Solution Builder Wizard”, uses a Graphical User Interface (“GUI”), a set of predefined “templates”", "for each component, and implementation intelligence logic, to enable speedy assembly of various solution components together into one cohesive solution.", "Each “template”", "coupled with the implementation logic for each combination of component interfaces defines a set of configuration options and parameters which can be used to customize the combination of components, without need of a high level of expertise in either component.", "Preferably, the templates incorporate the most common options and configurations employed, leaving out obscure or rarely used options to reduce confusion by the system developer.", "Default configuration parameters and values may aid in quickly defining interfaces between components so that the system developers must only change the parameters that need to be changed from default values.", "[0047] Prototypes and proof of concept systems can be quickly achieved using pre-defined interfaces and configurations between disparate components of the solution.", "Using the invention, a tangible, operable solution can be demonstrated and tested in less time than using traditional processes, because all components are integrated with each other based upon the templates rather than upon customized or semi-customized interface and configuration definitions from various experts.", "[0048] In an aspect of a preferred embodiment, each component is declared as an object using eXtensible Markup Language for the templates.", "Because of this advantage, the solution can be defined in a written format which can then be archived and managed by any of the widely available and widely used code repository systems, such as CATIA Viewing Services (“CVS”), IBM's Configuration Management and Version Control (“CMVC”) system, Serena™ Software's PVCS Version Manager, or a similar product.", "[0000] Terms, Definitions and Related Technology [0049] We will first describe some terms and related technologies which will be of use in understanding the present invention and one or more preferred embodiments.", "[0050] Unified Modeling Language (“UML”) is an open standard for notation of modeling of objects in the real-world.", "The objects can conceivably be any real thing, such as a computer with a specific program, a system device such as a printer, a peripheral such as a motor, etc.", "Modeling such objects is usually a first step in developing an object-oriented design methodology.", "UML's notation derives from approaches of three other object-oriented design and analysis methodologies, including Grady Booch's methodology for describing a set of objects and their relationships, James Rumbaugh's Object-Modeling Technique (“OMT”), and Ivar Jacobson's approach which includes a use case methodology, according to one online Information Technology source www<dot>WhatIs<dot>com, wherein <dot>", "is replaced with a period “.”", "when entering the service's website address into a web browser.", "The UML standard is now maintained and promoted by the Object Management Group.", "In the following paragraphs, it shall be understood that references to UML are to one available embodiment, and that use of alternate modeling languages and methodologies may be employed without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.", "[0051] Graphical User Interface (“GUI”) is a user interface that is based on graphics such as icons, menus, and pictures.", "In the late 1970's, the Xerox Palo Alto Research Laboratory first created the GUI concept.", "Today, users are most familiar with either the Apple MAC™ or Microsoft's Windows™ operating systems.", "Most applications today use the elements of the GUI that come with the operating system and add or modify their own graphical user interface elements for customization.", "GUI elements can consist of items such as: windows, buttons, iconic images, pull-down menus, wizards, and mouse.", "Often the phrase “look-and-feel”", "is use to describe a system's GUI along with its input devices.", "In the following paragraphs, it shall be understood that references to GUI are to just one available embodiment, and that use of alternate platform and methodologies may be employed without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.", "[0052] Eclipse is an open platform tool for integration built by an open community of tool providers such as Borland™, International Business Machines (“IBM”)™, and Red Hat™.", "It is designed to build integrated development environments (“IDEs”) which allow the creation of diverse end-to-end computing solutions for multiple computer environments while providing flexibility and management for developers in their software technology.", "According to the Eclipse Foundation, it has formed an independent open eco-system around royalty-free technology and a universal platform for tools integration.", "The Eclipse platform is a mechanism for discovering, integrating, and running modules called plug-ins based on the foundation's formal documents and white papers.", "The plug-in based framework enables ease of creation, integration, and utilization of software tools, in a multi-language, multi-platform, multi-vendor environment.", "The Eclipse Platform is written in Java language and comes with extensive plug-in construction tool kits and examples.", "It has been deployed on a range of development workstations including Linux, HP-UX, AIX, Solaris, QNX, OSx, and Windows based systems.", "In the following paragraphs, it shall be understood that references to Eclipse are to one available embodiment, and that use of alternate platform and methodologies may be employed without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.", "[0053] WebSphere Application Server (“WAS”) is a comprehensive web services technology-based application server that integrates enterprise data and transactions.", "It is a complete Java-servlet based Web server environment consisting of two major components: a complete runtime environment and an integrated tools environment.", "It is a web-based tool that allows management and deployment of dynamic enterprise applications while handling extensive Java 2 Enterprise Edition (“J2EE”), security, scalability, and application performance.", "According to its product overview, it provides virtually any-to-any connectivity with transaction management and application adaptively, because it is optimized for ease of administration in a scalable, single-server deployment environment.", "WAS supports key Web Service open standards, such as Simple Object Access Protocol (“SOAP”), Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (“UDDI”), and Web Service Description Language (“WSDL”).", "WAS can be used on a variety of platforms such as Sun Solaris, Windows XP, IBM AIX/6000, and IBM LINUX.", "Other similar products that exists today is BEA Weblogic Application Server™ and JBoss™ own suite of tools.", "In the following paragraphs, it shall be understood that references to WAS are to just one available embodiment, and that use of alternate platform and methodologies may be employed without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.", "[0054] WebSphere Studio Application Developer (“WSAD”) is a development environment tool that is role based which developers can use to simulate test environments, handle deployment, and transmit message queues such as XML messages.", "The WebSphere Studio family of tools are built on top of the Eclipse Workbench as a set of plug-ins conforming to the Eclipse's open standard Application Program Interface (“API”).", "It is designed for professional developers of Java and J2EE applications who require integrated Java, Web, XML, and Web services support.", "Because users can build and test business logic inside the WSAD before deploying to a production server, it has the advantages for early detection in performance bottlenecks, and to shorten the actual test cycle with its advanced code generation.", "All development resources for all projects are stored in a single repository, and users have team support and can easily share work products.", "In the following paragraphs, it shall be understood that references to WSAD are to just one available embodiment, and that use of alternate platform and methodologies may be employed without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.", "[0055] WebSphere Business Integration (“WBI”) is a part of WebSphere suite of tools that extends using the Eclipse workbench to model, simulate and manage business integration, workflows, and processes.", "The WBI brand encompasses a number of software technologies that offer various business integration capabilities such as WBI Modeler, WBI Server, WBI Server Foundation, WBI Message Broker, WBI Connect, WBI Administration Tools, and WBI Design Tools.", "These tools facilitate users to quickly model, simulate, and analyze complex business scenarios before they are implemented by integrating with existing or new software components.", "In addition, the administration and design tools allow for ease in system administration and workflow creation which shares some similarities to IBM's Rational™ software.", "In the following paragraphs, it shall be understood that references to WBI are to just one available embodiment, and that use of alternate platform and methodologies may be employed without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.", "[0056] WebSphere MQ (“WMQ”) formerly known as IBM's MQ Series is a message queue system that exchanges information such as using XML to communicate across various platforms while integrating new and existing applications.", "It is a synchronous or asynchronous method of communicating between processes.", "It allows applications that reside on same server, different servers, or even different network across a global application environments to send and receive reliable and secured requests between each other.", "WMQ is integrated with latest Java™ Messaging Service interface standard and offers comprehensive security options using the Secure Socket Layer (“SSL”).", "One feature of WMQ is its ability to dynamically distribute workloads across available resources which enables messages to be delivered error-free and protects from unauthorized access.", "There are other message queue systems such as Microsoft's Message Queue (“MSMQ”)™, Sun Java System Message Queue (“JMS”)™, and Progress Software SonicMQ™.", "In the following paragraphs, it shall be understood that references to WMQ are to just one available embodiment, and that use of alternate platform and methodologies may be employed without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.", "[0000] Graphical User Interface [0057] Turning to FIG. 1 , the diagram shows a sample view of the Solution Builder Wizard GUI ( 10 ) according to a preferred embodiment of the invention.", "In the GUI, which is shown on a portion of a computer display ( 10 ), there is a customizable menu bar toward the top ( 11 ) which allows the user the ability to navigate through a file ( 12 ), edit the component palette ( 13 ), change the view option ( 14 ), select a template ( 15 ), create a connection between application components ( 16 ), or seek help ( 17 ) within the GUI application.", "[0058] The GUI is pre-loaded with various solution components ( 100 ) shown in a solution component palette ( 18 ), and related intelligence logic based on customization.", "The available solution components can consists of different types of databases, such as DB2 or Oracle, or other application software such as WAS, WSAD, WMQ, and WBI.", "According to the preferred embodiment, additional solution component options can be added to the palette ( 18 ) as needed.", "[0059] Connectors ( 20 ) that interface solution components with one another are shown in the palette ( 18 ), optionally.", "A cursor ( 19 ) is used by a developer to navigate, select, and create the a solution design through the GUI, by moving components ( 100 ) from the palette ( 18 ) to the solution design area ( 101 ) of the GUI.", "[0060] For example, FIGS. 2 a and 2 b show how the cursor is used to first select ( 19 ′) a component in the palette, such as a DB2 database component, then drag it into the design area of the GUI, and dropping it ( 19 ″) it to create a new instance of a DB2 database in the solution design [0000] Creation of Component Instances and Relationships [0061] In FIG. 3 , a subsequent drag and drop operation by the user has added a second component from the palette to the design area, in this example an instance of a WebSphere Application Server ( 22 ) (“WAS”).", "Now, the solution under design has two components—an instance of a DB2 database ( 21 ), and an instance of WAS ( 22 ).", "[0062] At this point, the developer could continue to drag-and-drop components from the palette to the design area to create more instances of components in the design, or the developer can begin to define the relationships between the components already in the design.", "For example, by using the one-way or two-way connectors available in the GUI, FIG. 4 illustrates how components are interfaced to each other.", "The types of relationships available to the user is based on the predefined templates associated with each solution component.", "The cursor can be used to select a one-way data flow definition tool (single-headed arrow in the palette), for example, then it can be clicked once to define one end of the arrow icon (e.g. the input or output), say on the DB2 instance ( 21 ), and then clicked a second time on another component, such as the WAS ( 22 ) instance.", "This results in the graphical creation of an arrow ( 23 ) showing one-way data flow from the database component to the WAS component.", "[0063] Once a relationship is established between two components, the intelligence logic of the invention automatically prompts the user for inputs to complete required fields that facilitate the integration process according to pre-defined options and configuration features, as defined by the XML templates.", "Continuing with our example and turning to FIG. 5 , the user input prompt window ( 50 ) is automatically displayed by the invention's logic once a connection is completed.", "In this case, a WAS Administration Console is shown, requesting the user to input fields to define the interface between teh WAS to the DB2, such as the database name ( 51 ), its source ( 52 ), the Internet Protocol (“IP”) address ( 53 ), and an alias ( 54 ) that denotes the username and password.", "[0000] Connection Intelligence Logic [0064] Turning to FIG. 6 , a connection intelligence logical process ( 60 ) according to the invention is depicted.", "The GUI shows ( 61 ) a component palette and design area on the display of the developer's computer.", "The design area may be clear if starting a new design, or it can include components previously defined and saved ( 63 ).", "A “recall”", "( 62 ) option allows the developer to open or import a previously saved solution design into the design area.", "[0065] When each solution component in the palette is selected, dragged and dropped into the design area by the user, an object instance is created ( 64 ) in the design area.", "Multiple instances of the same type component can be created in this manner (e.g. multiple DB2 instances or multiple WAS instances).", "[0066] Once at least two components have been added to the design area, the user can use the “make connection”", "option at any time.", "Each time a relationship between two or more components is established, a sub-template generator ( 65 ) is invoked.", "This displays an intelligence form ( 66 ) on the GUI to request user inputs for required and optional fields related to defining the interface between the components.", "When the inputs are received ( 67 ) from the user, the design area is updated to show the connection, and the sub-template is saved which defines the interface between the related components.", "[0067] Turning to FIG. 7 , the figures shows the process of saving a partial sub-system using the GUI tool ( 70 ).", "After a user has completed creating the component instances, such as adding to the previous example an instance of WMQ ( 71 ), and a custom application ( 72 ) (e.g. proprietary software, a web browser, etc.), and has defined the relationships the components, the user can save the whole solution, or just partial sub-solutions for reuse.", "[0068] For example, if the user wishes to save the entire solution including all of the component instances and their relationships, the user selects all of the components in a manner such as dragging a selection line ( 74 ) around all of the components.", "If the user only wishes to save a partial sub-system or sub-solution, one select only those components for saving, such as drawing a selection line ( 73 ) around the DB2 and WAS components, followed by performing a “save”", "function.", "This capability of the invention enables users to quickly create, add, or modify existing solutions through use of individual components as well as reuse of previously defined partial solutions.", "[0000] Solution Builder Wizard Advantages [0069] Using these methods, the Solution Builder Wizard provides user the ability to quickly develop a cohesive solution using a GUI palette to create the necessary components and establish the desired logical relationships between each other.", "The ease in drag and drop eliminates the complexity in integration and simplifies the required input information without the user having to sort through tedious amounts of manuals and guidebooks in installation and deployment.", "This results in saving considerable time, resources, and expense using this preferred embodiment.", "Not only can the proof of concept be swiftly completed, but also the enormous amount of time that can be saved during the actual installation, test, and deployment phase.", "[0070] Users now have the ability to see actual or close to real simulated environment before final development occurs.", "The GUI provides a one-stop shop for developers to create prototypes using a variety of application components and integrate them using the simplified process driven by the intelligence logic.", "By updating the templates on-the-fly in the GUI, productivity increases dramatically.", "The flexibility of using UML allows the solution to be defined in a written format that can easily be edited or modified if necessary in CVS file format.", "[0000] Component Solution Templates [0071] As mentioned earlier, the preferred embodiment includes UML models of each available solution component written in XML.", "FIG. 10 shows an example DB2 database model in UML.", "[0072] To correctly interpret information contained in an XML file, a system must also have an associated Document Type Definition (“DTD”) file, which is file defining and constraining the data or statements allowed in an XML file for a specific purpose.", "[0073] FIG. 11 shows an Item Description DTD according to the preferred embodiment for the model of FIG. 10 .", "FIGS. 12 a and 12 b show an example item description in XML for an MQ Series server component, also according to the example DTD of FIG. 11 .", "FIGS. 13 a - 13 g show an example item description in XML for a WAS component according to the example DTD of FIG. 11 , as well.", "[0000] Suitable Computing Platform [0074] The invention is preferably realized as a feature or addition to the software already found present on well-known computing platforms such as personal computers, enterprise servers, and web servers.", "These common computing platforms can include properly configured personal computers, as well as portable computing platforms, such as personal digital assistants (“PDA”), web-enabled wireless telephones, and other types of personal information management (“PIM”) devices, providing that they have suitable resources to support the software applications and logical processes as described in the foregoing paragraphs.", "[0075] Therefore, it is useful to review a generalized architecture of a computing platform which may span the range of implementation, from a high-end web or enterprise server platform, to a personal computer, to a portable PDA or web-enabled wireless phone.", "[0076] Turning to FIG. 8 , a generalized architecture is presented including a central processing unit ( 81 ) (“CPU”), which is typically comprised of a microprocessor ( 82 ) associated with random access memory (“RAM”) ( 84 ) and read-only memory (“ROM”) ( 85 ).", "Often, the CPU ( 81 ) is also provided with cache memory ( 83 ) and programmable FlashROM ( 86 ).", "The interface ( 87 ) between the microprocessor ( 82 ) and the various types of CPU memory is often referred to as a “local bus”, but also may be a more generic or industry standard bus.", "[0077] Many computing platforms are also provided with one or more storage drives ( 89 ), such as a hard-disk drives (“HDD”), floppy disk drives, compact disc drives (CD, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD, DVD-R, etc.), and proprietary disk and tape drives (e.g., Iomega Zip™ and Jaz™, Addonics SuperDisk™, etc.).", "Additionally, some storage drives may be accessible over a computer network.", "[0078] Many computing platforms are provided with one or more communication interfaces ( 810 ), according to the function intended of the computing platform.", "For example, a personal computer is often provided with a high speed serial port (RS-232, RS-422, etc.), an enhanced parallel port (“EPP”), and one or more universal serial bus (“USB”) ports.", "The computing platform may also be provided with a local area network (“LAN”) interface, such as an Ethernet card, and other high-speed interfaces such as the High Performance Serial Bus IEEE-1394.", "[0079] Computing platforms such as wireless telephones and wireless networked PDA's may also be provided with a radio frequency (“RF”) interface with antenna, as well.", "In some cases, the computing platform may be provided with an infrared data arrangement (IrDA) interface, too.", "[0080] Computing platforms are often equipped with one or more internal expansion slots ( 811 ), such as Industry Standard Architecture (ISA), Enhanced Industry Standard Architecture (EISA), Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), or proprietary interface slots for the addition of other hardware, such as sound cards, memory boards, and graphics accelerators.", "[0081] Additionally, many units, such as laptop computers and PDA's, are provided with one or more external expansion slots ( 812 ) allowing the user the ability to easily install and remove hardware expansion devices, such as PCMCIA cards, SmartMedia cards, and various proprietary modules such as removable hard drives, CD drives, and floppy drives.", "[0082] Often, the storage drives ( 89 ), communication interfaces ( 810 ), internal expansion slots ( 811 ) and external expansion slots ( 812 ) are interconnected with the CPU ( 81 ) via a standard or industry open bus architecture ( 88 ), such as ISA, EISA, or PCI.", "In many cases, the bus ( 88 ) may be of a proprietary design.", "[0083] A computing platform is usually provided with one or more user input devices, such as a keyboard or a keypad ( 816 ), and mouse or pointer device ( 817 ), and/or a touch-screen display ( 818 ).", "In the case of a personal computer, a full size keyboard is often provided along with a mouse or pointer device, such as a track ball or TrackPoint™.", "In the case of a web-enabled wireless telephone, a simple keypad may be provided with one or more function-specific keys.", "In the case of a PDA, a touch-screen ( 18 ) is usually provided, often with handwriting recognition capabilities.", "[0084] Additionally, a microphone ( 819 ), such as the microphone of a web-enabled wireless telephone or the microphone of a personal computer, is supplied with the computing platform.", "This microphone may be used for simply reporting audio and voice signals, and it may also be used for entering user choices, such as voice navigation of web sites or auto-dialing telephone numbers, using voice recognition capabilities.", "[0085] Many computing platforms are also equipped with a camera device ( 800 ), such as a still digital camera or full motion video digital camera.", "[0086] One or more user output devices, such as a display ( 813 ), are also provided with most computing platforms.", "The display ( 813 ) may take many forms, including a Cathode Ray Tube (“CRT”), a Thin Film Transistor (“TFT”) array, or a simple set of light emitting diodes (“LED”) or liquid crystal display (“LCD”) indicators.", "[0087] One or more speakers ( 814 ) and/or annunciators ( 815 ) are often associated with computing platforms, too.", "The speakers ( 814 ) may be used to reproduce audio and music, such as the speaker of a wireless telephone or the speakers of a personal computer.", "Annunciators ( 815 ) may take the form of simple beep emitters or buzzers, commonly found on certain devices such as PDAs and PIMs. [0088] These user input and output devices may be directly interconnected ( 88 ′, 88 ″) to the CPU ( 81 ) via a proprietary bus structure and/or interfaces, or they may be interconnected through one or more industry open buses such as ISA, EISA, PCI, etc.", "[0089] The computing platform is also provided with one or more software and firmware ( 801 ) programs to implement the desired functionality of the computing platforms.", "[0090] Turning to now FIG. 9 , more detail is given of a generalized organization of software and firmware ( 801 ) on this range of computing platforms.", "One or more operating system (“OS”) native application programs ( 93 ) may be provided on the computing platform, such as word processors, spreadsheets, contact management utilities, address book, calendar, email client, presentation, financial and bookkeeping programs.", "[0091] Additionally, one or more “portable”", "or device-independent programs ( 94 ) may be provided, which must be interpreted by an OS-native platform-specific interpreter ( 95 ), such as Java™ programs.", "[0092] Often, computing platforms are also provided with a form of web browser or micro-browser ( 96 ), which may also include one or more extensions to the browser such as browser plug-ins ( 97 ).", "[0093] The computing device is often provided with an operating system ( 90 ), such as Microsoft Windows™, UNIX, IBM AIX™, LINUX, MAC OS™ or other platform specific operating systems.", "Smaller devices such as PDA's and wireless telephones may be equipped with other forms of operating systems such as real-time operating systems (“RTOS”) or Palm Computing's PalmOS™.", "[0094] A set of basic input and output functions (“BIOS”) and hardware device drivers ( 91 ) are often provided to allow the operating system ( 90 ) and programs to interface to and control the specific hardware functions provided with the computing platform.", "[0095] Additionally, one or more embedded firmware programs ( 92 ) are commonly provided with many computing platforms, which are executed by onboard or “embedded”", "microprocessors as part of the peripheral device, such as a micro controller or a hard drive, a communication processor, network interface card, or sound or graphics card.", "[0096] As such, FIGS. 8 and 9 describe in a general sense the various hardware components, software and firmware programs of a wide variety of computing platforms, including but not limited to personal computers, enterprise servers, web servers, PDAs, PIMs, web-enabled telephones, and other appliances such as WebTV™ units.", "It will be readily recognized by those skilled in the art that the methods and processes of the present invention may be alternatively realized as hardware functions, in part or in whole, without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.", "[0000] Intelligence Properties File and Deployment Descriptors [0097] The present invention utilizes “Intelligence Properties Files”", "model to simplify the installation and configuration process for each component in the final solution design.", "Using deployment properties files which are based on experience of the user or installer, the need for specialists for each component is reduced or eliminated during installation.", "[0098] Each time the solution developer specifies or creates a “connection”", "between two components in the design area, logic of the invention is invoked to determine the needed configuration and option parameters to interface the selected components to each other, as previously disclosed.", "[0099] This logic provides a “pop-up”", "dialogue to the solution developer to prompt the user for selections and input based on its properties files.", "The input information is then used by the logic to configure the two components to interact with each other within the pre-defined constraints and conditions of the logic, thereby relieving a user the necessity of an expert in the configuration and installation for either of the solution components.", "[0100] When a connection between two or more components is made or defined, the invention automatically recognizes the need for customization information for this type of connection, and prompts the developer to enter the required configuration data necessary to make the connection valid and functional, such as user id and password, data source, network address, encryption options, etc.", "This information is then saved to configuration files which can later be used during actual installation of the system components into the solution.", "[0101] Each component of the system solution has its own associated installation and configuration properties file, as well.", "Each individual properties file enables the semi-automated installation and configuration of prototypes, as well as driving the creation of deployment descriptors for the eventual solution deployment.", "According to one available embodiment based upon an IBM Websphere Application Server, each deployment descriptor contains configuration data that the run-time environment uses for an application program or system solution component.", "A deployment descriptor can include information about the following: (a) the structure and content (enterprise beans or servlets, for example) of the application;", "(b) references to internal and external dependencies of the application (e.g. an enterprise bean in an EJB module can require another enterprise bean that is not bundled in the same module);", "(c) references to resource factory objects, such as URLs, JDBC DataSources, JavaMail Sessions, JMS Connection Factories, JMS Destinations, and J2C Connection Factories;", "(d) security roles that the container uses when implementing the required access control for the application;", "and (e) transactional information about how (and whether) the container is to manage transactions for the application.", "[0107] Typically, deployment descriptors are XML files packaged with the application's files in a Java archive file.", "For example, a typical Java Version 2 Enterprise Edition (“J2EE”) application contains one application-level deployment descriptor file controlling the application as a whole, but may also contain several component-level deployment descriptors, one for each module in the application.", "[0108] Deployment descriptors often include information on bindings and platform-specific extensions.", "Binding information maps a logical name of an external dependency or resource to an actual JNDI name.", "For example, the container uses binding information to locate a remote bean at installation.", "Platform-specific extensions, such as IBM WAS extensions, are additions to the standard descriptors for J2EE applications, Web applications, and enterprise beans.", "[0109] Through this function of the present invention, users are allowed to build a blueprint for the solution components with its associated properties files to be used during configuration.", "According to one aspect of the preferred embodiment, users have options to customize properties file based on their own abilities to configure a product: (a) simple, (b) advanced, or (c) automatic.", "The simple option permits users to input basic configuration parameters, while the advanced option allows users to highly customize its setup such as enhancing functionality or performance.", "The automatic option encompasses the most commonly used installation configuration options and parameters.", "[0110] As such, our new “Intelligence Properties Files”", "model, simplifies the installation and configuration process by using properties file that will allow configuration input based on experience.", "By using a GUI, a set of predefined “templates”", "for each component, and implementation intelligence logic, enables speedy assembly of various solution components together into one cohesive solution.", "[0111] Turning to FIG. 14 , the user interface according to the present invention is illustrated, showing how definitions of interfaces between components are configured or created ( 1401 ).", "When a relationship is established ( 1402 ) between two or more components by the user, the intelligence logic of the invention automatically prompts the user for inputs to complete required fields, potentially optional fields, that facilitate the integration process according to pre-defined options and configuration features, as defined by the XML templates.", "Based on the user's level of configuration complexity selection, the appropriate properties files are pre-loaded into the Solution Wizard Tool.", "[0112] Simple Configuration Option.", "Continuing with our example and turning to FIG. 15 , a user input prompt window ( 1502 ) is automatically displayed ( 1501 ) by the invention's logic once a connection is completed by the user.", "In this example, a WAS Administration Console Simple Option ( 1402 ′) is shown, requesting the user to input fields ( 1503 ) to define the interface between the DB2 database instance to the WAS instance, such as the database name, its source, the Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, and an alias that denotes the username and password.", "The simple option encompasses the most commonly required information that users will input in order to successfully perform basic configuration.", "[0113] Advanced Configuration Option.", "When in-depth installation or configuration is needed, specialized experts are usually required to facilitate the deployment process for each solution component, without the benefit of the present invention.", "However, by using the present invention, the Intelligence Properties Files enables non-specialists to quickly input desired data into a detailed user prompt window ( 1601 ) shown in FIG. 16 .", "In this scenario ( 1602 ), the WAS Administration Console Advanced Option ( 1402 ″) is shown, requesting the user to input fields to define the interface between the WAS to the DB2, preferably using an organized tab display structure.", "A first tab ( 1603 ) in this example allows definition regarding the WAS path, its configuration, and datasource details.", "The path consists of the actual location of the solution component file such as the file path, server path, and context root.", "[0114] The configuration tab ( 1604 ) allows input from the user of scope, name, description, classpath, native library path, and implementation classname, which is the Java classname of the JDBC driver for the specific implementation.", "[0115] The datasource section ( 1605 ) allows user definition of the database name, datasource name, Java Naming Directory Interface (“JNDI”) name, description, and the mapping configuration alias such as username and password.", "The advanced option consists of particular information users will input in order to successfully perform a highly specialized configuration.", "[0116] Automatic Configuration Option.", "On the other hand, because of project constraints such as time, expenses, or resources, users may elect to choose the automatic option to quickly create a proof of concept or blueprint to use during installation and deployment phase.", "Turning to FIG. 17 , the diagram illustrates the automatic properties files option ( 1701 ).", "When the relationship between the DB2 and WAS is established, the automatic option ( 1702 ) is invoked.", "The user prompt window displays the minimal required parameters ( 1402 ′″) to connect to the desired database ( 1703 ) with its default or predefined inputs pre-filled into each criterion: database name, its datasource, the IP address, and an alias.", "Not only does this enable the user to build solutions quickly using the intelligence properties files, but also eliminates the risk of human errors which can hinder integration.", "[0117] Configuration Intelligence Logic.", "Turning now to FIG. 18 , the configuration intelligence logical process ( 1801 ) of the invention is depicted.", "The process starts ( 1802 ) by user initiation of the Solution Builder Wizard application.", "The user then defines ( 1803 ) instances of system components in the design area, as previously described.", "When the user defines ( 1804 ) a connection between two or more components, the Wizard prompts ( 1805 ) the user to make a decision on the level of configuration to be used during prototyping and/or during final deployment: the simple, advanced, or the automatic method.", "[0118] Based on the user's selection ( 1806 ), the user is further prompted for information and input in order to complete the configuration of the properties files.", "The simple option will allow for the customer to input basic configuration parameters ( 1807 A), while the advanced option ( 1808 A) will permit users who are highly capable or specialized to enhance functional performances.", "The automatic option ( 1809 A) will take the most commonly used installation and deploy the solution components using those defaults within an application.", "Once a selection is made, instances of the related properties files for the chosen alternative created, configured and stored in association with the solution being designed ( 1807 B, 1808 B, 1809 B).", "The user is then allowed to continue defining instances of system components ( 1803 ), and definition of interfaces and configurations ( 1801 ).", "[0119] Properties Files Advantages.", "Using these methods, the Intelligence Properties Files of the invention provide a system solution designer the ability to quickly develop a cohesive solution using a GUI palette to create the necessary components and establish the desired logical relationships between each other.", "The ease in configuration eliminates the complexity in integration and simplifies the required input information without the user having to sort through tedious amounts of manuals and guidebooks in installation and deployment.", "This results in massive amount of time, resource, and expense saved using this preferred embodiment.", "Not only can the proof of concept be swiftly completed, but also the enormous amount of time that can be saved during the actual installation, test, and deployment phase.", "[0120] Users now have the ability to see actual or close to real simulated environment before actual development occurs.", "By using the properties files, developers can integrate various solution components using a basic process driven by intelligence logic based on experiences.", "With this method, level of difficulty or detail in configuration can correspond to an user's aptitude and knowledge without negatively impacting the overall configuration process.", "[0000] Prototype Simulation and Testing Using Customer Data [0121] Testing a cohesive solution composed of several different types of applications can be very confusing and intricate.", "In fact, often it requires a massive amount of hardware and software to be pre-installed and integrated before a custom application solution can be tested.", "For this reason, many new solutions or prototype solutions are often tested in a “live”", "or “production”", "environment, which can pose serious problems and risks to the actual business solutions which are being used by actual customers.", "[0122] By providing a simulated test environment on the prototype solution according to the present invention, much of the complexity and risk in integration can be avoided or even eliminated.", "Further, customers are allowed to preview how the prototyped solution will actually operate under a similar environment, without requiring use or risk to a live or production solution.", "[0123] Turning to FIG. 19 , the diagram illustrates a portion of GUI ( 1901 ) in which a user has selected the required solution components and established its respective relationships.", "The user has decided in this example to add an instance of the IBM WebSphereMQ product ( 1902 ) connected to a custom client application ( 1903 ) to the existing WAS ( 22 ) and a database ( 21 ) instances in the design area of the Solution Builder Wizard GUI.", "[0124] By way of background and for greater understandability to the reader, we now diverge temporarily to provide more details on the well-known IBM WebSphere MQ messaging capabilities and mechanisms which are utilized in one available embodiment of the present invention.", "WebSphere MQ™ messaging products enable application integration by allowing business applications to exchange information between each other within the same computing platform, as well as across different platforms, by sending and receiving data as messages according to a published format by IBM.", "This messaging system is available for many platforms and operating systems, including Linux for Intel™-based platforms as well as IBM zSeries, iSeries and Microsoft Windows XP based platforms.", "MQ messaging allows programmers to focus on functionality of their system component, leaving details of interoperability and intercommunication to be handled by MQ.", "MQ utilizes Secure Sockets Layer (“SSL”) network-based communications protocols, and supports Java™ Message Server (“JMS”) for compatibility with many existing solution products.", "It will be recognized that use, of other messaging services in place of IBM's MQ service is within the scope of the present invention, and that use of the MQ product as described herein represents just one of several embodiment options of the invention.", "[0125] A logical process and system diagram ( 2001 ) according to the present invention is shown in FIG. 20 .", "Once the user has used the Solution Builder Wizard to design the prototyped solution (or portion of a solution), a subset of a real customer data ( 2002 ) is uploaded into the database ( 2003 ).", "Within the simulated test environment of the Solution Builder Wizard, various types of test scripts are initiated to perform and validate each test case.", "According to one aspect of the present invention, the behavioral models which are configured for each instance of each component in the system under design communicate with each other using a message-based scheme, such as the aforementioned WebSphere MQ messaging system or an equivalent.", "[0126] During simulation and/or testing, the custom client application ( 2006 ) first posts a request message ( 2007 ) to the WebSphereMQ ( 2005 ).", "A test validation can verify at this stage whether or not request message was received ( 2013 ).", "The WebSphereMQ service passes that message to the custom host application that is running in WAS ( 2004 ), which receives the request message ( 2008 ).", "The user can optionally confirm that the request message is received ( 2014 ), as previously described in conjunction with the console.", "[0127] The host application ( 2004 ) processes the request(s), and stores the data ( 2009 ) into the database ( 2003 ), for example.", "Verification can be performed on the database to ensure new data records are added or existing records have been modified or updated ( 2015 ).", "[0128] In one alternative to the prototyped solution, the custom host application may not necessarily require any data from the database.", "However, if records are needed, then the database will send the query data ( 2010 ) back to the custom host application for processing.", "Again, a listener may be used to validate that the response message is processed ( 2017 ).", "[0129] Once completed, then a response message will be posted back ( 2011 ) to the WebSphereMQ.", "A subsequent check can confirm that the response message is received ( 2016 ) by the solution component.", "The WebSphereMQ will listen for any messages then pass it back to the custom client application where it will receive the response message ( 2012 ).", "In this example, it shows that the user can utilize five checkpoints to verify proper messages are being passed between solution components and whether or not its results are successful.", "Any errors within these five checkpoints will alert its tester that the prototyped solution is experiencing integration problems.", "[0130] It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, however, that many testing alternatives or methods may be used depending on an user's initial setup within the GUI palette and the invention is not limited to these specific embodiments.", "All solution components can communicate via messaging with one another, therefore, the simulated test environment can check to ensure that one object will respond correctly with another object.", "In addition, testing data and parameters may be defined to meet customer expectations and real customer data can be used to provide a close to exact look on how the proposed prototyped solution will actually work.", "This allows the customer the ability to review a proof of concept from a comprehensive perspective—not only from development view point, but also the final end product itself with real applicable data records.", "[0000] Problem Determination Process [0131] Once simulation is completed, the challenging task of problem determination in prototyped solution arises, also known as “debugging”", "the system solution.", "Very rarely do initial designs of complex systems operate completely as specified and expected, and almost always, some anomalies in operation or function are observed.", "Determining the source of the problem(s) is first required, followed by developing potential “fixes”", "or “solutions”", "to the problems, which is then followed by retesting or verification testing and simulation.", "[0132] Using the present invention, the user or system designer has the ability to debug a system solution based on its data flows during the simulation process.", "As the simulations are carried out using a message-based infrastructure interconnecting the many system components which are represented using behavioral models, debugging of the system level design is enabled by the invention's ability to probe, tap, or trace communications between components throughout simulation, to capture the exchanged messages, and to add tracking information to aid in problem determination.", "[0133] Turning to FIG. 21 , the diagram shows the logical debugging procedure ( 2101 ).", "The user initiates the process ( 2102 ) and then it checks ( 2103 ) to see whether or not at least one or more solution component exists in the design area of the GUI.", "If not, then an error log entry is created ( 2106 ), otherwise it checks to ensure at least one or more relationships between solution components are established ( 2104 ) in the prototyped system design.", "This is to verify that integration between solution components has been defined in the prototyped solution, which allows appropriate data flow to occur.", "If no relationships exist, then a record is made to the error log ( 2106 ).", "[0134] Afterwards, the system will verify that one or more testing check points are defined and set ( 2105 ).", "These are points in the system design where the designer wishes to capture or trace communications between components, such as the verification points ( 2017 , 2014 , 2016 , etc.) shown in FIG. 20 .", "As the infrastructure of the Solution Builder Wizard is message based (e.g. the components interface to each other using messaging protocols), these taps or probes into the communications are realized by capturing time-stamped copies of messages between components.", "[0135] When all three validations are completed, the system loads the test data ( 2107 ), which can consist of a subset of real customer information, simulation data, manually created recordsets, or even randomly generated system data, as previously described.", "Before test data is loaded into the debug process, it first is preferrably checked ( 2109 ) to ensure its own data integrity.", "If a problem with the test data is found, then a record is logged into the error log before data can be loaded for further testing and debugging.", "All error logs are then stored in the overall error tracking database ( 2116 ).", "[0136] Once the test data is validated, test scripts or test cases are executed ( 2110 ) through the process of simulation, as previously discussed.", "When simulation is completed, the system captures test results ( 2111 ) in the form of captured time-stamped messages between components, and other tracking information (e.g. originator, destination, session ID, addresses, routing information, etc.).", "[0137] The user is then allowed three options: (a) to end the debug process ( 2112 ), (b) to create a test report ( 2113 ) that can be displayed through a custom application, GUI, or be sent to a printer ( 2114 ), or (c) to create a debug error log ( 2115 ) that feeds into the error tracking database ( 2116 ).", "[0138] Once simulation is completed, the user have the ability to query and generate failed test results ( 2117 ) from the error tracking database.", "This provides a list on the overall errors that have occurred during one test run where proper data flow did not occur, and provides copies of the messages which were captured during the simulation.", "The designer can create and apply patches or fixes ( 2118 ) that resolve these issues, followed by repeating the simulation and message capture process.", "[0139] It should be noted that using the present invention, the debug process differs from traditional debugging procedure because it does not occur solely in development nor production environment.", "The user is not just troubleshooting one module and previewing written codes line by line, but rather resolving the whole prototyped solution which is composed of one or more solution components with its relationships and associated properties files.", "[0140] Furthermore, the user is not restricted to create a staging environment which normally requires enormous amount of human and IT resources to test before sending into production environment.", "In fact, the prototyped solution can be tested and debugged quickly without impacting current real, “live”", "transactions and processes running in production.", "[0000] Deployment Descriptor Generation [0141] Once performance tuning has been completed, the prototype solution becomes a smaller, but fully-functional version of the desired solution.", "In order to utilize the time and effort spent on the prototyped solution, it is ideal to reuse some if not all of the items completed when migrating to a larger scale of the system.", "The packaging, delivery, and installation and configuration of the solution of any size is often complex and difficult.", "[0142] Typically, components are packaged separately, and later installed together and integrated under the new “production”", "computing environment.", "Because initial designs of complex systems rarely operate seamlessly as specified and expected, some anomalies in operation or function are often observed.", "[0143] Therefore, determining the source of the problem(s) is required, and consultants often repeat the same testing processes during the installation and configuration phase again.", "[0144] Using the present invention, the user or system designer has the ability to utilize existing configuration information based on the prototyped solution.", "By using the Solution Builder Wizard application, the configuration information can be collected, exported, and used to set up the real customer environment.", "[0145] The present invention enables user the ability to automatically generate “deployment code”", "or “deployment descriptors”", "that can be used at the customer site for installation.", "In addition, by using a well-tested and functional prototyped solution, the system designer can reproduce exact deployment environment without spending excessive time and energy to reproduce a replica from scratch.", "[0146] Deployment descriptors are files used by computing environments such as Java Version 2 Enterprise Edition (“J2EE”) for assisting or automating the installation and integration of modules, beans, and applications.", "Publications such as “IBM WebSphere V5.0 for Linux, Implementation and Deployment Guide WebSphere Handbook Series”", "by Mark Endrei, et al.", ", which is hereby incorporated by reference, provide details on using deployment descriptors, these descriptors are usually created manually.", "For example, in a J2EE environment, an “application”", "can consist of multiple modules, such as a “EAR”", "file packaging a one or more application files in a “JAR”", "file, one or more Enterprise Java Beans (“EJBs”) in a JAR file, and one or more web components, also in a JAR file.", "Each of these JAR files or components may also have a Deployment Descriptor file (“DD”), written in declarative language such as XML in the case of J2EE, as illustrated ( 2700 ) in FIG. 23 .", "Deployment descriptor files themselves are well known in the industry, such as the explanations and definitions provided by Sun Microsystems in their “J2EE™ Developer's Guide—Overview—J2EE Applications”, which is also incorporated by reference into the present disclosure.", "[0147] Turning to FIG. 22 , the diagram illustrates the deployment descriptor generation process ( 2601 ) according to the invention.", "When a prototype solution has been tested and debugged following the set procedures, an user can have the option to generate its related descriptor files to be used for installation and deployment.", "First, the user initiates the Solution Builder Wizard GUI application ( 2602 ) and chooses the desired prototype solution file document ( 2603 ).", "[0148] Then, the system checks to ensure that there are one or more solution components ( 2604 ) that make-up the prototype solution file.", "If not, then an error record is written to the error log ( 2605 ) and an error message is displayed via a custom application to the user's GUI ( 2606 ).", "[0149] If the verification passes, then the system checks to see if there are one or more relationships that exist between component(s) ( 2608 ).", "If not, which may be an indication of an incomplete system solution design, the invention follows the same error log process ( 2605 , 2606 , 2607 ).", "[0150] Otherwise, the system prompts the user for any options regarding the type of configuration files needed for deployment of the solution into a production environment ( 2609 ).", "The user has the options to generate a default descriptor files ( 2611 A) which are predefined and set by the system, or to generate one or more custom descriptor files ( 2612 A).", "[0151] The method of generating “default”", "deployment descriptor files consists of creating all the related configuration, installation, and code files pertaining to the specified prototype solution ( 2611 B) based upon the interfaces and component options already known by the system and collected during system solution design.", "The custom choice option enables the user to choose specifically what is actually needed from a selection of available files related to the prototyped solution ( 2612 B).", "[0152] Once the deployment files are generated, the users have a wide variety of options to transmit the information.", "It can be electronically mailed between interested parties, checked into a version control system such as IBM's Configuration Management Version Control (“CMVC”)™, to provide users the capability to reproduce solutions in a timely fashion with the knowledge that it is also fully functioning and well-tested.", "[0153] It should be noted that using the present invention, the deployment descriptor process differs from traditional packaging and installation procedure because it does not require information from various sources.", "Rather, all the configuration information is solicited from the Solution Builder Wizard along with its component relationships, tested data, and development codes.", "[0154] As such, use of the invention allows creation of an installable package for industry solutions while reducing room for errors which may adversely impact project schedule.", "[0000] Automatic Documentation Generation [0155] According to one aspect of the present invention, once the test and debug process have completed, documentation related to the prototype or its final product is automatically produced.", "[0156] As previously discussed regarding the existing methods of solution development, when a computing solution is produced incorporating multiple products, software tools and application programs, a comprehensive package of all the related documents such as installation guides, user guides, and administration guides are bundled together, and shipped to the client for use or archival.", "This process is manually completed, and is often labor intensive.", "Further, in some situations, not all of the optional components within a family of products are purchased, used, or licensed, which case, excessive paper documents are delivered to users even when it is not applicable to the specific client or project.", "Moreover, solutions developers often spend an exorbitant amount of time sorting and scanning through all the available documentation that may not even be applicable to the problems at hand.", "[0157] Turning to FIG. 24 , a user perspective of a logical process according to the invention which generates and aggregates documentation that is relative to the prototyped solution ( 2401 ).", "Preferably, the Solution Builder Wizard application is already active, or if not, or it is initiated ( 2402 ), in order to allow fully interactive solution design and definition.", "For example, if the Solution Builder Wizard already running or executing, the user can initiate generation of delivery documents for the currently open design.", "Otherwise, the user is allowed to select from a list of previously saved solution design files ( 2403 ), such as using common means for prompting users including but not limited to pop-up menus, drop down lists, and navigate-and-select GUI dialog screens.", "[0158] After the desired solution design file is designated, the Documentation Generation process is performed or executed ( 2404 ).", "Once it processes the request, the proper documents applicable to the solution file are generated ( 2205 ).", "[0159] A logical process of an embodiment of Documentation Generation module ( 2404 ) is shown in FIG. 23 .", "At this point, basic or predefined templates of the available solution components within the Solution Builder Wizard have already been preloaded into the Solution Builder Wizard for use by the Document Generation process.", "Initially, the Document Generation process checks to see if there are one or more solution components that compose of the selected GUI solution file ( 2503 ).", "If there are no solution components, an error record is produced in an error log ( 2504 ), and preferably an error message is displayed ( 2505 ) through one or more customary means such as a GUI display, or a printed output, or the likes.", "Once the message is shown, then the intelligence module preferably ends or suspends operation ( 2506 ), following which, the user can resolve the problem by selecting a properly completed solution design, another design file, etc.", "[0160] If there are more than one solution components in the defined solution, then the system scans and verifies each component solution ( 2307 ) to ensure that each component solution, its optional parameters, and interfaces are fully defined and configured.", "If any component's definition or configuration is incomplete, error messages are produced ( 2504 , 2505 ).", "[0161] After verification is complete, the system verifies that one or more electronic documents relating to the selected file are available ( 2508 ) for each of the solution components in the solution design.", "If no documents are available, then one or more error messages are produced ( 2504 , 2505 ).", "Otherwise, a request ( 2509 ) is made to one or more electronic document storage repositories ( 2510 ) for each component's properties files and related Java documents, such as by making a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (“LDAP”) or a Structured Query Language (“SQL”) request.", "[0162] The requested electronic documents are received from the repositories, and are aggregated or “bundled”", "together in a means suitable for delivery or transmission to a client, such as but not limited to creating an electronic archive file, a cabinet file, a ZIP file, or a consolidated file such as a Portable Document File (“PDF”) or eXtensible Markup Language file (“XML”).", "Preferably, a ZIP file using partial path information is created such that the electronic documents are organized in a hierarchical manner to ease location of a desired document by a user, such as organizing the documents alphabetically, by type (e.g. drivers, databases, communications protocols, business logic, etc.), by vendor (e.g. Lotus, IBM, Microsoft, etc.), by product name (e.g. DB2, Lotus Notes Server, Websphere Application Server, etc.), by installed platform designation (e.g. server 1, server 2, server 3, etc.), or by a combination of these methods.", "Also according to a preferred embodiment, the final documents are prepared in or converted to a Unicode format according to the end client's preferences.", "[0163] Alternatively, the electronic documents may be organized in a hierarchical manner such as just described, but then placed in a file system according to the hierarchy stored in a server accessible by a linked protocol such as hyper text transfer protocol (“HTTP”).", "In such an alternate embodiment, the step of aggregation and bundling in finalized by producing a guide or index page, such as a hyper text markup language (“HTML”) page, which includes the hyper links to the stored documents.", "This aggregation guide or index page can then be delivered to the final customer, who can use it to quickly and easily locate and access required documentation.", "CONCLUSION [0164] Certain embodiments and design choices have been described and illustrated in the foregoing paragraphs in order to disclose the invention and its preferred embodiment.", "It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, however, that the scope of the invention is not limited to these specific embodiments, and that many variations and choices regarding, but not limited to, operating system, programming language, programming methodology, and platform, can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.", "Therefore, the scope of the present invention is defined by the following claims." ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is the United States national phase of International Application No. PCT/NL2013/050776 filed Oct. 30, 2013, and claims priority to The Netherlands Patent Application No. 2009728 filed Oct. 30, 2012, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated in their entirety by reference.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a product holder for holding food products to be transported through a processing room, a transporting device for transporting food products to be subjected to a processing, the use of such transporting device and methods for assembling and disassembling a product holder.", "Description of Related Art Plural types of transporting devices for transporting food products are known.", "The type of food product transporting devices this invention relates to are of the type that enables less stable food products, like not completely cured sausages, to be transported through a processing space where the food products are treated.", "Such transporting device make use of basket type of product holders to contain the food products such that the environmental conditions can act on the food products from different sides.", "The acting of the environmental conditions on the food products may for example result in hardening, drying, smoking, salting, coloring, seasoning, heating and/or cooling of the food products.", "An example of such basket using transporting device is provided in International patent application WO 99/13729.", "A general object of the invention is to provide a product holder and a transporting device for transporting food products that results in enhanced transport efficiency and/or that have enhanced possibilities in use.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a product holder, for holding food products to be transported through a processing room, comprising: a carrier frame comprising at least a longitudinal support structure and at least one coupling;", "and a container formed by at least one contact segment for contacting the food products, wherein the at least one contact segment is detachably connectable to the carrier frame.", "The contact segment is detachably connectable to the carrier frame because there is no permanent coupling provided between the at least one contact segment and the longitudinal support structure;", "for example a welded coupling or coupling means like bolts, nuts, pins, pop rivets, screws and so on are not provided.", "The coupling is a result of a clamping coupling.", "The contact segment and the longitudinal support structure are shaped so to be snapped together and also to be uncoupled again by de-snapping them.", "The coupling is thus a “shape-coupling”", "that fastens the contact segment and the longitudinal support structure by a clamping force such that the elements can also be released again;", "e.g. without the need of using tools.", "So to be able to detachably connect one or more contact segments to the carrier frame both structures may have cooperative shapes, i.e. complementary shapes.", "The at least one coupling may comprise one or more connectors or suspensions for coupling the product holder of the present invention to a transporting device.", "For example the coupling may be provided as coupling ends provided at the opposite sides of the longitudinal support structure.", "As an alternative one or more couplings may also be provided on other positions over the length of the longitudinal support structure.", "Yet a further option is to provide the coupling as an integral element of the longitudinal support structure, for instance the ends of the longitudinal support structure may also directly be coupled with one ore more transportation chains;", "this making the end parts of the longitudinal support structure automatically also the coupling/couplings.", "As for the coupling to the transporting mechanism such coupling may be a stationary coupling but may also be a rotatable coupling, dependent of the transportation path the product holder has to follow the routing of the transportation mechanism.", "The product holder is suited for holding food products that may be selected from: sausages, injected products, assembled food products, portioned food products, meat parts, fishes, fish parts, vegetables, fruits and so on.", "The food products may be placed in the holder in such a way that the food products are freely moveable, e.g. rotatable, within the holder during the processing of the food product.", "One of the advantages is that due to the holder formed by at least one contact segment being releasably fastened to the longitudinal support structure, e.g. carrier frame, the feasibility of repair and maintenance of the product holders is now enhanced.", "In case only one or more product holders is broken, worn-out, damaged or so the present invention enables the possibility to only change container (or a part of the container if plural segments make up the container) while the carrier frame can stay in position.", "Normally the carrier frame is connected to a larger transporting mechanism that makes it difficult/complex to also exchange the carrier structure.", "Furthermore only exchanging the container and not the carrier structure is cheaper than changing the whole product holder (the longitudinal carrier together with at least one contact segment).", "During charging and discharging of food products into and out of the container the wear of the container is normally larger than the wear of the carrier frame.", "By exchange of the segments the life span of both the container and the carrier frame can be optimized, thus leading to further efficiency and cost savings.", "A further advantage of the present invention is that the product holders can be adapted during their life time to changing requirements.", "This is possible by changing for instance the shape, material or other properties of the containers of the product holders.", "By optimizing the condition of the product holders to the actual demands of use the transportation of food product may further be enhanced.", "The present invention also enables the construction of product holders that are easy to clean, which is of importance due to the strict requirements in the food processing industry relating to hygiene.", "A further advantage is that the product holder according the invention also provides the freedom to further optimize its shape leading to for instance the design of a transporting device with enhance capacity and/or smaller dimensions to be able to process more food products.", "Examples of useful freedom of design of the contact segment(s) is that there is freedom in choice of the size and positioning of any openings that are present is the holder assembled of the contact segment(s).", "Also protruding elements like for instance bumps or ridges, and apertures such as grooves or slots and so on may be provided in the product holder.", "Also there is more freedom in choices for the material of the product holder;", "for instance various polymers may be chosen as construction material.", "Also the weight of the product holder can thus be influenced.", "The movability of the food products during the processing of the food product is achieved by the use of a container formed by one or more contact segments with a contact surface having bends, curves, or angles directed towards the food products.", "Therefore the product holder of the present invention may also be formed by one or more contact segments with a curved, bent, crooked or angled contact surface directed towards the food products.", "The product holder of the present invention may also be formed by one or more contact segments comprising a combination of curved and/or angular shaped surfaces.", "When the container is in the position connected to the carrier frame the one ore more contact segments make up the complete container or receptacle that acts a holding device or reservoir for the food products during their transportation.", "In one embodiment of a product holder according the present invention, the container comprises a plurality of cooperating contact segments detachably connectable to the carrier frame.", "The plural container segments may be successively placed in longitudinal direction and/or the container may be formed by a plurality of contact segments seen in cross section rectangular to the longitudinal direction through the container.", "Each contact segment may be coupled and disengaged from the carrier frame by for example pushing or pulling the curved contact segment.", "As the containers may in practice be relatively long (lengths of up to 2 meters are common practice), the container being an assembly of plural contact segments makes it easer to produce the container (segments) and also the transportation and storage of plural smaller container segments is facilitated (and thus cheaper) than the production, transportation and storage of relative large single pieced containers.", "In an embodiment of the product holder according the present invention and applicable to all the embodiments described herein, the plural contact segments detachably attachable to the carrier frame have an identical shape (i.e. only one shape of segment is utilized).", "The identical shape of the contact segments make their production and stock control simpler.", "Also the assembly of the product holders is further simplified by using only a single type of contact segment.", "Preferably, all contact segments connected to the carrier frame are identical shaped segments wherein the segments are asymmetric having no internal mirror plane of symmetry.", "One of the advantages of asymmetric segments is that they enable the segments to be complementary in shape with each other without the result of discontinuations in the structure of the complete container when attached to the carrier structure.", "In an embodiment of the product holder according the present invention, the container in a state connected to the carrier frame in cross section rectangular to the longitudinal direction through the container is substantially C-shaped.", "The C-shaped form of the container may be formed by one curved and/or angular shaped contact segment or an assembly of at least two cooperating curved and/or angular shaped contact segments.", "Such C-shape enables easy access to the container for the food products but also makes is possible to change the position of the food products relative to the container by rotating the container over an angle of about 180° along a longitudinal axis of rotation in case the container is transported through a processing room in a straight up- and downward movement.", "The C-shape also enables a compact construction of transportation devices moving a plurality of the product holders as well as that such C-shape enables to tip the product holders along the way during transport at different angles to treat the food products more evenly.", "Depending on the perimeter of the food product in relation of the perimeter of the contact surface, the rotation of the food product will differ from the rotation of the container.", "Therefore, the food product may rotate over an angle which is even larger than 360°.", "In the design choice of the container special care has to be taken that depending on the movement of the container and the size of the food product to be transported, the food product is moved such that it contacts the container at different positions (so there is less risk of marking of the food product arises and the processing of the food product is likely to be more even/equal over the perimeter of the food product).", "The contact segments of the product holder according the present invention may have an edge comprising a plurality of extending protuberances.", "Such protuberances may be in the form of a, preferably asymmetric, fingerlike structure but also in the form of a jagged edge.", "The protuberances may be oriented in any direction for instance in longitudinal direction of the product holder.", "The term “jagged edge”", "as used herein is defined to describe an edge being a dentate edge, notched edge, incised edge, toothed edge, serrated edge, cogged edge, zig-zag edge or the like.", "Preferably the protuberances provided are so shaped that they avoid straight grooves or straight openings in between opposite contact segments.", "Such straight grooves or straight openings could lead to undesired markings on the food products.", "Furthermore a point of special interest in the shape of the resulting seams or gaps between opposed contact segments is that they are shaped such as that they are easy to clean so to limit for instance bacterial growth.", "In order to enable the process conditions from the processing room to act on the food product the contact segment may be provided with a plurality of apertures.", "The term “apertures”", "as used herein is defined to describe eyes, interstices, openings, orifices, perforations, pinholes, punctures, spaces, vents or the like.", "The apertures also prevent the undesired collection of fluids and gasses in the container.", "The apertures may be arranged in the form of a round, hexagonal, squared or diamond shaped pattern.", "A hexagonal shaped pattern is preferred providing a relatively more open structure without having sharp corners which may have a negative influence on the structure of the food product.", "In order to minimize the contact of the container with the food product, the inner surface of the contact segment may comprise bumps, i.e. the bumps may be directed towards the food product.", "The term “bumps”", "as used herein is defined to describe knobs, bulges, buffers, swellings, lumps or the like.", "The less contact the food products make with the container the better the exterior of the food products may be subjected to the processing conditions.", "In an embodiment of the product holder according the present invention, the contact segment is made of a material that is light, easy to clean and has no or minimal interaction with the food products.", "The material used may be any material suitable for holding food products in a hygienic way.", "Preferably, the material used is a polymer material including synthetic or semi-synthetic moldable material selected from a food grade polymer such as polyamide, poly-oxymethylene, polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride, polytetrafluoroethylene, and the like including combinations thereof.", "In an embodiment of the product holder according the present invention, the contact segment is clamply connectable to the carrier frame, e.g. longitudinal support structure, so that it is removably snapped to the carrier frame, for instance.", "Thus, a snap or click system is provided which may be a self-locking system.", "Due to the container-carrier frame structure of the product holder of the present invention, no complex connecting means are necessary to connect the container to the carrier frame and the coupling/uncoupling can be done without the need of tools.", "It is also possible to add further connecting means—like bolts, screws, coupling pins and so on—to further secure the connection of the container to the carrier frame.", "In an embodiment of the product holder according the present invention, the longitudinal support structure comprises at least one rod.", "The term “rod”", "as used herein is defined to describe a bar, pole, girder, beam or the like.", "The rod may be, but not necessarily, in the form of a (rounded) rectangular or (rounded) triangular beam optionally comprising fixation means, e.g. openings, whereon the one or more contact segment are detachably connected.", "The rod may be made of metal (e.g. steel), polymer material or the like.", "In order to reduce the weight of the longitudinal support structure, the rod may have a hollow structure.", "In case contact segments are connected to the rod making use of bolts, pop rivets, plugs or the like, a rod having a hollow structure is preferred.", "In an alternative embodiment the cavity formed by the hollow structure of the rod may be filled with resin and/or aluminum (in case steel is used).", "In an embodiment of the invention the rod used for supporting the container made of one or more contact segments has a substantially C-shaped hollow structure at least partially enclosing the contact segments and therefore providing a secured detachable connection between the contact segments and the carrier frame.", "Preferably, the contact segments are made of relatively flexible material including polymers, such as plastics.", "The relatively flexible contact segments are snapped into a more rigid carrier frame, preferably made of metal, e.g. steel.", "In an embodiment of the product holder according the present invention, the longitudinal support structure comprises more than one parallel rods, e.g. two or three parallel rods.", "In such case the longitudinal support structure further comprise coupling ends connected to opposite sites of the longitudinal support structure.", "Preferably, each contact segment is detachably connected to at least two parallel rods forming the longitudinal support structure.", "The rods make an open and light yet also stable support construction.", "Additionally, the use of a longitudinal support structure comprising more than one rod provides the possibility of positioning at least two parallel placed product holders on the same longitudinal support structure.", "The longitudinal support structure of the present invention comprising more than one rod is therefore able to provide different sizes of product holders, i.e. one product holder connected to at least two rods or at least two parallel placed product holders connected each to one rod, and may therefore be suitable for the manufacturing of different sizes of food products.", "In an embodiment of the product holder according the present invention, the longitudinal support structure further comprises at least one coupling that is located between the coupling ends for connecting the parallel rods, in case the carrier frame comprises two or more parallel rods, as described above.", "Such a coupling may be a separating plate or construction stabilizing means for coupling the rods in order to enhance the stability of the construction.", "The coupling further enhances the stability of the support structure.", "In another aspect the present invention provides a transporting device, for transporting food products to be subjected to a processing, comprising: a processing room for treating the food product;", "a plurality of product holders of the present invention as described above;", "and at least one drive for transporting the product holders along a route extending through the processing room, wherein the longitudinal support structure of the product holders comprises at least one coupling and wherein the coupling is connected to an advancing element that is driven by the drive.", "In the processing room the processing conditions can be created that are required for the food processing.", "Examples of such processes are drying, heating, cooling, smoking (by liquid and/of smoke), spraying, powdering so on.", "For the advantages of the transporting device reference is made to the advantages already mentioned in relation to the product holder according the present invention and are here also brought forward in relation to the transporting device by reference.", "In an embodiment of the transporting device according the present invention, the advancing element may be in the form of a belt or chain.", "Preferably, the transporting device of the present invention comprises dual advancing elements connecting to the opposite sides of the longitudinal support structure comprising coupling ends provided with couplings.", "Even further preferred the product holder extends transversely of the direction of movement of the advancing element.", "The present invention also provides a method for assembling and a method for disassembling a product holder.", "For assembling the method comprises the step of installing at least one contact segment by connecting the contact segment to the carrier frame.", "The contact segments may be snapped or clicked to the carrier frame manually.", "For disassembling the method comprises the step of removing at least one contact segment by disconnecting the contact segment from the carrier frame.", "Also the disconnection of contact segments may be done manually.", "The present invention also provides the use of a transporting device as described above, for holding food products to be transported through a processing room.", "The advantage of the transporting device of the present invention is that the present invention enables the compacter construction of product holders.", "It is for instance possible to provide a more compact form containers thus resulting in an increase of capacity of the transporting device or a compacter construction of transporting devices when the capacity is not to be enhanced.", "Consequently, this may result in a more compact processing room or an increase of processing speed of the food products present in the processing room.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The present invention is further elucidated on the basis of the non-limitative exemplary embodiment shown in the following figures.", "Herein: FIG. 1 shows a product holder of the present invention, FIG. 2 shows an alternative product holder of the present invention, FIG. 3 shows a carrier frame of the present invention, FIG. 4 shows the product holder of the present invention, FIG. 5 shows a cross-section of the product holder of the present invention, FIG. 6 shows the product holder of the present invention comprising a plurality of contact segments, and FIG. 7 shows a cross-section of the product holder of the present invention.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION FIG. 1 shows a product holder 1 of the present invention comprising carrier frame 2 and detachably connected to the carrier frame 2 contact segments 3 a , 3 b .", "Contact segments 3 a , 3 b have cooperating shapes 3 aa , 3 ab releasably snapped to the carrier frame 2 .", "The cooperating shapes may vary as well as the shape of the carrier frame 2 (see for example: FIGS. 2 and 5 ).", "The connection between contact segments 3 a , 3 b and carrier frame 2 may be further secured by using fixation means (not shown here).", "Contact segments 3 a , 3 b further comprise a plurality of apertures 4 .", "The carrier frame 2 may further comprise couplings (not shown here) for coupling the product holder 1 to a transport device (not shown here).", "FIG. 2 shows an alternative product holder 1 of the present invention comprising contact segments 3 a , 3 b releasable connected to carrier frame 2 by screw anchors 5 fitted in openings 6 created in carrier frame 2 .", "Contact segments 3 a , 3 b further comprise a plurality of apertures 4 having a hexagonal structure.", "However, apertures 4 may also be in the form of circles or rectangles, for example.", "The product holder 1 is formed by two identical (asymmetric) contact segments 3 a , 3 b , however, it is also possible to form a product holder 1 by one contact segment (not shown here) attached to carrier frame 2 the one contact segment having the shape and form of the combination of the shown segments 3 a and 3 b .", "Furthermore, the edges of contact segments 3 a , 3 b have fingerlike structures 7 .", "The fingerlike structures 7 of contact segment 3 a cooperates with the fingerlike structures 7 of contact segment 3 b .", "Additionally, the fingerlike structures 7 of contact segments 3 a , 3 b cooperate with optional neighboring contact segments (not shown here).", "FIG. 3 shows a carrier frame 2 having a longitudinal support structure made of bars 8 .", "The figure shows three separated bars 8 ;", "however, it is also possible to design a longitudinal support structure made of one single bar for carrying the container of the present invention.", "Additionally, it may be possible to design a product holder of the present invention wherein two bars 8 of the carrier frame 2 each of them supporting a separate container, i.e. two separate product holders placed in parallel.", "The carrier frame further comprises coupling ends 9 which secure the position of the bars 8 and furthermore may enable the connection of the carrier frame to a transport system that is not shown in this figure.", "However, couplings for connecting the carrier frame 2 to a transport system may be positioned anywhere on the carrier frame 2 , e.g. in the middle of the carrier frame 2 .", "In case coupling ends 9 are connected to the transport system, advancing element connectors 10 are part of the coupling ends 9 to provide means for the connection of the carrier frame 2 to an advancing element like for instance a chain.", "In order to enhance the stability of the longitudinal support structure connectors 11 may be placed in the carrier frame connecting the individual bars 8 .", "FIG. 4 shows a part of the product holder 1 of the present invention in a partly assembled situation.", "FIG. 4 shows a part of the carrier frame of FIG. 3 , comprising the longitudinal support structure made of bars 8 and stabilizers 11 .", "On the carrier frame 2 here only one contact segment 3 is detachably connected.", "The contact segment 3 is adapted to snap on the carrier frame 2 .", "The contact segment 3 is provided with openings 4 to allow environmental conditions on the food products carried by the contact segment 3 .", "The openings 4 may be in the form of round openings, but may have any structure suitable for holding the food product and that allow fluids and/or gasses to pass.", "The opening may for instance also have a honeycomb structure (not shown here).", "Additionally, the contact segment 3 has a fingerlike structure 7 to cooperating with adjoining contact segments (not shown here).", "Contact segment 3 also comprises another edge having a zig-zag formed edge 12 .", "FIG. 5 shows a cross-section through the product holder 1 as partially shown in FIG. 4 .", "The cross section through the product holder 1 shows two contact segments 3 a , 3 b that are detachably connected by a snap coupling 3 ac , 3 bc to the rods 8 of the carrier frame 2 .", "A food product 13 , e.g. a sausage, is positioned in such a way that the product 13 is able to rotate around its longitudinal axis.", "The, in cross section, C-shaped form of the product holder 1 prevents the food product to fall out of the product holder 1 .", "FIG. 6 shows an alternative of the product holder 1 comprising a plurality of curved contact segments 3 connected to a carrier frame comprising rods 8 and coupling ends 9 .", "The curved contact segments 3 are here positioned successively in longitudinal direction.", "FIG. 7 shows a cross-section of the product holder 1 , wherein carrier frame 2 comprises two bars 8 a , 8 b having a substantially C-shaped hollow form partially enclosing several contact segments 3 a , 3 b , 3 c , 3 d .", "Both bars 8 a , 8 b are connected by coupling ends (not shown here) to form one longitudinal support structure 2 .", "Longitudinal support structure, e.g. carrier frame 2 , may further comprise one or more couplings to connect the carrier frame 2 to an advancing element, e.g. a chain, of a transporting device (not shown here).", "Each contact segment 3 a , 3 b , 3 c , 3 d is detachably connected to the carrier frame 2 by clicking a part 3 aa , 3 bq , 3 ca , 3 da of the contact segment 3 a , 3 b , 3 c , 3 d into the cavity 14 formed by the bars 8 a , 8 b .", "Furthermore, the carrier frame 2 , e.g. bars 8 a , 8 b , supports two containers 15 a , 15 b formed by respectively contact segments 3 a , 3 b and contact segments 3 c , 3 d .", "Therefore, product holder 1 comprises two parallel placed containers 15 a , 15 b formed by contact segments 3 a , 3 b and 3 c , 3 d respectively supported by a single carrier frame 2 ." ]

[ "TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present invention relates to a separation type air conditioner, and more particularly to an air conditioner having a body cabinet similar to a ceiling suspension type pattern while being a wall-mounted type.", "BACKGROUND ART [0002] Currently, a dominating air conditioner (indoor unit) is the wall-mounted type, and air conditioners designed in various ways have been supplied to a market.", "From among those, a consumer selects, and on purchasing, be a design as it may, emphasis may be placed on an installation place in terms of relationship with a housing space (arrangement of rooms).", "[0003] For example, when installing at a window, a wall surface over the window is sometimes narrow in height and width because a curtain rail or the like are fitted, and therefore, an air conditioner having a pattern which does not require as much wall surface space as possible is desired.", "[0004] Japanese Patent Application published under Publication No. 5-99454 discloses an example of air conditioners capable of complying with such desire.", "FIG. 24 is a perspective view showing the wall surface fitting state, and FIG. 25 is a sectional view illustrating an internal structure.", "[0005] A body cabinet 1 of this air conditioner is composed of: a top panel 2 opposite to a ceiling surface;", "a bottom panel 3 opposite to a floor surface;", "a front panel 4 ;", "and a base panel 5 to be fitted to the wall surface, and has a heat exchanger 6 , a blow fan 7 or the like therein.", "The front panel 4 is provided with an air inlet port 4 a, and behind the bottom panel 3 , there is provided an air outlet port 3 a having a louver 8 .", "[0006] Referring to FIG. 25, this body cabinet 1 is such that a height on the front panel 4 side is formed to be smaller than a height H2 on the base panel 5 side, and that the bottom panel 3 is constituted by a circular arc surface which inclines from the front panel 4 toward the base panel 5 side.", "Thereby, wall surface installation space is made narrower, and when installed near a ceiling, it has been arranged such that such an appearance as a ceiling suspension type is given at a glance.", "[0007] When, however, the top panel 2 and the bottom panel 3 are caused to project forward as described above, it becomes more difficult than a thin type air conditioner to support each panel by means of the base panel 5 , and stiffness of the body cabinet 1 and assembly workability become an issue.", "[0008] Since particularly for a large-sized air conditioner with a width of about 1500 mm, the panel is prone to be warped, it becomes a problem to handle its seam or the like clean.", "Also, since the air inlet port 4 a is at an elevated place on the ceiling side, it becomes difficult to clean its filter, and it becomes a problem how maintenance should be facilitated.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0009] According to the present invention, in an air conditioner in which the front panel is caused to project forward like the ceiling suspension type in order to reduce the wall surface installation space while being the wall suspension type, it is possible to enhance stiffness of the body cabinet, to enable a reasonable assembly operation to be performed, and to further improve maintainability such as filter cleaning.", "Also, a body cabinet having less seams and presenting a refined appearance can be obtained.", "[0010] For this reason, the present invention includes several features, and as one of them, there is provided an air conditioner having a body cabinet including: a base panel fixed to an indoor wall surface through predetermined fixing means;", "a front panel formed like a ship bottom in cross section such that a rear end thereof is latched to a lower end of the base panel and a front end side curves upwardly;", "and a top panel, the rear end of which is latched to the top end of the base panel and the front end of which is butted against the front end of the front panel, in which on the base panel, a cross flow fan and a box for electric are arranged side by side, and a heat exchanger and a drain pan are mounted;", "on the side of the rear end of the front panel, there is provided an air outlet port;", "and the top panel is provided with an air inlet grille having a filter, characterized in that the front end of the top panel is fixed to the drain pan.", "[0011] Thereby, a stiffness of the body cabinet is significantly improved.", "As a result, it requires a small number of ribs for obtaining strength, and an amount of use of molding material can be reduced.", "On fixing the top panel, in terms of assembly workability, on the side of the front end of the top panel, there is formed a latching slit;", "on the drain pan side, there is provided a latching pawl, and a front end of the top panel is preferably fixed to a drain pan by means of a latching slit and a latching pawl.", "[0012] As the latching pawl, there is preferable the latching pawl, which is shaped like a T-character in cross section, at least on one edge of which a pawl to be latched within the latching slit is formed, and the other edge of which is located in the outside of the latching slit as a latch-releasing one, and which is rock-able like seesaw.", "[0013] It is also one of features of the present invention that the drain pan is attachable to or detachable from the base panel, whereby any seriously dirty drain pan portion is removed and can be easily cleaned.", "[0014] As a preferable mode on making the drain pan attachable or detachable, it is advisable to cause a front air direction guide (front-guide) of the base panel to support the drain pan body to be arranged along the lower end of the heat exchanger, and to fit mounts for drain pan to be formed at both ends of the drain pan body in predetermined region on the base panel for holding.", "[0015] The box for electric is detachably provided with a service cover constituting one portion each of the top panel and the base panel respectively in appearance, whereby the maintainability can be improved while the appearance quality is being enhanced.", "[0016] According to the present invention, an air passage along the rear air direction guide (rear-guide) to be formed on the base panel is shortened by an amount corresponding to a height dimension of the base panel to be made smaller, but at a rear end edge of the air outlet port, there is pivotally provided a diffuser continuing to the rear air direction guide, whereby a blast intensifying effect can be promoted.", "[0017] Also, according to another feature of the present invention, in order to facilitate cleaning of a filter, the air inlet grille has a fixed grille formed integrally with the top panel on the side of the rear end of the top panel, and a movable grille provided detachably from the top panel on the side of the front end thereof, and the filter is held by the movable grille and is made attachable to or detachable from the top panel.", "[0018] The filter includes a corrugated filter and a plane filter provided contiguously to one edge of the corrugated filter, and the corrugated filter is preferably held by the movable grille.", "Also, in order to increase an amount of air draft, it is preferable that the fixed grille is substantially parallel with an indoor ceiling surface and the movable grille is inclined obliquely downward.", "[0019] On both sides of the rear end of the movable grille, there are formed bearing fitting channels which are rotatable and attachable to and detachable from the fixed grill, and between the side of the front end of the movable grille and the top panel, there is provided engagement means consisting of an engagement projection and an elastically deformable engagement pawl, whereby attachment and detachment of the movable grille can be facilitated and the movable grille can be reliably fixed onto the top panel.", "[0020] On the side of the rear end of the movable grille, there is provided a grille retainer to a front end frame of the fixed grille, whereby deformation of the fixed grille can be prevented.", "The grille retainer is preferably provided with two grille retainers for retaining the front end frame from both upper and lower sides.", "[0021] Also, according to another feature of the present invention, the front panel includes a pair of left and right side plates formed so as to cover both side walls of the base panel;", "each side wall of the base panel is provided with a front panel guide for guiding the front panel to a latching position with respect to the base panel, and on the inner surface of each side plate of the front panel, there is formed a hook capable of sliding along the front panel guide.", "[0022] It is preferable that the above described front panel guide is an L-character shaped body in cross section including a base plate substantially perpendicular to the side wall and a guide plate bent upwardly from the same base plate and for forming a guide groove with the side wall, and that the hook is an inverted L-character shaped body in cross section including a hook body to be placed on the top end of the guide plate, and an engagement rib bent downward from the same hook body and for entering the guide groove, whereby it is possible to prevent the side plate of the front panel from being opened toward the outside.", "[0023] The front end of the front panel guide on an anti-base panel side is arranged at a lower position near the indoor floor surface than the rear end on the latching position side, and between the front end and the rear end of the front panel guide, there is preferably provided a slope with a predetermined angle, whereby the front panel can be mounted onto the base panel from obliquely below so as to avoid a louver or the like provided on the base panel.", "[0024] In order to further facilitate this mounting, in the hook, there is formed an engagement projection to be inserted and fitted in a latching channel at a latching position of the base panel, and on sliding the hook along the front panel guide, it is preferable to arrange such that the engagement projection runs onto the slope and the front panel is inclined at a predetermined angle.", "[0025] Also, the guide plate is preferably formed such that the groove width of the guide groove is wide on the front end side of the front panel guide on the anti-base panel side and gradually becomes narrower as the rear end side on the latching position side is reached.", "Thereby, it is possible to facilitate causing the engagement rib of the hook to enter the guide groove, and at a mounting termination position of the front panel, its side plate can be strongly drawn toward the side of the side wall of the base panel.", "[0026] On mounting the front panel onto the base panel from obliquely below, in order to prevent from bumping against the louver or the like, on each side wall of the base panel, there is preferably further provided a restriction guider for preventing the front panel from being lifted up higher than a predetermined height position on mounting the hook on the front panel guide.", "[0027] The front panel has a screwing boss for the base panel on the inner surface on the rear end side thereof, and on mounting the panel, even if the boss abuts against the louver or the like, in order to prevent the panel from being caught in it, the boss is preferably provided with a slope which inclines on the anti-base panel side.", "[0028] According to a preferred aspect of the present invention, in order to increase stiffness of the body cabinet and to improve assembly workability, at a front end of the top panel, there is provided an engagement hole having an elastically deformable engagement pawl therein, and at a front end of the front panel, there is provided an engagement projection which is inserted and fitted in the engagement hole to be captured by the engagement pawl.", "Also, between the base panel and the front panel, there is also provided uneven fitting means, and a predetermined portion of the front panel is supported by the base panel.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS [0029] [0029 ]FIG. 1 is an appearance perspective view showing an air conditioner according to an embodiment of the present invention;", "[0030] [0030 ]FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view showing the air conditioner;", "[0031] [0031 ]FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a state in which a cross flow fan is mounted onto a base panel of the air conditioner;", "[0032] [0032 ]FIG. 4 is a sectional view showing a state in which no filter has been mounted onto the air conditioner;", "[0033] [0033 ]FIG. 5 is a sectional view showing a different portion from FIG. 4 in a state in which a filter has been mounted onto the air conditioner;", "[0034] [0034 ]FIG. 6 is a sectional view showing a state in which a movable grille is mounted onto the air conditioner;", "[0035] [0035 ]FIG. 7 is an exploded perspective view showing the movable grille and the filter separated;", "[0036] [0036 ]FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing a state in which the movable grille has been caused to hole the filter;", "[0037] [0037 ]FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing a face plate of a top panel on the front end side in the air conditioner;", "[0038] [0038 ]FIG. 10 is perspective view showing an engagement structure of the movable grille to the top panel;", "[0039] [0039 ]FIG. 11 is a perspective view showing structure of the movable grille on a rear end side;", "[0040] [0040 ]FIG. 12 is a perspective view showing a state of a service cover fitted to the air conditioner;", "[0041] [0041 ]FIG. 13 is a perspective view showing a drain pan of the air conditioner;", "[0042] [0042 ]FIG. 14 is an enlarged perspective view showing a latching pawl of the drain pan;", "[0043] [0043 ]FIG. 15 is a perspective view showing a state in which the drain pan and the top panel are coupled together;", "[0044] [0044 ]FIG. 16 is a perspective view showing a state in which the front panel is fitted onto the base panel in the embodiment;", "[0045] [0045 ]FIG. 17 is a perspective view showing a structure of a side wall of the base panel;", "[0046] [0046 ]FIG. 18 is a sectional view for explaining a structure of a front panel guide provided on the base panel;", "[0047] [0047 ]FIG. 19 is a perspective view showing a hook provided on the front panel of the air conditioner;", "[0048] [0048 ]FIG. 20 is a side view for explaining the procedure for fitting the front panel onto the base panel;", "[0049] [0049 ]FIG. 21 is a side view for explaining the procedure for fitting the front panel onto the base panel;", "[0050] [0050 ]FIG. 22 is a side view for explaining the procedure for fitting the front panel onto the base panel;", "[0051] [0051 ]FIG. 23 is a sectional view for explaining a coupled state between the front panel and the top panel;", "[0052] [0052 ]FIG. 24 is an appearance perspective view showing a conventional air conditioner;", "and [0053] [0053 ]FIG. 25 is a sectional view showing an internal structure of the conventional air conditioner.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0054] Next, with reference to the drawings, the description will be made of embodiments of the present invention.", "FIG. 1 is an appearance perspective view showing a body cabinet 100 which this air conditioner has, and FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view showing the body cabinet 100 and various components installed therein.", "[0055] The body cabinet 100 has: a base panel 110 to be fitted onto the wall surface through fittings (not shown);", "a top panel 200 ;", "and a front panel 300 , and any of them is made of synthetic resin.", "Within the body cabinet 100 , there are housed a cross flow fan 400 , a heat exchanger 500 , a drain pan 600 or the like.", "[0056] Referring to the perspective view of FIG. 3 and a sectional view of FIG. 4 together, a major portion of the base panel 110 is occupied by a fan holder 120 to which the cross flow fan 400 is mounted, and sideways the fan holder 120 , a box for electric 140 is formed.", "At both ends of the fan holder 120 , there are provided bearing holders 121 , 121 , and the cross flow fan 400 is supported between the bearing holders 121 , 121 through a radial bearing (not shown).", "[0057] In the box for electric 140 , there is housed a fan motor 410 for driving the cross flow fan 400 .", "After the cross flow fan 400 and the fan motor 410 are mounted, the bearing holders 121 , 121 are covered with bearing covers 122 , 123 .", "In this case, a bearing cover 123 on the box for electric 140 side is used also as a retainer cover for the fan motor 410 .", "[0058] A rear wall of the fan retainer 120 is formed into a circular arc surface as a rear air direction guide (rear-guide) 124 .", "Also, a base panel 110 has a front air direction guide (front-guide) 114 to be arranged in front of a cross flow fan 400 , and this front air direction guide 114 and a lower edge of the rear air direction guide 124 form an air outlet port 125 .", "[0059] This air outlet port 125 is provided with an air direction flap for changing the direction of a current of air to be blown from the cross flow fan 400 in an up-and-down direction, and a left-right air louver for changing in the lateral direction, but FIG. 4 shows only the air direction flap 126 .", "[0060] Also, at the rear edge of the air outlet port 125 , there is pivotally provided a diffuser 127 continuing to the rear air direction guide 124 .", "The diffuser 127 is driven by a motor (not shown), and is opened at maximum in a counter-clockwise direction in FIG. 4, for example, during quick heating or quick cooling.", "[0061] Next, a heat exchanger 500 is mounted onto the base panel 110 .", "In the present embodiment, the heat exchanger 500 includes two heat exchange units 510 , 520 which have been combined in a substantially·(lambda) type, and is screwed to the base panel 110 so as to cover the cross flow fan 400 .", "[0062] The base panel 110 is formed with a drain pan 128 for a rear surface-side heat exchange unit 520 .", "Refrigerant piping for the heat exchanger 500 is drawn out of a groove 129 formed at a position above the box for electric 140 of the base panel 110 .", "Also, on the upper edge of the base panel 110 , there is provided a latching hole 130 for latching the top panel 200 .", "The latching hole 130 can be provided at least at one place each left and right.", "[0063] Next, the top panel 200 is mounted onto the base panel 110 .", "Referring to the sectional views of FIGS. 2 and 5, a latching pawl 201 projecting from the rear end of the top panel 200 is inserted into the latching hole 130 , and with the latching pawl 201 as a proximal end, the top panel 200 is mounted onto the base panel 110 so as to cover the heat exchanger 500 .", "[0064] Referring to FIG. 9 together, on the side of the front end of the top panel 200 , there is formed a face plate 202 extending to the lower end of the front surface-side heat exchange unit 510 .", "On the side of the lower part of the face plate 202 , there is formed a latching slit 203 for coupling to the drain pan 600 , and on the side of the upper part, there is formed an elastically deformable first latching pawl 204 for fastening the front panel 300 .", "[0065] Referring to FIG. 2 again, on the top panel 200 , an air inlet grille is provided over its entire surface, but in the present invention, the air inlet grille consists of a fixed grille 210 integrally formed on the side of the rear end (base panel 110 side) of the top panel 200 , and a movable grille 220 detachably provided on the side of the front end of the top panel 200 .", "The fixed grille 210 side of the top panel 200 is substantially parallel with the indoor ceiling surface, and the movable grille 220 side is inclined obliquely below.", "[0066] The top panel 200 is provided with a filter 230 , but in the present embodiment, the movable grille 220 and the filter 230 are arranged in groups of two respectively, and the filter 230 is held by each movable grille 220 .", "[0067] With reference to FIGS. 7 and 8, the description will be made of one of them.", "The movable grille 220 has a plurality of frames 222 spanned across a pair of left and right side plates 221 , and each side plate 221 is formed with a slit-shaped filter holder 223 .", "Also, at the front end of each side plate 221 , a latching projection 224 is formed, and correspondingly thereto, the top panel 200 is provided with an elastically deformable second latching pawl 205 , which serves as the other party of the latching projection 224 (See FIG. 10).", "[0068] As shown also in FIG. 6, at the rear end of each side plate 221 , there is formed a substantially U-character shaped bearing fitting channel 225 which is rotatable, and attachable to or detachable from a front end frame 211 of the fixed grille 210 .", "Also, as shown in FIG. 11, on the side of the rear end of the movable grille 220 , there is provided a grille retainer 226 to the front end frame 211 of the fixed grille 210 .", "[0069] In the present embodiment, the grille retainer 226 includes a first retainer 227 inclined obliquely upwardly so as to abut against the top end edge of the front end frame 211 , and a second retainer 228 inclined obliquely downward so as to abut against the lower end edge of the front end frame 211 .", "The first retainer 227 is arranged at the center of the rear end of the movable grille 220 , and the second retainer 228 each is arranged on both sides of the first retainer 227 .", "This arrangement prevents the front end frame 211 from lifting.", "[0070] Referring to FIGS. 7 and 8 again, the filter 230 has a corrugated filter 231 and a plane filter 232 provided contiguously to the side of the rear end of the same corrugated filter 231 .", "The corrugated filter 231 is held by the movable grille 220 , and the plane filter 232 is arranged below the fixed grille 210 .", "[0071] The reason why the plane filter 232 has been used as the filter for the fixed grille 210 is that the height dimension of the body cabinet 100 is reduced.", "The corrugated filter 231 has pawl pieces 234 at its left and right filter frames, and this pawl piece 234 is hung on the filter holder 223 , whereby the corrugated filter 231 is held by the movable grille 220 .", "[0072] Referring to FIG. 6, in order to set the filter 230 at the top panel 200 , the plane filter 232 is inserted below the fixed grille 210 ;", "thereafter, the bearing fitting channel 225 of the movable grille 220 is hung on the front end frame 211 of the fixed grille 210 ;", "and with the front end frame 211 as a proximal end, the movable grille 220 is closed to cause an engagement projection 224 to engage with a second latching pawl 205 on the top panel 200 side.", "In order to remove the filter 230 , the movable grille 220 can be opened to draw out the entire movable grille 220 .", "[0073] Next, as shown in FIG. 12, the box for electric 140 of the base panel 110 is covered with a service cover 141 .", "A top surface 142 of this service cover 141 is coordinated with the top panel 200 in design, and constitutes a portion of the top panel 200 in appearance.", "Also, a side surface 142 of the service cover 141 actually becomes one side surface of the base panel 110 .", "[0074] Although not shown, the service cover 141 is mounted onto the base panel 110 by means of screw, latching pawl or the like.", "In this respect, an order of installing the service cover 141 onto the base panel 110 may be before or after the top panel 200 .", "[0075] Next, a drain pan 600 is mounted onto the base panel 110 so as to apply the drain pan 600 to the lower end of a front surface-side heat exchange unit 510 .", "As shown in FIG. 13, the drain pan 600 includes: a gutter-shaped drain pan body 610 extending in a straight line along the lower end of the front surface-side heat exchange unit 510 ;", "and a pair of left and right mounts for drain pan 620 bent at substantially right angles toward the base panel 110 side from the both ends, and is attachable to or detachable from the base panel 110 .", "In this respect, the mounts for drain pan 620 are formed with drainage holes although not shown.", "[0076] As shown enlarged in FIG. 14, at the front edge of the drain pan body 610 , there is formed a latching pawl 630 to be latched in a latching slit 203 (See FIG. 9) on the top panel 200 side.", "This latching pawl 630 is shaped like a T-character in cross section, is rocking-deformable like seesaw and has a hook 633 in each of its edges 631 , 632 .", "[0077] The drain pan 600 is pressed into the base panel 110 , whereby each tip end of its mounts for drain pan 620 , 620 is captured by a receiving groove (not shown) provided on the base panel 110 side, the drain pan body 610 is placed on the front air direction guide 114 , and a latching pawl 630 is latched in a latching slit 203 .", "Its latching state is shown in FIG. 15.", "[0078] As seen from this figure, one edge 631 of the latching pawl 630 enters the latching slit 203 , and the other edge 632 side is located in the outside of the latching slit 203 .", "Accordingly, during maintenance such as cleaning, the other edge 632 is pressed down, whereby the latching pawl 630 is disengaged from the latching slit 203 and the drain pan 600 can be easily drawn out of the base panel 110 .", "In this respect, in the present embodiment, each of the edges 631 , 632 has a hook 633 , but the hook 633 on the other edge 632 side which has nothing to do with latching may be omitted.", "[0079] Next, the front panel 300 is mounted onto the base panel 110 .", "As shown in FIG. 16, the front panel 300 includes a pair of left and right side plates 301 formed so as to cover both side walls of the base panel 110 , and the front end 302 side is formed like a ship bottom in cross section which is curved upwardly from the base panel 110 side.", "[0080] The front panel 300 has only an air outlet port 303 which coincides with an air outlet port 125 of the base panel 110 formed on its rear end side, and has no seam at all when viewed from the floor surface side.", "[0081] On each side wall of the base panel 110 , there is provided a front panel guide 131 for guiding the front panel 300 to the latching position, and on the inner surface of each side plate 301 of the front panel 300 , there is formed a hook 310 capable of sliding along the front panel guide 131 .", "[0082] Referring to FIG. 17 together, at the latching position of the base panel 110 , there is provided a latching channel 136 having an elastically deformable latching pawl 135 .", "In this respect, the side wall of the base panel 110 shown in FIGS. 16 and 17 is actually provided by the service cover 141 .", "Although not shown, also on the side wall of the base panel 110 on the opposite side, there are similarly formed a front panel guide 131 and a latching channel 136 having an elastically deformable latching pawl 135 .", "[0083] In the present embodiment, the front end 131 a of the front panel guide 131 on the anti-base panel side is arranged at a lower position near the indoor floor surface than the position of the latching channel 136 , and between the front end 131 a and the rear end 131 b of the front panel guide 131 , there is provided a slope 134 at a predetermined angle.", "[0084] As clearly shown in FIG. 18, the front panel guide 131 is constructed as an L-character shaped body in cross section including: a base plate 132 substantially perpendicular to the side wall;", "and a guide plate 133 , which is bent substantially at right angles upwardly from the base plate 132 and forms a guide groove with the side wall.", "[0085] Also, the guide plate 133 is formed such that the groove width of the guide groove is wide on its front end 131 a side, and becomes gradually narrower toward the rear end 131 b side.", "Further, on the side wall of the base panel 110 , there is provided a restriction guider 137 for preventing the front panel 300 from being lifted higher than a predetermined height position when placing the hook 310 on the front panel guide 131 .", "[0086] Referring to FIG. 19, the hook 310 on the front panel 300 side has: a hook body 311 formed into a block shape to be placed on the top end of the guide plate 133 ;", "an engagement rib 312 bent downward from the hook body 311 so as to enter the guide groove;", "and a latching projection 313 projecting from the hook body 311 toward the base panel 110 side.", "[0087] Next, the description will be made of a procedure for mounting the front panel 300 .", "First, as shown in FIG. 20, the front panel 300 is lifted up to place the hook 310 on the front panel guide 131 , and then the engagement rib 312 is inserted into the guide groove.", "At this time, since the restriction guider 137 prevents the panel from being lifted further higher than it, the front panel 300 is prevented from bumping against the air direction flap 126 , the diffuser 127 or the like.", "[0088] Thus, when the front panel 300 is pressed in toward the base panel 110 , the latching projection 313 of the hook 310 mounts on the slope 134 of the front panel guide 131 as shown in FIG. 21, and therefore, after the entire front panel 300 is inclined once, the latching projection 313 is conducted by the latching channel 136 to be finally captured by the latching pawl 132 as shown in FIG. 22.", "[0089] Since in this sliding process of the hook 310 , the groove width of the front panel guide 131 becomes gradually narrower, both side plates 301 of the front panel 300 are drawn toward the side of the side walls of the base panel 110 .", "Thereby, the front panel 300 is prevented from being opened.", "[0090] Also, as shown in FIG. 22, on the inner surface of the front panel 300 on the rear end side, there is provided a boss 304 for screwing to the base panel 110 .", "This boss 304 is provided with an inclined plane which inclines toward the anti-base panel side.", "Even if the boss 304 abuts against the air direction flap 126 , the diffuser 127 or the like when mounting the panel, the inclined plane prevents the boss 304 from being caught in them.", "[0091] Referring to FIG. 23, in order to prevent the front panel 300 from being opened on the front end 302 side, on the inner surface side of the front end 302 , there is provided an engagement projection 301 for being captured by a first latching pawl 204 provided on the top panel 200 side.", "[0092] Also, in order to enhance stiffness of the front panel 300 , the front air direction guide 114 , which forms an air outlet port 125 of the base panel 110 , is provided with an engagement rib 138 as shown in FIG. 4, and correspondingly thereto, at the edge of an air outlet port 303 of the front panel 300 , there is formed an engagement slit 305 as the other party of the engagement rib 138 .", "[0093] The present invention is suitable for a large-sized air conditioner with wide width, but is not limited thereto.", "Also, the order of mounting (assembling) each member is not limited to the order of the description in the above described embodiment.", "[0094] In the foregoing, the detailed description has been made of the present invention with reference to the specific aspect, but within the scope of the present invention specified in claims, there should be included changes, modifications and equivalent techniques that those skilled in the art who have understood the above described contents can easily perform." ]

[ "RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application claims priority to provisional application Ser.", "No. 60/446,784, filed Feb. 12, 2003 and entitled Tomosynthesis Imaging System and Method, which is incorporated by reference herein.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Technical Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a system and method for imaging a target element using tomosynthesis.", "More specifically, the invention relates to a system, method and computer program product for creating a three-dimensional image of target elements from a plurality of radiation absorbance projection images taken from different angles.", "BACKGROUND [0003] Imaging of a patient's tissue has become a common screening and/or diagnostic tool in modern medicine.", "One example of such imaging is mammography, or the imaging of a patient's breast tissue.", "Breast cancer remains the most common cancer among women today, however, at this time there is no certain way to prevent breast cancer and the best strategy for dealing with breast cancer is early detection of the cancer so that it may be treated prior to metastatic spread.", "Accordingly, it is important for patients to have access to imaging techniques and systems that will detect very small cancers as early in their development as possible.", "[0004] Conventional mammography involves an x-ray examination of the breast, typically using a fluorescent panel that converts transmission x-rays from a breast into visible light photons that expose a film.", "While screening using conventional mammography has been shown to reduce breast cancer deaths by approximately 30 to 50%, this imaging technique lacks the dynamic range that would allow it to detect small or hidden cancers, and thus permit therapy that can improve survival rates further.", "In particular, conventional mammography techniques suffer from the limitation that three-dimensional anatomical information is projected onto a two dimensional image.", "Because of this, “structure noise”", "such as overlapping breast tissues makes it difficult to perceive and characterize small lesions.", "This can result in a 10 to 30% false-negative diagnosis rate, especially where the cancer is masked by overlying dense fibroglandular tissue.", "[0005] A three-dimensional approach to imaging could allow for the separation of overlying tissue and thus improve correct diagnosis rates for diseases such as breast cancer;", "however, three-dimensional imaging has not yet been applied for this purpose in the general population.", "The most widely used three-dimensional x-ray imaging technique is computed tomography (“CT”).", "A CT scanner contains a rotating frame that has one or more x-ray tubes mounted on one side and one or more detectors on the opposite side.", "As the rotating frame spins both the x-ray tube and the detector around the patient, numerous projections of the x-ray beam attenuated by a cross section slice of the body are acquired.", "These projections are then used to reconstruct cross-sectional images of the body.", "Despite the fact that CT has been found useful in detecting lesions in the breast, it is not suitable as a technique for regular breast imaging due to the high dose required to take a number of projections (approximately 100 to 1,000 projections) and the low spatial resolution (on the order of a millimeter).", "In addition, the CT projections mix attenuation effects from other organs of the body (such as those within the chest cavity) with the attenuation of the breast, which can distort information about the breast and causes these interposed organs to be irradiated.", "Still further, the cost of CT scanning is too high to permit its use as part of an annual exam.", "[0006] A three-dimensional imaging approach called “tomosynthesis”", "has also been developed.", "Tomosynthesis is a technique that allows the reconstruction of tomographic planes on the basis of the information contained in a series of projections acquired from a series of viewpoints about the target object.", "They need not be regularly spaced, numerous, or arranged in any regular geometry.", "The tomosythesis technique is promising in that it may provide improved spatial differentiation of nearby tissues at very high resolution comparable to projection 2D imaging, with limited radiation.", "The problem of 3D reconstruction from tomosynthesis projections has been described as intractable by those skilled in the art.", "[0007] In order for a three-dimensional imaging technique to be successful in medical diagnosis and other applications, it should offer: Sufficient spatial resolution and contrast resolution to detect and characterize, for example, breast cancers;", "Minimum radiation dose to a patient;", "Fast image acquisition;", "Cost effectiveness;", "and 3D reconstruction that can be performed effectively.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0013] In one aspect, the invention provides a method that enables to the use of tomosynthesis to efficiently provide accurate three-dimensional imaging of a target element.", "This method involves acquiring radiation absorbance images of the target element through a limited plurality of angles and applying an iterative reconstruction algorithm to generate the three-dimensional reconstruction of the target element.", "This method can gain further accuracy where the iterative reconstruction algorithm is applied using cone beam forward projection and back projection.", "[0014] In a further aspect of the invention, a system for three-dimensional tomosynthesis imaging of a target element is provided having an image acquisition element and a processor.", "The image acquisition element obtains a plurality of images of the target element from a plurality of angles and includes a radiation source that is positionable at a plurality of angles with respect to the target element and a radiation detector.", "The radiation detector is positioned so as to detect radiation emitted by the radiation source passing through the target element and determine a plurality of attenuation values for radiation passing through the target element to establish a radiation absorbance projection image of the target element for a particular radiation source angle.", "The processor is configured to apply an iterative reconstruction algorithm to the radiation absorbance projection images of the target element obtained from a plurality of radiation source angles to generate a three-dimensional reconstruction of the target element.", "Again, the system can gain further accuracy where the iterative reconstruction algorithm is applied using cone-beam forward projection and back projection.", "[0015] In a still further aspect of the invention, a computer program for three-dimensional tomosynthesis imaging of a target element is provided.", "The three-dimensional images are created from a plurality of radiation absorbance projection images obtained at different angles from an image acquisition element having a radiation source positionable at a plurality of angles with respect to the target element and a radiation detector.", "The radiation detector is positioned so as to detect radiation emitted by the radiation source passing through the target element and determine a plurality of attenuation values for radiation passing through the target element to establish a radiation absorbance projection image of the target element for a particular radiation source angle.", "The computer program code is embodied in a computer readable medium and includes computer program code for applying an iterative reconstruction algorithm to the radiation absorbance projection images of the target element obtained from a plurality of radiation source angles to generate the three-dimensional reconstruction of the target element wherein the iterative reconstruction algorithm is applied using cone-beam forward projection and back projection.", "[0016] In specific embodiments of any of these aspects of the invention, the radiation absorbance images can be acquired by transmitting x-ray energy from an x-ray source through the target element to an x-ray detector and the x-ray detector may have a plurality of detector pixels.", "The three-dimensional reconstruction of the target element may be represented as an array of voxels having a uniform or non-uniform size in three-dimensions.", "The forward projection step may then be implemented by ray tracing from the x-ray source to a detector pixel and the forward projection of the target element is obtained by repeating the ray tracing for each detector pixel to calculate an attenuation value for each voxel.", "The back projection step can be implemented by locating detector pixels containing attenuation information relating to a selected voxel and using those pixels to update the attenuation value of the selected voxel.", "The back projection step can further include performing a back projection for at least each voxel corresponding to a three-dimensional reconstruction of the target element.", "In the enumerated aspects of the invention or in any of their embodiments, the iterative reconstruction algorithm may be a maximum likelihood algorithm and the maximum likelihood estimation can be implemented using an expectation-maximization algorithm.", "[0017] The invention is particularly useful for creating three-dimensional reconstructions of animal and more particularly human tissue.", "In one preferred embodiment, the invention is employed in mammography to create a three-dimensional reconstruction of the breast tissue of a human female patient.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0018] The invention will be more fully understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings: [0019] FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the geometry of a tomosynthesis system of the invention;", "[0020] FIG. 2 is a top view of the coordinate system of a tomosynthesis system of the invention;", "[0021] FIG. 3 illustrates a forward projection of the tomosynthesis system of the invention;", "[0022] FIG. 4 illustrates the path length of an x-ray beam in a voxel in the tomosynthesis system of the invention;", "[0023] FIG. 5 illustrates a projection of the path length of FIG. 4 ;", "[0024] FIG. 6 illustrates an exception to the projection of FIG. 5 ;", "[0025] FIG. 7 illustrates a back-projection step of the invention;", "[0026] FIG. 8A illustrates a phantom used to test a system of the invention;", "[0027] FIG. 8B illustrates a feature plate that makes up a portion of the phantom of FIG. 8A ;", "[0028] FIGS. 9A, 9B , and 9 C illustrate structural noise reduction in (A) a projection of an ACR phantom;", "(B) a projection of a mastectomy specimen/ACR phantom;", "and (C) a reconstructed ACR phantom feature layer;", "[0029] FIG. 10 is a film-screen mammogram of a patient's tissue;", "and [0030] FIGS. 11A, 11B , and 11 C illustrate slices of a reconstructed volume of the same tissue at three different depths.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0031] The systems and methods of the present invention address the needs of the art by providing tomosynthesis apparatus and techniques for imaging target elements that overcome the problems of conventional three-dimensional imaging systems.", "The present invention enables the use of tomosynthesis to efficiently provide accurate three-dimensional imaging of a target element in which overlapping sub-elements having differing attenuation characteristics by applying a 3D reconstruction algorithm having a novel combination of features.", "The algorithm can employ a cone-beam geometry lacking in geometric simplification such as parallel-beam based approximation methods.", "The algorithm can further apply the cone-beam geometry in an iterative forward-projection and back-projection method based on maximum-likelihood image estimation using an estimation-maximization algorithm.", "The invention is applied below to one preferred embodiment in which the system is used for tomosynthesis mammography;", "however, the invention will be useful in a variety of three-dimensional imaging situations.", "For example, the invention can be applied to a variety of patient imaging problems such as heart imaging, or imaging of the soft tissues or bones of the hand.", "The imaging system of the invention can be used for diagnoses (as is described below for tomosynthesis mammography) or it may be used for other applications such as three-dimensional modeling for the purpose of fitting an implant (whether orthopedic, such as a hip or knee implant, an artificial heart, or other type of implant) or for use in surgical navigation systems.", "What follows is a description of one preferred embodiment of the invention.", "[0000] 1.", "Tomosynthesis Mammography System [0032] Tomosynthesis mammography is a three-dimensional breast imaging technique.", "It involves acquiring projection images of a breast at a plurality of viewpoints, typically over an arc or linear path.", "Three-dimensional distribution of x-ray attenuation coefficient of the breast volume is reconstructed from these projections.", "A prototype tomosynthesis system 10 for breast imaging is illustrated in FIG. 1 .", "In this exemplary system, eleven projections are acquired by moving the x-ray tube 12 over a 50° arc (−25° to +25°) above the target element, in this case breast tissue 18 which may be compressed by compression paddle 16 , in 5° angular steps about axis of rotation 14 .", "Breast tissue 18 and digital detector 20 are stationary during the image acquisition.", "Certain characteristics of this exemplary embodiment of a tomosynthesis system of the invention are described below: Spatial resolution and contrast resolution: The tomosynthesis system uses an amorphous-Silicon-based flat panel digital detector 20 on which a CsI crystal phosphor is grown epitaxially.", "It reads out 2304X1800 pixels (100 μm pixel pitch) via a TFT array.", "The detector has a linear response over exposure levels up to 4000 mR and 12 bits of working dynamic range.", "Each plane of the 3D reconstruction has about the same resolution as the detector (100 um) but the depth resolution is on the order of a millimeter.", "Dose: The target/filter combination is Rh/Rh and the accelerating potential is 25˜33 kVp to image breasts with 3˜8 cm range of thickness.", "The total x-ray dose for acquiring 11 projections is approximately 1.5 times of that used for one film-screen mammogram.", "Each projection is a low dose breast image (approximately {fraction (1/11)} of the does per projection).", "Patient motion: Patient motion is reduced by fast image acquisition.", "Using cone-beam x-ray geometry and area detector, a projection of the whole breast can be recorded with one x-ray exposure at each angle.", "For each projection, the exposure time is 0.1˜0.2 s and detector readout time is about 0.3 s. Rotation to the next angle is performed during the detector readout.", "The total image acquisition time for 11 projections is about 7 sec.", "Breast compression also helps to reduce patient motion.", "Image acquisition geometry: The design of the tomosynthesis system can be based on the conventional mammography system.", "The MLO views have been used in most cases since it provides the most complete coverage of the whole breast.", "3D Reconstruction Algorithm [0037] Tomosynthesis can take advantage of the high efficiency of a digital detector in acquiring low dose breast images.", "Prior to the present invention, appropriate reconstruction methods that make good use of the low dose projections and the acquisition geometry of the tomosynthesis system 10 have not been deployed.", "For an initial evaluation, Niklason implemented a “shift-and-add”", "method that is similar to backprojection [Niklason et al, 1997].", "Methods used by others [Chakraborty et al, 1984;", "Haaker et al, 1985;", "Suryanarayanan et al, 2000] essentially did not handle the limited statistics in low dose projection images.", "In theory, they were not suitable in the case of limited number of projections and limited angular range.", "Therefore, the three-dimensional information extracted by these methods was limited, which resulted in poor quality reconstructions.", "[0038] The Maximum Likelihood (ML) algorithm is an iterative reconstruction method [Rockmore, 1977;", "Shepp et al, 1982;", "Levitan et al, 1987;", "Herbert et al, 1989;", "Browne et al, 1992;", "Manglos et al, 1995;", "Pan et al 1997;", "Zhou et al, 1997].", "It is well suited for tomosynthesis reconstruction, which is an ill-conditioned problem (only 11 low dose projections are available).", "The ML algorithm incorporates the stochastic nature of the x-ray transmission process so that the statistical noise in projection images is taken into consideration in the case of low x-ray flux.", "It also incorporates the information of the object into the reconstruction in the form of constraints.", "[0039] In ML reconstruction, the Likelihood function, which is the probability of obtaining the projections Y obtained in a measurement, given a certain model for the three-dimensional map of attenuation coefficients u is: L=P ( Y|u ) (1) [0040] The ML solution is the 3D reconstruction that maximizes the probability of the measured projections.", "Because an analytical solution is usually intractable, an iterative algorithm is a better choice.", "The incident and transmitted x-rays follow Poisson statistics and the log-likelihood is described by: LnL = ∑ i ⁢ ( - N i ⁢ ⅇ - 〈 l , n 〉 i - Y i ⁢ 〈 l , u 〉 i + Y i ⁢ ln ⁢ ⁢ N i - ln ⁢ ⁢ Y i ) ( 2 ) where u is the linear attenuation coefficient;", "N i is the number of incident x-ray photons to projection pixel i, before attenuation;", "Y i is the number of transmitted x-ray photons to projection pixel i, after attenuation;", "ι ij is the path length of beam ray i in the object (reconstruction voxel j;", "and 〈 l , u 〉 i = ∑ i ⁢ l ij ⁢ u j is the total attenuation along beam ray to pixel i. [0041] The algorithm by Lange and Fessler [Lange and Fessler, 1995] can be selected to solve the ML problem.", "At the n-th iteration, the value of an object voxel μ is updated by: u j ( n + 1 ) = u j ( n ) + u j ( n ) ⁢ ∑ i ⁢ I ij ⁡ ( N i ⁢ ⅇ - 〈 l , u ( n ) 〉 i - Y i ) ∑ i ⁢ ( l ij ⁢ 〈 l , u ( n ) 〉 i ⁢ N i ⁢ ⅇ - 〈 l , u ( n ) 〉 i ) ( 3 ) where the notations are the same as above.", "Implementation of the Cone-Beam Reconstruction [0042] Cone-beam forward projection and back projection can form the basis for iterative reconstruction according to the invention.", "At the forward projection step, the projection images at 11 angles are calculated based on the current 3D reconstruction model.", "At the backprojection step, the calculated projections and the measured projections are compared and the 3D reconstruction model is updated according to their difference.", "[0043] The forward projection to a detector pixel i at a projection angle can be used to illustrate the whole forward projection problem.", "An x-ray beam containing N i photons is incident from the source to the center of the selected detector pixel.", "This beam penetrates a series of object voxels and is sequentially attenuated by them.", "The total aggregate attenuation is <ι,u (n) >", "i and the number of transmitted photons is N i e −<ιu (n) >", "i , which is the forward projection to the pixel.", "This operation is repeated for all detector pixels that form the forward projection at this angle.", "The forward projections at all angles can be done in the same way except that the “pseudo-beam”", "is rotated.", "[0044] The 3D reconstruction model is updated at the backprojection step.", "Equation 3 describes the update of a voxel j at the n-th iteration of reconstruction.", "The whole image is updated by doing the same operation on every voxel in it.", "At a projection angle, the center of the voxel is projected from the source to a detector pixel containing the attenuation information of this voxel.", "This operation is repeated at other angles and totally 11 detector pixels are found.", "In equation 3, the values of these 11 pixels, both in forward projection and in measured projection are used to update the object (reconstruction) voxel (the summation is on the set of these 11 pixels).", "[0045] 3.1 Positions of X-Ray Source, Object Voxel and Detector Pixel [0046] The origin of the coordinate system is at the axis of rotation 14 as illustrated in FIG. 2 .", "The rotation plane of the x-ray 12 source is the YZ-plane (x=0).", "The detector 20 is parallel to the XY-plane at z=21.7 cm.", "The distance between the source 12 and the axis of rotation 14 is D sa and the distance between the detector 20 and the axis of rotation 14 is D da .", "At projection angle θ, the position of the x-ray source 12 is: x s (θ)=0 y s (θ)= D sa ·sin(θ) z s (θ)=− D sa ·cos(θ) (4) [0047] The reconstructed object 24 is a rectangular volume, represented by a three-dimensional array of voxels 26 .", "The breast volume 18 is contained in this rectangular volume 24 .", "In a reconstructed image, the value of a voxel is positive if it represents breast tissue;", "zero if it represents the empty space out of the breast.", "In the coordinate system, the position of a voxel 26 indexed by (m x , m y , m z ) is: x obj =X obj +m x ·d x y obj =Y obj +m y ·d y z obj =Z obj +m z ·d z (5) where (X obj , Y obj , Z obj ) is the position of the center of the rectangular volume 24 ;", "d x , d y and d z are the size of the voxel 26 in three dimensions.", "[0048] The position of a detector pixel 28 indexed by (n x , n y ) is: x p =X p +n x ·d′ x y p =Y p +n y ·d′ y z p =D da (6) where (X p , Y p ) is the position of the center of the detector 20 ;", "d′ x and d′ y are the size of the pixel 28 in X and Y dimensions.", "[0049] 3.2 Forward Projection [0050] The forward projection is implemented by ray tracing from the x-ray source 12 to detector pixel 28 .", "At a projection angle, the x-ray beam to a detector pixel 12 is attenuated from the point where the beam enters the volume 24 to the point where it goes out.", "The total attenuation along the beam <ι,u (n) >", "i is calculated by accumulating the attenuation ι·u (n) by each voxel 26 on the beam line.", "The number of transmitted x-rays to the pixel 28 is N i e −<ιu (n) >", "i .", "The forward projection of the object 18 at this angle is obtained by repeating this operation for all detector pixels 28 .", "The forward projections at other angles are calculated in the same way except the x-ray source 12 is at a different location.", "[0051] The first step of forward projection is to determine the orientation of the x-ray beam 30 as illustrated in FIG. 3 .", "At an angle, the position of the x-ray source (x s , y s , z s ) 12 and detector pixel (x p , y p , z p ) 28 are determined by equation 4 and 6.", "The orientation of the beam {overscore (P)} (x,y,z) 30 from source 12 to the detector pixel 28 can be described by two parameters: (1) β, the angle made by the beam and the YZ-plane;", "(2) α, the angle made by the projection of the beam in YZ-plane and the Z-axis.", "These two parameters are determined by: α = tan - 1 ⁡ ( ( y p - y s ) / ( z p - z s ) ) ⁢ ⁢ β = tan - 1 ⁡ ( x p / ( y p - y s ) 2 + ( z p - z s ) 2 ) ( 7 ) [0052] The path length  P 1 ⁢ P 4 →  of the x-ray beam 30 through a voxel 26 , as illustrated in FIG. 4 , is also the distance between the centers of two successive voxels along the beam.", "The position of the next voxel along the beam can be located by shifting Δx, Δy and Δz ( , and in FIG. 4 ) along three dimensions from the current voxel 26 .", "Δ ⁢ ⁢ x = ⁢ P 1 ⁢ P 2 ⇀ = P 1 ⁢ P 4 ⇀ · cos ⁢ ⁢ β · cos ⁢ ⁢ α Δ ⁢ ⁢ y = ⁢ P 2 ⁢ P 3 ⇀ = P 1 ⁢ P 4 ⇀ · cos ⁢ ⁢ β · sin ⁢ ⁢ α Δ ⁢ ⁢ z = ⁢ P 3 ⁢ P 4 ⇀ = P 1 ⁢ P 4 ⇀ · sin ⁢ ⁢ β ( 8 ) [0053] To calculate  P 1 ⁢ P 4 →  , its projection in the YZ-plane , illustrated in FIG. 5 , is calculated first:  P 1 ⁢ P 3 →  = d y / sin ⁢ ⁢ α if ⁢ ⁢ a >", "tan - 1 ⁡ ( d y / d z ) ;", " P 1 ⁢ P 3 →  = d z / cos ⁢ ⁢ α if ⁢ ⁢ a ≤ tan - 1 ⁡ ( d y / d z ) ( 9 ) [0054] In a similar way, the path length  P 1 ⁢ P 4 →  can be calculated by:  P 1 ⁢ P 4 →  = d x / sin ⁢ ⁢ β if ⁢ ⁢ β >", "tan - 1 ⁡ ( d x /  P 1 ⁢ P 3 →  ) ;", " P 1 ⁢ P 4 →  = d x / cos ⁢ ⁢ β if ⁢ ⁢ β ≤ tan - 1 ⁡ ( d x /  P 1 ⁢ P 3 →  ) ( 10 ) [0055] There are exceptions to the two cases illustrated in FIG. 5 .", "In a case shown in FIG. 6 , the path lengths through voxel 3 and 4 cannot be described by equation 10.", "But the total path length of them is equal to the path length in voxel 2 .", "The total attenuation by voxel 3 and 4 is equivalent to the attenuation by the shaded area in FIG. 6 , which has the same path length as voxel 2 .", "The equivalent attenuation is estimated by a linear interpolation of attenuations by voxel 3 and 4 .", "The weighting for the interpolation is proportional to the inverse of the distance from the voxel center to the beam line.", "The ratio of the weighting for voxel 3 to that for voxel 4 is d 4 /d 3 , equivalent to r 4 /r 3 , where d 3 and d 4 are the distances from the voxel center to the beam;", "r 3 and r 4 are the distances from the voxel center to the projection of the beam along the Y-axis.", "[0056] The total attenuation along a beam to a detector pixel i is the summation from the first voxel at the point where the beam enters the volume to the voxel at the point where the beam goes out of the volume.", "For a beam with orientation (α, β), the position of the voxel at entering point is: x 0 = ⁢ x s + ( y 0 - y s ) 2 + ( z 0 - z s ) 2 · tan ⁢ ⁢ β y 0 = ⁢ y s + ( z 0 - z s ) ⁣ tan ⁢ ⁢ α ;", "z 0 = ⁢ 21.7 - D ;", "( 11 ) where D is the thickness of the reconstruction volume.", "The attenuation ι·u 0 by the first voxel at (x 0 , y 0 , z 0 ) is calculated and then the tracing point is shifted forward by (Δx, Δy, Δz) to the next voxel along the beam, where the attenuation ι·u 1 is calculated and added to ι·u 0 .", "At the n-th step, the position being search is: x n =x 0 +n·Δx y n =y 0 +n·Δy z n =y 0 +n·Δz (12) The number of steps of forward projection is V=int(D/Δz)+1.", "After V steps, the total attenuation along the beam to detector pixel i is ∑ n = 0 M ⁢ ⁢ u n · l n (represented by <ι,u (n) >", "i ).", "The number of transmitted x-ray photons is N i ⁢ ⅇ - ∑ n N ⁢ u n ⁢ · l n .", "[0057] 3.3 Backprojection [0058] The value of the object voxel is updated at the backprojection step as illustrated in FIG. 7 .", "At this step, projection pixels containing the attenuation information of the selected object voxel are found and used to update the value of this voxel.", "At a projection angle, the position of the detector pixel (x p , y p , z p ) which contains the information of a selected voxel is: x p =x s +( x obj −x s )·( z p −z s )/( z obj −z s ) y p =y s +( y obj −y s )·( x p −x s )/( x obj −x s ) z p =21.7 (13) where (x s , y s , z s ) is the position of the x-ray source at this angle.", "This operation is repeated to find detector pixels related to this voxel at other angles.", "The value of this voxel is updated by equation 3, using these detector pixels.", "Image Reconstruction Results [0059] 4.1 Study on an ACR Phantom/Mastectomy Specimen [0060] A phantom 38 is composed of a piece of mastectomy specimen 40 and a feature plate 42 from an American College of Radiology (ACR) accredited mammography phantom and placed on detector 20 as illustrated in FIG. 8A .", "The feature plate 42 , further illustrated in FIG. 8B , contained nylon fibers (labled 1 to 6 on the plate), simulated micro-calcifications (labeled 7 to 11 on the plate) and tumor-like masses (labeled 12 to 16 on the plate).", "The mastectomy specimen 40 is a surgically removed breast tissue containing lesions.", "The combination of the feature plate 42 with the mastectomy specimen 40 makes it very hard to find features of the ACR phantom 42 .", "The reconstructed feature plate demonstrates how the three-dimensional reconstruction works to improve the visibility of features.", "[0061] Ten features (fiber 1, 2, 3, 4;", "micro-calcification cluster 7, 8, 9 and mass 12, 13, 14) can be seen very well in a projection of the 4 cm thick ACR phantom 42 itself (Rh/Rh, 28 kVp and 160 mAs) as shown in FIG. 9A .", "With the superimposed mastectomy specimen 40 , only one feature (micro-calcification cluster 7) is visible in a projection (Rh/Rh, 30 kVp and 140 mAs) as can be seen in FIG. 9B .", "[0062] The reconstruction of the feature layer after 10 iterations is shown in FIG. 9C .", "The x-ray energy and exposure are the same as that used to create the image of FIG. 9B .", "More features (micro-calcification cluster 7, 8, 9 and mass 12) can be seen in the reconstruction.", "Even some low contrast features (fiber 1, 2, 3, 4) are recognizable.", "The number “503 059”", "on the label is clearer.", "It is clear that the visibility of features are significantly improved.", "[0063] 4.2 3D Reconstruction of a Patient Tissue [0064] Clinical imaging of volunteers conducted at Massachusetts General Hospital under IRB approved protocols have been reconstructed for comparison of conventional film-screen mammography and to tomosynthesis mammography.", "As an example, a mediolateral oblique (MLO) mammogram from a volunteer was obtained using film-screen system (Mo/Mo, 25 kV and 330 mrad average glandular dose).", "The x-ray film image is shown in FIG. 10 .", "The patient was found to have a non-palpable 10 mm invasive ductal cancer with associated in situ tumor and this was proved by biopsy.", "The cancer was difficult to see in the conventional screening mammogram and was found primarily because the calcifications associated with it drew the attention of the radiologist.", "[0065] A tomosynthesis image dataset was taken with Rh/Rh target/filter at 28 kVp and a total dose of 307 mrad.", "Three reconstructed slices from the 3D reconstruction are shown in FIG. 11 .", "Blood vessels are seen near the breast skin in FIG. 11A .", "A tumor that has intraductal as well as invasive ductal cancer elements is just out of the plane of section in FIG. 11B .", "The invasive tumor mass, marked by an arrow, with associated calcifications in the in situ portion is clearly seen in FIG. 11C , as is a benign intramammary lymph node in the upper portion of the image.", "[0066] It is apparent from this volunteer's dataset that overlapping structures in the conventional two-dimensional projection images ( FIG. 10 ) were spacially separated.", "A reconstructed image provided at three different depths ( FIG. 11A illustrating a depth of Z=2 mm, FIG. 11B illustrating a depth of Z=22 mm, and FIG. 11C illustrating a depth of Z=32 mm) makes it easier to see the tumor and calcifications and their relative geometry.", "[0067] A person of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate further features and advantages of the invention based on the above-described embodiments.", "Accordingly, the invention is not to be limited by what has been particularly shown and described, except as indicated by the appended claims or those ultimately provided in a utility application claiming priority to this provisional application.", "A number of references have been referred to in the specification by last name of the first listed author and year of publication;", "those references are listed by full citation in the Bibliography below.", "All publications and references cited herein are expressly incorporated herein by reference in their entirety, in particular, each of the references listed in the Bibliography below is expressly incorporated for the teachings referred to in the sections of the application above for which they are cited.", "Bibliography [0000] U.S. Pat. No. 5,872,828 to Niklason et al.", ", entitled “Tomosynthesis System for Breast Imaging.”", "J. A. Browne, and T. J. Holmes, “Developments with Maximum Likelihood X-ray Computed Tomography,” IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, 11 (1): 40-52 (1992).", "D. P. Chakraborty, M. V. Yester, G. T. Barnes and A. V. Lakshminarayanan, “Self-masking subtraction tomosynthesis,” Radiology, 150:225-229 (1984).", "P. Haaker, E. Klotz, R. Koppe, R. Linde and H. Moller, “A New Digital Tomosynthesis Method With Less Artifacts for Angiography,” Medical Physics, 12(4): 431-436 (1985).", "T. J. Herbert and R. M. Leahy, “A Generalized EM Algorithm for 3-D Bayesian Reconstruction from Poisson Data Using Gibbs Priors,” IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, 8(2): 194-202 (1989).", "K. Lange and J. A. Fessler, “Globally Convergent Algorithm for Maximum a Posteriori Transmission Tomography,” IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, 4: 1430-1438 (1995).", "E. Levitan and G. T. Herman, “A Maximum A Posteriori Probability expectation Maximization Algorithm or Image Reconstruction in Emission Tomography,” IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, MI-6(3): 185-192 (1987).", "S. H. Manglos, G. M. Gagne, F. D. Thomas and R. Narayanaswamy, “Transmission Maximum-Likelihood Reconstruction with Ordered Subsets for Cone Beam CT,” Physics in Medicine and Biology, 40: 1225-1241 (1995).", "L. T. Niklason, B. T. Christian, L. E. Niklason, D. B. Kopans, D. E. Castleberry, B. H. Opsahl-Ong, C. E. Landberg, P. J. Slanetz, A. A. Giardino, R. M. Moore, D. Albagi, M. C. DeJule, P. A. Fitzgerald, D. F. Fobare, B. W. Giambattista, R. F. Kwasnick, J. Liu, S. J. Lubowski, G. E. Possin, J. F. Richotte, C-Y Weinad R. F. Wirth, “Digital Tomosynthesis in Breast Imaging,” Radiology, 205: 399-406 (1997).", "L. T. Niklason, B. T. Christian, L. E. Niklason, D. B. Kopans, P. J. Slanetz, D. E. Castleberry, B. H. Opsahl-Ong, C. E. Landberg, B. W. Giambattista, “Digital Breast Tomosynthesis: Potentially a New Method for Breast Cancer Screening,” Digital Mammography, edited by N. Karssemeijer, M. Thijssen, J. Hendriks and L. van Erning, 13: 51-56 (Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1998).", "T. Pan, B. M. W. Tsui and C. L. Byrne, “Choice of Initial Conditions in the ML Reconstruction of Fan-Beam Transmission with Truncated Projection Data,” IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, 16(4): 426-438 (1997).", "A. J. Rockmore and A. Macovski, “A Maximum Likelihood Approach to Transmission Image Reconstruction From Projections,” IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, 24: 1929-1935 (1977).", "L. A. Shepp and Y. Vardi, “Maximum Likelihood Reconstruction for Emission Tomography,” IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, MI-1:113-122 (1982).", "S. Suryanarayanan, A. Karellas, S. Vedantham, S. J. Glick, C. J. D'Orsi, S. P. Baker and R. L. Webber, “Comparison of Tomosynthesis Methods Used with Digital Mammography,” Academic Radiology, 7:1085-1097, (2000).", "Z. Zhou, R. M. Leahy and J. Qi, “Approximate Maximum Likelihood Hyperparameter Estimation for Gibbs Priors,” IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, 6(6): 844-861 (1997)." ]

[ "CONTRACTUAL ORIGIN OF THE INVENTION This invention was made with Government support under Prime Contract #NAS-9-98100 awarded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.", "The United States Government has certain rights in the invention.", "FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates generally to electronic networking equipment, and is particularly directed to an enhanced method and apparatus for the translation of different data protocols in a high throughput communication link employing both wired and wireless network platforms.", "More specifically, this invention is directed to the connection of a high speed, variable data rate satellite network to a conventional ground-based, fixed data rate commercial communications network in a manner which increases systems throughput without impacting satellite or ground-based network design and operation.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION With the advent of personal computers, the need for interconnectivity between computational platforms has grown exponentially.", "In the business environment, connectivity is necessary for transmittal of email and numerous other types of data including audio and video.", "In the residential area, many homes are now connected via the Internet.", "All of this interconnectivity requires increasingly higher throughput across both wired and wireless networks.", "The transmission of high data rates, such as for video signals, requires expensive connections when performed over wired networks.", "For temporary applications, the installation cost becomes prohibitive.", "The most economical solution is to transmit data via satellites.", "This method eliminates the high cost of connecting any location with coaxial wire or fiber optics to the nearest telephone switching office.", "Existing satellites are equipped with several transponders that relay information.", "Each transponder typically has a pass-band of 36 megahertz.", "Using present modulation and coding systems, these transponders can handle a data rate of nearly 70 megabits/second.", "Satellites operating in the Ka band are expected to be available to the marketplace in the next 2–3 years.", "These Ka band transponders will support pass-bands of 100 to 500 megahertz.", "On the ground, existing networking equipment runs at established fixed speeds.", "These speeds include (in megabits/second): 1.5, 45, 155, and 622.", "To connect a satellite communications network with ground-based network, the satellite modem must operate at lower speeds that are identical to ground-based speeds.", "This severely limits the efficiency of the satellite's available bandwidth.", "The satellite connection is handled through a satellite modem.", "Current satellite modems use a serial input/output such as RS-449.", "A translation device is required to connect the standards based ground network to the satellite modem.", "If the satellite is operating at a similar speed, it can be effectively connected using a commercial router.", "To operate efficiently at any other speed, the connection must be made through a different interface device.", "The prior art includes three types of interface devices.", "All of these devices convert the satellite modem serial data to/from the standards based protocols of Asynchronous Transmission Mode (ATM) or Ethernet.", "These devices, two of which are commercial and one of which is a governmental (NASA) design, include: 1) The COMSAT Link Accelerator (CLA-2000) converts RS-449 serial interface at up to 8 megabits/second to an ATM interface at a fixed 45 megabits/second.", "The CLA-2000 was recently upgraded to support 10 megabits/second Ethernet in addition to ATM.", "2) The Metrodata LA-1000 converts, an Asynchronous Serial Interface (ASI) to ATM.", "The LA-1000 interfaces between satellite modems with DVB-ASI interfaces and ATM networks at speeds up to about 100 megabits/second.", "The LA-1000 does not support satellite modems with Emitter Coupled Logic (ECL) interfaces.", "3) The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Ground Router Interface Device (GRID) includes the features of the CLA-2000 and the capability to support multiple RS-449 interfaces.", "This device is also limited to 8 megabits/second on the terrestrial serial interface.", "Details of GRID are proprietary and not publicly available.", "Current systems in the ECL domain are thus limited to 8 megabits/second.", "Referring to FIG. 1 , there is shown a simplified block diagram of a current satellite communication system 10 for communicating with the International Space Station (ISS) 12 .", "The ISS 12 communicates with a ground station 16 , which in the present case is NASA's White Sands Complex (WSC), via a Tracking &", "Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) 14 .", "The uplink from the ground station 16 to TDRS 14 is at a data rate of 3 megabits per second (Mb/s), while the downlink to the ground station is at the rate of 50 Mb/s.", "The Ku-SA channel forward link from TDRS 14 to ISS 12 is 50 MHz wide, while the Ku-SA channel return link from ISS to TDRS is 225 MHz wide.", "The TDRS ground system 16 does not afford a Forward Error Correction (FEC) capability, which limits the capability of this link.", "The downlink signal received from TDRS 14 undergoes frequency translation in the ground station 16 and is provided to a TDRS modem 18 which demodulates the 50 Mb/s signal down to a baseband signal which includes an ECL clock signal and the received data.", "The ECL clock signal and the data are provided to a high rate switch 20 , which is adapted for interfacing with the combination of a domestic satellite (DOMSAT) 26 and DOMSAT modem 24 within the ground station 16 .", "An “Air Gap”", "is illustrated in the ground station 16 between the high rate switch 20 and a SONET mux 22 to illustrate that there is currently no available means for linking a 50 Mb/s signal to a conventional ground communication network such as SONET.", "The ECL clock signal and data are provided from the high rate switch 20 to the domestic satellite 26 via the DOMSAT modem 24 .", "Domestic satellite 26 is a commercial spacecraft operating in the Ku band, which receives signals and retransmits the signals at a data rate of 50 Mb/s.", "The domestic satellite 26 retransmits the data in a downlink to an earth facility such as NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) 28 and NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) 30 in the form of synchronous serial data.", "This satellite communications network is government proprietary and thus not available to the general public, is expensive to operate, and suffers from an extensive signal delay in the link between ground station 16 and the NASA space centers 28 and 30 via the domestic satellite 26 , e.g., an average delay of 270 ms.", "Another disadvantage of this and other prior approaches is that satellites are forced to operate at data rates dependent on the terrestrial network components at either end of the link.", "Often, the ideal data rates of the wireless satellite network segment lie in between the supported terrestrial data rates.", "To guarantee error-free connections via satellite, sufficient signal power must be provided to account for atmospheric disturbances such as clouds and rain.", "Reducing the data rates effectively eliminates the need to increase RF power levels to compensate.", "However, prior approaches do not allow for agile data rates.", "Another disadvantage of prior approaches involves Forward Error Correction (FEC), which is a well-known tool for increasing communications link reliability.", "The high rate satellite modems 18 for Tracking &", "Data Relay Satellites (TDRS) do not employ Reed-Solomon FEC.", "To maximize the capability of these high rate connections, Reed-Solomon FED must be employed on the ISS 12 and at the high rate modem 18 .", "The present invention addresses the aforementioned limitations of the prior art by providing continuously adjustable input/output serial data rates via ECL-based satellite modems and converting the data rate to standards-based terrestrial network data rates with Reed-Solomon FEC capability at speeds up to 622 megabits/second.", "OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to link an Emitter Coupled Logic satellite communications network to a conventional ground-based Asynchronous Transfer Mode Network with minimum impact on the operations and configuration of the network.", "It is another object of the present invention to connect a high speed, variable data rate communications network to a fixed data rate communications network in a synchronous manner.", "Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a data rate independent, synchronous RF network connecting a standards-based satellite network and a standards-based ground communications network, which allows for interactive communications between the two networks.", "A further object of the present invention is to provide adaptive error correction coding in a satellite and ground-based communications network operating at the high data rates available in conventional ground-based communications networks.", "A still further object of the present invention is to provide a communications interface between synchronous serial data circuits and a fiber optic or wide area network.", "Another object of the present invention is to provide an agile satellite serial data rate that allows a satellite transponder/modem to operate at its most efficient data rate.", "A still further object of the present invention is to provide a satellite modem interface to any protocol above ATM such as Internet Protocol (IP), User Datagram Protocol (UDP), and Transmission Control Protocol (TCP).", "The present invention contemplates conversion of Emitter Coupled Logic (ECL)-based synchronous serial data having a variable data rate such as used in satellite-based space communications to a high speed, fixed data rate such as employed in ground-based communications networks such as of the ATM type with minimal impact on the operation and configuration of the communications network.", "The inventive approach employs a network protocol translation device, which permits synchronous serial data from the satellite network to be converted to the protocol of any one of various ground-based conventional communications networks such as of the ATM type at virtually any serial data rate up to the available effective bandwidth of the ATM connection.", "Adaptive forward error correction is provided in the protocol translation, with operation possible at data rates intermediate the fixed, stratified rates of conventional ground communications networks.", "The ECL-ATM protocol interface device includes both ECL-ATM and ATM-ECL processors for bi-directional communications and includes ATM interfaces for SONET and other terrestrial connections such as Ethernet.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The appended claims set forth those novel features, which characterize the invention.", "However, the invention itself, as well as further objects and advantages thereof, will best be understood by reference to the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, where like reference characters identify like elements throughout the various figures, in which: FIG. 1 is a simplified block diagram of a current satellite communications system for the International Space Station (ISS);", "FIG. 2 is a simplified block diagram of a communications system in accordance with the present invention for use with the ISS;", "FIG. 3 is a simplified block diagram of an ECL-ATM protocol interface device in accordance with the principles of the present invention;", "FIG. 4 is a simplified block diagram of an ECL-ATM processor used in the protocol interface device of FIG. 3 ;", "FIG. 5 is a simplified block diagram of an ATM-ECL processor used in the protocol interface device of FIG. 3 ;", "FIG. 6 is a flow chart illustrating the series of steps carried out in data frame acquisition by the ECL-ATM processor of FIG. 4 ;", "FIG. 7 is a simplified flow chart illustrating the series of steps to ensure correct synchronization of the adaptive forward error correction (FEC) code values carried out by the ECL-ATM processor shown in FIG. 4 ;", "FIG. 8 is a simplified flow chart illustrating the series of steps carried out to ensure correct synchronization of the adaptive FEC coding process by the ATM-ECL processor shown in FIG. 5 ;", "FIG. 9 is a simplified block diagram of a pair of ECL-ATM protocol interface devices illustrating the overall synchronization scheme shown in FIG. 7 and FIG. 8 , the configuration of and signal flow in each device as well as the interfacing between a pair of devices within a communication network in accordance with the present invention;", "and FIG. 10 is a simplified timing diagram showing how differing timing rates of the ATM and ECL data streams are reconciled by showing the cell or frame composition of data streams in various portions of an ECL-ATM protocol interface arrangement in accordance with the present invention.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring to FIG. 2 , there is shown a simplified block diagram of a satellite communications system 40 in accordance with the present invention.", "The satellite communications system 40 provides a networkprotocol translation for allowing a variable data rate satellite communications network to interface directly with a conventional ground-based, fixed rate commercial communications network such as of the ATM type.", "The specific example in terms of which the present invention is disclosed provides a link between the International Space Station (ISS) 42 via a Tracking &", "Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) 44 to a ground station 46 .", "In a specific example of the invention, the White Sands Complex (WSC) is contemplated as the ground station 46 , which interfaces by means of the present invention with the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) 54 and Johnson Space Center (JSC) 56 .", "As in the previously described prior art system, ground station 46 communicates with TDRS 44 by means of a TDRS modem 48 , which is coupled to a high rate switch 50 .", "The MSFC 54 and JSC 56 are connected by means of a commercial fiber optic ground network 58 to a SONET mux 52 within the ground station 46 .", "In accordance with the present invention, an ECL-ATM protocol interface device 70 connects the high rate switch 50 and the SONET mux 52 in ground station 46 .", "The term “gateway”", "as used herein means a translation or protocol interface device for permitting two communications networks having different protocols to communicate without restriction.", "The ECL-ATM protocol interface device 70 of the present invention allows a high speed standard communications network to operate at its most efficient data rate with a commercial ground-based communications network using industry standard interface criteria.", "A comparison of FIGS. 1 and 2 shows that the satellite communication system 40 of the present invention eliminates the domestic satellite link of prior art satellite-ground communications networks to provide a more cost effective approach which allows for conversion of Emitter Coupled Logic (ECL)-based serial data from a satellite modem to a conventional ground-based communications network data protocol such as Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM).", "Referring to FIG. 3 , there is shown a simplified block diagram of an ECL-ATM protocol interface device 70 for use in the present invention.", "The protocol interface device 70 includes a line receiver 72 at the ECL interface for receiving signals transmitted from a satellite or satellite-compatible modem utilizing ECL format such as a TDRS modem 48 as shown in FIG. 2 .", "The output of the line receiver 72 is provided to a bit sync/clock recovery circuit 74 , which separates the data and clock signal in the received signal.", "The bit sync/clock recovery circuit 74 includes a jitter buffer for smoothing out any changes in the data rate which is accomplished by an ECL-ATM processor 76 .", "The data and clock signals are provided to the ECL-ATM processor 76 , which is shown in block diagram form in FIG. 4 and is described in detail below.", "Other inputs to the ECL-ATM processor 76 are a “mode”", "signal from a user operated mode switch 78 and a “control”", "signal from a control input 80 .", "Control input 80 and a display output 82 from a human operator interface allow an operator to exercise control over ECL-ATM protocol interface device 70 .", "Control input 80 is preferably in the form of a computer keyboard or plural switches, while display output is preferably in the form of a cathode ray tube or LED readout.", "A display interface 84 provides an appropriate input to the display output 82 from the ECL-ATM processor 76 and an ATM-ECL processor 88 for the display of information for use by the operator.", "The ECL-ATM processor 76 converts the serial data stream received from the bit sync/clock recovery circuit 74 from a frame format to a cell format, as described in detail below, which cell formatted signal is provided to a line driver 86 for providing an ATM or SONET interface.", "The ECL-ATM processor 76 also links together the variable data rate satellite clock and the terrestrial network clock having a fixed data rate so that no valid data is lost.", "ECL-ATM protocol interface device 70 further includes an ATM-ECL processor 88 , which is shown in block diagram form in FIG. 5 and is described in detail below.", "The ATM-ECL processor 88 is coupled to the ECL-ATM processor 77 for the exchange of data and control signals.", "The ATM-ECL processor 88 receives input data from a line receiver 90 , which serves as an ATM interface with the ATM network.", "The output of the ATM-ECL processor 88 is an ECL-based signal having a data component and a clock component, which are provided to a bit encoding circuit 92 where they are combined.", "The output of the bit encoding circuit 92 is provided to a line driver 94 at the ECL interface for providing a frame-compatible signal to the satellite communications network.", "Referring to FIG. 4 , there is shown a simplified block diagram of the ECL-ATM processor 76 used in the ECL-ATM protocol interface device 70 of FIG. 3 .", "The ECL-ATM processor 76 receives data and clock signals from the ECL interface, which are provided to a deinterleaver 102 in the ECL-ATM processor.", "Deinterleaver 102 unscrambles the received ECL-based signal and provides the unscrambled signal to a Forward Error Correction (FEC) circuit 104 , which detects bit errors in the received signal arising from noise and corrects these errors.", "The control and status circuit 112 indicates to the deinterleaver 102 the “distance”", "of interleaving used by the transmitter of this data, so that the same value is used by both transmitter and receiver.", "The control and status circuit 112 also initially forces the deinterleaver 102 to shift incoming data until the correct synchronization of data on frame boundaries occurs.", "Deinterleaver 102 provides this frame sync indication to the forward error correction circuit 104 as well as to a frame disassembly circuit 106 .", "Frame disassembly circuit 106 receives the output from the FEC circuit 104 for removing idle cells from the frames in the received ECL-based signal.", "The idle cells removed from the signals by the frame disassembly circuit 106 are provided to an add header error correction circuit 108 which computes the error correction code so the data receiver can correct for errors in the header portion of the cell signals.", "The cell signals are then provided to a form cell stream circuit 110 which forms the cell into a bit stream which is output in the form of data and a clock signal to an ATM interface.", "The control and status circuit 112 receives various control and status inputs and provides various control and status outputs.", "For example, a mode control input is provided from the ECL interface to the control and status circuit 112 .", "A control input is provided from the control input 80 in the operator interface to the control and status circuit 112 as previously described.", "An error signal indicating the number of errors in the received data is provided by the forward error correction circuit 104 to the control and status circuit 112 .", "Other control inputs are provided to the control and status circuit 112 from the ATM-ECL processor and the control and status circuit provides various outputs to the display interface as previously described.", "The status output provided by the control and status circuit 112 to the display interface allows an operator to be informed of the numbers of bit errors in the data as well as to determine if the system is operating correctly with a statistical summary of system operation provided visually such as on a video display.", "The mode and control inputs to the control and status circuit 112 are initiated by an operator to allow the operator to override automatic control signals.", "Timing signals are provided between the control and status circuit 112 and a timing control circuit 114 and a frame number input is provided from the frame disassembly circuit 106 to the control and status circuit 112 .", "A frame sync signal output by the deinterleaver circuit 102 is also provided to the control and status circuit 112 which, in turn, provides “shift”", "and “distance”", "signals to the deinterleaver circuit 102 .", "Timing control circuit 114 also provides timing control signals to the add header error correction circuit 108 , the form cell stream circuit 110 , and a form idle cells circuit 116 for syncing the cells.", "The number of idle cells inserted in the data stream by the form idle cells circuit 116 is determined by the timing difference between the timing control input from the ECL clock and the input from the control and status circuit 112 for providing an output to the form cells stream circuit 110 which outputs data and a clock signal to the ATM interface.", "This insertion of idle cells makes up any difference in data rate between the ECL data stream and the ATM data stream while maintaining the constant data rate and standardized format of the ATM interface.", "Referring to FIG. 5 , there is shown a simplified block diagram of the ATM-ECL processor 88 used in the ECL-ATM protocol interface device 70 of FIG. 3 .", "The left hand portion of FIG. 5 represents the ATM interface for interfacing with the ground-based communications network, while the right hand portion of the figure represents the ECL interface for interfacing with the satellite communications network.", "The ATM-ECL processor 88 includes a cell delineation circuit 122 , which receives data and a clock signal from the ATM interface.", "The cell delineation circuit 122 synchronizes the cells received from the ATM interface and provides an “aligned”", "signal to a control and status circuit 140 once cell synchronization is achieved.", "The cell delineation circuit 122 determines where one cell ends and the next cell starts.", "A clock signal is provided to the cell delineation circuit 122 as well as to a cell timing control circuit 130 which provides timing signal inputs to the cell delineation circuit 122 , a discard header error correction circuit 124 , a discard idle cells circuit 126 , and a cell buffer circuit 128 .", "This portion of the ATM-ECL processor 88 processes the incoming cells from the ATM communications network.", "The discard header error correction circuit 124 removes the header error correction from the received cell, while the discard idle cell circuit 126 removes idle cells from the received data and provides the data to the cell buffer circuit 128 for storage therein until there are enough cells to form a frame.", "The discarded idle cells are provided by the discard idle cell circuit 126 to a control and status circuit 140 for determining how many idle cells are included in the frame in synchronizing the timing of the received cells and the outgoing frames.", "The received cells are temporarily stored in the cell buffer circuit 128 for compensating for cells being received at various data rates.", "The output of the cell buffer circuit 128 is provided to the serial combination of a frame generator circuit 132 , a forward error control circuit 134 , an interleaver circuit 136 , and a form frame stream circuit 138 , all of which are used in the generation of frames comprised of the received cells.", "The control and status circuit 140 is connected to each of these latter circuits and provides control signals to each of these circuits for controlling the data and clock signal output to the ECL interface by the form frame stream circuit 138 .", "Various inputs are provided to the control and status circuit 140 for controlling its operation.", "For example, a “mode”", "signal is provided from the operator control mode switch 78 within the ECL-ATM protocol interface device 70 as shown in FIG. 3 .", "Control signals are also provided to the control and status circuit 140 from the operator interface.", "Other inputs to the control and status circuit 140 of the ATM-ECL processor 88 are received from the ECL-ATM processor 70 shown in FIG. 4 .", "The control and status circuit 140 provides a “frame count”", "input to the frame generator circuit 132 for keeping track of the number of frames generated and for generation of each frame following receipt and detection of the required number of cells.", "The control and status circuit 140 also provides a “block size”", "input to the forward error control circuit 134 and provides a “distance”", "input to the interleaver circuit 136 .", "The interleaver circuit 136 scrambles the order of data bytes within the frame units for purposes of distributing the effects of a large noise burst into smaller perturbations among multiple frames.", "The forward error control circuit 134 provides the encoding portion of Reed-Solomon Forward Error Correction (FEC).", "A frame timing control circuit 142 receives timing inputs from the control and status circuit 140 and provides timing signals to each of the frame generator circuit 132 , forward error control circuit 134 , interleaver circuit 136 , and form frame stream circuit 138 .", "The form frame stream circuit 138 takes the information in the frames and outputs a clock signal as well as a serial data stream in the form of 1's and 0's to the bit encoding circuit 192 as shown in FIG. 3 for providing frame information to the ECL interface.", "Referring to FIG. 6 , there is shown a simplified flow chart of the series of steps carried out in data frame acquisition by the ECL-ATM processor 76 of FIG. 4 .", "The ECL-ATM processor initiates frame acquisition at step 130 followed by monitoring of each group of received bits to determine if an IN — SYNC flag representing successful synchronization of a frame is present at step 132 .", "The detection of an IN — SYNC signal at step 132 indicates that the system has detected the beginning of a frame in the normal operating mode, and the program then proceeds to step 134 for incrementing the expected frame number by 1.", "The program then reads the incremented frame number at step 136 and determines at step 138 if the detected frame number is the same as the expected frame number.", "If the detected frame number matches the expected frame number as determined at step 138 , the program proceeds to step 142 and verifies that the IN — SYNC signal is true, confirming the acquisition of a frame and proceeds to step 146 for exiting the program.", "If at step 138 it is determined that the detected frame number does not match the expected frame number, the program proceeds to step 140 and determines if there is a Forward Error Correction (FEC) error present.", "If it is determined that a FEC error is present, the program proceeds to step 142 for confirming the IN — SYNC signal indicating that a frame has been acquired.", "The program then proceeds to step 146 for exiting the frame acquisition program.", "If at step 140 it is determined that there is no FEC error, the program sets the IN — SYNC flag FALSE to indicate that frame acquisition has not occurred the next time this cycle is executed.", "The program then proceeds to step 146 for exiting the frame acquisition program.", "If at step 132 , it is determined that the IN — SYNC signal is not present, the program proceeds to step 148 for determining if an output shift has occurred and then proceeds to step 146 for exiting the frame acquisition program.", "Referring to FIG. 7 , there is shown a series of steps carried out by the ECL-ATM processor 76 of FIG. 4 for synchronizing the adaptive FEC code values received from the satellite.", "In this program, information provided by the receiver tells the transmitter that the number of errors in the received data has changed and that the transmitter must change its correction code value.", "The adaptive coding program in ECL-ATM processor 76 is initiated at step 150 followed by a reading of the transmit frame number at step 152 .", "The transmitted frame number is received in the ECL format from a satellite.", "The program then at step 154 determines if the transmit frame number is 0.", "Frame number 0 is used to communicate between the transmitter and receiver.", "If at step 154 it is determined that the transmit frame number is not 0, the program proceeds to step 162 to determine if the received frame number is greater than 3.", "If at step 154 , it is determined that the transmit frame number is 0, the program proceeds to step 156 and calculates the bit error rate which is calculated once every 256 bits, or counts.", "The adaptive coding routine shown in FIG. 7 increases the number of bits used for error correction as the bit error rate increases.", "The bit error rate is calculated on an ongoing basis from the number of corrected errors per frame.", "After calculating the bit error rate, the program proceeds to step 158 to determine the current Forward Error Correction (FEC) code value from a lookup table.", "The FEC code value changes with the bit error rate detected by the system, increasing in value with an increase in the detected bit error rate to provide the desired level of forward error correction.", "The FEC code value obtained from the lookup table is then divided by 2 at step 160 and is stored as the new FEC code value in memory.", "The program then at step 162 determines whether the received frame number is greater than 3, which is the frame in which an updated code value is sent to the transmitter.", "If it is determined at step 162 that the received frame number is not greater than 3 the program proceeds to step 174 and ends while continuing to use the FEC code value originally stored in the lookup table as determined at step 158 .", "If at step 162 , it is determined that the received frame number is greater than 3, the program updates the transmitter value by proceeding to step 164 and setting the FEC code value equal to the received header value times 2.", "The program then at step 166 determines whether the received code value is 0.", "If the received code value is 0, the program branches to step 174 and exits the program.", "If at step 166 , it is determined that the received FEC code value is not equal to 0, the program proceeds to step 168 and determines if the received code value is equal to the FEC value.", "If these two values are the same, the program proceeds to step 174 for exiting the program.", "If at step 168 , it is determined that the received FEC code value is not equal to the FEC value, the program proceeds to step 170 to determine if the received frame number is 7.", "If the received frame number is not 7, the program proceeds to 174 and exits the program.", "If at step 170 it is determined that the received frame number is 7, the program proceeds to step 172 and sets the receiver FEC value to the new correction code value.", "The program then proceeds to step 174 and exits the program.", "Referring to FIG. 8 , there is shown a simplified flow chart illustrating the series of steps carried out in the same adaptive FEC coding synchronization process shown in FIG. 7 but carried out by the ATM-ECL processor 88 of FIG. 5 in proceeding from the ATM protocol to the ECL protocol.", "The adaptive FEC coding program stored in the ATM-ECL processor 88 is initiated at step 180 followed by a reading of the received frame number from the ATM interface at step 182 .", "The program then at step 184 determines if the received frame number is 0, and if so, proceeds to step 186 and sets the correction code value equal to the received correction code value times 2.", "The program at step 188 then compares the just reset code value to the FEC value currently being used.", "If the new code value is equal to the current FEC value, the program proceeds to step 192 and determines if the received frame is frame number 4.", "If at step 188 it is determined that the reset code value is not equal to the current FEC value, the program proceeds to step 190 and updates the code value with the new FEC code value and proceeds to step 192 for determining if the received frame is frame number 4.", "Thus, the program updates the FEC code value at frame 0 if the code value has changed.", "If at step 184 , the program determines that the received frame number is not 0, the program proceeds to step 192 to determine if the received frame number is 4.", "If it is determined at step 192 that the received frame number is 4, the program proceeds to step 194 and sets the transmitted code value to the new code value.", "The program then proceeds to step 196 to determine if the transmitted frame number is 0.", "If at step 192 it is determined that the received frame number is not 4, the program proceeds to step 196 to determine if the transmitted frame number is 0.", "If the transmitted frame number is 0, the program proceeds to step 198 and updates the transmitter FEC value with the new code value.", "The program then proceeds to step 200 and exits the transmit adaptive error correction coding program.", "If at step 196 it is determined that the transmitted frame number is not 0, the program proceeds to step 200 for exiting the transmit adaptive error correction coding program.", "Referring to FIG. 9 , there is shown a simplified combined block diagram and flow chart illustrating the various components of and operations carried out by a pair of common ATM satellite interfaces (CASI) 90 and 130 communicating with one another via a satellite link in accordance with the present invention.", "The boxes in solid lines in FIG. 9 represent hardware components of the CASI's 90 and 130 , while the blocks in dotted lines represent operations carried out by each of the CASl's.", "All the processing elements shown in the portions of this diagram labeled “ECL-ATM”", "are shown in FIG. 8 and all the processing elements shown labeled “ATM-ECL”", "are shown in FIG. 7 .", "In the first CASI 90 , ATM data is received from the ground-communications network by an ATM conversion circuit 92 which provides the data to a frame buffer 94 which provides the received frame number 98 to a save until frame equal 0 algorithm 116 .", "This algorithm provides the transmitted FEC value to the frame buffer 94 which, in turn, provides the FEC value to a FEC transmitter 100 for providing the FEC value via a satellite link to a receiver FEC 142 , which in turn, provides the received code value 148 to a frame buffer 144 in the second CASI 130 .", "The received code value 148 , as well the frame number 146, are read from the frame buffer 148 when the frame number is greater than 3 at step 156 .", "An ATM conversion circuit 150 provides the data in ATM format from the second CASI 130 to an ATM ground communications network.", "The new FEC value is compared with the current FEC value at step 152 .", "If the FEC value has changed, the new FEC value is transmitted in frame number 4 for updating the current FEC value on the next frame number 0 at step 152 .", "This comparison is made by providing the current FEC value 154 for the aforementioned comparison at step 152 .", "Also in the ATM-ECL portion of the second CASI 130 , the ATM data is converted by an ATM conversion circuit 132 and is provided to a frame buffer 134 , which provides the received frame number 136 at step 152 for comparing the current FEC value with the received FEC value at step 152 .", "The transmitted code value 138 is provided by the frame buffer 134 to an FEC transmitter 142 , which provides the data via a satellite link to the first CASI 90 .", "The first CASI 90 includes an FEC receiver 102 .", "The FEC receiver 102 provides this data to a frame buffer 110 in the first CASI 90 , which provides the frame number 104 as well as the received code value 106 at step 114 for comparing the received code value with the current code value in frame number 0.", "If at step 114 it is determined that the code value has changed, the current FEC value 118 is provided to the FEC receiver 102 , which provides the updated FEC value to frame buffer 110 .", "The FEC receiver 102 also provides an indication of the errors in the received data at step 112 for determination of the transmitted code value based on the received bit error rate.", "At step 112 , the new code value is determined and provided to step 116 for saving until frame 0, whereupon the new code value is provided to frame buffer 94 for determining the transmitted code value.", "The output of frame buffer 110 is provided to an ATM conversion circuit 108 at the output of the first CASI 90 for providing ATM data to an ATM ground communication network.", "Referring to FIG. 10 , there is shown timing diagrams of signals in various portions of the ECL-to-ATM protocol network gateway of the present invention.", "The top line represents the ATM input cells stream to the first CASI 90 shown in FIG. 9 .", "The cell stream shows 10 cells consecutively numbered to show their flow through the system in the embodiment shown with several of these bits of the idle bit type for implementing the FEC coding arrangement of the present invention.", "The second line from the top represents the ECL frame stream transmitted by the satellite in the form of a header followed by plural cells each comprised of 53 bytes per the ATM standard.", "The ECL transmitted frame stream further includes a FEC coding stream.", "The ECL frame stream shown in line 2 is transmitted via the satellite link to the second CASI 130 of FIG. 9 also in the form of plural cells in a synchronous data stream.", "The cells in the received frame stream shown in the third line of FIG. 10 are converted to an ATM output cell stream as shown in the bottom line of FIG. 10 comprised of plural cells, including several of which are idle cells.", "While particular embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that changes and modifications may be made without departing from the invention in its broader aspects.", "Therefore, the aim in the appended claims is to cover all such changes and modifications as fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention.", "The matter set forth in the foregoing description and accompanying drawing is offered by way of illustration only and not as a limitation.", "The actual scope of the invention is intended to be defined in the following claims when viewed in their proper perspective based on the prior art." ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is a continuation application of and claims priority to U.S. application Ser.", "No. 10/720,742, filed on Nov. 24, 2003, incorporated herein by reference.", "TECHNICAL FIELD This invention relates to network protocols, and more particularly to medium access control layers that encapsulate data from a plurality of received data units.", "BACKGROUND Networking protocols are normally developed in layers, with each layer responsible for a different facet for the communication.", "Layers exchange structured information.", "Each layer receives Service Data Units (SDUs) from higher layers, which are processed to generate Protocol Data Units (PDUs).", "Protocol Data Units are handed over to the lower layers for service.", "Similarly, the PDUs received from the lower layers are processed to generate SDUs, which are handed over to the higher layers.", "PDUs not only carry the SDUs but also carry management information that is relevant for managing the layer functionality.", "Defining the structure of SDUs and PDUs for a given protocol layer is critical to enable proper layer functionality.", "Some examples of network protocol layers include the well-known Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP).", "The structure of TCP data units has provisions to enable end-to-end delivery.", "The structure of IP data units enables efficient routing.", "Networks use medium access control layer (MAC) to enable coordinated access to the medium.", "Medium access layer uses the functionality of the physical layer (PHY) to provide services to the higher layer.", "MAC service to the higher layers can include guarantees on Quality of Service (QoS).", "QoS provides guarantees on bandwidth, latency, jitter and packet loss probability for traffic streams.", "Jitter refers to deviation in the time of delivery of data over the network.", "SUMMARY In general, the invention features a method of operating in a network in which a plurality of stations communicate over a shared medium, comprising providing a physical layer (e.g., PHY) for handling physical communication over the shared medium;", "providing a high level layer (e.g., PAL) that receives data from the station and supplies high level data units (e.g., MSDUs) for transmission over the medium;", "providing a MAC layer that receives the high level data units from the high level layer and supplies low level data units (e.g., MPDUs) to the physical layer;", "at the MAC layer, encapsulating content from a plurality of the high level data units;", "dividing the encapsulated content into a plurality of pieces (e.g., segments) with each piece capable of being independently retransmitted;", "and supplying low level data units containing one or more of the plurality of pieces.", "Preferred implementations of the invention may include one or more of the following.", "At least some information common to the encapsulated high level data units may not be repeated for each high level data unit encapsulated in a low level data unit.", "The information common to the encapsulated high level data units may comprise destination and source addresses.", "The high level data units may each comprise a payload, and encapsulating may comprise forming a queue comprising the payloads from a succession of high level data.", "The queue may comprise a succession of sub-frames, each sub-frame comprising a header and a plurality of payloads.", "Each sub-frame may be divided into the plurality of pieces capable of being independently retransmitted.", "Division of a sub-frame into the plurality of pieces may comprise dividing the sub-frame into a plurality of sub-blocks, and forming at least some pieces from a plurality of sub-blocks.", "Each piece may constitute a segment that is transmitted as a physical layer block.", "The invention may further comprise parity pieces derived from other pieces and capable of being used at a destination to recover one or more lost pieces at the destination without having to retransmit the lost pieces.", "Each piece may be transmitted as a physical layer block, and the parity pieces may also be transmitted as parity physical layer blocks.", "The physical layer blocks may be encoded using forward error correction.", "Some of the pieces making up a low level data unit may constitute retransmitted pieces that failed to be correctly transmitted in an earlier attempt.", "At least some retransmitted pieces may be transmitted with greater forward error correction.", "Each sub-frame may further comprise a delivery time stamp associated with at least some payloads.", "Clock information characterizing the time setting of a clock in a transmitting station may be transmitted to a receiving station within a header of the low level data units, and the clock information may be used by the receiving station along with the delivery time stamps to establish the time at which payloads are delivered.", "The time at which a payload is delivered may be set to be substantially the time specified by the time stamp.", "The invention may further comprise an integrity check value associated with each sub-frame or with a plurality of sub-frames.", "Each of the plurality of payloads in a sub-frame may have identical length.", "Each sub-frame may further comprise MAC management information.", "The MAC layer may have the capability of transmitting data in a plurality of sessions within a regularly-repeated contention free interval, wherein a station to which data is transmitted may be identified by a destination address and a station from which data is transmitted may be identified by a source address, and wherein the queue may contain payloads for the same session, same source address, and same destination address.", "The MAC layer may have the capability of transmitting data in a plurality of sessions within a regularly-repeated contention free interval, wherein a station to which data is transmitted may be identified by a destination address and a station from which data is transmitted may be identified by a source address, and wherein the queue may contain sub-frames for the same session, same source address, and same destination address.", "The sessions may be transmitted in a substantially contention-free manner.", "The sessions may be transmitted within time slots of a regularly-repeated contention-free interval.", "A stream identifier (e.g., MSID) may be used to associate content of a queue with a particular session.", "The stream identifier may also be used to associate content of a queue with a priority level for contention-based transmission over the medium.", "There may be a plurality of queues, each containing payloads having a unique combination of stream identifier, source address, and destination address.", "Each queue may contain a payload having a unique combination of stream identifier, source address, destination address, and type of high level layer.", "The queue may be divided into a plurality of sub-blocks, wherein a plurality of sub-blocks may be grouped to form a segment, with a segment crossing sub-frame boundaries in the queue, wherein a segment may constitute one of the pieces.", "Each sub-block may be shorter than a sub-frame.", "At least some segments may contain a number of sub-blocks corresponding to other than an integral number of sub-frames.", "The sub-blocks may be of equal length.", "The sub-blocks may have an associated sequential numbering adapted for use at the receiving station for re-establishing the correct sequential order of the sub-blocks.", "The sub-blocks may have a predetermined size, which combined with the associated sequential numbering, may eliminate the need for buffer reordering when out of order segments are received.", "The sub-blocks may be of equal size.", "The invention may further comprise, for at least some of the low level data units, forming the low level data unit from a plurality of segments.", "Each segment in the low level data unit may form the body of a separate block transmitted by the physical layer.", "Individual segments may be individually encrypted.", "Encryption information common to a plurality of segments may be carried in a header.", "Some encryption information may be carried in a header and frame control of the low level data unit and in a header of the block.", "Some encryption information may be carried in frame control of the low level data unit and in a header of the block.", "Each block may separately undergo forward error correction, and forward error correction bits for each block may be transmitted in the low level data unit.", "The level of forward error correction used may be different for different blocks.", "The level of forward error correction used may provide greater error correction capability for selected blocks that are being retransmitted after failing to be correctly transmitted in an earlier attempt.", "Most of the blocks may be identical in length.", "The initial and final block of a low level data unit may be of a different length than the remaining blocks.", "Information common to the plurality of segments forming the low level data unit may be transmitted in a header for the low level data unit.", "The information common to the plurality of segments may be transmitted only in the header.", "The low level data unit may further comprise a frame control field.", "In another aspect, the invention features a method of operating in a network in which a plurality of stations communicate over a shared medium, comprising providing a physical layer (e.g., PHY) for handling physical communication over the shared medium;", "providing a high level layer (e.g., PAL) that receives data from the station and supplies high level data units (e.g., MSDUs) for transmission over the medium;", "providing a MAC layer that receives the high level data units from the high level layer and supplies low level data units (e.g., MPDUs) to the physical layer;", "at the MAC layer, forming low level data units by encapsulating content from a plurality of the high level data units;", "and adaptively escalating the robustness of transmission of the low level data units depending on the frequency of transmission errors.", "Preferred implementations of the invention may include one or more of the following.", "The invention may further comprise incorporating forward-error correction information into the transmitted stream of low level data units, and the step of adaptively escalating may comprise adaptively varying the forward-error correction information depending on the frequency of transmission errors.", "Varying the forward-error correction information may comprise varying one or both of the amount and type of forward-error correction information.", "Decisions on adaptively escalating may be made at a transmitting station.", "The low level data units may comprise a plurality of pieces (e.g., segments).", "The forward error correction information may comprise information associated with provided with the pieces for use at a destination for recovering a piece that is received with errors.", "The forward error correction information may comprise parity pieces derived from other pieces and capable of being used at a destination to recover one or more lost pieces at the destination without having to retransmit the lost pieces.", "Each piece may be transmitted as a physical layer block, and the parity pieces may also be transmitted as parity physical layer blocks.", "These and other embodiments may have one or more of the following advantages.", "The invention provides mechanisms to generate MAC protocol data units (MPDU) from the MAC Service data units (MSDU) in such a manner that enables efficient end-to-end delivery of packets.", "These mechanisms provide support to enhance Quality of Service (QoS) support and efficient delivery of management information.", "The format of the MPDU enables efficient retransmission of corrupted data and seamless integration with the underlying physical layer.", "Multiple higher layers of the networking protocols can be seamlessly interfaced with the MAC.", "The MAC layer provides various Classes of service for application payloads.", "At the MAC layer, each Class encompasses a coherent set of Quality of Service (QoS) guarantees and can be translated naturally to such behavior in the MAC as channel access, number of retries, etc.", "This enables scalability and improved QoS guarantees.", "Supports both connection based and connection less service.", "Mechanisms are provided to exchange MAC Management information between MAC layer and higher layers in a manner that would simplify implementation.", "Several types of MAC Management entities can be defined.", "Processing on the MSDUs reduces redundant information while maintaining functionality.", "Transmission of management information is enabled in an in-band manner along with application data.", "Transmission of urgent MAC management information is enabled in an out-of band manner.", "Efficient encryption of information is enabled to provide data privacy.", "Testing of end-to-end delivery of MSDUs is enabled by means of a Integrity check vector (ICV).", "A segmentation process enables maximum possible MPDUs to generated, thus increasing the MPDU efficiency.", "There is a mapping of MPDU on to FEC Blocks at the PHY and the choice of FEC Block sizes enable efficient retransmission.", "A MPDU header carries information common to all PBs, thus increasing MPDU efficiency Transmission of MPDUs is enabled with low end-to-end jitter.", "Bridging and forwarding of MSDUs are supported.", "PHY error detection and correction by means of ARQ process is enabled.", "An ARQ process is augmented by an Escalation mechanism and an outer erasure code, which enables improved guarantees on QoS parameters.", "There is a simplified reassembly process with duplicate rejection capability.", "These advantages are illustrated in the Detailed Description of the preferred embodiment that follows.", "The details of one or more implementations of the invention are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below.", "Other features, objects, and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims.", "DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a network configuration.", "FIG. 2 is a reference network architecture.", "FIG. 3 is a format for a MSDU.", "FIG. 4 is a format for a Sub-Frame.", "FIG. 5 is a format for a Sub Frame header.", "FIG. 6 is a block of Sub-Frames protected by a single ICV.", "FIG. 7 is a Sub-Frame generated from a MSDU Payload.", "FIG. 8 is a Sub-Frame generated from multiple MSDU Payloads.", "FIG. 9 is a MAC Encapsulation.", "FIG. 10 is a MPDU generated from a Sub-Frame Stream.", "FIG. 11 is a format of a MPDU Header.", "FIG. 12 is a format for a PHY Block.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION There are a great many possible implementations of the invention, too many to describe herein.", "Some possible implementations that are presently preferred are described below.", "It cannot be emphasized too strongly, however, that these are descriptions of implementations of the invention, and not descriptions of the invention, which is not limited to the detailed implementations described in this section but is described in broader terms in the claims.", "As shown in FIG. 1 , network configuration 2 includes communications medium 3 and network 4 in which electronic devices 6 , 8 , and 10 (e.g., audiovisual equipment) communicate over medium 3 .", "Electronic devices 6 , 8 , and 10 include media access controllers (MAC) 12 , 14 , and 16 that manage communication access to the network 4 for electronic devices 6 , 8 , and 10 , respectively.", "MACs 12 , 14 , and 16 implement the data link layer and connect to the physical layer (PHY) of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) network architecture standard.", "In a general sense, MACs 12 , 14 , and 16 represent stations on network 4 that send messages to one another over medium 3 .", "Communications medium 3 is a physical communication link between electronic devices 6 , 8 , and 10 and may includes optical fiber, coaxial cable, unshielded twisted pair, in addition to other media such as power lines.", "Electronic devices 6 , 8 , and 10 communicate with one another based on requirements of software applications running on electronic devices 6 , 8 , and 10 .", "This communication creates traffic of messages on network 4 .", "FIG. 2 shows the major system interfaces and their associated data units for a portion of a reference network architecture 50 used by the network configuration 2 .", "This portion may be implemented at each station.", "The abstract objects that make up the layers of a network system are sometimes called protocols.", "That is, a protocol provides a communication service that higher-level objects (such as application processes, or higher-level layers) use to exchange messages.", "Three layers of the network architecture are shown: Bridge/PAL, 52 , MAC 54 , and Physical layer (PHY) 56 , separated by M1 Interface 62 and PS interface 64 , respectively.", "H1 i 58 denotes the i th Host Interface, with one interface for each protocol supported.", "The H1 interface 58 defines the point of demarcation for the i th Host Protocol Data Units (H i PDU) 68 and the i th Protocol Adaptation Layer Service Data Unit (PAL i SDU) 69 to higher layers of the network architecture 50 .", "For each protocol supported, the corresponding Protocol Adaptation Layer (PAL) 52 may be implemented partially in host software and partially in firmware and/or hardware.", "Examples of architecture 50 support IEEE 802.3 and Isochronous Stream protocols as well as provide access to the proprietary protocols through interface 60 .", "The PAL 52 provides support for Higher Layer Adaptation (HLA) functionality and/or Bridging functionality.", "Both HLA and Bridging operations support translation of host data packets including PAL Protocol Data Units (PAL i PDU) 70 to MAC Service Data Units (MSDUs) 71 and vice versa, translation of host address from the H1 interface 58 to MAC 12 , 14 , 16 addresses.", "HLA and bridging operations also support determination of traffic classes and QoS parameters in addition to Establishment of streams in coordination with the MAC 12 , 14 , 16 .", "The PALs 52 also support address discovery and routing functions for bridging operations.", "Each PAL 52 provides binding and mapping from the stream identifiers provided by the MAC layer 54 at session setup time with the higher layer entities as necessary.", "Each PAL 52 has an associated PAL Type (PLT) at the MAC layer 54 , to enable routing of the associated MAC Service Data Units (MSDUs) 71 at the receiver MAC (e.g., 12 , 14 , 16 ).", "In addition, information about available overall channel bandwidth as well as available bandwidth for a specific class of traffic is provided by the MAC layer 54 to the PAL 52 to support rate adaptation.", "The M1 interface 62 is common to all Protocol Adaptation Layers and defines the demarcation between the PAL 52 and the MAC layer 54 , with PAL Protocol Data Units (PAL i PDUs) 70 being passed down from the PAL 52 to the MAC layer 54 as MAC Service Data Units (MSDUs) 72 and vice versa.", "The Medium Access Control (MAC) layer 54 processes MAC Service Data Units (MSDUs) 71 from the PAL 52 and generates PHY Service Data Units (PSDU) 73 for delivery to the Physical Layer 56 .", "MAC layer 54 processing includes Service interface to PAL 52 , Network Management, Admission Control, Encryption, Error Control (ARQ), Retransmission, Escalation, Channel Estimation—Modulations, FEC, etc.", ", Tone Map as a function of time, Framing, Segmentation &", "Reassembly, Packet Encapsulation and De-encapsulation, Channel Access (Contention Free Bursting, managed sessions, CSMA/CA, etc.), Time Stamping, Synchronization—With Multimedia Clocks, and Contention Free Sessions.", "The Physical Layer Signaling (PS) Interface 64 separates the MAC layer 54 and the PHY 56 with MAC Protocol Data Units (MPDUs) 72 being passed to the PHY 56 from the MAC layer 54 as PHY Service Data Units (PSDUs) 73 across the PS Interface 64 and vice versa.", "The Physical Layer (PHY) 56 Protocol provides the following operations.", "Service interface to MAC layer 54 , OFDM Modulation, Forward Error Correction Coding, Physical Carrier Sensing, Frame Control Decoding, Error detection, and information needed for channel estimation and tone map selection.", "MSDUs 71 are received by the MAC (e.g., 12 , 14 , or 16 ) at the MAC layer 54 from higher layers of the network architecture 50 .", "Details of the format of the MSDUs 71 are described in more detail below.", "MSDUs 71 arrive either by themselves or in association with a connection.", "One or more MSDUs 71 are processed by the MAC (e.g., 12 , 14 , or 16 ) to produce a Sub-Frame.", "The term Sub-Frame is used to refer to the data element composed of Sub-Frame Header, optional MAC Management Information, optional Delivery Time Stamp, the Payload from one or more MSDUs 71 , and an optional Integrity Check Value (ICV).", "When a Sub-Frame is generated from multiple MSDUs 71 , all MSDU 71 payloads have the same length and have identical SA 104 , DA 102 , MSID 118 , and PLT 112 .", "Grouping of MSDUs 71 into a Sub-Frame is done for efficiency when small fixed length MSDU 71 payloads (such as MPEG Transport Stream packets) are sent in the same stream.", "The format of the Sub-frame is described in more detail below.", "Sub-Frames are grouped into Sub-Frame streams.", "Each sub-frame stream is delivered independently by the MAC (e.g., 12 , 14 , or 16 ).", "Each MAC 12 , 14 , 16 supports eight different Classes of services.", "Each Class encompasses a coherent set of Quality of Service (QoS) characteristics for an application and can be translated naturally to such behavior in the MAC (e.g., 12 , 14 , 16 ) as channel access, number of retries, etc.", "Classes 0 to 3 are used by non-connection oriented MSDUs while Classes 4 to 7 are used by connection oriented services.", "Each MSDU 71 and hence the corresponding sub-frame stream is associated with a Class.", "The Sub-Frame can also carry delivery time stamp, which enable support for jitter free delivery of the MSDU 71 .", "Reliable end to end delivery of packets can be confirmed by means of integrity check sequence that can span on or more sub-frames.", "Sub-Frames that belong to the same stream are partitioned into Segments and are transmitted as part of a MAC protocol Data Unit (MPDU) 72 .", "Segment and MPDU 72 contents are described in detail below.", "Segments can be encrypted to provide data privacy.", "Details of encryption and decryption process are presented in more detail below.", "Each MPDU 72 contains Frame control information, MPDU header and one or more PHY Blocks (PBs).", "The Frame Control carries information that is relevant to all stations in the network and is broadcast.", "MPDU header carries information relevant to all PHY Blocks.", "The PHY Blocks carry Segments as their payload.", "Details of the MPDU header and PHY Block are described below.", "At the physical layer level, each PB is mapped onto a FEC Block except the first PB.", "The first FEC Block contains MPDU header and the first PB.", "This mapping of segments onto the FEC blocks at the PHY level enable efficient retransmission as errors at the physical layer occur on granularity of FEC blocks.", "PHY Blocks contains PB Header and PB integrity check sequence (PBCS).", "PBCS is used to test the integrity of PB.", "PB header is used along with the MPDU header for proper reassembly of segments and generation of Sub-Frames.", "MPDUs 72 are acknowledged by a receiver layer (e.g., MAC 54 ) to indicate reception of MPDUs.", "Segments that cannot be delivered reliable can be retransmitted.", "Segments in an MPDU 72 can be transmitted in an escalated mode.", "Escalated Segments are transmitted by the PHY 56 using more robust encoding, thus enabling higher probability of error free delivery.", "More details on Escalation are provided below.", "There is interactive use of PHY level 56 escalation and MAC level 54 retransmissions to enable reliable end to end delivery of packets along with QoS enhancements.", "MAC Service Data Unit (MSDU) MAC Service Data Unit (MSDU) 71 is the information payload that the MAC layer 54 has been asked to transport by the higher layer of the network architecture.", "As shown in FIG. 3 , a MSDU format 100 includes a Source Address (SA) 102 , a Destination Addresses (DA) 104 , a Traffic Information 106 , a MAC Management Information 108 , and a MSDU Payload 110 .", "The Traffic information field 106 includes a Protocol Adaptation Layer (PAL) Type (PLT) 112 , a Delivery Time Stamp Flag (DTSF) 114 , a MAC Management Flag (MMF) 116 , and a MAC Stream Identifier (MSID) 118 .", "The salient features of the MSDU format 100 include support for multiple higher layers of the network architecture to interface with the MAC layer 54 .", "Each higher layer of the network architecture 50 is provided with a unique PAL Type 112 , which is carried in each MSDU 71 that is generated by the higher layer of the network architecture 50 .", "This enables proper routing of the MSDUs 71 at the receiving MAC layer 54 .", "The MSDU format 100 also includes support for identifying streams of MSDUs 71 that belong to the same session or require a specific Class of service.", "This is achieved by means of MAC Stream identifiers (MSID) 118 .", "Sessions can be established by negotiation between the higher layer of the network architecture and the MAC 12 .", "During this process, each session is provided with a unique MSID 118 .", "MSDUs 71 that belong to a session carry the MSID 118 to which each MSDU 71 is associated.", "In this example, MSIDs 118 enable MAC 12 to use resources allocated for that session, thus providing guarantees on various QoS parameters.", "A set of MSIDs 118 can be reserved for use by MSDUs 71 that do not belong to any session.", "In this example, MSID 118 indicates the traffic Class to which the MSDUs 71 belong.", "Internal to the MAC layer 54 , each Class of traffic is provided with a coherent set of access parameters and allocations thus providing differentiated services.", "In general, established sessions can also be divided into various classes, with each class providing guarantees in a specific range of QoS parameters.", "In this case, MSID 118 can be used to explicitly determine the traffic Class, which is provided during connection setup.", "The format of the MSDU 71 also enables an exchange of MAC Management information between the higher layers of the network architecture 50 and the MAC layer 54 by means of the optional MAC Management field 108 .", "This feature simplifies the interface between the MAC layer 54 and the higher layers of the network architecture.", "Furthermore, this feature can also be used to exchange management information between higher layers of the network architecture 50 .", "The MSDU format 100 also provides support for the layer of the network architecture 50 that is higher than the MAC layer 54 to control when a delivery time stamp has to be inserted.", "The Destination Address (DA) field 102 and Source Address (SA) field 104 are 6 octets each and carry addressing information between transmitting MAC 12 and receiving MAC 14 .", "An octet is a sequence of eight bits.", "An octet is thus an eight-bit byte.", "These fields 102 and 104 are identical to a 48-bit MAC address format described in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Standard 802.3.", "The 2-octet Traffic Information field 106 contains a 2-bit PAL Type (PLT) field, a 1-bit MAC Management Flag (MMF), a 1-bit DTS Flag, and a 12-bit MAC Stream ID (MSID) field as shown by Table 1.", "TABLE 1 MSDU Traffic Information Field Length (bits) Definition PLT 2 PAL Type MMF 1 MAC Management Information Flag DTSF 1 Delivery Time Stamp Flag MSID 12 MAC Stream Identifier The PAL Type (PLT) 112 enables the MAC layer 54 to distinguish between various types of higher layers.", "This is used for proper routing of the MSDU 71 at the receiver layer.", "MAC layer 54 supports IEEE 802.3 and Isochronous Streams (IS).", "Table 2 shows the interpretation of the PLT fields.", "TABLE 2 PAL Type PLT Value Interpretation 0b00 Ethernet PAL 0b01 Isochronous Stream 0b10 Reserved 0b11 Reserved The MAC Management Flag (MMF) 114 is set to 0b1 to indicate that the corresponding MSDU 71 is associated with an embedded MAC Management Information (MMI) field 108 .", "The Delivery Time Stamp Flag (DTSF) 116 is set to 0b1 by the PAL 52 to indicate that this MSDU payload 110 should be associated with a Delivery Time Stamp in a Sub-Frame that may contain other MSDU payloads 110 that do not have a DTS (as indicated by a DTSF value of 0b0).", "The MAC Stream ID (MSID) 118 is a 12-bit field that is associated with the payload being carried by the MSDU 71 .", "MSIDs 118 with values from 0 to 3 are used by MSDUs 71 that do not belong to an established connection and map on to MAC Service Classes 0 to 3.", "The remaining MSIDs 118 may be used by connection-based services and are assigned by the MAC layer 54 during the connection setup process.", "TABLE 3 MAC Stream Identifier MSID Value Interpretation 0x000 Class 0 0x001 Class 1 0x002 Class 2 0x003 Class 3 0x004-0xfff Negotiated Stream IDs The MSDU format 100 can contain MAC Management Information 108 .", "The presence of this field 108 is indicated by the MMF flag 114 in the Traffic Information field 106 .", "If MAC Management Information 108 is present in the Sub-Frame, its format and content shall be as described in the Jitter Control Section below.", "The MSDU Payload field 110 depends on the higher layer (e.g., PAL 52 ) that generated the MSDU 71 .", "The MSDU Payload 110 is not interpreted by the MAC layer 54 .", "The Sub-Frame may contain MAC Management Information 108 and no MSDU Payload 110 , or a MSDU Payload 110 and no MAC Management Information 108 , or it may contain both.", "Sub-Frame The MAC layer 54 processes one or more MSDUs 71 to generate a Sub-Frame.", "As shown in FIG. 4 , a Sub-Frame 150 includes a Sub-Frame Header 152 , Optional MAC Management information 154 , Optional Delivery time stamp 156 , payload 110 from one MSDU and an optional integrity check sequence (ICV) 158 .", "Sub-Frame header 152 contains MAC Management Flag 182 , Integrity Check Sequence Flag (ICVF) 184 , and Sub-Frame Payload length 186 .", "The format of Sub-Frame 150 is also specified in Table 4.", "TABLE 4 Sub-Frame Format Field Length Definition SFH 2 octets Sub-Frame Header MAC Management 0-M octets Optional MAC Management Information Information DTS 3 octets Optional Delivery Time Stamp MSDU Payload variable Optional MSDU Payload octets ICV 4 octets Optional Integrity Check Value As shown in FIG. 5 , the Sub-Frame Header 152 is a 2-octet field that carries information about the presence of MAC Management Information and Integrity Check Value (ICV) in the Sub-Frame as well as the length of the Sub-Frame.", "This information includes MAC Management Flag 182 , Integrity Check Value flag 184 , and length field 186 .", "The Sub-Frame header is also specified in Table 5.", "TABLE 5 Sub-Frame Header Field Length Definition MMF 1 bit MAC Management Flag ICVF 1 bit ICV Flag LEN 14 bits Sub-Frame Length The MAC Management Flag 182 is set to 0b1 to indicate the presence of MAC Management information 154 .", "MAC Management information 154 , if present, shall follow the sub-frame header 152 .", "The Integrity Check Value Flag 184 is set to 0b1 to indicate the presence of an ICV field 158 in the corresponding Sub-Frame 150 .", "The ICV field 158 , if present, follows the Sub-Frame payload 110 .", "The Length field 186 is a 14-bit used to specify the length of Sub-Frame 150 , excluding the 2-octet Sub-Frame Header 152 and the 4-octet ICV (if present) 158 .", "The Sub-Frame 150 can contain MAC Management Information 154 as indicated by the MMF flag 182 in the Sub-Frame Header 152 .", "If the MAC Management Information 154 is present in the Sub-Frame 150 , its format and content is as described in the Jitter Control Mechanism section below.", "The optional Delivery Time Stamp (DTS) 156 is the 24-bit value of the sender's local 25 MHz multimedia clock at the time at which the MSDU 71 arrived from the sender's PAL 52 , plus the delivery latency associated with this MSDU 71 .", "This value indicates the time at which the MSDU 71 should be presented to the destination's PAL 52 .", "The DTS field 156 shall be included in a Sub-Frame 150 only when required for jitter control as negotiated at stream set-up.", "At that time, the option of one DTS 156 per Sub-Frame 150 or one DTS 156 per MSDU payload 110 shall be selected for the stream.", "The DTS 156 will precede the MSDU payload(s) 110 to which it applies, and these payloads 110 will be grouped according to the DTS Flag 116 in the MSDU traffic information 106 .", "All the MSDUs 100 with DTSF=0b0 will be grouped into a single Sub-Frame 150 with the next MSDU 100 whose DTSF=0b1.", "The Sub-Frame Payload field 160 contains the payload 110 from one or more MSDUs 71 depending on how the Sub-Frame 150 was formed.", "The Integrity Check Value (ICV) 158 is a Cyclic Redundancy Code (CRC)-32 error checking code computed over one or more Sub-Frames 150 .", "The ICV Flag (ICVF) 158 in the Sub-Frame header 152 is used to determine the Sub-Frames 150 over which the ICV 158 is computed.", "The ICV 158 does not cover the Sub-Frame headers 152 .", "FIG. 6 shows a block of Sub-Frames 150 protected by a single ICV 158 .", "Sub-Frames 150 that are generated from MSDUs 71 belonging to the same {SA 104 , DA 102 , PLT 112 and MSID 118 } tuple are grouped together to form a sub-frame stream.", "When a MPDU 72 is generated by the MAC layer 54 , its payload contains Sub-Frame(s) 150 from only one sub-frame stream at a time.", "The salient features of Sub-Frame 150 , and Sub-Frame Stream generation process include removing information that is common to all the MSDUs 71 that belong to a single stream while a sub-frame 150 is generated.", "This information is only transmitted once per MPDU 72 , thus increasing protocol efficiency.", "Multiple MSDU payloads 110 can be transmitted in a single Sub-Frame 150 .", "This improves the protocol efficiency when small fixed length MSDU payloads 110 are sent in the same stream.", "The structure of the Sub-Frame 150 provides a mechanism for carrying management information along with MSDU payload 110 .", "Sub-Frames 150 also provide a mechanism for transmitting delivery time stamps 156 .", "These delivery time stamps 156 provide the time at which the Sub-Frame 150 has to be delivered to the higher layer of the architecture 50 at the receiver MAC (e.g., 12 , 14 , 16 ).", "The structure of the Sub-Frame 150 allows for inserting an ICV 158 on each Sub-Frame 150 or a group of Sub-Frames 150 at a time.", "The ICV 158 enables end-to end check for proper reception of Sub-Frames 150 .", "The Sub-Frame 150 is generated by processing one or more MSDUs 71 .", "The generation of a Sub-Frame 150 from an MSDU 71 is shown in FIG. 7 for the case of a Sub-Frame 150 formed from a single MSDU 71 .", "When a Sub-Frame 150 is generated from multiple MSDUs 71 , all MSDU payloads 110 have the same length and belong to an established session.", "This is done for efficiency when small fixed length MSDU payloads 110 are sent in the same stream.", "FIG. 8 shows the generation of a Sub-Frame 150 for the case when the Sub-Frame 150 is formed from multiple MSDUs 71 .", "Sub-Frames Streams, Sub-Blocks and Segments As shown in FIG. 9 , a Sub-Frame Stream 200 includes Sub-Frames 150 generated from MSDUs 71 that belong to the same {SA, DA, MSID, PLT} tuple.", "A group of Sub-Frames 150 that are protected by a single Integrity Check Value (ICV) 158 forms an ICV Block, which is the basic entity that is subjected to end-to-end MAC delivery services.", "This process of generating a Sub-Frame Stream 200 from MSDUs 71 is called encapsulation.", "As shown in FIG. 10 , the Sub-Frame Stream 200 is divided into fixed size Sub-Blocks 250 .", "One or more such Sub-Blocks 250 are then grouped into a Segment 252 to form the basic entity processed by the MAC layer 54 to ensure reliable delivery services.", "Sub-blocks 250 are numbered entities used for reassembly at the receiver.", "The Sub-Frame 150 boundary demarcation information is transmitted to the receiver in the MPDU Header.", "Each segment is padded as necessary, optionally encrypted, and then inserted into a PHY Block (PB) Body.", "In some examples, padding zeros and a length field are added to a Segment 252 if the buffer is depleted when the Segments 252 are being formed.", "MAC Protocol Data Unit (MPDU) and FEC Blocks The term MAC Protocol Data Unit (MPDU) 254 is the information that the PHY 56 has been asked to transport by the MAC layer 54 .", "The MPDU 72 is composed of a Frame Control field 256 , MPDU Header 258 and one or more PHY Blocks 266 .", "Frame Control carriers broadcast information.", "The MPDU header 258 and the first PHY Block 266 are transmitted using a single FEC Block 268 .", "The subsequent PHY Blocks 266 are transmitted in separate FEC Blocks 266 .", "The first FEC Block 268 in an MPDU 72 is of a larger size to accommodate the fixed length MPDU header 258 along with the PHY Block 266 .", "All the PHY Blocks 266 have a fixed size except for the last one in the MPDU 72 .", "The salient features of the MPDU format include that all the information that is common to all Segments 252 in an MPDU 72 is transmitted as part of the MPDU header 258 , thus improving the efficiency of communication.", "Furthermore, segmentation across Sub-Frame boundaries provides high MPDU transmission efficiency under a very large range of MSDU, Sub-Frame sizes.", "The MPDU header 258 is protected by a special integrity check, which provides better performance on marginal channels.", "The MPDU header 258 carries local clock time stamp information.", "This time stamp can be used by the receiver MAC (e.g., 14 ) to synchronize with the transmitter MAC 12 , thus enabling jitter free service.", "The mapping of MPDU header 258 and first PHY Blocks 266 on to the first FEC Block 268 that has a larger size to enable MPDU header 258 overhead enables efficient retransmission of lost PHY Blocks 266 .", "Support for Escalating the PHY Block 266 encoding is provided.", "This mechanism can be used in conjecture with retransmissions to enhance QoS guarantees.", "There is also support of Multicast with partial ARQ, bridging and forwarding.", "The format of MPDU Header 258 is shown in FIG. 11 .", "The receiver MAC 14 uses information contained in the MPDU header 258 along with the information in the PB header 260 to decrypt and to reassemble the Sub-Frames 150 .", "The MPDU header 258 includes MPDU Control 300 , DA 302 , SA 304 , ODA 306 , OSA 308 , and HCS 310 .", "The fields that comprise the 12 octets of the MPDU Control 300 are shown in Table 6.", "TABLE 6 MPDU Control Format Length Field (bits) Definition NEPB 2 Number of Empty PBs MSID 12 MAC Stream ID PLT 2 PAL Type TS 24 Time Stamp EKS 12 Encryption Key Select SFPBN 6 Sub-Frame boundary PHY block number SFO 10 Sub-Frame boundary offset in PB Number of Empty PHY blocks (NEPB) is two bits of the MPDU header which are used to indicate the number of empty PBs 266 at the end of the PPDU Payload.", "The restrictions on the frame length at high data rates cause increments of as many as 3 FEC blocks between successive valid frame sizes.", "The sender MAC (e.g., 12 ) may only require one of these FEC blocks 268 to hold data, and so there may be zero, one, or two empty PBs at the end of the PHY PDU Payload, as indicated by NEPB.", "The MAC Stream ID (MSID) field carries the MAC Stream ID that is associated with the payload being carried by this MPDU.", "MSIDs 0 to 3 are used by MPDUs that carry connectionless Class 0 to 3 traffic respectively.", "The remaining MSIDs may be used by connection-based services and are assigned by the MAC during the connection setup process.", "The PAL Type (PLT) field defines the PAL Type (PLT) that is being carried by the MPDU.", "The MAC receiver uses this to reassemble and to route the MSDUs to the correct PAL.", "The Time Stamp (TS) field is a 24-bit Time Stamp representing the value of the local transmitter's Multimedia clock with reference to the start of the preamble when the MPDU was transmitted.", "The TS field is used for jitter-free delivery (in conjunction with the Delivery Time Stamp (DTS) in the Sub-Frame Header), Tone Map (TM) timing and in managing the Periodic Contention Free Channel Access.", "The Encryption Key Select (EKS) field is an Index of the Encryption Key used for encrypting the Segments.", "In some examples, EKS is 12 bits long, providing additional keys for access networks.", "A value of 0x000 indicates that the segments are encrypted using the stations default encryption key.", "A value of 0xfff indicates that the Segments in the MPDU 72 are not encrypted.", "Preferred implementations can also obtain the EKS by processing the frame control header fields.", "The Sub-Frame Boundary PHY Block Sequence Number (SFPBN) field carries a number representing the relative position within the MPDU of the PHY Block that contains a Sub-Frame boundary.", "A value of 0b000000 indicates the first PB, 0b000001 indicates the second PB, etc.", "A value of 0b1111111 indicates that no Sub-Frame boundary exists in the current MPDU 72 .", "The Sub-Frame boundary offset (SFO) field carries the offset in bytes of the Sub-Frame boundary (i.e., the first octet of the first new Sub-Frame) within the PHY Block indicated by SFPBN.", "A value of 0x000 indicates the first byte.", "The Destination Address (DA) 302 , Source Address (SA) 304 , Original Destination Address (ODA) 306 , and Original Source Address (OSA) 308 fields carry the addressing associated with the MPDU 72 .", "The Destination Address (DA) 302 is a 48-bit address for the receiver to which this MPDU 72 is being sent in the current transmission.", "The address format follows the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet Standard.", "The Source Address (SA) 304 is a 48-bit address for the station (e.g., MAC 12 ) that is sending this MPDU 72 in the current transmission.", "The address format follows the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet Standard.", "The Original Destination Address (ODA) 306 is a 48-bit address for the receiver that is the ultimate destination of this MPDU 254 .", "The address format follows the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet Standard.", "The Original Source Address (OSA) 308 is a 48-bit address for the station (e.g., MAC 12 ) from which this MPDU 72 originated.", "The address format follows the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet Standard.", "The contents of the DA 302 , SA 304 , ODA 306 and OSA 308 fields in the MPDU header 258 are used to indicate whether the MPDU 72 being transmitted is a Regular MPDU or a Multicast MPDU with Response.", "Table 7 summarizes the interpretation of these addresses.", "TABLE 7 ODA, OSA, DA, and SA fields interpretation DA SA ODA OSA Interpretation ODA OSA Unicast Unicast Regular MPDU not ODA, OSA Unicast Unicast Bridged/Forwarded MPDU from the Original Unicast Source ODA not OSA, Unicast Unicast Bridged/Forwarded MPDU designated to the Unicast Original Destination not ODA, not OSA, Unicast Unicast Bridged/Forwarded MPDU between two Unicast Unicast intermediate stations not ODA, Unicast M/B Unicast Multicast or Broadcast MPDU with DA Unicast indicating the address of the responder (for partial ARQ) not ODA, not OSA, Unicast Unicast Bridged/Forwarded MPDU with DA indicating unicast Broadcast the address of the responder (for partial ARQ) and SA indicating the set of station to which the MPDU is intended M/B ≡ Multicast/Broadcast The Header Check Sequence (HCS) is a 32-bit CRC computed over all the MPDU Header fields.", "After receiving the MPDU, stations shall compute the 32-bit CRC based on the above process to detect transmission errors.", "If any transmission error is detected, the entire MPDU is discarded.", "To reduce the probability of errors in the MPDU header, the first FEC Block may be more robustly encoded than the standard FEC block.", "Each PHY Block (PB) or PB with MPDU header is mapped onto a single Forward Error Correction (FEC) block at the physical layer.", "A Long MPDU can carry one or more PHY blocks.", "Each PB contains a PB Header (PBH), PB Body (PBB) and PB Check Sequence (PBCS).", "The MPDU Header is always carried as an addition field pre-pended to the first PB in the MPDU.", "The salient features of the PHY Block format include that the PHY Block Check Sequence (PBCS) provides a very highly reliable error detection mechanism.", "Further mapping of PHY Blocks on to the FEC Blocks enable efficient retransmission.", "The PHY Block format also enables the Sub-Block Sequence number to simplify reassembly and provides duplicate rejection at the receiver.", "The PHY Block header format also provides a mechanism to transmit MAC Management frame in an out of band manner.", "This mechanism enables fast exchange of important MAC Management information.", "The PHY Block body size is chosen to enable zero encryption overheads in the PHY Block Body.", "The overall encryption mechanism simplifies implementation.", "Three sizes, 263, 519, and 775 octets (with 256, 512, or 768 octets of PBB for the segment it contains, respectively) are supported for PHY blocks 266 .", "However, there are six FEC block information field sizes, namely 263, 519, and 775 octets for FEC Blocks containing only a PHY Block and 303, 559, and 815 octets for FEC Blocks containing a PHY Block and MPDU Header or SMPDU header and VFs field (in SACK long MPDUs).", "The larger size accommodates an additional 40 Octets for the header and the extra data.", "The first FEC block in a PPDU contains an MPDU header and a PB, while the rest contain only one PB each.", "When the PHY Body is filled with FEC blocks that form the PHY Payload, maximum size PBs shall be used for all but the last FEC block, which may contain a PB of any of the three sizes.", "Subject to these constraints, the sender (e.g., MAC 12 ) shall fill as much of the PHY Body as possible with PHY Payload.", "The fields in the 3-octet PB Header are shown in Table 8.", "TABLE 8 PB Header Format Field Length Definition SBSN 14 bits Sub-Block Sequence Number PBLT 2 bits PB Length Type ECV 1 bit Erasure Code Version EGL 5 bits Erasure Group Length PBN 2 bit Parity Block Number The PB Header consists of a 14-bit Sub-Block Sequence Number and a 2-bit Length Type (PBLT) field, 1-bit Erasure Code Version, 5-bit Erasure Group Length and a 2-bit Parity Block Number.", "The Sub-Block Sequence Number (SBSN) field indicates the sequence number of the first Sub-Block in the segment.", "The SBSN can be used by the receiver to properly insert the received Segments in the reassembly buffer.", "The process of numbering Sub-Blocks combined with fixed Sub-Block sizes eliminates the need for buffer reordering when out of order segments are received.", "Dividing the queue into sub-blocks of equal size and sending the sequence number in the PHY Block header simplifies reassembly while reducing the overhead required to carry the sequence number.", "The overhead is reduced because numbering is done one sub-block at a time rather that one byte (or one bit) at a time.", "For example, using 256 byte blocks compared to byte number saves 8-bits of space in the PHY block header.", "Reassembly is simplified because the receiver exactly knows where to put each sub-block.", "SBSN numbers shall be initialized to 0 when a CF session is set up, and wrap around as long as the CFID is in use.", "For non-CF traffic (MSIDs 0-3), it is initialized to 0, wraps around as needed.", "For CSMA/CA traffic, the last SBSN shall be stored until twice the maximum Sub-Frame lifetime after which the SSBN shall be reset to 0.", "The first segment with a reset SBSN should have SFPBN=0 and SFO=0 also.", "When EGL is non-zero (i.e., Parity PB), this field carries the sequence number of the first sub-block in the last segment of the erasure group.", "The PHY Block Length Type (PBLT) is a 2-bit field that indicates whether the PHY Block Body (PBB) is full, short 1 octet, or short more than 1 octet.", "The PBLT values and meanings are given in Table 9.", "TABLE 9 PBLT Values and Meaning PBLT Value Meaning 0b00 The PBB is full, all octets are valid 0b01 The last octet of the PBB is not valid, the segment length is (PBB length − 1) octets (i.e., 767 octets) 0b10 The segment contained in the PBB is more than 1 octet shorter than the PBB.", "In this case the last two octets of the PBB form a length field that explicitly gives the segment length in octets..", "0b11 The segment contained in the PBB is destined for the MAC Management Queue for this {SA, DA} pair.", "The last two octets of the PBB form a length field that explicitly gives the segment length in octets.", "In the case of PBLT=0b10 or 0b11, the implied 2-octet length field contains the valid data length of the Segment carried by the PBB.", "The rest of the Segment is zero padded.", "The PHY Payload length may be large enough to hold more FEC blocks than are required by the MAC, which means that the last FEC block will not hold a PB.", "In this case, the transmitter inserts an empty PB with the PBLT=0b10 and a length field of 0x00 so that the receiver will discard this PB.", "The NEPB field of the MPDU Header indicates the number of these PBs so the receiver can discard them without having to decrypt them.", "When PBLT=0b11, then the receiver reassembles the segment contained in the PBB into the MAC Management Sub-Frame queue associated with this {SA, DA} pair.", "The MSB of the length field in the PBB of PBs with PBLT=0b11 shall be interpreted as the Sub-Frame Boundary Flag (SFBF).", "This bit allows the sender to indicate to the receiver that the first octet of the PBB is a sub-frame boundary (when SFBF=0b1).", "An Erasure Group Length field when set to 0b00000, indicates a normal PB.", "A non-zero value of the EGL indicates parity PB.", "In this case, the value in the EGL field is the number of normal PBs (or the length of erasure group) covered by this parity PB.", "A value of 0b00001 indicates erasure group of length one and so on.", "A value of 0b11111 indicates an erasure group of size 31.", "A Parity Block Number field is valid only when the EGL is set to a non-zero value.", "PBN indicates the sequence number of the parity block and is used by the receiver to recover lost segments.", "This field shall be set to 0b00 for this version The PHY Block (PB) body carries the encrypted Segment as the payload.", "Note that a Segment may have to be zero-padded before encryption to ensure that it fits exactly into the PB Body.", "The PB Header and the PBCS are not encrypted.", "The PHY Body Check Sequence (PBCS) is a CRC-32 and is computed over the PB Header and the encrypted PB Body.", "The PBCS of the first PB in an MPDU 72 is not computed over the MPDU header 258 .", "MAC Management Information Fields MAC Management Information (MMI) can be transmitted as part of an MSDU or a Sub-Frame.", "When MMI is transmitted as part of an MSDU, the presence of this field is indicated by setting the MAC Management flag in the Traffic Information to 0b1 (refer to Section 1).", "When the MMF flag is set, the MMI field immediately follows the end of the Traffic Information.", "When MMI is transmitted as part of a Sub-Frame, the presence of this field is indicated by setting the MAC Management flag in the Sub-Frame header to 0b1(Refer to Section 2).", "When the MMF flag is set, the MAC Management Information field immediately follows the end of the Sub-Frame header.", "Table 10 shows the structure of the MMI field.", "Note that the MMI field has variable structure and that the sub-fields are so defined as to specify the particular structure of the MMI field.", "TABLE 10 MAC Management Information Field Format Field Length Definition NE 1 octet Number Of MAC Data Entries (L) MEHDR 1 1 octet First MAC Management Entry Header MELEN 1 2 octet First MAC Management Entry Length (=N 1 ) MMENTRY 1 N 1 octets First MAC Management Entry Data .", "MEHDR i 1 octet ith MAC Management Entry Header MELEN i 2 octet Ith MAC Management Entry Length (=N i ) MMENTRY i N i octets ith MAC Management Entry Data .", "MEHDR L 1 octet Last MAC Management Entry Header MELEN L 2 octet Last MAC Management Entry Length (=N L ) MMENTRY L N L octets Last MAC Management Entry Data The 1-octet Number of Entries (NE) field specifies the number of separate MAC Management Entries that are contained in the MMI field.", "Supposing that NE is L, then the MMI field contains L structures, one for each MAC Management Entry.", "Each such structure includes a MAC Management Entry Header (MEHDR), a MAC Management Entry Length (MELEN), and the associated MAC Management Entry data (MMENTRY).", "For the i th MMENTRY, the ith MAC Management Entry Header (MEHDR i ) field specifies a 1 octet header.", "The MAC Management Entry Header structure is as shown in Table 11.", "TABLE 11 MAC Management Entry Header Field Field Bit Number Bits Definition MEV 7-6 2 MAC Entry Version METYPE 5-0 6 MAC Entry Type The 2-bit MAC Management Entry Version (MEV) field indicates the version in use for interpretation of MAC Entries.", "If the received MEV is not equal to 0b00, the receiver discards the MAC Management Entry and uses the MAC entry length field to determine the number of octets to ignore before continuing to process the remainder of the Sub-Frame.", "The 6-bit MAC Management Entry Type (METYPE) field defines the MAC entry command or request that follows.", "Several METYPEs are defined that enables such functions as layer management, Session set up etc.", "The MAC Entry Length field (MELEN i ) contains the length in octets of the MMENTRY field to follow.", "If MMENTRY does not exist, MELEN is set to zero.", "This field provides for transparent extension of MAC management, without rendering older equipment obsolete.", "If an MSDU or a Sub-Frame is received with an METYPE value that is not understood, the receiver can still properly parse the MSDU or Sub-Frame and process its contents, ignoring what it does not understand.", "The format of MMENTRY depends on the MEHDR with which it is associated.", "Jitter Control Mechanism A Jitter Control mechanism enables station to deliver MSDUs 71 with a very low jitter in the order of a few nano seconds.", "This mechanism uses the Delivery time stamp 156 in the Sub-Frames 150 to determine when the corresponding MSDU 71 has to be delivered to the higher layer at the receiver.", "Synchronization of the clocks of the transmitters (e.g., MAC 12 ) and receivers (e.g., MAC 14 ) is obtained by transmitters inserting its local clock time stamp in MPDU header 258 and receiver using this to synchronize with the transmitter.", "The salient features of jitter control mechanism include support for very low end-to-end jitter.", "The jitter control mechanism also includes support for higher layers of the network architecture to control the insertion of Delivery time stamps.", "This support for higher layers reduces overhead while providing the needed functionality.", "The jitter control mechanism can also use tracking algorithms to obtain close synchronization with the transmitters clock, thus enabling low end-to-end jitter guarantees in the order of nano-seconds.", "Furthermore, multi-streaming applications can use jitter control mechanism to provide synchronization between multiple receiver MACs.", "Each MAC maintains a 25 MHz System Clock.", "Any MSDU that belongs to a jitter-free session is associated with a 24-bit Delivery Time Stamp (DTS) when the MSDU arrives at the MAC.", "This timestamp is inserted into the Sub-Frame that is generated from the MSDU (and possibly other MSDUs).", "When multiple MSDUs are combined into a single Sub-Frame with a single timestamp, the DTS Flag (DSTF) in the MSDU header indicates which MSDUs are to generate the timestamp.", "When an MSDU with the DTSF=0b1 arrives, its timestamp is generated and inserted into the Sub-Frame along with the MSDU payload and all other MSDU payloads that arrived since the last MSDU with DTSF=0b1.", "At the receiver, all of these MSDU payloads are delivered by the time indicated by the DTS in the Sub-Frame, with the last MSDU payload delivered at the indicated time.", "The PAL sending the MSDUs 71 to the source MAC (e.g., 12) takes care not to exceed the maximum Sub-Frame size before a time stamped MSDU 71 is sent.", "The DTS is the sum of the system clock value when the MSDU 71 is received plus the end to end latency associated with the traffic (this is determined during the call admission process and the QoS for this traffic type).", "Every MPDU 72 carries the transmitter's System Clock time stamp (with respect to the start of the preamble) in the MPDU header 258 .", "The receiver may use jitter control algorithm to provide very low jitter guarantees.", "The receiving MAC (e.g., 14) delivers jitter-free traffic to the destination PAL at the time indicated in the delivery time stamp (DTS) based on the information derived from the System Clock timestamps in the MPDU headers 258 .", "ARQ, Escalation, and Erasure Codes MPDUs 72 are acknowledged by the receiver to indicate reception station.", "Segments that cannot be delivered reliable can be retransmitted.", "A retransmitted segment is packaged in a new PB in the front of the next available MPDU 72 and is retransmitted.", "The retransmitted PBs will normally be escalated to improve their chances of correct reception.", "The number of escalated PHY Blocks in the MPDU 72 can be indicated in the frame control header.", "MAC layer can also use parity PBs to ensure reliable delivery of regular PBs.", "Parity PBs are generated by from a group of regular PBs and can be used to recover one or more lost PBs at the destination without having to retransmit them.", "These mechanisms enable latency sensitive packets to be delivered more effectively with a limited number of retries.", "Escalation and Erasure codes tradeoff data rate of the channel with the number of retries required to get a certain packet loss rate.", "Encryption Some implementations allow MACs to transmit segments in an encrypted for, thus providing privacy of data.", "Encryption information may include an Network Encryption Key (NEK) that indicates the key to be used to decrypt a block and an Initialization Vector (IV) that is used to initialize the decryption algorithm.", "Both NEK and IV should be correctly known to the receiver to properly decrypt the PB.", "The Encryption Key Select (EKS) field in the MPDU Header is used to refer to the index of the Network Encryption Key (NEK) used for encryption.", "The NEK to be used for encrypting any Segment and the corresponding EKS are exchanged between station prior to the transmission of MPDU.", "The Initialization Vector (IV) used for encrypting the first PHY Block is obtained by concatenating fields from Frame Control, MPDU header and PHY block header.", "Other preferred implementations may obtain the EKS by processing the fields of the Frame Control.", "For example, the EKS can be derived from a substantially unique session identifier carried in the Frame Control.", "The Initialization vector can be generated from the fields of the frame control and the PHY Block header.", "Once the MPDU is delivered to the destination, the PBCS of each PB is checked and then the good PBs are decrypted and delivered the receiver buffer.", "PB failures are reported to the transmitting station by a SACK and are re-encrypted and retransmitted, using a current Network Encryption Key (NEK) and a new Initialization Vector (IV).", "This process reduces the overhead for transmission of initialization vector.", "Further, proper choice of PHY Block body length can be used to reduce the encryption pad that might be needed.", "Other implementations of the invention are within the following claims." ]

[ "TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present disclosure relates to an organization system configured in refrigerators and freezers, more particularly, the disclosure relates to an organization system for organizing bags, bundles, and various others foods and containers within a refrigerating or freezing cavity.", "BACKGROUND [0002] Refrigerators or freezers may be configured with various shelves, drawers and compartment areas.", "A variety of food items having various shapes and sizes may be stored within the refrigerating and freezing cabinets.", "Some products are well suited for storage in drawers, others store well in baskets, and still others store well on shelves.", "Various food items tend to have abstract shapes with uneven surfaces and are frequently piled within a drawer or spread out on a shelf.", "Some examples of such food items having irregular dimensions include deli meat, sliced or shredded cheese, string cheese, nuts and dried fruits, bag salads, and homemade items or leftover products from meals, which are stored in varying sizes and styles of plastic freezer containers.", "The variety of shapes and sizes of these food items results in the foods being piled together in the drawer or spread out on a shelf.", "[0003] A resulting consequence storing food items in this manner is that users will have difficulty sifting through the disarray of food items in order to find the desired item or items.", "Additionally, if the drawer becomes full these various items will tend to shift during storage and may spill or overflow into another area of the refrigerator or freezer cabinet causing the food items to be damaged or unable to be found prior to spoilage.", "Additionally, these items may be caused to move while searching for a desired food item due to a lack of containment.", "Another related issue is that frequently these various shaped food items are stored in the crisper or deli drawers when they are foods that may not benefit from the containment especially items that do not benefit from being in such humidity controlled environment.", "As a result, items that would benefit from a humidity controlled environment will not fit due to the addition of these various other food items.", "Therefore, there is a need in the refrigeration appliance industry for an organization system configured within the refrigerator and/or freezer.", "SUMMARY [0004] An embodiment may include at least one organizational partition, for use in a refrigerating or freezing compartment.", "The partition has a front and a rear surface, and an edge extending from at least one end of the front and rear surface, the edge continuing around a perimeter of the partition.", "The partition may be inserted into a refrigerating or freezing cavity to form a division between a plurality of products and food substances which may be stored in the cavity.", "The partition may have various attachment means for attachment within the cavity, including, but not limited to clips for securing products thereto, and tabs for labeling or identifying stored contents.", "Further, an exemplary embodiment may use clips attached together or individually within the refrigerating or freezing cavity, wherein the clips may be fixed or movingly attached by an attachment means that enables at least one of rotational and translational movement within the cavity.", "[0005] It is a further object of the present disclosure to use an organization device, or a set of organization devices, in conjunction with a drawer, basket, or bin of a refrigerating or freezing compartment, or to use an organization device, or set of organization devices, in conjunction with a refrigerating or freezing cavity, to improve the organizational system of consumer refrigerating and freezing appliances.", "[0006] According to one aspect, a refrigerator or freezer may be provided with an interior compartment, such as a wire mesh basket or bin.", "Within the compartment is inserted one or more organizational partitions, which may be used to divide the space into smaller storage units.", "The organizational partitions attach to the side rails or bottom rails via an attaching mechanism that enables rotational or translational movement of the partitions within the mesh basket.", "[0007] According to another aspect, a refrigerator or freezer may be provided with an interior compartment, such as a solid bin or drawer.", "Within the compartment along the bottom wall of the compartment is inserted a partition assembly plate, which has a substantially smooth lower surface and an upper surface containing attachment means for attaching one or more organizational partitions to the partition assembly plate.", "This configuration may enable rotational or translational movement of the partitions within the solid drawer.", "Both of the above configurations may have organizational partitions which are oriented from front to rear, or from one side to the other side of the interior compartment.", "[0008] According to another aspect, a refrigerator or freezer may be provided with an interior compartment, the compartment being either wire mesh, solid, or any other configuration comprising a compartment for storage within the refrigerator or freezer cabinet.", "Organizational partitions may be inserted into the storage area according to one of the configurations above, and attached to at least one face of the one or more organizational partitions is a biased clip or fastener, which may be used for securing items to be stored within the storage space.", "The biased clip or fastener may be opened by pushing on the rearward portion of the clip such that stored items may be retrieved from the storage space.", "[0009] According to another aspect, a refrigerator or freezer may be provided with an interior space.", "Within the interior space a system of clips or fasteners may be mounted along a side or back wall, along the interior of the door, or along any combination of the interior surfaces of the refrigerator or freezer and its partitions, drawers, bins, or baskets.", "The system of clips may include a substantially rectangular panel on which is mounted one or more clips of various sizes, and in various configurations.", "The panel could also be any other useful shape to fix within an interior surface of the refrigerating or freezing cavity.", "The system of clips or fasteners may instead include one or more strands of clips attached in a more linear orientation, without the use of a shaped panel, each strand having one or more clips attached thereto.", "The system of clips may instead be composed of individual clips, each clip configured with and attaching element.", "In this configuration the clips may all attach using a similar attachment element, or the clips may use a diverse set of attachment elements configured for specific corresponding attachment locations within the storage space.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0010] FIG. 1 illustrates an angled perspective view of a basket containing organizational partitions;", "[0011] FIG. 2 illustrates an angled perspective view of partitions attached to a partition assembly plate;", "[0012] FIG. 3 illustrates an angled perspective view of a partition assembly being inserted into a drawer;", "[0013] FIG. 4 illustrates an angled perspective view of a partition assembly in a drawer;", "[0014] FIG. 5 illustrates an angled perspective view of a basket containing an organizational partition, having clips attached thereto;", "[0015] FIG. 6 illustrates a side perspective view of a refrigerating or freezing cavity;", "[0016] FIG. 7 illustrates a front perspective view of a refrigerating or freezing cavity.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS [0017] The present disclosure provides for a refrigerating or freezing cavity containing at least one basket, bin, drawer, storage container, or storage space, wherein improved organization is accomplished by the use of at least one organizational partition, clip, or any combination thereof.", "[0018] FIG. 1 illustrates a basket 30 configured to be used in a refrigerating or freezing cavity (illustrated as element 80 , FIGS. 6-7 ).", "The basket 30 may be configured in a plurality of shapes and sizes.", "The basket 30 may be at least one of fully and partially open on one or more sides, and the top.", "The basket 30 may have substantially vertical walls 32 , or one or more walls extending upward at some angle with a vertical plane, the walls forming an interior space 34 .", "At least one organizational partition 31 may be configured to rotatively or fixidly engage a portion of the basket 30 when inserted into the interior space 34 of the basket 30 to movably divide the interior space 34 into at least one product region 35 .", "The at least one organizational partition 31 may have a solid structure or the partition may have one or more open passages 41 to allow air flow through the partition.", "Additionally, the at least one partition 31 may be at least one of rigid and flexible in part or in its entirety.", "The at least one partition 31 may have an identifying mark or trademark 42 located somewhere on a surface of the partition.", "The at least one partition 31 may be designed such that the structure or surfaces of the partition 31 depict some food type or substance, or represent some other kind of identifying mark.", "[0019] The at least one partition 31 may be rectangular or any other shape configured to divide the interior space 34 into at least one product region 35 , such that the at least one partition 31 extends substantially from one side 32 of the basket 30 to the other side 32 , or from the front 37 of the basket 30 to the rear 38 , while also extending from the base 39 of the basket 30 to some point above the base 39 of the basket 30 .", "The at least one partition 31 may include as part of its structure at least one tab or protrusion 40 extending away from the main body of the partition 31 , such that the at least one protruding part 40 may be used for identification of food items or other substances placed in the adjoining product regions 35 .", "The tab or protrusion 40 may be located at any position along the top edge 36 of the partition 31 .", "If more than one partition 31 is inserted into the interior space 34 , the tab or protrusion 40 of each partition may be offset from the others by being located at a different position along the top edge 36 of the partition 31 .", "The protrusion 40 may be fixed, or slidably connected to the top edge 36 to allow adjustment along the top edge 36 of the partition 31 to achieve a plurality of configurations.", "[0020] The at least one partition 31 may fit loosely into the interior space 34 , or may be attachable to the basket 30 along at least one of the sides 32 , front 37 , rear 38 , and along the bottom 39 or any combination thereof, the attachment being accomplished by an exemplary attaching mechanism 33 , such as, but not limited to a male and female pinned connection.", "The attachment mechanism 33 may be configured to snap on to at least one of the side 32 , front 37 , rear 38 , and bottom 39 rails of the basket 30 or by some other means, and may be mounted in such a way as to allow the dividers 31 to be fixedly, slidably or rotationally adjustable within the interior space 34 .", "Additionally, clips or some other attachment means, such as, but not limited to hooks, elastic members or other resilient members may be fixed to the at least one partition 31 , for attachment or fastening of food items or other products within the at least one product region 35 .", "The partition 31 may be a rigid material, such as, but not limited to plastic, metal, wood, composite, or other suitable material that is usable within a refrigerating or freezing cavity.", "[0021] FIG. 2 illustrates an alternate embodiment of the present disclosure.", "In this embodiment a partition assembly plate 50 is provided, having a top surface 52 and a bottom surface 53 .", "The assembly plate 50 may be solid or contain open passages 54 to allow airflow through the assembly plate.", "Located adjacent to the top surface 52 , either above or below or both, is at least one attachment means 55 whereby at least one organizational partition 51 may be at least partially fixedly attached to the assembly plate 50 .", "The attachment means 55 may be configured to hold the at least one partition 51 firmly in place, or may be configured to allow slidable or rotational movement of the at least one partition 51 with respect to the assembly plate 50 .", "As described above, the at least one partition 51 may contain at least one clip or other attachment means similar to attachment means 33 , described above regarding FIG. 1 , and may be any of various shapes or sizes to accommodate separation of an interior space into at least one product region.", "The at least one partition 51 may be solid or may contain open passages 58 to allow airflow through the partition 51 .", "The at least one partition 51 may have one or more tabs or protruding parts 57 to allow for identification of substances placed in the adjoining product regions (not shown).", "The at least one protrusion 57 may be fixed or movable along the top edge 56 of the partition 51 .", "The assembly plate 50 may be oriented within a basket, bin, drawer, or other space within the refrigerating or freezing cavity to facilitate organization of products therein.", "The assembly plate 50 may be oriented such that the partitions 51 run substantially from front to rear or from side to side within a drawer, bin, or basket, or in any other usable orientation within the refrigerating or freezing cavity.", "The partition 51 may be a plastic, metal, wood, composite, or other suitable material that is usable within a refrigerating or freezing cavity.", "[0022] FIG. 3 illustrates the partition assembly plate 50 and the at least one partition 51 , as described above, being coupled with a generally shaped drawer 60 , and configured for use in a refrigerating or freezing cavity 80 , illustrated in FIGS. 6-7 .", "The assembly plate 50 may be oriented such that the at least one partition runs from side to side (as shown in FIG. 3 ), or may be oriented such that the at least one partition runs from front to rear (not shown).", "The assembly plate 50 may be oriented such that the bottom surface 53 of the assembly plate 50 rests on the interior bottom surface 62 of the drawer 60 , bin, basket, or other refrigerating or freezing space.", "Additionally, the assembly plate 50 may be shaped such that it is rectangular or other geometric configuration to facilitate orientation within a drawer, bin, basket, or other space within the refrigerating or freezing cavity, the orientation being substantially at an angle 63 to an axis 61 running along the front of the drawer 60 , bin, basket, or refrigerating or freezing cavity.", "For example, the assembly plate 50 may be circular or hexagonal or some other shape to allow placement of the assembly plate 50 such that the at least one partition 51 runs at a 45 degree angle (not shown) to the axis 61 , or at some other angle to facilitate storage of abstract shaped and sized products.", "Additionally, the assembly plate 50 may rest on the interior bottom surface 62 of the drawer 60 , bin, basket, or other refrigerating or freezing cavity, or may have some attachment means whereby the bottom surface 53 of the assembly plate 50 may be fixedly attached to the interior bottom surface 62 of the drawer 60 , bin, basket, or other refrigerating or freezing cavity.", "[0023] FIG. 4 depicts a placement of the partition assembly plate 50 with at least one partition 51 into the interior space 64 of the drawer 60 , thereby creating at least one product region 65 .", "The assembly plate 50 may rest on the interior bottom surface 62 , or be fixedly attached thereto with some attachment means (not shown).", "[0024] FIG. 5 contains a depiction of a basket 70 , similar to the basket 30 in FIG. 1 , containing at least one organizational partition 71 placed within the interior space 74 to create at least one product region 75 .", "The at least one partition 71 depicts one embodiment of a partition having a solid structure 72 .", "The structure 72 may be rigid or flexible to accommodate orientation of abstractly shaped products within the at least one product region 75 .", "The at least one partition 71 may contain at least one clip or other attachment means 73 whereby products or food substances may be fastened thereto and secured within the at least one product region 75 .", "The at least one clip 73 may be oriented on the front, rear, or any other surface of the at least one partition 71 to facilitate organization or securing of products or food substances.", "Additionally, the at least one clip 73 may have attachment means (not shown) such that it is movable to multiple positions along any surface of the at least one partition 71 .", "The partition 71 of FIG. 5 doesn't depict a tab or protruding part 40 , as in FIG. 1 , however, it is understood that the partition 71 may be configured in any manner as described above, including various shapes, sizes, and orientations, and having any or none of various attachment means to be secured or fit loosely within a basket, bin, drawer, or other refrigerating or freezing cavity.", "[0025] FIG. 6 depicts an organizational partition or panel 81 containing at least one clip or attachment means 83 secured to a surface 82 of the partition or panel 81 with any of various attachment mechanisms (not shown).", "The at least one clip 83 may be oriented in any configuration to enable fastening of products or food substances 86 , and in the case of at least one additional clip 84 , may be oriented linearly, in rows or columns, a grid, asymmetrically, or any other of various configurations to facilitate organization of products or food substances 86 within the bin, basket, drawer, or other refrigerating or freezing cavity 80 .", "Additionally the at least one clip or attachment means 83 may be fixed or movably mounted (not shown) to a surface of the partition or panel, such that the at least one clip 83 is movable along the surface 82 of the partition or panel 81 .", "The partition or panel 81 may be attached to the interior of the refrigerating or freezing cavity by means of an adjustment mechanism 85 .", "The adjustment mechanism 85 may be a telescoping rail as shown in FIG. 6 , or some other type of adjustment mechanism allowing the panel to move rotationally or translationally along or away from the interior surface of the refrigerating or freezing cavity.", "FIG. 7 shows the frontal perspective view.", "[0026] In another embodiment, the at least one clip 83 may be connected to at least one other clip 84 by some means other than the divider or panel 81 as shown in FIG. 6 .", "Together the at least two clips (not shown) may be oriented linearly, in rows or columns, asymmetrically, or in some other orientation, and together having an attachment mechanism (not shown) for use anywhere within the refrigerating or freezing cavity.", "The adjustment mechanism may be rotationally or translationally adjustable along or away from the interior surface of the refrigerating or freezing cavity.", "In yet another embodiment, the at least one clip 83 may be independently attachable to some region within the refrigerating or freezing cavity by means of any of various attachment mechanisms.", "In this embodiment at least one clip 83 may be located (not shown) by the user in any of various convenient locations at the user's preference.", "In any of the above embodiments the at least one clip or attachment means 83 may be affixed to an adjustment means which allows the at least one clip to be separately or jointly adjusted with none or at least one other clip.", "In a preferred embodiment, some combination of any of the above described at least one partitions or panels 31 , 51 , 71 , 81 and the at least one clips 73 , 83 , 84 may be utilized in conjunction with each other to facilitate organization according to the user's preference within the refrigerating or freezing cavity." ]

[ "FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention pertains to a technique for synthesizing N-benzoyl-L-ristosamine and intermediates which can be converted into N-benzoyl-L-ristosamine.", "The present invention also pertains to certain novel intermediates useful in the synthesis of N-benzoyl-L-ristosamine.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Daunomycin, a known anthracycline antibiotic, is an antineoplastic agent of established clinical utility.", "Daunomycin consists of the aglycone, daunomycinone, and the amino sugar, daunosamine.", "A process for synthesizing daunosamine hydrochloride, as well as certain novel intermediates, is disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Ser.", "No. 128,299, filed concurrently herewith.", "3',4'-epi-daunomycin consists of the aglycone, daunomycinone, and the amino sugar, ristosamine.", "3',4'-epi-daunomycin has the formula: ##STR1## 3',4'-epi-daunomycin, like daunomycin, exhibits anti-tumor activity.", "See Arcamone et al.", ", Synthesis of a Configurational Analog of Daunorubicin, Carbohydrate Research, Vol. 46, p. c3 (1976);", "Bargiotti et al.", ", Synthesis of Derivatives of 3-Amino-2,3-dideoxy-L-hexoses Related to Daunosamine (3-Amino-2,3,6-Trideoxy-L-lyxo-hexose), Carbohydrate Research, Vol. 58, p. 353 (1977).", "Specifically, 3',4'-epi-daunomycin is effective against P-388 leukemia in mice.", "See U.S. Pat. No. 4,112,076 to Arcamone et al.", "Since the amino sugar, ristosamine, provides an important part of 3',4'-epi-daunomycin, techniques for synthesizing ristosamine, and related compounds, are highly desirable as part of a technique for the total synthesis of 3',4'-epi-daunomycin.", "Techniques for synthesizing L-ristosamine and related compounds are known.", "See, e.g., Lee et al.", ", Confirmation by Synthesis of Ristosamine as 3-Amino-2,3,6-trideoxy-L-ribohexose, Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, Vol. 18, No. 7, p. 767 (1975);", "Sztaricskai et al.", ", The Synthesis of N-Benzoylristosamine, Tetrahedron Letters, No. 13, p. 1111 (1975).", "Moreover, techniques for synthesizing D-ristosamine, an enantiomer of L-ristosamine, are also known.", "See, e.g., Pelyvas et al.", ", A New Synthesis of D-ristosamine Derivatives, Carbohydrate Research, Vol. 53, p. c17 (1977);", "Baer et al.", ", A Synthesis of 3-Amino-2,3,6-trideoxy-D-ribo-hexose (D-ristosamine) hydrochloride, Carbohydrate Research, Vol. 55, p. 253 (1977).", "The techniques for synthesizing L-ristosamine disclosed by Lee et al.", ", supra, and Sztaricskai et al.", ", supra, both involve the potentially hazardous step of making an azide derivative with sodium azide.", "Moreover, in Sztaricskai et al.", "the reduction of the azide group to the amino group has a yield of only 36%.", "The present invention provides a practical technique for synthesizing N-benzoyl-L-ristosamine.", "In addition, the present invention provides novel intermediates, and methods for their preparation, useful in synthesizing N-benzoyl-L-ristosamine.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with the present invention, the known compounds, L-rhamnal or 6-deoxy-L-allal, are used as starting materials to produce alkyl L-ristosaminides.", "These latter compounds may be converted to the known compound N-benzoyl-L-ristosamine.", "The process of the present invention for synthesizing alkyl L-ristosaminides involves: a. oxidizing either L-rhamnal or 6-deoxy-L-allal;", "b. reacting the resultant 1,5-anydro-3-oxo-2,3,6-trideoxy-L-erythro-hex-1-enitol with a blocking agent to produce a compound having the formula ##STR2## wherein R is a blocking group;", "c. subjecting the resultant compound to alkyloxymercuration to produce a ketose having the formula ##STR3## wherein R 1 is C 1 -C 6 alkyl;", "d. subjecting the resultant ketose to oximation to produce an oxime having the formula ##STR4## e. demercurating the oxime to a compound having the formula ##STR5## f. reducing the resultant compound with simultaneous removal of the blocking group to produce alkyl L-ristosaminides.", "The L-rhamnal used in step (a) may be prepared by deacetylating 3,4-di-O-acetyl-L-rhamnal to produce L-rhamnal.", "While the compound produced by step (e) can be directly reduced with simultaneous removal of the blocking group, it is preferable to first react it with a blocking agent to produce a compound having the formula ##STR6## wherein R is a blocking group, and then reducing the resultant compound with simultaneous removal of the blocking groups to produce alkyl L-ristosaminides.", "The alkyl L-ristosaminides produced by the above-described process may be converted to N-benzoyl-L-ristosamine by benzoylating alkyl L-ristosaminides, and subjecting the resultant alkyl N-benzoyl-L-ristosaminides to acid hydrolysis.", "As an alternative, the alkyl L-ristosaminides may be hydrolyzed to L-ristosamine hydrochloride by the procedure described in Lee et al.", ", supra.", "The present invention also pertains to novel intermediates, and methods for their preparation, useful in synthesizing N-benozyl-L-ristosamine.", "Among such intermediates are those having the formula: ##STR7## wherein R 2 is ##STR8## The present invention additionally provides valuable intermediates, and methods for their preparation, useful in synthesizing N-benzoyl-L-ristosamine including those having the formula: ##STR9## wherein R is ##STR10## R 1 is C 1 -C 6 alkyl R 3 is ##STR11## R 4 is HgCl or H provided that when R 4 is HgCl, R 3 must be O═ or HON═;", "when R 4 is H, R 3 cannot be O═.", "DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In the synthesis technique of the present invention, the known compound, 3,4-di-O-acetyl-L-rhamnal may be used as a starting material.", "Its preparation is described in Iselin et al.", ", Krystallisierte 2-Deoxy-l-rhamnose (2-Desoxy-l-chinovose), Helvetica Chimica Acta, Vol. 27, p. 1146 (1944).", "The compound, 3,4-di-O-acetyl-L-rhamnal has the formula: ##STR12## Parenthetically, in the above structural formula, as well as in other structural formulas appearing herein, some of the hydrogen atoms are omitted for the sake of clarity, and "Ac"", "is used to represent the acetyl radical, i.e., ##STR13## Those skilled in the art will have no trouble withstanding these formulas.", "The compound of formula 1 is deacetylated to produce L-rhamnal having the formula: ##STR14## Deacetylation is preferably effected by dissolving the formula 1 compound in methanol, and adjusting the pH to 8 to 9 by the addition of sodium methoxide in methanol.", "The solution is neutralized and the solvent is removed under reduced pressure.", "The resulting clear syrup is co-evaporated with toluene several times, and the syrup crystallizes during these evaporations.", "Either the compound of formula 2 or 6-deoxy-L-allal, which is prepared by the procedure of F. Michael, Chem.", "Ber.", ", Vol. 63, p. 347 (1930) (describes preparation of corresponding D-isomer), and which has the formula: ##STR15## are oxidized to produce 1,5-anhydro-3-oxo-2,3,6-trideoxy-L-erythro-hex-1-enitol having the formula: ##STR16## Oxidation is preferably conducted by dissolving either the compound of formula 2 or 2'", "in benzene, and then adding silver carbonate on celite (Fetizon's reagent).", "The mixture is distilled to remove part of the solvent, and then refluxed.", "The mixture is then filtered through celite, and the filtrate is evaporated giving the crude crystalline compound of formula 3.", "This compound may be freed from any unreacted compound of formula 2 or 2'", "by recrystallization or by separating the mixture between chloroform and water.", "The Fetizon's reagent used in the above oxidation step is prepared by dissolving silver nitrate in distilled water, adding celite, and then adding a solution of potassium bicarbonate in distilled water.", "The well-stirred suspension is filtered to collect the reagent, which reagent is stored in a brown glass bottle at room temperature.", "As an alternative preferable oxidation step, either the compound of formula 2 or 2'", "can be reacted with a specially prepared suspension of manganese dioxide in tetrahydrofuran.", "The manganese dioxide used in this step is prepared by dissolving potassium permanganate in distilled water, heating, and adding simultaneously manganese sulfate monohydrate in water and a solution of sodium hydroxide.", "The suspension is stirred, filtered, and washed.", "The resultant chocolate-brown solid is then dried to produce a manganese dioxide satisfactory for use in the oxidation step.", "As a further alternative preferable oxidation step, either the compound of formula 2 or 2'", "can be reacted with chromium trioxide:pyridine complex in methylene chloride catalyzed by acetic anhydride.", "The compound of formula 3 is then reacted with a blocking agent to produce a compound having the formula: ##STR17## where R is a blocking group.", "Examples of suitable blocking groups which may be used throughout the present synthesis technique include acetyl ##STR18## and benzoyl ##STR19## groups.", "These groups may be introduced by reacting the compound of formula 3 with, respectively, such compounds as acetic anhydride or benzoyl chloride.", "The reaction is preferably conducted in a solvent which is a good acid receptor, such as pyridine, sodium hydroxide solution, or quinoline.", "The solvent is subsequently evaporated, and the residue co-evaporated several times with toluene.", "When the preferred reactant, acetic anhydride, is reacted with the compound of formula 3, 1,5-anydro-3-oxo-4-O-acetyl-2,3,6-trideoxy-L-erythro-hex-1-enitol is produced.", "The compound of formula 4 is next subjected to alkyloxymercuration to produce a ketose having the formula: ##STR20## wherein R is a blocking group as previously defined and R 1 is C 1 -C 6 alkyl.", "When R is the preferred acetyl group and R 1 is methyl, this compound would be methyl 2-chloromercuri-3-oxo-4-O-acetyl-2,3,6-trideoxy-L-(ribo arabino)-hexopyranoside.", "Methoxymercuration is preferably conducted by dissolving mercuric acetate and mercuric chloride in methanol, refluxing the mixture, and cooling to room temperature.", "The compound of formula 4, as a solution in methanol, is then added to the refluxed mixture.", "The mixture is stirred at room temperature, and then the solvent is evaporated under reduced pressure.", "The residue is coevaporated with toluene to remove the acetic acid formed in the reaction, and the remaining residue is dissolved in chloroform and filtered to remove any chloroform-insoluble matter.", "Evaporation of the filtrate yields the compound of formula 5 as a mixture of stereoisomers.", "The ketose of formula 5 is then subjected to oximation to produce an oxime having the formula: ##STR21## wherein R and R 1 are as previously described.", "When R is the preferred acetyl group and R 1 is methyl, this compound would be methyl 2-chloromercuri-3-oximino-4-O-acetyl-2,3,6-trideoxy-L-(ribo, arabino)-hexopyranoside.", "Oximation can be effected by reacting the ketose of formula 5 with hydroxylamine.", "The compound of formula 6 is next subjected to demercuration to produce a compound having the formula: ##STR22## wherein R and R 1 are as previously defined.", "When R is the preferred acetyl group and R 1 is methyl, the compound would be methyl 3-oximino-4-O-acetyl-2,3,6-trideoxy-L-erythrohexopyranoside.", "Preferably, demercuration is effected by dissolving the compound of formula 6 in methanol, and adding triethylamine followed by sodim borohydride.", "The suspension is filtered through celite to remove elemental mercury, and the filtrate then evaporated.", "The residue is slurried in hot diethyl ether and filtered to remove triethylammonium chloride.", "The filtrate is evaporated to produce the compound of formula 7 in the form of a syrup.", "While the oxime of formula 7 could be directly reduced with simultaneous removal of the blocking group to produce alkyl L-ristosaminides, it is preferable to first react it with a blocking agent to produce a compound having the formula: ##STR23## wherein R and R 1 are as previously defined.", "The blocking agent can be the same as those reacted with the compound of formula 3, namely, acetic anhydride or benzoyl chloride.", "As with the previously described reaction involving the formula 3 compound, the reaction involving the oxime of formula 7 is preferably conducted in a solvent which is a good acid receptor, such a pyridine, sodium hydroxide solution, or quinoline.", "The solvent is subsequently evaporated, and the residue co-evaporated several times with toluene.", "When the preferred reactant, acetic anhydride, is reacted with the preferred oxime of formula 7, and when R 1 is methyl, methyl 3-acetyloximino-4-O-acetyl-2,3,6-trideoxy-L-erythro-hexopyranoside is produced.", "The compound of formula 8 is next reduced with simultaneous removal of the blocking groups to produce alkyl L-ristosaminides having the formula: ##STR24## When R 1 is methyl, this compound is methyl L-ristosaminide.", "The reduction is preferably effected by dissolving the formula 8 compound in tetrahydrofuran, and then adding, as the reducing agent, lithium aluminum hydride, followed by refluxing.", "The solution is then cooled to room temperature, and excess hydride destroyed with water and 1 N sodium hydroxide.", "The insoluble material is filtered, and the filtrate evaporated to produce the compound of formula 9 in the form of a syrup.", "The compound of formula 9 may, if desired, be converted to N-benzoyl-L-ristosamine.", "This conversion is effected in two steps.", "First, the compound of formula 9 is converted to alkyl N-benzoyl-L-ristosaminide having the formula: ##STR25## In the above formula, as elsewhere herein, "Bz"", "is used to represent the benzoyl radical, i.e., ##STR26## The conversion can be effected by dissolving the compound of formula 9 in water, adding potassium bicarbonate, cooling the solution, and then adding a solution of benzoyl chloride in acetone.", "Subsequent to the reaction, the acetone is evaporated and the remaining aqueous suspension washed with chloroform.", "The combined chloroform extracts are dried, filtered, and evaporated to give the compound of formula 10 in the form of a syrup.", "The second step in the conversion of alkyl L-ristosaminides to N-benzoyl-L-ristosamine involves the acid hydrolysis of the compound of formula 10 to produce N-benzoyl-L-ristosamine having the formula: ##STR27## The acid hydrolysis is effected by dissolving the compound of formula 10 in a mixture of water and glacial acetic acid, refluxing, and evaporating the solvent.", "The residue is then co-evaporated several times with a toluene to give the crude compound of formula 11.", "Partial purification is effected by a hot water extraction of the crude product.", "The alkyl L-ristosaminides can be used in a process for producing 3',4'-epi-daunomycin.", "Specifically, methyl L-ristosaminide is reacted with trifluoroacetic anhydride, in the manner described by Sztaricskai et al.", ", A Synthesis of L-ristosamine and a Derivative of its C-4 Epimer, Carbohydrate Research, Vol. 65, p. 193 (1978), to produce methyl N,O-ditrifluoroacetyl-L-ristosaminide, the trifluoroacetyl group then being selectively removed from the 4-position.", "This product is then allowed to react with p-nitrobenzoyl chloride as described by Arcamone et al.", ", Synthesis of a Configurational Analog of Daunorubicin, supra.", "Acid hydrolysis followed by p-nitrobenzoylation of the resulting free sugar, and subsequent treatment with dry hydrogen chloride, gives 4-O-p-nitrobenzoyl-3-N-trifluoroacetyl-2,3,6-trideoxy-L-ribo-hexopyranosyl chloride.", "The latter may then be condensed with the aglycone, daunomycinone, to give, after removal of the blocking groups, 3',4'-epi-daunomycin.", "The following examples further illustrate preferred embodiments of the invention.", "The examples should in no way be considered limiting, but are merely illustrative of the various features of the present invention.", "EXAMPLE 1 10 grams of 3,4-di-O-acetyl-L-rhamnal is dissolved in 100 milliliters of methanol, and the pH is adjusted to 8 to 9 by the dropwise addition of a freshly prepared solution of sodium methoxide in methanol.", "The flask is sealed and allowed to stand at 0°-5° C. overnight after which time deacetylation is complete.", "The solution is neutralized by the careful dropwise addition of glacial acetic acid, and then the solvent is removed under reduced pressure.", "The resulting clear syrup is co-evaporated several times with toluene to remove any excess acetic acid, and the syrup crystallizes during these evaporations to give L-rhamnal.", "The yield of this compound is 6 grams.", "EXAMPLE 2 In a flask equipped for distillation, 1 grams of L-rhamnal [Example 1 product] is dissolved in 100 milliliters of benzene.", "To this solution was added 20-25 grams of silver carbonate on celite (Fetizon's reagent), prepared as described below.", "The mixture is distilled to remove 20-25 milliliters of the solvent, and then the dark brown suspension is refluxed for 1 to 2 hours.", "The mixture is then filtered through celite, and the solvent is evaporated.", "Crude 1,5-anydro-3-oxo-2,3,6-trideoxy-L-erythrohex-1-enitol crystallizes on the walls of the flask, and may be freed from a small amount of unreacted L-rhamnal by recrystallization or by separating the mixture between chloroform and water.", "The yield of the product is 0.9 grams.", "Preparation of Fetizon's Reagent In 200 milliliters of distilled water is dissolved 34 grams of silver nitrate, followed by 30 grams of celite.", "Then, cautiously and in several portions, is added a solution of 21 grams of potassium bicarbonate in 300 milliliters of distilled water.", "Ten minutes after the final addition of the bicarbonate solution, the well-stirred suspension is filtered to collect the reagent.", "The reagent is air-dried for 15-30 minutes and then transferred to a 1 liter flask and put on a rotary evaporator for several hours to remove most of the water.", "The yield of Fetizon's reagent was 58 grams.", "The reagent is stored in a brown glass bottle to protect it from light and left at room temperature.", "EXAMPLE 3 As an alternative to the procedure of Example 2, 1 gram of L-rhamnal may be oxidized by 15-20 grams of specially prepared manganese dioxide (described below) in tetrahydrofuran at room temperature.", "As with the procedure of Example 2, the product is 1,5-anhydro-3-oxo-2,3,6-trideoxy-L-erythro-hex-1-enitol.", "Preparation of Activated Manganese Dioxide 48 grams of potassium permanganate in 300 milliliters of distilled water was heated to 90° C. To this solution was added simultaneously 42 grams of manganese sulfate monohydrate in 75 milliliters of water and 60 milliliters of B 40% sodium hydroxide over a period of 15-20 minutes.", "The suspension was stirred at 85°-90° C. for 1 hour, filtered, and washed with water until the washings are clear.", "The chocolate-brown solid is dried overnight at 160° C. to yield 41 grams of manganese dioxide.", "EXAMPLE 4 As a second alternative to the procedure of Example 2, 4 grams of chromium trioxide is added to a solution of methylene chloride containing 1.61 milliliters of pyridine and the mixture is stirred at 25° C. for 15 minutes.", "To this solution is added 1.3 grams of L-rhamnal immediately followed by the addition of 0.95 milliliters of acetic anhydride, the reaction being monitored by t.l.c. The reaction is generally complete in 5-10 minutes.", "The reaction mixture is then poured onto a silica gel column which has an amount of ethyl acetate above it to precipitate the chromium compounds, and the product is eluted as one fraction.", "The resulting 1,5-anhydro-3-oxo-2,3,6-trideoxy-L-erythro-hex-1-enitol is purified by recrystallization.", "EXAMPLE 5 The procedure identical to that described in Examples 2, 3 or 4 may be followed, except that 6-deoxy-L-allal is substituted for L-rhamnal.", "The same product (1,5-anhydro-3-oxo-2,3,6-trideoxy-L-erythro-hex-1-enitol) is formed.", "EXAMPLE 6 0.9 grams of the compound produced in Examples 2-5 (1,5-anhydro-3-oxo-2,3,6-trideoxy-L-erythro-hex-1-enitol) is dissolved in 20 milliliters of acetic anhydride pyridine (1:1), and the mixture is shaken overnight.", "The solvent is then evaporated and the residue co-evaporated several times with toluene to remove the last traces of acetic anhydride, pyridine, and/or water.", "The yield of the product, 1,5-anhydro-3-oxo-4-O-acetyl-2,3,6-trideoxy-L-erythro-hex-1-enitol, is 1.1 grams.", "EXAMPLE 7 1.5 grams of mercuric acetate, freshly recrystallized from water, and 1.2 grams of mercuric chloride are dissolved/suspended in 200 milliliters of methanol, and the mixture is refluxed for 1 to 1.5 hours.", "The solution is cooled to room temperature, and 1.1 grams of the compound produced in Example 6 is added as a methanolic solution.", "This mixture is stirred for 1.5 to 2 hours at room temperature, and the solvent is then evaporated under reduced pressure.", "The residue is co-evaporated with toluene to remove the acetic acid formed in the reaction.", "Crude methyl 2-chloromercuri-3-oxo-4-O-acetyl-2,3,6-trideoxy-L-erythro-hexopyranoside forms a foam on evaporation.", "The residue is dissolved in chloroform and filtered to remove any chloroforminsoluble matter.", "Evaporation of the filtrate leads to, as a mixture of stereoisomers, methyl 2-chloromercuri-3-oxo-4-O-acetyl-2,3,6-trideoxy-L-(ribo, arabino)-hexopyranoside.", "The yield of this product is 3.1 grams.", "EXAMPLE 8 3.2 grams of hydroxylamine hydrochloride, freshly recrystallized from methanol, and 2.6 grams of potassium hydroxide are reacted in 200 milliliters of absolute ethanol.", "After 30 minutes the precipitated potassium chloride is filtered and the compound produced in Example 7 is added to the hydroxylamine solution as a solution in absolute ethanol.", "The flask is stoppered and the mixture is stirred overnight.", "The ethanol is then evaporated under reduced pressure and the powdery white solid is co-evaporated with toluene to remove excess solvent, water, etc.", "The yield of the product, methyl 2-chloromercuri-3-oximino-4-O-acetyl-2,3,6-trideoxy-L-(ribo, arabino)-hexopyranoside is 3.4 grams.", "EXAMPLE 9 The compound produced in Example 8 was suspended in methanol and cooled to 0° C. Quickly thereafter, 3.7 milliliters of triethylamine is added followed immediately by 150 milligrams of sodium borohydride, added in several portions.", "Immediate demercuration and hydrogen evolution were noted.", "The solution was stirred for 1.5 hours while slowly allowing it to come to room temperature.", "The suspension was filtered through celite to remove the mercury, and the filtrate was evaporated under reduced pressure.", "The residue was slurried in hot diethyl ether and filtered to remove the insoluble triethylammonium chloride.", "The filtrate was evaporated under reduced pressure to yield 1.2 grams of methyl 3-oximino-4-O-acetyl-2,3,6-trideoxy-L-erythro-hexopyranoside.", "EXAMPLE 10 1.2 grams of the compound produced in Example 9 is dissolved in 20 milliliters of acetic anhydride:pyridine (1:1) and stirred overnight at room temperature.", "The solvent was then evaporated and the residue was co-evaporated with toluene to remove the last traces of acetic anhydride and pyridine.", "The yield of the product, methyl 3-acetyloximino-4-O-acetyl-2,3,6-trideoxy-L-erythro-hexopyranoside, is essentially quantitative.", "This product will crystallize as long needles from a slowly evaporating chloroform solution.", "EXAMPLE 11 The compound produced in Example 10 is dissolved in 100 milliliters of tetrahydrofuran at 0° C., and the solution is de-gassed by bubbling dry nitrogen through it for 10-15 minutes.", "0.55 grams of lithium aluminum hydride is then carefully added in several portions.", "The reaction is allowed to proceed under nitrogen at 0° C. for 30 minutes and is then brought to a reflux under nitrogen.", "Reflux is maintained for 1.5 to 2 hours, after which the solution is cooled to room temperature and the excess hydride carefully destroyed with water and 1 N sodium hydroxide.", "The insoluble material is filtered and the filtrate is evaporated under reduced pressure to yield 0.85 grams of methyl L-ristosaminide as a syrup.", "EXAMPLE 12 0.85 grams of methyl L-ristosaminide [Example 11 compound] was dissolved in 30-40 milliliters of water, and to this solution was added 4 grams of potassium bicarbonate.", "The solution was cooled to 0° C. and to it was added a solution of 1.5 milliliters of benzoyl chloride in 20 milliliters of acetone.", "The reaction was allowed to proceed at 0° C. for 2 to 3 hours, and then reacted at room temperature for 16 to 18 hours.", "At the end of this time the acetone was evaporated from the mixture and the remaining aqueous suspension was washed with three separate 50 milliliter portions of chloroform.", "The combined chloroform extracts were dried over magnesium sulfate, filtered, and evaporated under reduced pressure to yield 0.95 grams of methyl N-benzoyl-L-ristosaminide as a syrup.", "EXAMPLE 13 0.95 grams of the compound produced in Example 12 was dissolved/suspended in a mixture of 30 milliliters of water and 6 milliliters of glacial acetic acid.", "The mixture was refluxed for 45 minutes and the solvent was then evaporated and the residue co-evaporated several times with toluene.", "Partial purification of this material was effected by a hot water extraction of the residue to yield N-benzoyl-L-ristosamine.", "Although some difficulty is encountered, this material can be obtained in crystalline form." ]

[ "FIELD [0001] The present invention relates to a leak current detection circuit, a body bias control circuit, semiconductor device, and a method for testing a semiconductor device.", "[0002] Semiconductor devices capable of increasingly high operation speeds have been developed in recent years through miniaturization and high integration.", "However, the variability of element characteristics caused by variation in processes during the manufacturing of such semiconductor devices cannot be ignored.", "Since the variations of element characteristics influence logical operations, there are demands to reduce this influence.", "BACKGROUND [0003] The MOS transistors configuring the semiconductor device are subject to variations during the manufacturing process.", "This leads to variations in leak currents and threshold voltages.", "Thus, there are variations in the operation speeds of the MOS transistors.", "For example, there may be large variations in operation speeds between a P-channel MOS transistor (PMOS transistor) and an N-channel MOS transistor (NMOS transistor) that configures an inverter circuit.", "As a result, a problem arises in that logical operations cannot be performed normally.", "That is, when, for example, the operation speed of the PMOS transistor is slow and the operation speed of the NMOS transistor is fast, the rising waveform of the output pulse from the inverter circuit becomes slack, and the falling waveform of the output pulse becomes acutely peaked.", "Thus, a problem arises in that the H level pulse width of the output pulse becomes narrower than the desired width.", "[0004] Methods have been proposed for detecting variations in the operation speeds of MOS transistors by controlling the body bias (substrate voltage) of each MOS transistor based on the leak current in each MOS transistor, which correlates to the operation speed (refer, for example, to patent documents 1 and 2).", "[0005] FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing the leak current detection circuit used in patent document 1.", "The leak current detection circuit for detecting the leak current in an NMOS transistor is described below.", "As shown in FIG. 8 , a ring oscillator 70 includes a leak unit 71 , a precharger 72 , an amplification circuit 73 , a delay circuit 74 , and an even number of inverters 75 .", "The leak unit 71 is configured by an NMOS transistor QN 10 .", "A low potential power VSS is normally applied to the gate of the transistor QN 10 to inactivate the transistor QN 10 .", "A leak current flows between the source and drain of the transistor QN 10 while the transistor QN 10 is inactivated.", "The precharger 72 is configured by a PMOS transistor QP 10 which is of a conduction type that differs from the NMOS transistor QN 10 .", "The amplification circuit 73 is coupled at a node X 10 between the transistors QN 10 and QP 10 , and a potential V 10 at the node X 10 is supplied to the amplification circuit 73 .", "The amplification circuit 73 provides an output signal, which corresponds to the comparison result of a standard voltage VR and the potential V 10 of the node X 10 , to the gate of the transistor QP 10 through the delay circuit 74 .", "[0006] When a low potential power VSS level signal is provided to the gate of the transistor QP 10 , the transistor QP 10 is activated and a load accumulates in a capacitor (line capacitor) at the node X 10 .", "Thus, the potential V 10 of the node X 10 supplied to the amplification circuit 73 gradually increases to a high potential power VDD (refer to charging time t 1 ), as shown in FIG. 9 .", "At this time, when the potential V 10 becomes a high voltage exceeding the standard voltage VR, an H level output signal is output from the amplification circuit 73 .", "The high potential power VDD level signal, which corresponds to this H level output signal, is supplied to the gate of the transistor QP 10 , thus inactivating the transistor QP 10 .", "Then, the load accumulated in the capacitor of the node X 10 is discharged via the leak current flowing between the source and the drain of the transistor QP 10 .", "In this way, the potential V 10 at the node X 10 is gradually decreased (refer to discharge time t 2 ), as shown in FIG. 9 .", "When the potential V 10 becomes less than the standard voltage VR, the output signal from the amplification circuit 73 shifts from an H level to an L level.", "Then, the low potential power VSS level signal corresponding to this L level output signal is provided to the gate of the transistor QP 10 , and the transistor QP 10 is activated.", "Thus, a load again accumulates in the capacitor of the node X 10 .", "In this way, the charging time t 1 and discharging time t 2 are repeated, as shown in FIG. 9 .", "[0007] The output signal of the amplification circuit 73 , which shifts so that the signal level alternates between an H level and an L level, is input to a leak current calculator 80 .", "At this time, the H level output signal provided to the leak current calculator 80 is converted to a frequency which corresponds to the leak current.", "The leak current calculator 80 counts the input frequency via a counter circuit and calculates the leak current.", "Then, the body bias of the NMOS transistors of the semiconductor device are controlled based on the leak current calculated in the leak current calculator 80 .", "[0008] However, the H level output signal (frequency) includes not only a component of the leak current of the transistor QP 10 (discharging time t 2 component of FIG. 9 ) but also a component of the transistor QP 10 relating to the charge of the node X 10 (charging time t 1 component in FIG. 9 ).", "When the leak current of the transistor QP 10 is sufficiently less than the ON current of the transistor QP 10 , the discharging time t 2 becomes sufficiently longer than the charging time t 1 , as shown in FIG. 9 .", "The effect of the charging time t 1 component is therefore small.", "However, when the leak current of the transistor QN 10 increases, the leak current discharging time t 2 decreases, as shown in FIG. 10 .", "The effect of the charging time t 1 component is therefore increased.", "In the leak current detection circuit of patent document 1, a problem therefore arises inasmuch as the leak current cannot be accurately measured through the influence of the transistor QP 10 , which is separate from the detection target NP 10 .", "[0009] In order to solve the problem of abnormal operation of the inverter circuits resulting from variations in element characteristics described above, it is necessary to control the body bias of each MOS transistor by comparing the leak current of the NMOS transistor with the leak current of the PMOS transistor.", "Accordingly, in order to compare the leak current of each MOS transistor in the configuration described in patent document 1, a comparator circuit must be provided to compare the count value of the counter circuit of both leak current detection circuits and the leak current detection circuit of the PMOS transistor in addition to the leak current detection circuit of the NMOS transistor shown in FIG. 8 .", "In patent document 1, therefore, problems arise in that increased circuit complexity and scale are unavoidable in order to compare the leak current of each MOS transistor.", "[0010] Patent Document 1: U.S. Pat. No. 6,885,210 [0011] Patent Document 2: U.S. Pat. No. 6,882,172 SUMMARY [0012] The present invention provides a leak current detection circuit, body bias control circuit, semiconductor device, and method for testing the semiconductor device capable of improving the accuracy of detecting a leak current in a MOS transistor, while suppressing an increase in the scale of the circuit.", "[0013] A first aspect of the present invention provides a leak current detection circuit.", "The leak current detection circuit includes at least one P-channel MOS transistor which is coupled to a high potential power supply and which is normally inactivated and generates a first leak current.", "At least one N-channel MOS transistor is coupled between a low potential power supply and the at least one P-channel MOS transistor and is normally inactivated and generates a second leak current.", "A detector detects a potential generated at a node between the at least one P-channel MOS transistor and the at least one N-channel MOS transistor in accordance with the first and second leak currents.", "[0014] A second aspect of the present invention provides a leak current detection circuit.", "The leak current detection circuit includes a plurality of P-channel MOS transistors having different element characteristics, coupled to a high potential power supply, and including a first transistor which has a first element characteristic and which is normally inactivated and generates a first leak current, and a second transistor which has a second element characteristic that differs from the first element characteristic and which is normally inactivated and generates a second leak current.", "A plurality of N-channel MOS transistors having different element characteristics are coupled between a low potential power supply and the plurality of P-channel MOS transistors and include a third transistor which has the first element characteristic and which is normally inactivated and generates a third leak current.", "A fourth transistor has the second element characteristic and is normally inactivated and generates a fourth leak current.", "A detector which detects a potential generated at the node between the plurality of P-channel MOS transistors and the plurality of N-channel MOS transistors in accordance with the first, second, third, and fourth leak currents.", "[0015] A third aspect of the present invention provides a body bias control circuit coupled to a leak current detection circuit.", "The leak current detection circuit includes a P-channel MOS transistor coupled to a high potential power supply, which is normally inactivated and generates a first leak current, an N-channel MOS transistor which is coupled between a low potential power supply and the P-channel MOS transistor and which is normally inactivated and generates a second leak current, and a detector which detects a potential in accordance with the first leak current and the second leak current at a node between the P-channel MOS transistor and the N-channel MOS transistor.", "The P-channel MOS transistor has a first backgate which receives a first body bias, and the N-channel MOS transistor has a second backgate which receives a second body bias.", "The body bias control circuit includes a control circuit which controls at least either one of the first body bias and the second body bias in accordance with the potential detected by the detector.", "[0016] A fourth aspect of the present invention provides a semiconductor device that includes an internal circuit including a plurality of first P-channel MOS transistors, each having a first backgate, and a plurality of second N-channel MOS transistors, each having a second backgate.", "A testing circuit is coupled to the internal circuit and supplies the first backgate and the second backgate with a first body bias and a second body bias, respectively.", "The testing circuit includes a leak current detection circuit including a third P-channel MOS transistor which is coupled to a high potential power supply and which is normally inactivated and generates a first leak current, a fourth N-channel MOS transistor which is coupled between a low potential power supply and the third P-channel MOS transistor and which is normally inactivated and generates a second leak current, and a detector which detects a potential that is in accordance with the first leak current and the second leak current at a node between the third P-channel MOS transistor and the fourth N-channel MOS transistor.", "A body bias control circuit controls at least either one of the first body bias and the second body bias in accordance with the potential detected by the detector.", "[0017] A fifth aspect of the present invention is a semiconductor device including an internal circuit including a plurality of first P-channel MOS transistors each having a first element characteristic and a first backgate, a plurality of second P-channel MOS transistors each having a second element characteristic and a second backgate, a plurality of third N-channel MOS transistors each having the first element characteristic and a third backgate, and a plurality of fourth N-channel MOS transistors each having the second element characteristic and a fourth backgate.", "A testing circuit is coupled to the internal circuit and supplies a first body bias to the first and second backgates and supplies a second body bias to the third and fourth backgates.", "The testing circuit includes a leak current detection circuit including an n number of fifth P-channel MOS transistors having the first element characteristic which are coupled to a high potential power supply, normally inactivated, and generate a first leak current;", "an n number of sixth P-channel MOS transistors having the second element characteristic which are coupled to the high potential power supply, normally inactivated, and generate a second leak current;", "an n number of seventh N-channel MOS transistors having the first element characteristic which are coupled between a low potential power supply and the fifth and sixth P-channel MOS transistors, normally inactivated, and generate a third leak current;", "an n number of eighth N-channel MOS transistors having the second element characteristic which are coupled between the low potential power supply and the fifth and sixth P-channel MOS transistors, normally inactivated, and generating a fourth leak current;", "and a detector which detects the potential corresponding to the first through fourth leak currents at a node between the fifth and sixth P-channel MOS transistors and the seventh and eighth N-channel MOS transistors.", "A body bias control circuit controls at least either one of the first body bias and the second body bias in accordance with the potential detected by the detector.", "[0018] A sixth aspect of the present invention is a method for testing a semiconductor device.", "The semiconductor device is provided with an internal circuit including a plurality of first P-channel MOS transistors each having a first backgate and a plurality of second N-channel MOS transistors each having a second backgate.", "A testing circuit tests operation of the internal circuit by supplying the first backgate and the second backgate respectively with a first body bias and a second body bias.", "The testing circuit includes a third P-channel MOS transistor which is coupled to a high potential power supply and which is normally inactivated and generates a first leak current and a fourth N-channel MOS transistor which is coupled between a low potential power supply and the third P-channel MOS transistor and which is normally inactivated and generates a second leak current.", "The method includes detecting a potential that is in accordance with the first and second leak currents at a node between the third P-channel MOS transistor and the fourth N-channel MOS transistor, and changing at least either one of the first body bias and the second body bias in accordance with the detected potential.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS [0019] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall structure of a semiconductor device in a first embodiment of the present invention;", "[0020] FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram showing the internal structure of the detection circuit of FIG. 1 ;", "[0021] FIGS. 3A and 3B are graphs showing the operational error range of each MOS transistor;", "[0022] FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the test operation of the testing circuit of FIG. 1 ;", "[0023] FIG. 5 is a table showing the operation of a control circuit in a second embodiment of the present invention;", "[0024] FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the testing operation of the testing circuit of the second embodiment of the present invention;", "[0025] FIG. 7 is a circuit diagram showing the internal structure of the testing circuit in a third embodiment of the present invention;", "[0026] FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing the overall structure of a conventional leak current detection circuit;", "[0027] FIG. 9 is a graph showing the charging time and discharging time of the conventional leak current detection circuit;", "and [0028] FIG. 10 is a graph showing the charging time and discharging time of the conventional leak current detection circuit.", "DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS [0029] A semiconductor device 1 according to a first embodiment of the present invention will now be discussed with reference to FIGS. 1 through 4 .", "FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall structure of the semiconductor device 1 , and FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram showing the internal structure of a detection circuit 10 .", "[0030] As shown in FIG. 1 , the semiconductor device 1 is configured by an internal circuit 2 which includes a circuit for realizing a desired operation during normal operation of the semiconductor device, and a testing circuit 3 which operates during testing.", "The internal circuit 2 and the testing circuit 3 are formed on the same substrate.", "The testing circuit 3 is configured by a detection circuit 10 , comparator 20 , control circuit 30 , PMOS body bias generation circuit 40 , and NMOS body bias generation circuit 50 .", "The detection circuit 10 and the comparator 20 configure the leak current detection circuit.", "[0031] The detection circuit 10 includes a PMOS leak unit 10 P and NMOS leak unit 10 N, which are coupled in series.", "A node X between the PMOS leak unit 10 P and the NMOS leak unit 10 N is coupled to a non-inversion input terminal of the comparator 20 .", "[0032] As shown in FIG. 2 , the PMOS leak unit 10 P is configured by a single PMOS transistor QP, and the NMOS leak unit 10 N is configured by a single NMOS transistor QN.", "The transistor QP and the transistor QN are coupled in series between a high potential power VDD and a low potential power VSS.", "That is, the source of the transistor QP is coupled to the high potential power VDD, and the drain is coupled to the drain of the transistor QN.", "The source of the transistor QN is coupled to the low potential power VSS.", "The node between the transistors QP and QN correspond to the node X. Each of the transistors QP and QN are manufactured so as to have a desired operation speed RS 1 .", "The operation speed RS 1 is set the same as the desired operation speed of the MOS transistors provided within the internal circuit 2 .", "[0033] During a test operation, the high potential power VDD is normally supplied to the gate of the transistor QP.", "This normally inactivates the transistor QP, and a leak current Irp flows between the source and the drain of the transistor QP.", "A body bias (substrate voltage) VNW at the PMOS side is also supplied to the backgate of the transistor QP.", "The body bias VNW is normally set to the high potential power VDD as a first body bias.", "[0034] The low potential power VSS is normally supplied during the testing operation to the gate of the transistor QN.", "In this way, the transistor QN is normally inactivated and a leak current Irn flows between the source and the drain of the transistor QN.", "A body bias (substrate voltage) VPW at the NMOS transistor side is also supplied to the backgate of the transistor QN.", "The body bias VPW is normally set to the low potential power VSS as a second body bias.", "[0035] The potential Vx at the node X between the transistors QP and QN, that is, the potential Vx caused by the difference between the leak current Irn at the transistor QN side and the leak current Irp at the transistor QP side, is supplied to the non-inversion input terminal of the comparator 20 .", "A reference voltage Vref is supplied to the inversion input terminal of the comparator 20 .", "The reference voltage Vref is a voltage obtained from a previously conducted simulation and the actual device.", "Further, the reference voltage Vref is a voltage set so that the operation speeds of the PMOS transistor and NMOS transistor are within the guaranteed operational range.", "The comparator 20 compares the potential Vx of the node X with the reference voltage Vref, and generates an output signal OUT which corresponds to the comparison result.", "[0036] The setting of the reference voltage Vref is described below.", "[0037] The guaranteed operational range set during the design stage of the PMOS transistor and NMOS transistor is described first with reference to FIG. 3 .", "[0038] FIG. 3A shows an example of a graph of the distribution of the operation speed of the actually manufactured PMOS transistor when a plurality of PMOS transistors are manufactured so as to have the same characteristics (for example, operation speed RS 1 ).", "As shown in FIG. 3A , the distribution of the operation speed of the manufactured PMOS transistors is expressed by a standard distribution which includes a desired operation speed RS 1 near a center value μ1.", "[0039] Similarly, FIG. 3B shows an example of a graph of the distribution of the operation speeds of actually manufactured NMOS transistors when the NMOS transistors are manufactured so as to have the same characteristics (for example, operation speed RS 1 ).", "As shown in FIG. 3B , the distribution of the operation speeds of the manufactured NMOS transistors is expressed by a standard distribution which includes a desired operation speed RS 1 near a center value μ2.", "[0040] Assuming the desired operation speed RS 1 as being a center and that a transistor has been fabricated with an operation speed slower than the operation speed RS 1 and a transistor has been fabricated with an operation speed faster than the operation speed RS 1 , the ranges between variance −1σ˜+σ and variance −3σ˜+3σ are normally set as the guaranteed operational ranges.", "In the present embodiment, the guaranteed operational range designed for the PMOS transistors and NMOS transistors is set in the range between variance −1σ to +1σ.", "Therefore, proper logical operation is guaranteed for both the NMOS transistors, which have a variance of −1σ to +1σ, and the PMOS transistors, which have a variance of −1σ to +1σ.", "In other words, if the operation speeds of both of the PMOS transistor and NMOS transistor are set at operation speeds within the range of a variance of −1σ to +1σ, an inverter circuit, for example, which is configured by these transistors, will properly perform logical operations.", "[0041] In the present embodiment, the lower limit voltage value VL and the upper limit voltage value VH, which are set so that the operation speeds of both MOS transistors are within a range of variance −1σ to +1σ, are selectively supplied to the comparator 20 as the reference voltage Vref.", "The setting of the lower limit voltage value VL and upper limit voltage value VH is described below.", "The center value 12 of the operation speed distribution of the NMOS transistor is set faster than the center value μ1 of the operation speed distribution of the PMOS transistor, as shown in FIG. 3 .", "[0042] The lower limit voltage VL is set by performing a simulation in which the PMOS leak unit 10 P is configured by a PMOS transistor with variance −1σ, and the NMOS leak unit 10 N is configured by an NMOS transistor with variance +1σ.", "That is, the potential Vx at the node X, which is produced by the difference between the leak current Irn of the NMOS transistor, which has a variance of +1σ, and the leak current Irp of the PMOS transistor, which has a variance of −1σ, is measured and the potential Vx is set as the lower limit voltage VL.", "The lower limit voltage VL is thus set at the potential Vx of the node X produced when the difference in the operation speeds of the PMOS transistor and NMOS transistor is maximum and within the guaranteed operational range, that is, when the NMOS transistor has a higher speed than the PMOS transistor.", "[0043] The upper limit voltage VH is set by performing a simulation in which the PMOS leak unit 10 P is configured by a PMOS transistor, which has a variance of +1σ, and the NMOS leak unit 10 N, which is configured by an NMOS transistor having a variance of −1σ.", "That is, the potential Vx of the node X, which is produced by the difference between the leak current Irn of the NMOS transistor, which has a variance of −1σ, and the leak current Irp of the PMOS transistor, which has a variance of +1σ, is measured and the potential Vx is set as the upper limit voltage VH.", "The upper limit voltage VH is thus set at the potential Vx at the node X produced when the difference in the operation speeds of the PMOS transistor and NMOS transistor is maximum and within the guaranteed operational range, that is, when the PMOS transistor has a higher speed than the NMOS transistor.", "Therefore, when the PMOS and NMOS leak units 10 P and 10 N are configured by transistors QP and QN, as shown in FIG. 2 , the operation speeds of both the transistors QP and QN can be set within the guaranteed operational range by setting the potential Vx at the node X to be lower than the upper limit voltage value VH and higher than the lower limit voltage value VL (VL<Vx<VH).", "[0044] The upper limit voltage value VH and lower limit voltage value VL set in the manner described above are selectively supplied as the reference voltage Vref to the inversion input terminal of the comparator 20 .", "Then, the comparator 20 supplies the output signal OUT, which corresponds to the comparison result of the potential Vx and the reference voltage Vref, to the control circuit 30 .", "The switching of the upper limit voltage value VH and lower limit voltage value VL is controlled by the control circuit 30 .", "[0045] As shown in FIG. 1 , the control circuit 30 generates control signals CP and CN based on the set reference voltage Vref and the input output signal OUT.", "Specifically, the control circuit 30 generates control signals CPL and CNL based on the output signal OUT, which indicate that the potential Vx is a low voltage that is lower than the lower limit voltage value VL (Vx<VL).", "The control circuit 30 also generates a control signal CPH configuring a first control signal and a control signal CNH configuring a second control signal based on the output signal OUT, which indicates that the potential Vx is a high voltage and greater than the upper limit voltage value VH (VH<Vx).", "Then, the control circuit 30 provides the generated control signal CP to the PMOS body bias generation circuit 40 and provides the generated control signal CN to the NMOS body bias generation circuit 50 .", "[0046] The PMOS body bias generation circuit 40 generates a body bias VNW of the high potential power VDD used by the PMOS transistor when the control signal CP is not received from the control circuit 30 .", "Specifically, the PMOS body bias generation circuit 40 reduces the body bias VNW by a predetermined partial voltage when the control signal CPL is received.", "The PMOS body bias generation circuit 40 also increases the body bias VNW by a predetermined partial voltage when the control signal CPH is received.", "The voltage value of the body bias VNW may also be higher than the high potential power VDD.", "Then, the PMOS body bias generation circuit 40 supplies the body bias VNW to the backgate of the transistor QP, which configures the PMOS leak unit 10 P, and supplies the body bias VNW to the backgate of each PMOS transistor (not shown) in the internal circuit 2 .", "[0047] The NMOS body bias generation circuit 50 generates a body bias VPW at the NMOS transistor side if the voltage value is the low potential power VSS when the control signal CN is not received from the control circuit 30 .", "The NMOS body bias generation circuit 50 reduces the body bias VPW by a predetermined partial voltage based on the input control signal CN.", "Specifically, the NMOS body bias generation circuit 50 reduces the body bias VPW by a predetermined voltage difference when the control signal CNL is received.", "The NMOS body bias generation circuit 50 also increases the body bias VPW by a predetermined voltage difference when the control signal CNH is received.", "The voltage value of the body bias VPW may also be lower than the low potential power VSS (for example, a negative voltage).", "Then, the NMOS body bias generation circuit 50 supplies the body bias VPNW to the backgate of the transistor QN configuring the NMOS leak unit 10 N and supplies the body bias VPW to the backgate of each NMOS transistor (not shown) in the internal circuit 2 .", "[0048] The body bias control circuit is configured by the comparator 20 , control circuit 30 , PMOS body bias generation circuit 40 , and NMOS body bias generation circuit 50 as a comparator circuit.", "[0049] The testing operation in the testing circuit 3 of the semiconductor device 1 configured as described above will now be discussed based on the flowchart shown in FIG. 4 .", "Described below is a testing operation for generating the body biases VNW and VPW of predetermined voltage values for reducing the variation of characteristics of the transistors within the semiconductor device 1 .", "[0050] The control circuit 30 first sets the reference voltage Vref, which is supplied to the inversion input terminal of the comparator 20 , as the lower limit voltage value VL (step S 1 ).", "In the comparator 20 , the potential Vx of the node X input to the non-inversion terminal is compared to the lower limit voltage value VL.", "An output signal OUT corresponding to the comparison result is then provided from the comparator 20 to the control circuit 30 .", "The control circuit 30 then determines the signal level of the output signal OUT (step S 2 ).", "When the output signal OUT has an L level at this time, that is, when the potential Vx is a low voltage that is less than the lower limit voltage value VL (Vx<VL), the control circuit 30 generates the control signals CPL and CNL (step S 3 ).", "[0051] Specifically, when the leak current Irn in the transistor QN exceeds the leak current Irp in the transistor QP, the potential Vx of the node X approaches the low potential power VSS.", "Therefore, when the potential Vx of the node X is a low voltage and less than the lower limit voltage value VL, the leak current Irn in the transistor QN becomes greater than the leak current Irp in the transistor QP.", "That is, the operation speed of the transistor QN is faster than the operation speed of the transistor QP when the potential Vx of the node X is lower than the lower limit voltage value VL.", "Therefore, in step S 3 , the control circuit 30 generates the control signal CPL for lowering the body bias VNW, and generates the control signal CNL for lowering the body bias VPW.", "[0052] The control circuit 30 then provides the control signals CPL and CNL to the body bias generation circuits 40 and 50 .", "The PMOS body bias generation circuit 40 reduces the body bias VNW by a predetermined voltage difference based on the control signal CPL.", "The NMOS body bias generation circuit 50 also reduces the body bias VPW by a predetermined voltage difference based on the control signal CNL.", "The changed body bias VNW is then supplied to the transistor QP and the changed body bias VPN is supplied to the transistor QN.", "In this state, the routine returns to step S 1 .", "When the body bias VNW decreases, the operation speed increases in the transistor QP, and the leak current Irp increases in the transistor QP.", "When the body bias VPW decreases, the operation speed decreases in the transistor QN, and the leak current Irn decreases in the transistor QN.", "[0053] When the output signal OUT has an H level in step S 2 , the control circuit 30 switches the reference voltage Vref to the upper limit voltage value VH (step S 4 ).", "Then, the output signal OUT, which corresponds to the comparison result of the potential Vx of the node X and the upper limit voltage value VH, is supplied from the comparator 20 to the control circuit 30 .", "The control circuit 30 then determines the signal level of the output signal OUT (step S 5 ).", "When the output signal OUT has an H level in this state, that is, when the potential Vx is higher than the upper limit voltage value VH (VH<Vx), the control circuit 30 generates the control signals CPH and CNH (step S 6 ).", "[0054] When the leak current Irp in the transistor QP exceeds the leak current Irn in the transistor QN, the potential Vx at the node X approaches the high potential power VDD.", "Therefore, when the potential Vx of the node X is greater than the upper limit voltage value VH, the leak current Irp in the transistor QP is greater than the leak current Irn in the transistor QN.", "That is, when the potential Vx of the node X is a voltage that is greater than the upper limit voltage value VH, the operation speed of the transistor QP is faster than the operation speed of the transistor QN.", "Accordingly, in step S 6 , the control circuit 30 generates the control signal CPH, which increases the body bias VNW, and generates the control signal CNH, which increases the body bias VPW.", "[0055] The control circuit 30 then provides the control signals CPH and CNH to the body bias generation circuits 40 and 50 .", "The PMOS body bias generation circuit 40 increases the body bias VNW by a predetermined voltage difference based on the control signal CPH.", "The NMOS body bias generation circuit 50 also increases the body bias VPW by a predetermined voltage difference based on the control signal CNH.", "Then, the changed body bias VNW is supplied to the transistor QP and the changed body bias VPW is supplied to the transistor QN.", "In this state, the routine returns to step S 1 .", "When the body bias VNW increases, the operation speed decreases in the transistor QP, and the leak current Irp decreases in the transistor QP.", "When the body bias VPW increases, the operation speed of the transistor QN increases, and the leak current increases in the transistor QN.", "[0056] When the output signal OUT has an L level in step S 5 , the control circuit 30 ends the testing operation since the potential Vx is a voltage that is greater than the lower limit voltage value VL and lower than the upper limit voltage value VH (VL<Vx<VH).", "That is, the control circuit 30 ends the testing operation when the operation speeds of both of the transistors QP and QN configuring the leak units 10 P and 10 N are set within the guaranteed operational range.", "Then, the PMOS body bias generation circuit 40 supplies the body bias VNW to the backgate of the PMOS transistors in the internal circuit 2 when the operation speeds of both transistors QP and QN have been set within the guaranteed operational range (at the completion of the testing time).", "The NMOS body bias generation circuit 50 also supplies the body bias VPW from the completion of the testing operation to the backgate of the NMOS transistors within the internal circuit 2 during normal operation.", "In this way, the operation speeds of the various transistors in the internal circuit 2 are set within the guaranteed operational range during normal operation.", "[0057] The semiconductor device 1 of the first embodiment has the advantages described below.", "[0058] (1) The normally inactivated PMOS transistor QP and the normally inactivated NMOS transistor QN are coupled in series between the high potential power VDD and the low potential power VSS.", "The potential Vx is detected at node X between the two transistors QP and QN.", "In this state, the potential Vx at the node X is a potential corresponding to the comparison result of the leak current Irp in the transistor QP and the leak current Irn in the transistor QN, that is, a potential produced by the difference between the leak current Irp and the leak current Irn.", "Therefore, the leak currents Irp and Irn can be compared by an extremely simple structure in which the PMOS transistor QP and the NMOS transistor QN are coupled in series.", "This allows for avoiding an increase in the scale of the circuit for comparing the leak current Irp of the transistor QP and the leak current Irn of the transistor QN.", "[0059] Furthermore, the detection circuit 10 is configured by the PMOS transistor QP, which is a detection subject, and the NMOS transistor QN, which is a detection subject.", "This allows for components of transistors other than the detection subjects from being included in the potential Vx.", "Thus, the accuracy of the comparison of the leak current Irp of the transistor QP and the leak current Irn of the transistor QN, that is, the detection accuracy of the potential Vx, is improved.", "[0060] (2) The voltage values of the body biases VNW and VPW are respectively controlled based on the potential Vx, which corresponds to the comparison result of the leak current Irp of the transistor QP and the leak current Irn of the transistor QN.", "In this way, the operation speeds of the PMOS transistors and NMOS transistors may be individually controlled.", "[0061] (3) The voltage values of the body biases VNW and VPW are respectively controlled in accordance with the comparison result of the potential Vx and reference voltage Vref.", "In this way, the body biases VNW and VPW may be controlled in accordance with the reference voltage Vref that is set by the result of previous simulation.", "Therefore, variations in the element characteristics (operation speed) of each NMOS transistor in the internal circuit 2 may be reduced in a preferable manner.", "[0062] (4) The lower limit voltage value VL and upper limit voltage value VH, which represent the voltage range for setting the operation speeds of the transistors QP and QN so as to be within the guaranteed operational range, are supplied to the comparator 20 as the reference voltage Vref.", "The operation speeds of both transistors QP and QN can be set within the guaranteed operational range by setting the potential Vx of the node X so as to be higher than the lower limit voltage value VL and lower than the upper limit voltage value VH.", "Therefore, the logical operations may be normally performed by each MOS transistor within the internal circuit 2 .", "[0063] (5) The leak units 10 P and 10 N are configured by the transistors QP and QN, which are manufactured so that the MOS transistors actually used in the internal circuit 2 have the desired operation speeds RS 1 and RS 2 .", "In this way, the voltage values of the body biases VNW and VPW may be controlled based on the leak currents in the transistors QP and QN, which have the same element characteristics as the MOS transistors actually used in the internal circuit 2 .", "Therefore, the variation of element characteristics (operation speed) of the MOS transistors in the internal circuit 2 may be reduced in a preferable manner.", "[0064] (6) The potential Vx at the node X is detected when the changed voltage body biases VNW and VPW have been respectively supplied to the backgates of the transistors QP and QN.", "This allows for further testing to be performed with the corrected element characteristics of the transistors QP and QN.", "Accordingly, variations in the element characteristics of the transistors QP and QN may be reduced with further accuracy.", "[0065] A second embodiment of a semiconductor device 1 according to the present invention with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6 .", "The semiconductor device 1 of the second embodiment differs from the first embodiment in that the voltage value set as the reference voltage Vref is supplied to the comparator 20 .", "The control circuit 30 of the second embodiment generates a control signal to finely control the setting of the body bias.", "Components that are the same as those of FIGS. 1 through 4 are given the same reference numbers and will not be described in detail.", "[0066] The lower limit voltage value VL, upper limit voltage value VH, first voltage value V 1 , and second voltage value V 2 are selectively supplied as the reference voltage Vref to the inversion input terminal of the comparator 20 .", "The relationship among the magnitudes of these voltage values are expressed by the equation shown below.", "[0000] V1<VL<VH<V2 [0067] In the present embodiment, the operation speeds of the transistors QP and QN are set within the guaranteed operational range when the potential Vx of the node X is a voltage that is higher than the lower limit voltage value VL and less than the upper limit voltage value VH (VL<Vx<VH).", "The switching of each voltage value is controlled by the control circuit 30 .", "[0068] The control circuit 30 generates the control signals CP 1 through CP 4 and the control signals CN 1 through CN 4 based on the voltage value of the reference voltage Vref and the signal level of the output signal OUT from the comparator 20 .", "[0069] Specifically, the control circuit 30 generates the control signals CP 1 and CN 1 (third control signal) when condition C 1 (Vx<V 1 ) is met, as shown in FIG. 5 .", "The control signal CP 1 and the control signal CN 1 respectively reduce the body bias VNW and the body bias VPW by a correction voltage VC 1 (first and second correction voltages).", "The control circuit 30 also generates the control signals CP 2 and CN 2 (fourth control signal) when condition C 2 (V 1 <Vx<VL) is met.", "The control signal CP 2 and control signal CN 2 respectively reduce the body biases VNW and VPW by a correction voltage VC 2 (first and second correction voltages).", "The correction voltage VC 2 is set to be lower than the correction voltage VC 1 beforehand through a simulation or the like.", "More specifically, a simulation is performed to check how much the body biases VNW and VPW have to be reduced to change the relationship of V 1 <Vx<VL to the relationship of VL<Vx<VH, and the voltage value of the correction voltage VC 2 is set based on this simulation result.", "The control circuit 30 also ends the testing operation when condition C 3 (VL<Vx<VH) is met.", "[0070] The control circuit 30 also generates the control signals CP 3 and CN 3 (fifth control signal) when condition C 4 (VH<Vx<V 2 ) is met.", "The control signals CP 3 and CN 3 respectively increase the body biases VNW and VPW by a correction voltage VC 3 (third and fourth correction voltages).", "The correction voltage VC 3 is set beforehand by a simulation and set at a voltage that is lower than the correction voltage VC 4 , which will be described later.", "That is, a simulation is performed beforehand to change the relationship VH<Vx<V 2 to the relationship VL<Vx<VH, and the voltage value of the correction voltage VC 4 is set based on this simulation result.", "The control circuit 30 generates the control signals CP 4 and CN 4 (sixth control signal) when condition C 5 (V 2 <Vx) is met.", "The control signals CP 4 and CN 4 respectively increase the body biases VNW and VNP by the correction voltage VC 4 (third and fourth correction voltages).", "[0071] The testing operation of the testing circuit 3 of the semiconductor device 1 configured in this manner will now be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 6 .", "[0072] The control circuit 30 first sets the reference voltage Vref, which is supplied to the to the inversion input terminal of the comparator 20 , to a first voltage value V 1 (step S 11 ).", "Then, the output signal OUT corresponding to the comparison result of the potential Vx and the first voltage value V 1 is provided from the comparator 20 to the control circuit 30 .", "Then, the control circuit 30 determines the signal level of the output signal OUT (step S 12 ).", "When the output signal OUT has an L level, that is, when the potential Vx is a voltage lower than the first voltage value V 1 (condition C 1 ), the control circuit 30 generates the control signals CP 1 and CN 1 and provides the control signals CP 1 and CN 1 to the body bias generation circuits 40 and 50 , respectively (step S 13 ).", "[0073] The PMOS body bias generation circuit 40 reduces the body bias VNW by the correction voltage VC 1 based on the control signal CP 1 .", "The NMOS body bias generation circuit 50 reduces the body bias VPW by the correction voltage VC 1 based on the control signal CN 1 .", "The changed body bias VNW is then supplied to the transistor QP and the changed body bias VPW is supplied to the transistor QN.", "Then, the routine returns to step S 1 .", "[0074] When the output signal OUT has an H level in step S 12 , the control circuit 30 switches the reference voltage Vref to the lower limit voltage value VL (step S 14 ).", "Then, the output signal OUT corresponding to the comparison result of the potential Vx and the lower limit voltage value VL is provided from the comparator 20 to the control circuit 30 .", "The control circuit 30 then determines the signal level of the output signal OUT (step S 15 ).", "When the output signal OUT has an L level at in this state, that is, when the potential Vx is such that V 1 <Vx<VL is satisfied (condition C 2 ), the control circuit 30 generates the control signals CP 2 and CN 2 and provides the control signals CP 2 and CN 2 to the body bias generation circuits 40 and 50 , respectively (step S 16 ).", "[0075] The PMOS body bias generation circuit 40 reduces the body bias VNW by the correction voltage VC 2 based on the control signal CP 2 .", "The NMOS body bias generation circuit 50 reduces the body bias VPW by the correction voltage VC 2 based on the control signal CN 2 .", "When the changed body biases VNW and VPW are respectively supplied to the transistors QP and QN, the potential Vx is changed to the relationship of VL<Vx<VH (condition C 3 ).", "Therefore, the control circuit 30 ends the testing operation.", "[0076] When the output signal OUT has an H level in step S 15 , the control circuit 30 switches the reference voltage Vref to the upper limit voltage value VH (step S 17 ).", "Then, the output signal OUT corresponding to the comparison result of the potential Vx and the upper limit voltage value VH is provided from the comparator 20 to the control circuit 30 .", "The control circuit 30 then determines the signal level of the output signal OUT (step S 18 ).", "When the output signal OUT has an L level in this state, that is, when the potential Vx is such that VL<Vx<VH is satisfied (condition C 3 ), the control circuit 30 ends the testing operation.", "[0077] When the output signal OUT has an H level in step S 18 , the control circuit 30 switches the reference voltage Vref to the second voltage value V 2 (step S 19 ).", "The output signal OUT corresponding to the comparison result of the potential Vx and the second voltage value V 2 is provided from the comparator 20 to the control circuit 30 .", "The control circuit 30 then determines the signal level of the output signal OUT (step S 20 ).", "When the output signal OUT has an H level in this state, that is, when the potential Vx is such that V 2 <Vx is satisfied (condition C 5 ), the control circuit 30 generates the control signals CP 4 and CN 4 and provides the control signals CP 4 and CN 4 to the body bias generation circuits 40 and 50 , respectively (step S 22 ).", "[0078] The PMOS body bias generation circuit 40 increases the body bias VNW by the correction voltage VC 4 based on the control signal CP 4 .", "The NMOS body bias generation circuit 50 increases the body bias VPW by the correction voltage VC 4 based on the control signal CN 4 .", "The changed body bias VNW is supplied to the transistor QP, and the changed body bias VPW is supplied to the transistor QN.", "Then, the routine returns to step S 11 .", "[0079] When the output signal OUT has an L level in step S 20 , that is, when the potential Vx is such that VH<Vx<V 2 is satisfied (condition C 4 ), the control circuit 30 generates the control signals CP 3 and CN 3 and provides the control signals CP 3 and CN 3 to the body bias generation circuits 40 and 50 , respectively (step S 22 ).", "[0080] The PMOS body bias generation circuit 40 reduces the body bias VNW by the correction voltage VC 3 based on the control signal CP 3 .", "The NMOS body bias generation circuit 50 reduces the body bias VPW by the correction voltage VC 3 based on the control signal CN 3 .", "When the body biases VNW and VPW, which are set in this manner, are respectively supplied to the backgates of the transistors QP and QN, the control circuit 30 ends the testing operation since the potential Vx at the node X is changed to the relationship of VL<Vx<VH.", "[0081] When the testing operation shown in FIG. 6 ends, the PMOS body bias generation circuit 40 supplies the backgate of the PMOS transistors in the internal circuit 2 during normal operation with the body bias VNW that is determined when the potential Vx is set such that VL<Vx<VH is satisfied.", "The NMOS body bias generation circuit 50 also supplies the backgates of the NMOS transistors in the internal circuit 2 during normal operation with the body bias VPW determined when the potential Vx is set such that VL<Vx<VH is satisfied.", "[0082] The semiconductor device 1 of the second embodiment has the advantages described below.", "[0083] (1) In addition to the lower limit voltage value VL and upper limit voltage value VH supplied as the reference voltage Vref, the first voltage value V 1 which is lower than the lower limit voltage value VL, and a second voltage value V 2 , which is higher than the upper limit voltage value VH, are also supplied to the comparator 20 .", "The variation of the element characteristics of the transistors QP and QN are accurately reduced by the correction voltages VC 1 through VC 4 , which are preset in accordance with the relationship of the magnitudes of the potential Vx and the first voltage value V 1 and second voltage value V 2 .", "[0084] Further, the potential Vx may be changed to obtain the relationship of VL<Vx<VH by once changing the voltage values of the body biases VNW and VPW when the potential Vx is such that V 1 <Vx<VL (condition C 2 ) or VH<Vx<V 2 (condition C 4 ) is satisfied.", "This allows for reduction in the time required for the testing operation.", "[0085] A third embodiment of a semiconductor device 1 according to the present invention will now be described with reference to FIG. 7 .", "The semiconductor device 1 of the third embodiment differs from the first and second embodiments in the structures of the PMOS leak unit 10 P and the NMOS leak unit 10 N. Components that are the same as those of FIGS. 1 through 4 are given the same reference numbers and will not be described in detail.", "[0086] As shown in FIG. 7 , the PMOS leak unit 10 P is configured by an n number (for example, ten) of PMOS transistors QPa 1 through QPan, and an n number of PMOS transistors QPb 1 through QPbn.", "The NMOS leak unit 10 N is configured by an n number of transistors QNa 1 through QNan, and an n number of NMOS transistors QNa 1 through QNan.", "The drain of each transistor is coupled to a node X via a fuse element F. The PMOS transistors QPa 1 through QPan and the NMOS transistors Qna 1 through QNan are manufactured so as to have an operation speed RS 1 .", "The PMOS transistors QPb 1 through QPbn and the NMOS transistors QNb 1 through QNbn are manufactured so as to have an operation speed RS 2 , which differs from the operation speed RS 1 .", "That is, the PMOS transistors QPa 1 through QPan (NMOS transistors QNa 1 through QNan) differ in characteristics (operation speeds and the like) from the PMOS transistors QPb 1 through QPbn (NMOS transistors QNb 1 through QNbn).", "The operation speeds RS 1 and RS 2 are both set to be the same as the operation speeds of the transistors that are actually used in the internal circuit 2 .", "[0087] The quantity of the PMOS transistors QPa 1 through QPan (NMOS transistors QNa 1 through QNan), which have the operation speed RS 1 , and the quantity of the PMOS transistors QPb 1 through QPbn (NMOS transistors QNb 1 through QNbn), which have the operation speed RS 2 , may be set in accordance with the ratio of the transistors for each characteristic used in the internal circuit 2 .", "That is, when the transistors with the operation speed RS 1 and the transistors with the operation speed RS 2 are used in the internal circuit 2 with a ratio of 7:3, only seven PMOS transistors Qpa 1 through Qpa 7 and three PMOS transistors QPb 1 through QPb 3 are used as the PMOS leak unit 10 P. In the present embodiment, the quantity of the transistors used in the PMOS leak unit 10 P is set by breaking the fuse elements F coupled to the remaining PMOS transistors QPa 8 through QPa 10 and QPb 4 through QPb 10 in the PMOS leak unit 10 P. In the same manner, the quantity of the transistors used in the NMOS leak unit 10 N is set so as to use only the seven NMOS transistors Qna 1 through Qna 7 and three NMOS transistors QNb 1 through QNb 3 by breaking the fuse elements F of the transistors.", "[0088] When setting the quantity of transistors to configure the leak units 10 P and 10 N, the potential VX at the node X, which is produced by the difference between the leak current in the PMOS leak unit 10 P and the leak current in the NMOS leak unit 10 N, is supplied to the comparator 20 .", "The leak current in the PMOS leak unit 10 P is a combination of the leak current Irpa of the seven PMOS transistors QPa 1 through QPa 7 and the leak current Irpb of the three PMOS transistors QPb 1 through QPb 3 .", "The leak current in the NMOS leak unit 10 N is also a combination of the leak current Irna of the seven NMOS transistors QNa 1 through QNa 7 and the leak current Irnb of the three NMOS transistors QNb 1 through QNb 3 .", "[0089] The semiconductor device 1 of the third embodiment has the advantages described below.", "[0090] (1) The leak units 10 P and 10 N are configured by a plurality of MOS transistors which have different desired element characteristics (operation speeds).", "Thus, variations in the element characteristics of every one of the MOS transistors in the internal circuit 2 may be reduced even when a design specifies plural types of MOS transistors that have different element characteristics in the internal circuit 2 .", "[0091] (2) The quantity of the transistors having different operation speeds RS 1 and RS 2 that are used is set in accordance with the ratio of the transistors for each characteristic used in the internal circuit 2 .", "This allows for the MOS transistors in the internal circuit 2 to be reproduced in a simulated manner in the detection circuit 10 .", "Therefore, variations in the element characteristics (operation speed) of all of the MOS transistors in the internal circuit 2 may be reduced when the body biases VNW and VPW are controlled based on the potential Vx detected by the detection circuit 10 .", "[0092] The above-described embodiments may also be practiced in the forms described below.", "[0093] In the third embodiment, the number of the transistors used in the detection circuit 10 is set by breaking the fuse elements F coupled to the transistors in the detection circuit 10 .", "However, the present invention is not limited to such an arrangement.", "Transistors may be arranged in bulk in the design stage.", "Then, after determining the ratio of the transistors for each characteristic in the internal circuit 2 , the bulk of the transistors in the detection circuit 10 that are used in the detection circuit 10 may be wired with a CAD based on the number used that is set in accordance with the ratio.", "[0094] In the third embodiment, the detection circuit 10 is formed taking into consideration the ratio of the transistors for each characteristic used in the internal circuit 2 .", "However, the detection circuit 10 may also be formed, for example, by a plurality of types of PMOS transistors and NMOS transistors having different element characteristics.", "[0095] In each of the above-described embodiments, the present invention is not particularly limited in the type of voltage value set as the reference voltage Vref.", "For example, although the single first voltage V 1 , which is lower than the lower limit voltage value VL, is set as the reference voltage Vref in the second embodiment, a plurality of voltage values may also be set as a voltage that is less than the lower limit voltage value VL.", "[0096] In the second embodiment, the voltage values of the body biases VNW and VPW are changed by the same correction voltages VC 1 through VC 4 .", "However, the present invention is not limited to such an arrangement, and the voltage values of the body biases VNW and VPW may each be changed by different voltage values.", "[0097] In the second embodiment, the testing operation ends after steps S 16 and S 22 shown in FIG. 6 .", "However, the present invention is not limited to such an arrangement, and the routine may also return to step S 11 after the processes of steps S 16 and S 22 .", "[0098] In the above embodiments, the PMOS transistors configuring the PMOS leak unit 10 P and NMOS transistors configuring the NMOS leak unit 10 N are set to be the same in number.", "However, the present invention is not limited to such an arrangement, and the number of PMOS transistors configuring the PMOS leak unit 10 P may differ from the number of the NMOS transistors configuring the NMOS leak unit 10 N. [0099] In the above embodiments, the voltage values of the body biases VNW and VPW are both controlled.", "However, the present invention is not limited to such an arrangement.", "For example, the voltage value of the body bias VNW may be controlled alone.", "[0100] In the above embodiments, the testing circuit 3 is set so as to operate only during the testing time.", "However, the testing circuit 3 may also be set, for example, to operate in accordance with each operating mode.", "For example, the testing circuit 3 may also be operated whenever the operating mode is switched.", "[0101] Although the internal circuit 2 and the testing circuit 3 are formed on the same substrate in the above embodiments, the internal circuit 2 and the testing circuit 3 may also be formed on separate substrates." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] 1.", "Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a rectifier circuit.", "[0003] 2.", "Description of the Related Art [0004] A rectifier circuit is a circuit converting an alternating current (AC) signal into a direct current (DC) signal.", "The rectifier circuit is widely used for most products including electronic components such as fluorescent light lamps or vehicles using electric energy.", "In particular, in recent years, research into wireless power transmission technology has been actively performed.", "In the wireless transmission technology, to restore and use power transmitted via a wireless line to a source voltage, it should be converted into a DC value.", "In this case, a main circuit is the rectifier circuit.", "[0005] The higher conversion efficiency is, the better the rectifier circuit is.", "Namely, in an input AC signal having the same magnitude, the greater a magnitude of an output DC signal is, the lower the conversion loss is.", "Accordingly, efficiency of the rectifier circuit is higher.", "Recently, many enterprises or research institutions have been studying products with high energy efficiency.", "In general, the higher efficiency of the rectifier circuit producing a source voltage is, the higher the efficiency of a total system is.", "[0006] A main factor reducing efficiency of the rectifier is a threshold voltage of a diode included therein.", "FIG. 1 is a circuitry diagram illustrating a conventional half wave rectifier.", "A first transistor TR 1 is connected to an input terminal and an output terminal to be operated as a diode.", "In the present specification, it is assumed that a transistor is diode-connected when it is connected to an input terminal and an output terminal to be operated as a diode.", "In the same manner, a second transistor TR 2 is diode-connected.", "When an AC wave is input to the input terminal, the first diode-connected transistor TR 1 should be turned-on to flow a forward current to the output terminal.", "To do this, a gate voltage of the first transistor TR 1 should be greater than a threshold voltage of the first transistor TR 1 .", "In a rectifier circuit of FIG. 1 , when it is assumed that a sine wave is input thereto, so as to flow a forward current from an input terminal to an output terminal, a first diode-connected transistor TR 1 should be turned-on.", "In order to do this, a gate voltage of the first transistor TR 1 should be greater than a threshold voltage V th of the first transistor TR 1 .", "In other words, when a positive magnitude of an input signal to the rectifier circuit is V in , a voltage used for rectification is only V in −V th .", "Only Vth of an input signal consumes power to substantially turn-on the first transistor TR 1 .", "[0007] Although it is not shown, if a full wave rectifier is constructed in the same way as in the half wave rectifier of FIG. 1 , even though an input signal has a negative value, a voltage consumes power to turn-on a diode-connected transistor.", "Accordingly, when an amplitude of the input voltage is Vin, a maximum output voltage is 2(V in −V th ), and a real output voltage becomes lower than 2(V in −V th ) due to leakage and the like.", "When a full wave rectifier is constructed in the same way as in the half wave rectifier of FIG. 1 , FIG. 2 indicates relationship between an input voltage and an output voltage.", "A V th part 20 of the input signal V in in FIG. 2 is not used to increase the output signal.", "[0008] Several approaches have been pursued in the art to attempt to solve low efficiency problems of the rectifier circuit.", "The most widely used prior art method to increase efficiency is to use a diode such as a Schottky diode with a low threshold voltage.", "Since the Schottky diode has a lower threshold voltage as compared with a PN junction diode, energy loss is reduced at the time of conversion.", "However, because the Schottky diode cannot be provided by a general CMOS process, the cost is expensive.", "Accordingly, upon using the Schottky diode, this results in an increase of manufacturing cost in a product.", "[0009] FIG. 3 is a view illustrating a conventional rectifier circuit removing loss due to a threshold voltage without using a special process using the Schottky diode as another attempt improving efficiency of a rectifier circuit.", "A separate battery is connected to a gate of diode-connected transistors TR 1 and TR 2 .", "In this case, the separate battery has an output voltage V bt equal to or greater than a threshold voltage V th of a corresponding transistor.", "Accordingly, a voltage loss in first and second transistors TR 1 and TR 2 is scarcely caused by a threshold voltage.", "Consequently, when an input having amplitude of ±V in is received, an output voltage theoretically increases to 2V in unlike in a case of FIG. 1 .", "However, a method of FIG. 3 has a disadvantage that a power source such as a separate battery should be included in the rectifier circuit.", "This complicates the production and increases manufacturing costs.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0010] The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a rectifier circuit that gets high rectification efficiency and does not need an external power source.", "[0011] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a PMOS diode module flowing a forward current from an input terminal to an output terminal, comprising: a first PMOS transistor including a source connected to the input terminal, and a drain connected to the output terminal;", "a second PMOS transistor including a source connected to the output terminal, and a gate and a drain connected to each other;", "a switch connecting the gate of the first PMOS transistor to one of the output terminal and the drain of the second PMOS transistor;", "and a bias resistor including one terminal connected to the gate of the second PMOS transistor and another terminal to which a bias voltage is applied.", "[0012] In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an NMOS diode module flowing a forward current from an input terminal to an output terminal comprising: a first NMOS transistor including a drain connected to the input terminal, and a source connected to the output terminal;", "a second NMOS transistor including a drain connected to the gate of the first NMOS transistor, and a gate and a drain connected to each other;", "a switch connecting the gate of the first NMOS transistor to one of the output terminal and the drain of the second PMOS transistor;", "and a bias resistor including one terminal connected to the gate of the second NMOS transistor and another terminal to which a bias voltage is applied.", "[0013] In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a rectifier circuit receiving and rectifying differential signals through a first input terminal and a second terminal, and outputting the rectified differential signals to an output terminal, comprising: [0014] first to fourth diode modules each including an input terminal, an output terminal, and a control input terminal, [0015] wherein the output terminal of the second diode module is connected to the input terminal of the first diode module, [0016] the output terminal of the fourth diode module is connected to the input terminal of the third diode module, the input terminal of the first diode module is connected to the first input terminal, the input terminal of the third diode module is connected to the second input terminal, the output terminal of the first diode module and the output terminal of the third diode module are connected to the output terminal of the rectifier circuit, the input terminal of the second diode module and the input terminal of the fourth diode module are connected to each other to constitute a ground voltage terminal, the first and third diode modules each is constructed by the PMOS diode module according to claim 1 or the NMOS diode module according to claim 2 , and the second and fourth diode modules each is constructed by the PMOS diode module according to claim 1 or the NMOS diode module according to claim 2 .", "[0017] The rectifier circuit further comprises a switch control unit switching switching states of switches in the first to fourth diode modules when a voltage of the output terminal is equal to or greater than a predetermined value.", "[0018] In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, a rectifier circuit comprising: a plurality of rectifier circuits according to claim 3 cascade-connected, wherein among the plurality of rectifier circuits, a ground voltage terminal of a rectifier circuit of the lowest state is grounded, a load capacitor is connected to an output terminal of a rectifier circuit of the highest stage, and [0019] storage capacitors are connected between ground voltage terminals and output terminals of the plurality of rectifier circuits.", "[0020] The rectifier circuit further comprises a switch control unit switching switching states of switches in the diode modules in the plurality of rectifier circuits when a voltage of the output terminal of the rectifier circuit of the highest stage is equal to or greater than a predetermined value.", "[0021] In claim 1 of the present invention, a threshold voltage may be reduced using an output voltage without using a power source in a diode module.", "[0022] In claim 2 of the present invention, a threshold voltage may be reduced using an output voltage without using a power source in a diode module.", "[0023] In claim 3 of the present invention, rectification efficiency reduction due to a threshold voltage cannot be reduced in a rectifier circuit.", "[0024] In claim 4 of the present invention, an output voltage of a rectifier circuit is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, a threshold voltage of a diode may be automatically reduced.", "[0025] In claim 5 of the present invention, since a rectifier circuit is cascade-connected, an output voltage may be increased.", "[0026] In claim 6 of the present invention, an output voltage of a rectifier circuit is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, a threshold voltage of a diode may be automatically reduced to improve rectification efficiency.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0027] The objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be more apparent from the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: [0028] FIG. 1 is a circuitry diagram illustrating a conventional half wave rectifier;", "[0029] FIG. 2 is a view illustrating relationship between an input voltage and an output voltage of a conventional full wave rectifier;", "[0030] FIG. 3 is a circuitry diagram illustrating a conventional half wave rectifier;", "[0031] FIG. 4 is a view illustrating a PMOS diode module in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;", "[0032] FIG. 5 is a view illustrating an NMOS diode module in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;", "[0033] FIG. 6 is a circuitry diagram illustrating a half wave rectifier circuit in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;", "[0034] FIG. 7 is a circuitry diagram illustrating an example of a full wave rectifier circuit in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;", "[0035] FIG. 8 is a circuitry diagram illustrating another example of a full wave rectifier circuit in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;", "[0036] FIG. 9 is a view illustrating an example of a full wave rectifier circuit in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;", "[0037] FIG. 10 is a circuitry diagram illustrating an example of a POR circuit;", "[0038] FIG. 11 is a view illustrating another example of a full wave rectifier circuit in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;", "[0039] FIG. 12 is a view illustrating effects of a rectifier circuit in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;", "[0040] FIG. 13 is a view illustrating test results of a full wave rectifier circuit in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;", "and [0041] FIG. 14 is a view illustrating a test result of a full wave rectifier circuit in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS [0042] Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention are described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.", "The use of the same reference number throughout the several figures designates a like or similar element.", "[0043] FIGS. 4 and 5 are views illustrating diode modules of a rectifier circuit in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, respectively.", "FIG. 4 is a view illustrating a diode module 400 using a PMOS transistor.", "[0044] In order to operate the rectifier circuit according to the present invention, an input voltage should be greater than a threshold voltage of a diode-connected transistor.", "Meanwhile, after the diode-connected transistor is turned-on, the input voltage may be less than the threshold voltage of the diode-connected transistor.", "The reason is because the threshold voltage of the diode-connected transistor was previously compensated for.", "[0045] When a voltage input to an input terminal V in is equal to or greater than a predetermined value |V thp |, a PMOS diode module 400 becomes a state that may flow an electric current from the input terminal V in to an output terminal V out .", "The PMOS diode module 400 includes a first PMOS transistor MP 1 with a source and a drain respectively connected to the input terminal V in and the output terminal V out , and a second PMOS transistor MP 2 with a source connected to the output terminal V out and a gate and a drain connected to each other.", "The PMOS diode module 400 further includes a switch 410 and a bias resistor R. The switch 410 connects a gate of the first PMOS transistor MP 1 to one of the output terminal V out and a drain of the second PMOS transistor MP 2 .", "One terminal of the bias resistor R is connected to the gate of the second PMOS transistor MP 2 , and a bias voltage is applied to another terminal of the resistor R. In this case, the another terminal of the bias resistor R may be grounded.", "[0046] Referring to FIG. 4( a ), when the gate of the first PMOS transistor MP 1 is connected to the output terminal V out , the first PMOS transistor MP 1 is diode-connected.", "When a voltage difference between the gate and the source of the first PMOS transistor MP 1 is equal to or greater than |V thp |, the first PMOS transistor MP 1 is turned-on to flow an electric current from the input terminal V in to the output terminal V out .", "Accordingly, in this case, a voltage of the output terminal V out becomes less than that of the input terminal V in by |V thp |.", "[0047] When the voltage of the output terminal V out becomes high enough to turn-on the second PMOS transistor MP 2 , as shown in FIG. 4( b ), a control signal is applied to a switch 410 to be switch, so that the switch 410 connects the gate of the first PMOS transistor MP 1 to the drain of the second PMOS transistor MP 2 .", "Accordingly, a voltage difference between the gate and the source of the second PMOS transistor MP 2 becomes equal to or greater than |V thp | and because a gate of the second PMOS transistor MP 2 is connected to a drain thereof, the voltage of the output terminal V out becomes higher than a gate voltage of the first PMOS transistor MP 1 by |V thp |.", "Consequently, when the first PMOS transistor MP 1 is in a conducting state, a voltage of the input terminal V in can be transferred to the output terminal V out without voltage drop.", "FIG. 4( c ) shows an equivalent model of a PMOS diode module 400 .", "[0048] FIG. 5 is a view illustrating a diode module 500 using an NMOS transistor.", "When a voltage input through the input terminal V in in an NMOS diode module 500 is equal to or greater than a predetermined reference value |V thn |, it becomes a state capable of flowing an electric current from the input terminal V in to the output terminal V out .", "An NMOS diode module 500 includes a first NMOS transistor MN 1 with a drain and a source respectively connected to an input terminal V in and an output terminal V out , and a second NMOS transistor MN 2 with a drain connected to the gate of the first NMOS transistor MN 1 .", "A gate and the drain of the second NMOS transistor MN 2 are connected to each other.", "The NMOS diode module 500 further includes a switch 510 and a bias resistor R. The switch 510 connects the input terminal V in to one of the gate of the first NMOS transistor MN 1 and a drain of the second NMOS transistor MN 2 .", "One terminal of the bias resistor R is connected to the gate of the second NMOS transistor MN 2 , and a bias voltage is applied to another terminal of the bias resistor R. [0049] Referring to FIG. 5( a ), when the input terminal V in is connected to the gate of the first NMOS transistor MN 1 , the first NMOS transistor MN 1 is diode-connected.", "When a voltage difference between the gate and the source of the first NMOS transistor MN 1 is equal to or greater than |V thn |, the first NMOS transistor MN 1 is turned-on to flow an electric current from the input terminal V in to the output terminal V out .", "Accordingly, at this time, a voltage of the output terminal V out becomes less than that of the input terminal V in by |V thn |.", "[0050] When the bias voltage V BIAS applied to the gate of the second NMOS transistor MN 2 through the bias resistor R becomes high enough to turn-on the second NMOS transistor MN 2 , as shown in FIG. 5( b ), a control signal is applied to a switch 510 to be switched, so that the switch 510 connects the source of the second NMOS transistor MN 2 to the input terminal V in .", "Accordingly, a voltage difference between the gate and the source of the second NMOS transistor MN 2 becomes equal to or greater than |V thn |.", "Consequently, when the first NMOS transistor MN 1 is in a conducting state, a voltage of the input terminal V in can be transferred to the output terminal V out without a voltage drop.", "FIG. 5( c ) shows an equivalent model of a PMOS diode module 500 .", "[0051] FIG. 6 is a circuitry diagram illustrating a half wave rectifier circuit 600 in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.", "[0052] The half wave rectifier circuit 600 includes a first diode module 610 , a second diode module 620 , and a load capacitor C L .", "An input terminal of the first diode module 610 functions an input terminal V in of the half wave rectifier circuit 600 .", "An output terminal of the first diode module 610 functions as an output terminal V out of the half wave rectifier circuit 600 .", "An input terminal of the second diode module 620 is grounded, and an output terminal of the second diode module 620 is connected to the input terminal of the first diode module 610 .", "One terminal of the load capacitor C L is connected to the output terminal of the first diode module 610 , and another terminal of the load capacitor C L is grounded.", "When the first diode module 610 and the second diode module 620 operates as a general diode, this circuit operates as a half rectifier circuit.", "In the present invention, the forgoing PMOS diode module 400 or NMOS diode module 500 may be used as the first diode module 610 .", "The forgoing PMOS diode module 400 or NMOS diode module 500 may be used as the second diode module 620 .", "Although FIG. 6 shows a case that the first diode module 610 is the PMOS diode module 400 , the first diode module 610 may be the NMOS diode module 500 .", "When the second diode module 620 is the NMOS diode module 500 , a bias voltage should be applied thereto to turn-on the second NMOS transistor MN 2 of FIG. 5 .", "[0053] FIG. 7 is a circuitry diagram illustrating an example of a full wave rectifier circuit 700 in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.", "[0054] AC signals (differential signals) having phases inverted to each other, namely, phase difference of 180 degrees from each other are input to a first input terminal V in+ and a second input terminal V in− of the full wave rectifier circuit 700 .", "The full wave rectifier circuit 700 includes a first diode module 710 , a second diode module 720 , a third diode module 730 , a fourth diode module 740 .", "The first and third diode modules 710 and 730 may be the PMOS diode module 400 of FIG. 4 or the NMOS diode module 500 of FIG. 5 .", "Further, the second and fourth diode modules 720 and 740 may be the PMOS diode module 400 of FIG. 4 or the NMOS diode module 500 of FIG. 5 .", "In the present embodiment, the PMOS diode module 400 of FIG. 4 is used as the first and third diode modules 710 and 730 .", "The NMOS diode module 500 of FIG. 5 is used as the second and fourth diode modules 720 and 740 .", "An input of the first diode module 710 functions as the first input terminal V in+ , and an input of the third diode module 730 functions as a the second input terminal V in− .", "An output of the first diode module 710 and an output of the third diode module 730 are connected to each other, and function as an output terminal V P of the full wave rectifier circuit 700 .", "An input of the second diode module 720 and an input of fourth diode module 740 are connected to each other, which function as a ground voltage terminal V N of the full wave rectifier circuit 700 .", "An output of the second diode module 720 is connected to the input of the first diode module 710 .", "An output of the fourth diode module 740 is connected to the input of the third diode module 730 .", "A bias voltage is applied to the second diode module 720 and the fourth diode module 740 .", "The bias voltage is also applied to the second NMOS transistor MN 2 of the NMOS diode module 500 shown in FIG. 5 through a bias resistor R. [0055] FIG. 8 is a circuitry diagram illustrating another example of a full wave rectifier circuit 800 in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, which is a detailed construction of the full wave rectifier circuit 700 shown in FIG. 7 .", "[0056] The full wave rectifier circuit 800 includes a first diode module 810 , a second diode module 820 , a third diode module 830 , and a fourth diode module 840 .", "The first, second, third, and fourth diode modules 810 , 820 , 830 , and 840 are detailed constructions of the first, second, third, and fourth diode modules 710 , 720 , 730 , and 740 of FIG. 7 , respectively.", "Because connection relationships between respective diode modules 810 , 820 , 830 , and 840 , and input/output terminals V P , V N , and V BIAS can be clearly understood, the detailed description thereof is omitted.", "Moreover, a detailed construction and operation of the diode modules 810 , 820 , 830 , and 840 were described with reference to FIG. 4 and FIG. 5 , and thus the detailed description thereof is appropriately omitted.", "[0057] FIG. 9 is a view illustrating an example of a full wave rectifier circuit 800 shown in FIG. 8 .", "[0058] A ground voltage terminal V N of the full wave rectifier circuit 800 is grounded, and the load capacitor C L is connected to the output terminal V P .", "A voltage capable of turning-on NMOS transistors included in the full wave rectifier circuit 800 , namely, a voltage greater than that of the ground voltage terminal by at least V thn , is applied to the bias voltage terminal V BIAS .", "When sine waves having a phase difference of 180 degrees are input through input terminals V in+ and V in− , the load capacitor C L is charged with a predetermined charge, thereby increasing an output voltage, that is, a voltage of the output terminal V P .", "If a switch continues to stay in a position of FIG. 8 , when an amplitude of an input voltage is V in , a maximum value of an output DC voltage is 2(V in −V th ) [0059] In the present invention, when a voltage of the output terminal V P is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, positions of switches SW 1 , SW 2 , SW 3 , and SW 4 change.", "When the full wave rectifier circuit 800 starts to operate, respective switches SW 1 , SW 2 , SW 3 , and SW 4 operate to connect drains and gates of first transistors M 11 , M 21 , M 31 , and M 41 of the first, second, third, and fourth diode modules 810 , 820 , 830 , and 840 to each other.", "During operations of the switches SW 1 , SW 2 , SW 3 , and SW 4 , when the voltage of the output terminal V P is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, the respective switches SW 1 , SW 2 , SW 3 , and SW 4 are switched to connect respective gates of the first transistors M 11 , M 21 , M 31 , and M 41 of the first, second, third, and fourth diode modules 810 , 820 , 830 , and 840 to respective gates of second transistors M 12 , M 22 , M 32 , and M 42 of the first, second, third, and fourth diode modules 810 , 820 , 830 , and 840 .", "A time when the voltage of the output terminal V P is equal to or greater than a voltage capable of turning-on a second transistor M 12 of the first diode module 810 and a second transistor M 22 of the second diode module 820 can be selected as a switch time of the switches SW 1 , SW 2 , SW 3 , and SW 4 .", "Accordingly, the present invention includes a switch controller 910 outputting a switch control signal SW CRT when the voltage of the output terminal V P is equal to or greater than a predetermined voltage.", "The switch controller 910 may be a power-on-reset (POR) circuit.", "[0060] FIG. 10 is a circuitry diagram illustrating an example of a POR circuit 910 .", "[0061] While a value of V in is increased, when it becomes greater than a specific value, a POR value is changed from 0 to 1.", "A value of V in can be selected by appropriately adjusting C value when the POR value is changed from 0 to 1.", "An operation of the POR circuit 910 is described in J.-P.", "Curty, M. Declercq, C. Dehollain, N. Joehl, “Design and Optimization of Passive UHF RFID Systems”", "P. 103 (Springer 2007) in detail.", "[0062] Referring back to FIG. 8 and FIG. 9 , the switches SW 1 , SW 2 , SW 3 , and SW 4 are switched according to an output voltage such that an output DC voltage up to 2 V in can be theoretically obtained.", "[0063] FIG. 11 is a view illustrating another example of a full wave rectifier circuit 800 shown in FIG. 8 .", "[0064] Four full wave rectifier circuits 800 - 1 , 800 - 2 , 800 - 3 , and 800 - 4 are cascade-connected.", "The constructions of full wave rectifier circuits 800 - 1 , 800 - 2 , 800 - 3 , and 800 - 4 are identical with that of the full wave rectifier circuit 800 shown in FIG. 8 .", "The cascade-connection between the full wave rectifier circuits 800 - 1 , 800 - 2 , 800 - 3 , and 800 - 4 means that an output terminal V P of the first full wave rectifier circuit 800 - 1 is connected to a ground voltage terminal V N of the second full wave rectifier circuit 800 - 2 , an output terminal V P of the second full wave rectifier circuit 800 - 2 is connected to a ground voltage terminal V N of the third full wave rectifier circuit 800 - 3 , and an output terminal V P of the third full wave rectifier circuit 800 - 3 is connected to a ground voltage terminal V N of the fourth full wave rectifier circuit 800 - 4 .", "Among the cascade-connected full wave rectifier circuits, a full wave rectifier circuit of the lowest stage, namely, a ground voltage terminal V N of the first full wave rectifier circuit 800 - 1 is grounded.", "A full wave rectifier circuit of the highest stage, namely, an output terminal V P of the fourth full wave rectifier circuit 800 - 4 is connected to a load capacitor C L .", "A voltage capable of turning-on NMOS transistors included in respective full wave rectifier circuits 800 - 1 , 800 - 2 , 800 - 3 , and 800 - 4 is applied to bias voltage terminals V BIAS of the full wave rectifier circuits 800 - 1 , 800 - 2 , 800 - 3 , and 800 - 4 .", "[0065] In the present embodiment, the output terminal V P of the second full wave rectifier circuit 800 - 2 is connected to the bias voltage terminals V BIAS of the first and second full wave rectifier circuits 800 - 1 and 800 - 2 .", "The output terminal V P of the fourth full wave rectifier circuit 800 - 4 is connected to the bias voltage terminals V BIAS of the third and fourth full wave rectifier circuits 800 - 3 and 800 - 4 .", "This is described by way of example only.", "The output terminal V P of the fourth full wave rectifier circuit 800 - 4 may be connected to the bias voltage terminals V BIAS of the first to fourth full wave rectifier circuits 800 - 1 , 800 - 2 , 800 - 3 , and 800 - 4 .", "Storage capacitors C S are connected between respective output terminals V P and respective ground voltage terminals V N of respective full wave rectifier circuits 800 - 1 , 800 - 2 , 800 - 3 , and 800 - 4 .", "The storage capacitors C S are charged with a charge to sequentially increase outputs of respective full wave rectifier circuits 800 - 1 , 800 - 2 , 800 - 3 , and 800 - 4 .", "When sine waves having a phase difference of 180 degrees are input through input terminals V in+ and V in− of the first to fourth full wave rectifier circuits 800 - 1 , 800 - 2 , 800 - 3 , and 800 - 4 , the load capacitor C L is charged with a predetermined charge.", "[0066] In the present invention, when a voltage of an output terminal V P of the fourth full wave rectifier circuit 800 - 4 , that is, a voltage across the load capacitor C L is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, positions of switches of respective full wave rectifier circuits 800 - 1 , 800 - 2 , 800 - 3 , and 800 - 4 change.", "When the full wave rectifier circuit 800 starts to operate, respective switches SW 1 , SW 2 , SW 3 , and SW 4 operate to connect drains and gates of first transistors M 11 , M 21 , M 31 , and M 41 of the first, second, third, and fourth diode modules 810 , 820 , 830 , and 840 of FIG. 8 to each other.", "[0067] During operations of the switches SW 1 , SW 2 , SW 3 , and SW 4 , when the voltage of the output terminal V P is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, the respective switches SW 1 , SW 2 , SW 3 , and SW 4 are switched to connect respective gates of the first transistors M 11 , M 21 , M 31 , and M 41 of the first, second, third, and fourth diode modules 810 , 820 , 830 , and 840 to respective gates of second transistors M 12 , M 22 , M 32 , and M 42 of the first, second, third, and fourth diode modules 810 , 820 , 830 , and 840 .", "A time when the voltage of the output terminal V P is equal to or greater than a voltage capable of turning-on a second transistor M 12 of the first diode module 810 and a second transistor M 22 of the second diode module 820 of the respective full wave rectifier circuits 800 - 1 , 800 - 2 , 800 - 3 , and 800 - 4 can be selected as a switch time of the switches SW 1 , SW 2 , SW 3 , and SW 4 .", "Accordingly, the present invention includes a POR circuit 910 outputting a switch control signal SW CRT when the voltage of the output terminal V P is equal to or greater than a predetermined voltage.", "[0068] Although it was described in FIG. 11 that sine waves having a phase difference of 180 degrees are input through input terminals V in+ and V in− of the first to fourth full wave rectifier circuits 800 - 1 , 800 - 2 , 800 - 3 , and 800 - 4 through a pumping capacitor C P , the pumping capacitor C P can be eliminated.", "Namely, capacitance of the pumping capacitor C P may be infinite (both terminals of the pumping capacitor C P are short-circuited).", "If the capacitance of the pumping capacitor C P is finite, it prevents a charge stored in a load capacitor C L and a storage capacitor C S to be discharged to an input terminal.", "[0069] FIG. 12 is a view illustrating effects of a rectifier circuit in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.", "[0070] FIG. 12( a ) is a graph showing a dead zone 1002 , which cannot be used to increase a charge voltage of a load capacitor due to a turning-on voltage V t ( 1201 ) of a transistor included in a conventional rectifier circuit when a sine wave is input to the rectifier circuit.", "[0071] FIG. 12( b ) is a graph illustrating reduction of the dead zone by reducing a turning-on voltage to V t −V tb ( 1023 ) in the rectifier circuit according to the present invention.", "In this case, in the rectifier circuit of the present invention, rectification efficiency may be improved and an output voltage may be increased.", "[0072] FIG. 13 is a view illustrating test results of a full wave rectifier circuit in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.", "[0073] A rectifier circuit was manufactured using 0.18 μm 1P6M standard CMOS process.", "It was measured that respective rectifier peak efficiencies for HF and MICS bands are 54.9% and 45.2%, respectively.", "[0074] Since the rectifier circuit of the present invention uses ART, rectification efficiency is improved by 18.1% in comparison with a prior art that a ferroelectric capacitor is used in an input of 6 dBm.", "A result of the prior art using the ferroelectric capacitor is provided from a patent reference disclosed in H. Nakamoto, et al.", ", “passive UHF RFID Tag LSI with 36.6% Efficiency CMOS-Only Rectifier and Current-Mode Demodulator in 0.35 μm FeRAM Technology,” ISSCC Dig.", "Tech.", "Papers, pp. 310-311, February 2006.", "[0075] FIG. 14 is a view illustrating a test result of a full wave rectifier circuit in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.", "[0076] Referring to FIG. 14 , a DC voltage generated by a rectifier circuit according to the present invention is equal to or greater than about 1.8V at a frequency of 200 MHz, but is rapidly reduced to approximately 1.0V at a frequency of 1 GHz.", "Since the rectifier circuit uses the ART, a DC voltage output is increased by about 0.75V.", "[0077] In general, the efficiency and sensitivity are important performance factors in the rectifier circuit.", "The present invention may improve the efficiency of performance factors in the rectifier circuit.", "Accordingly, the present invention is effective in a case of improving the efficiency of the rectifier circuit through a CMOS process of a low cost.", "[0078] Although embodiments in accordance with the present invention have been described in detail hereinabove, it should be understood that many variations and modifications of the basic inventive concept herein described, which may appear to those skilled in the art, will still fall within the spirit and scope of the exemplary embodiments of the present invention as defined in the appended claims." ]

[ "The invention described herein may be manufactured and used by or for the Government for governmental purposes without the payment of any royalties thereon or therefor.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Field of the Invention This invention relates to pulse generation systems, and, more particularly, to high voltage pulse generation using inductive energy storage.", "Description of the Prior Art Many recent advances in modern technological fields such as high energy laser systems and beam accelerator apparatus have been made possible by concurrent advances in the art of high energy pulsed power sources.", "The spark gap radio transmitter used for Morse code communications at the beginning of this century is an example of early attempts in this art area.", "One well-known approach for obtaining very high voltage pulses involves the charging of a bank of high voltage capacitors in parallel with a high voltage source.", "Once charged, the capacitors are disconnected from the source, reconnected in series, and discharged across a load.", "This technique, though suitable for some applications, has several drawbacks, such as the large weight, size and expense of the capacitors needed for high energy storage.", "The serious limitations of capacitive high voltage systems have stimulated appreciable research regarding the use of inductive energy storage as a means for aiding in the production of high energy pulses.", "A good synopsis of the recent work being done in this area is provided in the Proceedings of the I.E.E.E.", "International Pulsed Power Conference, (November, 1976).", "The papers in the Proceedings discuss the advantages and theory of inductive energy storage and discharge methods including principles of charging and discharging efficiency, use of exploding foil fuses, energy transfer from inertial energy storage flywheels to inductive storage, superconducting magnetic systems, and multiple inductor storage systems.", "None of these papers propose a method or apparatus for providing the desirable combination of high energy, narrow width pulses with a high repetition rate.", "Applicant has done appreciable research in the area of high voltage systems, including a course of study and experiments which resulted in the publication of his paper "Research and Development Technical Report 4469,"", "U.S. Army Electronics Command, February, 1977, entitled "Repetitive Series Interrupter.", """, "As described in that report, the basic nature and design of the repetitive series interrupter (RSI) has been publicly known for many years.", "The RSI is a gas filled device that is basically a thyratron with a long discharge region (i.e., magnetic interaction column).", "When a sufficiently strong magnetic field is directed transverse to its interaction column, the conduction plasma in the device is extinguished, thereby suddenly interrupting the current.", "In the past, the RSI has been used mainly for the protection of high voltage microwave tubes against arcs.", "It is an object of the instant invention to provide an improved high energy pulser employing inductive energy storage, and using to advantage the special characteristics of the repetitive series interrupter.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention is directed to a high voltage pulse train generation system using inductive energy storage and magnetic field controlled electronic switching.", "A voltage source is placed in series with a storage inductor, a spark gap, and a load device.", "A repetitive series interrupter (RSI) is placed across the series combination of the spark gap and load.", "A special magnetic field pulse generation network is used to supply large magnetic pulses which interrupt the current flowing in the RSI at regular intervals of time.", "During each current interruption period, a high voltage is generating across the spark gap.", "When the spark gap voltage develops to a sufficiently high level, the spark gap is caused to break down and a high energy electrical pulse is thus applied to the load.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 shows a circuit diagram of the preferred embodiment of the instant invention.", "FIGS. 2A through 2E show typical voltage and current waveforms which occur during the operation of the circuit of FIG. 1. DETAILED DESCRIPTION Referring now to FIG. 1, we see the perferred embodiment of the instant invention in which a power supply for the circuit is voltage source 101.", "This source 101 will normally have a voltage of at least several kilovolts and a current supplying capability in the range of 50-500 amperes.", "Connected to the source 101 through a switch 102 is storage inductor L1.", "This storage inductor is of a design capable of withstanding the high current and voltage levels mentioned above.", "Inductor L2 is a charging inductor for a magnetic field pulse generation network, the operation of which will be discussed later below.", "Tube T1 is a gas filled thyratron.", "As is well-known in the art, this tube acts essentially as an open circuit until a positive grid pulse voltage v G is applied to the control grid 110, at which point the tube begins conduction and the voltage v X across it drops to a low magnitude known as the tube's conduction voltage.", "The tube T1 conducts at this low value of voltage over a broad range of current flowing from anode 108 to cathode 109.", "When this current decreases to substantially zero the tube ceases conduction and again approximates an open circuit.", "In this circuit the control voltage is provided by grip pulse voltage source 103 which has a peak value V G .", "The value of this grid voltage has negligible effect upon the conduction voltage of the thyratron T1.", "A spark gap, as depicted in FIG. 1 by nodes 104 and 105, is situated between storage inductor L1 and a load impedance Z L .", "The voltage necessary to cause breakdown and conduction across this gap is directly proportional to the distance d between nodes 104 and 105.", "In this embodiment the gap is a simple air gap.", "Z L is an electrically conductive impedance to which high voltage electrical pulses are intended to be applied.", "A repetitive series interrupter (RSI), shown within the dotted rectangle of FIG. 1, is a magnetic field controlled electronic current conduction and interruption device.", "It is basically a gas filled tube with an anode 112, a cathode 113, a long magnetic interaction column 107, and a transverse magnetic field coil L4.", "The RSI has substantially the characteristics of an open circuit until the voltage v Y across it reaches the device's breakdown voltage.", "At that point the RSI begins conduction and the voltage v Y drops to a low magnitude "on"", "voltage V yc .", "When a large pulse of current i M flows through the transverse magnetic field coil L4, the transverse magnetic field generated (as depicted by arrows 106) causes the conduction plasma within the RSI to be extinguished--thus suddenly interrupting the current flowing in the RSI.", "RSI devices of the type described above are currently available for operation at voltage levels up to 15 kilovolts and current levels up to 300 amperes.", "A pulse forming network including storage capacitors C1, C2 and pulse shaping inductor L3, connects the tube T1 to the transverse magnetic field coil L4.", "The overall operation of the combined circuit of FIG. 1 will now be explained.", "When switch 102 is closed, the RSI "fires"", "and v Y becomes a low "on"", "voltage V yc as shown in FIG. 2D.", "A voltage of magnitude [V s -V yc ] is thus impressed across storage inductor L1 causing a current to build up in L1 which is eventually limited by the internal resistances of L1 and voltage source 101.", "When a sufficiently high magnitude field (represented by arrows 106 in FIG. 1) is applied transverse to magnetic interaction column 107, the high magnitude current flowing through the RSI and the storage inductor L1 is suddenly extinguished.", "In keeping with the well-known expression for the voltage across an inductor, v L =L (di/dt) (where i is the current flowing through the inductor as a function of time, and L is the magnitude of the inductance), it is seen that the sudden decrease in inductor current causes the di/dt term to become very large in magnitude.", "The resulting large magnitude voltage generated across L1 adds to the supply voltage V s , and their sum appears across the spark gap between nodes 104 and 105.", "Eventually, the gap voltage become so high that a spark jumps the gap and causes a high voltage pulse, as shown in FIGS. 2E and 2D, to be applied across load impedance Z L and the RSI.", "When the magnetic field applied across the magnetic interaction column decreases sufficiently, the RSI again begins to conduct, thus abruptly ending the voltage pulse applied to the load, as shown in FIG. 2E.", "This process continues repetitively until such time as switch 102 is opened.", "For a full understanding of the invention, it will now be explained how the controlling magnetic field pulses are generated.", "As shown in FIG. 1, the magnetic pulses are produced by a thyratron T1, inductors L2 and L3, capacitors C1 and C2, field coil L4, and grid control voltage source 102.", "When switch 102 is closed, current flows through charging inductor L2, as well as through charge storage capacitors C1 and C2, pulse shaping inductor L3, and transverse magnetic field coil L4.", "A typical time waveform of total charging current i M is shown in FIG. 2A.", "When the capacitors become sufficiently charged, the thyratron T1 is triggered into conduction by applying grid pulse voltage v G , so that the voltage across T1 drops abruptly from V XC to the low valve V XF as shown in FIG. 2C.", "The charge storage capacitors C1 and C2 then discharge through the thyratron, causing large surges of currents i T and i M as shown in FIGS. 2B and 2A, respectively.", "The pulse of current i M through the transverse magnetic field coil L4 generates the magnetic field 106 to temporarily extinguish the RSI current.", "As the capacitors discharge, the shape of the magnetic field current pulse i M is partially smoothed and shaped, as shown in FIG. 2A, by pulse shaping inductor L3.", "A more extensive pulse shaping capability may be accomplished by adding additional pulse shaping inductors and capacitors to extend the ladder network pattern started by CL, L3, and C2.", "The pulse width and shape generated by such ladder networks is determined by design techniques well known in the art.", "While the invention has been explained and described with reference to a preferred embodiment, numerous modifications thereof will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a partition wall arrangement for an exhaust gas pipe for separating the interior of the pipe into a pair of longitudinally extending passages, and in particular to a partition wall arrangement for a pair of exhaust gas pipes which are coupled to each other by a flexible coupling such as a spherical coupling.", "Description of the Related Art An exhaust gas pipe at the converging end of an exhaust manifold for a multi cylinder engine and an exhaust pipe immediately downstream of the exhaust manifold are sometimes each separated into a pair of longitudinal passages each having a semicircular cross section by a corresponding partition wall for the purpose of avoiding exhaust gas interferences.", "Such a partition wall is exposed to the high temperature of the exhaust gas, and is therefore required to be able to withstand the resulting thermal stress (see Japanese patent laid-open publication No. 9-4451).", "Also, in order to insulate the vibrations of the engine from being transmitted from the converging end of the exhaust manifold to the exhaust gas pipe in the downstream which is fixedly attached to the vehicle body, a spherical coupling is sometimes interposed between the converging end of the exhaust manifold and the exhaust gas pipe.", "The engine is typically mounted on rubber mounts to accommodate the vibratory motion of the engine.", "In such a case, the opposing edges of the partition walls of the converging end of the exhaust manifold and the exhaust gas pipe are spaced from each other so as to accommodate the relative flexing movement of the two parts that are joined by the spherical coupling.", "Therefore, a small gap is created between the opposing edges of the partition walls.", "When the edges of the two partition walls oppose each other, and exhaust gas flows along the partition walls at high speed, the partition wall on the downstream side may vibrate as a membrane.", "This tendency is even more pronounced when the exhaust gas flow contains a pulsating component.", "This causes a repeated stress to the partition wall, and could severely impair the durability of the partition wall when combined with the effect of the high temperature of the exhaust gas.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of such problems of the prior art, a primary object of the present invention is to provide a partition wall arrangement for exhaust gas devices having an improved durability through elimination of membrane vibrations.", "A second object of the present invention is to provide a partition wall arrangement for exhaust gas devices which is relatively free from the adverse influences of the heat of the exhaust gas.", "A third object of the present invention is to provide a highly durable partition wall arrangement which is easy and economical to manufacture.", "According to the present invention, such objects can be accomplished by providing a partition wall arrangement for an exhaust gas pipe section including a partition wall separating the pipe section into two longitudinal passages, the partition wall comprising: a main plate member extending diametrically across an inner circumferential surface of the pipe section and longitudinally over a certain length of the pipe section so as to define a pair of longitudinal passages inside the pipe section each having a semi-circular cross section;", "and a reinforcing plate member placed over and attached to a major surface of the partition wall member preferentially in a part adjacent to the upstream edge of the main plate member.", "The reinforcing member is effective in reinforcing the partition wall, and raises the resonant frequency of the partition wall.", "This prevents the membrane vibration of the partition wall even when the exhaust gas flow contains pulsating components, and improves the durability of the partition wall.", "Because the reinforcement of the upstream edge of the reinforcing plate member is particularly effective in controlling the vibration, the reinforcing member may include a relatively broad upstream portion and a relatively narrow downstream portion so as to minimize the increase in the overall weight of the arrangement.", "For an added reinforcement, a second reinforcing member may be placed over and attached to the other major surface of the partition wall member preferentially over a part adjacent to the upstream edge of the pipe section.", "Because the upstream edge of the partition wall is most exposed to the influence of the heat of the exhaust gas, it is preferable to provide an edge cover which is wrapped around upstream end edges of the reinforcing member and the main plate member.", "The edge cover may consist of a flange or an extension of the reinforcing member.", "Such an edge cover is also beneficial in reinforcing the edge portion of the partition wall, and in controlling the size of the gap between the opposing edges of the partition walls of two pipe sections which are connected to each other.", "Reducing the size of the gap contributes to the increase in the engine output and reducing the noises due to the interferences of the pressure pulsations between the different cylinders of the engine.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The present invention is described in the following with reference to the drawings, in which: FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an exhaust device embodying the present invention;", "FIG. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view of a part of the exhaust device including a flexible joint coupling two pipe sections to each other;", "FIG. 3 is a longitudinal sectional view taken along a plane perpendicular to the sectional plane of FIG. 2;", "FIG. 4 is an end view of one of the exhaust pipe sections as seen from the flange end;", "and FIG. 5 is an exploded longitudinal sectional view of the exhaust pipe section shown in FIG. 4 .", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring to FIG. 1, a multi cylinder engine 1 for an automobile is provided with an exhaust manifold 2 .", "The converging end of the exhaust manifold 2 comprises an upstream exhaust pipe section 3 , which is connected to a downstream exhaust pipe section 4 via a spherical coupling 7 .", "The exhaust manifold 2 includes a plurality of branch pipes 5 which not only conduct exhaust gas from respective cylinders to the converging end but also mechanically secures the manifold 2 to the engine 1 .", "The downstream exhaust pipe section 4 is attached to a vehicle body part (not shown in the drawing) via a bracket 6 .", "Referring to FIG. 2, the spherical joint 7 comprises an annular gasket 8 which is tightly fitted on the upstream pipe section 3 and is provided with a spherical sliding surface on its outer surface.", "The opposing end of the downstream pipe section 4 is provided with a radial flange 9 consisting of a flared section of a pipe member which is welded to the upstream end of the downstream pipe section 4 .", "A clamp ring 10 is fitted on the upstream pipe section 3 upstream of the gasket 8 .", "The inner surface of the flange 9 abuts the spherical sliding surface of the annular gasket 8 in a complementary fashion, and the flange 9 and the clamp ring 10 are resiliently pulled toward each other by spring-loaded threaded bolts passed through the flange 9 and the clamp ring 10 .", "The gasket 8 seals off the interior of the two pipe sections 3 and 4 from the outside, and the spherical sliding surface accommodates a mutual flexing or pivotal movement of the two pipe sections 3 and 4 in all directions.", "The two pipe sections are provided with partition walls 12 and 13 which separate the corresponding pipe sections into two longitudinal passages each having a semicircular cross section.", "As shown in FIG. 3, these partition walls 12 and 13 are aligned with each other, and are provided with opposing edges 37 and 38 that are separated from each other with a small gap d so as to accommodate the mutual flexing movement of the two pipe sections 3 and 4 .", "In particular, the opposing edge 38 of the partition wall 12 of the upstream pipe section 3 is provided with a convex circular arcuate shape while the opposing edge 37 of the partition wall 13 of the downstream pipe section 4 is provided with a concave circular arcuate shape which is substantially complementary to the convex arcuate shape of the other partition wall 12 .", "This arrangement accommodates the mutual flexing movement of the two pipe sections 3 and 4 while minimizing the gas communication between the two longitudinal passages.", "The partition wall 13 of the downstream pipe section 4 comprises a main plate member 15 consisting of a simple plate member extending diametrically across the interior of the pipe section 4 and provided with a pair of side flanges 17 and 18 bent along either side edge in mutually opposite directions so as to conform to the opposing inner circumferential surface of the pipe section 4 .", "These side flanges 17 and 18 abut the opposing surface of the pipe section 4 substantially without any gap, and are fixedly secured to the pipe section 4 , for instance, by spot welding.", "The partition wall 13 further comprises a pair of reinforcing plate members 20 and 21 .", "Each reinforcing plate member 20 and 21 comprises a broader upstream portion 27 and 28 , a narrower downstream portion 29 and 30 and a side flange 23 and 25 bent from a side edge extending straight substantially over the entire length of the reinforcing plate member away from the main plate member 15 .", "The narrower downstream portions 29 and 30 have a width which is slightly greater than half the inner diameter of the pipe section 4 so that they slightly overlap each other as indicated by numeral 24 .", "The broader upstream portions 27 and 28 have a width which is slightly smaller than the inner diameter of the pipe section 4 so that they overlap each other over a greater width as indicated by numeral 22 .", "Thus, the side flanges 17 , 18 , 23 and 25 are bent away from each other along either side of the partition wall 13 , and abut the inner surface of the main plate member.", "These side flanges are attached to the pipe section, for instance, by spot welding.", "The narrower downstream portions 29 and 30 and broader upstream portions 27 and 28 are fixedly attached to the main plate member 15 , for instance by jointly spot welding them together at the overlapping portions 22 and 24 .", "Thus, the overlapping portions 22 and 24 including the central part of the upstream edge of the downstream partition wall consists of three layers of plate members.", "The upstream end edge of the main plate member 15 is provided with a slightly recessed central edge 33 , and a pair of shoulders 36 a and 36 b on either side thereof.", "The upstream edge of one of the reinforcing plate members 20 is provided with an end flange 32 which is bent over the recessed central edge 33 of the main plate member 15 and the end edge of the other reinforcing plate member 21 which is also somewhat recessed from the corresponding end edge of the one reinforcing plate member 20 .", "The end flange 32 therefore serves as an edge cover that protects the edge of the partition wall 13 from the influences of the heat of the exhaust gas.", "The outer profile of the end flange 32 after being bent presents an outer end surface 35 which defines the circular arcuate edge 37 of the partition wall 13 jointly with the shoulders 36 a and 36 b .", "These edges as well as the flange are all provided with a corresponding concave circular arcuate shape.", "Thus, in the assembled state of the partition wall 13 , the opposing edges 37 and 38 of the upstream and downstream partition walls 12 and 13 are provided with complementary circular arcuate shapes which are separated by the uniform gap d over the entire width.", "The end flange 32 wraps around the corresponding edges of the main plate member 15 and the other reinforcing member 21 , and protect them from the heat of the exhaust gas, and increases the rigidity of the upstream edge of the partition wall 13 .", "More importantly, the reinforcing members 20 and 21 and the end flange 32 jointly reinforce (or increase the rigidity of) the upstream edge of the partition wall, and this can effectively prevent the undesired vibration of the partition wall 13 .", "It is preferable to provide the end flange 32 in the upper one of the partition wall members 20 and bend it downward to avoid accumulation of residual substances at the edge of the end flange.", "Also, the reinforcing plate member 20 provided with the end flange 32 may be provided with a smaller thickness than the other reinforcing plate member 21 or may be made of a different material to simplify the work of bending the end flange 32 .", "In the foregoing embodiment, each reinforcing member included a narrow section 29 and 30 and a broad section 27 and 28 so as to define the shape of letter-L, but may also be provided with other tapering shapes such as a triangle.", "Although the present invention has been described in terms of preferred embodiments thereof, it is obvious to a person skilled in the art that various alterations and modifications are possible without departing from the scope of the present invention which is set forth in the appended claims." ]

[ "CLAIM OF PRIORITY [0001] This application makes reference to, incorporates the same herein, and claims all benefits accruing under 35 U.S.C. §119 from an application earlier filed in the Korean Intellectual Property Office on the 16 th of Feb. 2010 and there duly assigned Serial No. 10-2010-0013843.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1.", "Field of the Invention [0003] The present invention relates to a printer and a printing method, and more particularly, to a printer and a printing method for reducing a deviation between nozzles.", "[0004] 2.", "Description of the Related Art [0005] Generally, a display device converts data processed by a data processing device into an image.", "Examples of the display device include a liquid crystal display (LCD) device, an organic electroluminescent (EL) display device, and a plasma display panel (PDP).", "Such display devices are flat display devices which have smaller volume and weight than cathode-ray tube display devices.", "[0006] The flat display devices commonly have a pixel pattern for displaying an image.", "For example, the LCD device includes various pixel patterns, such as a thin film transistor (TFT), a gate signal line, a data signal line, a pixel electrode, a black matrix, a color filter, and a common electrode.", "For example, the organic EL display device includes various pixel patterns, such as an anode electrode, an electron injection layer (EIL), a hole injection layer (HIL), a cathode electrode, and an organic layer.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0007] The present invention provides a printer and a printer method for reducing a deviation between nozzles during printing.", "[0008] According to an aspect of the present invention when a printhead including a first end and a second end sequentially prints a first area and a second area which are adjacent to each other, the printing method comprises the step of performing printing by relatively moving locations of the printhead and a print object in such a way that a surface printed by the second end in the first area and a surface printed by the second end in the second area face each other.", "[0009] When the location of the printhead with respect to the print object switches from the first area to the second area, the printhead may rotate with respect to the print object.", "[0010] The printhead may rotate around at least one point on the printhead constituting a rotation axis.", "The printhead may rotate around one end of the printhead constituting the rotation axis.", "The printhead may rotate around the center of the printhead constituting the rotation axis.", "The printhead may rotate around both ends of the printhead constituting the rotation axis.", "[0011] A method of adjusting the locations of the printhead and the print object may comprise moving the print object with respect to the printhead.", "[0012] A method of adjusting the locations of the printhead and the print object may comprise moving the printhead in parallel with the print object.", "[0013] The printing method may be an inkjet printing method.", "[0014] The printing method may be a nozzle printing method.", "[0015] The printhead may spray a light emitting material so as to form a light emitting unit.", "The printhead may spray a pigment of a color filter layer so as to form a color filter layer.", "The printing method may be performed by using a plurality of the printheads, each spraying a pigment of a single color.", "[0016] The printhead may be formed so as to tilt at a predetermined angle with respect to a moving direction of the print object on a print surface.", "[0017] With respect to the print object, the printing method may further include: performing printing while moving the printhead in a first direction;", "moving the printhead in a second direction;", "rotating the printhead;", "performing printing while moving the printhead in a direction opposite to the first direction;", "moving the printhead in the second direction;", "and rotating the printhead.", "[0018] The printing method may further include: performing printing while moving the print object in a direction opposite to a first direction with respect to the printhead;", "moving the print object in a direction opposite to a second direction;", "rotating the printhead;", "performing printing while moving the print object in the first direction with respect to the printhead;", "moving the print object in the direction opposite to the second direction;", "and rotating the printhead.", "[0019] When the location of the printhead with respect to the print object switches from the first area to the second area, the printing method may further include controlling a location of the printhead so as to start printing in the second area, wherein the controlling of the location comprises: receiving the location of the printhead with respect to the print object, the location being received by a vision camera;", "and compensating the location of the printhead.", "[0020] According to another aspect of the present invention, when a printhead including a first end and a second end sequentially prints a first area and a second area which are adjacent to each other, the printer performs printing by relatively moving locations of the printhead and a print object in such a way that a surface printed by the second end in the first area and a surface printed by the second end in the second area face each other.", "[0021] When the location of the printhead with respect to the print object switches from the first area to the second area, the printhead may rotate with respect to the print object.", "[0022] The printhead may rotate around at least one point on the printhead constituting a rotation axis.", "The printhead may rotate around one end of the printhead constituting the rotation axis.", "The printhead may rotate around the center of the printhead constituting the rotation axis.", "The printhead may rotate around both ends of the printhead constituting the rotation axis.", "[0023] The printhead may include a plurality of nozzles.", "[0024] The printer may perform printing using an inkjet printing method.", "[0025] The printer may perform printing using a nozzle printing method.", "[0026] When the location of the printhead with respect to the print object switches from the first area to the second area, the printer may further include a control system for controlling a location of the printhead to start printing in the second area, wherein the control system may include: a vision camera for receiving the location of the printhead with respect to the print object;", "and a compensator for compensating the location of the printhead.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0027] A more complete appreciation of the invention, and many of the attendant advantages thereof, will be readily apparent as the same becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed description when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference symbols indicate the same or similar components, wherein: [0028] FIG. 1 is a conceptual schematic diagram illustrating movement of a printhead moving with respect to a print object according to a parallel movement when viewed from above according to an embodiment of the present invention;", "[0029] FIG. 2 is a conceptual schematic diagram illustrating a printhead switching from a first area to a second area according to a rectilinear movement and a rotary movement according to an embodiment of the present invention;", "[0030] FIG. 3 is a diagram comparing discharge rates in a cross-section taken along a line III-III of FIG. 1 and a cross-section taken along a line III-III of FIG. 2 ;", "[0031] FIG. 4 is a conceptual schematic diagram illustrating movement of a printhead on a print object when viewed from above according to a modified example of the embodiment of FIG. 2 ;", "[0032] FIG. 5 is a schematic perspective view illustrating a printer having a printhead moving with respect to a print object;", "[0033] FIG. 6 is a flowchart of movement of the printhead of FIG. 5 ;", "[0034] FIG. 7 is a schematic perspective view illustrating a print object in a parallel movement and a printer including a printhead in a rotary movement;", "[0035] FIG. 8 is a flowchart of movements of the print object and the printhead of FIG. 7 ;", "[0036] FIG. 9 is a schematic perspective view illustrating the printhead of FIG. 5 for describing location compensation of the printhead;", "[0037] FIG. 10 is a flowchart of movement and location compensation of the printhead of FIG. 9 ;", "[0038] FIG. 11 is a conceptual schematic diagram illustrating movement of a printhead on a print object when viewed from above according to another modified example of the embodiment of FIG. 2 ;", "[0039] FIG. 12 is a conceptual schematic diagram illustrating movement of a printhead on a print object when viewed from above according to another modified example of the embodiment of FIG. 2 ;", "[0040] FIG. 13 is a conceptual schematic diagram illustrating movement of a printhead on the print object when viewed from above according to another example of the embodiment of FIG. 2 ;", "[0041] FIG. 14 is a conceptual schematic diagram illustrating movement of a printhead on a print object when viewed from above according to another example of the embodiment of FIG. 2 ;", "and [0042] FIG. 15 is a conceptual schematic diagram illustrating a plurality of printheads used to print red, green, and blue, respectively, on a print object when viewed from above according to the embodiment of FIG. 2 .", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0043] Hereinafter, the present invention will be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which exemplary embodiments of the invention are shown.", "[0044] FIG. 1 is a conceptual schematic diagram illustrating movement of a printhead moving with respect to a print object according to a parallel movement when viewed from above according to an embodiment of the present invention.", "[0045] Referring to FIG. 1 , the print object 1 includes a first area and a second area.", "The printhead H 1 may print the first area while rectilinearly moving in a direction opposite to a Y-axis direction.", "After printing the first area, the printhead H 1 moves below the print object 1 so as to move to the second area, and then moves to the second area in parallel with an X-axis.", "After moving to the second area in parallel with the X-axis, the printhead H 1 prints the second area while rectilinearly moving in the Y-axis direction.", "Here, the printhead H 1 may include a plurality of nozzles.", "For example, in FIG. 1 , the printhead H 1 includes a total of 6 nozzles, namely from a first nozzle N 1 through a sixth nozzle N 6 .", "[0046] The number and locations of the nozzles on the printhead H 1 are not limited to the embodiment of FIG. 1 , and may vary.", "[0047] According to the current embodiment of the present invention, the first area is sequentially printed in the X-axis direction from the first nozzle N 1 to the sixth nozzle N 6 , and the second area is also sequentially printed in the X-axis direction from the first nozzle N 1 to the sixth nozzle N 6 .", "Accordingly, adjacent surfaces of the first and second areas are printed by using different nozzles.", "[0048] In other words, referring to FIG. 1 , the adjacent surfaces of the first and second areas are respectively printed by the sixth nozzle N 6 and the first nozzle N 1 .", "[0049] At this point, since the printhead H 1 includes the plurality of nozzles N 1 through N 6 , there may be a deviation between nozzles due to different discharge rates, or the like.", "Such a deviation may occur irregularly or regularly, and if the deviation occurs gradually, a difference between accumulated discharge rates of the first and sixth nozzle N 1 and N 6 , respectively, may be higher than a difference between discharge rates of the adjacent first and second nozzles N 1 and N 2 , respectively.", "Such a discharge rate deviation between the first and sixth nozzles N 1 and N 6 , respectively, eventually generates a light emitting deviation which is easily perceived.", "[0050] In order to decrease a deviation between nozzles, when a printhead H 2 including a first end and a second end sequentially prints a first area and a second area, locations of the printhead H 2 and the print object 1 may be adjusted in such a way that a surface printed by the second end in the first area and a surface printed by the second end by the second area face each other.", "[0051] FIG. 2 is a conceptual schematic diagram illustrating the printhead switching from the first area to the second area according to a rectilinear movement and a rotary movement according to an embodiment of the present invention.", "[0052] Referring to FIG. 2 , the printhead H 2 includes a first end where a first nozzle N 1 is located and a second end where a sixth nozzle N 6 is located.", "When the printhead H 2 sequentially prints the first area and the second area, the printhead H 2 may be rotated so that the surface printed by the second end, where the sixth nozzle N 6 is located, in the first area and the surface printed by the second end, where the sixth nozzle N 6 is located, in the second area face each other.", "[0053] As shown in FIG. 2 , the printhead H 2 may be rotated based on a predetermined point so that adjacent surfaces of the first and second areas are printed by the same nozzle.", "Here, a surface printed by the second end denotes a surface on the first or second area which is printed by the second end.", "Similarly, a surface printed by the first end denotes a surface on the first or second area which is printed by the first end.", "[0054] The effect of printing adjacent surfaces by using the same nozzle as shown in FIG. 2 will now be described with reference to FIG. 3 .", "[0055] FIG. 3 is a diagram comparing discharge rates in a cross-section taken along a line III-III of FIG. 1 and a cross-section taken along a line III-III of FIG. 2 .", "[0056] FIG. 3 illustrates a first straight line I showing discharge rates of the nozzles N 1 thru N 6 of FIG. 1 and a second straight line II showing discharge rates of the nozzles N 1 thru N 6 of FIG. 2 .", "Here, it is assumed that the discharge rates of the first and sixth nozzles N 1 and N 6 , respectively, of the printhead H 1 or H 2 are different from each other by Δx.", "In addition, looking at the first straight line I, the difference between the discharge rates is Δx at each adjacent point A. [0057] On the other hand, looking at the second straight line II, there is no difference between the discharge rates at each adjacent point B, and only a deviation Δn between adjacent nozzles gradually occurs.", "Accordingly, a printing method or a printer may use the printhead H 2 having the deviation Δn to reduce a deviation between nozzles on adjacent surfaces by printing the adjacent surfaces by using the same nozzle.", "[0058] When a printhead including a first end and a second end sequentially prints a first area and a second area, a printing method according to an embodiment of the invention includes performing printing by adjusting locations of the printhead and a print object in such a way that a surface printed by the second end in the first area and a surface printed by the second end in the second area face each other, and this method will now be described with reference to FIGS. 4 thru 6 .", "[0059] FIG. 4 is a conceptual schematic diagram illustrating movement of a printhead on a print object when viewed from above according to a modified example of the embodiment of FIG. 2 , FIG. 5 is a schematic perspective view illustrating a printer having the printhead moving with respect to the print object, and FIG. 6 is a flowchart of movement of the printhead of FIG. 5 .", "[0060] Referring to FIG. 4 , the printhead H 3 may sequentially include first thru sixth nozzles N 1 thru N 6 , respectively, arranged in a direction from a first end to a second end.", "Here, in operation S 110 of FIG. 6 , the printhead H 3 may move in a direction opposite to a Y-axis direction while printing the first area.", "Then, the printhead H 3 may move along an X-axis direction in operation S 120 .", "Next, the printhead H 3 may rotate based on one point on the printhead H 3 as a central axis P 1 in operation S 130 .", "For example, the central axis P 1 may be the center of the printhead H 3 , as shown in FIG. 4 .", "The printhead H 3 , which is rotated based on the central axis P 1 , may print the second area while moving in the Y-axis direction in operation S 140 .", "When the second area is printed as such, a deviation between the adjacent surfaces of the first and second areas due to different discharge rates is reduced since the adjacent surfaces are printed by the sixth nozzle N 6 .", "When the printhead H 3 passes through the print object 1 in the Y-axis direction after printing the second area, the printhead H 3 may move in the X-axis direction in operation S 150 .", "The printhead H 3 may then rotate based on the central axis in operation S 160 .", "[0061] Next, operations S 110 thru S 160 of FIG. 6 may be repeated so as to print the print object 1 .", "In other words, the printhead H 3 may print a third area while moving in the direction opposite to the Y-axis direction.", "Here, as shown in FIG. 4 , adjacent surfaces of the second and third areas are printed by the first nozzle N 1 , and thus there is no deviation between nozzles in each area.", "Such a printing method may be performed by the printer 100 of FIG. 5 , wherein the print object 1 is fixed, and the printhead H 3 moves along the X-axis or the Y-axis with respect to the print object 1 or rotates based on the central axis P 1 .", "However, the device for performing the printing method of FIG. 4 is not limited to the printer 100 .", "[0062] A modified example of the printer 100 will now be described with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8 .", "[0063] FIG. 7 is a schematic perspective view illustrating a printer which moves a print object in a straight line or rotates a printhead based on a central axis, and FIG. 8 is a flowchart of movements of the print object and the printhead of FIG. 7 .", "[0064] The printer 200 of FIG. 7 is configured to move the print object 1 in a straight line and rotate the printhead H 3 based on the central axis P 1 .", "In order to print a first area of the print object 1 , the print object 1 may move in a Y-axis direction in operation S 210 .", "Then, the print object 1 may move in a direction opposite to an X-axis direction in operation S 220 .", "Next, the printhead H 3 may rotate based on the central axis P 1 in operation S 230 .", "Then, the print object 1 may move in a direction opposite to the Y-axis direction while the printhead H 3 prints a second area in operation S 240 .", "Next, the print object 1 may move in a direction opposite to the X-axis direction so as to print a third area in operation S 250 .", "Then, the printhead H 3 may be rotated in operation S 260 .", "Operations S 210 thru S 260 of FIG. 8 may be repeated to print the print object 1 .", "In other words, the printhead H 3 may print the third area while moving the print object 1 in the Y-axis direction.", "[0065] The structure of the printer 100 or 200 and the printing method are not limited thereto.", "For example, the printer 100 may adjust a relative distance between the printhead H 3 and the print object 1 by fixing the printhead H 3 and moving the print object 1 in a straight line and rotating the print object 1 based on the central axis P 1 .", "Alternatively, the relative distance between the printhead H 3 and the print object 1 may be adjusted by moving the printhead H 3 and the print object 1 in a straight line and rotating the printhead H 3 and the print object 1 based on the central axis P 1 .", "Alternatively, the printer 100 may adjust a relative distance between the printhead H 3 and the print object 1 by fixing the printhead H 3 and moving the print object 1 along a direction perpendicular to printhead.", "[0066] A control system for compensating for the location of the printhead H 3 by compensating a rotation angle θ of the printhead H 3 may be used to precisely adjust a relative distance between the printhead H 3 and the print object 1 while changing locations of the nozzles N 1 thru N 6 by rotating the printhead H 3 .", "Location compensation of the printhead H 3 will now be described with reference to FIGS. 9 and 10 .", "[0067] FIG. 9 is a schematic perspective view illustrating the printhead of FIG. 5 for describing location compensation of the printhead, and FIG. 10 is a flowchart of movement and location compensation of the printhead of FIG. 9 .", "[0068] When the location of the printhead H 3 switches from a first area to a second area with respect to the print object 1 , the control system controls a location of the printhead H 3 so as to start printing on the second area.", "Here, the current embodiment of the present invention is described in the situation where the printhead H 3 switches from the first area to the second area, but the invention is not limited thereto, and the printhead H 3 may switch to any adjacent area.", "Referring to FIG. 9 , the printhead H 3 includes a vision camera C. Also, since an align mark M is marked on the print object 1 or a surrounding stage, the vision camera C may read the align mark M and adjust the rotation angle θ of the printhead H 3 so as to compensate for the location of the printhead H 3 .", "Accordingly, the control system may receive the location of the printhead H 3 with respect to the print object 1 (operations S 231 and S 261 of FIG. 10 ), and compensate for the location of the printhead H 3 (operations S 232 and S 262 ).", "Since operations S 231 and S 232 , and operations S 261 and S 262 , are performed before moving the printhead H 3 along a Y-axis direction after rotating the printhead H 3 , operations S 231 and S 232 , and operations S 261 and S 262 , may be performed between rotation of the printhead H 3 and movement of the print object in the Y-axis direction, as illustrated in the flowchart of FIG. 8 .", "In other words, referring to FIG. 10 , in order to print the first area of the print object 1 , the print object 1 may move in a Y-axis direction in operation S 210 .", "Then, the print object 1 may move along a direction opposite to an X-axis direction in operation S 220 .", "Next, the printhead H 3 may be rotated based on a central axis P 1 in operation S 230 .", "Then, the location of the printhead H 3 with respect to the print object 1 may be received in operation S 231 .", "Next, the location of the printhead H 3 may be compensated for in operation S 232 .", "Then, the second area may be printed while moving the print object 1 in a direction opposite to the Y-axis direction in operation S 240 .", "Next, in order to print a third area, the print object 1 may be moved in the direction opposite to the X-axis direction in operation S 250 .", "Then, the printhead H 3 may be rotated in operation S 260 .", "Next, the location of the printhead H 3 with respect to the print object 1 may be received in operation S 261 .", "Then, the location of the printhead H 3 may be compensated for in operation S 262 .", "Next, operations S 210 thru S 262 of FIG. 10 may be repeated so as to print the print object 1 .", "In other words, the third area may be printed while moving the print object 1 in the Y-axis direction.", "[0069] FIGS. 11 thru 14 are various modified examples of FIG. 2 .", "[0070] In FIGS. 11 thru 14 , a print object 1 is fixed and a print head H 4 , H 5 , H 6 , or H 7 is moved, but an embodiment of the present invention is not limited thereto, and at least one of the print object 1 and the print head H 4 , H 5 , H 6 , or H 7 may be moved.", "In other words, the print object 1 may move in a straight line and the print head H 4 , H 5 , H 6 , or H 7 may rotate based on the central axis P 1 , or both the print object 1 and the print head H 4 , H 5 , H 6 , or H 7 may move in a straight line and rotate based on the central axis P 1 .", "Also, when the print head H 4 , H 5 , H 6 , or H 7 or the print object 1 rotates, a location of the print head H 4 , H 5 , H 6 , or H 7 may be additionally compensated as described with reference to FIGS. 9 and 10 .", "[0071] FIG. 11 is a conceptual schematic diagram illustrating movement of the printhead on the print object when viewed from above according to another modified example of the embodiment of FIG. 2 .", "[0072] Referring to FIG. 11 , the printhead H 4 includes first thru sixth nozzles N 1 thru N 6 , respectively, a first rotation axis P 2 on a first end of the printhead H 4 where the first nozzle N 1 is located, and a second rotation axis P 3 on a second end where the sixth nozzle N 6 is located.", "A first area may be printed while moving the printhead H 4 in a direction opposite to a Y-axis direction.", "Then, the printhead H 4 may be rotated based on the second rotation axis P 3 .", "Next, a second area may be printed while moving the printhead in the Y-axis direction.", "Then, the printhead H 4 may be rotated based on the first rotation axis P 2 .", "Next, a third area may be printed while moving the printhead H 4 in the direction opposite to the Y-axis.", "Such processes may be repeated so as to print the print object 1 .", "[0073] FIG. 12 is a conceptual schematic diagram illustrating movement of the printhead on a print object when viewed from above according to another modified example of the embodiment of FIG. 2 .", "[0074] Referring to FIG. 12 , the printhead H 5 includes first thru sixth nozzles N 1 through N 6 , respectively, and a first rotation axis P 2 on a first end of the printhead H 5 where the first nozzle N 1 is located.", "A first area may be printed while moving the printhead H 5 in a direction opposite to a Y-axis direction.", "Then, the printhead H 5 may be rotated based on the first rotation axis P 2 .", "Here, the printhead H 5 may rotate clockwise or counterclockwise.", "Next, the printhead H 5 may move in an X-axis direction.", "Then, a second area may be printed while moving the printhead H 5 in the Y-axis direction.", "Next, the printhead H 5 may again be rotated based on the first rotation axis P 2 .", "Here, the printhead H 5 may not move in the X-axis direction, and a third area may be printed while again moving the printhead H 5 in the direction opposite to the Y-axis direction.", "The print object 1 may be printed by repeating the above processes.", "The printhead H 4 of FIG. 11 includes two rotation axes P 2 and P 3 , whereas the printhead H 5 of FIG. 12 includes one rotation axis P 2 to change directions.", "[0075] FIG. 13 is a conceptual schematic diagram illustrating movement of the printhead on the print object when viewed from above according to another example of the embodiment of FIG. 2 .", "[0076] Referring to FIG. 13 , the printhead H 6 includes first thru sixth nozzles N 1 through N 6 , respectively, and a second rotation axis P 3 on a second end of the printhead H 6 where the sixth nozzle N 6 is located.", "A first area may be printed while moving the printhead H 6 in a direction opposite to a Y-axis direction.", "Then, the printhead H 6 may be rotated based on the second rotation axis P 3 .", "Next, a second area may be printed while moving the printhead H 6 in the Y-axis direction.", "Then, the printhead H 6 may be rotated again based on the second rotation axis P 3 .", "Next, the printhead H 6 may be moved in the X-axis direction so as to adjust alignment of the printhead H 6 and the print object 1 .", "Then, a third area may be printed while moving the printhead H 6 in the direction opposite to the Y-axis direction.", "The print object 1 may be printed by repeating the above processes.", "[0077] FIG. 14 is a conceptual schematic diagram illustrating movement of the printhead on the print object when viewed from above according to another example of the embodiment of FIG. 2 .", "[0078] FIG. 14 shows that the printhead H 7 may tilt in any direction.", "For example, the printhead H 2 of FIG. 2 may have a high right and a low left with respect to a moving direction, and the printhead H 7 of FIG. 14 may have a low right and a high left with respect to a moving direction.", "[0079] The print object 1 to be printed according to the printing methods and the printers 100 and 200 of FIGS. 2 thru 14 is not limited, and any printable object may be used.", "For example, the print object 1 may be a substrate 10 , including a plurality of pixel regions PR.", "[0080] A method of printing the substrate 10 will now be described with reference to FIG. 15 .", "[0081] FIG. 15 is a conceptual schematic diagram illustrating a plurality of printheads used to print red (R), green (G), and blue (B), respectively, on a print object when viewed from above according to the embodiment of FIG. 2 .", "[0082] The plurality of pixel regions PR may be formed in a matrix on the substrate 10 .", "A pixel pattern may be formed in the pixel region PR so as to display an image.", "For example, when the resolution of the substrate 10 is 1024×768, about 1024×768×3 pixel regions PR may be formed on the substrate 10 .", "Here, each pixel region PR may be filled with a light emitting material of R, G, or B. In addition, the printhead H 8 may spray the light emitting material of R. Also, the printhead H 9 may spray the light emitting material of G, and the printhead H 10 may spray the light emitting material of B. Here, the printheads H 8 , H 9 , and H 10 may form a color filter by respectively spraying an R color filter material, a G color filter material, and a B color filter material, wherein the R, G, and B color filter materials each emit a single color light by filtering a white light.", "[0083] The printing method may be an inkjet printing method or a nozzle printing method.", "[0084] According to the embodiments of the present invention, a light emitting deviation is reduced by reducing a deviation between nozzles during printing.", "[0085] While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that various changes in form and detail may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the following claims." ]

[ "[0001] The instant application is a continuation-in-part application of U.S. Ser.", "No. 11/071,591 filed Mar. 4, 2005 which claims domestic priority to U.S. provisional application 60/647,800 each of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference and claimed as priority.", "FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present application generally relates to wireless electronic device controllers and accessories therefor.", "More particularly, the invention relates to wireless electronic device control units incorporating dual-transmitter/receiver adapters for the game console.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART [0003] Home video game systems generally have a game console coupled to a television monitor and one or more game controllers connected to the console which permit user interaction with a game being played.", "Most video game systems are sold with game controllers that are connected to the console through a hard-wire link.", "More recently, wireless game controller accessories have been developed which provide players with more freedom of movement.", "Such wireless controller accessories replicate the basic control features found on conventional hard-wired controllers but use infrared (IR), radio frequency (RF) or other electromagnetic radiation to send signals to the console.", "[0004] To operate the video game system, a user (or player) inserts a game program which may be stored in a game cartridge or on a compact disc into the console and typically depresses a start switch to begin play of the particular game programmed into the cartridge or on the compact disc.", "As a game is played, a player or players control various visual aspects of the game using either the hard-wired or wireless controllers.", "For example, certain video games allow players to maneuver persons or aliens over various types of terrain, through tunnels, under water and over other various obstacles in order to score points.", "Some of these video gaines allow players to fly planes, helicopters, tanks and the like to attack various installations and score points.", "Other video gaines allow players to maneuver a person and to fire weapons at program generated images or at images of a person controlled by another player.", "All of these video aspects of the gaming industry are well known to those of skill in the art.", "[0005] Some current wireless game controllers communicate with a console interface that communicates with the game console through a game port designed to receive a communication cable.", "The console interface (i.e., an adapter) plugs into the game port and transmits and receives control signals to and from a plurality of wireless controllers.", "Conventional console interfaces are limited to communication with a single player and are limited in their connection techniques with the game console.", "[0006] The need exists for a more versatile multi-function console interface for converting wired communication ports to accommodate wireless communication with more than one game controller.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0007] The present application provides various embodiments of wireless game control units including a multi-function game console interface that interfaces with more than one communication port on a game console to convert the plurality of game ports to transmit and receive signals in a wireless manner.", "[0008] In one embodiment, the wireless control unit includes (1) at least two controllers each having at least one user operable switch and each having wireless transmitter circuitry for transmitting game information and (2) a multi-function console interface/adapter having wireless receiver circuitry for receiving the game information from both of the controllers and for modifying the game information so that the game information signal is sent from the console interface to the console through the appropriate console game port.", "[0009] The multi-function console interface/adapter is configured to provide an adaptable connection with the game ports of the game console.", "In addition, the circuit board of the multi-function interface/adapter is designed and configured to discriminate the signals received from a plurality of wireless controllers.", "[0010] These and other benefits of the present invention will be apparent to those of skill in the art from the following description and associated drawings.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0011] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a video game system incorporating a wireless controller unit according to the present invention;", "[0012] FIG. 2 is a side-elevational view of a controller for the wireless control unit according to the present application;", "[0013] FIG. 3 is a top view of the controller of FIG. 2 ;", "[0014] FIG. 4 is a front elevational view of the controller of FIG. 2 ;", "[0015] FIG. 5 is a block diagram of transmitter/receiver circuitry for the controller of FIG. 2 ;", "[0016] FIG. 6 is a block diagram of transmitter/receiver circuitry for the console interface of the wireless controller unit;", "[0017] FIGS. 7-9 is an illustration of one embodiment of the transmitter/receiver adapter according to the present invention: [0018] FIG. 10 illustrates an alternate embodiment of the present invention.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS [0019] The present application provides a wireless control unit for video game systems including a dual-function transmitter/receiver adapter incorporated into the wireless control system.", "Preferably, the wireless control unit transfers game information by radio frequency (RF) transmissions.", "However, other known electromagnetic radiation techniques, such as infrared (IR) transmissions, may be employed.", "In accordance with other embodiments (to be discussed later), the combined use of IR and RF wireless communication protocols provides superior communication results between a game controller and a game console.", "Referring to FIG. 1 , an exemplary embodiment of a video game system incorporating the wireless control unit of the present application is shown.", "In this embodiment, the video game system 10 includes a game console 12 , a video outputting device 14 , such as a television monitor, and the wireless control unit 16 .", "The game console 12 includes a housing having at least one controller (or game) connection port and a game cartridge port.", "A game cartridge has a video game program stored therein.", "Alternatively, the console 12 may include a disc drive mechanism in which a disc, such as a compact disc, has stored thereon a video game program.", "[0020] Referring to FIG. 1 , the wireless control unit 16 according to the present application includes a pair of controllers 20 and a single console interface 50 .", "The plurality of controllers 20 and the single console interface 50 are configured for bidirectional wireless communication.", "For bidirectional wireless communication, the controllers 20 and the console interface 50 both would include the transmitter logic 42 (shown in FIG. 5 ) and the receiver logic 70 (shown in FIG. 6 ).", "The transmitter and receiver circuitry for each player playing a game would operate at different frequency bands (or use different coding schemes).", "Information transmitted from the controller to the console interface includes game information, and information from the console interface to the controller includes information to, for example, reconfigure the functions of the switches and information that provides interaction between the controller and a game being played.", "The information from the console interface to the controller is collectively defined as controller information.", "Thus, the controller can include a connection port 86 (seen in FIG. 4 ) for connecting different peripheral devices to the controller which are responsive to the controller information transmitted by the console.", "Such peripheral devices include memory cartridges, vibrating members (e.g., a rumble pack), and other devices that can respond to controller information transmitted by the console.", "[0021] The game console 12 also includes known circuitry for executing the video game program stored in the cartridge or on disc.", "For example, the console may include a processor, memory and stored system programs for controlling the operation of the console, controller interface circuitry, and audio/video generating and outputting circuitry.", "An example of suitable game consoles are included in the Nintendo N64®, Xbox®, SEGA Genesis and Sony Playstation®, and Playstation II® game systems.", "In the video game system 10 according to this embodiment of the present invention, the console 12 is connected to a video outputting apparatus 14 via a direct wire link.", "Further, the wireless control unit 16 can be connected to the console by, for example, a direct wire link or by mating connectors.", "[0022] As seen in FIGS. 2-4 , the controller 20 has a housing 22 defined by a central control section 24 , left and right side handles 26 , 28 extending out from the central control section 24 and then angled downwardly.", "Since in this embodiment signals are transmitted from the controllers 20 to the single console interface 50 via radio frequency (RF), the housing 22 preferably includes a transmission window 32 for emitting RF signals.", "However, if the transmission of control information from the controller 20 to the console interface 50 is by other electromagnetic radiation techniques then a transmission window may not be necessary.", "A plurality of user activated switches 40 are mounted to the housing 22 and accessible from outer surface portions of the housing 22 .", "The controller 20 also includes a battery (not shown) that supplies power to the internal components of the controller.", "[0023] Typically, a player grips the side handles 26 , 28 during play and operates the switches corresponding to the handles gripped, where rocker switch 38 and push-button switches 40 are the user activated switches.", "Rocker switch 38 can be used for two or three dimensional movement of an object controlled by the controller 20 and push-button switches 40 can be used for performing control functions associated with the object.", "Further, the orientation of the switches 40 and the three handle configuration of the controller 20 also facilitates single handed as well as two handed gripping and operation of the controller by a player.", "For single handed gripping and operation, a player can grip the center handle 30 and joysticks 34 and trigger switches 36 are the user activated switches.", "Joysticks 34 can be used for two or three dimensional movement of an object controlled by the controller 20 , and trigger switch 36 can be used for performing at least one control function associated with the object.", "In this embodiment, trigger switch 36 is typically used to fire weapons during a game.", "[0024] Referring to FIG. 5 , the controller 20 includes transmitter/receiver circuitry 42 operatively connected to the various switches, which sends and receives game information from the switches, formats the game information into, for example, bit streams for wireless transmission, and transmits the game information to the console interface 50 .", "The transmitter/receiver circuitry 42 includes control logic 44 , transmitter/receiver driver logic 46 and at least one transmitter source 48 .", "The control logic 44 receives the game information from the various switches, and encodes the game information into, for example, a serial bit stream which is suitable for wireless transmission preferably by infrared.", "The bit stream may be configured such that one or more bits in the stream represent one switch on the controller 20 .", "The transmitter circuitry 46 receives the bit stream from the control logic 44 and amplifies (if necessary) and modulates the bit stream at a predefined frequency band (e.g., 38 kHz) to energize at least one infrared source 48 (e.g., an LED) which emits infra-red signals.", "[0025] Referring to FIG. 6 , the console interface 50 also includes transmitter/receiver circuitry 70 that receives the transmitted bit stream, extracts the game information from the bit stream, formats the game information into a form suitable for processing by the game console 12 , and transfers the game information to the game console 12 .", "More particularly, in an IR embodiment, the receiver circuitry 70 includes a sensor 72 , such as a photosensitive transistor, which receives the infrared signals from the controller 20 , and receiver logic 74 that amplifies the received bit stream, demodulates the amplified bit stream and decodes the game information from the bit stream.", "Console interface logic 76 then formats the game information for transfer to the game console 12 via, for example, cable 62 ( FIGS. 7 and 8 ).", "In a contemplated RF embodiment, sensor 72 would be an RF antenna.", "The embodiment of FIG. 7 includes a central portion 701 containing the internal transmission/reception circuitry and the control logic, and two flexible cables 703 / 705 leading to separate connectors 707 / 708 with appropriate pin out arrangement for connection to an X-Box gaming console.", "The embodiment of FIG. 8 includes two connectors 803 , 805 interconnected by a single flexible cable 807 .", "The transmission/reception circuitry and control logic are contained within a portion 801 of the first connector 803 assembly formed of a substantially unitary body.", "The flexible cable 807 providing the ability to establish connection between the connectors 803 , 805 with the gaming console (such as the Playstation II™) and accommodate tolerances in sizing between the connection portions of such consoles as well as varied generations within a gaming platform.", "[0026] FIGS. 9 a - 9 b additional advantages to the connector of FIG. 7 .", "FIG. 9 b is substantially the identical console interface of FIG. 7 .", "However, as can be seen in FIGS. 9A , the console interface includes a pair of memory/expansion portions integrated into the central console portion.", "Because the connectors 707 / 708 occupy the expansion portion of the gaming console, the ports 911 , 912 serve to establish connection of such devices while utilizing the wireless console interface.", "The internal circuitry can either integrate the control communication between the ports 911 , 912 and the console, or selectively allow a bypass or direct communication for the memory port or peripheral device with the console.", "The overall arrangement facilitates the ability to convert the gaming console to a wireless adapter while maintaining the expansion/memory connection with the ports.", "[0027] FIG. 10 represents an alternate embodiment of FIGS. 8 / 4 .", "In such an arrangement the controller includes an auxiliary controller portion connection 1086 to allow direct wired connection between the console and controller via conventional releasable cable 1010 .", "When batteries are depleted in the controller, a user may maintain the ability to play by simply connecting directly to the gaming console.", "A passive noise filter is also included in the cable 101 0 to facilitate clean transmission of control signals between the console and controller.", "[0028] While the present invention has been shown and described with reference to specific embodiments forming the best mode, various changes in form and detail may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention." ]

[ "FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001] This invention generally relates to an information display system, more particularly an information display system for a vending machine.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] Typical vending machines securely store and display vendable products for sale, generally stored on trays or within storage devices holding said products viewable to the consumer, with vendor identification and pricing information displayed upon printed media proximately associated with each product.", "To update such printed media information displays requires physical removal of the obsolete printed media, and then to replace this with new ones displaying the updated information.", "[0003] In the operation of a vending business using such machines and printed media static information displays, this physical replacement of printed media typically requires high labor content and cost, as each display must be physically accessed from within the vending machine's secure enclosure for replacement.", "Error of information displayed is also a weakness resulting from requiring such manual media replacement by humans.", "[0004] Thus there exists a need to provide a remote access means of accurately and quickly changing displayed information associated with vendable goods for sale without need for physical access to the information display media.", "[0005] Therefore it is an objective of the present invention to provide an addressable information display possessing an accurate and quick means for changing data desired to be displayed on a vending machine product holding tray or other storage mechanism, and to expand the capabilities of a vending machine to more thoroughly inform vending machine users about pending purchases, and for the display of other useful data or information.", "BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0006] The present invention relates to a vending machine having addressable information displays located proximate to the product display trays and devices, to inform the machine's user of product order code, unit price and other useful information.", "[0007] In one aspect, the invention provides a vending machine product holding tray having an addressable information display.", "The vending machine product holding tray includes a horizontal support plane and a plurality of vertical walls, which divides the product holding tray into a plurality of dispensing lanes supporting vendable products.", "The vending machine product holding tray further includes an information presentation plane attached to the horizontal support plane, wherein the information presentation plane supports at least one addressable information display.", "[0008] In another aspect, the invention provides a remotely addressable information display module for retrofit attachment to a vending machine product holding tray.", "The remotely addressable information display module includes a circuit configured to receive data from remote control and a display surface.", "[0009] In yet another aspect, the invention provides a vending machine including a secure enclosure, vendable product holding trays, dispensing mechanisms, a product delivery and pick-up area, a remotely addressable information display and a means of inputting data.", "The secure enclosure stores vendable objects that are in view of potential purchasers.", "The vendable product holding trays hold products.", "Dispensing mechanisms respond to payment and selection input from potential customers, and deliver vendable products as ordered.", "The product delivery and pick-up area is located in the interior of an outside accessible opening.", "The remotely addressable information display is located proximate the vendable product held ready for delivery from the vendable product holding trays.", "The remotely addressable information display is resettable with new information received from an internal control device.", "The means of inputting data inputs data to the internal control device for updating information displayed on the addressable information display.", "[0010] Other aspects, objectives and advantages of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0011] The accompanying drawings incorporated in and forming a part of the specification illustrate several aspects of the present invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.", "In the drawings: [0012] FIG. 1 illustrates a vending machine product holding tray possessing printed media information display typical of the prior art;", "[0013] FIG. 2 illustrates a vending machine product holding tray improved with an addressable information display according to a first preferred embodiment, and also illustrating alternative second and third preferred embodiments of the present invention;", "[0014] FIG. 3 illustrates a vending machine product holding tray improved with an addressable information display according to a fourth preferred embodiment;", "[0015] FIG. 4 illustrates a vending machine product holding tray improved with an addressable information display according to a fifth preferred embodiment of the present invention;", "[0016] FIG. 5 illustrates a vending machine product holding tray improved with an add-on addressable information display according to a sixth embodiment of the present invention;", "and [0017] FIG. 6 illustrates a vending machine incorporating addressable information displays and various remote means of transportably storing and inputting data to change the displayed information according to one embodiment of the present invention.", "[0018] While the invention will be described in connection with certain preferred embodiments, there is no intent to limit it to those embodiments.", "On the contrary, the intent is to cover all alternatives, modifications and equivalents as included within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0019] FIG. 1 is an illustration of a prior art vending machine product holding tray 100 consisting of a generally horizontal support plane 10 , or alternately a sloped plane 10 a, and a plurality of parallel vertical wall surfaces 11 dividing the tray into a plurality of generally front to back channels or lanes.", "An information presentation plane 12 , located approximately at the front edge of horizontal support plane 10 allows the mounting of lane identification labels 13 and product pricing labels 14 , thus providing a vending machine user an easy method of identifying the selection callout and price of a desired vendable product contained within the vending machine.", "To change the price of a vendable product, the vending machine operator has to manually replace a first price label 14 a with an alternative price label 14 b by first removing the existing obsolete price label 14 a and replacing it with the new price label 14 b. [0020] FIG. 2 illustrates a vending machine product holding tray 200 according to a first embodiment of the present invention.", "The vending machine product holding tray 200 includes a plurality of addressable price information displays, (electronic 20 a, and mechanical/electro-mechanical 20 b display devices) attached to the information presentation plane 12 located along the front edge of the horizontal support plane 10 of vending machine product holding tray 200 , which also displays permanent location identification labels 13 .", "A second preferred embodiment location identification addressable display 13 b is also illustrated herein.", "The third preferred embodiment addressable display 20 c illustrates both location 21 a and price 21 b information as an alpha-numeric segmented display.", "An alternate third preferred embodiment addressable information display method is illustrated herein as a dot-matrix display 20 d, capable of displaying characters as well as complex shapes and animated images.", "[0021] The information 21 , 21 a, 21 b displayed on the plurality of addressable information displays 20 a - 20 d can be automatically changed, using data retrieved from a remote controller 611 ( FIG. 6 ) or other external data storage and retrieval means not illustrated here, without having to manually attend to the display itself.", "Said change of information data may also be manually input via a vending machine keypad 607 ( FIG. 6 ).", "[0022] FIG. 3 illustrates a vending machine product holding tray 300 according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.", "An addressable information display 30 is attached to the information presentation plane 12 approximately located along the front edge of the horizontal support plane 10 of vending machine product holding tray 300 .", "The information 31 , 32 displayed on the addressable information display 30 can be changed automatically, using for example a remote controller 611 ( FIG. 6 ) without having to manually attend to the display itself.", "The illustrated addressable information display 30 substantially covers the front face of information presentation plane 12 maximizing said addressable information display area to display other additional information, lane identification 32 as directed by the remote controller.", "[0023] FIG. 4 illustrates a vending machine product holding tray 400 according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention.", "Addressable information displays 20 and 40 attached to the information presentation plane 12 located approximately along the front of the horizontal support plane 10 of vending machine product holding tray 400 .", "This embodiment includes a horizontal row of a plurality of price display modules 20 displaying individual product pricing 21 , which can be controlled using, for example, a remote controller 611 ( FIG. 6 ).", "The price displays 20 alternate position with lane identification labels 13 , beneath which a secondary addressable display 40 is sized to the horizontal length of information display plane 12 .", "The secondary display 40 , as shown in FIG. 4 is a matrix display of light emitting diodes 41 that displays illuminated information 42 for presentation in response to signals received from a remote controller 611 ( FIG. 6 ).", "The secondary addressable display 40 may be attached via a hinge connection (not illustrated herein) to the bottom edge of the information presentation plane 12 , thus to provide movement to a secondary addressable display 40 and to prevent blockage of product delivery from adjacent product holding trays (not illustrated herein).", "An alternate secondary addressable display 43 is shown as at least one dot-matrix display LCD panel 44 , providing additional information display capability, for example, higher resolution character or image display 45 and an animation in multiple colors.", "[0024] FIG. 5 illustrates a sixth embodiment, wherein a prior art vending machine product holding tray 500 is improved by the addition of an addressable display 40 attached to the bottom edge of the information display plane 12 .", "The secondary display 40 , is illustrated here as a matrix display of light emitting diodes 41 that presents illuminated information 42 , wherein the information 42 can be changed using a remote controller 611 ( FIG. 6 ) and is attached to the bottom edge of the information display plane 12 .", "The secondary display 40 includes at least one multiple electrical conductor 43 terminating in electrical connector 44 , which attaches to the vending machine controller, (not illustrated herein) to complete the circuit to transfer display information from the remote vending machine controller 611 ( FIG. 6 ) to the addressable information display 40 .", "The secondary addressable display 40 may be attached via a hinge connection (not illustrated herein) to the bottom edge of information presentation plane 12 , thus to provide movement to secondary addressable display 40 and to prevent blockage of product delivery from adjacent product holding trays (not illustrated herein).", "[0025] FIG. 6 illustrates a vending machine 600 having a secure enclosure cabinet 601 and having a lockable access 602 .", "Machine 600 stores vendable products 604 for sale and displays them on said first embodiment trays 200 with addressable pricing displays 20 of the present invention viewable behind window 603 .", "The vending machine 600 has a control panel 604 where a customer can make a payment via a bill acceptor 605 or via coin slot 606 before inputting their selection's order code via keypad 607 .", "An internal control unit of the vending machine 600 calculates any change to be given, and the vending machine 600 delivers the calculated change in a coin return cup 609 after delivering the vended product 604 to a delivery area located behind the pickup access door 610 .", "Pressing coin return button 608 cancels a credit, and returns all unused cash to the coin return cup 609 .", "The price codes for displays 20 may be inputted to the control unit of the vending machine 600 via the keypad 607 or via a remote wireless input device 611 .", "Also illustrated is a second remote input device 612 communicating information to addressable displays 20 via a communication cable 612 a and connector 613 b. Alternatively, price codes may be inputted to the control unit of the vending machine 600 via the connected bill acceptor 605 by inserting a card 613 having optical 613 a and/or magnetic 613 b data encoded thereon, or via a cellular phone 614 , a solid-state memory device 615 or a modem (not illustrated herein).", "The remote wireless input device 611 may send input data via any sonic or electromagnetic wave, including but not limited to, visible and invisible light as well as radio waves such as those used in RFID circuits.", "[0026] All references, including publications, patent applications, and patents cited herein are hereby incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each reference were individually and specifically indicated to be incorporated by reference and were set forth in its entirety herein.", "[0027] The use of the terms “a”", "and “an”", "and “the”", "and similar referents in the context of describing the invention (especially in the context of the following claims) is to be construed to cover both the singular and the plural, unless otherwise indicated herein or clearly contradicted by context.", "The terms “comprising,” “having,” “including,” and “containing”", "are to be construed as open-ended terms (i.e., meaning “including, but not limited to,”) unless otherwise noted.", "Recitation of ranges of values herein are merely intended to serve as a shorthand method of referring individually to each separate value falling within the range, unless otherwise indicated herein, and each separate value is incorporated into the specification as if it were individually recited herein.", "All methods described herein can be performed in any suitable order unless otherwise indicated herein or otherwise clearly contradicted by context.", "The use of any and all examples, or exemplary language (e.g., “such as”) provided herein, is intended merely to better illuminate the invention and does not pose a limitation on the scope of the invention unless otherwise claimed.", "No language in the specification should be construed as indicating any non-claimed element as essential to the practice of the invention.", "[0028] Preferred embodiments of this invention are described herein, including the best mode known to the inventors for carrying out the invention.", "Variations of those preferred embodiments may become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon reading the foregoing description.", "The inventors expect skilled artisans to employ such variations as appropriate, and the inventors intend for the invention to be practiced otherwise than as specifically described herein.", "Accordingly, this invention includes all modifications and equivalents of the subject matter recited in the claims appended hereto as permitted by applicable law.", "Moreover, any combination of the above-described elements in all possible variations thereof is encompassed by the invention unless otherwise indicated herein or otherwise clearly contradicted by context." ]

[ "RELATED PATENT APPLICATION [0001] This application is related to Docket No. HT01-032, Ser.", "No. ( ), filing date ( ), to Docket No. HT01-037, Ser.", "No. 10/077064, filing date Feb. 15, 2002 and to Docket No. HT01-020, Ser.", "No. ( ).", "filing date ( ), assigned to the same assignee as the current invention.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1.", "Field of the Invention [0003] This invention relates generally to the fabrication of a giant magnetoresistive (GMR) magnetic field sensor for a magnetic read head, more specifically to the use of either transverse or longitudinal synthetic exchange biasing to stabilize, suppress side reading and reduce the magnetic track width (MRW) of such a sensor.", "[0004] 2.", "Description of the Related Art [0005] Magnetic read heads whose sensors make use of the giant magnetoresistive effect (GMR) in the spin-valve configuration (SVMR) base their operation on the fact that magnetic fields produced by data stored in the medium being read cause the direction of the magnetization of one layer in the sensor (the free magnetic layer) to move relative to a fixed magnetization direction of another layer of the sensor (the fixed or pinned magnetic layer).", "Because the resistance of the sensor element is proportional to the cosine of the (varying) angle between these two magnetizations, a constant current (the sensing current) passing through the sensor produces a varying voltage across the sensor which is interpreted by associated electronic circuitry.", "The accuracy, linearity and stability required of a GMR sensor places stringent requirements on the magnetization of its fixed and free magnetic layers.", "The fixed layer, for example, has its magnetization “pinned”", "in a direction normal to the air bearing surface of the sensor (the transverse direction) by an adjacent magnetic layer (typically an antiferromagnetic layer) called the pinning layer.", "The free layer is typically magnetized in a direction along the width of the sensor and parallel to the air bearing surface (the longitudinal direction).", "Layers of hard magnetic material (permanent magnetic layers) or laminates of antiferromagnetic and soft magnetic materials are typically formed on each side of the sensor and oriented so that their magnetic field extends in the same direction as that of the free layer.", "These layers, called longitudinal bias layers, maintain the free layer as a single magnetic domain and also assist in linearizing the sensor response by keeping the free layer magnetization direction normal to that of the fixed layer when quiescent.", "Maintaining the free layer in a single domain state significantly reduces noise (Barkhausen noise) in the signal produced by thermodynamic variations in domain configurations.", "A magnetically stable spin-valve sensor using either hard magnetic biasing layers or ferromagnetic biasing layers is disclosed by Zhu et al.", "(U.S. Pat. No. 6,324,037 B1) and by Huai et al.", "(U.S. Pat. No. 6,222,707 B1).", "[0006] The importance of longitudinal bias has led to various inventions designed to improve the material composition, structure, positioning and method of forming the magnetic layers that produce it.", "One form of the prior art provides for sensor structures in which the longitudinal bias layers are layers of hard magnetic material (permanent magnets) that abut the etched back ends of the active region of the sensor to produce what is called an abutted junction configuration.", "This arrangement fixes the domain structure of the free magnetic layer by magnetostatic coupling through direct edge-to-edge contact at the etched junction between the biasing layer and the exposed end of the layer being biased (the free layer).", "Another form of the present art employs patterned direct exchange bias.", "Unlike the magnetostatic coupling resulting from direct contact with a hard magnetic material that is used in the abutted junction, in exchange coupling the biasing layer is a layer of ferromagnetic material which overlays the layer being biased, but is separated from it by a thin coupling layer of conducting, but non-magnetic material.", "This non-magnetic gap separating the two layers produces exchange coupling between them, a situation in which it is energetically favorable for the biasing layer and the biased layer assume a certain relative direction of magnetization.", "Another form of exchange coupling involves a direct contact between the free ferromagnetic layer and an overlaying layer of antiferromagnetic material.", "Xiao et al.", "(U.S. Pat. No. 6,322,640 B1) disclose a method for forming a double, antiferromagnetically biased GMR sensor, using as the biasing material a magnetic material having two crystalline phases, one of which couples antiferromagnetically and the other of which does not.", "Fuke et al.", "(U.S. Pat. No. 6,313,973 B1) provides an exchange coupled configuration comprising a coupling film, an antiferromagnetic film and a ferromagnetic film and wherein the coupling film has a particularly advantageous crystal structure.", "[0007] As the area density of magnetization in magnetic recording media (eg.", "disks) continues to increase, significant reduction in the width of the active sensing region (trackwidth) of read-sensors becomes necessary.", "For trackwidths less than 0.2 microns (μm), the traditional abutted junction hard bias structure discussed above becomes unsuitable because the strong magnetostatic coupling at the junction surface actually pins the magnetization of the (very narrow) biased layer (the free layer), making it less responsive to the signal being read and, thereby, significantly reducing the sensor sensitivity.", "[0008] Under very narrow trackwidth conditions, the exchange bias method becomes increasingly attractive, since the free layer is not reduced in size by the formation of an abutted junction, but extends continuously across the entire width of the sensor element.", "FIG. 1 is a schematic depiction of an abutted junction arrangement and FIG. 2 is an equally schematic depiction of a direct exchange coupled configuration.", "As can be seen, the trackwidth in the abutted junction is made narrow by physically etching away both ends of the sensor, whereas in the exchange coupled sensor, the trackwidth is defined by placement of the conductive leads and bias layers while the sensor element retains its full width.", "[0009] The direct exchange biasing also has disadvantages when used in a very narrow trackwidth configuration because of the weakness of the pinning field, which is found to be, typically, approximately 250 Oe.", "The present invention will address this weak pinning field problem while retaining the advantages of exchange biasing by providing a new exchange biased configuration, synthetic exchange biasing.", "In this configuration, the biasing layer is exchange coupled to the free layer by antiferromagnetic exchange coupling, in which the ferromagnetic biasing layer and the ferromagnetic free layer are coupled by a non-magnetic layer to form a configuration in which the two layers have antiparallel magnetizations (a synthetic antiferromagnetic layer).", "A stronger pinning field, typically exceeding 700 Oe, can be obtained using the synthetic exchange biasing method.", "More advantageously, an effective magnetic trackwidth of 0.15 μm can be obtained with a physical track width of 0.1 μm by using such a configuration by reducing the level of side reading (sensor response generated by signals originating outside of the magnetic trackwidth region) which is produced by the portion of the free layer that is beneath the biasing layer and conduction leads.", "The invention provides such a novel synthetic exchange biased sensor in two configurations, longitudinal and transverse, each of which is shown to have particular advantages both in its operation and its formation.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0010] It is a first object of the present invention to provide a magnetically stable patterned synthetic exchange biased GMR sensor capable of reading high area density magnetic recordings of densities exceeding 60 Gb/in 2 (gigabits per square inch).", "[0011] It is a second object of the present invention to provide such a patterned synthetic exchange biased GMR sensor which is biased in either the longitudinal or the transverse directions.", "[0012] It is a third object of the present invention to provide such a synthetic exchange biased GMR sensor having a very narrow effective magnetic trackwidth in which undesirable side reading is significantly reduced.", "[0013] It is a fourth object of the present invention to provide such a synthetic exchange biased GMR sensor that is easily fabricated.", "[0014] It is a fifth object of the present invention to provide such a synthetic exchange biased GMR sensor that has thin conducting lead layers for an improved topography.", "[0015] The objects of this invention will be achieved in three embodiments, each of which will now be briefly described and will then be described in fuller detail below.", "In the first embodiment, a synthetic exchange longitudinally biased GMR sensor will be provided, said sensor having a bottom spin valve, specularly reflecting structure which can be deposited in a single fabrication process and which has the following structural form: NiCr/MnPt/CoFe(AP2)/Ru/CoFe(AP1)/Cu/CoFe—NiFe/Ru/CoFe/IrMn/Ta/Au The NiCr is a seed layer, the MnPt is an antiferromagnetic pinning layer for the bottom synthetic pinned layer of CoFe (AP2)/Ru/CoFe(AP1), wherein the two ferromagnetic exchange coupled CoFe layers are labeled AP1 &", "AP2 to distinguish them.", "The Cu layer is a conducting, non-magnetic spacer layer separating the synthetic pinned layer from the CoFe—NiFe ferromagnetic free layer (a bilayer).", "This latter bilayer is antiferromagnetically exchange coupled across a Ru layer to a (patterned) CoFe biasing layer, forming the synthetic exchange coupled bias structure which has both a high pinning field and advantageous magnetostriction characteristics.", "The exchange biased layer is itself antiferromagnetically pinned by direct exchange coupling with an antiferromagnetic IrMn layer, over which is a conductive lead layer of Ta/Au.", "It is found that the pinning field of the free layer provided by the patterned bias layer in this synthetic exchange coupled configuration exceeds 650 Oe and may be as high as 755 Oe, as compared to pinning fields of the order of 250-300 Oe for the direct (not synthetic) coupled structure.", "[0017] In the second embodiment, a synthetic exchange transversely biased GMR sensor will be provided together with a method for its fabrication.", "The structural form of this embodiment is: NiCr/AFM/CoFe(AP2)/Ru/CoFe(AP1)/Cu/CoFe—NiFe/Ru/CoFe/AFM/Ta/Au.", "The NiCr is a seed layer, AFM denotes an antiferromagnetic pinning layer for the bottom synthetic pinned layer of CoFe (AP2)/Ru/CoFe(AP1), wherein the two ferromagnetic exchange coupled CoFe layers are labeled AP1 &", "AP2 to distinguish them.", "The Cu layer is a conducting, non-magnetic spacer layer separating the synthetic pinned layer from the CoFe—NiFe ferromagnetic free layer (a bilayer).", "This latter bilayer is antiferromagnetically exchange coupled across a Ru layer to a (patterned) CoFe biasing layer, forming the synthetic exchange coupled bias structure.", "The exchange biased layer is itself antiferromagnetically pinned by direct exchange coupling with an antiferromagnetic layer, again denoted AFM, over which is a conductive lead layer of Ta/Au.", "In contrast to the structural form of the first embodiment, the same antiferromagnetic material, typically either IrMn or MnPt, can serve in both locations designated AFM.", "An important advantage of the transverse biasing is that the magnetic field of the free and pinned layers are in the same direction, producing a plateau region under low external field wherein the free layer magnetization and the pinned layer magnetizations do not rotate relative to each other.", "This is particularly important for reducing signal contributions from the free layer region that is under the biasing layer which then produces a narrow effective trackwidth.", "[0019] It is another one of the advantages of this second embodiment that different antiferromagnetic materials are not necessary to achieve its objects because both the synthetic pinned layer, CoFe (AP2)/Ru/CoFe(AP1), and the synthetic bias exchange coupled free layer, CoFe—NiFe/Ru/CoFe, are magnetized along the same direction.", "This allows antiferromagnetic materials with high blocking temperatures to be utilized which, in turn, allows high pinning fields to be obtained.", "The high pinning fields minimizes the problems caused by sensor current flow within the sensor element and, consequently, current shunting is not required and thin conducting lead layers can be used.", "The third embodiment of the present invention provides a transversely biased sensor as in the second embodiment, but the pinning fields at opposite ends of the free layer are antiparallel to each other.", "This configuration affords the additional advantages of stabilizing the bias point of the free layer and further minimizing side reading by the sensor.", "In the description of the three embodiments provided below, the structures, the processes preferred for their fabrication and their advantages, will be more fully described.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0020] The objects, features and advantages of the present invention are understood within the context of the Description of the Preferred Embodiment, as set forth below.", "The Description of the Preferred Embodiment is understood within the context of the accompanying figures, wherein: [0021] FIG. 1 is a highly schematic diagram of a prior-art abutted junction GMR sensor stack having a hard magnetic longitudinal bias layer and conductive lead overlayer in contact with the junction.", "The diagram is a cross-sectional view of the air bearing surface (ABS) of the sensor.", "The sensor stack shows only the free layer.", "[0022] FIG. 2 is a schematic, ABS view, cross-sectional diagram of a prior-art direct exchange (longitudinally) biased GMR sensor stack, showing the patterned biasing layers, their magnetization directions, and other layers of the sensor.", "[0023] FIG. 3 a is a schematic, ABS view, cross-sectional diagram of a synthetic exchange (longitudinally) biased GMR sensor stack, before patterning, fabricated in accord with the objects of the first preferred embodiment of the present invention.", "[0024] FIG. 3 b shows the process of patterning the sensor of FIG. 3 a. [0025] FIG. 4 a is a schematic, ABS view, cross-sectional diagram of a synthetic exchange biased GMR sensor stack formed in accord with a second embodiment of the present invention.", "The transverse magnetizations of the exchange biased free layer and the synthetic pinned layer are indicated.", "[0026] FIG. 4 b is the sensor stack of FIG. 4 a subsequent to patterning.", "[0027] FIG. 5 a is a schematic, ABS view, cross-sectional diagram of a partially formed synthetic exchange biased GMR sensor stack formed in accord with a third embodiment of the present invention.", "In this embodiment the transverse magnetizations of each lateral end of the exchange biased free layer are antiparallel to each other and each is also antiparallel to the transverse magnetizations of the biasing layers that overlay them.", "[0028] FIGS. 5 b - 5 e show the detailed processes by which the sensor stack of 5 a is patterned and magnetized.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS [0029] Referring first to FIG. 1 there is shown a schematic cross-sectional view of the ABS surface of a typical abutted junction GMR sensor designed in accord with the prior art.", "As can be seen, the narrow trackwidth is obtained at the price of reducing the physical width of the ferromagnetic free layer ( 10 ).", "As a result, the biasing layer ( 20 ) pins the magnetization of the free layer and reduces the sensitivity of the sensor.", "[0030] Referring next to FIG. 2 , there is shown a schematic cross-sectional view of the ABS surface of a patterned direct exchange longitudinally biased GMR sensor of the prior art.", "The physical trackwidth ( 10 ) of this configuration is defined by the width of the region between the leads ( 20 ), typically a Ta/Au bilayer, and the patterned biasing layers beneath them ( 25 ), typically layers of CoFe.", "The ferromagnetic free layer ( 27 ), typically a CoFe/NiFe bilayer, extends the entire width of the sensor so it is not adversely affected by the edge pinning field of the biasing layer, which is a disadvantage of the hard biased abutted junction of FIG. 1 .", "The diagram also shows the antiferromagnetic layer ( 29 ), typically a layer of IrMn, which pins the patterned biasing layer ( 25 ).", "The free layer ( 27 ) is separated from the biasing layer ( 25 ) by a non-magnetic coupling layer ( 28 ) which is typically a layer of Cu or Ru and which directly exchange couples the ferromagnetic free layer ( 27 ) to the ferromagnetic biasing layer ( 25 ) by ferromagnetic coupling to produce parallel magnetizations ( 11 ) labeled M 2 (biasing layer) and M 1 (free layer).", "The remainder of the configuration comprises an antiferromagnetically coupled (synthetic) pinned layer ( 30 ), which comprises two ferromagnetic layers (( 32 ) and ( 34 )) antiferromagnetically exchange coupled across a non-magnetic coupling layer ( 36 ) and which is separated from ( 27 ) by a non magnetic spacer layer ( 31 ).", "Beneath ( 30 ) there is an antiferromagnetic pinning layer ( 40 ), typically a layer of MnPt, which pins the antiferromagnetically coupled pinned layer.", "The magnetic moments of the antiferromagnetically coupled pinned layers are in the transverse direction (perpendicular to the plane of the figure) and are antiparallel, with the directions of magnetization of the individual layers indicated by circles ( 15 ) (out of the plane) and crosses within circles ( 17 ) (into the plane).", "Obtaining perpendicularity of the free layer magnetization and pinned layer magnetization complicates the fabrication process of the sensor, since two different antiferromagnetic materials with different blocking temperatures are typically required for ( 40 ) and ( 29 ), eg.", "IrMn and MnPt in this illustration, as are different annealing schedules so that the magnetization of the pinned layer should not affect the magnetization of the biasing layer.", "When the physical trackwidth ( 10 ) of this entire configuration is narrow, however, (less than 0.2 microns) the strength of the ferromagnetic coupling (the pinning field) is weak and is typically less than 250 Oe.", "Note that thicknesses are not given for this figure since the configuration is shown for comparison purposes only.", "[0000] First Preferred Embodiment [0031] Referring next to FIG. 3 a , there is shown a schematic cross-sectional view of the air bearing surface (ABS) of a synthetic exchange longitudinally biased GMR sensor, before patterning, fabricated in accord with the objects of a first embodiment of the present invention and having the properties and advantages of said embodiment.", "The device is fabricated in a sequence of three major steps: 1) depositing the sensor layers;", "2) annealing and magnetizing the synthetic pinned layer and the synthetic biased free layer;", "3) patterning.", "[0000] 1) Deposition Process [0032] First there is deposited a seed layer ( 9 ), which is typically a layer of NiCr deposited to a thickness of between approximately 55 and 65 angstroms with 60 angstroms being preferred.", "On this seed layer is then deposited a first antiferromagnetic layer ( 40 ) to serve as a pinning layer.", "Typically this pinning layer is a layer of MnPt deposited to a thickness of between approximately 80 and 150 angstroms with 100 angstroms being preferred.", "On the pinning layer, and pinned by it, there is then formed a synthetic antiferromagnetic pinned layer ( 30 ), which is an antiferromagnetically coupled trilayer comprising a first ferromagnetic layer ( 32 ), a first non-magnetic antiferromgnetically coupling layer ( 36 ) formed on ( 32 ) and a second ferromagnetic layer ( 34 ) formed on the coupling layer.", "The ferromagnetic layers are typically layers of CoFe, with the first layer having a thickness of between approximately 12 and 20 angstroms with 15 angstroms being preferred and the second layer having a thickness of between approximately 15 and 25 angstroms with 20 angstroms being preferred.", "The coupling layer, which is typically a layer of Ru, is formed to a thickness of between approximately 7 and 9 angstroms with 7.5 angstroms being preferred.", "On the synthetic pinned layer is then formed a non-magnetic spacer layer ( 31 ), which separates the pinned and free layers.", "This spacer layer is typically a layer of Cu, which is formed to a thickness of between approximately 13 and 25 angstroms with 18 angstroms being preferred.", "The free layer ( 27 ), which is a ferromagnetic bilayer of CoFe ( 22 ) and NiFe ( 23 ), is then formed on the spacer layer, wherein the CoFe layer has a thickness of between approximately 5 and 15 with 10 angstroms being preferred and the NiFe layer has a thickness of between approximately 15 and 30 angstroms with 20 angstroms being preferred.", "The free layer is then antiferromagnetically exchange coupled across a non-magnetic coupling layer ( 28 ) to a ferromagnetic biasing layer ( 25 ), forming, thereby, the synthetic exchange biased configuration ( 26 ).", "The coupling layer in this case is a layer of Ru of thickness between approximately 7 and 9 angstroms with 7.5 angstroms being preferred and the biasing layer is a layer of CoFe of thickness between approximately 10 and 25 angstroms with 15 angstroms being preferred.", "The synthetic exchange biased configuration ( 26 ) is then pinned by an antiferromagnetic layer of IrMn ( 29 ) of thickness between approximately 35 and 55 angstroms with 40 angstroms being preferred.", "A conducting lead layer ( 20 ) is deposited over the IrMn layer in a lead overlay (LOL) configuration.", "The lead layer is typically a Ta/Au bilayer of thickness between approximately 100 and 500 angstroms.", "[0000] 2) Annealing Process [0033] The GMR sensor configuration thus formed is then given a first pinned layer annealing to fix the magnetizations of both synthetic pinned layers ( 30 ) &", "( 26 ).", "The anneal consists of a 5 hour 280° C. anneal in an external transversely directed magnetic field of approximately 10 kOe (kilo-oersteds) to set both pinned layers in the transverse direction (perpendicular to the air-bearing surface).", "The resulting magnetization vectors are shown only for the first pinned layer ( 30 ) as a circle ( 15 ), representing a direction out of the plane, and a circle with an interior cross ( 17 ), representing a direction into the plane.", "Following this first pinned layer anneal, a second anneal is applied at a lower temperature and lower magnetic field to reset the magnetization of the synthetic exchange biased layer ( 26 ) from the transverse direction into the longitudinal direction.", "This second anneal is carried out for a time of approximately 30 minutes at an annealing temperature of approximately 250° C., which is higher than the IrMn blocking temperature.", "The resulting magnetizations are shown as arrows, M 1 ( 12 ) being the magnetization of the free layer and M 2 ( 11 ) that of the biasing layer.", "Under this anneal, the synthetic pinned layer ( 30 ) retains its transverse magnetization.", "It is found by experiment that the configuration described above, under the sequence of anneals to which it is subjected as is also described above, has the advantageous properties of a high pinning field that is approximately 755 Oe, as well as a desirable value of free layer magnetostriction.", "[0000] 3) Patterning Process [0034] Referring now to FIG. 3 b , there is shown a schematic diagram illustrating the process by which a physical trackwidth ( 10 ) of approximately 0.1 microns is formed in the sensor of FIG. 3 a by etching the lead and pinning layers to form the patterned exchange structure.", "Patterning is done by sequentially removing the entire thickness of a lateral portion of the lead layer ( 40 ) (shown in dashed outline) and the entire thickness of the IrMn pinning layer beneath it ( 42 ) (shown in dashed outline) by use of a reactive ion etch (RIE) or an ion beam etch (IBE).", "Removal of these two layers exposes a portion of the CoFe biasing layer ( 44 ), said portion then being effectively removed by an oxidation process, which converts it to a non-magnetic CoFeO (shown shaded).", "In this process, the antiferromagnetically coupling layer ( 28 ) of Ru acts as an oxidation barrier to prevent the oxidation from extending downward to adversely affect the ferromagnetic free layer ( 27 ).", "The surface of the coupling layer ( 28 ) beneath ( 44 ) is thereby itself oxidized at the termination of the process.", "Note in the synthetic pinned layer ( 30 ) that small circles ( 15 ) represent magnetizations out of the plane, circles with interior crosses ( 17 ) are into the plane.", "The symbols M 1 ( 12 ) and M 2 ( 11 ) refer to the antiparallel directions of the magnetizations of the free (M 1 ) and pinning (M 2 ) layers.", "[0000] Second Preferred Embodiment [0035] Referring next to FIG. 4 a , there is shown a schematic cross-sectional view of the air bearing surface (ABS) of a synthetic exchange transversely biased GMR sensor, before patterning, fabricated in accord with the objects of a second embodiment of the present invention and having the properties and advantages of said embodiment.", "The device is fabricated in a sequence of three major steps: 1) depositing the sensor layers;", "2) annealing and magnetizing the synthetic pinned layer and the synthetic biased free layer;", "3) patterning.", "[0000] 1) Deposition Process [0036] First there is deposited a seed layer ( 9 ), which is typically a layer of NiCr deposited to a thickness of between approximately 50 and 60 angstroms.", "On this seed layer is then deposited a first antiferromagnetic layer ( 40 ) to serve as a pinning layer.", "Typically this pinning layer is a layer of MnPt deposited to a thickness of between approximately 100 and 150 angstroms, but other antiferromagnetic materials such as NiMn, PdPtMn, FeMn or IrMn can be used.", "On the first pinning layer, and to be pinned by it, there is then formed a synthetic antiferromagnetic pinned layer ( 30 ), which is an antiferromagnetically coupled trilayer comprising a first ferromagnetic layer ( 32 ), a first non-magnetic antiferromagnetically coupling layer ( 36 ) formed on ( 32 ) and a second ferromagnetic layer ( 34 ) formed on the coupling layer.", "The ferromagnetic layers are typically layers of CoFe, with the first ferromagnetic layer having a thickness of between approximately 15 and 20 angstroms with 15 angstroms being preferred and the second ferromagnetic layer having a thickness of between approximately 20 and 25 angstroms with 20 angstroms being preferred.", "The first coupling layer, which can be a layer of Ru, is formed to a thickness of between approximately 7 and 9 angstroms with 7.5 angstroms being preferred.", "Alternatively, the first coupling layer can be a layer of Rh, formed to a thickness of between 4 and 6 angstroms with 5 angstroms being preferred.", "On the synthetic antiferromagnetic pinned layer there is then formed a non-magnetic spacer layer ( 31 ), which separates the pinned and free layers.", "This spacer layer is typically a layer of Cu, which is formed to a thickness of between approximately 15 and 22 angstroms with 18 angstroms being preferred.", "The free layer ( 27 ), which is preferably a ferromagnetic bilayer of CoFe ( 22 ) and NiFe ( 23 ), is then formed on the spacer layer, wherein the CoFe layer has a thickness of between approximately 5 and 15 with 10 angstroms being preferred and the NiFe layer has a thickness of between approximately 15 and 30 angstroms with 20 angstroms being preferred.", "The free layer is then antiferromagnetically exchange coupled across a second non-magnetic coupling layer ( 28 ) to a ferromagnetic biasing layer ( 25 ), forming, thereby, the synthetic exchange biased configuration ( 26 ).", "If the first non-magnetic coupling layer ( 36 ) is a layer of Ru, then the second non-magnetic coupling layer ( 28 ) is also a layer of Ru of thickness between approximately 7 and 8 angstroms with 7.5 angstroms being preferred.", "If the first coupling layer is a layer of Rh, then the second coupling layer is also a layer of Rh of a thickness between 4 and 6 angstroms with 5 angstroms being preferred.", "If the second coupling layer is Ru, the biasing layer ( 25 ) is a layer of CoFe of thickness between approximately 15 and 30 angstroms with 15 angstroms being preferred.", "If the second coupling layer is Rh, the biasing layer ( 25 ) is a layer of CoFe of thickness between approximately 25 and 30 angstroms with 28 angstroms being preferred.", "It is to be noted that the thicker biasing layer ( 25 ) formed in conjunction with the Rh coupling layer produces a greater pinning field in the sensor.", "[0037] The synthetic exchange biased configuration ( 26 ) is then pinned by a second pinning layer, which is an antiferromagnetic layer of MnPt ( 25 ) of thickness between approximately 80 and 100 angstroms with 100 angstroms being preferred (note, if any of the other antiferromagnetic materials mentioned above have been used to form the first pinning layer, that same material can also be used here to form the second pinning layer).", "A conducting lead layer ( 20 ) is deposited over the MnPt layer ( 25 ) in a lead overlay (LOL) configuration.", "The lead layer is typically a Ta/Au/Ta trilayer of thickness between approximately 200 and 400 angstroms.", "[0000] 2) Annealing Process [0038] The GMR sensor configuration thus formed is then given a pinned layer annealing to fix the magnetization of both synthetic pinned layers ( 26 ) &", "( 30 ), which are, respectively, the antiferromagnetic pinned layer and the synthetic exchange biased configuration.", "The anneal consists of a 5 hour 280° C. anneal in an external magnetic field of approximately 10 kOe (kilo-oersteds) to set both pinned layers in the transverse direction (perpendicular to the air-bearing surface).", "The resulting magnetization vectors are shown as circles ( 53 &", "57 ) representing magnetizations out of the plane, and circles with interior crosses ( 51 &", "55 ) representing magnetizations into the plane.", "M 1 and M 2 are the labels representing the magnetizations of the free and biasing layers respectively.", "It is found by experiment that the configuration described above, under the anneal to which it is subjected as is also described above, has the advantageous properties of a high pinning field that is more than 1000 Oe, as well as an effective trackwidth of less than 0.15 microns subsequent to the patterning that will now be described.", "A significant advantage of the transverse directions of both the free and pinned layers is that there is a plateau of very little relative rotation of their magnetizations under small external magnetic fields.", "This plateau is particularly important in the region of the free layer directly beneath the biasing layer in that it leads to extremely small signals being produced by this portion of the free layer.", "Since unwanted side reading is a direct result of signals emanating from the extreme lateral portions of the free layer, this diminution of signals from that portion is directly responsible for the narrow effective trackwidth.", "Another important advantage of the transverse directions of both the free and pinned layers is that it is unnecessary to rotate the free layer magnetization with a second anneal after fixing the magnetization of the pinned layer.", "This allows the use of antiferromagnetic pinning layers of the same high blocking temperature material to be used to pin both the synthetic pinned layer and the synthetic exchange biased free layer.", "In turn, this allows high external fields to be used to fix the pinning field, which increases the efficacy of the biasing layer and reduces the effective trackwidth of the sensor.", "It has also been demonstrated that the high pinning fields thus obtained (exceeding 1000 Oe) eliminate the need for current shunting of the sensor current, which permits the use of thinner conducting lead layers and provides a more advantageous topology.", "[0000] 3) Patterning Process [0039] Referring now to FIG. 4 b , there is shown a schematic diagram illustrating the process by which a physical trackwidth ( 10 ) of approximately 0.1 microns is formed in the sensor of FIG. 4 a by patterning the lead and pinning layers to form the patterned exchange structure.", "Patterning is done by sequentially removing the entire thickness of a lateral portion of the lead layer (( 40 ) shown in dashed outline) and the entire thickness of the MnPt pinning layer beneath it (( 42 ) shown in dashed outline) by use of a reactive ion etch (RIE) or an ion beam etch (IBE).", "Removal of these two layers exposes the CoFe biasing layer ( 42 ), the portion of which is exposed (( 44 ) shown shaded) being then effectively removed by an oxidation process, which converts it to non-magnetic CoFeO.", "In this process, the antiferromagnetically coupling layer ( 28 ) of Ru (or Rh) acts as an oxidation barrier to prevent the oxidation from extending downward to the ferromagnetic free layer ( 27 ) and adversely affecting it.", "The exposed surface of the coupling layer ( 28 ) is thereby itself oxidized at the termination of the process.", "[0000] Third Preferred Embodiment [0040] Referring next to FIG. 5 a , there is shown a schematic cross-sectional view of the air bearing surface (ABS) of a partially fabricated synthetic exchange transversely biased GMR sensor, before the antiparallel magnetization of its biasing layer and before deposition of a conducting lead layer and final patterning, fabricated in accord with the objects of a third embodiment of the present invention and having the properties and advantages of said embodiment.", "In this embodiment the transverse magnetizations of the pinning layer and free layer are antiparallel to each other at the opposite ends of the sensor where they are beneath the conducting lead layers.", "This configuration has been shown to have two advantages: 1) prevention of the bias point shift at the center active region of the free layer and 2) minimization of side reading at both sides of the sensor element.", "[0041] The device is fabricated in a sequence of four steps: 1) depositing the sensor layers up to and including the exchange biasing layer (shown in FIG. 5 a );", "2) separately magnetizing both lateral ends of the exchange biasing layer in opposite transverse directions using a two-step patterning and annealing sequence (shown in FIGS. 5 b and 5 c );", "3) depositing conducting lead layers (shown in FIG. 5 d );", "4) patterning ( FIG. 5 d ).", "[0000] 1) Deposition Process [0042] Referring to FIG. 5 a and looking vertically upward, there is first seen deposited a seed layer ( 9 ), which is typically a layer of NiCr deposited to a thickness of between approximately 50 and 60 angstroms.", "On this seed layer is then deposited a first antiferromagnetic layer ( 40 ) to serve as a pinning layer.", "Typically this pinning layer is a layer of MnPt deposited to a thickness of between approximately 100 and 150 angstroms, but other antiferromagnetic materials such as NiMn, PdPtMn, FeMn or IrMn can be used.", "On the first pinning layer there is then formed a synthetic antiferromagnetic pinned layer ( 30 ), which is an antiferromagnetically coupled trilayer comprising a first ferromagnetic layer ( 32 ), a first non-magnetic antiferromagnetically coupling layer ( 36 ) formed on ( 32 ) and a second ferromagnetic layer ( 34 ) formed on the coupling layer.", "The ferromagnetic layers are typically layers of CoFe, with the first ferromagnetic layer having a thickness of between approximately 15 and 20 angstroms with 15 angstroms being preferred and the second ferromagnetic layer having a thickness of between approximately 20 and 25 angstroms with 20 angstroms being preferred.", "The first non-magnetic antiferromagnetically coupling layer, which can be a layer of Ru, is formed to a thickness of between approximately 7 and 9 angstroms with 7.5 angstroms being preferred.", "Alternatively, the first coupling layer can be a layer of Rh, formed to a thickness of between 4 and 6 angstroms with 5 angstroms being preferred.", "In either case, the layer is formed of a material and to a thickness that will cause the two ferromagnetic layers to align their magnetizations in an antiparallel direction upon annealing.", "On the synthetic pinned layer there is then formed a non-magnetic spacer layer ( 31 ), which separates the pinned and free layers.", "This spacer layer is typically a layer of Cu, which is formed to a thickness of between approximately 15 and 22 angstroms with 18 angstroms being preferred.", "The free layer ( 27 ), which in this preferred embodiment is a ferromagnetic bilayer of CoFe ( 22 ) and NiFe ( 23 ), is then formed on the spacer layer, wherein the CoFe layer has a thickness of between approximately 5 and 15 with 10 angstroms being preferred and the NiFe layer has a thickness of between approximately 15 and 30 angstroms with 20 angstroms being preferred.", "The free layer is then antiferromagnetically exchange coupled across a second non-magnetic coupling layer ( 28 ) to a ferromagnetic biasing layer ( 25 ), forming, thereby, the synthetic antiferromagnetic exchange biased configuration ( 26 ).", "If the first non-magnetic coupling layer ( 36 ) is a layer of Ru, then the second non-magnetic coupling layer ( 28 ) is also a layer of Ru of thickness between approximately 7 and 8 angstroms with 7.5 angstroms being preferred.", "If the first coupling layer is a layer of Rh, then the second coupling layer is also a layer of Rh of a thickness between 4 and 6 angstroms with 5 angstroms being preferred.", "If the second coupling layer is Ru, the biasing layer ( 25 ) is a layer of CoFe of thickness between approximately 15 and 30 angstroms with 15 angstroms being preferred.", "If the second coupling layer is Rh, the biasing layer ( 25 ) is a layer of CoFe of thickness between approximately 25 and 30 angstroms with 28 angstroms being preferred.", "It is to be noted that the thicker biasing layer ( 25 ) formed in conjunction with the Rh coupling layer produces a greater pinning field in the sensor.", "At this point in the fabrication process the magnetization of the pinned layer can be set by an anneal in the same manner as in the previous embodiments.", "A 5 hour anneal in a 10 kOe magnetic field at a temperature of 280° C. is preferred.", "[0043] Referring now to FIG. 5 b , there is shown an upper portion of the structure of FIG. 5 a wherein a lateral portion ( 60 ) of the ferromagnetic biasing layer ( 25 ) has been covered by a layer of etch resistant material ( 62 ) (such as photoresist), leaving the remaining portion (shown shaded) of the biasing layer uncovered ( 64 ).", "This uncovered portion is then cleaned by a sputter etch process.", "[0044] Referring next to FIG. 5 c , there is shown the cleaned portion ( 64 ) refilled with the same ferromagnetic material of the biasing layer and covered by an additional layer of antiferromagnetic material ( 66 ), such as a layer of IrMn deposited to a thickness Of between approximately 35 and 55 angstroms with 40 angstroms being preferred, to act as a pinning layer.", "During this deposition process, the fabrication thus produced is annealed in a first transverse magnetic field in a first transverse direction to fix the direction of the magnetizations in the antiferromagnetic coupling between the portion of the biasing layer ( 64 ), whose magnetization is shown as a circle ( 68 ), and the corresponding portion of the free layer ( 27 ) beneath it, whose antiparallel magnetization is shown as a circle with a cross ( 69 ).", "The first anneal is for between approximately 30 and 60 minutes but where approximately 30 minutes is preferred, at a temperature of between approximately 250° C. and 280° C., but where 250° C. is preferred and with a magnetic field of between approximately 250 and 500 Oe but where 250 Oe is preferred.", "The antiferromagnetic layer ( 66 ) pins the biasing layer in this process.", "[0045] Referring next to FIG. 5 d , there is shown the fabrication of FIG. 5 c , wherein the surface of the opposite lateral portion ( 72 ) of the biasing layer is now exposed, while the remainder of the layer, which has already been magnetized, is covered by a resistant layer ( 74 ), such as a layer of photoresist.", "In a similar fashion to that described in FIG. 5 c , the portion ( 72 ) is cleaned and covered with additional biasing material and, over it, a layer of antiferromagnetic pinning material ( 75 ) such as IrMn is formed in a manner identical to that described in FIG. 5 c .", "During the deposition process a second external magnetic field in the opposite direction to that used in the process of FIG. 5 c is applied and the biasing layer portion ( 72 ) is thereby magnetized in the direction of that magnetic field (circle with a cross ( 81 )) and the free layer beneath it ( 27 ) is oppositely magnetized (circle ( 83 )).", "The second anneal, like the first, is for between approximately 30 and 60 minutes but where approximately 30 minutes is preferred, at a temperature of between approximately 250° C. and 280° C., but where 250° C. is preferred and with a magnetic field of between approximately 250 and 500 Oe but where 250 Oe is preferred.", "The deposited antiferromagnetic layer ( 75 ) serves to pin the biasing layer by this process.", "[0046] Referring now to FIG. 5 e , there is shown the fabrication of FIG. 5 d wherein a central portion ( 85 ) of the twice magnetized biasing layer is removed by an ion beam or chemical etching process to form a trackwidth of desired dimension.", "A conducting lead layer ( 90 ) has been formed over the two biasing layers.", "The lead layer is typically a Ta/Au/Ta trilayer of thickness between approximately 200 and 400 angstroms.", "[0047] As is understood by a person skilled in the art, the preferred embodiments of the present invention are illustrative of the present invention rather than limiting of the present invention.", "Revisions and modifications may be made to methods, materials, structures and dimensions employed in fabricating a synthetic, patterned, longitudinally or transversely exchange biased GMR sensor with narrow effective trackwidth, while still providing a method for fabricating such a synthetic, patterned, longitudinally or transversely exchange biased GMR sensor with narrow effective trackwidth, in accord with the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Field of the Invention The present invention is broadly concerned with hinges for glass doors.", "More particularly, it is concerned with a hinge having improved stability and isolation of the glass from the hinge element.", "Description of the Prior Art Hinges of various types for permitting doors to swing about an axis are well known.", "One particular application for such hinges is on glass doors of the types used for bath and shower stalls and the like.", "Such applications place particular demands on the hinge due to the weight of the door and the generally brittle character of glass.", "Moreover, the use of glass necessitates the provision of an attractive hinge, and must be moisture resistant in light of the often moist and humid environment in which it may often be required to operate.", "On particular hinge device which has been developed for use on a glass door or panel is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,867,869.", "This type of hinge uses pressure on a main pivot roller by a sub pin roller in order to return the swinging door to a desired orientation.", "However, the hinge shown in this design is subject to fatigue from repeated cycling of use, whereby the hinge may loosen.", "Moreover, while gaskets are designed to be positioned between the glass and the metal in order to avoid damage to the glass, the glass may nevertheless contact the metal hinge components after repeated use or during installation.", "Thus, a need for an improved glass door hinge which overcomes these and other problems has developed.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention addresses these problems by improving the ability of the hinge to maintain correct alignment over a large number of cycles of use, and by facilitating the task of the installer in regard to isolating the glass door from the metal components of the hinge.", "The glass door hinge hereof particularly addresses these needs while providing an attractive appearance by the use of locking screws to hold set screws which engage complementally shaped countersunk indentations in the spindle to resist slippage of the spindle relative to the hinge block in which it is received, by providing a lipped gasket to maintain isolation of the glass from the metal clamp for the door or panel, by providing a groove in the spindle for receiving and retaining lubricant over a large number of cycles.", "Broadly speaking, the glass door hinge hereof includes a pair of opposed clamps which receive therebetween a glass door.", "A pair of specially configured lipped gaskets of flexible elastomeric material are placed between the glass door and the clamps to isolate the glass door from the clamps.", "The clamps also receive therebetween a spindle which is maintained stationary relative to the clamps by a first pair of set screws which are in turn locked into place by a pair of backing screws.", "The clamps and the spindle thus pivot with the door relative to a hinge block.", "The hinge block is coupled by fasteners to a hinge mount to maintain a fixed relationship thereto, whereby the spindle pivots relative to the block and defines the door pivot axis.", "The hinge block includes at least one centering member biased by a spring against a face of the spindle.", "The spring is held between the mount and the centering member in order to exert a force against the spindle face which serves to urge the door to a desired initial orientation relative to the mount.", "The mount may be a wall mount or, alternative, a second set of glass clamps and lipped gaskets to couple the glass door hinge to a panel, such as a glass panel.", "The glass door hinge hereof greatly facilitates installation of the door to a wall or adjacent panel.", "The lipped gaskets may be positioned on the clamps to prevent contact between the metal clamps including around the boss during assembly and adjustment of the positioning of the door during installation.", "Once installed, the locking screws and the set screws are completely concealed from view, the set screws engaging the spindle at countersunk indentations, but together inhibit movement of the spindle relative to the clamps notwithstanding repeated cycles of usage.", "These and other advantages of the present invention will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art with reference to the drawings and description which follow.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a right front perspective view of a glass door hinge in accordance with the present invention showing a door in broken lines with the opposed clamps receiving the door therebetween and the mount coupled by threaded fasteners to a supporting wall;", "FIG. 2 is a right front perspective view similar to FIG. 1 showing one of the opposed clamps removed to show one of the two lipped gaskets in position to isolate the door from the metal hinge clamps, hinge block and fasteners holding the clamps together;", "FIG. 3 is a fragmentary perspective view of the door clamp opposite the clamp shown in FIG. 2, showing the configuration of the clamp and the lipped gasket lying normally adjacent thereto;", "FIG. 4 is a vertical view of glass door hinge hereof shown in a horizontal orientation in partial cross section through the part of the spindle, hinge block, one of the door clamps, mount and one of the centering members, the hinge being in the centered position;", "FIG. 5 is a horizontal cross-sectional view through the hinge hereof, showing the positioning of the lipped gaskets isolating the door from the door clamps and the door in a centered position;", "FIG. 6 is a horizontal cross-sectional view similar to FIG. 5, showing the door and hinge pivoted about the spindle from the centered position;", "FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the spindle;", "FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a second embodiment of the hinge hereof wherein the mount is provided for clamping to a panel;", "and FIG. 9 is a horizontal sectional view of the embodiment of the glass door hinge shown in FIG. 8, showing the mount with additional lipped gaskets in clamping relationship to an upright vertical panel.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to the drawings, the descriptions of which refer to a door mounted for pivoting about a generally vertical axis, a glass door hinge 10 in accordance with the present invention is adapted for pivotally mounting a door 12 , and in particular a glass door, to a supporting structure such as wall 14 .", "The hinge 10 as shown in FIG. 1 broadly includes a pair of opposed first and second clamps 16 and 18 , a respective pair of lipped gaskets 20 and 22 for receipt between the clamps and the door 12 , a hinge block 24 , and a mount 26 .", "As shown in FIG. 4, the hinge 10 further includes a spindle 28 , a pair of centering members 30 and 32 biased by respective springs 34 and 36 , clamp screws 38 and 40 (shown in FIG. 1 ), set screws 42 and 44 , locking screws 46 and 48 , and mount screws 50 and 52 for coupling the mount to the hinge block 24 .", "In greater detail, first clamp 16 is seen in FIG. 2 and includes a substantially U-shaped plate 54 with a recess for receiving therein lipped gasket 20 .", "The plate 54 further includes a raised and inwardly projecting boss 56 positioned in spaced relationship to the upper margin 58 , lower margin 60 and remote margin 62 of the plate 54 .", "The boss 56 has an upper notch 64 and a lower notch 66 in vertical registry therewith to receive respective ears 68 and 70 of spindle 28 therein.", "The boss 56 is substantially U shaped, being open proximately and thus toward a proximate margin 80 of the plate 54 .", "The boss 56 has an upwardly facing edge 71 oriented toward the upper margin 58 , a lower facing edge 73 oriented toward the lower margin 60 , and a remotely facing edge 75 oriented toward the remote margin 62 .", "The boss 56 also includes lobes providing a pair of internally threaded clamp screw receivers 72 and 74 at the corners of the U shaped portion so as to be positioned relatively remotely (away from the mount 26 ) from the notches 64 and 66 which receive therein clamp screws 38 and 40 , respectively.", "The boss 56 further includes two parallel, spaced-apart, internally threaded holes 114 and 116 extending from the proximate margin 80 of the plate toward the notches 64 and 66 , respectively for receiving therein the set screws and locking screws.", "Clamp 18 includes a plate 82 which has an outer margin 84 which is a mirror image of the margin of the clamp 16 , and includes a recess 86 for receiving lipped gasket 22 and a boss 88 which is opposed to, mates against and substantially mirrors the boss 56 , but unlike boss 56 , is not raised relative to the outer margin 84 to thereby project toward the opposite clamp to have any greater relief than the margin 84 as may be seen from FIG. 3 .", "Two clamp screw passages 90 and 92 are provided for permitting clamp screws 38 and 40 to pass through the clamp 18 and thread into the receivers 72 and 74 which are aligned therewith.", "The clamps are typically machined of metal such as brass, and may receive thereon a plating of other metal or alloy such as chromium or stainless steel, if desired.", "The lipped gaskets 20 and 22 are best seen in FIGS. 3, 4 , 5 and 6 , each being unitary and of a flexible, elastomeric material such as polyurethane or synthetic rubber to absorb any shock or force concentrations which would otherwise be transmitted to the glass door 12 by the clamps 16 and 18 , or the spindle 28 .", "The lipped gaskets 20 and 22 are substantially mirror images of one another, each including a flat section 94 configured complementary with the clamps 16 and 18 so as to be received in the recess 80 of the clamps and abut the boss 56 or boss 88 , and a lip 96 , extending around the lobes of the receivers 72 and 74 .", "The lip 96 is configured with upper and lower walls 98 and 100 which are spaced apart and located in substantially parallel planes to one another, a substantially flat outer wall 102 oriented substantially perpendicular to the walls 98 and 100 , and arcuate corner sections 102 and 104 configured to wrap around the receivers 72 and 74 .", "The lips 96 of each of the gaskets 20 and 22 are sized to extend about half way between the plates 54 and 82 and therefore meet around the outer edge 106 of the boss 56 .", "The hinge block 24 is machined of a single piece of metal, such as brass, and like the plates, may receive a plating of other metal or alloy.", "The hinge block 24 as illustrated is substantially rectangular having a vertical bore 108 for receiving the spindle 28 therein.", "Further, it includes two parallel, spaced-apart horizontal bores 110 and 112 oriented perpendicular to the vertical bore 102 for receiving the centering members 30 and 32 and their respective springs 34 and 36 .", "Internally threaded chambers 114 and 116 are positioned above and below the horizontal bores 110 and 112 to receive the mount screws 50 and 52 .", "The spindle 28 is elongated and preferably made of a relatively wear-resistant metal such as steel and has ears 68 and 70 at each respective end, circular shoulders 118 and 120 inwardly of the ears, and a pair of substantially flat centering surfaces 122 and 124 .", "One of the centering surfaces, such as surface 122 , is preferably parallel to the plane of the faces of the ears 68 and 70 so that the door 12 will be centered substantially perpendicular to the mount 26 .", "The surfaces 122 and 124 are preferably not parallel to one another, but rather lie along intersecting planes at an angle to one another to permit the spindle to be reversed and thereby provide two different angular orientations for the centered position of the door 12 relative to the mount.", "The angle may be any desired angle up to about 90°, but in practice an angle of 5° to about 45° is most useful.", "Rounded bearing surfaces 126 and 128 separate the centering surfaces 122 and 124 and engage both the hinge block 24 and the centering members 30 and 32 when the door 12 is pivoted.", "Arcuate lubricant grooves 130 and 132 are positioned relatively below and above the shoulders 118 and 120 and in the bearing surfaces 126 and 128 adjacent the centering surfaces for receiving therein a quantity of lubricant, such as lithium grease or the like.", "The lubricant grooves act as a reservoir to retain the lubricant adjacent the shoulders 118 and 120 and the bearing surfaces, each of which which bear against the hinge block 24 .", "Plastic washers 134 and 136 are preferably placed as shown in FIG. 4 to inhibit the entry of dirt and moisture into the bore 108 .", "The centering members 30 and 32 are preferably small metal buttons preferably of stainless steel which have a head 138 with rounded edges and sized to be received in the horizontal bores 110 and 112 , and a shank 140 to receive the springs 34 and 36 therearound.", "The springs 34 and 36 are preferably steel die springs having flattened surfaces which meet when compressed to permit greater spring strength in a limited space.", "The set screws 42 and 44 each have conical tips 142 to facilitate location and retention in complemental conical indentations 144 and 146 in the face of the ears 68 and 70 .", "Furthermore, the set screws 42 and 44 include hexagonal shaped recesses in their back ends 148 opposite the tips 142 to receive an allen wrench therein.", "Further, the hexagonal recesses facilitate entry of conical points 150 of the locking screws 46 and 48 , which also include hexagonal shaped recesses in their back ends 152 for receiving an allen wrench.", "The set screws are initially tightened by the allen wrench against the ears of the spindle 28 , and then the locking screws are tightened against the set screws also by an allen wrench, such that both the set screws and the locking screws are completely hidden as shown in FIG. 4 .", "The mount 24 as shown in FIGS. 1 through 7 is a simple wall mount plate 154 having two center countersunk holes 156 and 158 for receiving therethrough mount screws 50 and 52 , and four outer countersunk holes 160 for receiving wall mounting screws for attachment to a stud or other sturdy structural member.", "Alternatively, as shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, mount 24 may be provided for coupling to an adjacent flat panel 162 , such as one made of glass, by clamps 164 and 166 .", "The clamp 164 is configured similarly to clamp 16 , but instead of boss 56 has a solid central block portion 168 without notches, and the countersunk holes are of substantially greater length to accommodate the central block portion and the mount screws are of greater length to pass therethrough and thread into the hinge block 24 .", "The clamp 166 is the same configuration as clamp 18 .", "Lipped gaskets 20 and 22 are placed between the clamps 164 and 166 and the glass, and clamp screws 38 and 40 hold the panel 162 between the clamps 164 and 166 .", "The glass door 12 , as well as panel 162 if employed, are provided with at least a pair of cutouts 170 complementally configured to receive the hinge 10 hereof so that the lipped gaskets 20 and 22 are positioned between the clamps 16 and 18 or 164 and 166 .", "The configuration of the cutout 170 is generally shown by the broken line in FIG. 2 .", "When the hinge 10 hereof is assembled, lubrication is placed in the lubricant grooves 130 and 132 and the spindle 28 is placed in the vertical bore 108 of the hinge block 24 , after which the plastic washers 134 and 136 are fitted over the ears and help to hold the spindle in place.", "The centering members 30 and 32 and their associated springs 34 and 36 are placed in the horizontal bores 110 and 112 , and the springs are compressed when the plate 154 is attached to the hinge block 24 by threading the mount screws 50 and 52 into the chambers 114 and 116 .", "The spindle is then oriented in the desired position and the clamp 16 attached to the spindle so that the flat surfaces of the ears 68 and 78 are held by the notches 64 and 66 .", "The notches 64 and 66 are sized to prevent turning of the spindle relative to the clamps 16 and 18 when coupled together.", "The set screws are then turned inside their holes 76 and 78 and tightened against the ears 68 and 70 of the spindle to prevent misalignment of the spindle 28 relative to the hinge block 24 .", "Further, the locking screws 46 and 48 are tightened against the set screws 42 and 44 to prevent the set screws from loosening during repeated cycles of use, the locking screws being positioned entirely within their holes 76 and 78 .", "The great weight and corresponding moment caused by the cantilevered mounting of the glass door 12 on the hinge would otherwise loosen the set screws and cause the spindle to loosen because of the self-closing design.", "As noted above, the spindle 28 may be oriented to position either centering surface 122 or 124 toward the centering members 30 and 32 so that the door 12 may have an initial, centered position either perpendicular to the plane within which wall plate 154 lies, or at another, different angle with respect thereto determined by the angular relationship of the surface 124 relative to the ears 68 and 70 .", "The hinge 10 is normally provided preassembled to the installer.", "Holes are drilled in the stud or other structural member of the wall if the wall mount plate 154 is employed, using the holes 160 to mark their location.", "The lipped gaskets 20 and 22 are preferably provided glued in place on their respective clamps 16 and 18 .", "The clamp screws 38 and 40 are temporarily removed to temporarily separate clamp 18 from the clamp 16 .", "Thereafter, the lipped gasket 20 may be inserted into the cutout 170 of the glass door.", "The use of the lipped gasket 20 greatly facilitates the task of the installer by providing positive separation between the metal hinge clamps and the glass and aiding alignment.", "Once properly aligned, the other clamp 18 with its corresponding lipped gasket may be placed on the opposite side of the glass door and attached by passing the clamp screws 38 and 40 through the passages 90 and 92 and threading them into the receivers 72 and 74 .", "The plate 154 may then be mounted to the wall by wall mount screws as shown in FIG. 1 .", "Alternatively, the plate 154 of each hinge 10 may be mounted to the wall 14 prior to attachment of the glass door 12 , and then the glass door 12 placed around the lipped gasket 20 and the second clamp 18 and lipped gasket 22 attached as described above.", "When mounting the hinge 10 to a panel 162 by clamps 164 and 166 , the hinge block 24 is attached to the clamp 164 as described with reference to the plate 154 above, and then either the door 12 or panel 162 attached to the hinge as described with reference to the glass panel 12 as set forth above, followed by attachment to the other of the glass door or panel 162 , being careful to ensure the placement of the lipped gaskets between the glass and the clamps.", "Although preferred forms of the invention have been described above, it is to be recognized that such disclosure is by way of illustration only, and should not be utilized in a limiting sense in interpreting the scope of the present invention.", "Obvious modifications to the exemplary embodiments, as hereinabove set forth, could be readily made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the present invention.", "The inventors hereby state their intent to rely on the Doctrine of Equivalents to determine and assess the reasonably fair scope of their invention as pertains to any apparatus not materially departing from but outside the literal scope of the invention as set out in the following claims." ]

[ "This is a continuation of application Ser.", "No. 374,746 filed June 28, 1973, now abandoned.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The broad band laser emission observed from organic dye lasers provides for a source of continuously tunable coherent radiation.", "Tuning of a dye laser was first accomplished in 1967 by Soffer and McFarland by replacing the back reflector of the optical resonant cavity with a rotatable diffraction grating.", "Since that time, other organic dye laser tuning techniques for producing narrow-band laser emission have been devised, most of which have been electromechanical in design.", "The disadvantages in using any tuning system that has moving parts, such as a rotatable diffraction grating or electromechanical devices, is the limitation of the operational frequency range.", "The present invention is a tuning system having no moving parts.", "That is, tuning is accomplished by employing stationary components, which are an acousto-optical cell and a diffraction grating, and an optional angle multiplier.", "The laser beam diffraction is responsive to the radio frequency applied to the acousto-optical cell, and the light frequency reflected back into the system by the stationary diffraction grating is dependent on the angle of incidence of the diffracted beam with the grating.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING The FIGURE is a plan view of the tuning system of the present invention.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The physical layout of the organic dye laser equipped with the acousto-optic tuning system is shown in the FIGURE.", "The pump source for the dye laser may be a pulsed nitrogen laser with a variable repetition rate of 0- 500 pps.", "The dye laser output mirror 12 may be a 4% reflective quartz flat, and the back mirror 20 a 2160-line/mm diffraction grating.", "The tuning system includes a Bragg diffraction cell that may be made of Tellurium Dioxide (TeO 2 ).", "Electronic tuning is accomplished by an acousto-optic deflection cell 14 and fixed diffraction grating 20 combination.", "The acousto-optic cell is inserted within the dye laser resonant cavity so that the acoustic wave propagates transversely to the direction of propagation of the optical wave, i.e., in the standard Bragg deflector configuration.", "Since the dye laser emission wavelength is determined by the angle of incidence of the intracavity beam upon the diffraction grating and since this angle can be varied by varying the acoustic frequency, the output wavelength of the dye laser can be scanned simply by scanning the acousto-optic cell driving frequency.", "The upper limit of the laser tuning rate is determined by the length of time it takes the acoustical wave to travel across the optical wave.", "This acoustic transit time is much faster (˜10 2 ) than that of the previous geometries.", "The preferred embodiment of the laser tuning system of the present invention is shown in the Figure, and includes dye cell 10, output mirror 12, acousto-optic cell 14 having an RF input 16 coupled to its transducer, and diffraction grating 20.", "Angle multiplier 18, which may consist of a plurality of lenses, may be included to increase the apparent degree of diffraction.", "An ultrasonic wave is generated in cell 14 in response to the signal at input 16.", "When the angle of incidence θ i of the cell with respect to the laser axis satisfies the Bragg condition, the beam is transmitted and diffracted by the cell.", "The Bragg condition is: 2 Sin θ.", "sub.", "i = λ f/v where: θ is the angle of incidence λ is the laser wavelength, and f and v are the frequency and velocity, respectively, of the acoustic wave within the cell.", "The angle of diffraction, θ d , and angle of incidence, θ i , should be equal to avoid destructive interference.", "Therefore, 2 Sin θ d = λf/v.", "For small angles Sin θ d ≃ θ d .", "As a result, for small angles 2θ d can be taken as equal to λf/v, i.e., 2θ d = λf/v.", "Changes, Δ, in the diffraction angle θ d can be written as Δθ d .", "And, when the change in the diffraction angle is applied to the Bragg condition, the condition becomes Δ(2θ.", "sub.", "d)= Δ(λf)/v = 1/v [λΔf+ fΔλ] where we assume that v is a constant over the range of frequencies (f+ Δf).", "At a specific angle of incidence θ i the Bragg condition is satisfied for a given laser wavelength λ, and a given acoustic frequency f. As the acoustic frequency f is changed there is a change in the diffraction angle θ d .", "But, the change in diffraction angle θ d is accompanied by a change in λ.", "The change in λ is due to the change in the reflection angle θ L of the diffraction grating 20.", "As a result, there is an interaction taking place due to both variables λ and θ.", "Diffraction grating 20 is applied in the Littrow configuration and is employed as a reflective element of the resonant cavity.", "For each angle-of-incidence that light impinges on grating 20, the grating reflectively returns a wavelength back along the path from which it came.", "So, if multi-chromatic light impinges on grating 20 at a specific, relatively high angle-of-incidence, a specific wavelength will be returned, assuming it is present in the beam of incident light.", "And, if it impinges at a specific, low angle-of-incidence, a different specific wavelength will likewise be returned.", "Thereby, diffraction grating 20 acts as a wavelength selecting means by reversing the direction of a wavelength, with the wavelength reversed being determined by the angle-of-incidence of the light on the grating.", "That is, diffraction grating is retrogressively reflective to a wavelength that impinges at its retrogressive angle-of-incidence.", "The angular dispersion of a diffraction grating used in the Littrow configuration, which is used in the present invention, is given by: Δθ.", "sub.", "L = 2/λ tan θ.", "sub.", "L Δθ as can be seen from the drawing, Δθ L is equal to Δ(2θ d ) times the angular multiplication factor M of angle multiplier 18.", "That is, ##EQU1## From the equations given above it can be shown that ##EQU2## Solving for Δ(2θ d ), we have ##EQU3## From the Bragg condition we know that a change in the acoustic frequency f changes the deflection angle θ d .", "The deflection angle is multiplied by angle multiplier 18, if included, and changes the angle of incidence or reflection, θ L , on diffraction grating 20.", "Since the angle of incidence or reflection θ L upon diffraction grating 20, determines the lasing wavelength, a change in the signal applied to input 16 results in a change in the dye laser emission wavelength λ.", "That is, the laser is tunable by varying the RF signal input.", "The transverse acousto-optic tuned dye laser of the present invention provides for a rapidly, reproducibly, and continuously tuned source of coherent radiation.", "Because of the very short acoustic transit time (10.", "sup.", "-6 sec) inherent to the transverse geometry, high tuning rates can be achieved.", "Obviously, to take full advantage of the high tuning rate, a high PRF pump laser is necessary.", "This system (even without an angle multiplier) will provide for a tuning range exceeding the range over which almost all dyes can be tuned." ]

[ "This is a continuation of application Ser.", "No. 307,141 filed Nov. 16, 1972 now abandoned.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention is concerned with the production of a substitute natural gas derived from carbonaceous feedstocks, in particular crude petroleum or distillate fractions produced therefrom, but which may also be residual oil fractions and other hydrocarbons.", "Normally when the feedstock is hydrogenated at an elevated temperature with commercially-produced hydrogenating gas, to which steam may or may not be added, the resulting gaseous mixture normally contains, beside hydrocarbons, carbon oxides and untreated hydrogen which detract from the reaction products being ideally suitable as a substitute for natural gas.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention there is provided a process whereby carbon oxides and hydrogen in a gaseous mixture that also contains hydrocarbons are caused to react over a catalyst with the production of methane in such a manner that any ethane present in the reactants is virtually unaffected by the methanation reactions.", "The catalyst may comprise nickel or cobalt associated with alumina, silica, magnesia, chromia or urania, or mixtures thereof.", "The process may be operated, in relation to the catalyst, within a range of temperatures and pressures such that hydrogenation of the carbon oxides present in the gas is substantially completed at an upper temperature limit whilst ethane present in the gas remains substantiallly unreacted at the said upper limit.", "This process is of value as a means of improving the compatability of such a gas with natural gas, since it enables the calorific value to be raised and, in virtue of lowering the hydrogen concentration, produce a gas of lower flame speed.", "The flame speed is conveniently qualified in terms of the Weaver flame speed factor, a function of the gas composition, which expresses a maximum flame speed of a gas in air as a percentage of the maximum flame speed of hydrogen in air (see Gilbert and Prigg, Trans.", "Inst.", "Gas Eng.", ", 1956-7, 106, 530-575).", "DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT In order to further illustrate the invention by way of example, various catalysts were prepared and tested using a gas composition typically representative of the type of reaction product than can be obtained by the hydrogenation of a petroleum oil.", "I. Nickel silica catalyst (A) Catalyst preparation The catalyst comprised a nickel silica mixture and was prepared as follows: 1114 GRAMS NICKEL NITRATE HEXAHYDRATE WERE DISSOLVED IN 2 LITERS OF DISTILLED WATER AND TO THE COLD SOLUTION 132.7 MLS OF WATERGLASS (LABORATORY QUALITY SODIUM SILICATE) WAS ADDED WITH STIRRING.", "Some of the nickel was then precipitated.", "The mixture was heated to 60°-70° C. and maintained thus while sufficient initially cold potassium carbonate solution (60 K 2 CO 3 : 100 H 2 O by weight) to precipitae the rest of the nickel was added slowly, with stirring, care being taken to control frothing due to carbon dioxide liberation.", "The precipitate was then filtered and washed with 1500 ml.", "batches of distilled water by re-slurrying at 60°-70° C. until the washings were neutral.", "(Sodium carbonate solution (40 Na 2 CO 3 : 100 H 2 O by weight) may be used if desired as an alternative precipitant).", "The precipitate was dried overnight at 120° C. and then calcined for 4 hours at 450° C. The dry material was crushed to below 25 B.S.S. and with the addition of 2 percent of graphite pelleted to 1/8 in.", "cylinders.", "A typical gas composition was prepared to represent the type of reaction productions that could be obtained by the hydrogenation of a petroleum oil.", "The analysis of the gas on a volume basis was as follows: ______________________________________Hydrogen 27.5%Methane 55.4%Ethane 13.1%Carbon Monoxide 0.9%Carbon dioxide 3.1%______________________________________ This gas was passed at an initial temperature of 150° over a bed of a nickel-silica catalyst at a pressure of 420 p.s.i.g.", "and a space velocity of 5100 standard volumes per volumes of catalyst space per hour.", "Hydrogenation of carbon oxides took place and a temperature rise was observed.", "The initial temperature was gradually raised and when it had reached 180° C. the temperature rise was 70° C. and the outlet gas composition on a volume basis was observed to be as follows: ______________________________________Hydrogen 13.2%Methane 70.9%Ethane 15.8%Carbon monoxide Not detectableCarbon dioxide 0.1%______________________________________ In the experiment described above, the calorific values of the gases before and after the low temperature hydrogenation were 931 and 1095 Btu/ft 3 respectively.", "Hence not only is the invention important for maintaining the ethane content of the gas during hydrogenation but the resulting gaseous product is very valuable as a substitute for natural high methane content gases.", "II.", "Nickel-alumina-silica catalyst (a) Catalyst preparation The catalyst was prepared by precipitating nickel and aluminium nitrates with alkaline sodium silicate.", "1113.9 g. of nickel nitrate and 138.0 g. of aluminum nitrate were dissolved in 6.", "l of cold distilled water;", "627.8 g. of anhydrous sodium carbonate and 99.5 mls.", "of waterglass solution (560 g. of SiO 2 per liter) were dissolved in 4 l. of cold distilled water.", "The alkaline silicate solution was slowly added, with stirring, to the cold nitrate solution.", "The resulting precipitate was recovered by filtration and was washed, dried and calcined at 350° C. The product, before reduction, contained Ni, 58.8;", "Al 2 O 3 , 6.7;", "SiO 2 : 8.8;", "Na, 0.33, percent be weight.", "(b) Experiment with the catalyst In an experiment at 420 psig a gas of composition CH 4 , 56;", "C 2 H 6 , 11;", "H 2 , 30;", "CO, 1;", "CO 2 , 2, percent by volume was passed at a space velocity of 5100 standard volumes of gas per volume of catalyst space per hour at a low but gradually increasing catalyst temperature.", "Initiation of carbon dioxide methanation was observed when the inlet temperature had reached 140° C. When the inlet temperature had risen to 196° C. the outlet gas composition was observed to be CH 4 , 66;", "C 2 H 6 , 12;", "H 2 , 22, percent by volume the carbon oxides having been completely hydrogenated to methane;", "within experimental error this composition is compatible with the ethane having escaped hydrogenation.", "When the inlet temperature was raised materially above 200° C., hydrogenation of ethane began to be detectable.", "The calorific value and Weaver flame speed factors of the inlet and outlet gases were ______________________________________ Inlet Outlet______________________________________Calorific value, Btu/cu.", "ft.", "908 1003Weaver flame speed factor 24.0 21.2______________________________________ III.", "Nickel-magnesia catalyst (a) Catalyst preparation The catalyst was prepared by co-precipitating nickel and magnesium nitrates with sodium hydroxide.", "185.7 g. of nickel nitrate and 79.5 g. of magnesium nitrate were dissolved in 1 liter of distilled water and the solution was brought to the boil.", "To the hot solution was added a cold solution of 85 g. of sodium hydroxide in 0.5 liters of water.", "The precipitate was filtered off and washed four times with warm water.", "It was dried at 110° C. and calcined at 450° C. The product has a nickel content of 57 percent and a sodium content of 0.04 percent by weight.", "(b) Experiment with the catalyst: An experiment was performed as described under I(b) above, at the same space velocity, but at a pressure of 750 psig.", "The corresponding observations that were made were: Inlet catalyst temperature at which hydrogenation of carbon dioxide was first observed 190° C. Inlet and outlet gas compositions, caloric values and Weaver flame speed factors at an inlet temperature of 201° C.: ______________________________________ Inlet Outlet______________________________________Gas compositions, per cent byvolumeCH.", "sub[.", "].4 57 67C.", "sub[.", "].2 H.sub[.", "].6 11 13H.", "sub[.", "].2 29 20CO 1 0CO.", "sub[.", "].2 2 0Calorific value, Btu/cu.", "ft.", "915 1025Weaver flame speed factor 23.5 20.5Inlet catalyst temperature abovewhich ethane hydrogenation wasdetectable 240° C.______________________________________ IV.", "Nickel-chromia catalyst (a) Catalyst preparation The catalyst was prepared by co-precipitating nickel and chromium nitrates with sodium carbonate.", "120 g. of nickel nitrate and 160 g. of chromium nitrate were dissolved in 2 liters of distilled water.", "The solution was heated at 80° C. and cold saturated aqueous sodium carbonate was added with stirring to the solution until it became alkaline (pH 8-9) .", "The precipitate was filtered off, washed six times with warm water, dried at 80° C. and calcined at 450° C. The resulting product had the nickel content of 34.5 percent by weight, a chromium content of 30.3 percent and a sodium content of 0.06 percent.", "(b) Experiment with the catalyst An experiment was performed exactly as described under I(b) above, at the same space velocity but at a pressure of 750 psig.", "Corresponding observations that were made were: Inlet catalyst temperature at which hydrogenation of carbon dioxide was first observed 150° C. Inlet and outlet gas compositions, calorific values and Weaver flame speed factors at an inlet temperature of 224° C.: ______________________________________ Inlet Outlet______________________________________Gas compositions, per cent byvolume:CH.", "sub[.", "].4 57 67C.", "sub[.", "].2 H.sub[.", "].6 11 13H.", "sub[.", "].2 29 20CO 1 0CO.", "sub[.", "].2 2 0 100.0 100.0Calorific value, Btu/cu.", "ft.", "915 1025Weaver flame speed factor 23.8 20.5Inlet catalyst temperature abovewhich ethane hydrogenation wasdetectable 250° C.______________________________________ V. Cobalt-silica catalyst (a) Catalyst preparation This catalyst was prepared by precipitating cobalt nitrate with sodium silicate and sodium carbonate 372 g. of cobalt nitrate was dissolved in 2 liters of distilled water and the solution heated to 75° C. To the hot solution a cold solution of 45 mls.", "of waterglass (560 g. of SiO 2 per liter) in 400 mls.", "of water was slowly added with stirring.", "The resulting slurry was reheated to 75° C. and cold saturated aqueous sodium carbonate added till the solution became alkaline (pH 8-9).", "The catalyst was filtered off, washed six times with warm water, dried at 80° C. and calcined.", "The product has a cobalt content of 53.9 percent by weight and a sodium content of 0.02 percent.", "(b) Experiment with the catalyst An experiment was performed as described under I(b) above, at the same pressure and space velocity.", "The corresponding observations that were made were as follows: Inlet catalyst temperature at which hydrogenation of carbon dioxide was first observed - 150° C. Inlet and outlet gas compositions, calorific values and Weaver flame speed factors at an inlet temperature of - 220° C. ______________________________________ Inlet Outlet______________________________________Gas composition, per cent byvolume:CH.", "sub[.", "].4 57 61C.", "sub[.", "].2 H.sub[.", "].6 11 13H.", "sub[.", "].2 29 25CO 1 --CO.", "sub[.", "].2 2 1Calorific value, Btu/cu.", "ft.", "915 980Weaver flame speed factor 23.8 22.2Inlet catalyst temperature abovewhich ethane hydrogenation wasdetectable: 270° C.______________________________________ At the comparatively low temperature, relative to the ethane decomposition threshold, at which the gas analysed was sampled, it will be noted that carbon dioxide hydrogenation was not, in this instance, complete.", "VI.", "Nickel-urania-alumina catalyst (a) Catalyst composition and preparation This catalyst had the nominal composition by weight: 15 percent nickel, 10 percent uranium, 0.5 percent potassium, the remainder - alumina.", "It was prepared by impregnation according to our British Patent Specification No. 1039206, 1196411, and 1196412 or 1256697, and briefly comprises impregnating an alumina support in an acetic acid solution of nickel and uranyl nitrates and potassium acetate.", "After soaking, the supports are drained and fired at 500° C. for 3 hours in a stream of air.", "The process is repeated until the final composition is 15 percent nickel, 10 percent uranium, and 0.5 percent potassium by weight.", "(b) Experiment with the catalyst An experiment was performed as described under I(b) above, at the same pressure and space velocity.", "The corresponding observations that were made were as follows: Inlet catalyst temperature at which hydrogenation of carbon dioxide was first observed 260° C. Inlet and outlet gas compositions, calorific values and Weaver flame speed factors at an inlet temperature of - 272° C. ______________________________________ Inlet Outlet______________________________________Gas compositions, per cent byvolumeCH.", "sub[.", "].4 57 67C.", "sub[.", "].2 H.sub[.", "].6 11 13H.", "sub[.", "].2 29 20CO 1 --CO.", "sub[.", "].2 2 --Calorific value, Btu/cu.", "ft.", "915 1025Weaver flame speed factor 23.8 20.5Inlet catalyst temperature abovewhich ethane hydrogenationwas detectable- 310° C.______________________________________ In each of the experiments reported, the gas composition corresponded, within the experimental error, while the ethane quantitatively escaping hydrogenation.", "With two exceptions, each of the catalysts discussed was used in an experiment at each of the two pressures reported, 750 and 420 psig.", "The inlet catalyst temperature at which hydrogenation of carbon oxides and of ethane was first observed to proceed at a significant rate at the standard space velocity of 5100 standard volume of inlet gas per volume of catalyst space per hour were: ______________________________________ Temperature for Temperature carbon dioxide for ethane______________________________________ ° C. ° C.at 750 psigNickel-alumina-silica 150 230Nickel-magnesia 190 240Nickel-chromia 150 250Cobalt Silica 170 330at 420 psigNickel-silica 150 180Nickel-alumina-silica 140 200Nickel-magnesia 175 220Nickel-chromia 160 240Cobalt-silica 190 270Nickel-urania-alumina 260 310______________________________________ As illustrated by the detailed examples given, these temperature differences were sufficient to ensure that for each catalyst and set of operating conditions there was a range of operating temperatures at which carbon oxide hydrogenation was substantially complete while the ethane passed through the catalyst bed substantially unchanged.", "It will be noted that throughout the examples, the initiation temperature that is given for carbon oxides is that for carbon dioxide.", "This is the less reactive of the two oxides, and the hydrogenation of carbon monoxide was always observed at a lower temperature.", "It should also be noted that in the experiments the inlet gases were always dry.", "The outlet gases necessarily contained steam, but the reported compositions are on the dry basis." ]

[ "CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] The present application claims the benefits of and priority, under 35 U.S.C. §119(e), to U.S. Provisional Application Ser.", "No. 61/560,509, filed on Nov. 16, 2011, entitled “Complete Vehicle Ecosystem”;", "61/637,164, filed on Apr. 23, 2012, entitled “Complete Vehicle Ecosystem”;", "61/646,747, filed on May 14, 2012, entitled “Branding of Electrically Propelled Vehicles Via the Generation of Specific Operating Sounds”;", "61/653,275, filed on May 30, 2012, entitled “Vehicle Application Store for Console”;", "61/653,264, filed on May 30, 2012, entitled “Control of Device Features Based on Vehicle State”;", "61/653,563, filed on May 31, 2012, entitled “Complete Vehicle Ecosystem”;", "61/663,335, filed on Jun. 22, 2012, entitled “Complete Vehicle Ecosystem”;", "61/672,483, filed on Jul. 17, 2012, entitled “Vehicle Climate Control”;", "61/714,016, filed on Oct. 15, 2012, entitled “Vehicle Middleware”;", "and 61/715,699, filed Oct. 18, 2012, entitled “Vehicle Middleware.”", "The entire disclosures of the applications listed above are hereby incorporated by reference, in their entirety, for all that they teach and for all purposes.", "[0002] This application is also related to U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 13/420,236, filed on Mar. 14, 2012, entitled, “Configurable Vehicle Console”;", "Ser.", "No. 13/420,240, filed on Mar. 14, 2012, entitled “Removable, Configurable Vehicle Console”;", "Ser.", "No. 13/462,593, filed on May 2, 2012, entitled “Configurable Dash Display”;", "Ser.", "No. 13/462,596, filed on May 2, 2012, entitled “Configurable Heads-Up Dash Display”;", "Ser.", "No. 13/679,459, filed on Nov. 16, 2012, entitled “Vehicle Comprising Multi-Operating System”", "(Attorney Docket No. 6583-228);", "Ser.", "No. 13/679,234, filed on Nov. 16, 2012, entitled “Gesture Recognition for On-Board Display”", "(Attorney Docket No. 6583-229);", "Ser.", "No. 13/679,412, filed on Nov. 16, 2012, entitled “Vehicle Application Store for Console”", "(Attorney Docket No. 6583-230);", "Ser.", "No. 13/679,857, filed on Nov. 16, 2012, entitled “Sharing Applications/Media Between Car and Phone (Hydroid)”", "(Attorney Docket No. 6583-231);", "Ser.", "No. 13/679,878, filed on Nov. 16, 2012, entitled “In-Cloud Connection for Car Multimedia”", "(Attorney Docket No. 6583-232);", "Ser.", "No. 13/679,875, filed on Nov. 16, 2012, entitled “Music Streaming”", "(Attorney Docket No. 6583-233);", "Ser.", "No. 13/679,676, filed on Nov. 16, 2012, entitled “Control of Device Features Based on Vehicle State”", "(Attorney Docket No. 6583-234);", "Ser.", "No. 13/678,673, filed on Nov. 16, 2012, entitled “Insurance Tracking”", "(Attorney Docket No. 6583-235);", "Ser.", "No. 13/678,699, filed on Nov. 16, 2012, entitled “Etiquette Suggestion”", "(Attorney Docket No. 6583-237);", "Ser.", "No. 13/678,710, filed on Nov. 16, 2012, entitled “Parking Space Finder Based on Parking Meter Data”", "(Attorney Docket No. 6583-238);", "Ser.", "No. 13/678,722, filed on Nov. 16, 2012, entitled “Parking Meter Expired Alert”", "(Attorney Docket No. 6583-239);", "Ser.", "No. 13/678,726, filed on Nov. 16, 2012, entitled “Object Sensing (Pedestrian Avoidance/Accident Avoidance)”", "(Attorney Docket No. 6583-240);", "Ser.", "No. 13/678,735, filed on Nov. 16, 2012, entitled “Proximity Warning Relative to Other Cars”", "(Attorney Docket No. 6583-241);", "Ser.", "No. 13/678,745, filed on Nov. 16, 2012, entitled “Street Side Sensors”", "(Attorney Docket No. 6583-242);", "Ser.", "No. 13/678,753, filed on Nov. 16, 2012, entitled “Car Location”", "(Attorney Docket No. 6583-243);", "Ser.", "No. 13/679,441, filed on Nov. 16, 2012, entitled “Universal Bus in the Car”", "(Attorney Docket No. 6583-244);", "Ser.", "No. 13/679,864, filed on Nov. 16, 2012, entitled “Mobile Hot Spot/Router/Application Share Site or Network”", "(Attorney Docket No. 6583-245);", "Ser.", "No. 13/679,815, filed on Nov. 16, 2012, entitled “Universal Console Chassis for the Car”", "(Attorney Docket No. 6583-246);", "Ser.", "No. 13/679,476, filed on Nov. 16, 2012, entitled “Vehicle Middleware”", "(Attorney Docket No. 6583-247);", "Ser.", "No. 13/679,306, filed on Nov. 16, 2012, entitled “Method and System for Vehicle Data Collection Regarding Traffic”", "(Attorney Docket No. 6583-248);", "Ser.", "No. 13/679,369, filed on Nov. 16, 2012, entitled “Method and System for Vehicle Data Collection”", "(Attorney Docket No. 6583-249);", "Ser.", "No. 13/679,680, filed on Nov. 16, 2012, entitled “Communications Based on Vehicle Diagnostics and Indications”", "(Attorney Docket No. 6583-250);", "Ser.", "No. 13/679,443, filed on Nov. 16, 2012, entitled “Method and System for Maintaining and Reporting Vehicle Occupant Information”", "(Attorney Docket No. 6583-251);", "Ser.", "No. 13/678,762, filed on Nov. 16, 2012, entitled “Behavioral Tracking and Vehicle Applications”", "(Attorney Docket No. 6583-252);", "Ser.", "No. 13/679,292, filed Nov. 16, 2012, entitled “Branding of Electrically Propelled Vehicles Via the Generation of Specific Operating Output”", "(Attorney Docket No. 6583-258);", "Ser.", "No. 13/679,400, filed Nov. 16, 2012, entitled “Vehicle Climate Control”", "(Attorney Docket No. 6583-313);______, filed on Nov. 16, 2012, entitled “Improvements to Controller Area Network Bus”", "(Attorney Docket No. 6583-314);", "Ser.", "No. 13/678,773, filed on Nov. 16, 2012, entitled “Location Information Exchange Between Vehicle and Device”", "(Attorney Docket No. 6583-315);", "Ser.", "No. 13/679,887, filed on Nov. 16, 2012, entitled “In Car Communication Between Devices”", "(Attorney Docket No. 6583-316);", "Ser.", "No. 13/679,842, filed on Nov. 16, 2012, entitled “Configurable Hardware Unit for Car Systems”", "(Attorney Docket No. 6583-317);", "Ser.", "No. 13/679,204, filed on Nov. 16, 2012, entitled “Feature Recognition for Configuring a Vehicle Console and Associated Devices”", "(Attorney Docket No. 6583-318);", "Ser.", "No. 13/679,350, filed on Nov. 16, 2012, entitled “Configurable Vehicle Console”", "(Attorney Docket No. 6583-412);", "Ser.", "No. 13/679,358, filed on Nov. 16, 2012, entitled “Configurable Dash Display”", "(Attorney Docket No. 6583-413);", "Ser.", "No. 13/679,363, filed on Nov. 16, 2012, entitled “Configurable Heads-Up Dash Display”", "(Attorney Docket No. 6583-414);", "and Ser.", "No. 13/679,368, filed on Nov. 16, 2012, entitled “Removable, Configurable Vehicle Console”", "(Attorney Docket No. 6583-415).", "The entire disclosures of the applications listed above are hereby incorporated by reference, in their entirety, for all that they teach and for all purposes.", "BACKGROUND [0003] Whether using private, commercial, or public transport, the movement of people and/or cargo has become a major industry.", "In today's interconnected world daily travel is essential to engaging in commerce.", "Commuting to and from work can account for a large portion of a traveler's day.", "As a result, vehicle manufacturers have begun to focus on making this commute, and other journeys, more enjoyable, safer, more fair and in a more informed manner.", "SUMMARY [0004] Currently, responsible drivers pay inflated insurance premiums because the insurance industry cannot guarantee a particular driver's adherence to law or general driving behavior.", "It is an unfair responsibility for responsible drivers to pay for others poor behavior, poor driving habits and/or lack of experience [0005] An exemplary embodiment is directed towards using various data compiled, detected, or received by a system to analyze factors contributing to an individual's driving behavior and/or habits.", "In the event that an individual wishes to receive better insurance rates for responsible driving, a lower quantity of driving, or other good driving indicators, the driver may agree to provide insurance tracking information.", "The insurance tracking system may consider one or more of GPS/location based information (to compare actual speed with speed limit data), G-force sensors (to detect rapid acceleration, hard turns, etc.), perimeter sensors (to detect close-calls with other vehicles and/or stationary objects, inattention while changing lanes) etc.", ", in order to determine conformance with the good-driving terms established by the insurance company.", "[0006] In accordance with another exemplary aspect, in addition to the system being able to allow better drivers to receive better insurance rates, the system can also be used to dynamically provide feedback to a driver about the quality of their driving, which can be based on an analysis of information from one or more sensors, comparing of a driver's habits to applicable laws and/or regulations, and/or any good-driving terms established by an entity, such as an insurance company.", "This feedback can be given in real-time, such as via a display installed in or associated with the vehicle (or even a multi-screen device), through the speakers, tactile feedback, such as through the seat, steering wheel, the driver's phone (such as a vibration), or the like, or at a later time, such as from an insurance company representative via a communication such as a call.", "[0007] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, some of the information and/or data that can be monitored are perimeter information, G-force information, proximity information, GPS location information, time and date information, biometric information, law and/or regulation information, behavior information from one or more of the driver and passenger(s), mileage information, as well as vehicle information, such as any information acquirable from, for example, on-board diagnostics (such as OBD-II) as well as lighting information, such as turn signals, headlights, radio information, Bluetooth® information, braking information, turning information, acceleration information, and in general any information related to a vehicle's operation.", "[0008] In accordance with yet another exemplary embodiment, a feedback device provides in, for example, real-time, information to the driver indicating whether or not they are performing within the good-driving terms established by the insurance company, or whether they are not complying with the good-driving terms.", "This can allow, for example, drivers to be much more in tune with how they are driving as well as receive instant feedback as to which actions cause them to run afoul of the good-driving terms.", "[0009] Another exemplary aspect of this invention could be utilized to assist with accident deconstruction to, for example, assist with determining fault if vehicle is involved in an accident.", "[0010] In accordance with another exemplary aspect, a vehicle is equipped with a sensor, such as a camera.", "The camera helps to detect whether a driver is dozing off or falling asleep, watching the road, texting or talking on the phone, or in general performing any activity that is a distraction while driving.", "The camera could also work in conjunction with, for example, a seat sensor to assist with detecting whether or not an occupant and/or pet is present in one of the vehicle seats.", "As with the other information that is being monitored, this information can also be monitored and used for subsequent analysis to determine whether a driver is driving properly and/or whether a driver should be provided feedback regarding their driving habits.", "[0011] In accordance with another exemplary embodiment, a feedback module can be located in one or more of the vehicle and remotely, such as at an insurance company premise, the feedback module, cooperating with a communication module, is able to not only transfer data collected from the various sensors, and/or a simple analysis decision from the vehicle to the insurance company, but also allows feedback, such as instructions, incentive, or disincentive information, to be relayed to the driver of the vehicle with the cooperation of a communication module and, as discussed, one or more of a display, speakers and tactile feedback device(s).", "[0012] Another exemplary aspect is directed towards utilizing one or more portions of the information collected for assistance when a vehicle is stolen.", "Here, if the available data can be forwarded to one or more of an insurance company and/or the police to assist with one or more of vehicle recovery, vehicle location, circumstances and data about when and where the vehicle was stolen, whether or not the doors were locked, and in general any information relating to the status of the vehicle upon being stolen or after being stolen.", "[0013] In accordance with another exemplary embodiment, location information, such as that collected from a GPS module, is reconciled with local law and regulation information that can also be used as a basis for providing feedback to a driver regarding compliance with laws/regulations at their current position.", "[0014] Another exemplary aspect, as briefly mentioned above, is directed toward monitoring the behavior of one or more passengers and/or pets in a vehicle, that can be used as a further consideration as to whether the driver is ensuring the safe transportation of passenger(s)/cargo in their vehicle.", "For example, seatbelt detectors can be used with a seat detection system, such that if a passenger is present, a determination can be made whether or not that passenger is wearing their seatbelt, as well as other information such as information from a camera or biometric sensor(s) used to determine whether, for example, children are playing all over in the vehicle without being appropriately buckled into a child safety seat or seatbelt.", "[0015] In accordance with another exemplary aspect, those who currently break traffic laws are caught by combinations of video surveillance, radar/laser detection, and/or police officers who are actively monitoring traffic offenses.", "Accordingly, an exemplary aspect is directed toward a system where a police officer and/or rule trap sensor can ping or otherwise query an automobile for information relating to its speed, driving conditions, and in general any information stored on the vehicle.", "By comparing this received data from the vehicle to known data relating to stop signs, speed limits, local laws and regulations, and the like, a decision can be made as to whether a law has been broken.", "For example, a rule trap sensor located along a roadside, need not necessarily determine the speed of a vehicle with a laser, but rather the rule trap sensor can query the vehicle to respond to the rule trap sensor with the vehicle's speed.", "Therefore, the speed detection is achieved through the vehicle responding to the sensor's question and the vehicle's answer.", "It should be appreciated that items other than speed could also be requested by the rule trap sensor from the vehicle—in general, the rule trap sensor could query the vehicle and determine whether any infraction had occurred, such as lack of appropriate seat belt usage, expired registration, etc, or simply collect data therefrom usable for any purpose.", "[0016] This can similarly be used by police officers either independently or in conjunction with existing technologies, such as radar guns, LIDAR, photo red light detectors, and the like.", "The roadside sensors/rule traps could then be used in a similar manner to photo red light detectors, with the ability to communicate with one or more appropriate entities to issue a warning or a ticket in the instance of a law or a regulation violation.", "[0017] In accordance with another exemplary aspect, the queryable information can be used to assist with accident reconstruction as any of the stored information discussed herein can be queryable and provided to an entity, such as a police officer investigating an accident.", "This could be especially helpful where there is conflicting information regarding what actually happened at the scene of an accident.", "[0018] In accordance with another exemplary aspect, a driving reputation system is provided.", "As the vehicle collects information from associated sensors and devices as discussed, the data may be stored and related to a specific driver.", "This related data may be used to develop a corresponding driving reputation.", "For instance, a vehicle operator may obtain a lower reputation if that vehicle operator is known to drive erratically, make sudden stops, avoid using signals, and/or constantly speeding through school zones, and the like.", "[0019] It is anticipated that reputation data may be compiled by the vehicle and/or associated systems.", "Alternatively, or in addition, vehicle operators may report on at least one other driver's behavior by sending a signal to a central repository.", "This central repository may analyze the reported data and cause the at least one driver's behavior to be reflected in a reputation (grade).", "In some exemplary embodiments, vehicle operators may report good, bad, and/or other types of behavior.", "For example, if a driver yields to another driver, wave's thank you, and/or provides another driver space to enter a lane, the other driver may report good behavior about that kind driver.", "[0020] In accordance with one exemplary aspect, this reputation information can be shared amongst one or more vehicles and optionally displayed, for example, on an on-board display.", "Thus, as, for example a driver commutes to work, reputation information about those drivers around the driver could be provided one or more of audibly and/or graphically to the driver on their daily commute.", "This information could then be utilized, for example, by the driver, to help them avoid drivers with bad reputations and/or change their style of driving based on the reputation of one or more drivers around them.", "[0021] In accordance with another exemplary aspect, a driver could “tag”", "or otherwise identify another driver that is performing well, or badly.", "This information could be accumulated and optionally assimilated with other reputation information to generate a total combined score for reputation based not only on an individual driver's performance, but also based on what other drivers think of that particular driver.", "[0022] In accordance with another exemplary aspect, the system is capable of analyzing all available information related to driving and vehicle operation etiquette and is capable of making suggestions to the driver and/or passengers based on the outcome of the data analysis.", "For example, if the vehicle is blocking faster traffic in the fast lane, the system may suggest moving over to a slower lane.", "Similarly, if the user is known to not use turn signals on a regular basis, the system may remind the user during, after, or anticipating a turn, to use the signal.", "For example, to assist with anticipation of a turn, the system can cooperate with, for example, a GPS navigation tool, and know when a vehicle is about to make a turn in a particular direction based on a mapped destination.", "[0023] Additionally, the system may also be used to detect a fast approaching vehicle and suggest changing lanes, increasing speed, or the like, to avoid a collision or otherwise impeding another driver(s).", "[0024] Another exemplary aspect is the capability of being able to send etiquette suggestions to other drivers.", "This cannot only be limited to etiquette, but could also be information such as you have a tire going flat, your brake light is out, or the like.", "As will be appreciated, and for privacy reasons, certain filters may be implemented that limit or otherwise restrict the amount of information that is communicatible to one or other drivers with the understanding that other drivers may turn off this feature so they are not able to receive suggestions from their fellow road mates.", "For example, a vehicle can be provided with an on-dash display that shows the other vehicles around them.", "These other vehicles can be detected in accordance with one or more of the perimeter or proximity sensors as discussed herein, and a representation of that vehicle placed on the display.", "Upon the user selecting that vehicle, a communication link could be established with that vehicle thereby allowing the exchange of etiquette or safety type information as discussed.", "Moreover, other types of information could similarly be shared, such as a driver looking for a recommendation on where to find cheap gasoline or a bagel, and other drivers being able to respond to that query using the same communication link.", "[0025] In accordance with another exemplary embodiment, monitored information can be utilized by, for example a parent or guardian, to assist with determining driving habits of a child.", "This information could be used to, for example, provide constructive feedback to improve driving habits and/or monitor a new driver to determine if they are driving in an inappropriate manner.", "[0026] In accordance with another exemplary aspect, this data can be monitored remotely, via an app or on a PC, or the like, in real-time or near real-time, by a parent or other entity to keep track of a new driver's behavior.", "As with the other embodiments discussed herein, any of the information that is monitored by the vehicle can be forwarded to this remote location for monitoring with this remote location optionally being able to provide feedback to the vehicle and the driver.", "[0027] For example, the remote monitor can be provided with information relating to a current vehicle's speed, GPS information, and local law/regulation information such that the remote monitor can determine whether or not the vehicle is compliant with all applicable laws and regulations.", "The remote monitor could also be populated with various notifications indicating if and when the vehicle has broken a particular law or regulation, the time and date of that infraction, as well as an ability to provide feedback to the driver about their driving behavior.", "It should be appreciated, however, that this concept need not be limited to new drivers, but could be extended to any driver, such as commercial drivers, elderly drivers, and, in general, any driver.", "[0028] For example, an app can be stored on a parent's communication device, and this app used to monitor the behavior of a teen driver.", "This app could optionally run in the background, until a law or regulation is broken, and then a notification could be provided to the parent, optionally, along with supplemental information, regarding the nature of the infraction.", "One or more of the monitored pieces of data could also be provided in conjunction with the notification regarding the infraction to allow the parent to determine the full scope of the infraction and the severity thereof.", "Similarly, plots or other summary-type information could be provided to the parent that shows average driving speed, maximum driving speed, whether or not turn signals were used, whether or not there was erratic driving behavior, or in general any information related to one or more of the vehicle, driver, and occupants'", "behavior.", "As will be appreciated, this information could be stored and logged and used at a later date.", "These notifications could also be sent via one or more of an e-mail, text message, SMS message, or the like, such that a parent could, for example, immediately call a driver when there has been a gross infraction or poor driving behaviors exhibited.", "[0029] The phrases “at least one”, “one or more”, and “and/or”", "are open-ended expressions that are both conjunctive and disjunctive in operation.", "For example, each of the expressions “at least one of A, B and C”, “at least one of A, B, or C”, “one or more of A, B, and C”, “one or more of A, B, or C”", "and “A, B, and/or C”", "means A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, or A, B and C together.", "[0030] The term “a”", "or “an”", "entity refers to one or more of that entity.", "As such, the terms “a”", "(or “an”), “one or more”", "and “at least one”", "can be used interchangeably herein.", "It is also to be noted that the terms “comprising”, “including”, and “having”", "can be used interchangeably.", "[0031] The term “automatic”", "and variations thereof, as used herein, refers to any process or operation done without material human input when the process or operation is performed.", "However, a process or operation can be automatic, even though performance of the process or operation uses material or immaterial human input, if the input is received before performance of the process or operation.", "Human input is deemed to be material if such input influences how the process or operation will be performed.", "Human input that consents to the performance of the process or operation is not deemed to be “material.”", "[0032] The term “computer-readable medium”", "as used herein refers to any tangible storage and/or transmission medium that participate in providing instructions to a processor for execution.", "Such a medium may take many forms, including but not limited to, non-volatile media, volatile media, and transmission media.", "Non-volatile media includes, for example, NVRAM, or magnetic or optical disks.", "Volatile media includes dynamic memory, such as main memory.", "Common forms of computer-readable media include, for example, a floppy disk, a flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, or any other magnetic medium, magneto-optical medium, a CD-ROM, any other optical medium, punch cards, paper tape, any other physical medium with patterns of holes, a RAM, a PROM, and EPROM, a FLASH-EPROM, a solid state medium like a memory card, any other memory chip or cartridge, a carrier wave as described hereinafter, or any other medium from which a computer can read.", "A digital file attachment to e-mail or other self-contained information archive or set of archives is considered a distribution medium equivalent to a tangible storage medium.", "When the computer-readable media is configured as a database, it is to be understood that the database may be any type of database, such as relational, hierarchical, object-oriented, and/or the like.", "Accordingly, the disclosure is considered to include a tangible storage medium or distribution medium and prior art-recognized equivalents and successor media, in which the software implementations of the present disclosure are stored.", "[0033] The term “display”", "refers to a portion of a screen used to display the output of a computer or computing device to a user.", "[0034] The term “displayed image”", "refers to an image produced on the display.", "A typical displayed image is a window or desktop.", "The displayed image may occupy all or a portion of the display.", "[0035] The term “gesture”", "refers to a user action that expresses an intended idea, action, meaning, result, and/or outcome.", "The user action can include manipulating a device (e.g., opening or closing a device, changing a device orientation, moving a trackball or wheel, etc.), movement of a body part in relation to the device, movement of an implement or tool in relation to the device, audio inputs, etc.", "A gesture may be made on a device (such as on the screen) or with the device to interact with the device.", "[0036] The term “module”", "as used herein refers to any known or later developed hardware, software, firmware, artificial intelligence, fuzzy logic, or combination of hardware and software that is capable of performing the functionality associated with that element.", "[0037] The term “screen,” “touch screen,” or “touchscreen”", "refers to a physical structure that enables the user to interact with the computer by touching areas on the screen and provides information to a user through a display.", "The touch screen may sense user contact in a number of different ways, such as by a change in an electrical parameter (e.g., resistance or capacitance), acoustic wave variations, infrared radiation proximity detection, light variation detection, and the like.", "In a resistive touch screen, for example, normally separated conductive and resistive metallic layers in the screen pass an electrical current.", "When a user touches the screen, the two layers make contact in the contacted location, whereby a change in electrical field is noted and the coordinates of the contacted location calculated.", "In a capacitive touch screen, a capacitive layer stores electrical charge, which is discharged to the user upon contact with the touch screen, causing a decrease in the charge of the capacitive layer.", "The decrease is measured, and the contacted location coordinates determined.", "In a surface acoustic wave touch screen, an acoustic wave is transmitted through the screen, and the acoustic wave is disturbed by user contact.", "A receiving transducer detects the user contact instance and determines the contacted location coordinates.", "[0038] The terms “determine”, “calculate”", "and “compute,” and variations thereof, as used herein, are used interchangeably and include any type of methodology, process, mathematical operation or technique.", "[0039] It shall be understood that the term “means”", "as used herein shall be given its broadest possible interpretation in accordance with 35 U.S.C. §112, Paragraph 6.", "Accordingly, a claim incorporating the term “means”", "shall cover all structures, materials, or acts set forth herein, and all of the equivalents thereof.", "Further, the structures, materials or acts and the equivalents thereof shall include all those described in any portion of this document.", "Any one or more of the embodiments herein can therefore be claimed using means-type language.", "[0040] The term “vehicle”", "as used herein includes any conveyance, or model of a conveyance, where the conveyance was originally designed for the purpose of moving one or more tangible objects, such as people, animals, cargo, and the like.", "The term “vehicle”", "does not require that a conveyance moves or is capable of movement.", "Typical vehicles may include but are in no way limited to cars, trucks, motorcycles, busses, automobiles, trains, railed conveyances, boats, ships, marine conveyances, submarine conveyances, airplanes, space craft, flying machines, human-powered conveyances, and the like.", "[0041] The preceding is a simplified summary of the disclosure to provide an understanding of some aspects of the disclosure.", "This summary is neither an extensive nor exhaustive overview of the disclosure and its various aspects, embodiments, and/or configurations.", "It is intended neither to identify key or critical elements of the disclosure nor to delineate the scope of the disclosure but to present selected concepts of the disclosure in a simplified form as an introduction to the more detailed description presented below.", "As will be appreciated, other aspects, embodiments, and/or configurations of the disclosure are possible utilizing, alone or in combination, one or more of the features set forth above or described in detail below.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0042] FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary vehicle monitoring system;", "[0043] FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary embodiment of monitoring and storing data;", "[0044] FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary technique for stolen vehicle tracking;", "[0045] FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary technique for providing feedback to a driver based on insurance incentives or disincentives;", "[0046] FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary technique for providing lawbreaking indicators;", "[0047] FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary technique for obtaining information from a vehicle;", "[0048] FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary technique for reputation management;", "[0049] FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary technique for receiving reputation information;", "[0050] FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary technique for associating a reputation;", "[0051] FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary technique for forwarding reputation information to another vehicle or destination;", "[0052] FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating exemplary technique for providing etiquette suggestions to drivers and/or passengers;", "and [0053] FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating exemplary technique to provide suggestions to one or more of drivers and passengers in another vehicle.", "[0054] In the appended figures, similar components and/or features may have the same reference label.", "Further, various components of the same type may be distinguished by following the reference label by a letter that distinguishes among the similar components.", "If only the first reference label is used in the specification, the description is applicable to any one of the similar components having the same first reference label irrespective of the second reference label.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0055] FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary vehicle monitoring system 100 .", "The vehicle monitoring system 100 includes a vehicle 200 , an insurance entity 300 , one or more optional servers 404 and storage 408 , an interrogator 504 , one or more other vehicles 604 , and a remote monitor 704 , all of which can be interconnected via one or more wired or wireless links 5 and networks 10 .", "[0056] The vehicle 200 comprised one or more perimeter sensors 204 , one or more G-force sensors 208 , one or more proximity sensors 212 ;", "one or more controllers/processors 216 ;", "a GPS module 220 ;", "one or more biometric sensors 224 ;", "a law module 228 , storage and/or memory 232 , a communication module 236 , a feedback module 240 , one or more of a display, speaker and tactile feedback system 244 , a passenger detection and behavior sensor module 248 , a mileage monitor 252 and one or more vehicle sensors that sense one or more of turn signals, lights, radio, Bluetooth® use, braking, turning, accelerating, or in general any function of the vehicle 200 .", "[0057] The insurance company or entity 300 includes one or more servers 304 , a feedback module 308 , an incentive/disincentive module 312 , and storage 316 all interconnected via one or more links.", "The servers 404 and 408 can be associated with any entity with some of the exemplary entities that are capable of accessing information in the vehicle and/or the insurance company being law enforcement agencies, other insurance entities, other drivers, or the like.", "As will be appreciated, however, some of the information stored in the various storage locations may be sensitive and therefore access thereto may be limited.", "[0058] In operation, and in accordance with one exemplary aspect, if driver desires to receive better insurance rates for responsible driving or other good driving behaviors, one exemplary technique determines whether or not a driver should receive a discount or better rates based on the analysis of the driver's behavior.", "While the exemplary embodiment discussed hereinafter is directed toward vehicle 200 , it should be appreciated that these techniques could be driver-centric and based upon a driver driving a specific vehicle, with that driver identifying themself to the vehicle with this identification being storable and forwardable to the insurance company 300 such that the insurance company has granular information about each of the drivers operating vehicle 200 .", "[0059] The vehicle 200 is equipped with one or more perimeter sensors 204 that detect the vehicles proximity to one or more other objects.", "These perimeter sensors can be one or more of optical, capacitive, infrared, photoelectric, Doppler-based, Eddy-current based, laser based, magnetic, video, infrared, radar based, ultrasonic based technologies, or the like.", "In general, any sensor that is capable of detecting one or more nearby objects can be used as a perimeter sensor 204 as discussed herein.", "These perimeter sensors can be located in one or more locations on a vehicle and are capable of sensing the proximity of the vehicle 204 to one or more other objects.", "[0060] The G-force sensors 208 are able to detect G-forces upon, for example, acceleration, deceleration, or cornering, with this information being recordable in cooperation with the controller 216 and storage 232 .", "[0061] The proximity sensors 212 are capable of detecting the vehicle's 200 proximity to one or more other vehicles 604 .", "The proximity sensors 212 can use similar technology(ies) as the perimeter sensors 204 , and can be separate therefrom or combined therewith.", "The proximity sensors 212 can also optionally optimized for detection of one or more other vehicles near the vehicle 200 .", "For example, the proximity sensors 212 can cooperate with the GPS module 220 , and communicate with a central repository (not shown) which tracks a current location of all vehicles.", "Knowing the current location of all vehicles, the proximity sensor 212 , cooperating with the GPS module 220 , could determine the vehicles that are in close proximity to the vehicle 200 .", "In a similar manner, using any of the above-described sensor technologies, proximity sensors 212 could detect the presence of one or more other vehicles that are near the vehicle 200 and optionally record detailed information such as distance from the vehicle 200 , approach speed, departure speed, or the like.", "As with the other sensors discussed herein, this information is then storable with the cooperation of the controller 216 in the storage 232 .", "[0062] The GPS (global positioning system) module 220 , in addition to recording GPS location information, can also keep track of time and date information and log each trip by start time, end time, driver information, and any aspect of the vehicle's behavior such as highest speed, lowest speed, average speed, journey information, and the like.", "Again, this information is storable with the cooperation of the controller 216 in the storage 232 as discussed.", "[0063] The vehicle 200 may also be equipped with one or more biometric sensors 224 that are capable of detecting any biometric information associated with one or more of the driver and passenger(s).", "These biometric sensors 224 can be located in one or more of the steering wheel, seat, vehicle cabin, other in vehicle control(s), such as in the turn signal switch, cruise control controller and climate control controllers, and are adapted to record any desired biometric characteristic for recording in the storage 232 .", "[0064] The law module 228 is capable of monitoring one or more of local laws and regulations appropriate for the vehicle's 200 location.", "For example, the law module 228 can cooperate with the GPS module 220 as well as the communication module 236 to receive local laws/regulations from a central repository (not shown) which stores the local laws/regulations for that particular geographic area.", "These laws and regulations can include such information as speed limit, whether a right turn on red is allowed, whether there are any applicable noise ordinances, whether a vehicle needs to yield to passengers in a crosswalk, and in general can include any laws and/or regulations for that particular geographic area.", "As will be discussed hereinafter, the information managed by the law module 228 can be used by various other systems such as the feedback module 240 to provide feedback to the driver regarding, for example, whether or not they are in compliance with the local laws/regulations.", "[0065] Communication module 236 , in addition to being able to handle communications between the vehicle 200 and another entity, such as the insurance company 300 or servers 404 , can also manage communications between the vehicle and other vehicle 604 as well as the remote monitor 704 and interrogator 504 discussed hereinafter.", "Moreover, the communication module 236 can include on-board diagnostics (OBD-II) or comparable input(s) from which data can also be aggregated and stored in the storage 232 .", "[0066] The various feedback elements 244 can include one or more of a display, such as a touch-screen display, the multi-screen display as disclosed in the related application(s), one or more speakers, as well as a tactile feedback device(s).", "More specifically, the display can be, for example, a vehicle installed display, such as an on-board navigation system, or alternatively, and in cooperation with the communication module 236 , the vehicle 200 can be paired with an aftermarket display, such as one associated with a GPS device, a Smartphone, a tablet computer, or in general any apparatus that has a display that is capable of communicating with the communication module 236 and therefore the vehicle 200 .", "Similarly, manufacture-installed speakers can be used to provide feedback in addition to one or more of a Smartphone speaker, and in general any speaker that can be paired with or otherwise associated with the vehicle 200 can be used.", "Tactile feedback devices include, for example, vibrating elements in one or more of the seat, steering wheel, or other vehicle controls, as well as optionally include the ability to provide tactile feedback, such as through the triggering of the vibrator of a Smartphone or cellphone that is paired with the vehicle 200 with the cooperation of the communication module 236 .", "[0067] Passenger detection behavior sensor module 248 allows one or more passenger and driver behaviors to be sensed via, for example, one or more of a camera, passenger presence detector in the seats, or via any other sensor that is capable of determining whether or not a passenger, or a pet, is also present in the vehicle with the driver.", "The passenger detection and behavior sensor module 248 allows, for example, one or more of the monitoring of the driver watching the road, falling asleep, texting, talking on the phone, being distracted by food or entertainment options, or in general is capable of monitoring any behavior of one or more of the drivers, passengers, pets or cargo in the vehicle.", "[0068] The mileage monitor 252 can optionally cooperate with the GPS module 220 to track mileage that the vehicle 200 has done.", "Again, and as with any of the other sensors or modules, information relating to the operation thereto can be stored in storage 232 in cooperation with controller 216 as necessary.", "[0069] Other vehicle sensors 256 include one or more of sensors associated with turn signals, lights, radio or entertainment system, a Bluetooth® system, the brakes, the steering wheel, the accelerator pedal, and in general, as discussed, can include any sensor that is capable of monitoring the operation of any aspect of the vehicle 200 optionally in conjunction with any information received over one or more busses associated with a vehicle, such as an OBD-II system.", "Again, any information sensible by one or more of the vehicle sensors 256 is capable of being stored in storage 232 .", "[0070] In accordance with the first exemplary operational embodiment, the GPS module 220 , mileage monitor 252 , and controller 216 detect that the vehicle has been started and/or is in motion.", "In conjunction with this detection, a GPS module 220 can record the current vehicle location, time of day, date information, and any other information related to the vehicles trip, in storage 232 .", "Furthermore, controller 216 can enable a data collection mode for any one or more of the sensors and modules discussed herein such that data logging can also commence.", "As discussed above, and during operation of the vehicle, one or more of perimeter data, G-force data, proximity data, GPS data, biometric data, vehicle data, including, for example, braking data, acceleration data, turn signal data, light data, radio data, entertainment system data, Bluetooth® data, etc.", ", passenger data, and mileage data are collected from the appropriate sensor(s) and stored in the storage 232 .", "[0071] This information can be stored in storage 232 until a later time or forwarded, for example in real-time, with the cooperation of the communication module 236 to the insurance company 300 via one or more links 5 and communication networks 10 .", "This information upon being received by the insurance company 300 , is parsed to determine an identification of one or more of the vehicle and/or driver with which this data is associated, and then, in cooperation with server 304 , stored in storage 316 .", "As previously discussed, this information can optionally be forwarded to one or more other destinations, such as servers 404 and storage 408 , to the interrogator 504 , and the like, as discussed hereinafter.", "[0072] In accordance with an optional exemplary embodiment, the storage 232 can transmit its information to one or more other entities, such as the insurance company 300 , at a predetermined time during the day, such as during low network-traffic times in the middle of the night, and/or utilize, for example, a high-speed network communication link associated with the driver's home for uploading the data.", "For example, upon the vehicle 200 returning to the driver's home, the communication module 236 can detect that the driver's home Wi-Fi is range and commence the appropriate procedures to logon to the Wi-Fi and begin transmission of one or more portions of the data stored in storage 232 to another entity, such as insurance company 300 .", "[0073] In accordance with another exemplary operational embodiment, that could be particularly useful when a vehicle is stolen, one or more of the GPS module 220 and controller 216 determine that vehicle 200 has been parked.", "The GPS information available from the GPS module 220 is recorded in conjunction with time and date information as well as other optional information such as whether or not the doors are locked, whether or not the alarm is engaged, whether or not the doors and/or windows are closed, whether or not the sunroof is closed or top is up, whether there is cargo in the vehicle, or any other information available from the vehicle sensor 256 .", "This information can optionally be forwarded, with the cooperation of the communication module 236 , to one or more of the insurance company 300 or another destination, such as servers 404 and storage 408 .", "If, for example, a theft of the vehicle is reported, the GPS module 220 can be activated and optionally provide, in real-time, that information via communication module 236 to one or more of the insurance company 300 , local law enforcement, or the like.", "Moreover, and in cooperation with the controller 216 , the vehicle can provide one or more of the owner and the insurance company 300 notification that the vehicle has been stolen.", "For example, an exemplary method in which the controller 216 can trigger this activity is the detection of the moving of the vehicle without an appropriate key having started the vehicle.", "Moreover, in addition to being able to send information in real-time, or at a predetermined later time, the vehicle 200 can optionally execute evasive action with the cooperation of the controller 216 and any one or more of the sensors discussed herein, in cooperation with, for example, the engine control unit, a braking unit, an ignition unit, or the like.", "In this manner, the vehicle can appropriately be “shut down,” slowed down, or otherwise completely or partially disabled to assist with the vehicle recovery.", "Moreover, the controller 216 can instruct one or more of the sensors and/or modules discussed herein to start recording specific information to, for example, try to capture a picture of the thief in the driver's seat.", "[0074] In accordance with an optional exemplary embodiment, the controller 216 , upon detecting the theft of a vehicle, can automatically commence communications with local law enforcement agencies and relay the various types of information discussed herein to that law enforcement agency to assist with recovery of the vehicle.", "Again, any information, such as GPS information, a video or camera feed from the on-board camera, or the like, can be sent to the local law enforcement agency to not only assist with recovery of the vehicle, but prosecution of the perpetrator.", "[0075] In accordance with another exemplary operational embodiment, the system can provide feedback, via one or more of the feedback module 240 and the display/speakers/tactile feedback 244 to the driver.", "More specifically, this feedback can be provided based on an assessment as to whether or not insurance company 300 wishes to incentivize of disincentivize a particular driver's actions behind the wheel.", "As discussed, any one or more of the sensors and modules can record data related to the operation of the vehicle and/or driver and/or passenger behavior.", "This information, being stored in storage 232 , is then accessible by one or more of the feedback module 240 associated with the vehicle, or the feedback module 308 associated with the insurance company 300 .", "Based on a set of, for example, rules, a determination is made as to whether there have been one or more triggering events that have occurred that can be correlated to either incentivizing a driver's behavior, or disincentivizing a driver's behavior.", "For example, either or both of the feedback modules can analyze the data stored in storage 232 , or comparable data that has been forwarded with the communication module 236 to storage 316 to determine whether, for example, a threshold has been met.", "[0076] For example, erratic driving behavior, failure to use appropriate turn signaling or lighting, abrupt braking, or deceleration, constant use of a cellphone, or Bluetooth® services, or the like, can all be activities that an insurance company may want to disincentivize a driver for use thereof.", "[0077] Alternatively, if the analysis of the data by the feedback module(s) determine that the driver always (or mostly) complies with applicable laws and regulations, always uses their turn signals and drives the vehicle in a safe, consistent, and smooth manner, this could be characterized as activities that an insurance company would want to incentivize a driver for.", "[0078] Incentivization or disincentivization can work in a number of different exemplary manners.", "In accordance with the first exemplary embodiment, this information is tracked and analyzed and then used for determining whether or not, for example, a particular driver's policy will be renewed, and/or whether there is going to be an increase or decrease of their annual premiums.", "[0079] In accordance with another exemplary embodiment, feedback can be provided to the driver, with the cooperation of the feedback module 308 and incentive/disincentive module 312 either in real-time, as discussed below, or for example at some other time.", "In accordance with one exemplary embodiment, and based on an analysis of the data associated with a particular driver over a certain time period, the feedback module 308 determines that the driver is performing in an excellent manner, and the feedback module 308 , cooperating with the incentive/disincentive module 312 , could automatically establish a communication, such as via the phone, with the driver at a number stored in storage 316 to congratulate them on their good performance and optionally offer them further incentives or discounts to continue performing in the same or similar manner.", "[0080] This type of positive feedback could similarly be sent, via the cooperation of the feedback module 308 , incentive/disincentive module 312 and communication module 236 to the feedback module 240 located in the vehicle.", "The feedback module 240 could then determine the appropriate manner to display the incentive information such as via one or more of the display, speaker, and through tactile feedback.", "This could optionally be done in a manner, such as when the vehicle is stopped, to minimize distraction to the driver.", "[0081] Analyzing the stored data to determine any appropriate disincentive can work in a similar manner again with the cooperation of the incentive/disincentive module 312 , feedback module 308 , server 304 , storage 316 , as well as optionally in cooperation with the communication module 236 and feedback module 240 .", "In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, if analysis of the stored data reveals that the driver is behaving in an erratic manner, such that it is determined via the proximity sensors 212 that the vehicle is coming close to contacting other vehicles, the G-force sensor is recording high G-force inputs, and the accelerator and brake sensors indicate erratic behavior, this system can optionally enter a real-time feedback mode such that the driver can be contacted, for example, ask them whether there is a problem or recommend a change in their driving habits.", "[0082] In accordance with one exemplary embodiment, one or more of the feedback modules are monitoring the stored data in real-time and are able to provide immediate feedback to a driver to assist them with, for example, avoiding hitting an object or another vehicle.", "For example, one or more of the data feeds from the perimeter sensors and proximity sensors 212 can be monitored and upon a threshold being detected, the feedback modules cooperating with one or more of the display, speakers, and tactile feedback devices 244 alert the driver that they are getting precariously close to another object or vehicle.", "[0083] In a similar manger, information from one or more of the biometric sensors 244 can be analyzed and if it is determined based on, for example, because of a slower heart rate and breathing rhythm the driver is dozing off, the feedback module 240 can again “stimulate”", "the driver via one or more of the display, speaker, tactile feedback devices 244 to assist with waking them up.", "For example, the driver's seat could be shaken and, in cooperation with controller 216 , the temperature in the vehicle turned down since being cold has a tendency to make a driver more alert.", "As will be appreciated, since there are rich feedback devices available, feedback need not be limited as simply shaking a driver's seat, adjusting the temperature, or playing an alert sound.", "Rather, the feedback information can be rich and provided on one or more of the display and speaker devices such that detailed information about, for example, the driver's behavior, incentive or disincentive information is communicated.", "[0084] For example, an analysis of the data could reveal that the driver is performing in a manner that is consistent with all laws and regulations (as confirmed by the law module 228 ), and is consistently using turn signals and uniformly and safely controlling the vehicle.", "Feedback indicating this pattern could be provided on the display 244 with the feedback communicating to the driver that they are thanked for their good driving behaviors and that they can except to see a discount on next month's bill.", "[0085] In a similar manner, based on an analysis of the data, feedback can be provided to the driver such as “you are breaking the speed limit by more than 25 miles an hour. This could have a very negative impact on your insurance renewal rates. Please consider your driving behavior in light of this possibility.”", "[0086] It should further be appreciated that this information need not necessarily be displayed on a display, but, in cooperation with the controller 216 , the received information could go through a text-to-speech converter and played on the one or more speakers.", "[0087] In accordance with a further exemplary embodiment, this information could be forwarded to a destination, such as an e-mail address associated with the driver and stored on record with the insurance company such that the driver can view at a later time.", "[0088] In accordance with another optional exemplary embodiment, and since the system is able to aggregate data from a multitude of vehicles, one or more portions of the aggregated data can be analyzed to determine, for example, average driver behavior, erratic driver behavior, and good driver behavior, with this analysis being able to be fed back to the system to assist with determining one or more rules that are used in the analysis of received data from a specific vehicle.", "This could be complemented with machine learning techniques to assist with determining one or more of the rules and thresholds.", "[0089] As will be appreciated, this data can also be mined for a plurality of other uses such as by one or more of departments of transportation, local law enforcement, traffic planners and analyzers, and in general any entity that has a use in following, analyzing, and/or studying traffic or driver behaviors.", "[0090] In accordance with another exemplary embodiment, the system monitors behavior to determine whether or not one or more laws or regulations have been broken.", "As discussed, the GPS module 220 , upon determining a vehicle's current location, can download the applicable laws/regulations to the law module 228 .", "The law module 228 , cooperating with one or more of the controller 216 and storage 232 analyzes information from any of the various sensors, such as speed information, turn signal information, volume information, and the like.", "This information is then compared with information in the law module 228 (such as a set of rules) to determine whether or not one or more laws or regulations have been broken.", "[0091] As will be appreciated, the law module 228 need not necessarily download all the applicable laws/regulations from a central repository via the communication module 236 , but in an alternative exemplary embodiment can communicate with this central repository and then make the analysis as to whether one or more laws or regulations have been broken.", "If a law or regulation has been broken, the system can perform any one or more of the following actions.", "In accordance with the first exemplary embodiment, notification regarding the violation is sent to one or more entities.", "In addition to indicating the type of violation, information such as location information, vehicle information, driver information, license plate information, and the like can be forwarded with the type of infraction.", "As a specific example, if there is a school zone with a speed limit of 15 miles per hour, and the GPS detects that while the vehicle is in the school zone and the school zone is active that the car is driving at a rate of 33 miles per hour, this information could be communicated to an entity, with the cooperation of the communication module 236 , controller 216 , and storage 232 , such as local law enforcement.", "[0092] As will be appreciated, the information in the law module can also have an indication as to which geographic location those particular laws/regulations are applicable to.", "Therefore, this information can be reconciled with vehicle location information obtained by the GPS module 220 to determine whether the vehicle is in compliance with those laws and regulations for that specific geographic area.", "[0093] In addition to, or as an alternative to communicating the infraction to one or more other entities, the feedback module 240 , cooperating with the law module 228 , GPS module 220 , controller 216 , and storage 232 can communicate with the display, speaker, or tactile feedback devices 244 and could also provide an indication to the driver if they are not in compliance with one or more laws and/or regulations.", "This information can optionally be very detailed in nature, for example, “The speed limit in this area is 55, and you are driving 72.”", "Alternatively, or in addition, feedback can be very simple such as a tone plate over the speakers, a “slow down”", "message shown on the display or a simple vibration of the seat to alert the driver that they are not in compliance with one or more of the applicable laws and regulations.", "[0094] As discussed above, this information could also be sent to the insurance company 300 recorded in storage 316 and/or optionally be considered by the feedback module 308 and incentive/disincentive module 312 when determining whether or not an incentive or disincentive should be provided to a specific driver.", "[0095] In accordance with another exemplary embodiment, this stored information can be utilized for interrogation purposes of the vehicle as well.", "More specifically, an interrogator 504 , such as a law enforcement official, a “rule trap”", "for example installed along the roadside or in a road can be used to catch law or regulation violators.", "Similarly, an accident investigator, or the like, is able to query the vehicle 202 and retrieve stored information therefrom.", "This interrogator can be wired or wireless and cooperate with one or more of the communication module 236 and with storage 232 .", "[0096] In accordance with one exemplary embodiment, the interrogator generates a query which is sent to the vehicle 202 requesting specific information.", "This information can be as broad as “all data”", "or could be more focused for example “within the last 10 minutes,” for a specific geographic area, on a specific road, at a specific traffic light, since the vehicle started, or in general for any time period, at any location or area.", "This information could then be used by a law enforcement agency to, for example, issue a ticket, corroborate information from one of their sensors, such as radar or LADAR, and/or an addition be used to assist with accident reconstruction.", "This could be particularly valuable to determine, for example, whether or not a vehicle was speeding or applying the brakes before hitting object.", "[0097] In accordance with another exemplary embodiment, the “rule trap”", "utilizes the same techniques to secure information from the vehicle 200 to assist with, for example, one or more of law enforcement, vehicle registration, proof of insurance, or the like.", "In accordance with this exemplary embodiment, the rule trap 504 could be positioned alongside, for example, a road, with the rule trap 504 interrogating every car or a predefined number of cars, as they pass the rule trap.", "The rule trap 504 could query the vehicle for specific information, such as what is the vehicle's current speed, as well as identifying information such as VIN information, license plate information and/or driver information.", "Having this information, the rule trap 504 could make a determination as to whether an infraction has occurred and then coordinate with the appropriate authorities to issue, for example, a speeding ticket.", "[0098] An exemplary advantage associated with this particular configuration is that it is the vehicle 200 that is providing the data as opposed to some other data acquisition means.", "Therefore, since GPSs and other related vehicle sensors are typically very accurate, information that can be provided by the vehicle during interrogation tends to be much more accurate than other data acquisition means, such as radar.", "[0099] An optional aspect includes the ability to determine whether or not the query from the interrogator 504 is authorized.", "In addition to being able to determine whether the query is authorized, the controller 216 can also limit access to information in the storage 232 based on one or more rules.", "For example, acceptable queries could be limited to law enforcement agency officers and rule traps and accident investigators, however, queries from another vehicle would be refused.", "In a similar manner, the controller 216 can filter the types of information available in response to the query based on one or more rules that can be one or more predefined, user defined, or vehicle defined.", "For example, a rule may specify data is available to a law enforcement officer only if that data is related to a one mile radius of where the vehicle was stopped and interrogated.", "[0100] As generally discussed above, in addition to data regarding the operation of the driver and/or vehicle 200 , a response to the query from the interrogator 504 can also optionally include information such as vehicle registration information and proof of insurance.", "Therefore, in accordance with one exemplary embodiment the vehicle 200 also stores electronically vehicle registration and proof of insurance information in the storage 232 that can be electronically updated, via the communication module 236 , from one or more of the appropriate entities such as the Department of Motor Vehicles and an insurance company.", "[0101] In accordance with another exemplary embodiment, the passenger detection-behavior sensor module 248 also records a reputation value for a particular driver.", "Similar to some of the other embodiments disclosed herein, the behavior sensor module 248 can analyze any one or more of the portions of stored data and develop a driver reputation based on that analysis.", "The reputation can be, for example, excellent driver, good driver, average driver, poor driver, aggressive driver, new driver, elderly driver, or in general any identifier that appropriately describes a driver in vehicle 200 .", "This reputation information can, for example, be forwarded to one or more entities, such as insurance company 300 , server 404 , and storage 408 , to the interrogator 504 , to a remote monitor 704 , and optionally shared with another vehicle(s) 604 .", "[0102] More specifically, this reputation information can be shared with one or more nearby vehicles that are detected with the cooperation of the proximity sensor 212 and the communication module 236 .", "This could be particularly advantageous for surrounding drivers to appreciate a particular reputation or skill level of surrounding drivers.", "In accordance with one exemplary embodiment, information regarding the reputation of surrounding drivers can be graphically displayed on the display device 244 and presented to the driver visually such that they, for example, can see a picture of one or more of the vehicles around them and a label identifying the reputation of the driver associated with that vehicle.", "This information could be particularly advantageous to, for example, allow a driver to avoid another driver who has an aggressive reputation.", "In a similar manner, it can allow a driver to give a novice driver extra room appreciating that they may be new to the road.", "[0103] This reputation could also be used as a “quick and dirty”", "means for the insurance company 300 to determine whether or not a driver is performing poorly in lieu of analyzing one or more of the portions of data stored in storage 232 .", "[0104] It is to be appreciated this reputation information can be updated on a regular or semi-regular basis or, for example, if a triggering event occurs that warrants the changing of the reputation information from one reputation to another.", "[0105] In accordance with yet another exemplary embodiment, the reputation information could be updated or supplemented with reputation information received from one or more other drivers.", "In accordance with this exemplary embodiment, reputation information could be a “social status”", "such that the vehicle 200 is able to receive reputation submissions from one or more other vehicles.", "[0106] As an example, a first driver sees a second driver that appears to be obeying all laws and appropriately uses signals, and waves after they change lanes, the second driver could provide feedback to them, the feedback indicating that they are a good, courteous driver.", "This information could then be assimilated into the behavior module 248 and optionally used to update the reputation of that driver.", "In a similar manner, drivers could accumulate “scores”", "while other drivers are evaluating them on the road.", "Thus, a good driver could have hundreds of “thumbs up”", "while a dangerous and aggressive driver may have thousands of “thumbs down.”", "As with the other data, this information could also be evaluated by one or more of the interrogator 504 , insurance company 300 , or other entity to assess with determining the particular driver's driving habits.", "[0107] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, where a driver desires to associate reputation information with another vehicle, that other vehicle is initially identified.", "This can be via one or more of the proximity sensor, via Bluetooth®, via license plate data, or through the sensing of an open communications system that can used for the exchange of reputation information.", "Having identified the vehicle with which reputation information is to be associated, a user than selects an appropriate reputation value which is sent or otherwise associated with the identified vehicle.", "[0108] In accordance with another exemplary embodiment, instead of this reputation information being forwarded to the other vehicle, the reputation information is stored in storage 232 , and at a later time, and in cooperation with the communication module 236 , sent to, for example, a central repository that can optionally be queried by one or more entities.", "The information stored in the central repository could also optionally be pushed to the vehicle that the reputation information was associated with and optionally stored in that vehicle's storage.", "[0109] In accordance with another exemplary embodiment, etiquette suggestions can be provided by analyzing one or more portions of the stored data and making an “etiquette”", "suggestion based on the outcome of the data analysis.", "In addition to the analysis of the data, behavior sensor 248 , in cooperation with controller 216 , storage 232 , and law module 228 can then compare the data with one or more of any applicable laws, rules, regulations, traffic data, local customs, traffic conditions, or the like.", "If appropriate, the results of this analysis can be used by the behavior sensor module 248 to provide feedback, with the cooperation of the feedback module 240 , in the form of an etiquette suggestion to the driver.", "As an example, if an automobile is blocking faster traffic in the fast lane, the system can suggest that the driver move over to a slower lane.", "Similarly, if the driver is known to not use turn signals, the system may remind the driver during, after, or anticipating a turn, to use their turn signals.", "And similarly, the system may also detect a fast approaching vehicle and suggest changing lanes, increasing speed, etc.", ", utilizing one or more of the feedback devices such as on a display, audibly via the speakers or with tactile feedback through one or more of the steering wheel, seat, or the like.", "As with the other data and determined results discussed herein, this etiquette suggestion can be stored in storage 232 , and optionally forwarded to one or more other entities, such as interrogator 504 , another vehicle 604 , insurance company 300 , etc.", "[0110] As will be appreciated, some drivers may not want to receive etiquette suggestions so a filter can be equipped in the behavior sensor module 248 that allows, for example, a driver to turn on or off the etiquette suggestion or limit the types of suggestions that are provided to the driver.", "As another example, and for a new driver, the system may be requested to operate with increased sensitivity to provide more etiquette suggestions than normal to try to improve a young or new driver's performance.", "As will be appreciated, this should be done in a manner that does not distract the new or inexperienced driver with this determination being based on, for example, a driver profile.", "This driver profile can have such information as age, number of years driving, name, drivers license information, whether or not there are any special restrictions on the license, or the like.", "Moreover, this driver profile information can include preferences such as temperature or climate control preferences, volume preferences, display preferences, and the like, such that when feedback is provided by one of the feedback devices 244 , the preferences in the driver profile govern how that feedback should be provided.", "For example, for an elderly driver, any audible feedback may be broadcast at a higher volume than normal.", "Similarly, another driver may not like to have display device 244 flash various messages to them because they find it distractive.", "Here, the driver could specify that all messages from one of the feedback devices, via another mechanism such as audibly or through tactile feedback.", "[0111] Similar to the embodiment discussed above regarding reputation information, etiquette information can be provided to one or more other drivers and in a similar manner provided to the other driver(s) either in real-time or at a later time as discussed above.", "Therefore, the behavior sensor module 248 , cooperating with one or more of the proximity sensor 212 , controller 216 , and storage 232 cooperates with the user to identify a vehicle to associate an etiquette suggestion.", "Similar to the above embodiment, this association can be done via one or more of license plate entry or identification, an internet protocol address, Bluetooth® address, an interrogation technique, via RFID, via near-field communication, or in general any other technique that allows a first vehicle to positively identify another vehicle.", "This could also be done in cooperation with, for example, a touch-screen display installed in the vehicle 200 where surrounding vehicles are graphically shown on the display, and the user selects the vehicle by touching on the vehicle to which they want to send the etiquette suggestion.", "The user than selects the etiquette suggestion, by, for example, speaking into microphone which is then speech-to-text converted into a message, by typing into the touchscreen display, selecting from a canned set of etiquette suggestions, or the like, that is then forwarded, with the cooperation of the communication module 236 , to the communication module of the receiving vehicle.", "[0112] Upon receiving this etiquette suggestion, a determination can be made as to whether the suggestion should be provided to the driver and/or passengers in the vehicle or optionally stored for a later time.", "In a similar manner to the above-discussed embodiment, the receiving vehicle can be equipped with a filter that governs the handling of received etiquette suggestions and filters based on one or more of suggestion content, driver profile, or the like.", "In a similar manner, this etiquette suggestion can be sent to a central repository and provided to the driver of the vehicle at a later time, such as via an e-mail, a phone call, downloaded to the vehicle for a display at a later time, or the like.", "Similarly, this etiquette suggestion can be provided to any entity in the vehicle monitoring system.", "[0113] FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary technique for monitoring and storing data aggregated by the vehicle monitoring system.", "In particular, control begins in step S 200 and continues to step S 210 .", "In step S 210 , the vehicle being started or set into motion is detected.", "Next, in step S 220 data collection and monitoring is enabled.", "Then, in step S 230 , data from one or more of the vehicle's sensors is aggregated and collected.", "As discussed, this data can be related to one or more of perimeter data, G-force data, proximity data, GPS data, time and date data, biometric data, vehicle data, such as braking data, accelerator data, turn signal data, light data, radio data, Bluetooth® data, and the like, passenger data, mileage data, camera data, and in general can be any of the types of data as discussed herein.", "Control then continues to step S 240 .", "[0114] In step S 240 , the harvested data is one or more of stored and optionally forwarded in real-time or near real-time to a third party, such as an insurance company.", "Next, in step S 250 , the stored data can optionally be forwarded to one or more other destinations such as a home computer, a remote computer, a Smartphone, or in general any location that is capable of receiving the data aggregated by the vehicle.", "Control then continues to step S 260 where the control sequence ends.", "[0115] FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary technique for assisting with stolen vehicle tracking and/or recovery.", "In particular, control begins in step S 300 and continues to step S 310 .", "In step S 310 the vehicle is detected as being parked.", "This can be done, for example, by detecting the removal of the key from the ignition and the vehicle being turned off.", "Next, in step S 320 , one or more of GPS coordinate information, time information, and other information related to the status of the vehicle is recorded.", "This information can include, for example, whether or not the doors are locked, whether or not the windows are up, whether or not the sunroof is open, whether an alarm is set, and in general any characteristic that would either make a vehicle harder or easier to steal being recorded.", "Control then continues to step S 330 .", "[0116] In step S 330 , the recorded information can optionally be forwarded to an insurance company or other location(s) so that they have the last known good information about the vehicle.", "If a theft is not reported, control continues to step S 340 where the control sequence ends.", "[0117] If a theft is reported, control jumps to step S 332 .", "In step S 332 , and if possible, GPS tracking can be automatically or remotely enabled.", "For example, and in accordance with the automatic embodiment, if it is detected that the vehicle is moving without the ignition having received the correct key, GPS tracking can automatically be invoked.", "This could also be performed remotely such as by an insurance company, local law enforcement, or the like, once they establish communication with the vehicle.", "Next, in step S 334 , one or more of the owner and/or insurance company and/or local law enforcement can be notified about the theft.", "This can be done automatically by the vehicle in conjunction with a communication module where an outbound message is sent to one or more of these entities on any available communications device or media type.", "Similarly, if the insurance company is monitoring a vehicle that has been identified as stolen, the insurance company could notify the owner and provide them with information as appropriate.", "Then, in step S 336 , evasive action can optionally commence execution on the vehicle.", "As discussed, this can include one or more of shutting the vehicle down, locking the doors, rolling up the windows, disabling some or all of the vehicle systems, automatically applying the brake, allowing remote control of the vehicle, or the like.", "Control then continues to step S 338 .", "[0118] In step S 338 , any of these activities can further be optionally coordinated with local law enforcement or the police to help ensure a safe and swift recovery of the stolen vehicle.", "Control then continues to step S 339 where the control sequence ends.", "[0119] FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary technique for providing feedback to, for example, a driver, based on an analysis of one or more portions of data aggregated by the vehicle.", "In particular, control begins in step S 400 and continues to step S 410 .", "In step S 410 , one or more portions of the data are accessed for analysis.", "Next, in step S 420 , an analysis is performed on the one or more portions of data.", "Then, in step S 430 , a determination is made whether a triggering event has occurred that can be correlated to an incentive or disincentive by an insurance company.", "For example, this determination can be made relative to one or more rules either stored (after downloading) in the vehicle, or remote location, such as hosted by an insurance company.", "If it is determined that there has not been a triggering event, control jumps back to step S 420 .", "Otherwise, control continues to step S 440 .", "[0120] In step S 440 , a determination is made as to whether real-time feedback should be provided.", "If real-time feedback is to be provided, control jumps to step S 442 with control otherwise continuing to step S 450 .", "[0121] In step S 450 , a determination is made as to whether the feedback should be provided at a later time.", "If the feedback is to be provided at a later time, control continues to step S 460 where the feedback is provided via one or more communications modalities, with control continuing to step S 470 where the control sequence ends.", "If the feedback is not to be provided at a later time, control jumps directly to step S 470 where the control sequence ends.", "[0122] If real-time feedback is to be provided to, for example the driver, in step S 442 communication is established with one or more of the display, speakers, tactile devices, driver's Smartphone, or the like.", "Then, in step S 444 this feedback is provided in one or more of audibly, visually, or tactilely, such as via one or more vibrations with control continuing to step S 446 where the control sequence ends.", "[0123] FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary technique for providing an indicator as to whether or not a law or regulation has been broken.", "In particular, control begins in step S 500 and continues to step S 510 .", "In step S 510 , a current GPS location of the vehicle is retrieved.", "Next, in step S 520 , the laws and/or regulations for the retrieved GPS location are retrieved from one or more of a local location, such as a storage location in the vehicle, or from one or more remote locations.", "Knowing the applicable laws and/or regulations for the vehicle's current geographic area, in step S 530 data from one or more of the vehicle's sensors is monitored.", "Then, in step S 540 , a determination is made as to whether data from one or more of the vehicle's sensors is indicative of a law and/or regulation having been broken.", "If a law or regulation has not been broken, control jumps to step S 550 where the control sequence ends.", "Otherwise, control continues to step S 560 .", "[0124] In step S 560 , a determination is made as to whether feedback should be provided about the infraction.", "If feedback is to be provided, in step S 562 communication is established with one or more of the display, speaker, tactile devices, user's Smartphone, or the like.", "Next, in step S 564 , feedback is provided notifying the driver that there has been an infraction.", "As discussed, this notification can be one or more of audible, visual, and tactile, such as via one or more vibrations, with control continuing to step S 566 where the control sequence ends.", "[0125] Alternatively, if the infraction is to be reported, control continues to step S 570 .", "In step S 570 , one or more of reporting, recording, or forwarding of a notification of the infraction is sent to one or more entities, such as local law enforcement, insurance companies, or the like.", "Control then continues to step S 580 where the control sequence ends.", "[0126] FIG. 6 outlines an exemplary technique for querying information from a vehicle.", "This technique could be particularly useful to, for example, local law enforcement, a rule trap, an accident investigator, or the like.", "Control begins in step S 600 , with the querying entity, and continues to step S 610 .", "In step S 610 , a vehicle to be queried is identified.", "Next, in step S 620 , a query is assembled and forwarded to the identified vehicles specifying one or more of time and location information.", "As will be appreciated, this time and location information can be very granular, or it could be very general, such as within the last year, all recorded data, or the like.", "Then, via either a wired and/or wireless communication protocol, the query is forwarded where it is received by the vehicle in step S 622 .", "[0127] Next, in step S 624 , it is optionally determined whether the query is authorized.", "For example, a check can be performed using, for example, authenticatable signatures, as to whether or not the query is from an authorized source, such as local law enforcement, a government employee, an accident investigator, or the like.", "Then, in step S 626 , and in response to receiving the query, vehicle registration and/or insurance information can also be gathered and bundled with the response to the query.", "Then, in step S 626 , the response to the query is assembled by gathering the requested data and/or registration and/or insurance information, with, in step S 629 , the response to the query being returned to the querying entity.", "[0128] Then, in step S 630 , and at the querying entity, the response to the query is received.", "Control then continues to step S 640 .", "[0129] In step S 640 , the data corresponding to the query can be one or more recorded, displayed, printed, viewed, or the like.", "Control then continues to step S 650 where a determination is made as to whether a further query is appropriate.", "If a further query is appropriate, control jumps back to step S 610 with control otherwise continuing to step S 660 where the control sequence ends.", "[0130] FIG. 7 outlines an exemplary technique for assembling a reputation.", "In particular, control begins in step S 700 and continues to step S 710 .", "In step S 710 , one or more portions of the vehicle data are analyzed.", "Next, in step S 720 , a reputation value is developed and stored based on the analysis of the data.", "As discussed, this analysis can look to certain metrics, thresholds, and/or average behavior patterns and determine whether a particular vehicle's and/or driver's reputation value or index should be set.", "Control then continues to step S 730 .", "[0131] In step S 730 , this determined reputation value can then optionally be forwarded to one or more entities, such as an insurance company, law enforcement, or the like.", "Next, in step S 740 , this reputation value can also optionally be shared with one or more other vehicles such that other vehicles are privy to the reputation associated with a particular vehicle/driver combination.", "Control then continues to step S 750 where a determination is made whether the reputation value should be updated.", "If the reputation value should be updated, control jumps back to step S 710 with control otherwise continuing to step S 760 where the control sequence ends.", "[0132] FIG. 8 illustrates an exemplary technique for receiving reputation information from, for example, one or more other vehicles.", "Control begins in step S 800 and continues to step S 810 .", "In step S 810 , a request to receive reputation information is received.", "Next, in step S 820 , and optionally, one or more rules are parsed to determine if the request should be granted.", "If the request is granted, in step S 830 reputation information can be received and stored with control continuing to step S 840 where the control sequence ends.", "If however, for example, the one or more rules indicate that a vehicle is not receiving reputation information, or not receiving certain types of reputation information, the request to receive the reputation information can be denied where the control sequence would end.", "[0133] FIG. 9 illustrates an exemplary technique for associating reputation information with one or more other vehicles.", "In particular, control begins in step S 900 and continues to step S 910 .", "In step S 910 , a vehicle to associate the reputation information is identified using, for example, one or more of license plate information, via a communications query, graphically by using touchscreen, or the like, as discussed.", "Next, in step S 920 , one or more reputation values are selected.", "This can again be done using one or more predetermined reputation values, or a custom reputation value could be entered.", "Once the reputation value(s) has been selected, control continues to step S 930 where the reputation values are forwarded to a repository(ies) and stored.", "Once stored, the reputation value(s) can optionally be queried, retrieved and displayed to the identified vehicle driver, or the like.", "Control then continues to step S 940 where the control sequence ends.", "[0134] FIG. 10 outlines an exemplary technique for associating reputation information with a vehicle.", "In particular, control begins in step S 1000 and continues to steps S 1010 .", "In step S 1010 , a vehicle is identified with which to associate reputation information.", "This identification can be done via one or more of license plate information, internet protocol address information, Bluetooth® address information, an interrogation technique, using RFID or near-field communications, or in general any other communications protocol or technique that allows another vehicle to be identified.", "Moreover, and as previously discussed, this can be done by selecting an icon graphically representing the vehicle with which reputation information should be associated, that vehicle having been detected by, for example, a proximity sensor as described.", "Next, in step S 1020 the reputation information is assembled.", "This reputation information can be selected from, for example, a predefined list, or optionally entered as a custom reputation.", "Control then continues to step S 1030 .", "[0135] In step S 1030 , the reputation information is forwarded to one or more of the identified vehicle or some other destination.", "Next, in step S 1040 , an optional step of confirming that the reputation information was associated with that vehicle can be performed.", "Control then continues to step S 1050 where the control sequence ends.", "[0136] FIG. 11 outlines an exemplary technique for providing an etiquette suggestion.", "In particular, control begins in step S 1100 and continues to step S 1110 .", "In step S 1110 , one or more portions of data are analyzed.", "Next, in step S 1120 , the data is optionally compared with one or more of applicable laws, rules, regulations, traffic data, local customs, traffic conditions, or the like.", "Then, in step S 1130 , an etiquette suggestion is determined and stored.", "Control then continues to step S 1140 .", "[0137] In step S 1140 , this determined etiquette suggestion can optionally be forwarded to one or more entities, aside from the driver.", "Next, in step S 1150 , a determination is made as to whether to provide the etiquette suggestion to the driver and/or passenger(s).", "If the etiquette suggestion is not to be provided, control continues to step S 1170 where the etiquette suggestion can optionally be stored with control continuing to step S 1180 where the control sequence ends.", "[0138] If the etiquette suggestion is to be provided to the driver, control jumps to step S 1160 where the etiquette suggestion is provided to one or more of the driver and/or passenger via, one or more of the display, speakers, tactile feedback, phone or smartphone, or other audible/visual/tactile feedback device(s).", "Control then continues to step S 1180 where the control sequence ends.", "[0139] FIG. 12 outlines an exemplary technique for forwarding an etiquette suggestion to one or more other identified vehicles.", "In particular, control begins in step S 1200 and continues to step S 1210 .", "In step S 1210 , the vehicle to associate the reputation information is identified.", "As discussed, this can be done using one or more of license plate information, internet protocol address information, Bluetooth address information, an interrogation technique, RFID, near-field communications, or in general any communications protocol or modality that allows another vehicle to be identified.", "Moreover, and as discussed, this can be done by selecting via, for example, a touch-screen display, an icon representing the vehicle with which to associate the etiquette information.", "Next, in step S 1220 , the etiquette suggestion is assembled.", "This can be assembled from one or more “canned”", "etiquette recommendations, or it can be a custom etiquette suggestion entered by a user.", "Then, in step S 1230 , the determined etiquette suggestion is forwarded to the identified vehicle.", "Again, this can be done using one or more protocols and modalities such as an internet protocol, Bluetooth®, RFID, near-field communications, or other communication technique.", "Control then continues to step S 1240 .", "[0140] In step S 1240 , and at the receiving vehicle, a determination is made as to whether to provide the etiquette suggestion to one or more of the driver and/or passenger(s).", "If the etiquette suggestion is not to be provided, control jumps to step S 1250 with control otherwise continuing to step S 1260 .", "[0141] In step S 1250 , the etiquette suggestion can optionally be stored for retrieval at a later time.", "Control then continues to step S 1270 where the control sequence ends.", "[0142] If the etiquette suggestion is to be provided, in step S 1260 this etiquette suggestion is provided to one or more of the driver and/or passengers via one or more of a display, audibly, and via tactile feedback.", "Control then continues to step S 1270 where the control sequence ends.", "[0143] The exemplary systems and methods of this disclosure have been described in relation to vehicle sensors, systems and techniques.", "However, to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the present disclosure, the preceding description omits a number of known structures and devices.", "This omission is not to be construed as a limitation of the scopes of the claims.", "Specific details are set forth to provide an understanding of the present disclosure.", "It should however be appreciated that the present disclosure may be practiced in a variety of ways beyond the specific detail set forth herein [0144] Furthermore, while the exemplary aspects, embodiments, and/or configurations illustrated herein show the various components of the system collocated, certain components of the system can be located remotely, at distant portions of a distributed network, such as a LAN and/or the Internet, or within a dedicated system.", "Thus, it should be appreciated, that the components of the system can be combined in to one or more devices, such as a Personal Computer (PC), laptop, netbook, smart phone, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), tablet, etc.", ", or collocated on a particular node of a distributed network, such as an analog and/or digital telecommunications network, a packet-switch network, or a circuit-switched network.", "It will be appreciated from the preceding description, and for reasons of computational efficiency, that the components of the system can be arranged at any location within a distributed network of components without affecting the operation of the system.", "For example, the various components can be located in a switch such as a PBX and media server, gateway, in one or more communications devices, at one or more users'", "premises, or some combination thereof.", "Similarly, one or more functional portions of the system could be distributed between a telecommunications device(s) and an associated computing device.", "[0145] Furthermore, it should be appreciated that the various links (such as link 5 , optionally communicating over network 10 ) connecting the elements can be wired or wireless links, or any combination thereof, or any other known or later developed element(s) that is capable of supplying and/or communicating data to and from the connected elements.", "These wired or wireless links can also be secure links and may be capable of communicating encrypted information.", "Transmission media used as links, for example, can be any suitable carrier for electrical signals, including coaxial cables, copper wire and fiber optics, and may take the form of acoustic or light waves, such as those generated during radio-wave and infra-red data communications.", "[0146] Also, while the flowcharts have been discussed and illustrated in relation to a particular sequence of events, it should be appreciated that changes, re-ordering, additions, and omissions to this sequence can occur without materially affecting the operation of the disclosed embodiments, configuration, and aspects.", "[0147] A number of variations and modifications of the disclosure can be used.", "It would be possible to provide for some features of the disclosure without providing others.", "[0148] In some embodiments, the systems and methods of this disclosure can be implemented in conjunction with a special purpose computer, a programmed microprocessor or microcontroller and peripheral integrated circuit element(s), an ASIC or other integrated circuit, a digital signal processor, a hard-wired electronic or logic circuit such as discrete element circuit, a programmable logic device or gate array such as PLD, PLA, FPGA, PAL, special purpose computer, any comparable means, or the like.", "In general, any device(s) or one or more means capable of implementing the methodology illustrated herein can be used to implement the various aspects of this disclosure.", "Exemplary hardware that can be used for the disclosed embodiments, configurations and aspects includes computers, handheld devices, telephones (e.g., cellular, Internet enabled, digital, analog, hybrids, and others), and other hardware known in the art.", "Some of these devices include processors (e.g., a single or multiple microprocessors), memory, nonvolatile storage, input devices, and output devices.", "Furthermore, alternative software implementations including, but not limited to, distributed processing or component/object distributed processing, parallel processing, or virtual machine processing can also be constructed to implement the methods described herein.", "[0149] In yet another embodiment, the disclosed methods may be readily implemented in conjunction with software using object or object-oriented software development environments that provide portable source code that can be used on a variety of computer or workstation platforms.", "Alternatively, the disclosed system may be implemented partially or fully in hardware using standard logic circuits or VLSI design.", "Whether software or hardware is used to implement the systems in accordance with this disclosure is dependent on the speed and/or efficiency requirements of the system, the particular function, and the particular software or hardware systems or microprocessor or microcomputer systems being utilized.", "[0150] In yet another embodiment, the disclosed methods may be partially implemented in software that can be stored on a non-transitory storage medium, executed on programmed general-purpose computer with the cooperation of a controller and memory, a special purpose computer, a microprocessor, or the like.", "In these instances, the systems and methods of this disclosure can be implemented as program embedded on personal computer such as an applet, JAVA® or CGI script, as a resource residing on a server or computer workstation, as a routine embedded in a dedicated measurement system, system component, or the like.", "The system can also be implemented by physically incorporating the system and/or method into a software and/or hardware system.", "[0151] Although the present disclosure describes components and functions implemented in the aspects, embodiments, and/or configurations with reference to particular standards and protocols, the aspects, embodiments, and/or configurations are not limited to such standards and protocols.", "Other similar standards and protocols not mentioned herein are in existence and are considered to be included in the present disclosure.", "Moreover, the standards and protocols mentioned herein and other similar standards and protocols not mentioned herein are periodically superseded by faster or more effective equivalents having essentially the same functions.", "Such replacement standards and protocols having the same functions are considered equivalents included in the present disclosure.", "[0152] The present disclosure, in various aspects, embodiments, and/or configurations, includes components, methods, processes, systems and/or apparatus substantially as depicted and described herein, including various aspects, embodiments, configurations embodiments, subcombinations, and/or subsets thereof.", "Those of skill in the art will understand how to make and use the disclosed aspects, embodiments, and/or configurations after understanding the present disclosure.", "The present disclosure, in various aspects, embodiments, and/or configurations, includes providing devices and processes in the absence of items not depicted and/or described herein or in various aspects, embodiments, and/or configurations hereof, including in the absence of such items as may have been used in previous devices or processes, e.g., for improving performance, achieving ease and\\or reducing cost of implementation.", "[0153] The foregoing discussion has been presented for purposes of illustration and description.", "The foregoing is not intended to limit the disclosure to the form or forms disclosed herein.", "In the foregoing Detailed Description for example, various features of the disclosure are grouped together in one or more aspects, embodiments, and/or configurations for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure.", "The features of the aspects, embodiments, and/or configurations of the disclosure may be combined in alternate aspects, embodiments, and/or configurations other than those discussed above.", "This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the claims require more features than are expressly recited in each claim.", "Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive aspects lie in less than all features of a single foregoing disclosed aspect, embodiment, and/or configuration.", "Thus, the following claims are hereby incorporated into this Detailed Description, with each claim standing on its own as a separate preferred embodiment of the disclosure.", "[0154] Moreover, though the description has included description of one or more aspects, embodiments, and/or configurations and certain variations and modifications, other variations, combinations, and modifications are within the scope of the disclosure, e.g., as may be within the skill and knowledge of those in the art, after understanding the present disclosure.", "It is intended to obtain rights which include alternative aspects, embodiments, and/or configurations to the extent permitted, including alternate, interchangeable and/or equivalent structures, functions, ranges or steps to those claimed, whether or not such alternate, interchangeable and/or equivalent structures, functions, ranges or steps are disclosed herein, and without intending to publicly dedicate any patentable subject matter." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Materials used for protective articles for wear in rain, snow or other wet conditions should keep the wearer dry by preventing the leakage of water into the article and by allowing perspiration to evaporate from the wearer to the outside of the article.", "Fabrics treated with silicones, fluorocarbons, and other water repellents usually allow evaporation of perspiration but are only marginally waterproof;", "they allow water to leak through them under very low pressures, and usually leak spontaneously when rubbed or mechanically flexed.", "A recent invention (U.S. Pat. No. 4,194,041) has provided a waterproof and breathable polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) laminate that possesses a high moisture vapor transmission rate even under adverse climatic conditions.", "Such laminates and modified forms thereof are commercially available from W. L. Gore &", "Associates, Inc. The waterproof and breathable laminate of U.S. Pat. No. 4,194,041 consists of a flexible first layer of a microporous hydrophobic material having a moisture vapor transmission rate exceeding 1000 gms/m 2 day, an advancing water contact angle exceeding 90 degrees and a second layer of continuous hydrophilic elastomeric material attached to the inner face of the first layer whereby the second layer has a moisture vapor transmission rate exceeding 1000 gms/m 2 day and does not permit the detectable passage of liquid water therethrough at hydrostatic pressures of about 24 cm water head and about 172 KN/m 2 for 30 seconds.", "The porous membrane of expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) used in the above laminate can be provided by following the techniques of U.S. Pat. No. 3,953,566.", "Such membranes and modified forms thereof are commercially available under the registered trademark GORE-TEX®, sold by W. L. Gore &", "Associates, Inc. These expanded, porous PTFE membranes satisfy the requirements of being waterproof while also being permeable to the flow of water vapor.", "The expanded porous PTFE membranes are inherently hydrophobic and contain very small pores that resist the entry of liquid water even at substantial pressures or when rubbed or flexed, but readily allow the flow of gases including water vapor.", "Unlike wicking materials breathability is achieved by evaporation of liquid water inside the garment or on the inner surface of the membrane followed by gaseous flow or diffusion of water vapor through the membrane to the outside.", "In addition to the waterproofness and breathability of protective articles, it is desirable for such articles to have the distinguishing characteristic of stretch.", "Stretch offers to the consumer many advantages such as comfort, fit, reduced pucker, improved wrinkle resistance, the need for fewer sizes, alterations and greater design flexibility.", "In its broad concept, "stretch"", "might be defined as the comfort factor in textile products.", "In specific textile applications, the technology of stretch relates to fibers, yarns and fabrics;", "and the extent of its presence in textile products is a matter of its functional advantage for a particular end use.", "According to the Encyclopedia of Textiles, third edition, pages 310 to 315, there are two categories of stretch fabrics based on the degree of stretchability.", "They are: (1) Power or Action Stretch and (2) Comfort Stretch.", ""Power Stretch, or Action Stretch, as the names imply, provides a fabric with a high degree of extensibility and quick recovery.", "The stretch factor generally ranges from at least 30 to 50 percent or more with no more than 5 to 6 percent loss in recovery.", "Such stretch fabrics are best adapted to skiwear, foundation garments, swimwear, athletic clothing and professional types of active sportwear.", "Comfort Stretch applies to fabrics with less than a 30 precent stretch factor and no more than 2 to 5 percent loss in recovery.", "Such fabrics are used in clothing for everyday wear which need only a moderate degree of elasticity.", """, "In the clothing field, increasing use is being made of garments made of stretch fabrics where flexibility of movement is essential;", "for example, athletic garments, running suits, exercise suits, skiwear, etc.", "These garments are usually worn where waterproofness and breathability of the garment is desired also.", "FIG. 1 shows the percentage of back flex (a), knee flex (b), seat flex(c), and elbow flex (d).", "The percentage of flex in these areas indicates the minimum degree of stretchability in a fabric needed to maintain comfort to the wearer.", "By the addition of strips, inserts or gussets of stretchable material into a nonstretchable waterproof breathable garment, partial stretch and flexibility is imparted to the garment.", "In addition, it is desirable to use stretch fabrics for the collars, cuffs and waistbands of stretch garments and other garments, as well.", "However, waterproofness and breathability of these strips, inserts, or gussets is desired also in order to make the garments totally waterproof and breathable while introducing partial stretch and flexibility to the garments.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The invention provides a stretchable waterproof and breathable elastomeric layered article and a method for making such an article.", "The stretchable waterproof and breathable layered article is formed by mechanically stretching a laminar composite article comprising: (a) a first layer of hydrophobic material having a moisture vapor transmission rate exceeding 1000 gms/m 2 day and an advancing water contact angle exceeding 90 degrees;", "and (b) an elastomeric hydrophilic layer having a major portion of one surface in interlocking relationship with the inner face of said first layer, said hydrophilic layer having a moisture vapor transmission rate exceeding 1000 gms/m 2 day, the stretching step extending the first layer in one direction at least 5% beyond its yield point.", "The composite article is preferably stretched in the machine direction and/or the transverse direction.", "Such stretching will alter the elastic properties of the composite article.", "By controlling the stretching in the machine direction and/or in the transverse direction, the elastic properties of the composite articles can be adjusted to accommodate the needs of different end uses.", "This invention also provides a waterproof and breathable elastomeric porous PTFE layered article bonded to a stretch fabric.", "The novel stretch characteristics of the layered article of the present invention provide the advantages of stretch fabrics such as, greater comfort, better fit, more shape retention, improved wrinkle resistance, fewer sizes and alterations, and more design flexibility;", "in addition to being waterproof and breathable.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention is based on the discovery that when a breathable polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) layered article is mechanically stretched at least about 5% beyond its yield point unexpected stretch and recovery properties are developed.", "An elastic material is formed having an elastic recovery average of for example, at least 39% for 100 cycles.", "In addition, it has been discovered, that with the mechanical stretching of the PTFE layered article, the continuous integrity of the elastomeric hydrophilic layer is not interrupted and the continuity of the hydrophobic layer is maintained, thereby retaining the properties of breathability, waterproofness, and introducing the property of stretchability.", "The hydrophobic layer of the PTFE layered article is stretchable having an elongation in the machine direction of up to about 425% and an elongation in the transverse direction of up to about 405%.", "The hydrophilic layer of the PTFE layered article is stretchable having an elongation in the machine direction and elongation in the transverse direction of up to about 154%.", "After the hydrophobic layer is laminated to the hydrophilic layer, the hydrophilic layer imparts elasticity of recovery to the stretchable hydrophobic layer.", "The hydrophobic/hydrophilic layered article possesses qualities unforseen in the hydrophobic and hydrophilic layers alone (see table 1).", "TABLE 1__________________________________________________________________________STRETCH TO BREAK__________________________________________________________________________ GORE-TEX ® HYDROPHILIC/HYDROPHOBIC GORE-TEX ® Membrane Layered Article Membraneweight/area [.", "].019 (g/in.", "sup[.", "].2) [.", "].018 (g/in.", "sup[.", "].2) [.", "].007 (g/in.", "sup[.", "].2)5"", "× 5"", "ELONG % OF ELONG % OF ELONG % OFSAMPLE FORCE IN ELONG FORCE IN ELONG FORCE IN ELONGDIRECTION POUNDS INCHES TO BREAK POUNDS INCHES TO BREAK POUNDS INCHES TO__________________________________________________________________________ BREAKMACHINE 1.07 18.1 452% [.", "].83 11.0 275% [.", "].90 9.2 230%DIRECTIONTRANSVERSE [.", "].90 16.2 405% 1.50 5.8 145% 1.55 3.0 75%DIRECTION__________________________________________________________________________ HYDROPHILIC/HYDROPHOBIC Layered Article *HYDROPHILIC LAYER weight/area [.", "].013 (g/in.", "sup[.", "].2) Thickness = [.", "].0067"", "5"", "× 5"", "% OF % OF SAMPLE FORCE ELONG ELONG FORCE ELONG ELONG DIRECTION POUNDS IN INCHES TO BREAK POUNDS IN INCHES TO__________________________________________________________________________ BREAK MACHINE 1.22 8.2 205% 2.48 3.08 154% DIRECTION TRANSVERSE 1.45 4.5 113% 2.48 3.08 154% Direction__________________________________________________________________________ Full Scale Load 5 (pounds) Chart Speed 20 inches/minute 1/2 (inch) Sample Width 20 (inches/min.) Crosshead Speed 4 (inches) Gap *Full Scale Load 10 (pounds) Chart Speed 20 inches/minute 1/2 (inch) Sample Width 20 (inches/min.) Crosshead Speed 2 (inches) Gap 85% recovery for 106 cycles The waterproof and breathable porous polytetrafluoroethylene layered article comprises a first layer of a hydrophobic material such as expanded continuous microporous polytetrafluoroethylene in laminar contact with a second layer of hydrophilic elastomeric material such as a polyether-polyurethane wherein a major portion of both layers are in a continuous interlocking relationship with each other.", "A continuous interlocking relationship, which is preferred, can be attained by flowing the hydrophilic elastomeric material into the layer of hydrophobic material and then solidifying the hydrophilic material.", "For example, flowable hydrophilic monomer or prepolymer can be deposited on the hydrophobic membrane, pressed into the porous structure of the membrane, and subsequently polymerized or cured to interlock the layers.", "The hydrophilic layer can be formed from such materials disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,194,041, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, and from hydrophilic elastomers including but not limited to elastomers made from poly(esters), poly(amides), cellulose derivatives, poly(acrylic acid) and its homologs, natural or synthetic rubber with hydrophilic impurities, copolyoxamides, polyureas, polyelectrolytes, poly(phosphates), poly(vinylamine), poly(vinylalcohol), poly(ether) and copolymers thereof, poly(thioether), polythioether-polyether, copoly(epichlorohydrin-ether), poly(sulphosphates), copolyester-ether and derivatives or mixtures thereof.", "The physical properties of the layered article with respect to moisture vapor transmission and resistance to transmission of liquid water closely resemble the physical properties of the expanded miroporous polytetrafluoroethylene alone.", "The layered article is mechanically stretched beyond the yield point of the expanded microporous polytetrafluoroethylene at least 5%, and released thus forming a waterproof, breathable elastomeric expanded microporous polytetrafluoroethylene layered article (see table 1).", "In FIG. 2(a) the Scanning Electron Micrograph of a GORE-TEX® Membrane layer of the layered article is shown under 2000× in an unstretched relaxed state.", "In FIG. 2(b) the Scanning Electron Micrograph of a hydrophilic layer of the layered article is shown under 2000× in an instretched relaxed state.", "In FIG. 3 the Scanning Electron Micrograph of a GORE-TEX® Membrane surface of the layered article is shown under 30× (a), 700× (b) and 5000× (c) in an unstretched relaxed state.", "In FIG. 4 the Scanning Electron Micrograph of a hydrophilic layer of the layered article is shown under 30× (a), 700× (b) and 5000× (c) in an unstretched relaxed state.", "In FIG. 5 the Scanning Electron Micrograph of the GORE-TEX® Membrane surface of the layered article after stretching to break in the machine direction shows striations perpendicular to the machine direction in both the 30× (a) and 700× (b).", "The 7000× (c) shows altered orientation in both the machine and transverse directions.", "In FIG. 6 the Scanning Electron Micrograph of the hydrophilic layer surface of the layered article after stretching to break in the machine direction show striations in the machine direction which are visible in the 30× (a) and 700× (b).", "One striation is visible in the 5000× (c) in the machine direction which illustrates the total continuity of the hydrophilic surface.", "There were no breaks in the continuity of either the hydrophobic or hydrophilic surface under magnifications of from 30× to 7000×.", "The following examples are illustrative of this invention and are not intended to be limiting.", "EXAMPLE 1 A 14"", "long by 12"", "wide sample of GORE-TEX® Membrane/polyether-polyurethane layered article was tested as follows: A 9"", "long by 10"", "wide area was marked by crosshatches at 1"", "intervals.", "The piece was folded into a strip 1"-11/4"", "wide by 14"", "long and pulled, in machine direction on the Instron test machine.", "Gauge length=9"", "Crosshead and chart speed=50"/minute=556%/minute At 18"", "extension the crosshead was stopped.", "The sample had necked to 3/8"-1/2"", "wide.", "The crosshead was returned at 50"/minute.", "At approximately 6.5"", "extension on the return trip the force (in tension) dropped to zero.", "The surface of the polyether-polyurethane layer was sprayed with isopropanol to show up any pinholes which were created during testing.", "No pinholes were noted indicating that despite the 200% extension undergone in testing, the polyether-polyurethane layer was still intact and the continuity of the hydrophilic layer had not been altered.", "The GORE-TEX® Membrane/polyether-polyurethane layered article had an immediate stretch recovery of 64%.", "EXAMPLE 2 Samples of the hydrophobic/hydrophilic layered article were tested further by strain cycling the 100 cycles at 75% extension.", "They exhibited an elastic recovery average of 51.5%.", "EXAMPLE 3 Samples of hydrophobic/hydrophilic layered article were stretched to break in the machine and transverse directions.", "______________________________________ TRANSVERSEMACHINE DIRECTION (L.", "sub[.", "].1) DIRECTION (T.", "sub[.", "].1)______________________________________% elong to break % elong to break215% 55%______________________________________ The samples of L 1 after stretching to break were further tested continuously as follows: 10 cycles to 10% elongation showed over 95% recovery, 10 cycles to 20% elongation showed 80%-85% recovery, 10 cycles to 30% elongation showed 80%-85% recovery, 10 cycles to 50% elongation showed 80%-85% recovery, 11 cycles to 100% elongation showed 80% recovery, 10 cycles to 150% elongation showed about 75% recovery, 11 cycles to 200% elongation showed about 75% recovery.", "The samples of T 1 after stretching to break were further tested continuously as follows: 10 cycles to 10% elongation showed over 95% recovery, 10 cycles to 20% elongation showed 75% recovery, 10 cycles to 30% elongation showed about 75% recovery, 10 cycles to 50% elongation showed about 75% recovery.", "EXAMPLE 4 A stretch fabric was made consisting of the following four layers: First, a layer of material sold under the trade designation Lycra, by E. I. du Pont de Nemours &", "Company, Inc., was affixed to a layered material as described in Example 1 by gravure printing a dot pattern of adhesive onto the elastomeric layer of the layered material and pressing the Lycra to it through a nip roll and then over a heated roll.", "The resulting laminate was then mechanically stretched first in the transverse direction and secondly in the machine direction thereby providing a stretchable, waterproof, breathable, elastomeric layered article.", "This resulted in a well bonded laminate.", "The elastomeric laminate of this invention exhibited waterproofness and breathability properties.", "The elastomeric PTFE laminate measured by the Suter Test for waterproofness had the following properties: 25 cm water pressure--no leak after 20 minutes, and the Mullins Burst Test (Federal Standard 191, Method 5512): 25 psig water pressure--no leak after 20 seconds.", "In addition to the above tests for waterproofness, the fabric, which was bonded to the hydrophilic layer of the layered article, was smeared with a cotton swab of isopropyl alcohol.", "Isopropyl alcohol is used to indicate the integrity of the continuity of the hydrophilic layer.", "No penetration of isopropyl alcohol was observed through to the hydrophobic layer.", "Visual observation of the hydrophobic layer indicated no wetting of the hydrophobic layer, consequently, the isopropyl alcohol did not penetrate through the hydrophilic layer to the hydrophobic layer." ]

[ "FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a method and apparatus for inspecting a plurality of chips formed as a fine pattern on a surface of an object to be inspected, such as a wafer or the like.", "RELATED ART General methods for inspecting a plurality of chips of this kind are shown in the following (1) and (2).", "(1) Learning is carried out by one visual field.", "Pattern matching is carried out for the plurality of chips by one visual field in an optical observation system.", "For example, all the plurality of chips patterned are judged to be good chips by visual observation.", "Image data of the good chips are stored and memorized as a master.", "When the other plurality of chips patterned are inspected, the master of the good chips is memorized, and the plurality of chips to be inspected are compared by image data so as to obtain a difference on the images.", "Thereby, defects and foreign objects or the like to be detected in the plurality of chips are detected.", "Conventionally, each visual image is stored and memorized concerning about the plurality of good chips patterned so as to evaluate an average value of each image data of the plurality of chips.", "That is, the master is formed by averaging each learning of the plurality of chips.", "(2) Image data of the good chips, which are learned in one of the divided plural areas, are copied to the other area.", "This process is quick, because it is processed by software.", "Learning operation is finished at one time.", "The foregoing method has problems as follows: (1) When learning is carried out by one visual field.", "All the plurality of chips to be stored as a master must be nondefective.", "In other words, good chips should be inspected in whole areas.", "It requires a lot of time to find a state matched with such a condition.", "Further, inspection for nondefective or not is done by visual observation of an operator.", "However, since all the chips in the visual field must be inspected by visual observation, it requires a lot of time and loads for the operator.", "Further, the conditions such that all the chips in one visual field are nondefective cannot be prepared within an allowed time as much as a necessary number of times.", "(2) When the image data of the good chips, which are learned in one of the divided areas, are copied for using in the other area.", "Conventionally, since the average value of the image data of the plurality of chips (average of learning the plurality of chips) is obtained, distortion (distortion aberration) in the optical observation system is averaged to a certain extent.", "However, when one visual field of the optical observation system is divided into a plurality of areas so as to use the image data of the good chips learned in one of the divided areas by copying to the other area, distortion (distortion aberration) in the optical observation system is likely to cause a problem.", "There are some kinds of distortion (distortion aberration), such as a spool aberration type or a barrel type, which give no similar imaging (CCD sensor photo receptor surface) to a figure of the chips.", "Aberration (distortion) is formed when plane chips vertical to the optical axis are not similarly imaged on an image surface vertical to the optical axis.", "For example, there are cases in which a square figure deforms intermediate side portions like a spool or swells intermediates like a barrel.", "Thus, when distortion (distortion aberration) in the optical observation system occurs, good chips are decided by errors to be defective ones, because image data (pattern) are different between a vicinity of the optical axis and a circumferential part, even as to the same chip.", "Therefore, it is difficult to inspect chips with high accuracy.", "Further, inspection becomes very troublesome.", "SUMMERY OF THE INVENTION One object of the invention is to provide a method and apparatus for inspecting chips, which can inspect chips efficiently even if a plurality of chips in one visual field of a visual observation system are not totally nondefective.", "Another object of the invention is to provide a method and apparatus for inspecting chips, which can solve problems caused by distortion (distortion aberration) in an optical observation system.", "This invention relates to an improved method and apparatus for inspecting chips, preferably for inspecting a plurality of chips formed as a fine pattern on a surface of an object to be inspected.", "First, a first group of the invention will be explained.", "One visual field of an optical observation system is divided into a plurality of areas.", "Predetermined good chips, which mean nondefective chips, are arranged sequentially on each area.", "At a specific position of each area, image data of the predetermined good chips are stored.", "For example, the predetermined good chips are arranged sequentially on each area by moving a stage in such a condition that the predetermined good chips are held on the stage.", "In a preferable embodiment, at least one good chip is selected from the plurality of chips, which are held on the stage, by visual observation in a visual field of the optical observation system.", "Some nondefective or good chips are used as the predetermined good chips.", "By moving the stage, the predetermined good chips are moved sequentially to each area.", "At the position of each area, the image data of the good chips are stored and memorized.", "When the other plurality of chips are inspected, the good chips are memorized and the plurality of chips to be inspected are compared on the basis of the image data so as to obtain a difference on the images.", "Thereby, defects and foreign objects or the like to be inspected in the plurality of chips are detected.", "An apparatus for inspecting chips according to the first group of the invention comprises a stage and an observation part.", "The stage moves in a certain direction while it holds a plurality of chips.", "The observation part is provided for observing the plurality of chips held on the stage in the visual field of the optical observation system.", "One visual field of the optical observation system is divided into a plurality of areas.", "Predetermined good chips are arranged sequentially on each area.", "At a position of each area, image data of the predetermined good chips are stored.", "Preferably, the plurality of chips, which are held on the stage, are observed by visual observation in the visual field of the optical observation system.", "Predetermined good chips are selected.", "Image data of the good chips thus selected are stored and memorized.", "In addition, a plurality of chips to be inspected and the good chips memorized in advance are compared on the basis of the image data so as to obtain a difference on both images.", "Thereby, defects and foreign objects or the like in a pattern are detected.", "In one preferred embodiment, a fine pattern (a plurality of chips), which is formed on a surface of an object to be inspected, such as wafers or the like mounted on a stage, are observed by an observation part and stored as image data.", "The plurality of chips to be inspected are compared with the image of the nondefective pattern memorized in advance so as to obtain the difference on the images.", "Thereby, defects and foreign objects or the like in the pattern are detected.", "In one visual field of the observation image, a plurality of chips can be observed.", "A plurality of areas are so formed as to be defined by one chip, and the visual field is equally divided.", "The image of good chips is learned by arranging the same nondefective or good chip on each area.", "When the plurality of chips are observed in one visual field, for example, one visual field is divided into three areas in the length direction and three areas in the width direction (total 9 areas).", "Predetermined good chips are arranged on each area.", "Learning is carried out at each area.", "A stage is constituted so as to be movable in a certain direction while it holds a plurality (9×N) of chips.", "The stage has a parallel movement in X-Y direction and rotational movement at θ degrees.", "In addition, the observation part is constituted by means of the optical observation system and CCD sensor or the like, so that the plurality of chips (9 chips) held on the stage can be observed in one visual field.", "Further, the apparatus for inspecting chips is provided with a processor, controller, output part (monitor etc.) and input part (keyboard, control stick, mouse, etc.).", "Next, a second group of the invention will be explained.", "One visual field of an optical observation system is divided into a plurality of areas.", "When the plurality of good chips are observed in one visual field, coordinates of each good chip are memorized.", "The good chips in the visual field during learning are observed to obtain the image of the area as a learned image.", "For example, the chips are arranged sequentially on each area by moving a stage in such a condition that the chips are held on the stage.", "In a preferred embodiment, a master is formed by integrating learned results.", "An apparatus for inspecting chips according to the second group of the invention comprises a stage and an observation part.", "The stage moves in a certain direction while it holds a plurality of chips.", "The observation part is provided for observing the plurality of chips held on the stage in the visual field of the optical observation system.", "One visual field of the optical observation system is divided into a plurality of areas.", "When the plurality of good chips are observed in one visual field, coordinates of each good chip are memorized and the good chips in the visual field during learning are recognized so as to obtain the image of the area as a learned image.", "Preferably, the plurality of chips, which are held on the stage, are observed by visual observation in the visual field of the optical observation system.", "Good chips are recognized.", "Image data of the good chips recognized are stored and memorized.", "Further, the plurality of chips to be inspected and good chips memorized in advance are compared on the basis of the image data so as to obtain a difference on the images.", "Thereby, defects and foreign objects or the like in the pattern are detected.", "In a preferred embodiment, in one visual field of the observation image, an apparatus for inspecting chips, which can observe a plurality of chips, is characterized as follows.", "A plurality of areas are defined by one chip and formed so as to divide the visual field equally.", "At each area, the same good chips are arranged.", "Thereby, the nondefective image is learned.", "Coordinates of the good chips are memorized.", "Thereby, when the plurality of good chips are present in one visual field during learning, the learned image is obtained at the area where each good chip exists.", "Thus, learning the good chips is carried out efficiently.", "In addition, the stage is constituted so as to be controllable in such a way that each good chip obtains a learned image concerning the whole areas in one visual field.", "In addition, operation is directed to the operator.", "When the plurality of chips are observed in one visual field, for example, one visual field is divided into three areas in the length direction and three areas in the width direction (total 9 areas).", "Predetermined good chips are arranged on each area.", "Learning is carried out at each area.", "A stage is constituted so as to be movable in a certain direction when it holds a plurality (9×N) of chips.", "The stage has a parallel movement in X-Y direction and rotational movement at θ degrees.", "In addition, the observation part is constituted by means of the optical observation system and CCD sensor, or the like, so that the plurality (9) chips held on the stage can be observed in one visual field.", "Further, the apparatus for inspecting chips is provided with a processor, controller, output part (monitor etc.) and input device (keyboard, control stick, mouse, etc.).", "In inspecting, a fine pattern consisting a plurality of chips, which is formed on a surface of an object to be inspected such as a wafer or the like mounted on the stage, is observed by the observation part and stored as the image data.", "A plurality of the chips to be inspected are compared with the image of the nondefective or good pattern memorized in advance so as to obtain the difference on the image.", "Thereby, defects and foreign objects or the like in the pattern are detected.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view showing an apparatus for inspecting chips according to one embodiment of a first group of the invention;", "FIGS. 2A˜2D are explanatory views showing an example of relationship between one visual field of the optical observation system and the predetermined good chips;", "FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing one example of a flow of a learning process according to the first group of the invention;", "FIG. 4 shows relationships among main components in a apparatus for inspecting chips;", "FIGS. 5A˜5D are explanatory views showing an example of a relationship between one visual field of an optical observation system and common good chips;", "and FIG. 6 is a flow chart showing one example of a flow of a learning process according to the second group of the invention.", "DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS First, an embodiment according to a first group of the invention will be explained.", "Embodiment 1 An apparatus for inspecting chips comprises, as shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 4 , a stage 10 and an observation part 11 .", "The stage 10 is constituted so as to be movable in a certain direction while it holds a plurality of chips, which are formed on the surface of a wafer.", "The observation part 11 is provided for observing the plurality of chips in one visual field while they are held on the stage 10 .", "The observation part 11 has an optical observation system 16 , a CCD sensor 17 , a light 20 , and so on.", "The stage 10 can move in a parallel direction to the X-Y direction, and rotate at θ degrees.", "In addition, the apparatus for inspecting chips has a processor 18 , a controller 19 , an output part (monitor etc.) 12 , an input part (keyboard, control stick, mouse etc.) 13 , a wafer handler 14 , a memory 21 , a driver 22 for driving the stage 10 , a sensor 23 for detecting a position of the stage 10 , and so on.", "A method for inspection will be explained as follows.", "The plurality of chips are formed as a fine pattern on a surface of the wafer mounted on the stage 10 .", "The plurality of chips are observed by the observation part 11 , stored as image data, and compared with an image of the pattern of good chips memorized in advance so as to obtain a difference on the image.", "Thereby, defects and foreign objects or the like in the pattern are detected.", "For example, a plurality of silicon wafers to be inspected are set on the handler 14 .", "A circuit pattern (fine pattern with μ order) of the chips formed on each silicon wafer is transferred to the stage 10 , where defects of the chips of each wafer are inspected.", "Particularly, small foreign objects and defects on the wafer are inspected.", "Thus, the simple wafer, which is set on a tape frame and diced in advance, is inspected automatically.", "Thereby, each chip is judged to pass or not.", "Preferably, an algorism is introduced for learning good chips and detecting defects by matching process with high accuracy.", "Thereby numerous image data are calculated at high speed.", "One example of learning steps will be explained concretely by referring to FIGS. 2A˜2D .", "One example is explained in which a total of nine chips are observed and inspected as one unit wherein the chips are arranged in a three by three manner along each length and width in one observation field of an optical system of the observation part 11 .", "First, in FIG. 2A , optional nine chips 1 in a plurality of chips are arranged in one visual field 2 .", "At least one chip 1 a among them is judged to be nondefective or not by visual observation.", "As shown in FIG. 2B , the stage 10 is moved in such a way that the good chip 1 a , which is judged to be nondefective, positions at a bottom right-hand corner in the same visual field of the optical observation system.", "At the position, image data of the good chip 1 a are stored.", "Next, as shown in FIG. 2C , the stage 10 is moved in such a way that the good chip 1 a , which is judged to be nondefective, is positioned at a middle right-hand row in the same visual field of the optical observation system.", "At the position, image data of the same good chip 1 a are stored.", "Thus, the stage 10 is moved in such a way that the same good chip 1 a is positioned at each specific position of the nine chips in the same visual field (namely the nine chip positions to the top right-hand row).", "At each specific position, the image data of the same good chip 1 a are stored.", "FIG. 2D shows a specific position of the final chip.", "As mentioned above, a basic pattern of the image data of the good chips are stored and memorized into the memory 21 in advance.", "Preferably, the foregoing learning step is repeated ten times or more for different good chips.", "The image data of the good chips stored are processed by the processor 18 .", "Then the image data of the good chips processed are memorized in the memory 21 as a good master.", "If necessary, the master can be modified.", "Numerous wafers are inspected by use of such a master.", "One example of inspecting steps will be explained as follows.", "(1) One piece of wafer is taken out from a cassette of the transfer or handler 14 and transferred to the observation part 11 .", "In other words, the single wafer (tape frame wafer) is transferred to the stage 10 .", "Further, it is carried out at the following step (4).", "(2) Rotation-dislocation and center-dislocation of the wafer is modified by an aligner.", "(3) The wafer is taken out from the aligner and transferred onto the stage 10 .", "(4) Rotation is slightly modified around θ axis on the stage 10 .", "(5) The light 20 is turned on at a certain level.", "The stage 10 is moved to a first position for inspection.", "(6) If necessary, automatic focus and fine alignment modification are carried out.", "(7) One part of the image of the plurality of chips or one single chip is enlarged and stored in an image-processing unit of the processor 18 .", "(8) The stage 10 is moved along a predetermined route by means of the driver 22 .", "In addition, the position of the stage 10 is detected by the sensor 23 .", "(9) The image data of the good chip, which is learned in advance, is set as a standard data.", "The image positioning is made.", "The plurality of chips to be inspected are inspected.", "PAD • bump inspection or examination is carried out.", "Nondefective or defective is judged.", "(10) The foregoing steps (7)˜(9) are repeated.", "After all the chips on the wafer are inspected or examined, the wafer is transferred from the stage 10 and received in the cassette of the transfer 14 .", "In addition, preferably the images of the good chips are learned in advance, while the inspecting conditions etc.", "are set for making a recipe for inspection.", "The flow of the learning process will be explained by referring to FIG. 3 .", "First, the apparatus is started by operating the input part 13 .", "Then, one piece of wafer is set on the stage 10 .", "Next, alignment process is carried out there.", "One good chip is selected by visual observation from the plurality of chips in the visual field of one optical observation system.", "The good chip is designated by operating the input part 13 .", "Additionally, the number of the chips (lines and rows) in one visual field is set by a counter in the input part 13 .", "For example, it is set as X=m rows, Y=n lines.", "The stage 10 is moved in such a way that one good chip is positioned at a certain position (for example a specific position at the bottom right-hand corner) of Y rows and X lines in the visual field.", "The result of the inspecting is confirmed.", "If it is confirmed to be nondefective, it is learned.", "If it is not nondefective, Y position is reduced by one line without learning.", "That is, it results in Y=Y−1.", "Such studies are carried out through the final line.", "When it ends with the final line, X position is reduced by one row.", "Y position is returned to the first line.", "X=X− 1 , Y=n The foregoing process is carried out through the end with the final row.", "When it ends with the final row, an end process is carried out.", "Next, an embodiment according to a second group of the invention will be explained.", "Embodiment 2 An apparatus for inspecting chips comprises, as shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 4 , a stage 10 and an observation part 11 which is similar to the foregoing embodiment according to the first group of the invention.", "The stage 10 is so constituted as to be movable in a certain direction while it holds a plurality of chips, which are formed on the surface of a wafer.", "The observation part 11 is provided for observing the plurality of chips in one visual field while they are held on the stage 10 .", "The observation part 11 has an optical observation system 16 , a CCD sensor 17 , a light 20 , and so on.", "The stage 10 can move in a parallel direction to the X-Y direction, and rotate at θ degrees.", "In addition, the apparatus for inspecting chips includes a processor 18 , a controller 19 , an output part (monitor etc.) 12 , an input part (keyboard, control stick, mouse etc.) 13 , a wafer handler 14 , a memory 21 , a driver 22 for driving the stage 10 , a sensor 23 for detecting a specific position of the stage 10 , and so on.", "A method for inspecting chips will be explained as follows.", "The plurality of chips are formed as a fine pattern on a surface of the wafer mounted on the stage 10 .", "The plurality of chips are observed by the observation part 11 , stored as image data, and compared with an image of the pattern of good chips 1 a , 1 b , 1 c , 1 d memorized in advance so as to obtain a difference on the image.", "Thereby, defects and foreign objects or the like in the pattern are detected.", "For example, a plurality of silicon wafers to be inspected are set on the handler 14 .", "A circuit pattern (fine pattern with μ order) of the chips 1 formed on each silicon wafer is transferred to the stage 10 , wherein defects of the chips 1 of each wafer are inspected.", "Particularly, small foreign objects and defects on the wafer are inspected.", "Thus, the simple wafer, which is set on a tape frame and diced in advance, is inspected automatically.", "Thereby, each chip is judged to pass or not.", "Preferably, an algorism is introduced for learning good chips 1 a ˜ 1 e and detecting defects by matching process with high accuracy.", "Thereby, numerous image data are calculated at a high speed.", "One example of learning steps will be explained concretely by referring to FIGS. 5A˜5D .", "One example is explained in which a total of nine chips are observed and inspected as one unit wherein the chips are arranged in a three by three manner along each length and width in one observation field of an optical system of the observation part 11 .", "First, in FIG. 5A , optional nine chips 1 in a plurality of chips 1 are arranged in one visual field 2 .", "In the visual field 2 , the chips are judged to be nondefective or not by visual observation.", "For example, 1 a ˜ 1 e are nondefective, and the others are not nondefective in FIG. 3 .", "As shown in FIG. 5B , the stage 10 is moved in such a way that the good chip 1 a , which is judged to be nondefective, is positioned at a bottom right-hand corner in the same visual field of the optical observation system.", "At the position, image data of the good chip 1 a are stored.", "Next, as shown in FIG. 5C , the stage 10 is moved in such a way that the good chip 1 a , which is judged to be nondefective, is positioned at a middle right-hand row in the same visual field of the optical observation system.", "At the position, image data of the same good chip 1 a are stored.", "Thus, the stage 10 is moved in such a way that the same good chip 1 a is positioned at each specific position of the nine chips in the same visual field (namely the nine areas to the top right-hand row).", "At each specific position, the image data of the same good chip 1 a are stored.", "However, at the areas of the other chips 1 b ˜ 1 e , which are judged to be nondefective, the image data of the chip 1 a are not stored, but the image data of the chips 1 b ˜ 1 e are stored.", "At these specific positions, the positions are shifted by one area.", "FIG. 5D shows the position wherein the last image data are stored.", "As mentioned above, the image data of the pattern consisting of nine areas relating to the good chips are stored.", "Further, they are memorized in the memory 21 in advance.", "Preferably, the foregoing learning step is repeated ten times or more for different good chips.", "The image data of the good chips stored are processed by the processor 18 .", "Then the image data of the good chips processed are memorized in the memory 21 as a good master.", "If necessary, the master can be modified.", "Numerous wafers are inspected by use of such a master.", "One example of inspecting steps will be explained as follows.", "(1) One piece of wafer is taken out from a cassette of the handler or transfer 14 and transferred to the observation part 11 .", "In other words, the single wafer (tape frame wafer) is transferred to the stage 10 .", "Further, it is carried out by the following step (4).", "(2) Rotation-dislocation and center-dislocation of the wafer is modified by an aligner.", "(3) The wafer is taken out from the aligner and transferred onto the stage 10 .", "(4) Rotation is slightly modified around θ axis on the stage 10 .", "(5) The light 20 is turned on at a certain level.", "The stage 10 is moved to a first position for inspecting.", "(6) If necessary, automatic focus and fine alignment modification are carried out.", "(7) One part of the image of the plurality of chips or one chip is enlarged and stored in an image-processing unit of the processor 18 .", "(8) The stage 10 is moved along a predetermined route by the driver 22 .", "In addition, the specific position of the stage 10 is detected by the sensor 23 .", "(9) The image data of the good chip, which is learned in advance, is set as a standard (master).", "The image is specifically positioned.", "The plurality of chips to be inspected are inspected.", "PAD • bump inspecting is carried out.", "Nondefective or defective is judged for each chip.", "(10) The foregoing steps (7)˜(9) are repeated.", "After all the chips on the wafer are inspected, the wafer is transferred from the stage 10 and received in the cassette of the transfer 14 .", "In addition, preferably the images of the good chips are learned in advance, while the inspecting conditions etc.", "are set for making a recipe for inspecting.", "The flow of the learning process will be explained by referring to FIG. 6 .", "First, the apparatus is started by operating the input part 13 .", "Then, one piece of wafer is set on the stage 10 .", "Next, alignment process is carried out there.", "Good chips 1 a ˜ 1 e are selected by visual observation from the nine chips in the visual field of one optical observation system.", "The good chips 1 a ˜ 1 e are designated by operating the input part 13 .", "Additionally, the number of the chips (lines and rows) in one visual field is set by a counter of the input part 13 .", "For example, it is set as X=m rows, Y=n lines.", "The stage 10 is moved in such a way that the good chips 1 a ˜ 1 e at the position having both minimum XY values are positioned at Y lines and X rows in one visual field.", "The position and the number (K) of the good chips 1 a ˜ 1 e designated in the visual field are checked.", "The inspected results of the good chips 1 a ˜ 1 e are checked.", "If they are nondefective, they are learned.", "If they are defective, they are not learned.", "The Kth good chip is learned and processed.", "The number K of good chips is reduced by one.", "Namely, K=K−1.", "This process is carried out for all good chips in one visual field.", "In addition, Y position is reduced by one line.", "Namely, Y=Y−1.", "Such learning step is carried out through the final line.", "When it ends with the final line, X position is reduced by one row.", "Y position is returned to the first line.", "X=X− 1 , Y=n The foregoing process is carried out through the end with the final row.", "When it ends with the final row, the end process is carried out.", "According to the invention, influence by distortion of the optical observation system can be eliminated for all groups, which enables inspecting with high accuracy.", "In addition, it can minimize the time for inspecting good chips by visual observation during the learning step.", "Therefore, learning can be done effectively and quickly.", "In addition, load for the operator during the learning step is largely reduced by minimizing visual observation for inspecting." ]

[ "This application is a continuation-in-part application of Ser.", "No. 247,293, filed Mar. 26, 1981, now abandoned.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention concerns a time sharing device for access to a principal memory connected to a single bus between a central computer and a plurality of peripheral computers.", "Such a device is particularly useful in installations including several rapid peripheral computers, particularly for the transmission of data.", "In such installations, in order to permit a central control computer to be free to execute a recorded control program, a plurality of peripheral exchange units are used.", "Each peripheral unit contains a low capacity, programmed peripheral computer which performs elementary functions at a local level.", "These peripheral computers must, from time to time, have access to a principal memory, for example for the exchange of information with the central computer or other peripheral computers.", "The principal memory is then connected to a single bus and a time sharing device is used to control access to the main memory.", "Such devices are generally complex, expensive and slow.", "It is the object of the present invention to eliminate these disadvantages.", "The device according to the present invention comprises a searching circuit to detect a peripheral computer that has requested to be connected with the single bus for access to the principal memory, and a decision circuit for authorizing the peripheral computer requesting access to the principal memory to connect to the single bus when access to the bus is possible.", "The searching circuit is connected bidirectionally to the different peripheral computers and to the decision circuit.", "The decision circuit is also connected bidirectionally with the different peripheral computers and the central computer.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The present invention will be understood better and further objects, characteristics and advantages will become more clearly apparent from the description hereinbelow of a preferred embodiment of the invention, reference being made to the accompanying drawings in which like reference numerals represent like parts throughout and in which: FIG. 1 schematically shows the device according to the invention and its connections with the different computers of the installation, and FIG. 2 schematically shows the preferred embodiment of the searching circuit and decision circuit of the present invention.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to FIG. 1, a central computer 1 is connected to a principal memory 2 by means of a transmission bus 3.", "The peripheral computers 41, 42, 43 .", "may also be connected with the bus 3.", "In the figure, only three peripheral computers are represented, but it should be understood that the number of peripheral computers may differ from three.", "In telephone systems, for example, because of accepted standards, the number of the peripheral computers is less than or equal to 16.", "The different computers operate in an asynchronous manner, but it is possible to synchronize them by means of the addition of a common clock.", "Normally, only the central computer 1 has access permanently to the memory 2 by means of the transmission bus 3, the peripheral computers 41, 42, 43 .", "being disconnected from the bus 3.", "However, when one of the latter has need for access to a large memory, for example for the exchange of information with another computer, authorization must be requested from the time sharing device 5.", "Device 5 determines when the peripheral computer may connect with the bus, and ensures that no confusion will result with respect to the information circulating in the bus.", "For this purpose, the device 5 comprises a searching circuit 6 connected in a bidirectional manner with the different peripheral computers 41, 42, 43 .", "Searching circuit 6 functions, on the one hand, to detect access requests emitted by one of the peripheral computers, and on the other hand, to determine the address of the peripheral computer emitting the request.", "The address is then transmitted to the different peripheral computers 41, 42, 43 .", "and the existence of a request for access to the bus 3 is communicated to the decision circuit 7.", "Decision circuit 7 also receives information concerning the state of occupancy or lack of occupancy of the bus 3 by means of its bidirectional connection with the peripheral computers, and receives information concerning authorization to award the bus 3 to a peripheral computer from the central computer 1.", "If the central computer 1 may be disconnected from the bus 3 without interrupting a sequence of transmission then under way with the memory 2, authorization is awarded.", "When the searching circuit 6 has detected a request to be connected to bus 3 emitted, for example, by the computer 42, the decision circuit 7 verifies with the different peripheral computers that the bus is free and, if the central computer does not require use of the memory 2, grants authorization to the computer 42 to connect with the bus 3.", "The searching circuit 6 then continues its operation and, when the termination of the occupation of the bus 3 by the peripheral computer 42 is detected, the central computer 1 will again have access to the memory 2 by means of the bus 3.", "As is evident from the foregoing, the access cycle to the memory 2 is asynchronous and only certain service signals must be synchronized for reasons of compatibility between the different computers.", "The transmission of a message from one computer to another is effected by means of a entry cycle in the memory 2, actuated by the emitting computer, and followed by a reading cycle of the memory 2, performed by the receiving computer;", "the connections required to inform the receiving computer that it must effect a reading cycle of the memory 2 are not shown in the figure, because they are not part of the invention.", "A preferred embodiment of the device 5 is shown in FIG. 2, wherein elements in common with the diagram of FIG. 1 are designated by the same reference numerals.", "The searching circuit 6 includes essentially a cyclic counter 61, a multiplexer 62 and a clocked D flip-flop 63.", "The inputs to the multiplexer 62 are connected with the different peripheral computers 41, 42, 43 .", "and multiplexer 62 is controlled by means of the cyclic counter 61.", "The cycle time of counter 61 depends on the number of peripheral computers that may be connected to the bus 3.", "For example, the connection time of the multiplexer to each input line may be equal to 200 nanoseconds.", "The clock inputs of counter 61 and flip-flop 63 are connected to the output of a clock circuit 80.", "When the request emitted by one of the peripheral computers 41, 42, 43 .", "to be connected with the bus is detected, the flip-flop 63 changes its state and blocks the cyclic counter 61 on the address of the peripheral computer having emitted the request.", "Counter 61 is connected to each of the peripheral computers so that each computer is notified when its input line to searching circuit 6 is being accessed by multiplexer 62.", "When counter 61 is blocked on the address of the peripheral computer making a request, the address indicates that it will be the next peripheral computer to be granted access to the bus.", "The decision circuit 7 includes essentially three AND gates 71, 73, 75, an OR gate 72, two D-flip-flops 74, 76 and three inverters 77, 78, 79.", "Flip-flops 74 and 76 are clocked by the signal from clock circuit 80.", "The inputs of AND gate 71 are connected with the output of flip-flop 63 and with the central computer 1 through the inverter 77.", "By means of these connections, the decision circuit 7 receives a request for use of the bus by one of the peripheral computers through flip-flop 63 and also receives a signal through inverter 77 indicating whether the central computer requires or is currently occupying the bus, or alternately, whether use of the bus is not required by the central computer.", "When a request signal from one of the peripheral computers is generated, AND gate 71 inhibits the request signal when either the central computer 1 requires the bus or is using it.", "When the bus is not in use or required by the central computer, the signal is passed to OR gate 72 and then to the first input of AND gate 73.", "The second input of AND gate 73 is connected to the peripheral computers 41, 42, 43 through inverter 78.", "This connection provides a signal indicating whether or not the bus is presently being occupied by one of the peripheral computers.", "AND gate 73 inhibits the output signal of OR gate 72 if one of peripheral computers is using the bus.", "When no peripheral computer is using the bus, the signal is passed by AND gate 73 to the data input of flip-flop 74 and sets flip-flop 74.", "The output of flip-flop 74 is passed to all of the peripheral computers and to the main computer.", "Receipt of this signal by the peripheral computer receiving an address from counter 61 indicates to that computer that it is free to use the bus.", "The output of flip-flop 74 is also connected to the second input of OR gate 72 to maintain the value of the output signal of flip-flop 74 until the peripheral computer, addressed by counter 61, begins to use the bus.", "The signal from flip-flop 74 indicates to the other computers that the bus is busy and to refrain from use of the bus.", "The output of AND gate 73 is also connected through inverter 79, to the first input of AND gate 75, the second input of which is connected to the output of flip-flop 74.", "The output of AND gate 75 is connected to the data input of flip-flop 76.", "AND gate 75 inhibits the output signal of flip-flop 74 until the peripheral computer begins to use the bus.", "When the peripheral computer begins to use the bus, the second input signal and AND gate 73 changes causing a change in the output of AND gate 73.", "Before the output signal of flip-flop 74 also changes, the signal from AND gate 73 passes through AND gate 75.", "The output signal of AND gate 75 sets flip-flop 76 at the nxt clock pulse from clock circuit 80.", "At this same time, the same clock pulse resets flip-flop 74.", "At the next clock pulse, flip-flop 76 is also reset.", "At this same next clock pulse, the output signal of flip-flop 76 resets flip-flop 63 and unblocks counter 61 and the searching circuit is returned to service.", "Even though only one embodiment has been described, it is evident that any modification applied by those skilled in the art in the spirit of the invention would not exceed the scope of the invention.", "For example, priority of access to the bus 3 may be assigned to certain computers by means of a simple modification applied to the searching circuit 6.", "Similarly, a surveillance circuit may be added to limit the time of access to the principal memory allocated to each peripheral computer." ]

[ "This application is a continuation of application Ser.", "No. 181,694, filed on Apr. 14, 1988 now abandoned.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Field of the Invention This invention relates generally to a radiation imaging sensor, and more particularly to a radiation imaging sensor having high sensitivity, wide latitude and high spatial resolution.", "Description of the Prior Art Computed Radiography apparatuses using a photo-conductive material (CR apparatuses) are known in the art and their structure is discussed in SPIE, Vol. 173 (1979), pp. 81-87 and in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 228373/1986, for example.", "One of the problems with the conventional computed radiography apparatus is that a sufficiently high S/N cannot be obtained.", "Hereinafter, S/N of a typical sensor will be discussed so as to clarify the problem with the prior art technique.", "X-rays absorbed by a phosphorescent material is typically about 50%, though the quantity varies depending on the constituent material and the thickness of the phosphorescent layer.", "The number of photons L generated at this time is given by: L (number of photons/pixel)=N.", "sub.", "x x E/W x S x A (1) where N x is the number of X-ray photons, E is X-ray energy, W is the W value of the phosphorescent material, S is a pixel size and A is an X-ray absorption factor of the phosphorescent material.", "It will be hereby assumed that they have the following values, respectively: N.sub.", "X (cm.", "sup.", "-2)˜4×10.", "sup[.", "].4 R (μR) (R: X-ray dose), E=50×10.", "sup[.", "].3 eV, W=15 eV, S=(100 μm).", "sup[.", "].2= 10.", "sup.", "-4 cm.", "sup[.", "].2, A=0.5.", "Then, L is given as follows: ##EQU1## Assuming that the X-ray dose incident to the sensor is 10 (μR)<R<10 (mR), then, the following relation is established from eq.", "(2): 6.7×10.", "sup[.", "].4<", "L (number of photons/pixel)<6.7×10.", "sup[.", "].7 ( 3).", "In other words, the photoconductive layer must detect such weak light per pixel.", "The charge Q obtained by incidence of light is given by the following equation: Q=L×k×η×1.6×10.", "sup.", "-19 (C) 4 where K is efficiency of incidence of light into the photoconductive layer and η is quantum efficiency of photoelectric conversion and η≦1.0 when no propagation exists.", "If this charge is read out in τ seconds per pixel, the resulting signal current S is given by: S(A)=Q/τ 5 Assuming that k=1.0, η=1.0 and hence τ=1×10 -5 S, then the signal quantity S for L of eq.", "(3) becomes a weak current as expressed by the relation below: 1.1×10.", "sup.", "-9<", "S(A)<1.1×10.", "sup.", "-6 6 Therefore, signal detection is extremely difficult.", "Furthermore, since the absolute value of its signal component is small, S/N drops at the time of signal detection, so that picture quality deteriorates in the image having a small radiation dose.", "On the other hand, the increase in optical detection sensitivity has been reported by avalanche multiplication inside a blocking type photoconductive film as a result of studies of imaging tubes (ITEJ Technical Report, Vol. 10, No. 45, p.p. 1-6, 1987).", "However, this technique cannot be utilized as such for radiation measurement because the stopping power of the photo-conductive film for X-rays is low.", "If the thickness of the photoconductive film is merely increased in order to improve X-ray stopping power, problems develop such that stable propagation cannot be made and spatial resolution drops during the propagation process.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus which amplifies a weak signal by X-rays described above before noise mixes with it, obtaining eventually an electrical signal having high S/N and thus a high quality X-ray image even at a low dose.", "It is another object of the present invention to provide a radiation imaging apparatus which does not include a mechanical moving portion for reading out an X-ray image and which therefore makes it possible to read out the X-ray image at a high readout speed and to reduce the size and production cost of the apparatus.", "It is still another object of the present invention to provide a radiation imaging apparatus which can easily change the readout time as well as the quality of the detected image.", "In a radiation imaging apparatus including a laminate structure consisting of a phosphorescent layer, a first light-transmissive electrode, a photoconductor layer, an insulating layer and a second light-transmissive electrode, the objects of the invention described above can be accomplished by the arrangement wherein a voltage to be applied across the first and second electrodes is increased to a sufficiently high level and the photons emitted from the phosphorescent material causes avalanche multiplication of the electrons and/or positive holes generated inside the photo-conductor layer by field sweep inside the photoconductor layer.", "More definitely, in the radiation imaging apparatus in accordance with the present invention, at least one of the first and second electrodes, the photoconductor layer being interposed between them, is formed by dividing it into electrode elements in the form of a unidimensional array and means for exciting the photoconductor includes a unidimensional array-like light emitting element laminated on the laminate structure including the photoconductor and divided in a direction crossing the direction of division of the electrode, read means capable of selectively reading out the signal of each of the unidimensional array-like electrode elements and switching means for selectively letting each of the unidimensional array-like light emitting elements emit the light.", "According to the construction described above, a read position in the unidimensional direction can be determined by sequential selection by the read means and a read position in another unidimensional direction crossing the unidimensional direction described above can be determined by sequential selection by the switching means and they can be scanned at a high speed without the necessity of mechanical driving.", "Furthermore, among the unidimensional array-like electrodes, a plurality of them are connected in common as a group and each of these commonly connected groups can be sequentially read out.", "Similarly, a plurality of light emitting elements are put together as a group so that each of these groups emits light simultaneously in a scanning mode and it is thus possible to change a scanning mode in which the scanning period can be shortened with a reduced number of pixels.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing one embodiment of the present invention;", "FIGS. 2 and 3 are diagrams showing the effect of the present invention;", "and FIGS. 4 and 5 are a perspective view and block diagram of another embodiment of the present invention.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, a first embodiment of the present invention will be explained with reference to FIG. 1. First of all, the structure of this embodiment will be described.", "A phosphorescent member 1 consists of a 300 μm-thick BaFBr phosphorescent member.", "Two transparent electrodes 2-1 and 2-2 each consists of 0.1 μm-thick SnO 2 and interposed between them is an insulating layer 8 and a photoconductor layer 3.", "The photoconductor layer 3 consists of 2 μm-thick amorphous Se.", "The insulating layer 8 may consist of a porous layer of Sb 2 S 3 , for example.", "The voltage to be impressed between the transparent electrodes can be changed by a switch 11.", "In other words, two power supplies 9 and 10 having mutually opposite polarities and different absolute voltages are selected.", "A signal current is led to a detection circuit through an amplifier 7.", "The principle of operation of the charge storage type sensor such as shown in FIG. 1 consists of three stages, i.e. initial charge, discharge due to incidence of an optical signal and re-charge and detection of a current flowing at the time of re-charge.", "Let's consider S/N of the detection signal of one pixel in this process.", "The signal S and fluctuation S can be expressed as follows: S±ΔS=(C±ΔC)-(C'±ΔC')+(L±ΔL) 6 where C: initial charge quantity, C': charge quantity at the time of re-charge L: discharge quantity due to incidence of optical signal.", "Here, noise ΔS is given as follows: ΔS.", "sup[.", "].2=Δ C.sup[.", "].2+Δ C.sup.", "'2+Δ L.sup[.", "].2 7 Next, S/N is given as follows while taking C˜C'", "and ΔC˜ΔC'", "into consideration: ##EQU2## Next, let's consider L and ΔL.", "The optical signal quantity L can be approximated as follows: ##EQU3## X: X-ray particle number, E: X-ray energy, W: W-value of phosphorescent material k: incidence efficiency of light from phosphorescent member into photoconductor, ##EQU4## photo-conversion efficiency, η: quantum efficiency of photoelectric conversion, e: elementary quantity.", "Since K>>1 generally and since η>>1 in the present invention, ΔL can be written as follows: ##EQU5## In other words, the fluctuation of the optical signal results from the X-ray quantum noise.", "Next, let's consider C and ΔC.", "##EQU6## Here, e: elementary quantity, N: electron number under charged state.", "S/N is given as follows from eq.", "(8) to (14): ##EQU7## Here, approximation of eq.", "(15) and (16) corresponds to the consideration of S/N resulting from the sensor.", "Equation (15), (16) is schematically shown in FIG. 2. The incident X-ray dose is plotted on the abscissa and S/N of the signal is plotted on the ordinate.", "Line (a) represents eq.", "(15) and (16).", "It can be understood from this diagram that S/N drops with S/N∝ X at a low radiation dose while S/N remains constant at a high radiation dose.", "If C is increased 10 times and 100 times while keeping η constant, the results are represented by lines (b) and (c), respectively.", "Though S/N in a high dose range can be improved, it drops in a low dose range, on the contrary.", "As a result, the X-ray dose to secure necessary S/N=(S/N) th becomes rather greater.", "In other words, there has, conventionally, existed a limit for reducing the dose.", "If C is decreased, S/N drops in the entire range and the quality of the image drops.", "Moreover, even the necessary S/N cannot be obtained.", "If η is increased ten times, on the other hand, the result is represented by line (d) and S/N is improved drastically in the low dose range.", "S/N in the high dose range does not drop, either, and the quality of the image can be remarkably improved as a whole.", "It can thus be understood that optical propagation in the photoconductor layer contributes greatly to the improvement in the image quality in the low dose range.", "It is obvious that the increase of both η and C is extremely effective.", "Turning back again to eq.", "(15), it can be understood that the increase in η and the increase in κ exhibit the similar effect.", "However, since κ has a value above 50% of the theoretical limit at present, it cannot be increased drastically, whereas η can be increased easily by ten times because the phenomenon of avalanche multiplication which brings propagation of a number of carriers in geometrical progression is utilized and there is no theoretical limit.", "In this manner, the increase in η is extremely effective for improving the performance of photoconduction type radiation sensors.", "Since it is necessary for the photoconductor film to merely absorb light, the film thickness need not be increased remarkably.", "As a result, the film thickness can be set to a thickness most suitable for optical propagation.", "Accordingly, optical propagation can be carried out stably and spatial resolution does not get deteriorated during the propagation.", "Next, the operation of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 to accomplish the effect described above will be explained.", "First of all, the ray of light is radiated while a 150V voltage is being applied between the electrodes by use of the power supply 9.", "As a result, electrons and positive holes are induced on the surface of the insulating layer.", "Electron propagation does not occur at this time because the voltage between the electrodes is low.", "Next, the voltage between the electrodes is held at 240V by changing the power supply from 9 to 10 by the switch 11.", "The X-rays are radiated under this state.", "The X-rays are converted to light by the phosphorescent member 1, absorbed by the photoconductor layer and generates the electron/positive hole pairs.", "The electron/positive hole pairs cause avalanche multiplication while being swept in mutually opposite directions by the strong field generated by the electrode 2.", "Finally, the positive holes reach the surface of the insulating layer and the charge that has previously been induced decreases due to recombination.", "In this manner, the image information is formed as propagated charge patterns on the insulating layer surface.", "Then, the voltage between the electrodes is set to 150V by the switch.", "Charging in accordance with the discharge quantity is made by scanning the photo-conductor layer by the rays of light contracted to a necessary pixel size such as a He-Ne laser beam of 100 μφ.", "The inflowing current developing at this time is detected by use of the amplifier 7.", "Next, an example of photoelectron propagation will be illustrated.", "FIG. 3 shows the relationship between the impressed voltage of the blocking type photoconductor film and the quantum efficiency of photoelectric conversion η.", "It can be understood from this diagram that no propagation occurs below the applied voltage of 180V, that is η<1, but η increases drastically above 180V and η˜10 at 240V.", "When the applied voltage is further increased, η becomes greater and greater and high sensitivity X-ray imaging detection is made but a dark current or in other words, the output current when no X-rays are incident, becomes great and the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) of the image drops.", "Therefore, there is a practical upper limit to the applied voltage.", "In the case of this embodiment, the range of the applied voltage is preferably from 180V to 300V.", "Since the photoconductor layer is 2 μm thick in this embodiment, the field intensity between the electrodes is preferably from 0.9×10 8 to 1.5×10 8 V/m.", "It has been confirmed that so long as amorphous Se is used at the photoconductor film, the preferred range of the field intensity between the electrodes does not change irrespective of the film thickness.", "Next, another embodiment of the invention wherein the structure of the excitation portion for read-out is different will be described with reference to FIG. 4. The phosphorescent member 21 consists of 300 μm-thick BaFCl phosphor or CdWO 4 Scintillator, for example.", "The photoconductor layer 22 consists of 2 μm-thick amorphous Se or amorphous Si, for example.", "This corresponds to a storage portion of X-ray imaging.", "A pair of transparent electrodes 23-1, 23-2 that interpose the photoconductor layer 22 between them consist of 0.1 μm-thick SnO 2 or ITO.", "The electrode group is divided in a unidimensional direction and the width of one element is 100 μm, for example, and the number of elements is 1,000, for example.", "The electrode group corresponds to the read-out portion described above.", "An insulating layer 24 is inserted between the electrode group 23-2 and the photoconductor layer 22.", "Sb 2 S 3 or an organic insulating thin film is used as the insulating layer 24, for example.", "The thickness of the insulating layer 24 may be selected arbitrarily and is, for example, 0.1 μm.", "Furthermore, a stripe-like light emitting member line 25 is prepared as the excitation portion.", "The width of one element is, for example, 100 μm and the number of elements is, for example, 1,000.", "Their dividing direction crosses the electrode group at right angles.", "An EL light emitting member or a surface light emitting LED is used as the light emitting member.", "Since the read-out portion and the excitation portion are divided, the imaging sensor has the size of 10 cm in both the longitudinal and transverse directions and spatial resolution of 5 lp/mm.", "Next, the principle of operation will be described.", "First of all, a voltage V is applied to all the elements of the electrode 23 and all the elements of the light emitting member 25 are driven to emit the light.", "Accordingly, charge is induced on the interface defined by the photoconductor layer 22 and the insulating layer 24.", "Next, the light emitting members are turned off to terminate stimulation and then a voltage -V'", "having the opposite polarity to the electric field described above is applied to all the elements of the electrode 23.", "The X-ray image is allowed to be incident into the phosphorescent layer 2 under this state.", "This image is converted to an optical image by the phosphorescent layer 2 and this optical image passes through the transparent electrode 23 and is incident into the photoconductor layer.", "The charge that has been induced previously is discharged in accordance with the incident light quantity at this time.", "As a result, a charge pattern reflecting the incident X-ray image is formed between the photoconductor layer and the insulating layer.", "This is the stored image.", "After the X-ray radiation is complete, the stored image is read out.", "The polarity of the voltage between the electrodes is again reversed and the voltage V set initially is applied to all the electrodes.", "Under this state, the first channel of the light emitting member 25 is caused to emit light.", "The charge inflowing into the photoconductor layer 22 from each electrode 23 at this time is equal to the charge quantity discharged from the previous incident light in a very small area (1 pixel) where each electrode and the first channel of the light emitting member cross and therefore reflects the image information at the light emitting position.", "This inflowing current is detected for each element of the electrode 23.", "Light emission of the light emitting member is made sequentially for each light emitting element of the light emitting member and when the read operation is made in the same way as described above, the entire image information can be obtained.", "In this embodiment, storage of the X-ray image is made in the photoconductor layer after the X-ray image is once converted to the optical image.", "However, the X-rays may be stored directly by making the photoconductor layer sufficiently thick (e.g. 500 μm).", "Each constituent unit in the embodiment described above is not particularly limitative so long as it exhibits its expected function.", "For instance, though this embodiment utilizes the photoconductor electrode material for the storage portion, the material may be those which can store the X-ray image, and a laser stimulable phosphor material can be used for the storage portion, for example.", "The sensor structure at this time is described in Japanese laid-open patent application No. 62-69182.", "The overall structure of the embodiment using the sensor shown in FIG. 4 will be described in further detail with reference to FIG. 5. The drawing shows the case where each of the excitation portion and the readout portion has 6 channels and the total pixel number is 36 for simplification.", "A photoconductor material is assumed as the material of the storage portion and the basic structure may be the same as one shown in FIG. 4, for example.", "However, the storage portion is omitted from FIG. 5 to simplify the illustration.", "A positive or negative voltage is applied by a power supply 42 or 43 to the electrodes 311-316.", "The power supplies are selected by a switch 441.", "The electrodes 321-326 form pairs with the electrodes 311-316, respectively.", "The output signal from each electrode is integrated and held by each integrator 341-346.", "The integrated signal is sequentially subjected to A/D conversion and signal processing by an A/D convertor 39 through a switch 351 which is opened and closed by an address designation unit 38.", "Light emitting portions 331-336 each consist of an EL light emitting member, for example, and its ON/OFF is made by a switch 361-366 which is opened and closed by an address designation unit 37.", "A power supply 40 is provided in order to cause EL light emission.", "The address designation unit 37, 38, A/D convertor 39 and switch 441 are controlled by a controller 53.", "After A/D conversion, the signal is subjected to various processings by an image processor, is displayed on a display 51 and is stored in an image file 52.", "This embodiment has the following two operation modes.", "Mode 1: Low Speed High Spatial Resolution Mode When the light emission portion address designation unit 37 designates an address 1, the switch 361 is closed to actuate the light emitting member 331 and the storage portion is stimulated.", "The read signal generated at this time is stored in each integrator 341-346 and the readout portion address 38 sequentially opens and closes the switches 351→356, thereby obtaining image signals (f (pixel address)).", "In other words, f(1, 1), f(1, 2), .", ", f(1, 6) are read.", "Next, the similar operation is carried out by designating the light emission portion address 2 to read f(2, 1), f(2, 2), .", ", f(2, 6).", "These procedures are repeated till the light emission portion address 6 to obtain the image data of 36 pixels: f(1, 1)-f(1, 6) f(6, 1)-f(6, 6) The read time at this time is 6 xt with t representing one stimulation time.", "Mode 2: High Speed Low Spatial Resolution Mode The operation method is as follows.", "The switches 361 and 362 are closed by the light emission portion address designation unit 37 so as to let the light emitting members 331 and 332 emit light simultaneously.", "The signals generated at this time are stored in the integrators 341-346 and the image signals f(1 &", "2, 1), f(1 &", "2, 2), .", ", f (1 &", "2, 6) are read.", "Here, (1 &", "2) means the small portion on the image surface defined by the light emitting portion address 1 and 2.", "After each signal is subjected to A/D conversion, data addition is made in the following manner: ##EQU8## Next, the light emitting portions 363 and 364 are caused to emit light simultaneously by designating the light emitting portion addresses 3 and 4 and the same operation as described above is carried out.", "The same operation is also made for the light emitting portions 365 and 366.", "In this manner, the image information of nine pixels are read as listed below: ##STR1## Spatial resolution at this time drops by 1/2 when compared with the Mode 1.", "On the other hand, the read time is 3 xt with t representing the same meaning as above and the read speed can be doubled when compared with the Mode 1.", "In the embodiments described above, coupling of channels of the read-out portion is made digitally after A/D conversion but addition may be made analog-wise before A/D conversion.", "Since the channel number as well as channel coupling number can be selected suitably, those shown in the embodiment are not particularly limitative.", "Furthermore, even when only one of the electrodes interposing the photoconductor is divided into the unidimensional array form with the other being kept as a uniform electrode, the selective read operation and the change of the read modes can be made in the same way as described above." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] Air conditioner air handlers require regular care and maintenance.", "One are of care involves the continual changing of an inlet air filter.", "Filters are changed typically every one to six months.", "However, many persons fail to change their filters and there is often damage to the air handler.", "[0002] A system and method is contemplated where an air handler n loner requires a filter.", "BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0003] In one embodiment, the present invention is a system for filtering inlet air of an air conditioner air handler, said system is a structure comprising: [0000] an air inlet;", "an first air directing structure configured to act in concert with said air inlet to direct air from said air inlet into a first internal cavity;", "a first water chamber, said water chamber positioned within said first internal cavity such that inlet air passing through said air directing structure directs air above a water level of said first water chamber;", "a structure for directing condensate from an air handler into said water chamber;", "a drain positioned to impart a maximum water level of water accumulated from said condensate in said first water chamber;", "a second air directing structure configured to direct air from said first internal cavity towards an outlet that is affixed to the inlet of an air conditioner air handler.", "[0004] The system has an air inlet configured to draw in ambient air through a negative pressure differential formed from an inlet fan of an air conditioner air handler.", "[0005] The system has an air constricting structure incorporated within said first air directing structure.", "[0006] The system also has a second water chamber positioned above the first water chamber.", "[0007] The second water chamber is positioned in an airflow stream between the first water chamber and the system outlet where air exits the system and enter the air handler.", "[0008] Also contemplated is a method of removing particulate from an air conditioner air handler inlet comprising: [0000] providing a structure of claim 1 ;", "arranging said structure to connect said structure outlet to an air conditioner air handler inlet in order that said arranging is accomplished with substantially all air exiting the structure entering the air handler;", "activating said air conditioner air handler, said activating imparting negative pressure in said structure an drawing ambient air into said inlet;", "directing said ambient air through said first internal cavity and across an upper surface of water in said first water chamber;", "further directing said ambient air from said first internal cavity to said second air directing structure configured to direct air from said first internal cavity towards an outlet that is affixed to the inlet of an air conditioner air handler;", "said method removing particulate from said ambient air before said ambient air is directed to said outlet, removal of particulate having efficiency substantially similar to air filtered by a conventional air conditioner air handler filter BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS [0009] FIG. 1 : A front view of the present invention.", "[0010] FIG. 2 : A right side view of the present invention.", "[0011] FIG. 3 : An opened front view of the present invention.", "[0012] FIG. 4 : A cross section side view of the present invention.", "[0013] FIG. 5 : A cross section side diagram showing air and water flow.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT [0014] The present invention includes an assembly 10 that is utilized with existing air conditioner air handlers.", "The system has a configuration that interacts with the components of an air conditioner air handler.", "Ambient air 70 is drawn into system 10 through a cavity formed by front frame 14 and lower vertical baffle plate 36 .", "As air is drawn in, it is directed into air constriction area 74 by virtue of air constriction deflector 72 .", "Ambient air is forced into inlet cavity 96 and contacts water 92 positioned in lower water chamber 76 .", "Air continues to flow within the interior portion of lower vertical baffle plate 36 into cavity 97 and over upper water chamber 78 contacting water 94 located in upper water chamber 78 .", "Air flows along first deflecting baffle 34 into cavity 98 and second deflecting middle baffle plate 32 below cavity 99 .", "Upper baffle plate 30 directs air into upper chamber 84 defined by upper wall 28 .", "Airflow continues from the apparatus into the air conditioning air handler as indicated in airflow direction by arrow in FIG. 5 .", "Water positioned in each of lower water chamber 76 and upper water chamber 78 is supplied to the apparatus utilizing condensate water 84 created by the air conditioner air handler and fed by pipe 42 to upper water chamber 78 .", "Upper water chamber 78 fills until exceeding upper water chamber water level 82 .", "Once water exceeds upper chamber water level 82 , water travels gravitationally to lower water chamber 76 .", "As water exceeds lower chamber water level 80 , water drains through waist water drain 90 and is further directed from the system through drain connector 44 that directs water outward through waist water pipe 54 .", "As previously stated, water travels into the apparatus as is normally collected in an air conditioner air handler condensate.", "[0015] Article 10 is constructed and arranged to be positioned next to and work with an existing air conditioner air handler.", "Air handler 58 interfaces with article 10 at gasket 54 which seals the opening and prevents air passing through article 10 from escaping.", "All air is directed into the air handler.", "A filter bracket 56 is used to position article 10 .", "Article 10 obviates the need for air handler filters.", "Support rails 22 support upper perimeter walls 28 .", "A cross brace 16 further provides support to article 10 .", "Inlet hose 50 collects condensate from the air handler and directs collected condensate water 84 into article 10 through inlet tube 42 .", "A lower brace 20 supports the inlet assembly which is formed of inlet frame 14 .", "Ambient air 70 flows into article 10 through an opening as best seen in FIG. 5 .", "[0016] An additional feature in the present invention provides for indication of malfunction the system cease to function properly.", "[0017] In an embodiment where the lower water chamber 76 fails to drain properly, water 92 rises to a level at or above constrictor 72 .", "Ambient air 70 is prevented from traveling thorough the intended air route in article 10 .", "In such situations, the air handler will freeze due to a lack of inlet air.", "When the air handler freezes, the air conditioner will cease cooling and an operator will inspect the cause of the malfunction.", "[0018] This particular system provides for a method of removing impurities such as dirt, dust, allergens and the like from entering a typical air conditioner and air handling system.", "The system and method of the present invention provides efficiency equal to or greater than conventional fiber filters.", "As air enters the system, heavier particles such as dust, dirt and allergens contact water in several different locations.", "These particles when in contact with water will remain in the water and be drawn out of the air flowing through the system.", "As the water levels accumulate, they eventually collect in the lower most water chamber, which is lower water chamber 76 .", "As the water level in lower water chamber 76 exceeds in lower water chamber 80 , water is drained through coupling 48 and water drain 90 eventually to be removed from the system.", "As will be noted from test results below, the system is shown to greatly reduce dirt, dust and allergens from air transported there through.", "[0019] The present invention further relates to a method for removing particulate from inlet air traveling into the inlet of an air conditioning air handler.", "[0020] Typically, filters are utilized for the removal of particulates from air inlet.", "[0021] The filters need to be changed and have significantly variable levels of efficiency.", "[0022] A test was performed an air handler with a standard filter against an air handler without a filter in which the apparatus is utilized.", "[0023] Both tests were performed using Surface Microscopy analysis with an Allergen Screen Check kit.", "[0024] The test results appear below: Test 1 [0025] Air Handler with Conventional Filter.", "Particle identification OpaqueParticles Skin cell Fragments Insect Biodetritus Total Fibers Manmade Fibers Total Pollen [0026] Total Fungal Elements/Spores Curvularia species Total “Other”", "“Talc-Like”", "Particles Reddish-Brown Particles Black Particles Method of Analysis: EDLAB SOP 7/13001 [0027] The results in this report apply only to the sample(s) specifically listed above and tested at Environmental Diagnostics Laboratory.", "Unless otherwise noted, samples were received in good condition.", "Laboratory prepared Quality Control (OC) samples are analyzed with the samples routinely;", "however, unless a blank (control) is received, the result for the control is not compared.", "Quantitative data is based on 3 significant figures;", "Grand Total may not equal 100% due to rounding.", "[0028] Opaque Particles Identified from Tape Prep Assays Opaque Particles [0000] These particles may originate from inorganic or organic sources in nature.", "However, it appears opaque when observed under light microscopy.", "It has various shape and sizes.", "It may be regular or irregular in shape.", "On an average it can be measured less than one micron to well over fifty microns with some exceptions.", "Commonly these particles include but are not limited to dust &", "debris, paint, combustions, emission, ash, silica and others.", "[0030] These particulates are significant from a health/allergy point of view especially in case of respiratory disorder.", "[0031] Fibers Identified from Tape Prep Assays Man-made fibers may come from natural raw materials like cellulose or from synthetic chemicals like rayon, nylon, etc.", "In indoor environments, some important sources of man made fiber include carpet.", "cellulose based building materials, clothing, paper and paper products, etc.", "Size of these fibers varies from a few microns to a few millimeters;", "however, an average size range may be 1 micron to over 500 microns.", "Health implications of these particles are not well described.", "however some of the man-made fibers are important from an allergy point of view especially for dermal allergy.", "Spores I Fungal Elements Identified from Tape Prep Assays Curvularia Species [0000] Curvularia species are found worldwide and are very common.", "The hyphae, conidiophores, and conidia are pigmented olivaceous-brown (dematiaceous).", "They can be isolated from the air, plants (especially grasses), sand dune soil, and soil.", "Rarely, they can be an opportunist human pathogen causing allergic reactions, eye (corneal) infections, mycetoma, and infections in immunocompromised patients.", "[0034] Other Material Identified from Tape Prep Assays “Talc-Like”", "Particles [0000] These are thin disk-like particles of variable size range (10 to 50 micron), It may be organic or inorganic in nature.", "In indoor environment these particles mainly come from cornmeal, other grain flour, talcum powder etc.", "Some of these particles may adversely influence the health of dweller (example talcum powder).", "Black Particles [0000] These microscopic particles may originate from an organic source material.", "They greatly vary in their shape and sizes depending on their origin.", "However, an average size ranges between 1-micron to 5 micron with some exceptions.", "It may be regular or irregular in shape.", "In the indoor environment some important source/cause of these particles includes but are not limited to combustion, burning of oil &", "candles, chimney shoot, automobile exhaust, neoprene (rubber compound that applied to the inside surface of fiber glass duct liner), and other organic materials emitted by copier machines, printers, abraded paints etc.", "These particles may influence health and hygienic condition of dwellers.", "Reddish-Brown Particles [0000] These microscopic particles may originate from inorganic or organic source materials.", "In indoor environments these particles mainly come by rusting, coarse, weathering of materials etc.", "They may also be released into the environment due to deterioration of wood or wood products, art and sculpture work etc.", "These particles greatly vary in their shape and sizes.", "It can be measured from a few micron to over 100-microns.", "This particle may be the indicator of moisture problem in indoor environment.", "The health implications of this material are not well established however;", "it may be significant from a health and hygiene point of view.", "[0000] TABLE 1 Raw Total Count Percent of Particle Identification Count (Cts/cm 2 ) Total Count OpaqueParticles 127 6,350 92.4% Skin Cell Fragments 49 196 2.85% Insect Biodetritus BDL BDL N/A Total Fibers 18 72 1.05% Manmade Fibers 18 72 1.05% Total Pollen BDL BDL N/A Total Fungal Elements/Spores 2 8 0.116% Dematiaceous Fungal 1 4 0.0582% Hyphal Elements Dematiaceous Fungal 1 4 0.0582% Spore Elements Total “Other”", "62 248 3.61% Reddish-Brown Particles 17 68 0.99% Black Particles 45 180 2.82% Total Counts: 258 6,870 99.9% BDL = Below Detection Limit: No particles were reported from the microscopically observed area on the specimen slide (at 10 × 10 or 10 × 40 magnification).", "[0039] Table 1 and FIGS. 6 and 7 show significant particulate detected in the inlet air.", "Test 2 [0040] The experiment was repeated utilizing the system of the present invention in an air handler with no filter in place.", "[0000] TABLE 2 Raw Total Count Percent of Particle Identification Count (Cts/cm 2 ) Total Count OpaqueParticles 221 884 90.9% Skin Cell Fragments 4 16 1.65% Insect Biodetritus BDL BDL N/A Total Fibers 1 4 0.412% Manmade Fibers 1 4 0.412% Total Pollen BDL BDL N/A Total Fungal Elements/Spores 1 4 0.412% Curvularia species 1 4 0.412% Total “Other”", "16 64 6.58% “Talc-Like”", "Particles 2 8 0.82% Reddish-Brown Particles 3 12 1.23% Black Particles 11 44 4.53% Total Counts: 243 972 100% BDL = Below Detection Limit: No particles were reported from the microscopically observed area on the specimen slide (at 10 × 10 or 10 × 40 magnification).", "Surface Microscopy (Tape Prep Assays) [0041] Opaque Particles Identified from Tape Prep Assays Opaque Particles [0000] These particles may originate from inorganic or organic sources in nature.", "However, it appears opaque when observed under light microscopy.", "It has various shape and sizes.", "It may be regular or irregular in shape.", "On an average it can be measured less than one micron to well over fifty microns with some exceptions.", "Commonly these particles include but are not limited to dust &", "debris, paint, combustions, emission, ash, silica and others.", "[0043] These particulates are significant from a health/allergy point of view especially in case of respiratory disorder.", "[0000] Fibers Identified from Tape Prep Assays Man-made Fibers [0000] Man-made fibers may come from natural raw materials like cellulose or from synthetic chemicals like rayon, nylon, etc.", "In indoor environments, some important sources of man made fiber include carpet.", "cellulose based building materials, clothing, paper and paper products, etc.", "Size of these fibers varies from a few microns to a few millimeters;", "however, an average size range may be 1 micron to over 500 microns.", "[0045] Health implications of these particles are not well described.", "however some of the man-made fibers are important from an allergy point of view especially for dermal allergy.", "[0000] Spores I Fungal Elements Identified from Tape Prep Assays Curvularia Species [0000] Curvularia species are found worldwide and are very common.", "The hyphae, conidiophores, and conidia are pigmented olivaceous-brown (dematiaceous).", "They can be isolated from the air, plants (especially grasses), sand dune soil, and soil.", "Rarely, they can be an opportunist human pathogen causing allergic reactions, eye (corneal) infections, mycetoma, and infections in immunocompromised patients.", "Other Material Identified from Tape Prep Assays “Talc-Like”", "Particles [0000] These are thin disk-like particles of variable size range (10 to 50 micron), It may be organic or inorganic in nature.", "In indoor environment these particles mainly come from cornmeal, other grain flour, talcum powder etc.", "Some of these particles may adversely influence the health of dweller (example talcum powder).", "Black Particles [0000] These microscopic particles may originate from an organic source material.", "They greatly vary in their shape and sizes depending on their origin.", "However, an average size ranges between 1-micron to 5 micron with some exceptions.", "It may be regular or irregular in shape.", "In the indoor environment some important source/cause of these particles includes but are not limited to combustion, burning of oil &", "candles, chimney shoot, automobile exhaust, neoprene (rubber compound that applied to the inside surface of fiber glass duct liner), and other organic materials emitted by copier machines, printers, abraded paints etc.", "These particles may influence health and hygienic condition of dwellers.", "Reddish-Brown Particles [0000] These microscopic particles may originate from inorganic or organic source materials.", "In indoor environments these particles mainly come by rusting, coarse, weathering of materials etc.", "They may also be released into the environment due to deterioration of wood or wood products, art and sculpture work etc.", "These particles greatly vary in their shape and sizes.", "It can be measured from a few micron to over 100-microns.", "This particle may be the indicator of moisture problem in indoor environment.", "The health implications of this material are not well established however;", "it may be significant from a health and hygiene point of view.", "[0051] As seen from the reported results, an air handler without a filter would be expected to have significant increase in particulate.", "[0052] This was not the case.", "The congruity of results indicates that the system of the present invention provides particulate filtration similar to filtration results when using an air filter.", "[0053] In one embodiment, an additive is added to system 10 .", "Additives include, but are not limited to materials such as, aromatic, antimicrobial, anti fungal, anti-mole, anti-spore, or combinations thereof.", "[0054] One embodiment adds the additive to at least one water chamber.", "The additive can be a solid, semi solid or liquid.", "[0055] One embodiment provides an additive as a solid in which the additive is released over an extended period of time being 1-90 days.", "[0056] In one embodiment, addition of anti-mold materials is a step in a method to clean mold from duct work.", "[0057] The method includes the steps of [0000] providing a an article/system of the present invention;", "adding a mold killing or remediation component to the water chamber of the article;", "running the air conditioner such that the mold killing component is carried through the system, into the existing air handler;", "dispersing the mold killing component through the air conditioning ductwork;", "wherein the method is carried out for 1-90 days until mold is killed and no longer in the ductwork.", "[0058] This method can be used to sterilize and deodorize air ducts.", "The method is not limited to distribution of a single additive and can be used with a plurality of additives.", "[0059] The present invention has an additional feature in that there is no need to clean or change the water in any water chamber.", "[0060] Particulate in the inlet air 70 is directed into water in a water chamber.", "Air pressure from the system circulates water in all water chambers such that particulate is not able to settle or accumulate.", "The particulate circulates in the water.", "As water levels rise above the aforementioned drainage heights, particulate is carried out of the article 10 and ultimately deposited outside article 10 though drain 48 .", "[0061] While the invention has been described in its preferred form or embodiment with some degree of particularity, it is understood that this description has been given only by way of example and that numerous changes in the details of construction, fabrication, and use, including the combination and arrangement of parts, may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention." ]

[ "REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This is a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 07/471,943, filed Jan. 29, 1990, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,060,390.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates generally to navigation aids and devices, and particularly to a device for converting map bearings to provide an indication of the true land or sea bearing, and more particularly to a transparency holder for use in connection with said device.", "In reading a map and navigating with a compass, amateur or occasional navigators frequently fail to properly account for magnetic declination, either by neglecting it entirely, or by taking it in the wrong direction, thus producing an error of twice the magnetic declination.", "More seriously, amateur or occasional navigators may align the compass needle incorrectly or misinterpret the reading or make other similar errors to produce a 180 degree error.", "There is a need for a navigation device which facilitates relatively foolproof conversion of map data into a land or sea bearing to be taken.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is thus an object of the invention to provide, for a navigation device which facilitates relatively foolproof conversion of map data into a land or sea bearing to be taken, a transparency holder which is adapted to permit the insertion of a map transparency in one orientation only.", "In the navigation device, a grid, a map transparency and a compass are combined such that map information can be directly converted to a land or sea bearing in virtually foolproof fashion.", "More particularly, the navigation device involves, mounted in a case parallel to and aligned with each other, a lens across an opening at one end of the case and a compass, having a body, transparent faces and a magnetic compass needle, across an opening at the opposite end of the case.", "The transparency holder is positioned between the lens and the compass, adapted to receive a map transparency with magnetic north thereon aligning with a north marking on the body of the compass, at a distance from the lens approximating the focal length of the lens.", "A grid wheel is provided between the transparency holder and the compass, having a transparent or translucent central area inscribed with parallel grid lines and at least one first directional arrow aligned parallel to the grid lines, the grid wheel being in close proximity to the transparency holder such that it is also at a distance from the lens approximating the focal length of the lens.", "Positioned between the grid wheel and the compass, and geared to the grid wheel for counter-rotation therewith, is a direction wheel having a transparent or translucent central area inscribed with at least one second directional arrow.", "A bearing may thus be taken by examining an installed map transparency through the lens, rotating the grid wheel and direction wheel to align the grid lines and the at least one first directional arrow with the desired direction of travel on the map, then aligning the compass needle with the north marking on the body of the compass, the at least one second directional arrow then indicating the bearing to be taken.", "Alternatively, as described below, the map transparency may be positioned between the grid wheel and the direction wheel, adjacent the grid wheel.", "In the invention, the transparency holder has certain asymmetric features which ensure that it can only be installed in the navigation device in the one correct orientation.", "Further features of the invention will be described or will become apparent in the course of the following detailed description.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS In order that the invention may be more clearly understood, the preferred embodiment of the navigation device and of the transparency holder will now be described in detail by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective, showing the various components of the navigation device;", "FIG. 2 is a top view of the preferred embodiment of the transparency holder, assembled;", "FIG. 3 is a side view of the transparency holder;", "FIG. 4 is a top view of the transparency holder, opened;", "FIG. 5 is a top view of an alternative embodiment of the transparency holder, assembled;", "FIG. 6 is a side view of the transparency holder;", "FIG. 7 is a top view of the transparency holder, opened;", "and FIG. 8 is an exploded perspective, showing the various components of the navigation device, with an alternative transparency holder arrangement.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT In the preferred embodiment of the navigation device, there is a case, comprising a lower casing 2 and an upper casing 12.", "Mounted across the bottom end of the lower casing 2 in a rubber eye piece 4 is a lens 6.", "A transparency holder 8 is positioned on a transparency support 80 across the upper end of the lower casing, to receive a map transparency 10.", "The transparency holder is at a distance from the lens approximating the focal length of the lens.", "The upper casing 12 is removably fastened to the lower casing 2.", "A conventional compass 14, having a compass needle 16 mounted on a pin 18, is positioned across the upper end of the upper casing.", "A "North"", "or "N"", "marking, or other suitable indicator, is on the upper surface of the compass or, as illustrated in FIG. 1, on the upper casing adjacent the compass.", "A rubber ring 20 projects axially from the upper end of the upper casing to protect the casing and compass.", "A grid wheel 22 and a direction wheel 24 are mounted between the upper and lower casings.", "The wheels have gear-teethed areas 26.", "Small gears 28, preferably three in number, are evenly spaced in fixed positions between the gear-teethed areas, rotation of one wheel thus producing counter-rotation of the other.", "One of the wheels, namely the grid wheel 22 in the illustrated embodiment, has a ring portion 30 projecting outwardly from at least a portion of the upper and lower casings, for use by the user to rotate the wheels.", "The grid wheel 22 has a transparent or translucent central portion 32, inscribed with parallel grid lines and at least one first directional arrow aligned parallel to the grid lines.", "It is in close proximity to the transparency holder, such that it is also at a distance from the lens approximating the focal length of the lens.", "Thus when the user looks through the lens, both the map transparency and the grid lines are essentially in focus.", "The direction wheel 24 has a transparent or translucent central portion 38 inscribed with at least one second directional arrow.", "Since it is spaced from the transparency and grid location by virtue of the small gears 28, the second directional arrow 40 is not seen in focus.", "Having one or both of the grid wheel and direction wheel with a translucent as opposed to transparent central portion may improve readability of the map transparency by diffusing available light evenly, provided that excessive attenuation is avoided.", "On the other hand, the navigation device clearly will work if both are transparent.", "The upper and lower casings are fastened to each other in such a way that they can be separated to permit transparencies to be changed, such as by lifting the upper casing out of a detent in the lower casing against the force of a spring, to disengage the casings from each other, and then pivoting the upper casing away from the lower casing.", "The map transparency 10 must be prepared such that magnetic north is aligned with the N or North marking on the body of the compass.", "The device is extremely simple to use.", "A bearing may be taken by looking at the map transparency through the lens 6, and manipulating the ring 30 so as to thereby rotate the grid wheel 22 and direction wheel 24, to align the grid lines and directional arrows thereon with the desired direction of travel on the map.", "Then the device is flipped over, and the compass needle is aligned with the North marking on the case (or on the body of the compass).", "The second directional arrow then indicates the bearing to be taken.", "Further details on the construction of the navigation device itself are available in the related application referred to above.", "However, the focus of the present specification is not on the navigation device itself, but on the transparency holder.", "It is essential that the transparency be inserted with the correct orientation.", "Clear indicia could be marked on the transparency holder, e.g. "This Side Up"", "and/or "This Edge In", or a pattern on the transparency frame could be matched to a pattern on the transparency support.", "However, it is preferable to make it physically impossible to insert the transparency incorrectly, for example by using a tapered or asymmetrical transparency frame and complementary support.", "In the preferred embodiment shown in FIGS. 1-4, the transparency holder 8 is positioned on a transparent transparency support 80 across the upper end of the lower casing.", "The transparency support is fastened to the lower casing by four screws passing through holes 82.", "(The fifth hole 84 is for the socket screw which connects the upper and lower casings to pass through.", ") On the platform is a "tee"", "86, positioned off the center line of the platform so as to create asymmetry.", "The transparency holder 8 fits in partly under the tee, with a notch 88 engaging the base of the tee.", "The top of the tee preferably is spaced from the platform by the thickness of the transparency holder, so that the transparency holder is held down against the platform.", "As seen in greater detail in FIGS. 2-4, the transparency holder 8 has an upper half 90 and a lower half 91, connected by integral living hinges 92.", "Four posts 93 snap through corresponding holes 94 to lock the holder closed once a transparency is installed.", "The transparency holder is of transparent plastic, and has a central portion 96 which is recessed from the inner surface of the lower half 91 by about the thickness of the actual map transparency.", "The map transparency is inserted in the correct orientation, and then the holder is snapped shut.", "The lower half 91 has a finger grip portion 98 which projects upwardly from the lower half through a notch 99 in the upper half.", "This facilitates insertion and removal of the transparency holders, i.e. to switch maps.", "The finger grip portion preferably projects upwardly to the same height as the top of the tee 86, and against the underside of the ring 100, so that the transparency holder is securely positioned.", "In the alternative embodiment shown in FIGS. 5-7, the same principle is used, but instead of the notch 88, a notch 102 is provided at one edge of the hinged portion.", "Another alternative embodiment is shown in FIG. 8. In this embodiment, there is no support 80, but merely the transparency holder 8 itself, provided with at least one notch positioned so as to create asymmetry, such as notches 70, 71 matching complementary projections 72, 73 respectively.", "Instead of the map transparency being positioned between the grid wheel and the lens, it should be appreciated that it may be positioned between the grid wheel and the direction wheel, adjacent the grid wheel, although such alternative positioning is slightly more difficult from an assembly viewpoint.", "The transparency holder has to have slots in it to provide space for the small gears 28.", "The grid wheel obviously must be transparent rather than merely translucent in such an arrangement.", "It will be appreciated that the above description relates to the preferred embodiment by way of example only.", "Many variations on the invention will be obvious to those knowledgeable in the field, and such obvious variations are within the scope of the invention as described and claimed, whether or not expressly described.", "For example, asymmetry could be provided by means other than notches.", "Regardless of the actual construction of the transparency holder or of its location, some form of asymmetry must be provided, whether in the form of notches as described above, or by other means such as making a transparency holder which is generally asymmetrical in shape (as opposed to being generally symmetrical but having asymmetric features such as off-center notches).", "Such obvious variations are considered to be within the scope of the invention." ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION [0001] The present application is based on and claims priority benefits from U.S. Provisional Application Ser.", "No. 62/169,797 filed on Jun. 2, 2015, the entire content or which is expressly incorporated herein to be reference.", "FIELD [0002] The present invention is related generally to clothing articles that may be employed usefully in aquatic activities, e.g., water sport shorts, swimming attire and the like.", "In preferred forms, the clothing articles are provided with unitary woven fabric panels with multiple seamlessly adjacent different fabric weave sections.", "BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY [0003] Various aquatic sports activities (e.g., surfing, water boarding, water skiing, scuba diving and the like) require clothing articles that are lightweight when saturated with water and exhibit flexibility to enable the individual participant full freedom of movement.", "Aquatic shorts (colloquially known as “board shorts”) that are breathable (fast drying), possess extreme light weight and supportive yet highly flexible are especially desired by water sports enthusiasts.", "It is towards providing such clothing, especially water shorts, that the embodiments disclosed herein are directed.", "[0004] The embodiments of the present invention as described herein including clothing articles (e.g., aquatic “board”", "shorts) are generally comprised of at least one unitary woven fabric panel having multiple differing seamlessly adjacent fabric weave sections.", "These seamlessly adjacent different fabric weave sections may be selected from plain fabric weaves, twill fabric weaves and/or Dobby fabric weaves.", "[0005] At least one unitary woven fabric panel of the clothing article may comprise a twill weave section and a Dobby weave section seamlessly joined to one another along a respective interface boundary therebetween.", "Alternatively or additionally, the at least one unitary woven fabric panel may comprise a plain weave section and a twill weave section seamlessly joined to one another along a respective interface boundary therebetween.", "According to some embodiments, the at least one unitary woven fabric panel may comprise an upper plain weave section, a lower Dobby weave section and an intermediate twill weave section seamlessly joined to the upper plain and lower Dobby weave sections along respective interface boundaries therebetween.", "[0006] Some embodiments of the invention are directed toward aquatic activity shorts comprised of a one piece rear fabric panel providing a seamless back rise.", "Preferably, the one piece rear fabric panel comprises seamlessly adjacent different woven fabric sections that may be selected from plain fabric weaves, twill fabric weaves and/or Dobby fabric weaves.", "[0007] Certain other embodiments of the aquatic activity shorts may comprise one piece left and right front woven fabric panels, each of which may be comprised of seamlessly adjacent different woven fabric sections.", "By way of example, the seamlessly adjacent different woven fabric sections of the left and right front woven front fabric panels may be selected from plain fabric weaves, twill fabric weaves and/or Dobby fabric weaves.", "[0008] If present, the one-piece left and right front woven fabric panels may joined to the one-piece rear fabric panel along a seam that has opposed ends located generally above a knee region of a user at a lower edge of the shorts and extends upwardly and rearwardly around a buttocks region of the user with an apex centrally located adjacent a rear waist region of the user.", "[0009] According to some embodiments, the left and right front woven fabric panels include seamlessly adjacent left and right rear waist sections.", "Each of the left and right rear waist sections may comprise upper and lower seamlessly adjacent woven fabric sections.", "[0010] Some embodiments of the aquatic activity shorts according to the invention may comprise left and right front woven fabric panels and a rear woven fabric panel, wherein each of the left, right and rear fabric panels is formed of a one piece woven fabric having seamlessly adjacent different woven fabric sections.", "The one piece rear fabric panel may therefore provide a seamless back rise.", "[0011] The rear woven fabric panel of some embodiments may comprise an upper twill weave section and a lower Dobby weave section seamlessly joined to one another along a respective interface boundary therebetween.", "The rear woven fabric panel may further comprise lateral arcuate woven fabric sections seamlessly joined to the upper twill and lower Dobby weave sections along respective arcuate interface boundaries therebetween.", "[0012] These and other aspects and advantages of the present invention will become more clear after careful consideration is given to the following detailed description of the preferred exemplary embodiments thereof.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS [0013] The disclosed embodiments of the present invention will be better and more completely understood by referring to the following detailed description of exemplary non-limiting illustrative embodiments in conjunction with the drawings of which: [0014] FIG. 1 is a front elevational view of water sports clothing in the form of water shorts in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention shown as being worn to cover a person's pelvic and upper thigh regions;", "[0015] FIG. 2 is an isolated front elevational view of the water shorts depicted in FIG. 1 ;", "[0016] FIG. 3 is a rear elevational view of the water shorts depicted in FIG. 2 ;", "[0017] FIGS. 4 and 5 are left and right side elevational views of the water shorts depicted in FIG. 2 ;", "[0018] FIG. 6 is a plan view of the left side fabric panel employed in the water shorts of FIG. 2 , the right side fabric panel being substantially a mirror image thereof;", "and [0019] FIG. 7 is a plan view of the rear fabric panel employed in the water shorts of FIG. 2 .", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION A. Definitions [0020] As used herein and in the accompanying claims, the terms below are intended to have the following definitions: [0021] “Filament”", "means a fibrous strand of extreme or indefinite length.", "[0022] “Fiber”", "means a fibrous strand of definite or short length, such as a staple fiber.", "[0023] “Yarn”", "means a collection of numerous filaments or fibers which may or may not be textured, spun, twisted or laid together.", "[0024] “Spinning”", "means the formation of a yarn by a combination of drafting and twisting or prepared strands of staple fibers, such as rovings.", "[0025] “Woven fabric”", "means a fabric composed of two sets of yarns, warp and filling, and formed by interlacing (weaving) two or more warp yarns and filling yarns in a particular weave pattern (e.g., plain weave, twill weave, satin weave Dobby weave and the like).", "Thus, during weaving the warp and fill yarns will be interlaced so as to cross each other at right angles to produce the woven fabric having the desired weave pattern.", "[0026] “Plain weave”", "means a woven fabric wherein weft yarns alternately cross over and under immediately adjacent warp yarns with an adjacent weft yarn alternately passing under and over such immediately adjacent warp yarns, respectively.", "[0027] “Twill weave”", "means a woven fabric with a pattern of diagonal parallel ribs formed by the repeated passing of weft yarns over one or more warp yarns and then under two or more warp yarns.", "[0028] “Dobby weave”", "means a woven fabric having repeated geometric patterns and texture.", "[0029] An “elastic filament”", "or “elastic yarn”", "means a filament/yarn that can be stretched to a length of at least about 1.5 times, typically at least about 2.0 times, and greater, of its unstretched length and has at least about 90% elastic recovery, typically at least about 92% elastic recovery, up to 100% elastic recovery after one hour relaxation following stretching.", "[0030] An “inelastic filament”", "or “inelastic yarn”", "means a filament/yarn that is not capable of being stretched beyond its maximum tensioned length without some permanent deformation.", "B. Exemplary Embodiments [0031] The water shorts 10 according to an embodiment of the invention are shown in FIG. 1 as being worn about the pelvic and upper thigh regions of a user.", "The water shorts 10 are comprised of multiple distinct one piece woven textile panels including left and right front panels 12 , 14 having left and right rear waist sections 12 a , 14 a , and a rear panel 16 .", "The panels may be welded to one another along seam lines 18 a - 18 c , respectively.", "The water shorts may have a front fly 20 a that is closed by means of any conventional fastening system (e.g., VELCRO® loop and pile fastener, zipper, buttons or the like) and laces 20 b to close the waist band.", "The rear panel 16 may include a water-resistant zippered opening 22 to access a pocket formed by a fabric section (not shown) welded along its periphery to an interior region thereof.", "An elastomeric (rubberized) waistband 24 is thermally welded to the interior waist region of the shorts 10 to provide flexion as the user's hips and waist move.", "The waistband 24 also provides size stability through the waist and minimizes slippage from the user's waist region.", "[0032] Important to the embodiments disclosed herein, each of the panels 12 , 14 and 16 are unitary (one-piece) woven textile constructions having multiple differing fabric weave sections seamlessly adjacent one another.", "In the embodiment depicted in FIGS. 1-6 , the left and right front panels 12 , 14 will include an upper plain weave textile fabric section 12 - 1 , 14 - 1 , and a lower Dobby weave textile fabric section 12 - 2 , 14 - 2 separated from one another by an intermediate twill weave textile fabric section 12 - 3 , 14 - 3 , respectively.", "Each of the fabric sections 12 - 1 , 12 - 2 and 12 - 3 of the left front panel 12 and each of the fabric sections 14 - 1 , 14 - 2 and 14 - 3 of the right front panel 14 form respective seamless interface boundaries therebetween due to the fabric panels 12 and 14 being a one-piece woven fabric construction.", "[0033] The left and right rear waist sections 12 a , 14 a of the panels 12 , 14 include an upper plain weave fabric section 12 a 1 , 14 a 1 and a lower Dobby weave textile fabric section 12 a 2 , 14 a 2 , respectively.", "The opposed ends of the left and right rear waist sections 12 a , 14 a are thermally welded to one another along vertical rear waist seam 18 a. [0034] Like the left and right front panels 12 , 14 , the rear panel 16 is a unitary (one-piece) woven textile construction having multiple differing fabric weave sections seamlessly adjacent one another.", "The rear panel 16 is thermally welded to the panels 12 , 14 along continuous seam 18 b .", "As shown, the seam 18 b has opposed ends located generally above the user's knee at the lower edge of the shorts 10 and extends upwardly and rearwardly around the user's buttock region with an apex being centrally located adjacent the user's rear waist.", "The rear panel 16 bounded by the seam 18 b is constructed of multiple differing fabric weave sections seamlessly adjacent one another which thereby provide a seamless back rise in the shorts 10 .", "In the depicted embodiment, the rear panel 16 includes an upper twill weave fabric section 16 - 1 and a lower Dobby weave fabric section 16 - 2 .", "Lateral fabric sections 16 - 3 a and 16 - 3 b are formed of a Dobby weave textile fabric section that has a different (smaller) Dobby weave characteristic as compared to the (larger) Dobby weave of fabric section 16 - 2 .", "The lateral arcuate woven fabric sections 16 - 3 a , 16 - 3 b are seamlessly joined to the upper twill weave section 16 - 1 and lower Dobby weave section 16 - 2 along respective arcuate interface boundaries therebetween.", "[0035] Each of the fabric sections forming the panels 12 , 14 and 16 of the shorts are engineered to impart optimal comfort to the user by providing differential stretch characteristics and stretch axes.", "By way of example, the plain weave fabric sections 12 - 1 , 12 a 1 , 14 - 1 and 14 a - 1 are designed to provide compact (minimal) 4-way stretch along the vertical and horizontal axes so as to hold shape and to support the user's waist and seat region.", "Each of the plain weave fabric sections 12 - 1 , 12 a 1 , 14 - 1 and 14 a - 1 may have the same or different maximum stretch characteristics.", "A specific plain weave fabric that may be employed for fabric sections 12 - 1 , 12 a 1 , 14 - 1 and 14 a - 1 is a plain fabric construction of about 140 gm/m 2 woven 164×156/50 denier polyester+elastomeric filament×50 denier polyester yarns+elastomeric filament.", "[0036] The twill weave sections 12 - 3 , 14 - 3 and 16 - 1 provide a durable and angular weave that is capable of stretching along the horizontal and vertical axes of the shorts 10 .", "Preferably the twill weave sections 12 - 3 , 14 - 3 and 16 - 1 exhibit greater maximum stretch along the horizontal and vertical axes of the shorts as compared to the respective plain weave fabric sections 12 - 1 , 12 a 1 , 14 - 1 and 14 a - 1 seamlessly adjacent thereto.", "A specific twill weave fabric that may be employed for fabric sections 12 - 1 , 12 a 1 , 14 - 1 and 14 a - 1 a twill fabric construction of about 146 gm/m 2 woven 164×156/50 denier polyester+elastomeric filament×50 denier polyester yarns+elastomeric filament.", "[0037] The Dobby weave sections 12 a 2 , 12 - 2 , 14 a 2 , 14 - 2 and 16 - 2 are lower and loftier weave constructions possessing stretch characteristics along the vertical, horizontal and diagonal (45° bias) axes of the shorts 10 .", "The relatively open weave of the Dobby weave sections 12 a 2 , 12 - 2 , 14 a 2 , 14 - 2 and 16 - 2 create repetitive perforations that eliminate cling to the user's body with the fabric is wet, reduces weight and promotes breathability.", "Preferred embodiments of the Dobby weave sections 12 a 2 , 12 - 2 , 14 a 2 , 14 - 2 and 16 - 2 will possess ordered rows of spaced-apart perforations with perforations in adjacent rows being off-set relative to one another.", "The nominal perforation size and inter-perforation spacing of the upper Dobby weave sections 12 a 2 , 14 a 2 are preferably relatively smaller (e.g., at least about 10% smaller or least about 20% smaller) as compared to the perforation size and inter-perforation spacing of the lower Dobby weave sections 12 - 2 , 14 - 2 and 16 - 2 .", "A particular fabric for the upper (smaller) Dobby weave sections 12 a 2 , 14 a 2 may be Dobby fabric construction of about 152 gm/m 2 woven 164×166/50 denier polyester+elastomeric filament×50 denier polyester yarns+elastomeric filament, while a particular fabric for the lower (larger) Dobby weave sections 12 - 2 , 14 - 2 and 16 - 2 is a Dobby fabric construction of about 134 gm/m 2 woven 164×160/50 denier polyester+elastomeric filament×50 denier polyester yarns+elastomeric filament.", "[0038] The various panels 12 , 14 and 16 may be woven from virtually any natural or synthetic filament or yarn.", "Preferably synthetic yarns are employed and can be formed from any desirable fiber-forming polymer such as polyamides (e.g., nylon 6, nylon 6,6, nylon 6,12 and the like), polyesters, polyolefins (e.g., polypropylene, polyethylene) and the like, as well as mixtures and copolymers of the same.", "[0039] Similarly, any desirable elastomeric filament may be employed in order to impart the desired stretch characteristics to the woven panels 12 , 14 and 16 .", "Preferred elastic filaments are spandex filaments formed of a long chain synthetic elastomer comprised of at least 85% by weight of a segmented polyurethane typically interspersed with relatively soft segments of polyethers, polyester, polycarbonates and the like.", "A particularly preferred spandex filament is commercially available under the trade name LYCRA® having deniers of about 40 to about 70, typically a denier of about 50.", "Combinations of elastomeric and non-elastomeric filaments and yarns may also be employed.", "For example, one or more elastomeric filament(s) may be co-spun, wrapped or covered with a non-elastic fiber or filament, e.g. polyester.", "[0040] The woven panels 12 , 14 and/or 16 exhibit both stretch and elastic recovery following stretching as measured according to ASTM D3107-2007(2011) (incorporated fully by reference herein) as shown by the data below: [0000] Stretch Properties of Woven Fabric Panels (ASTM D3107-2007(2011)) Lengthwise Widthwise (Warp) (Weft) Fabric stretch after 4 lbs.", "tensioning for 30 min.", "(%) 30.0 38.8 Fabric growth after 4 lbs.", "tensioning for 30 min.", "(%) 4.0 7.2 Fabric growth after stretching to: 31.4 cm 33.3 cm After 30 sec.", "relaxation (%) 2.4 4.0 After 30 min.", "relaxation (%) 1.2 2.8 After 1 hour relaxation (%) 1.2 2.4 Fabric recovery after stretching to: 31.4 cm 33.3 cm After 30 sec.", "relaxation (%) 90.6 87.9 After 30 min.", "relaxation (%) 95.3 91.5 After 1 hour relaxation (%) 95.3 92.7 [0041] The invention herein is not to be limited to the disclosed embodiments, but on the contrary, is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims." ]

[ "This application is a continuation of prior application Ser.", "No. 07/419,768, filed on Oct. 11, 1989 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,083,285 BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a multi-layer perceptron circuit device which is widely used in various fields such as recognition problems for letters and voices, optimal control problem for robot motion, general process control problem, and neuro-computers.", "Description of the Background Art A perceptron is a neural network invented by Rosenblatt and others in 1940's, which has a multi-layer structure.", "In general, when a number of layers in this multi-layer structure is large, it is called a multi-layer perceptron.", "In general, the multi-layer perceptron has a configuration shown in FIG. 1 which resembles neuron structure in the human brain, for which various mathematical analysis has already been made with regards its information processing capability.", "For instance, there is a theorem by Kolmogorov which states that "A perceptron having n(2n+1) neurons can express an arbitrary continuous function with n variables".", "The parameters of the perceptron are given by combination weights of the synapse connections between neurons, and self-governing or adaptive type network can be constructed by updating these parameters according to partial differential equations called the learning equations.", "More recently, D. E. Rumelhart and J. L. McClelland developed the Backward Error Propagation Algorithm (BEP) in which these parameters can be determined by the method of steepest descent.", "Referring now to FIG. 1, a conventional multi-layer perceptron will be described in some detail.", "FIG. 1 shows a case of three-layer perceptron comprising the first layer called an input layer which generally contains n s neurons S i (i=1, 2, .", ", n s ), the second layer called an intermediate layer which generally contains n A neurons A i (i=1, 2, .", ", n A ), and the third layer called an output layer which generally contains n R neurons R i (i=1, 2, .", ", n R ).", "For the sake of simplicity, the FIG. 1 shows the case in which n S =n A =n R =3.", "Also, in FIG. 1, the combination weights for the synapse connections are designated as RS i j and RA i j (i, j=1, 2, 3).", "In FIG. 1, signals are propagated from left to right, and an input signal and an output signal of each neuron have in general a mapping relation of a non-linear function having a monotonous change such as a logistic function.", "Also, the input signals for the neurons of the input layer are assumed to be given externally in forms resembling sensing organ stimulating signals, and each of the neurons A i and R i of the intermediate layer and the output layer receives a sum of signals coming in with each signal being weighted by the combination weights RS i j and RA i j associated with each synapse connection.", "In other words: ##EQU1## Next, the Backward Error Propagation algorithm will briefly be reviewed.", "The Backward Error Propagation algorithm is a learning algorithm for a case in which a teacher signal is given to the output layer, in which weights are updated according to the following equations: R.sub.", "ij (t+Δt)=αR.", "sub.", "ij (t)+ηε.", "sub.", "j f(y.", "sub.", "i (t)) (3) where f is a mapping from an input signal y i (t) to an output signal, R i j represents either RS i j or RA i j, α is called a forgetting factor for which a value 1 corresponds to a case with no forgetting and a value less than 1 corresponds to a case with forgetting with a smaller value indicating faster forgetting, η is called a relaxation factor which determines relaxation in the transition according to the above eq.", "(3) of the weights to the final values, and ε j is a signal containing error information which will be given by: ε.", "sub.", "j =(T.", "sub.", "j -f(y.", "sub.", "j (t)))f'(y.", "sub.", "j (t)) (4) for a case in which the neuron is located in the output layer, and where T j is a teacher signal and a prime indicates a differential, and: ##EQU2## for a case in which the neuron is not located in the output layer.", "Now, such a conventional multi-layer perceptron and learning equation for its parameters such as the Backward Error Propagation algorithm just described has been practically implemented, such that the multi-layer perceptron is usually represented only as diagrammatically as FIG. 1 or by a breadboarded circuit at best, and the algorithm is usually checked by either a theoretical calculations or simulation experiments.", "In practically implementing the multi-layer perceptron by integrated circuits, there are several problems to be overcome, such as the following.", "First of all, there is a problem concerning the arrangement and the wiring of the multi-layer perceptron diagrammatically shown in FIG. 1. Namely, a number of wirings required between two layers containing n neurons is n 2 , so that as n increases more sophisticated arrangement and wiring are required in order to avoid undesirable situation such as overlapping of wirings.", "Moreover, since an integrated circuit can accommodate only a limited number of elements within, it is preferably for each integrated circuit to be easily extendable by connecting other integrated circuits.", "Secondly, the possible practical implementation of the Backward Error Propagation algorithm has not been achieved, so that although the use of the method of steepest descent is advocated in this algorithm, how to break this algorithm down to practically implementable blocks have to be worked out.", "Thirdly, after the multi-layer perceptron circuit device is constructed, there still is a problem of how to activate an entire device uniformly.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a practical implementation of the multi-layer perceptron circuit device using integrated configuration which is capable of incorporating self-learning function and which is easily extendable.", "According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a multi-layer perceptron circuit device, comprising: at least one synapse block containing: a plurality of synapses for performing weight calculation on input signals to obtain output signals, which are arranged in a planar array defined by a first and a second direction;", "input signal lines for transmitting the input signals to the synapses, arranged along the first direction;", "and output sigal lines for transmiting the output signal from the synapses, arranged along the second direction not identical to the first direction;", "at least one input neuron block containing a plurality of neurons to be connected with the input signal lines;", "and at least one output neuron block containing a plurality of neurons to be connected with the output signal lines.", "According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a multi-layer perceptron circuit device, comprising: at least one synapse block, containing: a plurality of unit synapse blocks which are arranged in a planar array defined by a first and a second direction;", "input lines for transmitting signals to the unit synapse blocks, arranged along the first direction;", "and output lines for transmiting signals from the unit synapse blocks, arranged along the second direction not identical to the first direction;", "each unit synapse block containing: a plurality of synapses for performing weight calculation on input signals to obtain output signals, which are arranged in a planar array defined by a first and a second directions;", "input signal lines for transmitting the input signals to the synapses, arranged along the first direction;", "and output signal lines for transmiting the output signals from the synapses, arranged along the second direction not identical to the first direction;", "at least one input neuron blocks containing a plurality of unit input neuron blocks, each of the unit input neuron blocks containing a plurality of neurons to be connected with the input signal lines of one of the unit synapse blocks;", "and at least one output neuron blocks containing a plurality of unit output neuron blocks, each of the unit output neurpon blocks containing a plurality of neurons to be connected with the output signal lines of one of the unit synapse blocks.", "Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic illustration of an example of a conventional multi-layer perceptron.", "FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic illustration of a general configuration of one embodiment of multi-layer perceptron circuit device according to the present invention.", "FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic illustration of one specific configuration of the multi-layer perceptron circuit device using the embodiment of FIG. 2. FIG. 4 is a diagrammatic illustration of a portion of the multi-layer perceptron circuit device configuration of FIG. 3. FIG. 5 is a diagrammatic illustration of another specific configuration of the multi-layer perceptron circuit device using the embodiment of FIG. 2. FIG. 6 is a detailed diagram for a representative portion of the multi-layer perceptron circuit device configuration of FIG. 5. FIG. 7 is a detailed diagram for a synapse in the multi-layer perceptron circuit device configuration of FIG. 5. FIG. 8 is a detailed diagram for a weight calculation unit in the synapse of FIG. 7. FIG. 9 is a detailed diagram for one possible configuration of a variable voltage source unit in the synapse of FIG. 7. FIG. 10 is a detailed diagram for another possible configuration of a variable voltage source unit in the synapse of FIG. 7. FIG. 11 is a detailed diagram for still another possible configuration of a variable voltage source unit in the synapse of FIG. 7. FIG. 12 is a detailed diagram for a current-voltage converter in the synapse of FIG. 7. FIG. 13 is a detailed diagram for a signal dissipation compensator means in the synapse of FIG. 7. FIG. 14 is a detailed diagram for a neeuron of an input neuron block in the multi-layer perceptron circuit device configuration of FIG. 5. FIG. 15 is a detailed diagram for a neeuron of an output neuron block in the multi-layer perceptron circuit device configuration of FIG. 5. FIG. 16 is a detailed diagram for a function converter in the neurons of FIGS. 14 and 15.", "FIG. 17 is a detailed diagram for a subtractor in the neuron of FIG. 15.", "FIG. 18 is a detailed diagram for one possible configuration of a differential function converter in the neurons of FIGS. 14 and 15.", "FIG. 19 is a graph showing sigmoid function and its complement to be inputted to the differential function converter of FIG. 18 as well as outputs of the differential function converter of FIG. 18.", "FIG. 20 is a detailed diagram for another possible configuration of a differential function converter in the neurons of FIGS. 14 and 15.", "FIG. 21 is a detailed diagram for still another possible configuration of a differential function converter in the neurons of FIGS. 14 and 15.", "FIG. 22 is a graph showing one possible monotonous nonlinear function to be inputted to the differential function converter in the neurons of FIGS. 14 and 15.", "FIG. 23 is a graph showing another possible monotonous nonlinear function to be inputted to the differential function converter in the neurons of FIGS. 14 and 15.", "FIG. 24 is a graph qualitatively showing curves for a term in an equation for determining the weights in the self-learning algorithm in two different cases.", "FIG. 25 is a detailed diagram for one possible modification of the function converter of FIG. 16.", "FIG. 26 is a detailed diagram for another possible modification of the function converter of FIG. 16.", "FIG. 27 is a detailed diagram for another possible modification of the function converter of FIG. 16.", "FIG. 28 is a detailed diagram for another possible modification of the function converter of FIG. 16.", "FIG. 29 is a detailed diagram for one possible configuration of a gain control circuit to be equipped to the differential function converter in the neurons of FIGS. 14 and 15.", "FIG. 30 is a graph qualitatively showing a curve for a bias voltage obtained by the gain control circuit configuration of FIG. 29.", "FIG. 31 is a detailed diagram for another possible configuration of a gain control circuit to be equipped to the differential function converter in the neurons of FIGS. 14 and 15.", "FIG. 32 is a graph qualitatively showing a curve for a bias voltage obtained by the gain control circuit configuration of FIG. 31.", "FIG. 33 is a diagrammatic illustration of still another specific configuration of the multi-layer perceptron circuit device using the embodiment of FIG. 2. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring now to FIG. 2, there is shown a general configuration of a synapse block and a neural block to be used in a multi-layer perceptron circuit device according to the present invention.", "As shown in FIG. 2, the synapse block 1 which carries out required weight calculations comprises a plurality of synapses 2 arranged in a regular array of n×m size (shown as 3×3 in FIG. 2 for convience).", "Here, the array is shown in a shape of square in FIG. 2, but the array can be in other shapes such as rectangle and parallelogram.", "These synapses 2 are interconnected by n input signal lines 3 arranged in one direction and m output signal lines 4 arranged in another direction perpendicular to the direction of the input signal lines 3, so that each of the synapses 2 takes in a signal from one of the input signal lines 3, performs the weight calculation on this signal with a prescribed weight, and then outputs the result of the weight calculation to one of the output signal lines 4.", "Also, adjacent to such a synapse block 1, there is a neuron block 5 which contains n neurons 6 (shown in a number of 3 in FIG. 2 for convenience) arranged along a direction parallel to the direction of the output signal lines 4, one for each of the input signal lines 3.", "These neurons 6 of the neuron block 5 converts externally given signals coming in to the neuron block 5 into input signals appropriate for the synapses 2, and output such input signals to the input signal lines 3.", "In the multi-layer perceptron circuit device according to the present invention, such a combination of the synapse block and the neuron block is a basic building unit, a plurality of which are to be connected together to form a entire device.", "One such a configuration formed by a plurality of the combination of the synapse block and the neuron block is shown in FIG. 3. In FIG. 3, the input neuron blocks 8 and 9 are for providing the input signals to the synapses in the synapse blocks 10 and 11, respectively, as indicated by signal flows represented by arrows.", "In other words, each of the input neuron blocks 8 and 9 functions with respect to each of the synapse blocks 10 and 11 as the neuron block 5 functions with respect to the synapse block 1 in FIG. 2. On the other hand, an output neuron block 12 is for receiving the output signal from a last synapse block, which is the synapse block 11 in FIG. 3, and outputting the final output signal of the entire multi-layer perceptron circuit device.", "Thus, as shown in FIG. 4, the output neuron block 12 comprises m neurons 13 (shown in a number of 3 in FIG. 4 for convenience) arranged along a direction parallel to the direction of the input signal lines 3 of the synapse block 11, one for each of the output signal lines 4 of the synapse block 11.", "These neurons 13 of the output neuron block 12 converts the output signals coming from the synapse block 11 into the final output signals of the entire multi-layer perceptron circuit in an appropriate form, and output such final output signals to the input signal lines 3.", "In general, in a case such as that in which the multi-layer perceptron circuit device is equipped with a self-learning function, the neurons 6 of the input neuron blocks 8 and 9 and the neuron 13 of the output neuron block 12 have different structures, so that they should not be confused with one another.", "It is to be noted that a configuration shown in FIG. 3 incorporates two steps of synapse blocks, appearing to be arranged linearly along one direction, but this arrangement is only for the sake of clarity.", "In fact, the major advantages of the multi-layer perceptron circuit device according to the present invention is that the number of steps of the synapse blocks can be increased arbitrarily, and that they can be arranged in a convenient fashion very easily.", "This is demonstrated in another configuration shown in FIG. 5, in which the multi-layer perceptron circuit device 14 incorporates four steps of the synapse blocks 20, 21, 22, and 23, connected by the input neuron blocks 15, 16, 17, and 18, and equipped with the output neuron block 19, which are arranged in an overall square shape.", "A detail of representative elements of this multi-layer perceptron circuit device 14, namely, the input and output neuron blocks 18 and 19 and the synapse block 23, will now be described.", "This multi-layer perception circuit device 14 is a type equipped with the self-learning function which is realized by utilizing the Backward Error Propagation algorithm mentioned in the Description of the Background Art above, in which error signals are propagated in a direction opposite to that of the propagation of weight calculated signals, i.e., from the output neuron block 19 to the synapse block 23, and then to the input neuron block 18, in order to update the weights of each synapse in the synapse block 23.", "Thus, as shown in FIG. 6, for the synapse block 23 comprising 3×3 synapses 28, the input neuron block 18 for inputting the input signals to the synapse block 23 comprises three neurons 25, and the output neuron block 19 for outputting the output signals from the synapse block 23 and inputting error signals to the synapse block 19 also comprises three neurons 27.", "To transmit these input, output and error signals, the synapse block 23 is equipped with input signal lines 26 along the horizontal direction, output signal signals 24 along the vertical direction, error signal input lines 29 parallel to the output signal lines 24, and the error signal output lines 30 parallel to the input signal lines 26.", "Each synapse 28 in detail has a configuration shown in FIG. 7. As shown, the synapse 28 comprises a weight calculation unit 31 and two multipliers 32 and 33.", "The weight calculation unit 31 takes the input signals from the input signal lines 26 as well as a differential pair signals 101 from one of the multipliers 33, and gives the result of the weight calculation to the output signal lines 24 as well as to another one of the multipliers 32.", "The multiplier 32 takes the signals from the weight calculation unit 31 as well as the error signals from the error signal input lines 29, and gives the result of multiplication to the error signal output lines 30.", "The multiplier 33 takes input signals from the input signal lines 26 as well as the error signals from the error signal input lines 29, and gives the result of multiplication to the weight calculation unit 31.", "The multipliers 32 and 33 can be any known type of multiplier.", "A detail of the weight calculation unit 31 is shown in FIG. 8. As shown, the weight calculation unit 31 has a Gilbert multiplier configuration multiplying the input signals from the input signal lines 26 by some multiplication factor corresponding to the weight and outputting the result to the output signal lines 24.", "The multiplication factor is determined for this Gilbert multiplier configuration by output voltages 121 and 122 of the variable voltage source unit 34 which in turn is controlled by an externally supplied control signal φ and the differential pair signals 101 from the multiplier 33.", "This variable voltage source unit 34 in detail has a configuration shown in FIG. 9. Namely, the variable voltage source unit 34 comprises one MOS switch circuit 36 which receives the control signal φ and one component 101a of the differential pair signals 101 at its gate and its drain, respectively, a static capacitor 35, and a resistor 37 connected between the source of the MOS switch circuit 36 and the static capacitor 35, which together produce one of the output voltage 121, as well as another MOS switch circuit 40 which receives the control signal φ and another component 101b of the differential pair signals 101 at its gate and its drain, respectively, a static capacitor 38, and a resistor 39 connected between the source of the MOS switch circuit 40 and the static capacitor 38, which together produce one of the output voltage 122.", "In this configuration, the static capacitors 35 and 38 may be replaced by A/D converters, or combinations of A/D converters with latch circuits, or strongly inductive static capacitors.", "In the latter case, in particular, the prolonged storing is possible as polarization can be utilized for storing.", "It is also possible to make the variable voltage source unit 34 by using EEPROM which can be electrically updated, so as to achieve the prolonged storing of the weights, which can increase a reliability of the multilayer perceptron circuit device 14.", "It is also possible to replace CR circuits in the above configuration by integration circuits which actually integrates the values, so that the error signal in the last neuron block can eventually set to zero.", "Alternatively, the variable voltage source unit 34 may have a configuration shown in FIG. 10, which utilizes four switches 82, 83, 84, and 85, controlled by the control signal φ and its complement φ, and four static capacitors 84, 85, 86, and 87.", "In this configuration, the switches 80 and 81 are closed and the switches 82 and 83 are opened when the control signal φ is at high level so that the static capacitors 84 and 85 accumulate charges proportional to the components 101a and 101b, respectively, whereas when the control signal φ is at low level, i.e., when the complement φ is at high level, the switches 80 and 81 are opened and the switches 82 and 83 are closed so that the charges stored in the static capacitors 84 and 85 are given to the static capacitors 86 and 87.", "Here, for the static capacitors 84, 85, 86, and 87 of the capacitances C1, C2, C3, and C4, the speed of charge accumulation and release by these capacitors can be adjusted appropriately setting ratios C3/C1 and C4/C2.", "Namely, amounts of charges that transfer from the capacitors 84, 85 to the capacitors 86, 87 are proportional to C3/(C1+C3) and C4/(C2+C4), respectively, so that by making the ratios C3/C1 and C4/C2 larger the speed of charge accumulation can be increased.", "On the other hand, when the components 101a and 101b are equal and the complement φ was at high level so that the capacitors 84 and 86, 85 and 87 are connected, and then the control signal turns to the high level, the charges stored in the capacitors 84 and 85 are released through the lines for components 101a and 101b, the speed of which is faster when the ratios C1/C3 and C2/C4 are greater.", "Thus, by appropriately setting the ratios C1/C3 and C2/C4, the speed of charge accumulation and release can suitably be adjusted.", "A still another configuration for the variable voltage source unit 34 is shown in FIG. 11.", "This configuration comprises capacitors 201a and 203a that can receive the components 101a and 101b through switches 200a and 202a, respectively, capacitors 201b and 203b that can be connected with the capacitors 201a and 203a through switches 200b and 202b, respectively, and an integrator circuit formed by a capacitor 201c and an operational amplifier 204 which can be connected with the capacitor 201b through a switch 200c and which produces an output voltage 121, and another integrator circuit formed by a capacitor 203c and an operational amplifier 205 which can be connected with the capacitor 203b through a switch 202c and which produces an output voltage 122.", "In this configuration, instead of the control signal φ in the previous configurations, there is provided a first control signal φ1 for controlling the switches 200a and 202a, a second control signal φ2 for controlling the switches 200b and 202b, and a third control signal φ3 for controlling the switches 200c and 202c.", "Initially, all the switches are open.", "Then, the switches 200a and 202a are closed so that the components 101a and 101b are stored in the capacitors 201a and 203a, and then the switches 200a and 202a are opened again, by the first control signal φ1.", "Next, the switches 200b and 202b are closed by the second control signal φ2 so that new update weights can be obtained by adding the charges in the capacitors 201a and 203a to the capacitors 201b and 203b which hold the previously used update weights.", "This step is included in order to give inertia to the process of updating.", "Then, the switches 200b and 202b are opened by the second control signal φ2 and the switches 200c and 202c are closed by the third control signal φ3 so that all the charges in the capacitors 201b and 203b can be transferred to the capacitors 201c and 203c by means of the integrator circuit formed by the capacitor 201c and the operational amplifier 204 and the integrator circuit formed by the capacitor 203c and the operational amplifier 205.", "Next, the switche 200c and 202c are opened again by the third control signal φ3 and the switches 200b and 202b are closed again by the second control signal φ2 so that the charges in the capacitors 201a and 203a are given to the capacitors 201b and 203b, and then the switches 200b and 202b are closed again by the second control signal φ2 so that the capacitors 201b and 203b can store the lastest update weights.", "The advantage of this configuration of FIG. 11 is that with this configuration, the fluctuation of the weights between positive values and negative values can be avoided.", "Also, though not shown explicitly in FIGS. 6 and 7 above, each of the output signal lines 24 and the error signal output lines 30 is equipped with a current-voltage converter 41 shown in FIG. 12 for one of the output signal lines 24.", "As shown, the current-voltage converter 41 comprises a resister with one end connected to a constant voltage source V DD and another end connected to one of the output signal lines 24, which converts a total of the currents coming into one of the output signal lines 24 from the synapses 28 represented as current sources in FIG. 12 into a corresponding voltage on that output signal line 24.", "Similarly, though not shown explicitly in FIGS. 6 and 7 above again, each of the input signal lines 26 and the error signal input lines 29 is equipped with a signal dissipation compensator means 55 shown in FIG. 13 for one of the input signal lines 26.", "As shown, the signal dissipation compensator means 55 comprises an amplifier configuration which amplifies the input signals on that input signal line 26.", "Each neuron 25 of the input neuron block 18 in detail has a configuration shown in FIG. 14.", "As shown, the neuron 25 comprises a function converter unit 42 which performs the conversion by a logistic function on incoming signals 102 to obtain outgoing signal 103 to be given to the input signal lines 26 of the synapses 28, a differential function converter unit 43 also receiving the incoming signal 102 which actually realizes the self-learning function of the multi-layer perceptron circuit device 14, and a multiplier 45 for receiving the output of the differential function converter unit 43 as well as incoming error signal 111 from the error signal output lines 30 of one synapse 28 and outputting the result as an outgoing error signal 112 to be given to the error signal output line 30 of another synapse 28.", "On the other hand, each neuron 27 of the output neuron block 19 in detail has a configuration shown in FIG. 15.", "As shown, the neuron 27 also comprises the same function converter unit 42 which performs the conversion by a logistic function on incoming signals 102 from the output signal lines 24 of the synapses 28 to obtain an output 105, the same differential function converter unit 43 also receiving the incoming signal 102 which actually realizes the self-learning function of the multi-layer perceptron circuit device 14, and the same multiplier 45.", "In addition, the neuron 27 also comprises a subtractor 46 which receives an externally supplied teacher signal T as well as the output 105 of the function converter unit 42 and gives the result of subtraction to the multiplier 45, so that the multiplier 45 receives the output of the differential function converter unit 43 and the output of the subtractor 46 and outputs the result as an outgoing error signal 112 to be given to the error signal input line 29 of the synapse 28.", "The function converter unit 42 in these neurons 25 and 27 in detail has a configuration of a differential amplifier, as shown in FIG. 16.", "The multiplier 45 in these neurons 25 and 27 can be any known type of multiplier such as that using the Gilbert multiplier and the current mirror circuit.", "Also, as shown in FIG. 17, the subtractor 46 of the neuron 27 in detail has a configuration of a pair of coupled switches 50, 51, and 52, 53, which are controlled by the control signal φ mentioned above and its complement φ, in order to perform subtraction of the teacher signal T and one component 105a of the output 105 of the function converter unit 42.", "The differential function converter unit 43 of these neurons 25 and 27 has the following detail configuration.", "FIG. 18 schematically shows one possible configuration for the differential function converter unit 43 which comprises two MOSFETs Q1 and Q2 which have their drains connected to a high voltage terminal H, and their sources connected to a first output terminal P1, and another MOSFET Q3 which functions as a load by utilizing the drain current-voltage characteristic of FET, whose drain is also connected to the first output terminal P1, and whose source is connected to a low voltage terminal L. The gates of the MOSFETs Q1 and Q2 are respectively fed with a function signal signal S1 and its complimentary signal S2, such as those shown in FIG. 19 for a sigmoid function and its complement, whereas the MOSFET Q3 is fed with a bias voltage S3 which determines the load characteristic of the MOSFET Q3.", "In addition, there is a reference voltage generator 150 for providing a reference voltage with respect to a combination of the MOSFETs Q1, Q2, and Q3, which is connected between the high voltage terminal H and the low voltage terminal L and from which a second output terminal P2 stems.", "In such a configuration, if the sigmoid function is set to be at a higher value at the beginning as shown in FIG. 19, then there is a saturated current at the source of the MOSFET Q1, while there is almost no current at the source of the MOSFET Q2, since the MOSFET Q3 tends to keep a sum of the source currents of the MOSFETs Q1 and Q2 constant, so that only the source current of the MOSFET Q1 is given to the MOSFET Q3 and the output of the first output terminal P1 maintains a constant level determined by this saturated source current of the MOSFET Q1.", "Then, as shown in FIG. 19, as the value of the sigmoid function S1 begins to decrease from the higher value, the source currents of both MOSFETs Q1 and Q2 begins to be given to the MOSFET Q3, but the load current of the MOSFET Q3 actually decreases so that the output of the first output terminal P1 also decreases.", "When the value of the sigmoid function S1 further decreases, there appears a saturated current at the source of the MOSFET Q2, while there is almost no current at the source of the MOSFET Q1, and the output of the first output terminal resumes the initial constant value, as shown in FIG. 19.", "As can be seen from FIG. 19, the output of the first output terminal P1 becomes lowest when the values of the sigmoid function S1 and its compliment S2 are equal.", "The curve thus obtained varies slightly depending on the types of transistors and load to be used, but substantially approximates the derivative of the sigmoid function, which will be utilized with appropriate coefficients.", "Now, as shown in FIG. 19, the output of the first output terminal P1 is DC biased by a constant voltage V, so that when the referential voltage generator 150 is made to produce this voltage V which is utilized to offset the DC bias of the first output terminal P1, an approximate differential output, which has a zero value when the sigmoid function is substantially flat, can be obtained.", "Alternatively, a configuration shown in FIG. 20 may be employed, in which the MOSFETs Q1, Q2, and Q3 in FIG. 18 are replaced by bipolar transistors Q4, Q5, and Q6, respectively.", "It should be obvious that the use of different type of transistor elements does not affect the operation of the differential function converter unit 43.", "Actually, the configuration of FIG. 20 which uses bipolar transistors produces somewhat different curves than the configuration of FIG. 18 which uses MOSFETs, so that an appropriate one of these configurations should be selected.", "Similarly, the transistor Q3 and Q6 used as loads in FIGS. 18 and 20 may be replaced by resisters without affecting the operation of the differential function converter unit 43.", "FIG. 21 shows still another possible configuration for the differential function converter unit 43, which also incorporates a differential amplifier for generating the sigmoid function S1 and a level shift circuit for this differential amplifier.", "Namely, a block A in FIG. 21 is a differential amplifier which uses bipolar transistors Q7 and Q8 for differential amplification, and a FET Q9 for loading.", "The base of the transistor Q8 is fed with a constant voltage obtained by two resisters R3 and R4 dividing the voltage between the high voltage terminal H and the low voltage terminal L, whereas the base of the transistor Q7 is fed with an input signal whose level is linearly changed such that the sigmoid function and its complement can be obtained at the resisters R1 and R2 connected between the high voltage terminal H and connectors of the transistors Q7 and Q8, respectively.", "A block B in FIG. 21 is a level shift circuit made by a pair of source follower circuits comprising FETs Q11, Q12 for the transistor Q8, and FETs Q13, Q14 for the transistor Q7, which feeds the level shifted sigmoid function and its complement to the FETs Q1 and Q2.", "A block C in FIG. 21 is differential functional converter unit 43 itself incorporation the same FETs Q1, Q2, and Q3 as in FIG. 18.", "Furthermore, in FIG. 21, the reference voltage generator 150 is actually constructed by FETs Q15, Q16, and Q17 which are substantially equivalent and similarly connected with each other as the FETs Q1, Q2, and Q3, in which the gate of the FET Q15 is fed with a voltage produced by the resisters R5 and R6 connected between the high voltage terminal H and the low voltage terminal L that can make the source current of the FET Q15 saturate, while the gate of the FET Q16 is fed with a voltage produced by the resisters R7 and R8 also connected between the high voltage terminal H and the low voltage terminal L that can make the source current of the FET Q16 almost null.", "The second output terminal P2 is formed by connecting the sources of the FETs Q15 and Q16.", "All of the FETs Q9, Q12, Q14, and Q17 are supplied with the bias voltage S3 applied to the FET Q3.", "In this configuration of FIG. 21, the base of the transistor Q8 may be directly connected to the collector of the transistor Q7, in which case the resisters R3 and R4 can be removed, so that the circuit simplifies.", "Also, the voltages applied to the gates of the FETs Q15 and Q16 may be produced by level shift circuits using transistors instead of resisters.", "Moreover, it is also possible to omit the FET Q16 and connect FETs Q15 and Q17 directly, with the FET Q15 saturated, without affecting the operation as the reference voltage generator.", "It is to be noted that all the signals in the synapses 28 and the neurons 25 and 27 has been in a form of differential pair signals, so that the undesirable effect due to the common phase noises caused by the fluctuation of the voltage from the voltage source can be eliminated.", "Now, the operation of this multi-layer perceptron circuit device 14 will be explained.", "First, when the input signals are given to the weight calculation unit 31 of the synapse 28 from the input signal line 26, the weight calculation of multiplying the input signals by the multiplication factor of the synapse 28 is performed.", "Here, the multiplication factor of the synapse 28 represents the memory content of the synapse 28.", "As mentioned above, this multiplication factor of the synapse 28 is controlled by the variable voltage source unit 34 in the weight calculation unit 31.", "Namely, the multiplier 33 calculates the differential pair signals 101 from the input signal from the input signals line 26 and the error signal from the error signal input line 29, and the variable voltage source unit 34 produces the output voltage 121 by changing the charge accumulated in the static capacitor 35 by means of the one component 101a of the differential pair signals 101, which is controlled by the MOS switch circuit 36 using the control signal φ.", "Likewise, the variable voltage source unit 34 also produces the output voltage 122 by changing the charge accumulated in the static capacitor 38 by means of the another component 101b of the differential pair signals 101, which is controlled by the MOS switch circuit 40 using the same control signal φ.", "The control signal φ is a pulsed signal with a constant pulse width, such that when this control signal φ is at a high level the components 101a and 101b of the differential pair signals 101 is applied to the static capacitors 35 and 38, respectively.", "The output voltages 121 and 122 of the variable voltage source unit 34 are then given to the Gilbert multiplier configuration in the weight calculation unit 31 such that the change in the difference between the potential levels of the two static capacitors 35 and 38 provides the change in the multiplication factor for the Gilbert multiplier configuration.", "By this part of the operation the calculation is performed for the second term on right hand side of the aforementioned expression for the Backward Error Propagation algorithm: R.sub.", "ij (t+Δt)=αR.", "sub.", "ij (t)+ηε.", "sub.", "j f(y.", "sub.", "i (t)) (3) where f is a mapping from an input signal y i (t) to an output signal, R i j represents either RS i j or RA i j, α is called a forgetting factor for which a value 1 corresponds to a case with no forgetting and a value less than 1 corresponds to a case with forgetting with a smaller value indicating faster forgetting, η is called a relaxation factor which determines relaxation in the transition according to the above eq.", "(3) of the weights to the final values, and ε j is a signal containing error information which will be given by: ε.", "sub.", "j =(T.", "sub.", "j -f(y.", "sub.", "j (t)))f'(y.", "sub.", "j (t)) (4) for a case in which the neuron is located in the output layer, and where T j is a teacher signal and a prime indicates a differential, and: ##EQU3## for a case in which the neuron is not located in the output layer.", "As will be explained further below, this updating of the weight of the synapse 28 is performed in such a manner that the absolute value of the error signal is decreased, by means of the subtractor 46 of the neuron 27 of the output neuron block 19.", "The result of the weight calculation by the weight calculation unit 31 is subsequently given to the output signal line 24, and the total of the signals given to the output signal line 24 in turn is converted into a corresponding voltage by means of the current-voltage converter 41.", "The resulting output signal is then transmitted through the output signal line 24 to the neighboring neuron block, which may be any one of the input neuron blocks 16, 17, 18, or the output neuron block 19.", "Next, in each neuron, whether it is one in the input neuron blocks 16, 17, 18, or that in the output neuron block 19, the conversion by the logistic function which has a monotonous and nonlinear characteristic is performed on the incoming signals 102 at the function converter unit 42.", "As mentioned above, the function converter unit 42 achieves this by using the differential amplifier configuration.", "Here, the monotonous and nonlinear function conversion can in principle be done by other configurations, but the use of the differential amplifier configuration facilitates an easy realization of a saturation characteristic which is one of the distinctive feature of the neuron operation.", "In a case of the neuron 27 of the output neuron block 19, there is also the subtractor 46 which produces the error signal as a pulse signal representing the error in terms of a difference between the output 105 of the function converter unit 42 and the teacher signal T. This error signal has a pulse height proportional to the difference between the output 105 of the function converter unit 42 and the teacher signal T, which is obtained by closing the coupled switches 50, 51 and opening the coupled switches 52, 53 when the control signal φ is at the high level, and opening the coupled switches 50, 51 and closing the coupled switches 52, 53 when the control signal φ is at the low level.", "This manner of representing the error by the pulse height makes it possible to eliminate the common mode noises due to the fluctuation of the voltage source.", "The error signal thus obtained corresponds to the first term of the eq.", "(4) above.", "The multiplier 45 of the neuron 25 or 27 takes this error signal from the subtractor 46 or from adjacent synapse block, and the output of the differential function converter unit 43 which represents the result of the conversion by the derivative of the logistic function used by the function converter unit 42, and multiply them together to obtain its output corresponding to the expression of eq.", "(4) above which is subsequently given to the next synapse block as the error signal.", "Then, the error signal transmitted through the error signal input line 29 to the synapse block is utilized in updating the weights of the synapses.", "Namely, the error signal from the error signal input line 29 is given to the multiplier 32 at which it is multiplied by the weight of the synapse at that time, and then given to the error signal output line 30.", "At the error signal output line 30, the total of the error signal is converted into a corresponding voltage by the current-voltage converter 41, which corresponds to the factor involving Σ in eq.", "(5) above.", "This voltage from the error signal output line 30 is then given to the multiplier 45 of the next neuron which also receives the output of the differential function converter unit 43 of that neuron which represents the result of the conversion by the derivative of the logistic function used by the function converter unit 42 of that neuron, and multiply them and multiplies them together to obtain the error signal according to the eq.", "(5) above.", "The obtained error signal is then transmitted to the next synapse and the process continues on.", "In this embodiment, one of the advantage is the fact that as the synapses and neurons are arranged in highly ordered manner, the wirings among these elements can be simplified.", "Namely, without the orderly arrangement of this embodiment it is likely that the wirings becomes multiple layered, whereas in this embodiment the wirings are at most double layered, regardless of the size of the multi-layer perceptron circuit device.", "Moreover, the configuration of this embodiment facilitates an easy extension of the multi-layer perceptron circuit device.", "That is, by arranging the synapse blocks and neuron blocks in spiral shape or in zigzag shape an arbitrary large multi-layer perceptron circuit device can be constructed.", "There are several variations possible in this embodiment.", "First of all, the differential function converter 43 and the multiplier 45 in the neurons of the input neuron blocks may be omitted.", "Furthermore, it is preferable to operate the function converter 42 and the differential function converter 43 in a following manner.", "Namely, the monotonous and nonlinear function to be utilized in the self-learning process in the above embodiment in general has a form: ##EQU4## where x and θ are independent variables, which is depicted in FIG. 22.", "As indicated in FIG. 22, different values of θ result in different curves, which includes an extreme limit of a form: ##EQU5## which can be regarded as f(x) of eq.", "(6) at a limit θ→0.", "Now, in the process of self-learning using such a function, the time required for the convergence of the process depends on the initial condition very sensitively, but is usually unknown when the process begins.", "As a result, a very slow learning often occurs.", "To see this situation more clearly, FIG. 24 shows a term f(x)·f'(x) for two different values of θ qualitatively.", "As can be seen from FIG. 24, the curve for this term becomes broadened as θ increases.", "Now, suppose a point marked as L is where the self-learning process started.", "Then, in a case of θ small, the term f(x)·f'(x) is nearly zero so that the second term on the right hand side of the eq.", "(3) above is also nearly zero which implies that R i j is hardly changed.", "Thus, if the self-learning process starts with the initial conditions for which the term f(x)·f'(x) is nearly zero, the self-learning process progresses very slowly, or in other words, the convergence of process is delayed.", "On the other hand, in a case of a large θ, the term f(x)·f'(x) has a non-zero value at the point L so that the self-learning process can make a significant progress from the start.", "However, the value of R i j that can eventually be attained by the small θ case is not attainable by the large θ case, as the peak value of the curve for the term f(x)·f'(x) is less in the large θ case than in the small θ case.", "This analysis suggests a possible solution of starting the self-learning process with a large θ and gradually decreasing θ as the process progresses, so that the weights can be updated to the desired values without the delay of convergence of the process.", "This can be implemented in the above embodiment by making the following modifications.", "First, a differential amplifier configuration of the function converter 42 shown in FIG. 16 should be replaced by a so called gain cell configuration shown in FIG. 25 which includes a variable current source I 1 connected with the input side transistors through resisters R E in addition to a constant current source I 2 connected with the output side transistors, where the variable current source I 1 is controlled by the same bias voltage S3 that controls the differential function converter 43.", "For such a gain cell configuration, there is a relationship among the gain of the configuration, resistance of the output side load resisters R L , resistance of the input side load resisters R E , current of the variable current source I 1 , and current of the constant current source I 2 of a form: ##EQU6## and it is known to be possible with such a gain cell configuration to control the gain by adjusting the variable current source I 1 without affecting the amplitude of the output.", "The gain cell configuration appropriate for the function converter 42 may also be realized differently from FIG. 25, such as those shown in FIGS. 26 to 28.", "In a configuration of FIG. 26, the variable current source I 1 is provided by a transistor coupled with a grounded resister, whereas in a configuration of FIG. 27, the order of diode and transistor-resister combination on the input side is reversed, and in a configuration of FIG. 28 the MOSFETs are used.", "In addition, it is necessary to incorporate a gain control circuit for each function converter 42 and differential function converter 43 in the above embodiment.", "More specifically, the differential function converter 43 can be equipped with an RC circuit configuration shown in FIG. 29 which comprises two resisters R init and R dest connected to voltage sources V init and V dest , respectively, either one of which can be connected with a capacitor C through a switch Sw, an output of which is to be supplied as the bias voltage S3.", "The values of R init , V init , R dest , V dest , and C are set to be such that when the R init and V init are connected with C at the beginning of the self-learning process, θ starts off at a value larger than a desired value, and then when the R dest and V dest are connected with C as the process progresses, θ approaches the desired value.", "In this configuration of FIG. 29, θ can be changed exponentially during the self-learning process, as shown in FIG. 30.", "Alternatively, the function converter 42 and the differential function converter 43 can be equipped with a digital circuit shown in FIG. 31 which comprises a down counter 300 which down counts from a number corresponding to initial value for θ to another number corresponding to final desired value for θ, and a function converter which converts the counted number given by the down counter 300 by a prescribed non-decreasing function to a corresponding bias voltage S3.", "In this configuration of FIG. 30, θ can be changed linearly during the self-learning process, as shown in FIG. 32.", "Moreover, an entire configuration shown in FIG. 5 may be changed as follows.", "FIG. 33 shows a multi-layer perceptron circuit device 59 which comprises a synapse blocks 60 containing n×m (3×3 in FIG. 33 for clarity) unit synapse blocks 61 each of which is substantially equivalent to the synapse block 23 in the above embodiment, an input neuron block 62 containing n (3 in FIG. 33) unit neuron blocks 63 each of which is substantially equivalent to the input neuron block 18 in the above embodiment, and an output neuron block 64 containing m (3 in FIG. 33) unit neuron blocks 65 each of which is substantially equivalent to the output neuron block 19 in the above embodiment, all of which are arranged on a wafer.", "This configuration is arranged in analogy with FIG. 6, with the synapses and neurons in the configuration of FIG. 6 being replaced by unit synapse blocks and unit neuron blocks, respectively.", "Also, there are input signal lines 70 and output signal lines 71 joining the unit synapse blocks 61.", "By constructing the multi-layer perceptron circuit device in such an integrated manner, the limitation on size of the multi-layer perceptron circuit device due to a limit on a possible number of elements that can be integrated together in one circuit can be eliminated.", "It is to be noted that in this configuration of FIG. 33, each of the synapse blocks 61 is equipped with the current-voltage converter means similar to the current-voltage converter 41 in the above embodiment, so that the input signal lines 70 and the output signal lines 71 do not need to be equipped by such current-voltage converter means.", "Thus, when the configuration of FIG. 33 is to be further extended, those shown in FIG. 33 need not be altered at all.", "Similar remarks also applies with respect to the signal dissipation compensator means 55 of the above embodiment.", "It is to be noted that in this configuration of FIG. 33, the neuron blocks 62 and 64 may be divided into a number of separate blocks.", "In such a case, the synapse block 61 need not be arranged on a single wafer.", "It should also be obvious that the geometrical shape of these embodiments described so far can be altered as desired, without departing from the present invention.", "Besides these, many modifications and variations of the above embodiments may be made without departing from the novel and advantageous features of the present invention.", "Accordingly, all such modifications and variations are intended to be included within the scope of the appended claims." ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application claims benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser.", "No. 61/591,238, filed Jan. 26, 2012, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.", "GOVERNMENTAL INTEREST [0002] This invention was made with government support under the National Science Foundation Grant No. EEC 0552351, NIH Grant No. RD43HD058376-01 and VA Center of Excellence Grant No. B6789C.", "The government has certain rights in this invention.", "BACKGROUND [0003] The following information is provided to assist the reader in understanding technologies disclosed below and the environment in which such technologies may typically be used.", "The terms used herein are not intended to be limited to any particular narrow interpretation unless clearly stated otherwise in this document.", "References set forth herein may facilitate understanding of the technologies or the background thereof.", "The disclosure of all references cited herein are incorporated by reference.", "[0004] Personal Mobility Devices (PMDs) such as electronic power wheelchairs (EPW) as illustrated in FIG. 1A , scooters as illustrated in FIG. 1B and manual wheelchairs as illustrated in FIG. 1C are very beneficial to the people with mobility impairments.", "As used herein, the term “personal mobility device”", "or PMD refers to mobile devices to transport a person, thereby increasing the mobility of the person.", "However, those benefits come with some risks.", "One such risk lies in the stability of the PMD.", "A review of the US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) Manufacturer and User Facility Device Experience (MAUDE) database shows that one of the most frequent adverse events connected to these devices is their inclination to tip;", "causing the user to be thrown from the device and injured, sometimes severely.", "In a study done between 1975 and 1993, 25.7% of the wheelchair safety incidents reported to the FDA were from a tip and/or fall.", "R. Lee Kirby, S. A.-S.", "Wheelchair Safety-Adverse Reports to the Food and Drug Administration, American Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 308-312 (1995).", "[0005] To help prevent these injuries the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the FDA and the Centers for Medicare &", "Medicaid Services (CMS) require that PMDs are tested for stability issues and that the results then be published in the user manual.", "Testing the PMDs and reporting the results do not necessarily mean that they are stable.", "However, the VA has become more proactive about requiring that PMDs be more stable.", "They have indicated in their requests for low cost EPW's that they are dynamically stable on a 6° slope.", "[0006] It is a good idea to change the design of the PMDs to make them more stable;", "however any design change may affect the performance of the device as well.", "Slowing the speed of the device reduces mobility and independence.", "Making a wider frame can limit access to narrow places.", "Stiff suspension reduces user comfort.", "Passive anti-tip devices limit some safe maneuvers and can be ineffective if not properly adjusted to the user's specifications.", "SUMMARY [0007] In one aspect, a system for use with a mobile device includes at least one sensor to sense a variable related to tilting of the mobile device and at least one activatable system in operative connection with the sensor.", "The at least one activatable system increases stability of the mobile device upon actuation/change in state thereof on the basis of data measured by the at least one sensor.", "A variable related to tilting includes variables that indicate concurrent, actual tilting as described herein as well as variables predictive of imminent tilting.", "Activatable systems hereof change state upon actuation or activation to increase stability of the mobile device by reducing, eliminating or preventing tilting.", "The system may further include a control system in operative connection with the at least one sensor and in cooperative connection with the at least one activatable system to control whether the at least one activatable system is activated on the basis of data measure by the at least one sensor.", "[0008] The at least one activatable system may, for example, include at least one activatable damper system or at least one activatable brake system.", "In a number of embodiments, the at least one activatable system is in operative connection with a suspension system of the mobile device.", "In a number of embodiments, the at least one activatable system is in operative connection with at least one abutment member adapted to contact a surface upon which the mobile device is supported to increase or enhance stability or prevent instability.", "[0009] In a number of embodiments, the mobile device is a personal mobility device.", "The personal mobility device may, for example, be an electrically powered wheelchair or an electrically powered scooter.", "[0010] Activatable systems in operative connection with at least one abutment member adapted to contact a surface upon which the mobile device is supported to increase or enhance stability or prevent instability may, for example, be used in connection with manually powered wheelchair or powered wheelchairs.", "In a number of embodiments, the abutment member includes a wheel that moves up and down before activation of the activatable system, but requires more force to move upon or down or is prevented from moving up or down upon activation of the activatable system.", "The wheel may, for example be biased to remain in contact with a surface upon which the mobile is traveling when the activatable system in not activated.", "[0011] In a number of embodiments, the mobile devices (or suspension systems thereof in some embodiment) may operate independently of the activatable systems.", "The activatable systems hereof need not be formed integrally with systems upon manufacture thereof and are, for example, readily adapted to be attached to an existing mobile device.", "[0012] In another aspect, a method of operating a mobile device includes providing at least one sensor to sense a variable related to tilting of the mobile device in operative connection with the mobile device, providing at least one activatable system in operative connection with the sensor, and activating the at least one activatable system to increase stability of the mobile device on the basis of data measured by the at least one sensor.", "The method may further include providing a control system in operative connection with the at least one sensor and in cooperative connection with the at least one activatable system to control whether the at least one activatable system is activated on the basis of data measured by the at least one sensor.", "As described above, the at least one activatable system may, for example, include at least one activatable damper system or at least one activatable brake system.", "[0013] In another aspect, a mobile system includes an anti-tip system including at least one sensor to sense a variable related to tilting of the mobile system, and at least one activatable system in operative connection with the sensor.", "The at least one activatable system increases stability of the mobile system on the basis of data measured by the at least one sensor.", "[0014] The present devices, systems, and methods, along with the attributes and attendant advantages thereof, will best be appreciated and understood in view of the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0015] FIG. 1A illustrates a typical embodiment of a scooter.", "[0016] FIG. 1B illustrates a typical embodiment of an electrically powered wheelchair.", "[0017] FIG. 1C illustrates a typical embodiment of a manually powered wheelchair.", "[0018] FIG. 2A illustrates a side view of a prototype wheelchair used in studies hereof.", "[0019] FIG. 2B illustrates an enlarged or close-up view of a portion of the wheelchair frame and suspension of the wheelchair of FIG. 1A .", "[0020] FIG. 2C illustrates a front view of another embodiment of a wheelchair and an activatable system hereof for use in connection with the wheelchair.", "[0021] FIG. 2D illustrates another front view of the wheelchair of FIG. 2C with the activatable system hereof in operative connection with each castor wheel thereof.", "[0022] FIG. 3A illustrates a cross-sectional view of an embodiment of a linear brake system hereof.", "[0023] FIG. 3B illustrates a perspective view of the linear brake system of FIG. 3A .", "[0024] FIG. 4 illustrates a perspective view of an embodiment of a sensor support hereof via which a sensor can be attached to a mobile device at a desire initial or starting angle or orientation.", "[0025] FIG. 5A illustrates an embodiment of a control system for use with the activatable systems and sensors hereof.", "[0026] FIG. 5B illustrates a generalize schematic view of a system hereof including a sensor, a control system and an activatable system.", "[0027] FIG. 6A illustrates a rear perspective view of a manual wheelchair including embodiments of activatable systems hereof to increase stability (reduce the likelihood of tipping or excessive tilting) wherein the activatable systems are in a non-activated state.", "[0028] FIG. 6B illustrates another rear perspective view of the manual wheelchair of FIG. 6A wherein the activatable systems are in an activated state.", "[0029] FIG. 6C illustrates a rear perspective view of a manual wheelchair including embodiments of activatable systems hereof to increase stability wherein the activatable systems are in a non-activated state.", "[0030] FIG. 6D illustrates another rear perspective view of the manual wheelchair of FIG. 6C wherein the activatable systems are in an activated state.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0031] It will be readily understood that the components of the embodiments, as generally described and illustrated in the figures herein, may be arranged and designed in a wide variety of different configurations in addition to the described example embodiments.", "Thus, the following more detailed description of the example embodiments, as represented in the figures, is not intended to limit the scope of the embodiments, as claimed, but is merely representative of example embodiments.", "[0032] Reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment”", "or “an embodiment”", "(or the like) means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment.", "Thus, the appearance of the phrases “in one embodiment”", "or “in an embodiment”", "or the like in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment.", "[0033] Furthermore, described features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments.", "In the following description, numerous specific details are provided to give a thorough understanding of embodiments.", "One skilled in the relevant art will recognize, however, that the various embodiments can be practiced without one or more of the specific details, or with other methods, components, materials, et cetera.", "In other instances, well known structures, materials, or operations are not shown or described in detail to avoid obfuscation.", "[0034] As used herein and in the appended claims, the singular forms “a,” “an”, and “the”", "include plural references unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.", "Thus, for example, reference to “a sensor”", "includes a plurality of such sensors and equivalents thereof known to those skilled in the art, and so forth, and reference to “the sensor”", "is a reference to one or more such sensors and equivalents thereof known to those skilled in the art, and so forth.", "[0035] In a number of represented embodiment hereof, active stability devices (ASD) hereof are discussed for use in connection with personal mobility devices for personal transportation.", "Such personal mobility devices may be used to transport a human user either through manual control or autonomously.", "However, the active stability devices hereof are suitable for use in connection with many mobile devices, including personal mobility devices such wheelchairs (both electric-motor powered and manual) and scooters, as well as mobile robotic bases and others mobile devices.", "[0036] In a number of embodiments hereof, active stability devices or systems for use with mobile devices are provided that do not interfere with normal operation of the mobile device, but activate only when a mobile device such as a wheelchair is in an unstable situation or is about to become unstable.", "Devices, systems and methods hereof may, for example, be used to increase the stability of mobile devices including personal mobility devices such as wheelchairs.", "In a number of embodiments, systems hereof include at least one sensor and at least one actuator.", "Under conditions where instability exists or is predicted, the actuator activates in a manner to increase stability (or reduce or prevent instability) of the system.", "In general, the term “instability”", "as used herein refers to tilting or tipping of a mobile device.", "Tilting or tipping occurs upon rotation about an axis (for example, a longitudinal axes or a latitudinal axes) of the mobile device causes at least one wheel (or other rotatable mobility elements) of the mobile device to loose contact with a surface or plane upon which the mobile device is moving.", "[0037] For example, in a number of personal mobility devices, a soft suspension on the device is used to increase ride comfort, but can also make the device unstable under certain dynamic situations.", "To preserve comfort and increase stability of such wheeled personal mobility devices, a representative embodiment of an active suspension system was developed and tested on the prototype hybrid power operated vehicle (HyPOV) chair.", "See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,882,909 and Pearlman, J., et al.", ", “Design, development and testing of a low-cost electric powered wheelchair for India. Disability and Rehabilitation,” Assistive Technology, 4(1):, 42-57 (2009), the disclosures of which is incorporated herein by reference.", "In a number of embodiments, the representative system included a stability sensor including a tilt switch, an actuatable or activatable device or system including a magnetorheological (MR) damper, and circuitry for the power supply.", "[0038] Static stability and dynamic stability tests were conducted to see if the activatable system activated before the wheelchair tipped and to determine if the wheelchair would achieve a similar stability rating for the same test as the wheelchair received with the activatable MR Damper(s) fully engaged or stiffened.", "A low-cost linear brake device or system was also developed as an activatable system for use as an alternative to or to work in cooperation with a damper such as the MR Damper.", "In a number of embodiments hereof, activatable systems such as MR Dampers and/or brake devices can be retrofitted to existing personal mobility devices and other mobile devices or systems.", "[0039] Although the application of such a representative system hereof is ostensibly to stiffen suspension on a power wheelchair equipped with a “soft”", "or resilient suspension (for example, including one or more springs or other resilient devices or systems), the applications are much broader.", "Applications of the sensor/activatable systems hereof include both manual- and electric-powered wheelchairs, mobile robotic bases, and devices without suspension.", "In general, stability of mobile devices is increase via a system including of at least one sensor to sense at least one variable related to or predictive of instability (tilting or tipping) and at least one actuator activatable system in operative connection with the sensor that can be actuated or activated to reduce the likelihood of or existence of instability.", "In other words, under conditions where instability exists or is predicted, then the actuator or activatable system would activate in such a way as to increase stability of the system.", "[0040] A description of a representative embodiments of the activatable stability device or system for an electric powered wheelchair follows.", "One goal of the system was to develop and perform initial testing of a powered mobility active anti-tip system.", "As described above, a hybrid power operated vehicle (HyPOV) was used as a test-bed for this system.", "The HyPOV wheelchair 10 is a low-cost electrically powered wheelchair which was originally developed for use, for example, where cost may be a determinative factor.", "Many powered and manual wheelchairs may become unstable, for example, under certain high-speed turning situations.", "[0041] The current design of wheelchair 10 uses a centrally located drive or hub drive wheel 42 to maneuver.", "The hub motor (not shown) may be fully enclosed within the hub of drive wheel 42 .", "This allows for wheelchair 10 to function with only one motor as opposed to other power chairs which usually require two motor.", "[0042] Wheelchair 10 , which is similar to wheelchairs described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,882,909, includes a seat 12 mounted on a generally rectangular frame system 14 (see FIG. 2B ).", "Frame system 14 may, for example, be made from metal or another similar rigid material.", "Frame 14 includes at least one rear rail 20 and side rails 22 on each side thereof.", "In the illustrated embodiment, side rails 22 are provided on each side, and connect between rear rail 20 and front wheel axle brackets.", "As described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,882,909, a solid axle joins two large freely spinning wheels 28 via wheel axle brackets.", "The brackets and axle solidly connect the side frame rails 22 to each other.", "Wheelchair 10 further includes a foot platform 70 connected to an extending member 66 via a pivotable connection 68 .", "[0043] Seat 12 is attached to side rails 22 of frame 14 via multiple sliding seat perches 24 ;", "at least one seat perch 24 (see FIG. 2A ) on each side rail 22 .", "Seat 12 can be mounted to face in either direction to be adaptable for various wheelchair user needs.", "Terms such as “front”, “rear”, “forward”, “rearward”, “upper”, “lower”", "and like terms as used herein refer to the orientation of wheelchair 10 in FIGS. 2A through 2B .", "[0044] As also described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,882,909, a pivot connection piece (not shown) is attached near the midpoint of the front solid axle and pivots about the axle between the large wheels 28 .", "An elongated center swing arm 34 is rigidly attached to the pivot connection piece at one end, and to a midpoint of front rail 20 on the other end.", "This swing-arm system houses the motor/brake/turning system, generally 40 .", "The pivot connection piece enables center swing arm 34 to pivot about the front solid axle and to move parallel to the longitudinal axis of side frame rails 22 according to the load balance on caster wheels 58 and a drive wheel 42 described below.", "[0045] Drive wheel 42 , which may, for example, be a hub-motor as described above, is placed in a fork 44 with a bearing (not shown) mounted near its topmost portion.", "Extending upwardly from the top of the bearing is a shaft 46 .", "Shaft 46 extends optionally through center swing arm 34 and operatively connects to a steering mechanism 80 (including, for example, a tiller 82 ).", "Drive wheel 42 , fork 44 , bearing and shaft may connect to center swing arm 34 so that they can be adjusted along the length thereof.", "This adjustment of the position of drive wheel 42 permits the force on drive wheel 42 to be increased or decreased as the force on casters wheels 58 increases or decreases.", "[0046] In the illustrated embodiment, a suspension link systems 50 includes upper link member 51 U and lower link member 51 L, which are connected between frame 14 and rotatable joints 54 for caster wheels 58 .", "In the illustrated embodiment, a caster wheel connector 56 is attached to and extends downwardly from each rotatable joint 54 .", "Caster wheels 58 are smaller than the two large wheels 28 and are capable of rotating 360 degrees by means of the rotatable joint 54 .", "Caster wheels 58 are located on one end of wheelchair 10 opposite large wheels 28 .", "Large wheels 28 can be located in the front of the wheelchair 10 and caster wheels 58 can be located in the rear (as illustrated) or vice versa, depending on the user's preference.", "[0047] In the illustrated embodiment, each caster wheel connector 56 is connected to center swing arm 34 with separate upper link members 51 U and lower link members 51 L of suspension link systems 50 .", "As also described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,882,909, upper link members 51 U connect and pivot about an axle located inside rear frame rail 20 .", "Lower link members 51 L are fixed to, for example, a polymeric or metallic torsion spring 60 not shown which links to center swing-arm 34 through an adjustable bracket system 61 .", "Other suspension system including other types of resilient members (for example, coil springs or leaf springs) can also be used.", "Such resilient members or elements allow vertical displacement of each caster wheel 58 independently and transfer force to the drive wheel 42 as caster wheels 58 encounter obstacles, bumps, uphill or downhill surfaces or any other kind of terrain.", "[0048] Wheelchair 10 also includes activatable systems 100 on each side thereof (only one of which is shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B , with the other being substantially identical).", "Activatable systems 100 are connected at one end to lower link member 51 U in the suspension system and to side rail 22 (via connecting bracket 90 —see FIG. 2A ) at another end thereof.", "In embodiments hereof, activatable systems 100 hereof may, for example, decrease the travel distance of a suspension or a portion thereof, stiffen dampers or shock absorbers to require more force for the suspension to travel, lock motion of the suspension or a portion thereof etc.", "In a number of embodiments, activatable systems 100 included MR (Magnetorheological) dampers.", "An MR damper uses a fluid that has a variable yield strength controlled by a magnetic field.", "When a higher voltage is passed into the controller via, for example, a control system 150 which is in operative connection with a sensor 300 as described below, the fluid stiffens which causes an increase to the damping force.", "However, the damper does not completely stop the linear motion.", "It can slow it down, but if there is enough force on the damper, it will eventually become completely stretched out or compressed.", "Upon activation one of activatable systems 100 including an MR damper, vertical travel of the associated caster wheel 58 is limited by the increased force required to overcome the resistance provided by the MR damper.", "[0049] FIGS. 2C and 2D illustrates the use of an activatable system 100 a hereof in connection with another embodiment of wheelchair 10 a. Similar to wheelchair 10 , wheelchair 10 a includes Caster wheels 58 a located on one end of wheelchair 10 a, opposite large wheels 28 a. In the illustrated embodiment, however, large wheels 28 a are located in the rear of wheelchair 10 a and caster wheels 58 are located in the front thereof.", "Caster wheels 58 a are connected to the frame of wheelchair 10 a via a suspension system including springs 60 a. Springs 60 a are connected between castor wheel connecting members 53 a and upper members 54 a, which are operatively connected to wheelchair frame (not shown in FIGS. 2C and 2D ).", "Activatable systems 100 a are connected at one end to upper members 54 a and at another end to castor wheel connecting members 53 a. Upon actuation or activation of activatable system(s) 100 a, vertical travel of the associated caster wheel 58 a relative to the associated upper member 54 a (and the frame) is limited or prevented.", "In a number of embodiments hereof, activatable systems hereof are connected between a suspended portion of a wheelchair or other mobile device (for example, a frame) and a non-suspended portion thereof (for example, a wheel) to limit or prevent relative motion between the suspended portion and the non-suspended portion.", "[0050] A number of activatable systems other than MR dampers are suitable for use herein.", "For example, an activatable system including a linear brake was designed as an alternative (or an addition) to MR dampers.", "As described above, MR dampers do not completely prevent the suspension from moving.", "MR damper only cause it to require more force to move the suspension at some speed.", "Moreover, MR dampers are relatively costly (for example, approximately $400).", "A lower-cost device for use in the activatable systems hereof may be desirable in certain circumstance (for example, in a case in which a wheelchair or other mobile device is being retrofitted with activatable systems hereof).", "A device or system such as a linear brake, which actually locks the suspension (preventing movement thereof) may be used and may be more effective at preventing the mobile device from tipping.", "An activatable brake system may, for example, be designed so that the dimensions are roughly the same as the MR dampers used in activatable systems 100 (with substantially less cost).", "In other embodiments, a linear or rotary brake, such as those that use electromagnets for actuation, may be used to stiffen either suspension systems or other anti-tip systems hereof to stabilize a mobile device such personal mobility device.", "[0051] An embodiment of a linear brake system 200 for use in the systems hereof is shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B .", "In linear brake system 200 , a wedge 210 is be forced into a cone 220 within a housing 230 and which then causes wedge 210 to apply a normal force to a rod 240 .", "Wedge 210 is forced into cone 220 via the electromagnetic force of a coil 250 , which (upon activation) forces a plunger 260 into wedge 210 .", "Linear brake system 200 operates in a manner similar to a solenoid.", "Operation of the system can be altered and/or optimized via control of, for example, angles for wedge 210 and cone 220 , the force needed and obtainable by coil 250 , and the maximum size allowable for the linear brake system 200 .", "Linear brake system 200 includes a connector 248 upon a distal end of rod 240 , and a connector 270 on another end linear brake system 200 via which linear brake system 200 may be attached to, for example, be connected at one end to lower link member 51 U in the suspension system and to side rail 22 L at another end thereof as described above in connection with activatable system 100 .", "[0052] In a number of studies hereof, an OMRON® Model D7E-3 tilt switch 300 , available from Omron Electronic Components of Schaumburg, Ill.", "was used to sense instability.", "Examples of sensors that may be used in the systems hereof include, but are not limited to, tilt switches or sensors, gyroscopes, accelerometers, camera, microphones, force sensors, etc.", "Multiple sensors of different types may, for example, be used in a single system.", "Control thresholds may, for example, be based upon accelerations/decelerations that are in a direction not aligned with travel, or measures of roll, pitch or yaw from, for example, a gyroscope.", "Alternatively, one could measure the reaction force of each wheel and determine when/if one was going to lose contact, or has lost contact, with the ground.", "[0053] A platform or support 350 (see FIGS. 4A and 4B ) upon which a sensor such as a tilt sensor 300 (that is, a sensor to detect orientation, inclination or tilting) may be supported was developed.", "Support 350 included a generally U-shaped bracket 360 to which support member 370 is connected.", "Sensor 300 was attached to support member 370 , which may be angled with respect to a longitudinal orientation L of bracket 360 to adjust the starting orientation or angle of sensor 300 (when no tilting is occurring).", "The specification sheet for one embodiment of a studied tilt sensor 300 indicated that the sensor would switch at 40 degrees, but the best angle at which wheelchair 10 should be when the switch activates activatable system 100 was unknown at the beginning of the studies hereof and may vary between different types of mobile devices.", "Therefore, support 350 was made to be adjustable.", "In that regard, side members 362 of bracket 360 were formed with curves slots or extending passages 368 formed therein.", "The position of connectors such as bolts used in connection slots 368 may be varied as represented by arrow A in FIG. 4A to vary the starting angle of sensor 300 .", "In a number of embodiments, tilt sensor 300 could be placed at a starting angle in the range between 15 to 45 degrees.", "[0054] A circuit, illustrated schematically in FIG. 5 , for representative tilt switch sensor 300 was developed to be used in connection with activatable systems 100 including MR dampers.", "The circuit includes a subsystem or control system (for example, including a filter) to selectively activate activatable system 100 .", "Tilt switch sensor 300 , by itself, might, for example, activate activatable system 100 every time wheelchair 10 hit a bump.", "Even worse, tilt switch sensor 300 might deactivate activatable system 100 if wheelchair 10 hit a bump while it was on an incline.", "[0055] In the circuit of FIG. 5 , a low-pass filter was used to selectively activate or actuate activatable system 100 .", "The low-pass filter circuit may, for example, result in activatable system 100 being activated only if tilt switch sensor 300 is on/activated more than 50% of the time or if tilt switch sensor 300 is on/activated for longer than the rise time for the filter.", "In a number of embodiments, actuation or activation would not occur unless tilt switch sensor 300 is open for longer than approximately one second.", "[0056] As illustrated schematically in FIG. 5B , a control system with appropriate logic is desirable to activate the activatable devices or systems hereof (to, for example, stiffen or lock a suspension system) in those situations or circumstances when desired or required.", "Circuitry may, for example, be replaced with mechanical systems.", "Moreover, a processor (for example, a micro-controller or micro-processor) may also or alternatively be used to integrate sensor signals and determine when an instability is occurring or is about to occur, and in-turn trigger activatable system 100 .", "[0057] ANSI (American National Standards Institute) and RESNA (Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America) [1, 2] have specific tests that are to be conducted to determine how stable a personal mobility device is and to compare different personal mobility device to each other.", "To test the actively controlled suspension system of wheelchair 10 , three trials were completed with each test: one with the softest possible suspension (MR Dampers off), one with the stiffest suspension (MR Dampers fully engaged), and one with the active anti-tip system enabled.", "The ANSI/RESNA tests that were selected to be done are shown Table 1 below.", "[0000] TABLE 1 ANSI/RESNA Section Direction Description Static Stability 9.2 Forward Wheels unlocked and wheelchair in least stable configuration 10.2 Backward Wheels unlocked and wheelchair in least stable configuration 12.1 Lateral Wheelchair in the least stable configuration Dynamic Stability 10.2 — Turning on a slope 10.3 — Turning in a circle at maximum speed 10.4 — Turning suddenly at maximum speed [0058] The results of the static stability test are shown in Table 2 below.", "The results show that the performance of wheelchair 10 with the actively controlled suspension system is statistically the same as the performance with the dampers fully powered.", "[0000] TABLE 1 Static Test Tip Angle Suspension Forward Backward Lateral Dampers Off 24.0 7.8 4.3 Dampers on 23.7 10.0 6.1 Tilt Switch Active 23.8 9.0 (2.0) 5.8 ([.", "].9) [0059] The results of the dynamic stability tests show the same correlation except for the section 10.2 test.", "The result obtained in the 10.2 test is believed to be a result of the delay in the circuit being too long and wheelchair 10 starting to tip before tilt switch sensor 300 was activated.", "The time constant of the low pass filter may, for example, be decreased for wheelchair 10 to pass this test.", "Table 4 summarizes how the tests and results were obtained.", "[0000] TABLE 3 Dynamic Lateral Test Scores Suspension 10.2 10.3 10.4 Dampers Off 0 2 2 Dampers on 2 2 3 Tilt Switch Active 0 2 3 [0000] TABLE 4 Wheelchair test ratings 0 Full tip The wheelchair tips completely over (90° or more from its original orientation) unless caught by a restraining device or testing personnel for test purposes 1 Stuck on anti-tip The wheelchair anti-tip device(s) device contacts the test plane, and the wheelchair remains stuck on the anti-tip device(s) 2 Transient tip Less than three wheels remain on the test plane at some point during the test and then drop back on the test plane, whether or not any anti-tip devices contact the test plane 3 No tip At least three wheels remain on the test floor at all times [0060] The activatable stability devices, systems and/or methods hereof can improve the stability of mobile devices, including personal mobility devices (whether powered or manual), without substantially effecting the normal operations.", "In a number of embodiments, the activatable systems here prevent ratings of 0 or 1, or 0, 1 or 2 as set forth in Table 4.", "In that regard, in a number of embodiment, either full tilting/tipping or sticking/resting on a static anti-tip device of a mobile device or system (including personal mobility devices) is prevented or, any tipping or tilting that does occur is transient.", "In other embodiments, even transient tipping (wherein in wheel loses contact with the surface) is prevented.", "[0061] Studies of anti-tip suspensions including activatable stability devices or systems on a single side of the chair are discussed above.", "Use of activatable anti-tip or stabilizing devices or systems hereof on each side of, for example, a wheelchair or other mobile device will provide improved performance.", "Dynamic stability tests may, for example, be used in connection with a particular type of mobile device to ensure that the one or more active stability systems activate only in desired circumstances and not in other circumstances (for example, during obstacle climbing).", "In the case of control systems including, for example, a low pass filter, the low pass filter (or other control system) characteristics or stationary angle of the tilt sensor base may, for example, be readily adjusted to achieve improved performance.", "A potentiometer may, for example, be used to adjust sensitivity of the filter.", "Once again, one or more processors (for example, micro-controllers or micro-processors) may also be used to integrate sensor signals, and classify whether instability is occurring or about to occur.", "[0062] In a number of embodiments, the activatable stability device, systems and/or methods hereof may, for example, be activated to decrease travel distance of a suspension or a portion thereof, stiffen dampers or shock absorbers, lock motion of the suspension or a portion thereof etc.", "as described above.", "The activatable systems hereof need not be formed integrally with the suspension system of a mobile device.", "Indeed, the activatable system hereof are readily retrofitted onto mobile system such as personal mobility devices.", "In a number of embodiments, such mobile systems include a suspension system comprising one or more resilient members such as springs.", "[0063] Although representative embodiments of the use of activatable stability devices and/or systems hereof in connection with a suspension system of a mobile device or system are discussed above, the activatable stability devices, systems or methods hereof may be used in connection with manual personal mobility devices (for example, manually operated wheelchairs) and need not be used in connection with a suspension system.", "FIG. 6A and 6B illustrate a representative embodiment of activatable stability systems 500 hereof which includes two activatable devices attached to the rear of a manual wheelchair 10 b. Each of activatable systems 500 is in operative connection with an abutment member 510 or anti-tip device which is rotatably or pivotably attached to wheelchair 10 b. In the non-activated state as illustrated in FIG. 6A , activatable systems 500 maintain abutment member 510 in a first, non-activated or non-actuated state in which abutment member 510 are maintained at a suitable height to prevent interference with normal operation of wheelchair 10 b. In FIG. 6B , the activatable system have been activated or actuated (via, for example, a sensor system and control system as described above) to rotate or pivot abutment members 510 to a lower position to increase stability and reduce the likelihood of or prevent tipping.", "In the illustrated embodiment, abutment members 510 are lowered and raised via actuatable or activatable cylinders 520 which may, for example, be solenoids or hydraulic cylinders.", "Additional or alternative activatable devices and cooperating abutment members may, for example, be placed at other positions on the wheelchair (for example, on the front and/or sides thereof).", "[0064] FIGS. 6C and 6D illustrate another representative embodiment of activatable stability systems 600 hereof which includes two activatable devices attached to the rear of a manual wheelchair 10 c. Each of activatable systems 600 is in operative connection with an wheel 610 which is rotatably attached to an extending or outrigger member 620 .", "In the non-activated state as illustrated in FIG. 6C , wheels 610 are free to move up and down relative to a surface upon which wheelchair 10 c is travelling via extending members or rods 630 which move telescopically through cylinders 640 .", "Rods 630 may, for example, be biased to assist in maintaining wheels 610 in contact with the surface.", "Upon actuation of activatable system 600 , rod 630 is locked in position or requires increased force to move relative to cylinder 640 , thereby maintaining wheels 610 in contact with the surface and prevent or limit movement thereof up or down relative to the surface.", "Activatable systems 600 may be activated or actuated via, for example, a sensor system and control system as described above to increase stability and reduce the likelihood of or prevent tipping.", "Additional or alternative activatable devices and cooperating abutment members may, for example, be placed at other positions on wheelchair 10 c (for example, on the front and/or sides thereof).", "In general, manual wheelchairs such as wheelchair 10 c are unlikely to tip in a lateral direction, but one or more activatable systems similar in operation to activatable systems 600 may, for example, be placed on one or both sides of a powered wheelchair to prevent lateral tipping.", "Activatable system 600 may, for example be operated to limit tipping and/or to prevent even transient tipping as discussed above.", "[0065] The foregoing description and accompanying drawings set forth a number of representative embodiments at the present time.", "Various modifications, additions and alternative designs will, of course, become apparent to those skilled in the art in light of the foregoing teachings without departing from the scope hereof, which is indicated by the following claims rather than by the foregoing description.", "All changes and variations that fall within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are to be embraced within their scope." ]

[ "FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention generally relates to the field of initialization of control systems, and more particularly to a system for programmable chip initialization wherein the Reset state of the controller such a system is initialized.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Multiple levels of initialization are required for various control systems.", "The lowest or first level of initialization is signaled to begin with the assertion and de-assertion of the system “Reset”", "signal.", "When Reset is asserted the Controller device (see FIG. 1) is put into a known state and when Reset is de-asserted the Controller begins a sequence of operations which is dictated by the Controller's initial (i.e., Reset) state.", "Subsequently, the Controller may begin the next level of system initialization.", "This level might be to begin execution of commands fetched from EPROM (Erasable Programable Read Only Memory) or some other type of non-volatile memory, and/or to download initialization values from the same memory into it's local register set.", "Higher levels of initialization would follow and would be determined by software.", "The present invention pertains to the lowest level of initialization where the Reset state of the Controller is determined.", "The current method of altering the Reset state of the Controller is shown in FIG. 1 .", "Shown is a simplified system 100 with a Controller device 102 and an EPROM device 104 interconnected with control, address, and data lines and sharing a common Reset input signal.", "While Reset is asserted the “Data0”, “Data1”, “Data2”, and “Data3”", "lines, are pulled to a resistive state as determined by the resistors “R0”, “R1”, “R2”, and “R3”, as the internal drivers in the EPROM and Controller devices 102 &", "104 are turned off (i.e., placed in a high impedance state).", "Thus the Reset state is determined by the resistors which are connected to either a high level (VDD) or a low level (VSS).", "When Reset is de-asserted the values on the “Data0”, “Data1”, “Data2”, and “Data3”", "lines are captured by the Controller 102 as the Reset state of those lines and the following state sequences of the Controller 102 will be conditional on the initial state of those lines.", "This allows the Controller 102 , for example, to vary it's starting address in program memory from which to fetch commands.", "As shown in the timing diagram 200 of FIG. 2, at time “t1”", "202 , the Reset signal is asserted and the Data Bus (signals “Data0”, “Data1”, “Data2”, and “Data3”", "of FIG. 1) transitions to the resistive pull values at time “t2”", "204 .", "At time “t3”", "206 , Reset is de-asserted and the Pull Value of the Data Bus is captured internally to the Controller 102 (FIG.", "1) as the Initialization Value at time “t4”", "208 .", "Presently, the initialization configuration of control systems such as system 100 is physically selected by soldering pull-up (or pull down) resistors (e.g., resistors “R0”, “R1”, “R2”, and “R3”) to the system's circuit board.", "Further, the pull values for the data lines are set with mechanical switches or jumpers which would also be located on the circuit board that would select between the VSS (low) or VDD (high) supplies for each of the data lines.", "To change the pull values in the system the user would have to remove the board from the system and physically change the switch or jumper settings according to their specific needs.", "Thus, changing of chip (SCSI Controller) initialization options would require hardware changes to the system circuit board.", "Such changes are costly and difficult to implement.", "Consequently, it is desirable to provide a method and apparatus for programmable chip initialization wherein the Reset state of the controller of such a system is initialized.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a programmable input/output (I/O) pad internal resistive pull circuit assembly for a non-volatile memory device of a control system capable of providing programmable chip (SCSI Controller) initialization.", "In an exemplary embodiment, the assembly includes a non-volatile memory cell disposed in the non-volatile memory device.", "First and second transistor devices are coupled to the non-volatile memory cell.", "The non-volatile memory cell is capable of being programmed for providing at least one of a pull-up and a pull-down on an associated signal line of the non-volatile memory device thereby furnishing a predetermined reset value to a controller device of the control system.", "It is to be understood that both the forgoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the invention as claimed.", "The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of the specification, illustrate an embodiment of the invention and together with the general description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The numerous advantages of the present invention may be better understood by those skilled in the art by reference to the accompanying figures in which: FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating the present system for chip (SCSI controller) initialization;", "FIG. 2 is a timing diagram illustrating initialization value capture for the system shown in FIG. 1;", "FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram illustrating a programmable Input/Output (I/O) internal resistive pull circuit assembly in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;", "FIG. 4 is a circuit diagram illustrating an Input/Output (I/O) pad circuit assembly;", "and FIG. 5 is a circuit diagram illustrating a programmable Input/Output (I/O) internal resistive pull circuit assembly in accordance with a second exemplary embodiment of the present invention.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Reference will now be made in detail to the presently preferred embodiment of the invention, an example of which is illustrated in the accompanying drawings.", "Referring now to FIG. 3, a programmable Input/Output (I/O) internal resistive pull circuit assembly 300 in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention is described.", "The programmable I/O pad internal resistive pull circuit 300 replaces the external resistor network (e.g., resistors “R0”, “R1”, “R2”, and “R3”) and switches or jumpers of the system illustrated in FIG. 1 .", "As shown, the programmable I/O pad internal resistive pull circuit 300 may be connected to the I/O pad circuit 400 shown in FIG. 4, which is an input/output pad circuit in this example but could also be just an input pad circuit or just an output pad circuit.", "In an exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 3, the programmable I/O pad internal resistive pull circuit assembly 300 is comprised of a non-volatile memory cell 302 which could be of any given non-volatile memory technology incorporated for the design of the external memory device EPROM 104 shown in FIG. 1 .", "Two transistors “MP1”", "304 , a p-channel transistor, and “MN1”", "306 , a n-channel transistor, are coupled to the output “node F”", "of the non-volatile memory cell 302 .", "In the embodiment shown, p-channel and n-channel transistors 304 &", "306 are selected since a Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) technology is utilized.", "However, it will be appreciated by those of skill in the art that other technologies and transistor types could be used without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention.", "Two resistors, “RMP1”", "308 , which is associated with the transistor “MP1”", "304 , and “RMN1”", "310 , which is associated with the transistor “MN1”", "304 are also provided.", "These resistors 308 &", "310 may, in one embodiment, be incorporated into the transistors 304 &", "306 such that the transistors 304 &", "306 are designed to have an equivalent on-resistance.", "Alternately, the resistors 308 &", "310 may be constructed separate from the associated transistors 304 &", "306 .", "As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, prior to normal system operation the non-volatile memory cell 302 (FIG.", "3) may be programmed via the node D and node E inputs 312 &", "314 to the memory cell 302 through any of various means of programming such as, for example: a serial port interface, a test port such as JTAG (Joint Test Action Group), or a special control sequence on the EPROM (or other non-volatile memory device) 104 control inputs.", "If a pull-up on the associated signal line is desired, a logic zero may be written to the non-volatile memory cell 302 .", "Similarly, if a pull-down on the associated signal line is desired, a logic one may be written to the non-volatile memory cell 302 .", "This would be the case for each of the signal lines where a particular Reset state value is desired.", "During normal operation the pull values are captured off of the signal lines in the same fashion as the prior method, as illustrated in FIG. 2 and discussed above.", "Referring now to FIG. 5, a programmable Input/Output (I/O) internal resistive pull circuit assembly 500 in accordance with a second exemplary embodiment of the present invention is shown.", "The programmable I/O pad internal resistive pull circuit 500 is similar to the circuit assembly 300 shown in FIG. 3 and likewise replaces the external resistor network (e.g., resistors “R0”, “R1”, “R2”, and “R3”) and switches or jumpers of the system illustrated in FIG. 1 .", "As shown, the programmable I/O pad internal resistive pull circuit 500 may be connected to the I/O pad circuit 400 (or alternately input pad circuit or output pad circuit) shown in FIG. 4 .", "As shown in FIG. 5, the programmable I/O pad internal resistive pull circuit assembly 500 is comprised of a non-volatile memory cell 502 which could be of any given non-volatile memory technology incorporated for the design of the external memory device EPROM 104 shown in FIG. 1 .", "Two transistors “MP1”", "504 , a p-channel transistor, and “MN1”", "506 , a n-channel transistor, are coupled to the output “node F”", "of the non-volatile memory cell 502 .", "In the embodiment shown, p-channel and n-channel transistors 504 &", "506 are selected since a Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) technology is utilized.", "However, it will be appreciated by those of skill in the art that other technologies and transistor types could be used without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention.", "In the embodiment shown in FIG. 5, a single resistor “R1”", "508 replaces resistors “RMP1”", "308 and “RMN1”", "310 of the embodiment shown in FIG. 3 .", "This resistor 508 is constructed separate from the associated transistors 504 &", "506 .", "As shown in FIGS. 3 , 4 , and 5 resistors “RMP1”", "308 and “RMN1”", "310 or alternately resistor “R1) 502 are preferably incorporated into the design of the internal I/O circuits of the EPROM (or other non-volatile memory device) such that the pull values are electrically programmable.", "In this manner, the resistor network located on the system circuit board for defining the initial state values of the data pins and associated jumpers or switches are eliminated as board components thus reducing the manufacturing cost of the system.", "Also the pull values can be programmed electrically via a serial port interface, through a test port such as JTAG, by a special control sequence on the EPROM (or other non-volatile memory device) control lines, or other means, without removing the circuit board from the system.", "It is believed that the system for programmable chip initialization of the present invention and many of its attendant advantages will be understood by the forgoing description, and it will be apparent that various changes may be made in the form, construction and arrangement of the components thereof without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention or without sacrificing all of its material advantages, the form herein before described being merely an explanatory embodiment thereof.", "It is the intention of the following claims to encompass and include such changes." ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED DOCUMENTS [0001] The present invention is related as a continuation in part (CIP) to a patent application entitled “Method and Apparatus for Obtaining and Presenting WEB Summaries to Users”", "filed on Jun. 1, 1999, for which Ser.", "No. 09/323,598 is assigned, and which is incorporated herein by reference, which is a CIP of application Ser.", "No. 09/208,740, also incorporated herein by reference.", "FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention is in the field of digital network information gathering from network servers and pertains more particularly to methods and apparatus for providing and operating a networked system of machines dedicated to performing automated data gathering, processing, and presentation of such data.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] The information network known as the World Wide Web (WWW), which is a subset of the well-known Internet, is arguably the most complete source of publicly accessible information available.", "Anyone with a suitable Internet appliance such as a personal computer with a standard Internet connection may connect to the Internet and navigate to many thousands of information pages (termed web pages) stored on Internet-connected servers for the purpose of garnering information and initiating transactions with hosts of such servers and pages.", "[0004] Information travels over the Internet network through many connected computers known as nodes in the art.", "Internet nodes include any hosted machines dedicated to performing a service such as file serving, data storing, data routing, and so on.", "Such nodes are generally loosely associated with each other only by universal resource locator (URL) addressing and mapped network paths.", "[0005] Some data initiated by or requested by users is not protected from being intercepted by some network-connected nodes and therefore may perhaps be observed by third parties due to the nature of publicly-shared bandwidth over the Internet.", "However, various means for protecting data from being observed by third parties are established and routinely practiced by entities hosting pluralities of nodes connected to the Internet.", "Such methods include the use of firewall technology, secure servers, and private sub-networks connected to the Internet network.", "[0006] Many companies doing business on the Internet host semi-private data networks comprising a plurality of computer nodes dedicated to the provision of proprietary information and related data.", "Certain authorized users such as those working for the company or those having password access and/or active and verifiable accounts with the company may access such data.", "For example, a large company may host a plurality of file servers, including connected data storage systems wherein users may search for and access data stored for the purpose by the company.", "Such sub-nets, as they are often termed, use the Internet as a connective wide area network (WAN) and the data travels through shared bandwidth connections.", "Although a user may be protected from third party interceptions of data sent or requested the user must generally navigate to each URL where data is available.", "If a search engine is provided to assist a user in searching for specific data made available by the company, it is limited to searching only the nodes hosted by the company or data from third party nodes that is made available through cooperative URL linking or posting.", "[0007] An information gathering, summarization and presentation system known to the inventor and described in the related patent application listed under the cross-reference section uses an Internet portal and software suite to allow users to request and obtain data including Web-page summaries containing specific data found by using a unique scripting method supplied by a knowledge worker.", "In some embodiments such data may also be pushed to a user subscribing to the service.", "[0008] A service such as that described above requires a considerable amount of processing power in order to service a very large client base in terms of job processing.", "A desired goal is to automate such an information gathering and presentation service so as to be wholly or largely transparent to individual users.", "Prior art network architectures do not possess the processing power nor the dedicated cross-communication capabilities that would be required for such a service to be wholly automated and be able to serve a mass clientele.", "[0009] What is clearly needed is a dedicated and hierarchical network of cooperating computer-nodes that is adapted to fulfill a very large number of automatically-schedules and user-initiated data requests in a wholly automated and transparent fashion.", "Such a networked system could be scaleable in that it may be easily expanded in terms of adding machinery according to user demand.", "Such a system would save users and service providers much time and labor associated with obtaining optimum and efficient results from an information gathering and presentation service.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0010] In a preferred embodiment of the present invention a data-gathering and reporting system for collecting data from a wide area network (WAN) is provided, comprising a database stored in a data repository;", "a first server having access to the data base and organizing data-gathering work assignments from data in the database;", "a hierarchical network of distributor servers having a highest level connected to the first server and expanding to a lowest level, with distributor servers at different levels connected by data links and distributing work assignments to lower levels on demand from the distributor servers at lower levels;", "a plurality of gatherer servers connected by data links to the lowest level of the hierarchy of distributor servers and to the WAN, the lowest level of distributor servers distributing work assignments to the gatherer servers on demand from the gatherer servers, the gatherer servers accomplishing the work assignments distributed by the distributor servers and queueing data collected from the WAN as a result of the work assignments;", "a hierarchical network of collector servers having a lowest level connected to the gatherer servers and contracting to a highest level, the gatherer servers communicating data collected to the lowest level of collector servers, with collector servers at different levels connected by data links and delivering collected data to higher levels;", "and one or more filing servers connected to the highest level of collector servers, the filing servers communicating with the database in the data repository, the collector servers delivering collected data to the one or more filing servers, and the filing servers writing the collected data to the database.", "[0011] In one important embodiment the WAN is the Internet, and data is collected from WEB servers on the Internet.", "Also in a preferred embodiment gating of work assignments and data between one server and another in the distributor server hierarchy is by the one server having a queue with an adjustable threshold, and demanding data or work assignments from the other server as a result of the queue level falling to the threshold.", "Latency and database writing efficiency may be adjusted by adjusting queue thresholds among servers, and server power and capacity required in a system is adjusted by scaling the number of servers and number of hierarchical levels of servers.", "[0012] In some embodiments priority is assigned to work assignments, and work assignments and collected data are gated from server to server according to assigned priority as well as by need.", "Also in some embodiments work assignments are expressed in a markup language, allowing all information required to fill an assignment to be encapsulated such that only the one or more filing servers need be connected to the database.", "[0013] In a preferred embodiment the system is associated with an Internet subscription server, and the work assignments are for collecting data from WEB pages associated with individual subscribers.", "In this case some work assignments may be automatically scheduled for individual subscribers and some assignments may be on demand from individual subscribers.", "[0014] In another aspect of the invention a data-gathering and reporting system for collecting WEB summaries from the Internet for individual subscribers to a Portal subscription system is provided, comprising a plurality of gatherer servers each connected to the Internet, to an ascending hierarchy of work request distribution servers, and to a ascending hierarchy of collector servers;", "a work request generator at the top of the hierarchy of distribution servers, generating work requests for collecting WEB summaries;", "and a filer server at the top of the hierarchy of collector servers, the file server connected to and writing data to a database.", "Flow is by work requests from the work request generator down the hierarchy of distributor servers to the gatherer servers where work requests are accomplished by gathering WEB summaries from Internet servers according to the work requests, and by data collected from the gatherer servers up the hierarchy of collector servers to the filing server, and wherein flow is gated on demand down the hierarchy of distributor servers by each server from a previous server in the direction of flow.", "[0015] In this system gating of work assignments and data between one distribution server and another is by the one server having a queue with an adjustable threshold, and demanding data or work assignments from the other server as a result of the queue level falling to the threshold.", "Latency and database writing efficiency is adjusted by adjusting queue thresholds among servers, and server power and capacity required in a system is adjusted by scaling the number of servers and number of hierarchical levels of servers.", "In some cases priority may be assigned to work assignments, and work assignments and collected data may be gated from server to server according to assigned priority as well as by need.", "Also in a preferred work assignments are expressed in a markup language, allowing all information required to fill an assignment to be encapsulated such that only the one or more filing servers need be connected to the database.", "[0016] In another aspect of the invention methods are provided for practicing the invention using the system of the invention.", "In the embodiments of the invention taught below in enabling detail, for the first time a scalable and very efficient system for gathering large amounts of data on the Internet is provided, where the data collected may be directed by work assignments in small increments.", "There are many advantages.", "For example, the system of the invention relieves the user of the necessity of navigating the clutter of the Internet to find what is needed on a daily basis.", "It also provides immediate access for the user to information from multiple sources, because information is gathered on behalf of a user continuously.", "Various second-level service may also be provided, such as access from wireless internet appliance devices.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES [0017] [0017 ]FIG. 1 is an architectural overview of a data-gathering network, components, and connectivity according to an embodiment of the present invention.", "[0018] [0018 ]FIG. 2 is a network diagram illustrating hierarchy and communication direction of part of the automated data-gathering system of FIG. 1. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS [0019] It was described in the background section that in order to provide a viable data gathering and presentation system for servicing a mass clientele, such a system should be dedicated, automated and possess enough processing power to fill a large and continuous user demand.", "To this end, the inventors provide a scaleable networked architecture that is dedicated to achieving the goals of the present invention in an automated fashion and that is transparent to the user.", "Such an architecture is taught in enabling detail below.", "[0020] [0020 ]FIG. 1 is an architectural overview of a data-gathering network 109 and components thereof according to an embodiment of the present invention.", "Network 109 comprises a Data-packet network 111 , an automated data gathering system 115 , a PSTN network 113 , and a plurality of connected users 145 .", "[0021] Data-packet network 111 may be any type of wide area network (WAN) that is known in the art that is capable of data-packet communication.", "In this embodiment, network 111 is the well-known Internet network, and will hereinafter be referred to as Internet 111 .", "The advantage of using Internet 111 is that it is the largest publicly-accessible data-packet medium available.", "Another advantage to using Internet 111 is that data communication protocols are well established and standardized.", "However, any data packet network may be used as long as suitable communication protocols, of which many are known, are in place.", "Other than the Internet such networks include private corporate Intranets and the like.", "[0022] Internet 111 comprises a plurality of exemplary WEB servers, 119 , 121 , 123 , and 125 , connected to an Internet backbone 117 as is known in the art.", "Servers 119 - 125 are adapted as normal file servers dedicated to serving WEB pages in a familiar format such as Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML).", "These servers are equivalent to servers 23 , 25 , and 27 of the cross-referenced patent application Ser.", "No. 09/323,598, from which Web summaries may be gathered.", "[0023] Internet 111 is connected to a public switched telephone network (PSTN) 113 as is generally known in the art of Internet access.", "Typical public Internet access involves such as an Internet service provider (ISP) represented herein by element number 141 , which is accessed over a conventional telephone network connection system represented by element number 143 .", "A plurality of users 145 , shown connected to ISP 141 represent the most common method for public access to Internet 111 .", "There are several other methods known in the art for accomplishing access to Internet 111 such as continual corporate connections, satellite connections, etc, and the system shown is merely exemplary.", "[0024] Network 109 uses the Internet 111 and PSTN 113 in order to establish convenient access capability for users 145 .", "Users 145 , in this example may be assumed to have typical internet access capability as is known in the art, typically including a PC, a telephone line, and a modem for dialing up the ISP.", "Users 145 may also be operating satellite connections, WEB TV cable connections, or any other known Internet connection that may be completed using one of a variety of Internet-capable appliances, including appliances having wireless connection, such as combinations of cell phones with personal organizer and computer capability.", "Although there are only four users 145 represented in this example, it will be appreciated that there will be many more such that a mass clientele is established creating a heavy demand on system 109 .", "[0025] It is disclosed in the cross-referenced patent application that users may obtain WEB summaries relating to virtually any WEB page available on the Internet.", "Such Web pages include those URLs in individual URL lists maintained for the users (subscribers), any other URL that may be identified to the system by a user, and individual Web accounts.", "This process is automated except for directional input by the user and scripting supplied by knowledge workers, and is a function of server 128 shown in FIG. 1 within architecture 115 .", "Server 128 is equivalent to server 31 , of FIG. 1 of the cross-referenced patent application, and provides portal functions including the obtaining and presenting of Web summaries to users, as well as automatic authentication of user's accounts as gathering is done, through the features of the Portal server, which is the subject of cross-referenced patent application Ser.", "No. 09/208,740.", "In order to insure that an information gathering and summarization service such as the one described in the related application will be able to service an exceptionally large client base, a unique architecture comprising dedicate machines and networked connections must be provided Architecture 115 represents an automated data gathering and presentation system adapted to provide optimum performance in the processing of mass information requests coming in continually from users such as users 145 .", "In this embodiment, architecture 115 is centralized (housed in one location), however;", "a centralized architecture is not required in order to practice the present invention.", "In an alternative embodiment architecture 115 may be distributed geographically throughout Internet 111 .", "[0026] Architecture 115 comprises a dedicated network of cooperating machines adapted to practice the functions of the present invention.", "Architecture 115 is hierarchical in construction in some parts meaning that pluralities of slave components at intermediate levels are ultimately directed by one master component.", "Architecture 115 comprises at least one scheduled update server 127 adapted to enter into and identify data-gathering job assignments that are stored in a database.", "A database holding such work may be stored in such as a mass repository 129 that is illustrated as connected to server 127 .", "Mass repository 129 is in a preferred embodiment an off-line storage facility and may be accessed and updated by server 127 .", "Mass repository 129 is large enough in terms of data-storage space to contain all user-profile and user initiated requests for information.", "In alternative embodiments, more than one mass repository such as repository 129 may be used.", "Mass repository 129 may be of any type known in the art such as an optical storage facility, or other known mass storage system, or a combination of different types.", "[0027] Database server 127 distributes scheduled work assignments in hierarchical fashion to a plurality of connected distributor servers 135 .", "Distributors 135 are connected to each other and to server 127 by dedicated network 139 , as is described below with reference to FIG. 2. Each distributor server 135 contains a work queue (not shown) adapted to hold job assignments until they are requested from another distributor further down the hierarchical line, thus the distribution of tasks for distributors coupled to server 127 is by pull technology, providing efficient loading.", "This effectively provides a distributed queue that automatically load balances on the number of servers available.", "In this way work is pulled down from distributor to distributor, as respective work-queues become able to handle more work.", "The ultimate goal of each distributor is to pass all of it's work assignments down until they are ultimately received by a plurality of connected gatherer machines 137 .", "[0028] A second scheduling server 130 is connected to server 128 and is dedicated to handling not scheduled, but instant-update requests from users 145 .", "Users may communicate such information-gathering requests to server 128 via the Internet, and server 130 acts through a second set of instant-update distributors 136 to gatherers 137 .", "Distributors 136 do not operate by pull technology, but rather on demand to immediately execute instant update requests.", "These distributors have their queues refilled by user requests rather than by database queries.", "[0029] Gatherers 137 are adapted to obtain work assignments from distributors 135 , and perform the assigned functions with respect to each job.", "Each gatherer 137 has a work queue (not shown) adapted to hold job assignments passed down from distributors 135 .", "As individual work queues become depleted, gatherers 137 request additional work from associated distributors up the line.", "Dedicated network 139 connects gatherers 137 to distributors 135 .", "[0030] It is the objective goal of all gatherers to navigate Internet 111 , and pull data from WEB servers such as from servers 119 - 125 and process the data according to their job assignments.", "To achieve this purpose, each gatherer is afforded a full-time Internet connection represented herein by a data connection line 117 a illustrated as teeing off backbone 117 .", "Database server 127 also has a full-time Internet connection illustrated herein as a branch of data connection 117 a. In addition to having an Internet connection for navigating Internet 111 , each gatherer is provided with enough additional processing power and suitable software to perform its organization and rendering of data into a suitable format as to be compatible to users such as users 145 .", "[0031] Internet connectivity with respect to server 127 allows users 145 to upload data requests using suitable software on their Internet appliances.", "Such software is not shown here.", "However, a suitable example is taught in the cross-referenced patent application.", "The Internet connection afforded to server 127 is a user connection allowing bi-directional communication.", "In contrast, the Internet connections afforded to gatherers 137 are dedicated to allowing them to navigate Internet 111 and retrieve particular data according to job assignment.", "There is no user communication with gatherers 137 .", "The navigation process generic to gatherers 137 is wholly automated and transparent to users.", "[0032] As gatherers 137 complete their job assignments, the associated data is passed on to a plurality of machines represented herein by element number 133 and termed collectors by the inventors.", "Collectors 133 are computer nodes adapted to efficiently collect data and to pass the data back to the database held in mass repository 129 .", "Collectors 133 are connected to gatherers 137 via digital network 139 .", "Each collector accepts completed data packages passed on to them by gatherers 137 .", "The movement of data through the hierarchy of the collectors is by push technology.", "[0033] Eventually, collectors pass completed jobs on to powerful filer processors.", "Filers 131 are dedicated and adapted to writing finished data directly into the database stored in repository 129 .", "In this example, following the disclosure of the cross-referenced patent application, finished data represents WEB summaries requested of system 109 by users 145 as taught in the cross-referenced patent application.", "Similarly, the software used in conjunction with communication system 109 could be identical or similar to the software taught therein.", "[0034] It is noted here, and supported by repeated references to digital network 139 that the entire architecture 115 is held off-line (not connected to the Internet) save for the described connection to server 127 and connections provided to gatherers 137 .", "In this regard, digital network 139 is a separate and dedicated network adapted for swift transmission of data between connected machines.", "In this way, no competition exists for precious bandwidth resources.", "In a centralized scenario such as is exemplified in this embodiment, network 139 may be implemented economically and efficiently.", "[0035] Network 139 may or may not be adapted to communicate via Internet protocol as long as database server 127 has a means for interpretation and rendering of alternate data formats into HTML, XML, or another suitable format for serving the data information to users 145 (typically in the form of a WEB page).", "The language in any case is a markup language, and is therefore extensible over time.", "In order to save storage space architecture 115 may use a metadata system of communication between connected nodes and storage facility 129 .", "[0036] It will be apparent to one with skill in the art that the exemplary architecture described above may be used with virtually any type of information gathering service that uses a client and parent software application without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.", "For example, a large corporation or technical campus may practice the present invention privately using the architecture described above on a private or corporate WAN instead of the Internet.", "One may also run on a Virtual Private Network (VPN) on top of the Internet backbone.", "The inventor intends that architecture 115 may be used with the WEB-summary service described in the related patent application referenced above, and therefore, is designed for that purpose in this embodiment.", "Slight modifications may be made to machines and connections in order to adapt architecture 115 to other variations of WEB-based or network-based information gathering and presentation services.", "[0037] The unique hierarchical connection scheme provided to architecture 115 provides optimum scalability to accommodate increased or decreased user demand.", "Furthermore, a fact that only one machine is required to have bi-directional communication capability with storage facility 129 insures economy and practicability with regard to socket connection requirements.", "More detail regarding the hierarchy of architecture 115 is provided below.", "[0038] [0038 ]FIG. 2 is a network diagram illustrating hierarchy and communication direction of part of the architecture 115 of FIG. 1. In this example, architecture 115 is held on a separate digital network 139 as described above with reference to FIG. 1. However, in an alternative embodiment, architecture 115 may be distributed over a WAN using the WAN, which could be the Internet, as a communication medium rather than a separate digital network as described in FIG. 1. [0039] In the above-described embodiment, all nodes would be slaved to their master nodes by addressing techniques on the WAN rather than hierarchical connection by a separate network.", "In still another embodiment, a separate digital network may still be provided to run in parallel with the WAN.", "The purpose of using a separate dedicated network to connect all nodes is to speed up transmission of data in the loop.", "[0040] Referring back to FIG. 2, architecture 115 for scheduled updates utilizes database server 127 at the very top of the hierarchy.", "Server 127 manages data stored in repository 129 and communicates to users via Internet path 117 .", "Server 127 has access to user-profile address lists, and users 145 (FIG.", "1) also upload special requests to server 128 (FIG.", "1) which are handles via server 130 and distributor hierarchy 136 (not shown in FIG. 2 ).", "As data gathering requirements come due according to user profiles and requests from users 145 are logged and stored, work assignments representing unfulfilled request are created and distributed over network 139 for scheduled requests to distributors 135 using a trickle-down pull technique as illustrated by the directional “communication”", "arrows connecting each distributor.", "For example, there are six distributors 135 represented in this hierarchical tree.", "The top distributor pulls assignments from server 127 and passes them on to two distributors “down the tree”, which in turn pass them on to three distributors further down the tree.", "The passing on, however, is controlled by queues at each distributor having adjustable thresholds.", "As a queue at a distributor falls below a specified threshold, the distributor requests more work assignments from the higher-level distributors to which it is slaved.", "[0041] It will be appreciated by one with skill in the art that there may be more than one distributor at the top of the tree passing assignments to still more distributors down the tree than are illustrated in this embodiment.", "The inventors intend to illustrate only the nature of cascading assignments to more and more distributors situated down the tree, by the queue-controlled pull technique.", "[0042] Ultimately, a lower level of distributors 135 will distribute assignments to gatherers 137 .", "It is the gatherer's job to accomplish the job assignments by navigating the Internet ( 111 ) by virtue of Internet connection 117 a and the URL lists associated with the job assignments, and to retrieve information requested in each given job assignment held in their queues.", "To achieve this end, each gatherer 137 is equipped with suitable navigational software and parsing capability as described in the cross-referenced patent application.", "The inventors also refer to gatherers 137 as agents.", "In this embodiment, gathers 137 also summarize and organize retrieved data into WEB-summaries according to user direction as passed on with the work assignments.", "The exact nature of job performance attributed to gatherers 137 will, of course, be dictated by the software and processing capability afforded them.", "As previously described, other information sourced from the Internet or any other data network may be obtained and processed according to predetermined rules.", "[0043] Gatherers 137 have connection ports provided and adapted for pulling information from distributors 135 .", "Gatherers 137 are similarly provided with connection ports that are adapted for passing information to collectors 133 as illustrated by the directional “communication”", "arrows.", "These ports are associated with network 139 and not with Internet 111 .", "A third port is provided for each gatherer to access the Internet or other designated WAN.", "[0044] The gatherers are queue-managed, as are the distributors, so the gatherers pull work assignments from the distributors according to queue thresholds, just as lower-level distributors work with higher-level distributors.", "The collectors 133 push collected data from completed assignments from the gatherers up the collector network to the filer or filers.", "[0045] It can be seen in this example that a hierarchical loop is created that ultimately ends back at repository 129 .", "For example, A top-level collector or collectors 133 pass completed job assignments to filers 131 , which are connected to and write data directly to repository 129 updating the database.", "Filers 131 may be provided as one or more powerful processors, or a lager number of less powerful processors.", "Moreover, a secondary or failsafe contingent of filers 131 may be provided and adapted to take over in the event that first-line filers fail for any reason.", "[0046] Processing power may be regulated with respect to all connected nodes such that data is continually being streamed down and back up the loop created by network 139 without being held up.", "In one embodiment, additional failsafe connections may be provided between connected nodes at a same level in the tree such that if one node appears ready to fail or needs to be withdrawn from the hierarchy for any reason, it's queue may be emptied to adjacent nodes.", "[0047] In another embodiment of the present invention, a means for detecting and mirroring duplicate requests is provided.", "This is provided in one embodiment in the form of a second database representing completed assignments and user attributes and a software module that checks for duplicate requests coming into server 127 against a first database containing all unfulfilled requests and those requests already in process.", "If a duplicate or more than one duplicate request is discovered such as, perhaps, return today's New York Times headlines, then only the leading request (one being processed) of the same nature is allowed to proceed.", "Once the request is written into repository 129 by one of filers 131 , it is mirrored or made available to all of the users that initiated the same request.", "In this way, much unnecessary work may be eliminated from the process to affect streamlining.", "[0048] In still another embodiment, a priority system may be used in the queuing and distribution of work assignments.", "In this embodiment, on-demand requests may take priority over requests that will be accessed at a later time by users.", "For example, priority requests may be tagged according to priority upon receipt by any means known in the art and caused to trickle through each queue according to that priority such that they may gain on and surpass other requests of lesser priority moving through the system.", "Any priority system may be adopted and used by system 109 according to enterprise rules.", "[0049] In still a further embodiment of the present invention, gatherers 137 may, if overloaded to a point wherein they are causing an unacceptable amount of latency, use their Internet connection to send completed job assignments over Internet paths 117 a and 117 to a duplicate or mirrored site that is distributed elsewhere on Internet 111 .", "Such a mirrored site may have a separate digital network and nodes connected thereto just as architecture 115 .", "It may be a case wherein the second site is not operating to capacity and could handle the extra load.", "Such a second site may be connected to a first site via Internet connection as described, or may also have a dedicated data link connecting to the first site and adapted to become active only when required for load balancing.", "[0050] Server 127 is, in a preferred embodiment, adapted to notify users 145 when their requests are available in the case of user-initiated requests, and to schedule delivery of updates according to stored user profiles.", "This is accomplished via Internet path 117 .", "In some cases, requests may be delivered if so ordered.", "In other cases they may be pulled from server 127 or another connected server adapted for the purpose.", "As to network 139 , a push system is used.", "Work assignments are pushed from each node to the next.", "This concept acts to discourage any overload.", "A separate data storage facility may be provided wherein users may access completed requests.", "Un-accessed requests may be purged after a period of time.", "Similarly, requests that have been accessed or delivered are also purged from the system.", "[0051] If the entire system is operating at maximum capacity, then server 127 may be programmed to slow or stop the receiving of requests until such time that the system is deemed capable of handling more work at the desired pace.", "Such a condition would alert system administrators of a need to scale-up according to more demand.", "Similarly, if there is a lull in workflow, then parts of the system may be shutdown without affecting system performance.", "Ultimately, a system could be scaled down if needed.", "[0052] Primary access to system 109 may be provided at the ISP level such as with the Internet Portal server described in the cross-referenced patent application.", "Subscribers may first have to verify identity and perhaps use a password before being allowed to access server 127 .", "In some cases, interface servers may be provided and distributed over different regions wherein requests from those servers are delivered to a server such as server 127 .", "[0053] It will be apparent to one with skill in the art that a networked system architecture such as architecture 115 may be wholly automated and adapted to perform a wide variety of information gathering and presentation services.", "For example, architecture 115 may be used for obtaining and presenting WEB-summaries as is the case in this example, or it may be adapted to such as returning review summaries to administrative workers regarding such as completed cases or other such review work.", "There are many possible and varied implementations.", "Therefore, the method and apparatus of the present invention should be afforded the broadest scope.", "The spirit and scope of the present invention is limited only by the claims that follow." ]

[ "RELATED APPLICATIONS This application claims priority to, and the benefit of, U.S. Provisional Patent Application entitled “Adjustable Width Stairwell Safety Gate,” having assigned Ser.", "No. 61/031,013, filed on Feb. 25, 2008 on behalf of Janelle Fitzpatrick.", "FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates generally to child safety barriers, and more specifically to an adjustable width stairwell child safety gate comprised of a frameless, non-rigid, washable, attractive, planar barrier device to prevent ingress and egress of a small child into a stairway passage.", "BACKGROUND Conventional child safety gates are typically comprised of an inflexible outer frame structure having rigid horizontal and vertical members to support such frame.", "Conventional gates typically aesthetically detract from the attractiveness of newer homes.", "Conventional rigid framed gates are difficult to install and equally difficult to disassemble and remove or relocate.", "Furthermore, conventional rigid framed gates require drilling into the walls and wooden banisters, or in the alternative, they require tedious assembly of clumsy wooden or plastic faceplates that are then hinged to the existing stairway rails as a means of attaching the safety gate.", "Furthermore, conventional rigid framed child safety gates are not adaptable to snugly attach to custom decorative stairway posts, banisters or balusters having vertically varying diameters and configurations, or that are non-parallel relative to each other, or that are non-perpendicular relative to flooring surface or that are otherwise asymmetrical.", "Typical state of the art child safety gates often leave large gaps between the safety gate and the stairway railing in which a small child may become trapped or wedged while attempting to wiggle through such a gap.", "Some patents have been issued in the art of child safety barriers: U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,194, entitled “Safety Barrier for Small Children”, issued to Jeffrey M. Langan on Aug. 1, 1989, discloses a barrier or safety guard for preventing the escape of small children from a safe area, having as its basic element a panel of flexible material, preferably in the form of netting with relatively small apertures therein.", "A border of flexible material is provided for the periphery of the panel and has a plurality of spaced openings around the entire periphery of the panel.", "These openings are provided with grommets and a plurality of ties or laces by which the borders of the panel can be fastened to points on the supporting structure.", "The panel can be folded in either or both dimensions to adjust its size to smaller dimensions.", "Small sub-panels can be used to prevent the main panel from being dislodged.", "U.S. Pat. No. 5,617,674, entitled “Adjustable Passage Gate”, issued to Timothy T. Terril on Apr. 8, 1997, discloses an adjustable passageway gate that includes a thin generally rectangular-parallelepiped-shaped panel, a large, extendable, retractable, and generally rectangular-parallelepiped-shaped extension member, a pair of small, spaced-apart, extendable, retractable, and generally rectangular-parallelepiped-shaped extension members, an elongated and generally rectangular-parallelepiped-shaped cross member, and a bolt.", "The thin generally rectangular-parallelepiped-shaped panel is positionable on one side of a wall.", "The large, extendable, retractable, and generally rectangular-parallelepiped-shaped extension member and the pair of small, spaced-apart, extendable, retractable, and generally rectangular-parallelepiped-shaped extension members are extendable to contact the wall when the passageway of the wall is wider than the thin generally rectangular-parallelepiped-shaped panel.", "U.S. Pat. No. 6,470,948, entitled “Safety Gate”, issued to Robert Yates on Oct. 19, 2002, discloses a collapsible, child, safety gate for selectively forming a barrier across an opening inside a house such as a stairwell, including a storage housing capable of being fixed in position across the house opening, either permanently or temporarily, and a folding curtain-which can be stored in the storage housing when folded and which can be withdrawn therefrom along guide tracks to an extended position for forming a barrier across the opening.", "U.S. Pat. No. 4,787,174, entitled “Child Safety Gate”, issued to Tyrone Brown on Nov. 28, 1988, discloses a sturdy, effective and economical portable barrier is provided to safely restrain and protect babies, toddlers and pets.", "The safety barrier comprises spring-biased decorative panels which expand to securely engage a door frame contract to a compact compressed position.", "U.S. Patent Publication No. US 2006/0042163 A1, entitled “Baby Gate”, filed by Allen S. Nitz on Aug. 27, 2004 discloses a gate assembly for selectively opening and closing a passageway includes opposed sides defined by a pair of newel posts.", "The gate assembly includes a gate, first and second mounting assemblies and a pair of hinges.", "Each mounting assembly includes a mount face plate, a backing plate and a plurality of fasteners for mounting the face plate to one of the posts.", "The hinges define a hinge axis and couple the gate to the first mounting assembly face plate and permit pivotal movement of the gate about the hinge axis between first and second open positions and through a closed position through an arc of about 270°.", "The gate is substantially parallel to the face plate when in the closed position.", "A caster wheel is coupled with the bottom of the gate in order to facilitate pivotal movement of the gate and to inhibit undesired forces on the hinges.", "U.S. Patent Publication No. US 2006/0180284 A1, entitled “Child Safety Gate”, filed by Katherine Wiggins on Feb. 15, 2005, discloses a child safety gate comprises a rigid frame structure including a pair of transversely spaced rigid upright frame legs and an intermediate leg positioned at right angles to the upright frame legs, a flexible gate member having means securing the gate member in unitary assembly with the rigid frame structure;", "and a pair of flexible strap-like adjustable hinges secured to the transversely spaced rigid upright frame legs for securing the flexible adjustable foldable hinges to stairway posts.", "Each of the flexible adjustable hinges is comprised of a flexible top strip piece having a cushioned non-slip fabric layer secured on an inside surface and each of the strip pieces and the cushioned non-slip fabric layer are sized, shaped and positioned for assembled contact with upright stairway posts to present slipping of the straps thereby keeping the gate firmly position and to avoid scratching of the upright stairway posts when attached to the upright stairway posts.", "U.S. Pat. No. 7,178,792, entitled “Child Safety Barriers”, issued to Robert D. Monahan on Feb. 20, 2007, discloses a child safety gate including a flexible barrier that is retractable into a housing and extendable across a passageway to inhibit passage by a child.", "An electrically operable extension lock solenoid inhibits barrier extension until activated by a parent.", "The gate includes a motion sensor, a night light, a child monitor and an interactive audio-visual display.", "U.S. Pat. No. 5,437,115, entitled “Security Gate Apparatus”, issued to T. Brent Freese on Aug. 1, 1995, discloses a security gate apparatus for attachment across an opening defined by first and second vertical surfaces, including a first gate panel and a second gate panel slidingly connected to the first gate panel so as to permit horizontal extension and retraction of the gate apparatus to a desired horizontal dimension.", "A first vertical leg is pivotably attached to an outer vertical member of the first gate panel by a first link means and a second vertical leg is pivotably connected to an outer vertical member of the second gate panel by a second link means.", "The security gate apparatus also includes means for locking the first and second gate panels in the desired horizontal dimension and at least one contact pad on a surface of the first and second vertical legs opposite the outer vertical members of the first and second gate panels, respectively.", "U.S. Pat. No. 5,531,258, entitled “Folding Soft Gate”, issued to Keith L. Poulson on Jul. 2, 1996, discloses a security gate for positioning within an area way such as a doorway.", "The gate includes a support structure defined by a frame and a flexible panel supported by the frame.", "The frame includes horizontal members and vertical members wherein the vertical members may be conveniently folded to a position parallel to the horizontal members whereby the gate is folded to a compact configuration for transportation or storage.", "While these patents teach the general concept of barriers to implement for child safety, they do not teach a frameless, non-rigid child safety barrier mechanism particularly suited for forming a barrier from banister to banister without damaging either the structural integrity or decorative finish of ornamentally designed wooden banisters, balusters, rails or posts.", "Conventional gates may be somewhat satisfactory in generally preventing the ingress and egress of small children through stairway passages, there is a tremendous need for a frameless, non-rigid, washable, attractive, planar child safety gate that is capable of widening and selectively expanding to securely fit across a variety of stairwell configurations, particularly from banister to banister.", "Additionally, there is a need for such a flexible child safety gate that will not damage the stairway banister and that will aesthetically compliment the modern elegant homes having high-end custom stairway posts, balusters and banisters.", "Furthermore, there is a need for an improved flexible child safety gate that is readily removable and has the practical attribute of being washable.", "Thus there remains a need for an invention having an improved frameless adjustable-width child safety gate comprising a washable aesthetically appealing flexible barrier device to prevent ingress and egress of a small child into a stairway passage and a means for attaching frameless barrier device to stairway banisters or posts;", "including stairway posts having vertically varying diameters and configurations, or that are non-parallel relative to each other, or that are non-perpendicular relative to flooring surface or that are otherwise asymmetrical.", "The present invention provides a non-obvious solution to all of the above problems.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, there is provided an improved adjustable width stairwell child safety gate comprised of a frameless, non-rigid, washable, aesthetically attractive, planar barrier device to safely prevent ingress and egress of a small child into a stairway passage.", "The adjustable width stairwell child safety gate does not require drilling into the stairway banisters and therefore, will neither permanently attach to nor damage custom stairway banisters, posts, rails or balusters.", "The adjustable width stairwell child safety gate includes multiple strap-like fastener means for attaching frameless barrier device to stairway banisters or posts;", "including stairway posts having vertically varying diameters and configurations, or that are non-parallel relative to each other, or that are non-perpendicular relative to flooring surface or that are otherwise asymmetrical.", "The adjustable width stairwell child safety gate is extendable to securely fit, from banister to banister, across stairways of varying size, style and width.", "The novel adjustable width stairwell child safety gate can be compactly rolled to either side of the stairway passage when not in use to quickly and conveniently allow unrestricted access to stairway.", "This improved child safety gate is particularly useful for safely preventing the passage of small children into stairway passages.", "To this end, the novel child safety gate is attractive, is structurally durable, and is readily removable and washable.", "A more detailed explanation of the invention is provided in the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING The present invention is best understood from the following detailed description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawing.", "It is emphasized that, according to common practice, the various features of the drawing are not necessarily to scale.", "On the contrary, the dimensions of the various features are arbitrarily expanded or reduced for clarity.", "Like numerals denote like features throughout the specification and drawing.", "Referring now to the drawings in which like reference numbers represent the corresponding parts throughout: FIG. 1 illustrates a frontal perspective view of the improved adjustable width stairwell child safety gate;", "FIG. 2 illustrates a frontal perspective view of the improved adjustable width stairwell child safety gate shown in FIG. 1 installed in a stairwell passage with flexible gate member 1 extended across the stairway to prevent passage of a child;", "FIG. 3 illustrates a view of the reverse side of the adjustable width stairwell child safety gate shown in FIG. 1 with an intermediate section of flexible gate member shown in full and dotted lines to illustrate internal means of vertical structural support and internal means of selectively lengthening and contracting flexible gate member to securely fit across stairway passageways of differing widths;", "FIG. 4 illustrates a frontal perspective view of the improved child safety gate shown in FIG. 2 with frameless, non-rigid gate shown in compact coiled arrangement wherein flexible member can be compactly rolled to either side of the stairway passage when not in use to allow unrestricted access to stairway without needing to completely remove flexible member from stairway post;", "and FIG. 5 illustrates a frontal perspective of the improved child safety gate as shown in FIG. 2 wherein the flexible gate member is shown in an alternative embodiment having a vertical zipper to allow ingress and egress through the flexible gate member when desired.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION Although the invention has been described in terms of exemplary embodiments, the invention is not intended to be limited to the specific terminology so selected.", "Rather, it is to be understood that the appended claims should be construed broadly, to include all technical equivalents that operate in a similar manner to accomplish similar functions.", "The preceding merely illustrates the principles of the invention.", "It will thus be appreciated that those skilled in the art will be able to devise various arrangements which, although not explicitly described or shown herein, embody the principles of the invention and are included within its spirit and scope.", "Furthermore, all examples and conditional language recited herein are principally intended expressly to be only for pedagogical purposes and to aid the reader in understanding the principles of the invention and the concepts contributed by the inventors to furthering the art, and are to be construed as being without limitation to such specifically recited examples and conditions.", "Moreover, all statements herein reciting principles, aspects, and embodiments of the invention, as well as specific examples thereof, are intended to encompass both structural and functional equivalents thereof.", "Additionally, it is intended that such equivalents include both currently known equivalents and equivalents developed in the future, i.e., any elements developed that perform the same function, regardless of structure.", "Referring now to FIGS. 1-5 , the present invention in its preferred embodiment is an adjustable width stairwell child safety gate.", "Most modern or new homes have elaborate, often custom-built, upright wooden stairway posts.", "An adjustable width stairwell child safety gate 1 - 2 as shown in FIG. 1 is provided for mounting upon a such configured wooden stairway as shown in FIG. 2 having a pair of upright wooden stairway posts, banisters, railings, or balusters 3 .", "The child safety gate 1 - 2 is adjustable in width to securely fit in a vertical planar orientation between the posts when in assembled relation therewith to safely prevent the passage of small children.", "The adjustable width child safety gate 1 - 2 is comprised of a frameless flexible gate member 1 , three pairs of fastener means indicated generally at 2 to secure the gate member 1 to the stairway posts 3 .", "The adjustable width child safety gate 1 - 2 is further comprised of three vertical structural support rods 6 as shown in FIG. 3 for rigidifying the flexible gate member and three pairs of lateral adjustment means indicated generally at 5 as shown in FIG. 3 to adjust the width of the flexible gate member 1 by facilitating the engagement of longitudinal tension necessary such that flexible gate member 1 will securely fit between wooden stairway posts 3 of varying size, style and width.", "A further improvement over conventional child safety gates is that this adjustable width stairwell child safety gate 7 as shown in FIG. 4 is provided for mounting upon an upright wooden stairway post 3 in vertical coiled spatial orientation wherein flexible gate member can be compactly rolled and secured in assembled relation to either side of the stairway passage when not in use to allow unrestricted access to stairway without needing to completely remove flexible gate member from 7 stairway post 3 .", "Mounting of the adjustable width stairwell child safety gate upon one upright wooden stairway posts 3 in vertical coiled spatial orientation as shown in FIG. 4 can preferably be accomplished by disengaging, three fastener means indicated generally at 2 shown in FIG. 2 to secure the gate member 1 to a single stairway post 3 .", "The flexible gate member 1 as shown in FIG. 1 is preferably made or fabricated out of a durable resilient material, such as lightweight meshed netting and reinforced nylon with the attractive washable woven cloth or woven fabric used as the material for the exterior surface of the flexible gate member 1 .", "The attractive washable woven cloth or woven fabric used as the material for the exterior surface can be of various aesthetically pleasing, decorative, ornamental designs and colors.", "The adjustable fastener means 2 as shown in FIGS. 1-2 comprises three pairs of adjustable flexible strap-like hinges 2 extending laterally (horizontally) as a fastening means to secure the flexible gate member 1 to stairway posts, balusters or banisters in a planar spatial orientation.", "The adjustable flexible strap-like hinges 2 as shown in FIGS. 1-2 are attached to the vertical edges of the upper, mid and lower portions of the flexible gate member 1 to engage the stairway posts 3 as shown in FIGS. 2-3 .", "A further modification of the adjustable flexible strap-like hinges 2 as shown in FIGS. 1 , 2 , 3 and 5 may also include fasteners of different types including, but not limited to, loop type fasteners, snap type fasteners, hook and eye type fasteners.", "These adjustable flexible strap-like hinges 2 may also include fasteners with a cushioned non-slip fabric spatially oriented for assembled contact with the wooden upright stairway posts 3 to prevent any slipping of the flexible strap-like hinges 2 or scratching of the wooden upright stairway posts 3 .", "The three pairs of lateral adjustment means indicated generally at 5 as shown in FIG. 3 are preferably comprised of, but not limited to, lateral adjustment buckles to adjust the width of the flexible gate member 1 by facilitating the engagement of longitudinal tension necessary such that flexible gate member 1 will securely fit between wooden stairway posts 3 of varying size, style and width.", "The internal portions of the lateral adjustment buckles provide a fastening means to limit the differential expansion of the flexible gate member and thereby facilitate the secure fit of the gate member across stairways of varying size, style and width.", "The lateral adjustment means 5 further reinforce the strength and resilience of the flexible gate member.", "The lateral adjustment means 5 as shown in FIG. 3 are spatially arranged to complementingly cooperate with each other to provide a banister to banister engagement portion which enables the barrier to fully and completely horizontally span across a stairway passage.", "The flexible gate member 1 shown in FIG. 3 is provided with three tubular sleeves, grooves, channels, or slots indicated generally at 4 for receiving the three removable vertical structural support rods 6 .", "The tubular sleeves 4 can be manufactured, molded or formed by stitching portions of the edges of the fabric in lapped engagement with one side of the gate member 1 to form tubular sleeves to receive the removable vertical structural support rods 6 .", "To fortify the structural integrity of the flexible gate member 1 and to securely hold the removable vertical structural support rods 6 rigidly in place within the flexible gate member 1 shown in FIG. 3 , the preferred embodiment of the tubular sleeves 4 will have a width slightly greater than the width of the removable vertical structural support rods 6 .", "The three removable vertical structural support rods 6 as shown in FIG. 3 for rigidifying the flexible gate member are preferably made or fabricated out of wood, impact-resistant plastic or composite materials.", "As shown in FIG. 3 , the rods 6 are sized and shaped to set into the tubular sleeves 4 in vertical parallel relation when in assembly together to rigidify the flexible gate member.", "The preferred embodiment of the removable vertical structural support rods 6 as shown in FIG. 3 will provide limits to the upward (vertical) compression of the flexible gate member 1 to prevent a small child from raising the lower portion of the flexible gate member 1 in an upward (vertical) direction in attempting ingress or egress beneath the flexible gate member 1 into the stairway passage.", "A further modification of the flexible gate member 1 as shown in FIG. 5 will facilitate quick ingress and egress by having a vertical spatially oriented zipper 8 which perpendicularly extends upward relative to the horizontal edge of the lower portion of the flexible gate member 1 .", "The preferred embodiment of the vertical spatially oriented zipper 8 will, but is not limited to, bisectingly divide the flexible gate member 1 into equal partitions as shown in FIG. 5 .", "The vertical spatially oriented zipper 8 will function in conjoined engagement with the flexible gate member 1 when in a closed position to prevent ingress and egress of small children through the flexible gate member 1 .", "When the vertical spatially oriented zipper 8 is unzipped and thereby extended downward towards the horizontal edge of the lower portion of the flexible gate member 1 , the vertical spatially oriented zipper 8 will operate to quickly permit ingress and egress through the flexible gate member 1 into the stairway passage when desired.", "A further modification of the flexible gate member 1 as shown in FIG. 5 will include a securing means 9 to firmly fasten the vertical spatially oriented zipper 8 in fully upwardly extended vertical orientation adjoined to the horizontal edge of the upper portion of the flexible gate member 1 .", "Generally, it is expected that the zipper 8 will be in a fully upwardly extended orientation relative to the horizontal edge of the upper portion of the flexible gate member 1 to prevent ingress or egress of small child into stairway passage.", "The securing means 9 to firmly fasten the vertical spatially oriented zipper 8 may include, but is not limited to, snap type fasteners or Velcro type fasteners.", "This description of the exemplary embodiments is intended to be read in connection with the figures of the accompanying drawing, which are to be considered part of the entire written description.", "In the description, relative terms such as “lower,” “upper,” “horizontal,” “vertical,” “above,” “below,” “up,” “down,” “top”", "and “bottom”", "as well as derivatives thereof (e.g., “horizontally,” “downwardly,” “upwardly,” etc.) should be construed to refer to the orientation as then described or as shown in the drawing under discussion.", "These relative terms are for convenience of description and do not require that the apparatus be constructed or operated in a particular orientation.", "Terms concerning attachments, coupling and the like, such as “connected”", "and “interconnected,” refer to a relationship wherein structures are secured or attached to one another either directly or indirectly through intervening structures, as well as both movable or rigid attachments or relationships, unless expressly described otherwise.", "The above-described preferred embodiments are intended to illustrate the principles of the invention, but not to limit its scope thereto.", "The described preferred embodiments are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed.", "Rather, the appended claims should be construed broadly, to include other variants and embodiments of the invention, which will be apparent to those skilled in the art and may be made without fundamentally deviating from the spirit and scope of the invention, as illustrated in the above-described preferred embodiments." ]

[ "[0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/206,943, filed May 25, 2000.", "[0002] Dementias are neurodegenerative diseases characterized by learning and cognitive deficiencies and are typically accompanied by Behavioral Symptoms, Psychological Symptoms and Motor Symptoms.", "Dementias include Alzheimer's disease, Lewy Body Dementia, Vascular Dementia, Dementia in Parkinson's Disease, Fronto-Temporal Dementia, Pick's Disease and Corticobasal Degeneration.", "[0003] Alzheimer's disease, accounting for 50-60% of cases, is the most common form of dementia.", "The second most common form was believed to be vascular dementia.", "Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is a recently identified form that may account for a substantial number of cases, and now is proposed to be the second most common type of dementia ( Pharmacotherapy (1999) 19(7): 795-803 at 795;", "J Neural Transm (1998)[Suppl] 54:107-116 at 107).", "Lewy bodies are spherical inclusion bodies seen in the brain stem nuclei of patients with Parkinson's disease.", "Recently, they were identified in cerebral and limbic cortices as well.", "Lewy bodies predominantly contain neurofilaments and other proteins such as ubiquitin.", "The origin of their development is unknown.", "[0004] Alzheimer's disease and DLB can be distinguished at the molecular level and through clinical observation.", "Alzheimer's disease is characterized by deposits of amyloid protein and hyperphosphorylation of the microtubular associated protein tau, and DLB by neurofilament abnormalities including phosphorylation, ubiquitination, proteolysis, and cross-linking of constitutent proteins.", "The two diseases appear therefore to be distinct at an ultrastructural and molecular level, a conclusion which is consistent with the fact that the clinical syndromes associated with DLB and Alzheimer's disease are sufficiently differentiated to allow for accurate antemortem diagnosis ( J Neural Transm (1998)[Suppl] 54:107-116 at 107).", "[0005] The presence of psychopathology early in the disease course distinguishes DLB from other dementias ( Am J Psychiatry 156(7): 1039-45).", "The Parkinsonian motor features are typically mild, spontaneous features such as bradykinesia and rigidity.", "Masked faces, hypophonia and a slow shuffling gait are also common.", "Patients treated with levodopa respond poorly and the drug can exacerbate or cause hallucinations ( Pharmacotherapy 1999: 19(7) 795-803 at 796).", "[0006] Patients with Parkinson's disease often develop dementia as the disease progresses, and hallucinations are a common side effect of levodopa therapy (“dopamine induced psychosis”).", "If the onsets of dementia and Parkinson's symptoms occur within 12 months of each other, a diagnosis of DLB can be made.", "The symptoms of myoclonus, absence of rest tremor, lack of response to levodopa, or no perceived need to administer levodopa are 10 times more likely in DLB than in Parkinson's disease Id.", "at 798.", "Since the compounds of the present invention have very little activity at the dopamine receptor (unlike some other 5HT 2A antagonists), these compounds are useful in treating patients susceptible to dopamine induced psychosis.", "[0007] Increased sensitivity to neuroleptic agents is another important indicator in DLB and has significant pharmacotherapeutic implications.", "Many patients require neuroleptics to treat psychotic symptoms, but neuroleptics can exacerbate the parkinsonian symptoms (extrapyramidal symptoms, “EPS”) in DLB.", "Therefore, neuroleptics in DLB must be prescribed with caution, if at all.", "Id.", "at 796.", "The compounds of the present invention do not exacerbate EPS.", "[0008] The combination of the sensitivity to neuroleptic agents, the age and condition of the patient, and the symptoms manifested in DLB produce a quandary for the physician in prescribing medication.", "There have been many suggestions for therapy published, but all therapies have had limited or mixed success.", "[0009] Pick's Disease is a dementing disorder primarily involving the frontal and temporal lobes.", "It is characterized clinically by an insidious mid-life onset (50-65 years of age) of personality and behavioral changes, disinhibition, impairment of language function and decline in memory and intellect.", "NEUROPATHY OF DEMENTING DISORDERS, Wm.", "R. Markesberry, MD, editor, Arnold, Hodder Headline.", "[0010] Fronto-Temperoral dementia is a dementing disorder characterized by degeneration of the frontal and anterior temporal lobe.", "[0011] Corticobasal degeneration is a dementing disorder which is predominantly an extrapyramidal motor disorder.", "[0012] It is an object of the present invention to treat symptoms of Dementias.", "Such symptoms include [0013] a) Behavioral symptoms such as sleep disturbances, delirium (including fluctuations), aggression and agitation;", "[0014] b) Psychological symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions, anxiety and depression;", "[0015] c) Motor symptoms which means impaired ability to carry out motor activities despite intact motor function;", "and [0016] d) Learning and cognitive impairment, for example, impaired ability to learn new information or to recall previously learned information (e.g., impaired social memory), aphasia, apraxia, agnosia, disturbance in executive functioning, etc.", "[0017] It is also an object of the present invention to treat dopamine induced psychosis.", "Another object is to treat patients for dementia, or dopamine induced psychosis having Parkinson's disease or DLB, without exacerbating or creating EPS or dopamine induced psychosis.", "[0018] A compound of the present invention, (+)-α-(2,3-dimethoxyphenyl)-1-[2-(4-fluorophenyl)ethyl]-4-piperidinemethanol, or its pharmaceutically acceptable salt, is a potent antagonist at the serotonin 5HT 2A receptor ( J. Pharm.", "Exp.", "Ther.", "(1996) 277:968-9881) incorporated herein by reference.", "It was described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,134,149, incorporated herein by reference.", "[0019] Other compounds of the present invention include prodrugs of (+)-α-(2,3-dimethoxyphenyl)- 1-[2-(4-fluorophenyl)ethyl]-4-piperidinemethanol, or its pharmaceutically acceptable salt, which mean that a compound is administered which is different from (+)-α-(2,3-dimethoxyphenyl)-1-[2-(4-fluorophenyl)ethyl]-4-piperidinemethanol but (+)-α-(2,3-dimethoxyphenyl)-1-[2-(4-fluorophenyl)ethyl]-4-piperidinemethanol becomes available in the body after metabolism.", "As used herein, “Prodrug”", "has the specific meaning of the compounds disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,028,083, incorporated herein by reference, shown hereafter as Formula II: [0020] wherein R is C 1 -C 20 alkyl, or a stereoisomer or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof.", "“Alkyl”", "means a branched or straight chain alkyl group specified by the amount of carbons in the alkyl group, e.g., C 1 -C 20 alkyl means one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, or twenty carbon branched or straight chain alkyl or ranges thereof, for example, but not limited to C 1 -C 15 , C 5 -C 20 , C 3 -C 15 , C 5 -C 15 , C 7 -C 15 and C 7 to C 9 .", "[0021] (+)-α-(2,3-dimethoxyphenyl)-1-[2-(4-fluorophenyl)ethyl]-4-piperidinemethanol antagonizes the effects of serotonin at the 5HT 2A receptor and thus is useful for treating a variety of conditions.", "Some of the uses for (+)-α-(2,3-dimethoxyphenyl)-1-[2-(4-fluorophenyl)ethyl]-4-piperidinemethanol have been disclosed in patents and patent applications.", "U.S. Pat. No. 5,169,096 claimed compounds having a generic scope which encompassed the (+)-α-(2,3-dimethoxyphenyl)-1-[2-(4-fluorophenyl)ethyl]-4-piperidinemethanol and disclosed uses of the treatment of anorexia nervosa, variant angina, Raynaud's phenomenon, coronary vasospasms, prophylactic treatment of migraine, cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension, peripheral vascular disease, thrombotic episodes, cardiopulmonary emergencies and arrythmias, and has anesthetic properties.", "See also U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,783,471;", "4,912,117;", "and 5,021,428, which are divisions of U.S. Pat. No. 5,169,096.", "See also U.S. Pat. No. 4,877,798 (fibromyalgia), U.S. Pat. No. 4,908,369 (insomnia);", "U.S. Pat. No. 5,106,855 (glaucoma);", "U.S. Pat. No. 6,004,980 (anxiety, Raynauds phenomenon, cardiac arrhythmia;", "extrapyramidal symptoms;", "drug abuse, anorexia, fibromylagia).", "All of the foregoing are incorporated herein by reference.", "[0022] The (+)-α-(2,3-dimethoxyphenyl)-1-[2-(4-fluorophenyl)ethyl]-4-piperidinemethanol was then specifically claimed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,134,149 which disclosed uses of antagonizing serotonin at the 5HT2 receptor, treating anxiety, variant angina, anorexia nervosa, Raynaud's phenomenon, intermittent claudication, coronary or peripheral vasospasms, fibromyalgia, extrapyramidal symptoms, arrythmias, thrombotic illness, transient ischemic attacks, drug abuse, and psychotic illness such as schizophrenia and mania.", "See also U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,561,144;", "5,700,812;", "5,700,813;", "5,721,249-divisionals of U.S. Pat. No. 5,134,149-and also U.S. Pat. Nos[.", "].5,618,824 (obsessive compulsive disorder) and PCT/US97/02597 (depressive disorders including major depressive episode and dysthymia, and bipolar disorder), and insomnia and sleep apnea, incorporated herein by reference.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0023] Terms used herein have the meanings defined here and elsewhere in this specification.", "[0024] a) “Pharmaceutically acceptable salts”", "means either an acid addition salt or a basic addition salt, whichever is possible to make with the compounds of the present invention.", "“Pharmaceutically acceptable acid addition salt”", "is any non-toxic organic or inorganic acid addition salt of the base compounds represented by Formula I. Illustrative inorganic acids which form suitable salts include hydrochloric, hydrobromic, sulfuric and phosphoric acid and acid metal salts such as sodium monohydrogen orthophosphate and potassium hydrogen sulfate.", "Illustrative organic acids which form suitable salts include the mono-, di- and tri-carboxylic acids.", "Illustrative of such acids are, for example, acetic, glycolic, lactic, pyruvic, malonic, succinic, glutaric, fumaric, malic, tartaric, citric, ascorbic, maleic, hydroxymaleic, benzoic, hydroxybenzoic, phenylacetic, cinnamic, salicyclic, 2-phenoxybenzoic, p-toluenesulfonic acid and sulfonic acids such as methanesulfonic acid and 2-hydroxyethanesulfonic acid.", "Either the mono- or di-acid salts can be formed, and such salts can exist in either a hydrated or substantially anhydrous form.", "In general, the acid addition salts of these compounds are more soluble in water and various hydrophilic organic solvents and which in comparison to their free base forms, generally demonstrate higher melting points.", "[0025] “Pharmaceutically acceptable basic addition salts”", "means non-toxic organic or inorganic basic addition salts of the compounds of Formula (I) or any of its intermediates.", "Examples are alkali metal or alkaline-earth metal hydroxides such as sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium or barium hydroxides;", "ammonia, and aliphatic, alicyclic, or aromatic organic amines such as methylamine, trimethylamine and picoline.", "The selection of the appropriate salt may be important so that the ester is not hydrolyzed.", "The selection criteria for the appropriate salt will be known to one skilled in the art.", "[0026] b) “Patient”", "means a warm blooded animal, such as for example rat, mice, dogs, cats, guinea pigs, and primates such as humans.", "[0027] c) “Treat”", "or “treating”", "means to alleviate symptoms, eliminate the causation of the symptoms either on a temporary or permanent basis, or to prevent or slow the appearance of symptoms of the named disorder or condition.", "[0028] d) “Therapeutically effective amount”", "means an amount of the compound which is effective in treating the named disorder or condition.", "[0029] e) “Pharmaceutically acceptable carrier”", "is a non-toxic solvent, dispersant, excipient, adjuvant or other material which is mixed with the compound of the present invention in order to permit the formation of a pharmaceutical composition, i.e., a dosage form capable of administration to the patient.", "One example of such a carrier is a pharmaceutically acceptable oil typically used for parenteral administration.", "[0030] f) “Sleep Disturbances”", "means fragmented sleep, narcolepsy and “REM”", "or “Rapid Eye Movement”", "behavior disorder, restless legs and/or periodic limb movements.", "[0031] g) “EPS”", "or “Extrapyramidal symptoms”", "are symptoms which may manifest upon administration of neuroleptic drugs.", "The symptoms include a parkinsonian-like syndrome wherein the patient experiences muscular rigidity and tremors.", "Some experience akathesia and acute dystonic reactions.", "[0032] h) “Stereoisomers”", "is a general term for all isomers of the individual molecules that differ only in the orientation of their atoms in space.", "It includes mirror image isomers (enantiomers), geometric (cis/trans) isomers, and isomers of compounds with more than one chiral center that are not mirror images of one another (diastereoisomers).", "[0033] i) M100907 means (+)-isomer of -(2,3-dimethoxyphenyl)-1-[2-(4-fluorophenyl)ethyl]-4-piperidinemethanol.", "[0034] The (+)-isomer of -(2,3-dimethoxyphenyl)-1-[2-(4-fluorophenyl)ethyl]-4-piperidinemethanol can be prepared by methods described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,134,149.", "One suitable method follows.", "[0035] In Step A of Reaction Scheme I, an esterification reaction is carried out between racemic alpha-(2,3-dimethoxyphenyl)-1-[2-(4-fluorophenyl)ethyl]-4-piperidinemethanol (structure 1) and the (+)-isomer of alphamethoxyphenylacetic acid (structure 2).", "This esterification produces the diastereomeric mixture identified as structure 3.", "These diastereomers are subjected to silica gel chromatography which separates the two diastereomers, thereby isolating the (+,+) diastereomer as is depicted in Step B. In Step C, the (+,+) diastereomer is hydrolyzed which produces the (+)-isomer of alpha(2,3-dimethoxy-phenyl)-1-[2-(4-fluorophenyl)ethyl]-4-piperidinemethanol.", "[0036] The esterification reaction can be carried out using techniques known in the art.", "Typically approximately equivalent amounts of racemic alpha-(2,3-dimethoxyphenyl)- 1 -[2-(4-fluorophenyl)ethyl]-4-piperidinemethanol and the (+)-isomer of alpha-methoxyphenylacetic acid are contacted in an organic solvent such as methylene chloride, THF, chloroform, or toluene and heated to reflux for a period of time ranging from 5 to 24 hours.", "The esterification is typically carried out in the presence of an equivalent amount of dicyclohexylcarbodiimide (DCC) and a catalytic amount of 4-dimethylaminopyridine (DMAP).", "The resulting diastereomers can be isolated by filtration of the dicyclohexylurea and evaporation of the filtrate.", "[0037] The diastereomers are then subjected to silica gel chromatography which separates the (+,+) and the (−,+) diastereomers.", "This chromatographic separation may be carried out as is known in the art.", "A 1:1 mixture of hexane and ethyl acetate is one suitable eluent.", "[0038] The resulting (+,+) diastereomer is then subjected to a hydrolysis reaction which produces the (+)-enantiomer of alpha-(2,3-dimethoxyphenyl)-1-[2-(4-fluorophenyl)ethyl]-4-piperidinemethanol.", "The hydrolysis is carried out by contacting the diastereomer with an excess of a base such as potassium carbonate in an aqueous alcoholic solution.", "The hydrolysis is carried out at a temperature of about 15 to 30° C. for a period of time ranging from 2 to 24 hours.", "The resulting (+)-isomer of alpha-(2,3-dimethoxyphenyl)-1-[2-(4-fluorophenyl)ethyl]-4-piperidinemethanol may then be recovered by dilution with water and extraction with methylene chloride.", "It is then purified by recrystallization from a solvent system such as cyclohexane/hexane or ethyl acetate/hexane.", "[0039] Methods for producing the starting materials of Reaction Scheme I are known in the art.", "For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,783,471 teaches how to prepare racemic alpha-(2,3-dimethoxyphenyl)-1-[2-(4-fluorophenyl)ethyl]-4-piperidinemethanol.", "This patent is hereby incorporated by reference.", "Examples No. 1 and 2 of this application also teach suitable methods.", "Alternatively, racemic alpha-(2,3-dimethoxyphenyl)-1-[2-(4-fluorophenyl)ethyl]-4-piperidinemethanol can be prepared in the following manner.", "Initially 4-hydroxypiperidine is subjected to an N-alkylation reaction with p-fluorophenylethyl bromide which produces 4-hydroxy-1-[2-(4-fluorophenyl)ethyl]-piperidine.", "This compound is brominated with Ph 3 P·Br 2 which produces 4-bromo-1-[2-(4-fluorophenyl)ethyl]piperidine.", "This compound is contacted with Mg thereby forming a Grignard Reagent which is then reacted with 2,3-dimethoxybenzaldehyde which produces the desired product (±)-alpha-(2,3-dimethoxyphenyl)-1-[2-(4-fluorophenyl)ethyl]-4-piperidinemethanol.", "The (+)-isomer of alphamethoxyphenylacetic acid is known in the art.", "[0040] Scheme II shows the synthesis of the compounds of Formula II, Prodrugs.", "[0041] Referring to Scheme II, X is chloro or bromo, with chloro being preferred and R is as previously defined.", "This reaction scheme shows the making of the sustained release compounds of Formula I from the alcohol (5).", "[0042] The alcohol (5) is reacted with an acid halide (RC(O)X), RCO 2 H or acid anhydride (RCO) 2 O in the presence of an a sufficient amount of an appropriate base.", "An appropriate base is one that permits ester formation from the acid halide or anhydride.", "Examples of appropriate bases are trialkylamines, pyridine such as dimethylamino pyridine, diisopropyl ethyl amines, N-methyl morpholines, with triethylamine being preferred.", "A sufficient amount of the base can be ascertained by one skilled in the art which permits the formation of the compounds of Formula I. [0043] Preferably the base is added to the alcohol (5) and that mixture added dropwise to the acid halide or acid anhydride in an appropriate solvent.", "Examples of appropriate solvents are chloroform, methylene chloride, or toluene, all of which are readily available, with chloroform being preferred.", "[0044] The temperature of the reaction may be at a range of about 0-25° C. The reaction mixture may be stirred for from a few hours to overnight to enhance the reaction.", "Catalysts may also be added for enhancement of reaction times, e.g., 4-dimethylaminopyridine or the like.", "[0045] The starting materials for the acid halide (RCOX) are readily available for those skilled in the art.", "For example, Aldrich Chemical company provides stearoyl chloride, heptadecanoyl chloride, palmitoyl chloride, myristoyl chloride, isovaleryl chloride, valeryl chloride, hexanoyl chloride, hexanoyl chloride, heptanoyl chloride, octanoyl chloride, nonanoyl chloride, decanoyl chloride, undecanoyl chloride and lauroyl chloride.", "For those acid halides not readily available, one skilled in the art may prepare the acid halide desired.", "For example, a carboxylic acid may be mixed with a halide donor to produce the desired acid halide.", "One example of this is to mix carboxylic acid (0.17 mol), methylene chloride (660 mL) and dimethylformamide (0.5 mL) under a nitrogen atmosphere.", "Add oxalyl chloride (0.2 mol) over about 5 minutes with stirring.", "Stir at ambient temperature for 3 hours and evaporate the solvent in vacuo to the acid chloride.", "Another method is to dissolve the carboxylic acid (10 mmol) in methylene chloride (50 mL).", "Cool to 0° C., place under a nitrogen atmosphere and add, by dropwise addition, thionyl chloride (11 mmol).", "Stir at room temperature for several hours and evaporate the volatiles in vacuo to give the acid chloride.", "The carboxylic acids are readily available or can be easily made by those skilled in the art.", "[0046] The starting materials for the acid anhydrides (RCO) 2 O are readily available for those skilled in the art.", "For example, Aldrich Chemical company provides butryic anhydride, isobutyric anhydride, valeric anhydride, 2-2,dimethylglutaric anhydride, and phthalic anhydride.", "Alternatively, acid anhydrides may be synthesized by methods well known in the art.", "[0047] The starting materials for the acids (RCO 2 H) are readily available or may be synthesized by methods well know in the art.", "For example, see Advanced Organic Chemistry, Reactions, Mechanisms, and Structure, 4th ed.", ", John Wiley &", "Sons,, New York 1992, incorporated herein by reference.", "Aldrich Chemical Company also provides isovaleric acid, valeric acid, tert-butylacetic acid, 2, 2dimethylbutyric acid, 2-ethylbutyric acid, hexanoic acid, 3-methylvaleric acid, 4-methylvaleric acid, heptanoic acid, octanoic acid, 2-propylpentanoic acid, nanoic acid, decanoic acid, undecanoic acid, lauric acid, tridecanoic acid, myristoleic acid, myristic acid, pentadecanoic acid, palmitic acid, heptadecanoic acid, stearic acid, nonadecanoic acid, eicosanoic acid.", "[0048] The following examples are being present to further illustrate the invention.", "However, they should not be construed as limiting the invention in any manner.", "EXAMPLE 1—starting material [0049] Example 1, Steps A-D, demonstrates the preparation of the starting material (±)-alpha(2,3-dimethoxyphenyl)-1-[2-(4-fluorophenyl)ethyl]-4-piperidinemethanol, structure 1, Scheme I. [0050] A) 1-[2-(4-Fluorophenyl)ethyl]-4-piperidinecarboxamide [0051] A solution of isonipecotamide (10.9 g, 85.0 mmol), 2-(4-fluorophenyl)ethyl bromide (15.7 g, 77.3 mmol), and K 2 CO 3 (2.3 g, 167 mmol) was prepared in DMF (280 mL) and stirred under argon at 90-95° C. overnight.", "The cooled solution was concentrated to a white oily solid.", "The solid was partitioned between water and CH 2 Cl 2 .", "The layers were separated and the aqueous layer was extracted with CH 2 Cl 2 .", "The combined organic layers were washed 2x with water, dried (MgSO4), filtered, and evaporated to a oily solid.", "The solid was recrystallized from EtOAc to afford 1-[2-(4-fluorophenyl)ethyl]-4-piperidinecarboxamide as a white powder, m.p. 177-178° C. (decomp.).", "Anal.", "Calcd for C 14 H 19 FN 2 O: C, 67.18;", "H, 7.65;", "N, 11.19.", "Found: C, 67.25;", "H, 7.67;", "N, 11.13.", "[0052] B) 4-Cyano-1-[2-(4-fluorophenyl)ethyl]piperidine [0053] To stirred phosphorus oxychloride (25 mL, 41.12 g, 268 mmol) and sodium chloride (5.1 g, 87.3 mmol) was added 1-[2-(4-fluorophenyl)ethyl]-4-piperidinecarboxamide (8.9 g, 35.6 mmol) portionwise.", "After complete addition, the solution was refluxed for 2 hours.", "The cooled solution was carefully poured into dilute NH 4 OH to destroy the POCl 3 .", "The aqueous solution was cooled to 0° C., then extracted 2x with CH 2 Cl 2 .", "The combined organic layers were dried (MgSO 4 ), filtered, and evaporated to afford 8.1 g of an oily solid.", "The solid was distilled, (b.p. 150° C., 0.1 mm Hg), to afford a clear, colorless oil that solidified.", "This material was crystallized from hexane to afford 4-cyano-1-[2-(4-fluorophenyl)ethyl]piperidine as white needles, m.p. 47-48° C. Anal.", "Calcd for C 14 H 17 FN 2 : C, 72.39;", "H, 7.38;", "N, 12.06.", "Found: C, 72.62;", "H, 7.49;", "N, 12.12.", "[0054] C) 1-[2-(4-Fluorophenyl)ethyl]-4-piperidinecarboxaldehyde [0055] To a stirred solution of 4-cyano-1-[2-(4-fluorophenyl)-ethyl]piperidine (1.00 g, 4.3 mmol) in THF (20 mL) under argon at 0° C. was added DIBAL-H (4.6 mL of a 1.0 M solution in THF, 4.6 mmol) via syringe.", "After stirring overnight at room temperature, 10% aqueous HCl (25 mL) was added and the solution was stirred for 3 hours.", "The entire mixture was then poured into 10% aqueous NaOH (50 mL), then extracted 2x with ether.", "The combined organic layers were washed with brine, dried (MgSO 4 ), filtered, and evaporated to afford a pale yellow oil.", "The oil was chromatographed on silica gel , eluting with EtOAc.", "The appropriate fractions were combined and evaporated to afford an oil.", "This oil was distilled (b.p. 166° C., 0.05 mm Hg) to afford 1-[2-(4-fluorophenyl)ethyl]-4-piperidinecarboxaldehyde, obtained as a colorless oil.", "Anal.", "Calcd for C 14 H 18 FNO: C, 71.46;", "H, 7.71;", "N, 5.95.", "Found: C, 71.08, H, 7.81;", "N, 5.86.", "[0056] D) (±)-alpha(2,3-Dimethoxyphenyl-1-[2-(4-fluorophenyl)ethyl]-4-piperidinemethanol [0057] To a stirred solution of veratrole (0.93 g, 6.7 mmol) in THF (20 mL) under argon at 0° C. was added n-BuLi (2.7 mL of a 2.5 M solution in hexane, 6.75 mmol).", "After stirring 2.5 h, the solution was cooled to −78° C. and treated with 1-[2-(4-fluorophenyl)ethyl]-4-piperidinecarboxaldehyde (1.30 g, 5.5 mmol) in THF (25 mL) via an addition funnel.", "The cooling bath was removed and the solution was allowed to stir for 2 hours.", "Water was added, the layers separated, and the aqueous layer was extracted with EtOAc.", "The combined organic layers were washed with brine, dried (MgSO 4 ), filtered, and chromatographed on silica gel, eluting with acetone.", "The appropriate fractions were combined and evaporated to afford a white solid.", "The solid was recrystallized from hexane to afford racemic alpha(2,3-dimethoxyphenyl)- 1 -[2-(4-fluorophenyl)ethyl]-4-piperidinemethanol as shiny white needles, m.p. 126-127° C. Anal.", "Calcd for C 22 H 28 FNO 3 : C, 70.75;", "H, 7.56;", "N, 3.75.", "Found: C, 70.87;", "H, 7.65;", "N, 3.68.", "EXAMPLE 2-starting material [0058] Example 2, Steps A-F, demonstrate an alternative manner of preparing (±)-alpha(2,3-dimethoxyphenyl)- 1 - [2-(4-fluorophenyl)-ethyl]-4-piperidinemethanol, structure 1.", "[0059] A) 1-(1,1-Dimethylethyl)-1,4-piperidinedicarboxylic acid [0060] To isonipecotic acid (107.5 g, 832 mmol) stirred in IN NaOH (40 g NaOH in 900 ML H 2 O) and tert-butanol (1800 mL) was added di-tert-butyl dicarbonate (200 g, 916 mmol) in portions.", "After stirring overnight, the solution was concentrated and the resulting water layer was acidified with aqueous HCl.", "This acidic aqueous layer was extracted 3x with ether.", "The combined organic layers were washed with water, brine, dried (MgSO 4 ), filtered, and evaporated to a white solid, which was recrystallized from EtOAc/hexane (300 mL/200 mL) to afford 1-(1,1-dimethylethyl)-1,4-piperidinedicarboxylic acid as white needles, m.p. 147-149° C. [0061] B) 4-(N-Methoxy-N-methylcarboxamido)-1-piperidinecarboxylic acid 1,1-dimethylethyl ester [0062] To a stirred solution of 1-(1,1-dimethylethyl)-1,4-piperidinedicarboxylic acid (50.0 g, 218 mmol) in anhydrous CH 2 Cl 2 (500 mL) under N 2 in a 2L flask was added 1,1′-carbonyldiimidazole (38.9 g, 240 mmol) portionwise.", "After stirring for 1 hour, N,O-dimethylhydroxylamine hydrochloride (23.4 g, 240 mmol) was added in one portion.", "After stirring overnight, the solution was washed twice with IN HCl, twice with saturated NaHCO 3 , once with brine, dried (MgSO 4 ), filtered, and evaporated to an oil.", "Distillation afforded 4-(N-methoxy-N-methylcarboxamido)-1-piperidinecarboxylic acid 1,1-dimethylethyl ester as a clear oil, b.p. 120-140° C., 0.8 mm.", "[0063] C) 4-(2,3-Dimethoxybenzoyl)-1-piperidinecarboxylic acid 1,1-dimethylethyl ester n-Butyl lithium (14.5 mL of a 2.5 M solution in hexane, 36.3 mmol) was added via syringe to a stirred solution of veratrole (5.00 g, 36.2 mmol) in THF (50 mL, anhydrous) under argon at 0° C. The ice bath was removed and the mixture was allowed to stir for 90 minutes.", "The mixture was cooled to −78° C. and treated with 4-(N-methoxy-N-methylcarboxamido)-1-piperidinecarboxylic acid 1,1-dimethylethyl ester (9.20 g, 33.8 mmol) in THF (50 mL, anhydrous) via syringe.", "The cooling dry ice-acetone bath was removed and the mixture was allowed to come to room temperature.", "After stirring for 3 hours, saturated aqueous NH 4 Cl was added and the mixture was allowed to stir overnight.", "The layers were separated and the aqueous layer was extracted with ether.", "The combined organic layers were washed with brine, dried (MgSO 4 ), filtered, and evaporated to afford an amber oil.", "The oil was chromatographed on silica gel, eluting with 20% EtOAc in hexane.", "The appropriate fractions were combined and evaporated to an amber oil.", "The oil was distilled to afford 4-(2,3-dimethoxybenzoyl)-1-piperidinecarboxylic acid 1,1-dimethylethyl ester as a colorless oil.", "(b.p. 225-250° C., 0.05 mm).", "Anal.", "Calcd for C 19 H 27 NO 5 : C, 65.31;", "H, 7.79;", "N, 4.01.", "Found: C, 65.04;", "H, 7.92;", "N, 4.11.", "[0064] D) 4-(2,3-Dimethoxyphenyl)-4-piperidinylmethanone 4-(2,3-Dimethoxybenzoyl)-1-piperidinecarboxylic acid 1,1-dimethylethyl ester (7.75 g, 22.2 mmol) was dissolved in trifluoroacetic acid (50 mL, 650 mmol) and stirred for 45 minutes.", "The entire solution was poured into ether (900 mL) and allowed to stand overnight.", "Filtration yielded 4-(2,3-dimethoxyphenyl)-4-piperidinylmethanone trifluoroacetate as fine white needles, m.p. 123° C. Anal.", "Calcd for C 14 H 19 NO 3 CF 3 CO 2 H: C, 52.89;", "H, 5.55;", "N, 3.86.", "Found: C, 52.77;", "H, 5.62;", "N, 3.82.", "[0065] The resulting 4-(2,3-dimethoxyphenyl)-4-piperidinylmethanone trifluoroacetate was dissolved in water, treated with NaOH (10% aqueous) until basic, and extracted three times with dichloromethane.", "The combined organic layers were washed with brine, dried (MgSO 4 ), filtered, and evaporated to afford 4-(2,3-dimethoxyphenyl)-4-piperidinylmethanone as an oil.", "[0066] E) (2,3-Dimethoxyphenyl)[1-[2-(4-fluorophenyl)ethyl]-4-piperidinyl]methanone monohydrochloride [0067] A solution of 4-(2,3-dimethoxyphenyl)-4-piperidinylmethanone (8.00 g, 32.1 mmol) and 2-(4-fluorophenyl)ethyl bromide (6.52 g, 32.1 mmol) was prepared in DMF (90 mL), treated with K 2 CO 3 (7.0 g, 50.7 mmol), then stirred and heated at 80° C. under argon overnight.", "The cooled solution was poured into a partition of 2/1 EtOAc/toluene and water.", "The layers were separated and the aqueous layer was extracted with 2/1 EtOAc/toluene.", "The combined organic layers were washed 2x with water, 1x with brine, dried (MgSO 4 ), filtered, and evaporated to afford 11.0 g of an oil.", "The oil was chromatographed on silica gel, eluting with EtOAc.", "The appropriate fractions were combined, concentrated, dissolved in ethyl acetate and treated with HCl/ethyl acetate.", "(2,3-dimethoxyphenyl)[1-[2-(4-fluorophenyl)ethyl]-4-piperidinyl]-methanone monohydrochloride was obtained as a precipitate, m.p. 225-227° C. (decomp).", "Anal Calcd for C 22 H 26 FNO 3 .", "HCl: C, 64.78;", "H, 6.67;", "N, 3.43.", "Found: C, 64.44;", "H, 6.73;", "N, 3.41.", "[0068] F) (±)-alpha-(2,3-Dimethoxyphenyl)-1-[2-(4-fluorophenyl)ethyl]-4-piperidinemethanol [0069] To a stirred solution of (2,3-dimethoxyphenyl)[1-[2-(4-fluorophenyl)ethyl]-4-piperidinyl]methanone (6.0 g, 16.2 mmol) in MeOH (100 mL) at 0° C. was added NaBH 4 (1240 mg, 32.8 mmol) in two portions, over a one hour period.", "After stirring overnight, the solution was concentrated to a solid.", "The solid was partitioned between water and ether.", "The layers were separated and the aqueous layer was extracted with ether.", "The combined organic layers were washed with brine, dried (MgSO 4 ), filtered, and evaporated to a solid.", "The solid was chromatographed on silica gel, eluting with acetone.", "The appropriate fractions were combined and evaporated to afford a white solid.", "The solid was recrystallized from cyclohexane to afford (±)-alpha-(2,3-dimethoxyphenyl)-1-[2-(4-fluorophenyl)-ethyl]-4-piperidinemethanol as white needles, m.p. 126-127° C. Anal.", "Calcd for C 22 H 28 FNO 3 : C, 70.75;", "H, 7.56;", "N, 3.75.", "Found: C, 70.86;", "H, 7.72;", "N, 3.93.", "EXAMPLE 3 - starting material [0070] This example demonstrates the preparation of the alcohol, structure 5.", "[0071] Preparation of (+)-alpha-(2,3-Dimethoxyphenyl)-1-[2-(4-fluorophenyl)ethyl]-4-piperidinemethanol [0072] A) Preparation of diastereomers.", "[0073] A solution of 3.90 g (10.4 mmol) of (±)-alpha-(2,3-dimethoxyphenyl)-1-[2-(4-fluorophenyl)ethyl]-4-piperidinemethanol, 1.74 g (10.4 mmol) of S-(+)-alpha-methoxyphenylacetic acid, 2.15 g (10.4 mmol) of 1,3-dicyclohexylcarbodiimide and 0.1 g of 4-dimethylaminopyridine in chloroform (75 mL) was refluxed for 17 hours, allowed to cool to room temperature and filtered.", "The filtrate was concentrated and chromatographed on a silica gel column eluting with ethyl acetate/hexane (1:1) to afford two diastereomers, Rf=0.1 and 0.2 (TLC EtOAc/hexane, 1:1).", "Intermediate fractions were rechromatographed to give additional material.", "Those fractions with Rf=0.2 were combined to give a single diastereomeric ester, (+,+)-(2,3-dimethoxyphenyl)[1-[2-(4-fluorophenyl)ethyl]-4-piperidinyl]methyl-alpha-methoxybenzeneacetate.", "[0074] B) Preparation of (+)-alpha-(2,3-Dimethoxyphenyl)-1-[2-(4-fluorophenyl)ethyl]-4-piperidinemethanol [0075] To a stirred solution of 0.97 g (1.9 mmol) of the above mentioned diastereomeric ester, Rf=0.2, in 25 mL of methanol was added 0.5 g (3.6 mmol) of potassium carbonate and 5.0 mL of water.", "After stirring 17 hours at room temperature the reaction mixture was diluted with water and extracted twice with methylene chloride.", "The combined extracts were washed with water, brine and dried over MgSO 4 .", "After filtering, the filtrate was concentrated to an oil and crystallized from 40 mL of cyclohexane/hexane (1:1) to give (+)-alpha-(2,3-dimethoxy-phenyl)-1-[2-(4-fluorophenyl)ethyl]-4-piperidinemethanol, m.p[.", "].112-113° C., [] D 20 =+13.90.", "EXAMPLE 4 [0076] The compound of the present invention can be shown to be effective by clinical trials in humans and certain behavioral tests in animals.", "[0077] Examples of methods in human clinical trials follow.", "[0078] 1.", "Bristol Activities of Daily Living Scale, Bucks, Ashworth, Wilcock Siegfried 1996 (incorporated herein by reference).", "The patient is observed and rated according to their ability to perform certain functions such as the ability to prepare food, eat, drink, dress, shop, communicate, etc.", ", i.e., the ability to perform normal daily functions and to be appropriately oriented to time and space.", "[0079] 2.", "Senile Dementia Associated Sleep Disorder (SDASD), Cacabelos, Laredo, Couceiro, Alvarez 1 999(incorporated herein by reference).", "Conditions are noted for sleep disturbances such as initial insomnia, nocturnal sleep disruption, delayed insomnia, fragmented sleep patterns, etc.", "[0080] 3.", "Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia.", ", Alexopoulos, Abrams, Young, Shamoian 1988 (incorporated herein by reference).", "Mood related signs, behavioral disturbances, physical signs, cyclic functions and ideational disturbances are noted and rated.", "[0081] 4.", "Cognitive Assessment Systems, e.g., Learning and Motivation 4: 327-342;", "International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry 10: 189-201 (incorporated herein by reference).", "Patient is rated on their ability to recognize words, pictures, etc.", "[0082] 5.", "Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), Langston, Widner, Goetz, Brooks, Fahn, Freeman, Watts 1992).", "The patient is observed for typical motor and gait symptoms present in Parkinsons.", "[0083] 6.", "Hallucinations/Delusions.", "The patient is interviewed and observed regarding hallucinations and delusions and rated according to set protocol.", "[0084] 7.", "Polysomnography to study increase in slow wave sleep.", "EXAMPLE 5 [0085] Administration of scopolamine, an antagonist at the acetylcholine muscarinic receptor, has been associated with hallucinations and behavioral disturbances in humans ( Brain and Cognition (1995) 28:240-258).", "Also, scopolamine-induced hyperlocomotion in the rat has been used as a model of behavioral disturbances related to cholinergic deficiency states ( Jpn J Pharmacol (1999) 79 (Suppl.", "1):43P).", "Cholinergic deficiency states include various neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's Disease, Dementia with Lewy Bodies, Charles Bonnet Syndrome, delirium and Parkinson's Disease.", "[0086] Experimental Procedure.", "All procedures were conducted in normal white light conditions.", "Rats (1 per box) were first acclimated to test boxes (45 x 22 x 20 cm;", "clear polycarbonate with a plastic top) for 90 minutes.", "Each rat was then given two intraperitoneal injections (vehicle+vehicle, vehicle+scopolamine, test compound dose 1+scopolamine, test compound dose 2+scopolamine, test compound dose 3+scopolamine or test compound dose 4+scopolamine) and replaced into its test box, which was placed into an activity counter (Opto-Varimex Mini, Columbus Instruments, Columbus, Ohio).", "Testing commenced immediately.", "Locomotor activity was recorded for 60 min in the activity counter, which was equipped with 15 photoelectric light sources spaced at 2 cm intervals and 1 cm above the floor.", "Each interruption of a photoelectric light beam was recorded as a single activity count by a microprocessor-based control system.", "Testing took place between 10:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., with all groups counterbalanced for time of testing.", "The experimenter was blind to treatment group during the experiment.", "[0087] Results.", "M100907 (0.03-1 mg/kg) and risperidone (0.03-1 mg/kg) significantly antagonized scopolamine-stimulated locomotion (see FIGS. 1-2 and Tables 1-2;", "Abbreviations: VEH=vehicle, SCOP=scopolamine).", "M100907 restored activity to baseline (vehicle) level, but risperidone at the two higher doses reduced activity below baseline level.", "[0088] Conclusions.", "The present results demonstrate that the selective 5-HT2A antagonist M100907 antagonized scopolamine-stimulated locomotion in rats without reducing activity levels below baseline.", "The 5-HT 2A /D 2 antagonist risperidone also antagonized scopolamine-stimulated locomotion, but the two higher doses reduced activity levels below baseline.", "This could be due to risperidone's potent D 2 antagonist activity, which may have resulted in sedation or motor dysfunction.", "TABLE 1 M100907: Group means of 60 min activity count totals +/− SEM Treatment n MEAN +/− SEM VEH + VEH 6 1687 457 VEH + SOOP 0.75 6 5753 1386 # M100907 0.03 + SCOP 0.75 6 3181 804 * M100907 0.1 + SCOP 0.75 6 2378 306 * M100907 0.3 + SCOP 0.75 6 2087 752 * M100907 1 + SCOP 0.75 6 2231 737 * [0089] [0089] TABLE 2 Risperidone: Group means of 60 min activity count totals +/− SEM Treatment n MEAN +/− SEM VEH + VEH 8 2484 441 VEH + SCOP 0.75 8 7975 1880 ## RISPERIDONE 0.03 + SCOP 0.75 8 4615 1382 * RISPERIDONE 0.1 + SCOP 0.75 8 4037 1156 * RISPERIDONE 0.3 + SCOP 0.75 8 1795 336 ** RISPERIDONE 1 + SCOP 0.75 8 772 203 *** EXAMPLE 6 [0090] M100907 (0.1 and 1 mg/kg) significantly enhanced social memory in mice.", "Male CD-1 mice (30-35 grams) were first acclimated to the test room for approximately 1 hour.", "The mice were then administered vehicle or M100907 (0.01, 0.1 or 1 mg/kg p.o.) 2 hours prior to their baseline test.", "For the baseline test, unfamiliar pairs of mice were placed into a test chamber (plexiglas mouse cage with sawdust bedding).", "The duration of social interaction of the two mice (sniffing, anogenital exploration, nosing, grooming, licking, pawing, playing copulatory attempts) was observed and recorded for a period of five minutes and was registered cumulatively as total seconds of contact.", "Twenty-four hours later, the animals were given a retest without any drug treatment.", "At the retest, the now familiar partners from the baseline test were placed into the test chamber for a second confrontation and the duration of social interaction was again measured.", "Social memory was defined as a significant decrease in duration of social contact from baseline to retest.", "Testing took place in normal white light conditions between the hours of 8:30 am and 3:00 pm.", "The experimenter was blind to the treatment group until the completion of the experiment.", "The results represent combined data (n=36 per group total) from two studies.", "Data were analyzed using the Mann-Whitney test.", "TABLE 3 Treatment n MEAN +/− SEM VEH (baseline) 36 25.82 2.03 VEH (retest) 36 23.88 1.82 M100907 0.01 (naseline) 36 23.05 1.28 M100907 0.01 (retest) 36 20.3 1.41 M100907 0.1 (baseline) 36 25.5 2.0 M100907 0.1 (retest) 36 21.21 1.57* M100907 1 (baseline) 36 25.0 1.89 M100907 1 (retest) 36 18.1 1.47* [0091] The dosage range at which the compounds of Formula I exhibit their ability treat patients with DLB depends upon the severity of the disease, the patient, the formulation, other underlying disease states that the patient is suffering from, and other medications that may be concurrently administered to the patient.", "Generally, the compounds of Formula I will exhibit their therapeutic activities between about 0.001 mg/kg of patient body weight/day to about 100 mg/kg of patient body weight/day.", "The dosage of the compounds of the present invention may be determined by administering the compound to an animal and determining the plasma level of the active ingredient by known procedures.", "[0092] The compound of the present invention can be formulated into pharmaceutical dosage forms using techniques well known in the art.", "For oral administration, the compound can be formulated into solid or liquid preparation such as capsules, pills, tablets, lozenges, melts, powders, suspensions or emulsions.", "For parenteral administration, the compound or its salts may be dissolved in a physiologically acceptable pharmaceutical carrier and administered as either a solution or a suspension.", "Illustrative of suitable pharmaceutical carriers are water, saline, dextrose solutions, fructose solutions, ethanol, or oils of animal, vegetable, or synthetic origin.", "The pharmaceutical carrier may also contain preservatives, buffers, etc.", "as are known in the art.", "[0093] All cites to publications and patents herein are hereby incorporated by reference." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Technical Field The invention is concerned with fabrication of silica-based optical fiber.", "It contemplates use of a composite preform including a core rod and a sol-gel-derived overcladding tube.", "Description of the Prior Art Optical fiber has become an extremely sophisticated product.", "Insertion loss has been lessened to increase the length of repeaterless spans.", "Dispersion has been addressed to result in significant increase in capacity.", "Strides have been made in fiber integrity.", "A number of developments in the glass itself, as well as in coating materials, have resulted in a high proof-test, bend-tolerant product.", "For the most part, advances have been accompanied by cost increase.", "Significant cost saving is due to realization that the functioning portion of the fiber is small.", "Prevalent single-mode fiber structures owe their performance characteristics to but a few percent of the total cross-section of the fiber.", "One manufacturing approach depends on drawing the fiber from a composite preform made up of a core rod encompassed within a separately prepared overcladding tube.", "Since little of the transmitted energy sees the outer region of the clad, requirements on this region are reduced.", "A commercially available overcladding tube depends on a massive tubular starting body, drawn to small diameter tubing, which, together with the core rod, makes up the composite preform.", "Further cost saving will likely result by use of a sol-gel-derived overcladding tube.", "U.S. Pat. No. 5,240,488 issued Aug. 31, 1993, represents the breakthrough to finally realize promised cost saving.", "The primary obstacle to earlier use--reduced yield due to cracking of any but the very smallest bodies--is avoided by incorporation of a transient polymer in the sol.", "Having served to prevent cracking during drying, the polymer is removed during firing.", "Fiber breakage, due to very small numbers of very small particles--contaminant particles, now carried over to the glass (in the absence of the vapor transport step of previous fabrication methods)--is avoided by particle removal, by physical separation and/or by gas reaction.", "(See U.S. patent applications Ser.", "Nos. 08/029750 and 07/029753, both filed Mar. 11, 1993.) A final problem has arisen.", "The near-net shape, cast overcladding tube is subject to warpage which interferes with insertion of the closely titling core.", "Uneven cooling and minor differences in temperature coefficient of expansion as due to small deposits of SiO 2 of differing morphology--e.g., of cristobalite--are among the causes.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A drawing procedure is found useful for avoidance of warpage or for tube straightening.", "This simple procedure has been used for retrieval of unacceptable preform tubes.", "There are two major implications.", "Drawing to result in little or no reduction in inside dimension, more generally to result in reduction in tube wall thickness-reduction of but no more than a few percent, may be incorporated warped tube on a tube-by-tube basis to retrieve rejects.", "Alternatively, the drawing step may be incorporated as a regular part of the manufacturing process.", "In either event, any reduction in id may be accommodated by first molding a slightly oversized or thickened wall tube.", "There is another implication--outlined developments together with fiber fabrication requirements may, together, yield a new use for sol-gel produced silica glass.", "The sol-gel process, in the past thought promising for its near-net shape advantage, becomes a feasible bulk source for fiber production.", "By comparison with soot processing, sol-gel derived material offers a cost advantage.", "Most effective substitution of sol-gel for preparation of the "massive tube", from which smaller tubes are drawn, takes account of the gel-drying step which is both time consuming and critical in terms of likelihood of cracking.", "The nature of the sol-gel process suggests a variant from the procedure as now carried out with soot-derived tubes.", "Relatively small strength of the wet-gel body is of less consequence/or thicker wall tubing.", "A preferred procedure provides a gelation of such a thick wall tube, with reduction of wall thickness accomplished by, e.g., internal pressure during drawing.", "By this means, wall thickness may be reduced disproportionately to produce the desired final dimensions.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of draw apparatus depicting drawing of an individually cast overcladding tube.", "FIG. 2 is a schematic representation of draw apparatus depicting drawing from a massive preform to yield many overcladding tubes.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION Tube Straightening The axial tensile force, F, of the prototypical drying process, serves to straighten the tube.", "A component of this drawing force operates on a bulge.", "This component is proportional to F (sin Θ), where Θ is the angle of divergence of the bulge from the tube axis of the straight tube.", "The rate of straightening is determined by temperature.", "Straightening is discussed in terms of "plastic flow".", "This terminology is meant to include the relaxation which accommodates local strain (without necessary overall flow or tube lengthening).", "The term "drawing"", "is used in its most generic sense.", "Likely initial commercial application will use a slightly oversized "near-net shape"", "tube.", "While size reduction may literally be avoided under exacting conditions, one or a few percent reduction may be expedient.", "Allowance for this size reduction may take the form of corresponding enlargement in the overall size of the cast tube.", "Alternatively, the as-cast tube may have a thickened wall, with thinning due to inside pressurization during "drawing".", "Pressurization by use of nitrogen or another inert gas may reduce id without affecting od.", "Either method is appropriate to individual reject retrieval, or to regular processing.", "In the former, the small size variation (as between straightened and unstraightened tubes may be of little consequence in the final drawn fiber).", "Effective straightening takes a number of factors into account.", "Time may be significant.", "Design of the process to yield flaw-free, undistored, straightened tubing is based on a time, temperature product.", "For individual tubes where setup time is appreciable, there is a general preference for minimal temperature.", "Temperatures in the range of from 1200°-1800° C.--corresponding with viscosity values of ≈10 9 -10 6 poise--are found suitable.", "In one experiment, of the procedural form of Example 2, straightening of a tube having a Θ=0.9° bulge, heating to 1450 degree over a period of 30 minutes resulted in straightening with a cross-sectional reduction of less than 2%.", "Higher temperatures within the range are required for assimilation of visible cristobalite deposit.", "Still lower temperatures may be used but require larger tensile force.", "In general terms, this aspect of the invention is directed toward individually molded overclad tubes.", "The term "straightening", descriptive of procedures in which firing is carried out simultaneously with, or, in continuous fashion, preceding drawing.", "This variation might better be described as "warp-avoidance".", "The former term is generally used as descriptive of both procedures for expediency.", "Tube Reduction Here, the reduction is a main objective (rather than a tolerable side effect).", "Casting and drying a single massive tube rather than many smaller tubes is an economy.", "The thicker tube wall is useful in handling and may lessen incidence of cracking.", "The prior art process based on drawing-reduction of a massive soot-produced preform is generally conducted to produce a proportionally decreasing id and od.", "The characteristics of sol-gel processing may suggest preference for disproportionate reduction.", "As in retrieval of reject individual tubes, the wall thickness of the massive preform may be greater.", "Again, thinning may be the consequence of internal pressurization by use of an inert gas during drawing.", "The basic process is described in the literature.", "(See DE2526569-A76.12.16.6.) Massive preforms are usually at least five times larger than the final drawn tube.", "The significance of setup time is no longer limiting with the approach.", "High temperatures, in general temperatures of 1800°-2200° C. are justified and permit increased throughput.", "Use of internal gas pressure and/or graphite plates have been used to control the dimensions of the pulled tube.", "It is possible, too, to combine straightening and/or reduction with firing.", "Such a process may operate directly on the porous body which is the direct product of gel-drying.", "Drawing Apparatus Two general types of apparatus have been used.", "One provides for a vertically disposed tube supported at its upper end and with a weight at its free end.", "Example two used this approach.", "The tube may be supported at a lower end and drawn upwardly.", "Vertical disposition avoids sagging and off-round product.", "The other approach used a horizontally-disposed lathe.", "The method is convenient but may require support--external and/or internal.", "The former is accomplished by use of graphite plates;", "the latter by internal pressurization.", "Pressurization here may or may not designedly produce wall thinning.", "In any event, apparatus will provide for diameter monitoring of reduced-sized tubing by detection and feedback (adjusting either temperature or draw rate.) Processing Conditions Discussion here is largely in terms of the essentially pure silica which was used in experimentation.", "The broader compositional class of "silica-rich"", "glass is contemplated.", "This term is intended to include compositions containing at least 70 wt % SiO 2 .", "Temperature values are selected in accordance with tensile force--with a product of the two sufficient for the intended purpose.", "Values to meet time requirements may be determined empirically.", "Operating Temperature in experimental work have been in the range of 1200° C.-1800° C., corresponding with viscosity values of from 10 12 poise -10 6 poise.", "Higher temperatures perhaps to 2100° C. (viscosity of ≈10 4 poise), while reducing required time, may limit other operating parameters.", "Reduced viscosity may require short heating zones.", "The same consideration leads to internal pressurization even in vertical drawing.", "Detailed Description of the Figures FIG. I is a schematic view of the apparatus used in Example 1.", "It shows a bent tube 10 on a lathe 11 provided with chucks 12 and 13.", "Positioning apparatus 14 is "flee-floating"--is designed to provide for a drawing force which follows the center of the tube as introduced.", "Zone heating of tube 10 is by heat source 15.", "The diameter of the drawn tube, 16 is determined by the draw force applied e.g., to chuck 13, and by the temperature to which the tube is heated.", "Diameter is monitored by sensor 17.", "In FIG. 2, a massive preform tube 20 is shown in the process of twenty-fold draw-reduction to yield reduced diameter tube 21.", "Diagrammatic representation of the drawing apparatus includes chucks 22 and 23, positioning apparatus 24, heat source 25 and diameter sensor 26.", "Design is discussed in the cited German patent.", "Real apparatus includes draw means, e.g., acting on movable chuck 23, together with a feedback loop to make use of sensing information to vary temperature and/or draw rate, etc.", "EXAMPLES Two procedures have been carried out experimentally.", "A drawing force has been applied to the tube as heated or unheated.", "In other work, it was applied at room temperature, and the rube was subsequently heated to the extent necessary for straightening.", "It is possible that commercial practice will dictate something intermediate to the two--i.e., applying the drawing force to a tube heated to a degree insufficient for straightening--elastically or plastically--followed by further heating.", "Drawing has been carried out on a lathe.", "It has also been based on vertical drawing with a simple weight.", "EXAMPLE 1 A fired sol-gel-derived tube of dimensions 1 m long by 40 mm od by 17 mm id bowed to ≈3 mm maximum (Θ=0.34°), with visible white deposit, was drawn at 1800° C. over a period of 25 min.", "to yield a straightened tube of dimensions 2 meters long by 28 mm od by 11.9 mm id, now free of visible deposit Draw speed was approximately 9 cm/min.", "The tube was of quality to pass inspection for use in a composite optical fiber preform.", "Other work shows tolerance for retention of cristobalite deposit.", "Accordingly, straightening is converted to amorphous silica during drawing of the composite preform.", "EXAMPLE 2 A fired sol-gel tube as in Example 1 but of dimensions 60 cm long×25 mm od×19 mm id and bowed to Θ=0.9° was disposed vertically and supported at its upper end.", "A 150 kg weight, was fastened to its free end.", "The weight was sufficient to straighten the unheated tube elastically.", "The strained tube was heated to a temperature of 1300 ° C. with a tube furnace providing for a 40 cm hot zone.", "Time of heating was approximately 30 minutes.", "As cooled and removed the tube had been straightened sufficiently to serve as overcladding." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a laser drawing apparatus for drawing a pattern on a surface of a workpiece by scanning the workpiece surface with laser beams, then by modulating the laser beams on the basis of raster-graphic data in accordance with a series of clock pulses.", "Description of the Related Art Such a laser drawing apparatus is used for drawing a fine pattern on a surface of a suitable workpiece.", "As a representative use of the laser drawing apparatus, a fine circuit pattern may be laser drawn on the workpiece when producing a printed circuit board using photolithography.", "In this case, the workpiece may be either a photosensitive film for producing a photomask or a photoresist layer formed on a suitable substrate.", "Recently, a circuit pattern drawing system has been developed for efficiently carrying out a drawing of circuit pattern by integrating the use of a laser drawing apparatus, a CAD (Computer Aided Design) station for designing a circuit pattern, a CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing) station for editing the designed circuit, an EWC (engineering work station) for commanding and controlling the drawing operation of the individual laser drawing apparatus and, finally, a LAN (local area network) through which the CAD station, the CAM station, the EWS and the laser drawing apparatuses are all connected to each other.", "A circuit pattern is, thereby, designed and treated as vector-graphic data by the CAD station.", "The vector-graphic data may be fed from the CAD station to the CAM station, through the LAN, for editing of the designed circuit pattern, if necessary.", "In either case, the vector-graphic data is fed from the CAD station or CAM station to the EWS, through the LAN, and is stored in a recording medium, such as a hard disk, provided in the EWS.", "The EWS suitably feeds the vector-graphic data to one of the laser drawing apparatuses, and the vector-graphic data are converted into raster-graphic data by a vector-to-raster graphic converter provided in the laser drawing apparatus.", "The raster-graphic data is developed and stored in a pattern memory (or bit-map memory) and, subsequently, the raster-graphic data is successively read from the pattern memory.", "A circuit pattern is then drawn on a surface of a workpiece by scanning the workpiece surface with the laser beams and by modulating the laser beam on the basis of the read raster-graphic data in accordance with a series of clock pulses.", "Workpieces are inevitably subjected to fine dimensional variations or fluctuations derived from production-factors and environmental conditions under which the workpieces are produced.", "Accordingly, before proper dimensions can be given to a circuit pattern which is to be drawn on each of the workpieces, a scaling-correction must be carried out during a drawing-operation of the laser drawing apparatus.", "For example, when a workpiece is two-dimensionally expanded with respect to it's standard dimensions thereof, the scaling-correction must be carried out such that a circuit pattern to be drawn on the expanded workpiece is, also, two-dimensionally scaled-up in accordance with dimensional differences between the expanded dimensions and the standard dimensions.", "On the contrary, when a workpiece is contracted with respect to the standard dimensions, the scaling-correction must be carried out such that a circuit pattern to be drawn on the contracted workpiece is scaled-down in accordance with dimensional differences between the contracted dimensions and the standard dimensions.", "Conventionally, the scaling-correction has been statistically carried out under the assumption that workpieces manufactured under the same production-requirements are subjected to equal degrees of dimensional variations or fluctuations.", "Nevertheless, in actuality, there may be relatively large dimensional variations or fluctuations among the workpieces manufactured under the same production-requirements.", "Accordingly, it cannot be said that the conventional statistical scaling-correction is necessarily reliable.", "Further, conventionally, the scaling-correction is introduced into vector-graphic data in the CAM station.", "In this case, the scaling-correction is merely performed with a unit of a one-pixel size with respect to a circuit pattern to be drawn.", "Namely, in the conventional laser drawing apparatus, it is impossible to perform a precise scaling-correction with a unit of less than the one-pixel size.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, a main object of the present invention is to provide a laser drawing apparatus that constitutes a scaling-correction that can be precisely performed with a unit of less than a one-pixel size with respect to a circuit pattern to be drawn, in accordance with the dimensional variations or fluctuations of individual workpieces.", "In accordance with a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a laser drawing apparatus for drawing a pattern on a surface of a workpiece by scanning the workpiece surface with at least one laser beam and by modulating the laser beam on the basis of raster-graphic data, in accordance with a series of clock pulses, which apparatus comprises: a detector for detecting a dimensional variation of the workpiece in a scanning direction of the laser beam with respect to a standard dimension;", "a calculator for calculating a degree of variation between the dimension of the workpiece and the standard dimension;", "and a regulator for cyclically shifting a phase of the clock pulses by a unit of less than 2π in such a manner that the pattern to be drawn on the workpiece is dimensionally varied, in accordance with the degree of the dimensional variation of the workpiece.", "In the laser drawing apparatus, the detector may comprise: an image sensor for optically and electronically sensing a mark of the workpiece with respect to a coordinate system, defined in a plane in which the workpiece surface is included, to thereby produce video signals carrying the mark thereof, the coordinate system defining the standard dimension;", "and a video-signal processor for processing the video signals so as to obtain the dimensional variation of the workpiece in the scanning direction with respect to the standard dimension defined in the coordinate system.", "Also, in a laser drawing apparatus, the calculator may calculate the degree of variation between the dimension of the workpiece and the standard dimension as a degree of expansion/contraction of the workpiece in the scanning direction with respect to the standard dimension.", "The laser drawing apparatus may further comprise a determiner for determining whether the degree of expansion/contraction of the workpiece is positive or negative.", "In this case, the regulator may regulate the cyclic shift of the phase of the clock pulses in either such a manner that the pattern to be drawn on the workpiece is dimensionally scaled-up when determining by the determiner that the degree of expansion/contraction of the workpiece is positive or such a manner that the pattern to be drawn on the workpiece is dimensionally scaled-down when determining by the determiner that the degree of expansion/contraction of the workpiece is negative.", "In accordance with a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a laser drawing apparatus for drawing a pattern on a surface of a workpiece by scanning the workpiece surface with at least one laser beam and by modulating the laser beam on the basis of raster-graphic data, in accordance with a series of clock pulses, the workpiece being scanned with the laser beam by deflecting the laser beam with respect to the workpiece, which apparatus comprises: a detector for detecting a dimensional variation of the workpiece in a scanning direction of the laser beam with respect to a standard dimension;", "a calculator for calculating a degree of variation between the dimension of the workpiece to the standard dimension;", "a determiner for determining whether the degree of the dimensional variation of the workpiece is positive or negative with respect to the standard dimension;", "a first regulator for cyclically shifting a phase of the clock pulses so as to be delayed by a unit of less than 2π, upon determining by the determiner that the degree of the dimensional variation of the workpiece is positive, whereby the pattern to be drawn on the workpiece is dimensionally scaled-up in accordance with the positive degree of the dimensional variation of the workpiece;", "and a second regulator for cyclically shifting a phase of the clock pulses so as to be advanced by a unit of less than 2π, upon determining by the determiner that the degree of the dimensional variation of the workpiece is negative, whereby the pattern to be drawn on the workpiece is dimensionally scaled-down in accordance with the negative degree of the dimensional variation of the workpiece.", "In accordance with a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a laser drawing apparatus for drawing a pattern on a surface of a workpiece by scanning the workpiece surface with at least one laser beam and by modulating the laser beam on the basis of raster-graphic data, in accordance with a series of clock pulses, the workpiece being scanned with the laser beam by moving the workpiece with respect to the laser beam, which apparatus comprises: a detector for detecting a dimensional variation of the workpiece in a scanning direction of the laser beam with respect to a standard dimension;", "a calculator for calculating a degree of variation between the dimension of the workpiece and the standard dimension;", "a determiner for determining whether the degree of the dimensional variation of the workpiece is positive or negative with respect to the standard dimension;", "a first regulator for cyclically shifting a phase of the clock pulses so as to be advanced with a unit of less than 2π, upon determining by the determiner that the degree of the dimensional variation of the workpiece is positive, whereby the pattern to be drawn on the workpiece is dimensionally scaled-up, in accordance with the positive degree of the dimensional variation of the workpiece;", "and a second regulator for cyclically shifting a phase of the clock pulses so as to be delayed by a unit of less than 2π, upon determining by the determiner that the degree of the dimensional variation of the workpiece is negative, whereby the pattern to be drawn on the workpiece is dimensionally scaled-down in accordance with the negative degree of the dimensional variation of the workpiece.", "In accordance with a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a laser drawing apparatus for drawing a pattern on a surface of a workpiece by scanning the workpiece surface with at least one laser beam and by modulating the laser beam on the basis of raster-graphic data, in accordance with a series of clock pulses, the workpiece being scanned with the laser beam by deflecting the laser beam with respect to the workpiece, which apparatus comprises: a detector for detecting a dimensional variation of the workpiece in a scanning direction of the laser beam with respect to a standard dimension;", "a calculator for calculating a degree of variation between the dimension of the workpiece and the standard dimension;", "a determiner for determining whether the degree of the dimensional variation of the workpiece is positive or negative with respect to the standard dimension;", "and a regulator for cyclically shifting a phase of the clock pulses by a unit of less than 2π in such a manner that the pattern to be drawn on the workpiece is dimensionally varied, in accordance with either the positive degree or the negative degree of the dimensional variation of the workpiece, determined by the determiner, wherein the regulator regulates the cyclic shift of the phase of the clock pulses either to cause a delay in the phase of the clock pulses in such a manner that the pattern to be drawn on the workpiece is dimensionally scaled-up when determining by the determiner that the degree of dimensional variation of the workpiece is positive or to cause an advance in the phase of clock pulses in such a manner that the pattern to be drawn on the workpiece is dimensionally scaled-down when determining by the determiner that the degree of dimensional variation the workpiece in negative.", "In this apparatus, the regulator may comprise: a clock pulse generator for producing at least two series of clock pulses on the basis of a series of basic clock pulses, the respective series of clock pulses having phases which are shifted from each other;", "a switcher for selectively outputting any one of the plural series of clock pulses from the clock pulse generator;", "and a controller for controlling the switcher so as to output the plural series of clock pulses therefrom in either a first clock-pulse-outputting order to cause the cyclic delay in the phase of the outputted clock pulses or a second clock-pulse-outputting order to cause the cyclic advance in the phase of the outputted clock pulses, wherein, upon determining by the determiner that the degree of the dimensional variation of the workpiece is positive, the controller controls the switcher so as to output the plural series of clock pulses therefrom in the first clock-pulse-outputting order, and wherein, upon determining by the determiner that the degree of the dimensional variation of the workpiece is negative, the controller controls the switcher so as to output the plural series of clock pulses therefrom in the second clock-pulse-outputting order.", "In accordance with a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a laser drawing apparatus for drawing a pattern on a surface of a workpiece by scanning the workpiece surface with at least one laser beam and by modulating the laser beam on the basis of raster-graphic data, in accordance with a series of clock pulses, the workpiece being scanned with the laser beam by moving the workpiece with respect to the laser beam, which apparatus comprises: a detector for detecting a dimensional variation of the workpiece in a scanning direction of the laser beam with respect to a standard dimension;", "a calculator for calculating a degree of variation between the dimension of the workpiece and the standard dimension;", "a determiner for determining whether the degree of the dimensional variation of the workpiece is positive or negative with respect to the standard dimension;", "and a regulator for cyclically shifting a phase of the clock pulses by a unit of less than 2π in such a manner that the pattern to be drawn on the workpiece is dimensionally varied, in accordance with either the positive degree or the negative degree of the dimensional variation of the workpiece, determined by the determiner, wherein the regulator regulates the cyclic shift of the phase of the clock pulses either to cause an advance in the phase of the clock pulses in such a manner that the pattern to be drawn on the workpiece is dimensionally scaled-up when determining by the determiner that the degree of dimensional variation of the workpiece is positive or to cause a delay in the phase of clock pulses in such a manner that the pattern to be drawn on the workpiece is dimensionally scaled-down when determining by the determiner that the degree of dimensional variation the workpiece is negative.", "In this apparatus, the regulator may comprise: a clock pulse generator for producing at least two series of clock pulses on the basis of a series of basic clock pulses, the respective series of clock pulses having phases which are shifted from each other;", "a switcher for selectively outputting any one of the plural series of clock pulses from the clock pulse generator;", "and a controller for controlling the switcher so as to output the plural series of clock pulses therefrom in either a first clock-pulse-outputting order to cause the cyclic advance in the phase of the outputted clock pulses or a second clock-pulse-outputting order to cause the cyclic delay in the phase of the outputted clock pulses, wherein, upon determining by the determiner that the degree of the dimensional variation of the workpiece is positive, the controller controls the switcher so as to output the plural series of clock pulses therefrom in the first clock-pulse-outputting order, and wherein, upon determining by the determiner that the degree of the dimensional variation of the workpiece is negative, the controller controls the switcher so as to output the plural series of clock pulses therefrom in the second clock-pulse-outputting order.", "In accordance with a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a laser drawing apparatus for drawing a pattern on a surface of a workpiece by scanning the workpiece surface with at least one laser beam in both a main-scanning direction and in a sub-scanning direction, the laser beam being modulated on the basis of raster-graphic data, the scanning of the workpiece with the laser beam in the main-scanning direction being carried out by deflecting the laser beam with respect to the workpiece, in accordance with a first series of clock pulses, the scanning of the workpiece with the laser beam in the sub-scanning direction being carried out by moving the workpiece with respect to the laser beam, in accordance with a second series of clock pulses, which comprises: a detector for detecting dimensional variations of the workpiece in both the main-scanning direction and the sub-scanning direction of the laser beam with respect to standard dimensions;", "a calculator for calculating respective degrees of variation between the dimensions of the workpiece, in both the main-scanning direction and the sub-scanning direction, and the standard dimensions;", "a first determiner for determining whether the degree of the dimensional variation of the workpiece, in the main-scanning direction, is positive or negative with respect to the corresponding standard dimension;", "a first regulator for cyclically shifting a phase of the first clock pulses by a unit of less than 2π in such a manner that the pattern to be drawn on the workpiece is dimensionally varied, in accordance with either the positive degree or the negative degree of the dimensional variation of the workpiece, determined by the first determiner, in the main-scanning direction;", "a second determiner for determining whether the degree of the dimensional variation of the workpiece, in the sub-scanning direction, is positive or negative with respect to the corresponding standard dimension;", "and a second regulator for cyclically shifting a phase of the second clock pulses by a unit of less than 2π in such a manner that the pattern to be drawn on the workpiece is dimensionally varied, in accordance with either the positive degree or the negative degree of the dimensional variation of the workpiece, determined by the second determiner, in the sub-scanning direction.", "In this apparatus, the first regulator may comprise: a clock pulse generator for producing at least two series of clock pulses on the basis of a series of basic clock pulses, the respective series of clock pulses having phases which are shifted from each other;", "a switcher for selectively outputting any one of the plural series of clock pulses as the first series of clock pulses from the clock pulse generator;", "and a controller for controlling the switcher so as to output the plural series of clock pulses therefrom in either a first clock-pulse-outputting order to cause the cyclic delay in the phase of the outputted clock pulses or a second clock-pulse-outputting order to cause the cyclic advance in the phase of the outputted clock pulses, wherein, upon determining by the first determiner that the degree of the dimensional variation of the workpiece in the main-scanning direction is positive, the controller controls the switcher so as to output the plural series of clock pulses therefrom in the first clock-pulse-outputting order, and wherein, upon determining by the first determiner that the degree of the dimensional variation of the workpiece in the main-scanning direction is negative, the controller controls the switcher so as to output the series of clock pulses therefrom in the second clock-pulse-outputting order.", "Also, the second regulator may comprise: a clock pulse generator for producing at least two series of clock pulses on the basis of a series of basic clock pulses, the respective series of clock pulses having phases which are shifted from each other;", "a switcher for selectively outputting any one of the plural series of clock pulses as the second series of clock pulses from the clock pulse generator;", "and a controller for controlling the switcher so as to output the plural series of clock pulses therefrom in either a first clock-pulse-outputting order to cause the cyclic advance in the phase of the outputted clock pulses or a second clock-pulse-outputting order to cause the cyclic delay in the phase of the outputted clock pulses, wherein, upon determining by the second determiner that the degree of the dimensional variation of the workpiece in the sub-scanning direction is positive, the controller controls the switcher so as to output the plural series of clock pulses therefrom in the first clock-pulse-outputting order, and wherein, upon determining by the second determiner that the degree of the dimensional variation of the workpiece in the sub-scanning direction is negative, the controller controls the switcher so as to output the plural series of clock pulses therefrom in the second clock-pulse-outputting order.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The advantages and other objects of the present invention will be better understood from the following description, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: FIG. 1 is a schematic and perspective view showing a laser drawing apparatus according to the present invention;", "FIG. 2 is a conceptual view showing a manner of scanning a workpiece, using sixteen scanning-laser beams all at once in the laser drawing apparatus of FIG. 1;", "FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the laser drawing apparatus of FIG. 1;", "FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a main-scanning scaling-correction circuit included in a scaling-correction circuit shown in FIG. 3;", "FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a sub-scanning scaling-correction circuit included in a scaling-correction circuit shown in FIG. 3;", "FIG. 6 is a timing-chart showing ten series of clock pulses produced in and outputted from the main-scanning scaling-correction circuit of FIG. 4;", "FIG. 7 is a timing-chart showing ten series of clock pulses produced in and outputted from the sub-scanning scaling-correction circuit of FIG. 5;", "FIG. 8 is a block diagram of an electronic-shutter drive circuit shown in FIG. 3;", "FIG. 9 is a conceptual view showing a positional and dimensional relationship between an ideal workpiece and an actual workpiece on a X-Y coordinate system defined on a horizontal plane including a surface of a drawing table of the laser drawing apparatus;", "FIG. 10 is a conceptual view showing a series of pixels included in a main-scan line and recorded with a scanning-laser beam in accordance with a series of clock pulses;", "FIG. 11 is a conceptual view showing a series of pixels included in a main-scan line and recorded on the basis of an introduction of a scaling-correction according to the present invention;", "FIG. 12 is a conceptual view showing a series of pixels included in a main-scan line and recorded on the basis of introduction of another scaling-correction according to the present invention;", "FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing a drawing-operation routine executed in the laser drawing apparatus according to the present invention;", "FIG. 14 is a flowchart showing a main-scanning scaling-correction routine executed as a sub-routine in the drawing-operation routine of FIG. 13;", "and FIG. 15 is a flowchart showing a sub-scanning scaling-correction routine executed as a sub-routine in the drawing-operation routine of FIG. 13.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 schematically and perspectively shows a laser drawing apparatus, which is constituted such that a circuit pattern is directly drawn on a photoresist layer formed on a substrate for producing a printed circuit board.", "The laser drawing apparatus comprises a base frame 10 installed on a floor and the base frame 10 is provided with a pair of guide rails 12 laid thereon.", "The apparatus also comprises an X-table 14 movably provided on the pair of guide rails 12, a θ-table 16 rotatably provided on the X-table 14, and a drawing table 18 securely mounted on the θ-table 16.", "The X-table 14 is driven by a suitable motor, such as a stepping motor, a servo motor or the like so as to be moved along the guide rails 12.", "The θ-table 16 is rotatable around a pivot pin vertically protruded from a center of the X-table 14, and a rotational position of the θ-table 16, therefore, the drawing table 18 is minutely adjusted by minute drivers 20 provided on sides of the θ-table 16.", "Note, in FIG. 1, only two minute drivers 20 provided on one side of the θ-table 16 are illustrated, two minute drivers provided on the other side of the θ-table 16 are omitted from FIG. 1 to avoid the complication of illustration.", "The substrate having the photoresist layer is fed to the drawing table 18 through a conveyer system such as a belt conveyer (not shown), and is clamped in place on the surface of the drawing table 18 by a clamper provided in the drawing table 18.", "Note, in FIG. 1, only a pair of clamping members of the clamper are designated by reference numeral 22.", "Note, as shown in FIG. 1, an X-Y coordinate system is defined on a horizontal plane in which a surface of the drawing table 18 is included, with the X-Y coordinate system being immovable with respect to the base frame 10 of the apparatus.", "Further, note, for the sake of convenience, a positive direction of the Y-axis is defined as a main-scanning direction, and a negative direction of the X-axis is defined as a sub-scanning direction.", "The apparatus further comprises an argon laser generator 24 provided on the base frame 10 and supported by suitable structural elements (not shown).", "A laser beam LB emitted from the argon laser generator 24 is reflected upward by a beam bender 26.", "Note, in this embodiment, the argon laser generator 24 is a water-cooled type, and has an output power of 1.8 W, with a wavelength of the emitted laser beam being 488 nm.", "A beam bender 30 is arranged on the plate-like frame 28, and receives the laser beam LB reflected by the beam bender 26.", "The laser beam LB received by the beam bender 30 is directed to a beam splitter 32 by which the laser beam LB is divided into two laser beams LB1 and LB2.", "Beam benders 34 and 36 are arranged on the plate-like frame 28 so as to direct the laser beam LB1 to a beam separator 38.", "Beam benders 40, 42, and 44 are arranged so as to direct the laser beam LB2 to a beam separator 46.", "The beam separator 38 further divides the laser beam LB1 into eight parallel laser beams, and the beam separator 46 further divides the laser beam LB2 into eight parallel laser beams.", "Beam benders 48 and 50 are arranged on the plate-like frame 28 such that the eight parallel laser beams divided by the beam separator 38 are directed to an electronic shutter 52, and beam benders 54 and 56 are arranged such that the eight parallel laser beams divided by the beam separator 46 are directed to an electric shutter 58.", "Each of the electronic shutters 52 and 58 includes eight respective acoustic-optical modulators corresponding to the eight parallel laser beams concerned.", "The eight respective parallel laser beams passing through the electronic shutter 52 are directed to an optical composer 60 comprising a polarization beam splitter, and the eight respective parallel laser beams passing through the electronic shutter 58 are directed to the optical composer 60 through a beam bender 62.", "Both the groups of eight parallel laser beams are combined with each other by the optical composer 60, to thereby produce sixteen parallel laser beams.", "Beam benders 66 and 68 are arranged on the plate-like frame 28 so as to direct the sixteen parallel laser beams, emitted from the optical composer 60, to a polygon mirror 70.", "In this embodiment, the polygon mirror 70 has a hexagonal mirror having six reflecting surfaces formed therearound.", "The sixteen parallel laser beams made incident on one of the reflecting surfaces of the polygon mirror 70 is directed to an fθ lens 72, and then the sixteen parallel laser beam passing through the fθ lens 72 is directed to a turning mirror 74, by which the laser beams are turned toward the surface of the drawing table 18.", "Thus, the turned laser beams are projected on the surface of the drawing table 19 through a condenser lens 76.", "During a drawing-operation of the apparatus, the polygon mirror 70 is rotated such that the sixteen parallel laser beams are deflected along the main-scanning direction or positive direction of the Y-axis, whereby a workpiece is all at once scanned with the sixteen scanning-laser beams.", "During the scanning operation, the sixteen respective laser beams are modulated in the sixteen acoustic-optical modulators of the electronic shutters 52 and 58 on the basis of the raster-graphic data in accordance with the series of clock pulses, whereby a part of the circuit pattern can be drawn on the workpiece.", "Strictly speaking, as shown in FIG. 2, the main-scanning direction of the sixteen laser beams defines an angle of θ with the Y-axis because the drawing table 18 is moved in the sub-scanning direction or negative direction of the X-axis during the scanning of the workpiece with the sixteen laser beams.", "In particular, when the scanning of the workpiece with the sixteen laser beams is once completed, the drawing table 18 is moved by a distance M corresponding to a width W of the sixteen laser beams, resulting in the fact that the sixteen laser beams are deflected perpendicularly to the X-axis, along the main-scanning direction.", "Note, in FIG. 2, the workpiece placed on the drawing table 18 is indicated by reference WP.", "FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of the laser drawing apparatus.", "In this drawing, reference numeral 78 indicates a system control circuit which may be constituted as a microcomputer comprising a central processing unit (CPU) or processor, a read-only memory (ROM) for storing programs, constants, etc, and a random access memory (RAM) for storing temporary data.", "A pair of CCD (charge-coupled device) cameras 80 are connected to the system control circuit 78 through a video-signal processing circuit 82.", "As shown in FIG. 1, the CCD cameras 80 are displaced above the drawing table 18 beside the ends of the condenser lens 76, and are securely supported by a frame structure (not shown) of the apparatus so as to be immovable with respect to the X-Y coordinate system.", "Usually, the CCD cameras 80 are used to detect a position of the workpiece placed on the drawing table 18, and this positional detection of the workpiece allows the laser drawing apparatus to draw a circuit pattern on the surface of the workpiece at a proper position thereof.", "Namely, whenever a circuit pattern is drawn on a surface of the individual workpieces with the sixteen scanning-laser beams, drawing-start positions in the main-scanning direction and the sub-scanning direction are regulated on the basis of the positional detection of the workpiece, whereby the circuit pattern can be drawn on the surface of the workpiece at the proper position thereof.", "According to the present invention, not only are the CCD cameras 20 used for the detection of the position of the workpiece, but also the CCD cameras 80 are used for the determination of dimensional variations or fluctuations of the workpiece, as stated hereinafter in detail.", "A scaling-correction control circuit 84 is connected to the system control circuit 78, and comprises a main-scanning scaling-correction circuit 84A, as shown in FIG. 4, and a sub-scanning scaling-correction circuit 84B, as shown in FIG. 5. The main-scanning scaling-correction circuit 84A governs a main-scanning control circuit 86, and the sub-scanning scaling-correction circuit 84B governs a sub-scanning control circuit 88, as shown in FIG. 3. As is apparent from FIG. 4, the main-scanning scaling-correction circuit 84A includes a first delay line 84A 1 , a second delay line 84A 2 , a buffer 84A 3 , and an inverter 84A 4 .", "A series of basic clock pulses YCK-IN is inputted to the first delay lines 84A 1 through the buffer 84A 3 , and is also inputted to the second delay line 84A 2 through the inverter 84A 4 .", "Note, a phase of the basic clock pulses YCK-IN inverted by the inverter 84A 4 and inputted to the second delay line 84A 2 is shifted by π with respect to a phase of the basic clock pulses YCK-IN inputted to the first delay line 84A 1 .", "In the first delay line 84A 1 , five series of clock pulses: first clock pulses YCK-SFT1;", "second clock pulses YCK-SFT2;", "third clock pulses YCK-SFT3;", "fourth clock pulses YCK-SFT4;", "and fifth clock pulses YCK-SFT5 are successively produced on the basis of the basic clock pulses YCK-IN, and outputted therefrom.", "Also, in the second delay line 84A 2 , five series of clock pulses: sixth clock pulses YCK-SFT6;", "seventh clock pulses YCK-SFT7;", "eighth clock pulses YCK-SFT8;", "ninth clock pulses YCK-SFT9;", "and tenth clock pulses YCK-SFT10 are successively produced on the basis of the inverted basic clock pulses YCK-IN.", "As shown in a timing chart of FIG. 6, the first clock pulses YCK-SFT1 outputted from the first delay line 84A 1 has the same phase as the basic clock pulses YCK-IN.", "The outputting of the second clock pulses YCK-SFT2 from the first delay line 84A 1 is delayed in such a manner that a phase of the second clock pulses YCK-SFT2 is shifted by π/5 with respect to the first clock pulses YCK-SFT1.", "Similarly, the outputtings of the consecutive clock pulses YCK-SFT3;", "YCK-SFT4;", "and YCK-SFT5 from the first delay line 84A 1 are successively delayed in the same manner as the second clock pulses YCK-SFT2.", "Thus, a phase of the fifth clock pulses YCK-SFT5 is shifted by 4π/5 with respect to the first clock pulses YCK-SFT1.", "As shown in the timing chart of FIG. 6, a phase of the sixth clock pulses YCK-SFT6 outputted from the second delay line 84A 2 is shifted by π with respect to the basic clock pulses YCK-IN.", "Namely, the sixth clock pulses YCK-SFT6 correspond to the basic clock pulses YCK-IN inverted by the inverter 84A 4 .", "The outputting of the seventh clock pulses YCK-SFT7 from the second delay line 84A 2 is delayed in such a manner that a phase of the seventh clock pulses YCK-SFT7 is shifted by π/5 with respect to the sixth clock pulses YCK-SFT6.", "Similarly, the outputtings of the consecutive clock pulses YCK-SFT8;", "YCK-SFT9;", "and YCK-SFT10 from the second delay line 84A 2 are successively delayed in the same manner as the seventh clock pulses YCK-SFT7.", "Thus, a phase of the tenth clock pulses YCK-SFT10 is shifted by 9π/5 with respect to the first clock pulses YCK-SFT1.", "Note, when a phase of the tenth clock pulses YCK-SFT10 is further shifted by π/5, the shifted phase is in coincidence with that of the first clock pulses YCK-SFT1.", "As shown in FIG. 4, the main-scanning scaling-correction circuit 84A also includes a multiplexer 84A 5 to which ten output lines extended from the first and second delay lines 84A 1 and 84A 2 are connected.", "Namely, the ten series of clock pulses: YCK-SFT1;", "YCK-SFT2;", "YCK-SFT3;", "YCK-SFT4;", "YCK-SFT5;", "YCK-SFT6;", "YCK-SFT7;", "YCK-SFT8;", "YCK-SFT9;", "and YCK-SFT10 are inputted to the multiplexer 84A 5 , and any one of the ten series of clock pulses is selectively outputted to the main-scanning control circuit 86.", "The main-scanning scaling correction circuit 84A further includes a pulse-outputting control circuit 84A 6 by which it is determined which series of clock pulses should be outputted from the multiplexer 84A 5 .", "In particular, the pulse-outputting control circuit 84A 6 outputs four selection-signals: Y-SEL1;", "Y-SEL2;", "Y-SEL3;", "and Y-SEL4 to the multiplexer 84A 5 , and each of these selection-signals is changed either from a low level "L"", "to a high level "H"", "or from a high level "H"", "to a low level "L"", "under control of the system control circuit 78.", "By a combination of output-levels "L"", "and "H"", "of the selection-signals: Y-SEL1;", "Y-SEL2;", "Y-SEL3;", "and Y-SEL4, it is determined which series of clock pulses: YCK-SFT1;", "YCK-SFT2;", "YCK-SFT3;", "YCK-SFT4;", "YCK-SFT5;", "YCK-SFT6;", "YCK-SFT7;", "YCK-SFT8;", "YCK-SFT9;", "or YCK-SFT10 should be outputted from the multiplexer 84A 5 , as shown in TABLE 1 as follows: TABLE 1______________________________________SELEC- SELECTED SELEC- SELECTEDTION- CLOCK TION- CLOCKSIGNALS LEVEL PULSES SIGNALS LEVEL PULSE______________________________________Y-SEL1 H YCK-SFT1 Y-SEL1 L YCK-SFT6Y-SEL2 L Y-SEL2 HY-SEL3 L Y-SEL3 HY-SEL4 L Y-SEL4 LY-SEL1 L YCK-SFT2 Y-SEL1 H YCK-SFT7Y-SEL2 H Y-SEL2 HY-SEL3 L Y-SEL3 HY-SEL4 L Y-SEL4 LY-SEL1 H YCK-SFT3 Y-SEL1 L YCK-SFT8Y-SEL2 H Y-SEL2 LY-SEL3 L Y-SEL3 LY-SEL4 L Y-SEL4 HY-SEL1 L YCK-SFT4 Y-SEL1 H YCK-SFT9Y-SEL2 L Y-SEL2 LY-SEL3 H Y-SEL3 LY-SEL4 L Y-SEL4 HY-SEL1 H YCK-SFTS Y-SEL1 L YCK-SFT10Y-SEL2 L Y-SEL2 HY-SEL3 H Y-SEL3 LY-SEL4 L Y-SEL4 H______________________________________ As is apparent from TABLE 1, for example, when the output-level of the selection-signals Y-SEL1 and Y-SEL2 are the high level "H", and when the output-level of the selection-signals Y-SEL3 and Y-SEL4 are the low level "L", the third clock pulses YCK-SFT3 are outputted from the multiplexer 84A 5 .", "Also, when the output-level of the selection-signals Y-SEL1 and Y-SEL4 are the high level "H", and when the output-level of the selection-signals Y-SEL2 and Y-SEL3 are the low level "L", the ninth clock pulses YCK-SFT9 are outputted from the multiplexer 84A 5 .", "As shown in FIG. 5, the sub-scanning scaling-correction circuit 84B includes a first shift register 84B 1 , a second shift register 84B 2 , a buffer 84B 3 , and an inverter 84B 4 .", "A series of basic clock pulses XCK-IN is inputted to the first and second shift registers 84B 1 and 84B 2 .", "Further, a series of clock pulses XCK-5IN is inputted to the first shift register 84B 1 through the buffer 84B 3 , and is also inputted to the second shift register 84B 2 , through the inverter 84B 4 .", "As shown in a timing chart of FIG. 7, the clock pulses XCK-5IN has a frequency which is five times the frequency of the basic clock pulses XCK-IN.", "In this timing chart, a series of clock pulses XCK-5IN* corresponds to the series of clock pulses XCK-5IN which has been inverted by the inverter 84B 4 , and then inputted to the second shift register 84B 2 .", "In the first shift register 84B 1 , a first series of clock pulses XCK-SFT1 is produced on the basis of both the basic clock pulses XCK-IN and the clock pulses XCK-5IN, and is outputted therefrom.", "As is apparent from the timing chart of FIG. 7, the first clock pulses XCK-SFT1 outputted from the first shift register 84B 1 has the same phase as the basic clock pulses XCK-IN.", "In the second shift register 84B 2 , a second series of clock pulses XCK-SFT2 is produced on the basis of both the basic clock pulses XCK-IN and the clock pulses XCK-5IN*, and is outputted therefrom.", "As shown in the timing chart of FIG. 7, the outputting of the second clock pulses XCK-SFT2 from the second shift register 84B 2 is delayed in such a manner that a phase of the second clock pulses XCK-SFT2 is shifted by π/5 with respect to that of the first clock pulses XCK-SFT1.", "In the first shift register 84B 1 , a third series of clock pulses XCK-SFT3 is produced on the basis of both the first clock pulses XCK-SFT1 and the clock pulses XCK-5IN, and is outputted therefrom.", "As shown in the timing chart of FIG. 7, the outputting of the third clock pulses XCK-SFT3 from the first shift register 84B 1 is delayed in such a manner that a phase of the third clock pulses XCK-SFT3 is shifted by π/5 with respect to that of the second clock pulses XCK-SFT2.", "In the second shift register 84B 2 , a fourth series of clock pulses XCK-SFT4 is produced on the basis of both the second clock pulses XCK-SFT2 and the clock pulses XCK-5IN*, and is outputted therefrom.", "As shown in the timing chart of FIG. 7, the outputting of the fourth clock pulses XCK-SFT4 from the second shift register 84B 2 is delayed in such a manner that a phase of the fourth clock pulses XCK-SFT4 is shifted by π/5 with respect to that of the third clock pulses XCK-SFT3.", "In the first shift register 84B 1 , a fifth series of clock pulses XCK-SFT5 is produced on the basis of both the third clock pulses XCK-SFT3 and the clock pulses XCK-5IN, and is outputted therefrom.", "As shown in the timing chart of FIG. 7, the outputting of the fifth clock pulses XCK-SFT5 from the first shift register 84B 1 is delayed in such a manner that a phase of the fifth clock pulses XCK-SFT3 is shifted by π/5 with respect to that of the fourth clock pulses XCK-SFT4.", "In the second shift register 84B 2 , a sixth series of clock pulses XCK-SFT6 is produced on the basis of both the fourth clock pulses XCK-SFT4 and the clock pulses XCK-5IN*, and is outputted therefrom.", "As shown in the timing chart of FIG. 7, the outputting of the sixth clock pulses XCK-SFT6 from the second shift register 84B 2 is delayed in such a manner that a phase of the sixth clock pulses XCK-SFT6 is shifted by π/5 with respect to that of the fifth clock pulses XCK-SFT5.", "In the first shift register 84B 1 , a seventh series of clock pulses XCK-SFT7 is produced on the basis of both the fifth clock pulses XCK-SFT5 and the clock pulses XCK-5IN, and is outputted therefrom.", "As shown in the timing chart of FIG. 7, the outputting of the seventh clock pulses XCK-SFT7 from the first shift register 84B 1 is delayed in such a manner that a phase of the seventh clock pulses XCK-SFT7 is shifted by π/5 with respect to that of the sixth clock pulses XCK-SFT6.", "In the second shift register 84B 2 , an eighth series of clock pulses XCK-SFT8 is produced on the basis of both the sixth clock pulses XCK-SFT6 and the clock pulses XCK-5IN*, and is outputted therefrom.", "As shown in the timing chart of FIG. 7, the outputting of the eighth clock pulses XCK-SFT8 from the second shift register 84B 2 is delayed in such a manner that a phase of the eighth clock pulses XCK-SFT8 is shifted by π/5 with respect to that of the seventh clock pulses XCK-SFT7.", "In the first shift register 84B 1 , a ninth series of clock pulses XCK-SFT9 is produced on the basis of both the seventh clock pulses XCK-SFT7 and the clock pulses XCK-5IN, and is outputted therefrom.", "As shown in the timing chart of FIG. 7, the outputting of the ninth clock pulses XCK-SFT9 from the first shift register 84B 1 is delayed in such a manner that a phase of the ninth clock pulses XCK-SFT9 is shifted by π/5 with respect to that of the eighth clock pulses XCK-SFT8.", "In the second shift register 84B 2 , a tenth series of clock pulses XCK-SFT10 is produced on the basis of both the eighth clock pulses XCK-SFT8 and the clock pulses XCK-5IN*, and is outputted therefrom.", "As shown in the timing chart of FIG. 7, the outputting of the tenth clock pulses XCK-SFT10 from the second shift register 84B 2 is delayed in such a manner that a phase of the tenth clock pulses XCK-SFT10 is shifted by π/5 with respect to that of the ninth clock pulses XCK-SFT10.", "As is apparent from the timing chart of FIG. 7, a phase of the tenth clock pulses XCK-SFT10 is shifted by 9π/5 with respect to the first clock pulses XCK-SFT1.", "Accordingly, when a phase of the tenth clock pulses XCK-SFT10 is further shifted by π/5, the shifted phase is in coincidence with that of the first clock pulses XCK-SFT1.", "As shown in FIG. 5, the sub-scanning scaling-correction circuit 84B also includes a multiplexer 84B 5 to which ten output lines extended from the first and second shift registers 84B 1 and 84B 2 are connected.", "Namely, the ten series of clock pulses: XCK-SFT1;", "XCK-SFT2;", "XCK-SFT3;", "XCK-SFT4;", "XCK-SFT5;", "XCK-SFT6;", "XCK-SFT7;", "XCK-SFT8;", "XCK-SFT9;", "and XCK-SFT10 are inputted to the multiplexer 84B 5 , and any one of the ten series of clock pulses is selectively outputted to the sub-scanning control circuit 88.", "The sub-scanning scaling-correction circuit 84B further includes a pulse-outputting control circuit 84B 6 by which it is determined which series of clock pulses should be outputted from the multiplexer 84B 5 .", "In particular, the pulse-outputting control circuit 84B 6 outputs four selection-signals: X-SEL1;", "X-SEL2;", "X-SEL3;", "and X-SEL4 to the multiplexer 84B 6 , and each of these selection-signals is changed either from a low level "L"", "to a high level "H"", "or from a high level "H"", "to a low level "L"", "under control of the system control circuit 78.", "By a combination of output-levels "L"", "and "H"", "of the selection-signals: X-SEL1;", "X-SEL2;", "X-SEL3;", "and X-SEL4, it is determined which series of clock pulses: XCK-SFT1;", "XCK-SFT2;", "XCK-SFT3;", "XCK-SFT4;", "XCK-SFT5;", "XCK-SFT6;", "XCK-SFT7;", "XCK-SFT8;", "XCK-SFT9;", "or XCK-SFT10 should be outputted from the multiplexer 84B 5 , as shown in TABLE 2 as follows: TABLE 2______________________________________SELEC- SELECTED SELEC- SELECTEDTION- CLOCK TION- CLOCKSIGNALS LEVEL PULSES SIGNALS LEVEL PULSE______________________________________X-SEL1 H XCK-SFT1 X-SEL1 L XCK-SFT6X-SEL2 L X-SEL2 HX-SEL3 L X-SEL3 HX-SEL4 L X-SEL4 LX-SEL1 L XCK-SFT2 X-SEL1 H XCK-SFT7X-SEL2 H X-SEL2 HX-SEL3 L X-SEL3 HX-SEL4 L X-SEL4 LX-SEL1 H XCK-SFT3 X-SEL1 L XCK-SFT8X-SEL2 H X-SEL2 LX-SEL3 L X-SEL3 LX-SEL4 L X-SEL4 HX-SEL1 L XCK-SFT4 X-SEL1 H XCK-SFT9X-SEL2 L X-SEL2 LX-SEL3 H X-SEL3 LX-SEL4 L X-SEL4 HX-SEL1 H XCK-SFTS X-SEL1 L XCK-SFT10X-SEL2 L X-SEL2 HX-SEL3 H X-SEL3 LX-SEL4 L X-SEL4 H______________________________________ As is apparent from TABLE 2, for example, when the output-level of the selection-signals X-SEL1 and X-SEL3 are the high level "H", and when the output-level of the selection-signals X-SEL2 and X-SEL4 are the low level "L", the third clock pulses XCK-SFT5 are outputted from the multiplexer 84B 5 .", "Also, when the output-level of the selection-signals X-SEL2 and X-SEL3 are the high level "H", and when the output-level of the selection-signals X-SEL1 and X-SEL4 are the low level "L", the ninth clock pulses XCK-SFT6 are outputted from the multiplexer 84B 5 .", "Referring again to FIG. 3, the main-scanning control circuit 86 is provided with a shutter driver circuit 90 for driving the electronic shutter 52 and 58.", "As shown in FIG. 8, the shutter driver circuit 90 includes a pattern memory (or bit-map memory 90A) connected to a vector-to-raster graphic converter 92 (FIG.", "3), and a synchronizing circuit 90B connected to the bit-map memory 90B at an input side thereof and connected to the electronic shutters 52 and 58 at an output side thereof.", "Although not illustrated in FIG. 3, the vector-to-raster graphic converter 92 is connected to an engineering work station (EWS) through a local area network (LAN), and the EWS feeds vector-graphic data to the vector-to-raster graphic converter 92.", "The vector-graphic data is converted into raster-graphic data by the vector-to-raster graphic converter 92 under the control of the system control circuit 78, and the converted raster-graphic data is developed and stored in the bit-map memory 90A.", "The bit-map memory 90A has a capacity of temporarily storing more than 16 main-scan-lines of raster-graphic pixel data, and 16-bit raster-graphic pixel data included in sixteen consecutive main-scan-lines are successively read from the bit-map memory 90A in accordance with a series of clock pulses outputted from the system control circuit 78 to the bit-map memory 90A.", "The 16-bit raster-graphic pixel data read from the bit-map memory 90A is inputted to the synchronizing circuit 90B.", "On the other hand, the synchronizing circuit 90B is arranged so as to output sixteen respective driving-signals to the sixteen acoustic-optical modulators of the electronic shutters 52 and 58 on the basis of the 16-bit raster-graphic pixel data in accordance with any one of the ten series of clock pulses: YCK-SFT1;", "YCK-SFT2;", "YCK-SFT3;", "YCK-SFT4;", "YCK-SFT5;", "YCK-SFT6;", "YCK-SFT7;", "YCK-SFT8;", "YCK-SFT9;", "and YCK-SFT10 outputted from the main-scanning scaling-correction circuit 84A to the synchronizing circuit 90B.", "Also, the output-timing of the sixteen driving-signals to the electronic shutters 52 and 58 can be regulated by successively and cyclically switching over the outputting of the ten series of clock pulses: YCK-SFT1;", "YCK-SFT2;", "YCK-SFT3;", "YCK-SFT4;", "YCK-SFT5;", "YCK-SFT6;", "YCK-SFT7;", "YCK-SFT8;", "YCK-SFT9;", "and YCK-SFT10.", "The main-scanning control circuit 86 is further provided with a Y-scale sensor 94, and a signal processing circuit 96 connected thereto.", "The Y-scale sensor 94 forms a part of a Y-scale detection system incorporated in the laser drawing apparatus, as shown in FIG. 1, and the Y-scale detection system per se is well known in this field.", "In short, the Y-scale sensor 94 is used to detect a distance along which the sixteen scanning-laser beams are deflected during the scanning of the workpiece with the sixteen scanning-laser beams.", "A series of signals detected by the Y-scale sensor 94 are inputted to the signal processing circuit 96, in which the detected signals are processed, to thereby produce a series of clock pulses.", "The thus-produced clock signals are outputted as the basic clock pulses YCK-IN from the signal processing circuit 96 to the main-scanning scaling-correction circuit 84A (FIGS.", "3 and 4).", "The sub-scanning control circuit 88 is provided with a servo-motor 98 for driving the X-table 14 along the X-axis of the X-Y coordinate system, and a servo-motor driver circuit 99 connected to the servo-motor 98 for outputting a series of driving clock pulses thereto.", "During the scanning operation, the X-table 14 (i.e., the workpiece placed on the drawing table 18) is moved by a distance corresponding to a size of one pixel of a circuit pattern to be drawn, per every one clock pulse of the driving clock pulses.", "The outputting of the driving clock pulses from the servo-motor driver circuit 99 to the servo-motor 98 is carried out in accordance with any one of the ten series of clock pulses: XCK-SFT1;", "XCK-SFT2;", "XCK-SFT3;", "XCK-SFT4;", "XCK-SFT5;", "XCK-SFT6;", "XCK-SFT7;", "XCK-SFT8;", "XCK-SFT9;", "and XCK-SFT10 outputted from the sub-scanning scaling-correction circuit 84B to the servo-motor driver circuit 99.", "Also, the output-timing of the driving clock pulses to the servo-motor 98 can be regulated by successively and cyclically switching over the outputting of the ten series of clock pulses: XCK-SFT1;", "XCK-SFT2;", "XCK-SFT3;", "XCK-SFT4;", "XCK-SFT5;", "XCK-SFT6;", "XCK-SFT7;", "XCK-SFT8;", "XCK-SFT9;", "and XCK-SFT10.", "The sub-scanning control circuit 88 is further provided with an X-scale sensor 100, and a signal processing circuit 102 connected thereto.", "The X-scale sensor 100 forms a part of an X-scale detection system incorporated in the laser drawing apparatus shown in FIG. 1, and the X-scale detection system per se is well known in this field.", "In short, the X-scale sensor 100 is used to detect a distance along which the drawing table 18 is moved during the scanning of the workpiece with the sixteen scanning-laser beams.", "A series of signals detected by the X-scale sensor 100 are inputted to the signal processing circuit 102, in which the detected signals are processed to thereby produce a series of clock pulses.", "The thus-produced clock signals are outputted as the basic clock pulses XCK-IN from the signal processing circuit 102 to the sub-scanning scaling-correction circuit 84B (FIGS.", "3 and 5).", "Note, the series of clock pulses XCK-5IN are outputted from the system control circuit 78 to the sub-scanning control circuit 84B.", "A principle of the scaling-correction according to the present invention will now be explained below.", "FIG. 9 conceptually shows a positional and dimensional relationship between an ideal workpiece IWP and an actual workpiece AWP on the X-Y coordinate system defined on the horizontal plane in which the surface of the drawing table 18 is included.", "The ideal workpiece IWP has a standard dimensions, whereas the actual workpiece AWP is subjected to dimensional variations or fluctuations with respect to the standard dimensions of the ideal workpiece IWP.", "Note, in the example shown in FIG. 9, the actual workpiece AWP is two-dimensionally contracted with respect to the ideal workpiece IWP, and the dimensional relationship therebetween is exaggeratedly illustrated.", "The ideal workpiece IWP is conceptually defined in the X-Y coordinate system on the surface of the drawing table 18, and has four positioning-marks defining the four corners thereof.", "In FIG. 9, the four respective positioning-marks of the ideal workpiece IWP are represented by four sets of coordinates: (X01, Y01);", "(X02, Y02);", "(X03, Y03);", "and (X04, Y04).", "These sets of coordinates of the ideal workpiece IWP may be logically obtained at a design stage of the laser beam apparatus, and are previously stored as ideal coordinate-data in the ROM of the system control circuit 78.", "Optionally, the ideal coordinate-data may be stored in a memory of the engineering work station (EWS).", "In this case, before a drawing operation is carried out, the ideal coordinate-data is fed from the EWS to the laser drawing apparatus, and is temporarily stored in the RAM of the system control circuit 78.", "The actual workpiece AWP also has four positioning-marks defining the four corners thereof, and the four respective positioning-marks are utilized in order to detect a position of the actual workpiece AWP, by the CCD cameras 80, upon placing the actual workpiece AWP on the drawing table 18.", "In FIG. 9, the four positioning-marks of the actual workpiece AWP are represented by four sets of coordinates: (X11, Y11);", "(X12, Y12);", "(X13, Y13);", "and (X14, Y14).", "These coordinates are obtained with respect to the CCD cameras 80.", "In particular, after the actual workpiece AWP is placed on the drawing table 18, firstly, two of the four positioning-marks are photographed by the CCD cameras 80, respectively.", "Then, the drawing table 18 is moved until the remaining two positioning-marks are observed by the CCD cameras 80, and these positioning-marks are then, also, photographed.", "Each of the photographed positioning-mark images are converted into video signals by a corresponding CCD image sensor of the CCD camera 80 concerned.", "The video signals are then suitably processed in the video-signal processing circuit 82.", "The control system circuit 78 then retrieves the processed video signals and, from this basis, calculates the coordinates of positioning-marks.", "After the calculation of the four sets of coordinates [(X11, Y11);", "(X12, Y12);", "(X13, Y13);", "and (X14, Y14)] of the actual workpiece AWP, any positional discrepancies between the actual workpiece AWP and the ideal workpiece IWP are calculated in the system control circuit 78 as follows: ΔY=(Y11+Y12+Y13+Y14-Y01-Y02-Y03-Y04)/4 ΔX=(X11+X12+X13+X14-X01-X02-X03-X04)/4 The calculated data ΔY represents a positional discrepancy of the actual workpiece AWP in the main-scanning direction (Y-axis) with respect to the ideal workpiece IWP, and the calculated data ΔX represents a positional discrepancy of the actual workpiece AWP in the sub-scanning direction (X-axis) with respect to the ideal workpiece IWP.", "When a circuit pattern is drawn on the surface of the actual workpiece AWP, a drawing-start position in the main-scanning direction is determined on the basis of the discrepancy data ΔY, and a drawing-start position in the sub-scanning direction is determined on the basis of the discrepancy data ΔX, whereby the circuit pattern can be drawn on the actual workpiece AWP at a proper position thereof.", "Note, the discrepancy data ΔY and ΔX are stored in the RAM of the system control circuit 78 for the purpose of controlling the drawing-operation.", "According to the present invention, for measurement of dimensional variations or fluctuations of the actual workpiece AWP, a degree of expansion/contraction is calculated on the basis of both the four sets of coordinates of the ideal workpiece IWP and the four sets of coordinates of the actual workpiece AWP as follows: ΔSY=[(Y13+Y14-Y11-Y12)/(Y03+Y04-Y01-Y02)-1] ΔSX=[(X12+X13-X11-X14)/(X02+X03-X01-X04)-1] The calculated data ΔSY represents a degree of expansion/contraction of the actual workpiece AWP in the main-scanning direction, and the calculated data ΔSX represents a degree of expansion/contraction of the actual workpiece AWP in the sub-scanning direction.", "If the degree of expansion/contraction in the main-scanning direction is positive, i.e., if ΔSY>0, it indicates that the actual workpiece AWP is expanded along the Y-axis with respect to the corresponding standard dimension (Y) of the ideal workpiece IWP.", "Also, if ΔSY<0, it indicates that the actual workpiece AWP is contracted along the Y-axis with respect to the corresponding standard dimension (Y) of the ideal workpiece IWP.", "Similarly, if the degree of expansion/contraction in the sub-scanning direction is positive, i.e., if ΔSX>0, it indicates that the actual workpiece AWP is expanded along the X-axis with respect to the corresponding standard dimension (X) of the ideal workpiece IWP.", "Also, if ΔSX<0, it indicates that the actual workpiece AWP is contracted along the X-axis with respect to the corresponding standard dimension (X) of the ideal workpiece IWP.", "Note, the expansion/contraction degree data ΔSY and ΔSX are also stored in the RAM of the system control circuit 78 for the purpose of controlling the drawing-operation.", "As mentioned hereinbefore, according to the present invention, the scaling-correction is performed with a unit of less than one-pixel size with respect to a circuit pattern to be drawn.", "Accordingly, if the one-pixel size of the raster-graphic data is represented by "D p ", the scaling-correction is performed wit ha unit of D p /n.", "Note, in this embodiment, "n"", "is 10.", "For example, if ten thousand pixels are included in a main-scan line, and if the ten thousand pixels are recorded in the scanning-range of 500 mm, a one-pixel size is 5 μm.", "In this case, the performance of the scaling-correction is based upon a unit of 0.5 μm.", "In the example mentioned above, if a degree of expansion/contraction in the main-scanning direction is +0.002, i.e., if ΔSY=+0.002, the scanning-range of 500 mm is expanded into 501 mm.", "In this case, it is necessary to perform the scaling-correction in the main-scanning direction for a positive distance of 1 mm corresponding to a number of 200 (100,000×0.002) pixels.", "In a performance of the scaling-correction, the ten thousand pixels should be, as far as is possible, uniformly recorded in the expanded scanning-range of 501 mm.", "To this end, it is possible to perform the scaling-correction for a positive distance of 5 μcorresponding to the one-pixel size every 500 (100,000/20) consecutive pixels.", "Nevertheless, according to the present invention, since the performance of the scaling-correction is based upon the unit of 0.5 μm, as mentioned above, the scaling-correction can be further preciously performed for a positive distance of 0.5 μm every 50 consecutive pixels.", "This precision performance of the scaling-correction is made possible by successively and cyclically switching over the outputting of the clock pulses (YCK-SFT1;", "YCK-SFT2;", "YCK-SFT3;", "YCK-SFT4;", "YCK-SFT5;", "YCK-SFT6;", "YCK-SFT7;", "YCK-SFT8;", "YCK-SFT9;", "YCK-SFT10), to thereby delay the output-timing of the sixteen driving-signals from the synchronizing circuit 90B to the electronic shutters 52 and 58 every 50 consecutive pixels.", "In particular, if the output-timing of the sixteen driving-signals to the electronic shutters 52 and 58 is regulated by any one of the ten series of clock pulses: YCK-SFT1;", "YCK-STF2;", "YCK-STF3;", "YCK-STF4;", "YCK-STF5;", "YCK-STF6;", "YCK-STF7;", "YCK-STF8;", "YCK-STF9;", "and YCK-STF10, the ten thousand pixels are uniformly recorded with the scanning-laser beam concerned in the scanning-range of 500 mm, and every 50 consecutive pixels occupies a line segment of 250 (50×5) μm, as shown in FIG. 10.", "On the other hand, whenever the scanning-laser beam concerned is deflected over the distance of 250 μm, the outputting of the clock pulses (YCK-STF1;", "YCK-STF2;", "YCK-STF3;", "YCK-STF4;", "YCK-STF5;", "YCK-STF6;", "YCK-STF7;", "YCK-STF8;", "YCK-STF9;", "YCK-STF10) is successively and cyclically switched over in such a manner that the phase of the outputted clock pulses is delayed by π/5 (FIG.", "6), resulting every 50 consecutive pixels being recorded so as to be spaced from each other by a distance of 0.5 μm, as shown in FIG. 11.", "Thus, the precious scaling-correction is achieved so that the ten thousand pixels can be uniformly recorded in the expanded scanning-range of 501 mm.", "On the contrary, in the example mentioned above, if a degree of expansion/contraction in the main-scanning direction is -0.002, i.e., if ΔSY=-0.002, the scanning-range of 500 mm is contracted into 499 mm.", "In this case, it is necessary to perform the scaling-correction in the main-scanning direction for a negative distance of 1 mm corresponding to a number of 200 (100,000×0.002) pixels.", "In an operation of the scaling-correction, the ten thousand pixels should be, as far as is possible, uniformly recorded in the contracted scanning range of 499 mm.", "Similar to the above-mentioned case, according to the present invention, since the performance of the scaling-correction is based upon the unit of 0.5 μm, the scaling-correction can be further preciously performed for a negative distance of 0.5 μm every 50 consecutive pixels.", "This precious performance of the scaling-correction is made possible by successively and cyclically switching over the outputting of the clock pulses (YCK-STF1;", "YCK-STF2;", "YCK-STF3;", "YCK-STF4;", "YCK-STF5;", "YCK-STF6;", "YCK-STF7;", "YCK-STF8;", "YCK-STF9;", "YCK-STF10), to thereby advance the output-timing of the sixteen driving-signals from the synchronizing circuit 90B to the electronic shutters 52 and 58 every 50 consecutive pixels.", "In particular, whenever the scanning-laser beam concerned is deflected over the distance of 250 μm, the outputting of the clock pulses ((YCK-STF1;", "YCK-STF2;", "YCK-STF3;", "YCK-STF4;", "YCK-STF5;", "YCK-STF6;", "YCK-STF7;", "YCK-STF8;", "YCK-STF9;", "YCK-STF10) is successively and cyclically switched over in such a manner that the phase of the outputted clock pulses is advanced by π/5 (FIG.", "6), resulting in the fact that every 50 consecutive pixels are recorded so as to overlap each other by a distance of 0.5 μm, as shown in FIG. 12.", "Thus, the precious scaling-correction is achieved so that the ten thousand of pixels can be uniformly recorded in the contracted scanning-range of 499 mm.", "Although the scaling-correction in the main-scanning direction (Y) is explained with reference to FIGS. 10 to 12, this is essentially true for the scaling-correction in the sub-scanning direction (X) except for the following matters: (1) the sixteen scanning-laser beams cannot be deflected in the sub-scanning direction (X), but it can be said that the sixteen scanning-laser beams are relatively deflected with respect to the drawing table 18 due to the movement of the drawing table 18 in the sub-scanning direction.", "Namely, the deflection of the sixteen scanning-laser beams in the sub-scanning direction can be grasped as a relative movement of the sixteen scanning-laser beams with respect to the drawing table 18.", "(2) Since the drawing table 18 is moved in the negative direction of the X-axis (sub-scanning direction) during the drawing operation, the scaling-correction is performed for a negative distance when a scanning-range is expanded in the sub-scanning direction, and the scaling-correction is performed for a negative distance when a scanning-range is contracted in the sub-scanning direction.", "Namely, in the case of ΔSX>0, whenever the scanning-laser beam concerned is relatively deflected over a given distance with respect to the drawing table 18, the outputting of the ten series of clock pulses (XCK-SFT1;", "XCK-SFT2;", "XCK-SFT3;", "XCK-SFT4;", "XCK-SFT5;", "XCK-SFT6;", "XCK-SFT7;", "XCK-SFT8;", "XCK-SFT9;", "XCK-SFT10) is successively and cyclically switched over in such a manner that the phase of the outputted clock pulses is advanced by π/5 (FIG.", "7).", "Also, in the case of ΔSX<0, whenever the scanning-laser beam concerned is relatively deflected over a given distance with respect to the drawing table 18, the outputting of the ten series of clock pulses (XCK-SFT1;", "XCK-SFT2;", "XCK-SFT3;", "XCK-SFT4;", "XCK-SFT5;", "XCK-SFT6;", "XCK-SFT7;", "XCK-SFT8;", "XCK-SFT9;", "XCK-SFT10) is successively and cyclically switched over in such a manner that the phase of the outputted clock pulses is delayed by π/5 (FIG.", "7).", "As is apparent from the foregoing, a unit of minimum distance (Y c ) in the main-scanning direction (Y), for which the precious scaling-correction should be performed with a unit of D p /n depends upon the expansion/contraction degree data ΔSY, and is represented by the following general formula: Y.sub.", "c =(D.", "sub.", "p /n)/ΔSY Note, in the above-mentioned example explained with reference to FIG. 10 to 12, Y c =(5 μm/10)/0.002=250 μm.", "Similarly, a unit of minimum distance (X c ) in the sub-scanning direction (X), for which the precious scaling-correction should be performed with a unit of D p /n depends upon the expansion/contraction degree data ΔSX, and may be represented by the following general formula: X.sub.", "c =(D.", "sub.", "p /n)/ΔSX Also, a phase-shift location (Y t ), which is measured from the drawing-start position in the main-scanning direction, and at which the phase of the clock pulses (YCK-SFT1;", "YCK-SFT10) outputted from multiplexer 84A 5 should be shifted for the precious scaling-correction, may be represented by the following formula: Y.sub.", "t =Y.", "sub.", "c *t=[(D.", "sub.", "p /n)/ΔSY]*t Herein: a symbol "*"", "represents the product;", "and a symbol "t"", "represents an integer.", "Similarly, a phase-shift location (X x ), which is measured from the drawing-start position in the sub-scanning direction, and at which the phase of the clock pulses (XCK-SFT1;", "XCK-SFT10) outputted from the multiplexer 84B 5 should represented by the following formula: X.sub.", "s =X.", "sub.", "c *s=[(D.", "sub.", "p /n)/ΔSX]*s Herein: a symbol "*"", "represents the product;", "and a symbol "s"", "represents an integer.", "Note, the above-mentioned calculations are executed in the system control circuit 78, and the resultant data Y c ;", "X c ;", "Y t ;", "and X s are stored in the RAM thereof.", "Further, note, other data inclusive of the integers "t"", "and "s", the one-pixel size "D p ", and the constant "n"", "may be stored in the ROM of the system control circuit 78.", "FIG. 13 shows a flowchart for a drawing operation routine executed in the system control circuit 78 of the laser drawing apparatus.", "At step 1301, the drawing table 18 is moved from a starting-position thereof along the X-axis of the X-Y coordinate system by driving the servo-motor 98 until two of the four positioning-marks of a workpiece on the placed on the drawing table 18 are observed by the CCD cameras 80.", "When the positioning-marks are observed by the CCD cameras 80, the drawing table 18 is stopped.", "At step 1302, the positioning-marks are photographed by the CCD cameras 80.", "Namely, the respective photographed positioning-mark images are converted into video signals by the CCD image sensors of the CCD cameras 80.", "The converted video signals are suitably processed in the video-signal processing circuit 82, and are then retrieved by the system control circuit 78.", "At step 1303, the drawing table 18 is again moved in the X-axis direction of the X-Y coordinate system by driving the servo-motor 98 until the remaining two positioning-marks of a workpiece on the placed on the drawing table 18 are observed by the CCD cameras 80.", "When the remaining two positioning-marks are observed by the CCD cameras 80, the drawing table 18 is stopped.", "At step 1304, the remaining two positioning-marks are photographed by the CCD cameras 80.", "Namely, the respective photographed positioning-mark images are converted into video signals by the CCD image sensors of the CCD cameras 80.", "The converted video signals are suitably processed in the video-signal processing circuit 82, and are then retrieved by the system control circuit 78.", "At step 1305, the various calculations are executed in the system control circuit 78 as follows: (a) Firstly, to detect a position of the workpiece on the drawing table 18, the four sets of coordinate data of the four positioning-marks formed at the four corners thereof are calculated on the basis of the video signals derived therefrom (FIG.", "9).", "Then, discrepancy data ΔY and ΔX are calculated, based on the comparison between the four sets of coordinate data of the ideal workpiece (IWP) and the four sets of the coordinate data of the actual workpiece concerned.", "As already mentioned above, the data ΔY represents a positional discrepancy of the workpiece concerned in the main-scanning direction (Y-axis), and the data ΔX represents a positional discrepancy of the workpiece concerned in the sub-scanning direction (X-axis).", "(b) Respective expansion/contraction data ΔSY and ΔSX in both the main scanning direction and the sub-scanning direction are calculated on the basis of both the four sets of coordinate data of the ideal workpiece and the four sets of coordinate data of the actual workpiece concerned.", "(c) Minimum distance unit data Y c i the main scanning direction, for which the precious scaling-correction should be performed with a unit of D p /n, is calculated on the basis of the expansion/contraction degree data ΔSY, the one-pixel size data D p and the constant data "n".", "The minimum distance unit data X c in the sub-scanning direction, for which the precious scaling-correction should be performed with a unit of D p /n, is calculated on the basis of the expansion/contraction degree data ΔSX, the one-pixel size data D p and the constant data "n".", "(d) Phase-shift location data Y t , which is measured from the drawing-start position in the main-scanning direction, and at which the phase of the clock pulses (YCK-SFT1;", "YCK-SFT10) outputted from the multiplexer 85A 5 should be shifted for the precious scaling-correction, is calculated on the basis of the minimum distance unit data Y c and the integer data "t".", "Phase-shift location data X s , which is measured from the drawing-start position in the sub-scanning direction, and at which the phase of the clock pulses (XCK-SFT1;", "XCK-SFT10) outputted from the multiplexer 84B 5 should be shifted for the precious scaling-correction, is calculated on the basis of the minimum distance unit data X c and the integer data "s".", "After the various calculations are completed, control proceeds to step 1306, in which the drawing table 18 is moved to the drawing start-position on the basis of the calculated discrepancy data ΔY and ΔX.", "Then, at step 1307, a counter t, representing the integer "t", is initialized to "1", and, at step 1308, a counter s representing the integer "s"", "is, also, initialized to "1".", "At step 1309, an execution of a drawing operation is started.", "Then, control proceeds to step 1310, in which a main-scanning scaling-correction routing is executed, as shown in a flowchart of FIG. 14.", "After the main-scanning scaling-correction routine is completed once, control proceeds to step 1311, in which a sub-scanning scaling-correction routine is executed, as shown in a flowchart of FIG. 15.", "After the sub-scanning scaling-correction routine is completed once, control returns from step 1311 to step 1310.", "Namely, the main-scanning scaling-correction routine and the sub-scanning scaling-correction routine are alternately executed until the drawing operation is entirely completed.", "When the completion of the drawing operation is confirmed, control proceeds from the step 1311 to step 1312, in which the drawing table 18 is returned to the starting position thereof.", "Thus, the execution of the drawing operation routine is completed.", "With reference to FIG. 14, the main-scanning scaling-correction routine is explained below.", "At step 1401, it is determined whether the degree of expansion/contraction (ΔSY) in the main-scanning direction is positive or negative.", "At step 1401, if ΔSY>0, control proceeds to step 1402, in which a first clock-pulse-outputting order is set.", "In accordance with the first-clock-outputting order, the ten series of clock pulses: YCK-STF1;", "YCK-STF2;", "YCK-STF3;", "YCK-STF4;", "YCK-STF5;", "YCK-STF6;", "YCK-STF7;", "YCK-STF8;", "YCK-STF9;", "and YCK-STF10 are successively and cyclically outputted in such a manner that the phase of the outputted clock pulses is delayed by π/5.", "On the other hand, at step 1401, if ΔSY<0, the control proceeds to step 1403, in which a second clock-pulse-outputting order is set.", "In accordance with the second clock-pulse-outputting order, the ten series of clock pulses: YCK-STF1;", "YCK-STF2;", "YCK-STF3;", "YCK-STF4;", "YCK-STF5;", "YCK-STF6;", "YCK-STF7;", "YCK-STF8;", "YCK-STF9;", "and YCK-STF10 are successively and cyclically outputted in such a manner that the phase of the outputted clock pulses is advanced by π/5.", "At step 1404, deflection distance data C y is retrieved from the Y-scale sensor 94 by the system control circuit 78.", "The deflection distance data C y represents a distance over which the sixteen laser beams are deflected from the scanning-start position in the main-scanning direction, at the time when the deflection distance data C y is retrieved.", "At step 1405, it is determined whether the retrieved deflection distance data C y has coincided with the phase-shift location data Y t .", "Note, at this stage, since a count number of the counter t is "1", the phase-shift location data Y t is equal to Y c *1.", "Note, in the above-mentioned example, data Y c is 250 μm.", "If C y ≠Y t , control proceeds from 1405 to step 1406, in which it is determined whether an initial pass of the main-scanning operation of the workpiece, with the sixteen laser beams, has been completed.", "If the entire main-scanning operation is not yet completed, control returns from step 1406 to step 1404.", "At step 1405, when the retrieved deflection distance data C y has coincided with the phase-shift location data Y t , control proceeds from step 1405 to step 1407.", "If ΔSY>0 at step 1401, i.e., if the first clock-pulse-outputting order is set, at step 1407, the outputting of the clock pulses (YCK-STF1;", "YCK-STF2;", "YCK-STF3;", "YCK-STF4;", "YCK-STF5;", "YCK-STF6;", "YCK-STF7;", "YCK-STF8;", "YCK-STF9;", "YCK-STF10) is switched over in accordance with the first clock-pulse-outputting order.", "Namely, the switching of the outputting of the clock pulses is carried out in such a manner that the phase of the outputted clock pulses is delayed by π/5.", "For example, if the first clock pulses YCK-SFT1 is initially outputted, the outputting of the clock pulses is switched over from the first clock pulses YCK-SFT1 to the second clock pulses YCK-SFT2.", "On the other hand, if ΔSY<0 at step 1401, i.e., if the second clock-pulse-outputting order is set, at step 1407, the outputting of the clock pulses (YCK-STF1;", "YCK-STF2;", "YCK-STF3;", "YCK-STF4;", "YCK-STF5;", "YCK-STF6;", "YCK-STF7;", "YCK-STF8;", "YCK-STF9;", "YCK-STF10) is switched over in accordance with the second clock-pulse-outputting order.", "Namely, the switching of the outputting of the clock pulses is carried out in such a manner that the phase of the outputted clock pulses is advanced by π/5.", "For example, if the first clock pulses YCK-SFT1 is initially outputted, the outputting of the clock pulses is switched over from the first clock pulses YCK-SFT1 to the tenth clock pulses YCK-SFT10.", "At step 1408, the count number of the counter t is incremented by "1", and then control returns to step 1404.", "Namely, the routine comprising steps 1404, 1405, 1406, 1407, and 1408 is repeatedly executed until the entire main-scanning operation is completed once.", "Thus, if ΔSY>0 at step 1401, the precious scaling-correction is performed in the manner as explained with reference to FIG. 11, and, if ΔSY<0 at step 1401, the precious scaling-correction is performed in the manner with reference to FIG. 12.", "When the completion of the main-scanning operation is confirmed in step 1401, the counter "λ"", "is reset to 1 and control returns to step 1311 of the flowchart of FIG. 13.", "With reference to FIG. 15, the sub-scanning scaling-correction routine is explained below.", "At step 1501, it is determined whether the degree of expansion/contraction (ΔSX) in the sub-scanning direction is positive or negative.", "At step 1501, if ΔSX>0, control proceeds to step 1502, in which a first clock-pulse-outputting order is set.", "In accordance with the first-clock-outputting order, the ten series of clock pulses: XCK-STF1;", "XCK-STF2;", "XCK-STF3;", "XCK-STF4;", "XCK-STF5;", "XCK-STF6;", "XCK-STF7;", "XCK-STF8;", "XCK-STF9;", "and XCK-STF10 are successively and cyclically outputted in such a manner that the phase of the outputted clock pulses is advanced by π/5.", "On the other hand, at step 1501, if ΔSX<0, control proceeds to step 1503, in which a second clock-pulse-outputting order is set.", "In accordance with the second clock-pulse-outputting order, the ten series of clock pulses: XCK-SFT1;", "XCK-STF2;", "XCK-STF3;", "XCK-STF4;", "XCK-STF5;", "XCK-STF6;", "XCK-STF7;", "XCK-STF8;", "XCK-STF9;", "XCK-STF10 are successively and cyclically outputted in such a manner that the phase of the outputted clock pulses is delayed by π/5.", "At step 1504, deflection distance data C x is retrieved from the X-scale sensor 94 by the system control circuit 78.", "The deflection distance data C x represents a distance over which the sixteen laser beams are relatively deflected with respect to the drawing table 18 from the scanning-start position in the sub-scanning direction, at the time when the deflection distance data C x is retrieved.", "At step 1505, it is determined whether the retrieved deflection distance data C x has coincided with the phase-shift location data X s .", "Note, at this stage, since a count number of the counter s is "1", the phase-shift location data X s is equal to X c *1.", "If C x ≠X s , control proceeds from step 1505 to step 1506, in which it is determined whether a sub-scanning operation of the workpiece, with the sixteen laser beams, is completed.", "Since sub-scanning operation is not yet completed, control returns to step 1401 of the flowchart of FIG. 14, in which the main-scanning scaling-correction routine is again executed.", "At step 1505, when the fetched deflection distance data C x coincides with the phase-shift location X s , control proceeds from step 1505 to step 1507.", "If ΔSX>0 at step 1501, i.e., if the first clock-pulse-outputting order is set, at step 1507, the outputting of the clock pulses (XCK-STF1;", "XCK-STF2;", "XCK-STF3;", "XCK-STF4;", "XCK-STF5;", "XCK-STF6;", "XCK-STF7;", "XCK-STF8;", "XCK-STF9;", "XCK-STF10) is switched over in accordance with the first clock-pulse-outputting order.", "Namely, the switching of the outputting of the clock pulses is carried out in such a manner that the phase of the outputted clock pulses is advanced by π/5.", "For example, if the first clock pulses XCK-SFT1 is initially outputted, the outputting of the clock pulses is switched over from the first clock pulses XCK-SFT1 to the tenth clock pulses XCK-SFT10.", "On the other hand, if ΔSX<0 at step 1505, i.e., if the second clock-pulse-outputting order is set, at step 1507, the outputting of the clock pulses (XCK-STF1;", "XCK-STF2;", "XCK-STF3;", "XCK-STF4;", "XCK-STF5;", "XCK-STF6;", "XCK-STF7;", "XCK-STF8;", "XCK-STF9;", "XCK-STF10) is switched over in accordance with the second clock-pulse-outputting order.", "Namely, the switching of the outputting of the clock pulses is carried out in such a manner that the phase of the outputted clock pulses is delayed by π/5.", "For example, if the first clock pulses XCK-SFT1 is initially outputted, the outputting of the clock pulses is switched over from the first clock pulses XCK-SFT1 to the second clock pulses XCK-SFT2.", "At step 1508, the count number of the counter s is incremented by "1", and then control returns to step 1401 of the flowchart of FIG. 14, in which the main-scanning scaling-correction routine is again executed.", "Thus, the precious scaling-correction is introduced into the sub-scanning operation in substantially the same manner as the main-scanning operation.", "When the completion of the sub-scanning operation is confirmed at step 1506, control returns to step 1312 of the flowchart of FIG. 13.", "Finally, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the foregoing description is of preferred embodiments of the apparatus and that various changes and modifications may be made to the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope thereof.", "The present disclosure relates to subject matter contained in Japanese Patent Application No. 8-163697 (filed on Jun. 4, 1996), which is expressly incorporated herein, by reference, in its entirety." ]

[ "BACKGROUND Technical Field [0001] The disclosure relates to passive infrared sensor-based motion detectors.", "General Description [0002] Motion detectors based on infrared sensing elements represent a specialized type of passive infrared (PIR) sensor called Passive Infrared-based Motion Detectors (PID).", "PIDs are routinely applied to security systems and for automatically actuated lighting systems which are intended to be triggered by movement of an object or body through the sensor's coverage area.", "PIDs do not literally detect “motion”, but rather detect transient changes in temperature occurring within usually small and changing portions of the coverage area.", "These transient changes, or “apparent motion”, can stem from movement of a warm bodied person or vehicle into or through the coverage area, producing a local area of higher temperature against the cooler background of the coverage area.", "Such transient changes can also be associated with movement of a body or an object colder than the background through the coverage area.", "An example of this would be ice floating on a warmer river.", "[0003] A PID is usually built using a plurality of pyroelectric thin film sensors which are combined with appropriate circuitry to make the PID insensitive to changes in ambient temperature generally detected across the coverage area while remaining sensitive to the localized temperature changes likely to be associated with movement of objects of a different temperature in or through the coverage area.", "Ambient temperature changes generally occur more slowly and across more of the coverage area than changes observed upon the movement of objects through the area allowing generation of signals generally indicative of object movement based on transient localized changes in temperature in the coverage area.", "In a literal sense then, PID motion sensors could be considered “apparent”", "motion detectors since the changes they detect are not exclusively caused by motion of objects, however, the term “motion detector”", "is commonly used in the art.", "[0004] Unfortunately, transient changes can also stem from events which have little or nothing to do with the movement of “objects of interest.”", "Handling of localized, transient changes of temperature which are not the result of motion of an object of interest, but are instead associated with other events, for example wind induced motion of tree branches or changes in cloud cover, is an issue for PID based systems.", "Unusually large objects, or objects exhibiting a substantial deviation from ambient temperature may pass through peripheral portions of the coverage area (or just outside the intended coverage area) giving rise to undesirable triggering of lighting or security alerts (“false”", "triggers).", "[0005] The sensor elements in PIDs produce what is basically an analogue signal subject to variation over time depending upon changes in the heat output, or reflection, within its field of view.", "Signal events must be accurately correlated with the motion of warm bodies of significant size moving into or out of the focused sensing zones.", "A warm person walking into a sensing zone can generate a relatively large change in the infrared energy in that sensing zone, causing the circuitry to interpret that change in infrared energy as motion.", "One difficulty a sensor has is distinguishing between signals which indicate object motion in the coverage area, in which case it is desirable to activate the lights, and other signals which are not caused by object motion but mimic the signal resulting from object motion and thus which result in activation of security lights.", "These false triggers or nuisance activations need to be minimized.", "Minimization of false trigger events has demanded careful aiming of PIDs if maximum sensitivity is to be employed.", "As a consequence, less than maximum PID sensitivity is sometimes used with less than optimal aiming of the device as a tradeoff to minimize installation time.", "[0006] Prior art PIDs have been built which have included a secondary light which is activated whenever a signal is generated which is of sufficient magnitude to trigger activation of the primary lighting or to activate an alarm.", "In some applications the secondary light is activated for a relatively brief period compared to the primary lighting.", "The secondary light provides several advantages.", "One advantage is that initial installation is aided since an installer can determine the sensor coverage area by watching the secondary light turn on and off.", "The “on period of the secondary light is generally much shorter than the “on”", "period for the primary lights and often corresponds closely to when an object is actually in the coverage zone as opposed to the main lights which may have an “on”", "period of several minutes.", "Another advantage is that the secondary light can be left active during daylight hours when the primary lighting is inoperable to save power.", "Still another advantage is that the secondary light can serve as an indicator that the primary lighting has failed.", "[0007] Prior art PIDs have often been used as part of an area security system for detecting intruders within a secured area.", "Upon detection of an intruder the primary lighting or an alarm is activated.", "A secondary light, if present, also turns when the intruder enters the secured area.", "While the primary lighting typically remains on for an extended period of time, for example five minutes, the secondary light typically turns off after just a few seconds and then, if additional object movement is detected within the coverage area, turns on again.", "The secondary light can flash on and off if the intruder moves around in or further into the coverage/secured area.", "However, intruders often vacate a secured area in response to activation of the primary lighting, particularly if the intrusion is innocent.", "[0008] While PIDs have been built to accommodate ambient conditions, changes in ambient conditions can still affect the precise borders of a PID's coverage area and/or the minimum temperature differentials between an object and its background required to activate the primary lighting or alarm.", "False triggers, or failures to respond, may be more or less likely when the weather does not match the conditions prevailing on installation.", "Small changes in ambient conditions may cause signals that were just below the threshold necessary to activate the primary lights or alarm.", "A typical example would be a PID installed at the front of a house and inadvertently aimed so that traffic passing in front of the house was within its field of view but far enough away that the signals generated by passing cars were not large enough to activate the system's primary response.", "Should a vehicle later exhibit a substantial temperature contrast with the environment, often stemming from colder weather conditions, the signal may become large enough to trigger the system's primary and secondary response.", "SUMMARY [0009] A passive infrared motion detector has multiple response levels at differing degrees of sensitivity.", "The motion detector is based on use of a pyroelectric infrared sensor and on circuitry which generates an output signal the strength of which reflects transient temperature changes occurring within a field of view and which is distinguishable from background heat levels.", "The detector's response varies with the strength of the signal.", "One vehicle for expressing the response is generation of an indicator which varies with the strength of the output signal.", "This can be effected a number of ways.", "For example, a plurality of LED's which emit light in different colors may be used.", "Alternatively, a single LED can be illuminated at an intensity which varies with signal strength.", "Auditory systems can be used.", "Typically these preliminary responses are staged to occur upon comparison to a plurality of reference levels of decreasing sensitivity.", "The system's ultimate response, illumination of an area or triggering of an alarm for example, occurs when the output signal magnitude reaches the least sensitive reference level.", "The system generally will have a field of view defined by a lens system which is translucent to visible light and transparent to infrared light.", "The lens system can double for back screen projection of the indicator light output.", "For motion detection systems based on ranging and/or Doppler shifts occurring within a coverage area and basing a response on strength of the return signal, analogous indication mechanisms and provision of multiple reference levels may be provided.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0010] FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a passive infrared motion detector.", "[0011] FIG. 2 is a block diagram of motion detection circuitry for a passive infrared sensor.", "[0012] FIG. 3 is a block diagram of motion detection circuitry for a passive infrared sensor exhibiting multiple concurrent sensitivity levels.", "[0013] FIG. 4 is a graphical illustration of a possible output signal from a passive infrared sensor.", "[0014] FIG. 5 is a graphical illustration of a possible output signal from a passive infrared sensor against a plurality of sensitivity trigger levels.", "[0015] FIG. 6 illustrates the horizontal dispersion of detection zones within the coverage area for a passive infrared sensor based motion detector.", "[0016] FIG. 7 illustrates distance limits for a horizontal pattern of detection zones within the coverage area of a passive infrared sensor.", "[0017] FIG. 8 graphs a possible output signal from a passive infrared sensor.", "[0018] FIG. 9 is perspective view of an apparent motion detector incorporating multiple trigger level indicators.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0019] In the following detailed description, like reference numerals and characters may be used to designate identical, corresponding, or similar components in differing drawing figures.", "Furthermore, example sizes/models/values/ranges may be given.", "These are not intended to be limiting in most cases.", "In circuit diagrams, well-known power and ground connections, and similar well-known elements, may be omitted for the sake of simplicity of illustration.", "[0020] Referring to FIG. 1 , a PID based sensor 10 is illustrated comprising a housing 12 and a lens system 14 installed on the housing.", "Lens system 14 is preferably translucent to the visible light spectrum, but transparent to the infrared spectrum, which can help mitigate false triggers from visible light sources.", "[0021] Referring to FIG. 2 , a block diagram of representative PID circuitry 20 uses a transducer 21 based on thin films of pyroelectric material.", "The transducer(s) 21 is connected to an amplifier 22 (typically a differential amplifier).", "The transducer 21 is exposed to infrared radiation B radiated by an object A moving through or within the coverage area of a lens system 14 .", "The transducer 21 is located behind the lens system 14 which together define a coverage area for a PID based sensor.", "A preferred transducer assembly is the Nippon Ceramic model RE200B (described at http://www.", "nicera.", "co.", "jp/pro/ip/pdf/pdfip001.", "pdf).", "The signal B, received by the transducer 21 could come from the reflection of a signal from a microwave or ultrasonic source (not shown), or direct radiation from the moving object as in the case of passive infrared motion sensors.", "Transducer 21 converts the infrared signals from the moving object into an electrical signal, which is amplified and filtered by the amplifier 22 of the PID circuitry 20 .", "The output signal from the amplifier 22 is directed to the input of level detector 23 which compares the amplitude of the output signal to a primary reference level.", "If the amplitude of the output signal is of greater magnitude than the primary reference level, the level detector 23 sends a trigger signal to the logic block 24 indicating that a signal level consistent with detection of an object in motion is present.", "Logic block 24 may use one or more additional criteria, such as requiring multiple signals from the level detector or requiring low ambient light conditions, before activating the attached lighting 25 .", "The level detector 23 , primary reference level and logic 24 could also be implemented in software.", "The choice of the primary reference level is made to obtain the desired sensitivity, and range, while avoiding an excessive number of false triggers.", "If the motion sensing system is attached to a security system that activates an alarm, the tendency would be to limit the sensitivity to avoid false alarms.", "[0022] The field of view or coverage area of a PID is usually defined by the focusing lens 14 disposed between an active surface of the sensor element 21 and the environment.", "In a typical application the focusing lens 14 is a polyethylene lens (preferably a Fresnel Lens) placed and shaped to collect energy in the form of a pattern of sensing zones (see FIG. 6 or 7 ) covering a portion of a broader field.", "The energy within the sensing zones is magnified.", "This arrangement is used to extend the range over which infrared energy can be detected.", "[0023] A problem with this system lies in its application to motion sensing.", "The sensor element produces what is basically an analogue signal subject to variation over time depending upon changes in the heat radiated by objects and background within its coverage area.", "Signal events must be accurately correlated with the motion of warm bodies of significant size moving into or out of the focused sensing zones.", "A warm person walking into a sensing zone can generate a relatively large change in the infrared energy in that sensing zone, causing the circuitry to interpret that change in infrared energy as motion.", "A difficulty with such systems has been setting the coverage area such that, to the extent possible, only objects in motion through the coverage area drive the output signal level to a greater magnitude than the reference level and thereby trigger the primary response of the system.", "Signal levels which have a relatively high probability of resulting from peripheral or non-motion events should not exceed the reference level.", "To achieve this result the coverage area should be set to avoid locations likely to host peripheral or non-motion based events.", "[0024] FIG. 3 is a block diagram of motion detection circuitry 30 modified to implement multiple detection or reference levels.", "Level detectors 31 , 32 , 33 monitor the output signal from amplifier 22 and compare the amplitude of the output signal to each of three secondary reference levels;", "a, b, and c. In a conventional installation at least two of the three reference levels, and more typically all three secondary reference levels, are set to a lesser absolute magnitude than the primary reference level.", "As a result, level detectors 31 , 32 and 33 successively generate discrete responses to the output signal as it reaches progressively larger absolute magnitudes (see FIG. 5 ).", "In other words, levels c, b and a, in that order, represent progressively increased sensitivity at the cost of the increasingly greater likelihood of false triggers.", "Secondary logic 34 is connected to receive the outputs from level detectors 31 , 32 , 33 , and potentially other signals relating to certain necessary conditions, such as ambient light level or the position of control switches (not shown), to activate: a 1st indicator light 35 if the output signal is of greater absolute magnitude than level a;", "a 2nd indicator light 36 if the output signal is greater than level b;", "and a 3rd indicator light 37 if the output signal is greater than level c. It is not necessary that the exogenous conditions required for a response at any particular reference level be the same as those for another reference level.", "For example, the responses at secondary reference levels might be insensitive to ambient light levels while the response to the output signal exceeding the magnitude of the primary reference level might be inhibited at high ambient light levels.", "A secondary reference level might be set to the same magnitude as the primary reference level, but the response made conditional on different exogenous conditions.", "Secondary reference levels of course might be set higher than the primary reference level to be used to indicate bounds tighter than the current coverage area.", "[0025] The indicator lights 35 , 36 , 37 are preferably low intensity lights such as LED's that are clearly visible to a person looking directly at the motion sensing system but which do not provide enough illumination to light up the area surrounding the motion sensing system.", "As a result, a higher degree of false triggers can be tolerated for activation of indicator lights 35 , 36 , 37 since they do not draw as much attention nor are as distracting as illumination of the higher wattage security lights 25 .", "In one embodiment, the first indicator light 35 would be a low level, amber colored LED package activated in response to the output signal exceeding reference level a. Reference level a may be chosen to represent a four factor increase in sensitivity compared to the primary reference level.", "Since the infrared radiation from a moving object received at the PID 10 tracks the inverse square law, the result will be a doubling in effective range of PID 10 .", "This would be expected to generate a substantial increase in false triggers.", "Similarly, the second indicator light 36 is arranged to have a sensitivity that is a factor of 2 greater than the sensitivity used to activate the security lights 25 .", "The second indicator light 36 would also be an amber LED, but driven at a higher level than the first indicator light 35 , so that it is illuminated at a brighter level than the first indicator light 35 .", "The first indicator light 35 and the second indicator light 36 could be the same LED driven at two different levels.", "Finally, the third indicator light 37 could be a red LED set to a sensitivity level quite close to the sensitivity used to activate the high wattage security lights 25 .", "[0026] On approaching a PID which incorporates the circuitry of this disclosure and the indicator light system of the first embodiment, an intruder could see a low level amber glow as he approaches a PID motion sensing system, indicating that he has been detected.", "As the intruder moves closer, the amber LED 35 will glow more intensely, or change color, in response to the intruder's motions providing a clear indication that he has been detected and an implied warning that the system is active and about to respond to the intruder.", "If the intruder moves still closer, the red LED 37 will activate as a final warning that a response is imminent.", "Any further motion toward the motion sensing system will activate the high wattage security lights 25 and/or set off an alarm.", "The result is three additional layers of deterrence that occur before the intruder has activated the high wattage lights 25 and/or the alarm system.", "[0027] FIGS. 4 and 5 graphically illustrate a typical output signal from amplifier 22 as a moving object A approaches a motion detection system.", "FIG. 4 illustrates the response of a system having only a primary reference level setting while FIG. 5 illustrates a system incorporating a plurality of reference levels including a primary reference (defined as the reference level which results in generation of the systems intended response) and a plurality of secondary, higher sensitivity levels.", "As the object A approaches, or moves (as indicated by arrow C), into coverage zone rays 60 of the coverage area CA (see FIG. 6 ), the amplitude of the output signal grows in magnitude approaching the positive and negative primary reference levels.", "The amplitude of the output signal can eventually become greater than the primary reference level.", "At this point in time, the logic element 24 receives a signal from the level detector 23 and turns on the security lights 25 .", "Once the primary reference level has been exceeded, the security lights 25 would typically remain on for a predetermined minimum period even with loss of the trigger signal.", "[0028] FIG. 6 shows a simplified diagram of the coverage zones 60 within the coverage area CA for a typical PID motion sensor.", "For simplicity in illustration, only six zones 60 are shown.", "To further simplify the drawing, only the horizontal plane is depicted.", "In actual applications the zone coverage is replicated, or something similar is provided, in the vertical plane.", "The coverage zones 50 are typically a plurality of pyramid shaped volumes extending outwardly from the face of the lens system 14 .", "FIG. 6 includes a representation of a warm object A moving into one of the sensing zones 60 (as indicated by arrow C).", "When outside the sensing zone, only a very small fraction of infrared energy radiated by object A reaches the PID system.", "However, once inside a sensing zone 60 , the lens system 14 focuses a much higher percentage of the IR energy onto the transducer 21 .", "The change in incident IR energy on the transducer 21 from low intensity to high intensity results in a relatively large signal at the transducer 21 output.", "A typical response is that after a 0.4 seconds delay the high wattage lights 25 are activated.", "In this amount of time, a person may have traveled two or three feet further into the motion sensing zone 60 , making it difficult to judge where the edge of the motion sensing zone actually began.", "In most cases this will give the installer the impression that the motion sensing zone is considerably narrower than it actually is.", "[0029] FIG. 5 shows positive and negative reference levels for level a, level b, and level c. This allows the effective comparison of the absolute value of the output signal with the secondary reference levels, and the responsive illumination of the LEDs indicating which sensitivity level is being triggered.", "There are multiple indications from the indicator lights 35 , 36 , 37 of the magnitude of the apparent motion detected.", "LED indicator lights 35 , 36 and 37 are preferably illuminated for relatively short periods compared with the activation period for an alarm or the primary lighting following a triggering event at the respective levels.", "In effect a variety of staged levels of response are produced.", "[0030] FIG. 7 illustrates generation of apparent motion signals that are created by objects substantially beyond the normal range of the PID.", "Two motion sensing zones 50 , with extensions 52 are shown.", "Possible borders 54 between the zones 50 and extensions 52 are illustrated.", "The position of borders 54 would be quite fluid, being subject to the amount of heat radiated by and potentially by the speed of the object A to be detected.", "Borders 54 indicate only a maximum range of the PID on an average day for an average human being.", "A person or object moving into the motion sensing zone 50 would activate the high wattage lights 25 .", "A person A moving into an extended sensing zone 52 (indicated by arrow D) would result in generation of an output signal as graphically illustrated in FIG. 8 .", "Here the output signal does not exceed the primary reference level and the high wattage lighting 25 is not activated.", "However, since the output signal does exceed level a, the first indicator light 35 is activated.", "[0031] FIG. 9 illustrates location of the invention that places the supplemental indicator lights 35 , 36 , 37 behind the lens system 14 of a PID 40 used for focusing infrared light on the sensor element of PID 91 .", "The indicator lights 35 , 36 , 37 are arranged to illuminate the entire lens system 14 which is typically translucent to visible wavelengths of light.", "Illumination of the relatively large surface area of the lens 14 , results in a display that is more visible to an intruder or installer than would be the relatively small surface areas of the individual LEDs.", "A sensor element is placed in recess 91 to avoid direct exposure of the pyroelectric sensor films to light emitted from LED indicator lights 35 , 36 , 37 .", "Alternative arrangements of indicator lights based on an LED are possible.", "LEDs have become available which may be varied in color output.", "It is possible that the response of the system could be continuous variation of the color output, intensity output or flash rate depending upon signal strength.", "The LEDs will illuminate the lens system 14 from behind relative to the exterior of housing 12 .", "Since lens system 14 is translucent to visible portions of the spectrum the lens system will appear to glow to an outside observer due to back screen projection on the lenses from the indicator LEDs 35 , 36 and 37 .", "[0032] These concepts may also be extended to any motion detection system that generates proportional signals, e.g. microwave and ultrasonic systems.", "The system is applicable for false trigger identification, verifying coverage range and makes aiming easier." ]

[ "FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001] The present invention is directed to a device.", "BACKGROUND INFORMATION [0002] Joining two parts by a threaded joint is generally known.", "Thus, for example, an insertion probe of a device for determining a parameter of a medium flowing in the duct is placed in a duct at least partially by being screwed onto a wall of the duct.", "In addition, further sealing elements such as rubber rings for example must be present on the insertion probe to seal the duct outward.", "Screwing in is an additional process step after the installation of the insertion probe in the duct.", "In addition, a further component, namely the sealing element, must be installed.", "Such a device is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,804,718, for example.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0003] The device according to the present invention has the advantage over the related art that a joint, which is moisture- and air-tight without additional means, is easily established between two parts.", "[0004] The presence of welding pockets when two parts are welded together is advantageous, because material from at least one of the parts enters the welding pocket and is thus unable to affect the joining process between the two parts.", "In addition, the material which flows or is deformed during the welding operation cannot reach the environment because it is held in the welding pocket.", "[0005] The at least one welding pocket may advantageously be present on one or on both parts.", "Furthermore, the interaction of the two parts may also result in the formation of an advantageous welding pocket.", "[0006] It is advantageous if a second part has a first projection, on which the first part rests during welding, because a defined welding pocket which produces a tight joint between the parts is thus produced.", "[0007] It is advantageous if the parts are joined by orbital vibration welding, because this method subjects the parts and/or components situated on the parts to less thermal and mechanical stress compared to ultrasound welding.", "Thus, for example, a heat-sensitive and/or vibration-sensitive electronic component may be placed on at least one part before the welding operation without being damaged by the welding operation.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0008] [0008 ]FIG. 1 shows a first exemplary embodiment of a device designed according to the present invention.", "[0009] [0009 ]FIG. 2 a shows another exemplary embodiment of a device designed according to the present invention.", "[0010] [0010 ]FIG. 2 b shows another exemplary embodiment of a device designed according to the present invention.", "[0011] [0011 ]FIG. 3 shows a device designed according to the present invention having a first projection.", "[0012] [0012 ]FIG. 4 a shows a device designed according to the present invention having a second projection.", "[0013] [0013 ]FIG. 4 b shows a device in which the two parts are welded together.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0014] [0014 ]FIG. 1 shows a first part 3 and a second part 6 of a device 1 designed according to the present invention.", "[0015] The two parts 3 , 6 are welded together.", "[0016] Device 1 has, for example, a duct forming second part 6 and an insertion probe 3 forming first part 3 , which is inserted into the duct through an insertion opening 7 , at least one parameter of a medium flowing in the duct being determined using a sensor in insertion probe 3 .", "Such a device is known, for example, from German Patent Application 198 27 375 A1 and should be part of this disclosure.", "[0017] Parts 3 , 6 are made, for example, but not necessarily, of plastic and have a central axis 21 , for example.", "One axial end 4 of first part 3 is designed with a T-shaped cross section, for example.", "First part 3 is situated at least partially in second part 6 , for example, and rests on second part 6 , part 6 having a tubular design in the area of T-shaped end 4 of part 3 .", "[0018] In a radial direction 27 between first part 3 and second part 6 , there is a distance d different from zero, whereby a cavity acting as a welding pocket 9 is formed between first part 3 and second part 6 .", "[0019] During the welding operation, material may be eroded from or pressed off at a contact surface 33 between T-shaped end 4 of first part 3 and second part 6 .", "This material enters the at least one welding pocket 9 and no longer interferes with the welding operation between first part 3 and second part 6 .", "[0020] Vibration welding, in particular orbital vibration welding, which is based on friction heating and plasticizing of parts 3 , 6 in the area of contact surface 33 , by may be used as the welding process.", "It is carried out via a unidimensional, oscillating or biaxial relative motion having adjustable amplitudes of 0.25 to 2.5 mm and frequencies between 80 and 300 Hz, for example, under a simultaneously acting pressure of P=0.5 to 8.0 MPa exerted perpendicularly to contact surface 33 .", "[0021] [0021 ]FIG. 2 a shows an additional exemplary embodiment of a device 1 designed according to the present invention.", "[0022] Welding pocket 9 is formed, for example, only on second part 6 by introducing a depression in an inner wall 10 of second part 6 in the proximity of contact surface 33 to form welding pocket 9 .", "[0023] This depression to form welding pocket 9 may also be only on first part 3 in an outer wall 11 in the proximity of contact surface 33 (FIG.", "2 b ).", "Distance d in the radial direction between first part 3 and second part 6 may then be zero or very small.", "[0024] [0024 ]FIG. 3 shows an additional exemplary embodiment of a device 1 designed according to the present invention.", "[0025] Second part 6 has a first projection 12 , which extends in the axial direction, i.e., runs parallel to central axis 21 and has contact surface 33 at an axial end.", "First projection 12 extends centrally, for example, from a base surface 22 of part 6 .", "[0026] Welding pocket 9 is delimited in radial direction 27 by first projection 12 and an outer wall 11 of first part 3 , which is opposite first projection 12 in radial direction 27 .", "In axial direction 21 , welding pocket 9 is delimited by base surface 22 of part 6 and the T head of axial end 4 of part 3 .", "[0027] The space facing outward in radial direction 27 of first projection 12 also forms a welding pocket 9 .", "[0028] [0028 ]FIG. 4 a shows an additional exemplary embodiment of a device 1 designed according to the present invention.", "[0029] Second part 6 has a second projection 15 , which is situated on the outer radial edge of second part 6 , i.e., on the outside opposite first projection 12 in radial direction 27 and extends in axial direction 21 .", "Contact surface 33 of second part 6 with first part 3 is formed on first projection 12 and not on second projection 15 .", "During the welding operation, the axial end of first projection 12 and first part 3 in the area of contact surface 33 are heated and plasticized, so that material 18 enters welding pockets 9 radially inward and outward.", "[0030] Part 18 of first projection 12 which is deformed is identified by cross-hatching.", "[0031] [0031 ]FIG. 4 b shows the two parts 3 , 6 of a device 1 designed according to the present invention when welded together.", "[0032] Contact surface 33 forms a sealing surface 24 against air and moisture.", "[0033] Second projection 15 of second part 6 may, but does not need to, rest on first part 3 and prevents material 18 , which is present in outer welding pocket 9 , from escaping out of outer welding pocket 9 to the outside." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] 1.", "Field of the Invention [0002] This invention relates to a structure and a method for the detection of objects in particular the determination of plant status via remote sensing of plant biomass and plant biochemical properties for the purposes of mapping and applying agricultural products e.g. nitrogen based fertilizer.", "[0003] 2.", "Description of Related Art [0004] In order to manage our natural resources in an efficient and cost-effective manner, producers and turf professionals need a way in which to measure and assess the health and performance of their landscapes.", "For example, the need to know when and how much fertilizer (nitrogen) and other nutrients to apply to a plant to elicit the appropriate growth response is primarily guess work to the producer.", "Because nitrogen is required by the plant in the greatest quantities and because nitrogen is rather mobile in soils, producers have practiced a one time application of nitrogen to cover the crops need for the entire growing season.", "However, over application of nitrogen on agricultural and commercial landscapes has resulted in the contamination of ground and surface waters.", "The primary vectors for water contamination are run-off and leaching.", "Nitrate-nitrogen is the most common contaminant found in U.S. groundwater.", "Nitrate contamination is increasing both in area and concentration, particularly beneath landscapes dominated by corn production.", "It is estimated that 1.8×10 9 kilograms of nitrates wash into the Gulf of Mexico from the Mississippi River basin each year.", "Of this amount, 55% of the nitrogen released into the basin can be attributed to agricultural fertilizers with only a 3% contribution attributable to non-agricultural fertilizer application primarily on turf for lawns and recreational land (CAST, 1999).", "[0005] Techniques to remotely measure crop status include the use of a spectroradiometer and other instruments (Bausch et al.", "1994;", "Chappelle et al.", "1992;", "Maas and Dunlap, 1989), aerial photography (Benton et al, 1976), and satellite imagery.", "[0006] The techniques listed above are not without their limitations.", "For example, early research by Resource21™ determined that during the optimal fly over times between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. for satellite imaging, cloud cover had adverse affects on visibility.", "It was found that during the 10 am to 11 am time frame, fields in Colorado were visible approximately 80% of the time while eastern Nebraska fields were visible approximately 50% of the time.", "This trend in decreased visibility continued the farther east that data was collected.", "Also, spatial resolution for satellite imagery is poor (Landsat, 20 meter and panchromatic, 10 meter).", "Similar problems plague aerial photographic methods as well.", "While aerial imagery has better spatial resolution (typically less than 3 meters) than satellite imaging, partial cloud cover can shade sections of fields giving biased or incorrect reflectance measurements.", "Both techniques, however, suffer from the need for extensive data processing (performed by third party providers at high cost and long lead time) and geo-referencing issues.", "Even with spectroradiometric methods using sunlight as the ambient light source, cloud cover and time of day (8 a.m. to 8 p.m.) demands limit the mainstream acceptance of the technology for addressing the nitrogen rate over-loading problem.", "What is needed is an on-the-go type sensor that overcomes the time of day and fair-weather issues surrounding the aforementioned measurement techniques.", "[0007] In certain crops or plant varieties, nutrient deficiencies constitute only part of the management problem.", "In particular, the basic problem of determining or monitoring plant status with respect to stress whether it stems from nutrient, water, pest, disease, or otherwise is of primary concern.", "For instance, turf stress determination is of major concern for the turf manager.", "Earlier detection can protect the health of the grass but also reduce the cost of restoring the badly damaged turf to good health.", "Turf stress can be due to many causes such as water, pest, nutrient, heat, disease, and the like.", "By detecting changes in the turf landscape early, turf quality can be maintained and costly restoration operations can be reduced or eliminated.", "On the other hand, being able to control the degree of stress is important for some producers.", "Grape producers, for example, like to control the degree of water stress prior to harvesting in order to control disease and increase the sugar content of the grape.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0008] The new sensor of the present invention overcomes the time-of-day and fair weather limitations of passive technologies by incorporating its own radiant source and by rejecting the influence of ambient light on the measured canopy reflectance.", "Unlike passive sensor technology, this sensor will be able to operate under completely dark or full sun conditions.", "Additionally, the new sensor apparatus is an improvement both in performance and cost over competing active-sensor technologies commercially available.", "[0009] As discussed above, the invention presented here will be advantageous in a number of commercial applications.", "For site specific agricultural applications, the developed sensor would allow the producer to reduce the amount of nitrogen fertilizer applied to a crop or facilitate spoon-feeding the crop during the growing season, thus having the potential for lowering production costs and enhancing environmental quality.", "Also, by being able to determine the appropriate fertilizer needs of the crop at any given location in the field, the producer can apply only the fertilizer needed to prevent yield loss or degradation of product quality (i.e., protein content in wheat and barley or sugar content in sugar beets).", "Subsequently, decreased fertilizer rates will substantially lower nitrogen runoff and leaching losses, which will improve the health of our watersheds, waterways, lakes, and oceans.", "In addition, data produced by the sensor may be used to produce relative yield maps for forecasting crop production.", "Also, the fluorescence capability of the sensor can be used in conjunction with reflectance measurements to improve biomass determination.", "The chlorophyll fluorescence capability of the sensor has the potential to determine plant stress and disease conditions, which are useful indicators when selecting crop hybrids for commercialization.", "As for turf grass applications, the sensor technology would allow turf managers to map changes occurring on turf landscapes or for monitoring the status of turf quality.", "[0010] In accordance with the present invention, structures and methods are provided for assessing plant status using biophysical and biochemical properties of the plant remotely sensed by the invention thereby allowing selective monitoring, elimination or treatment of individual plants.", "In one embodiment of this invention, a single polychromatic emitter provides coincident light beams;", "one beam substantially in the visible portion of the spectrum (400 nm to 700 nm) and the other in the near infrared (NIR) portion of the spectrum (700 nm to 1100 nm).", "This light beam illuminates a small surface area on the ground, which may be bare ground, desired plants or undesired weeds.", "The beam of light may be focused, collimated or non-focused.", "A detector array, usually composed of a visible detector and a NIR detector, detects portions of this polychromatic light beam reflected by the surface area and provides a signal indicative of whether the detected light was reflected by a plant or by some non-plant object such as soil.", "A controller analyzes this signal and, assuming a plant is detected, responds by activating a device to take some action with respect to the plant or stores the analyzed signal with corresponding DGPS position in the controller's memory for later analysis.", "A number of actions may be taken by the controller.", "For instance, if the plant is a weed, the desired action might be to spray herbicide on the weed.", "Or, if the plant is a crop that is determined to be lacking in nutrient, the desired action may be to apply fertilizer.", "Additionally, if the plant under test is a turf landscape, such as found on golf courses and sporting fields, plant biomass may be mapped and geo-located using GPS for later, comparative analysis.", "[0011] In another unique embodiment of this invention, two light emitters provide selectively modulated monochromatic light beams of different wavelengths.", "One light beam is preferably in the visible portion of the spectrum and the other is in the NIR portion of the spectrum.", "These light beams illuminate a small surface area on the ground which, again, may be bare ground, desired plants or undesired weeds.", "A detector array which, in a preferred embodiment, may comprise a visible detector and a NIR detector, detects portions of the monochromatic light beams reflected by the surface area and provides a signal indicative of whether the detected light was reflected by a plant or by some non-plant object such as soil.", "Additionally, the visible light source may be utilized to excite chlorophyll fluorescence from the plant.", "The emission wavelength of the fluorescence emission is detected using the NIR channel.", "The fluorescence signal contains information allowing the invention to distinguish between plant from soil (most soils do not fluoresce) or to relate the plant's status to stress or disease.", "The signal produced can be integrated into a controller and processed as in the previous embodiment.", "[0012] When incorporated into variable rate applicator and/or sprayer systems, the present invention significantly reduces the use of fertilizers or herbicides by precisely applying agricultural products to individual plants to be treated or eliminated.", "Moreover, the present invention is operable under a wide variety of conditions including cloudy conditions, bright sunlight, artificial illumination, or even total darkness.", "The advantage to the producer is that field operations do not have to be timed to daytime sunlight hours for operation.", "[0013] All embodiments of the invention can be used in two primary ways.", "The first method of use includes the application of the invention to handheld instrumentation.", "Here the invention is utilized to measure plant canopies held in hand by a producer, turf manager, researcher, and the like.", "The invention includes the use of GPS for geo-referencing data collected by the invention.", "A second method of use includes applications where the sensor is mounted a moving object such as a tractor, mower, center pivot/linear irrigator, or the like.", "Again, data may be geo-referenced using GPS for mapping and data layer (GPS maps, soil maps, etc.) integration.", "Problem areas can be logged and reviewed later by the producer or land manager for analysis and site management decisions.", "[0014] An object of the invention is to provide a sensor for remotely sensing plant status using biophysical and biochemical properties of the plant thereby allowing selective monitoring, elimination, or treatment of individual plants.", "[0015] This and other objects of the invention will be made apparent to those skilled in the art upon a review of this specification, the associated drawings and the appended claims.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0016] FIG. 1 illustrates plant reflectance curves over the visible and near infrared portion of the spectrum.", "[0017] FIG. 2 illustrates the effect of nitrogen rate on the plant reflectance curve over the visible and near infrared portion of the spectrum.", "[0018] FIG. 3 illustrates the quantum mechanism involved in chlorophyll fluorescence for blue and red light.", "[0019] FIG. 4 illustrates the characteristic excitation and emission spectra for chlorophyll fluorescence of a plant.", "Excitation wavebands are typically less than 650 nm in the visible portion of the spectrum and the emission waveband is in the near infrared spanning from 695 nm to 780 nm.", "[0020] FIG. 5 shows a diagram of a the inventions mechanical enclosure.", "[0021] FIG. 6 shows the functional block diagram of a typical sensor embodiment.", "[0022] FIG. 7 illustrates the general shape of the emission spectrum for a monochromatic LED source.", "[0023] FIG. 8 illustrates the general shape of the emission spectrum for a polychromatic LED source.", "[0024] FIG. 9 shows schematically a circuit used to instrument the inventions light source.", "[0025] FIG. 10 illustrates several methods of detecting visible and infrared portions of the spectrum with a photodiode array.", "[0026] FIG. 11 shows a vegetative reflectance curve with the red-edge portion of the spectrum emphasized.", "[0027] FIG. 12 shows diagrammatically a sensor based mapping system [0028] FIG. 13 shows diagrammatically a sensor based variable-rate applicator system.", "[0029] FIG. 14 illustrates the necessary sensor-to-spray nozzle separation for compensating for plant canopy periodicity and random leaf orientation.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS [0030] The following contains a description for a sensor that measures plant canopy and soil reflectance independent of ambient illumination levels.", "More generally, the sensor could be used in any situation where a particular surface condition or feature needed to be remotely detected under variable ambient light conditions.", "The sensor can be used in stand-alone instrumentation configurations or in a network of sensors mounted to a vehicle or moving apparatus for on-the-go remote sensing applications.", "The following description of the invention is meant to be illustrative and not limiting.", "Other embodiments will be obvious in view of this invention.", "[0031] The positive relationship between leaf greenness and crop nitrogen (N) status means it should be possible to determine crop N requirements based on reflectance data collected from the crop canopy (Walberg et al.", ", 1982;", "Girardin et al.", ", 1985;", "Hinzman et al.", ", 1986;", "Dwyer et al.", ", 1991) and leaves (McMurtrey et al.", ", 1994).", "Plants with increased levels of N typically have more chlorophyll (Inada, 1965;", "Rodolfo and Peregrina, 1962;", "Al-Abbas et al.", ", 1974;", "Wolfe et al.", ", 1988) and greater rates of photosynthesis (Sinclair and Horie, 1989).", "Hence, plants that appear a darker green are perceived to be healthier than N deficient plants.", "Chlorophyll in leaves absorbs strongly in the blue 2 and red 3 regions of the spectrum (460 rum and 670 nm) and reflects/transmits light in the green region (550 nm), see FIG. 1 .", "Blackmer et al.", "(1994a,b,c) used a spectroradiometer to characterize the differences in light reflected from corn canopies receiving different N treatments, see FIG. 2 .", "They found a strong relationship between green light (550 nm) and fertilizer N rate.", "In addition, green light reflectance from corn during the late milk stage (R4 to R5) was highly correlated with grain yield (r 2 =0.98, ten N rates for one hybrid).", "As a result, it is the relationship between leaf greenness (reflected green light) and chlorophyll content (absorbance) which makes it possible to remotely sense or measure leaf greenness and obtain an indication of chlorophyll concentration and plant N status.", "A useful feature of measuring leaf greenness or chlorophyll content is that greenness does not generally increase with luxury consumption of N. Plants achieve maximum greenness regardless of the amount of excess N supply.", "Thus, in order to create a measure for crop N status, producers can establish N-adequate reference areas by applying in those areas enough extra N fertilizer to guarantee N is non-limiting.", "One can then determine N status and/or detect deficiency by comparing greenness values between the reference area and the area in question.", "[0032] To demonstrate the capabilities of the sensor for assessing crop status with respect to nutrient sufficiency, the invention was tested on 5 N-rate treatments of 34-0-0 ammonium nitrate fertilizer (0, 50, 100, 150 and 200 lb/acre) for 4 different corn hybrids.", "Chlorophyll data were obtained by USDA-ARS personnel using Minolta SPAD meters.", "SPAD data were collected from the ear level leaves of corn plants in a corn rotation.", "Thirty SPAD meter samples were taken for each treatment in the study.", "Nitrogen rate order was randomized within each hybrid.", "The sensor was mounted onto a high clearance vehicle and was driven through the field at velocities ranging from 2 to 4 mph.", "Two measurement runs through the rotation study were conducted, each with two replications.", "The first run through the test plots set the field of view of the sensor to measure the upper portion of the corn plant just below the tassel.", "The second run through the corn study positioned the sensor to measure the plant canopy at ear level.", "The crop was at the R1 growth stage (early blister) at the time of sampling.", "Table 1 summarizes the sensor's performance for the two runs through the test plots with correlation between SPAD and GNDVI measurements for each replication listed.", "TABLE 1 Prototype sensor GNDVI vs.", "SPAD meter for N-rates of 0, 50, 100, 150 and 200 lb/acre on four corn hybrids.", "Position Below Tassel Level Ear Leaf Level Hybrid R 2 (PASS 1) R 2 (PASS 2) R 2 (PASS 1) R 2 (PASS 2) H1 0.99 0.81 0.97 0.97 H2 0.90 0.95 0.98 0.96 H3 0.86 0.96 0.85 0.88 H4 0.97 0.99 0.97 0.94 Corn Hybrid H1 P32R42 H2 P33B50 H3 P33G26 H4 P33P66 [0033] Very good correlation with SPAD meter readings was obtained.", "Table 2 summarizes the sensor's performance for the two runs through the test plots with correlation between N-rate and GNDVI measurements for each replication listed.", "TABLE 2 Prototype sensor GNDVI vs.", "N-rate for N-rates of 0, 50, 100, 150 and 200 lb/acre on four corn hybrids.", "Position Below Tassel Level Ear Leaf Level Hybrid R 2 (PASS 1) R 2 (PASS 2) R 2 (PASS 1) R 2 (PASS 2) H1 0.87 0.91 0.78 0.83 H2 0.85 0.94 0.81 0.74 H3 0.80 0.72 0.93 0.88 H4 0.72 0.84 0.91 0.92 Corn Hybrid H1 P32R42 H2 P33B50 H3 P33G26 H4 P33P66 Good correlation with N-rate was obtained.", "The lower correlation numbers of GNDVI vs.", "N-rate than GNDVI vs.", "SPAD could be due to the uncertainty of the residual soil NO 3 available to the plant for nutrient assimilation.", "[0034] Note also, when leaf greenness starts to decrease, changes in the plants condition with respect to various types of stress can be assessed.", "This is oftentimes associated with a decrease in foliage biomass.", "In turf application, decreased greenness and biomass is indicative in either diminished tiller density and/or the onset of stress and disease.", "By routinely measuring biomass and greenness during mowing and other turf management operations, changes in turf quality, whether abrupt or gradual, can be monitored throughout the growing season.", "Earlier detection of turf damage and disease can save thousands of dollars in restoration costs.", "[0035] On turf plots, the invention was able to distinguish between poor performing turf and healthier turf within the same cultivar.", "Diseased or stressed cultivars exhibited different reflectance and fluorescence characteristics from those of healthy cultivars.", "The fluorescence capability of the invention, in conjunction with the basic reflectance measurement capability, can be used together to determine trends in turf growing conditions or to determine early onset of disease and stress.", "This capability was tested on turf plots.", "It was determined that the invention was able to distinguish between poor performing turf and healthier turf within the same cultivar.", "Diseased or stress cultivars exhibited different reflectance and fluorescence from those of healthy cultivars.", "Table 3 lists the GNDVI and fluorescence values for the cultivar plots tested.", "From the data shown in Table 3, the first turf plot (126) suffering from disease can be distinguished from the other two plots in the cultivar.", "The health status of this plot is reflected in the sensor data shown in Table 3.", "The stress signature, as indicated by the data for this plot, is not only a reduction of GNDVI, but also reduced fluorescence.", "The other two plots in this cultivar are healthy and have similar sensor signatures.", "The three Langara cultivar plots are healthy and exhibit similar sensor signatures as shown in Table 3.", "TABLE 3 Sensor measurements for turf cultivars shown in FIG. 13 and 14.", "Cultivar Plot # GNDVI Fluorescence Status Chicago II 126 0.227 717 D Chicago II 199 0.372 905 H Chicago II 374 0.381 892 H Langara 150 0.389 1068 H Langara 196 0.379 1038 H Langara 498 0.390 1124 H D = Diseased, H = Healthy [0036] Another application of the invention relates to object detection, in particular to weed locating.", "For example, consider a field that has been tilled and has a crop planted.", "At this time only stubble from the past harvested crop is exposed and weeds have sprouted.", "It may be desirable to kill the weeds at this stage in the growing cycle by an application of herbicide.", "Since the population of weeds is sparse and their location is randomly placed within the field, a sprayer operator would have to apply herbicide to the whole field.", "As a result, considerable amounts of herbicide would be wasted on areas of the field that did not need spraying.", "Such blanket spraying is expensive and may involve undesirable environmental impact.", "Techniques are thereby sought to reduce the amount of herbicide wasted.", "The invention of this patent provides a selective way, when integrated into a sprayer implement, in which to apply herbicide based on the detection of a weed as distinguished from soil or background characteristics.", "It obvious from the above examples that the technology can be readily applied to other types of plants.", "[0037] The new sensor technology of the present invention overcomes the time of day and fair weather limitations of current passive spectroradiometric technologies by incorporating its own modulated, radiant light source.", "The invention improves upon current active sensor technology by incorporation the use polychromatic LED sources and allowing for the measurement of steady-state chlorophyll fluorescence.", "[0038] The optical measurement of plant biomass characteristics typically requires a measurement using visible and NIR light.", "As shown in FIG. 1 , visible light is highly absorbed in the visible region 1 of the spectrum (<700 nm).", "This is due mostly to the plant's need for light in this spectral region to drive its photosynthetic mechanisms.", "However, in the near infrared portion 2 of the spectrum (>700 nm), the cellular structure of the plant tissue highly reflects.", "Reflectance values from a plant canopy range from about 2% to 15% for the visible portion of the spectrum and 25 to 80 percent in NIR region of the spectrum.", "Another interesting phenomenon with respect to plants pertains to chlorophyll fluorescence.", "Of the photosynthetic energy that the plant absorbs, part of the energy is used for photosynthesis (A), part of the energy is dissipated as heat (D) and the remainder of the energy is re-radiated as chlorophyll fluorescence.", "[0039] The magnitude of the fluorescing light intensity is, depending on the health status of the plant, typically 0.1% to 1% in magnitude to that of the reflecting light intensity signal.", "Fluorescence occurs when light absorbed by a plant raises electrons, within the chlorophyll molecule, to excited states that fall back to the ground state without contributing to photochemical work.", "FIG. 3 shows the quantum mechanisms pertaining to chlorophyll fluorescence excitation by blue 30 and red 31 light.", "A red photon has enough energy to raise an electron to excited state 1 ( 32 ).", "The route for the photon in this situation is either to be utilized for the photochemistry 34 of the plant or to fall directly back to the ground state 35 and subsequently re-emit a photon 36 in the process.", "A blue photon has enough energy to excite an electron to excited state 2 ( 33 ).", "In this case, the excited electron de-excites through substrates without producing any radiation to excited state 1 ( 32 ).", "At this point, the electron can be utilized for photochemical chemical work or fall to the ground state producing a photon in the process.", "[0040] FIG. 4 shows a graph depicting the excitation 40 and emission 41 spectra for chlorophyll fluorescence.", "Here a light source with a wavelength less than 680 nm is utilized to excite chlorophyll fluorescence and the subsequently fluorescing light is emitted in the 680 run to 780 nm portion of the spectrum.", "Note that from the graph in FIG. 4 , fluorescence occurs with a shift towards the red, also known as a Stokes shift.", "This is because the electron has the opportunity to lose small fractions of energy as heat when it falls back to the ground state through other excited states.", "As alluded to above, the magnitude of the fluorescing signal available for measurement from a plant canopy is dependent on a number factors that include stress (thermal, water, disease, nutrient, and the like), biomass (how much living plant material is in the field-of-view of the sensor) and the ambient photon flux irradiating the plant.", "The present invention seeks to exploit both of these phenomena (leaf reflectance and chlorophyll fluorescence) for the purpose of assessing plant status.", "[0041] FIG. 5 shows a diagram of the sensor enclosure.", "The enclosure facilitates the protection of the electronic circuitry while providing optical emission and reception ports for the light source and the light detector components, respectively, of the sensor.", "Port 50 in FIG. 5 is the emitter port of the sensor while port 51 is the detector port of the sensor.", "Port 50 and port 51 can facilitate various types of optical components to concentrate and collect optical energy.", "The type of optics used by the sensor can include lens, mirrors, optical flats, filters, and diffusers.", "The type of optics selected for the emitter and detector optics depends on the application;", "that is, the required field of view, the height the sensor will be operated above the plant canopy, the required cost of the sensor all may play a part in the design of the sensor's optical arrangement.", "The sensor can operate at a distance of 1 foot and up to several feet from the plant canopy or surface of interest but is not limited to this specific range.", "To those skilled in the art it should be readily apparent that fore optics on the emission side and the detection side can take on many forms.", "[0042] For example, a useful optically adaptation on the detector side of the optical arrangement would be to encapsulate the detector optics (filters and detectors).", "The outer optical surface would have a convex surface spaced from the plane of the photodiode so as to create an afocal or nearly afocal optical arrangement.", "This preferred mode of construction improves the optical energy collection performance of the filter/diode combination while sealing the optical path from dust and water vapor condensation.", "[0043] On the emission side of the sensor, there are a number of ways in which to shape and direct the light beam emitting from the sensor body.", "For instance, if one wishes to generate a line pattern from the sensors light source, preferably a bank of LEDs, one could place a cylindrical lens in front of this light source spaced appropriately so as to image a line of illumination in the field of view of the detection optics.", "[0044] Alternately, a circular or ellipsoidal area of irradiance can be produced using only the encapsulation optics of an array of LEDs.", "In this instance, the beam pattern produced by the source is defined by the spatial irradiance distribution of each individual LED.", "No additional collimation or focusing optics is incorporated.", "Encapsulated LEDs can be purchased commercially that have spatial distribution angles of 4 degrees to almost 180 degrees.", "Most preferably, it is best to collimate the light emitted form an LED in order to maintain a light beam with relatively constant irradiance over distance.", "In this case the LED or LED array would be spaced an appropriate distance from a convex lens (or concave mirror) to form an afocal or nearly afocal optical system.", "The resulting optical system will produce a light beam that will have nearly constant flux density along the optical axis of the light source.", "The reason this is important is that most vegetative index calculations, such as NDVI, SRI, TSAVI, and SAVI reported in literature are based on the assumption that the illuminating source intensity is constant everywhere within the region of measurement.", "That is to say, a leaf near the soil surface would see the same flux density of light as a leaf 4 feet off the ground.", "Prior art apparatus and methods do not take this into account when generating illuminating sources.", "This situation becomes very import in plant canopies such as corn where the leaf to sensor distance is highly variable and if the flux density of the source changes along the optical axis, the biomass calculation may be skewed or nonlinear with height.", "[0045] FIG. 6 shows a system diagram typical for the many embodiments of the invention.", "The sensor is composed of optics to facilitate optical energy collimation and collection, a modulated light source 61 comprised of one or many banks of polychromatic LEDs and/or monochromatic LEDs or laser diodes (LD) with associated modulated driver and power control electronics 62 , multichannel photodetector bank 63 , high-speed preamplifier array with ambient light cancellation 64 , a phase sensitive signal conditioning 65 and data acquisition circuitry 66 , and a microcontrol unit (MCU) or digital signal processor (DSP) 67 and an input/output interface 68 to communicate sensor data to an operator or controller.", "These system elements will be discussed in the following.", "[0046] The light source for the invention is most preferably composed of light emitting diodes.", "LEDs are convenient light sources for this type of invention for a number of reasons.", "First, LEDs are available in a number of colors useful for making plant biomass and pigment measurements.", "LEDs are readily available in colors spanning from deep violet (395 nm) to near infrared (940 nm).", "Most recently, the UV LEDs have been developed in the 350 nm to 370 nm.", "These particular devices would be useful for stimulating pigment fluorescence in plants as the spectral distribution for pigment fluorescence in plants spans from 400 nm to 550 nm.", "Another useful class of LEDs has been recently developed for the telecommunications industry.", "These devices have spectral emissions spanning from approximately 1300 nm to 1550 nm.", "This range of devices is particularly useful for measuring water stress associated with plants.", "Second, LEDs are extremely easy to use and can be modulated to megahertz frequencies.", "Relatively simple electronic driver circuits can be implemented and easily controlled by sensor controller electronics.", "Last, LEDs have long lifetimes and are rugged.", "The typical LED will operate between 80,000 and 100,000 hours depending on the quiescent device power and operating temperature range.", "[0047] LEDs are crystalline materials composed of various transition elements and dopants that include gallium, arsenic, phosphorous, aluminum, nitrogen and indium.", "Common material chemistries for LEDs are Gallium Arsenide (GaAs), Gallium Arsenide Phosphide (GaAsP), Gallium Aluminum Arsenide (GaAlAs), Indium Gallium Nitride (InGaN).", "Gallium nitride (GaN), Indium Gallium Aluminum Phosphide (InGaAIP), and Gallium Phosphide (GaP).", "Material chemistries that include GaN and InGaN are typically utilized to produce LEDs that emit blue (400 nm) and green (570 nm) light.", "InGaAlP chemistries emit light in the green (560 nm) to red (680 nm) region of the spectrum while GaAs and GaAlAs emit light in the red (660 nm) to near infrared (950 mu) region of the spectrum.", "LEDs can be purchased in encapsulated packages or in die form.", "Encapsulated packages have the benefit of providing mechanical robustness while reducing Fresnel losses associated with a die/air interface.", "[0048] LEDs are noncoherent light sources and their emission characteristic classified as being mostly monochromatic or quasi-monochromatic, that is, the frequencies composing the light are strongly peaked about a certain frequency, see FIG. 7 .", "The spectral characteristic of an LED is defined by an emission band having a center wavelength 70 (CWL) and a spectral-line half-width 71 .", "The center wavelength defines the peak emission wavelength of the LED and the spectral-line half-width defines the spectral bandwidth of the LED.", "However, a unique series of LEDs manufactured by Toshiba Corporation (Tokyo, Japan) exhibits a polychromatic spectral signature instead of a monochromatic signature.", "These LEDs are composed of a InGaAIP crystalline material with a GaAs substrate.", "[0049] The polychromatic characteristic curve for these devices is shown FIG. 8 .", "Notice from the figure, that the emission characteristic is defined by two peaks one having a peak in the visible portion of the spectrum 80 (CWL 1 ) and the other having a peak in the near infrared 81 (CWL 2 ).", "For Toshiba LEDs, the visible peaks (CWL 1 ) are available with peaks of 562 nm (TLPGE 23 TP), 575 nm(TLGE 160 ), 595 nm (TLYH 160 ), 612 nm (TLOH 160 ) and 645 (TLRH 160 ), nm with each having a second peak (CWL 2 ) at about 840 nm.", "A light source such as this would be particularly suited for plant biomass measurements since the basic calculation for biomass requires a reflectance measurement in the visible region and a reflectance measurement in the NIR region.", "Using monochromatic LEDs technology requires two separate monochromatic LED sources and associated driver and compensation electronics, one in the visible and the other in the near infrared.", "However, to one skilled in the art, a psuedo polychromatic source of this invention can be constructed using multiple monochromatic sources modulated simultaneously.", "The advantage of the polychromatic light source is that for each reflectance sample taken, both IR and visible light sources illuminate the same region of the target (plant) being measured.", "Prior art devices alternately switch between sources monochromatic sources sequentially measuring different portions of the target (plant).", "For low speed, on-the-go sensor applications, this does impact the measurement to a high degree.", "But at high speeds, measured data can be skewed based on vehicle speed and the light channel sensing time with respect the portion of the canopy sensed.", "[0050] Other embodiments of the present invention incorporate a polychromatic light source with additional monochromatic light sources.", "The polychromatic source is used to generate the NIR reflectance signal and visible reflectance signal and the monochromatic sources are utilized to generate reflectance signals pertaining to various pigment complexes in the plant and/or to stimulate chlorophyll fluorescence.", "As one can see, many combinations are possible with in the scope of this invention.", "In order to achieve good output stability with respect to thermal and aging effects, the LED sources should be adequately driven and monitored.", "The output intensity of LEDs is very temperature dependent.", "Depending on the material type, an LEDs output can drift between 0.4%/C and 1%/C.", "A decrease in output intensity, even it is being monitored and corrected via calculation, can result in diminished signal to noise performance of the measurement.", "[0051] FIG. 9 shows schematically a circuit that provides active power control for the light source and an output intensity signal for monitoring and calibration.", "Control voltage 90 sets the output power of light source 91 .", "Photodiode 92 , an Infineon SFH203 (Munich, Germany), samples part of the output intensity of light source 91 and feeds this signal via amplifier 93 to servo amplifier 94 .", "Modulation of the output signal is performed using transistor 95 .", "Furthermore, the output of amplifier 93 can be utilized to monitor the light source intensity for purposes of calibration and diagnostics.", "The performance of this circuit has provided output intensity control of approximately 0.05%/C over the operating range of the invention.", "When a polychromatic source is utilized, photodiode 96 and amplifier 97 incorporated into the circuit so as to monitor the IR output of the light source.", "Suitable photodiodes in this case would be a SFH203FA for photodiode 96 and a SFH203 for photodiode 92 .", "Both diodes are manufactured by Infineon (Munich, Germany).", "Many techniques have been discussed in literature detailing methods on maintaining and stabilizing light sources for photometric type measurements including the method presented here.", "[0052] The detectors used in the invention are most preferably silicon photodiodes however other detector technologies such as GaAsP, InGaAs, GaP, and the like, may be utilized as well.", "Silicon detectors have a typical photosensitivity spanning from 200 n-m (blue enhanced) to 1200 nm.", "Band shaping of the detectors is performed using filtering materials such as colored filter glass, interference filters or dichroic filters.", "Combinations of the aforementioned filter techniques can be combined in order to band-shape the radiation impinging on the photodetector surface.", "For example FIG. 10 a shows how a long pass edge filter or dichroic mirror 100 can be used to separate visible and infrared light.", "In this situation, one could choose to use a 750 nm long pass edge filter turned to a 45 degree angle to that of the incident light.", "Ideally, light having wavelengths less than 700 nm are reflected 90 degrees to that of the incident light and NIR light having a wavelengths greater than 700 nm pass through the filter.", "Additional trimming of the photodiodes can be achieved using narrow band interference filters or color glass 102 in front of the photodetectors 101 .", "FIG. 10 b shows another technique that utilizes narrow band interference filters or color glass 102 in front of the detectors 101 in order to reject off-band wavelengths.", "FIG. 10 c shows the use a beam splitter 103 to split the incident light into two different components.", "Here, the incident light is split into two equal beams, directed toward detectors 101 having filters 102 .", "In FIGS. 10 a, b and c, the use of optional lenses or facilitating optics 104 to collect more optical energy are shown.", "[0053] The motivation for wanting to minimize out of band light from reaching the photodetector is one to reduce photocurrent-generated noise.", "The higher the photo current, the higher the noise produced by the photodetector.", "The photocurrent-generated noise current (i nl ) is i nl ={square root}{square root over (2 qBi l )} where q is 1.6×10 19 Coulombs (C), B is the noise bandwidth in Hertz, and i l is the photocurrent in ampere (A).", "[0054] One can see from the above equation as photocurrent rises, so does the noise associated with this current.", "Hence, reducing the intensity of the optical signal, or rather, reducing the out of band ambient light, the photodetector noise can be greatly improved.", "This is the technique that the present invention uses to improve the sensors noise performance.", "Prior art as taught in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,296,702 and 6,596,996 make no attempt to reduce this type of out-of-band ambient light interference.", "Additionally, reducing the photodetector current by reducing the amount of measured ambient light also aids in reducing the effort by which ambient light levels are to be compensated allowing the detecting circuitry to operate over a much larger dynamic range of light intensities.", "Preamplifiers 64 in FIG. 6 amplify the output signals produced by the photodetectors.", "The typical embodiment of this invention uses a 2-detector array with one detector sensitive to light in the visible portion of the spectrum and the other sensitive to light in the infrared portion of the spectrum.", "[0055] It should be obvious that additional detectors can be added to this array.", "For example, suppose the invention was required to measure reflectance at 595 nm, 670 nm, 880 nm and 1450 nm and was instrumented with the appropriate LED sources to do so.", "It is obvious from the above discussion that a single silicon photodiode will not be able to measure all the wavelengths listed.", "It does not have sensitivity past 1200 nm and an additional photodiode having a spectral sensitivity greater than 1450 nm is required.", "The solution to this problem is to add an InGaAs photodetector to the instrument in addition to the visible and NIR detector array.", "An InGaAs photodiode can have a sensitivity out past 2200 nm.", "[0056] A unique embodiment of the invention involves the use of linear diode array detector and diffraction grating (or linear variable filter technology).", "The diffraction grating separates incoming, modulated light in to many wavelengths.", "If the modulated light source is chromatic in nature it will be composed of a broad number of wavelengths.", "One region of the particular interest on the vegetative reflectance curve in FIG. 11 is the so-called red edge 110 (˜680 nm to ˜760 nm).", "It has been reported in literature that the maxima of the derivative of the red edge bands is strongly correlated to the chlorophyll content of the plant.", "By configuring the present invention with a diffraction grating/linear array combination sensitive to this region of the vegetative reflectance curve, plant chlorophyll concentrations can be measured independent of soil background interference.", "[0057] Referring once again to FIG. 6 , the invention utilizes a phase sensitive detector circuit (PSD) 65 and analog-to-digital converter 66 (ADC) after each photodetector.", "The PSDs, also refer to as a lock-in amplifiers, are utilized by the invention to extract and further amplify the very small signal detected and amplified by the photodetector preamplifiers.", "PSDs are often used in applications where the signal to be measured is very small in amplitude and buried in noise.", "Detection is carried out synchronously with modulation of the light sources.", "Phase sensitive detection is one of many types of band narrowing techniques that can be utilized to measure small signals.", "[0058] As will be apparent to those skilled in the art, other methods include the use of averaging techniques, discriminators and direct digital conversion/processing.", "With respect to direct digital conversion/processing, the phase sensitive acquisition component can be performed internally to a MCU or DSP by directly sampling the output of the photodiode amplifiers and performing the bandpass and PSD functions digitally.", "By performing these operations in the digital domain, the temperature drift of the phase detector, common to analog techniques, can be eliminated.", "The invention performs the synchronous modulation/demodulation at a carrier frequency of 250 kHz.", "It should be noted that the operation of the invention is not limited to this particular modulation rate and can operate at other modulation as well with as much effectiveness.", "Additionally, this rate can be increased or decreased as dictated by the application.", "The MCU or DSP samples the output of a PSD 65 utilizing ADC 66 .", "The resolution of the ADC is most preferably 12 bits.", "Each channel can sampled using a dedicated ADC or one ADC can be utilized to sample all channels via a multiplexer.", "[0059] Once the detected optical signals are amplified, demodulated and quantified, the MCU or DSP 67 can calculate a vegetative relationship based on the reflectance values sensed.", "Calculations of biomass can be performed using classic vegetative index calculations.", "There are many types of vegetative indices that can be used that are stated in scientific literature such as NDVI, TSAVI, R 700 /R NIR , etc .", "For example, a green pigment selective difference index (GPSDI) can be calculated using the equation listed as follows GPSDI = ( R NIR - R G R NIR + R G ) where R NIR is the measured infrared light (780 nm ±5nm) reflectance and RG is the measured green light (525 nm ±15 nm) reflectance.", "The 525 nm source was utilized to excite chlorophyll fluorescence.", "The above relationship was utilized by the sensor in generating the data presented in Tables 1, 2 and 3.", "[0060] Data calculated by the sensor's processing component is communicated to an operator or system controller via input/output interface 68 .", "In the case of a handheld instrument, the I/O interface may take the form of a keypad and display.", "If the invention is incorporated into a sprayer or mapping system having several sensors networked together, the I/O interface will most preferably be a networkable serial port such a as RS485 port or CAN 2.0b port.", "[0061] A general embodiment of the invention includes one or more banks of polychromatic LED sources having selected visible wavelengths chosen for a particular measurement band of interest.", "An alternate embodiment would have one or more banks of polychromatic sources and one or more banks monochromatic sources.", "Additionally, the sensor would incorporate one or more banks of photodetectors selective to variety of visible and NIR bands and preferably matched to the spectral characteristics of the irradiating source and/or the fluorescent emission characteristics of the object being measured.", "[0062] A typical embodiment of the sensor would include one or more banks of LEDs (at least one polychromatic LED bank with a combination of additional polychromatic and monochromatic banks) and two photodiode banks.", "One photodiode bank would be sensitive to light in the 400 nm to 700 nm range with the preferable lower limit equal to 500 nm and the preferable upper limit equal to 600 nm.", "The other detector bank would be sensitive to light in the 700 nm to 1000 nm range with the preferable lower limit equal to 700 nm and the preferable upper limit equal to 880 nm.", "For plant nitrogen deficiency and chlorophyll measurements, banks of 480 nm (monochromatic LED) and 590 nm (polychromatic LED: CWL 1 at 590 nm and CWL 2 at 840 nm) LEDs would be incorporated.", "The 590 nm polychromatic bank of LEDs would be used in the measurement of yellow light reflectance and while the blue 480 nm LED would be used to stimulate chlorophyll fluorescence.", "Additionally, the 590 nm LED bank would be used to measure plant biomass in the NIR region using CWL 2 at 840 nm.", "The photodiode bank sensitive in the 400 nm to 700 nm range would be used to measure yellow light reflectance from the plant canopy.", "The photodiode bank sensitive in the 700 nm to 1000 nm range would be used to measure chlorophyll fluorescence and 840 nm LED reflectance from the plant canopy.", "Additional wavelengths have been incorporated to measure subtle color differences with various pigment complexes in the blue green and red (500 nm to 670 nm) spectral regions.", "[0000] Applications of Use-Methods [0063] FIG. 12 show a block diagram of the invention incorporated into a system that is used to mapped plant status.", "Elements of the system include sensor array 120 , sensor controller 121 , and GPS 122 .", "[0064] The role of the sensor in this system is to measure the biomass and/or biochemical properties of the plant being mapped.", "Data produced by the sensor is collected by the system controller for storage and later analysis.", "Each sensor point is geo-referenced using the GPS connected the system controller.", "There are two primary ways in which mapping can be performed the system.", "First, the map collected by the system can be all inclusive, that is, every data point measured by the sensor can be stored away in the controller's memory for later retrieval and analysis.", "Second, the sensor/controller can be programmed with a defined set of rules so as to distinguish poor performing regions of a landscape from good or healthy regions and vice versa and store only the poor performing regions.", "This mode of operation saves storage space in the controller and reduces the amount of data processing that has to be performed.", "As an example, the mapping systems could be mounted to the mower machinery for a golf course.", "When the course personnel perform their weekly mowing operations, the mapping systems would scout for problem areas of the turf.", "For turf management operations, this mode would be most useful because regions of turf that are suffering from stress (disease, water, nutrient, and so forth) or are beginning to suffer.", "The mapping systems would flag affected areas for the turf manager to scout out visually.", "[0065] FIG. 13 show a block diagram of the invention incorporated into a system that is used for applying an agricultural product.", "Elements of the system include sensor array 130 , sensor controller 131 , GPS 132 , fertilizer controller 133 , sprayer pumps/actuators 134 and ground speed sensor 135 .", "[0066] The agricultural product may be either in liquid or solid form and may be, but not limited to, a nutrient, mineral, herbicide or fungicide or a combination of the aforementioned materials.", "The variable rate control system can be mounted to a commercial sprayer or tractor mounted sprayer system.", "GPS can be incorporated in the system when a map is required of plant canopy characteristics for later analysis.", "In addition, to mapping plant characteristics, material dispensation rates can be mapped as well.", "GPS is also required when applying fertilizer referenced to an N sufficient reference strip.", "In this situation, a region of the field is given an N-rate that totally meets the needs of the crop to grow without loss of yield and apply a lower amount of pre-emergent fertilizer (only the amount to initially cause the crop to grow) to the remainder of the field.", "At a time later in the growing season, the producer will apply a second treatment to the remainder of the field using the sensor readings for the N sufficient region of the field.", "Readings from the N insufficient parts of the field will be compared with readings from the N sufficient regions of the field.", "The controller will use the sensor measurements to calculate the appropriate rate of fertilizer to apply to the N insufficient portion of the field in order to prevent yield loss.", "FIG. 14 shows an applicator example with the sensor stood-off from the spray nozzles.", "When designing variable rate application system, the obvious approach is to physically locate the sensor close or next to the sprayer nozzle.", "However, because of the random orientation of most plant canopies the sensor should be separated from the sprayer nozzles by a distance D 140 .", "This allows the sensing instrument to collect data on a portion of the crop, so as to average the spatial variability, before applying an agricultural product.", "The separation distance D between the sensor and sprayer nozzles should most preferably be greater than 3 feet.", "In operation, the variable rate system will collect data for D feet and apply an agricultural product over D feet while sensing the next D separation distance.", "[0067] The benefits of a system such as the one just described are both economic and environmental.", "By using less fertilizer and only applying it where the crop needs it, the producer can lower his use of fertilizer and thus lower his production cost.", "Additionally, by using less fertilizer and only applying it where the crop needs it, reduced run-off and leaching into our watershed occurs.", "For weeding applications, the system controller uses the invention to detect weeds on roadways or in fields.", "Upon detection of a weed, the controller then causes the activation of a sprayer valve which dispenses herbicide on the weed.", "Because only the weed is sprayed, the amount of herbicide is conserved and not wasted on bare soil or ground.", "[0068] Because the present invention produces its own source of light, the measurements that it makes is not influenced by ambient light conditions.", "Applicator equipment fitted with sensors of this type can be operated around the clock at night and under full sun.", "Spraying herbicide at night has some significant advantages because cooler conditions allow longer and more effective working hours at critical times during season.", "Specifically, the higher relative humidity at night aids foliage wetting, thereby prolonging the efficacy of the herbicide material, and the absence of wind after sunset eliminates over-spraying.", "Therefore, in addition to significantly reducing the cost of herbicide associated with the elimination of weeds, the present invention, by having the capability of operating at night, provides additional advantages.", "[0069] A particularly useful application for the present invention is in the area handheld instrumentation for research and field scouting.", "In this application the sensor electronics are enclosed in an easy in to hold housing.", "The instrument in this configuration can be used to measure plant characteristics ranging from 1 foot to 7 feet.", "The embodiment would most preferably be utilized to scout to measure turf biomass or turf color.", "The invention fitted with a red polychromatic LED array, a green LED and blue LED could be used to measure turf biomass (NDVI) and turf color (RGB).", "This instrument would allow turf professionals an objective way in which to measure the color and quality of the turf surface.", "Currently, turf color is measured using a subjective measure that utilizes a color grading scale.", "Turf color is compared to colored cards and is assigned a number between 0 and 9.9 based on the comparison.", "[0070] Another embodiment of the handheld invention is one that has the ability to measure the concentrations of leaf pigments such as chlorophylls (chl a and chl b), anthocyaninds, and carotenoids via reflectance and/or fluorescence measurements.", "Pigment content and photosynthesis are often linked to other leaf physiological and structural properties;", "thus, it is possible to infer a number of critical plant properties from leaf pigment content and composition such as stress, nitrogen content, functional type, senescence, etc .", "Conventional techniques (paper chromatography, thin layer chromatography and high-performance liquid chromatography) have many drawbacks that severely restrict their use.", "These limitations include high cost (both instrumental and operational costs) and the long time required for extraction and quantification, and sample destruction.", "It is clear that wet chemical extraction is not possible or desirable under many circumstances.", "[0071] Non-destructive techniques, based on measuring the transmitted and reflected radiation from plant leaves, have the potential of evaluating the physiological status of plants.", "Transmittance and reflectance spectroscopy offers one alternative to destructive and time-consuming wet chemical extraction.", "Chlorophylls, carotenoids, and anthocyanins are positioned for light absorption in particular wavebands and can readily be assessed with spectral absorption and reflectance.", "[0072] Chlorophylls are the most important of photosynthetic pigments and are virtually essential for the oxygenic conversion of light energy to the stored chemical energy that powers the biosphere.", "From a physiological perspective leaf chlorophyll content is a parameter of significant interest.", "From an applied perspective, chlorophyll content is important for several reasons.", "First, the amount of solar radiation absorbed by a leaf is largely a function of the chlorophyll and low concentrations can directly limit photosynthetic potential and hence primary production.", "Second, much of leaf nitrogen is incorporated in chlorophyll, so quantifying their concentration gives an indirect measure of plant status.", "Last, pigmentation can be directly related to stress physiology.", "Chlorophylls generally decrease under stress and during senescence.", "[0073] Carotenoids are the second major group of plant pigments.", "Carotenoids can absorb incident radiation and contribute energy to the photo synthetic system.", "The fraction of photosynthetically active radiation absorbed by a plant canopy (faPAR) has been related to net primary productivity as a function of a light use efficiency coefficient defining the carbon fixed per unit radiation intercepted.", "The photosynthetic potential of two plants may differ even though their faPAR is equal, depending upon the concentrations of individual pigments.", "Furthermore, when incident radiation exceeds that needed for photosynthesis, carotenoids that compose the xanthophyll cycle dissipate excess energy and protect the photochemical reaction centers.", "[0074] Anthocyanins are the third major group of pigments in leaves.", "Anthocyanins can modify the light environment within a leaf and have a potential to regulate photosynthesis and limit photo inhibition and photo bleaching thereby having a photo protective function.", "[0075] In this embodiment, the sensor electronics are housed in a small, handheld leaf clip that can be clamped onto a leaf.", "The sensor clamp can either connect to a handheld readout terminal or have a means for displaying measurements directly on its console.", "Alternately, the sensor may be housed in such a fashion to facilitate on the go measurements e.g. mounted to a high-clearance vehicle or similar agricultural equipment.", "Additionally, an external port will be included on the counsel to allow connection of GPS hardware to the instrument.", "The added flexibility of GPS capabilities will allow data to be geo-referenced within experimental test sites, crop production sites, turf sites, and the like.", "[0076] Although only a few exemplary embodiments of this invention have been described in detail above, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that many modifications are possible in the embodiments given without materially departing from the novel teachings and advantages of this invention.", "Accordingly, various modifications, adaptations, and combinations or various features of the described embodiments can be practiced without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth in the claims." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for determining whether or not a mammal is affected with a lung cancer.", "Description of the Related Art Substances (a kind of proteins) that exist in a large amount only in cancer cells but either do not exist, or even though exist, do exist in just a slight amount in normal cells have been known.", "Such proteins are referred to as “tumor markers.”", "Tumor marker tests, in general, quantitatively determine a tumor marker in blood, and have been used for the purpose of aiding diagnosis of cancer, or confirming the degree of progression of cancer.", "Conventional tumor markers are high molecular substances such as hormones, enzymes, isozymes or fragmented proteins.", "Since there are great differences among individuals in blood levels of these conventional tumor markers, usability in diagnosing cancer has been unsatisfactory due to occurrence of false negative and false positive.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present inventors investigated utilization of a low molecular compound, to which attention has not been drawn hitherto, as a tumor marker, and consequently discovered that by quantitatively determining anthranilic acid in urine excreted from a mammal, determination is enabled as to whether or not the mammal is affected with a lung cancer.", "Accordingly, the present invention was accomplished.", "The present invention relates to a method for determining whether or not a mammal is affected with a lung cancer, the method comprising the steps of: (a) detecting whether or not anthranilic acid is contained in the urine excreted from the mammal;", "and (b) determining that the mammal is affected with a lung cancer when the anthranilic acid is detected as being contained in the urine.", "According to the present invention, a method of determination is provided which is useful for diagnosing lung cancer in mammals.", "The above objects, other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments with reference to attached drawings.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1( a ) shows an ion chromatogram of control mouse (normal mouse) urine subjected to an ultrafiltration treatment.", "FIG. 1( b ) shows an ion chromatogram of cancer-bearing mouse urine subjected to an ultrafiltration treatment.", "FIG. 2( a ) shows an extracted ion chromatogram of a specified component A in cancer-bearing mouse urine.", "FIG. 2( b ) shows an MS/MS spectrum of the specified component A shown in FIG. 2( a ).", "FIG. 2( c ) shows an ion chromatogram of anthranilic acid.", "FIG. 2( d ) shows an MS/MS spectrum of anthranilic acid.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 1.", "Production Method of Cancer-bearing Mouse, and Urine Collection Method 1.1 Animals Used for Experiments As immunocompromised mice, C.B-17/Icr-scid/scid Jcl (CLEA Japan, Inc.), 5 weeks-old male (50 animals) and female (15 animals) mice were used.", "The mice were fed separately in a glass metabolism cage for mouse (Metabolica, manufactured by Sugiyama-Gen Co., Ltd.).", "The mice were fed with CE-2 (CLEA Japan, Inc.) sterilized with radioactive ray as a chow, and given purified water which had been subjected to steam sterilization under pressure (121° C., 30 min) as drinking water.", "1.2 Cells for Transplantation A549 (DS Pharma Biomedical Co., Ltd.) that is a lung cancer cell line derived from human was used as cells for transplantation.", "Using a DMEM medium containing 10% fetal calf serum (FBS), A549 cells were proliferated by culturing at 37° C., in the presence of 5% CO 2 .", "1.3 Production of Cancer-Bearing Mouse With respect to all individuals of the mice, the body weight was measured using an electronic balance (BJ600, manufactured by Sartorius K.K.).", "Then, the mice were grouped such that the average body weight of each group became equalized.", "The cancer-bearing group included 29 male mice and 17 female mice, whereas the control group (normal group) included 9 male mice and 5 female mice.", "A549 cells proliferated by culture were recovered, and transplanted into the mice of the cancer-bearing group subcutaneously at the right abdomen in an amount of 5×10 7 /0.1 ml/mouse.", "1.4 Urine Collection Method Collection of the urine from mice was carried out on both the cancer-bearing group and the control group.", "The day on which A549 cells were transplanted into the mice of the cancer-bearing group was defined as test day 0, and the urine was collected every day until test day 30.", "The mouse was retained, and the urine collected into a 0.5 ml tube was provided as fresh urine.", "The fresh urine was stored at −80° C. 2.", "Pretreatment of Urine Sample 2.1 Thawing of Urine Sample The fresh urine from the male mouse which had been freeze preserved at −80° C. (urine collected on day 26 to day 30 from starting the test) was thawed on ice.", "The fresh urine in a plurality of 0.5 ml tubes was assembled in a single 1.5 ml tube.", "2.2 Ultrafiltration Treatment The thawed fresh urine was subjected to centrifugal separation using Millipore Ultrafree-MC filters (UFC3 LGC 00, MW: 10,000, manufactured by Millipore) at 7,000 G at 0° C. for 90 min to allow for ultrafiltration of the fresh urine.", "The urine left on the filter was set on a new filter, and a similar operation was repeated.", "The urine that passed through the filter was set on a Microcon centrifugation system filter unit YM-3 (MW: 3,000, manufactured by Millipore), and an operation similar to that described above was carried out.", "The filtrate obtained by this operation was dispensed 50 μl each into 0.5 ml tubes, and stored at −80° C. until mass spectrometry was carried out.", "Mass Spectrometry 3.1 Reagents and Apparatuses As reagents for use in the mass spectrometry, acetonitrile for HPLC (Wako Pure Chemical Industries, Ltd.) and formic acid for LC/MS (Wako Pure Chemical Industries, Ltd.) were used.", "Upon the mass spectrometry, a high performance liquid chromatograph (manufactured by Shimadzu Corporation, Prominence series) and a mass spectrometer (manufactured by Shimadzu Corporation, LCMS-IT-TOF) were used.", "3.2 Analysis Conditions Experimental conditions of the mass spectrometry were as in the following.", "Column: Develosil RPAQUEOUS-AR (internal diameter: 2.0 mm, length: 250 mm, particle size: 5 μm) Column temperature: 40° C. Flow rate: 0.2 ml/min Mobile phase: solvent A: 0.1% aqueous formic acid solution, and solvent B: 0.08% formic acid/acetonitrile Gradient condition: A:B=100:0 (0 min)→100:0 (5 min)→80:20 (45 min)→70:30 (55 min)→50:50 (70 min)→5:95 (71 min) 5:95 (75 min) Amount of infusion: 5 μl Ionization method: ESI+, ESI− 4.", "Identification and Quantitative Determination of Specified Component that Serves as a Cancer Marker 4.1 Confirmation of Specified Component A A lung cancer cell culture fluid and a normal cell culture fluid were subjected to an ultrafiltration treatment in a similar manner to the fresh urine, and comparison of total ion chromatogram of the filtrate was made.", "A peak increased in the lung cancer cell culture fluid was confirmed by visual inspection, which was denoted as a specified component A. Comparison of the total ion chromatogram of the filtrate was made also with regard to the urine from the control mouse and the cancer-bearing mouse, and it was confirmed that the concentration of the specified component A increased in the cancer-bearing mouse urine ( FIG. 1( b )) than in the control mouse urine ( FIG. 1( a )).", "The m/z value of the specified component A was 138.051 [M+H] + as in FIG. 1( a ) and FIG. 1( b ).", "4.2 Searching of Candidate Compound A compound to be the candidate for the specified component A was searched on a database.", "On the basis of the m/z value of the specified component A (138.051 [M+H] + ) obtained by the mass spectrometry, a candidate compound was searched using a compound database Madison Metabolomics Consortium Database (http://mmcd.", "nmrfam.", "wisc.edu/).", "Furthermore, using MassBank.", "jp (http://www.", "massbank.", "jp/) which is an MS/MS spectral database, the MS/MS spectral pattern of the specified component A was confirmed as to whether or not it agrees with the MS/MS spectral pattern on the database.", "As a result, the m/z value of the specified component A obtained by the mass spectrometry, and the MS/MS spectral pattern agreed with the information of anthranilic acid (m/z: 138.055 [M+H] (measured)) retrieved from the database.", "4.3 Preparation of Standard Sample and Identification of Specified Component A For the purpose of identifying the specified component A, anthranilic acid (Wako Pure Chemical Industries, Ltd., guaranteed reagent) was purchased, and using an anthranilic acid solution as a standard solution, an LC-MS/MS analysis was carried out.", "The anthranilic acid was dissolved in water, which was provided as a primary standard solution.", "Furthermore, the primary standard solution was diluted in water to produce a 10 μM standard solution for analysis.", "With respect to this standard solution for analysis, the LC-MS/MS analysis was carried out.", "As a result, the retention time and the MS/MS spectral data of the specified component A ( FIG. 2( a ) and FIG. 2( b )) were confirmed to agree with the retention time and the MS/MS spectral data of anthranilic acid in the standard solution for analysis ( FIG. 2( c ) and FIG. 2( d )).", "Thus, the specified component A was identified to be anthranilic acid.", "4.4 Production of Calibration Curve For the purpose of measuring the concentration of anthranilic acid in the cancer-bearing mouse urine, standard solutions for producing a calibration curve were prepared by diluting the primary standard solution in water to give the concentrations of 10 μM, 5 μM, 2 μM and 1 μM.", "A calibration curve was produced by plotting the concentrations and the peak areas of these standard solutions for producing a calibration curve.", "The concentration of anthranilic acid in the urine of the cancer-bearing mouse and the control mouse was calculated on the calibration curve.", "As a result, the concentration of anthranilic acid in the urine was 0.062 μM in the cancer-bearing mouse, and the detection limit or less in the control mouse, as shown in Table 1.", "TABLE 1 Peak Area in Urine and Concentration in Urine of Anthranilic Acid Cancer-bearing mouse Control mouse Acid (day 26-30) (day 26-30) First analysis peak area 29985 0 Second analysis peak area 30548 0 Third analysis peak area 0 0 Mean peak area * 30267 0 Concentration in urine 0.062 detection limit or less (μM) * The Mean peak area is an average of the first analysis peak area and the second analysis peak area.", "From the aforementioned experimental results, it was confirmed that anthranilic acid is detected in urine excreted from a mammal affected by a lung cancer.", "For almost all conventional tumor markers, it has been necessary to collect blood from a patient, and then measure the concentration of the tumor marker in plasma.", "However, according to the present invention, since the tumor marker which is a target of detection is a component in urine, an inspection sample can be noninvasively obtained without imposing a burden to the patient.", "According to the present invention, an efficient determination as to whether or not a mammal is affected with a lung cancer is enabled." ]

[ "A portion of the disclosure of this patent document may contain command formats and other computer language listings, all of which are 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.", "TECHNICAL FIELD This invention relates to data replication.", "RELATED APPLICATIONS This Application is related to U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 13/630,455 entitled “SINGLE CONTROL PATH”", "filed on Sep. 28, 2012, Ser.", "No. 13/631,030 entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR FEDERATING A PLURALITY OF ONE BIG ARRAYS”", "filed on Sep. 28, 2012, Ser.", "No. 13/631,039 entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR AUTOMATED INFORMATION LIFECYCLE MANAGEMENT USING A FEDERATION OF ARRAYS”", "filed on Sep. 28, 2012, Ser.", "No. 13/631,055 entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR FEDERATED IDENTITY AND AUTHENTICATION SERVICES”", "filed on Sep. 28, 2012, Ser.", "No. 13/631,190 entitled “APPLICATION PROGRAMMING INTERFACE”", "filed on Sep. 28, 2012, Ser.", "No. 13/631,214 entitled “AUTOMATED POLICY BASED SCHEDULING AND PLACEMENT OF STORAGE RESOURCES”", "filed on Sep. 28, 2012, Ser.", "No. 13/631,246 entitled “DISTRIBUTED SYSTEM SOFTWARE INFRASTRUCTURE”", "filed on Sep. 28, 2012, and Ser.", "No. 13/886,786 entitled “DISTRIBUTED WORKFLOW MANAGER”", "filed on even date herewith, Ser.", "No. 13/886,789 entitled “PORT PROVISIONING SYSTEM”", "filed on even date herewith, Ser.", "No. 13/886,892 entitled “SCALABLE INDEX STORE”", "filed on even date herewith, Ser.", "No. 13/886,687 entitled “STORAGE PROVISIONING IN A DATA STORAGE ENVIRONMENT”", "filed on even date herewith, and Ser.", "No. 13/886,644 entitled “STORAGE PROVISIONING IN A DATA STORAGE ENVIRONMENT”", "filed on even date herewith, which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.", "BACKGROUND Computer systems may include different resources used by one or more host processors.", "Resources and host processors in a computer system may be interconnected by one or more communication connections.", "These resources may include, for example, data storage devices such as those included in the data storage systems manufactured by EMC Corporation.", "These data storage systems may be coupled to one or more servers or host processors and provide storage services to each host processor.", "Multiple data storage systems from one or more different vendors may be connected and may provide common data storage for one or more host processors in a computer system.", "A host processor may perform a variety of data processing tasks and operations using the data storage system.", "For example, a host processor may perform basic system I/O operations in connection with data requests, such as data read and write operations.", "Host processor systems may store and retrieve data using a storage device containing a plurality of host interface units, disk drives, and disk interface units.", "Such storage devices are provided, for example, by EMC Corporation of Hopkinton, Mass.", "and disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,206,939 to Yanai et al.", ", U.S. Pat. No. 5,778,394 to Galtzur et al.", ", U.S. Pat. No. 5,845,147 to Vishlitzky et al.", ", and U.S. Pat. No. 5,857,208 to Ofek.", "The host systems access the storage device through a plurality of channels provided therewith.", "Host systems provide data and access control information through the channels to the storage device and storage device provides data to the host systems also through the channels.", "The host systems do not address the disk drives of the storage device directly, but rather, access what appears to the host systems as a plurality of logical disk units, logical devices or logical volumes.", "The logical disk units may or may not correspond to the actual physical disk drives.", "Allowing multiple host systems to access the single storage device unit allows the host systems to share data stored therein.", "In a common implementation, a Storage Area Network (SAN) is used to connect computing devices with a large number of storage devices.", "Management and modeling programs may be used to manage these complex computing environments.", "Two components having connectivity to one another, such as a host and a data storage system, may communicate using a communication connection.", "In one arrangement, the data storage system and the host may reside at the same physical site or location.", "Techniques exist for providing a remote mirror or copy of a device of the local data storage system so that a copy of data from one or more devices of the local data storage system may be stored on a second remote data storage system.", "Such remote copies of data may be desired so that, in the event of a disaster or other event causing the local data storage system to be unavailable, operations may continue using the remote mirror or copy.", "In another arrangement, the host may communicate with a virtualized storage pool of one or more data storage systems.", "In this arrangement, the host may issue a command, for example, to write to a device of the virtualized storage pool.", "In some existing systems, processing may be performed by a front end component of a first data storage system of the pool to further forward or direct the command to another data storage system of the pool.", "Such processing may be performed when the receiving first data storage system does not include the device to which the command is directed.", "The first data storage system may direct the command to another data storage system of the pool which includes the device.", "The front end component may be a host adapter of the first receiving data storage system which receives commands from the host.", "In such arrangements, the front end component of the first data storage system may become a bottleneck in that the front end component processes commands directed to devices of the first data storage system and, additionally, performs processing for forwarding commands to other data storage systems of the pool as just described.", "Often cloud computer may be performed with a data storage system.", "As it is generally known, “cloud computing”", "typically refers to the use of remotely hosted resources to provide services to customers over one or more networks such as the Internet.", "Resources made available to customers are typically virtualized and dynamically scalable.", "Cloud computing services may include any specific type of application.", "Some cloud computing services are, for example, provided to customers through client software such as a Web browser.", "The software and data used to support cloud computing services are located on remote servers owned by a cloud computing service provider.", "Customers consuming services offered through a cloud computing platform need not own the physical infrastructure hosting the actual service, and may accordingly avoid capital expenditure on hardware systems by paying only for the service resources they use, and/or a subscription fee.", "From a service provider's standpoint, the sharing of computing resources across multiple customers (aka “tenants”) improves resource utilization.", "Use of the cloud computing service model has been growing due to the increasing availability of high bandwidth communication, making it possible to obtain response times from remotely hosted cloud-based services similar to those of services that are locally hosted.", "Cloud computing infrastructures often use virtual machines to provide services to customers.", "A virtual machine is a completely software-based implementation of a computer system that executes programs like an actual computer system.", "One or more virtual machines may be used to provide a service to a given customer, with additional virtual machines being dynamically instantiated and/or allocated as customers are added and/or existing customer requirements change.", "Each virtual machine may represent all the components of a complete system to the program code running on it, including virtualized representations of processors, memory, networking, storage and/or BIOS (Basic Input/Output System).", "Virtual machines can accordingly run unmodified application processes and/or operating systems.", "Program code running on a given virtual machine executes using only virtual resources and abstractions dedicated to that virtual machine.", "As a result of such “encapsulation,” a program running in one virtual machine is completely isolated from programs running on other virtual machines, even though the other virtual machines may be running on the same underlying hardware.", "In the context of cloud computing, customer-specific virtual machines can therefore be employed to provide secure and reliable separation of code and data used to deliver services to different customers.", "SUMMARY A method, system, and computer program product for providing, via a provisioning engine, a scalable set of indexed key-value pairs enabled to store objects in a data storage environment;", "wherein the data representing the objects is enabled to be spread across arrays in the data storage environment;", "wherein additional arrays are enabled to be added to the data storage environment and included in the indexed key-value pairs;", "wherein the data stored across the arrays may be balanced.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Objects, features, and advantages of embodiments disclosed herein may be better understood by referring to the following description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.", "The drawings are not meant to limit the scope of the claims included herewith.", "For clarity, not every element may be labeled in every figure.", "The drawings are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon illustrating embodiments, principles, and concepts.", "Thus, features and advantages of the present disclosure will become more apparent from the following detailed description of exemplary embodiments thereof taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which: FIG. 1 is a simplified illustration of showing connectivity in a data storage environment, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;", "FIG. 2 is a simplified illustration of adding an array in a data storage environment, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;", "FIG. 3 is a simplified example of a method for adding an array in a data storage environment, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;", "FIG. 4 is a simplified alternative illustration of a class of service in data storage environment, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;", "FIG. 5 is a simplified example of a method for logging writes in a journal in a data storage environment and committing the journal to a B+ tree, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;", "FIG. 6 is a simplified alternative illustration of moving a journal and subsequent entries in a B+ tree in data storage environment, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;", "FIG. 7 is a simplified example of a method for moving a journal and subsequent entries in a B+ tree to another array in a data storage system, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;", "FIG. 8 is a simplified illustration of adding an object to an indexing system in data storage environment, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;", "FIG. 9 is a simplified example of a method for adding a new object to be stored in a data storage system, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;", "FIG. 10 is a simplified illustration of adding an object to an indexing system in data storage environment, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;", "FIG. 11 is a simplified illustration of reading an object in data storage environment, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;", "FIG. 12 is a simplified example of a method for reading an object stored in a data storage system, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;", "FIG. 13 is a simplified illustration of reading an object in data storage environment given a node failure, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;", "FIG. 14 is a simplified example of a method for reading an object stored in a data storage system given a node failure, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;", "FIG. 15 is a simplified illustration of appending data to an object in data storage environment, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;", "FIG. 16 is a simplified example of a method for appending data to an object stored in a data storage system, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;", "FIG. 17 is a simplified illustration of node balancing in data storage, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;", "FIG. 18 is a simplified example of a method for load balancing in a data storage system, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;", "FIG. 19 is a simplified illustration of an object system in a data storage environment, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;", "FIG. 20 is a simplified illustration of creating a bucket in a data storage system, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;", "FIG. 21 is a simplified example of a method for creating a bucket in a data storage system, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;", "FIG. 22 is a simplified illustration of creating an object in a bucket in a data storage system, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;", "FIG. 23 is a simplified example of a method for creating an object in a bucket in a data storage system, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;", "FIG. 24 is a simplified illustration of appending to an object in a bucket in a data storage system, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;", "FIG. 25 is a simplified example of a method for appending to an object in a bucket in a data storage system, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;", "FIG. 26 is a simplified illustration of requesting status of an object in a bucket in a data storage system, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;", "FIG. 27 is a simplified example of a method for requesting a status of an object in a bucket in a data storage system, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;", "FIG. 28 is a simplified example of a method for requesting file system access in a data storage system, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;", "FIG. 29 is a simplified example of a method for requesting file system access from an object store in a data storage system, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;", "FIG. 30 is a simplified illustration of multiple array types overlaid with an object system in a data storage system, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;", "FIG. 31 is an example of an embodiment of an apparatus that may utilize the techniques described herein;", "and FIG. 32 is an example of an embodiment of a method embodied on a computer readable storage medium that may utilize the techniques described herein.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION Conventionally, object systems may not be scalable.", "Usually, an object system may not offer file access.", "Typically, a file system may not offer object access.", "Usually, a file system may not switch between file and object access.", "In certain embodiments, the current disclosure may enable storage of a large table or index of key strings along with their corresponding value bytes on file shares across multiple devices.", "In some embodiments, the current disclosure may enable an indexing service in a VM image that may be installed on a machine.", "In certain embodiments, a set of such nodes may form an indexing service layer.", "In an embodiment, a set of file shares may be created on NAS devices and registered with the ViPR indexing service for storage of data.", "In certain embodiments, nodes may form a fault tolerant layer over NAS devices.", "In at least some embodiments, any number of nodes may be removed or added at any time without affecting the availability of an indexing system.", "In other embodiments, any number of ViPR nodes may be unavailable, but the transaction processing for any part of the data may continue to give a functioning node.", "In most embodiments, each node may be connected to a number of file shares.", "In certain embodiments, each note may be able to read and write data from any of file shares.", "In other embodiments, each node may also accept transaction for any part of the data for any file share.", "In most embodiments, the current disclosure enables a horizontally scalable architecture.", "In certain embodiments, if file shares run out of space, new file shares can be created and registered with nodes.", "In certain embodiments, the indexing system may start placing new incoming writes in the new file shares.", "In further embodiments, any number of nodes may be dynamically added in the system to increase the transaction processing capacity of the system.", "Virtual Storage Pool In certain embodiments, a Virtual Storage Pool may be a definition of the characteristics of a file share device.", "In most embodiments, each file share registered with a data service may be associated with a Virtual Storage Pool.", "In some embodiments, the desired Virtual Storage Pool characteristic for an index may be specified during its creation.", "In at least some embodiments, the data belonging to the index may be stored on the file shares that are associated with the Virtual Storage Pool.", "In other embodiments, if multiple file shares are associated with the Virtual Storage Pool, the data of the index may be spread across all the file shares.", "In certain embodiments, the index may be associated with a Virtual Storage Pool.", "In an embodiment, a Virtual Storage Pool may form logically disjoint sets in which data set is divided.", "Partition In some embodiments, a Virtual Storage Pool may be divided into one or more Partitions.", "In certain embodiments, partitioning may be done based on consistent hashing.", "In at least some embodiments, a hash number of a key may be found by deriving the SHA-256 value of the key string.", "In other embodiments, each partition may be identified by the divisor-remainder pair of the hash space.", "In a particular embodiment, if a partition has divisor identifier 4 and remainder identifier 1 , then it may contain all the keys whose hash value when divided by 4 gives remainder 1.", "In most embodiments, the partition identifiers may be scoped within the Virtual Storage Pool so each of Virtual Storage Pool can have same partition identifiers.", "In certain embodiments, a partition may be responsible for storage of data associated with the keys that fall in its hash.", "Partition Split/Merge In most embodiments, the number of partitions in the system may change dynamically depending on the resources in the system.", "In certain embodiments, if ViPR nodes and NAS devices are added in the system then better load balancing may be achieved by automatically increasing the number of partitions in the system.", "In some embodiments, better load balancing may be achieved by a partition split process.", "In at least some embodiments, the number of partitions may automatically be decreased when the resources become constrained.", "In one embodiment, partitions may be decreased when more file shares are creates on existing devices or when the number of ViPR nodes are removed from the system.", "In alternative embodiments, a partition with identifiers divisor-4, remainder-1 may split into two partitions with identifiers divisor-8, remainder-1 and divisor-8, remainder-5.", "In other embodiments, two partitions with identifiers divisor-4, remainder-1 and divisor-4, remainder-3 may merge into one partition with identifier divisor-2, remainder-1.", "Infrastructure Components In most embodiments, nodes may host a database.", "In some embodiments, the database may be Cassandra.", "In certain embodiments, the database data may be stored in local disks on nodes.", "In further embodiments, the database may be for storing system's metadata and not for any of the index's data.", "In at least some embodiments, nodes may host a small instance of a lock service or locking service.", "In at least one embodiment, the locking service may be Zookeeper.", "In most embodiments, the locking service may provide the lock service for the nodes to coordinate with other nodes.", "Partition Metadata In most embodiments, the information about each partition in the system may be stored as an entry in a database.", "In certain embodiments, the entry may have the identifier for the partition (Virtual Storage Pool, divisor, remainder).", "In some embodiments, the entry may have the node identifier to specify which node is currently responsible for the partition.", "In at least one embodiment, the entry may have a location on the file share where the metadata record of the partition is stored.", "In at least some embodiments, a location may be identified by the file share identifier, the full path of the file, the offset in the file where the record begins, and the length of the record.", "Metadata Record In an embodiment, the metadata record of a partition may be stored in a file on the file share.", "In certain embodiments the metadata record may contains the information about the latest B+ tree of the partition, and position in the journal file.", "In some embodiments, the journal file may be used as a redo log for holding the data that hasn't been included in the B+ tree yet.", "In other embodiments, the location in the metadata record for the journal may contain the file share id, full file path, and the offset in the file.", "In most embodiments, the journal file may be on any file share, which need not be same file share where the B+ tree files and metadata record files are for that partition.", "Journal In certain embodiments, data transactions for partitions may be logged into the journal.", "In most embodiments, once enough entries are accumulated in journal, the entries may be inserted into a B+ tree, and the journal position may be advanced.", "In some embodiments, in the case the node responsible for the partition crashes, another node, which picks up the responsibility, may replay the transactions from the last journal position recorded in the metadata record.", "B+ Tree In an embodiment, a B+ tree structure may be maintained to store the keys belonging to the partition and corresponding values.", "In other embodiments, the pages of the B+ tree may be stored in the files on the file shares.", "In some embodiments, the location of pages in the tree may be identified by file share id, full file path and offset in the file.", "In other embodiments, the B+ tree may be spread across multiple file shares.", "In further embodiments, the B+ tree structure may support multiversion concurrency control and read snapshot isolation.", "In at least one embodiment, the existing pages may not be modified and modifications may be written as new pages in the file.", "File System Structure In an embodiment, a partition may have files for metadata record, B+ tree and journal.", "In certain embodiments, the B+ tree and journal may span multiple files.", "In other embodiments, each structure's location may be reached via a chain of pointers starting from the partition entry in Cassandra.", "In most embodiments, the partition structure may not be bound to a fixed location.", "In a particular embodiment, if a file share capacity is getting full, the journal writes and B+ tree modifications may be moved to another file share without break in continuity or consistency.", "Finding Partition In most embodiments, when a node gets a transaction for a key, it may calculate a hash value of the key.", "In certain embodiments, the node may query the database to find into which partition the key falls.", "In some embodiments, the partition information may be cached for future transactions.", "In alternative embodiments, a node may send the transaction to the node responsible for the key to execute the transaction.", "In other embodiments, if the cached information about the partition responsibility was stale the destination node may return a specific error code which may cause the source node to query the database and refresh the information to the latest state.", "Load Balancing In an embodiment, if a node discovers that the responsibility division of the partitions is uneven, the node may take the responsibility from another node.", "In some embodiments, the consistent hashing scheme for partitioning may result in random and even distribution of the load.", "In at least some embodiments, the number of partitions may be the criteria for measuring even split of responsibility among the nodes.", "In most embodiments, nodes periodically check the database for the partitions that the node is responsible for to see if the node is still the owner.", "In another embodiment, if a node wishes to take over ownership of a partition, the node may register itself as the owner in the database.", "In at least some embodiments, the node may wait for a periodic refresh interval for the original owner node to find out that the original node is not the owner anymore, and stop serving the transactions for the partition.", "In most embodiments, if a node is not able to reach the database, it may stop serving the transactions for the partition until the node can successfully validate that it is the owner.", "In further embodiments, if a node cannot reach the owner node for some time, the node may assume that the owner node is down and may take responsibility for the partition.", "Object System In some embodiments, an object system may be build on top of an indexing system.", "In certain embodiments, an object system may provide object semantics for creating objects, reading objects, reading and writing metadata associated with the object.", "In further embodiments, the object system may support byte range update on the object contents and atomic append to the object data.", "In most embodiments, the object system may support REST protocols and the related features of S3, Atmos and Swift.", "In further embodiments, an object service or object system may provide a single namespace that may span across multiple file shares.", "Bucket In certain embodiments, objects may be grouped in one or more bucket.", "In most embodiments, a bucket may support operations such as listing of all the objects in the bucket.", "In some embodiments, the list of object names in a bucket may be stored in an indexing system.", "In a particular embodiment, a SHA-256 of the bucket name may be used for deriving a hash id of the partition where the list is stored.", "In at least some embodiments, when an object is created, an entry may be made in the indexing system for the bucket id and object name.", "In other embodiments, the listing of bucket operations may go through the entries in the indexing for the bucket id.", "Object Transactions In an embodiment, each change or mutation to an object may be stored as a separate transaction.", "In most embodiments, storing each change as a separate transaction may provide a journal of changes to the object without overwriting the previous state.", "In certain embodiments, recording a separate object may enable snapshot read isolation.", "In further embodiments, querying the object at a given point in time may see the same consistent state of object throughout the read duration as it was when it started reading.", "In other embodiments, the data associated with a change or mutation in an object may be written directly into a file on the fileshare.", "In certain embodiments, the location of the data may be stored in the indexing system as an update entry.", "In a particular embodiment, a given object may have many update entries in the index, each with location of the data on the file system.", "In at least some embodiments, a reader may need to go through all the update entries of an object to get the current state of the object.", "In some embodiments, the system may consolidate the update entries of an object when there are no readers.", "In alternative embodiments, SHA-256 of the object name may be used for deriving the hash id of the partition where the update entries for the object are stored.", "Atomic Append In certain embodiments, multiple transactions for atomically appending the data to the object may be issued.", "In some embodiments, the update sequencing on the server side of the indexing system may order the append transactions and may provide the atomicity.", "Native File Access for Object Data In an embodiment, the file access feature may provide ability to access the object data through the native file system interface of the NAS device by mounting the fileshare.", "In certain embodiments, the user may send a request to get file access for a bucket.", "In some embodiments, the system may return the full file path for each of the objects in the bucket.", "In other embodiments, modifications made through the file interface on those objects may be reflected in the object data.", "In at least some embodiments, during modifications to the object through REST interface may be prevented.", "In alternative embodiments, when a user is done with file access, the REST interface may be accessible.", "In at least one embodiment, internally the system may consolidate the update entries and data of an object and may place them into a single file before giving the file out for file access.", "Refer now to the simplified embodiment of FIG. 1 .", "In the example embodiment of FIG. 1 , indexing system 125 has locking service 112 , nodes 130 , 132 , 134 , and 136 , and database 110 .", "Database 110 has storage pool 114 .", "Storage pool 114 has gold storage 114 and bronze storage 118 .", "Site 105 has array 135 , 140 , 145 , 185 , 180 , and 190 .", "Each array has two levels of storage such as Gold, Bronze or Platinum.", "For example array 135 has gold and bronze service levels.", "Each node, 130 , 132 , 134 , and 136 is connected through network 147 to each storage array 135 , 140 , 145 , 180 , 185 , and 190 .", "Each of the arrays may be stored in database 110 as belong to one or more storage pools based on the Class of Services offered by that storage array.", "Each node 130 , 132 , 145 , and 135 has access to an object system and an index system.", "In certain embodiments, the object system may be for storing objects.", "In some embodiments, the index system may be for storing the location of the stored objects for scalable access.", "Refer now to the example embodiments of FIGS. 2 and 3 .", "In FIG. 2 , array 295 has been added to site 205 (step 305 ).", "Storage Array 295 has been registered with nodes 230 , 232 , 234 , and 236 (step 310 ).", "In this way, subsequent arrays may be added to site 205 and registered with the nodes and indexing system.", "Refer now to the example embodiments of FIGS. 4 and 5 , which illustrate committing journal entries to a B+ tree.", "When mutations are received to objects in an indexing system, the mutations are recorded in journal 446 on storage array 445 (step 505 ).", "After journal 446 has reached a certain size, the transactions in journal 446 are committed to B+ tree 444 .", "B+ Tree 444 is stored on arrays 445 and 485 .", "As B+ Tree 444 is a tree, each node of the tree may be stored on a different array with a pointer pointing to the next node.", "Refer now to the example embodiments of FIGS. 6 and 7 , which illustrate moving the recording of mutations in a B+ tree and journal to a different array from a first tree.", "Partition metadata 642 has oldB+ tree 644 , oldJournal 646 , B+ Tree 643 , and Journal 647 .", "It has been determined that file array 645 is full ( 705 ).", "Mutations to metadata 642 to oldB+ tree 644 and oldJournal 646 are stopped.", "New mutations to metadata 642 are recorded in B+ tree 643 and journal 647 on array 635 (step 710 ).", "Refer now to the example embodiments of FIGS. 8 and 9 , which illustrate a new object with a requested Class of service gold being recorded in an indexing system.", "Object A 815 is being broken up and stored on arrays 835 , 845 and 885 based on a request for a gold class of service for this object.", "A request for creation and storing of object 815 is received (step 905 ).", "Object system, via node 830 , determines in which storage pool object 815 is to be stored (step 907 ).", "Object system, via node 830 , determines on which array or arrays the object is to be stored (step 908 ).", "Object system, via node 830 , writes object data to the array ( 909 ).", "Object system via node 830 finds the location data written on the array (step 910 ).", "The hash for object 815 is calculated (step 911 ).", "A partition for object 815 is determined and stored in indexing system via node 830 (step 912 ).", "A node for object 815 is determined is determined by indexing system via node 830 (step 913 ).", "An array is determined for object 815 by indexing system via node 830 (step 915 ).", "Object 815 is sent to array (step 920 ).", "The object write is recorded in the journal (step 925 ).", "Refer now to the example embodiments of FIGS. 9 and 10 , which illustrate a new object with a requested class of service of bronze being recorded in an indexing system.", "Object B 1015 is being broken up and stored on arrays 1040 , 1080 and 1090 based on a request for a bronze class of service for this object.", "A request for creation and storing of object 1015 is received (step 905 ).", "Object system, via node 1030 , determines in which storage pool object 1015 is to be stored (step 907 ).", "Object system, via node 1030 , determines on which array or arrays the object is to be stored (step 908 ).", "Object system, via node 1030 , writes object data to the array ( 909 ).", "Object system via node 830 finds the location data written on the array (step 910 ).", "The hash for object 1015 is calculated (step 911 ).", "A partition for object 1015 is determined and stored in indexing system via node 830 (step 912 ).", "A node for object 1015 is determined is determined by indexing system via node 830 (step 913 ).", "An array is determined for object 1015 by indexing system via node 1030 (step 915 ).", "Object 1015 is sent to array (step 920 ).", "The object write is recorded in the journal (step 925 ).", "Refer now to the example embodiments of FIGS. 11 and 12 , which illustrate a read to an object stored in an indexing system.", "Indexing system receives read to object A 1105 .", "Indexing system 1125 determines on which array object A 1105 is stored (step 1200 ).", "Indexing system 1125 writes the object data to the array (step 1202 ).", "Indexing system finds the location the data is written on the array (step 1203 ).", "Indexing system 1125 calculates the hash for object A 1105 (step 1204 ).", "Indexing system 1125 determines the partitions on which object A 1105 is stored (step 1205 ).", "Indexing system 1125 determines the node handling the partition (step 1205 ).", "Node 1130 determines the array 1185 (step 1215 ).", "Node 1130 sends the read to the array 1185 (step 1220 ).", "Refer now to the example embodiments of FIGS. 13 and 14 , which illustrate handling a node failure.", "Indexing system 1325 receives a read to object A 1305 and determines which node is to handle reads to this object (step 1410 ).", "Indexing system 1325 realizes there is a failure in node 1330 , the previously determined node (step 1415 ).", "Indexing system assigns new node 1332 to handle the read for object A 1305 (step 1420 ).", "Node 1332 determines array 1385 has the information for the read (step 1425 ).", "Node 1330 sends the read to the array (step 1430 ).", "Refer now to the example embodiments of FIGS. 15 and 16 , which illustrate handling an append to an object.", "Indexing system receives read to object A 1505 .", "Indexing system 1525 determines on which array object A 1505 is stored (step 1600 ).", "Indexing system 1525 writes the object data to the array (step 1602 ).", "Indexing system finds the location the data is written on the array (step 1603 ).", "Indexing system 1525 calculates the hash for object A 1505 (step 1604 ).", "Indexing system 1525 determines the partitions on which object A 1505 is stored (step 1605 ).", "Indexing system 1525 determines the node handling the partition (step 1605 ).", "Node 1530 determines the array 1185 (step 1615 ).", "Node 1530 sends the read to the array 1585 (step 1620 ).", "Refer now to the example embodiments of FIGS. 17 and 18 , which illustrate a node determining an uneven partition allocation and taking control of a partition.", "Node 1732 determines that node 1730 has an uneven allocation of partitions (step 1810 ).", "Node 1732 takes control of one of node 1730 's partitions to service read to object A 1705 (step 1815 ).", "Refer now to the example embodiment of FIG. 19 , which illustrates an object system layered over an indexing system.", "Object system 1926 has semantics 1911 , bucket objects 1923 and 1925 , and indexing system 1925 .", "Semantics 1911 has the ability to create objects 1913 , read objects 1915 , read metadata 1917 , and write metadata 1919 .", "Buckets 1923 and 1925 contain objects and are classifiers for objects.", "Object system 1926 is connected to storage location 1905 by network 1947 .", "Storage location 1905 has arrays 193 , 1940 , 1945 , 1985 , 1980 , and 1990 .", "Refer now to the example embodiments of FIGS. 20 and 21 , which illustrate creating a bucket.", "Object system 2026 receives a request to create bucket (financials) 2023 .", "Object system 2026 creates bucket financials 2021 (step 2110 ).", "Note in this embodiment that bucket financials does not contain objects as none have been added to this bucket.", "Refer now to the example embodiments of FIGS. 22 and 23 .", "Object system 2226 receives a request 2223 to add an object to a bucket, where the object has not yet been created.", "Object system, via node 2230 , determines in which storage pool object 2214 is to be stored (step 2307 ).", "Object system, via node 2230 , determines on which array or arrays the object is to be stored (step 2308 ).", "Object system, via node 2230 , writes object data to the array ( 2309 ).", "Object system via node 2230 finds the location data written on the array (step 2310 ).", "The hash for object 2215 is calculated (step 2311 ).", "A partition for object 2215 is determined and stored in indexing system via node 2230 (step 2312 ).", "A node for object 2215 is determined is determined by indexing system via node 2230 (step 2313 ).", "An array is determined for object 2215 by indexing system via node 2230 (step 2315 ).", "Object 2215 is sent to array (step 2320 ).", "The object write is recorded in the journal (step 2325 ).", "The bucket name is added by node 2230 to the indexing system (step 2330 ).", "Refer now to the example embodiments of FIGS. 24 and 25 .", "Indexing system 2425 writes the object data to the array (step 2502 ).", "Indexing system finds the location the data is written on the array (step 2503 ).", "Indexing system 2425 calculates the hash for object A 2405 (step 2504 ).", "Indexing system 2425 determines the partitions on which object A 2405 is stored (step 2505 ).", "Indexing system 2525 determines the node handling the partition (step 2505 ).", "Node 2430 determines the array 2485 (step 2515 ).", "Node 1530 sends the read to the array 1585 (step 1620 ).", "The data that is changed is recorded in journal 2446 (step 2525 ).", "Refer now to the example embodiments of FIGS. 26 and 27 , which show responding to a status request for an object.", "Object system 2626 receives a request for status for object w- 2 2623 (step 2710 ).", "Object system 2626 gets the locations in the indexing system that correspond to the object requested (step 2715 ).", "Node 2634 reads the entries from the indexing system to return the object status (step 2720 ).", "Refer now to the example embodiments of FIGS. 28 and 29 , which show file access to an object system.", "Object system 2826 receives a request for file system access (step 2905 ).", "The object system 2826 calculates the paths 2803 for the file system (step 2907 ).", "The object system 2826 determines consolidates the object entries (step 2810 ).", "The object system returns the file paths 2803 (step 2815 ).", "The file paths are mounted 2804 and read write access for the file system may be enabled (step 2920 ).", "In some embodiments, read write access to the file system may be enabled and access to the objects may not be permitted.", "In other embodiments, read access to both the file system and the object system may be enabled.", "In still further embodiments, read write access to the object system may be enabled and no access to the file system may be enabled.", "In further embodiments, the data storage arrays may of the block type, file type, or object type.", "In some embodiments, the object system may span across block, file and object arrays.", "In other embodiments, the indexing system may span across file, block, and object arrays.", "In further embodiments, the object system may span across public accounts.", "In other embodiments the indexing system may span across public accounts.", "In some embodiments, the current disclosure may enable an object to be stored and received from a public cloud, such as Amazon's S3 or Microsoft's Adzure.", "In other embodiments, any type of array may be used and the current disclosure may enable coordination across the arrays regardless of type.", "For example, refer now to the example embodiment of FIG. 30 , which illustrates different types of storage systems over laid with an object system.", "Object system 3026 communicates with cloud 2997 and site 3005 over network 3047 .", "Cloud 2997 is a public cloud and information may be stored in and retrieved from the public cloud using object system 3026 .", "Site 3005 has block arrays 3035 and 3090 , object arrays 3040 and 3085 , file arrays 3045 and 3080 .", "Object 3026 system enables objects to be stored and retrieved any array and cloud 3097 .", "As well, Object system 3026 also enables file access to objects stored in the arrays and cloud.", "In certain embodiments the cloud may be a private cloud.", "In other embodiments, the cloud may be a public cloud.", "In further embodiments, an orchestration API may be part of a larger API or coordination API.", "In some embodiments, an orchestration API may request input from a large API or Orchestration engine.", "In other embodiments, an orchestration API may request input from a user.", "In still further embodiments, an orchestration API may be one of a set of other orchestration APIs, wherein each of the set of orchestration APIs offer different orchestration functionality.", "In of these embodiments, the set of orchestration APIs may be combined with an overall Orchestration or Engine layer which may coordinate requests between the set of orchestration APIs.", "The methods and apparatus of this invention may take the form, at least partially, of program code (i.e., instructions) embodied in tangible media, such as floppy diskettes, CD-ROMs, hard drives, random access or read only-memory, or any other machine-readable storage medium.", "When the program code is loaded into and executed by a machine, such as the computer of FIG. 31 the machine becomes an apparatus for practicing the invention.", "When implemented on one or more general-purpose processors, the program code combines with such a processor 3103 to provide a unique apparatus that operates analogously to specific logic circuits.", "As such a general purpose digital machine can be transformed into a special purpose digital machine.", "FIG. 32 shows Program Logic 3234 embodied on a computer-readable medium 3230 as shown, and wherein the Logic is encoded in computer-executable code configured for carrying out the reservation service process of this invention and thereby forming a Computer Program Product 3200 .", "The logic 3234 may be the same logic 3140 on memory 3104 loaded on processor 3103 .", "The program logic may also be embodied in software modules, as modules, or as hardware modules.", "The logic for carrying out the method may be embodied as part of the system described below, which is useful for carrying out a method described with reference to embodiments shown in, for example, FIGS. 9 , 14 , and 16 .", "For purposes of illustrating the present invention, the invention is described as embodied in a specific configuration and using special logical arrangements, but one skilled in the art will appreciate that the device is not limited to the specific configuration but rather only by the claims included with this specification.", "Although the foregoing invention has been described in some detail for purposes of clarity of understanding, it will be apparent that certain changes and modifications may be practiced within the scope of the appended claims.", "Accordingly, the present implementations are to be considered as illustrative and not restrictive, and the invention is not to be limited to the details given herein, but may be modified within the scope and equivalents of the appended claims." ]

[ "RELATED APPLICATION [0001] The present application claims the benefit of co-pending Provisional Application Serial No. 60/346,583, filed on Jan. 8, 2002.", "FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates to harvesters and, more particularly, to a harvester tine and bat tube assembly.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] A typical harvester includes a harvester platform including a frame supported for movement over ground, the frame having a front edge, a cutter bar extending along the front edge, and a pickup reel for lifting up crop into the harvester.", "In general, the pickup reel includes a reel support supported by the frame, a reel shaft rotatably supported by the reel support and extending along an axis transverse to the frame, and a plurality of arms extending radially from and being rotatable with the shaft.", "The pickup reel also includes a plurality of second shafts or bat tubes, each supported by at least one arm and being generally parallel to and radially spaced from the reel shaft, the bat tubes being rotatable relative to and rotatable with the arm, and a plurality of harvester tines supported by each bat tube for movement with the bat tube.", "During operation of the pickup reel, the tine engages crop and lifts it into the harvester.", "[0004] In some constructions, the tine includes a split ring portion to clamp the tine to the bat tube.", "The split ring portion extends around the bat tube, and a self-threading screw is threaded into the end portions of the split ring portion to clamp the tine to the bat tube.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0005] One independent problem with the above-described harvester tine is that, during assembly, the self-threading screws occasionally strip the tine, rendering the tine useless.", "[0006] Another independent problem with the above-described harvester tine is that, in service, removal and replacement of the tine requires a tool, such as a nut driver or wrench, to remove the tine from the bat tube.", "Even with such a tool, removal and replacement of the tine in the field is very difficult.", "[0007] The present invention provides a harvester tine and bat tube assembly which alleviates one or more of these and other problems with the above-described harvester tines.", "In some aspects of the invention, the harvester tine and bat tube assembly includes an integrally-formed fastener assembly for connecting the tine to the bat tube.", "In some aspects of the invention, the harvester tine is connectable to the bat tube assembly without the use of separate fasteners.", "[0008] In aspects of the invention, the fastener assembly includes snap-together fastener members.", "The snap-together fastener members are snapped together to connect the tine to the bat tube and are released by applying a lateral or sideways load to the snap-together portion.", "In such aspects, the snap-together fastener members are biased to the snapped-together or locked position and are moved to the release position against the biasing force.", "[0009] More particularly, the present invention provides a combination for a harvester pickup reel including a second shaft or bat tube, a tine supportable on the bat tube for movement with the bat tube, and a fastener assembly including a first fastener member formed on one of the tine and the bat tube, and a second fastener member formed on one of the tine and bat tube.", "The first fastener member and the second fastener member are defined as being engageable to connect the tine to the bat tube.", "In some constructions, the tine is connected to the bat tube without separate fasteners.", "[0010] In some constructions, the fastener assembly may be integrally formed with at least one of the tine and the bat tube.", "In such constructions, the fastener assembly is preferably integrally formed with the tine.", "[0011] The first fastener member may be formed on a first portion of the tine, and the second fastener member may be formed on a second portion of the tine.", "Preferably, the tine includes a support portion engageable with the bat tube to support the tine on the bat tube, and finger portion extending from the support portion and engageable with crop during operation of the pickup reel.", "The support portion preferably provides the first and second portions of the tine.", "[0012] The tine may include a split ring portion positionable to surround at least a portion of the bat tube, the split ring portion having a first end and a second end.", "The first fastener member is preferably adjacent the first end, and the second fastener member is preferably adjacent the second end.", "In some constructions, the split ring portion is positionable to substantially surround the bat tube so that the first end is engageable with the second end.", "[0013] In some constructions, the first fastener member includes a projection, and the second fastener member includes a recess, the projection being engageable in the recess to connect the tine to the bat tube.", "The first fastener member may include first teeth, and the second fastener member may include second teeth engageable with the first teeth to prevent disengagement of the first fastener member from the second fastener member.", "The first and second teeth are preferably configured to allow the first fastener member to engage the second fastener member in a first direction from a unlocked position to a locked position and to prevent the first fastener member from being disengaged from the second fastener member in a second direction opposite to the first direction.", "Preferably, one of the fastener members includes a biasing portion biasing the first and second teeth into engagement.", "[0014] The first fastener member is preferably movable relative to the second fastener member in a release direction transverse to the first direction from the locked position to a release position, in which the first fastener member is disengaged from the second fastener member.", "The first fastener member and the second fastener member may be biased by a biasing force towards the locked position, and the first fastener member may be moved relative to the second fastener member from the locked position to the release position against the biasing force.", "In some constructions, the tine includes a split ring portion having an intermediate portion, and the intermediate portion is flexible and applies the biasing force to maintain the fastener members in the locked position.", "[0015] Preferably, the first fastener member is selectively engageable with the second fastener member to connect the tine with the bat tube.", "The first fastener member may be disengaged from the second fastener member to disconnect the tine from the bat tube and may then be re-engaged with the second fastener member to re-connect the tine to the bat tube or to connect the tine to another bat tube.", "[0016] One of the bat tube and the tine may include a projection, and the other of the bat tube and the tine may define a recess.", "The projection is preferably received in the recess to prevent rotation of the tine relative to the bat tube.", "Preferably, the tine includes the projection, and the bat tube defines the recess.", "In some constructions, the tine includes a support portion engageable with the bat tube to support the tine on the bat tube, a finger portion extending from the support portion and engageable with crop during operation of the pickup reel, and a wing portion connected to and extending transversely out from the finger portion.", "[0017] Also, the present invention provides a harvester tine for a harvester pickup reel, the tine including a support portion connectable with the bat tube to support the tine for movement with the bat tube, a fastener assembly integrally formed with the support portion and engageable to connect the support portion to the bat tube, and a tine portion extending from the support portion and engageable with crop during operation of the pickup reel.", "[0018] In addition, the present invention provides a method of assembling a harvester tine and shaft assembly, the method comprising the acts of providing a shaft or bat tube, providing a harvester tine supportable on the shaft for movement with the shaft, at least one of the shaft and the tine providing a fastener assembly for connecting the tine to the shaft, the fastener assembly including a first fastener member and a second fastener member, and engaging the first fastener member and the second fastener member to connect the tine to the shaft.", "[0019] One independent advantage of the invention is that the snap-together feature replaces the self-threading screw, eliminating the possibility of the screw stripping the tine during assembly and thereby rendering the tine useless.", "[0020] Another independent advantage of the invention is that the snap-together feature is locked and released without the use of separate tools.", "As a result, in service, removal and replacement of the tine is very simple, even in the field.", "[0021] Other independent features and independent advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon review of the following detailed description, claims and drawings.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0022] [0022 ]FIG. 1 is a side view of a harvester including a harvester tine and bat tube assembly embodying the present invention.", "[0023] [0023 ]FIG. 2 is a side view illustrating the harvester tine and bat tube assembly.", "[0024] [0024 ]FIG. 3 is a side cross-sectional view of the tine shown in FIG. 2 and illustrating the fastener assembly in the locked position.", "[0025] [0025 ]FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the tine shown in FIG. 2 and illustrating the fastener assembly in the locked position.", "[0026] [0026 ]FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a portion of the harvester tine illustrated in FIG. 4. [0027] [0027 ]FIG. 6 is a perspective view of another portion of the harvester tine illustrated in FIG. 4. [0028] [0028 ]FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view similar to that in FIG. 3 and illustrating the fastener assembly in the partially locked position.", "[0029] [0029 ]FIG. 8 is a front view of the harvester tine and illustrating the fastener assembly being moved to the release position.", "[0030] [0030 ]FIG. 9 is a side view of the harvester tine and bat tube assembly and illustrating the fastener assembly in the unlocked position.", "[0031] [0031 ]FIG. 10 is a side view of a first alternative construction of the harvester tine and bat tube assembly.", "[0032] [0032 ]FIG. 11 is a side view of a second alternative construction of the harvester tine and bat tube assembly.", "[0033] Before at least one embodiment of the invention is explained in detail, it is to be understood that invention is not limited in its application to the details of the construction and the arrangements of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in a drawings.", "The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced or carried out in various ways.", "Also, it is understood that the phraseology and terminology used herein is for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0034] The harvester 10 including a pickup reel 14 and a harvester tine and bat tube assembly 18 , embodying the invention, is illustrated in FIG. 1. In general, the assembly 18 includes a harvester tine 22 and a bat tube 26 .", "[0035] As shown in FIG. 1, the harvester 10 includes a harvester platform 28 including a platform frame 29 , supported for movement over ground, and side and rear wall 30 .", "A floor 34 extends between the opposite side walls 30 , and a transverse crop converging auger 38 is rotatably supported above the floor 34 and forward of the rear wall 30 .", "A transverse cutter bar 42 is mounted along the forward edge of the floor 34 , and an upright crop dam 46 is supported between the cutter bar 42 and the floor 34 .", "[0036] The pickup reel 14 generally spans the width of the platform 28 , forward of the auger 38 and above the cutter bar 42 .", "The pickup reel 14 is connected to the platform 28 by a pair of reel support arms 50 (one shown) which support the pickup reel 14 on the frame 29 .", "In illustrated construction, the support arms 50 are pivotally connected to the frame 29 at pivot points 54 .", "The support arms 50 are generally above the sidewalls 30 of the platform 28 .", "Preferably, the support arms 50 are selectively vertically adjustable by a pair of cylinders (not shown) connected between the support arms 50 and the sidewalls 30 .", "[0037] A movable support structure 58 is supported at the forward end of each support arm 50 .", "The support structures 58 are generally slidable between forward and rearward positions on the support arm 50 , and their movement is controlled by a pair of cylinders (not shown).", "The support arms 50 and the support structures 58 are adjustable positioned to adjust the position of the pickup reel 14 relative to the platform 28 .", "[0038] A tubular reel shaft or first shaft 62 is journalled by and extends between the support structures 58 .", "The first shaft 62 is rotatable relative to the support structures 58 about its axis.", "A plurality of radially-extending members or spiders 66 are supported in axially-spaced relation on the first shaft 62 for rotation with the first shaft 62 .", "Each spider 66 includes a plurality of radially-extending arms 70 (six in the illustrated construction) which are axially aligned with the arms 70 on the adjacent spider 66 to form sets of arms 70 .", "[0039] A transverse rock shaft, second shaft or bat tube 26 is journalled in the outer ends of each set of arms 70 .", "The bat tubes 26 are rotatable with the associated arms 70 and, in the illustrated construction, are rotatable relative to the associated arms 70 .", "The bat tubes 26 span the width of the pickup reel 14 and are generally parallel to and radially-spaced from the first shaft 62 .", "A plurality of harvester tines 22 are connected to each bat tube 26 for movement with the bat tube 26 (in the illustrated construction, for rotation relative to the first shaft 62 and relative to the associated arms 70 ).", "[0040] In illustrated construction, the pickup reel 14 also includes a cam path arrangement 74 to provide a control mechanism which enables the tip path of the tines 22 to be varied and optimized.", "In the illustrated construction, the cam path arrangement 74 is similar to that disclosed in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 10/102,164, filed Mar. 20, 2002 (Attorney Docket No. 046634-9016-01), which is hereby incorporated by reference.", "It should be understood that, in other constructions (not shown), the pickup reel 14 may include a different cam path arrangement or may not include a cam path arrangement.", "[0041] As shown in more detail and FIGS. 2 - 6 , each tine 22 includes a support portion 78 , which is engageable with the bat tube 26 , to support the tine 22 on the bat tube 26 .", "The support portion 78 includes a split ring portion 82 which is positionable to surround at least a portion of the circumference of the bat tube 26 .", "In the illustrated construction, the split ring portion 82 is positionable to substantially surround the bat tube 26 so that a first end 86 and a second end 90 of the split ring portion 82 are engageable.", "[0042] The split ring portion 82 also includes an intermediate portion 94 between the ends 86 and 90 .", "Preferably, the intermediate portion 94 is flexible so that the ends 86 and 90 can be separated (see FIG. 9) to allow the split ring portion 82 to be placed on and around at least a portion of the bat tube 26 .", "The intermediate portion 94 also allows the ends 86 and 90 to be axially flexed relative to one another (see FIG. 8).", "However, the intermediate portion 94 is resilient enough to bias the ends 86 and 90 from an unlocked position (shown in FIG. 9) and from a release position (shown in FIG. 8) to a locked position (shown in FIGS. 2 - 4 ).", "[0043] As shown in FIGS. 2 - 3 , the tine 22 also includes a finger portion 98 extending from the support portion 78 .", "The finger portion 98 is engageable with crop (not shown) during operation of the pickup reel 14 .", "The tine 22 may also include (see FIG. 2) a wing portion 102 connected to and extending transversely out from the finger portion 98 .", "[0044] As shown in FIGS. 2 - 6 , the assembly 18 also includes a fastener assembly 106 for connecting the tine 22 to the bat tube 26 .", "In construction illustrated in FIGS. 1 - 9 , the tine 22 is connected to the bat tube 26 without separate fasteners.", "Also, in the construction illustrated in FIGS. 1 - 9 , the fastener assembly 106 is integrally formed with at least one of the tine 22 and the bat tube 26 .", "In this construction, the fastener assembly 106 is integrally formed with the tine 22 .", "As explained below in more detail, the fastener assembly 106 releasably connects the tine 22 to the bat tube 26 .", "[0045] The fastener assembly 106 includes a first fastener member 110 formed on a first portion of the support portion 78 , such as adjacent the first end 86 , and second fastener member 114 formed on a second portion of the support portion 78 , such as adjacent the second end 90 .", "[0046] The first fastener member 110 is illustrated in more detail in FIG. 5. The first fastener member 110 includes a projection 116 on which first teeth 118 are formed.", "The teeth 118 extend generally transversely across the projection 116 and are generally parallel to the axis of the bat tube 26 .", "The first fastener member 110 also includes a base surface 120 , generally oriented in radial plane, and a lateral surface 122 extending along the projection 116 .", "[0047] The second fastener member 114 is illustrated in more detail in FIG. 6. The second fastener member 114 defines a recess 126 in which second teeth 128 are formed.", "The teeth 128 extend generally transversely to the recess 126 and generally parallel to the axis of the bat tube 26 .", "The second teeth 128 are complementary to and engageable with the first teeth 118 .", "[0048] In the illustrated construction, the second fastener member 114 includes an inner surface 130 , generally oriented in a radial plane.", "The second fastener member 114 also includes a biasing member 132 defining the portion of the recess 126 opposite to the teeth 128 .", "The recess 126 is generally open in a circumferential direction at the second end 90 of the support portion 78 and on one axial side.", "[0049] FIGS. 2 - 4 illustrate the locked position of the fastener assembly 106 .", "In the locked position, the projection 116 is fully inserted into the recess 126 so that the forward end of the projection 116 engages the inner surface 130 of the recess 126 and so that the second end 90 engages the base surface 120 of the first fastener member 110 .", "As shown in FIGS. 4 - 5 , the teeth 118 and 128 are configured to allow movement of the fastener members 110 and 114 from the unlocked position (shown in FIG. 9), through a partially locked position (shown in FIG. 7) and to the locked position (shown in FIGS. 2 - 4 ).", "The teeth 118 and 128 are oriented at a relatively shallow angle to allow movement in a first direction (indicated by arrow A in FIGS. 2 - 3 ).", "[0050] In the illustrated construction, the rearward faces of the teeth 118 and 128 are oriented at a steep angle relative to arrow A (preferably in a radial plane) to prevent the fastener members 110 and 114 from moving from the locked position in a second direction opposite to arrow A. In the locked position (shown in FIGS. 2 - 4 ), the teeth 118 and 128 engage to prevent disengagement of the fastener members 110 and 114 , and the biasing portion 132 biases the teeth 118 and 128 into such a locking engagement.", "[0051] In the illustrated construction, to disengage the fastener members 110 and 114 and to remove the tine 22 from the bat tube 26 , the fastener members 110 and 114 are movable relative to one another, against the biasing force of the intermediate portion 94 , in a release direction (indicated by arrow B in FIG. 8) transverse to the first direction from the locked position (shown in FIGS. 2 - 4 ) to the release position (shown in FIG. 8), in which the fastener members 110 and 114 are disengaged.", "The projection 116 of the first fastener member 110 moves out of the recess 126 of the second fastener member 114 though the open axial side of the recess 126 .", "The split ring portion 82 may then be flexed, against the bias of the intermediate portion 94 , to move the ends 86 and 90 apart so that the tine 22 may be removed from the bat tube 26 .", "The intermediate portion 94 thus biases the fastener members 110 and 114 to the locked position.", "[0052] It should be understood that, in other constructions (not shown), the fastener members 110 and 114 may be selectively prevented from moving from the locked position in the second direction opposite to arrow A. In such constructions, the fastener members 110 and 114 may be allowed to selectively move from the locked position in the second direction to disengage the fastener members 110 and 114 and to remove the tine 22 from the bat tube 26 .", "[0053] For example, one fastener member (such as fastener member 110 ) may provide a projection (not shown) having movable teeth (not shown), and the other fastener member (such as the fastener member 114 ) may provide an opening (not shown) having a surface (not shown) with which the teeth are selectively engageable.", "In the locked position, the teeth engage the surface to prevent relative movement of the fastener members from the locked position in the second direction.", "The teeth are movable (for example, by movement of the teeth relative to the projection, by flexing of the teeth relative to the projection, by rotation of one fastener member relative to the other fastener member, etc.) out of engagement with the surface to allow relative movement of the fastener members from the locked position in the second direction to disengage the fastener members.", "[0054] As shown in FIG. 2, the assembly 18 also includes an arrangement for preventing rotation of the tine 22 relative to the bat tube 26 .", "In the illustrated construction, the arrangement includes a projection 134 formed on the inner surface of the split ring 82 and engageable with a recess 138 formed on the outer surface of the bat tube 26 .", "When the projection 134 engages the recess 138 , the tine 22 is prevented from rotating relative to the bat tube 26 .", "[0055] [0055 ]FIG. 10 illustrates a first alternative construction of a harvester tine and bat tube assembly 18 A. Common elements are identified by the same reference number “A.”", "[0056] As shown in FIG. 10, the first fastener member 110 A is a ratchet-type fastener, similar to a cable tie.", "The first fastener member 110 A is inserted into the second fastener member 114 A to connect the fastener assembly 106 A. The inner circumferential end of the recess 126 A is open to allow the projection 116 A to extend into and through the recess 126 A. [0057] The fastener assembly 106 A includes a biasing member (not shown) biasing inter-engaging teeth (not shown) on the fastener members 110 A and 114 A into engagement to prevent the fastener members 110 A and 114 A from being disengaged and to retain the fastener assembly 106 A in the locked condition.", "The biasing member may be formed on either of the fastener members 110 A and 114 A. [0058] To release the fastener assembly 106 A, the biasing member is moved to a position in which the biasing force is not applied to force the inter-engaging teeth into engagement.", "The first fastener member 110 A may then be removed from the second fastener member 114 A, and the tine 22 A may be removed from the bat tube (not shown).", "[0059] It should be understood that, in other constructions (not shown), one fastener member (such as fastener member 110 A) may provide a projection (not shown) having movable teeth (not shown), and the other fastener member (such as the fastener member 114 A) may provide an opening (not shown) having a surface (not shown) with which the teeth are selectively engageable.", "In the locked position, the teeth engage the surface to prevent relative movement of the fastener members from the locked position in the second direction.", "The teeth are movable (for example, by movement of the teeth relative to the projection, by flexing of the teeth relative to the projection, by rotation of one fastener member relative to the other fastener member, etc.) out of engagement with the surface to allow relative movement of the fastener members from the locked position in the second direction to disengage the fastener members.", "[0060] In an alternative construction (not shown), the split ring portion 82 of the tine 22 may extend around only a portion of the circumference of the bat tube 26 .", "In such a construction, the ends 86 and 90 of the split ring portion 82 do not engage.", "Rather, the first fastener member 110 extends through an opening in the bat tube 26 to engage the second fastener member 114 on the other side of the bat tube 26 .", "Such an engagement also provides a rotation preventing arrangement.", "[0061] In another alternative construction (not shown), the opening in the bat tube 26 may provide a second fastener member, and the first fastener member 110 may engage the opening to connect the tine 22 to the bat tube 26 .", "In such a construction, a portion of the fastener assembly 106 is provided by the bat tube 26 and another portion of the fastener assembly 106 is provided by the tine 22 .", "[0062] Yet another alternative construction of the harvester tine and bat tube assembly 18 B is illustrated in FIG. 11.", "Common elements are identified by the same reference number “B.”", "[0063] As shown in FIG. 11, the fastener assembly 106 B includes a separate fastener 142 providing the first fastener member 10 B. The first end 86 B of the split ring portion 82 B defines a recess 146 into which the separate fastener 142 is seated.", "The separate fastener 142 includes the projection 116 B which engages in the recess 126 B of the second fastener member 114 B to connect the tine 22 B to the bat tube (not shown).", "The separate fastener 142 includes a ratchet portion.", "[0064] In another construction (not shown), a separate second fastener member (not shown) may be provided and may engage the second end 90 B to replace the integrally-formed second fastener member 114 B. [0065] It should be understood that, in other constructions (not shown), the fastener members 110 B and 114 B may be selectively prevented from moving from the locked position in the second direction opposite to arrow A. In such constructions, the fastener members 110 B and 114 B may be allowed to selectively move from the locked position in the second direction to disengage the fastener members 110 B and 114 B and to remove the tine 22 B from the bat tube 26 B. [0066] For example, one fastener member (such as fastener member 110 B) may provide a projection (not shown) having movable teeth (not shown), and the other fastener member (such as the fastener member 114 B) may provide an opening (not shown) having a surface (not shown) with which the teeth are selectively engageable.", "In the locked position, the teeth engage the surface to prevent relative movement of the fastener members from the locked position in the second direction.", "The teeth are movable (for example, by movement of the teeth relative to the projection, by flexing of the teeth relative to the projection, by rotation of one fastener member relative to the other fastener member, etc.) out of engagement with the surface to allow relative movement of the fastener members from the locked position in the second direction to disengage the fastener members.", "[0067] In constructions illustrated in FIGS. 1 - 10 and in some aspects of the invention, the tine 22 is connected to the bat tube 26 without separate fasteners.", "[0068] In the constructions illustrated in FIGS. 1 - 10 and in some aspects of the invention, the fastener assembly 106 is integrally formed with at least one of the tine 22 and the bat tube 26 .", "In the constructions illustrated in FIGS. 1 - 10 , the fastener assembly 106 is integrally formed with the tine 22 .", "In other constructions (not shown), a portion of the fastener assembly 106 (such as the first fastener member 110 ) is provided by the tine 22 and another portion of the fastener assembly 106 (such as the second fastener member 114 ) is provided by the bat tube 26 .", "[0069] It should be understood that, in other constructions (not shown), the integral fastener assembly may be provided by other structure, such as, for example, by adhesive formed with at least one of the tine 22 and the bat tube 26 .", "[0070] In some constructions, the fastener member 106 provides a snap-together feature for the harvester tine and bat tube assembly 18 which enables the tine 22 to be easily connected to and removed from the bat tube 26 during assembly and in the field.", "[0071] One or more independent features and independent advantages of the invention are set forth in the following claims:" ]

[ "STATEMENT OF RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application claims the benefit of and priority on German Patent Application No. 10 2015 011 602.9 having a filing date of 10 Sep. 2015.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] Technical Field [0003] The invention relates to a method for spreading a laundry item, the laundry item being gripped at two adjacent corner regions of an edge by at least two spreader clips of a spreader device and spread, before being placed on a feed conveyor or laying strip assigned to the latter, characterized in that at least one corner region of the laundry item that is gripped by a spreader clip is captured by an imaging means as the laundry item is being spread.", "The invention additionally relates to a device for spreading a laundry item, having at least two spreader clips for holding, respectively, a corner region of the laundry item, the spreader clips being able to be moved apart and towards each other, characterized in that there is an imaging means assigned to each of the spreader clips, for capturing a corner region of the laundry item that is held by a spreader clip.", "[0004] Prior Art [0005] For the purpose of delivering laundry items, such as so-called flatwork, but also garments, to an ironer or the like, the respective laundry item to be delivered is introduced manually, by opposite corners of a lateral edge, into feed clips of a feeder device.", "Following subsequent shifting of the feed clips, the laundry item is further transferred to spreader clips of a spreader device.", "The spreader clips, which each hold a corner region of the opposite corners of the laundry item, are shifted transversely in relation to a delivery direction, such that the respective laundry item is spread out as a result of tautening of an upper edge that extends between the corners held by the clips.", "The laundry item spread out in such a manner is then placed on a feed conveyor or on a laying strip.", "From there, the laundry item is delivered to the ironer or the like.", "[0006] As the spreader clips are spread apart, the laundry item is drawn out at the corner regions associated with an edge, in such a manner that a sag of this edge is minimized.", "This spreading or opening-out of the laundry item can result in deformations, or “ear formation”, at the corner regions of the laundry item that are gripped by the spreader clips.", "This “ear formation”, or enlargement of the corner regions, is mostly irreversible, and in the long term results in damage to the laundry items, or in tearing.", "Since this deformation of the corner regions can be transferred to the shape of the laundry item as a whole, this results in an unsatisfactory processing result for the laundry item.", "Apart from the fact that, in the long term, this widening of the laundry item results in destruction of the laundry item, this “ear formation”", "is undesirable, particularly in the case of flatwork items such as, for example, tablecloths.", "BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0007] The object of the present invention now consists in creating a method and a device, of the type stated at the outset, by means of which efficient delivery of laundry items is ensured, with gentle processing of the laundry items.", "[0008] A method for achieving this object is a method for spreading a laundry item, the laundry item being gripped at two adjacent corner regions of an edge by at least two spreader clips of a spreader device and spread, before being placed on a feed conveyor or laying strip assigned to the latter, characterized in that at least one corner region of the laundry item that is gripped by a spreader clip is captured by an imaging means as the laundry item is being spread.", "It is accordingly provided, according to the invention, that at least one corner region of the laundry item that is gripped by a spreader clip is captured by an imaging means as the laundry item is being spread.", "This capturing of the gripped corner region by the imaging means may be effected continuously or at intervals, at a definable frequency.", "In this case, it is provided, according to the invention, that only one corner region gripped by a spreader clip is captured by an imaging means, or a plurality of corner regions, each gripped by a spreader clip, are captured by a respective imaging means.", "The imaging means generates a contour picture of the corner region, a photo or other image of a corner region.", "The shape, or the ongoing deformation of the at least one corner region gripped by a spreader clip, can thereby be monitored throughout the entire spreading operation.", "[0009] In particular, the present invention further provides that the corner region captured by the imaging means is compared with predefined references for a corner region, preferably is compared by a control means, and the spreading of the laundry item is stopped as soon as the corner region differs in shape from a predefined reference for a corner region, in particular as soon as the shape of the corner region lies outside a tolerance range of the predefined reference.", "For this purpose, a multiplicity of possible references for the corner regions are stored on the control means.", "Depending on requirements for the processing operation, differing tolerance ranges can be defined for each reference.", "During the spreading operation, the images of the at least one corner region that are captured by the imaging means are compared virtually simultaneously with predefined, or predetermined, references by the control means.", "If the corner region becomes deformed during the spreading operation to such an extent that it deviates from a predefined reference, the spreading of the laundry item is interrupted by the spreader device.", "[0010] It may also be provided, however, that references that image the deformed corner regions are stored on the control means.", "In this case, the spreading of the laundry item is interrupted as soon as an image of the corner regions that is captured by the imaging means matches the references, or falls within a tolerance range of the reference.", "This avoids widening of the laundry item, or the formation of “ears”", "that are caused by excessive opening-out, or spreading, of the laundry item and that impair the quality of processing of the laundry item.", "[0011] Preferably, the present invention may further provide that a distance between an outer edge of the corner region of the laundry item, that is gripped by the spreader clip, and an adjoining lateral edge of the laundry item is determined, in particular this distance is determined by a control means on the basis of images of the corner regions that are captured by the imaging means during the spreading operation, and the spreading of the laundry item is stopped in the case of a limit value being exceeded.", "The more the laundry item is opened out, the greater is the distance between the outer edge of the corner region and the adjoining lateral edge of the laundry item.", "According to the invention, a particular distance value may be predefined with a certain tolerance range that can still be tolerated for the spreading of the laundry item.", "As soon as this predefined value for the distance is exceeded, the control means stops the spreading of the laundry item.", "This distance, or tolerance range, may be set individually in dependence on the respective laundry item to be spread, or on the size and type or quality of the laundry item.", "[0012] A further preferred exemplary embodiment of the present invention may provide that a sag of the laundry item is determined, during the spreading operation, by at least one sensor, in particular a sensor strip, which is positioned between two corner regions of an edge of the laundry item that are each gripped by a spreader clip.", "In this case, the at least one sensor may be positioned in such a manner that, as soon as the latter is covered by the spreading laundry item, the spreading operation is interrupted.", "In this position, the laundry item is fully, or almost fully, spread out.", "The use of a sensor strip enables the progress of the spreading operation to be determined, in that the individual sensors on the sensor strip are successively covered by the laundry item.", "By means of this at least one sensor, or the sensor strip, it is possible to determine the sag of the laundry item, or to determine what the magnitude of the sag may be.", "[0013] The present invention may further provide that the laundry item is spread by the spreader clips until a predetermined value for the sag of the laundry item is attained, or the at least one corner region of the laundry item that is captured by the imaging means deviates from a predefined reference, or the distance between the outer edge of the captured region and the adjoining lateral edge of the laundry item exceeds a predefined limit value.", "It is thus possible for various conditions, under which the spreading of the laundry item is interrupted, to be assigned to the method.", "As soon as one of the said conditions occurs, the spreading of the laundry item is stopped.", "This prevents “ears”", "being formed at the corner regions as a result of the spreader clips being moved apart.", "Equally, it is ensured that the laundry item is spread out fully, when there is no occurrence of widening or “ear formation”", "at the corner regions.", "[0014] Furthermore, the present invention may provide that the laundry item may be spread according to a compromise between a predefined value for the sag and a deviation of a shape of a corner region from a reference.", "Accordingly, a tolerance range, within the scope of which the laundry item may be spread, is provided both for the sag and for the deviation from the reference.", "A balance is thereby achieved, between a least possible sag and a least possible “ear”", "formation.", "As a result of this compromise, the laundry item is spread in an effective manner, but without thereby undergoing excessive strain.", "[0015] A further advantageous exemplary embodiment of the method may provide that, before the laundry item is spread, its width is determined, and the laundry item is then spread fully by the spreader clips, provided that the at least one corner region of the laundry item that is captured by the imaging means does not deviate from the predefined reference value.", "For the purpose of determining the width of the laundry item, the lateral edge located between the two corner regions held by the spreader clips may be pressed down, for example by a measuring rod, in such a manner that the laundry item is tensioned between the spreader clips and the measuring rod.", "The width of the laundry item can then be determined from the positions of the spreader clips and of the measuring rod.", "Depending on this determined value for the width, the spreader clips are then moved accordingly outwards.", "If, during this spreading of the laundry item, it is ascertained by the control means that there is a deviation of the corner region from a predefined reference value, the spreading operation is interrupted.", "In the case of this exemplary embodiment, also, a method is created in which the laundry item is spread out in an effective manner without sustaining lasting damage.", "[0016] A device for achieving the object on which the invention is based is a device for spreading a laundry item, having at least two spreader clips for holding, respectively, a corner region of the laundry item, the spreader clips being able to be moved apart and towards each other, characterized in that there is an imaging means assigned to each of the spreader clips, for capturing a corner region of the laundry item that is held by a spreader clip.", "According to the latter, it is provided that there is an imaging means assigned to each of the spreader clips, for capturing a corner region of the laundry item that is held by a spreader clip.", "This imaging means may be, for example, a digital camera, an array or a matrix of sensors for determining a contour, or a plurality of distance sensors.", "The imaging means in this case may be assigned directly to the spreader clips, or oriented to a predefined region, at a certain distance.", "[0017] Preferably, the invention further provides that the imaging means is connected to a control means, on which there are stored a multiplicity of references for a comparison with the corner regions of the laundry item that are gripped by the spreader clips.", "These references correspond to various corner regions of various laundry items of differing sizes and materials.", "Depending on the type of laundry item that is being processed, it is thus possible to use corresponding reference shapes.", "[0018] Further, it may be provided according to the invention that at least one sensor, preferably a sensor strip, for determining a sag of the laundry item is positioned between the spreader clips holding the laundry item, the at least one sensor, preferably the sensor strip, being connected to the control means.", "These sensors may be, for example, photocells, which generate a signal when shaded.", "[0019] Furthermore, it may be provided, in particular, that a measuring means for determining the width of the laundry item is positioned between the spreader clips holding the laundry item, the measuring means being connected to the control means.", "This measuring means may be, for example, a measuring rod, which tensions the edge between the two corner regions held by the spreader clips.", "The width of the laundry item can be determined from the position of the spreader clips and of the measuring rod.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0020] A preferred exemplary embodiment of the device according to the invention and of the method is explained in greater detail in the following on the basis of the drawing.", "In the latter: [0021] FIG. 1 shows a spreader device, with a laundry item in an initial position, [0022] FIG. 2 shows the spreader device, with the partially spread laundry item, [0023] FIG. 3 shows the spreader device according to FIGS. 1 and 2 , with a fully spread laundry item, [0024] FIG. 4 shows the spreader device according to the preceding figures, with a sensor, [0025] FIG. 5 shows the spreader device according to FIGS. 1 to 3 , with a sensor strip, [0026] FIG. 6 shows the spreader device according to the preceding figures, with two imaging means, and [0027] FIG. 7 shows the spreader device according to a further exemplary embodiment.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS [0028] For the purpose of delivering a laundry item 10 to, for example, a feed conveyor, the laundry item 10 is transferred from a feeder device to a spreader device 11 .", "The laundry item 10 is then spread by the spreader device 11 , by means of two spreader clips 12 , 13 , and transferred in this spread state to the feed conveyor.", "[0029] A spreader device 11 is shown in a highly schematic and simplified representation in FIG. 1 .", "The spreader device 11 has a rail 14 , mounted on which there are two slides 15 , 16 that can be moved apart and towards each other on the rail 14 , along a spreading direction 17 .", "The slides 15 , 16 each have a spreader clip 12 , 13 .", "By means of these spreader clips 12 , 13 , the laundry item 10 can be gripped and spread out, in that the slides 15 , 16 are moved apart along the rail 14 .", "[0030] In the case of the exemplary embodiment represented in FIG. 1 , the spreader clips 12 , 13 have gripped the laundry item 10 at two adjacent corner regions 18 , 19 .", "In this case, in the initial position represented in FIG. 1 , an edge 20 of the laundry item 10 sags downwards between the corner regions 18 and 19 .", "The distance between the lowest point of the edge 20 and a highest point, corresponding to the fully spread laundry item 10 , is referred to as a sag of the laundry item 10 .", "[0031] The subject-matter of the present invention consists substantially in capturing at least one of the corner regions 18 , 19 by means of an imaging device as the laundry item 10 is being spread.", "In the case of the exemplary embodiment of the present invention represented in FIG. 1 , an upper region of the laundry item 10 that comprises both corner regions 18 , 19 is captured by a camera 21 .", "In this case, the image detail of the camera 21 is represented schematically, as a dotted line, by an elliptical truncated cone 22 .", "However, the imaging means according to the invention may also be an array or a matrix of individual sensors, or distance sensors, that generate a signal when an object, or a corner region 18 , 19 , passes through, such that the contour of the laundry item 10 is imaged as the latter is being spread.", "[0032] The camera 21 is connected to a control means or the like, not represented.", "As the laundry item 10 is being spread, the control means continuously generates an image of at least one corner region 18 , 19 by means of the camera 21 .", "It is also conceivable, however, for the capturing of the at least one corner region 18 , 19 by the camera 21 to be effected at intervals, at a definable frequency.", "The imaging means, or the camera 21 , thus generates a continuous image of the corner regions 18 , 19 as the laundry item 10 is being spread.", "[0033] As a result of the slides 15 , 16 being moved apart, the laundry item 10 , in particular the edge 20 between the corner regions 18 , 19 , becomes tensioned, and the entire laundry item 10 is thus spread ( FIG. 2 ).", "This tensioning of the laundry item 10 can cause the laundry item to deform at the corner regions 18 , 19 , with respect to its basic rectangular shape.", "The beginning of this “ear formation”", "or widening of the corner regions 18 , 19 is represented in FIGS. 2 and 3 .", "In FIG. 3 , in particular, in which the laundry item 10 is represented as fully spread, the corner regions 18 , 19 have been widened significantly in comparison with a rectangular initial shape of the laundry item 10 .", "According to the invention, this widening or “ear formation”", "at the corner regions 18 , 19 is to be avoided, since this can lead to a laundry processing result of lower quality and, in the long term, even damage to the laundry item 10 .", "[0034] In order to prevent this, the images of the corner regions 18 , 19 captured by the camera 21 during the spreading operation are compared with reference images.", "These reference images, or reference shapes of corner regions of various laundry items, are stored on the control unit.", "These reference shapes represent ideal images of corresponding corner regions.", "As soon as the images of the corner regions 18 , 19 that are captured by the camera 21 deviate from the reference shapes, the process of opening out, or spreading, is stopped.", "It may also be provided according to the invention that a tolerance range is assigned to the reference shapes, in that a deviation of the captured shape of the corner regions 18 , 19 may range, without the spreading operation being interrupted.", "Thus, in the case of an ascertained deviation of the corner regions 18 , 19 from a reference shape, the spreading of the laundry item 10 is interrupted even if the latter has not yet been fully spread.", "In this way, although the laundry item 10 is transferred in a not fully spread state to the subsequent feeding conveyer, the excessive widening, or the “ear formation”", "at the corner regions 18 , 19 is nevertheless also prevented at the same time.", "[0035] In addition, for the purpose of capturing the corner regions 18 , 19 by the camera 21 , the sag of the edge 20 can be determined by means of a sensor 23 as the spreader clips 12 , 13 are being moved apart ( FIG. 4 ).", "This sensor 23 is positioned between the two spreader clips 12 , 13 , and emits a signal, for example to the control means, as soon as it is covered by the edge 20 of the laundry item 10 .", "Positioning of the sensor 23 at differing heights between the spreader clips 12 , 13 thus enables a certain sag of the edge 20 to be detected.", "As soon as the sensor 23 is covered by the edge 20 , a signal is generated by the control unit, such that a preset sag of the edge 20 is attained and the spreading of the laundry item 10 can be stopped.", "If the shape of the corner regions 18 , 19 already deviates excessively from a reference shape before a certain sag is attained, a stop signal for the spreading operation is then effected.", "If the sensor 23 is covered by the edge 20 before excessive widening of the corner regions 18 , 19 occurs, the laundry item 10 can be transferred in a sufficiently spread state to the feed conveyor, without the corner regions 18 , 19 thereby undergoing excessive strain.", "[0036] As an alternative to the sensor 23 represented in FIG. 4 , it is also conceivable, according to the invention, for the sag of the edge 20 to be measured by means of a sensor strip 24 .", "By means of this sensor strip 24 , which has a multiplicity of individual sensors, the sag of the edge 20 can be determined in a quasi-continuous manner as the spreader clips 12 , 13 are moved apart.", "This quasi-continuous determination of the sag of the laundry item 10 enables the latter to be spread by the control means, according to a predefinable compromise between a sag of the laundry item 10 and a widening of the corner regions 18 , 19 .", "[0037] In the event of an excessive widening of the corner regions 18 , 19 being ascertained before a required minimum sag of the edge 20 has been attained, it may be provided, according to the invention, that the spreader clips 12 , 13 are moved further apart from each other, within a tolerance range for the widening of the corner regions 18 , 19 , in order to fulfil predefinable minimum requirements for the sag.", "As a result of such a compromise, it is also still possible to transfer to the feed conveyor laundry items 10 on which a widening of the corner regions 18 , 19 is already far advanced.", "If the widening of the corner regions 18 , 19 also exceeds the acceptable tolerance range, the laundry item 10 is to be separated out.", "If the minimally required sag is attained before a widening of the corner regions 18 , 19 , there is no compromise to be made.", "Such conditions, or selection criteria, may be specified via the control means.", "[0038] As an alternative to the capturing of the corner regions 18 , 19 by a single camera 21 , it may also be provided, according to the invention, that each corner region 18 , 19 is captured by a single camera 25 , 26 .", "In the case of the exemplary embodiment of the present invention represented in FIG. 6 , the field of view of the cameras 25 , 26 is in each case represented schematically by a dotted-line truncated cone 27 , 28 .", "In the case of this exemplary embodiment, only the corner region 18 or 19 of the complete laundry item 10 is captured and examined for any widenings of the corner regions 18 , 19 .", "Moreover, it may be provided that differing conditions may be stipulated for the two corner regions 18 , 19 with respect to the widening, or the widenings at the corner regions 18 , 19 may differ greatly.", "[0039] A further exemplary embodiment of the present invention may provide that the widening of the corner regions 18 , 19 is determined by determination of the distances 29 , 30 between an outer edge of the corner regions 18 , 19 and adjoining lateral edges 31 , 32 of the laundry item 10 ( FIG. 7 ).", "For this purpose, just as in the case of the preceding exemplary embodiments, the corner regions 18 , 19 and, additionally, the lateral edges 31 , 32 are captured in pairs, or together, by an imaging means, not represented.", "This imaging means may again be a camera 21 or an array or a matrix of individual sensors.", "The distance 30 , 31 between the lateral edges 31 , 32 and an auxiliary line 33 , 34 , extending vertically downwards from the corner regions 18 , 19 , is then determined by the control means.", "As soon as a value for the distance 29 and/or for the distance 30 deviates from a predefinable limit value, or is exceeded, the spreading operation is interrupted.", "Since the value of the distance 29 , 30 represents a direct measure of the degree of widening of the corner regions 18 , 19 , this method offers a possibility for avoiding “ear formation”, in a manner that is as efficient as the previously explained exemplary embodiment.", "Moreover, clearly, it is likewise conceivable for this determination of distance to be effected in combination with a sensor 23 or a sensor strip 24 for determining the sag.", "LIST OF REFERENCES [0000] 10 laundry item 11 spreader device 12 spreader clip 13 spreader clip 14 rail 15 slide 16 slide 17 spreading direction 18 corner region 19 corner region 20 edge 21 camera 22 truncated cone 23 sensor 24 sensor strip 25 camera 26 camera 27 truncated cone 28 truncated cone 29 distance 30 distance 31 lateral edge 32 lateral edge 33 auxiliary line 34 auxiliary line" ]

[ "PRIORITY This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/203,255 filed May 8, 2000 and U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/203,127 filed May 8, 2000.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Field of the Invention This invention relates generally to voice and data communication systems, and more particularly to wireless transmission protocols.", "Description of the Related Art Bluetooth is a short-range radio standard intended to replace the cables connecting portable and fixed electronic devices.", "The standard, which operates in the unlicensed Industrial-Scientific-Medical (“ISM”) band at 2.4 GHz, focuses on robustness, low complexity, low power, and low cost.", "A frequency-agile or frequency “hop”", "protocol is applied to provide security and limit interference, and a shaped, binary FM modulation is used to minimize transceiver complexity.", "A symbol rate of 1 Ms/s, is maintained with a slotted channel having a nominal slot length of 625 ms.", "For full duplex transmission, a Time-Division Duplex (“TDD”) scheme is implemented.", "Under a TDD scheme the same channel is broken into time slots, with specified time slots used for transmitting and others for receiving.", "Information is exchanged through data packets which typically cover a single slot, but which may be extended to cover up to five slots, depending on the application.", "Additional features of the Bluetooth standard are described in Jaap Haartsen, Bluetooth—The Universal Radio Interface for ad hoc, Wireless Connectivity , ERICSSON REVIEW No. 3, (1998).", "Referring to FIG. 1, the “Bluetooth”", "specification is comprised of several different protocol layers including a radio frequency (“RF”) layer 160 , a baseband layer (“BB”) 150 , a link control layer (“LC”) 140 , a link manager layer (“LM”) 130 , a logical link control and adaptation protocol layer (“L2CAP”), and a serial line emulation layer (“RFCOM”).", "The functionality of each of these layers (as well as additional Bluetooth protocol layers) is described in detail in Bluetooth Protocol Architecture , Version 1.0 (Aug. 25, 1999) (“ Bluetooth Protocol Architecture”", "), which can be found at “http://www.bluetooth.com.”", "Because Bluetooth is defined as a bidirectional protocol, devices are typically required to have both a receiver and a transmitter in order to comply with the Bluetooth standard (i.e., the Bluetooth protocol assumes bi-directional signaling for all devices in a Bluetooth network, referred to as a “piconet”).", "However, a number of potential Bluetooth devices (e.g., keyboards, mice, microphones, speakers, ear pieces, .", "etc) are not bidirectional in nature.", "The applications these devices support exist only as data sources or as data sinks.", "For example, wireless input devices such as a wireless keyboards are typically only required to transmit data.", "Similarly, wireless output devices such as wireless audio ear pieces or wireless video monitors are typically only required to receive data.", "Accordingly, from an application standpoint, these devices only require unidirectional communication.", "What is needed is a system and method for providing unidirectional communication between wireless devices when bidirectional communication is unnecessary.", "What is also needed is a system and method for synchronizing data transmission between wireless devices when unidirectional communication is implemented.", "What is also needed is a system and method which will work seamlessly with the Bluetooth protocol.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A method is described comprising: receiving a synchronization packet transmitted form a first device;", "receiving a data packet transmitted from the first device, the data packet being offset from the synchronization packet by a particular amount of time;", "and identifying the first device based on the amount of time from which the data packet is offset from the synchronization packet.", "Also disclosed is a method implemented on a first wireless device comprising: transmitting a synchronization packet to a second wireless device;", "and transmitting a first data packet to the second wireless device, the first data packet being offset from the synchronization packet by a first amount of time, wherein the first amount of time from which the first data packet is offset from the synchronization packet identifies said first wireless device to said second wireless device.", "Also disclosed is a wireless apparatus comprising: synchronization packet detection logic configured to detect a synchronization packet transmitted from a second wireless device;", "and identification logic configured to identify the second wireless device based on a timing offset between the synchronization packet and a subsequent data packet transmitted by the second wireless device.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS A better understanding of the present invention can be obtained from the following detailed description in conjunction with the following drawings, in which: FIG. 1 illustrates a typical allocation of a Bluetooth protocol stack between a host processing environment and a Bluetooth IC.", "FIG. 2 illustrates various steps and associated timing required to establish communication between two Bluetooth devices.", "FIG. 3 illustrates one embodiment of a co-located frequency-agile transmitter.", "FIG. 4 illustrates timing between synch packets and data packets in one embodiment of the invention.", "FIG. 5 illustrates additional timing features implemented in embodiments of the invention.", "FIG. 6 illustrates a typical Bluetooth-enabled device including both a data source and a data sink.", "FIG. 7 a illustrates one embodiment of the invention including a transmit-only Bluetooth device.", "FIG. 7 b illustrates one embodiment of the invention including a receive-only Bluetooth device.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION In the following description, for the purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention.", "It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without some of these specific details.", "In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form to avoid obscuring the underlying principles of the invention.", "In a typical configuration, Bluetooth “slave”", "devices enter standby mode and loose sync with the network clock (i.e., the “master”", "device's clock) in order to save power, trading responsiveness for power savings.", "For example, as illustrated in FIG. 2, in order to reestablish a connection, the slave device invokes an “inquiry”", "procedure 210 to obtain the identity of the other devices within it's transmission range.", "Under this procedure, the slave device transmits packets containing an inquiry access code common to all Bluetooth devices over specified inquiry access carriers.", "As indicated, this procedure takes 5.12 seconds on average and can take as long as 15.36 seconds.", "When another device (e.g., the master device) receives the inquiry, it transmits a page packet containing it's identity code and clock to the slave device.", "As shown, the time required for the slave device to receive each response is 0.64 seconds on average and can take as long as 7.68 seconds.", "Accordingly, the total average time required to reestablish a communication channel is 5.67 seconds and, in some situations, as long as 23.04 seconds.", "This is an unacceptable response delay for numerous potential Bluetooth applications (e.g. wireless keyboards, wireless mice, etc).", "One potential mechanism for solving the foregoing problem with response time is to require the slave device to maintain synchronization with the network clock (i.e., by receiving and transmitting periodically).", "This requirement, however, consumes excess energy, potentially draining limited battery power without directly servicing the needs of the appliance;", "or, alternatively, requires that a potentially impracticably large energy reserve be built into the product.", "EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION Embodiments of the invention described below provide a more efficient, cost effective solution for configuring Bluetooth devices.", "These embodiments are capable of remaining active for extended periods of time using limited energy sources while at the same time providing improved response times when establishing network communication channels.", "As illustrated in FIG. 3, one embodiment of the invention is comprised of a proprietary protocol stack 315 (including a transmitter and receiver pair) operating in parallel with the Bluetooth protocol stack 310 .", "As will be described in detail below, the proprietary protocol stack 315 in one embodiment operates in a mode that does not require continuous synchronization between wireless devices (as does the Bluetooth protocol).", "Also included in this embodiment are a pair of transceivers 311 and 316 , through which the wireless transmitter/receiver device 300 communicates to one or more other wireless devices 320 - 322 .", "Each of the protocol stacks 310 and 315 and associated transceivers 311 and 316 may communicate using a frequency-agile protocol in which data packets are transmitted in sequential time slots at different frequencies (portions of the Bluetooth frequency-agile protocol are described above).", "In one embodiment, each of the transceivers 311 , 316 operate within overlapping frequency bands but subscribe to different orthogonal signaling algorithms.", "The transceivers 311 , 316 and the protocol stacks 310 , 315 in one embodiment operate independently, sharing components as appropriate within the respective wireless device 300 .", "In one embodiment, the device 300 may interface with a host processor environment 305 (e.g., a general purpose processor such as a Pentium®-class processor running an operating system such as WindowsNT®) over a host processor interface 304 .", "The wireless transmitter/receiver device 300 may be configured to communicate with the host processor environment 305 by physically interfacing with various proprietary buses or industry standard buses such as, for example, the Universal Serial Bus (“USB”), a Peripheral Component Interconnect Bus (“PCI”), or an Industry Standard Architecture bus (“ISA”).", "It should be noted, however, that the underlying principles of the invention are not limited to any particular bus configuration.", "As illustrated in FIG. 3, one embodiment of the invention is capable of communicating with wireless devices which support the standard Bluetooth protocol (e.g., device 322 ) as well as devices that support a proprietary protocol (e.g., devices 320 and 321 ).", "Other devices (not shown) may be configured to operate with either both the standard Bluetooth protocol 310 and the proprietary protocol 315 , depending on the circumstances.", "For example, a device may be configured to communicate using the standard Bluetooth protocol when actively communicating with the wireless transmitter/receiver device 300 but may switch to the proprietary protocol when operating in “standby”", "mode (i.e., not actively communicating).", "In this embodiment, once the device leaves standby mode, the wireless transmitter/receiver device 300 may coordinate the switch from the proprietary protocol 315 to the Bluetooth protocol 310 .", "Embodiments of the Proprietary Protocol One embodiment of a proprietary protocol 315 will now be described with respect to FIG. 4 .", "According to this embodiment, when a wireless external device such as a wireless keyboard (e.g., device 320 in FIG. 3) or mouse is ready to transmit data (e.g., in response to a user action), it initially transmits a synchronization packet 420 .", "In one embodiment, the receiving device (e.g., the wireless transmitter/receiver 300 of FIG. 3) periodically allocates a timing window 410 within which it listens for synchronization packets 420 transmitted from other devices.", "Once it detects the synchronization packet 420 , it then listens for a data packet 422 following the synchronization packet 420 by a specified offset 432 .", "The data packet 422 contains the underlying data to be processed by the receiving device 300 and/or the host processor.", "In one embodiment, the receiving device 300 uses the offset 432 between the synchronization packet 420 and the data packet 422 to identify the wireless device which transmitted the data packet.", "For example, the receiving device may maintain a lookup table in memory which links timing offsets to various device addresses.", "Thus, referring to FIG. 4, the receiving device may identify data packet 422 as originating from a wireless keyboard based on the offset 432 between the packet 422 and the synchronization packet 420 and may similarly distinguish data packet 423 as originating from the wireless mouse based on offset 434 .", "Alternatively, or in addition, the offsets 432 and 434 may be used to identify the type of data being transmitted by the wireless device.", "For example, the data packets 422 and 423 may originate from the same wireless device and the offsets 432 and 434 , respectively, may identify a characteristic of the data being transmitted (e.g., data may be defined as low priority, medium priority, high priority .", "etc).", "It will be appreciated that the foregoing embodiments allow multiple devices to communicate with one another over a wireless network with minimum latency and without the need for continually maintaining clock synchronization with one another.", "For example, a keyboard employing this technology may sit idle for days, out of synch with the transmitter/receiver device 300 .", "However, as soon as a user selects a key, a synchronization packet 420 is sent to the wireless transmitter/receiver 300 (which listens for the synch packet 420 within the synch packet window 410 ).", "The transmitter/receiver 300 may then identify the keyboard based on the offset 432 between the synchronization packet 420 and the data packet 422 .", "In one embodiment, the wireless device transmits synchronization packets 420 to the transmitter/receiver device 300 periodically.", "While there are no minimum or maximum transmission rates, in one embodiment data bursts from the wireless device may be as frequent as 10 transmissions per second (e.g., 100 ms per key on a keyboard).", "Frequency Hopping and Time Diversity Many devices operate in the microwave spectrum (i.e., 1 GHz and above) including microwave ovens, communications satellites, Personal Communications Services (“PCS”) cellular systems and wireless LANs.", "As such, Bluetooth devices which operate within this same frequency range (i.e., 2 GHz), may be particularly susceptible to interference.", "One embodiment of the invention directed at limiting microwave interference is illustrated in FIG. 5 .", "This embodiment defines transmission windows of 8.66 msec based on a typical microwave device duty cycle of 50% (i.e., 16.66 msec×0.50=8.33 msec).", "Within each 8.33 msec transmission window, data packets are transmitted twice, thereby improving the likelihood that one of the two packets will make it through to its destination.", "Thus, as illustrated in FIG. 5, packet T X 1 is transmitted twice within the first 8.33 msec window and packet T x 2 is transmitted twice within the second 8.33 msec transmission window.", "In this particular embodiment, each of the 8.33 msec windows is separated by a window which is a multiple ‘N’ of the transmission window (e.g., 2×8.33 msec, 3×8.33 msec, .", "etc).", "The multiple ‘N’ may be based the particular offsets 432 , 434 configured into the system (i.e., the multiple may represent the difference between the offsets 432 , 434 ).", "In addition, to further limit interference, in one embodiment the various data packet transmissions occur at a different hop frequencies f1, f2, f3 and f4.", "Transmit-Only and Receive-Only Devices A typical Bluetooth device 600 is illustrated in FIG. 6 .", "The device 600 includes both a data source 610 and a data sink 611 which communicate through the Bluetooth protocol stack 620 (including transmit and receive protocol elements 621 and 622 ).", "A transceiver unit 630 provides the physical or RF layer functionality for transmitting and receiving data over wireless channels according to the Bluetooth specification.", "As described above, certain applications require only a unidirectional transmission capability.", "For example, as illustrated in FIG. 3, an input-only device 320 such as a keyboard is inherently a data source (i.e., it is only required to generate data and not receive data).", "Similarly, an output-only device 321 such as a video monitor or an audio ear-piece are inherently data sinks (i.e., they are only required to receive data).", "For these applications, the typical Bluetooth implementation shown in FIG. 6 is inefficient.", "Referring to FIG. 7 a , a wireless device 700 according to one embodiment of the invention is comprised of a data source 710 and a protocol stack 720 for supporting the data source 710 (including a data transmission component 721 ).", "In addition, in one embodiment, the transceiver 730 is configured as a transmit-only transceiver (i.e., it is only capable of transmitting data and not receiving data).", "Because all unnecessary hardware and software (i.e., hardware and software associated with receiving data) are removed from the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 7 a , significant cost savings are realized.", "In addition, because the hardware footprint and memory requirements for the device are significantly reduced, the device can be manufactured using a more compact printed circuit board (“PCB”)/enclosure design.", "Similarly, referring to FIG. 7 b , a wireless device 701 according to one embodiment of the invention is comprised of a data sink 711 and a protocol stack 724 for supporting the data sink 711 (including a data receive component 722 ).", "In contrast to the transmit-only device 700 , the transceiver 731 in the illustrated embodiment is configured as a receive-only transceiver (i.e., it is only capable of receiving data and not transmitting data).", "Once again, because all unnecessary hardware and software (i.e., hardware and software associated with transmitting data) are removed from the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 7 b , significant cost savings are realized.", "Moreover, as with the transmit-only device 300 , the hardware footprint and memory requirements for the receive-only device 301 are significantly reduced.", "It is important to note that the apparatus and method described herein may be implemented in environments other than a physical integrated circuit (“IC”).", "For example, the circuitry may be incorporated into a format or machine-readable medium for use within a software tool for designing a semiconductor IC.", "Examples of such formats and/or media include computer readable media having a VHSIC Hardware Description Language (“VHDL”) description, a Register Transfer Level (“RTL”) netlist, and/or a GDSII description with suitable information corresponding to the described apparatus and method.", "Throughout the foregoing description, for the purpose of explanation, numerous specific details were set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the invention.", "It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that the invention may be practiced without some of these specific details.", "For example, while the embodiments described above focused on the Bluetooth protocol, many of the underlying principles of the invention may practiced using various other types of wireless and terrestrial protocols.", "Accordingly, the scope and spirit of the invention should be judged in terms of the claims which follow." ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] Not applicable STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT [0002] Not applicable REFERENCE TO SEQUENCE LISTING, A TABLE, OR A COMPUTER PROGRAM LISTING COMPACT DISC APPENDIX [0003] Not applicable BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0004] 1.", "Field of the Invention [0005] The present invention relates to coverage evaluation and un-triangulated coverage hole counting in wireless sensor networks, and radio transmission range optimization in wireless networks.", "[0006] 2.", "Description of the Related Art [0007] The probability of triangulation is closely related to the probability of existence of un-triangulated coverage (or routing) holes and the probability of coverage.", "Therefore the probabilistic analysis of triangulation is a fundamental topology control tool to maintain expected quality of monitoring and network connectivity.", "If the node density and target area size of a random deployed sensor network are given, the probabilistic analysis is helpful to select the appropriate transmission range for network connectivity and save power at the same time.", "Hence this is a statistical tool for topology control to achieve efficient power management and longest network lifetime providing acceptable sensing monitoring integrity and accuracy, as well as connectivity.", "[0008] A few existing works provided mathematical methods for the calculation of coverage probability.", "Assume nodes are randomly deployed in the target sensing area according to a two-dimensional Poisson process, with node density λ.", "Node density λ is the mean number of nodes lying inside a unit disk sensing area, assuming uniform sensing area πR 2 =1, and hence the sensing range R=1/√π.", "[0009] P. Hall introduced a method to calculate the probability of coverage (P c ) for any single point not located near the boundary of the area S, which is defined by the probability that at least 1 (k≧1) node lies inside the circle with unit area centred there.", "P c is defined in terms of the Poisson distribution with node density λ: [0000] P c = ∑ k = 1 ∞  λ k   - λ k !", "= 1 -  - λ BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0010] The main objective of the invention is to calculate the expected number of un-triangulated holes in a randomly and uniformly deployed sensor network, given node density and target area size, without knowing the network topology.", "This method can guide the sensor node deployment in large scalar sensor networks when nodes are deployed randomly from such as a helicopter or a ship to a wide area, in order to achieve acceptable sensing coverage using minimum number of sensor nodes.", "[0011] The second objective is to optimize the radio transmission range in a randomly deployed wireless networks to achieve acceptable networking connectivity and better power saving.", "The invention calculates the expected number of routing holes in a wireless network given number of wireless nodes, uniform transmission range and target area size.", "The method can be used to determine optimal transmission range for all wireless nodes in the network to achieve acceptable networking connectivity with limited number of routing holes.", "[0012] Firstly, the invention calculates the expected un-triangulated area size, given node density and target area size.", "Node density is the mean number of node inside a unit sensing area covered by a sensor node's sensing range, or the wireless communication area covered by a node's half transmission range.", "[0013] Then the invention calculates the mean un-triangulated hole size, which is the mean un-triangulated area inside a hole.", "[0014] Finally, the expected number of un-triangulated hole is calculated, which is the expected un-triangulated area size inside the target area, divided by the mean un-triangulated hole size.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0015] The present invention will become more understandable from the detailed description given herein below and the accompanying drawings which are given by way of illustration only, and thus are not limitative of the present invention.", "In the following figures, assume each node has sensing area defined by a circle with radius R, and a ‘link’ is said to exist between any two nodes which are no less than 2R units to each other.", "[0016] FIG. 1 .", "shows a position A is triangulated by three nodes {N 0 N 1 N 2 }, where nodes {N 0 N 1 N 2 } are located inside the disk with radius 2R centred by A. Nodes {N 0 N 1 N 2 } are mutually connected within distance less than 2R to each other to form a triangle enclosing A. [0017] FIG. 2 .", "shows the areas S N1 (in which node N 1 must lie) when the distance between the closest node N 0 and A is less than R. [0018] FIG. 3 .", "shows the areas S N2 (in which node N 2 must lie) when the distance between the closest node N 0 and A is less than R, and node N 1 is within coordinate (x 1 , y 1 ).", "[0019] FIG. 4 .", "shows the calculation result and simulation result of probability of triangulation.", "[0020] FIG. 5 .", "shows all possible quadrangles N 1 N 3 N 2 N 4 forming a un-triangulated hole with hole radius (R t ).", "[0021] FIG. 6 .", "shows how a un-triangulated hole with hole radius (R t ) is triangulated when the sensing radius is enlarged to R t. [0022] FIG. 7 .", "shows the calculation result of un-triangulated hole size with various hole radius (R t ) assuming the un-triangulated hole is a quadrangle area or a ellipse respectively.", "[0023] FIG. 8 .", "shows how the expected number of holes with various hole radius R t is calculated based on the probability of un-triangulation in the target area.", "[0024] FIG. 9 .", "shows the expected number of holes in the unit area with various hole densities (R t ), and various node densities (λ).", "[0025] FIG. 10 .", "shows the total number of un-triangulated holes in the unit area (hole density) with various node densities.", "[0026] FIG. 11 .", "shows boundary effect while detecting a hole.", "[0027] FIG. 12 .", "shows the calculation result and simulation result of probability of no un-triangulated hole for various target area sizes and various node densities.", "[0028] FIG. 13 .", "shows the calculation result of probability of no un-triangulated hole considering boundary effect.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION A. Probability of Triangulation [0029] If a point A lies within the area being studied, the probability of triangulation can be estimated, namely the lower bound of the probability that A has three neighbours (each lying within 2R of A) connected to each other by links which form a triangle around A, assuming uniform sensing area πR 2 =1, and hence the sensing range R=1/√π.", "[0030] These neighbours are called N 0 , N 1 , and N 2 .", "It is assumed that the closest neighbour is a vertex of this triangle and that it is called N 0 , because the closest node is most likely to triangulate the point.", "10 6 simulations with varied numbers of neighbours showed that if the closest node cannot triangulate A, its probability of being triangulated by any other three nodes is less than 2%, which can be neglected in order to simplify the calculation.", "To put this more rigorously, it can be stated that the probability of triangulation is greater than or equal to the probability when the closest node to A is involved in triangulating it.", "[0000] Prob(Triangulation)≧Prob(Triangulation always using the closest node to A ) [0031] Thus a lower bound on the probability of triangulation will now be derived.", "The distance between N 0 and A is x 0 , with 0<x 0 <2R, assuming each node has circular sensing area of radius R. N 1 and N 2 are further than x 0 from A. It is necessary that 0<x 0 <2R/√3, in order for a suitable triangle to exist.", "[0032] FIGS. 2 and 3 show the areas S N1 (in which node N 1 must lie) and S N2 (in which node N 2 must lie).", "Any position in S N1 must be less than 2R from N 0 to ensure that N 1 and N 0 are connected, moreover, regardless of what position N 1 occupies within S N1 , the area of S N2 defined by the condition which follows must be greater than zero.", "The left (right) semicircle is defined as the area to the left (right) of the y-axis.", "If N 1 is located in one semicircle (left or right), S N2 must be a sub-area of S N1 in the other semicircle with each point within it closer than 2R from N 1 , so that N 2 is connected to both N 0 and N 1 .", "Point A is therefore triangulated by N 0 , N 1 and N 2 as shown in FIG. 1 .", "[0033] Now that S N1 and S N2 have both been determined, the probability may be found that at least one node falls inside S N1 and the other inside S N2 , namely the probability of triangulation for some specified value of x 0 .", "The integral of this over the range 0<x 0 <2/√3 R is the probability of triangulation by the closest node and two other neighbours.", "[0034] If both N 1 and N 2 lie in the same semicircle in FIG. 2 , N 0 , N 1 and N 2 cannot form a triangle enclosing A. Similarly, N 0 and N 2 (or N 1 ) must not lie to the same side of line AN 1 (or AN 2 ) ( FIG. 3 ), otherwise A would lie outside the triangle formed by N 0 , N 1 and N 2.", "The node in the right semicircle is designated N 1 , while N 2 is in the left semicircle.", "[0035] N 1 must be within 2R of N 0 in order to connect to it, and should be further than x 0 units from A because the distance between the closest node N 0 and A is x 0 .", "Therefore N 1 may lie within S N1 , which is defined as the intersection of two circles centred on N 0 and A, each having a radius of 2R.", "However, the circle centred on A with radius x 0 is excluded.", "Hence N 1 lies within 2R of both A and N 0 .", "[0036] If N 1 is located to the right (left) side of S N1 , then N 2 should lie to the left (right) side of S N1 in order to enclose A. Similarly, if N 1 is located to the same side of the y-axis as N 0 (under point A in FIGS. 2 and 3 ), then N 2 should be on the other side.", "Therefore the possible area S N2 (containing N 2 ) is the intersection of S N1 and the circle centred on N 1 with radius 2R.", "S N2 is on the opposite side of the y-axis from N 1 .", "[0037] Unfortunately, for some positions in S N1 , S N2 is the empty set because both N 1 and N 2 are located at the left (right) side, or there is no intersecting area above A when N 1 is located beneath it.", "In order to ensure that S N2 is non-empty, it should include at least one point (C left and C right ) for the left and right semicircles respectively within S N1 that are closest to both N 0 and the y-axis.", "C right (C left ) is the point to the right (left) side of S N1 with minimum mean distance to any position in the left (right) side of S N1 , therefore it is the closest point to the y-axis.", "If there is more than one point closest to the y-axis, then C right (C left ) is the closest point to both A and N 0 (point C in FIG. 2 ) but C should lie on the opposite side of the x-axis from N 0 in order to triangulate A. In FIG. 2 where x 0 ≦R, the two points C left and C right represent the same point named C, where the coordinates of C is (0, x 0 ).", "[0038] As discussed above, N 1 and N 2 must lie in different semicircles (left and right), in order to ensure that with N 0 , they form a triangle enclosing A ( FIG. 3 ).", "[0039] For x 0 ≦R and some specified position of N 1 , namely (x 1 , y 1 ), it is possible that N 0 and N 2 lie on the same side of line AN 1 , so that N 2 falls within the area S N2 ′ ( FIG. 3 ).", "In this case, A is not located inside the triangle formed by N 0 , N 1 and N 2 .", "If we consider N 1 ′, located at (x 1 , −y 1 ), a similar situation occurs when N 2 falls inside S N2 .", "Therefore the mean area of S N2 for N 1 (x 1 , y 1 ) and N 1 ′(x 1 , −y 1 ) is (S N2 +S N2 ′)/ 2 , as shown in FIG. 3 ;", "this result is used in later calculations.", "[0040] S N1 (x 0 ) and S N2 (x 0 ) are the sizes of the areas in which N 1 and N 2 respectively may each lie for any x 0 (distance between N 0 and A).", "For the purposes of the calculation, N 1 and N 2 are assumed to lie on the left and right semicircles respectively in order to triangulate position A. Therefore S N1 (x 0 ) and S N2 (x 0 ) are the areas of each region coinciding with only one semicircle.", "S N1 (x 0 )=0 for x 0 ≧2/√3 R. [0041] For 0<x 0 ≦R ( FIG. 3 ): [0000] S N 1  ( x 0 ) =  2  ∫ 0 2   R - x 0  ( ∫ max  ( x 0 2 - y 1 2 , 0 ) 4  R 2 - ( x 0 + y 1 ) 2    x 1 )    y 1 =  2  ∫ 0 2  R - x 0  ( 4  R 2 - ( x 0 + y 1 ) 2 - max  ( x 0 2 - y 1 2 , 0 ) )    y 1 [0042] N 1 (x 1 , y 1 ) is assumed to lie above the x-axis and to the right of the y-axis only because S N1 is symmetrical about both the x-axis and the y-axis.", "[0043] S N2 (x 0 ) is the integral over x 1 and y 1 of the area S N2 (x 1 , y 1 ) which results when N 1 lies at (x 1, y 1 ).", "For 0<x 0 ≦R: [0000]  S N 2  ( x 0 ) = 1 S N 1  ( x 0 )  ∫ 0 2  R - x 0  ( 2   ∫ max  ( x 0 2 - y 1 2 , 0 ) 4  R 2 - ( x 0 + y 1 ) 2  S N 2  ( x 1 , y 1 )   x 1 )   y 1 S N 2  ( x 1 , y 1 ) = 1 2  ∫ 0 2  R - x 1  max  [ min  ( 4  R 2 - ( x 1 + x 2 ) 2 + y 1 , 4  R 2 - x 2 2 - x 0 ) - max  ( 0 , x 0 2 - x 2 2 ) , 0 ]    x 2 + 1 2  ∫ 0 2  R - x 1  max  [ min ( 4  R 2 - ( x 1 + x 2 ) 2 - y 1 , 4  R 2 - x 2 2 - x 0 ) - max  ( 0 , x 0 2 - x 2 2 ) , 0 ]    x 2 [0044] For R<x 0 ≦2R/√3, because the probability that three nodes can triangulate A is very low (<<1%) according to the calculation result, therefore it is not calculated in the invention.", "[0045] With a 2D Poisson process, the approximation can be made as follows: [0046] For each x 0 (the distance from the closest node to A), the probability of triangulation f(x 0 ) is Prob(no node in area πx 0 2 )·Prob(at least one node in area 2πx 0 dx 0 )·Prob(at least one node in area S N1 (x 0 ) and at least one node in area S N2 (x 0 ), with S N1 in either the left or right semicircle), which can be calculated as below: [0000] f  ( x 0 ) =  - λ   π   x 0 2  ( 1 -  - λ · 2   π   x 0  dx 0 )  [ γ + ( 1 - γ )  γ ] Because    zdx 0 = 1 + zdx 0 + ( zdx 0 ) 2 2 !", "+ ( zdx 0 ) 3 3 !", "+ ( zdx 0 ) 4 4 !", "+ … [0000] where z=−λ·2πx 0 , for dx 0 →0, therefore e zx 0 ≈1−λ·2πx 0 dx 0 .", "Therefore [0047] f ( x 0 )≈ e −λπx 0 2 [1−(1−λ·2π x 0 dx 0 )][γ+(1−γ)γ]= e −λπx 0 2 (2γ−γ 2 )λ·2π x 0 dx 0 [0000] γ=(1− e −λ·S N1 (x 0 ) )(1− e −λ·S N2 (x 0 ) ) [0048] γ is the Probability that there is at least one node in area S N1 (x 0 ) and at least one node in area S N2 (x 0 ) for S N1 within the right side and S N2 within the left side.", "[0049] The probability of triangulation P t for a specified point (assuming a mean node density of λ in a two-dimensional Poisson process) may be calculated as follows: [0000] P t  ( λ ) = ∫ 0 2  R  f  ( x 0 ) ≈ ∫ 0 R   - λ   π   x 0 2  ( 2   γ - γ 2 )  2   λ   π   x 0    x 0 [0050] The probability of triangulation not occurring at a specified point is P nt (λ): [0000] P nt (λ)=1− P t (λ) [1] [0051] Ten thousand simulations with varied node densities (λ) were run to confirm the analysis.", "For each simulation, 4λ nodes are randomly deployed inside a circle with radius 2R centred on point.", "If A is located within a triangle formed by the closest node N 0 and any other two nodes, all closer than 2R from each other, then A is triangulated.", "FIG. 4 shows that the simulation results agree with calculations very well for the probability of triangulation at a specified point with exactly 4λ neighbours, with a maximum difference of less than 1% for λ≧5.", "Furthermore, in contrast to the point in question having a fixed number of neighbours, one thousand simulations with random nodal deployment (two-dimensional Poisson process) for each mean node density λ (12≧λ≧1) were also carried out.", "Hence the number of neighbours is not necessarily exactly 4λ due to the use of a Poisson process.", "With λ>4, the analytical results agree with simulation to within 5% ( FIG. 4 ).", "B. Calculation of the Mean Size of a Hole [0052] Assume that all nodes have circular sensing areas of radius R. The hole radius (or triangulated radius) is denoted by R t and is defined as follows.", "For an un-triangulated hole, R t may be found, where R t >R, so that the hole only becomes triangulated if the sensing radius of all its boundary nodes is increased to at least R t .", "FIG. 6 shows how a hole lying within quadrangle N 1 N 4 N 2 N 3 can be triangulated by increasing the sensing radius to R t so that each edge cannot be longer than 2R t .", "In other cases, a hole may be enclosed by more than one connected quadrangle, which can be considered as two or more adjacent holes, however this is neglected in the following analysis because it is rare in high-density networks.", "[0053] The conditions for a hole to be enclosed by a quadrangle with boundary node sensing radii of exactly R t are defined by the following two points: 1.", "One diagonal of the quadrangle must be of length 2R t , and the other diagonal must be no shorter than 2R t , so that it can be triangulated by links of length 2R t or greater.", "And the hole could not be triangulated by links shorter than 2R t , with R<R t .", "Each edge of the quadrangle must be no longer than 2R t , otherwise the hole cannot not be triangulated by links of this length or shorter.", "[0056] A general description of all possible quadrangles N 1 N 3 N 2 N 4 defined by the above conditions is provided in FIG. 5 .", "N 1 and N 2 are two sensor nodes 2R t units apart, and the large circles centred on these nodes both have radius 2R t .", "N 3 may lie anywhere inside S N3 , which is the intersection of the circles centred on N 1 and N 2 , excluding the void area.", "C and D are the highest and lowest points respectively inside S N3 .", "The void area is the intersection of two circles with radii 2R t centred on C and D ( FIG. 5 ).", "[0057] N 4 may lie anywhere inside S N4 , which is a subset of S N3 defined by a specific position of N 3 (x 3 , y 3 ), such that the distance between N 3 and any point in S N4 is greater than or equal to 2R t , as dictated by condition 1 above—see FIG. 5 .", "If N 3 is in the void area, the distance from it to N 4 cannot be more than 2R t .", "N 3 and N 4 must be on opposite sides of the x-axis, so that they can be more than 2R t units apart.", "A and B are the leftmost and rightmost points respectively within S N4 .", "[0058] The area of the quadrangle is Q=HR t , where H=y 4 −y 3 ( FIG. 6 ).", "H mean is the mean of H, and the mean area of the quadrangle is Q mean .", "It is shown below that: [0000] Q mean =R t ×H mean ≈2.21 R t 2 [0059] For each possible point N 4 (x 4 , y 4 ) inside S N4 , corresponding to every point N 3 (x 3 , y 3 ) inside S N3 , the height H of the quadrangle is calculated, in order to derive H mean .", "In the following calculations, x 3 <0 and y 3 <0, which does not affect the result, because S N3 is symmetrical about both x-axis and y-axis.", "[0000] H mean = ∫ 0 - Rt  ( ∫ - 4  Rt 2 - ( Rt - x 3 ) 2 3  Rt - 4  Rt 2 - x 3 2  H × S N   4    y 3 )    x 3 ∫ 0 - Rt  ( ∫ - 4  Rt 2 - ( Rt - x 3 ) 2 3  Rt - 4  Rt 2 - x 3 2  S N   4    y 3 )    x 3 ≈ 2.21  Rt S N   4 =  ∫ x a x b  ( ∫ 4  Rt 2 - ( x 4 - x 3 ) 2 + y 3 4  Rt 2 - Max  ( Rt ± x 4 ) 2    y 4 )    x 4 =  ∫ x a x b  [ 4  Rt 2 - Max  ( Rt ± x 4 ) 2 - ( 4  Rt 2 - ( x 4 - x 3 ) 2 + y 3 ) ]   x 4 H =  ∫ x a x b  ( ∫ 4  Rt 2 - ( x 4 - x 3 ) 2 + y 3 4  Rt 2 - Max  ( Rt ± x 4 ) 2   y 4   y 4 )    x 4 S N   4 - y 3 =  ∫ x a x b  4  Rt 2 - Max  ( Rt ± x 4 ) 2 - [ 4  Rt 2 - ( x 4 - x 3 ) 2 + y 3 ] 2 2    x 4 S N   4 - y 3 α 1 = cos - 1 ( ( Rt - x 3 ) 2 + y 3 2 / 2 2  Rt ) ;", "α 2 = tan - 1  ( - y 3 Rt - x 3 ) x a =  Rt - 2  Rt   cos  ( α 1 - α 2 ) =  Rt - 2  Rt   cos [ cos - 1 ( ( Rt - x 3 ) 2 + y 3 2 / 2 2  Rt ) - tan - 1  ( - y 3 Rt - x 3 ) ] x b = 2  Rt   cos [ cos - 1 ( ( Rt + x 3 ) 2 + y 3 2 / 2 2  Rt ) - tan - 1  ( - y 3 Rt + x 3 ) ] - Rt [0060] The un-triangulated area of a hole is not necessarily enclosed by its quadrangle, because although each edge of the quadrangle is no longer than 2R t units, the length of an edge might be greater than 2R (e.g. edge N 2 N 3 of FIG. 6 ).", "Therefore an un-triangulated area outside edge N 2 N 3 exists, which is enclosed by triangle N 2 N 5 N 3 .", "Hence the un-triangulated area of a hole is larger than the quadrangle area Q if one or more edges of the quadrangle are longer than 2R.", "FIG. 6 shows that the un-triangulated area of the hole is enclosed by a polygon N 2 N 5 N 3 N 1 N 6 N 4 with six edges, each no longer than 2R.", "[0061] If all four edges of the quadrangle are longer than 2R, the un-triangulated area of the hole is enclosed by a polygon with at least eight edges.", "In such a case, assume that un-triangulated area is enclosed by an ellipse with radius R t and height H/2, then the mean un-triangulated area is H mean R t π/2≈3.47R t 2 , which is larger than the mean quadrangle size 2.21R t 2 .", "The assumption of the un-triangulated area being an ellipse does not affect the accuracy of the calculation, as shown below.", "[0062] If k edges of the quadrangle are longer than 2R (k≦4), then the mean un-triangulated area is: [0000] k/ 4×ellipse_area+(1− k/ 4)×quadrangle_area=( k/ 4)3.47 R t 2 +(1− k/ 4)2.21 R t 2 [0063] From FIG. 6 , the probability that the un-triangulated area is enclosed by such an ellipse could be calculated for different hole radii R t .", "This is the probability that N 3 (or N 4 ) is more than 2R units away from N 1 or N 2 .", "FIG. 7 shows that when R t ≦1.5R, the un-triangulated area is approximately equal to the quadrangle area, because for R t <1.5R, the un-triangulated area is enclosed by a quadrangle with a probability of over 95%.", "Since for most holes, later calculations in FIG. 9 show that R t ≦1.5R for medium and high node densities (λ≧7), the un-triangulated area of a hole is considered to be equal to the quadrangle size Q mean in the following calculations.", "C. Calculation of Hole Density Distribution and Hole Counting [0064] The next step is to calculate h sum , the total number of holes inside a unit area, taking into account all hole radii R t (where R<R t <∞): [0000] h sum = ∑ Rt = R ∞  S n   t  ( R t ) × 1 Q mean = ∑ Rt = R ∞  S n   t  ( R t ) 2.21   R t 2 = ∑ Rt = R ∞  P n   t  ( λ ) 2.21   R t 2 [0065] S nt (R t ) is the expected un-triangulated area within a unit area, for hole radii of R t , which can be derived from the probability of triangulation calculated in [1] of section A. Assuming random deployment following a two-dimensional Poisson process with node density λ, the probability of non triangulation for any point is P nt (λ).", "λ is the mean number of nodes lying inside the unit sensing area πR 2 .", "[0066] Therefore [0000] ∑ R t = R ∞  S n   t  ( R t ) = P n   t  ( λ ) × 1 , [0000] which is the expected un-triangulated area in a unit area, including all un-triangulated holes (quadrangles), with hole radii of R t .", "[0067] Assume λ 0 =λ and R t(0) =R.", "If the sensing radii are enlarged from R to R t(i) (i>0), then by definition, any un-triangulated holes with hole radii less than R t(i) would disappear, whereas all other holes would remain un-triangulated.", "Hence the un-triangulated area S i with hole radii between R t(i) and R t(i+1) (i≧0) inside unit area may be calculated as: [0000] S i =[P nt (λ i )− P nt (λ i+1 )]·1 [0068] λ i is the node density for sensing radii of R t(i) , which is the mean number of nodes lying inside an area of πR t(i) 2 , as shown in FIG. 8 .", "[0000] λ i = λ × π   R t  ( i ) 2 π   R 2 = λ   R t  ( i ) 2 R 2 R t  ( i ) = λ i × R 2 λ = R  λ i λ [0069] If the interval R t(i+1) −R t(i) →0, then H i , the expected number of un-triangulated holes inside a unit area for hole radii between R t(i+1) and R t(i) may be calculated as: [0000] H i =  S i / Q mean  ( R t  ( i ) ) =  P n   t  ( λ i ) - P n   t  ( λ i + 1 ) 2.21   R t  ( i ) 2 =  P n   t  ( λ i ) - P n   t  ( λ i + 1 ) 2.21   R 2  λ i λ [0070] Therefore the expected total number of un-triangulated holes h sum inside unit area may be calculated as: [0000] h sum = ∑ i = 0 ∞  H i = ∑ i = 0 ∞  P n   t  ( λ i ) - P n   t  ( λ i + 1 ) 2.21   R 2  λ i λ [0071] FIG. 9 shows the expected number of holes in the unit area for the interval R t(i+1) −R t(i) =0.1, and 2≦λ≦12.", "For λ=2, and 1.1R≧R t >R, the expected number of holes in the unit area is 0.16, and not surprisingly, the expected number of holes drops to 0 when R t >2R.", "However for λ≧5, the expected number of holes is close to zero when R t >1.4R.", "[0072] FIG. 10 shows the total number of un-triangulated holes in the unit area (hole density).", "It shows that the hole density is largest (0.58) for λ=1.25, because for lower node density, the nodes are too sparsely deployed to form any un-triangulated polygons (holes), so that the mean hole size is much larger than that of higher node densities.", "For higher node densities, the hole density drops quickly to less than 0.1 for λ≧4.5.", "For λ>10, the hole density is close to zero.", "[0073] Finally, the expected number of holes in the target area S with node density λ is calculated as below: [0000] E hole (λ)= h sum ×S [0074] If the centre of a hole with hole radii R t lies less than R t units from the boundary of the target area ( FIG. 11 ), this hole cannot be detected because no nodes are allowed outside the target area.", "Calculation result shows the mean of R t is approximately 1.1R for 20≧λ≧2.", "In order to overcome the boundary effect, only holes centred within the non-boundary area, more than R t =1.1R units (R=1/√π) from the boundary, may be calculated ( FIG. 11 ).", "[0075] Simulations were performed to detected un-triangulated holes inside target areas of between 16 and 160 square units, using Matlab 7.0 as the simulator.", "For each target area, 100 simulations with random node deployment were performed using the 3MeSH-DR hole detection and recovery algorithm as proposed by Xiaoyun Li and David Hunter, for 12≧λ≧2.", "[0076] In FIGS. 12 and 13 , P noHole (the probability of no un-triangulated hole) is calculated by: [0000] P noHole =e −E hole (λ) [0000] The simulation results in FIGS. 12 and 13 show that the probability of no un-triangulated hole increases from less than 10% to more than 98% when the node density increases from 3 to 12 for most target area sizes considered.", "But for the smallest target area sizes of 16 and 32 square units, the probability of no hole increases for lower node densities (λ≦3), because the mean hole radius for these lower node densities is large (around 1.4R), and some of the holes'", "radii could be more than 1.8R as shown in FIG. 10 .", "Therefore for small target areas, as one would expect, the boundary effect dominates, indeed, holes with larger hole radii are less likely to be detected.", "Hence the probability of no hole is higher for low node densities.", "However for higher node densities (λ≧4), the probability of no hole increases monotonically for target area sizes greater than or equal to 16 square units.", "[0077] FIG. 12 shows that because of the boundary effect, there is a large offset between the simulation results from the 3MeSH hole detection algorithm and the analytical result.", "As expected, the offset is smaller for larger areas, due to the decreased influence of the boundary effect.", "FIG. 13 shows that the offset decreases greatly after considering the boundary effect in the way discussed above.", "The calculation results agree with the simulations very well for each target area considered with varied node densities, with an average error of less than 5%." ]

[ "This application is a continuation of application Ser.", "No. 07/439758 filed Nov. 21, 1989, now abandoned.", "FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates generally to multiprocessor parallel computing systems and particularly to methods and apparatus for maintaining the integrity of data processed by such systems.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Multiprocessor parallel computing systems have recently become available which may be coupled to a host computer to enhance its performance.", "Generally, an attached parallel processing system of this type has a relatively limited instruction set.", "It is designed to perform simple, repetitive operations in parallel and, so, reduce the elapsed time for processing a program.", "A system of this type is generally coupled to a communications bus of the host computer and is treated as an input/output (I/O) device.", "The most common types of attached multiprocessor systems are the Multiple-Instruction Multiple Data (MIMD) systems and the Single-Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD) systems.", "An MIMD system is a conventional multiprocessor system where each processor may execute a separate program operating on a separate data set.", "The processors in a system of this type may perform separate tasks or they may each perform a different sub-task of a common main task.", "In an SIMD system, each processor may have a different set of data in its associated memory, but all processors are governed by a common controller, and perform the same operations on each of the different data sets.", "Processors of this type may be used, for example, for simulation programs in which the effects of a stimulus on a set of points spanning an area or a volume are calculated simultaneously.", "When either of these two types of systems is coupled to a host computer, instructions and data are transferred between the multiprocessor system and the host computer via a communications bus.", "Many computer systems include apparatus which continually checks the validity of the data being processed.", "This apparatus ranges from parity checking circuitry to circuitry which inserts and analyzes error correcting codes (ECC's).", "Although apparatus of this type may be used to maintain data integrity separately in the host computer and in the multiprocessor system, it may be difficult to verify the integrity of data transferred between the two systems.", "To illustrate how these problems may occur, consider an exemplary multiprocessor system, the Polymorphic-Torus network, which is described in a paper by H. Li et al.", "entitled "Polymorphic-Torus Network"", "Proc.", "Int.", "Conference on Parallel Processing, PP 411-414, 1987, hereby incorporated by reference.", "This system is an SIMD processor network in which N 2 bit-serial processors are arranged in an N×N matrix.", "Assuming the host computer uses K-bit words in its data processing, data values are transferred to the multiprocessor system in groups of N 2 K-bit words.", "In a typical application, these data values may be stored into a buffer as N 2 K-bit words and may be shifted out of the buffer into the N 2 bit-serial processors as K N 2 -bit words.", "Any ECC incorporated in the K-bit words generated by the host would be difficult to use in the attached multiprocessors.", "Similarly, any ECC developed by the multiprocessors would be difficult to use in the host processor.", "An SIMD multiprocessor system may be used in a multiprogramming environment, that is to say, the system may run multiple programs on a time-slice basis.", "For example, when a program running on the multiprocessor system enters a wait state, e.g. to perform an I/O operation, another program may be activated to run on the system.", "When this second program enters a wait state, the first program is reactivated.", "Operating the system in this manner is generally more efficient than restricting it to execute each program to completion before starting the next program.", "However, there is a potential for data corruption if one program is allowed access to data locations used by another program while the other program is inactive.", "U.S. Pat. No. 4,773,038 to Hillis et al.", "relates to an SIMD system in which each memory associated with one of the processing elements may be subdivided.", "Each processing element operates on the contents of each subdivision sequentially to simulate a greater number of processors.", "U.S. Pat. No. 4,727,474 to Batcher relates to a multiprocessor system which has a staging memory system that includes error detection and correction apparatus for data used by the multiprocessor system.", "U.S. Pat. No. 4,636,942 to Chen et al.", "relates to a computer system that has multiple independent processors.", "The system includes a set of shared registers which are used to coordinate access to resources that are common to all of the processors.", "U.S. Pat. No. 4,569,052 to Cohn et al.", "relates to apparatus for protecting computer memory which uses a parity matrix to generate an error correcting code.", "U.S. Pat. No. 4,523,273 to Adams, III et al.", "relates to a multistage data routing system which includes error correction and error detection apparatus.", "U.S. Pat. No. 4,299,790 to Gilliand et al.", "relates to a MIMD system which includes apparatus for checking memory accesses against base and length parameters for a task.", "If an attempted access is found to be out of range, the task is suspended.", "Data transfers between asynchronous tasks are facilitated by semaphores implemented in hardware.", "U.S. Pat. No. 4,101,960 to Stokes et al.", "relates to an SIMD computer system which includes apparatus that contains bounds and descriptions of vectors defined in a memory space.", "Memory access errors may be checked by this apparatus to provide early detection of errors in vector processing.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is embodied in a multiprocessor system in which memory accesses by individual processing elements are checked by a common controller.", "The controller includes a table of values defining valid memory locations for a task.", "The controller verifies the address value used by each instruction to ensure that it is within a valid memory area of the task.", "In another aspect of the invention, the multiprocessor system is coupled to a host computer through a buffer.", "Data are serially written into the buffer by the host and are read out of the buffer in parallel by the multiprocessor system.", "The buffer used in this system includes apparatus which calculates an error correction code (ECC) from a serial data stream and passes this code, along with the data, to the multiprocessor system.", "The multiprocessor system includes apparatus which processes the data in parallel to handle errors indicated by the ECC.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 (Prior art) is a block diagram of a computer system which includes a parallel processor.", "FIG. 2 (Prior art) is a block diagram of a parallel processor suitable for use in the computer system shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 2A is a diagram that is useful for explaining the structure of the parallel processor system shown in FIG. 2. FIG. 3 is a data structure diagram which illustrates an internal table maintained by the a parallel processor controller which includes an embodiment of the present invention.", "FIG. 4 is a block diagram which is useful for describing the interface between the processing elements and the controller of a parallel processor system in accordance with the present invention.", "FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a portion of an exemplary controller for a parallel processor system which includes an embodiment of the present invention.", "FIG. 6 is a block diagram which illustrates an extension of the controller apparatus shown in FIG. 5. FIG. 7 is a block diagram of an error correction system suitable for use in a parallel processor system which includes an embodiment of the present invention.", "FIG. 8 is a block diagram of error checking and correcting apparatus suitable for use in the portion of the parallel processor system shown in FIG. 7. FIG. 9 is connection diagram for a rule plane which corresponds to the exemplary algorithm presented in the text for generating an error correction code.", "FIG. 10 is a connection diagram for a rule plane which corresponds to the exemplary algorithm presented in the text for using an error correction code for purposes of error detection.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a computer system which includes an attached multiprocessor system.", "The computer system includes a host processor 110 which is coupled to a main memory 112 via a memory bus MB.", "The processor 110 is further coupled to peripheral devices via an I/O bus 120.", "The peripheral devices may include, for example, a mass storage device 114, such as a disk drive, and an operator display terminal which may include a cathode ray tube (CRT) display device and a keyboard input device 116.", "In this embodiment of the invention, a parallel processor 118 is coupled to the I/O bus 120 as a peripheral device.", "FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an exemplary parallel processor 118.", "The processor shown in FIG. 2 includes a controller 210 which is coupled to the I/O bus 120 to receive commands from the host processor 110.", "These commands determine the processing steps performed by an N by N processor array 212 on data values stored in a memory 214.", "Data transfers between the host processor 110 and the memory 214 are accomplished using a transfer controller 218 and an N 2 by K-bit buffer 216.", "In normal operation, the host processor 110 supplies data for each of the N 2 processors 212 to the bus 120 as blocks of N 2 K-bit words.", "Each block is loaded into the buffer 216 by the transfer controller 218 which is controlled by a program provided by the host processor 110 via the bus 120.", "As each block is loaded, it is transferred into the memory 214 under control of the transfer controller 218.", "When the data values have been provided, the host processor 110 loads a program for the parallel processors 212 into the controller 210.", "The Controller 210 then sends a copy of each program instruction encountered during program sequencing to each processing element within the N×N Processor Array 212.", "FIG. 2A is a representation of an exemplary N×N Processor Array 212 with its associated memory 214.", "While this figure shows a representation of specific dimensions, it is contemplated that the actual size of the structure can be increased or decreased as necessary to suit individual applications.", "The blocks shown in the foreground plane of this figure represent individual processing elements 212.", "The remaining blocks shown in this FIG. 214 represent individual memory elements.", "In the system shown in FIGS. 2 and 2A, a processing element is capable of directly accessing any memory elements directly behind itself.", "In this system, a first processing element is also capable of accessing data in a memory location behind a second processing element.", "However, such access is only possible indirectly.", "For a first processor to retrieve data from a memory element behind a second processor, the second processor retrieves the data and transfers it to the first processor.", "For the first processor to store data in a memory element behind the second processor, the first processor transfers the data to the second processor and the second processor performs the actual storage operation.", "Each N×N plane of memory parallel to the processor plane is referred to as a memory plane.", "Access to a specific memory element is a function of the memory plane in which the memory element resides and the processing element which is directly in front of the memory element and, hence, can access it directly.", "Thus, a memory location is specified by the combination of a processing element number, a memory plane number and, optionally, an address within a set of memory elements having a common processing element number and memory plane number.", "In the embodiments of the invention described below, the processing elements are bit-serial devices and the memory planes are bit-planes.", "Consequently, each bit in the memory 214 may be uniquely identified by a processing element number and a bit-plane number.", "All processors in the N×N Processor Array execute the same instruction simultaneously.", "However, each processor manipulates data within a separate memory partition.", "Thus, the data manipulated by the various processors may be different.", "In this embodiment of the invention, a first, currently-running process may enter a waiting state or be preempted by second process at any time.", "If a second set of instructions, relating to the second process, is sent before a first process has completed execution in the N×N Processor Array, it is desirable to preserve a part of the current state of the computer so that execution of the first process can resume at a later time.", "It is possible, that the instructions for the second process may write information into a memory location that is still being used by the first process.", "In this way, data which may be used by the first process can become corrupted.", "This invention acts to restrict the memory locations that may be accessed by the second process or any other process.", "In this way, the corruption of data belonging to first processes may be avoided.", "In addition, the present invention verifies that an address is valid for an instruction in a particular process before the instruction is executed.", "If the address is invalid, then the current process is suspended and an interrupt is sent to an operating system.", "FIG. 4 shows exemplary circuits which determine the validity of an instruction/address pair.", "In FIG. 4, a single processing element 830 is shown.", "In a preferred embodiment of the disclosed invention, many processing elements 830 will exist.", "Each processing element 830 is coupled to an associated processing element memory array 840.", "The processing element accesses data from its associated processing element memory array via a switch 809.", "The instruction decoder 802 determines whether the instruction/address pair which has just been read from program memory 803 will read or write memory 840, associated with the processing element 830.", "This information is then sent to a permission table 805.", "The permission table 805 determines whether a read or a write access is allowed at a specified address.", "There are several schemes that can be used to make this determination.", "These schemes may include: registers indicating upper and lower limits of a contiguous storage area;", "registers containing the size of a memory area;", "bits that indicate whether a particular section of memory may be accessed;", "identification keys associated with particular sections of memory;", "one table of access rights for each process, each table being loaded into special registers immediately before the process starts running.", "In FIG. 3 an exemplary permission table is shown.", "The table is organized such that the rows correspond to respectively different section of memory and the columns correspond to respectively different parameters of a process.", "In the exemplary embodiments of the invention, each row may be assigned to a respectively different process or multiple rows may be grouped and the groups assigned to respectively different processes.", "It is understood that any scheme for determining the allowablity of a memory access may be used.", "In FIGS. 3, 5 and 6, the exemplary permission tables include R+1 rows, corresponding to R+1 sections of memory.", "In general, there may be any number of memory sections, although any number beyond the total number of memory planes is redundant.", "In the exemplary permission table, five columns are shown: LB, UB, RB, WB and PB.", "The LB column indicates a lower boundary of memory which can be accessed in the section of memory process associated with the row.", "The UB column indicates an upper boundary of memory that can be accessed in the section of memory associated with the row.", "The RB and WB columns respectively, indicate read and write protection for the section of memory specified by the LB and UB entries.", "The PB column is optionally used to restrict access to finer areas of memory.", "This column refers to a plane of memory called the permission bit plane.", "Before a memory access may occur at a memory location, denoted by processing element address and bit plane address, a value which has been placed in a corresponding location of the permission bit plane is evaluated.", "This corresponding location is called a permission bit plane location.", "If the permission bit plane location corresponding to a particular processing element contains a predetermined value, then that processing element will be allowed to access the memory location specified by the instruction subject to the read and write constraints of the RB and WB columns.", "As a special case, the permission bit planes may be ignored if the permission bit plane address, in the PB column of the permission table 805, is set to a pre-determined constant.", "If more flexibility is desired in the allocation of memory, the permission table may include multiple rows for each process.", "In this scheme, the permission table is reloaded before the start or resumption of each process and the table only contains the entries for that process.", "The lower and upper bound registers, LB and UB, and the read and write bits, RB and WB are used to ascertain which row of the table is used to determine whether a given memory access is allowed.", "The contents of the permission table may be obtained from the host 110 or the data memory 801 of the control unit 820.", "The permission bit plane address is stored in permission table 805 as previously discussed.", "If a permission bit plane is used then the referenced permission bit plane address is transferred, via multiplexer 807, to a control and arithmetic unit (CAU) 806 located in the processing unit 830.", "The CAU 806 uses the data stored in the local memory 808 at the permission bit plane address to determine whether access to a specific memory location is allowed.", "If, according to the permission table 805, a bit plane access is not allowed for a specific process, the permission table 805 notifies the disable unit 804, which, in turn, signals the CAU 806 to inhibit this access.", "In FIG. 5, circuitry representing a logical implementation of the permission table of FIG. 3 is shown.", "The optional permission bit plane circuitry is not shown in this FIGURE.", "The circuit of FIG. 5 compares the address of a memory access with addresses stored in the permission table.", "This circuit also determines whether read and write operations are allowed at a specified address.", "When a memory access instruction is transmitted from the instruction decoder 802 to the permission table 805, a comparator 504 determines whether the location of this memory access is greater than or equal to a bit plane which is designated in lower bound register 501.", "This register corresponds to the lower bound value LBR shown in FIG. 3. The location of this memory access is also evaluated by a comparator 510.", "Comparator 510 determines whether the location of the memory access is less than a bit plane which is designated in upper bound register 507.", "The output terminals of comparator 504 and comparator 510 are coupled to the input terminals of an AND gate 513.", "If the referenced memory location is within the bounds designated by the lower bit plane register 501 and the upper bit plane register 507, a logical true value will appear on the output terminal of the AND gate 513.", "This signal is applied to respective input terminals of AND gates 515 and 521.", "If a memory read operation is allowed as a result of the value stored in read bit register 516, a logical true value will appear on the output terminal of AND gate 515, causing a logical false value to appear on the output terminal of NOR gate 529.", "Similarly, if a memory write is allowed by virtue of values stored in write bit register 522, a logical true value will appear on the output terminal of AND gate 521, causing a false logic value to appear to on the output terminal of NOR gate 532.", "The signals IR and IW are provided by the instruction decoder.", "These signals indicate whether the instruction reads or writes data, respectively.", "If an instruction reads data and gate 529 indicates that a read is impermissible, a logical true value will appear on the output of gates 527 and 529.", "This value causes a logical true value to appear on the output of AND gate 528.", "If an instruction writes data and the gate 532 indicates that a write is impermissible, then a logical true value will appear on the output of gates 530 and 532.", "This causes a logical true value to appear on the output of AND gate 531.", "The signals provided by the or gates 528 and 531 are applied to the OR gate 533 and condition it to provide a logical true level at its output terminal.", "This value is applied to the input terminal of disable unit 804 to block execution of the instruction performing the impermissible memory access.", "FIG. 6 shows exemplary circuitry which implements a protection scheme that includes permission bit-plane masking.", "By using permission bit-plane masking, instruction access may be restricted to finer areas of memory (i.e., less than a bit plane).", "This is useful in systems where multiple users share a SIMD computer memory.", "In addition, bits in a permission bit plane may be used to reserve selected areas of memory as a system resource or to prevent access to defective memory cells.", "Permission bits can also be used for debugging by showing where programs are reading or writing data at improper memory locations.", "The logic circuitry shown in FIG. 6 which is associated with the lower bound registers, LBO through LBR, upper bound registers, UBO through UBR, read bit-plane registers, RBO through RBR and write bit registers WBO through WBR is identical to the corresponding circuitry shown in FIG. 5. Three additional three-state gates, 701, 703 and 705, three permission bit-plane registers 702, 704 and 706 and a permission bit plane address bus 707 are added in FIG. 6. In the example set forth above, the contents of the permission bit-plane register corresponding to the selected contiguous storage area is detected by the circuitry in FIG. 5 that includes the lower and upper bound registers and their associated comparators.", "This value is placed on the permission bit-plane address bus 707.", "It is noted that the various address ranges specified by the lower and upper bit-plane registers are desirably disjoint, or meaningless values may be placed on the permission bit-plane address bus 707.", "In one embodiment of the disclosed invention, the value on the permission bit plane address bus 707 is interpreted as the address of a bit-plane in the memory 840.", "This addressed bit-plane contains permission bits that indicate which of the processing elements 830 are allowed to access their associated memory arrays during the execution of the instruction.", "If the contents of the permission bit-plane for a particular processing element is a first specified value (e.g. 0), then access to the corresponding memory location by that processing element is inhibited.", "Otherwise, access is allowed.", "If subsequent decoding of the instruction indicates that a memory operation is to take place, this condition is detected and an interrupt is forwarded to the control unit to indicate an attempt was made to access an invalid memory location for the processing element.", "In an alternate embodiment of the invention, the scheme described above is extended so that, if a particular address value (e.g. 0) appears on the permission bit-plane address bus 707, then the reading and checking of the permission bit-plane may be skipped for the instructions being executed.", "This may be desirable as a means to shorten the instruction cycle time in cases where the finer degrees of protection provided by the permission bit-plane scheme are not desired.", "In another alternative embodiment of the invention, the above schemes are modified so that the permission bit plane resides in a memory bit-plane having an address that is either a fixed value or a value designated by a register in the control unit 820.", "In this instance it is only necessary that the bit-plane registers 702, 704 and 706 and the permission bit-plane address bus convey a single bit of information, indicating whether the permission bit-plane should be accessed.", "In yet another alternative embodiment, the first two schemes described above are modified so that the permission bit plane occupies a set of registers 808, one set per processing element.", "In this instance, it may be possible to read, test and act on the permission bits more quickly than if they are stored as a part of the processing element memory array 840.", "For this embodiment of the invention, the permission bit-plane address bus 707 conveys only a single-bit of information: whether the permission bit-plane registers 808 are to be used for the instruction.", "In still another alternative embodiment, the preceding scheme is extended to a set of multiple-bit registers 808 holding the contents of multiple permission bit planes.", "Permission bit plane address bus 707 selects one of the permission bit planes.", "A particular address value (e.g. 0) is used as in other schemes above to disable checking.", "SIMD computer systems may be used in conjunction with Von Neumann type computers for programming ease.", "Instructions are entered into the Von Neumann type computer (called the host) and are then transferred to the SIMD computer, where they are executed by several processors simultaneously.", "An example of this configuration is shown in FIG. 2. The SIMD system described above may often participate in data transfers between itself and a host computer as shown in FIG. 2. While an SIMD system and a host system may each have their own error correction, schemes neither system can verify the integrity of data transferred between the two.", "FIG. 7 is a block diagram of an error correction system suitable for use in the parallel processor system shown in FIG. 2. This error correction system facilitates the transfer of data between the host 302 and the memory cell array 312.", "The host 302 interfaces with a buffer 308 between itself and the SIMD system via an I/O channel.", "The I/O channel is K-bits wide.", "However, the SIMD system includes N 2 processors where N 2 may not be equal to K. The buffer 308 is N 2 ×K bits and is used as an intermediary form of storage between the host 302 and the memory cell array 312.", "This N 2 by K-bit buffer 308 is accessed by the host 302 as a K-bit entity for each access.", "The K-bit entity is referred to as a word.", "The memory cell array 312 accesses the N 2 by K-bit buffer 308 as an N 2 -bit entity for each access.", "The N 2 -bit access entity corresponds to a bit-plane.", "The buffer 308 is organized as a two-dimensional, structure because the memory organization for the host system and the SIMD system are different.", "At the host end, data is organized as a K-bit word and N 2 units of data are passed sequentially via the I/O channel.", "These N 2 data values, however, are distributed in bit-serial form to N 2 SIMD processors and are organized in K consecutive memory bit locations in each processor.", "As a result of the two dimensional organization of the buffer 308 used in the exemplary system, each SIMD access to the buffer 308 involves one bit of each of the N 2 K-bit words.", "Conversely, each access by the host 302 involves only one K-bit word.", "Because the buffer 308 "corner turns"", "the transferred data, current error correction codes and schemes are not applicable.", "Error correction codes in this case are not meaningful because only partial information required by the error correcting code scheme is made available at each bit-plane access.", "For the same reason, the error correcting code for the bit-plane is not meaningful because only one bit out of M bits of the error correction information is available in any one access.", "Thus, the buffer which exists between the host and the SIMD system is unprotected.", "Data may be unknowingly corrupted due to a failure of the buffer, regardless of error protection at both the host and the SIMD unit.", "In this embodiment of the invention data integrity is preserved through the use of an error correction code (ECC).", "Data transfers between the host 302 and the N 2 by K-bit buffer 308 occur through an ECC generator check circuit 306.", "Data transfers between the memory cell array 312 and the N 2 by K-bit buffer 308 occur through an ECC circuit 310.", "In actual practice, the ECC circuit 310 may reside with the memory cell array 312 to form a memory board 330.", "A transfer controller 304 controls the operation of the ECC generator and check circuit 306 and the ECC circuit 310.", "The following definitions are useful for understanding the operation of the error correction code circuitry: ECC(i)--One of i error correction code circuits.", "C(i)--A bit i of an error correction code word.", "B(W) (i)--An i-th bit of a word W received from the host 312 via the I/O channel.", "By using a rule R, an ECC(i) can be generated for a B(W)(i) of W words.", "The rule R can be any error correction code.", "An exemplary rule R for W words of length 16 bits follows.", "For this example, the W of B(W)(i) is constant and is hence deleted, CX is the check bit.", "A rule R to generate the error correction code bits which is well known in the field of error correction is a modified Hamming code and is as follows: CX=B1 xor B2 xor B3 xor B5 xor B8 xor B9 xor B11 xor B14 C0=B0 xor B1 xor B2 xor B4 xor B6 xor B8 xor B10 xor B12 C1=B0 xor B3 xor B4 xor B7 xor B9 xor B10 xor B13 xor B15 xor 1 C2=B0 xor B1 xor B5 xor B6 xor B7 xor B11 xor B12 xor B13 xor 1 C4=B2 xor B3 xor B4 xor B5 xor B6 xor B7 xor B14 xor B15 C8=B8 xor B9 xor B10 xor B11 xor B12 xor B13 xor B14 xor B15 The relation between the error correction code bits C and the data bits B is summarized in Table 1.", "TABLE 1__________________________________________________________________________GeneratedCheck Participating Data BitsBits Parity 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15__________________________________________________________________________CX Even (XOR) X X X X X X X XC0 Even (XOR) X X X X X X X XC1 Odd (XNOR) X X X X X X X XC2 Odd (XNOR) X X X X X X X XC4 Even (XOR) X X X X X X X XC5 Even (XOR) X X X X X X X X__________________________________________________________________________ The Error Correction Code (ECC) for the buffer can be generated in two ways: one is related to writing the buffer from the host side, and the other is related to writing the buffer from the SIMD side.", "In both cases the same rule R is applied to generate the code bits.", "These generated code bits are stored in an extra memory dedicated to the ECC.", "For the data written by SIMD system, the rule R, to generate output code bits, can be implemented by a commercial ECC part (e.g. AMD2960/2960A manufactured by Advanced Micro Devices) because the N×N bits of input data are simultaneously available to the ECC generation circuitry.", "By contrast, the data to generate the equivalent ECC for writing the buffer from the host side is available sequentially.", "As a result, the ECC code bits should be generated by evaluating the rule R sequentially.", "A new circuit is provided for the two-dimensional buffer protection.", "In FIG. 8, a circuit is shown for the generation and analysis of error correction codes.", "A demultiplexer 404 (also represented as a state decoder) distributes incoming data from the host to a proper column of a rule plane 406.", "A rule plane 406 directs the data from the column to the appropriate row according to the algorithm set forth by rule R. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the rule plane consists of fixed pattern of interconnections which are used to connect selected rows to selected columns.", "An example of a rule plane which is used to implement the algorithm of Table 1 is shown in FIG. 9. EXCLUSIVE-OR gates 408, 410 and 412 are used for performing the EXCLUSIVE-OR function in relationship to rule R. A state recorder 430 is used for calculating and maintaining intermediate data in relationship to rule R. The state recorder 430 will clock appropriate flip-flops 414, 416 and 418 in a pre-determined order to execute the algorithm specified by rule R. After the state recorder 430 has provided 16 clock signals the flip-flops 414, 416 and 418 contain the bits which constitute the error correction code.", "This error correction code is stored in a portion of memory adjacent to the N 2 by K-bit buffer 308.", "The ECC checking is the counterpart of the ECC generation.", "ECC checking is performed when (1) reading the buffer from the SIMD side, and (2) reading the buffer from the host side.", "A read operation from the SIMD system will read out both the data bits and the code bits generated according to R. Since the data and the code bits are available simultaneously, at the input port to the SIMD system, this ECC checking can be implemented by using a commercial ECC part (e.g. AMD2960/AMD2960A).", "Error correction code checking at the host side may be performed by using a circuit which is similar to that illustrated in FIG. 8. However, the rule plane of FIG. 10 is substituted for the rule plane of FIG. 9. Error correction code checking is accomplished by using a set of six syndrome bits (SX,S0,S1,S2,S4,S8).", "Syndrome bits may be generated in the state recorder of FIG. 8 by using the rule R'", "set forth below.", "An example for one of W words of length 16 bits follows: SX=B1 xor B2 xor B3 xor B5 xor B8 xor B9 xor B11 xor B14 xor CX S0=B0 xor B1 xor B2 xor B4 xor B6 xor B8 xor B10 xor B12 xor C0 S1=B0 xor B3 xor B4 xor B7 xor B9 xor B10 xor B13 xor B15 xor C1 S2=B0 xor B1 xor B5 xor B6 xor B7 xor B11 xor B12 xor B13 xor C2 S4=B2 xor B3 xor B4 xor B5 xor B6 xor B7 xor B14 xor B15 xor C4 S8=B8 xor B9 xor B10 xor B11 xor B12 xor B13 xor B14 xor B15 xor C8 Syndrome bit generation differs from error correction code bit generation in that syndrome bits are a function of the error correction code bits.", "By using syndrome bits in conjunction with Table 2, it is possible to determine, not only whether a single-bit error has occurred, but also the bit location of this error and if certain multiple-bit errors have occurred.", "TABLE 2______________________________________Syndrome S8 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1Bits S4 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1SX S0 S1 S2 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1______________________________________0 0 0 * C8 C4 T C2 T T M0 0 1 C1 T T 15 T 13 7 T0 1 0 C0 T T M T 12 6 T0 1 1 T 10 4 T 0 T T M1 0 0 CX T T 14 T 11 5 T1 0 1 T 9 3 T M T T M1 1 0 T 8 2 T 1 T T M1 1 1 M T T M T M M T______________________________________ * → no errors detected Number → location of the single bitin-error T → two errors detected M → three or more errors detected While the invention has been described in terms of an exemplary embodiment, it is contemplated that it may be practiced as outlined above with modifications within the spirit and scope of the appended claims." ]

[ "FIELD OF THE INVENTION This application relates generally to the field of clamps for clamping of tubular sections.", "More particularly, the invention relates to a band seal clamp wherein a generally cylindrical straplike band is clamped around two portions of pipe of generally circular cross-section, which may be either butted against one another or be sized so that one fits within the other.", "Upon tightening of the clamp a rigid and mechanically strong connection is formed which exerts a radially inward, substantially uniform force completely around the circumference of the tubes.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The prior art is replete with various attempts at solving the problem of clamping two generally cylindrical members, for example tubes or pipes, together.", "The problem is to provide a clamp which exerts a radially inward force uniformly around the entire circumference of the tubes to be fastened together.", "While it is relatively straightforward to exert the force over the greater portion of the circumference of the tubes, it is important if a mechanically strong and leak-free connection is to be formed that the force be exerted over the entire circumference of the pipe.", "To this end, numerous attempts have been made in the prior art to provide rigid pipe couplings;", "see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 494,996 to Dwelle in which rigid hinged members are clamped together to grip the pipe.", "See also U.S. Pat. No. 2,227,551 to Morris which shows clamps having interlocking fingers to be clamped together to exert the force over the entire circumference of the tube.", "Later patentees realized that it would be preferable to use a somewhat flexible band which would be slightly deformed to more closely match the contours of the pipe to be clamped, thus being more likely to exert the force uniformly around the entire circumference of the pipe.", "Into this class fall the U.S. Pat. Nos. to Cassel et al 4,056,273 and 3,905,623, as well as that to Foti 4,165,109.", "All these show provision of clamps which use a plurality of bolts connecting two ends of a band wrapped around a pair of pipes to be joined and having a connection piece interposed therebetween.", "Typically, the connection piece is formed with an axially extending recess formed between the bolt holes on both its sides so that upon tightening of the bolts the ends of the band will be deformed to fit more closely together within the recesses;", "force bars may be used to spread the force exerted by tightening the bolts uniformly across the width of the clamp.", "In some cases, particularly U.S. Pat. No. 4,056,273 to Cassel, the shaping member may also be shaped to coact with the outer circumference of the tube so as to exert a radially inward force thereon by being pulled into the surface of the pipe by the tightening of the bolt(s) simultaneously with deformation of the ends of the band.", "However, the fact that this deformation is required means that the force exerted upon tightening the bolts is at least partially directed towards this deformation and is not useful in achieving the primary object of the clamp, that is, to exert a generally radially inward force substantially uniformly around the circumference of the tube.", "OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION As will be discussed in further detail below, the present invention is directed at solving this need of the art in that it has as its primary objective the provision of an improved band seal clamp for the clamping of tubes together.", "It is a further object of the invention to provide an improved band seal clamp wherein a substantially uniform clamping force is exerted radially inwardly about substantially the entire circumference of the tube.", "Still a further object of the invention is to provide a band seal clamp for exerting a clamping force uniformly around the circumference around a tube in which substantial deformation of the ends of the band is avoided upon tightening of the clamp.", "Still another object of the invention is to provide a band seal clamp which can be readily assembled in a "band-aid"", "mode, that is, without disassembly of pairs of tubes to be clamped;", "instead, the clamp can be slipped around the tubes without their disassembly or without requiring free access from the joint to be clamped to one end of the tube.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The above needs of the art and objects of the invention are satisfied by the clamp according to the invention which comprises a band seal clamp having slots formed in the ends of the bands to coact with holes formed in a shaping and spacing member interposed between the ends of the band upon assembly and with holes in force bars.", "Bolts are passed therethrough so that upon tightening of the bolts tension is effected between the ends of the clamp around the tube, so that the band tends to be pulled tightly around the tube.", "The shape of the shaping member and of the force bars interacting therewith is such that the band is tightened by its ends moving outwardly radially with respect to the tubes to be clamped;", "the holes in the end of the band are formed slot-wise so as to permit this movement, while the positions of the bolts are fixed by the spacing member.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The invention will be better understood if reference is made to the accompanying drawings, in which: FIG. 1 represents an overall perspective view of a complete connector according to the invention;", "FIGS. 2a-2c represent cross-sectional views of successive stages in the clamping of a tube by the coupling of the invention, taken along the line 2c-2c of FIG. 1;", "and FIGS. 3a-3c represent comparable cross-sections of a second embodiment of the invention shown at various stages of assembly.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS As described above, this invention relates to the provision of a band seal clamp for clamping two tubes together.", "A completed assembly of such a clamp according to the invention is depicted generally in FIG. 1 clamping two tubes shown in phantom.", "The two tubes may be butted together or one may slide within the other.", "In either case, the objective of the clamp is to exert a substantially uniform compressional force directed radially inwardly on the tubes.", "This is done by tightening two bolts 12 which cause the band 10 to tighten generally upon the tubes.", "The bolts 12 operating in concert with shaped members or force bars 14 cause the overall circumference of the band 10 which is in contact with the tubes to decrease, thus exerting a compressional force on the tube.", "This movement is effected by the relative shaping of the force bars 14 with respect to a central shaping member 16 in a manner which will be discussed more fully below.", "Referring now to FIGS. 2a through 2c, the sequence of operations leading to clamping of the tubes by the clamp of the invention is shown.", "In FIG. 2a, a portion of a tube 20 and a section of the band seal clamp 10 of the invention are shown.", "As will be apparent, the first step in assembly of the clamp is to bring the two ends 22 and 24 of the band together.", "These ends have down-turned portions 22a and 24a respectively which fit within a groove 26 formed within the central shaping and spacing member 16.", "They are retained there by the "spring"", "of the band, typically formed of formable steel.", "As noted, the central shaping and spacing member 16 comprises an upper portion 16a and a lower portion 16b which are connected by a thin tongue of material 16c;", "for one or more holes indicated by dotted lines at 16d are formed in the spacing member 16 for insertion of through bolts 12 (FIG.", "2b).", "These holes 16d are shaped to fit bolts 12 relatively closely, as compared with the corresponding holes formed in the band 10 which are instead slotted, to permit movement of the band 10 with respect to the bolts for reasons which will be discussed below.", "Referring now to FIG. 2b, the bolts 12 are shown assembled together with the force bars 14 disposed on either side of the shaping member 16.", "A nut 28 is used on the opposite side of the bolt 12 from its head;", "however, it will be understood that one of the force bars 14 could be threaded, although this would then mean that they could not be identical.", "Similarly, the force bars could be individually fitted to the bolts.", "They could be circular in outline, or elongated as shown.", "Whatever, the shape of these force transmitting members, the bolt holes must fit the bolts well enough that the reaction surfaces cannot be rotated out of contact with the band 10.", "The force bars 14 are formed to comprise a generally semi-circular cross-section which may have a substantially flat face shaped to interact with recesses formed in the cross-sectional outline of either side of the central shaping and spacing member 16 and with the band 10 fitting therewithin.", "As shown in FIG. 2b, the initial hole 16d formed for the insertion of the bolt 12 in the shaping and spacing member 16 is positioned so as that upon assembly of the force bars 14 their semi-circular outline shape does not fit within the semi-circular recesses in the shaping member 16, but instead is disposed some distance outwardly along a radial line with respect to the tube 20.", "The bolts are thus fixedly spaced outwardly from the tube 20 by the shaping member 16.", "Therefore, upon tightening of the nut 28 with respect to the bolt 12 an unbalanced force will be exerted on the band 10 by the force bars;", "since the hole 16d in the shaping member 16 fits the bolt 12 closely as explained above, the resultant force exerted tends to separate the upper portion of the shaping member 16a from the lower portion 16b.", "Since the ends 22 and 24 of the band are held by the shaping and spacing member 16, the upward movement of the upper portion 16a with respect to the lower portion 16b of the shaping member tends to tighten the band 10 on the tube 20.", "Eventually the tongue 16c breaks, which permits further uplifting of the ends of the band;", "concomitantly, of course, the band is tightened by the relative outward movement of the rigidly fixed end sections indicated generally at 22 and 24.", "A shaping member having such a frangible tongue could be made by a process such as extrusion, or perhaps by molding.", "Powder metallurgy techniques might also be employed.", "As shown in FIG. 2c the net effect of tightening the bolts is to move the upper portion 16a of the shaping member 16 outwardly with respect to the lower portion 16b;", "as the ends of the band 22 and 24 are attached to the outer portion 16a, the band 10 is tightened about the tube 20 upon tightening of the nut 28 with respect to the bolt 12.", "It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that this method of tightening the band provides a relatively limited range of adjustment, which means merely that a given band seal clamp will only be useful to clamp tubes of a relatively limited range of sizes.", "Since, however, tubing is manufactured only to specific and well-known sizes, this poses no difficulty but instead provides the advantage of allowing the underside of the lower portion of the shaping member 16 to be curved as at 16e so as to fit the tube 20 very closely.", "In this way the net force exerted on the tube is relatively uniform around its circumference, being merely a function of the total force exerted by tightening the nuts 28 on the bolts 12 divided by the area of the band 10 combined with that of the curved surface 16e.", "By making the width of the band equal to the length of the shaping member, the force exerted will be uniform all the way around the circumference of the clamp.", "FIGS. 3a through 3c show a second preferred embodiment of the invention.", "These three figures are all cross-sections taken through one of the plurality of bolt holes formed in the band 10 and in the central spacing member 30 and show how the tightening of the bolt results in relative compression of the tube by the band.", "For example, in FIG. 3a the band 10 is shown generally assembled about a central member 30 having one or more holes 32 formed therein.", "The hole 32 is sized so as to fit relatively closely with a bolt 34 (FIG.", "3b) inserted therethrough, while a somewhat wider slot 10a is formed in the band 10.", "As noted from FIG. 3a, the ends of the band 10 may be formed to comprise surfaces 10f and making an angle--typically between about 30° and about 60°, with respect to a plane on a diameter of the tube and going through the center of the spacing member 30--simply by folding over of its ends, and may thus double the thickness of the band in the region of the holes 10a.", "As noted, the hole 10a is a slot being larger than the hole 32 formed in the central member, so that relative movement of the band with respect to the bolts 34 is possible.", "Referring now to FIG. 3b, a bolt 34 is shown having been assembled through the slot 10a and through the hole 32 in the central spacing member 30.", "Matching force bars 36 are disposed on opposite sides of the central spacing member and are held in place by the bolt 34 on which is threaded a nut 38.", "As discussed above, the ends of the band 10 are formed to comprise angled reaction surfaces 10f disposed on either side and away from the central shaping member 30.", "These reaction surfaces 10f are adapted to interact with shaped surfaces on the force bars 36 and are disposed with respect to the slot 10a so that upon assembly of the force bars 36 together with bolt 34 and nut 38 the force bars 36 will only touch the ends of the band 10 at the reaction surfaces 10f, so that when the nut 38 is tightened on the bolt 34 thus exerting an axial stress on the bolt, the force exerted on the band 10 by the force bars 36 will be exerted only on the shaping surfaces 10f.", "Since these surfaces are on the side of the bolt 34 opposite the tube 30, the net effect of tightening the bolt 34 will be to pull the ends of the band 10 together and force them to slide outwardly past the force bars, thus tightening the band 10 on a tube or pair of tubes about which it is encircled.", "Clearly, the interacting surfaces of the band 10f and of the force bars 36, as in the case of the embodiment of FIGS. 1 and 2a-2c need not be simple planes or semicylinders, so long as they form a tangent surface throughout their relative movement.", "It will furthermore be understood that a plurality of bolts and nuts could be used by axial extensions of the force bars and spacing members, widening the band, and multiplying the holes and slots.", "Another possibility would be to fill the loop-like structure formed on the ends of the band with an incompressible member such as a rod, to preclude collapsing of the loop, though the passage of the bolt 34 through the slots formed in both the body of the band and in the folded over loop end would largely eliminate this possibility.", "Further tightening of the nut 38 upon the bolt 34 results in the condition shown in FIG. 3c, where the force bars 36 have bottomed in the recesses formed in the end of the band 10 by its bending over to form its ends.", "It will be noted that in this embodiment the ends of the band are shaped to provide a reaction surface 10f to interact with the force bars, as opposed to the embodiment of FIGS. 2a-2c, in which the central shaping and spacing member provides the reaction surface.", "In the embodiment of FIGS. 3a-3c, the function of member 30 is chiefly therefore spacing the bolts 34 from the surface of the tube to be clamped, and providing shaped surfaces 30a and 30b (FIG.", "3b) to exert force uniformly on the tube and to provide a wide radius bend to the band upon tightening of bolts 34 respectively.", "As noted, the shaft of the bolt 34 now abuts the bottom of the slot 10a formed in the ends of the band 10, as opposed to the position shown in FIG. 3b.", "Arrows drawn in FIG. 3c show the movement of the various parts of the clamp according to the invention, upon tightening of the nut 38 with respect to the bolt 34.", "As discussed above in connection with FIGS. 2a through 2c, the amount of tightening provided by the clamp according to the invention is relatively limited, which requires that the clamp be chosen to fit relatively closely upon the tube prior to assembly.", "In turn this results in the advantage that the underside 30a of the central shaping member 30 can likewise be chosen to fit the tube relatively accurately, whereby substantially uniform compressional forces are exerted at all points around the circumference of the band on the tube.", "It will be appreciated that there has been described a band seal clamp for the clamping of tubes to one another which meets the needs of the art and objects of the invention described above, although it might also be useful in clamping a single tube, e.g. to clamp a plug over a leak.", "The clamp of the invention is simple and readily and inexpensively manufacturable, yet exerts a substantially uniform compressional force upon tubes clamped thereby.", "Moreover, the fact that it relies upon relative movement of the band with respect to the clamping bolts, the positions of which are fixed by the central spacing member, as permitted by the formation of slots in the ends of the band, rather than upon simple deformation of the band to fit a recess formed in a central shaping member, as shown in the prior art, results in more of the total force being applied to clamping and less lost to deformation.", "Finally, it will be appreciated that while two preferred embodiments of the invention have been described, numerous other modifications and improvements are possible.", "In particular, the clamp of the invention need not be symmetric;", "only one end of the band need have an angled reaction surface, and only one forcebar need be provided.", "In some circumstances this might simplify manufacture and/or assembly of the clamp of the invention.", "Therefore, the scope of the invention should not be measured by the above disclosure, which is exemplary only, but rather by the following claims." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Field of the Invention The present invention concerns a device for protecting a direct current electrical power supply from disturbances caused by connecting to it or disconnecting from it an electronic system.", "Description of the Related Art Complex electronic equipment such as telecommunication equipment usually comprises electronic systems such as printed circuit boards equipped with electronic components which plug into subracks mounted in racks or cabinets.", "The electrical power required by the electronic components carried by such boards is usually provided by a direct current electrical power supply unit which is shared by the various boards in the same rack.", "The supply voltage input circuit of each board usually includes one or more filters to block from the electronic circuits on the board any electrical interference on the supply voltage and to prevent retransmission to the supply of any electrical interference generated when the board is in operation.", "A typical filter circuit is shown in FIG. 1;", "this is an LC filter circuit comprising an inductor L1 and a capacitor C2, the DC supply voltage V being applied to the terminals of the combination L1-C2 and the output voltage being taken across the capacitor C2.", "The effectiveness of the filtering action of the circuit is proportional to the values of the inductor L1 and the capacitor C2.", "However, the values of these components are optimized to allow for other criteria including overall size and cost.", "The presence of filters on the board increases the level of electrical disturbances occurring when the boards are plugged in or unplugged, to a degree that is proportional to the current drawn by the board, which is increasingly high because of the increasing trend towards a high concentration of circuits on the board.", "When a board having a filter circuit of this kind is connected to the supply, the capacitor C2 is very quickly charged through the inductor L1 which draws a high current from the supply.", "The supply is generally a DC/DC converter (for example a 48 V/5 V converter in the case of telecommunication equipment).", "Although the converter includes a voltage regulator, the time for regulation to become effective is generally long in comparison with the time to charge the capacitor C2 and the result is a temporary drop in the supply voltage while the capacitor is charging, which can disturb the operation of some circuits operating at this time on other boards.", "When a board including a filter circuit of this kind is disconnected, the sudden interruption of the current in the inductor belt L1 produces a voltage surge that can in practice have an amplitude of several tens of volts, which causes arcing at the contact of the board connector when the board is disconnected.", "During this very short interval (in practice a few microseconds) the voltage surge is transmitted towards the supply and can disturb the operation of some circuits as it gives rise to an electrostatic disturbance which generates electromagnetic disturbance.", "One solution to the problems described above occurring when the board is connected is to increase the value of the inductor L1.", "The time to charge the capacitor C2 would then be increased, enabling the voltage regulator of the DC/DC converter to correct the voltage drop, but the voltage surge on unplugging the board due to the inductor L1 would be of even greater amplitude.", "This solution would also lead to an increase in overall size and cost.", "Another solution would be to reduce the value of the capacitor C2 or to connect a resistor in series with the capacitor, increasing the impedance presented to the supply and reducing the current drawn from the supply when the board is connected.", "This solution would reduce the performance of the filter circuit on the board, however.", "An object of the present invention is to avoid these drawbacks, that is to say to avoid the generation of the disturbances described above affecting the common power supply of the boards when boards are connected or disconnected, without compromising the effectiveness of filter circuits on the boards.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention consists in a device for protecting a direct current electrical power supply from disturbances caused by connecting to it or disconnecting from it an electronic system, said device comprising at least one variable impedance component and means for controlling said impedance so that it has a very high first value when said electronic system is disconnected, a very low second value when said system is connected, a value varying slowly from said first value to said second value on changing from the disconnected state to the connected state and a value varying quickly from said second value to said first value on changing from the connected state to the disconnected state, the output current from said variable impedance component constituting the supply current of said electronic system.", "Other objects and characteristics of the present invention will emerge from the following description of one embodiment of the invention given with reference to the accompanying drawings.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1, already described, shows a filter circuit.", "FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram of a first embodiment of protection device in accordance with the invention.", "FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram of a second embodiment of protection device in accordance with the invention.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The protection device 1 in accordance with the invention shown in FIG. 2 is connected between terminals 20 and 30 which are connected to respective supply terminals 2 and 3 of an electronic system and the filter circuit 4 of said system.", "The electronic system is a printed circuit board which plugs into a subrack in an electronic equipment rack having a direct current electrical power supply common to the various boards in the various subracks.", "Between the terminals 20 and 30 and the supply terminals 2 and 3 which are connected to the direct current electrical power supply 8 there are disposed a board connector 6 and a subrack connector 7 into which the board is plugged, the two connectors establishing electrical continuity between the board and the supply terminals 2 and 3 when the board is connected or interrupting this continuity when the board is disconnected.", "At the output of the filter circuit 4 is a load 5 representing the circuits of the board other than the protection device 1 and the filter circuit 4.", "In the embodiment shown in FIG. 2 a single positive polarity (+V) supply is used, the supply voltage being applied to the supply terminal 2 and the other supply terminal 3 being grounded to the 0 V reference potential.", "In FIG. 2 the protection device 1 comprises an integrator in the form of a capacitor C1 and a resistor R1 connected in series and in this order between the terminals 20 and 30 and a P channel MOS power field-effect transistor T1.", "The input voltage to this circuit, which is the voltage across the series-connected capacitor C1 and resistor R1, is equal to +V when the board is connected or to 0 V when the board is disconnected.", "The output voltage of the integrator, which is the voltage across the capacitor C1, is the source-gate voltage VSG of the transistor T1 whose source is connected to the terminal 20 and whose gate is connected to the point common to capacitor C1 and resistor R1.", "The drain current ID of the transistor T1 flows into the filter circuit L1-C2.", "A diode D1 is connected between the terminal 30 and the point common to capacitor C1 and resistor R1.", "The operation of the protection device will now be described.", "When the board equipped with the protection device is connected, the input voltage of the integrator R1-C1 suddenly increases from 0 V to +V.", "The output voltage of the integrator, in other words the source-gate voltage VSG of the transistor T1, increases slowly from 0 V to +V.", "When a particular value of the voltage VSG is reached, the transistor T1 begins to conduct.", "The initially very high (>1 MΩ, for example) drain-source resistance of the transistor T1 is then progressively reduced and the capacitor C2 is therefore progressively charged with a current limited by the value of this resistor.", "When the capacitor C1 is fully charged, the transistor T1 is saturated, its drain-source resistance is very low (in the order of 100 mΩ, for example) and the protection device is then "transparent".", "For the protection device to be effective, the time for which the charging current of the capacitor C2 is controlled in this way must be very much longer (in the order of 20 ms, for example) than the time to charge the capacitor C2 in the absence of the protection device (in the order of 200 μs, for example), to enable the voltage regulator of the DC/DC converter to operate, in other words in this instance to prevent a temporary drop in the supply voltage +V.", "The values of the components R1, C1 and T1 are determined accordingly.", "The drain-source resistance of the transistor T1 when saturated is determined on the basis of the current needed to supply the board when the latter is operating under steady state conditions.", "When the board is disconnected, the capacitor C1 is initially charged to the voltage +V and the voltage applied to the side of this capacitor connected to the terminal 20 and therefore to the supply terminal 2 via the connectors 6 and 7 suddenly drops from +V to 0 V, and the potential at its other terminal, connected to the cathode of the diode D1 (the anode of the diode D1 being connected to the supply terminal 3 by the connectors 6 and 7) becomes suddenly negative relative to the 0 V potential.", "The initially turned off diode D1 is then turned on.", "The capacitor C1 is therefore discharged very quickly through the diode at the same time as the source-gate voltage VSG of the transistor T1 decreases very rapidly, turning off transistor T1.", "This occurs very quickly (in practise within a few nanoseconds) and prevents any disturbance in the drain circuit due in particular to the presence of the filter L1-C2 being transmitted to the source circuit of the transistor T1, in other words to the direct current electrical power supply.", "The embodiment of the protection device 1'", "in accordance with the invention shown in FIG. 3 is for a board with a positive supply +V and a negative supply -V at respective supply terminals 2'", "and 3', the 0 V reference potential being connected to a supply terminal 10.", "The power supply 8'", "provides the two voltages +V and -V and is connected to the supply terminals 2', 3'", "and 10.", "The filter circuit 4'", "then comprises a separate filter circuit 41 and 42 for each of the two voltages.", "Here each circuit is similar to the circuit 4 from FIG. 2 and therefore comprises a respective inductor and capacitor L11 and C21, L12 and C22.", "The output of the circuits 41 and 42 are connected to respective loads 51 and 52 representing the circuits of the board supplied with power via the protection device 1'", "and the respective filter circuits 41 and 42.", "The protection device 1, is connected to the supply terminals 2', 3'", "and 10 by a board connector 6'", "and a subrack connector 7'.", "It comprises two separate devices 11 and 12 each comprising, like the protection device 1 from FIG. 2, a power field-effect transistor T11, an integrator R11-C11 and a diode D11 in the case of the first device 11, and a power field-effect transistor T12, an integrator R12-C12 and a diode D12 in the case of the second device 12, subject to the following differences: The transistor T11 of the device 11 is like the transistor T1 of the device from FIG. 2 a P channel MOS transistor with its source connected through the connectors 6'", "and 7'", "to the supply terminal 2'", "at the positive potential +V (and its drain connected to the input terminal of the filter circuit 41 connected to the inductor L11).", "However, the transistor T12 of the device 12 is an N channel MOS transistor and its source is connected by the connectors 6'", "and 7'", "to the supply terminal 3'", "at the negative potential -V (and its drain is connected to the input terminal of the filter circuit 42 connected to the inductor L12).", "The point common to the resistor R11 and the anode of the diode D11 is connected to the drain D of the transistor T12, and the point common to the resistor R12 and the cathode of the diode D12 is connected to the drain D of the transistor T11.", "As a result, when the board with its protection device is disconnected the diodes D11 and D12 are turned on more quickly, so that the transistors T11 and T12 are turned off more quickly, than in the FIG. 2 circuit.", "A resistor R21 is connected between the source S and the drain D of the transistor T11.", "A resistor R22 is connected between the source S and the drain D of the transistor T12.", "When the board with this protection device is connected (in other words, starting from an initial state in which the transistors T11 and T12 are turned off), this provides a circuit for charging the capacitor C11 through the resistor R11 and the resistor R22 and a circuit for charging the capacitor C12 through the resistor R12 and the resistor R21.", "To avoid reducing the performance of the system, the resistors R21 and R22 must have a high value, in the order of 1 MΩ, for example.", "The invention has been described in the context of an application to a printed circuit board which plugs into a subrack of an electronic equipment rack but it is obvious that the invention is not limited to this application.", "It can be applied to any electronic system of a group of electronic systems supplied with power by a common direct current electrical power supply which is to be individually connected to and disconnected from said supply, to avoid the generation, on connecting or disconnecting said systems, of disturbances on the common supply and therefore on the supply to other systems of the group connected at this time to the supply.", "Although the protection device in accordance with the invention is particularly effective in the case of individual supply filter circuits in the various electronic systems, the invention retains its utility in the absence of such individual filter circuits, in particular for preventing any drop in the supply voltage provided by the common power supply to said system upon connecting any system." ]

[ "FIELD OF THE INVENTION The field of the present invention is the synthesis of optically active compounds.", "A highly stereospecific process for synthesis of paroxetine is described herein.", "PRIOR ART Paroxetine is a compound widely used for the treatment of depression.", "The structural formula of this compound is as follows (I): The molecule of formula (I) contains two chiral centres on the piperidinic ring, in position 3 and 4, respectively.", "Of the four possible isomers, only the isomer having absolute configuration 3S, 4R, known as 4R-trans-4-(p-fluorophenyl-3-{[3,4-(methylenedioxy)phenoxy]methyl}piperidine, is pharmacologically active.", "Therefore, the processes for synthesis of paroxetine must result in the formation of the 4-(p-fluorophenyl-3-{[3,4-(methylenedioxy)phenoxy]methyl}piperidinic structure, exclusively in the aforesaid conformation, 3S, 4R (or 4R-trans).", "Some processes for synthesis of paroxetine known to the art are based on the formation of an intermediate of formula (II) where R represents an alkyl group.", "Starting from this intermediate, the product of formula (I) is obtained by: (i) reduction of the piperidinic double bond, (ii) alkylation of the oxygen of the hydroxymethyl group, and (iii) removal of the alkyl group R bound to the nitrogen.", "In order to obtain the product (I) with the pharmacologically active conformation, the process requires the isolation of specific isomers from the corresponding racemic mixtures and the treatment of the same until obtaining derivative (I) with the desired conformation.", "For example, patent application WO-A-9636636 discloses the synthesis of 4-arylpiperidine, wherein a derivative of formula (II) is separated into the two optical isomers by crystallisation with optically active salts.", "The two optical isomers are then separately converted into paroxetine.", "Therefore, the process requires separate and independent synthesis routes for isomers treatment and, consequently, can hardly be scaled up to commercial size.", "According to another process (J.", "Labelled Compounds Radiopharm.", ", 1993, 8, 785), the derivative of formula (II) is hydrogenated and alkylated as per the above scheme;", "subsequently the diastereoisomers are isolated by chromatography while the enantiomers are separated by crystallisation with L-(+)-tartaric acid.", "The (−)-trans isomer is finally converted into paroxetine by N-dealkylation.", "In this case, two distinct isomers separation cycles are required, resulting in a considerable loss of product in the form of undesired isomer.", "Consequently, this process too can hardly be applied to commercial-scale production.", "The process disclosed in patent application WO-A-9322284 is based on the stereospecificity of esterase-catalysed reactions.", "In this case, the enzyme brings about the formation of a trans carboxylic precursor, wherefrom the (+)-trans and (−)-trans forms are separated by conventional methods.", "The latter form further undergoes reduction and alkylation to give paroxetine.", "The advantage of this process is a high stereospecificity;", "its disadvantages are the enzyme cost and instability.", "The aforesaid reactions are usually slow and must be carried out under precise pH and temperature conditions.", "In brief, the separation processes known to the art cause a considerable loss of product in the form of isomers with undesired configuration or require separate process cycles for the conversion of said isomers.", "In particular, the processes known to the art entail the resolution of racemic mixtures in which the dextro- and levorotatory components are present in substantially similar proportions, with the result that approx.", "half of the resolved product is to be discarded or independently converted into the desired form.", "Therefore, the need for developing highly stereospecific processes for the synthesis of paroxetine, whereby the desired isomers are obtained in high yields, is felt.", "Particularly urgent is the need for processes not involving isomer resolution cycles and not requiring separate ad hoc treatments of the single isomers.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES FIGS. 1A-1H are examples of chiral diphosphinic ligands: FIG. 1 A: BINAP FIG. 1 B: BIPHEMP FIG. 1 C: (5,5′-dichloro-6,6′-dimrthoxy-diphenyl-2,2′-diyl)-bis-(diphenylphosphine) FIG. 1 D: (bis-4,4′-dibenzofuran-3,3′-yl)-bis diphenylphosphine FIG. 1 E: 4,4′-bisdiphenylphosphine-2,2′,5,5′-tetramethyl-3,3′-dithiophene FIG. 1 F: PYRPHOS FIG. 1 G: DIOP FIG. 1 H: BDPP DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a process for the synthesis of paroxetine.", "The process comprises the following steps: a) hydrogenation of a compound of formula (II), where R is a group selected from (C 1 -C 5 )alkyl, (C 1 -C 5 )carboxyalkyl, an optionally substituted phenyl, an optionally substituted benzyl, said hydrogenation being catalysed by a complex of a transition metal with chiral diphosphinic ligands, resulting in a 4R-enantiomerically enriched compound of formula (III): b) reaction of the compound of formula (III) with a reagent capable of transforming the —OH group into a leaving group, followed by nucleophilic substitution with sesamol (3,4-methylenedioxyphenol), resulting in a 4R-enantiomerically enriched derivative of formula (IV);", "c) N-dealkylation of compound (IV), resulting in paroxetine (I): In formula (II), R preferably represents an ethyl group.", "Should R represent an optionally substituted phenyl or benzyl, the substituent is preferably a (C 1 -C 5 )alkyl.", "The compound of formula (III) obtained in step a) contains two asymmetry centres on the piperidinic ring, in position 3 and 4, respectively.", "Said product is obtained as a mixture of 4R-enantiomerically enriched cis (IIIa) and trans (IIIb) isomers, where each of the two isomers (cis and trans) is mainly present in the form having absolute configuration R on the carbon atom in position 4 of the piperidinic ring.", "By the term “4R-enantiomerically enriched”", "it is meant an overall enantiomeric excess (also called overall “ee”) of at least 80%.", "The enantiomeric excesses are calculated as described in J. March, “Advanced Organic Chemistry”, 3 rd Ed.", ", Chapter 4, p. 107 (John Wiley &", "Sons) (1985).", "The catalysts to be used in hydrogenation (step a) are compounds belonging to the class of transition metal complexes with chiral diphosphinic ligands.", "Said catalysts are responsible for the reaction stereospecificity and allow the obtainment of 4R-enantiomerically enriched derivative of formula (III).", "Members of this class are all the transition metal complexes with chiral diphosphinic ligands.", "In said complexes, the metal coordinates to the chiral ligand to give a chiral complex capable of catalysing a highly stereospecific hydrogenation of the double bond.", "Preferred transition metals are ruthenium, rhodium and iridium.", "Examples of chiral diphosphinic ligands are the compounds belonging to the formulas indicated in FIGS. 1A-1H.", "Examples of transition metal complexes with chiral diphosphinic ligands are the compounds of formula RuX l (L) m [BINAP]Y n , described in the patent application EP-A-366390, or the compounds of formula described in EP-A-245959.", "Preferred complexes are the compounds: {RuCl(p-cymene)[BINAP]}Cl;", "RuHCl[BINAP] 2 ;", "Ru 2 Cl 4 [(BINAP] 2 NEt 3 ;", "Ru[BINAP](OAc) 2 ;", "Ru[BINAP](CF 3 CO 2 ) 2 , and the compounds of formulas and the compounds of formula {Ru(p-cymene)X[BINAP]} + X − , where X represents a halogen atom, such as the compound {Ru(p-cymene)Cl[BINAP]} + Cl − .", "As mentioned above, all these complexes are chiral;", "depending on each complex, only one of the chiral forms, e.g. (S)BINAP or (R)BINAP generates in the 4R-enriched product: this form is not determinable a priori, but can be easily selected by performing a screening hydrogenation test of compound (II), with the ligand in one enantiomeric form (e.g. (S)-BINAP) and checking whether the hydrogenated product is enantiomerically enriched in the 4R or 4S form: in the synthesis of paroxetin the enantiomeric ligand resulting in the 4R-enriched form will have to be used.", "The transition metal complexes with chiral diphosphinic ligands can be used as such or in a supported form e.g. onto a polymeric matrix.", "Hydrogenation is typically carried out in alcoholic and/or halogenated solvents at 1 to 150 atm and 60° C. to 150° C., more preferably at 5 to 15 atm and 100° C. to is 130° C., and most preferably at 10 atm and 120° C. Non limitative examples of the above solvents are ethanol, methanol, n-propanol, isopropanol, n-butanol, isobutanol, cyclohexanol, dichloromethane, dichloreoethane, trichloroethane, carbon tetrachloride.", "According to a more specific embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to obtain the hydrogenated product (III), substantially free from the 4S-form: by this expression it is meant that each of the (IIIa) and (IIIb) isomers is present with an own enantiomeric eccess of the 4R form of at least 95%;", "the overall enantiomeric excess (IIIa)+(IIIb) is also ≧95%.", "This realization is most preferred since it minimizes or substantially avoids any product loss in the form of undesired enantiomer, thus enhancing the simplicity, selectivity and economic profitability of the process.", "The reaction conditions are substantially those described above, i.e. from 1 to 150 atm and 60° C. to 150° C., more preferably at 5 to 15 atm and 100° C. to 130° C., and most preferably at 10 atm and 120° C.;", "however in order to obtain the above mentioned enantiomeric eccess of at least 95%, the solvent is to be chosen among: dichloromethane, n-propanol, isopropanol, isobutanol, cyclohexanol, and their mixtures, and the complex is to be selected from {RuCl(p-cymene)[(S)-BINAP]}Cl, RuHCl[(S)-BINAP] 2 , Ru 2 Cl 4 [(S)-BINAP] 2 (NEt 3 ).", "As a further advantage, when the hydrogenation reaction is catalysed, by {RuCl(p-cymene)[(S)-BINAP]}Cl, in the presence of isopropanol as a solvent, the aforementioned substantial enantiomeric purity is associated with an extremely favourable conversion rate of product (II) to (III), [100% in 5 hrs reaction time], which element further adds significantly to the above discussed advantages.", "The compound (III) resulting from step a. is used as a cis-trans mixture (IIIa+IIIb) in the next reaction (step b).", "Step b. requires firstly to transform the —OH group of compound (III) into a leaving group by reaction with an appropriate reagent.", "Preferred reagents for this operation are tosyl chloride, methanesulphonyl chloride, benzenesulphonyl chloride.", "Said reagents are added to compound (III), at a temperature comprised between −20° C. and +25° C. (preferably 0° C.-5° C.) in the presence of an inert solvent (e.g. a aromatic or aliphatic hydrocarbon, such as toluene), and of a basic compound (e.g. an organic base like triethylamine or an 30 inorganic base or basic salt).", "This reaction results in an activated intermediate of formula: This product, by addition of sesamol (3,4-methylenedioxyphenol) in a basic medium, is transformed into a 4R-enantiomerically enriched compound of formula (IV), mainly in the trans form.", "Sesamol, as a liquid mixture with an alcoholic solvent, preferably 4-methylpentan-2-ol, is added in a 1:1 equiv.", "ratio referred to benzenesulphonyl chloride or methanesulphonyl chloride or tosyl chloride.", "The mixture is conveniently heat-refluxed preferably for a period of 2 to 4 hrs to give 4R-enantiomerically enriched trans-diastereoisomer (IV) and a minor quantity of cis diastereoisomer, which is eliminated by crystallisation.", "The product (IV) is obtained mainly in the trans form, while the 4R enantiomeric enrichment previously produced is almost completely maintained, as shown by the HPLC analysis data presented in the experimental part.", "Step c) consists in the elimination of the alkyl group R bound to the nitrogen atom.", "The reaction is performed by techniques known to the art.", "According to a preferred embodiment, the product (IV) is mixed with phenylchloroformiate in CH 2 Cl 2 and allowed to react for 1 to 6 hours at room temperature.", "At the end, the carbamic derivative of the following formula is obtained: which is then hydrolysed with KOH.", "At the end of step c), a compound of formula (V) is obtained, which is enantiomerically enriched in its 4R form (paroxetine).", "If present, the minor isomeric portion having 4S configuration is eliminated by crystallization.", "Pure paroxetine (I) is thus obtained.", "The compounds of formula (II) used as reagents in step a) of the process described herein may be easily obtained by various techniques known to the art, e.g. by allowing 1-methyl-4-fluorostyrene to react with formaldehyde and ethylamine hydrochloride, as disclosed in WO-A-9636636.", "Alternatively, compounds of formula (II) may be obtained as shown in the following scheme: 4-Fluorobromobenzene and magnesium are allowed to react to give 4-fluorophenylmagnesium bromide (VI), to which 1-alkyl-4-piperidone is added.", "The resulting product is 1-alkyl4-(p-fluorophenyl)-4-hydroxypiperidine (VII), which is dehydrated in position 3-4 of the piperidinic ring by heat-reflux with aqueous H 2 SO 4 , to obtain 1-alkyl-4-(p-fluorophenyl)-1,2,5,6-tetrahydropyridine (VII).", "This product is finally converted into the product of formula (II) by addition, in the same reaction medium, of aqueous formaldehyde (Prins's reaction).", "In the process of the invention, catalytic hydrogenation a) largely increases the percentage amount of enantiomers useful for paroxetine (4R) formation, and reaction b) allows the use of compound (III) in both cis and trans forms.", "It follows that the quantity of product to be discarded as isomerically undesired is very low and, consequently, the yield to paroxetine is high.", "Furthermore, an advantage of the present invention is that it avoids following independent synthetic routes for cis and trans isomers, as is instead required by the aforementioned processes known to the art.", "Another advantage of the present invention is that the aforesaid enantiomeric excesses may be obtained at moderate pressure (5 to 15 atm): under these conditions the process may be easily scaled up to commercial size.", "A still further advantage of the present invention is that high enantiomeric excesses may be obtained also with low catalyst/substrate ratios, i.e. ranging from 1/200 to 1/1000.", "The use of low quantities of catalyst favours low process investment.", "The following examples are shown by way of indication, not of limitation, of the present invention.", "EXPERIMENTAL PART A) Synthesis of 1-Ethyl-4-(p-fluorophenyl)-4-hydroxy-piperidine (VII) [R=Et] A ca.", "0.9 M solution of 4-fluorophenylmagnesium bromide (1.0 equiv.", ", 0.31 moles) prepared as usual from magnesium and 4-fluorobromobenzene in THF was titrated, cooled to 0° C., and added dropwise over approx.", "45 min.", "with a clear solution of commercial 1-ethyl-4-piperidone (1 equiv.", ", 0.31 moles) in THF (60 ml).", "Once the addition had been completed, the reaction was maintained at room temperature for 1 hr.", "The reaction mixture was cooled to 5° C. and added with 360 ml of a 20% NH 4 Cl solution.", "At the end of the addition, the phases were separated and the organic phase was evaporated to dryness.", "The aqueous phase was extracted with two portions of 250 ml of toluene.", "The residue was evaporated and the toluenic phases were joined and washed with 420 ml of a 20% NH 4 Cl solution.", "The organic phase was concentrated and cooled.", "After filtration of the precipitate thus obtained, 40.9 g of a pale yellow solid product were isolated.", "Its HPLC analysis (Column Symmetry Shield RP8, Eluent acetonitrile:buffer=90:10 (KH 2 PO 4 0.025 M at pH 2.5 with H 3 PO 4 ), flow 1/ml/min, Detector UV 215 nm) showed assay of 98%, and purity >98%, with a yield of 58%.", "The raw product of reaction was used as such in the next reaction.", "On the raw product the following GLC/MS and H 1 -NMR analysis were performed, allowing to assign the following parameters to the compound (VII) 1 H-NMR (CDCl 3 ), δ (ppm): 7.55-7.44 (2H, m, aromatic H) 7.01 (2H, m, aromatic H);", "4.4-3.6 (1H, br s, —OH);", "3-1.75 (8H, br m, H piperidinic ring);", "2.59 (2H, q, J=7.3 Hz, ethylic —CH 2 );", "1.18 (3H, t, J=7.3 Hz, ethylic —CH 3 ).", "MS, m/z (%): 223 (M + , 19), 208 (85), 190 (43), 122 (34), 109 (26), 95 (35), 94 (20), 84 (100), 71 (16), 57 (26), 56 (26).", "B) Synthesis of 1-Ethyl-4-(p-fluororhenyl)-3-hydroxymethyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (II) [R=Et] A solution of compound (VII) [R=Et] (10.0 g;", "44.8 mmol) in aqueous H 2 SO4 (40 ml water and 29.7 g H 2 SO 4 ) was added with 4.0 g (49.3 mmoles) of a formaldehyde solution (37% in water), and was heat-refluxed under magnetic stirring for 6 hrs.", "The mixture was then cooled to room temperature, basified with 60.9 ml of a 30% aqueous solution of NaOH, and extracted repeatedly.", "The combined organic extracts were then washed once with water and concentrated.", "The residue, in the form of a yellow-orange viscous oil, was diluted with 75 ml isopropanol and added with gaseous HCl in order to precipitate the hydrochloride of compound (II).", "The suspension thus obtained was filtered, washed with isopropanol, and the resulting solid was dissolved in water and added with NaOH 30% until pH 12 was reached.", "The resulting mixture was then extracted with toluene and the organic phase was evaporated.", "The compound (II) was thus obtained again 6.32 g), having HPLC purity >96% (Column Symmetry Shield RP8, eluent acetonitrile:buffer=90:10 (KH 2 PO 4 0.025 M at pH 2.5 with H 3 PO 4 ), flow 1 ml/min, detector UV 215 nm).", "The yield of compound (II) was 60%.", "Compound (II) was characterised as follows: m.p. 58-60° C.;", "1 H NMR(CDCl 3 ), δ (ppm): 7.37-7.29 (2H, m, aromatic H);", "7.01 (2H, t, J=8.6 Hz, aromatic H);", "6.07 (1H, d, J=3 Hz, olephinic H);", "5.2 (1H, br s, —OH);", "3.89 and 2.60 (7H, m);", "2.53 (2H, q, J=7 Hz, ethylic CH 2 );", "1.16 (3H, t, J=7 Hz, CH 3 ).", "MS, m/z (%): 235 (M + , 29), 204 (100), 202 (36), 176 (21), 160 (21), 135 (37), 133 (39), 109 (85), 84 (17), 56 (68).", "C) Synthesis of 4R cis- and 4R trans-4-(p-Fluorophenyl)-3-hydroxymethyl-1-ethylpiperidine (IIIa) and (IIIb) [R=Et], in the Presence of {RuCl(p-cymene)[(S)-BINAP]}Cl − Tetrahydropyridine (II) [R=Et] (35.5 g;", "150.9 mmol) was hydrogenated in 300 ml isopropanol at a working pressure of 10 atm, at 120° C. in the presence of {RuCl(p-cymene)[(S)-BINAP]}Cl − , previously generated by mixing a solution of (S)-BINAP (0.378 mmol, 0.235 g) in 21 ml of CH 2 Cl 2 :MeOH 1:1, with [RuCl 2 (p-cymene)] 2 (0.188 mmol, 0.115 g), and heat-refluxing the mixture for 2 hrs.", "The reaction, controlled by GLC analysis of successive samples (capillary column AT-35), was discontinued after 2 hrs at 120° C. The resulting mixture was cooled to room temperature, filtered on Celite, and concentrated at reduced pressure to give 33.2.", "g of product (yield: 88%).", "The crude product obtained was analysed by HPLC (Chiradex β-cyclodextrin Merck, eluent: methanol:buffer 15:85 (NaH2PO4 1.38 g/l, added with Na2HPO4 up to pH 6), flow 1 ml/min, Detector UV 215 nm) and the enantiomeric excesses were determined for both cis and trans diastereoisomers.", "The following results were obtained: trans, ee ≧99%;", "cis, ee ≧99%.", "Cis/trans ratio: 55:45;", "overall ee ≧99%.", "The cis and trans diastereoisomers were separated and characterised by MPLC purification on silica gel for analytical purposes.", "4R-cis diastereoisomer had: m.p. 50-53° C. and 1 H NMR (CDCl 3 ), δ (ppm): 7.44-7.20 (2H, m, aromatic H);", "7.15-6.90 (2H, m, aromatic H);", "5.8-4.5 (1H, br s, —OH);", "3.9-1.6 (10H, m, piperidinic ring+hexocyclic CH 2 );", "2.25 (2H, q, J=7.2 Hz, ethylic CH 2 );", "1.13 (3H, t, J=7.2 Hz, ethylic CH 3 ).", "MS, m/z (%): 237 (M + , 23), 222 (43), 206 (17), 133 (11), 114 (29), 109 (20), 84 (16), 72 (17), 58 (100).", "4R-trans diastereoisomer had: m.p. 90-92° C. and 1 H NMR (CDCl 3 ), δ (ppm): 7.3-7.1 (2H, m, aromatic H);", "7.1-6.85 (2H, m, aromatic H);", "3.5-3.0 (4H, m, piperidinic ring);", "2.7-2.2 (4H, m, piperidinic ring+hexocyclic CH 2 );", "2.15-1.65 (5H, m, piperidinic ring+ethylic CH 2 );", "1.14 (3H, t, J=7.2 Hz, ethylic CH 3 ).", "MS, m/z (%): 237 (M + 34), 222 (76), 206 (16), 133 (14), 114 (34), 109 (27), 84 (21), 72 (22), 58 (100).", "D) Synthesis of 4R-cis- and 4R-trans4-(p-Fluoroohenyl)-3 -hydroxymethyl-1-ethylpiperidine (IIIa) and (IIIb) [R=Et], in the Presence of Ru 2 Cl 4 [(S)-BINAP] 2 (NEt 3 ) Tetrahydropyridine (II) [R=Et] (5.0 g;", "21.4 mmol) was hydrogenated in 40 ml isopropanol at a working pressure of 10 atm, at 120° C. in the presence of Ru 2 Cl 4 [(S)-BINAP] 2 (NEt 3 ), previously generated by adding (S)-BINAP and Et 3 N (0.032 ml) to a suspension of [RuCl 2 (COD)] n (14.9 mg, 0.0531 mmol) in 2 ml toluene, heat-refluxing for 12 hrs, and evaporating the mixture to dryness.", "The reaction was discontinued after 5 hrs at 120° C., and the mixture was cooled to room temperature.", "After filtration on Celite, and evaporation under reduced lo pressure, 4.3 g of product (yield 84%) were obtained.", "The enantiomeric excesses of both (IIIa) and (IIIb) diastereoisomers was determined by HPLC analysis (Chiradex β-cyclodextrin Merck, eluent: methanol:buffer 15:85 (NaH 2 PO 4 1.38 g/l, added with Na 2 HPO 4 up to pH 6), flow 1 ml/min, Detector UV 215 nm).", "The following results were obtained: trans, ee ≧99%;", "cis, ee ≧98%.", "Cis/trans ratio: 50:50;", "overall ee ≧99%.", "E) Synthesis of 4R-cis and 4R-trans4-(D-Fluorophenyl)-3-hydroxymethyl-1-ethylipieridine (IIIa) and (IIIb) [R=Et], in the Presence of RuHCl[(S)-BINAP] 2 Tetrahydropyridine (II) [R=Et] (5.0 g;", "21.4 mmol) was hydrogenated in 40 ml isopropanol at a working pressure of 10 atm, at 120° C. in the presence of RuHCl[(S)-BINAP] 2 , previously generated by adding (S)-BINAP (74.0 mg, 0.120 mmol) and Et 3 N (0.017 ml) to a solution of [RuCl 2 (COD)] n (14.9 mg, 0.0531 mmol) in 3 ml EtOH, heat-refluxing for 6 hrs, and evaporating the mixture to dryness.", "The reaction was discontinued after 5 hrs at 120° C., and the mixture was cooled to room temperature.", "After filtration on Celite, and evaporation under reduced pressure, 4.2 g of product (yield 83%) were obtained.", "The enantiomeric excesses of both (IIIa) and (IIIb) diastereoisomers was determined by HPLC analysis (Chiradex β-cyclodextrin Merck, eluent: methanol:buffer 15:85 (NaH 2 PO 4 1.38 g/l, added with Na 2 HPO 4 up to pH 6), flow 1 ml/min, Detector UV 215 nm).", "The following results were obtained: trans, ee ≧99%;", "cis, ee ≧99%.", "Cis/trans ratio: 50:50;", "overall ee ≧99%.", "F) Synthesis of 4R-cis and 4R-trans4-(p-Fluorophenyl)-3-hydroxymethyl-1-ethylpiperidine (IIIa) and (IIIb) [R=Et], in the Presence of Ru[(S)-BINAP](OAc) 2 Tetrahydropyridine (II) [R=Et] (5.0 g;", "21.4 mmol) was hydrogenated in 40 ml isopropanol at a working pressure of 10 atm, at 120° C. in the presence of Ru[(S)-BINAP](OAc) 2 (48.0 mg, 0.057 mmol), previously generated, according to the method described in Inorg.", "Chem[.", "].27, 1988, 566-569, from [RuCl 2 (COD)] n and (S)-BINAP.", "The reaction was discontinued after 18 hrs at 120° C., and the mixture was cooled to room temperature.", "After filtration on Celite, and evaporation under reduced pressure, 3.6 g of product (yield 71%) were obtained.", "The enantiomeric excesses of both (IIIa) and (IIIb) diastereoisomers was determined by HPLC analysis (Chiradex β-cyclodextrin Merck, eluent: methanol:buffer 15:85 (NaH 2 PO 4 1.38 g/l, added with Na 2 HPO 4 up to pH 6), flow 1 ml/min, Detector UV 215 nm).", "The following results were obtained: trans, ee ≧43%;", "cis, ee ≧94%.", "Cis/trans ratio: 10:90;", "overall ee ≧89%.", "G) Synthesis of 4R-cis and 4R-trans4-(p-Fluorophenyl)-3-hydroxymethyl-1-ethylpiperidine (IIIa) and (IIIb) [R=Et], in the Presence of Ru[(S)-BINAP](CF 3 CO 2 ) 2 Tetrahydropyridine (II) [R=Et] (5.0 g;", "21.4 mmol) was hydrogenated in 40 ml isopropanol at a working pressure of 10 atm, at 120° C. in the presence of Ru[(S)-BINAP](CF 3 CO 2 ) 2 (50.0 mg, 0.031 mmol), previously generated from Ru[(S)-BINAP](oAc 2 ) 2 dissolved in CH 2 Cl 2 , added with trifluoroacetic acid, kept under stirring for 12 hrs, evaporated, re-dissolved in toluene and hexane and allowed to crystallise.", "The reaction was discontinued after 20 hrs, and the mixture was cooled to room temperature.", "After filtration on Celite, and evaporation under reduced pressure, 3.7 g of product (yield 73%) were obtained.", "The enantiomeric excesses of both (IIIa) and (IIIb) diastereoisomers was determined by HPLC analysis (Chiradex βcyclodextrin Merck, eluent: methanol:buffer 15:85 (NaH 2 PO 4 1.38 g/l, added with Na 2 HPO 4 up to pH 6), flow 1 ml/min, Detector UV 215 nm).", "The following results were obtained: trans, ee ≧69%;", "cis, ee ≧93%.", "Cis/trans ratio: 34:66;", "overall ee ≧85%.", "The results obtained by enantioselective hydrogenation are summarised in the following table: Overall ee Complex Yield (%) ee (IIIa) (%) ee (IIIb) (%) (%) Example C 88 99 99 99 Example D 84 99 98 99 Example E 83 99 99 99 Example F 71 43 94 89 Example G 73 69 93 85 It can be seen that the overall ee obtained was never below 85% in all tests;", "in particular, for the examples C, D, E, performed with preferred ligands and solvents, both the overall ee.", "and the specific (IIIa)- and (IIIb)-ee's were of 98-99%.", "Example C was repeated with different alcoholic or halogenated solvents, in order to check the solvent effect on the enantioselectivity.", "The hydrogenation temperature was 120° C. and the reaction was discontinued after 5 hrs.", "The results are summarised in the following table.", "Solvent Conversion (%) ee (IIIa) (%) ee (IIIb) (%) CH 2 Cl 2 62 98 99 i-PrOH 100 99 99 n-PrOH 59 95 98 i-BuOH 80 96 98 Cyclohexanol 93 98 96 As can be seen, all solvents afforded an ee of at least 95%.", "In the case of i-PrOH, in addition to an ee of 99%, a very high conversion rate (100% in 5 hrs) was observed.", "H) Synthesis of 4R-cis- and 4R-trans4-(p-Fluorophenyl)-3-hydroxymethyl-1-ethyl-3-(3,4-methylenedioxyphenoxymethyl)piperidine (IV) [R=Et] A 240 ml toluenic solution of the mixture of enantiomers (IIIa) and (IIIb) (40.0 g 169 mmol) obtained according to the preceding examples was mixed, at room temperature and under stirring, with triethylammine (1.7 equiv.", ", 286 mmol, 21.0 ml), and subsequently with a solution of methansulphonyl chloride (1.2 equiv.", ", 202 mmol, 15.6 ml) in toluene (40 ml) added dropwise over 1 hr.", "The mixture was stirred at 25° C. for 3 hrs and filtered.", "The liquid phase was washed with water and the resulting organic phase was concentrated under reduced pressure.", "The residue (47.2 g) was dissolved in toluene (240 ml) and treated sequentially with a sesamol solution (1.0 equiv.", "in respect to the mixture of (IIIa) and (IIIb), 169 mmol, 23.3 g) in 4-methylpentan-2-ol (100 ml) and with an aqueous solution of NaOH 10 M (1.2 equiv.", "in respect to the mixture of (IIIa) and (IIIb), 201 mmol, 20.3 ml).", "The resulting heterogeneous mixture was heat-refluxed for 3 hrs.", "The reaction mixture was then washed three times with water until neutrality and the organic phase was separated.", "The aqueous phase was extracted again with toluene.", "The organic phases were combined and concentrated at reduced pressure.", "GLC analysis (SE-30 capillary column) of the viscous oil residue (55.0 g) revealed the presence of cis and trans diastereoisomers (IV) in a 10:90 ratio.", "The residue was dissolved in isopropanol and added with gaseous HCl.", "Only the 4R-trans diastereoisomer (hydrochloride) precipitated in 74% yield (125 mmol;", "49.1 g).", "The hydrochloride was then re-converted into a free base by dissolution in water, basification with 30% NaOH, and extraction of the aqueous phase with toluene.", "The organic phase was evaporated to give the 4R-trans diastereoisomer free base (44.1 g).", "Yield: 99%.", "The enantiomeric purity of said diastereoisomer determined by HPLC (Chiradex β-cyclodextrin Merck, eluent: methanol:buffer 40:60 (1% triethylammine with pH brought to 4.1 with AcOH), flow 1 ml/min, Detector UV 290 nm) was >99%.", "NMR analyses carried out on AMX-600 BRUKER spectrometer including the recording of 1 H and 13 C spectra, 1H—1H COSY, Heteronuclear Shift Correlation, Heteronuclear Shift Correlation Long Range, and NOESY tests, allowed to assign the correct stereochemistry to the two reaction products.", "The product 4R-trans free base, a pale yellow syrup, has the following absorbances: 1 H NMR (CDCl 3 ), δ (ppm): 7.16 (2H, m, H fluorophenyl);", "6.96 (2H, m, H fluorophenyl);", "6.62 (1H, d, J=8.8 Hz, H sesamol);", "6.34 (1H, d, J=2.4 Hz, H sesamol);", "6.13 (1H, dd, J=8.8 and 2.4 Hz, H sesamol);", "5.87 (2H, s, O—CH 2 —O);", "3.58 (1H, dd, J=9.5 and 2.8 Hz, CH 2 —O);", "3.45 (1H, dd, J=9.5 and 6.8 Hz, CH 2 —O);", "3.31 (1H, m, CH—N);", "2.45 (3H, m, ethylic CH 2 +piperidinic CH);", "2.20 (1H, m, piperidinic CH);", "2.1-1.7 (4H, m, piperidinic CH);", "1.17 (3H, t, J=7.2 Hz, CH 3 ).", "MS, m/z (%): 357 (M + , 2), 220 (13), 205 (16), 137 (7), 109 (14), 98 (10), 82 (12), 72 (100), 58 (23).", "I) Synthesis of Paroxetine Hydrochloride (I) A solution of 4R-trans-4-(p-fluorophenyl-3-hydroxymethyl-1-ethyl-3-(3,4-methylenedioxyphenoxymethyl)piperidine (IV) [R=Et] (26.5 g;", "74.1 mmol) in dichloromethane (135 ml) was cooled to 0° C. and added dropwise over 15 min is with a solution of phenylchloroformiate (22.6 g;", "144 mmol) dichloromethane (22 ml).", "The clear yellow solution was maintained at room temperature for 3 hrs, and then washed with 150 ml of NaOH 1M and two portions of 150 ml HCl 6M.", "The organic phase was evaporated to dryness and re-dissolved with toluene (190 ml).", "The resulting mixture was then filtered and added with 19.2 g (343 mmol) of solid KOH and heat-refluxed for 2 hrs.", "The mixture was then cooled to room temperature and added with 150 ml water.", "The organic phase was separated and the aqueous phase was re-extracted with two portions of 100 ml water and evaporated to dryness.", "The residue was dissolved in isopropanol (85 ml), and added with HCl 37%.", "Paroxetine hydrochloride was thus precipitated, filtered, washed and dried.", "21.9 g (59.3 mmol) of paroxetin hydrochloride were thus isolated.", "This product, analysed by HPLC (Symmetry Shield RP8, eluent: acetonitrile:buffer 70:30 (KH 2 PO 4 0.025 M at pH 2.5 with H 3 PO 4 ), flow 1 ml/min, Detector UV 290 nm) was found to have assay 99% and purity 99.9%, with yield 80%.", "Spectroscopic data were in accordance with literature data." ]

[ "This is a continuation of copending application Ser.", "No. 653,622 filed Sept.", "24, 1984.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to a hydraulic power control device especially for a vehicle powered braking system, having yielding lever means.", "The lever means comprise an arm pivotally mounted on a first axle secured to the device housing, and a feeler member pivotally mounted on a second axle, said second axle being pivotally mounted on the arm, the ends of the feeler member cooperating with spool valve and a servomotor piston respectively, the connection between the arm and the housing being yieldable in case of excessive stresses applied on a push rod engaging the free end of the arm.", "A brake booster of this kind is known from the disclosure of Carre U.S. Pat. No. 3,805,671.", "In this known brake booster, the slide sheath is disposed firmly in the housing.", "This has the disadvantage that the control valve is not trackable by simple means.", "Instead, a special spring lever is required in order to attain this tracking.", "A spring lever of this kind, however, is quite delicate and vulnerable to failure.", "OBJECT AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The hydraulic brake booster having the characteristics of the invention disclosed herein has the advantage over the prior art that reliable tracking of the control valve is attained without special means.", "A further advantage is the short structure.", "Finally, it is advantageous that by coupling the slide sheath of the control valve to the booster piston, free movement between the pedal push rod and the booster piston is possible.", "The result is a variable translation ratio, which means that when the supply of energy is intact the booster piston overtakes the pedal push rod and generates a high pressure at a relatively slight amount of pedal movement.", "If the servo force fails, a direct actuation of the booster piston is effected by means of the pedal push rod.", "The invention will be better understood and further objects and advantages thereof will become more apparent from the ensuing detailed description of preferred embodiments taken in conjunction with the drawings.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 shows generally in cross-section an embodiment of the invention having a coupling not supportedly attached to the housing;", "and FIG. 2 shows another generally cross-sectional view of the same structure but with a coupling supportedly attached to the housing.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A hydraulic brake booster is disposed between a pump 3 combined with a reservoir 2, serving as an energy supply means 2, 3 and a refill container 4 in a housing 5 of the brake booster 1, on one side, and two brake circuits I and II on the other;", "the brake circuits include the wheel brake cylinders, not shown.", "In the housing 5 of the brake booster 1, two multiply-stepped bores 6 and 7 are provided parallel to and beside one another.", "In the one bore 6, a booster piston 8 functioning as the first main cylinder bore and a second main cylinder piston 9 are provided one after the other, thus in a known manner forming a tandem main brake cylinder.", "A control valve 10, which comprises a slide sheath 11 and a slide 12 inserted into the sheath, is disposed in the other bore 7.", "The slide sheath 11 is supported against the housing by a helical spring 13 of a conventional type.", "The slide 12 has a control head 14, with which it can travel past a radial control bore 15 in the slide sheath 11, in order either to close or to open a line connection 16 for supplying energy.", "An annular pressure change chamber 17 is disposed to the right of the control head 14.", "This chamber 17 can be connected with either of two annular chambers 18 and 19 in the slide sheath 11, that is, one annular chamber 18 for pressure connection and one annular chamber 19 for pressure relief.", "The control head 14 is bored longitudinally all the way through and is connected at one end to the pressure change chamber 17 and at the other to a chamber 20 disposed at the front end ahead of the control head 14;", "this chamber 20 is thus arranged to communicate via housing conduits with a pressure chamber 21 located on the right of the booster piston 8 and on the right of the control valve 10.", "The inner end 22 of a pedal push rod 23 dips into this pressure chamber 21, the pedal push rod 23 being generally disposed coaxially with the booster piston 8.", "The pedal push rod end 22 has an arm 24, which is capable of acting upon the slide 12 with its free end 25.", "The pedal push rod 23 is supported with respect to the booster piston 8 via a spring 26.", "The booster piston 8 has an elastic cushion 27, against which the inner end 22 of the pedal push rod can apply itself as appropriate.", "It is also possible, however, for the cushion 27 to be secured instead to the pedal push rod end 22.", "The booster piston 8 has an annular groove 28, and the slide sheath 11 has a groove 29, and a coupling 30 is inserted into both grooves 28 and 29.", "The coupling 30 comprises a plate 31 supported by the booster piston 8.", "Mode of Operation In the position of rest of the brake booster 1, the pedal push rod 23 is held in its outset position via the spring 26.", "During normal braking, the slide 12 is moved along by the pedal push rod 23, the control valve 10 is switched over, and the increasing pressure in the pressure chamber 21 displaces the booster piston 8 and the piston 9 in the braking direction.", "The pedal push rod 23 does not touch the cushion 27 at this time;", "that is, a certain minimum distance between the pedal push rod 23 and the booster piston 8 is maintained.", "The booster piston 8 moves the slide sheath 11 with it via the coupling 30, so that the control valve 10 tracks or replicates the movement of the booster piston 8.", "The brake pressure introduced into the system has a feedback effect upon the pedal push rod 23, and a middle position is thereby established at which the actuation force exerted upon the pedal push rod 23 by the driver's foot is in equilibrium with the power-assist force.", "The decrease in volume in the two chambers ahead of the pistons 8 and 9 in each case determines the pedal deflection, as in the case of previously known brake boosters.", "Should the auxiliary force fail, then the pedal push rod 23 is applied via the cushion 27 to the booster piston 8, and braking occurs without auxiliary force.", "The cushion 27 serves as a stop damper and travel-limiting spring when the pedal push rod 23 comes into contact with the booster piston 8.", "FIG. 2 shows a structure substantially identical with that of FIG. 1, except that in this case a lever, acting as the coupling means, is supported on the housing of the brake booster.", "Also, the housing 36 in this case is closed off with respect to the pedal by a movable annular piston 40.", "Corresponding elements are identified by the same reference numerals in both FIGS. 1 and 2.", "Here a single-arm lever 34 is provided as the coupling 33, being supported on a pivot point 35 in a housing 36 of a brake booster 37.", "The lever 34 engages the slide sheath 11 in a medial area 38, and at its free end 39 the lever 34 is pivotably supported on the booster piston 8.", "In this manner, a lever ratio of L1 to L2 is realized, and this lever ratio L1/L2 determines the pedal force and the jump in translation in the event of a failure of the auxiliary force.", "The slide sheath 11 is disengaged from the lever 24 at this time, with the result that--with the same pedal travel-main cylinders with smaller diameters than in conventional boosters can be used.", "Yet small main cylinders guarantee a larger translation jump.", "A pedal push rod 41 is provided with a stop collar 42 and is supported in an annular piston 40 which closes off the pressure chamber 21 from the outside.", "If the brake booster 37 is actuated to the full extent, the stop collar 42 rests on the annular piston 40.", "Then the brake pedal becomes quite hard.", "This is desirable in order to provide the driver with an indication of the full braking force being exerted (highly progressive force increase).", "The use of the cushion 27 improves the transition to the "hard"", "pedal.", "By fixing the lever 34 at one side on the housing 36 and by its central articulation on the slide sheath 11 and its engagement with the booster piston 8, an advantageous, non-linear transmission function is attained.", "The foregoing relates to preferred exemplary embodiments of the invention, it being understood that other variants and embodiments thereof are possible within the spirit and scope of the invention, the latter being defined by the appended claims." ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. Non-Provisional application Ser.", "No. 12/603,408 tiled on Oct. 21, 2009, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/107,159 filed on Oct. 21, 2008, the entire contents of which are herein incorporated by reference.", "FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates generally to the field of tractor-based, rotary-driven power equipment, and more particularly relates to a rotary cutter.", "BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0003] The cutter is attached to and is pulled behind a tractor that powers the cutter.", "In this regard, a gearbox on the cutter connects to the power take-off (PTO) of the tractor, which provides rotation to the gearbox.", "The gearbox translates the rotation from the PTO to rotary cutting blades that cut grass and other ground vegetation.", "[0004] Prior art rotary cutters typically comprise flat cutting decks and rigid frames that attach the cutting decks to the tractor.", "The flat shape of the decks required that large flat plates of metal be used for the deck base.", "The cutter according to the present disclosure comprises a concave cutting deck whose concave shape provides rigidity of the deck.", "The concave deck is comprised of three curved deck plates welded to two supports running longitudinally down the deck.", "The deck design does not require a large contiguous metal plate, but rather uses smaller deck plates, thus reducing the cost of the decking materials.", "[0005] In a prior art cutter, the lift arm assembly, which connects to a three point hitch of a tractor, is rigidly affixed to the deck.", "A three point hitch is an attachment on the rear of a tractor known by persons of skill in the art for attaching equipment to the tractor.", "A prior art cutter which is rigidly affixed to the tractor does not commonly flex or rotate to maintain the cutting blades in close proximity to the grass.", "[0006] The cutter according to the present disclosure comprises a pivoting brace frame that allows flexing of the deck in two different ways.", "First, the cutter uses swiveling linkages to make the two connections between the cutting deck and bottom two legs of the three point hitch.", "These linkages permit rotation of the deck with respect to the bottom legs.", "The swiveling linkages allow the entire cutting deck to move with respect to the hitch, and allow side-to-side pivoting of about 10-15 degrees.", "Due to the swiveling linkages, when the cutter mows through a ditch, for example, one linkage may rotate up and the other down, so the deck will tilt and maintain the blade in closer proximity to the grass.", "[0007] Second, the lift frame comprises a top pivot that allows the hitch to rotate in the longitudinal direction, such that the lift frame can pivot backwards.", "[0008] 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 [0009] 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, [0010] FIG. 1 depicts a prior art rotary cutter.", "[0011] FIG. 2 is a front perspective w of an exemplary cutter in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.", "[0012] FIG. 3 a is a top view of an exemplary cutting deck in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.", "[0013] FIG. 3 b is a top view of an exemplary gearbox plate in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.", "[0014] FIG. 3 c is a side view of the gearbox plate of FIG. 3 b. [0015] FIG. 4 is a side view of the exemplary cutter deck illustrated in FIG. 3 a. [0016] FIG. 5 is a front view of the exemplary cutter deck illustrated in FIG. 3 a. [0017] FIG. 6 is a rear perspective view of the exemplary cutter illustrated in FIG. 2 .", "[0018] FIG. 7 is an exploded perspective view of the exemplary cutter illustrated in FIG. 2 .", "[0019] FIG. 8 is a side view of the exemplary cutter illustrated in FIG. 2 .", "[0020] FIG. 9 is a top view of the exemplary cutter illustrated in FIG. 2 .", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0021] FIG. 1 depicts a prior art cutter 10 .", "The cutter 10 comprises a cutting deck 11 which is formed from a single flat base 12 of sheet metal.", "The base 12 is generally horizontal and is supported on its side and front edges with an edge support frame 19 .", "The base 12 is further reinforced with two transverse ribs 13 .", "The transverse ribs 13 are comprised of vertically-oriented strips of sheet metal welded to the flat base 12 .", "The base 12 is further reinforced by a rear support bracket 15 .", "The rear support bracket 15 is comprised of a vertically-oriented strip of sheet metal formed in a partial trapezoidal shape and welded to the flat base 12 .", "[0022] The base 12 is further reinforced by two front support brackets 17 .", "The front support brackets 17 are comprised of vertically-oriented sheets of sheet metal welded to the flat base 12 .", "The front support brackets 17 further abut the transverse ribs 13 and are welded to the ribs 13 at the rear edge 18 of the front support brackets 17 .", "[0023] A lift arm assembly 16 rigidly connects to the front support brackets and provides connectivity to a standard three point hitch for connection to a tractor (not shown).", "The lift arm assembly 16 does not rotate with respect to the deck 11 , [0024] FIG. 2 depicts a front perspective view of a concave cutter 20 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure.", "The cutter 20 comprises a cutting deck 22 which is comprised of a top base 29 comprised of three plates: side plates 23 and 25 and center plate 24 .", "The plates 23 25 are welded to two longitudinal supports 26 and 27 , which provide structural stiffness to the deck 22 .", "As is further discussed herein, the plates 23 - 25 are curved to form a concavely-shaped deck 22 .", "[0025] Two side blade guards 21 a and 21 b ( FIG. 3 a ) are disposed on the sides of the deck 22 .", "In one embodiment, the side blade guards 21 a and 21 b are comprised of a generally vertically-oriented strip of metal welded to the top base 29 along the sides of the deck 22 , as further discussed herein.", "In other embodiments, the side blade guards 21 a and 21 b are comprised of an I-beam welded to the top base 29 along the sides of the deck 22 .", "[0026] A gearbox 40 connects to the cutting blades (not shown) on the underside of the deck 22 .", "A shaft 41 connects the gearbox 40 to a tractor (not shown) to transfer rotation from the tractor to the blade through the gearbox 40 , in this regard, the shaft 41 extends from the gearbox 40 and connects to the PTO (not shown) of the tractor (not shown).", "As is known by persons of skill in the art, a power take-off is a splined driveshaft on a tractor or truck that is used to provide power to an attachment or separate machines.", "The PTO provides rotation to the shaft 41 of the gearbox 40 , which imparts rotation to the cutting blades (not shown).", "[0027] The cutter 20 further comprises a lift frame 28 rotatably affixed to the deck 22 .", "The lift frame 28 connects the cutter 20 to the tractor (not shown).", "The lift frame 28 comprises a stiff generally A-shaped frame with two legs 42 and 43 rotatably affixed to the deck 22 .", "The lift frame 28 provides a standard three-point hitch connection to the tractor, as further discussed herein.", "[0028] A pivot bar assembly 44 and a pivot brace assembly 45 connect a top end 46 of the lift frame 28 to the deck 22 .", "In this regard, the pivot bar assembly 44 is rotatably connected between the top end 46 of the lift frame 28 and the pivot brace assembly 45 .", "The pivot brace assembly 45 is rotatably connected to the longitudinal supports 26 and 27 of the deck 22 .", "A pivot shield 49 covers the pivot bar assembly 44 .", "[0029] A wheel support frame 47 supports a wheel 48 which movably supports the deck 22 .", "The wheel support frame 47 connects to the longitudinal supports 26 and 27 of the deck 22 .", "[0030] FIG. 3 a depicts a top view of the deck 22 .", "In embodiment, the deck 22 is in the shape of a six-sided polygon with a front edge 30 , generally parallel side edges 31 and 32 , angled edges 33 and 34 , and rear edge 35 .", "In one embodiment, the longitudinal supports 26 and 27 comprise hollow tubing with a generally rectangular cross section.", "The left side plate 23 and the center plate 24 are welded to the left longitudinal support 27 and the right side plate 25 and the center plate 24 are welded to the right longitudinal support 26 .", "An opening 54 in the center of the center plate 24 receives the gearbox 40 ( FIG. 2 ).", "Four (4) small openings 55 surrounding the opening 54 receive fasteners (not shown) for affixing the gearbox 40 to the center plate 24 .", "[0031] A gearbox support plate 130 is disposed on the underside of the deck 22 and provides additional structural support for the gearbox 40 .", "The gearbox support plate 130 is a generally rectangular plate (when viewed from the top view) extending between and welded to the left longitudinal support 27 and the right longitudinal support 26 .", "The gearbox support plate 130 has downwardly extending legs (not shown), as illustrated in FIG. 3 b. [0032] Two front brackets 52 and 53 connect the two legs 42 and 43 ( FIG. 2 ) of the lift frame 28 to the deck 22 via swivel linkages 70 ( FIG. 7 ).", "The two front brackets 52 and 53 comprise generally thin rectangular brackets welded to the front of the longitudinal supports 26 and 27 , respectively.", "The front brackets 52 and 53 are each formed by welding two (2) pieces of flat bar material to each side of the longitudinal supports 26 and 27 .", "The front brackets 52 and 53 form all-shape when viewed from the from of the deck 22 ( FIG. 5 ).", "[0033] Two side blade guards 21 a and 21 b run along the sides of the deck 22 in one embodiment.", "Specifically, one side blade guard 21 a is welded to the side edge 32 and angled edge 34 , and another side blade guard 21 b is welded to the side edge 31 and angled edge 33 .", "The side blade guard in this embodiment is thus a piece of metal formed to abut the parallel and angled edges of the deck 22 .", "[0034] FIG. 3 b is a top view of the gearbox support plate 130 of FIG. 130 .", "In this embodiment, the gearbox support plate 130 comprises a generally flat top surface 144 that is affixed to the bottom surface (not shown) of the deck 22 ( FIG. 3 a ).", "A central opening 140 is aligned with the opening 54 ( FIG. 3 a ) on the e center plate 24 ( FIG. 3 a ) and receives the gearbox 40 ( FIG. 2 ).", "Four (4) small openings 141 surrounding the opening 140 are aligned with the openings 55 ( FIG. 3 a ) in the center plate 24 ( FIG. 3 a ) for receiving fasteners (not shown) for affixing the gearbox 40 ( FIG. 3 a ) to the center plate 24 ( FIG. 3 a ).", "[0035] The top surface 144 of the gearbox support plate 130 comprises short edges 143 and long edges 142 as shown.", "The short edges 143 connect fit between and are welded to the longitudinal supports 26 and 27 ( FIG. 3 a ).", "The long edges 142 extend downwardly and form legs 145 , as further illustrated in FIG. 3 c. [0036] FIG. 3 c is a side view of the gearbox support plate 130 of FIG. 3 b .", "The legs 145 extend downwardly at an angle and acid structural support to the plate 130 .", "[0037] Two pivot brace brackets 50 and 51 connect the pivot brace assembly 45 ( FIG. 2 ) and the wheel support frame 47 ( FIG. 2 ) to the deck 22 , as further discussed herein.", "In one embodiment, the pivot brace brackets 50 and 51 comprise a short angle iron welded to the longitudinal supports 26 and 27 , respectively, [0038] FIG. 4 depicts a left side view of the deck 22 of one embodiment of the present disclosure.", "The side blade guard 21 a extends downwardly from the edges 32 and 34 of the deck 22 .", "In embodiment, the side blade guard 21 a is a thin strip of sheet metal.", "The side blade guard 21 a shields the blade (not shown) and may protect users from flying debris.", "The side blade guard 21 a further prevents the blade from contacting the ground.", "The side blade guard 21 a comprises a skid 150 , which is a flat bar that is welded to the bottom of the side blade guard 21 a and extending up an angled front edge 151 of the side blade guard 21 a. The skid 150 prevents the bottom edge and the angled front edge 151 of the side blade guard 21 a from cutting into the ground when the cutter is in use.", "[0039] The pivot brace bracket 51 extends upwardly from the longitudinal support 27 and comprises openings 56 a and 56 b that receive fasteners (not shown) for connecting the pivot brace assembly 45 ( FIG. 2 ) to the bracket 51 , and for connecting the wheel support frame 47 ( FIG. 2 ) to the bracket 51 , respectively.", "The pivot brace bracket 50 ( FIG. 3 a ) similarly extends from the longitudinal support 26 and is a mirror image of the pivot brace bracket 51 .", "[0040] The front bracket 53 extends upwardly from the longitudinal support 27 at the front edge 30 of the deck 22 .", "The front bracket 53 comprises openings 68 and 69 for receiving fasteners (not shown) for connecting the leg 43 ( FIG. 2 ) of the lift frame 28 ( FIG. 2 ) to the bracket 53 .", "The openings 68 and 69 are shown on the visible leg of the U-shaped bracket 53 .", "Identically-aligned openings are disposed on the other leg of the U-shaped bracket 53 .", "The front bracket 52 ( FIG. 3 a ) similarly extends from the longitudinal support 27 ( FIG. 3 a ), [0041] As can be seen in FIG. 4 , the left side plate 25 has a curved concave shape, and its front and rear ends 131 and 132 are lower to the ground than its middle portion 133 .", "Although not shown in FIG. 3 a, this is also the case with the right side plate 23 ( FIG. 3 a ) and the center plate 24 ( FIG. 3 a ), [0042] FIG. 5 depicts a front end view of the deck 22 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure.", "As shown in the figure, the front brackets 52 and 53 form a U-shape.", "A front edge support 61 is affixed to the front edge 30 of the deck 22 .", "In one embodiment, the front edge support comprises a strip of angle iron welded to the deck 22 such that a horizontal surface (not shown) of the angle iron is welded to the deck and the vertical surface 58 extends downwardly from the deck.", "[0043] Trapezoidal cover plates 60 are affixed to the ends of the longitudinal supports 26 and 27 ( FIG. 3 a ) and are welded to the longitudinal supports 26 and 27 , to the deck 22 and the front edge support 61 , and also to the front edges of the brackets 52 and 53 .", "[0044] The plates 23 25 of the deck 22 together form a generally concave shape when viewed from the front in a somewhat similar manner that they form a concave shape when viewed from the side ( FIG. 4 ).", "In this regard, the right side plate 25 and the left side plate 23 taper down from a high point at their central portion (not shown) down to the edges 31 and 32 , respectively.", "[0045] FIG. 6 depicts a rear perspective view of the cutter 20 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure.", "The side blade guard 21 b that runs along the edges 31 and 33 , and the side blade guard 21 a that runs along the edges 32 and 34 do not extend to the rear edge 35 in this embodiment.", "A rear edge support 66 is affixed to the rear edge 35 of the deck 22 .", "In one embodiment, the rear edge support 166 comprises a strip of angle iron welded to the deck 22 such that a horizontal surface (not shown) of the angle iron is welded to the deck and the vertical surface 59 extends downwardly from the deck 22 .", "[0046] The wheel support frame 47 comprises two (2) angled legs 64 a and 64 b and a central support bar 65 forming an “A”", "shape with an opening 63 at the top of the “A”", "that receives the wheel assembly (not shown).", "The angled legs 64 a and 64 b are affixed to the two pivot brace brackets 50 and 51 via fasteners (not shown).", "A height adjuster bar 62 is adjustably fixed to the central support bar 65 on one end, and on the other end is affixed to the rear edge support 166 of the deck 22 .", "The height adjuster bar 62 allows the distance between the cutting blade (not shown) and the grass (not shown) to be adjusted.", "In this regard, the height adjuster bar 62 comprises a plurality of spaced apart openings 105 ( FIG. 7 ) in which a fastener 102 ( FIG. 7 ) may be received to affix the height adjuster bar 62 to the central support bar 65 .", "Reducing the distance between the deck 22 and the central support bar 65 by choosing an opening that is lower on the height adjuster bar 62 raises the blade, and conversely, increasing the distance between the deck 22 and the central support bar 65 by choosing an opening that is higher on the height adjuster bar 62 lowers the blade.", "[0047] The pivot brace assembly 45 is comprised of two angled legs 66 and 67 rotatably affixed to the two pivot brace brackets 50 and 51 at their lower ends.", "At their top ends, the angled legs 66 and 67 are affixed to the pivot bar assembly 44 .", "The pivot bar assembly 44 is comprised of two pivot bars 87 and 88 ( FIG. 7 ) rotatably affixed to the angled legs 66 and 67 .", "The pivot shield 49 covers the pivot bars.", "[0048] FIG. 7 depicts an exploded perspective view of a cutter 20 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure.", "The lift frame 28 is comprised of two legs 42 and 43 , a generally horizontal support brace 74 , and angled supports 75 and 76 .", "The angled supports 75 and 76 and the generally horizontal support brace 74 are welded to the two legs 42 and 43 , [0049] The lift frame 28 further comprises tabs 71 and 72 which are parallel to and offset from the legs 43 and 42 .", "The tab 72 comprises an opening (not shown) which aligns with an opening 77 on the leg 42 .", "(The tab 71 comprises an identical opening (not shown) which aligns with the opening (not shown) on leg 43 .) The opening 77 receives a fastener 79 which rotatably receives a swivel linkage 70 .", "In this regard, the swivel linkage 70 comprises an opening 78 through which the fastener 79 passes after the fastener passes through the opening 77 on the leg 42 .", "The fastener is secured by a nut 80 .", "When the cutter 20 is assembled, the swivel linkage 70 is thus disposed between the tab 72 and the leg 42 .", "The leg 43 and tab 71 are mirror imaged to the leg 42 and tab 72 and also receive a swivel linkage 70 in an identical manner.", "[0050] As discussed above, the swivel linkages 70 are rotatably affixed on one end to a fastener between the legs 42 and 43 and the tabs 71 and 72 , respectively.", "On their lower ends, the swivel linkages 70 are rotatably affixed to the brackets 52 and 53 .", "Specifically, the swivel linkage 70 is affixed to the bracket 53 via an opening 57 on the lower end of the swivel linkage 70 , which is received by a fastener 81 that passes through the openings 69 on both legs of the bracket 53 .", "A nut 82 secures the fastener within the bracket 53 .", "The bracket 52 has an identical attachment mechanism to its swivel linkage 70 .", "[0051] A fastener 111 is received by the openings 68 on the bracket 53 and is secured by a nut 82 .", "The purpose of the fastener 111 is to prevent the swivel linkage 70 from rotating too far;", "i.e., the fastener 111 acts as a stop to prevent the swivel linkage 70 from rotating upwardly beyond the fastener 111 .", "The bracket 52 has an identical fastener 111 for the same purpose.", "[0052] During operation of the cutter 20 , the swivel linkages 70 may rotate around the fasteners 81 in a plane generally perpendicular to the fasteners 81 (i.e., a plane generally longitudinally down the deck 22 ).", "The swivel linkages also provide some lateral swiveling.", "[0053] Two standard lift pins 73 known in the art are affixed to the legs 42 and 43 of the lift frame 28 and releaseably mate with the tractor (not shown).", "[0054] The angled leg 67 (part of the pivot brace assembly 45 ) is attached at its lower end to the pivot brace bracket 50 .", "In this regard, a fastener 86 is received by the opening 56 a on the bracket 50 , and the fastener 86 rotatably affixes the leg 67 to the bracket 50 .", "The leg 66 is rotatably attached to the bracket 51 in the same manner.", "[0055] The leg 66 is affixed at its upper end to the pivot bar 87 , and leg 67 is affixed at its upper end to the pivot bar 88 .", "In one embodiment, a fastener 89 affixes the legs 66 , 67 and the bars 87 , 88 together in a spaced-apart configuration as follows: The fastener first passes through an opening 90 in the leg 67 , and then through an opening 91 in a rearward end of the pivot bar 88 , and then through an opening in a bushing 37 , and then through an opening in a spacer 38 , and then through an opening 92 in a rearward end of the pivot bar 87 and then through an opening (not shown) in leg 66 and then is secured by a nut 100 .", "[0056] The bushing 37 is a generally cylindrical tube that receives and surrounds the fastener 89 .", "In this regard, the bushing 37 fits within the openings 90 in leg 67 , the opening 91 in bar 88 , the opening in the spacer 38 , the opening 92 in the bar 87 , and the opening (not shown) in leg 66 , and provides a cylindrical surface for the legs 66 , 67 and bars 87 , 88 to rotate around.", "[0057] The spacer 38 is a generally cylindrical tube that is received by the bushing and maintains the leg 66 and bar 87 in a spaced-apart orientation from the leg 67 and bar 88 , in this regard, the spacer 38 contacts and separates the bars 88 and 87 .", "[0058] Although the embodiment of FIG. 7 shows bars 88 and 87 as separate and discrete items, in other embodiments the bars 88 and 87 are welded together as one weldment.", "In this regard, the bars 88 and 87 may be welded together with a spacer bar between, with bar 88 parallel to and aligned with bar 87 .", "[0059] A pivot shield 49 covers the pivot bars 87 and 88 and is affixed by a fastener 99 .", "The pivot shield protects the user (not shown) from injury by pinching between the pivot bars 87 and 88 and the legs 66 and 67 .", "[0060] The forward ends of the pivot bars 87 and 88 are rotatably affixed to the top end 46 of the lift frame 28 .", "In this regard, a fastener 98 first passes through an opening 95 a on the lift frame 28 , and then passes through an opening 94 on the pivot bar 88 and then passes through a bushing 93 , and then passes through an opening 96 on the pivot bar 87 , and then passes through an opening 95 b on the lift frame 28 and is secured by a nut 97 .", "The bushing 93 is a generally cylindrical tube that is received by the fastener 98 and provides a cylindrical surface for the bars 87 and 88 to rotate around.", "[0061] Openings 108 in the top 46 of the lift frame 28 receive a standard lift pin (not shown) for connection to the three point hitch (not shown) of the tractor (not shown), [0062] The opening 54 in the deck 22 receives the gearbox 40 , which is secured to the deck 22 by fasteners 83 passing through openings 55 .", "[0063] The leg 64 a of the wheel support frame 47 connects to the pivot brace bracket 50 via a fastener 85 which is received by the opening 56 b in the bracket 50 , and by the opening 106 in the leg 64 a. A nut 107 secures the fastener 85 .", "The other leg 64 b of the wheel support frame 47 is similarly attached to the bracket 51 .", "[0064] The height adjuster bar 62 is affixed to the deck 22 via a fastener 103 and a nut (not shown).", "The height adjuster bar 62 is adjustably affixed to the central support bar 65 via a fastener 102 that passes through one of the plurality of spaced apart openings 105 in the bar 62 and then through an opening 101 in the central support bar 65 .", "A nut 104 secures the fastener 102 .", "[0065] FIG. 8 depicts a side view of the exemplary cutter 20 illustrated in FIG. 2 .", "In operation of the cutter 20 , the angled leg 67 of the pivot brace assembly 45 is rotatable around point “A”", "(i.e., the joint between the leg 67 and the bracket 50 ), in the direction indicated by direction arrow 120 .", "[0066] The angled leg 67 is rotatably affixed to the pivot bar 88 such that the leg 67 and bar 88 may rotate around a point “B”", "(i.e., the joint between the leg 67 and the bar 88 ) in the direction indicated by direction arrow 121 .", "Though not pictured, angled leg 66 ( FIG. 7 ) and pivot bar 87 are mirror imaged to legs 67 and bar 88 and rotate in the same manner.", "[0067] The pivot bar 88 and the lift frame 28 are rotatable around a point “C”", "(i.e., the joint between the bar 88 and the frame 28 ) in the direction indicated by direction arrow 122 .", "Though not pictured, pivot bar 87 , which is a mirror image to bar 88 , rotates in the same manner, [0068] The swivel linkages 70 and the lift frame 28 are rotatable around a point “D”", "the joint between the swivel linkage 70 and the lift frame 28 ) in the direction indicated by direction arrow 123 .", "[0069] The swivel linkages 70 are rotatably affixed to brackets 52 (and 53 , not shown) and in this regard are rotatable around point “E”", "(i.e., the joint between the swivel linkage 70 and the bracket 52 ) in the direction indicated by direction arrow 124 .", "[0070] FIG. 9 depicts a top view of the exemplary cutter 20 illustrated in FIG. 2 .", "As was discussed above with respect to FIG. 7 , leg 66 is rotatably affixed to the pivot bar 87 , and leg 67 is rotatably affixed to the pivot bar 88 .", "The spacer 38 maintains leg 66 and bar 87 in spaced apart orientation with respect to leg 67 and bar 88 , as shown." ]

[ "The applicant hereby claims the benefit of provisional patent application No. 60/272,238, filed Feb. 28, 2002.", "FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates generally to fishing pole holders that may be used to strike a fish while trolling in a boat or while still-fishing.", "BACKGROUND OF THE PRESENT INVENTION Fishing rod holders are historically used to aid anglers and facilitate their ability to fish while performing other tasks.", "Current fishing rod holders require the operator to either remove the rod to strike the fish or strike the fish in a vertical manner while the rod is in the holder.", "Because both of these methods are inefficient and ineffective, there is a need for a fishing rod holder that allows the operator to strike the fish using the more natural and more effective horizontal motion while the fishing rod is in the holder.", "The rod should also be easily removable from the holder to facilitate reeling in the fish.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A fishing rod holder that allows horizontal striking of fish either while trolling or still-fishing.", "The fishing rod holder consists of a rod holder support arm assembly, a rotating unit, a base unit and an optional mounting adapter.", "The rod holder may be mounted for horizontal striking on the top surface of a gunnel wall on a boat or any other substantially flat horizontal surface.", "Alternatively, the mounting adapter may be used to mount the rod holder to a boat handle rail.", "The rod holder support arms are slidably engaged in the support arm assembly and allow for selectable vertical orientation of the rod's tip with respect to the reel.", "In addition, the horizontal orientation of the rod may be selectable to accommodate fishing technique and fishing conditions.", "A principal object and advantage of the present invention is to allow horizontal striking of fish and ease of removal of the rod from the rod holder following a strike while either trolling or still-fishing.", "Another principal object and advantage of the present invention is to allow the rod to be selectably-oriented in the vertical plane as well as the horizontal plane, depending on the fishing technique selected and the conditions.", "The foregoing objects of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art when the following detailed description of the invention is read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and claims.", "Throughout the drawings, like numerals refer to similar or identical parts.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a side view of the apparatus in operation while attached to a boat gunnel wall.", "FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the apparatus attached to a horizontal surface such as a boat gunnel wall.", "FIG. 3 is an exploded view of the apparatus.", "FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the apparatus.", "FIG. 5 is a side elevation view of the mounting adaptor.", "FIGS. 6-8 are perspective, top elevation, and side elevation views, respectively, of the quick-mount feature of the apparatus.", "FIGS. 9 and 10 are top views showing the apparatus installed on a boat gunnel wall while the boat is trolling.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Referring to FIG. 2, the fishing rod holder comprises a rod holder support arm assembly 8 , a rotating unit 50 , a base unit 76 , and a mounting adaptor 111 .", "Referring to FIG. 4, the rotating unit 50 has a substantially cylindrical profile and further comprises a mounting post 58 fixedly attached to substantially the center of the top surface 52 of the rotating unit 50 .", "The mounting post 58 has a threaded central bore 72 and a splined profile section 58 .", "A rotational stop pin channel 60 is circumferentially disposed on the bottom surface 54 of the rotating unit 50 forming an outer lip 62 and an inner lip 64 .", "A rotational stop pin 66 is fixedly mounted in the rotational stop pin channel 60 .", "The lower portion of rotating unit 50 comprises a substantially smooth lower cylinder 68 .", "An anti-rotate pin 70 is fixedly attached to the bottom surface 69 of the lower cylinder 68 .", "The lower cylinder 68 has a threaded central bore 74 .", "Referring now to FIGS. 3 and 4, the base unit 76 comprises a central bore 84 extending therethrough.", "The diameter of the central bore 84 widens approximately halfway though base unit 76 , forming a central bore lip 90 when viewed from the bottom.", "The central bore 84 is partially lined with a flange bearing 86 that extends, and includes a flange lip 88 , above the top surface 78 of the base unit 76 .", "The flange bearing 86 may be composed of Teflon or any similar material that allows for minimal rotational friction.", "When lined with the flange bearing 86 , the central bore 84 rotatably engages the lower cylinder 68 on the bottom surface 54 of the rotating unit 50 .", "The base unit 76 further comprises a rotational stop pin 92 extending from the top surface 78 .", "The stop pin 92 is circumferentially positioned to move within rotational stop pin channel 60 , allowing for rotational contact between stop pin 66 and rotational stop pin 92 during operation.", "A thrust bearing 94 is disposed on the central bore lip 90 and may be composed of Teflon or other friction-minimizing material.", "The thrust bearing 94 is held in place by a bearing retainer 96 .", "The bearing retainer 96 has a substantially smooth central bore 98 through which a retaining bolt 102 is disposed and an aperture 100 that receives the anti-rotate pin 70 , stopping the complete rotation of the rotating unit 50 and preventing the retaining bolt 102 from backing out during operation.", "The retaining bolt 102 threadably engages the threaded central bore 74 in the rotating unit's lower cylinder 68 thereby biasing the bearing retainer 96 against the thrust bearing 94 and connecting the base unit 76 to the rotating unit 50 .", "Compression washers 104 or other similar biasing means are used in conjunction with the retaining bolt 102 to provide the spring resistance necessary to offer minimal friction on the flange bearing 86 during rotation of the rotating unit 50 .", "The bottom surface 80 of the base unit 76 has a plurality of threaded holes 108 to be used for mounting to a flat surface, using mounting screws 109 or similar means, or for attaching the mounting adaptor 111 .", "Referring now to FIG. 5, the mounting adaptor 111 is comprised of a top member 110 and a bottom member 112 .", "The top and bottom members 110 and 112 together form a substantially cylindrical cavity 117 capable of securely fastening the fishing rod holder to boat handle rails or other similar structures.", "It is understood that in practice the cavity profile can take on virtually any shape as long as it is capable of fastening to boat handle rails or other similar structures.", "The top 110 and bottom 112 members are secured to the appropriate structure using mounting screws 109 or similar fastening means.", "An alternate embodiment of the apparatus allowing for quick mounting and directional biasing of the fishing rod holder is provided for in FIGS. 6-8.", "This embodiment requires a mounting block 118 with a top section 120 having a polygonal profile 134 with a diameter greater than that of the bottom section 126 .", "The side surface 127 of the bottom section 126 of the mounting block 118 further has a plurality of apertures 140 .", "This embodiment includes a quick-mount adaptor 131 that is fixedly attached to the bottom surface 80 of the base unit 76 .", "The adaptor has a polygonal profile cavity 132 that matches the profile of the top section 120 of the mounting block 118 and which nonrotatably slidably engages the top section 120 of the mounting block 118 .", "When fully engaged, the top surface 122 of the mounting block 118 is substantially disposed against the bottom surface 80 of the base unit 76 and the sides 132 of the polygonal profile of the quick mount adaptor 131 are nonrotatably engaged with the side surfaces 121 of the top section 120 of the mounting unit 118 .", "A plurality of threaded holes 136 are disposed in the quick-mount adaptor 131 for fastening the adaptor 131 to the bottom of the base unit 76 .", "A mounting gasket 107 is further disposed between the adaptor 131 and the bottom of the base unit 76 .", "In addition, at least one aperture 128 is provided on the side surface 133 of the quick-mount adaptor 131 .", "This aperture 128 is used to secure the fishing rod holder when the apparatus is engaged with the mounting unit 118 by insertion of a fastening device such as a key or pin 130 as shown in FIGS. 7-8.", "The pin 130 engages the aperture 128 on the quick-mount adaptor 131 and the aperture 140 disposed on the side surface 127 of the bottom section 126 of the mounting unit 118 .", "Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the rod holder support arm assembly 8 further comprises a sleeve holder 10 and support arms 20 , a rod cap holder 30 and an support arms base 40 .", "The sleeve holder 10 is fixedly attached to an adaptor 11 .", "The adaptor 11 is fixedly attached to the proximal end 22 of the support arms 20 .", "The method for attaching the sleeve holder 10 to the adaptor 11 and the adaptor 11 to the support arms 20 are well known in the art and include rivets, screws and other similar means.", "The support arms 20 are parallel to one another, are substantially smooth, and the central sections 26 thereof are bent upward resulting in a substantially curvelinear profile.", "The support arms 20 are fixedly attached to each other near the distal end 24 of the arms to prevent motion of the arms relative to one another, forming a joint 28 .", "The arms 20 may be joined by various means known in the art including, for example, welding or threaded screws.", "The distal end 24 of the arms 20 are shaped to allow ease of insertion of the fishing rod 2 into the support arms 20 .", "In addition, the distal ends 24 of the arms 20 are coated 25 to prevent corrosion and wear of the metal surface resulting from water and continuous contact with the fishing rod 2 .", "Referring to FIGS. 3 and 4, the support arms base 40 has a substantially cylindrical profile and a central bore with a splined profile 48 .", "It is understood that the cylindrical form is aesthetic and not functional.", "As a result, a wide variety of profiles may be selected.", "A transverse groove 46 is disposed across the top surface 42 of the support arms base 40 .", "The width of the transverse groove 46 is substantially equivalent to the diameter of the splined central bore 48 .", "A transverse lip 36 is disposed along the bottom surface 34 of the rod holder cap 30 .", "When the rod cap holder 30 engages the support arms base 40 , the transverse lip 36 engages the support arms base 40 , forming two transverse channels 47 that slidably capture the support arms 20 between the rod cap holder 30 and the support arms base 40 .", "The rod cap holder 30 has a substantially smooth central bore 38 through which a thumb screw 106 or other fastening device is disposed.", "When the mounting post 58 on the rotating unit 50 is engaged with the splined shaft 48 of the support arms base unit 40 , the arms support assembly 8 is secured to the rotating unit 50 by threadably engaging the thumb screw 106 that extends from the rod cap holder 30 to the threaded central bore 72 of the mounting post 58 .", "This screw 106 may be loosened to allow adjustment of the vertical orientation of the fishing rod 2 by sliding the support arms 20 forward or backward in the transverse channels 47 of the support arms assembly 8 .", "The thumb screw 106 is then tightened to retain the support arms 20 in the desired orientation.", "OPERATION OF THE PRESENT INVENTION With the foregoing description of the present invention, its operation can now be fully explained.", "The rotating unit's 50 lower cylinder 68 of rotating unit 50 is inserted into the central bore 84 of the base unit 76 .", "The lower cylinder 68 is rotatably disposed against the flange bearing 86 lining the central bore 84 of the base unit 76 .", "The inner lip 64 on the bottom surface 54 of the rotating unit 50 is rotatably disposed against the flange bearing lip 88 that extends above the top surface 78 of the base unit 76 .", "The retaining bolt 102 is disposed through the bearing retainer 96 and the thrust bearing 94 disposed on lip 90 in the central bore 84 of the base unit 76 and threadably engages the threaded central bore 74 disposed in the lower cylinder 68 of the rotating unit 50 .", "The rotational tension is adjusted by tightening or loosening the retaining bolt 102 .", "Compression washers 104 , or the equivalent, are used in conjunction with the retaining bolt to provide sufficient spring resistance to minimize friction on the flange bearing during rotation of the cover.", "The bearing retainer 96 is nonrotatably engaged with the anti-rotate pin 70 , thus ensuring that the rotating unit's rotation does not cause the retaining bolt 102 to become loosened, tightened, or disengaged.", "Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 2, the butt end 4 of the fishing rod 2 is received by the sleeve holder 10 and the rod 2 is allowed to rest against the conjunction 28 of the support arms 20 .", "The vertical orientation of the tip 5 of the rod 2 with respect to the butt end 4 can be adjusted by loosening the thumb screw 106 and sliding the support arms 20 forwardly within the transverse channels 47 of the support arms assembly 8 or rearwardly to decrease the height of the rod tip 5 .", "The fishing rod 2 can be oriented in a substantially vertical position by sliding the support arms 20 completely forward, bringing the adaptor 11 into contact with the support arms assembly 8 .", "Conversely, the rod tip 5 may be oriented below the butt end 4 of the rod 2 in a less than horizontal position by sliding the support arms 20 back until the conjunction 28 between the support arms 20 is contacted by the support arms assembly 8 .", "Thus, the rod tip 5 may be oriented vertically in any position between these two extremes relative to the butt end 4 of the rod 2 .", "Once the desired rod orientation has been established, the thumb screw 106 is then retightened, fixedly retaining the support arms 20 in the support arms assembly 8 .", "In this manner, the support arms 20 are captured in the transverse channels 47 created by the rod cap holder 30 and the support arms base 40 .", "The thumb screw 106 is threadably engaged with the threaded central bore 72 of the rotating unit's splined mounting post 58 .", "With the vertical orientation of the fishing rod holder established, the fishing rod holder's horizontal orientation may now be described.", "There are three elements that provide customization of horizontal orientation.", "First, as indicated by FIGS. 6-8, the mounting block 118 and the interior side surfaces 132 of the quick-mount adaptor 131 have slidably engageable and complementary profiles.", "This allows quick-mount adaptor 131 to be disengaged by removing the pin 130 , rotating the adaptor 131 such that the rod 2 is directed over the fishing area and the adaptor 131 reengaged with the mounting block 118 and resecured with the pin 130 .", "Second, the engagement of the splined profile located in the central bore 48 of the support arms base 40 with the mounting post 58 of the rotating unit 50 allows the operator to orient the fishing rod holder using a full 360 degrees of horizontal motion.", "The transverse channels 47 created by the rod cap holder 30 and the support arms base 40 allows for two directional positions, 180 degrees from each other, for the fishing rod 2 at any given splined engagement.", "The third component available to establish proper horizontal orientation of the fishing rod 2 involves the rotational stop pin 92 on the base unit 76 .", "The rod holder apparatus may be rotated approximately 355 degrees in either direction from the rotational stop pin 92 on the base unit 76 .", "This pin 92 determines where the fishing rod holder's rotation will be stopped as it contacts the rotational stop pin 66 on the rotating unit 50 .", "If trolling, the apparatus is preferably mounted with the base unit's rotational stop pin 92 oriented substantially as shown in FIGS. 9 and 10.", "The arrow in FIG. 9 indicates the direction of travel of the boat 3 .", "The transverse channel 47 in the support arms assembly 8 is oriented to allow the rod 2 to be held out over the water.", "The rod 2 is free to rotate in the direction opposite that of the moving boat 3 until the rotating unit's rotational stop pin 66 and the base unit's rotational stop pin 92 come into contact, preventing further horizontal rotation.", "Generally, when a fish is detected, the operator may strike the fish in a horizontal manner by rotating the apparatus as described herein.", "The fishing rod may then be quickly, easily and smoothly removed from the apparatus at any time to facilitate reeling the fish in.", "The above specification describes certain preferred embodiments of this invention.", "This specification is in no way intended to limit the scope of the claims.", "Other modifications, alterations, or substitutions may now suggest themselves to those skilled in the art, all of which are within the spirit and scope of the present invention.", "It is therefore intended that the present invention be limited only by the scope of the attached claims below:" ]

[ "BACKGROUND [0001] Cable television (CATV) operators provide cable television and other services such as Internet connectivity and digital telephone service.", "The CATV network may include fiber optic and coaxial cables that provide bidirectional transport of radio frequency (RF) signals.", "Customers may connect to the CATV network utilizing cables to connect to a main transmission line via taps in the main transmission line.", "[0002] FIG. 1 illustrates an example block diagram of a CATV network 100 utilizing a tap 110 on a main transmission line 120 to provide connectivity to a customer via cables 130 .", "The tap 110 receives RF signals on the main transmission line 120 from a central office (upstream) and transmits the RF signals downstream over the main transmission line 120 .", "The tap 110 may also receive RF signals from downstream and transmit the RF signals upstream.", "The tap 110 may include RF circuitry 140 to process the RF signals destined for the customer so the RF signals can be provided to the customer via the cable 130 .", "Likewise, RF signals received from the customer via the cable 130 may be processed so they can be transmitted via the main transmission line 120 .", "[0003] In addition to providing the processing of the RF signals necessary for communication with the customer, the RF circuitry 140 may provide a conduit (transmission line) for continued communications over the main transmission line 120 .", "The tap 110 may include a bypass line 150 that provides an alternative conduit (transmission line) for maintaining communications over the main transmission line 120 in the event that the RF circuitry 140 is removed from the path for any reason (e.g., failure, maintenance, repair, upgrade).", "[0004] The taps may include a housing and a tap plate.", "The housing may include connectors to secure ends of the main transmission line 120 and to provide RF shielding.", "The tap plate may include the RF circuitry 140 to perform necessary processing of the RF signals for communications with the customer.", "The tap plate may also include on or more connectors for providing connectivity to the customer via cables connected thereto.", "The tap plate may also provide a transmission line to allow the RF signals and power to pass therethrough.", "The bypass line 150 may be located within the housing and be utilized when the tap plate is removed from the circuit (e.g., removed for maintenance).", "[0005] FIG. 2 illustrates an example tap 200 with the tap plate (RF circuitry) removed.", "The tap includes a housing 210 that has an input connector 220 to connect to and receive the main transmission line 205 from upstream and a connector 230 to connect to and provide the main transmission line 205 to downstream.", "The tap 200 includes interfaces 225 , 235 (conductors) in communication with the main transmission line 205 via the connectors 220 , 230 .", "When the tap plate (RF circuitry) is installed the interfaces 225 , 235 are also in communication with the tap plate.", "In the downstream direction, the interface 225 is used to provide the RF signals and power from the main transmission line 205 to the tap plate and the interface 235 is used to provide the RF signals and power from the tap plate to the main transmission line 205 .", "The tap plate provides a conduit (transmission line) for communications between ends of the main transmission line 205 connected to the tap 200 .", "[0006] The tap 200 also includes a bypass line 240 to provide an alternative conduit (transmission line) to maintain communications between ends of the main transmission line 205 when the tap plate is removed.", "The bypass line 240 may be capable of being connected or disconnected from the connectors 220 , 230 based on whether the tap plate is installed or not.", "For example, the bypass line 240 may be connected to conductive movable shafts that may be connected to the connectors 220 , 230 .", "When the tap plate is installed, the conductive movable shafts may be pushed down so as not to be connected to the connectors 220 , 230 .", "Since the conductive movable shafts are not connected to the connectors 220 , 230 the bypass line 240 is not in communication with the connectors 220 , 230 .", "When the tap plate is removed (off), the conductive movable shafts may shift up and contact the connectors 220 , 230 .", "Since the conductive movable shafts are connected to the connectors 220 , 230 the bypass line 240 is in communication with the connectors 220 , 230 and acts as the conduit to maintain communications between ends of the main transmission line 205 .", "[0007] Present CATV taps 200 may provide a bandwidth of 1 GHz.", "With additional services being provided over the CATV network and the increased desire for faster download and/or upload speeds, there is a desire for additional bandwidth.", "The bandwidth may currently be limited to 1 GHz due to electrical limitations of the current tap plate as well as mechanical design features of the tap 200 .", "[0008] When the tap plate is installed, the bypass line 240 is disengaged but still presents a transfer impedance that is in parallel to the tap plate (RF input to output electronics).", "The bypass line 240 responds to the RF parameters within the tap 200 to produce resonances that occur above 1 GHz (at approximately 1.2 GHz).", "These resonances significantly influence the tap's input to output insertion loss and limit extending the tap bandwidth above 1 GHz (may be able to extend the bandwidth to 1.2 GHz with a new tap plate).", "The bandwidth may not be extended above 1 GHz (or possibly 1.2 GHz) unless the entire tap is replaced to modify the response of the bypass lines 240 to the RF.", "Replacing the entire tap requires physically removing the existing tap and replacing it with a new tap.", "This would require a significant time and cost investment by the CATV operator.", "[0009] FIG. 3 illustrates an example graph of the input to output insertion loss of a conventional (present field-installed) tap.", "As illustrated, at approximately 1.2 GHz the loss increases by approximately 3 db and this increase in loss prevents extending the bandwidth above this point.", "[0010] Being able to extend the bandwidth of the taps without having to physically replace the current taps with new taps would dramatically improve the cost and down time of future RF network upgrades beyond 1 GHz.", "SUMMARY [0011] A cable television tap comprising a housing, connectors, a tap plate, a bypass line and resonance restricting material.", "The connectors are to receive a main transmission line.", "The tap plate is in communication with the connectors to receive RF signals from the main transmission line, to provide a conduit for the RF signals to pass through the tap, and to process the RF signals for communication with a customer.", "The bypass line is to provide an alternative conduit through the tap when the tap plate is removed.", "The resonance restricting material is in communication with the bypass line, reduces resonances generated by the bypass line and insertion losses in RF range, and enables bandwidth for the cable television tap to be increased.", "[0012] A cable television tap utilized in a cable television network to provide a connection point for a customer to access services provided by the cable television network.", "The tap includes a housing, connectors to secure to a main transmission line, a tap plate to process RF signals to provide for communication with the customer, and a bypass line to provide an alternative conduit through the tap when the tap plate is removed.", "The bypass line generates resonances at a defined frequency in response to RF parameters in the tap and the resonances increase insertion losses at the defined frequency and precludes bandwidth of the tap being increased above the defined frequency.", "A resonance restricting material is provided in communication with the bypass line.", "The resonance restricting material attenuates the resonances generated by the bypass line at the defined frequency, reduces the insertion losses at the defined frequency, and enables the bandwidth of the tap to be increased without requiring the housing to be replaced.", "[0013] Bandwidth of a field-installed cable television tap may be increased by removing a tap plate from the tap, installing a resonance restricting material in communication with a bypass line for the tap, and installing the tap plate on the tap, wherein the tap plate supports increased bandwidth.", "The resonance restricting material attenuates resonances generated by the bypass line at a defined frequency, reduces the insertion losses at the defined frequency, and enables the bandwidth of the tap to be increased above the defined frequency.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0014] The features and advantages of the various embodiments will become apparent from the following detailed description in which: [0015] FIG. 1 illustrates an example block diagram of a CATV network utilizing a tap on a main transmission line to provide connectivity to a customer;", "[0016] FIG. 2 illustrates an example tap with the tap plate (RF circuitry) removed;", "[0017] FIG. 3 illustrates an example graph of the input to output insertion loss of a conventional (present field-installed) tap;", "[0018] FIG. 4 illustrates an internal view of the example tap having a material that may block RF signals and exhibit lossy characteristics in the RF range in communication with the bypass line, according to one embodiment;", "[0019] FIG. 5 illustrates an example graph of the input to output insertion loss of a conventional (present field-installed) tap utilizing the resonance restricting material in communication with the bypass line, according to one embodiment;", "[0020] FIGS. 6A-B illustrate example clips that may be used to secure the resonance restricting material to the bypass line, according to various embodiments;", "[0021] FIGS. 7A-B illustrate example mechanisms to secure the clips on the bypass line after installation, according to various embodiments;", "[0022] FIG. 8A illustrates an example face of a clip having a recessed portion formed therein for the resonance restricting material to fit within, according to one embodiment;", "[0023] FIG. 8B illustrates an example bottom of a lower face of a clip having contacts formed therein, according to one embodiment;", "[0024] FIG. 9 illustrates an internal view of the example tap providing safety precautions prior to installation of the resonance restricting material, according to one embodiment;", "[0025] FIG. 10 illustrates an example process flow to expand the bandwidth of a conventional (present field-installed) tap without replacing the housing, according to one embodiment;", "[0026] FIG. 11 illustrates an example graph of the input to output insertion loss of a conventional (present field-installed) tap with the tap plate removed;", "and [0027] FIG. 12 illustrates an example graph of the input to output insertion loss of a conventional (present field-installed) tap with the tap plate removed utilizing the resonance restricting material in communication with the bypass line, according to one embodiment.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0028] As taps are an integral part of the CATV network, in order to increase the bandwidth of the CATV network the taps need to be able to support the additional bandwidth.", "The tap plates (RF circuitry) have to be modified to process the additional bandwidth.", "In addition, the resonances generated by the bypass line as a result of the RF parameters within the tap need to be restricted, attenuated and/or shifted up the frequency spectrum (collectively referred to as controlled) so as not to impact the increased bandwidth.", "The resonances generated may be controlled by modifying the RF parameters of the tap or the interaction of the bypass line to the RF parameters.", "This may be done by, for example, replacing or modifying the housing, or replacing or modifying the bypass line within the tap.", "However, these options are cost and labor intensive.", "In addition, these options may require the main transmission line feeding the taps being modified or replaced to be shut down during the modification or replacement and thus may affect network availability.", "[0029] What is needed is a way to modify the resonances generated without having to replace or modify the current tap housings or bypass lines.", "However, utilizing the same housing will result in the same basic RF parameters therewithin and utilizing the same bypass line will result in the same response to the RF.", "Accordingly, the interaction of the RF and the bypass line needs to be altered in some fashion within the existing tap housing.", "[0030] According to one embodiment, a material capable of blocking RF may be placed on or around the bypass line to limit the RF that reaches the bypass line.", "The material may, for example, be a material utilized for electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding.", "Limiting the RF that interacts with the bypass line may change the bypass lines response to the RF parameters of the tap.", "In addition, according to an embodiment, the material may exhibit lossy characteristics (signal loss) in the RF range at or about the point where the resonances are generated by the bypass line (e.g., above 1 GHz).", "The use of the material in communication with the bypass line may modify (reduce) the quality factor (Q) of the bypass line.", "Reducing the Q of the bypass line may minimize the resonances generated at the lossy frequencies (e.g., above 1 GHz).", "Minimizing the resonances generated reduces the input to output insertion loss of the tap at these frequencies and may enable expansion of the tap bandwidth without having to replace the tap housing.", "[0031] In one embodiment, the material may be highly resistive or alternatively may have low resistivity but have a dielectric connected thereto to prevent inadvertent shorting of the alternating current (AC) power in the tap.", "The material may, for example, be a soft material that may be shaped to be in communication with the bypass line and fit within the housing.", "In one embodiment, the material may be a ferromagnetic material.", "The material may be, for example, a conductive elastomer that includes an elastomer binder (e.g., silicone) and a conductive filler (e.g., a combination of nickel (Ni) and carbon (C)).", "[0032] The material may be contained within, for example, a clip or a sleeve that can be slide over the bypass line with relative ease and once in place secure the material to the bypass line.", "The clip/sleeve may, for example, be made of a non-conductive material to enable the installer to secure the material to the bypass line, while limiting the risk of accidently grounding themselves to the power being transmitted over the bypass line.", "According to an embodiment, the clip may be made of a flexible material that can tolerate the elements within the tap (e.g., plastic).", "[0033] FIG. 4 illustrates an internal view of the example tap 200 having a material 410 that may block RF signals and exhibit lossy characteristics in the RF range in communication with the bypass transmission line 240 , according to one embodiment.", "The material 410 exhibiting these characteristics will be referred to herein after as resonance restricting material 410 .", "For ease of illustration, the resonance restricting material 410 is simply illustrated as being located on top of a portion of the bypass line 240 , but is not limited thereto.", "Rather, the resonance restricting material 410 may be placed below, on the side, or some combination of the top, bottom and side without departing from the current scope.", "In fact, placing the resonance restricting material 410 below the bypass line so that the resonance restricting material 410 replaces or supplements air as the dielectric between the bypass line 240 and the bottom of the housing may provide results that are desirable and be utilized alone or in combination with the side and/or top.", "[0034] Moreover, the portion of the bypass line 240 that is in communication with the resonance restricting material 410 is not limited to any specific percentage and may be selected, for example, based on providing the desired result or the ease of installation.", "The location and installation of the resonance restricting material 410 will be discussed in more detail later.", "[0035] The use of the resonance restricting material 410 within conventional (present field-installed) taps 200 that are utilized to provide 1 GHz bandwidth may reduce or eliminate the resonances generated by the bypass line 240 at approximately 1.2 GHz that resulted in substantial signal loss at that point (see FIG. 3 ) or may shift the resonances and the associated signal losses further out in the RF spectrum.", "[0036] FIG. 5 illustrates an example graph of the input to output insertion loss of a conventional (present field-installed) tap utilizing the resonance restricting material 410 in communication with the bypass line 240 , according to one embodiment.", "As illustrated, the additional loss of approximately 3 db at approximately 1.2 GHz present in conventional taps has substantially been reduced.", "By utilizing the resonance restricting material 410 in communication with the bypass line 240 the bandwidth of the taps may be extended to approximately 1.5 GHz.", "[0037] The resonance restricting material 410 may be highly resistive.", "Alternatively, the resonance restricting material 410 may have low resistivity but have a dielectric connected thereto to prevent inadvertent shorting of the alternating current (AC) power in the tap 200 .", "The dielectric may be coated onto an exterior surface of the material 410 .", "The thickness of the resonance restricting material 410 may be such that it provides the necessary properties (e.g., shielding, reduction of Q) when in communication with the bypass line 240 but does not interfere with or come in contact with other components of the tap 200 either during or after installation.", "The resonance restricting material 410 may be a soft material that may be shaped to be in communication with the bypass line 240 and fit within the housing 210 .", "[0038] The resonance restricting material 410 may be a ferromagnetic material.", "According to one embodiment, the resonance restricting material 410 may be a conductive elastomer that includes an elastomer binder and a conductive filler.", "The elastomer binder may be silicone or silicone based and the conductive filler may a combination of nickel (Ni) and carbon (C).", "The conductive elastomer may be provided as sheet stock, may be die cut to the appropriate size or may come in a moldable form.", "[0039] The resonance restricting material 410 needs to be capable of being installed on the bypass line 240 within the tap 200 in the field.", "As there is limited room within the tap 200 , and the tap 200 may still be powered when the installation occurs, the installation needs to be easy and safe.", "According to one embodiment, the resonance restricting material 410 may be contained within a clip that can be slid over the bypass line 240 with relative ease and once in place secure the resonance restricting material 410 to the bypass line 240 .", "The clip may be made of a non-conductive material to enable the installer to secure the resonance restricting material 410 to the bypass line 240 , while limiting the risk of accidently grounding themselves to the power being transmitted over the bypass line 240 .", "The clip may be made of a flexible material.", "The clip may be made of a material that can tolerate the elements within the tap 200 .", "The clip may be made of plastic.", "[0040] FIGS. 6A-B illustrate example clips that may be used to secure the resonance restricting material 410 to the bypass line 240 , according to various embodiments.", "For ease of illustration, neither the resonance restricting material 410 nor the bypass line 240 is illustrated with the clips.", "The resonance restricting material 410 may be secured to the clips through various means.", "The resonance restricting material 410 may be located within the clips to be connected to a lower surface of the bypass line 240 , an upper surface of the bypass line 240 , an upper edge of the bypass line 240 or some combination thereof.", "[0041] FIG. 6A illustrates a pinch clip 600 used to install and secure the resonance restricting material 410 to the bypass line 240 , according to one embodiment.", "The clip 600 includes a lower face 610 , an upper face 620 , a first connecting wall 630 and a second connecting wall 635 .", "The lower face 610 may be flexibly connected to the first connecting wall 630 so the angle between them can be modified when pressure is applied.", "The first connecting wall 630 and the second connecting wall 635 may be connected together at a defined angle.", "The upper face 620 may be connected to the second connecting wall 635 at a defined angle.", "In a steady state (no pressure applied to the connecting walls 630 , 635 ) back edges of the lower and upper faces 610 , 620 may be separated a greater distance then front edges.", "When the connecting walls 630 , 635 are pushed away from the front edge (e.g., pinched together) the angle between the lower face 610 and the first connecting wall 630 may increase and the front edge of the upper face 620 may rotate up so that the distance between the front edges of the faces 610 , 620 increases.", "[0042] To install the clip 600 , a technician may apply pressure to the second connecting wall 635 (e.g., push backward, push down) which causes the front edge of the upper face 620 to lift from the front edge of the lower face 610 .", "With the increased spacing between the front edges, the technician can slide the clip 600 over the bypass line 240 .", "Once the clip 600 is over the bypass line 240 , the technician can release the pressure on the second wall 635 so that the front edge of the upper face 620 is lowered towards the front edge of the lower face 610 (returns to steady state).", "The front edges of the faces 610 , 620 coming together may act to secure the clip 600 in place.", "The front edges of the faces 610 , 620 may come together past a lower edge of the bypass line 240 .", "Alternatively, the front edges of the faces 610 , 620 may come together on the bypass line 240 to squeeze the bypass line 240 .", "[0043] FIG. 6B illustrates a hinged clip 650 used to install and secure the resonance restricting material 410 to the bypass line 240 , according to one embodiment.", "The clip 650 includes the lower face 610 , the upper face 620 , and a connecting wall 660 .", "The lower face 610 may be connected to the connecting wall 660 at a defined angle.", "The upper face 620 may be pivotally connected to the connecting wall 660 (e.g., hinge like connection).", "The pivoting of the upper face 620 with respect to the connecting wall 660 enables the front edge of the upper face 620 to be rotated to and away from the front edge of the lower face 610 .", "To install the clip 650 , a technician may swing the upper face 620 up to slide the clip 650 over the bypass line 240 .", "Once the clip 600 is over the bypass line 240 , the technician can swing the upper face 620 down so that the front edge of the upper face 620 is in close proximately of the front edge of the lower face 610 .", "[0044] The clips used to secure the resonance restricting material 410 to the bypass line 240 are in no way intended to be limited to the pinch clip 600 and the hinged clip 650 illustrated in FIGS. 6A-B respectively.", "Rather, any type of clip, sleeve, wrapping, or the like that enables the resonance restricting material 410 to be coupled to the bypass line 240 , preferably in an easy and safe manner, is within the current scope.", "[0045] For example, the faces 610 , 620 are illustrated as being substantially the same size and being rectangular in shape but are in no way intended to be limited thereto.", "The connecting walls 630 , 635 , 660 are illustrated as extending substantially the length of the faces 610 , 620 but are in no way intended to be limited thereto.", "Rather, the size and shape of the faces 610 , 620 and the connecting walls 630 , 635 , 660 can be selected based on any number of parameters including the size and shape of the resonance restricting material 410 , the size and shape of the bypass line 240 , the location of the resonance restricting material 410 with respect to the bypass line 240 (e.g., top, bottom, top/bottom) and the size and accessibility of the tap 200 .", "For example, if the resonance restricting material 410 is only being placed below the bypass line 240 , the upper face 620 may simply be one or more arms used to secure the clip to the bypass line 240 .", "[0046] According to one embodiment, the faces 610 , 620 may be secured together in some fashion for additional support once the clip (e.g., 600 , 650 ) is installed on the bypass line 240 .", "FIGS. 7A-B illustrate example mechanisms to secure the clips on the bypass line 240 after installation, according to various embodiments.", "[0047] FIG. 7A illustrates a tab and groove system to secure the faces 610 , 620 of a clip (e.g., 600 , 650 ) together after it has been installed on the bypass line 240 , according to one embodiment.", "The lower face 610 includes a tab 712 formed in a front edge.", "The upper face 620 includes a pivoting flap 722 formed in a front edge thereof.", "The flap 722 has a groove 724 formed therein in alignment with the tab 712 .", "Once the clip is installed on the bypass line 240 the flap 722 can be rotated down so that the groove 724 engages the tab 712 .", "[0048] The number and location of tabs 712 on the lower face 610 and flaps/grooves 722 / 724 on the upper face 620 may vary without departing from the current scope.", "In fact, according to one embodiment, the tabs 712 could be formed on the upper face 620 and flaps/grooves 722 / 724 could be formed on the lower face 610 , and the flap 722 can be rotated up so that the groove 724 engages the tab 712 once the clip is installed on the bypass line 240 .", "[0049] FIG. 7B illustrates a pin and snap system to secure the faces 610 , 620 of a clip (e.g., 600 , 650 ) together after it has been installed on the bypass line 240 , according to one embodiment.", "The lower face 610 includes female connectors 716 (e.g., snaps) in a front edge and the upper face 620 includes male connectors 726 (e.g., pins) formed in a front edge thereof in alignment with the snaps 716 .", "Once the clip is installed on the bypass line 240 , the technician may apply pressure on the upper face 620 so that the pins 726 enter and engage the snaps 716 .", "[0050] The number and location of snaps 716 on the lower face 610 and pins 726 on the upper face 620 may vary without departing from the current scope.", "In fact, according to one embodiment, the snaps 716 could be formed on the upper face 620 and pins 726 could be formed on the lower face 610 .", "[0051] The mechanisms to secure the clips after installation are in no way intended to be limited to the tab and groove 712 / 724 or pin and snap 716 / 726 illustrated in FIGS. 7A-B respectively.", "Rather, any type of mechanisms to secure the clips after installation is within the current scope.", "[0052] If the resonance restricting material 410 is secured to a top surface of a face (e.g., 610 , 620 ), when the clip is secured to the bypass line 240 the resonance restricting material 410 may be compressed therebetween.", "If the clip is too tight the resonance restricting material 410 may be overly compressed and damaged or the property of the material may be affected.", "[0053] FIG. 8A illustrates a face (e.g., 610 , 620 ) of a clip (e.g., 600 , 650 ) having a recessed portion formed therein for the resonance restricting material 410 to fit within, according to one embodiment.", "The recess may be substantially the same depth as the depth of the resonance restricting material 410 so that an exterior of the recessed portion (e.g., sidewalls) 810 may be at approximately the same level as the resonance restricting material 410 .", "When the clip is secured to the bypass line 240 , the sidewalls 810 may control the amount of compression and prevent the resonance restricting material 410 from being adversely impacted.", "[0054] Providing electrical contact between the resonance restricting material 410 and the housing may provide additional resonance reduction.", "However, for safety reasons and for the integrity of the resonance restricting material 410 a direct connection may not be desirable.", "[0055] FIG. 8B illustrates an example bottom of a lower face (e.g., 610 ) of a clip (e.g., 600 , 650 ) having contacts 820 (e.g., copper).", "The lower face may have openings formed therein and the contacts 820 may connect to the resonance restricting material 410 through the openings.", "The contacts 820 may extend below the lower face and contact the housing when the clip is connected to the bypass line 240 .", "The contacts 820 may help secure the clip in place.", "[0056] In order to limit the down time of the CATV network, the installation of the material 410 onto the bypass line 240 in the taps 200 will likely occur while the tap 200 is still powered by the CATV network.", "Installing the resonance restricting material 410 while the tap 200 is powered, requires the installer to be careful to ensure that they do not accidently ground themselves to the power being transmitted therethrough (e.g., connectors 220 , 230 , interfaces 225 , 235 ).", "Precautions may be taken prior to installation of the resonance restricting material 410 to prevent inadvertent contact with the connectors 220 , 230 and the interfaces 225 , 235 .", "[0057] FIG. 9 illustrates an internal view of the example tap 200 providing safety precautions prior to installation of the resonance restricting material 410 , according to one embodiment.", "The tap 200 includes a safety shield 910 (non-conductive material) in communication with an upper surface of the housing 210 to cover the connectors 220 , 230 and the interfaces 225 , 235 .", "The safety shield 910 may be placed over the housing 210 prior to installation of the clip 920 and resonance restricting material 410 on the bypass line 240 .", "The safety shield 910 either may rest on the housing 210 or may be secured to the housing 210 (e.g., snapped on, screwed in).", "As illustrated, the clip 920 includes a lower face 930 that the resonance restricting material 410 is connected to and an upper face 940 that consists of two arms.", "[0058] FIG. 10 illustrates an example process flow to expand the bandwidth of conventional (field-installed) taps without replacing the housing, according to one embodiment.", "Initially, the tap plate (RF electronics) is removed from the tap 1000 .", "The safety shield may then be connected to the tap to cover the areas of the tap having power 1010 .", "It should be noted that in operation, the installer may preclude installing the safety shield.", "The resonance restricting material may be secured to the bypass line using, for example, the clip 1020 .", "If the safety shield was utilized, the safety shield is removed 1030 .", "A tap plate is then installed on the tap 1040 .", "The tap plate installed may be a new tap plate with a higher bandwidth.", "Alternatively, the tap plate installed may be the same tap plate that was removed or a replacement tap plate if the resonance restricting material was installed to reduce losses occurring within the current bandwidth spectrum.", "For example, if the CATV network currently supported 1.2 GHz bandwidth and the present field-installed tap supported a bandwidth of 1.2 GHz but experienced losses at the upper edge of this bandwidth, the resonance restricting material may be installed to ensure the tap can support the entire bandwidth.", "[0059] The use of the resonance restricting material 410 may cause additional tap input to output insertion loss when the tap plate is removed and the signals and power are being transmitted down stream via the bypass line 240 .", "However, the operation of a tap without the tap plate is not a typical operational mode.", "Rather, this scenario occurs when the tap plate has been removed for repair, replacement or upgrade and is a temporary situation.", "Accordingly, it will have minimal service impact.", "[0060] FIG. 11 illustrates an example graph of the input to output insertion loss of a conventional (present field-installed) tap with the tap plate removed.", "As illustrated, there is negligible losses through approximately 1.2 GHz.", "[0061] FIG. 12 illustrates an example graph of the input to output insertion loss of a conventional (present field-installed) tap with the tap plate removed utilizing the resonance restricting material 410 in communication with the bypass line 240 , according to one embodiment.", "As illustrated, approximately 1 or 2 dB of loss occur between 600 MHz and 1.2 GHz.", "[0062] Although the disclosure has been illustrated by reference to specific embodiments, it will be apparent that the disclosure is not limited thereto as various changes and modifications may be made thereto without departing from the scope.", "Reference to “one embodiment”", "or “an embodiment”", "means that a particular feature, structure or characteristic described therein is included in at least one embodiment.", "Thus, the appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment”", "or “in an embodiment”", "appearing in various places throughout the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment.", "[0063] The various embodiments are intended to be protected broadly within the spirit and scope of the appended claims." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Diesel locomotives of the type having electrically-driven traction motors require wire of a size capable of carrying a current of around 1100 amps.", "The size of aluminum multi-strand wire having this capability is on the order of one million circular mils in cross-sectional area.", "The current carrying requirements and physical wire size have provided workers in the field with a problem in terminating so as to prevent terminal overheating and failure.", "One solution to this problem was to use heavy-walled copper terminals.", "However, heretofore, means of manageable size adequate to crimp a heavy-walled copper terminal around a million circular mil wire were not available, particularly when copper wire was used.", "In conjunction with this, aluminum wire can be used as a replacement for the copper wire offering numerous advantages, such as weight and cost savings, and reduced resistance to crimping when high pressures may be required.", "As is well known, the undesirable properties of creep, cold flow, oxidation, thermal expansion and corrosion which are inherent in aluminum have to be overcome in providing a reliable and stable termination.", "Prior to recent developments in the field of crimp terminations for aluminum wire, welding was the only method for avoiding the aforementioned undesirable properties.", "This method, however, was both costly and time consuming and provided only marginal results in many instances.", "Now however, the development of the aluminum crimp techniques as disclosed in U.S. Pat. applications, Ser.", "No. 346,530, filed on Mar. 29, 1973 and Ser.", "No. 481,590, filed on June 21, 1974, the disclosures of both being incorporated herein by reference, teaches methods which overcome the aforementioned properties in an inexpensive manner and with excellent results.", "Generally and briefly, these methods provide a perforated liner between the wire and wire barrel and further use crimping forces sufficiently high to deform the terminal and wire by a factor of 65 percent.", "Utilizing these methods however with heavy-walled copper terminals and wire of one million circular mils in cross-sectional area presented problems, the solution to which were not obvious.", "Manually operated tools capable of crimping large size terminals are heavy, bulky and generally do not provide the pressures required.", "Tools operated by electricity or compressed air are bulky and expensive.", "Further, power or compressed air is not always available at the sites where the termination is to be made.", "With these limitations in mind, Applicant considered propellant-driven devices with which Applicant's assignee has some experience;", "e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,163,200 and 3,187,500, the disclosures thereof being incorporated herein.", "U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,981,130, 2,995,053 and 3,251,216, assigned to Applicant's assignee also, are additional state of the art disclosures.", "It was discovered however that the tools disclosed in the aforementioned patents lacked the capabilities required.", "One problem was in the propellant-carrying element and means for exhausting the gases.", "Another problem was that of providing a method for driving the moving die out of engagement with the terminal after crimping it around the wire.", "The solution to these and other problems resulted in the instant invention which provides a propellant-driven device having a elongated housing whose walls define an interior chamber.", "One die is fixed at one end of the chamber and a second, movable die is slidingly positioned therein so that it can be driven against a terminal placed on the first die.", "The other end of the chamber contains a recess for receiving the rim of a cartridge containing the propellant.", "The cartridge is made of a plastic which, upon detonation of the propellant, separates and becomes gas-tight seals.", "The cap or closure means contain the firing mechanism and also a combination safety to prevent unintentional detonation and a means to seal off a gas release passageway which connects the chamber to outside the housing.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the preferred embodiment constructed in accordance with the present invention.", "A closed barrel terminal and prepared wire are shown to the left;", "FIG. 2 is a view of the wire and terminal after being crimped together by the preferred embodiment shown in FIG. 1;", "FIG. 3 is a sectionized view of the preferred embodiment shown in FIG. 1;", "FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the cartridge used in the preferred embodiment;", "FIG. 5 shows details of the locking mechanism of the preferred embodiment;", "FIG. 6 is a partially sectionized view of the preferred embodiment illustrating the anvil return spring mechanism;", "and FIGS. 7 and 8, both being views taken along lines 7--7 of FIG. 6, illustrate the functional aspects of the locking mechanism of the preferred embodiment of FIG. 1. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to the drawings wherein like reference numerals represent corresponding parts in all Figures, there is shown on the right in FIG. 1 a device 10 which is used for crimping a heavy-walled terminal 12, seen on the left, into encompassing engagement with a large diameter wire 14 to provide the termination 16 shown in FIG. 2. Device 10, also referred to as a propellant-driven crimping press, possesses the following visible outer elements;", "a housing 18, a lateral window 20 which has a counterpart on the housing's opposite side (see FIG. 3), a closure means or cap 22 and a safety means or safety arm 24.", "A fixed die 26, or nest, may be seen through window 20.", "This die is U-shaped with sidewalls 27 extending upwardly from either side of the die's floor.", "Housing 18 is preferably provided with an enlarged base 28 so that device 10 may stand free.", "Cap 22 contains lateral flutes 30 as shown for ease in handling.", "Safety arm 24 has a cover 32 on its free end to shield firing pin assembly 34 centrally positioned in cap 22.", "Terminal 12 consists of a ring tongue front end 36 and a closed wire barrel 38.", "Dimensionally the wire barrel is about 41/2 inches long and has a wall thickness of 0.20 inches.", "The terminal is made from copper, plated with tin and weighs about 2 pounds.", "Wire 14 is a multi-strand aluminum cable having a cross-sectional area of about one million circular mils.", "In order to achieve a reliable crimp the terminal and wire must be deformed to about 40 percent of the non-deformed cross-sectional area.", "The force required to achieve this degree of deformation on the heavy-walled terminal and large diameter wire is about 65 tons per square inch.", "FIG. 2 illustrates the high deformation crimp achieved via device 10.", "A transverse bar 39 (FIG.", "3), located on the floor of the fixed die 26, pushes in (relatively speaking) on the bottom of wire barrel 38 as shown by reference numeral 40.", "The deformation extends completely across the wire barrel.", "The moveable die (reference numeral 54 in FIG. 3) pushes in on the top of the wire barrel in a generally oval pattern as indicated by reference numeral 42.", "The strands of wire inbetween the two deformed areas are both extruded longitudinally and cold welded together.", "The extrusion process breaks up aluminum oxide which may be present on the strands thereby providing fresh or clean metal to adjacent strands which enhances the process of cold welding.", "The internal details of device 10 may be seen in FIG. 3. Chamber 44 within the housing is closed at its lower end by a plug 46.", "A pair of screws 48 extend through the plug and secure fixed die 26 thereto.", "The upper part of the housing contains a passageway 50 which is concentric with and connects chamber 44 with the top surface 52 of the housing.", "A moveable die 54, shown in its raised position in the device has a piston 56 at its upper end and an anvil 58 at its lower end.", "As FIG. 3 indicates piston 56 fits very closely in passageway 50.", "With reference to FIG. 5 also, the outside upper portion of housing 18 has a portion of reduced diameter to form a cap-receiving section 60.", "Section 60 is cylindrical and has first and second laterally projecting lugs, reference numerals 62 and 64 respectively, each spaced diametrically with respect to the other.", "Both lugs are relatively thick to provide adequate locking means for cap 22.", "Lug 62 has a radius of about 82° and lug 64 has a radius of 90°.", "A horizontal gas release passage 65 and gas release pin 68 slidingly housed in passage 66 are positioned in section 60 off to one side of lug 62.", "Referring specifically to FIG. 3, the passage's diameter is abruptly reduced adjacent passageway 50 and pin 68 has a reduced diameter stud 69 which fits sealingly into the reduced area.", "Stop means comprised of a vertical passage 70 and rod 72 is positioned through lug 64 and into the lower cap receiving section 60.", "With continuing reference to FIGS. 1, 3 and 5, cap 22 forms a closure means for housing 18 and chamber 44.", "The lower edge of the cap contains two inwardly projecting flanges 74 and 76 respectively, one being positioned opposite the other.", "These flanges cooperate with lugs 62 and 64 in securing cap 22 to housing 18, flange 74 sliding below lug 62 and flange 76 sliding below lug 64.", "L-shaped safety arm 24 is pivotably mounted on the side of cap 22, pivoting being provided by pin 78 located in a horizontal passageway 80.", "A slot 82 in the side of the cap receives part of the arm when it is in its safety position covering firing pin assembly 34 as shown in FIG. 5. Safety arm 24 is positioned on cap 22 so that as it is pivoted back, uncovering firing pin assembly 34, its pivotably mounted end 84 engages and pushes gas release pin 68 inwardly thereby sealing off passage 66.", "With reference specifically to FIG. 3, firing pin assembly 34 consists of firing pin passage 86, a spring 88, a firing pin 90, and a firing pin striker 92 moveably positioned over pin 90.", "A retaining plate 94, secured to cap 22 by conventional means, provides retaining means for the firing pin assembly.", "FIG. 6 illustrates the means for biasing moveable die 54 against the upper part of chamber 44.", "These means consist of vertical passageway 96, a heavy lower spring 98 and a lighter upper spring 100, both mounted on a lower pin 102.", "A hollow spring compressing rod 104 is secured to a bottom surface of moveable die 54.", "The dashed lines 106, seen on the opposite side of housing 18 indicate the location of a second identical set of biasing means.", "The propellant means for propelling moveable die 54 downwardly toward fixed die 26 is shown in FIG. 4. These means include a cartridge 107 which consists of a lower, cup shaped base 108 and a cover 110.", "The material used in making these two parts is preferably nylon.", "Cover 110 has a downwardly depending skirt 112 which slides over upstanding walls 114 on base 108 thereby forming a chamber 120.", "Cover 110 also has a lateral rim 116 extending around its periphery.", "This rim sets in a circumferential groove 118 located at the open end of passageway 50 of the cap-receiving section 60.", "FIG. 5 shows the groove clearly.", "Propellant 122, which may be Bullseye smokeless powder, manufactured by E. I. DuPont deNemours &", "Company, fills chamber 120.", "Cover 110 contains an opening 123 in which, primer 124 is positioned.", "Primer 124 is detonated by being struck by firing pin 90.", "FIGS. 7 and 8 illustrate the mechanics of securing cap 22 to cap-receiving section 60.", "In FIG. 7, cap 22 has been placed over cap-receiving section 60.", "Note that flange 76 on cap 22 spans the space between gas release pin 68 and lug 64.", "Also note that safety arm 24 is positioned at the end of lug 62 opposite the gas release pin.", "In FIG. 8 cap 22 has been rotated clockwise to where one end of flange 76, shown as dashed lines, abuts against rod 72.", "Both flanges 74 and 76 are under lugs 62 and 64 respectively and safety arm 24 is bearing against gas release pin 68.", "The utilization of device 10 is straight-forward, lending itself to use by even the most unskilled workman with only a minimal amount of training.", "Beginning with the device as shown in FIG. 5;", "i.e., cap 22 being removed, a cartridge 107 is placed into the top of passageway 50 with rim 116 being seated in groove 118.", "Cap 22 is placed on cap-receiving section 60 (FIG.", "7) and rotated clockwise (FIG.", "8) until flange 76 abuts rod 72.", "Device 10 is now as such is shown in FIGS. 1 and 6;", "i.e., cover 32 on safety arm 24 shielding firing pin assembly 34.", "The stripped end of wire 14 is now inserted into wire barrel 38 of terminal 12.", "Terminal 12 is then placed into fixed die 26 via window 20 so that the approximate middle of the wire barrel is resting on bar 39 located on the fixed die.", "Safety arm 24 is pivoted outwardly, thereby exposing firing assembly 34 and simultaneously pressing in on gas release pin 68 thereby sealing off gas release passage 66.", "Upon striking firing pin striker 92, firing pin 90 detonates primer 124 which in turn detonates propellant 122.", "The gases generated thereby expand, driving moveable die 54 downwardly.", "Base 108, which becomes separated from the cover 110 of cartridge 107, acts as a seal around piston 56 thereby preventing gas from blowing by.", "Die 54 strikes and crimps terminal 12 between it and fixed die 26.", "After the force of the burning gases have been expended, heavy spring 98 acts to drive the die out from engagement with crimped terminal 12 and lighter spring 100 pushes the die up to its normal position.", "Safety arm 24 is pivoted back onto cap 22 thereby releasing gas release pin 68 and the residue gas in the chamber above piston 56.", "Using 70 grains of Bullseye powder, the propellant-driven device disclosed above develops on the order of 65 tons pressure per square inch.", "Tests show that this energy is required to achieve a satisfactory crimp of a wire barrel having a 2 inch diameter with walls 0.20 inches thick.", "The dimensions of the device used include a housing 18 having a height of 10.12 inches and made from alloy steel.", "The diameter of chamber 44 is 2.24 inches.", "The radius of cap 22 is 5.75 inches.", "The material used in making the cap is preferably alloy steel, the entire device weighs about 60 pounds.", "As noted elsewhere, wire 14 crimped in the wire barrel was multi-stranded aluminum wire having a cross-sectional area of one million circular mils.", "The foregoing detailed description has been given for clearness of understanding only, and no unnecessary limitations should be understood therefrom, as some modifications will be obvious to those skilled in the art." ]

[ "FIELD OF TECHNOLOGY [0001] The present invention belongs to the field of polypeptide technology, especially relates to a novel antimicrobial peptide and methods of making and using such peptide to prepare therapeutic compositions for inhibiting microbial infections.", "PRIOR ART [0002] Antibiotic, the medicine that resistant to pathogenic microorganisms, is the biggest class of antibacterial and anti-inflammatory medicine.", "Antibiotics, the substance produced by bacteria, fungi or other microorganisms in their life, with the ability to inhibit or kill pathogenic microorganisms like bacteria, fungi, spirochete, mycoplasma, and chlamydia, can cure illness.", "Other antibiotics are treatments for malignant tumors.", "Antibiotic drugs with numerous varieties are widely applied to different kinds of infectious illness.", "The extensive clinical use of classical antibiotics has led to the growing emergence of many medically relevant resistant strains of bacteria.", "Moreover, only three new structural classes of antibiotics (the oxazolidinone, linezolid, the streptogramins and the lipopeptide-daptomycin) have been introduced into medical practice in the past 40 years.", "Therefore, the development of a new class of antibiotics has great significance.", "The cationic antimicrobial peptides could represent such a new class of antibiotics.", "Although the exact mode of action of the cationic antimicrobial peptides has not been entirely established, all cationic amphipathic peptides interact with membranes and the cytoplasmic membrane is the main target of antimicrobial peptides, where antimicrobial peptide accumulation in the membrane may cause increased permeability and loss of barrier function.", "Therefore, the development of resistance to these membrane active peptides is almost impossible because this would require substantial changes in the lipid composition of cell membranes of microorganisms.", "[0003] Two major classes of the cationic antimicrobial peptides are the α-helical and the β-sheet peptides.", "The β-sheet class includes cyclic peptides constrained in this conformation either by intramolecular disulfide bonds, e.g., defensins and protegrins, or by an N-terminal to C-terminal covalent bond, e.g., gramicidin S and tyrocidines.", "Unlike the β-sheet peptides, α-helical peptides are more linear molecules that mainly exist as disordered structures in aqueous media and become amphipathic helices upon interaction with the hydrophobic membranes, e.g., cecropins, magainins and melittins.", "[0004] Nowadays, most antimicrobial peptides discovered are directly purified from organisms.", "Examples like Magainin from epidermis of toad and Melittin from body of bee all consist of L-amino acids.", "[0005] The antimicrobial peptides directly obtained from organisms are exclusive to other organisms, therefore they can hardly be applied to human people.", "Namely this class of antimicrobial peptides is greatly harmful to human people.", "Many of the antimicrobial peptides are unable to become drugs because of this toxicity.", "In addition, some peptides consisting of L-amino acids are apt to be hydrolyzed to lose activity by protease, hence their effectiveness are severely restricted.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0006] In the present invention, peptides which can be used as antimicrobial agents and related compounds are synthesized with solid phase peptide synthesis method.", "This solves increasingly severe drug resistance problem and takes away the suffering that refractory infection brings to the patients.", "The antimicrobial peptides in the present invention can be applied to all sorts of refractory infections and common infections.", "They would become a promising substitute or ancillary drug of existing antibiotics.", "[0007] In order to achieve the objects described above in this invention, the following technologic methods are adopted: [0008] The amino acid sequence of polypeptide mentioned in this invention which can be used as antimicrobial agents is Ac-Phe-Lys-Lys-Leu-Lys-Lys-Leu-Phe-Ser-Lys-Leu-Trp-Asn-Trp-Lys-NH 2 (SEQ ID No. 1), including L-enantiomers (namely PL-13) and D-enantiomers (namely PL-18).", "[0009] Preferably, said antimicrobial peptide wherein Leu in the amino acid sequence is substituted by any amino acid residues in Ile, Val, norleucine and norvaline.", "[0010] Preferably, said antimicrobial peptide wherein Phe in the amino acid sequence is substituted by any amino acid residues in Trp, Tyr, Leu, Ile, Val, norleucine and norvaline.", "[0011] Preferably, said antimicrobial peptide wherein Trp in the amino acid sequence is substituted by any amino acid residues in Phe, Tyr, Leu, Ile, Val, norleucine and norvaline.", "[0012] Preferably, said antimicrobial peptide comprising whole L-enantiomers and whole D-enantiomers;", "or any one or several amino acids of said antimicrobial peptide are substituted by L-amino acid or D-amino acid.", "[0013] Preferably, the peptide with amino acid sequence 85% to 100% homologous to said antimicrobial peptide and its related compounds generated by substitution of some amino acids with different methods, lengthening or truncation of peptide sequence.", "[0014] This invention also provides a solid phase peptide synthesis method to synthesize said antimicrobial peptide of previous technologic method, including steps as follow: [0015] 1) Taking amides resin, Fmoc protected amino acid, coupling reagent and organic alkali as initial raw materials;", "the Fmoc protected amino acid-amide resin conjugate is prepared in protected organic solvent.", "[0016] 2) Solid phase method is utilized to couple sequentially connected amino acids comprising protecting groups one by one, and linear peptide with its side-chain totally protected is synthesized.", "[0017] 3) Last amino acid on N-terminal of peptide is connected to resin and Fmoc protecting groups are taken off, and proper chemical modification is carried out.", "[0018] 4) Shear reagent is added to shear off peptide from resin, and after vacuum freeze drying crude peptide is generated.", "[0019] Preferably, that purified peptide is prepared on C 4 , or C8, or C 18 reversed-phase chromatography column using HPLC linear AB gradient at a flow rate of 0.5-5 ml/min, wherein mobile phase A is 0.01-0.5% aqueous TFA, and B is 0.01-0.5% TFA in acetonitrile.", "[0020] More preferably, the purity of peptide is verified by analytical RP-HPLC as described below: runs are performed on C 4 , or C8, or C 18 column using AB gradient and a flow rate of 0.1-5 ml/min, wherein mobile phase A is 0.01-0.5% aqueous TFA, and B is 0.01-0.5% TFA in acetonitrile.", "[0021] The antimicrobial peptides of the invention can be applied to prepare therapeutic composition for inhibiting microbial infection such as antibacterial agents.", "If made to antibacterial agents, herein the range of dosage of antimicrobial peptide in said antibacterial agent is: 0.1-50 mg/kg in injection, 0.1-50 mg/kg in oral liquid, 1/10000-10%/piece of externally-applied agents, 1/10000-10%/piece of eye drops, and 1/10000-1‰/piece of lotion.", "[0022] The antimicrobial peptides of the invention have potent antimicrobial activities and are useful against bacteria, fungi, viruses, and protozoa.", "The peptides are generally effective in the context of any organism having a cellular or structural component of a lipid bilayer membrane.", "These peptides are effective compounds for uses in human and/or veterinary medicine, or as agents in agricultural, food science, or industrial applications.", "[0023] From numerous structure and effectiveness studies on both natural and synthetic antimicrobial peptides, we discover that some physical characteristics are vital for antimicrobial activity.", "These characteristics are including suitable charge number under mild pH values, the presence of both hydrophobic and alkaline residues, an amphipathic nature that segregates basic and hydrophobic residues, and an inducible or preformed secondary structure (α-helical or β-sheet).", "[0024] The present invention also provides an antimicrobial peptide comprising an amino acid sequence Ac-Phe-Lys-Lys-Leu-Lys-Lys-Leu-Phe-Ser-Lys-Leu-Trp-Asn-Trp-Lys-NH 2 (SEQ ID No. 1).", "[0025] The present invention also provides a method of treating microbial infections comprising administering to the patient with an antimicrobial peptide compound of the invention.", "In clinical practice, the microbial infections involve infections caused by one or more pathogens like a bacterium, a virus, a fungus, or a protozoan, e.g., infection caused by two different kinds of bacteria, and so forth.", "However, clinical test is for the process of infection and determination of therapeutic plan, which is relatively cumbersome.", "This invention is aimed to treat infections caused by complicate and drug-resistant pathogens by one kind of administration (antimicrobial peptides).", "[0026] This invention synthesizes PL-13 and peptide analogs with the technology of solid phase peptide de novo design.", "These peptides possess potent antibacterial and antifungal activity, meanwhile low toxicity to human cells.", "In the composition of sequence, these peptides (can be composed of 13 to 17 homologous amino acids, shown in sequence listing information of Example 1) share amino acid homology higher than 85% with PL-13.", "[0027] The polypeptide molecule of this invention is in certain secondary structure (e.g. helical structure) in a hydrophobic environment.", "We have used circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy to monitor α-helical structure in 50% trifluoroethanol (a mimic of the hydrophobic environment of the cytoplasmic membrane).", "[0028] The preferred antimicrobial peptides of this invention that are helical analogs with potential biological activities have very little alpha-helical structure in benign medium (a non-denaturing medium like 50 mM PO 4 buffer containing 100 mM KCl, pH 7) monitored by circular dichroism spectroscopy.", "This structural property can have importance in mechanisms of antimicrobial peptides, for example: a) decreasing polymerization of molecule in benign medium, namely self-association ability;", "b) allowing the peptide to more easily penetrate through the cell wall to reach the membrane of the microbe.", "Furthermore, disruption of the α-helical structure in benign medium has no impacts on the attraction of peptide (positively-charged) to the cell wall surface (negatively-charged) of the microbe, but the lack of structure can decrease the affinity of peptide (hydrophobic interactions between hydrophobic groups in cell wall surface and hydrophobic surface of peptide) for this surface which allows the peptide to more easily pass through the cell wall and enter the interface region of the membrane where the peptide is parallel to the surface of membrane.", "Here the peptide can be induced by the hydrophobic environment of the membrane into its alpha-helical structure.", "In this alpha-helical structure, we hypothesize that the non-polar face of the peptide can interact with the hydrophobicity of the membrane, and its polar and positively-charged groups on the polar face can interact with the polar head of the phospholipids (negatively-charged) on the surface of the membrane.", "[0029] An antimicrobial peptide is net positively-charged and amphipathic/amphiphilic when in an alpha-helical structure.", "For example, the alpha-helical peptide has a non-polar face or hydrophobic surface on one side of the molecule and a polar and positively-charged surface on the other side of the molecule;", "i.e., the molecule is amphipathic.", "[0030] Certain peptide analogs are studied by temperature profiling in RP-HPLC from 5 to 80° C., to evaluate the self-associating ability of the molecules in solution.", "The ability to self-associate can be another important parameter in measuring peptide antimicrobial and hemolytic activities.", "It is generally found that a high ability to self-associate in solution is correlated with weak antimicrobial activity and strong hemolytic activity of the peptides.", "Biological studies showed that strong hemolytic activity of the peptides generally correlated with high hydrophobicity, high amphipathicity and high helicity.", "In most cases, the D-amino acid substituted peptides possess an enhanced average antimicrobial activity compared with L-diastereomers.", "By replacing the hydrophobic or hydrophilic amino acid residue on the non-polar or the polar face of these amphipathic molecules with a series of selected D- and L-amino acids, we further demonstrate that this method can be used for the rational design of other antimicrobial peptides with enhanced activities.", "[0031] The preferred peptide PL-13 and its D-enantiomers peptide PL-18 of this invention comprise following amino acid sequence.", "[0000] TABLE 1 Peptide and amino acid sequence Peptide One letter code name Product sequence sequence PL-13 Ac-Phe-Lys-Lys-Leu- Ac-F L -K L -K L -L L -K L - Lys-Lys-Leu-Phe- K L -L L -F L -S L -K L -L L - Ser-Lys-Leu-Trp- W L -N L -W L -K L -NH 2 Asn-Trp-Lys-NH 2 PL-18 D-Ac-Phe-Lys-Lys-Leu- Ac-F D -K D -K D -L D -K D - Lys-Lys-Leu-Phe-Ser- K D -L D -F D -S D -K D -L D - Lys-Leu-Trp-Asn-Trp- W D -N D -W D -K D -NH 2 Lys-NH 2 [0032] Here in one letter code, a subscript D following an amino acid residue denotes that the residue is a D-amino acid residue;", "similarly, a subscript L denotes an L-amino acid residue.", "In the peptide name, an initial D- (not subscripted) denotes all D-amino acids in the peptide except where specified.", "Ac denotes Nα-acetyl and NH 2 denotes Cα-amide.", "[0033] Aforementioned antimicrobial peptide and its composition can be prepared as any medically biological carrier or agent to treat patients with infection.", "[0034] The bulk drug of this invention preferred the dosage ranging from 0.01 to 50 mg.", "[0035] The excipients used for preparation of injection of this invention include sdisodium ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid, Tween-80, mannitol, glycerol and propylene glycol.", "[0036] The excipients used for preparation of oral solid agent of this invention include microcrystalline cellulose, L-HPC, polyvinylpyrrolidone, aerosol, starch, dextrin, sucrose, lactose, talcum powder, magnesium stearate, sodium carboxymethyl starch, PVPP, pregelatinized starch and so forth.", "[0037] The excipients used for preparation of externally-applied agent of this invention include mannitol, Polysorbate 80, polyethylene glycol, Polyoxyl(40)Stearate, glycerol, carbomer, triethanolamine, alcohol, polyvinylpyrrolidone, tartaric acid, sodium bicarbonate, polyvinyl alcohol, sodium benzoate, microcrystalline cellulose, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose and so forth.", "[0038] The excipients used for preparation of oral liquid agent of this invention include alcohol, ethylparaben, methyl hydroxybenzoate, Polysorbate 80, sodium benzoate, sorbic acid, honey, sucrose, sodium bisulfite, sodium thiosulfate, ascorbic acid, thiocarbamide, disodium EDTA, phosphoric acid, citric acid, glycerol, lactose and so forth.", "[0039] Aforementioned raw material composition can be matched with proportional common medical excipients to make one kind of formulation comprising injection, tablets, capsules, granules, oral liquid, ointment, cream ointment, gel, eye drops, aerosol, patch, plastics, and lotion with conventional methods in this field.", "The preparation and technology of common formulations are shown in following examples.", "[0040] The range of dosage of antimicrobial peptide in said antimicrobial agents is: 0.1-50 mg/kg in injection, 0.1-50 mg/kg in oral agents, 1/10000-10%/piece of externally-applied agents, 1/10000-10%/piece of eye drops, and 1/100000-1‰/piece of lotion.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS [0041] FIG. 1 illustrates PL-13 as a helical wheel/nets and its amino acid sequences.", "[0042] FIG. 2 illustrates graphical results of Circular dichroism (CD) spectra of peptide and its analogs.", "[0043] FIG. 3 illustrates the RP-HPLC temperature profiles of peptide and its analogs.", "[0044] FIG. 4 illustrates the normalized RP-HPLC temperature profiles of peptide and its analogs.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS [0045] The invention may be further demonstrated by the following specific examples.", "Example 1 Sequence Information of Related Antimicrobial Peptides Derived from PL-12 [0046] PL-12, a 15-residue amphipathic α-helical antimicrobial peptide comprising the sequence Ac-FKRLEKLFSKIWNWK-NH 2 with a polar and non-polar face, is selected as the native parent peptide in this study.", "Its polar face consists of 7 hydrophilic residues (three lysine residues, one arginine, one glutamate, one serine, and one asparagine) and one hydrophobic residue (one tryptophan).", "In contrast, the non-polar face consists of 6 hydrophobic residues (two leucines, one isoleucine, two phenylalanines, and one tryptophan) and one hydrophilic residue (one lysine).", "[0047] We obtain serial PL-13 peptide analogs by means of substitution of amino acids ( FIG. 1 ).", "FIG. 1 illustrates PL-13 as a helical wheel/nets and its amino acid sequences.", "Shown are the residues on the non-polar/hydrophobic face (boxed residues) and hydrophilic residues on the non-polar/hydrophobic face (circled residues), and hydrophobic residues on the hydrophilic face (residues in hexagonal box).", "The hydrophilic face is indicated as an open arc, whilst the hydrophobic face is shown as a solid arc in the helical wheel.", "Ac denotes Nα-acetyl and NH 2 denotes Cα-amide.", "The amino acid residues are indicated by one-letter codes, based upon which we do further modification and get a group of related antimicrobial peptides with the same activity.", "Both PL-12 and PL-13 are composed of L-amino acid.", "We design enantiomers peptides PL-17 and PL-18 (both are composed of D-amino acid).", "Consequently, PL-17 and PL-18 are completely opposite to the corresponding PL-12 and PL-13 in stereochemistry.", "[0048] PL-23 and PL-24 are two of the peptide analogs made based on different charged amino acid substitution.", "They are generated by varying the nature of the charged residue selected for substituting amino acids of sequence of PL-13.", "The amino acid selected for substitution is preferably a charged amino acid and is in particular an amino acid with a net positive charge.", "The charged residues include Lys, Arg, Orn, His, diamino butyric acid and diamino propionic acid.", "We note that Orn has a delta/δ-amino group instead of an epsilon/ε-amino group in Lys, i.e., the side-chain is shorter by one carbon atom;", "diamino butyric acid is one carbon shorter than Orn;", "i.e., it has a gamma/γ-amino group;", "diamino propionic acid is two carbons shorter than Orn, i.e., it has a beta/β-amino group.", "PL-34 and PL-35 are D-enantiomers of above two peptides.", "[0049] PL-25 to 27 are generated by multiple substitutions of PL-13.", "The activity of a peptide with multiple substitutions (e.g. two substitutions) at different sites of invented peptide can still be effective.", "For a particular peptide generated by multiple substitutions, such multiple substitutions can be at least as effective as a single substitution in the center of the non-polar face.", "Considering the amino acid composition of peptide sequence and particularly the importance hydrophobic amino acid has in biological activity, we insist that the peptide sharing the percentage of similarity higher than 85% with PL-13 in amino acid composition possesses great biological activity.", "PL-36 to 38 are enantiomers of above two peptides.", "[0050] PL-28 to 30 are two peptides shorter than invented peptide generated by truncation of the N-terminal residue and C-terminal residue.", "This peptide generated by removing one or two residues of one terminal or two terminals of PL-13, still keeps nearly the same antibacterial activity as PL-13 in that it shares the percentage of similarity higher than 85% with PL-13 in amino acid composition.", "PL-39 to 41 are enantiomers of above two peptides.", "[0051] The hydrophobic residues on the surface of peptides constitute overall hydrophobic face of peptides by hydrophobic interaction.", "The non-polar face of PL-13 consists of F1, L4, L7, F8, L11, W14 and K15.", "Likewise, the polar face consists of K2, K3, K5, K6, S9, K10, W12 and N13.", "The amino acid residues constituting PL-13 especially the hydrophobic residues are shuffled (shuffling of hydrophobic residues on non-polar face and polar residues on polar face, or shuffling of non-polar face residues or polar face residues that do not substantially change the amphipathicity of the molecule) wherein a resulting peptide is still biologically active.", "PL-31 to 33 are parts of sequence (any two residues are selected for site interchanging), and this kind of shuffling made PL-31 to 33 share 100% homology with PL-13 in residue composition so that they have nearly the same antibacterial activity as PL-13.", "PL-42 to 44 are enantiomers of above two peptides.", "[0000] TABLE 2 Summary of partial sequence listing information.", "SEQ ID Peptide Amino Acid Position NO: Name 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Eantiomer A 1 PL-12 F K R L E K L F S K I W N W K 2 PL-13 F K L K L F S K W N W K 3 PL-23 F K K L K K F S K L W N W K 4 PL-24 F K K L K K F S K L W N W K 5 PL-25 K K L K K L S K L W N W K 6 PL-26 F K K L K K L F S K L N K 7 PL-27 K K L K K L F S K L N K 8 PL-28 F K K L K K L F S K L W N 9 PL-29 K L K K L F S K L W N W K 10 PL-30 K K L K K L F S K L W N W 11 PL-31 K K L K K L F S K L W N K 12 PL-32 F K K K K L S K L W N W K 13 PL-33 F K K L K K L F S K L N W Eantiomer B 14 PL-17 F K R L E K L F S K I W N W K 15 PL-18 F K L K L F S K W N W K 16 PL-34 F K L K F S K W N W K 17 PL-35 F K L K F S K W N W K 18 PL-36 K K L K K L S K L W N W K 19 PL-37 F K K L K K L F S K L N K 20 PL-38 K K L K K L F S K L N K 21 PL-39 F K K L K K L F S K L W N 22 PL-40 K L K K L F S K L W N W K 23 PL-41 K K L K K L F S K L W N W 24 PL-42 K K L K K L F S K L W N K 25 PL-43 F K K K K L S K L W N W K 26 PL-44 F K K L K K L F S K L N W Example 1-1 Peptide Analogs Generated by Lengthening PL-13 [0052] The peptide analogs in this invention are generated by adding one or two amino acid residues to N-terminal or C-terminal of peptides.", "PL-46, generated by adding one hydrophobic residue to the hydrophobic face (N-terminal) of PL-13, increased the hydrophobic face of peptide.", "And PL-47 is generated by adding one hydrophilic residue to PL-46.", "This change of length preserved over 85% amino acid similarity, and made peptide analogs possess similar biological activity with PL-13.", "[0000] TABLE 3 Peptide sequences generated by lengthening two terminals of PL-13 Peptide Amino Acid Position Name −2 −1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Eantiomer A PL-13 F K L K L F S K W N W K PL-46 L F K L K L F S K W N W K PL-47 K L F K L K L F S K W N W K PL-48 F K L K L F S K W N W K K PL-49 F K L K L F S K W N W K K S Eantiomer B PL-18 F K L K L F S K W N W K PL-51 L F K L K L F S K W N W K PL-52 K L F K L K L F S K W N W K PL-53 F K L K L F S K W N W K K PL-54 F K L K L F S K W N W K K S Example 1-2 Peptide Analogs with Similar Hydrophobic Substitutions [0053] Further peptides of the invention are generated by making single substitutions of amino acid residues with relatively similar hydrophobicity.", "Single hydrophobicity substitutions with side-chains of similar hydrophobicity are generated and have biological activity.", "[0000] TABLE 4 The amino acid residues used for substitutions of homologous amino acid Residues of PL-13 Substituted residues Leu Ile, Val, norleucine, norvaline Phe Trp, Tyr, Leu, Ile, Val, norleucine, norvaline Trp Phe, Tyr, Leu, Ile, Val, norleucine, norvaline Example 2 Preparation of PL-13 and Related Antimicrobial Peptides and Test of Relevant Parameters [0054] All the peptides of this invention are generated by syntheses which are carried out by solid-phase peptide synthesis using Fmoc t-butyloxycarbonyl chemistry and MBHA (4-methylbenzhydrylamine) resin (0.97 mmol/g).", "However, it is understood in the art that there are other suitable peptide synthetic devices or that manual peptide synthesis could be carried out to produce the peptides of the present invention.", "The crude peptides are purified by preparative reversed-phase chromatography (RP-HPLC) using a Zorbax 300 SB-C 8 column (250×9.4 mm I.D.;", "6.5 μm particle size, 300 Å pore size;", "Agilent Technologies) with a linear AB gradient (0.2% acetonitrile/min) at a flow rate of 2 ml/min, wherein mobile phase A is 0.1% aqueous TFA and B is 0.1% TFA in acetonitrile.", "The purity of peptides is verified by analytical RP-HPLC as described below.", "The peptides are further characterized by electrospray mass spectrometry and amino acid analysis.", "[0055] Analytical RP-HPLC of Peptides— [0056] Peptides are analyzed on an Agilent 1200 series liquid chromatograph (Little Falls, Del.).", "Runs are performed on a Zorbax 300 SB-C8 column (150×4.6 mm I.D.;", "5 μm particle size, 300 Å pore size) from Agilent Technologies using linear AB gradient (1% acetonitrile/min) and a flow rate of 1 ml/min, where solvent A is 0.05% aqueous TFA, pH 2 and solvent B is 0.05% TFA in acetonitrile.", "[0057] In the studies described hereinafter, the 15-residue peptide having the sequence Ac-FKRLEKLFSKIWNWK-NH 2 (PL-12) is utilized as the framework to study the effects of peptide hydrophobicity/hydrophilicity, amphipathicity and helicity by one or more amino acid substitutions on biological activities.", "These studies demonstrate i) the importance of the peptide self-association parameter in α-helical antimicrobial peptides;", "ii) that these substitutions enhance antimicrobial activity, decrease toxicity and improve antimicrobial specificity while maintaining broad spectrum activity for fungi, gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria.", "[0058] Characterization of Helical Structure— [0059] The mean residue molar ellipticities of peptides are determined by circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy, using a Jasco J-720 spectropolarimeter (Jasco, Easton, Md.), at 25° C. under benign conditions (50 mM KH 2 PO 4 /K 2 HPO 4 /100 mM KCl, pH7), as well as in the presence of an α-helix inducing solvent, 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol (TFE) (50 mM KH 2 PO 4 /K 2 HPO 4 /100 mM KCL, pH 7 buffer/50% TFE).", "A 10-fold dilution of a 500 μM stock solution of the peptide is loaded into a 0.02 cm fused silica cell and its mean residue molar ellipticity scanned from 190 to 250 nm.", "The values of mean residue molar ellipticities of the peptide at a wavelength of 222 nm are used to estimate the relative amount of α-helicity of the peptides.", "[0060] To determine the secondary structure of peptides in different environments, circular dichroism (CD) spectra of the peptide analogs are measured under physiologically related pH and ionic strength (100 mM KCl, 50 mM aq.", "PO4, pH 7 referred to as benign conditions) and also in 50% TFE to mimic the hydrophobic environment of the membrane.", "CD spectra of the peptide analogs are measured under benign conditions (100 mM KCl, 50 mM KH 2 PO 4 /K 2 HPO 4 , pH 7, referred to as KP buffer) and also in 50% trifluoroethanol (TFE) to mimic the hydrophobic environment of the membrane.", "As shown in FIG. 2 , the parent peptide, PL-12, is only partially helical in KP buffer.", "However, in the presence of 50% TFE, all three L-peptides are fully folded α-helical structures with similar molar ellipticities and helicity.", "As expected, the D-peptides showed spectra that are exact mirror images compared to their L-enantiomers, with mean residue molar ellipticities equivalent but of opposite sign both in benign KP buffer and in 50% TFE (Table 5).", "[0000] TABLE 5 Biophysical data of peptide analogs.", "Benign buffer 50% TFE Hydrophobicity b % % Peptide a t R5 (min) t R80 (min) [θ] 222 c helix d [θ] 222 c helix d PL-40 33.16 30.94 1700 6.0 19950 70.7 PL-34 34.76 32.75 2350 8.3 22000 78.0 PL-26 35.66 33.49 −2700 9.6 −24650 87.4 PL-18 35.75 33.37 2300 8.2 22700 80.5 PL-13 35.75 33.37 −2350 8.3 −22750 80.7 PL-17 38.04 36.10 3400 12.1 26300 93.3 PL-12 38.04 36.10 −3350 11.9 −26450 93.8 PL-43 41.64 40.52 3950 14.0 27150 96.3 PL-51 42.59 41.35 4750 16.8 28200 100.0 a Amino acid sequences of peptides are shown in Table 2 and Table 3.", "b Peptides are ordered by increasing hydrophobicity, i.e., by increasing retention time (t R ) in RP-HPLC at pH 2 at temperatures of 5° C. c The mean residue molar ellipticities, [θ]222, (deg · cm 2 · dmol −1 ) at wavelength 222 nm are measured at 25° C. in benign conditions (100 mM KCl, 50 mM PO 4 , pH 7.0) or in buffer containing 50% TFE by circular dichroism spectroscopy.", "The negative values in mean residue molar ellipticity denote the right-handed helices and the positive values denote the left-handed helices.", "d The helical content (in percentage) of a peptide relative to the mean residue molar ellipticity value (100%) of peptide PL-15 in the presence of 50% trifluoroethanol (TFE).", "[0061] The CD spectra of peptide analogs are shown in FIG. 2 .", "[0062] FIG. 2 illustrates graphical results of Circular dichroism (CD) spectra of peptides at pH 7.4 and 25° C., in 50 mM aq.", "PO 4 containing 100 mM KCl, wherein KP buffer (50 mM KH 2 PO 4 , K 2 HPO 4 , 100 mM KCl, pH 7.4) mimics hydrophilic environment and KP buffer-TFE (1:1 [vol/vol]) mimics hydrophobic environment of cell membrane.", "The figure above represents the CD spectra of peptides in benign buffer without TFE, whilst the figure below represents CD spectra obtained in the presence of 50% TFE.", "The symbols used are: solid square for PL-40, solid circle for PL-34, solid upper triangle for PL-26, solid lower triangle for PL-18, open square for PL-13, open circle for PL-17, open upper triangle for PL-12, open lower triangle for PL-43, and solid pentagon for PL-51.", "[0063] RP-HPLC retention behavior has been frequently utilized to represent overall peptide hydrophobicity.", "It is well documented that the formation of a hydrophobic binding domain due to peptide secondary structure can affect peptide interactions with reversed-phase matrices, this effect having been observed especially for amphipathic α-helical peptides.", "Because of this preferred binding domain, amphipathic α-helical peptides are considerably more retentive than non-amphipathic peptides of the same amino acid composition.", "In addition, the chromatography conditions characteristic of RP-HPLC (hydrophobic stationary phase, non-polar eluting solvent) are able to induce and stabilize helical structure in potentially helical polypeptides in a manner similar to that of the helix-inducing solvent TFE.", "Thus, any differences in effective hydrophobicity via amino acid substitutions can be readily monitored through consequent differences in RP-HPLC retention time.", "[0064] We further use temperature profiling during RP-HPLC to determine the self-association ability of various analogs of PL-13 which would occur through interaction of the non-polar faces of these amphipathic peptides α-helices.", "We use 50% TFE aqueous acetonitrile and hydrophobic conditions in the reversed-phase column (hydrophobic stationary phase and the hydrophobic organic solvent in the mobile phase) since the hydrophobic environment of a reversed-phase column also could induce α-helical structure.", "Since its introduction, the technique of RP-HPLC temperature profiling has been applied on several types of molecules, including cyclic β-sheet peptides, monomeric α-helices and α-helices that dimerize, as well as α-helices that dimerize to form coiled-coils.", "Although peptides are eluted from a reversed-phase column mainly by an adsorption/desorption mechanism, even a peptide strongly bound to a hydrophobic stationary phase will partition between the matrix and the mobile phase when the acetonitrile content becomes high enough during gradient elution.", "In summary, the mechanism is based on four assumptions: (i) at low temperature, just as an amphipathic α-helical peptide is able to dimerize in aqueous solution (through its hydrophobic, non-polar face), it will dimerize in solution during partitioning in reversed-phase chromatography;", "(ii) at higher temperatures, the monomer-dimer equilibrium favors the monomer as the dimer is disrupted;", "(iii) at sufficiently high temperatures, only monomer is present in solution;", "and (iv) peptide is always bound in its monomeric helical form to the hydrophobic stationary phase, i.e., the dimer can only be present in solution and disruption of the dimer is required for rebinding to the RP-HPLC matrix.", "[0065] A control peptide (peptide C) designed to exhibit negligible secondary structure, i.e., a random coil, is employed as a standard peptide for temperature profiling during RP-HPLC to monitor peptide dimerization.", "With the sequence of Ac-ELEKGGLEGEKGGKELEK-amide clearly exhibited negligible secondary structure, this 18-residue peptide is even in the presence of the strong alpha-helix inducing properties of 50% trifluoroethanol (TFE) and at the low temperature of 5° C. ([θ] 222 =−3,950).", "Since peptide C is a monomeric random coil peptide in both aqueous and hydrophobic media, its retention behavior over the temperature range 5-80° C. represents only general temperature effects on peptide retention behavior, i.e., a linear decrease in peptide retention time with increasing temperature due to greater solute diffusivity and enhanced mass transfer between the stationary and mobile phases at higher temperatures.", "Thus, after normalization to the retention times of peptide C, the retention behavior of the peptides only represents peptide self-association ability.", "Note that the higher the PA value, the greater the self-association ability.", "The order of peptide self-association ability of the three pairs of peptide enantiomers is identical to the order of peptide hydrophobicity.", "Apart from the decrease in retention time due to the general temperature effects noted above, destruction of the α-helix will also occur with increasing temperature, resulting in reduced retention times as the peptides become increasingly random coils.", "[0066] The retention time data for the peptides is shown in Table 6 which records retention times at 5° C., the maximal retention times and retention times at 80° C. during the temperature profiling.", "Temperatures of 5-80° C. are the lower and upper temperature limits of temperature profiling in RP-HPLC, representing polymerization of the peptides at 5° C. and the monomerization of peptides at 80° C. due to denaturation of peptides by high temperature and dissociation of the polymers.", "The maximal retention times represent the threshold points at which peptides totally transform from polymeric to monomeric form.", "[0000] TABLE 6 Relative hydrophobicity and self-association ability of peptide analogs during RP-HPLC temperature profiling.", "t R (min) b Δt R (X-Peptide C)(min) c P A Peptides a 5° C. Max 80° C. 5° C. 80° C. (min) d PL-40 33.16 33.16 30.94 10.60 11.01 0.55 PL-34 34.76 34.76 32.75 12.20 12.82 0.81 PL-26 35.66 35.66 33.49 13.10 13.56 0.68 PL-13 35.75 35.75 33.37 13.19 13.45 0.56 PL-18 35.75 35.75 33.37 13.19 13.45 0.56 PL-17 38.02 38.04 36.10 15.46 16.19 0.93 PL-43 41.64 41.97 40.52 19.08 20.60 1.65 PL-51 42.59 42.96 41.35 20.02 21.42 1.63 C f 22.56 22.56 19.91 a denotes the retention times of different peptides measured by RP-HPLC at 5° C. and 80° C., and the maximal retention times of peptides during temperature changing.", "b denotes the retention time difference of peptide compared with that of control peptide C at different temperatures (5° C. and 80° C.), representing the relative hydrophobicity of the peptide analogs.", "c P A denotes the association parameter of each peptide during the RP-HPLC temperature profiling, which is the maximal retention time difference of ((t R t -t R 5 for peptide analogs) − (t R t -t R 5 for control peptide C)) within the temperature range, and (t R t -t R 5 ) is the retention time difference of a peptide at a specific temperature (t) compared with that at 5° C. d Peptide C is a random coil control, the retention behavior of which during RP-HPLC can reflect variation of RP-HPLC system caused by temperature changing.", "It is used to rule out the effect that variation of chromatographic column condition caused by temperature changing has on the retention time of peptide.", "Hence only physical property change of peptides at different temperatures is reflected.", "[0067] The ability of the D-peptides to self-associate is determined by RP-HPLC temperature profiling.", "As expected, L- and D-peptide enantiomers are identical in behavior characteristics over this temperature range, because of the adoption of identical secondary structure, identical hydrophobic face and identical hydrophobic property on interacting with the reversed-phase matrix.", "[0068] Elution times during RP-HPLC have frequently been utilized as a measure of relative hydrophobicity of peptide analogs.", "Thus, the retention time data in Table 6 can be considered to reflect the hydrophobicity difference among peptide analogs.", "The retention time data of peptide analogs in Table 6 are compared with that of the native peptide PL-13 at 5° C. and 80° C. respectively so as to more easily visualize the variation in hydrophobicity of the peptide analogs.", "[0069] FIG. 3 shows the changing retention time profiles of peptides during RP-HPLC from 5° C. to 80° C. As mentioned above, the self-association of peptides is temperature-dependent.", "Peptides exist in a dynamic equilibrium of mutual transformation between polymer and monomer during RP-HPLC partitioning.", "At low temperatures, peptides tend to exist as dimmer or polymer (self-association).", "Generally self-association occurs with hydrophobic interaction of hydrophobic face of peptides, which weakens the combining ability of polymer and hydrophobic stationary phase, resulting in low retention time.", "With the increase of temperature, equilibrium of mutual transformation between polymer and monomer is shifted toward the monomeric form.", "The higher solution concentration of monomer during partitioning increases the on-rate for combination of peptide and chromatographic column, and the retention time therefore increases.", "It should be noted that the increased temperature also introduces other general effects on retention time because of lower mobile phase viscosity and a significant increase in mass transfer between the stationary phase and mobile phase.", "These effects decrease retention time with increasing temperature in a linear fashion, as shown for the retention time of random coil control peptide C. Conversely, for the polymerized peptides, at a given temperature polymers are disrupted and converted to monomers, and since combining ability of monomers and hydrophobic stationary phase is strong, the retention time reaches the maximal value.", "Above this critical temperature, one will observe a decrease in retention time of peptides with increasing temperature because of the low mobile phase viscosity, the increase in mass transfer and denaturation of peptide molecules caused by high temperature.", "The retention behavior of the random coil peptide standard C introduced by temperature profiling in RP-HPLC is utilized to reflect the variation of chromatographic column condition while temperature is varying.", "In this way the effect that variation of chromatographic column condition has on the retention behavior of peptide is ruled out.", "The data from retention time of peptides at every temperature spots in FIG. 3 minusing that at 5° C. are normalized relative to the temperature profile of the random coil peptide standard C, and normalized to the retention time at 5° C., the latter of which is presented as a dotted line in FIG. 4 .", "[0070] It is observed that the peptide analogs in this study showed dramatic varying self-association ability in solution ( FIG. 4 ).", "The maximal values of the change of retention times ((t R t -t R 5 for peptide)−(t R t -t R 5 for peptide C)) in FIG. 4 are defined as the peptide self-association parameter (PA) to quantify the association ability of peptide analogs in solution.", "[0071] FIG. 3 illustrates the RP-HPLC temperature profiles of antimicrobial peptide and its analogs.", "Conditions: RP-HPLC, Agilent Zorbax 300 SB-C 8 column (150×4.6-mm 5-μm, 300-Å), 1% linear gradient elution at a flow-rate of 1 ml/min, where eluent A is 0.1% aqueous TFA and eluent B is 0.1% TFA in acetonitrile.", "A control peptide (peptide C), a random coil, is employed as a standard peptide.", "Retention data has been collected in 5° C. increments within the temperature range from 5° C. to 80° C. The symbols used are: solid square for PL-40, solid circle for PL-34, solid upper triangle for PL-26, solid lower triangle for PL-18, open circle for PL-17, open lower triangle for PL-43, solid pentagon for PL-51, and open pentagon for peptide C. [0072] FIG. 4 illustrates the normalized RP-HPLC temperature profiles of antimicrobial peptide and its analogs.", "Temperature profiles normalized to retention behavior of random coil peptide C1.", "Column and conditions: see FIG. 3 .", "The retention behavior of the peptides is normalized to that of the random coil peptide C1 through the expression (t R t -t R 5 for peptides) minus (t R t -t R 5 for C1), which is defined as PA, i.e., the peptide self-aggregation ability.", "t R t represents the retention times at a specific temperature of an antimicrobial peptide or the random coil peptide, and t R 5 represents the retention times at 5° C. The symbols used are: solid square for PL-40, solid circle for PL-34, solid upper triangle for PL-26, solid lower triangle for PL-18, open circle for PL-17, open lower triangle for PL-43, solid pentagon for PL-51, and dotted-line for peptide C. Example 3 Sensitivity Test of PL-13 and Related Serial Antimicrobial Peptide Antifungal Drugs 1.", "Experimental Bacteria Strains [0073] (1) Test strains: monilia albicans ( candida albicans ), candida glabrata, candida krusei, candida tropicalis, aspergillus fumigatus and flavous.", "[0074] (2) Quality control strains: candida krusei JLC30366 (ATCC6258).", "Reagents [0075] Potato Dextrose Agar Medium (PDA) from Difco Company.", "[0076] Potato Dextrose Broth Medium (PDB) from Difco Company.", "[0077] RPMI-1640 liquid medium from Gibco BRL Company.", "[0078] 3-N-Morpholino propanesulfonic acid (MOPS) from Baiao Biology Co., LTD.", "Antifungal Drugs [0079] Antimicrobial peptides PL-13 under test are supplied by Jiangsu ProteLight Pharmaceutical &", "Biotechnology Co., LTD.", "Both the control drug Fluconazol (FCZ) (purchased from Shanghai Sanwei Pharmaceutical Corporation) and Itraconazole (ICZ) (purchased from SIGMA) are standard powder with the purity higher than 99%.", "Experimental Procedure [0080] (1) The bacterial strains which preserved on PDA slant are respectively inoculated onto PDA plate and slant medium.", "Activation of bacterial strains is conducted at a humidity level of 60% and 25° C. (for aspergillus ) or 37° C. (for candida).", "[0081] (2) 0.9% stroke-physiological saline solution comprising 0.5% Tween-80 is used to prepare bacterial suspension for experiment.", "Hemocytometer is utilized to adjust concentration of the bacterial suspension to 1-3×106 CFU/ml (0.5 McFarland units) to make stock solution in reserve at −20° C. During the sensitivity test, the RPMI-1640 liquid medium is diluted 1000 times to 1-3×10 3 CFU/ml.", "[0082] (3) The RPMI-1640 liquid is utilized as diluent to 10-fold dilute stock solution of peptides.", "According to the result of preliminary experiments, the initial concentration of peptides is set to 64 μg/ml and the terminal concentration is set to 0.125 μg/ml, with the concentration decreasing from the first orifice to the tenth orifice.", "100 μl bacterial suspension is added to each orifice of former 11 orifices except the twelfth one with the concentration of 0.5-1.5×10 3 CFU/ml.", "The eleventh orifice is used as living control orifice, while the twelfth one as blank control.", "[0083] (4) The RPMI-1640 liquid is utilized as diluent to 10-fold dilute stock solution of FCZ and ICZ.", "The initial concentration of FCZ is set to 64 μg/ml and the terminal concentration is set to 0.125 m/ml, and the concentration of ICZ is set to 16 μg/ml with the terminal concentration set to 0.03 μg/ml.", "Ditto for other operations.", "Results [0084] The antifungal results of kinds of peptides are shown in Table 7.", "[0000] TABLE 7 Minimal inhibitory concentration of kinds of peptides under test (μg/ml) JLC JLC JLC JLC JLC JLC JLC JLC JLC JLC JLC JLC 30366 30383 31379 31384 33659 33660 31512 30367 30506 30883 30784 40437 candida candida candida candida candida candida candida candida aspergillus aspergillus aspergillus aspergillus krusei krusei tropicalis tropicalis albicans albicans glabrata glabrata fumigatus fumigatus flavous flavous FCZ 16 8 0.5 0.25 0.25 0.25 1 2 >64 >64 >64 >64 ICZ 0.25 0.25 0.03 0.03 0.03 0.0625 0.03 0.0625 0.125 0.125 0.125 0.125 PL- 8 16 4 8 16 16 32 32 32 32 >64 >64 12 PL- 2 4 2 4 8 8 8 4 32 32 >64 >64 13 PL- 4 8 2 8 16 16 32 32 64 64 >64 >64 23 PL- 8 8 4 8 32 16 32 16 32 32 >64 >64 26 PL- 4 8 2 8 16 16 32 32 64 32 >64 >64 30 PL- 4 16 2 32 16 32 32 32 64 64 >64 >64 32 PL- 8 8 2 2 4 4 8 4 32 32 >64 >64 17 PL- 4 4 2 2 4 4 4 4 16 16 >64 >64 18 PL- 8 8 4 4 16 16 32 32 >64 >64 >64 >64 34 PL- 8 4 4 8 32 16 16 32 32 16 >64 >64 37 PL- 4 8 2 8 16 16 32 8 64 32 >64 >64 40 PL- 4 8 2 8 16 4 32 32 64 64 >64 >64 43 PL- 2 8 8 8 32 16 16 32 32 32 >64 >64 48 PL- 8 16 4 16 32 16 32 16 32 64 >64 >64 51 [0085] This experiment shows antimicrobial peptides above have higher inhibitory action on Candida Mycoderma , while lower inhibitory action on Aspergillus Fumigatus.", "Example 4 Sensitivity Test of PL-13 and Related Antimicrobial Peptides Series 1.", "Experimental Strains [0086] The experimental strains are 37 standard strains preserved in lab and clinical isolated bacteria, including drug-resistant bacteria and quality-control bacteria selecting Staphylococcus aureus ATCC29213, Enterococcus faecalis ATCC29212, Escherichia coli ATCC25922, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC27853 and klebsiella pneumoniae ATCC700603.", "Culture Medium [0087] MH agar culture medium is purchased from National Institutes for Food and Drug Control.", "The MH bouillon culture-medium and brain-heart infusion medium are the products of American DIFCO Company.", "Drugs [0088] Antimicrobial peptides PL-13 under test are supplied by Jiangsu ProteLight Pharmaceutical &", "Biotechnology Co., LTD.", "[0089] As a control, levofloxacin is standard substance from National Institutes for Food and Drug Control 4.", "Experimental Procedure [0090] (1) Sensitivity test is conducted with two-fold agar dilution method and Denlay multipoint inoculator.", "Test bacteria are cultured with nutrient broth and brain heart infusion.", "[0091] (2) The drug is double diluted into different concentration with MH broth after dissolved and then placed in the plate respectively.", "[0092] (3) After dissolved, MH agar culture medium are injected into the plate with drug quantitatively and mixed to make the final concentration of drug are 0.03, 0.06, 0.125, .", ", 128 μg/ml respectively.", "[0093] (4) After solidification of the culture medium in the plate, test bacteria (10 4 CFU/point) are inoculated by multipoint inoculator and cultured for 18 hours at constant 35° C. Then observe the results.", "[0094] (5) The lowest concentration of the drug in the plate which showed no bacterial growth is the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC).", "Results [0095] The antimicrobial activity of PL-13 samples and the control medicine Levofloxacin against 37 bacteria strains are shown in Table 7.", "As shown herein, antimicrobial peptides like PL-13 and positive control Levofloxacin have the same sterilizing effect on common susceptible bacteria.", "But for drug resistant bacteria, antimicrobial peptides show superior sterilizing efficiency.", "[0000] TABLE 8 The MIC of different polypeptides under test (μM) Bacterial strains PL-12 PL-13 PL-26 PL-34 PL-17 PL-18 PL-34 PL-43 Levofloxacin Staphylococcus aureus ATCC29213 1.3 0.7 1.3 0.7 0.3 0.7 2.6 1.3 0.60 Staphylococcus aureus ATCC25923 1.3 0.7 1.3 0.7 0.3 0.7 2.6 1.3 0.30 15 1.3 0.7 1.3 0.7 0.3 0.7 2.6 1.3 0.30 08-49(MSSA) 0.7 2.7 1.3 1.3 0.7 0.7 5.3 0.3 0.30 Meticillin susceptible staphylococcus aureus 08-52(MRSA) 1.3 2.7 1.3 0.7 5.3 2.7 3.3 3.3 76.92 Methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSE) 1.3 0.3 0.7 1.3 1.0 0.7 1.3 0.3 0.30 Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis ATCC12228 08-17 (MSSE) 2.7 1.3 2.7 1.7 1.0 0.7 1.3 1.7 1.20 Meticillin susceptible staphylococcus epidermidis 08-18 (MRSE) 1.3 0.7 2.7 6.7 1.0 0.7 1.3 6.7 55.49 Methicillin-resistant staphylococcus epidermidis Enterococcus faecalis 1.3 5.3 5.3 0.3 5.3 5.3 1.7 1.7 1.20 ATCC29212 HH22* (AMEs) 0.3 1.7 6.7 0.3 10.7 1.7 0.3 0.3 1.20 Aminoglycoside-modifying enzyme 06-7 5.3 1.3 5.3 6.7 5.3 2.7 21.3 10.67 19.23 06-71 (VRE) 0.3 1.7 1.7 1.3 1.7 1.3 1.3 0.7 2.40 Vancomycin-resistant Enterococci Enterococcus faecium 06-1 5.3 5.3 1.3 1.3 10.7 5.3 1.3 6.7 2.40 06-12 (VREF) 1.3 5.3 5.3 0.3 1.7 5.3 0.7 1.7 2.40 Vancomycin-resistant enterococci Escherichia coli ATCC 25922 0.03 0.03 0.3 0.3 0.2 1.3 0.1 0.03 0.14 08-5 (ESBLs) 1.3 0.7 1.3 1.7 0.3 1.3 5.3 6.7 76.92 Extended Spectyumβ-lactamase 26 1.3 0.7 0.7 1.3 0.3 <0.08 2.7 6.7 <0.7 272(TEM-88) 0.7 0.3 1.3 6.7 0.3 <0.08 1.3 1.7 <0.7 274 (TEM-15) 1.3 0.3 1.3 0.3 0.3 0.08 2.7 0.3 0.2 276 (TEM-52) 1.3 0.7 0.7 0.03 0.7 <0.08 2.7 0.3 <0.2 Pseudomonas aeruginosa 5.3 1.3 5.3 0.3 1.3 0.3 1.7 0.3 1.20 TCC27853 17 2.7 1.3 1.7 0.3 2.7 0.2 1.3 1.7 0.7 klebsiella pneumoniae 2.7 0.7 5.3 0.7 2.7 0.3 2.7 0.3 1.2 ATCC700603 08-2 (ESBLs) 5.3 0.7 1.3 6.7 0.3 2.7 10.7 5.3 76.92 7 5.3 1.3 2.7 6.7 0.3 <0.04 5.3 5.3 <16 Enterobacter cloacae 45301 0.3 1.3 1.7 0.3 1.3 0.04 1.3 0.03 0.1 Acinetobacter calcoaceticus 25001 0.03 [.", "].3 6.7 1.3 1.3 1.7 1.3 0.3 0.1 Enterobacter aerogenes 45102 0.03 2.7 1.3 0.3 1.3 0.04 0.03 0.003 <0.02 Serratia marcescens 41002 0.03 0.3 0.02 0.02 1.3 0.04 0.7 0.3 0.1 Shigella sonnei strains 51592 2.7 0.7 1.3 0.04 0.3 0.04 2.7 0.3 0.1 Shigella 1.7 0.7 0.3 0.7 0.3 1.3 <0.01 1.7 <0.02 Shigella flexneri 2.7 0.7 1.3 0.3 0.3 0.0 2.7 0.7 0.1 Salmonella typhimurium 5.3 1.3 5.3 0.3 1.3 0.3 5.3 0.3 <0.02 Typhoid bacillus H901 5.3 1.3 2.7 0.3 0.7 0.3 5.3 0.7 <0.02 Feilaoti citrobacter 48001 5.3 1.3 2.7 1.7 2.7 0.3 1.3 0.3 0.1 Proteus vulgaris 56 0.3 0.3 6.7 1.7 5.3 5.3 1.3 0.3 <0.007 Example 5 Results of Hemolytic Activity Test of PL-13 1.", "Experimental Procedure [0096] (1) Samples are serial diluted with sterile PBS to 1000, 500, 250, 125, 64, 32, 16, 8, 4 μg/ml in turn and spread in 96-well plates, 100 μl per orifice.", "[0097] (2) We use distilled water as positive control, sterile PBS as negative control and blank orifice with 200 μl PBS solution added.", "Each concentration above is made in triplicate.", "[0098] (3) We take 3 ml whole blood from healthy volunteers and washed it with sterile PBS three times to prepare fresh 2% concentration red cell suspension.", "Then we added 100 μl red cell suspension into each orifice and made them cultured for 4 hours at 37° C. in the incubator.", "After centrifuged by plate-swashing centrifuge, the supernatant liquid is collected and measured absorbancy (OD value) at a wavelength of 570 nm.", "Then we compared the hemolytic efficiency of these concentrations.", "[0099] (4) According to the documents standard, OD value which is higher than 0.1 is hemolytic concentration.", "Results [0100] Results of hemolytic activity test of PL-13 and other antimicrobial peptides (shown in Table 9) [0000] TABLE 9 Results of hemolytic activity test of polypeptides under test (n = 3) Concentration of antimicrobial peptides (μg/ml) positive PL-13 PL-17 PL-26 PL-34 negative blank 1000 0.416 0.310 0.339 0.327 0.317 0.093 0.059 500 0.406 0.220 0.152 0.121 0.135 0.074 0.037 250 0.402 0.184 0.082 0.089 0.087 0.070 0.052 125 0.400 0.117 0.078 0.075 0.073 0.077 0.053 62.5 0.394 0.090 0.065 0.068 0.061 0.077 0.059 31.25 0.392 0.065 0.063 0.057 0.054 0.071 0.044 15.625 0.380 0.059 0.056 0.047 0.041 0.088 0.047 7.8125 0.371 0.043 0.033 0.020 0.032 0.071 0.044 [0101] The results show that antimicrobial peptides PL-13, 17, 26, 34 almost have the same hemolysis rate, which demonstrated that all the dosage forms referred in the present invention have little hemolytic toxicity and therefore they have a light future of development.", "Example 6 Anti-Infection Test of PL-13/PL-18 External-Applied Agent on Skin [0102] 1.", "Experimental strains: Staphylococcus epidermidis ATCC12228 and Staphylococcus aureus ATCC25923 2.", "Experimental System [0103] There are 50 male ICR mice with the weight of 20±2 g. According to their weight, they are randomly divided into 5 groups of 10 mice: negative infected control group, Bactroban positive control group, 1c/o concentration cream group, 1‰ concentration cream group and blank ground substance group.", "Each group is raised in the same plastic case.", "Their blank parts, heads, necks, backs and tails are marked with picric acid marking method.", "All the mice are raised with ordinary animal feeds in the ordinary animal houses and they could drink water freely.", "Alternating of light and dark is conducted every 12 hours.", "Externally-Applied Agent on Skin [0104] There are preparation of 1c/o concentration, 1‰ concentration, and blank ground substance preparation (supplied by Jiangsu ProteLight Pharmaceutical &", "Biotechnology Co., LTD.) and Bactroban (supplied by SK&F).", "Experimental Procedure [0105] (1) The bacteria strains which preserved in liquid nitrogen are inoculated to MHB plate and cultured overnight at 37° C. [0106] (2) The solid strains are inoculated to MHB liquid medium and overnight cultured shakily at the speed of 220 rpm at 37° C. [0107] (3) The bacterial suspension cultured overnight is diluted to 5×10 6 CFU/ml and applied in reserve.", "[0108] (4) Skin modeling: Mice's back are sheared and depilated by depilatory paste.", "After the hair off, they are abraded with 0.3 mm-long sandpaper to bleeding and injected 0.1 ml bacterial suspension with the concentration of 5×10 6 CFU/ml subcutaneously.", "[0109] (5) Administration: All the groups except the negative infected control group are respectively applied different cream with the dosage of 0.1 ml once respectively in the morning and evening for 7 days.", "[0110] (6) After 7 days, the visceral organs, blood and infected skin of mice are collected by aseptic method to count viable bacteria.", "Results [0111] Results of viable count of the visceral organs and blood are shown in Table 10-11.", "[0000] TABLE 10 The effect PL-13/18 externally-applied agent takes on skin infection caused by Staphylococcus aureus ATCC25923 (CFU/plate n = 10) Number of Whole Skin Liver Spleen Groups animals blood (1:10) (1:5) (1:5) Infected 10 304 35925 157 70 control Bactroban 10 12 1032 12 16 1% PL-13 10 8 852 10 6 1‰ PL-13 10 11 1005 12 14 1% PL-18 10 16 997 9 8 1‰ PL-18 10 12 1051 11 15 Blank ground 10 224 25280 121 27 substance control [0000] TABLE 11 The effect PL-13/18 externally-applied agent takes on skin infection caused by Staphylococcus epidermidis ATCC12228 (CFU/plate n = 10) Number of Whole Skin Liver Spleen Groups animal blood (1:10) (1:5) (1:5) Infected control 10 129 10762 87 34 Bactroban 10 28 439 23 15 1% PL-13 10 10 369 12 5 1‰ PL-13 10 18 425 10 17 1% PL-18 10 16 276 17 5 1‰ PL-18 10 19 425 8 13 Blank ground 10 94 9802 50 30 substance control [0112] All the results mentioned above indicate that PL-13 and PL-18 externally-applied agent are effective at inhibiting against skin infection caused by Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis.", "Example 7 Therapeutic Test of PL-18 Injection on Animals with Generalized Infection 1.", "Experimental Animals [0113] There are 30 male and 30 female ICR mice with the weight ranging from 18 g to 22 g. According to their weight, they are randomly divided into 6 groups of 10 mice: blank control group, negative control group, Levofloxacin positive control group, PL-13 high dose group, PL-13 middle dose group and PL-13 low dose group.", "Each group is raised in the same plastic case.", "With trinitrophenal marking method, all the mice are raised with ordinary animal feeds in the ordinary animal houses and they can drink water freely.", "Alternating of light and dark is conducted every 12 hours.", "[0000] 2.", "Infected Strains: Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus 3.", "Anti-Infection Drug [0114] PL-18 freeze-dried powder injections (supplied by Jiangsu ProteLight Pharmaceutical &", "Biotechnology Co., LTD.), Levofloxacin Hydrochloride and Sodium Chloride Injection (supplied by Yangtze River Pharmaceutical Group) and 0.9% Sodium Chloride Injection (supplied by Chifeng Rongjitang Pharmaceutical CO.", ", Ltd.) 4.", "Experimental Procedure [0115] (1) The preparation of bacterial suspension is the same as above.", "[0116] (2) The Pseudomonas aeruginosa suspension cultured overnight is diluted to 1×10 9 CFU/ml.", "The Staphylococcus aureus suspension cultured overnight is diluted to 1×10 8 CFU/ml.", "They are all applied in reserve.", "[0117] (3) Except the blank control group, every other mouse is injected with 0.2 ml Pseudomonas aeruginosa suspension with the concentration of 1×10 9 CFU/ml or 0.2 ml Staphylococcus aureus suspension with the concentration of 1×10 8 CFU/ml intraperitoneally to make model.", "[0118] (4) Administration: Inject the drugs according to weight right after the model is ready.", "All the groups excepting the blank and the negative infected group are injected with different dosage of different injections through caudal vena twice a day successively for three days, and they are observed for fourteen days.", "[0119] (5) Observe death of the animals and record their survival time.", "Experimental Results [0120] Effects of PL-18 injection on survival time of mice with systemic infection of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus are shown in Tables 12-13.", "[0000] TABLE 12 The effect of PL-18 injection on survival time of mice with systemic infection of Pseudomonas aeruginosa (n = 10) Mortality of mice in different Number of Dosage days after infection Mean survival Groups animals Drugs (mg/kg) 1 2 3 4 5 Time (day) Blank control 10 normal — 0 0 0 0 0 — saline Negative control 10 — — 6 4 0 0 0 1.4 Levofloxacin 10 ofloxacin 30 4 2 0 0 0 6.4** PL-18(high) 10 PL-18 5 0 1 2 2 0 8.6** PL-18(middle) 10 PL-18 1 0 1 2 2 1 7.7** PL-18(low) 10 PL-18 0.2 0 2 1 2 2 6.7** [0000] TABLE 13 The effect of PL-18 injection on survival time of mice with systemic infection of Staphylococcus aureus (n = 10) Mortality of mice in different Number of Dosage days after infection Mean survival Groups animals Drugs (mg/kg) 1 2 3 4 5 Time (day) Blank control 10 normal — 0 0 0 0 0 — saline Negative control 10 — — 7 3 0 0 0 1.3 Levofloxacin 10 ofloxacin 30 5 2 0 0 0 5.4** PL-18(high) 10 PL-18 5 0 1 1 1 2 9.9** PL-18(middle) 10 PL-18 1 1 2 1 1 1 7.3** PL-18(low) 10 PL-18 0.2 1 2 1 2 1 6.3** Note: comparing with negative control group *P <", "0.05, **P <", "0.01 [0121] It is known from Tables 12 and 13 that until end of the experiment, mean survival days of mice among high, middle and low dose of PL-18 control group and Levofloxacin positive control and negative control group are significantly different (p<0.01).", "This illustrates that anti-infection effect of high, middle and low dose of PL-18 are all very good.", "Compared with Levofloxain control group, PL-18 group is superior to positive control group obviously.", "Example 8 Therapeutic Test of PL-34 Oral Preparations on Animals with Systemic Infection 1.", "Experimental Animals [0122] There are 30 male and 30 female ICR mice with the weight ranging from 18 g to 22 g. According to their weight, they are randomly divided into 6 groups of 10 mice: Tinidazole positive control group, three PL-34 groups, negative control group, and blank control group.", "The PL-34 reagent groups are high, middle and low dose group.", "With trinitrophenal marking method, all the mice are raised with ordinary animal feeds in the ordinary animal houses and they can drink water freely.", "Alternating of light and dark is conducted every 12 hours.", "[0000] 2.", "Infected Strains: Escherichia and Bacillus dysenteriae 3.", "Anti-Infective Drugs [0123] PL-34 oral preparation (provided by Jiangysu ProteLight Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Co., Ltd.), Tinidazole (Shandong Lukang Pharmaceutical Group Saite Co., Ltd.), 0.9% Sodium Chloride Injection (supplied by Chifeng Rongjitang Pharmaceutical CO.", ", Ltd.) 4.", "Experimental Procedure [0124] (1) The preparation of bacterial suspension is the same as above.", "[0125] (2) The Escherichia suspension cultured overnight is diluted to 1×10 7 CFU/ml.", "The Bacillus dysenteriae suspension cultured overnight is diluted to 1×10 5 CFU/ml.", "They are all applied in reserve.", "[0126] (3) Except the blank control group, every other mouse is injected with 0.2 ml Escherichia suspension with the concentration of 1×10 7 CFU/ml or 0.2 ml Bacillus dysenteriae suspension with the concentration of 1×10 5 CFU/ml intraperitoneally to make model.", "[0127] (4) Administration: The drugs are administered according to mice'", "weight right after the model is ready.", "All the groups excepting the blank and the infected negative control groups are administered by gavaging with different dosage of drugs three times a day successively for seven days, and they are observed for fourteen days.", "[0128] (5) Observe death of the animals and record their survival time.", "Experimental Results [0129] Experimental results of PL-34 tablet takes on survival time of the mice with systemic infection of Escherichia and Bacillus dysenteriae .", "(Tables 14-15) [0000] TABLE 14 Effect of PL-34 tablet takes on survival time of the mice with systemic infection of Escherichia (n = 10) Mortality of mice in different Number of Dosage days after infection Mean survival Groups animals Drugs (mg/kg) 4 5 6 7 8 9 time (day) Blank control 10 normal saline — 0 0 0 0 0 0 — Negative control 10 — — 1 2 2 3 1 1 6.4 Tinidazole 10 Tinidazole 80 1 2 2 1 1 2 7.5* PL-34(high) 10 PL-34 30 0 2 1 0 1 1 10.3** PL-34(middle) 10 PL-34 10 0 2 2 1 1 1 8.8** PL-34(low) 10 PL-34 3 1 1 2 1 2 2 7.6* [0000] TABLE 15 Effect of PL-34 tablet takes on survival time of the mice with systemic infection of Bacillus dysenteria (n = 10) Mortality of mice in different Number of Dosage days after infection Mean survival Groups animals Drugs (mg/kg) 4 5 6 7 8 9 time (day) Blank control 10 normal saline — 0 0 0 0 0 0 — Negative control 10 — — 2 2 2 3 1 0 5.9 Tinidazole 10 Tinidazole 80 2 1 2 2 1 1 7.0* PL-34(high) 10 PL-34 30 1 1 2 2 2 1 7.4* PL-34(middle) 10 PL-34 10 1 2 2 1 1 0 8.3** PL-34(low) 10 PL-34 3 1 2 2 2 1 1 7.1* Note: Comparing with negative control group *P <", "0.05.", "**Comparing with negative control group **P <", "0.01.", "[0130] It is known from Tables 14 and 15 that until end of the experiment, average survival days of the mice are apparently different among all PL-34 dose groups, Tinidazole positive control group and negative control group (p<0.01 or 0.05).", "This demonstrates that PL-34 oral preparation has better curative effect on mice against Escherichia and dysentery bacillus infection.", "Example 9 Therapeutic Experiment of PL-18 Injection on Animals with Multiple Mixed Infections 1.", "Experimental Animal: [0131] There are 60 male and 60 female ICR mice with the weight ranging from 18 g to 22 g. According to their weight, they are randomly divided into 6 groups of 20 mice: blank control group, negative control group, Levofloxacin positive control group, and high, middle and low dose of PL-18 group.", "With trinitrophenal marking method, all the mice are raised with ordinary animal feeds in the ordinary animal houses and they can drink water freely.", "Alternating of light and dark is conducted every 12 hours.", "[0000] 2.", "Infected Strains: Candida albicans and Escherichia 3.", "Anti-Infection Drugs [0132] PL-18 freeze-dried powder injection (supplied by Jiangsu ProteLight Pharmaceutical &", "Biotechnology Co., LTD.), Levofloxacin Hydrochloride and Sodium Chloride Injection (supplied by Yangtze River Pharmaceutical Group) and 0.9% Sodium Chloride Injection (supplied by Chifeng Rongjitang Pharmaceutical CO.", ", Ltd.) 4.", "Experimental Procedure [0133] (1) The preparation of bacterial suspension is the same as above.", "[0134] (2) The Candida albicans suspension cultured overnight is diluted to 1×10 6 CFU/ml with Sodium Chloride and 5×10 5 CFU of which is injected into abdominal cavity of every mouse;", "the Escherichia suspension cultured overnight is diluted to 2×10 8 CFU/ml and 1×10 7 CFU of which is injected into abdominal cavity of every mouse to make model with mixed infections.", "[0135] (3) The blank control group is injected with normal saline into their abdominal cavity, the positive control group is injected with Levofloxacin into their abdominal cavity.", "[0136] (4) Administration: The drugs are administered according to weight right after the model is ready.", "All the groups except the blank and the infected negative control group are injected with different dosage of different injections through caudal vena twice a day successively for three days, and they are observed for fourteen days.", "[0137] (5) Observe death of the animals and record their survival time.", "Experimental Result [0138] Experimental result of PL-18 injection takes on survival time of the mice with multiple mixed infection of Candida albicans and Escherichia .", "(Table 16) [0000] TABLE 16 Effect of PL-18 injection takes on survival time of the mice with multiple mixed infection of Candida albicans and Escherichia (n = 20) Mortality of mice in different Number of Dosage days after infection Mean survival Groups animals Drugs (mg/kg) 1 2 3 4 5 time (day) Blank control 20 Normal saline — 0 0 0 0 0 — Negative control 20 — — 8 7 3 2 0 2.0 Levofloxacin 20 Ofloxacin 30 8 6 2 0 0 3.9* PL-18(high) 20 PL-18 5 5 5 2 1 2 5.3** PL-18(middle) 20 PL-18 1 5 4 3 2 0 5.7** PL-18(low) 20 PL-18 0.2 4 4 5 2 2 4.4* Note: Comparing with negative control group *P <", "0.05.", "**Comparing with negative control group **P <", "0.01.", "[0139] Experimental result of multiple mixed infections shows that during the fourteen-day observation, all the 20 mice from negative control group died within four days after these models are made (20/20).", "Mice from high, middle and low dosage groups survived with different number: average survival time of high dosage group is 5.3d, average survival time of low dosage group is 4.4d, average survival time of middle dosage group is 5.7d, all these are superior to Ofloxacin positive control group.", "[0140] It is known from Table 16 that average survival days of mice among PL-18 middle dose group, PL-18 high dose group and negative control group are extremely different (p<0.01).", "This demonstrates that high and middle dose of PL-18 have good effect on resisting on multiple mixed infection.", "Differences of mice average survival time among low dose PL-18 group, Levofloxacin control group and negative control group are significant (P<0.05).", "This demonstrates that low dose PL-18 group and Levofloxacin control group have the same anti-infection effect, but middle dose group is superior to high dose group obviously.", "Overall, 1 mg/kg dosage PL-18 injection has the best curative effect on mice with multiple mixed infection.", "Example 10 Preparation Artwork of 1 Mg/Dosage Water Injection (2 ml:1 Mg) of PL-18 and Antimicrobial Peptides Series Ingredients: [0141] [0000] PL-18 or other antimicrobial peptides 1 g Ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid disodium 3.5 g Water for injection 2000 ml Finished product 1000 dosages [0142] Add 60% of water for injection into PL-18 or other antimicrobial peptides, and stir them to be dissolved.", "Stir and dissolve prescribed PL-18 or other antimicrobial peptides in 60% of total volume of prescribed water for injection.", "Add 0.1% concentration needle with activated carbon into the solution, heat to 50° C., stir and adsorb for thirty minutes, filter and decarbonize, and add the rest of water for injection to total volume.", "Sterilize and filter.", "Fill the solution into bottles after intermediates tested qualified.", "Put the filling semi-finished products in sterilization cabinet.", "Sterilization is conducted at 105° C. for thirty minutes Package the sterilized products after light inspection qualified to obtain final products.", "Example 11 Preparation of 1 Mg/Dosage Freeze-Dried Powder Injection of PL-18, Etc.", "Ingredients: [0143] [0000] PL-18 or other antimicrobial peptides 1 g Mannitol 300 g Water for injection 2000 ml Finished product 1000 dosages [0144] Add 60% of water for injection into Mannitol and stir them to be dissolved.", "Stir and dissolve prescribed mannitol in 60% of total volume of prescribed water for injection.", "Then stir and dissolve PL-18 in the solution.", "Add 0.05% concentration needle with activated carbon into the solution, stir and absorb for thirty minutes, decarbonize and filter.", "Add the rest water for injection into the solution.", "Sterilizing and filtering, extraneous material can be found.", "Only when it's tested qualified, the solution can be filled into bottles and freeze-dried (quick freezing method).", "Switch on the block installation in vacuum condition, press the block severely, and take them out.", "The bottles are covered after the frost-like powder melted.", "Package the bottles after visual inspection qualified.", "Example 12 Preparation of 3 Mg/Piece Tablet of PL-13 and Antimicrobial Peptides Series Ingredients: [0145] [0000] PL-13 or other antimicrobial peptides 3 g Microcrystalline Cellulose 75 g L-hydroxypropyl Cellulose 75 g Sodium Carboxymethyl Starch 40 g Polyvinyl pyrrolidone moderate amount Alcohol moderate amount Magnesium Stearate 1 g Finished product 1000 pieces [0146] Mix 3 g PL-13 or other antimicrobial peptides, 75 g excipient Microcrystalline Cellulose, 75 g L-hydroxypropyl Celluloseand and 30 g Sodium Carboxymethyl Starch evenly.", "Mix them with PL-13 or other antimicrobial peptides evenly with equal increments method.", "Taking solution made of 5% concentration Polyvidone and 50% concentration alcohol as adhesive, make particles with granulating technique of fluidization spray.", "Add in 10 g Sodium Carboxymethyl Starch and 1 g Magnesium Stearate.", "The final products are manufactured by mixing evenly and tabletting.", "Example 13 Preparation Artwork of 10 Ml/Bottle Spray of PL-18 or Antimicrobial Peptides Series Ingredients: [0147] [0000] PL-18 or other antimicrobial peptides 10 g Disodium hydrogen phosphate 276 g Citric Acid 129 g Mannitol 100 g Water for injection moderate amount Finished product 1000 bottles [0148] PL-18 or other antimicrobial peptide are added into 40% of total volume of prescribed water for injection, and stirred to be dissolved.", "Mannitol, Disodic phosphate and Citric Acid are added into the solution above, and stirred to be dissolved.", "The rest of water for injection is added into the solution to complement the volume.", "Filter them with 0.2 um filter membrane and test the intermediate.", "Fill the solution into bottles after tested qualified.", "Package the bottles after full checking.", "Example 14 10 Mg/Pill Capsule of PL-18 or Antimicrobial Peptides Series (0.3 g/Pill) Ingredients: [0149] [0000] PL-18 or antimicrobial peptides series 10 g Starch 100 g Gum Acacia 90 g Sodium carboxymethylcellulose 90 g Talc Powder 7 g Magnesium Stearate 3 g Finished product 1000 pills [0150] Sift raw materials and excipients with 100 mesh respectively.", "12% concentration starch paste is made of 10 g starch.", "All the raw materials and excipients except Talc Powder and Magnesium Stearate are mixed evenly, with starch paste added, sifted with 40 mesh, and dried at temperature between 55° C. to 60° C. Sift dried drops with 40 mesh.", "Mix them with Talc Powder and Magnesium Stearate evenly, and put them into capsule to obtain final products.", "Example 15 10 Mg/Bottle Oral Solution of PL-34, Etc.", "(10 g/Bottle) Ingredients: [0151] [0000] PL-34 1 0 g Sucrose 2000 g Ethylparaben 100 g Water for injection 10000 g Finished product 1000 bottles [0152] Sucrose is dissolved in 50% of total volume of prescribed water for injection.", "PL-34 or other antimicrobial peptides are dissolved in 20% of total volume of prescribed water for injection, and are mixed with Sucrose solution evenly.", "Ethylparaben is dissolved in 10% of total volume of prescribed water for injection which has been heated to 60° C., and stirred well.", "Add them into sucrose solution, and mix evenly.", "Filter and sterilize with 0.2 um microporous membrane.", "Fill them into bottles after tested qualified to obtain final products.", "Example 16 0.5 Mg/g Ointment of PL-13 or Other Antimicrobial Peptides (5 g/Piece) Ingredients: [0153] [0000] PL-13, etc.", "0.1 g Macrogol 4000 480 g Macrogol 400 320 g Azone 10 g Tween 80 15 g Water for injection 175 g Finished product 1000 g [0154] Macrogol 4000 and Macrogol 400 are heated to 60° C. in thermostat-controlled water-bath, and stirred well.", "Azone is mixed with Tween 80 evenly, and then they are added into Macrogol solution to be stirred well and preserved at room temperature.", "PL-13, etc.", "is dissolved in water for injection, and stirred with Macrogol mixture with equal increments method.", "Fill them into tubes after tested qualified to obtain final products.", "Example 17 1 Mg/g Cream of PL-18, Etc.", "(5 g/Piece) Ingredients: [0155] [0000] PL-18, etc.", "1 g Stearin 35 g Stearic Acid 120 g Liquid Paraffin 60 g White Vaseline 10 g Lanolin 50 g Triethanolamine 4 ml Ethyl Hydroxybenzoate 1 g Distilled Water moderate amount Finished product 1000 g [0156] The prescribed oil phase ingredients (including Stearin, Stearic Acid, Liquid Paraffin, Vaseline, and Lanolin) are heated to 80° C. and keep warm.", "Raw materials are added into water phase ingredients (Triethanolamine and Ethyl Hydroxybenzoate dissolved in distilled water), stirred well and heated to 80° C. Add oil phase mixture into water phase mixture and stir them to be cream.", "Preserve them to be room temperature and fill them into tubes.", "The finished product is got.", "Example 18 5 Mg/Piece Gel of PL-18, Etc.", "(5 g/Piece) Ingredients: [0157] [0000] PL-18, etc.", "1 g Carbomer 940 10 g Propylene Glycol 200 g Glycerol 100 g Trolamine moderate amount Water for injection 680 g Finished product 1000 g [0158] The prescribed Glycerol, Propylene Glycol and Carbomer 940 are fully emulsified to be wet.", "300 g water for injection is added into the mixture above to make it swelling.", "Stir them to make them mixed evenly.", "Trolamine is added into the mixture to make it become gel.", "The prescribed raw materials are dissolved in the rest of water for injection, added into gel substance and stirred well.", "Fill them into bottles after tested qualified.", "The finished product is got.", "Example 19 5 Mg/Bottle Eye Drops of PL-18, Etc.", "(5 Ml/Bottle) Ingredients: [0159] [0000] PL-18, etc.", "1 g Ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid disodium 0.2 g Ethyl Hydroxybenzoate 0.15 g Methyl Hydroxybenzoate 0.1 g Water for injection 994 ml Finished product 1000 ml [0160] 20% of prescribed water for injection is heated to 60° C., with prescribed Ethyl Hydroxybenzoate and Methyl Hydroxybenzoate added.", "Stir them to be dissolved and preserve to room temperature.", "The prescribed raw materials and Ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid disodium are dissolved in 60% of prescribed water for injection and stirred well.", "Mix them with Ethyl Hydroxybenzoate and Methyl Hydroxybenzoate solution, put the rest of water for injection into the mixture and stir until smooth.", "Filter and sterilize with microporous membrane.", "Fill them into bottles after tested qualified.", "The finished product is got.", "Example 20 50 Mg/Bottle Aerosol of PL-26, Etc.", "(20 g/Bottle) Ingredients: [0161] [0000] PL-26, etc.", "2.5 g Laurocapram 1 g Tween 80 1.5 g Ethyl Hydroxybenzoate 1 g Water for injection 994 ml Finished product 1000 ml [0162] Raw materials are dissolved in 60% of prescribed water for injection and stirred well.", "Ethyl Hydroxybenzoate is dissolved in 10% of prescribed water for injection which has been heated to 60° C. Mix raw materials solution with Ethyl Hydroxybenzoate solution.", "Add evenly mixed prescribed Laurocapram and Tween 80 into the mixed solution, and add in water for injection to 1000 ml.", "Fill them into spray bottles after tested qualified.", "The finished product is got.", "Example 21 3 Mg/Piece Patch of PL-13, Etc.", "Ingredients: [0163] [0000] PL-13, etc.", "3 g Polyacrylic Acid 30 g Glycerol 120 g Dihydroxyaluminium Aminoacetate 1.5 g Ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid disodium 0.15 g Tartaric Acid 1 g Water for injection 220 g Finished product 1000 pieces [0164] Add prescribed Polyacrylic Acid into Glycerol, Dihydroxyaluminium Aminoacetate and Edathamil Disodium, and spread them well, which are called A. Raw materials are stirred and dissolved in water for injection and Tartaric Acid, and added into A slowly while stirring to make them crosslink.", "Spread them on the backing layer, cover on with protective membrane and solidify for twenty-four hours at room temperature.", "Cut them to get the finished products.", "Example 22 0.5 Mg/Bottle Wash of PL-13, Etc.", "(50 Ml/Bottle) Ingredients: [0165] [0000] PL-13, etc.", "0.01 g Menthol 1 g Sodium Benzoate 1 g Water for injection 997 ml Finished product 1000 ml [0166] PL-13 and other raw materials are dissolved in 60% of prescribed water for injection and stirred well.", "Sodium Benzoate and Menthol are dissolved in water, added into the mixed liquor above, and added in water for solution to 1000 ml.", "Stir them to be dissolved totally.", "Fill them into bottles after tested qualified.", "The finished product is got." ]

[ "This is a division, of application Ser.", "No. 492,196, filed July 26, 1974 now abandoned.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION It is known that a continuous helical ribbon of thermoplastic material can be formed in an extrusion process.", "This can be done by applying a rotary motion to the extrusion die, the latter being provided with a slit orifice to produce the ribbon shape with the rotary motion of the die imparting the desired helical configuration.", "While this procedure is satisfactory for producing the intended helical thermoplastic material configuration, it has certain drawbacks.", "If the processing operation is run at high speed, i.e. relatively high ribbon line speed, there is likely to be imparted to the ribbon a whipping action tending to rotate the ribbon about its travel axis and with a whip spread of increasingly enlarging expanse which can lead to rupture of the ribbon with consequent process breakdown.", "Furthermore, it is difficult and expensive to construct an extrusion die of the rotating type due to the high order of material pressure therein (up to several thousand psi) without there being problems associated with leakage of the compressed thermoplastic resin from the extrusion chamber into bearing surfaces within the die.", "It is also known that a flat ribbon of malleable or readily workable material, such as thermoplastic material can be passed between a pair of crossed rolls to impart a twist to the material.", "However, this procedure also imparts a rotary or rotational effect to the ribbon which at high speed can similarly result in creation of a whipping action leading to possible breakdown of the processing procedure.", "Of more consequence and if the twisted material were intended to be inserted into a tubular component of similar material, the rotary motion of the ribbon would interfere with effective combination of the two parts to produce a desired intended composite structured product.", "Thus while it is known to produce a continuous ribbon of thermoplastic material which has a helical configuration, the prior art has not provided optimal method and apparatus for achieving this purpose.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is concerned with apparatus and method for shaping a continuous ribbon of stock of thermoplastic material to impart a helical twist thereto, the twisting of the ribbon being effected without imparting any bodily rotation to the ribbon during the formation of the twist therein.", "In accordance with the invention, a continuous ribbon of stock is advanced through a nip between a pair of oppositely biased crossing rolling surfaces rotating about fixed axes to therewith twist the ribbon.", "Concurrently the rolling surfaces are rotated bodily about the axis of advance of the ribbon to compensate for any rotational effect produced in the ribbon during its passage through the nip of the rolling surfaces.", "Further in accordance with the invention, apparatus for shaping the ribbon to impart helical twist thereto is provided, the apparatus including a rotary head having a passage extending therethrough and being rotatable about a fixed axis extending centrally through the passage.", "A pair of rolls are carried in the rotary head for rotation about a fixed roll axis with the rolls being disposed in oppositely biased crossing array in the central passage of the head and being spaced from each other so as to present along common length surfaces thereof a nip therebetween.", "Desirably the expanse of the nip between the rolls is disposed symmetrically of the passage of the rotary head passage fixed axis.", "The apparatus also includes means for guiding a continuous ribbon axially into the passage in the rotary head and through the nip of the rolls.", "Thus upon rotation of the rolls, the rolls will advance the ribbon through the head and impart a twist to the ribbon.", "Concurrently with the advance of the ribbon through the rolls, the head structure is rotated about its fixed axis and the rolls are rotated about their respective roll axes with the rotation of the head structure changing the disposition of the roll axes about the fixed axis concurrent with the advance of the ribbon to compensate for any bodily rotational effect produced in the ribbon by the rotation of the rolls.", "In general, the rotary head is an elongated cylindrical shaped structure and has ribbon guiding means carried at one end thereof with the rotary head further including an elongated sleeve part fixedly connected to the other end of the structure so as to be rotatable therewith.", "The sleeve is supported rotatably along a substantial portion of its length in a fixed collar with the fixed collar having a fixed gear means at one end thereof, viz.", ", at the location where the sleeve is connected to the rotary head.", "The sleeve extends through the fixed collar and the distance beyond the other end of the same so that drive for rotating this sleeve and hence the rotary head can be effected through the sleeve itself.", "Conveniently this is done by fixing a gear to the sleeve to effect drive to the sleeve with a motor driven gear meshing with the sleeve gear.", "Concurrent rotation of the rolls about their respective roll axes in the rotary head is effected through driver gear means carried on the rotary head and in mesh with the fixed gear on the collar.", "Thus as the sleeve and hence the rotary head is rotated about the fixed axis, the driver gears in engagement with the fixed gear on the collar are caused to rotate and transmit drive to the rolls.", "Desirably separate gear trains are associated with each of the rolls and each gear train is disposed in a radially extending housing component on the rotary head.", "To facilitate passage of the continuous ribbon through the apparatus, the surfaces of the rolls can be knurled.", "The continuous ribbon following the formation of a twist therein can thereafter be used for any one of a number of purposes.", "In accordance with a further aspect of the invention, a tubular sheath of thermoplastic material can be extruded concurrent with twisting of the continuous ribbon with the ribbon being advanced into the sheath and the sheath pulled down into tight engaging contact with the edges of the ribbon.", "The resultant composite structured product of a thermoplastic tube with a thermoplastic helically twisted ribbon disposed therein can be used as a cigarette mouthpiece or a decorative tube piece of certain ornamental character in which the outer tube is transparent.", "Additionally, such article would have enhanced strength due to the reinforcement provided by the helical ribbon therein and could be used for other purposes such as a duct or conduit for conveying various forms of fluids.", "The invention accordingly comprises the several steps and the relation of one or more of such steps with respect to each of the others thereof, and the apparatus having the features of construction, combination of elements and arrangements of parts which will be exemplified in the construction hereinafter set forth and the scope of the invention will be indicated in the claims.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS A fuller understanding of the nature and the objects of the present invention will be had from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which: FIG. 1 is an elevational view of apparatus with which a continuous ribbon of thermoplastic material may be shaped to impart a helical twist thereto, portions of the apparatus being broken away for purposes of clarity to depict the arrangement of the twist imparting rolls and the gear trains associated therewith.", "FIG. 2 is an end elevational view as taken along the line II--II in FIG. 1. FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the apparatus shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.", "FIG. 4 is a fragmentary sectional view depicting a method for forming a composite structured article in which ribbon twisted in the apparatus is encased in an extruded tubular sheath of thermoplastic material.", "Throughout the following description like reference numerals are used to denote like parts in the drawings.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention is concerned with apparatus and method for shaping a continuous ribbon of readily workable materials, e.g., thermoplastic material to impart a helical twist thereto without imparting any bodily rotation effect to the ribbon about its advance course while it is being twisted.", "Referring now to FIGS. 1-3 of the drawings, there is shown apparatus 10 with which a continuous ribbon 12 of thermoplastic material can be shaped to impart a helical twist thereto.", "The apparatus 10 comprises a rotary head shown generally at 14 which desirably is an elongated generally cylindrically configured structure having a central bored passage 16 extending therethrough, the rotary head being designed for rotation about a fixed axis 18 passing centrally through said passage 16 and constituting the axis in which the continuous ribbon 12 of thermoplastic material is advanced to impart a helical twist thereto.", "One end of the rotary head 14 is provided with an end plate 20 and centrally disposed in said plate and extending into the passage 16 is a guide tube 22, the latter being provided to guidingly direct the continuous ribbon stock into the rotary head with the guide tube being disposed axially of said passage and having an enlarged flared portion as at 24 to facilitate entry of the ribbon stock to the rotary head.", "At the opposite end of the rotary head structure 14, the same is provided with a tubular extension 26 which is made preferably integral with the rotary head structure 14.", "The tubular sleeve 26 in turn is along a substantial portion of its length, rotably supported in a fixed collar 28.", "At one end, the collar 28 is provided with 8 large bevel gear 30 fixed to the collar.", "At the opposite end of the tubular sleeve 26 a second gear 32 is fixed to the sleeve and it in turn is in mesh with a motor driven gear 34.", "Thus the motor 36 is used to rotatably drive the sleeve 26 and in turn the rotary head structure 14.", "A pair of rolls 40 and 42 are carried in the rotary head and are so disposed therein as to rotate about fixed roll axes within the head, the rolls being disposed in oppositely biased crossing array in the central passage 16.", "Further the rolls 40, 42 are spaced from each other so as to present along a common length surface thereof a nip therebetween, the expanse of the bight being disposed symmetrically of the passage fixed axis as best noted in FIG. 2. The drive for the rolls 40, 42 is provided by gear trains 44 associated with each.", "Thus each gear train 44 includes a pair of gears 46 and 48 which are driven off a bevel pinion gear 50, the gear 50 in turn being in mesh with the fixed bevel gear 30 on the collar.", "For accommodating the gear trains 44 the rotary head structure 14 is provided with radially extending housing components 52 and 54 in which are mounted the gear trains.", "When it is desired to impart twist to a stock of thermoplastic material, the same is advanced through the guide tube 22 and into the nip between the rolls 40 and 42.", "To further facilitate advance of the ribbon through the apparatus, the rolls 40 and 42 can have knurled outer surfaces.", "As shown in FIG. 1, the stock from which the continuous twisted ribbon is shaped can be a tubular thermoplastic material stock 60 which upon passage through the nip of the rolls 40, 42 is simulaneously flattened and has twist imparted thereto.", "In effecting a twisting of the continuous ribbon, the rolls 40, 42 have a tendency to impart a bodily rotational movement to the continuous ribbon.", "However to compensate for this so that the shaping occurs without imparting any bodily rotation to the ribbon, the disposition of the rolls 40, 42 about said fixed axis 18 is constantly changed by the rotation of the rotary head structure 14 concurrent with the advance of the ribbon through the apparatus.", "Upon exit of the continuous stock of ribbon 12 from the apparatus as at 70, the now twisted ribbon can be fed inside a tubular extrudate 80 formed on an extruding machine 82 in the manner shown in FIG. 4 and now to be described.", "With reference to FIG. 4, the ribbon 12 which has been twisted, is advanced centrally through an extrusion die 82 from which issues a thermoplastic continuous extrudate 80, the ribbon being advanced centrally into and codirectionally with the extrudate 80.", "The extrudate 80 thereafter is advanced through the closing aperture 83 of a cooling chamber 84 to pull down the tubular extrudate into tight engagement about the twisted ribbon, the inner surfaces of the tubular sheath being brought into contact with the opposite side edge surfaces of the ribbon.", "In this manner a novel composite structured article can be formed which may serve many purposes.", "For example, the composite article can serve as a conduit through which can be transmitted two different fluids, one on either side of the ribbon.", "Additionally, the presence of the ribbon in the tubular sheath enhances the strength of the sheath so that the article could, e.g., serve as an underground gas conduit wherein conduit strength is an important consideration.", "While the foregoing description has been given in terms of twisting a thermoplastic ribbon and forming a composite structured article of thermoplastic, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that the present invention is equally suited for use in connection with materials other than thermoplastic including, but not limited to aluminum, steel and the like.", "The term "ribbon"", "as used herein is inclusive of such shaped articles as tubular material, rods and films which are generally of a continuous length to facilitate feeding them into the apparatus.", "If a thermoplastic rod or other solid article is utilized as the feed stock, it is obvious to the artisan to consider the shear stress in the nip.", "It will thus be seen that the objects set forth above among those made apparent from the foregoing description are efficiently obtained, and since certain changes in the construction and procedure set forth which embody the invention may be made without departing from the scope, it is intended that all matters contained in the above description shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense." ]

[ "FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001] The present invention relates to the use of the tetrapeptide PKEK for lightening the color of human skin, for bleaching pigment spots and/or for evening out irregularities in skin coloration.", "PRIOR ART [0002] It is the aim of care cosmetics to maintain the impression of an outward youthful appearance, for example that of the skin and hair.", "In principle, different ways are available for achieving this path.", "For example, existing skin damage, such as irregular pigmentation or wrinkle formation, can be taken care of with concealing powders or creams.", "Another approach is to protect the skin against environmental influences which lead to permanent damage and thus aging of the skin.", "The idea is thus to intervene in a preventative manner and thereby delay the aging process.", "[0003] The most important function of the skin is to protect the body from the uncontrolled escape of water, on the one hand, and also against the entry of harmful chemicals or bacteria and also of solar radiation, on the other hand.", "If the human skin is exposed to long-term solar irradiation, this can lead to the appearance of photo-induced skin aging and pigment disorders.", "This harmful effect of sunlight is attributed inter alia to the UVB radiation (280-320 nm) present in the spectrum of sunlight.", "[0004] Pigment disorders are perceived as cosmetic flaws.", "Examples of these local hyperpigmentations would be: freckles, melasma, chloasma, post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation, liver spots and many more.", "It is common to all forms of hyperpigmentation that a disturbance in the melanogenesis arises.", "[0005] The pigmentation of the skin is quite essentially determined by the skin's own pigment melanin.", "This is formed by specialized cells in the epidermis, the melanocytes.", "During the synthesis of melanin, tyrosinase, being the pacemaker enzyme, plays a very decisive role.", "The skin reacts to the influence of UV radiation with the formation of melanin.", "Human melanins are biopolymers synthesized by the melanocytes.", "The melanocytes are localized in the epidermis of the skin.", "They have dendritic branches, via which they are connected to the keratinocytes.", "In the melanocytes, the melanin is formed and then transferred to the adjacent keratinocytes with the help of the melanosomes.", "In order to trigger the formation of melanin, the keratinocytes send out paracrine signals.", "Thus, e.g. in the keratinocytes, as a consequence of UV-A and UV-B irradiation, NO is formed which triggers the formation of melanin in the melanocytes.", "The melanocytes react to NO with increased cell growth, form dendrites to an increased extent and increase the melanogenesis.", "Regulation of melanogenesis in the melanocytes is moreover subject to control by the hormone alpha-MSH.", "[0006] Local hyperpigmentations or even natural skin pigmentation are often perceived as cosmetic flaws.", "Various strategies have therefore been developed to reduce the pigmentation of the skin.", "[0007] One of the most often used skin and hair lighteners is hydroquinone or the hydroquinone glycoside of arbutin.", "However, these compounds have a cytotoxic effect on melanocytes and have an irritative effect on the skin.", "Another option is the inhibition of the synthesis of melanin by inhibiting the pacemaker enzyme tyrosinase.", "For this, the substances kojic acid and derivatives of kojic acid such as e.g. kojic acid dipalmitate kojic acid, azelaic acid, oxyresveratrol, linolenic acid, vitamin C and derivatives of ascorbic acid such as, for example, ascorbyl phosphate or ascorbyl palmitate, inter alia, are used.", "However, these substances either have a high sensitizing potential, cause contact allergies, exhibit inadequate chemical stability in cosmetic formulations or have only an unsatisfactory effect on the skin.", "[0008] Moreover, strategies are also known which prevent the transfer of the melanin from the melanocytes into the surrounding keratinocytes.", "Thus, protease inhibitors are described which inhibit the PAR2 receptor on the surface of the keratinocytes and as a result reduce the transfer of the melanin.", "Hydrolysates from soya beans and niacinamide are said to reduce pigmentation in this way.", "[0009] Similarly, a skin-lightening effect is acknowledged for various plant extracts such as, for example, licorice extract, mulberry tree extract, or bearberry.", "Here, there is the problem of inadequate standardization of the extracts for a consistent effectiveness on the skin.", "Increased renewal of the skin is also described for lightening the skin.", "For this procedure, alpha-hydroxy acids such as lactic acid and glycolic acid, inter alia, are used.", "By means of this treatment, the uppermost skin layers are corroded away and the melanin-containing corneocytes are abraded.", "A disadvantage of this method is frequent irritation of the skin.", "[0010] There is thus furthermore an increasing need for new, further and improved active ingredients for the treatment of hyperpigmentation, but also for the purely cosmetic lightening of relatively large areas of pigmented skin that are entirely appropriate to the individual skin type per se.", "[0011] The peptide PKEK is described in the patent application WO/2008/085494 and in WO/2009/068351.", "It has immunomodulatory properties and also anti-aging efficacy.", "[0012] It was an object of the invention to provide a care active ingredient which has a skin-lightening effect, which is well tolerated and can be formulated easily.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0013] Surprisingly, the object is achieved through the use of the tetrapeptide PKEK (Seq.", "ID No. 1) to combat undesired pigmentation of the skin.", "[0014] The present invention therefore provides the use of the tetrapeptide PKEK or one of its derivatives for lightening the color of human skin, for bleaching pigment spots and/or for evening out irregularities in skin coloration.", "[0015] The invention further provides the use of the tetrapeptide PKEK or one of its derivatives for producing a formulation, and also these specific formulations themselves.", "[0016] It is an advantage of the present invention that the tetrapeptide itself has further properties which are advantageous in connection with skin lightening, such as, for example, the ability to tighten skin and to smooth skin wrinkles, as well as to alleviate inflammations.", "[0017] Unless stated otherwise, all stated percentages (%) are percentages by mass.", "[0018] A derivative of the tetrapeptide is to be understood as meaning in particular acyl derivatives;", "for the acyl derivatization of the tetrapeptide used according to the invention, as a result of amide bonding, an alkylic lipophilic chain or an arylic radical or alkyloxic or aryloxic or alkylaryloxic variants thereof can be attached to the N-terminal end of the oligopeptide and/or to the C-terminal end, as a result of ester bonding an alkyl alcohol or as a result of amide bonding an NH 2 group or one such N-alkyl-substituted group.", "[0019] According to the invention an acyl group is preferably arranged on the N-terminal end of the amino acid sequence.", "This can optionally carry branched or straight-chain, long- or short-chain, saturated or unsaturated radicals, and be unsubstituted or substituted with one or more hydroxyl, amino, acylamino, sulfate or sulfide groups.", "Such N-acylic derivatives can be produced, for example, with acetic acid, biotinic acid, caprylic acid, capric acid, lauric acid, myristic acid, octanoic acid, palmitic acid, stearic acid, behenic acid, linoleic acid, linolenic acid, lipoic acid, oleic acid, isostearic acid, elaidic acid, 2-ethylhexanoic acid, coconut oil fatty acid, talc fatty acid, hydrogenated talc fatty acid, palm kernel oil fatty acid, lanolin fatty acid or mixtures thereof.", "[0020] Preferred acyl groups include substituted or unsubstituted acetyl, palmitoyl, hexanoyl, myristyl, biotinyl and octanoyl groups.", "[0021] The use according to the invention of the tetrapeptide PKEK or one of its derivatives for lightening the color of human skin, for bleaching pigment spots and/or for evening out irregularities in skin coloration belongs in particular to the cosmetic, non-therapeutic field.", "[0022] The tetrapeptide PKEK or one of its derivatives can advantageously be used for producing a formulation for lightening the color of human skin, for bleaching pigment spots and/or for evening out irregularities in skin coloration.", "[0023] A formulation for lightening the color of human skin, for bleaching pigment spots and/or for evening out irregularities in skin coloration are those, preferably cosmetic, formulations which are obviously formulated for such a purpose.", "This can be ascertained in particular from the fact that other active ingredients for lightening the skin are present.", "These may be in particular kojic acid, kojic acid derivatives, niacin/niacinamide, alpha-hydroxycarboxylic acids such as lactic acid, arbutin, arbutin derivatives, ascorbic acid, ascorbic acid derivatives such as sodium ascorbyl phosphate, magnesium ascorbyl phosphate and ascorbyl glucoside, hydroquinone, hydroquinone derivatives, glabridin in licorice, oleanoic acid, sulfur-containing molecules such as e.g. glutathione or cysteine or other synthetic or natural active ingredients for lightening the skin.", "[0024] The invention further provides the use of the tetrapeptide PKEK or one of its derivatives for producing a sunscreen formulation.", "[0025] The reason for this is that a sunscreen formulation has obviously been provided in order to likewise counteract coloration of the skin, only in this case it is prophylactic.", "[0026] The obvious preparation of a sunscreen formulation can be ascertained in particular from the fact that substances that absorb UV radiation are present.", "Examples of such substances are listed below.", "[0027] Consequently, the present invention also further provides a formulation, preferably a cosmetic formulation, comprising [0000] a) an effective amount of the tetrapeptide PKEK or one of its derivatives b) a safe and effective amount of at least one additional active ingredient selected from the group consisting of the active ingredients for bleaching the skin, depigmentation, sun protection and blocking UV rays and optionally c) a dermatologically acceptable carrier.", "[0028] The formulation “dermatologically acceptable carrier”", "means here that the carrier is suitable for topical application on the horny tissue, has good esthetic properties, is compatible with the ingredients of the present invention and any desired other components and does not lead to unfavorable safety and toxicity concerns.", "[0029] The carrier can be present in many different forms.", "For example, emulsion carriers including oil-in-water, water-in-oil, water-in-oil-in-water and oil-in-water-in-silicone emulsions can be used here.", "[0030] In connection with the formulations according to the invention, preferred active ingredients for the skin bleaching and the depigmentation are kojic acid, kojic acid dipalmitate, niacin/niacinamide, alpha-hydroxycarboxylic acids such as lactic acid, arbutin, ascorbic acid, ascorbic acid derivatives such as sodium ascorbyl phosphate, magnesium ascorbyl phosphate and ascorbyl glucoside ascorbyl palmitate, sodium ascorbyl phosphate, magnesium ascorbyl phosphate and ascorbyl glucoside, hydroquinone, glabridin in licorice, oleanoic acid, glutathione, cysteine, azelaic acid, oxyresveratrol, linolenic acid, dicarboxylic acids such as dioic acid.", "[0031] These are present particularly when the formulation according to the invention is a formulation for lightening the color of human skin, for bleaching pigment spots.", "[0032] In connection with the formulations according to the invention, preferred active ingredients for sun protection and blocking UV rays are selected from the group consisting of: [0033] 3-benzylidenecamphor, 3-(4-methylbenzylidene)camphor, 2-ethylhexyl 4-(dimethylamino)benzoate, 2-ethylhexyl 4-(dimethylamino)benzoate, amyl 4-(dimethylamino)benzoate, esters of cinnamic acid, esters of salicylic acid, benzophenone, 2-hydroxy-4-methoxybenzophenone, 2-hydroxy-4-methoxy-4″-methylbenzophenone, 2,2″-dihydroxy-4-methoxybenzophenone, esters of benzalmalonic acid, triazines, 2,4,6-trianilino(p-carbo-2″-ethyl-1″-hexyloxy)-1,3,5-triazine, octyltriazone, propane-1,3-diones, 1-(4-tert-butylphenyl)-3-(4″-methoxyphenyl)propane-1,3-dione, 2-phenylbenzimidazole-5-sulfonic acid, sulfonic acid derivatives of benzophenone, sulfonic acid derivatives of 3-benzylidenecamphor, derivatives of benzoylmethane, finely dispersed metal oxides and salts such as titanium dioxide or zinc oxide, 2,2″-methylenebis-{ 6 -(2H-benzotriazol-2-yl)-4-(1,1,3,3-tetramethylbutyl)phenol.", "[0034] These are present particularly when the formulation according to the invention is a sunscreen formulation.", "[0035] According to the invention, particular preference is given to a formulation which is a formulation for evening out irregularities in skin coloration.", "This is characterized in particular in that it comprises an additional component d), which comprises self-tanning agents, preferably consists of these.", "[0036] According to the invention, suitable self-tanning agents in this connection are selected from the group consisting of dihydroxyacetone and erythrulose.", "[0037] The formulations according to the invention comprise from 0.00001 percent by mass to 1 percent by mass, preferably 0.00005 percent by mass to 0.5 percent by mass, particularly preferably 0.0001 percent by mass to 0.1 percent by mass of tetrapeptide or tetrapeptide derivative, based on the total mass of the formulation.", "[0038] The formulation according to the invention can comprise e.g. at least one additional component selected from the group of emollients, emulsions, thickeners/viscosity regulators/stabilizers, antioxidants, hydrotropes (or polyols), solids and fillers, pearlescent additives, deodorant and antiperspirant active ingredients, insect repellents, self-tanning agents, preservatives, conditioners, perfumes, dyes, cosmetic active ingredients, care additives, superfatting agents, solvents.", "[0057] Substances which can be used as exemplary representatives of the individual groups are known to the person skilled in the art and can be found, for example, in the German application DE 102008001788.4.", "This patent application is hereby incorporated by reference and thus forms part of the disclosure.", "[0058] As regards further optional components and the amounts of these components used, reference is made expressly to the relevant handbooks known to the person skilled in the art, e.g. K. Schrader, “Grundlagen and Rezepturen der Kosmetika”", "[“Principles and Formulations of Cosmetics”], 2nd edition, page 329 to 341, Hüthig Buch Verlag Heidelberg.", "[0059] The amounts of the particular additives are governed by the intended use.", "[0060] Typical guide formulations for the particular applications are known prior art and are contained, for example, in the brochures from the manufacturers of the particular basic materials and active ingredients.", "These existing formulations can generally be adopted unchanged.", "If necessary, however, the desired modifications can be undertaken by simple experiments without complication for the purposes of adaptation and optimization.", "[0061] The formulations according to the invention can, as described above for the tetrapeptide itself, be used advantageously for lightening the color of human skin, for bleaching pigment spots and/or for evening out irregularities in skin coloration.", "[0062] The invention further provides a method for lightening the color of human skin, for bleaching pigment spots and/or for evening out irregularities in skin coloration, involving the process steps [0000] A) provision of a formulation according to the invention B) application of the formulation according to the invention to the skin at least once per day in an effective amount.", "[0063] In the examples listed below, the present invention is described by way of example without intending to limit the invention, the scope of application of which arises from the entire description and the claims, to the embodiments specified in the examples.", "[0064] The following figures form part of the examples: [0065] FIG. 1 : melanin decrease in the panel test [0066] FIG. 2 : color space L*a*b* [0067] FIG. 3 : typing of the different skin shades [0068] FIG. 4 : ΔΔITA after 6-week application of the test formulations [0069] FIG. 5 : improvement in the evenness of the skin appearance (** p<0.01 compared to PKEK/vehicle).", "EXAMPLES Example 1 In Vivo Lightening (2-Month Study) [0070] 20 subjects wore a test formulation without peptide or with 0.005% PKEK over a period of 8 weeks on one forearm in each case.", "Prior to the start of the study, and also after 8 weeks, a Mexameter probe (Courage &", "Khazaka, Cologne) was used to measure the melanin concentration both on the inside and also on the outside of the forearm.", "[0071] The measurement of the melanin concentration in the skin is based on the principle of absorption/reflection.", "The [0072] Mexameter probe emits light of a specific wavelength which is in agreement with the absorption maxima of the melanin in the skin.", "The light reflected by the skin is measured and placed relative to the emitted amount of light.", "The resulting measurement values are given as index numbers.", "Test Formulation: [0073] [0000] 0.005% H1410 Vehicle Polyglyceryl-3 Methylglucose 3.0% 3.0% Distearate Glyceryl Stearate 2.0% 2.0% Stearyl Alcohol 1.0% 1.0% PPG-3 Myristyl Ether 9.5% 9.5% Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride 9.5% 9.5% PKEK 0.005% — Water 74.195% 74.2% Microcare MEM 0.8% 0.8% (methylisothiazolinone, methyl paraben, ethyl paraben) Perfume q.s. q.s. [0074] FIG. 1 shows the difference in the melanin values after 8 weeks compared to the starting value.", "Both on the inside and also on the outside of the forearm, a significantly greater decrease in skin brownness is established compared to the vehicle.", "Example 2 Example Formulations [0075] Example formulations are described below.", "The stated percentages are percentages by mass and refer to the total mass of the example formulation.", "To produce the formulations, customary formulation processes known to the person skilled in the art were used.", "O/W Formulation [0076] [0000] Phase A Polyglyceryl-3 Methylglucose Distearate 3.0% Glyceryl Stearate 2.0% Stearyl Alcohol 1.0% Decyl Cocoate 10.0% Cetearyl Ethylhexanoate 9.0% Phase B Glycerin 3.0% PKEK 0.001% Water 71.999% Phase Z Preservative, perfume q.s. W/O Formulation [0077] [0000] Phase A Polyglyceryl-4 Isostearate 1.5% Cetyl PEG/PPG-10/1 Dimethicone 1.0% Ethylhexyl Palmitate 11.0% Decyl Oleate 10.5% Hydrogenated Castor Oil 0.8% Microcrystalline Wax 1.2% Phase B Glycerin 3.0% Magnesium Sulfate Heptahydrate 0.6% PKEK 0.002% Water 70.398% Phase Z Preservative, perfume q.s. Shower Gel [0078] [0000] Water 50.248% PKEK 0.002% Polyquaternium-10 0.3% Sodium Laureth Sulfate, 28% 36.0% Disodium Cocoamphodiacetate, 39% 6.0% Cocamidopropylbetaine;", "Glyceryl Laurate 5.0% PEG-7 Glyceryl Cocoate 1.6% Sodium Chloride 0.85% Preservative, perfume q.s. O/W Cream with Licorice Extract [0000] Phase A Stearyl Alcohol 3.5% Glyceryl Stearate 1.5% Cetearyl Ethylhexanoate 7.8% Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride 10.0% Macadamia ternifolia Nut Oil 4.0% Tocopheryl Acetate 1.0% Dimethicone 0.2% Phase B Cetearyl Glucoside 1.0% Sucrose Stearate 2.0% Glycerin 3.0% PKEK 0.005% Glycyrrhiza glabra (licorice) extract 0.1% Water 64.895% Phase C Carbomer 0.2% Cetearyl Ethylhexanoate 0.8% Phase D Sodium Hydroxide (10%) q.s. Phase Z Preservative, perfume q.s. O/W Cream with Licorice Root Extract [0000] Phase A Stearyl Alcohol 3.0% Glyceryl Stearate 1.0% Stearic Acid 1.0% Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride 9.0% Decyl Cocoate 4.5% Avocado ( Persea gratissima ) Oil 5.0% Tocopheryl Acetate 0.5% Phase B Cetearyl Glucoside 1.0% Glycerin 3.0% Allantoin 0.2% Panthenol 0.5% PKEK 0.002% Glycyrrhiza glabra (licorice) root 0.1% extract Water 69.198% Phase C Sodium Lactate;", "Sodium PCA;", "Fructose;", "2.0% Urea;", "Niacinamide;", "Inositol;", "Sodium Benzoate;", "Lactic Acid Phase Z Preservative, perfume q.s. O/W Body Lotion with Kojic Acid [0000] Phase A Glyceryl Stearate Citrate 1.5% Cetearyl Alcohol 1.0% Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride 7.0% Mineral Oil 5.5% Phase B Glycerin 5.0% PKEK 0.003% Kojic acid 0.2% Water 78.197% Phase C Carbomer 0.2% Mineral Oil 0.8% Phase D Sodium Hydroxide (10%) 0.6% Phase Z Preservative, perfume q.s. W/O Body Lotion with Arbutin [0000] Phase A Diisostearoyl Polyglyceryl-3 Dimer Dilinoleate 3.0% Hydrogenated Castor Oil 0.2% Microcrystalline Wax 0.3% Isocetyl Palmitate 8.0% Ethylhexyl Palmitate 5.5% Isopropyl Palmitate 8.0% Phase B Glycerin 2.0% Magnesium Sulfate Heptahydrate 1.0% PKEK 0.001% Arbutin 2.0% Water 69.999% Phase Z Preservative, perfume q.s. O/W Body Butter with Hydroquinone [0000] Phase A Glyceryl Stearate;", "PEG-100 Stearate 6.0% Cetearyl Alcohol 1.5% Myristyl Myristate 1.0% Cetyl Ricinoleate 1.0% Cyclomethicone 6.0% Behenoxy Dimethicone 1.0% Soybean ( Glycine soja ) Oil 7.0% Butyrumspermum parkii (Shea Butter) 7.0% Lanolin Alcohol 1.0% Theobroma cacao (Cacao Butter) 7.0% Phase B Glycerin 5.0% EDTA 0.1% PKEK 0.002% Hydroquinone 0.5% Water 55.898% Phase Z Preservative, perfume q.s. O/W Cream with Mulberry Extract [0000] Phase A Bis-PEG/PPG-16/16 PEG/PPG 16/16 1.5% Dimethicone;", "Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride Ceteareth-25 1.0% Glyceryl Stearate 3.0% Stearyl Alcohol 2.0% Stearic Acid 1.0% Isocetyl Palmitate 5.5% Ethylhexyl Palmitate 6.0% Phase B Glycerin 2.0% PKEK 0.005% Water 76.495% Phase C Carbomer 0.1% Isocetyl Palmitate 0.4% Phase D Sodium Hydroxide (10%) q.s. Phase E Butylene Glycol, Morus alba root 1.0% extract Phase Z Preservative, perfume q.s. O/W Cream with Oxyresveratrol [0000] Phase A Polyglyceryl-3 Methylglucose Distearate 3.0% Glyceryl Stearate 2.0% Stearyl Alcohol 1.0% PPG-3 Myristyl Ether 9.5% Ethylhexyl Stearate 9.5% Phase B Glycerin 3.0% PKEK 0.002% Oxyresveratrol 0.2% Water 71.798% Phase Z Preservative, perfume O/W Cream with Octadecenedioic Acid [0000] Phase A Ceteareth-25 2.0% Stearyl Alcohol 2.5% Glyceryl Stearate 1.5% Stearic Acid 1.0% Ethylhexyl Stearate 10.0% Mineral Oil 8.0% Octadecenedioic Acid 1.0% Phase B Water 69.999% PKEK 0.001% Phase C Betaine 2.0% Water 2.0% Phase Z Preservative, perfume q.s. W/O Cream with Magnesium Ascorbyl Phosphate [0000] Phase A Cetyl PEG/PPG-10/1 Dimethicone 2.0% Polyglyceryl-4 Isostearate 1.0% Hydrogenated Castor Oil 0.8% Microcrystalline Wax 1.2% Isohexadecane 9.5% Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride 6.5% Cetearyl Ethylhexanoate 4.0% Phase B Creatine 0.5% PKEK 0.003% Magnesium Ascorbyl Phosphate 1.5% Sodium Chloride 0.5% Water 72.497% Phase Z Preservative, perfume q.s. O/W Body Lotion with Sodium Ascorbyl Phosphate [0000] Phase A Glyceryl Stearate SE 4.0% Stearic Acid 0.5% Myristyl Alcohol 0.5% Mineral Oil 4.6% Ethylhexyl Stearate 5.0% Phase B Glycerin 3.0% PKEK 0.001% Water 70.399 Phase C Carbomer 0.1% Mineral Oil 0.4% Phase D Sodium Ascorbyl Phosphate 1.5% Water 10.0% Phase E Sodium Hydroxide (10%) q.s. Phase Z Preservative, perfume q.s. Cream Bath with Niacinamide [0000] Almond ( Prunus dulcis oil) 0.3% Perfume 0.5% PEG-20 Glyceryl Oleate 2.0% Sodium Laureth Sulfate, 28% 40.7% Quaternium-80 1.0% Water 37.499% PKEK 0.001% Niacinamide 0.5% Lauryl Glucoside, 50% 6.35% Cocamidopropyl Betaine, 37.5% 11.65% PEG-18 Glyceryl Oleate/Cocoate 1.5% Glycol Distearate;", "Steareth-4 3.0% O/W Sunscreen Lotion [0079] [0000] Phase A Polyglyceryl-3 Methylglucose Distearate 2.5% C12-15 Alkyl Benzoate 4.0% Decyl Cocoate 2.5% Isopropyl Palmitate 1.6% Tocopheryl Acetate 0.5% Ethylhexyl Methoxycinnamate 5.0% 4-Methylbenzylidene Camphor 3.0% Butyl Methoxydibenzoylmethane 2.0% Phase B Glycerin 2.0% EDTA 0.1% PKEK 0.003% Water 75.897% Phase C Carbomer 0.05% Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylates Crosspolymer 0.05% Isopropyl Palmitate 0.4% Phase D Sodium Hydroxide (10%) 0.4% Phase Z Preservative, perfume q.s. W/O Sunscreen Cream [0080] [0000] Phase A Cetyl PEG/PPG-10/1Dimethicone 2.5% Diethylhexyl Carbonate 7.4% C12-15 Alkyl Benzoate 2.0% Cera Alba 0.5% Hydrogenated Castor Oil 0.5% Tocopheryl Acetate 0.6% Ethylhexyl Salicylate 3.0% Ethylhexyl Methoxycinnamate 7.5% Benzophenone-3 5.0% Phase B Sodium Carboxymethyl Beta-Glucan 0.2% Glycerin 1.0% Allantoin 0.1% PKEK 0.002% Sodium Chloride 0.5% Water 69.198% Phase Z Preservative, perfume q.s. Example 3 Reduction of Age Spots on the Face [0081] Age spots (Latin: Lentigines seniles, Lentigines solares ) are pigment disorders in the skin.", "They are produced by increased, chronic exposure to ultraviolet radiation, e.g. sunlight.", "This results in local, sharply delimited pale brown spot formations (“maculae”) with increase in the melanin-producing melanocytes, predominantly in the area of the backs of the hands, forearms and facial skin.", "[0082] In order to quantify such age spots, color measurements of the skin are carried out.", "For this purpose, chromameters are used.", "The chromameter measures the color values L*, a* and b*.", "These describe a three-dimensional color space, with the help of which every perceivable color can be described, cf.", "FIG. 2 .", "[0083] On the a*-axis the opposite colors green and red face each other, and on the b*-axis the opposite colors blue and yellow face each other.", "The axis L* gives the lightness.", "[0084] The end points are black (L=0) and white (L=100).", "In order to be able to classify the skin shade, the parameters L* and b* are required.", "The skin shade ITA° is given in degrees and calculated using the following formula: [0000] ITA °=[arctan(( L*− 50)/ b *)]*180/3.14159 [0085] The skin shade is classified in this connection as follows, cf.", "FIG. 3 : [0000] ITA° >", "55° very light 55° >", "ITA° >", "41° light 41° >", "ITA° >", "28° intermediate 28° >", "ITA° >", "10° tanned.", "[0086] See also in this regard: COLIPA Guideline: Guideline for the colometric determination of skin colour typing and prediction of the minimal erythemal dose (MED) without UV exposure.", "[0087] By means of the following study, the aim is to investigate whether the tetrapeptide PKEK is able to visibly reduce age spots.", "[0088] The study was carried out as a half-side test.", "40 women aged between 30 and 70 years were selected who had visible age spots on the face.", "They were each given 2 test formulations, one for the right half of the face and the other for the left half of the face.", "The test formulations had to be applied twice daily over a period of six weeks.", "[0000] Asc.", "PKEK + PKEK Phos.", "Asc.", "Phos.", "Vehicle Polyglyceryl-3 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 Methylglucose Distearate Stearyl Alcohol 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 Glyceryl Stearate 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 C12-15 9.5 9.5 9.5 9.5 Alkylbenzoate Caprylic/Capric 9.5 9.5 9.5 9.5 Triglyceride Water 61.496 59.7 59.696 61.5 Sodium ascorbyl 1.5 1.5 phosphate Sodium Bisulfite 0.3 0.3 (39%) Urea 2.5 2.5 2.5 2.5 PKEK 0.004 0.004 Water 10.0 10.0 10.0 10.0 Microcare MEM 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.8 (preserver) Perfume 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 pH value >=7 >=7 >=7 >=7 Test formulation (data in % by weight) [0089] Prior to the start of the study and also after 6 weeks, the color of the skin directly on the age spot was measured as well as in the adjoining area.", "This was performed using a CR 400 chromameter from Minolta.", "The skin shade ITA° was calculated both for the age spot (ITA° A ) and also the adjoining area (ITA° U ) and the difference was calculated: [0000] Δ ITA°=ITA° U −ITA° A [0090] The greater ΔITA°, the more visible the age spot.", "The difference of ΔITA° before the start of application of the test formulations and also after 6 weeks was then calculated (AΔITA): [0000] ΔΔ ITA=ΔITA° start −ΔITA° 6 we [0091] A visible reduction of the age spots is present when: [0000] Δ ITA° start >ΔITA° 6 we [0000] Δ ITA° start −ΔITA° 6 we >0 [0000] ΔΔ ITA>", "0 [0092] FIG. 4 shows the values for AΔITA after application of the test formulations for 6 weeks.", "[0093] Both PKEK on its own and also sodium ascorbyl phosphate led to a visible reduction of the age spots.", "In this connection, PKEK even led to a greater reduction than sodium ascorbyl phosphate.", "This can be attributed to the fact that no active ingredient was present here which could compensate for negative effect on the skin, e.g. caused by UV radiation.", "By combining PKEK with sodium ascorbyl phosphate, the effectiveness of the cosmetic formulation was able to be increased synergistically.", "Example 4 Improvement in the Skin Appearance in Dark-Skinned People [0094] For the following study, dark-skinned women (Fitzpatrick type VI-V) were used.", "The Fitzpatrick scale serves to organize the different skin types: [0000] Skin type Characterization Sensitivity to sun I Celtic type, very Will not tan, very frequent light skin color, sunburn, intrinsic reddish or pale protection time blonde hair, blue, <10 minutes.", "green or pale gray eyes, freckles II Nordic type, light Slow, minimal tanning, skin color, blonde or often sunburn, intrinsic pale brown hair, protection time: 10-20 blue, gray or green minutes.", "eyes, often freckles III Mixed type, average Slow, but developing tan, skin color, dark sometimes sunburn, brown or pale brown intrinsic protection time: hair, brown (blue, 20-30 minutes green or gray) eyes, rarely freckles IV Mediterranean type, Rapid tanning, rarely brownish or olive- sunburn, intrinsic colored skin even in protection time: the untanned state, >30 minutes.", "brown eyes, brown or black hair, no freckles V Dark skin type, dark Rapid tanning, hardly any skin even in the sunburn, intrinsic untanned state, dark protection time: eyes, black hair, no >60 minutes freckles VI Black skin type, dark Virtually never sunburn, brown to black skin intrinsic protection time: even in the untanned >90 minutes state, black eyes, black hair, no freckles [0095] Compare also http://dermatology.", "about.com/od/cosmeticprocedure/a/fitzpatrick.", "htm [0096] In each case, 25 female subjects were given a face cream which comprised either the tetrapeptide PKEK or no active ingredient (vehicle).", "They had to apply this formulation twice daily over the entire face for a period of 12 weeks.", "Prior to the start of the study and also after 2, 4, 8 and 12 weeks, the evenness of the skin appearance was assessed visually by an expert.", "[0097] A five-part scale was used for assessing the skin appearance: [0000] 5=no contrast, very even skin appearance 4=slight contrast, slightly irregular skin appearance 3=moderate contrast, irregular skin appearance 2=high contrast, highly irregular skin appearance 1=very high contrast, very highly irregular skin appearance [0098] The table below gives the composition of the test formulation: [0000] PKEK Vehicle Polyglyceryl-3 Methylglucose 3.0% 3.0% Distearate Glyceryl Stearate 2.0% 2.0% Stearyl Alcohol 1.0% 1.0% PPG-3 Myristyl Ether 9.5% 9.5% C12-15 Alkyl Benzoate 9.5% 9.5% Water 74.196% 74.2% PKEK 0.004% — Microcare MEM (preserver) 0.8% 0.8% pH (lactic acid 10%) 6.0 ± 0.5 6.0 ± 0.5 [0099] Test Formulation for the In Vivo Study on Dark Skin [0100] FIG. 5 shows that within the first 8 weeks the skin appearance of the subjects visibly improved with both test formulations, with the improvement by the tetrapeptide PKEK being increasingly greater over the course of the time than with the vehicle.", "After 12 weeks, with the vehicle no further improvement takes place, whereas PKEK significantly improves the skin appearance yet further.", "SEQUENCE LISTING <110>", "Evonik Goldschmidt GmbH [0101] <120>", "Tetrapeptides for lightening the skin <130>200900345 <160>1 <170>", "PatentIn version 3.4 <210>1 <211>4 <212>", "PRT <213>", "Artificial [0102] <220>", "<223>", "Artificial Peptide [0103] <400>1 Pro Lys Glu Lys [0104] 1" ]

[ "RELATED APPLICATION This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 08/895,061, entitled "Variable Domain Redundancy Replacement Configuration for a Memory Device", filed concurrently herewith, and assigned to the same assignee.", "FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention generally relates to a method of making a memory device fault tolerant using a redundancy replacement scheme, and more particularly, to using a variable domain redundancy replacement configuration in DRAMs in the Gigabit range.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION CMOS technology has evolved such that the computer market has rapidly opened to a wide range of consumers.", "Today multi-media applications require at least an 8Mb and preferably even a 16Mb memory, which increases the relative cost of the memory system within a computer.", "In the near future, it is likely that 32Mb and 64Mb computers will become commonplace, which suggests a potential demand for 256Mb DRAMs (Dynamic Random Access Memory) and beyond.", "Still in the development stage, DRAMs in the Gigabit range are already under way, which necessitate the introduction of new techniques that guarantee the reliability of the product notwithstanding the added complexity to the design and manufacture of such memory devices.", "In view of the huge array size and lithographic difficulties that ensue, it is more important than ever to increase the chip yield.", "Process engineers are constantly attempting to reduce and ultimately, eliminate or mask defects.", "Faults that inevitably remain in the chip are generally eliminated using special circuit designs, and more specifically redundancy replacement.", "The present invention is a novel configuration based on the concept of domains.", "The domains referred in the present invention are not bound by stringent, well defined boundaries.", "Certain domains may be large and encompass a plurality of memory arrays;", "others may be small in size, and encompass only portions of a memory array.", "Regardless of its size, each domain is provided with a number of redundancy circuits to replace faults located within the domain.", "By allowing an overlap between domains, it becomes possible to repair faults in a given memory array with any of the redundancy circuits positioned within the common area of the overlapping domains, provided the fault is found in the array being serviced by the two domains.", "Clearly, if the number of faults exceeds the number of redundancies available in the domain (or domains) servicing that array, the scheme will fail and the memory is not repairable.", "However, in accordance with the present invention, if all the redundancies within a first domain have been exhausted, unused redundancies present within another domain overlapping the first one are used as a means for repairing the remaining faults that were left out unserviced within the first domain.", "Domains may be tailored to any size and may be arranged in any configuration.", "Domains can overlap each other or stand side by side.", "An advantage of overlapping domains is that such an architecture allows servicing faults located in areas common to both domains with redundancy elements positioned in either one of the two domains.", "This advantage is particularly important because repair means available within one domain may be, at a given time, fully exhausted, and the availability of a second, overlapping domain may, thus, be advantageously used to assist the first domain to complete the repair job left undone.", "Several domains may be contained within one array or, alternatively, several arrays may be contained within one domain.", "In this manner, a designer can take greater advantage of a given domain configuration and a choice of sizes to optimize the repairability of the design.", "Conventional redundancy configurations typically employ a Fixed Domain Redundancy Replacement (FDRR) architecture, wherein redundancy elements are used to replace defective elements within a fixed size domain for each row and column redundancy.", "Various configurations within the FDRR architecture have been successfully implemented over the years.", "A typical FDRR configuration, commonly used for low density DRAMs is shown in FIG. 1a.", "Therein are depicted a plurality of redundancy units used for replacing defective elements within the fixed size domain and which are appended to each sub-array comprising the memory.", "Each redundancy unit (RU) includes a plurality of redundancy elements (REs), (e.g., two RE per RU are illustrated therein), which are used to repair existing faults (labeled X) within the corresponding sub-array.", "This scheme, known as intra-block replacement, increases the redundancy area overhead described herein after, as the number of sub-arrays increases for high density memories, since each sub-array includes a fixed domain for the replacement, and the domains in different sub-arrays are mutually exclusive of each other.", "This scheme requires at least one or, preferably, two RUs in each sub-array.", "Thus, the efficiency of the RUs is rather poor in view of its inflexibility which reduces the chip yield substantially when faults are clustered in a given sub-array.", "The above-mentioned scheme is described in an article by T. Kirihata et al.", ", entitled "A 14 ns 4Mb DRAM with 300 mW Active Power", published in the IEEE Journal of Solid State Circuits, Vol. 27, pp. 1222-1228, Sept.", "1992.", "Another FDRR redundancy replacement arrangement, known as a flexible redundancy replacement configuration, is shown in FIG. 1b, wherein a memory is depicted having a single redundancy array as a large fixed domain of RUs to selectively replace failing elements anywhere in the memory.", "In this configuration, REs within the RU can repair faults (labeled X) located in any sub-array within the memory.", "The advantage of this arrangement over the previously described intra-block replacement is that one section, namely, the redundancy array, having a certain number of RUs, may advantageously be used to service any number of sub-arrays forming the memory.", "This results in a substantial saving of area (also referred to as real estate) over the previous scheme, although it requires a substantial amount of additional control circuitry to properly service all the sub-arrays forming the memory.", "More details regarding the above described configurations and the various trade-offs may be found in an article by T. Kirihata et al.", ", "A Fault-Tolerant Design for 256Mb DRAMs", published in the Digest of Technical Papers of the 1995 Symposium on VLSI Circuits, pp. 107-108;", "in an article by T. Sugibayashi et al.", ", "A 30 ns 256Mb DRAM with Multi-divided Array Structure", published in the IEEE Journal of Solid State Circuits, Vol. 28, pp. 1092-1098, Nov. 1993;", "and in an article by H. L. Kalter et al.", ", "A 50 ns 16Mb DRAM with a 10 ns Data Rate and On-Chip ECC", published in the IEEE Journal of Solid State Circuits, Vol. 25, pp. 1118-1128, Oct. 1990.", "In summary, a Fixed Domain Redundancy Replacement (FDRR) arrangement consists of a plurality of fixed-size domains, each of which can be independently used to replace faults contained within that domain.", "By expanding this concept to a chip, there may be found several domains, each having a fixed size and mutually exclusive of each other, to repair all the faults within the chip.", "The FDRR architecture can be used in an intra-block replacement arrangement, wherein small domains make it possible to repair faults with minimum circuitry.", "However, such an arrangement is ineffective to repair clusters of faults.", "In the second FDRR arrangement, i.e., the flexible redundancy replacement architecture, large domains typical of such an architecture, provide good repairability of clustered faults.", "However, the circuit overhead is substantially increased--a significant disadvantage.", "Flexible redundancy replacement is very effective in repairing a limited number of faults, especially if these faults affect bit lines, (either single bits or multiple bits);", "wordlines, (either single words or multiple words), and the like, all of which fall under the category of "hard faults".", "Yet, flexible redundancy replacement suffers from another distinct drawback in that it requires a significant number of RUs (and corresponding control circuitry) to overcome a second class of faults, known as "retention faults,"", "in which a bit, stored in the capacitor that forms a DRAM cell, fades away over time in a weak cell, thereby producing a fault.", "This disadvantage is particularly troublesome because the number of retention faults far exceeds the number of hard faults.", "Referring back to the hard faults within a memory, defects of this type tend to cluster.", "Accordingly, the intra-block replacement approach usually fails because of its poor flexibility.", "Hard faults are typically not too numerous, which can be ideally repaired with less RUs in a large domain.", "Flexible redundancy replacement is a good approach to repair hard faults, which can be serviced by a single large domain with less RUs.", "By way of example, if a domain contains four clustered defects, four RUs would be required to replace them in the domain.", "Designing four RU in each small domain with an intra-block replacement approach would require too much overhead.", "Even if this overhead would be acceptable, if, for instance, five clustered defects were present, the replacement of defects could potentially fail.", "In conclusion, increasing the domain size with the flexible redundancy approach is crucial to repair hard faults.", "Retention faults, on the other hand, occur randomly throughout the memory, and their number is typically high;", "yet, there is a distinct advantage in that they occur randomly throughout the chip.", "For random faults, the intra-block replacement presents less drawbacks, because the faults are statistically distributed in many small sub-arrays.", "The intra-block replacement can repair a fault with less redundancy circuitry than that required for the flexible redundancy replacement.", "Clearly, if one RU were designed in each sub-array, with the purpose of detecting randomly occurring retention faults, then such a configuration would be ideal for detecting retention faults, provided at least one fault is present in the sub-array.", "Retention faults, on the other hand, are difficult to repair with a flexible redundancy replacement approach because of the large number of such faults, which frequently overwhelms the repair circuitry available in the memory device.", "Repairing too many faults with the flexible redundancy replacement approach is disadvantageous, because the flexibility approach requires an even greater overhead to repair such faults with the available redundancy circuitry.", "In view of the foregoing, an important objective of an ideal redundancy configuration is to repair hard faults and retention faults, whether randomly distributed throughout the memory or clustered therein, without introducing an onerous burden caused by a complex redundancy area overhead.", "Typically, this overhead is divided into: a redundancy element overhead and redundant control circuitry overhead, both of which should be minimized to achieve good repairability and to maintain optimum performance of the memory.", "Related redundancy replacement configurations, including some of the categories listed above, are described in the following references: U.S. Pat. No. 5,491,664 to Phelan, issued Feb. 13, 1996, describes the implementation of a flexible redundancy memory block elements in a divided array architecture scheme.", "This configuration has both, the memory and redundancy memory blocks, coupled to a read bus to allow the redundancy memory in one memory sub-array to be shared by a second sub-array.", "U.S. Pat. No. 5,475,648 to Fujiwara, issued Dec. 12, 1995, in which a memory having a redundancy configuration is described such that when an appropriate address signal agrees with the address of a defective cell, a spare cell provided by the redundant configuration is activated to replace the failing one.", "U.S. Pat. No. 5,461,587 to Seung-Cheol Oh, issued Oct. 24, 1995, in which a row redundancy circuit is used in conjunction with two other spare row decoders, wherein by a judicious use of fuse boxes, signals generated by a row redundancy control circuit, make it possible to replace failing rows with spare ones.", "U.S. Pat. No. 5,459,690 to Rieger at al.", ", issued Oct. 17, 1995, describes a memory with a redundant arrangement that, in the presence of normal wordlines servicing defective memory cells, enables faulty memory cells to be replaced with redundant cells.", "U.S. Pat. No. 5,430,679 to Hiltebeitel et al.", ", issued Jul. 4, 1995, describes a fuse download system for programming decoders for redundancy purposes.", "The fuse sets can be dynamically assigned to the redundant decoders, allowing a multi-dimensional assignment of faulty rows/columns within the memory.", "U.S. Pat. No. 5,295,101 to Stephens, Jr. et al.", ", issued Mar. 15, 1994, describes a two level redundancy arrangement for replacing faulty sub-arrays with appropriate redundancy elements.", "Whereas the prior art and previous discussions have been described mainly in terms of DRAMs, practitioners of the art will fully appreciate that the above configurations and/or architectures are equally applicable to other types of memories, such as SRAMs, ROMs, EPROMs, EEPROMs, Flash RAMs, CAMs, and the like.", "OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method of making a memory of any size to be fault tolerant.", "It is another object of the invention to use a variable domain redundancy replacement arrangement (VDRR) to selectively replace failing elements with at least two variable domains, wherein portions of the domains overlap with respect to each other.", "It is a further object of the invention to use redundancy units to repair a fault with at least two variable domains, wherein portions of the domain overlap with respect to each other.", "It is still another object of the invention to improve the yield of a chip by dynamically repairing any size memory containing any combination of hard faults and retention faults, by selecting the most effective and efficient repair domain to eliminate faults within the memory device.", "It is yet another object of the invention to simultaneously eliminate hard faults and retention faults within the memory, without curing one type of fault at the expense of the other.", "It is a further object of the invention to use the variable domain redundancy replacement (VDRR) configuration to replace the conventional mutually exclusive fixed domain redundancy replacement (FDRR) configuration.", "It is a more particular object of the invention to use a VDRR configuration to minimize RUs and associated circuit requirements.", "It is yet a further object of the invention to ensure that repairs of hard and retention faults in a memory are achieved without expending additional power and without reducing the speed of the memory.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A primary feature of the present invention is a method for employing a new and improved redundancy configuration described herein as a variable domain redundancy replacement (VDRR), allowing for the use of a more efficient and effective replacement domain out of at least two variable domains, portions of which overlap with respect to each other.", "The present inventors believe that VDRR eliminate drawbacks of the more conventional Fixed Domain Redundancy Replacement (FDRR) configuration that uses mutually exclusive fixed domain for the repair.", "In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, a method of making a fault-tolerant memory device that includes the steps of: subdividing the memory into a plurality of primary memory arrays;", "defining domains having portions common to another domain to form an overlapped domain area, and wherein at least one of the domains overlaps portions of at least two of the primary arrays;", "allocating redundancy means to each of the domains to replace faults contained within each of the domains;", "and directing at least one of the faults within one of the domains to be replaced with the redundancy means coupled to the one domain, wherein at least one other fault of the one domain is replaced by the redundancy means coupled to another of the domains, if the at least one other fault is positioned within the overlapped domain area.", "In accordance to another embodiment of the invention, a method of making a fault-tolerant memory device comprising the steps of: defining a plurality of domains;", "organizing the memory device into primary memory arrays having at least one of the domains extend over at least one of the primary memory arrays, wherein at least portions of each of the domains are common to another domain to form an overlapped domain area;", "coupling to each of the domains redundancy means for replacing faults contained within each of the domains;", "controlling at least one of the faults within one of the domains to be replaced with the redundancy means coupled to the domain;", "and replacing at least one other fault of the one domain with the redundancy means coupled to another of the domains, if the at least one other fault is positioned within the overlapped domain area.", "In accordance with a third embodiment of the invention, a method of making a fault-tolerant memory device comprising the steps of: subdividing the memory device into primary memory arrays;", "defining domains having at least portions of each of the domains common to another domain to form an overlapped domain area, and at least one of the domains overlapping portions of at least two of the primary arrays;", "coupling repair means to each of the domains to repair faults contained within each of the domains;", "repairing at least one of the faults within one of the domains with the repair means coupled to the domain;", "and repairing at least one other fault of the one domain with the repair means coupled to another of the domains, if the at least one other fault is positioned within the overlapped domain area.", "In accordance with a fourth embodiment of the invention, a method of making a fault-tolerant memory device comprising the steps of: defining a plurality of domains;", "subdividing the memory device into primary memory arrays having one of the domains extend over at least one of the primary memory arrays, and at least portions of each of the domains common to another domain form an overlapped domain area;", "coupling repair means to each of the domains to repair faults contained within each of the domains;", "controlling at least one of the faults within one of the domains to be repaired with the repair means coupled to the domain;", "and repairing at least one other fault of the one domain with the repair means coupled to another of the domains, if the at least one other fault is positioned within the overlapped domain area.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The above-mentioned objects, aspects and advantages of this invention and the manner of attaining them will become more apparent and the invention itself will be further described by reference to the following detailed description of embodiments of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, the description of which follows.", "FIG. 1(a) shows a schematic representation of a memory provided with a prior art FDRR intra-block replacement scheme, and showing how failing rows in the various sections of the memory are corrected with REs replacing failing ones in each corresponding section.", "FIG. 1(b) shows a schematic diagram of a memory provided with a prior art FDRR flexible redundancy replacement scheme, wherein an array of REs clustered at one end of the memory is used to selectively replace failing rows anywhere within the memory.", "FIGS. 2a-2b show a cumulative fault probability ΣP to find at least x faults in a domain with respect to the total numbers of faults and domains, n and m, respectively.", "FIGS. 2c-2e illustrate a schematic diagram of a memory array respectively serviced by domains A, B, and C, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention.", "FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of three domains A, B, and C shown in FIGS. 2c-2e, superimposed on top of one another, in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention.", "FIG. 4(a) is a schematic diagram showing how the VDRR configuration is applied to a 256Mb DRAM.", "FIG. 4(b) shows a simulated repairability in a FDRR with intra-block replacement 4 RUs in a 1Mb domain, followed by the repairability in a FDRR intra-block replacement of 16 RUs in a 4Mb domain;", "an FDRR with flexible replacement of 64 RUs in a 64Mb domain;", "and a VDRR with Variable Domains (A) 1 RU in a 1Mb domain, (B) 4 RUs in a 4Mb domain, and (C) 32 RUs in a 16Mb domain.", "FIG. 5(a) shows a control circuit applicable to the VDRR configuration, according to the present invention.", "FIG. 5(b) is a timing diagram applicable to the VDRR configuration shown in FIG. 5a.", "FIG. 6(a) is a schematic block diagram of a redundancy unit control circuit, according to the present invention.", "FIG. 6(b) is the timing diagram applicable to the block diagram of FIG. 6a.", "FIG. 7(a) depicts a conventional address fuse latch arrangement FLAT and a master fuse latch arrangement MFLAT controlled by the circuitry shown in FIGS. 5a and 6a, for replacing faulty elements in the memory.", "FIG. 7(b) is the timing diagram applicable to the arrangement of FIG. 7a.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Variable Domain Redundancy Replacement (VDRR) is a statistical approach that reduces the redundancy overhead, while maintaining good repairability.", "When n faults are randomly distributed throughout m domains, a probability P of finding x faults in a given domain is determined by the following Bernoulli's distribution: P=.", "sub.", "n C.sub.", "x ·(l/m).", "sup.", "x ·(l-1/m).", "sup.", "n-x(1) FIGS. 2a-2b show the cumulative fault probability ΣP within a given domain with respect to n and x, for m=16 and m=4, respectively.", "FIGS. 2c-2e illustrate the physical configurations for domain A (m=16) in FIG. 2c, domain B (m=4) in FIG. 2d, and domain C (m=1) in FIG. 2e, respectively.", "When 64 faults are randomly distributed in 16 domains, the probability of zero faults in domain A (m=16) is negligibly small (.", "sup.", "˜ 2%).", "Each of the (A) domains has probably at least one fault.", "The probability of less than eight faults in a larger domain, e.g., (B) (m=4) is, likewise, also quite small (.", "sup.", "˜ 1%).", "The present inventors have surmised that 32 faults out of 64 can effectively be repaired by combining variable domains (A) and (B), which have 1 and 4 redundancy elements (REs), respectively.", "The remaining 32 faults out of 64 can be repaired using a full flexible redundancy replacement in the domain (C) (m=1).", "Thus, one may create domains contained within larger domains, which in turn may be part of yet larger domains, to provide the necessary redundancy units and/or elements which are lacking in each of the smaller domains.", "In addition to the advantage of repairing randomly distributed faults, the VDRR approach can advantageously cure retention faults as well as hard faults, and can achieve these results with lesser redundancy overhead than the Fixed Domain Redundancy Replacement (FDRR).", "As previously discussed in the background of the present invention, retention faults are usually randomly distributed over sub-arrays and can effectively be repaired with a small domain (A).", "Hard faults, on the other hand, tend to cluster in a given sub-array;", "however, hard-faults are not as numerous, and are best handled by a larger domain, e.g., (C).", "Variable domains (A), (B), and (C) overlap;", "this overlap permits choosing a best possible repair domain depending on the type and size of the fault.", "The three variable domains (A), (B), and (C) referred to in FIGS. 2c-2e are shown separated from one another to better explain the cumulative fault probability of finding a fault in a given domain given by Bernoulli's equation.", "In practice, however, all three domains are superimposed on top of one another, as depicted in FIG. 3. An overlap permits using a redundancy circuit in one domain to cure a fault in another domain, provided the fault is common to both domains.", "Referring now to FIG. 4(a), there is shown a 256Mb DRAM architecture provided with a VDRR configuration.", "The 256Mb DRAM chip 10 includes sixteen 16Mb primary arrays 15.", "Each unit 15 consists of an array block 19, a 256 kb redundancy block 22, and a redundancy control circuit RUCNT 24, to be described hereinafter.", "The 16Mb primary array 19, having 8,192 (16×512 per 1Mb block) wordlines (WL), includes sixteen 1Mb blocks (sub-arrays), each having 1M cells.", "To the left in FIG. 4(a) are shown three domains A, B, and C spanning across the primary 16Mb array 19.", "(A), the smallest domain, referenced by numeral 18, consists of a 1Mb sub-array.", "(B), the next domain in size, referenced by numeral 21, consists of a 4Mb sub-array, and is shown as having (A) fully contained within its boundaries.", "Finally, the domain (C), referenced by numeral 23, spans across the entire 16Mb primary array 19, and encompasses both domains (A) 18 and (B) 21.", "To the upper right in FIG. 4(a) are shown two cells forming part of the memory array, wherein each cell includes an NMOS device 20 and a capacitor 25.", "To each wordline WL are coupled the gates of 2,048 NMOS devices 20.", "There are 512 WLs present in the 1Mb block (i.e., 512 WLs x 2,048 cells), but only one is selected when a particular 1Mb (out of 16) block is activated.", "(Note: only one WL out of the 8,192 WLs is active in the 16Mb array).", "The capacitive charge stored in the capacitor 25 is transferred to the corresponding bitline BL.", "A sense amplifier 28 amplifies the charge on the bitline BL.", "The amplified bit information (i.e., the data) is selected by the corresponding column address (not shown), and is transferred to a data output circuit (not shown).", "In lieu of designing redundant wordlines (RWLs) in each 1Mb block, a 256K redundancy block including 128 RWLs is utilized for each 16Mb primary array 19.", "The redundancy block 22 includes 64 RUs.", "For purposes of illustration, each RU includes two RWLs.", "Unlike the intra-block replacement with 16 fixed 1Mb domains or the flexible redundancy replacement with a single fixed 16Mb domain, the 64 RUs are assigned to the three variable domains (A) 1Mb 18, (B) 4Mb 21, and (C) 16Mb 23.", "Each of 16 RUs (RUO-15) is associated with one 1Mb domain (A) (m=16), 16 other RUs (RU16-31) are used in the 4Mb domain (B) (m=4), and the remaining 32 RUs (RU32-63) are associated with the entire 16Mb replacement domain (C) (m=1).", "The three domains (A), (B), and (C) are designed to overlap over each other.", "This overlap allows selecting a most effective and efficient domain, depending on the fault type, thereby increasing the repairability of the unit in the presence of hard faults and of retention faults.", "FIG. 4(b) shows the simulated yield for the 16Mb primary array 19 with respect to the number of randomly distributed faults n in three instances: 4 RUs for each 1Mb domain (4/1M), 16 RUs for each 4M domain (16/4M), 64 RUs for a 16Mb domain (64/16M), and VDDR for the combination of ((A) 1/1M+(B) 4/4M +(C) 32/16M).", "Note that the total number of elements per 16Mb array is the same for all cases.", "VDRR allows a repairability to a degree essentially equivalent to that obtainable through the flexible domain redundancy replacement scheme (64 RUs in a 16Mb domain).", "TABLE I shown below is a comparison of the number of fuses, which is an important parameter to measure the redundancy overhead, relative to the intra-block replacement 4/1M and the repairable number of faults to allow a 95% yield.", "The redundancy combination of 4/1M, 16/4M and 64/16M assumes the presence of independently controllable 4, 16, and 64 redundancy units for 1M, 4M and 16M, respectively.", "TABLE I______________________________________Redundancy 4/1M 16/4M 64/16M VDRR______________________________________Additional 0 128 256 160# of fusesRepairable 16 40 64 62# of faults______________________________________ Table 1 illustrates how the repairability of a memory array increases with domain size;", "however, more fuses are required.", "In the VDRR configuration, some of the RUs that are assigned to small domains can be effectively used, since the probability is high that faults will be present in each domain.", "The smaller domain for these RUs reduces the overall number of fuses required.", "Consequently, VDRR allows a repairability to a degree essentially equivalent to that obtainable through the flexible domain redundancy replacement scheme (64/16M), while using 96 less fuses.", "The advantage of the VDRR could be further enhanced if some of the faults would be clustered.", "This is because, according to the present invention, the domain (C) can effectively repair the clustering faults, while randomly distributed faults can be repaired more effectively with the domains (A) and (B).", "Referring back to the example of FIG. 4(a), by enabling the redundancy unit control RUCNT circuit 24, all the 8,192 WLs in the primary 16Mb array 19 are disabled.", "One out of the 128 RWLs (redundant WL) in the 256Kb redundancy block 22 is activated.", "The operation of the redundancy combination comprising NMOS devices 20, capacitors 25, and sense amplifiers 28 described previously also applies to the combination comprised of devices 30, capacitors 35 and sense amplifiers 38.", "The detailed operation of the control circuitry is described next.", "The wordlines in the sixteen 1Mb blocks and the RWLs in the redundant block 22 are controlled by the respective redundancy unit control circuit RUCNT 24, which will be explained in more detail with reference to FIG. 5(a).", "For better performance, these circuits are most advantageously physically positioned below the redundancy block 22 (i.e., at the bottom end of unit 15).", "FIG. 5(a) shows a schematic block representation of a variable domain redundancy control circuitry.", "The control circuitry contained within the unit 15 includes wordline decoders (WLDEC);", "redundancy wordline decoders (RWLDEC);", "redundancy unit control circuit (RUCNT), represented as RUCNTO-15, each having 8 address fuses and 1 master fuse, for Domain (A), RUCNT16-31, each having 10 address fuses and 1 master fuse, for Domain (B), RUCNT32-63, each having 12 address fuses and 1 master fuse, for Domain (C);", "wordline driver (WLDRV);", "redundancy wordline driver (RWLDRV);", "and wordline disable generator (WLDISGEN), all suitably interconnected as shown.", "To illustrate the operation of the VDRR configuration of the present invention, let it be presumed that either, a WL (out of 8,192 WLs in the 16Mb primary array 19) or a RWL (out of 128 in the redundancy block 22), is active in the 16Mb prime array 19 (FIG.", "4a).", "Practitioners of the art will readily appreciate that two or more WLs may become active within the 16Mb unit 15, at the expense of only minor modifications of the circuitry shown in FIG. 5a.", "The detailed operations of 1) a standby mode, 2) a normal active mode, and 3) a variable redundancy active mode, are described hereinafter.", "FIG. 5b shows the timing diagrams for the most relevant signals on the line/nodes having correspondingly identical names: address ADDs, node N, node NR, control line WLON, WL disable signal bWDIS, RWLEs, WL, and RWL, referred to in FIG. 5a.", "1) While in the standby mode (i.e., when the chip is not enabled), the control line signal WLON remains at a low (i.e., at 0), which disables all the WLs and RWLs (all at 0), regardless of the state (i.e., "DON'T CARE"", "condition) of the WLDEC output signal N, of the RWLDEC output signal NR, and of the RUCNT output signals RWLEs.", "When the chip is enabled (i.e., in the active mode), either WL or RWL is active (but not both).", "When WL is enabled (i.e., at a 1), the chip enters the so-called normal active mode.", "Alternatively, when RWL is activated (which disables WL), the chip is referred to as being in the variable redundancy active mode.", "2) While in the normal active mode, all the redundant word lines enable signals RWLEs remain at a low, keeping the output signal (bWLDIS) of the wordline disable generator circuit WLDISGEN at a high (i.e., at a 1).", "The detailed operation of the circuit 24 for generating the RWLE signal will be described hereinafter.", "When the 16Mb prime array 19 (FIGS.", "4(a) and 5(a)) is enabled, 13 bits address information is transferred to WLDEC, enabling one node N out of 8,192;", "this makes it possible to activate one WL out of the 8,192 WLs when the signal WLON switches to a high.", "3) While in the variable redundancy active mode, activating the redundant wordlines RWLs is controlled by a two-path decoding: a) through RUCNT and b) through RWLDEC.", "As previously explained, a RU including two RWLs is controlled by the respective RUCNT.", "Each RE contained in the RU is controlled by the alternate path b), i.e., RWLDEC.", "Both decoding paths work in parallel, and a final decoding of the results of RUCNT and RWLDEC takes effect in the RWLDRV.", "A detailed description of the operation of the present invention while in the variable redundancy active mode is described next.", "The variable redundancy active mode is typically detected by RUCNT, which activates the respective RWLE prior to the arrival of a signal on the control line WLON.", "(The detection phase is referred to as the redundancy match detection phase).", "This detection forces the signal bWLDIS at the output of WLDISGEN to switch to 0, thereby inhibiting the wordlines in the 16Mb prime array from becoming active.", "During the RUCNT redundancy match detection phase, an alternate path for selecting an RE in at least one RU is decoded in RWLDEC.", "Concurrently, the respective RWLDEC is activated with address information, switching the corresponding NR to a 1.", "As previously discussed, it is assumed that two WLs are simultaneously replaced with two RWLS, as an RU in each domain.", "The 1Mb Domain (A) includes 512 WLs, two of which are supported by RUCNTO-15.", "Each RUCNTO-15, therefore, requires eight address fuses and one master fuse to decode two out of 512 WLs in each 1Mb Domain (A).", "Only one out of the sixteen RUCNTO-15 is activated, when the corresponding one out of the sixteen 1Mb Domains (A) is selected.", "Addresses 9-12 determine the corresponding one out of sixteen Domains (A) in the 16Mb unit.", "Each RUCNT16-31 controlling 4Mb Domain (B) requires 10 address fuses and 1 master fuse to decode 2 out of 2048 WLs in each 4Mb Domain (B).", "Four out of sixteen RUCNT16-31, which are assigned to the same 4Mb domain (B), are simultaneously activated, when the corresponding Domain (B) is selected.", "Addresses 11-12 determine the corresponding one out of four 4Mb Domain (B) in the 16Mb unit.", "Each RUCNT32-63 controlling 16Mb Domain (C) requires 12 address fuses and 1 master fuse to decode 2 out of 8096 WLs.", "RUCNT32-63 are always activated without using any address, because Domain (C) serves whole of the 16Mb unit.", "Except for the number of address fuses and the address decoding, the RUCNTO-63 are identical circuit.", "Address ADDO is used for decoding 1 out of 2 RWLs in the corresponding RU.", "This lb decoding is enabled in RWLDEC regardless of Domains (A), (B), and (C).", "This path is independently controlled no matter if it is in a redundancy mode or in a normal mode.", "The final decision to activate an RWL is determined by the decoding result of NR and RWLE in RWLDRV.", "The aforementioned two path decoding: Path 1, wherein RUCNT activates RU, and Path 2, wherein RWLDEC decodes one out of two RWLs per RU, making it possible for one RWL to become active (without incurring in speed penalties) by means of appropriate addressing, which had already been previously decoded when WLON switched to a high.", "FIGS. 6a and 6b, respectively show a block diagram and the timing diagram of a single RU control circuit RUCNT.", "This circuit is provided with a plurality of fuse latches FLATs driving a decoder (i.e., an AND gate).", "The only difference between a conventional Fixed Domain Redundancy Replacement (FDRR) control circuit and the VDRR control circuit RUCNT resides in the number of address fuses that are required for each domain.", "Additionally, one master fuse MFLAT is also needed for each RUCNT.", "The circuit RUCNT is only activated when the domain is selected, which is enabled by the corresponding addresses, depending on the domain configuration, as described previously.", "The master fuse needs to be blown in order to enable a RUCNT.", "As long as the master fuse remains intact, the output MF of MFLAT (FIG.", "6b) stays at 0.", "The output RWLE of the AND gate, therefore, remains at 0, regardless of the address.", "When the master fuse is blown (MF set at 1) and the RUCNT is activated by the corresponding address bits, RWLE is controlled by the combination of outputs of FLAT, i.e., FADD.", "FADD switches to 0 when the corresponding address input ADD fails to match the programmed fuse information.", "Alternatively, FADD switches to 1 when the corresponding ADD matches the programmed fuse information.", "Only when all the fuse programmed addresses match the ADD inputs, and MF is blown, forcing RWLE to switch to 1.", "Referring now to FIG. 7a, there is shown a schematic diagram for the fuse latch FLAT, wherein FLAT is depicted as an address-fuse comparator.", "A CMOS latch, formed by 60, 65 and 68, is set by devices 80 and 82 during the power-up phase of the chip by FPUP and FPUN, as shown in the diagram of FIG. 7b.", "If fuse 83 is not blown at power-up, nodes N0, N1, and N2 are set to 0, 1 and 0, respectively.", "Alternatively, if fuse 83 is blown, nodes N0, N1 and N2 are set to 1, 0, and 1, respectively.", "The particular states of nodes N0, N1 and N2 are latched in CMOS latch circuits 60, 65 and 68.", "Either of the CMOS transfer gates 70 and 75 opens up, depending on the state of nodes N1 and N2.", "ADD and ADD (inverted by circuit 69) are coupled to the CMOS transfer gates 70 and 75, respectively.", "As long as the fuse remains intact (i.e., at 0), the output FADD of FLAT 47 follows ADD.", "When the fuse is blown, FADD follows ADD.", "FADD switches to 1 when both ADD and the fuse are either 0 or 1, resulting in an address and fuse match detection.", "Within circuit FLAT (FIG.", "7a) is included the circuit MFLAT (or Master FLAT), which is shown alongside with appropriate timing curves (FIG.", "7b).", "The CMOS latch, formed by 60, 65 and 68, is set during the power-up phase of the chip by FPUP and FPUN, as depicted in the diagram.", "If, during power-up, fuse 83 is not blown, then N0, N1 and N2 (also referred to as MF) switch to 0, 1, 0, respectively.", "With MF at 0, the AND gate within RUCNT (FIG.", "6a) is disabled.", "If, on the other hand, fuse 83 is blown, then, at power- up, N0, N1 and N2 (also referred to as MF) switch to 1, 0, 1, respectively, while MF is at 1, which enables the AND gate in RUCNT (FIG.", "6).", "The present invention described herein may be designed in many different memory configuration schemes.", "While the present invention has been described in terms of a preferred embodiment, other embodiments may come to mind to those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.", "The invention should then be measured in terms of the claims that follow." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a field effect transistor such as a metal semiconductor field effect transistor (MESFET) having comb-shaped lead-out electrodes.", "Description of the Related Art Generally, in a mobile telephone set, MESFETs using Schottky junction gates have been used as high speed switches for switching antennas which receive and transmit about 1 to 2 GHz signals.", "A prior art MESFET uses comb-shaped electrodes in order to decrease the ON resistance.", "That is, the prior art MESFET is constructed by a semiconductor substrate which is divided into an active area and an inactive area, a comb-shaped gate electrode having a trunk portion formed on the inactive area and gate fingers formed on the active area, source ohmic electrodes and drain ohmic electrodes formed on the active area and alternating with the gate fingers of the comb-shaped gate electrodes, a comb-shaped source lead-out electrode having a trunk portion formed on the inactive area and fingers each connected to one of the source ohmic electrodes and formed on the active area, and a comb-shaped drain lead-out electrode having a trunk portion formed on the inactive area and fingers each connected to one of the drain ohmic electrodes and formed on the active area.", "In this case, the edges of the fingers of the comb-shaped source lead-out electrode are in proximity to the edges of the source ohmic electrodes, and the edges of the fingers of the comb-shaped drain lead-out electrode are in proximity to the edges of the drain ohmic electrodes.", "In other words, the comb-shaped source lead-out electrode and the comb-shaped drain lead-out electrode are completely interdigitated.", "This will be explained later in detail.", "In the above-described prior art MESFET, however, since the comb-shaped source lead-out electrode and the comb-shaped drain lead-out electrode are completely interdigitated so that the opposing amount therebetween is very large, the parasitic capacitance between the lead-out electrodes is remarkably increased, which would decrease the operation speed.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a field effect transistor including comb-shaped electrodes capable of increasing the operation speed.", "According to the present invention, in a field effect transistor including a semiconductor substrate which is divided into an active area and an inactive area, a comb-shaped gate electrode having a trunk portion formed on the inactive area and gate fingers formed on the active area, source ohmic electrodes and drain ohmic electrodes formed on the active area and alternating with the gate fingers of the comb-shaped gate electrodes, a comb-shaped source lead-out electrode having a trunk portion formed on the inactive area and fingers each connected to one of the source ohmic electrodes and formed on the active area, and a comb-shaped drain lead-out electrode having a trunk portion formed on the inactive area and fingers each connected to one of the drain ohmic electrodes and formed on the active area, edges of the fingers of the comb-shaped source lead-out electrode recede from edges of respective ones of the source ohmic electrodes, or edges of the fingers of the comb-shaped drain lead-out electrode recede from edges of respective ones of the drain ohmic electrodes.", "Thus, the opposing amount between the lead-out electrodes is decreased to reduce the parasitic capacitance therebetween.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The present invention will be more clearly understood from the description set forth below, as compared with the prior art, with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein: FIG. 1A is a plan view illustrating a prior art MESFET;", "FIG. 1B is a cross-sectional view taken along the line I-I of FIG. 1A;", "FIG. 2A is a plan view illustrating a first embodiment of the MESFET according to the present invention;", "FIG. 2B is a cross-sectional view taken along the line II-II of FIG. 2A;", "FIG. 3A is a plan view illustrating a second embodiment of the MESFET according to the present invention;", "and FIG. 3B is a cross-sectional view taken along the line III-III of FIG. 3 A. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Before the preferred embodiments, a prior art MESFET will be explained with reference to FIGS. 1A and 1B.", "Note that FIG. 1A is a plan view and FIG. 1B is a cross-sectional view taken along the line I—I of FIG. 1 A. In FIGS. 1A and 1B, an i-type GaAs buffer layer 2 , an n-type GaAs channel layer 3 and an n + -type GaAs contact layer 4 are grown on a semi-insulating GaAs substrate 1 by a molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) process or the like.", "That is, the i-type GaAs buffer layer 2 , the n-type GaAs channel layer 3 and the n + -type GaAs contact layer 4 form one epitaxial layer.", "Next, impurities such as boron ions are implanted into an inactive area IA of the n + -type GaAs contact layer 4 and the GaAs channel layer 3 by using a photoresist mask (not shown) covering an active area AA.", "As a result, the n + -type GaAs contact layer 4 and the GaAs channel layer 3 in the inactive area IA are of a p-type, i.e., inactive, while the n + -type GaAs contact layer 4 and the GaAs channel layer 3 in the active area AA remain active.", "Next, the n + -type GaAs contact layer 4 and a part of the GaAs channel layer 3 are etched by a selective dry etching process.", "Then, a Schottky junction type comb-shaped gate electrode 5 having gate fingers 5 a is formed directly on recess portions of the GaAs channel layer 3 .", "In this case, the trunk portion of the gate electrode 5 is located on the inactive area IA.", "Also, source ohmic electrodes 6 S and drain ohmic electrodes 6 D are formed on the n + -type GaAs contact layer 4 .", "In this case, the source ohmic electrodes 6 S and the drain ohmic electrodes 6 D alternate with the gate fingers 5 a. Next, an insulating layer 7 made of silicon oxide is deposited on the entire surface by a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process.", "Then, throughholes TH are perforated in the insulating layer 7 by a photolithography and etching process.", "In this case, the throughholes TH are entirely located on the source ohmic electrodes 6 S and the drain ohmic electrodes 6 D. Then, a comb-shaped (or multifingered) source lead-out electrode 8 S and a comb-shaped (or multi-fingered) drain lead-out electrode 8 D made of an Au plating layer are formed on the insulating layer 7 , so that the source lead-out electrode 8 S and the drain lead-out electrode 8 D are connected via the throughholes TH to the source ohmic electrodes 6 S and the drain ohmic electrodes 6 D, respectively.", "Each of the comb-shaped source lead-out electrode 8 S and the comb-shaped drain lead-out electrode 8 D has a trunk portion formed on the inactive area IA and fingers formed on the active area AA.", "In this case, the edges of the fingers of the comb-shaped source lead-out electrode 8 S are in proximity to the edges of the source ohmic electrodes 6 S, and the edges of the fingers of the comb-shaped drain lead-out electrode 8 D are in proximity to the edges of the drain ohmic electrodes 6 D. In other words, the comb-shaped source lead-out electrode 8 S and the comb-shaped drain lead-out electrode 8 D are completely interdigitated, i.e., the fingers of the comb-shaped source lead-out electrode 8 S completely oppose those of the comb-shaped drain lead-out electrode 8 D. Finally, a resin layer 9 is deposited to cover the entire surface.", "In FIGS. 1A and 1B, the length of the gate fingers 5 a should be as small as possible in view of the suppression of phase difference therebetween, particularly in the case of high frequencies.", "As a result, the length L of the active area AA is as small as possible.", "In order to compensate for the smaller length L of the active area AA, the number of the gate fingers 5 a is increased, and also, the width of a trunk portion of the gate electrode 5 is increased, to substantially decrease the ON resistance thereof.", "In the MESFET of FIGS. 1A and 1B, however, since the comb-shaped source lead-out electrode 8 S and the comb-shaped drain lead-out electrode 8 D are completely interdigitated so that the opposing amount therebetween is very large, and the resin layer 9 therebetween has a larger permittivity than that of the air, the parasitic capacitance between the lead-out electrodes 8 S and 8 D is remarkably increased, which would decrease the operation speed.", "A first embodiment of the MESFET will be explained next with reference to FIGS. 2A and 2B.", "Note that FIG. 2A is a plan view, and FIG. 2B is a cross-sectional view taken along the line II—II of FIG. 2 A. In FIGS. 2A and 2B, in the same way as in FIGS. 1A and 1B, an i-type GaAs buffer layer 2 , an n-type GaAs channel layer 3 and an n + -type GaAs contact layer 4 are grown on a semi-insulating GaAs substrate 1 by an MBE process or the like.", "That is, the i-type GaAs buffer layer 2 , the n-type GaAs channel layer 3 and the n + -type GaAs contact layer 4 form one epitaxial layer.", "Also, impurities such as boron ions are implanted into an inactive area of the n + -type GaAs contact layer 4 and the GaAs channel layer 3 by using a photoresist mask (not shown) covering an active area AA.", "As a result, the n + -type GaAs contact layer 4 and the GaAs channel layer 3 in the inactive area IA are of a p-type, i.e., inactive, while the n + -type GaAs contact layer 4 and the GaAs channel layer 3 in the active area AA remain active.", "Further, the n + -type GaAs contact layer 4 and a part of the GaAs channel GaAs layer 3 are etched by a selective dry etching process.", "Then, a Schottky junction type comb-shaped gate electrode 5 having gate fingers 5 a is formed directly on recess portions of the GaAs channel layer 3 .", "In this case, the trunk portion of the gate electrode 5 is located on the inactive area IA.", "Also, source ohmic electrodes 6 S and drain ohmic electrodes 6 D are formed on the n + -type GaAs contact layer 4 .", "In this case, the source ohmic electrodes 6 S and the drain ohmic electrodes 6 D alternate with the gate fingers 5 a. Next, an insulating layer 7 made of silicon oxide is deposited on the entire surface by a CVD process.", "Then, throughholes TH are perforated in the insulating layer 7 by a photolithography and etching process.", "In this case, the throughholes TH are located on a half of each of the source ohmic electrodes 6 S and a half of each of the drain ohmic electrodes 6 D. Then, a comb-shaped (or multi-fingered) source lead-out electrode 8 S and a comb-shaped (or multi-fingered) drain lead-out electrode 8 D made of an Au plating layer are formed on the insulating layer 7 , so that the source lead-out electrode 8 S and the drain lead-out electrode 8 D are connected via the throughholes TH to the source ohmic electrodes 6 S and the drain ohmic electrodes 6 D, respectively.", "Each of the comb-shaped source lead-out electrode 8 S and the comb-shaped drain lead-out electrode 8 D has a trunk portion formed on the inactive area IA and fingers formed on the active area AA.", "In this case, the edges of the fingers of the comb-shaped source lead-out electrode 8 S recede from the edges of the source ohmic electrodes 6 S, and the edges of the fingers of the comb-shaped drain lead-out electrode 8 D recede from the edges of the drain ohmic electrodes 6 D. In other words, the comb-shaped source lead-out electrode 8 S and the comb-shaped drain lead-out electrode 8 D are not interdigitated, i.e., the fingers of the comb-shaped source lead-out electrode 8 S do not oppose those of the comb-shaped drain lead-out electrode 8 D. Finally, a resin layer 9 is deposited to cover the entire surface.", "In the MESFET of FIGS. 2A and 2B, since the comb-shaped source lead-out electrode 8 S and the comb-shaped drain lead-out electrode 8 D are not interdigitated, i.e., the comb-shaped source electrode 8 S does not oppose the comb-shaped drain electrode 8 D, the parasitic capacitance between the lead-out electrodes 8 S and 8 D is remarkably decreased even if the resin layer 9 has a large permittivity, which would increase the operation speed.", "A second embodiments of the MESFET will be explained next with reference to FIGS. 3A and 3B.", "Note that FIG. 3A is a plan view, and FIG. 3B is a cross-sectional view taken along the line III-III of FIG. 3 A. In FIGS. 3A and 3B, the throughholes TH on the side of the source ohmic electrodes 6 S are located on a larger part thereof.", "On the other hand, the throughholes TH on the side of the drain ohmic electrodes 6 D are located on a smaller part thereof.", "Then, a comb-shaped (or multi-fingered) source lead-out electrode 8 S and a comb-shaped (or multi-fingered) drain lead-out electrode 8 D made of an Au plating layer are formed on the insulating layer 7 , so that the source lead-out electrode 8 S and the drain lead-out electrode 8 D are connected via the throughholes TH to the source ohmic electrodes 6 S and the drain ohmic electrodes 6 D, respectively.", "Each of the comb-shaped source lead-out electrode 8 S and the comb-shaped drain lead-out electrode 8 D has a trunk portion formed on the inactive area IA and fingers formed on the active area AA.", "In this case, the edges of the fingers of the comb-shaped source lead-out electrode 8 S recede from the edges of the source ohmic electrodes 6 S, while the edges of the fingers of the comb-shaped drain lead-out electrode 8 D are in proximity to the edges of the drain ohmic electrodes 6 D. Even in this case, the comb-shaped source lead-out electrode 8 S and the comb-shaped drain lead-out electrode 8 D are not interdigitated, i.e., the fingers of the comb-shaped source lead-out electrode 8 S do not oppose those of the comb-shaped drain lead-out electrode 8 D. Finally, a resin layer 9 is deposited to cover the entire surface.", "Even in the MESFET of FIGS. 3A and 3B, since the comb-shaped source lead-out electrode 8 S and the comb-shaped drain lead-out electrode 8 D are not interdigitated, i.e., the comb-shaped source electrode 8 S does not oppose the comb-shaped drain electrode 8 D, the parasitic capacitance between the lead-out electrodes 8 S and 8 D is remarkably decreased even if the resin layer 9 has a large permittivity, which would increase the operation speed.", "In the MESFET of FIGS. 3A and 3B, the fingers of the drain lead-out electrode 8 D recede while the fingers of the source lead-out electrode 8 S do not recede.", "However, the fingers of the source lead-out electrode 8 S can recede while the fingers of the drain lead-out electrode 8 D do not recede.", "Further, the present invention can be appled to other FETs such as MOSFETs where a comb-shaped source lead-out electrode and a comb-shaped drain lead-out electrode are provided so that the fingers thereof alternate with gate electrodes.", "As explained hereinabove, according to the present invention, since the opposing amount between a comb-shaped drain lead-out electrode and a comb-shaped lead-out electrode is decreased, the source-to-drain parasitic capacitance can be decreased.", "Particularly, when the comb-shaped source lead-out electrode and the comb-shaped drain lead-out electrode are not interdigitated, i.e., the comb-shaped source lead-out electrode does not oppose the comb-shaped drain lead-out electrode, the source-to-drain parasitic capacitance can be remarkably decreased, which would increase the operation speed.", "In this case, since a source ohmic electrode and a drain ohmic electrode are unchanged, the increase of an ON resistance thereof can be suppressed." ]

[ "FIELD OF THE INVENTION The field on the invention is simulations and effects used in amusement parks.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION For many years, amusement parks have often included walk-through attractions, in addition to rides, tours, live-action shows, and other types of attractions.", "In walk-through attractions, patrons or guests typically walk along a path.", "Scenery, fixed and moving props and animated figures, and various special sound, visual and environmental effects along the path entertain the park guests.", "Walk-through attractions often have a theme connecting the attraction to a well known motion picture or television program, comic book or cartoon characters, or specific historical events.", "While existing walk-through attractions have met with varying degrees of success, there remains a need for a walk-through attraction having more dramatic and entertaining features.", "Indeed, the public has come to expect amusement or theme parks to provide increasingly sophisticated and creative rides and attractions.", "Walk or ride-through attractions have used various water effects, such as waterfalls, waves, fountains, whirlpools, etc.", "These types effects and especially whirlpool effects, have largely been provided at some distance from the park guests.", "However, the inventors have now conceived of an amusement park attraction, such as a walk-through or ride-through attraction, wherein park guests experience being within a whirlpool.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In a first aspect of the invention, an attraction has a tunnel with a curved inside surface.", "A platform is provided in the tunnel.", "Water shoots onto the curved inside surface of the tunnel at high speed.", "The water moves up, over and down the curved inside surface.", "Centrifugal force maintains the water against the curved inside surface, even at the top of the tunnel where the curved inside surface faces downwardly.", "Park guests move through the tunnel, e.g., by walking on the platform or riding on a vehicle over the platform, and are substantially surrounded by moving water.", "The attraction creates the effect of being within a whirlpool.", "In a second and separate aspect of the invention, the tunnel is inclined at an angle.", "The water streaming along the curved inside surface of the tunnel moves downwardly through the tunnel, in a spiral pattern, similar to the movement of a whirlpool.", "In a third and separate aspect of the invention, substantially concealed lighting fixtures extend along the platform.", "The lighting fixtures shine light downwardly onto the platform, to illuminate the inside of the tunnel, without detracting from the whirlpool effect created.", "In a fourth and separate aspect of the invention, water is provided to a manifold extending parallel to the tunnel.", "Spaced apart nozzles on the manifold shoot water at one side of the curved inside surface.", "The water runs up the surface, over the top of the tunnel, and then down the other side to a drain leading back to a reservoir.", "Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide an improved walk-through or ride-through attraction for an amusement park.", "It is also an object of the invention to provide a whirlpool effect for use in amusement parks, in motion picture filming, or in other swirling water effect applications.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Other objects and features of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings.", "It should be understood, however, that the drawings are provided for the purpose of illustration only, and are not intended as a definition of the limits of the invention.", "In the drawings, wherein the same reference number denotes the same element, throughout the several views: FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the wave effect of the present invention;", "FIG. 2 is a section view of a preferred installation of the wave effect invention shown in FIG. 1;", "FIG. 3 is an enlarged section view of the wave effect shown in FIGS. 1 and 2;", "FIG. 4 is a schematically illustrated plan view of an embodiment having transparent walls;", "FIG. 5 is a side elevation view, in part section, of the wave effect shown in FIG. 1;", "FIG. 6 is an enlarged section view taken along line 6--6 of FIG. 5;", "FIG. 7 is a developed plan view of the nozzles shown in FIGS. 5 and 6;", "FIG. 8 is a developed end view thereof;", "FIG. 9 is a rotated end view thereof;", "FIG. 10 is a plan view of an alternative manifold embodiment having diverters;", "FIG. 11 is a partial section view taken along line 11--11 of FIG. 10;", "and FIG. 12 is a plan view of the diverter shown in FIG. 11.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Turning now in detail to the drawings, as shown in FIGS. 1-3, an attraction 10 within a themed building 12 has a bridge or platform 16 extending through a tunnel 14.", "The tunnel 14 is a semi-cylinder preferably open on the bottom.", "The tunnel extends over an arc of from about 180-270°, and preferably 220°.", "The radius of the tunnel (from the tunnel center to the curved inside tunnel wall or surface 20) preferably ranges from 200-300 cm.", ", preferably about 275 cm.", "The tunnel 14 has a length to diameter ratio of from 1:1 to 20:1, and preferably about 5:1.", "As shown in FIG. 3, the bridge or platform 16 is supported on a base 18, which is ordinarily not visible to a theme park guest 25 walking on the bridge 16.", "The downward-facing opening 23 of the tunnel 14 is below the top surface of the bridge 16.", "The bridge 16 is spaced apart from the side walls 15 of the tunnel 14.", "The tunnel 14 is supported on a floor or foundation 24 of the building 12.", "Handrails 22 extend along both sides of the bridge 16.", "Lighting fixtures 27 in the handrails 22 project light downwardly onto the bridge 16, and outwardly onto the inside tunnel wall or surface 20.", "Referring to FIG. 2, a reservoir 30 is provided near the tunnel 14.", "Pumps 34 at or in the reservoir 30 draw in water 72 through inlets 32.", "The water 72 is pumped through supply pipes 36 to a manifold 40 under the tunnel 14.", "Referring to FIGS. 5 and 6, the manifold 40 extends along the length of the tunnel 14, supported on manifold supports 42.", "The tunnel 14 and manifold 40, in the preferred embodiment, are about 12 meters long.", "The manifold 40 is preferably provided in two 6 meter sections attached together at a flange joint 45 and the manifold inside diameter is about 90 cm.", "In this preferred embodiment, six pumps 34 provide water 72 from the reservoir 30, through six supply pipes 36 leading into the manifold 40.", "The supply pipes 36 are joined to a flexible coupling 38 on manifold inlets 43.", "Referring to FIGS. 6-9, nozzles 44 are spaced apart (at about 30 cm.) along the length of the manifold 40.", "Six nozzles 44 are mounted on a nozzle plate 46.", "Nozzle position adjusters 50 extend between a brace plate 48 attached to the outside surface of the manifold 40, and to the nozzle plate 46.", "Each nozzle 44 includes a nozzle end pipe 45 having an inside diameter of about 5 cm.", "The end pipes 45 are joined to nozzle stubs 49 via flexible couplings 51.", "Consequently, the elevation angle for aim of the nozzle ends 45 can be adjusted by turning the adjusters 50.", "During initial installation, the adjusters 50 are turned to aim the nozzles 44 to achieve the optimum water vortex 68 within the tunnel 14.", "As shown in FIG. 6, baffles 41 within the manifold 40 stabilize the water flow and prevent water 72 pumped in through the manifold inlets 43 from flowing directly out of the nozzles 44.", "The baffles 41 are centered over the manifold inlets 43, to slow down the water entering the manifold 40.", "Referring to FIGS. 2 and 5, end gutters 52 are provided at the entrance 26 and exit 28 of the tunnel 14.", "A drain opening 54 alongside the base 18 below the tunnel 14 extends back down into the reservoir 30.", "Circumferential fog generators 66 are optionally provided at the entrance 26 and exit 28 of the tunnel 14.", "In use, the pumps 34 are switched on and pump water 72 from the reservoir 30 into the manifold 40.", "The water 72 under pressure within the manifold 40 shoots out of the nozzles 44, to an impact area 55 of the tunnel 14 (at the right side wall 15 in FIG. 3).", "The water 72 travels upwardly (in a direction of arrow A in FIG. 3) and around the entire semi-cylindrical inside tunnel surface 20, and then into the drain opening 54.", "The water 72 collecting below the tunnel 14 and walkway 16 flows under gravity back to the reservoir 72.", "The water 72 is pumped through the nozzles 44 at a sufficiently high velocity that the water remains against the inside tunnel surface 20 via centrifugal force.", "Hence, even at the top inside surface 21 of the tunnel 14, the water 72 does not fall or drip down onto the bridge 16 and guests 25.", "Consequently, the guests 25 perceive that they are inside of a curling wave or water vortex.", "The nozzle dimensions and arrangement create a continuous, moving layer of water 68 having a thickness in the range of 1-6 cm.", ", and preferably about 3 cm.", "The tunnel is preferably made of strong and durable materials to resist the substantial impact and inertial forces generated by the rapidly moving water 72.", "Referring to FIGS. 4 and 5, the entrance 26 of the tunnel 14 is elevated above the exit 28, so that the tunnel 14 is declined at an angle AN in the range of 0-15°, and preferably 5°.", "As a result, the water 72 streaming around the inside tunnel surface 20 moves in a spiral flow path 70, as shown in FIG. 4, to better replicate a whirlpool.", "Also as shown in FIG. 4 in an alternative embodiment, a tunnel 60 may be made of a transparent or translucent material, such as glass or plastic, instead of an opaque material, such as fiberglass and/or concrete, as shown in FIG. 3. In this embodiment, lighting fixtures 62 outside of the tunnel 60 project light into the tunnel, through the transparent or translucent tunnel walls, and through the transparent or translucent water vortex 68 within the tunnel, providing a dramatic and aesthetic effect.", "After the pumps 34 have been turned on and the water vortex 68 established within the tunnel 14, guests 25 walk through the tunnel on the bridge 16.", "Alternatively, the guests 25 can move through the tunnel 14 on a moving walkway, people mover, or on a vehicle.", "After the guests 25 have moved out of the tunnel 14, the pumps 34 may be turned off, or the water may be directed elsewhere.", "Referring to FIGS. 10-12, diverters 80 may also be provided on the manifold 40, to quickly shut down the water vortex 68.", "During an emergency condition, such as a power failure or reduction, pump failure, major leak, etc.", ", if guests 25 are in the tunnel 14, they may get wet as the water vortex 68 collapses around them and onto the bridge 16.", "The diverters 80 are provided for this contingency.", "As shown in FIGS. 10-11, a diverter plate 82 is supported on arms 85 attached to the outside surface of the manifold 40 via pivots 83.", "A pneumatic actuator 84 attached to the outside of the manifold 40 is joined to an actuator bracket 87 on the plate arms 85.", "The pneumatic actuator 84 is connected to a compressed air reservoir 86 via an emergency release valve 88.", "If an imminent collapse of the water vortex 68 is detected, the emergency release valve 88 is opened.", "Compressed air from the tanks 86 drives the actuators 84 to immediately move the plates 82 over the nozzles 44.", "Consequently, water flow into the tunnel is immediately shut off.", "An adjustable plate stop 90 on the outside of the manifold 40 absorbs the impact of the diverter plate 80 and stops the diverter plate in position over the nozzles 44.", "The plate 80 is shaped so that after it breaks into the water stream, it is pulled in and centered over the water, and directs the water down and out.", "Imminent collapse of the water wave or vortex 68 may be detected via electrical sensors monitoring the pumps 34, or by sensors sensing water pressure or velocity at various locations.", "Referring to FIG. 5, when the tunnel 14 is not in use, e.g., when the guests 25 are elsewhere in the attraction 10, the water may be redirected through a bypass pipe 75 back to the reservoir or the pumps 34 may be shut down.", "Alternatively, if the water 72 is needed elsewhere in the attraction 10, a bypass valve 76 is provided at the lower or exit end of the manifold 40.", "Similarly, a pump-out valve 74 may be provided at the upper or entrance end of the manifold 40.", "The bypass pipe 75 connects to the pump out valve 74, and a pump-out pipe 77 connects to the pump-out valve 76, to provide water to other places in the attraction 10.", "When the tunnel 14 is in use and the water vortex 68 is established, the bypass valve 74 and pump-out valve 76 are closed, so that the manifold 40 delivers maximum water volume and pressure to the tunnel 14.", "At other times, either the bypass valve 74, or the pump-out valve 77, or both, may be opened to provide water to other locations.", "When either or both valves 74 and 76 are partially or fully open, a controlled amount of water will still flow out of the nozzles 44.", "For example, with the valve 74 partially open, the water may crash down on the walkway 16 while the guests are watching (before they walk through), to provide a more thrilling attraction.", "The valves 74 and 76 may also be opened to collapse the water vortex 68, at appropriate times.", "Use of the valves 74 and 76 allows the pumps to run continuously, thereby avoiding delays associated with pump start-up, or other adverse hydraulic effects.", "As shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, the tunnel 14 is preferably configured so that the guests 25 can reach out and actually touch the water vortex or whirlpool 68.", "In an alternative embodiment, shown in phantom and solid lines in FIG. 6, a screen 100 or other obstruction may be placed in the nozzle to disturb the flow of water, thus adding air into the water and making the water opaque, as opposed to free flowing and relatively transparent water out flow from the nozzles shown in solid lines in FIG. 6. In another alternative embodiment, the inside surface of the tunnel may be made rough, to disturb the water flow and change its visual appearance.", "Baffle plates 102, i.e., plates with through holes may also be incorporated into the inside surface of the tunnel, to create the same effect.", "The flow within the tunnel can be locally effected by changing the inside surface texture of the tunnel.", "The attraction 10 creates a realistic, aesthetic, and entertaining experience for theme park guests.", "The invention may also be used in other applications requiring a water whirlpool or vortex, e.g., during motion picture filming, television program production, still photography, etc.", "Many insubstantial changes may be made to the designs illustrated and explained above.", "For example, the semi-cylinder tunnel may be replaced up to a fall 360° cylinder or a cylinder shape that is more elliptical than round.", "The individual nozzles may be replaced with a single and equivalent manifold opening.", "The bridge 16 may be shifted vertically or horizontally within the tunnel, or replaced with another way for allowing guests to move through the tunnel.", "The drawings are intended to accurately show the various described components in proportion to their actual preferred dimensions and positions.", "The dimensions can of course be changed to suit a particular use.", "Thus, a novel attraction and water vortex or whirlpool effect has been shown and described.", "Various modifications may, of course, be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.", "Accordingly, the invention should not be limited, except to the following claims, and their equivalents." ]

[ "TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present invention relates to a microcomputer for a microphone that executes a plurality of application programs.", "BACKGROUND ART [0002] Microphones that can achieve various directional characteristics by preparing two or more microphone elements, and adjusting, for example, a distance between the microphone elements, and/or amplitude, phase, and/or delay amount during signal synthesis (variable-directivity microphones) have been known.", "As the directional characteristics of a microphone, there are, for example, omnidirectional, bidirectional, unidirectional, narrow-angle directivity, and so forth.", "It is desirable to choose optimal one from the directional characteristics for every sound pick-up setting by taking account of a position of a sound source to pick-up or an unintended sound field.", "[0003] In the above microphones, microcomputers are used.", "A microcomputer is equipped with, for example, a microphone element, an amplifier, an analog-to-digital converter (ADC), a digital signal processor (DSP), a digital-to-analog converter (DAC), a system controller, and/or a program memory.", "[0004] For instance, Patent Literature (hereinafter, referred to as PTL) 1 discloses a single-chip microcomputer that is adaptable to a plurality of application programs.", "In a case where any of a plurality of application programs stored in an internal memory is executed, the single-chip microcomputer of PTL 1 sets differences between staring addresses of the application programs and a predetermined base address, and executes the application program based on the difference.", "This allows, when executing the application programs in a single-chip microcomputer, the CPU to execute them without taking account of addresses at which the respective application programs are located and that are different for the respective application programs.", "CITATION LIST Patent Literature [0005] PTL 1 [0006] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-200350 SUMMARY OF INVENTION Technical Problem [0007] In general, a plurality of application programs stored in an internal memory individually vary in size.", "In the single-chip microcomputer of PTL 1, however, there is a problem in that although the addresses of application programs are taken into account as mentioned above, the sizes of the application programs are not taken into account.", "[0008] An object of the present invention is to provide a microcomputer for a microphone that can execute application programs more effectively without taking account of addresses different for the respective application programs.", "Solution to Problem [0009] A microcomputer for a microphone according to an embodiment of the present invention includes: an input amplifier that amplifies an analog signal from the microphone;", "an analog-to-digital converter that converts the analog signal output from the input amplifier to a digital signal;", "a digital signal processor that processes the digital signal output from the analog-to-digital converter;", "a digital-to-analog converter that converts the digital signal output from the digital signal processor to an analog signal;", "an output amplifier that amplifies the analog signal output from the digital-to-analog converter and outputs the analog signal to a speaker;", "a program memory that stores a plurality of microphone programs to be executed by the digital signal processor;", "an address control circuit that controls an address of the program memory;", "a program address register that stores an address of the microphone program;", "and a program size register that stores a size of the microphone program, in which the address control circuit is configured to calculate the address of the program memory based on the program address register and the program size register.", "Advantageous Effects of Invention [0010] According to the present invention, application programs can be executed more effectively without taking account of addresses different for the respective application programs.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS [0011] FIG. 1 is a block diagram that illustrates an example configuration of a microcomputer for a microphone according to an embodiment of the present invention;", "[0012] FIG. 2 illustrates an example of memory map for a program memory of the microcomputer for a microphone according to the embodiment of the present invention;", "[0013] FIG. 3 illustrates an example of register map for a program address register of the microcomputer for a microphone according to the embodiment of the present invention;", "[0014] FIG. 4 illustrates an example of register map for a program size register of the microcomputer for a microphone according to the embodiment of the present invention;", "and [0015] FIG. 5 is a flow chart that illustrates processing in an address control circuit of the microcomputer for a microphone according to the embodiment of the present invention.", "DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS [0016] In the following, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.", "[0017] First, a configuration example of a program switchable function-equipped microcomputer 100 for a microphone (hereinafter referred to as microcomputer 100 ) according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 1 .", "FIG. 1 is a block diagram that illustrates the configuration example of microcomputer 100 .", "[0018] As illustrated in FIG. 1 , microcomputer 100 is connected to microphones 101 and speaker 107 .", "Also, microcomputer 100 , as illustrated in FIG. 1 , includes input amplifiers 102 , analog-to-digital converters (ADC) 103 , digital signal processor (DSP) 104 , digital-to-analog converter (DAC) 105 , and output amplifier 106 .", "[0019] Microphones 101 convert sound to electric signals, and output the electric signals (hereinafter referred to as analog signals) to input amplifiers 102 .", "In FIG. 1 , as an example, two microphones 101 are included.", "[0020] Input amplifiers 102 amplify the analog signals output from microphones 101 , and output the analog signals to analog-to-digital converters 103 .", "In FIG. 1 , as an example, two input amplifiers 102 are included corresponding to two microphones 101 .", "[0021] Analog-to-digital converters (ADC) 103 convert the analog signals output from input amplifiers 102 to digital signals, and output the digital signals to digital signal processor 104 .", "In FIG. 1 , as an example, two analog-to-digital converters 103 are included corresponding to two microphones 101 and two input amplifiers 102 .", "[0022] Digital signal processor (DSP) 104 processes the digital signals output from analog-to-digital converters 103 by executing a microphone program (application program) to be mentioned hereinafter, and outputs the digital signal to digital-to-analog converter 105 .", "[0023] Digital-to-analog converter (DAC) 105 converts the digital signal output from digital signal processor 104 to an analog signal, and outputs the analog signal to output amplifier 106 .", "[0024] Output amplifier 106 amplifies the analog signal output from digital-to-analog converter 105 , and outputs the analog signal to speaker 107 .", "[0025] Speaker 107 converts the analog signal output from output amplifier 106 to sound.", "[0026] Further, as illustrated in FIG. 1 , microcomputer 100 includes program memory 108 , address control circuit 109 , program address register 110 , and program size register 111 .", "[0027] Program memory 108 stores a plurality of microphone programs (see FIG. 2 ) in advance that are to be executed by digital signal processor 104 .", "Program memory 108 may be, for example, read-only memory (ROM), high-capacity non-volatile memory, such as flash memory or electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), or other storage devices.", "[0028] Program address register 110 stores addresses (see FIG. 3 ) of the microphone programs in advance.", "[0029] Program size register 111 stores sizes (see FIG. 4 ) of the microphone programs in advance.", "[0030] Address control circuit 109 reads program address register 110 and program size register 111 , calculates a starting address of program memory 108 based on them, and writes the starting address in program address register 110 .", "Then, address control circuit 109 reads the starting address of program memory 108 written in program address register 110 , and outputs the starting address to digital signal processor 104 .", "After that, digital signal processor 104 reads, from program memory 108 , a microphone program whose starting address is output from address control circuit 109 , and executes the microphone program.", "[0031] Next, a memory map of program memory 108 of microcomputer 100 will be described with reference to FIG. 2 .", "FIG. 2 illustrates an example of the memory map of program memory 108 .", "[0032] Program memory 108 stores a plurality of microphone programs (application programs) in advance that are to be executed by digital signal processor 104 .", "As illustrated in FIG. 2 , program memory 108 stores, for example, program 1 , program 2 , program 3 , program 4 , and program 5 .", "[0033] FIG. 2 illustrates that a starting address of program 1 is address 1 (base address), and a program size of program 1 is size 1 .", "[0034] Also, FIG. 2 illustrates that a starting address of program 2 is address 2 , and a program size of program 2 is size 2 .", "[0035] Further, FIG. 2 illustrates that a starting address of program 3 is address 3 , and a program size of program 3 is size 3 .", "[0036] Further, FIG. 2 illustrates that a starting address of program 4 is address 4 , and a program size of program 4 is size 4 .", "[0037] Furthermore, FIG. 2 illustrates that a starting address of program 5 is address 5 , and a program size of program 5 is size 5 .", "[0038] Next, a register map of program address register 110 of microcomputer 100 will be described with reference to FIG. 3 .", "FIG. 3 illustrates an example of the register map of program address register 110 .", "[0039] Program address register 110 stores addresses of a plurality of microphone programs in advance.", "As illustrated in FIG. 3 , program address register 110 stores, for example, a starting address or address 1 of program 1 , a starting address or address 2 of program 2 , a starting address or address 3 of program 3 , a starting address or address 4 of program 4 , and a starting address or address 5 of program 5 .", "[0040] Next, a register map of program size register 111 of microcomputer 100 will be described with reference to FIG. 4 .", "FIG. 4 illustrates an example of the register map of program size register 111 .", "[0041] Program size register 111 stores program sizes of a plurality of microphone programs in advance.", "As illustrated in FIG. 4 , program size register 111 stores a program size or size 1 of program 1 , a program size or size 2 of program 2 , a program size or size 3 of program 3 , and a program size or size 4 of program 4 .", "[0042] Next, processing operations of address control circuit 109 of microcomputer 100 will be described with reference to FIG. 5 .", "FIG. 5 is a flow chart that illustrates an example of the processing operations of address control circuit 109 .", "[0043] First, address control circuit 109 reads program address register 110 (step S 501 ).", "For example, addresses 1 to 5 of program address register 110 are read.", "[0044] Then, address control circuit 109 reads program size register 111 (step S 502 ).", "For example, sizes 1 to 4 of program size register 111 are read.", "[0045] After that, address control circuit 109 calculates starting addresses of program memory 108 based on addresses 1 to 5 of program address register 110 and sizes 1 to 4 of program size register 111 (step S 503 ).", "[0046] Here, specific examples of the above calculation processing will be described.", "[0047] For example, address control circuit 109 directly sets address 1 of program address register 110 as address 1 .", "[0048] Also, address control circuit 109 , for example, adds address 1 of program address register 110 and size 1 of program size register 111 , and sets the result of addition as address 2 .", "[0049] Further, address control circuit 109 , for example, adds address 2 of program address register 110 and size 2 of program size register 111 , and sets the result of addition as address 3 .", "[0050] Further, address control circuit 109 , for example, adds address 3 of program address register 110 and size 3 of program size register 111 , and sets the result of addition as address 4 .", "[0051] Furthermore, address control circuit 109 , for example, adds address 4 of program address register 110 and size 4 of program size register 111 , and sets the result of addition as address 5 .", "[0052] Through the above calculation processing, address control circuit 109 sets addresses 1 to 5 as starting addresses of program memory 108 .", "[0053] Then, address control circuit 109 writes the set addresses of program memory 108 in program address register 110 (step S 504 ).", "For example, addresses 1 to 5 set through the above calculation processing are written.", "This updates program address register 110 .", "[0054] After that, address control circuit 109 reads starting addresses (for example, addresses 1 to 5 ) of program memory 108 written in program address register 110 , and outputs them to digital signal processor 104 .", "Digital signal processor 104 , then, reads microphone programs based on the starting addresses of program memory 108 output from address control circuit 109 , and executes the read microphone programs.", "[0055] As described above, according to the embodiment of the present invention, a digital signal processor can execute application programs more effectively without taking account of addresses different for the respective application programs.", "[0056] In addition, according to the embodiment of the present invention, each application program can be independently developed without taking account of addresses in which respective application programs are located on a microcomputer, and complicated mapping operations do not result when each application program is located on a microcomputer.", "[0057] The disclosure of Japanese Patent Application No. 2015-001671, filed on Jan. 7, 2015, including the specification, drawings and abstract, is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.", "INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY [0058] The present invention relates to changing of application programs for switching the directional characteristics of a microphone, and is usable in a microcomputer for a microphone that stores a plurality of application programs in an internal memory and includes a built-in digital signal processor (DSP) that executes them.", "REFERENCE SIGNAL LIST [0000] 100 Microcomputer 101 Microphone 102 Input amplifier 103 Analog-to-digital converter (ADC) 104 Digital signal processor (DSP) 105 Digital-to-analog converter (DAC) 106 Output amplifier 107 Speaker 108 Program memory 109 Address control circuit 110 Program address register 111 Program size register" ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a continuation of co-pending patent application Ser.", "No. 09/587,202, filed Jun. 5, 2000, which is continuation-in-part of patent application Ser.", "No. 09/338,002, filed Jun. 22, 1999, and issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,072,303 on Jun. 6, 2000, which is a continuation of PCT application No. PCT/US98/02651, filed Feb. 6, 1998, the priority of each which is claimed under 35 U.S.C. §120.", "The PCT application No. PCT/US98/02651, as well as this application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) to provisional application No. 60/037,723, filed Feb. 7, 1997.", "All of these applications are expressly incorporated herein by reference as though fully set forth.", "FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates generally to an electrical generator, and more particularly, to an improved induction generator referenced to an AC power source.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] Recently, brought on by the shortage in fossil fuel and the ecological consequences of such use, various proposals have been devised for inserting locally generated electrical power into a public utility grid.", "An assortment of renewable fuel sources have been investigated.", "The ideal alternative energy fuel source will not have an adverse impact on the ecology and will result in a high grade fuel at a low cost.", "Common examples of alternative energy fuel sources are wind, hydro, hydrocarbon gas recovery, solar, geothermal and waste heat recovery.", "Each of these fuel sources may be teamed with electrical power generators.", "[0004] The difficulty in utilizing these fuel sources lies in the quality of the fuel itself.", "For example, variations in wind velocity severely limit the usefulness of wind power machines as a steady and constant fuel source for a conventional synchronous or induction generator.", "This is because conventional generators can deliver usable power only when they operate within a particular speed range.", "As a result, the wind power machines must employ doubly wound AC generators, or elaborate propeller pitch control and mechanical drive systems that provide appropriate generator speed.", "To be of practical use, however, doubly-fed systems must provide appropriate rotor excitation and maintain constant stator voltage, which is not easily accomplished.", "Where high speed geothermal turbines or low speed water wheels are employed, mechanical speed control, reduction, or step-up devices must be used to provide the appropriate rotational speed for AC generation.", "The efficiency losses which accompany these types of mechanical conversion devices compromise their economic viability and render them generally unsuitable as sources of power.", "[0005] The compensation provided by these mechanical conversion systems are essential, however, because the insertion of locally generated electrical power into a public utility grid requires exact phase and frequency matching.", "Accordingly, if a device could be self-synchronizing and tolerant of widely varying rotational speed, the use of alternative fuel sources as a means for generating electricity would be greatly enhanced.", "One noteworthy example of such a self-synchronizing rotating device can be found in several patents issued to Leo Nickoladze, specifically in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,701,691 and 4,229,689 which are expressly incorporated herein by reference as though fully set forth.", "[0006] These latter examples rely on electrical cancellation within the inductive device itself whereby all variations in input power are effectively taken out.", "An exemplary embodiment of such induction device is shown in FIG. 1. The induction generator of FIG. 1 includes two stages, an exciter stage 10 and a generator stage 12 .", "The exciter stage 10 includes an exciter stator 14 connected to an AC power source 16 and an exciter rotor 18 disposed for rotary advancement by a local power source 19 .", "The generator stage 12 includes a generator rotor 20 , connected for common rotation with the exciter rotor 18 , and a generator stator 22 .", "The windings of the exciter rotor 18 and the generator rotor 20 are connected together, but wound in opposite directions.", "The generator stator 22 is connected to a load 23 .", "[0007] In operation, the exciter rotor 18 is rotated by the local power source 19 within the rotating magnetic field developed by the exciter stator 14 .", "The induced signal frequency at the output of the exciter rotor 18 is equal to the summation of the angular rate of the local power source 19 plus the frequency of the AC power source 16 .", "As the generator rotor 20 is rotated within the generator stator 22 , the inverse connection to the exciter rotor 14 causes the angular rate produced by the local power source 19 to be subtracted out.", "The result being an induced voltage at the output of the generating stator 22 equal in rate to the frequency of the AC power source.", "[0008] While the foregoing Nickoladze solution provides a theoretical output voltage where only the line frequency of the utility grid is produced, in practice, the manufacture of these devices is often fraught with difficulty for three-phase power applications due proper phase angle alignment between the exciter and generator stages and the windings.", "Often, due to the physical windings of the rotor and stator elements, phase angle alignment between the exciter and generator stages could not be achieved in the past.", "Moreover, some devices simply failed to perform altogether because the phase sequence of the windings was improper.", "These problems become even more pronounced when the exciter stage and generator stage are manufactured independently of one another.", "[0009] Accordingly, there is a current need for a three-phase line synchronous generator that can be produced with proper phase angle alignment for three-phase power applications resulting in a constant frequency and voltage output at variable shaft speeds.", "It is desirable that phase angle alignment be easily achieved even for exciter and generator components wound in opposite directions or with phases that start in different slots on the core with relation to the keyway.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0010] An embodiment of the present invention is directed to a method and apparatus that satisfies this need.", "There is, therefore provided, according to an embodiment of a three-phase line synchronous generator, an exciter stator having n poles, an exciter rotor having n poles and disposed for rotation within the exciter stator, a generator stator having n poles, and a generator rotor having n poles, the generator rotor being mechanically coupled to the exciter rotor and disposed for rotation within the generator stator, wherein the poles of the stators, or the poles of the rotors, are angularly displace by x, where: x= 360 °/n [0011] An attractive feature of the described embodiments is that the line synchronous generator remains self-synchronizing despite variations in shaft speeds.", "Moreover, proper phase angle alignment can be readily achieved even for exciter and generator components independently manufactured with windings in opposite directions or with phases that start in different slots on the core with relation to the keyway.", "This economically viable solution to alternative power sources has a major potential for resolving the present energy shortage with minimum adverse ecological consequences.", "[0012] It is understood that other embodiments of the present invention will become readily apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description, wherein is shown and described only embodiments of the invention by way of illustration of the best modes contemplated for carrying out the invention.", "As will be realized, the invention is capable of other and different embodiments and its several details are capable of modification in various other respects, all without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.", "Accordingly, the drawings and detailed description are to be regarded as illustrative in nature and not as restrictive.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0013] These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with regard to the following description, appended claims, and accompanying drawings where: [0014] [0014 ]FIG. 1 is a simplified diagrammatic illustration of an induction generator described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,701,691 and 4,229,689;", "[0015] [0015 ]FIG. 2 is a simplified diagrammatic illustration of a three-phase stator primary line synchronous generator in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;", "[0016] [0016 ]FIG. 3 is a simplified diagrammatic illustration of a three-phase rotor primary line synchronous generator in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;", "[0017] [0017 ]FIG. 4 is a simplified diagrammatic illustration of a redundant line synchronous generator structure in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;", "[0018] FIGS. 5 A- 5 C are vector diagrams illustrating the proper phase relationships between the secondary windings of the line synchronous generator in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;", "[0019] FIGS. 6 A- 6 F are vector diagrams illustrating improper phase relationships between the secondary windings of the line synchronous generator in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;", "[0020] [0020 ]FIG. 7A is a diagrammatic illustration showing the secondary windings of the line synchronous generator in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention before test;", "[0021] [0021 ]FIG. 7B is a diagrammatic illustration showing the secondary windings of the line synchronous generator in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention when properly connected with renumbered terminals;", "[0022] [0022 ]FIG. 8 is a diagrammatic illustration showing compensation circuitry connected between the secondary windings in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;", "[0023] [0023 ]FIG. 9 is a graph illustrating the output power for various compensation circuits as a function of angular rotation of the rotors in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;", "[0024] [0024 ]FIG. 10 is a graph illustrating the output power for phase angles between the exciter and generator stage as a function of angular rotation of the rotors in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;", "and [0025] [0025 ]FIG. 11 is a vector diagram illustrating the proper phase relationships between the secondary windings of the line synchronous generator with a 15° phase angle error in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0026] A preferred embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. 2. The three-phase line synchronous generator includes two stages, an exciter stage 24 and a generator stage 26 .", "The exciter stage 24 includes an exciter stator 28 having three electromagnetic pole pairs.", "Each pole pair has a primary winding connected across a different phase of an AC power source 30 .", "An exciter rotor 32 , mounted for rotation within the interior of the exciter stator 28 , also includes three electromagnetic pole pairs each wound with a secondary winding.", "The exciter rotor 32 is disposed for rotary advancement by a local power source 33 .", "[0027] The generator stage 26 includes a generator rotor 34 connected for common rotation with the exciter rotor 32 inside the interior of a generator stator 38 .", "The generator rotor 34 also includes three electromagnetic pole pairs each wound with a secondary winding.", "The secondary windings of the generator rotor are inversely connected to the secondary windings of the exciter rotor 32 to effect electrical cancellation of the frequency induced by the angular rotation of the local power source.", "The generator stator 38 is connected to the AC power source 30 .", "[0028] In an alternative embodiment of the present invention, the rotors of the exciter and generator stages are connected to the AC power source, and the three-phase windings of the exciter and generator stators are connected for electrical cancellation.", "Turning to FIG. 3, an exciter rotor 52 , disposed for rotary advancement by a local power source 53 , has three electromagnetic pole pairs each with a primary winding connected across a different phase of the AC power source 54 .", "The exciter stage 56 also includes an exciter stator 72 with three electromagnetic pole pairs wound with secondary windings.", "[0029] Similarly, the generator stage 64 includes a generator stator 74 with three electromagnetic pole pairs wound with secondary windings.", "The secondary windings of the exciter stator 72 are inversely connected to the secondary windings of the generator stator 74 to effect electrical cancellation of the frequency induced by the angular rotation of the local power source.", "The generator rotor 75 , connected for common rotation with the exciter rotor 52 , is connected to the AC power source 54 .", "For explanatory purposes only, the embodiments of the present invention will be described for a three-phase line synchronous generator configured as stator primary machine, i.e., stators connected to the AC power source.", "However, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the present invention is not limited to stator primary machines, and that all described embodiments and test procedures are equally applicable to rotor primary machines, i.e., rotors connected to the AC power source.", "[0030] As shown in FIG. 4 the line synchronous generator may be expanded to include redundant components.", "Specifically, a third redundant stage comprising a rotor 78 on the common shaft 80 and a stator 76 may be left unconnected.", "The terminals T 001 , T 002 and T 003 may then be connected in replacement for the terminals T 1 , T 2 and T 3 or T 01 , T 02 and T 03 , in the event that the exciter or generator stage fails.", "[0031] The operation of the generator is described with reference to FIG. 2. With stator primary machines, the exciter stator 28 is excited by the AC power source 30 which creates a revolving magnetic field at an angular rate equal to the frequency of the AC power source 30 .", "The exciter rotor 32 is rotated by the local power source 33 within the rotating magnetic field developed by the exciter stator 28 .", "The induced signal frequency at the output of the exciter rotor 32 is equal to the summation of the angular rate of the local power source 33 plus the frequency of the AC power source 30 .", "As the generator rotor 34 is rotated within the generator stator 38 , the inverse connection to the exciter rotor 32 causes the angular rate produced by the local power source 33 to be subtracted out.", "The result being an induced voltage at the output of the generating stator 38 equal in rate to the frequency of the AC power source.", "Thus, at any angular rate above synchronous speed for a multi-pole generator in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, the voltage output will have the same frequency as the source it is connected with.", "Below synchronous speed, power will be consumed rather than generated.", "[0032] While this theoretical solution resolves the effects of shaft speed variations on the output frequency of a three-phase line synchronous generator, optimal output performance can only be achieved by the proper phasing alignment between the exciter and generator stages 24 , 26 .", "This connection is achieved by initially ensuring that the primary windings of the exciter stage has the same phase sequence as the primary windings of the generator stage, and then inversely connecting the secondary windings of the exciter and generator stages.", "[0033] As a result of exciter and generator stages being manufactured independently of one another, it is important to determine the proper connection between the primaries to ensure the each stage of the line synchronous generator has the same phase sequence.", "This determination can be made in a number of ways.", "For example, with a stator primary machine, a small three phase motor may be driven from the stator windings with power applied to the rotor windings.", "The proper phasing sequence of the stator windings will occur when the motor is driven in the same direction of rotation from both the exciter stator winding and the generator stator winding.", "Another way to obtain the proper phase sequence is with a phase rotation meter, or with two lamps and an AC capacitor connected in wye in accordance with known test techniques in the art.", "[0034] Once the proper phase sequence is established, the stator windings are connected to the corresponding phases of the AC power source.", "The proper phase angle between the rotor windings is then established by the interconnection process.", "To obtain electrical cancellation of the frequency induced by the angular rate of the rotor shaft, the rotor windings must be connected such that the voltage induced by angular rotation in each excitor rotor winding has an equal but opposite polarity than the voltage induced in the generator rotor winding to which it is connected.", "[0035] Vector diagrams provide a useful mechanism for illustrating how the interconnections between the second windings can be ascertained.", "As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, only three possible interconnections between the rotor windings results in a 180° phase shift between the each secondary winding connection as shown in FIGS. 5 A- 5 C, each exciter rotor winding is shifted 180° with respect to its corresponding generator rotor winding.", "For example, consider FIG. 5B.", "The following phase angles between the connected terminals are easily ascertained: [0036] T 03 =0° and T 3 =180°;", "Δ180° [0037] T 01 =120° and T 1 =300°;", "Δ180°;", "and [0038] T 02 =240° and T 2 =60°;", "Δ180°.", "[0039] The same phase relationships hold true for the secondary connections shown by the vector diagrams in FIGS. 5A and 5C.", "[0040] In contrast, there are six other possible interconnections which will not effect electrical cancellation of the frequency induced by the angular rotation of the rotors.", "These six incorrect connections are shown by the vector diagrams in FIGS. 6 A- 6 F. As shown in each of these diagrams, the voltages in each pair of connections between the exciter rotor and the generator rotor not only has the same voltage, but has the same phase.", "Referring to FIG. 6A, by way of example, this relationship is easily shown: [0041] T 01 =300° and T 1 =300°;", "Δ0° [0042] T 02 =60° and T 2 =60°;", "Δ0°;", "and [0043] T 03 =180° and T 3 =180°;", "Δ0°.", "[0044] These vector diagrams are also useful for establishing test parameters for determining the proper interconnections between the rotor windings during the manufacturing process.", "Common to each of vector diagram of FIGS. 5 A- 5 C, with one exciter rotor winding of the three-phase windings connected to one generator rotor winding, the voltages between the remaining open windings will consist of two pairs at two times the line voltage (2 Vm) and two pairs at {square root}3 times the line voltage ({square root}3 Vm) which is proven by the geometric relationship between the phases.", "For example, the voltages induced in the open windings in FIG. 5B are: [0045] T 2 to T 02 =2 Vm [0046] T 3 to T 03 =2 Vm [0047] T 2 to T 03 ={square root}3 Vm [0048] T 3 to T 02 ={square root}3 Vm [0049] Since vectors have a designated length and direction in space, these results can be verified with an ordinary ruler.", "[0050] The vector diagrams can be confirmed mathematically.", "Classic electrical theory holds that when a voltage is applied to a primary winding of an induction generator, a voltage will be induced into the open circuit secondary winding.", "A wye-connected three-phase winding has each phase displaced by 120°.", "The induced voltage at the open circuit secondary terminals will be balanced.", "For the phasing test, a jumper wire interconnects one terminal of each secondary winding.", "In FIG. 5B, this is terminal T 1 and terminal T 01 .", "With a voltage applied to the primary, the remaining open circuit secondary voltages are measured.", "For FIG. 5A, this would be [0051] T 2 to T 02 [0052] T 3 to T 03 [0053] T 2 to T 03 [0054] T 3 to T 02 [0055] As can readily be seen from FIG. 5A, the secondary voltage between T 2 -T 01 is the line voltage.", "Also, the voltage between T 1 -T 02 is the line voltage.", "Therefore, the voltage between T 2 -T 02 will be twice the line voltage.", "The same holds true for T 3 -T 03 .", "[0056] The voltage across T 2 -T 03 is the resultant of an oblique triangle defined by sides T 1 -T 03 , T 01 -T 2 , and T 2 -T 03 .", "When properly aligned, classic three-phase electrical theory identifies the angles as shown on FIG. 5B.", "The resultant voltage between T 2 -T 03 will be: V 2  -  03 = ( V 2  -  03 )  sin   ∠B sin   ∠A [0057] For proper alignment: V 2  -  03 =  ( V 2  -  03 )  ( sin   120  ° sin   30  ° ) =  ( V 2  -  03 )  ( 0.866 0.5 ) =  ( V 2  -  03 )  ( 1.73 ) [0058] The same holds true for the voltage between T 3 -T 02 .", "Therefore, with proper alignment, the voltage will be one pair of terminals at two times line voltage and one pair of terminals at {square root}3 times the line voltage.", "[0059] With the knowledge gleaned from these vector diagrams, a methodology of interconnecting the rotor windings can be ascertained which significantly reduces the manufacturing cost while increasing product yield.", "Specifically, the method for determining the proper interconnections in a stator primary machine requires the connection of a pair of rotor windings and then finding two remaining pairs of substantially identical voltages between the rotor windings.", "[0060] Turning to FIG. 7A, the secondary windings are shown ready for test.", "The exciter and generator stators are connected to an AC power source.", "The line voltages induced should be equal if the two sets of rotor windings are alike: turns, pitch, wire size, connection, etc.", "In this example, the interphase voltage is 90 volts.", "The connection could be wye (star) as shown, or delta, or one of each.", "In order to obtain test readings, a terminal from each rotor winding is joined by a connecting jumper.", "[0061] Either the primary or secondary could be the rotor or stator, but they must be the same part.", "Thus, if one half of the synchronous generator is configured as a rotor primary machine, then the other half of the synchronous generator must also be configured as a rotor primary machine.", "[0062] As defined by the vector diagrams of FIGS. 5 and 6, two pairs of substantially identical voltages must be found.", "With a line voltage of 90 volts, the following values must be obtained during test: [0063] 2(90)=180 volts for one voltage pair;", "and [0064] {square root}3( 90 )=156 volts for the other voltage pair.", "[0065] To perform the test, a jumper wire is placed across a terminal for each rotor winding.", "In this example, a jumper wire is first placed across T 1 and T 01 and the following voltages are obtained by test: [0066] T 2 −T 02 =156 volts [0067] T 2 −T 03 =90 volts [0068] T 3 −T 02 =180 volts [0069] T 3 −T 03 =156 volts.", "[0070] These measured voltages are consistent with FIGS. 6 A- 6 F showing the improper interconnection of rotor windings.", "[0071] The jumper wire is then removed and placed across another terminal pair.", "In this example, the jumper wire is next placed across T 2 and T 01 , and the following voltage are obtained by test: [0072] T 1 −T 02 =156 volts [0073] T 1 −T 03 =180 volts [0074] T 3 −T 02 =180 volts [0075] T 3 −T 03 =156 volts.", "[0076] This result is consistent with FIGS. 5 A- 5 C and confirms the proper interconnection of the rotor windings.", "From the vector diagrams 5 A- 5 C it can be seen that the rotor windings having a voltage of 2 Vm, or 180 volts should be connected together.", "The proper interconnections of the rotor windings are shown in FIG. 7B with T 1 connected to T 03 and T 3 connected to T 02 .", "Preferrably, the terminals should be renumbered.", "[0077] In rotor primary machines, the exciter and generator rotors are connected to the AC power source and the testing methodology described in connection with FIGS. 5 and 6 is performed on the exciter and generator stators to determine the proper interconnections of the stator windings.", "[0078] Once the proper phase angle between the secondary windings is established (whether it be the rotor or stator windings), electrical compensation may then be inserted between each pair of the three-phase secondary windings.", "Specifically, resistors and capacitors can be inserted between the respective secondary windings to expand the dynamic operating range of the device without the necessity of continual phase angle adjustments between the exciter and generator stages.", "[0079] Turning to FIG. 8, the effect of compensation resistance inserted between the secondary windings results in an expanded operating range allowing higher operating speed.", "In this example, compensation networks 76 , 78 and 80 effect the winding interconnection described above.", "Network 76 includes a resistor 82 , in parallel with a capacitor 84 , network 78 comprises a resistor 88 in parallel connection with a capacitor 90 , and network 80 comprises a resistor 94 , in parallel connection with a capacitor 96 .", "It has been found that by increasing the resistance of resistors 82 , 88 , and 94 from approximately 0 ohms to about 5.8 ohms, the dynamic range expressed in ratio of both the power factor and efficiency are substantially increased.", "[0080] [0080 ]FIG. 9 shows the expanded range of the device using utilizing resistors to achieve the desired results for tailored applications.", "The output curve is shown for a 15 kW, 4 pole, 60 Hz three-phase line synchronizing generator.", "[0081] Another important parameter for optimizing performance of the three-phase line synchronous generator is the phase angle between the generator and exciter stages.", "In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the angular position of the exciter stator, exciter generator, generator rotor or generator stator can be advanced or retarded to optimize performance.", "Optimal loading is a function of the exciter phase angle and rotor rpm.", "As the RPM increases substantially above “synchronous speed”, the phase angle range necessary to meet maximum generator load narrows significantly.", "Thus, through manipulation of the phase angle of the exciter stage relative to the generator stage, complete control over loading is achieved.", "A responsive and accurate device must be employed to adequately provide phase angle optimization when variable speed prime movers are used.", "[0082] [0082 ]FIG. 10 illustrates the output power of a 6 pole, 25 kW, 480 volt, 60 Hz stator primary machine coupled to a 75 horsepower DC variable speed motor at different phase angles.", "[0083] The power output is shown at four different phase angles between the exciter and generator magnetic field.", "[0084] In a preferred embodiment, the generator stator field is tapped and compared with the AC source frequency by a control mechanism to provide a phase error signal to a servo motor.", "This servo motor positions the exciter stator to optimize generator loading, a function of the phase difference that results from changes in shaft speed.", "The accuracy and response of the servo motor and its control mechanism are critical to optimize generator loading.", "Because servo motor control technology is sufficiently advanced, accurate exciter induction compensation can be provided in virtually all electrical generation applications.", "[0085] Alternatively, in stator primary machines, the phase angle may be set during the interconnection process of the rotor windings.", "Turning to FIG. 11, a vector diagram is shown representing the phase relationships of the rotor windings with proper interconnection to effect electrical cancellation but with a 15° phase angle misalignment between the exciter and generator stages.", "The test represented in FIG. 10 is performed with T 1 connected to T 01 .", "The following test results are obtained: [0086] T 2 to T 02 =178 volts [0087] T 2 to T 03 =143 volts [0088] T 3 to T 02 =166 volts [0089] T 3 to T 03 =178 volts [0090] The voltage between terminals T 2 -T 02 and T 3 -T 03 are each 178 volts, which is close enough to 180 volts to satisfy one of the required pairs.", "However, the voltage between the remaining terminals are not close enough to the 156 volts to satisfy the second required pair.", "However, if the voltages are averaged, the result is 155 volts which is close to the desired voltage.", "This indicates improper phase angle between the exciter stage and the generator stage.", "In this case, either the exciter stator, the exciter rotor, the generator stator or the generator rotor can be physically rotated on its axis until the voltages between T 2 and T 03 and the voltages between T 3 and T 02 each read 155 volts.", "In this case, from the vector diagram of FIG. 8, it can be seen that a 150° electrical phase shift will result in optimal performance.", "[0091] Alternatively, phase angle correction can be performed by altering the windings of either the exciter rotor, exciter stator, generator rotor or the generator stator.", "In other words, the optimum phase angle can be achieved without physically shifting the rotors or stators, but winding them offset.", "If slots on the generator portion are numbered 1 to 36, for example, we start the generator group in slot 1, and the exciter's group is started in slot 2 or 3, to get the phase angle as desired.", "[0092] The physical angular displacement is determined by the number of poles.", "Specifically, the angular displacement is: X = 360  ° Phases × Poles [0093] For a six (6) pole three-phase system this angle is: X = 360  ° ( 3 )  ( 4 ) = 20  ° [0094] Therefore, one an angular displacement of 20° is required.", "This may be accomplished by displacing the winding of two fixed cores only if the slot count allows the requisite angle to be met.", "For example, a 36 slot core with a two slot displacement would result in 200 and is acceptable for four (4) pole three-phase system.", "But a 48 slot core does not result in any combination of 200, and therefore, phase angle alignment could not be obtained by core displacement.", "[0095] The described embodiments provide an important solution that allows the rotational speed to vary substantially over traditional machinery limits while remaining self-synchronizing.", "The active controls are simplified to those necessary for safety purposes.", "The machinery speed maximum limits may be enhanced with simple active control of passive devices.", "This shows the versatility of the inventor, an inherently acceptable speed range which may be extended by addition of simple passive devices.", "Thus, any local power source which allows for a minimum speed and exceeds the parasitic losses of the device may be effectively used to supply the utility grid.", "Such adaptation of local alternative power sources has a major potential for resolving the present energy shortage with minimum adverse ecological consequences.", "[0096] It is apparent from the foregoing that the present invention satisfies an immediate need for a three-phase line synchronous generator with proper phasing having a constant frequency and voltage output at variable shaft speeds.", "This three-phase line synchronous generator may be embodied in other specific forms and can be used with a variety of fuel sources, such as windmills, wind turbines, water wheels, water turbines, internal combustion engines, solar powered engines, steam turbine, without departing from the spirit or essential attributes of the present invention.", "It is therefore desired that the described embodiments be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, reference being made to the appended claims rather than the foregoing description to indicate the scope of the invention." ]

[ "DESCRIPTION [0001] 1.", "Technical Field [0002] This invention relates to surgical methods for performing hysterectomies on female patients.", "[0003] 2.", "Background of the Invention [0004] A hysterectomy involves the removal of the uterus from the abdomen of a female patient.", "The traditional method of performing a hysterectomy is to sever the uterosacral ligaments, the cardinal ligaments and the uterine vessels attached to the uterus before entering the vaginal fornix.", "The uterus is then severed from the vagina in a circular fashion at the cervico-vaginal junction.", "To access this area, the bladder is pushed down and, if necessary, dissected free of any attachments to the uterus.", "[0005] This traditional procedure causes significant damage to the nerves in the Frankenhauser nerve plexus, the vesical nerve plexus and various regional nerves such as the nerves to the clitoris, the urethra and the vestibular bulbs.", "This traditional procedure also causes a major impairment of the pelvic support system for the vagina and other major complications.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0006] The present invention provides an improved surgical method of hysterectomy for removing a uterus including its endocervical canal and transformation zone in a manner which preserves important nerve entities and pelvic support structures while, at the same time, reducing the risk of cervical cancer.", "This improved method includes coring through the cervical stroma of a uterus close to the wall of the endocervical canal and transformation zone so as to leave the bulk of the cervical stroma in tact and connected to the cardinal ligaments, the uterosacral ligaments and the wall of the vaginal apex.", "The endocervical canal and transformation zone are removed from the cervical stroma and the opening left in the cervical stroma by the removal of the endocervical canal and transformation zone is closed with sutures.", "This new technique is a relatively bloodless technique.", "[0007] For a better understanding of the present invention, together with other and further advantages and features thereof, reference is made to the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, the scope of the invention being pointed out in the appended claims.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0008] Referring to the drawings: [0009] [0009 ]FIG. 1 is a longitudinal cross-sectional view of a human female uterus;", "[0010] [0010 ]FIG. 2 is a transverse cross-sectional view of the FIG. 1 uterus taken along section line 2 - 2 of FIG. 1;", "[0011] [0011 ]FIG. 3 is a transverse cross-sectional view of the FIG. 1 uterus taken along section line 3 - 3 of FIG. 1;", "[0012] [0012 ]FIG. 4 is longitudinal cross-sectional view of the portion of the FIG. 1 uterus that is removed from the abdomen of the patient;", "[0013] [0013 ]FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing the portion of the cervix that remains in the body of the patient after removal of the portion of the uterus shown in FIG. 4;", "and [0014] [0014 ]FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the cervix portion of FIG. 5 after closure with sutures of the opening left in the cervix by removal of the endocervical canal and transformation zone.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE ILLUSTRATED EMBODIMENT [0015] Referring to FIG. 1 of the drawings, there is shown a longitudinal cross-sectional view of a human female uterus 10 .", "The upper portion 11 of uterus 10 is called the corpus and the lower portion 12 is called the cervix.", "A typical uterus in a non-pregnant adult female human being is approximately three inches in length and has a width of approximately two inches at its widest.", "The diameter of the cervix 12 is a little less than one inch along section line 2 - 2 .", "The larger cavity 13 in the upper region of uterus 10 is called the endometrial cavity.", "A tubular passageway 14 , called the endocervical canal, runs from the lower end of endometrial cavity 13 to the top end or apex of a vagina 15 .", "Cervix 12 extends a short distance into the vagina 15 , the upper end of vagina 15 being attached to and closed by the lower portion of cervix 12 .", "An outwardly flaring portion 16 at the lower end of the endocervical canal 14 is called the transformation zone or T-zone.", "The fibrous tissue 17 forming the interior of the cervix 12 and surrounding the endocervical canal 14 is called cervical stroma.", "[0016] As an example of a problem, the roundish blotches 18 shown on uterus 10 are fibroid tumors which sometimes form on the wall of a uterus.", "Sometimes, such as in the case of fibroid 19 , they extend outwardly a noticeable distance from the uterus.", "For present purposes, it is assumed that some of the fibroids on uterus 10 are harmful and that this is the reason for removing the uterus 10 .", "[0017] Attached to the upper sides of uterus 10 are a pair of Fallopian tubes 20 which extend to different ones of the two ovaries (not shown).", "It is through one of the Fallopian tubes 20 that the egg enters the interior of the uterus 10 .", "Attached to the wall of uterus 10 near the upper end thereof are ovarian ligaments 27 and round ligaments 28 .", "Closer to cervix 12 are two uterine arteries 21 and 22 .", "A short distance downwardly are two sets of cardinal ligaments 23 and 24 which are attached to the two sides of the cervix 12 .", "These ligaments extend outwardly and their far ends are attached to the pelvic wall (not shown).", "Cardinal ligaments 23 and 24 provide a significant amount of support for uterus 10 .", "Immediately below the cardinal ligaments are two sets of uterosacral ligaments 25 and 26 which are attached to the two sides of cervix 12 and extend outwardly to and are attached to the pelvic wall (not shown).", "[0018] [0018 ]FIGS. 2 and 3 are transverse cross-sections of cervix 12 of FIG. 1, taken along section lines 2 - 2 and 3 - 3 , respectively.", "Among other things, these figures show the circular natures of cervix 12 and endocervical canal 14 .", "[0019] The present invention provides an improved surgical method for removing a uterus with reduced trauma to the patient and fewer postoperative problems.", "It is, of course, necessary to make various cuts and incisions in order to free the uterus from the body of the patient.", "The lines along which cuts are made are indicated by the broken lines in FIGS. 1 - 3 .", "As seen in FIG. 1, the Fallopian tubes 20 and ovarian ligaments 27 are severed, as indicated at 30 and 31 .", "Round ligaments 28 are severed.", "The uterine arteries 21 and 22 are clamped and their ends are cut out of the cervix 12 , as indicated by cut lines 32 and 33 .", "[0020] Next comes the severing of the uterus 10 from the vagina 15 .", "The present invention does this in a special way.", "In particular, a circular incision 34 is made into the cervical stroma 17 close to the wall of the endocervical canal 14 and transformation zone 16 so as to form a severed core which includes the endocervical canal 14 and transformation zone 16 .", "The circular nature of this incision 34 is seen in FIGS. 2 and 3.", "This incision 34 extends from the lower end of cervix 12 upwardly to a level a short distance above the cardinal ligaments 23 and 24 .", "A lateral incision 35 is made into the side of the cervix 12 to a depth sufficient to join with the longitudinal coring incision 34 .", "Lateral incision 35 is made completely around the cervix 12 so as to separate the upper portion 17 a of cervical stroma 17 from the lower portion 17 b of cervical stroma 17 .", "[0021] [0021 ]FIG. 4 shows the severed uterus 10 after removal from the body of the patient.", "The results of coring incision 34 and lateral incision 35 are clearly seen in FIG. 4. As shown, the endocervical canal 14 and transformation zone 16 are included with the part of the uterus 10 which is removed.", "[0022] [0022 ]FIG. 5 shows the portion of cervix 12 that remains in the body of the patient.", "It is a doughnut shaped structure that remains attached to the cardinal ligaments 23 , 24 , the uterosacral ligaments 25 , 26 and the wall of the apex or fornix of vagina 15 .", "Thus, the procedure of the present invention leaves in tact the bulk of the lower portion 17 b of cervical stroma 17 .", "[0023] [0023 ]FIG. 6 shows the cervix portion of FIG. 5 after closure with sutures of the opening or passageway 34 left in the cervix 12 by removal of the core portion containing the endocervical canal 14 and transformation zone 16 .", "As seen in FIG. 5, a first suture 40 is circumferentially attached to the lower end of cervix 12 so as to encircle the lower opening of cervix 12 .", "This is accomplished by weaving suture 40 in and out of the outer wall of cervix 12 .", "This is preferably done before the coring incision 34 is made, the free ends of suture 40 being left untied.", "After completion of the coring procedure and after removal of the core containing endocervical canal 14 and transformation zone 16 , the free ends of suture 40 are pulled tight so as to force a closure of the lower opening in cervix 12 .", "The ends of suture 40 are then tied together to make the closure permanent.", "[0024] A second suture 42 is used to close the upper opening in the cervical stroma portion 17 b. Sutures 40 and 42 are preferably of the delayed absorption type.", "After a short period of time, the squeezed together wall portions of passageway 34 will be permanently interconnected by fibrous tissue growth.", "[0025] As seen in FIGS. 1 and 3, the core formed by coring incision 34 has a slight conical shape to it, the diameter of the core becoming smaller as one moves in the upward direction.", "As mentioned, the coring incision 34 is made close to the wall of the endocervical canal 14 and transformation zone 16 so as to leave the bulk of lower cervical stroma portion 17 b in tact.", "The lateral distance between the upper end of core incision 34 and the wall of endocervical canal 14 is typically about one-quarter of an inch.", "Incision 34 runs downwardly pretty much in a straight line to the bottom of cervix 12 at a point about one-quarter of an inch laterally of the mouth of transformation zone 16 .", "[0026] Core incision 34 may be made in either the downward or the upward direction.", "In the downward case, the lateral incision 35 is made, after which the cutting instrument is turned in the downward direction to make core incision 34 .", "In the upward case, the cutting instrument is inserted into the vagina 15 and moved in the upward direction to make core incision 34 .", "The cutting instrument may be, for example, either an electrosurgical Bovie knife or, alternatively, a laser knife.", "[0027] With the method of the present invention, neither the cardinal ligaments nor the uterosacral ligaments are severed.", "This avoids injury to the Frankenhauser nerve plexus and to the vesical nerve plexus, as well as injury to other nerves such as nerves to the clitoris, urethra and vestibular bulbs.", "The present invention also preserves the pelvic support system for the vagina.", "This minimizes postoperative problems related to bladder dysfunction, as well as possible vaginal sexual dysfunction.", "Furthermore, removal of the endocervical canal and transformation zone greatly reduces the risk of developing a cervical cancer.", "At the same time, applicant's technique is one of the best bloodless techniques of modern medicine.", "[0028] While there has been described what is at present considered to be a preferred embodiment of this invention, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made therein without departing from the invention and it is, therefore, intended to cover all such changes and modifications as come within the true spirit and scope of the invention." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] 1.", "Field of the Invention [0002] This invention relates to window cleaning devices and, more specifically, to a device which is installed in the doors of a vehicle which will wash and clean the side windows of the vehicle.", "[0003] 2.", "Description of the Prior Art [0004] Presently, most all vehicles on the road have a windshield wiper system which may be used to clean the front window of the vehicle.", "Some vehicles even have a windshield wiper system on the rear of the vehicle to clean the rear window.", "Present windshield wiper systems include a device for spraying water on the window and one or more wipers to remove the water and other debris from the window.", "[0005] While the above systems do work, there is presently no system available which will wash and clean the side windows on a vehicle.", "Once a side window becomes dirty, the only way to clean the window is to stop at a gas station or other location and to manually clean the side window with a wet cloth or squeegee.", "Present windshield wiper systems would not work because of the many different shapes and sizes of the side windows.", "Furthermore, having a windshield wiper system on the side windows would hinder individuals from lowering the side window when driving.", "[0006] Therefore, there is a need to provide a side window washing device for vehicles.", "The side window washing device must overcome problems associated with prior art devices.", "The side window washing device must be able to wash and clean a side window of a vehicle without hindering a person's ability to lower the side window.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0007] In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, it is an object of the present invention to provide a side window washing device for vehicles.", "[0008] It is another object of the present invention to provide a side window washing device that overcomes the problems associated with prior art devices.", "[0009] It is still another object of the present invention to provide a side window washing device that is able to wash and clean a side window of a vehicle without hindering a person's ability to lower the side window.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS [0010] In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention a side window washing device for a vehicle is disclosed.", "The side window washing device has a washing unit positioned on each side of the side window and coupled to an interior section of a door frame of the vehicle.", "The washing unit is capable of dispensing a liquid and moving to clean the side window.", "A driving unit is coupled to the washing unit.", "The driving unit is used for dispensing the liquid through the washing unit and for moving the washing unit.", "A drying unit is positioned above each washing unit and coupled to the interior section of a door frame.", "The drying unit is used for removing any liquid remaining on the side window.", "[0011] In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention a side window washing device for a vehicle is disclosed.", "The side window washing device has a washing unit positioned on each side of the side window and coupled to an interior section of a door frame of the vehicle.", "The washing unit is capable of dispensing a liquid and moving to clean the side window.", "The washing unit has a circular tube member having a channeling which runs from a first end through a majority of the length of the washing device for transferring the liquid through the washing device.", "The circular tube member rotates in order to clean the side window.", "A plurality of spray nozzles are coupled to the circular tube member and in fluid communication with the channeling for dispensing the liquid.", "A plurality of brushes are coupled to the circular tube member for removing any debris collected on the side window.", "The side window washing device further has a driving unit coupled to the washing unit for dispensing the liquid through the washing unit and for moving the washing unit.", "A drying unit is positioned above each washing unit and coupled to the interior section of a door frame for removing any liquid remaining on the side window.", "A catch pan is located below the washing unit and coupled to the interior of the door frame for collecting any excess liquid.", "A drainage hole is formed in a bottom section of the catch pan for draining the excess liquid.", "[0012] The foregoing and other objects, features, and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following, more particular, description of the preferred embodiments of the invention, as illustrated in the accompanying drawing.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0013] The novel features believed characteristic of the invention are set forth in the appended claims.", "The invention itself, as well as a preferred mode of use, and advantages thereof, will best be understood by reference to the following detailed description of illustrated embodiments when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.", "[0014] FIG. 1 is an elevated perspective view of a vehicle having the side window washing device of the present invention.", "[0015] FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along lines 2 - 2 of FIG. 1 of the side window washing device of the present invention.", "[0016] FIG. 3 is a top view of the side window washing device of the present invention.", "[0017] FIG. 4 is a side view of the side window washing device of the present invention.", "[0018] FIG. 5 is an elevated perspective view of half of the side window washing device of the present invention, the other half being positioned behind the side window.", "[0019] FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view taken along lines 6 - 6 of half of the side window washing device of the present invention as depicted in FIG. 5 .", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT [0020] Referring to the Figures, wherein like numerals and symbols represent like elements, a side window washing device 10 (hereinafter window washing device 10 ) is shown.", "The window washing device 10 would be installed in the interior of a door frame 100 of a vehicle 102 .", "The washing device 10 would be able to wash and clean the side window 104 of the vehicle when the side window 104 is lowered and the window washing device 10 is activated.", "[0021] The window washing device 10 is comprised of a washing and cleaning system 12 and a collection/drainage unit 14 .", "The washing and cleaning system 12 has a pair of washing units 16 .", "A washing unit 16 is positioned on each side of the side window 104 .", "Each washing unit 16 is of a sufficient length to extend across the longest portion of the side window 104 .", "[0022] Each washing unit 16 will have a channeling 18 .", "The channeling 18 starts from a first end 20 of the washing unit 16 and runs a majority of the length of the washing unit 16 .", "The channeling 18 will allow a liquid 22 to flow through the washing unit 16 .", "However, the channeling 18 does not run out a second end 24 of the channeling 18 so that the liquid 22 will not flow out of the second end 24 .", "In operation, the liquid 20 will be a window cleaning solution.", "However, other liquid solutions may be used without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.", "[0023] The washing unit 16 will have a plurality of spray nozzles 26 located along the length of the washing unit 16 .", "The spray nozzles 26 are in fluid communication with the channeling 18 .", "The spray nozzles 26 are used to dispense and direct the liquid 20 onto the side window 104 when the washing unit 16 is in operation.", "The spray nozzles 26 will aid in the removal of any debris which may be stuck on the side window 104 .", "[0024] The washing unit 16 will also have a plurality of brushes 28 coupled thereto.", "The brushes 28 are located along the length of the washing unit 16 .", "The brushes 28 are used to further aid in the removal of any debris which may be stuck on the side window 104 .", "[0025] Both washing units 16 are coupled to a driving mechanism 30 .", "The driving mechanism 30 is used to move the washing unit 16 in order to better clean the side window 104 .", "In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, both washing units 16 have a circular tube configuration.", "The driving mechanism 30 is used to rotate the washing units 16 .", "Thus, as the side window 104 is moved in either an up or down motion, the washing units 16 will rotate.", "The spray nozzles 26 and the brushes 28 move in a rotating manner thereby cleaning the side window 104 .", "[0026] Alternatively, the washing units 16 may have a flat edge configuration.", "The driving mechanism 30 is then used to move the washing units 16 in a reciprocating motion such as an up and down or a side to side motion.", "Thus, as the side window 104 is moved in either an up or down motion, the washing units 16 will move in either an up and down or a side to side motion to clean the side window 104 .", "[0027] In the embodiment depicted in the Figures, the driving mechanism 30 is comprised of a small motor/pump 32 .", "The motor/pump 32 has two purposes.", "First, the motor/pump 32 is used to transfer the liquid from a liquid reservoir 34 to the washing units 16 .", "In general the liquid reservoir 34 is couple to the motor/pump 32 by a conduit 36 .", "The motor/pump 32 will draw the liquid from the liquid reservoir 34 through the conduit 36 and transfer the liquid to each washing unit 16 via a second conduit 38 .", "The liquid is then dispersed through the a plurality of spray nozzles 26 located along the length of the washing unit 16 .", "[0028] The motor/pump 32 is further used to move the washing units 16 in either a rotational motion or a reciprocating motion such as an up and down or a side to side motion based on the design.", "In the embodiment depicted in the Figures, the motor/pump 32 is coupled to a gear system 40 .", "The gear system 40 includes a main driving gear 42 coupled to the motor/pump 32 .", "Each washing unit 16 has a second gear 44 coupled to an end section thereof.", "The second gear 44 is rotationally coupled to the driving gear 42 .", "Thus, when the motor/pump 32 rotates the driving gear 42 , the driving gear 42 will rotate the second gear 44 thereby rotating the washing unit 16 .", "However, it should be noted that other types of devices besides the gear system 40 may be used to move the washing units 16 in either a rotational motion or a reciprocating motion such as an up and down or a side to side motion [0029] Positioned above each washing unit 16 and coupled to the interior of the door frame 100 is a drying unit 46 .", "Thus, a drying unit 46 is placed on each side of the side window 104 .", "The drying unit 46 will remove any liquid which is on the side window 104 .", "In the embodiment depicted in FIG. 4 , each drying unit 46 has a body section 48 .", "A rubberized tip 50 is coupled to the end of the body section 48 .", "The rubberized tip 50 will contact the side window 104 .", "When the side window 104 is moved in either an up or down motion, the rubberized tip 50 will remove an liquid on the window similar to a squeegee.", "[0030] Located below the washing units 16 is a collection pan 52 .", "The collection pan 52 will be coupled to the interior of the door frame 100 .", "The collection pan 52 is used to collect any liquid that may fall off the side window 104 or the washing units 16 .", "The collection pan 52 will be slightly angled to help in the collection and drainage of the liquid.", "Located at a bottom section of the collection pan 52 is a drainage hole 54 .", "The drainage hole 54 will allow the liquid to drain out of the door frame 100 of the vehicle 102 so that no rusting will occur.", "[0031] In operation, each washing unit 16 is mounted in the interior of a door frame 100 of a vehicle 102 .", "A mounting bracket 56 is coupled to the end 24 of the washing unit 16 opposite of the motor/pump 32 .", "The mounting bracket 56 will secure the washing unit 16 to the interior of a door frame 100 .", "The second end of the washing unit 16 is coupled to the gear system 40 which is also coupled to the will secure the washing unit 16 to the interior of a door frame 100 .", "In order to clean the side window 104 , a user must turn on the washing units 16 .", "This is done through a switching mechanism 58 which is coupled to the motor/pump 32 .", "The switching mechanism 58 is generally located in the interior of the vehicle 102 .", "The switching mechanism 58 is used to activate the motor/pump 32 .", "The motor/pump 32 will draw the liquid from the liquid reservoir 34 through the conduit 36 and transfer the liquid to each washing unit 16 via the second conduit 38 .", "The liquid is then dispersed through the a plurality of spray nozzles 26 located along the length of the washing unit 16 to the side window 104 .", "The motor/pump 32 will also rotate the washing units 16 so that the brushes 28 will be able to remove any debris which may be stuck on the side window 104 .", "As the side window 104 is either moved up or down, the washing units 16 will clean each side of the side window 104 .", "The drying unit 46 will then remove any excess liquid still on the side window 104 .", "[0032] While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the foregoing and other changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates generally to memory management.", "More particularly, the present invention relates to workstations in an image handling system equipped with memory management schemes.", "Presently in a hospital, medical imaging devices are preferably networked with a central image management system such as a picture archival and communications system (PACS).", "Medical imaging devices utilize, among others, electromagnetic radiation, x-rays, sonic waves, and photonic energy to produce images of a subject of interest, such as a patient, to aid in diagnosis and treatment of illnesses.", "For example, ultrasound devices are useful for viewing fetuses during prenatal care in a pregnancy.", "Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging systems can produce images of a wide range of tissues.", "The central image management system includes a central storage unit coupled to a plurality of image workstations or terminals, such as PACS workstations.", "The central storage unit is configured to archive images produced by the plurality of medical imaging devices, and to retrieve images for display on one or more image workstations.", "Thus, the hospital can provide a plurality of medical imaging devices located through the hospital, and images produced from any of these medical imaging devices can then be retrieved and viewed by any of the plurality of image workstations.", "Images are archived in the central management system in sets relating to examinations, in which each examination includes a set of images acquired at a particular time relating to a particular problem (or ailment) of a particular patient.", "When the physician or user on the image workstation accesses images, examinations including these images (i.e., the image data) need to be downloaded from the central storage unit to that image workstation before such images can be displayed, and thus viewed, on that image workstation.", "During a session on the image workstation, a plurality of examinations are typically viewed by the physician.", "Moreover, the physician may desire to sequentially view images from different examinations in a relatively short order (i.e., moving back and forth among different examinations).", "Unfortunately, conventional image workstations are ill suited to effectively handle such examination viewing behavior or preferences.", "For example, a conventional image workstation only permits a few examinations to be readily accessible to the physician at any given time because the memory capacity of the workstation is such that only up to a few examinations can be stored on it.", "If the memory is full, the workstation may not permit any new examination to be accessed, or one or more of the downloaded or stored examinations would have to be unloaded (and thus no longer readily accessible to the physician) before any new examination can be accessed (i.e., downloaded from the central storage unit to the memory and displayed on the workstation).", "Thus, the physician is either limited to viewing only images from the few examinations already downloaded into the memory of the workstation, or waiting as each examination (not currently in the memory) requested by the physician is downloaded and displayed on the workstation.", "Otherwise the memory size requirement of the workstation would become extremely large and too costly.", "Thus, there is a need for a workstation that permits a large number of examinations to be readily accessible to a user at any given time.", "There is a further need for a workstation that includes a memory management scheme to optimize the ready accessibility of a large number of relevant examinations to a user.", "BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION One embodiment of the invention relates to a method for managing a memory in a workstation when a size of user selected files exceeds the memory capacity in the workstation.", "The method includes prioritizing the user selected files using a prioritization scheme.", "The method further includes unloading from the memory of the workstation a unload file having a lower priority than at least one of the user selected files stored in memory.", "The unload file includes at least a portion of at least one of the user selected files.", "Another embodiment of the invention relates to a system for managing a memory in a workstation when a size of user selected files exceeds the memory capacity in the workstation.", "The system includes means for prioritizing the user selected files using a prioritization scheme.", "The system further includes means for unloading a unload file having a lower priority than at least one of the user selected files stored in memory.", "The unload file includes at least a portion of at least one of the user selected files and the means for prioritizing is coupled to the means for unloading.", "Still another embodiment of the invention relates to a system for managing a memory in a workstation when a size of user selected files exceeds the memory capacity in the workstation.", "The system includes a processor configured to prioritize the user selected files using a prioritization scheme.", "The system further includes the memory configured to unload a unload file having a lower priority than at least one of the user selected files stored in memory.", "The unload file includes at least a portion of at least one of the user selected files.", "And the processor is coupled to the memory.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The preferred embodiment will become more fully understood from the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals denote like elements, in which: FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an image handling system which employs an embodiment of the present invention;", "and FIG. 2 is a flow chart of a memory management scheme included in an image workstation which comprises a part of the image handling system of FIG. 1 .", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Referring to FIG. 1 , there is shown the major components of an image handling system 10 .", "Image handling system 10 includes imaging devices 12 , a communications network 14 , and an image management system 16 .", "Each of the imaging devices 12 is coupled to the communications network 14 and the communications network 14 is coupled to the image management system 16 .", "Imaging devices 12 include, but are not limited to, magnetic resonance (MR) imaging devices, computerized tomography (CT) devices, ultrasound devices, nuclear imaging devices, x-ray devices, and a variety of other types of imaging devices.", "It should be understood that imaging devices 12 are not limited to medical imaging devices and can also include scanners and imaging devices from other fields.", "Imaging devices 12 are located throughout a facility, such as a hospital.", "Image management system 16 includes an image manager 18 and a plurality of image workstations 20 .", "Preferably, image management system 16 is a picture archival and communication system (PACS), image manager 18 is a PACS server, and the plurality of image workstations 20 are PACS workstations or terminals.", "It should be understood, however, that image management system 16 can be any image archival, management, and retrieval apparatus.", "Image manager 18 includes an information storage unit for short-term storage and retrieval, and an archival storage unit (e.g., an optical disc storage and optical disc reader system) for long-term storage and retrieval (not shown).", "Each of the plurality of workstations 20 is a computer system or terminal, including a memory 19 , a processor 22 , a display 24 , and an input device 26 .", "Input device 26 can include, but is not limited to, a mouse, a joystick, a keyboard, a trackball, a touch screen, a light wand, and a voice control.", "Image manager 18 is coupled to each of imaging devices 12 and the plurality of workstations 20 , via communications network 14 (e.g., an ethernet, fiber optic, or other applicable communications network communication).", "The plurality of workstations 20 can be located throughout the hospital and need not be proximate imaging devices 12 or image manager 18 .", "During an examination of a subject of interest, such as a portion of a patient's anatomy, one or more imaging devices 12 are used to acquire images of the subject of interest.", "Each acquired image is in a digitized data format, preferably in a DICOM or other suitable format, and is communicated from imaging devices 12 to image manager 18 via communications network 14 .", "Image manager 18 archives the image data representative of each acquired image, also referred to as an image file, with appropriate identifiers and links such that the image file can be selectively retrieved.", "Once image files have been archived in image manager 18 , image files and other relevant information, such as the patient's medical history, can be selectively retrieved and accessed on any one of the plurality of workstations 20 or other information retrieval devices coupled to communications network 14 .", "Preferably each set of images are acquired of a particular patient having a particular problem (or ailment) at a particular time.", "The image set, or more preferably the image data or files corresponding to the image set, are archived in image manager 18 with appropriate links to that patient's information (e.g., medical history and administrative information).", "In this manner, each set of images relate to an examination of a patient.", "For example, a patient with a broken arm may have a first set of images taken of his arm when the break initially occurs, a second set of images taken of the same arm a month later, and a third set of images taken after the cast has been removed.", "Then the first, second, and third set of images would comprise, respectively, a first, second, and third examination of a particular problem (i.e., broken arm bone for that patient).", "On average, each examination will include about 50 megabytes (MB) of image data.", "However, the number and size of images comprising an examination can vary widely depending on, among others, the type of imaging device used to acquire the images, the nature of the patient's problem, and the patient's physiology.", "For example, a x-ray examination could contain four to five images, each x-ray image being approximately 10 MB.", "In contrast, a MR exam may include 250 images at about 0.25 MB per image.", "In one embodiment, a user, such as a physician or radiologist, manipulates information (from image manager 18 ) in any one of the plurality of image workstations 20 via a graphical user interface (GUI) and input device 26 included in each workstation 20 .", "The GUI includes a work list selector window (not shown) from which the user selects one or more examinations (also referred to as exams) that he desires to view.", "The image data corresponding to these exams are retrieved from image manager 18 and downloaded to memory 19 of that particular workstation 20 .", "Any of the images corresponding to these exams can then be displayed on display 24 in real-time or quasi-real-time.", "Because these exams, and hence the images contained therein, are readily accessible to the user, the user can rapidly switch back and forth among different exams or images.", "Moreover, the user can manipulate images to enhance their diagnostic value (i.e., change original image viewing settings) such as changing the contrast of an image, rotating an image, etc.", "A memory management scheme 50 included in processor 22 of each workstation 20 permits a large number of exams to be open or perceived to be open (i.e., readily accessible) at any given time.", "The open exams can be any combination of exams such as a plurality of exams of a single patient or exams of different patients.", "Workstation 20 is configured such that when the user opens an exam, one or more images corresponding to that exam (or other exam information such as a start page or an exam content page) will be displayed on display 24 .", "If there are more than one open exam or the user has specified a plurality of images to be open, then each of these pages or windows relating to an exam or image will be displayed on display 24 in a sheet mode (i.e., in a tile-like formation across display 24 ) or in a stack mode (i.e., stacked one behind another like a stack of cards across display 24 ).", "At any given time, this multitude of opened exams and/or images will have a certain viewing sequence (also referred to as a viewing stack or order) based on the order in which the user opened and/or manipulated these exams and/or images.", "Referring to FIG. 2 , there is shown a memory management scheme 50 included in each workstation 20 .", "Memory management scheme 50 includes a start step 52 , an initiate opening of ith exam step 54 , a workstation memory capacity inquiry step 56 , a download step 58 , a display exam step 60 , an incrementor step 62 , a lowest exam priority inquiry step 64 , a save settings step 66 , a unload exam step 68 , a related exam priority inquiry step 70 , a viewing stack priority inquiry step 72 , a current exam priority inquiry step 74 , and an end step 76 .", "Scheme 50 is configured such that a large number of exams can be opened at any given time in workstation 20 without having to increase the size of memory 19 of workstation 20 .", "Scheme 50 utilizes known user exam viewing patterns, the current user's viewing behavior, and a prioritization of the open exams to optimize the storage capacity of memory 19 and the number of exams that seem readily accessible from the user's perspective.", "Start step 52 and initiate opening step 54 are carried out when at least one exam is already open and another exam is desirous of being opened (i.e., an ith exam to be opened, where i>1).", "Before the ith exam can be opened, the image data corresponding thereto need to be downloaded to memory 19 .", "Hence, step 56 inquires as to the available amount of space in memory 19 .", "If there is sufficient space in memory 19 to fully download the image data corresponding to the ith exam, then step 56 directs the download to be carried out via the download step 58 .", "After the image data (and possibly also the patient information) corresponding to the ith exam have been downloaded from image manager 18 in step 58 , any image within the ith exam can be displayed on display 24 in step 60 .", "Incrementor step 62 readies workstation 20 to accept the opening of a next exam (i.e., i=i+1).", "Otherwise, if there is not enough space in memory 19 to download the image data corresponding to the ith exam, then all the open exams (i.e., all Jth exams, where J=1 to (i−1)) are prioritized to determine which open exam should be unloaded from memory 19 to free up space.", "Scheme 50 provides a prioritization scheme comprising four priority levels: (1) a current exam priority, (2) a viewing stack priority, (3) a related exam priority, and (4) a lowest exam priority.", "The current exam priority is the top priority level and is only given to a current exam (also referred to as a currently viewed exam) being viewed by the user.", "Since the current exam would have the most relevance to the user at that moment in time, it is the open (i.e., Jth) exam least likely to be unloaded to make way for the ith exam.", "The viewing stack priority is the priority level below the current exam priority.", "This priority is given to all open exams, except the current exam, currently being displayed on display 24 in the viewing stack.", "Exams included in the viewing stack are likely to be viewed as the user makes his way through the stack.", "Thus, these exams are the second least likely to be unloaded from memory 19 .", "The related exam priority is the priority level below the viewing stack priority.", "This priority is given to all open exams that are related to the current exam.", "One patient's exams for a particular problem or the same portion of his anatomy comprise a set of exams, and when one of these exams is the current exam, then the remaining exams in this set of exams are referred to as related exams to the current exam.", "For example, continuing the example above of the broken arm, the first, second, and third exams of the broken arm can be categorized as related exams to each other.", "Lastly, the lowest exam priority is the lowest priority level;", "exams in this priority level are the first to be unloaded from memory 19 .", "Any open exam that is not the current exam, is not part of the viewing stack, and is not a related exam is given the lowest exam priority.", "This prioritization scheme is shown in steps 64 – 74 .", "Step 64 identifies any Jth exam (where (i−1) is the total number of open exams and J=1 to (i−1)) belonging to the lowest exam priority level.", "If any Jth exam can be given the lowest exam priority, then that Jth exam will be unloaded from memory 19 .", "However, before the unloading step 68 , the display or viewing settings of the Jth exam to be unloaded will be saved in workstation 20 in the save step 66 .", "Save step 66 permits this unloaded exam to be redisplayed as it was last viewed by the user, when it is reloaded onto memory 19 at a later point in time.", "Thus, although this Jth exam will have to be reloaded onto memory 19 for the user to view it again, save step 66 makes it appear to the user as if this Jth exam was never unloaded from memory 19 .", "In other words, the user will perceive this Jth exam as being continually “open.”", "After the unload step 68 , scheme 50 checks again for sufficiency of space in memory 19 by returning to step 56 .", "If unloading one Jth exam has freed up enough space to download the ith exam, then downloading can proceed with the downloading branch of scheme 50 (i.e., steps 58 – 62 ).", "Otherwise, if there still isn't enough space available in memory 19 , then step 56 directs the prioritization scheme to continue with steps 64 – 74 to unload more exams.", "If none of the open exams can be categorized within the lowest exam priority level, then the related exam priority inquiry step 70 is carried out.", "If none of the open exams is a related exam, then the viewing stack priority inquiry step 72 is carried out.", "Lastly, if none of the open exams is an exam on the viewing stack, then the current exam priority inquiry step 74 is carried out.", "Similar to the discussion above for step 64 , if any Jth exam satisfied the condition specified in any of steps 70 , 72 , 74 , then the save step 66 and the unload step 68 follows.", "In the current exam priority step 74 , arriving at the “no”", "branch indicates that none of the open exams fall within any of the four priority levels.", "In this situation, step 74 directs the prioritization to end with end step 76 .", "It is likely that some sort of error has occurred and workstation 20 may display an error message or request the user to reinitiate opening of the ith exam.", "Alternatively, it is contemplated that different prioritization schemes than discussed above may be implemented.", "For example, the viewing stack priority step 72 may be omitted.", "It is also contemplated that instead of unloading the first open exam in the inquiry that is in the lowest possible priority level, memory management scheme 50 may also inquire as to the sizes of the image data corresponding to the open exams.", "Then, for example, if two exams are of the same priority level and either one is suitable to unload, scheme 50 may unload the exam taking up greater or equal memory space in comparison to the ith exam to be downloaded.", "In this manner, memory management scheme 50 permits the user to open a very large number of exams during a session on workstation 20 .", "Memory management scheme 50 also permits actually closed exams (i.e., exams unloaded from memory 19 ) to be perceived by the user as still being open by saving the last display or viewing settings for each to-be-unloaded exams and by utilizing the prioritization scheme to optimize unloading the least relevant exam(s) possible.", "While the embodiments and application of the invention illustrated in the figures and described above are presently preferred, it should be understood that these embodiments are offered by way of example only.", "For example, it is contemplated that the invention may be applied to systems other than imaging systems which can benefit from optimization of memory usage.", "In another example, memory management scheme 50 may selectively unload only a portion of the image data corresponding to an exam instead of unloading the entire exam.", "In still another example, the last display or viewing settings of an exam may be saved in image manager 18 and be linked to a user identifier (i.e., a login identifier) such that the exam may be opened on any of the workstations 20 in a subsequent session and be displayed as it was last displayed by that user.", "Accordingly, the present invention is not limited to a particular embodiment, but extends to various modifications that nevertheless falls within the scope of the appended claims." ]

[ "RELATED APPLICATION This application is related to application Ser.", "No. 08/477,063 to Kirihata, et al.", ", entitled "Latched Row Decoder for A Random Access Memory", assigned to the Assignee of the present Application and filed coincident herewith and incorporated herein by reference.", "FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates generally to semiconductor memories and more particularly to testing semiconductor memories.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Memory cell defects and memory array defects have many sources and, as a result, many signatures.", "While single, isolated cell failures may be spread throughout the array, very often, multiple cells in the same vicinity fail.", "When multi-cell failures occur, the failure may be characterized as a word line failure, (i.e. failing cells with the same word line address), a bit (or column) line failure (i.e. failing cells with the same bit address), or both.", "The sources of these multi-cell failures vary.", "Consequently, memory arrays are tested extensively to identify defective cells.", "Very often, chips with defective cells can be repaired.", "Once identified, defective cells can be replaced, electrically, with spare cells, provided spare cells are included in the array.", "Providing on-chip spare cells to repair cell failures is known in the art as on-chip redundancy.", "A typical state of the art redundancy scheme has one or more spare rows (row redundancy) and/or one or more spare columns (column redundancy).", "These spare rows/columns have fuse programmable decoders that can be programmed to be responsive to the address of the defective row/column, while simultaneously disabling selection of the row/column with the defective cell.", "Electrically, a repaired chip cannot be discerned from a completely good chip.", "FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of a prior art 16 Mb DRAM chip.", "The chip 100 is organized with two Redundant Bit Lines (RBL) 102 and 104 providing two spare columns in each subarray 106.", "Each subarray 106 includes 2 n Bit Lines (BL) 108 (where n is typically between 5 and 8) and redundant bit lines (2 in this example).", "Each of the subarrays 106 is part of a subarray block 110.", "All of the subarray blocks 110, collectively, form the entire RAM array.", "So, for example, a 16 Mb RAM has 16 blocks 110 of 1 Mb each.", "Block size, subarray size and the number of subarrays 106 per block 110 are interdependent and, selected based on performance and logic objectives.", "A subarray 106 is accessed when one word line 112 is selected and driven high.", "Data from accessed cells are provided simultaneously to the bit lines 108 and redundant bit lines 102 and 104.", "After a predetermined minimum delay, sufficient to allow the redundancy decoder to determine whether a spare column is addressed, a single bit line 108 or a redundant bit line 102, 104 is selected in each subarray 106.", "In each subarray, the selected bit line 108 or redundant bit line 102, 104 is coupled to a Local Data Line (LDL) 114.", "LDLs 114 are coupled to Master Data Lines (MDLs) 116.", "The MDLs 116 couple corresponding subarrays 106 in each subarray block 110.", "Data is transferred between the subarrays 106 and the chip I/O's on the MDLs 116.", "FIG. 2 is a transistor level cross-sectional schematic of a subarray 106.", "Cells 120, 122 connected to adjacent word lines 112, 118 also are connected to opposite lines 124, 126 of each bit line pair.", "Thus, half of the word lines 112 (e.g., word lines with even addresses) select cells 120 on one line 124 of the bit line pair.", "While the remaining half of the word lines 118, (odd addressed word lines) select the cells 122 on the other lines 126 of the bit line pair.", "Each cell's storage capacitor 128 is, typically, a trench capacitor or a stacked structure for density.", "As is known in the art, the maximum voltage that an FET will pass is its gate to source voltage (V GS ) reduced by the FET's turn-on or threshold voltage (V T ), i.e., V GS -V T .", "So, if a bit line 124, 126 is charged to the supply voltage level V dd (or V H ) and the word line 112, 118 is also at V dd , then the largest bit line signal, i.e., the voltage stored on or read from the storage capacitors 128, 138 is V dd -V T .", "Therefore, to maximize bit line signal, the word line 112, 118 is boosted during a read or a write, typically, to at least V dd +V T so that V dd is written into/read from the cell.", "This boosted level, called V pp , is normally generated on-chip.", "Operation of the circuit of FIG. 2A is according to the timing diagram of FIG. 2B.", "A "one"", "is stored in the array such that it sets the sense amp in a predefined "one"", "condition.", "So, if a "one"", "is defined as 124 high and 126 low, then a "one"", "is stored in cell 120 (and all the other cells connected to 124) by charging the cell's storage capacitor 128.", "Conversely, a "one"", "is stored in 122 (and all other cells connected to 126) by charging that cell's storage capacitor 138.", "Prior to selecting a cell 120 or 122, the array is at its steady-state standby condition.", "The voltage on the bit line pair 124, 126 is equalized to V h /2, with the gate 132 of equalization transistor 134 held high.", "The Word Lines (WL) 112, 118 and Column SeLect (CSL) lines 146 are held low during standby.", "In prior art RAMs, each word line was clamped low (unless driven high) by a simple resetable latch (not shown).", "When a word line 112 (or 118) is driven high, cell pass gate 130 is turned on in each cell 120 on the word line 112, coupling the cell's storage capacitor 128 to line 124 of the pair.", "Thus charge is transferred between the storage capacitor 128 and line 124.", "Typically, bit line capacitance is at least one order of magnitude larger than that of the storage capacitor 128.", "So, the voltage on line 124 rises slightly if a one is stored on storage capacitor 128 or it falls slightly if a zero is stored on the storage capacitor 128.", "To maximize charge transfer between the bit line 124 and the storage capacitor 128, the word line 112 is boosted to V pp ≧V dd +V t .", "The other line 126 of the bit line pair remains at its pre-charge voltage level V dd /2 and, serves as a reference voltage for the Sense Amplifier 140.", "After a delay sufficient that enough charge is transferred to sense "1"", "or "0", the sense amplifier 140 is set.", "The sense amp is set by driving both the Sense Amp Enable (SAE) line 142 high and its inverse 144 low.", "Data transferred to the bit line pair 124, 126 is amplified and redriven on the bit line pair, 124, 126 by setting the sense amplifier forcing 124, 126 High/Low or Low/High depending on data stored in the cell 120.", "Setting the sense amp, writes the sensed data back into the selected cell 120.", "Once all of the bit lines 124, 126 have been redriven by setting the Sense Amplifier, SEGment select signal (SEGE i ) rises driving CSL 146 high to select a single column in each accessed subarray 106.", "A high on CSL 146 connects the selected redriven bit line pair 124, 126 to the LDLs 148, 150 through pass gates 152, 154.", "CSL timing is substantially identical to SEGE i but slightly delayed therefrom.", "Testing a memory chip to identify failed cells is complicated, requiring special test patterns, designed for identifying each type of failure.", "Cell defects or weaknesses may cause either hard DC failures or AC (coupling) failures.", "Typical DC failures are: Leakage between a cell and a Passing Word Line(WL);", "Bit Line(BL) to WL leakage;", "WL to Substrate/channel leakage;", "or, WL to WL leakage.", "Typical AC failures are noise resulting from capacitive coupling to a WL or Sense Amp (SA) Set.", "Many such tests require the simultaneous activation of several word lines in order to reduce test time and, therefore, to reduce cost.", "One example is the Multiple Word Line Select Test used to test for leakage between cell and a passing WL and between BL and WL.", "For this test, typically, one or more, but not all, word lines are driven high (activated), simultaneously, while setting the Sense Amps (SA).", "The activated word lines are held active for an extended period of time (long t RAS ).", "For certain defects, cell leakage from a passing activated word line will charge the defective cell's storage capacitor 128, thereby changing the data stored in the cell.", "Also, for other types of defects, bit line to cell leakage will discharge the defective cell's charged storage capacitor 128, to reduce the stored charge, making the defective cell impossible, or nearly impossible to read and, therefore, identifiable.", "Since each word line needs to be activated for a relatively long time and because the DRAMs have a large number of word lines, many word lines must be activated simultaneously in this test in order to reduce test time.", "Another example is the Transfer Gate Stress Test is used to identify cells with defective or weak gate oxide.", "For this test, typically, all of the word lines are driven high, above V H , e.g. to V pp , while all of the bit lines are forced low, to GND.", "With all of the word lines at V pp and all bit lines at GND, the gate oxide electric field is maximum.", "If a gate has defective or weak oxide, a short will form.", "Often, tests involving multiple word lines are hampered by abnormally large plate voltage bounce on the storage capacitor plate or by array well voltage bounce, both of which result from simultaneously switching multiple word lines in these prior art DRAMs. These voltage bounces can cause abnormal disturbance to the cells under stress and destroy the data stored in the cell.", "Another problem of simultaneously activating multiple word lines is the high probability of word line shorts which can reduce local V pp level through an IR drop.", "If for example, a word line is shorted to ground, the voltage drop across the supply bus resistance may be very significant.", "Also, word line to word line shorts may occur.", "Such shorts produce unreliable and unpredictable test results.", "However, in prior art DRAMs, selecting defective word lines, even if previously identified and replaced, is unavoidable during the above multiple word line tests.", "Thus, there is a need for RAMs wherein multiple word lines may be tested more easily, flexibly and reliably.", "PURPOSES OF THE INVENTION It is a purpose of the present invention to reduce semiconductor memory test time.", "It is another purpose of the present invention to simplify semiconductor memory test.", "It is yet another purpose of the present invention to reduce the time required to identify defective semiconductor memory chips.", "It is yet another purpose of the present invention to simplify initial semiconductor memory chip test screening.", "It is yet another purpose of the present invention to simultaneously select multiple word lines to a RAM array.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a method of testing a RAM.", "The RAM array is arranged in rows and columns.", "The rows are grouped into word line groups.", "The method includes the steps of: a) asserting an array select signal;", "b) selecting a group of rows in the array;", "c) selecting at least one row of the selected group of rows;", "and, d) repeating steps b and c until all of the groups are selected.", "Array Sense Amps may be set when the first group is selected and remain set until the last group is selected.", "In one test, word lines in all of the selected rows are activated and remain activated until the final selected row is selected.", "In a second test, word lines in selected groups are toggled with RAS.", "If a group contains a known defective word line, that group is either not addressed or its selection is disabled.", "In each selected group, one row, alternating rows or, all of the rows may be selected.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of a prior art RAM array.", "FIG. 2A is a transistor level cross-sectional schematic of a RAM subarray.", "FIG. 2B is a timing diagram for the schematic of FIG. 2A.", "FIGS. 3A-E are a schematic diagram of a latched row decoder and partial address decoders according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention.", "FIG. 4 is a normal random access timing diagram of a RAM including the latched row decoder of FIG. 3. FIG. 5 is a timing diagram for prior art multiple word line select test.", "FIG. 6 is a timing diagram for a first multiple word line select (long t RAS disturb) test according to the present invention.", "FIG. 7 is a timing diagram for a toggled word line disturb test according to the present invention.", "FIG. 8 is a timing diagram for a prior art transfer gate stress test.", "FIG. 9 is a timing diagram for a transfer gate stress test according to the present invention.", "FIG. 10 is a timing diagram for a word line stress test according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The present invention is a semiconductor memory with a row decoder with an address enabled latch that, once latched, remains set until reset.", "Setting the decoder latch enables individual selection of each of a plurality of word lines through individual addresses.", "A sense-amplifier (SA) is set after turning on the first of the plurality of word lines.", "The word lines are restored low when a reset signal resets the enable latches, thereby disabling the decoders, returning them to their unselected state.", "FIG. 3A is a schematic diagram of a latched row decoder 200 according to the present invention.", "The latched row decoder 200 is a word line decoder in a 256 MB DRAM with 256 word-lines in each subarray.", "The latched decoder 200 of the present invention includes a latch 202 (cross coupled inverters 204 and 206), address select logic (NFETs 208, 210, and 212), a reset device (PFET 214), a latch buffer 216 and 4 gated word line drivers 218, 220, 222, and 224.", "For 256 word lines WL i ,0-3 there are 64 (i=0 to 63) such latched decoders 200.", "The latched decoder 200 is selected by turning on the three NFETs 208, 210, and 212 in the address select logic.", "These three NFETs 208, 210, 212 form a three way NAND gate and are turned on by driving high each of A23, A45, and A67, respectively.", "A23 is a partially decoded address signal from a partial decoder (a three way NOR gate) 226 in FIG. 3B.", "A45 and A67 are each partially decoded address signals from a two way NOR gate 228 in FIG. 3C.", "A4, A5, A6 and A7 are inputs to 230 or 232 to generate A45 or A67 on 234, as appropriate.", "The word line address bits are paired, 01, 23, 45, and 67, and the pairs partially decoded as A01, A23, A45, and A67, respectively, in partial decoders 226, 228 and 240.", "Each A23 partial decoder 226 may be disabled by a Row Redundancy Disable Not (RRDN) signal, thereby preventing selection of defective word lines even during multiple word line tests.", "RRDN remains low, normally, and is driven high only to disable the A23 partial decoders if a previously replaced-defective row is selected.", "This avoids the problem in selecting these defective word lines inherent in prior art DRAMs. Each partial decoder input (e.g. A2 or A3) is a true or complement each from an address receiver such that A2 is either A2T or A2C and A3 is either A3T or A3C.", "There are 16 partial decode signals.", "These partially decoded signals are represented by A01, A23, A45, or A67 wherein: A01=A0C1C, A0T1C, A0C1T, or A0T1T A23=A2C3C, A2T3C, A2C3T, or A2T3T A45=A4C5C, A4T5C, A4C5T, or A4T5T A67=A6C7C, A6T7C, A6C7T, or A6T7T Each one of the four word line drivers 218, 220, 222, and 224 are selected by A01.", "A01 is generated in a latched partial decoder 240 in FIG. 3D.", "The latched partial A01 decoder 240 is functionally identical to the three-way NAND gate and latch of FIG. 3A except that reset PFET 214 and decode NFET 208 are both driven by a common reset signal, WL RESET at 242.", "A0 and A1 are connected to gates 210 and 212 at 244 and 246, respectively, and combined to generate A01.", "Preferably, the A01 partial decoder 240 output 217 drives a level shifter (not shown) which, in turn, inverts and shifts A01 from V dd at 217 to V pp for word line drivers 218, 220, 222 and 224 (250 in FIG. 3E).", "The word line driver 250 is a PFET 252 and NFET 254.", "As represented in FIG. 3E, the gates of both FETs 252, 254 are driven by latch buffer 216 output 217.", "The NFET 254 is connected, drain to source, between the word line 256 and ground.", "The PFET 252 is connected, drain to source, between A01 and the word line 256.", "When the row decoder latch 202 is reset, 217 is high turning NFET 254 on, holding the word line low, and turning PFET 252 off, isolating the word line 256 from A01.", "When the decoder latch 202 is set, 217 is low turning NFET 254 off, isolating the word line 256 from ground, and turning on PFET 252, coupling the word line 256 to A01.", "Thus as the addressed row decoder latch 202 is set by turning on NFETs 208, 210 and 212 to pull Ai low.", "Latch inverter 206 inverts the low on Ai.", "Latch buffer 216 reinverts the output of inverter 206 to provide a low to the input of all 4 inverting word line drives 218, 220, 222, and 224.", "Each word line driver 218, 220, 222, and 224 in FIG. 3E;", "drives a word line high when its respective gate input A0C1C, A0T1C, A0C1T, or A0T1T from its respective latched partial decoder 240 is driven high.", "The row decoder latch 202, once set, remains set until PRE is driven low, turning on PFET 214, which resets the latch 202.", "Each WL is actively held high or low by its respective word line driver.", "So, the WL latch, required to clamp unselected word lines low on prior art RAMs, is obviated by the present invention.", "Further, as a decoder is enabled, four WLs are partially selected simultaneously.", "There are 5 modes of operation for a RAM with a latched row decoder according to the present invention.", "Besides the normal random access mode, there are 4 test modes.", "These test modes are: long-t RAS WL disturb mode;", "toggled WL disturb mode;", "transfer-gate stress mode;", "and WL stress mode.", "FIG. 4 is a timing diagram for a random access mode of operation.", "In stand-by, partially predecoded addresses A23, A45, A67, and reset signal PRE are low, precharging the decoder nodes A i to V pp .", "Partially predecoded addresses A01 are also low, and so, consequently, are all the 256 word lines WL i ,0-3.", "The array access begins when RAS goes low.", "PRE of a selected sub-array rises to disable therein, the decoder reset.", "Subsequently, one of each of the partially decoded addresses (e.g. A2C3C, A4C5C, and A6C7C) rise.", "As a result, one decoder A i (A 0 ) out of 64 is pulled low setting its latch.", "Setting the latch partially selects a group of four of the 256 word lines (i.e. WL 0 ,03).", "One of this group is selected by one of the partially predecoded addresses A01 (e.g., A0C1C) rising.", "The selected word line (WL 0 ,0) is thus driven high.", "The sense amplifiers are set normally.", "After the array is accessed, all predecoded signals A01, A23, A45, A67, and PRE are reset low when RAS rises.", "During reset, the previously set latch is reset by the low on PRE so that A i is pulled to the V pp through PFET 214.", "Also, the previously selected WL (i.e. WL 0 ) is restored low.", "Testing a RAM with the preferred embodiment latched row decoder is improved significantly over prior art RAMs. To facilitate understanding of the advantages of the present invention, timing diagrams for multiple word line tests are provided for each of the above tests both on prior art RAMs and for testing a RAM with the latched row decoder of FIG. 3. FIG. 5 is a timing diagram for a prior art multiple word line long t RAS disturb test.", "In this prior art test, when RAS falls, 64 word lines WL i ,0 are driven high simultaneously.", "The sense amps are set shortly thereafter.", "All of the cells on activated wordlines are turned on and sensed simultaneously.", "This simultaneous cell switching induces noise onto the cell's plate voltage and on V pp .", "Noise current and resistance on V pp and on the plate hampers testing and reduces the reliability of this test on this prior art RAM.", "By contrast, FIG. 6 is a long t RAS disturb test according to the present invention wherein latched row decoder circuits are sequentially selected and, as selected, latched.", "Each latched decoder enables groups of 1 to 4 selected word lines.", "In this test, the sense amplifiers are set after the first WL has been selected.", "To further stress the RAM, the bit-lines may be grounded by forcing precharge voltage V pre to ground (GND) through the bit-line equalizers, after all 64 decoders have been selected and latched.", "The number of selected word lines and their activation sequence is selected, externally, at the tester.", "Also, PRE is externally controllable by the tester so that the tester independently resets the latches.", "Thus, because the number of activated word lines and set sense amps is the same during each subsequent selection in this test as for a normal random access, (i.e., the normal number of word lines, bit lines and sense amps are switching) this test is no less reliable than a normal read or write and, is significantly improved over the prior art.", "At the beginning of the long t RAS disturb test, when the chip is enabled (RAS low), PRE rises and remains high to disable the A i decoder latch reset.", "Subsequently, partially decoded addresses (e.g. A2C3C, A4C5C, and A6C7C) rise as in the random access mode.", "As a result, one decoder A i (e.g. A 0 ) out of 64 is pulled low and latched.", "This set latch selects four out of 256 WLs, in this example, WL 0 ,0.", "One of the partially predecoded word line driver addresses A01, such as A0C1C, rises enabling one of the four partially selected word line drivers, which drives word line WL 0 ,0, high.", "Then, the sense amplifiers are set, normally, as for a normal random access.", "After this first access during the long t RAS word line disturb test, PRE remains high, even when RAS is high, so that selected word lines remain selected.", "In each subsequent RAS cycle, another latch is set as partially decoded addresses (e.g. A2T3C, A4C5C, A6C7C) rise.", "As each latch is set, another group of word line drivers are partially selected and, therefore, another word line is driven.", "Previously set latches remain set and previously active word lines remain active.", "This sequence is repeated until all the word line decoders have been enabled, or the test complete.", "Once the test is complete the active word lines are reset by first pulling A01 low.", "Because the A01 level shifter are each designed to charge and discharge a single WL in normal operation, the instantaneous ground current during reset is limited by these level shifters, which each discharge a major portion of the selected word lines.", "So, A01 is pulled low, discharging the word line through the word line drivers 218, 220, 222, and 224.", "When the word line falls to the V tp , discharging stops.", "When PRE falls, the latch is reset as latch nodes A i are pulled to V pp .", "Resetting the latches resets the row decoders and discharges the residual word line voltage (V tp ) to ground through NFET 259.", "Finally, the sense amplifiers are reset, normally.", "This long t RAS disturb test requires one RAS cycle per word line selected (≈100 ns).", "However, the test time is still significantly shorter than the cell retention time (256 ms), even allowing for a thousand RAS test cycles.", "FIG. 7 is the toggled multiple word line disturb test according to the present invention wherein each latched row decoder is sequentially selected and, for this test, WL RESET is toggled with RAS, which in turn toggles A01.", "As each decoder latch is set, it remains set.", "So, the enabled word lines are all toggled with RAS.", "The sense amplifier may be set when the first latch is set, or, alternatively, set and reset with the toggled word lines.", "As with the long t RAS disturb test, the word line group size and their activation sequence is controlled externally at the tester.", "Should V pp noise be a concern because of toggling too many word lines, simultaneously, the number of simultaneously toggling (selected) word lines may be reduced by the tester.", "FIG. 8 is a timing diagram for a prior art transfer gate stress test.", "In this DC test, all 256 word lines in a Sub-array are selected and driven high, simultaneously.", "Coincidentally with driving the word lines, the bit line precharge voltage V pre is forced to ground.", "This prior art test is hampered by simultaneous switching and, especially, by ground bounce.", "FIG. 9 is a timing diagram of a transfer-gate stress test according to the present invention.", "In this test, all four A01 signals are held high, enabling all four drivers of any enabled row decoder.", "RAS, PRE, A23, A45, and A67 are toggled to sequentially set row decoder latches.", "Each group of four word lines (WL i , 0-3) is sequentially enabled and all four word lines are driven high.", "In this test as in the prior art test of FIG. 8, the sense amplifiers are not set.", "Instead, the bit-lines are forced to GND through the bit-line equalizers by forcing V pre to ground.", "Also, defective word lines are disabled to avoid the V pp drop across the short otherwise encountered in prior art DRAMs, and thereby, significantly improving test reliability.", "FIG. 10 is a timing diagram for the word line stress test according to the present invention.", "This test is similar to the transfer gate stress test.", "However, alternating word lines are selectively activated by 2 instead of 4 A01 signals (e.g. A0C1C and A0C1T).", "In this test, alternating word lines are forced high (V pp ) and low (GND) providing maximum electric field between adjacent word lines.", "WL to WL shorts may be identified or, may form, between word lines during this test.", "So, RAS, PRE, A23, A45, and A67 are toggled as in the long-t RAS word line disturb test FIG. 6. The latches are set sequentially and, as each latch is set, alternating word lines (e.g. WL i ,0 and WL i ,2) are selected and driven sequentially.", "Once activated, the word lines stay active such that, eventually an alternating high/low world line pattern results.", "For these 4 tests, known defective word lines may be disabled by gating the partial addresses with the redundancy control signal RRDN or, prior to fuse programming, by masking the address at the tester.", "As noted above, in prior art RAMs, during test, all the word lines switched simultaneously.", "However, the preferred latched row decoders allow gradually selecting all or many of the word lines, so that only a small fraction of word lines switch in a selected sub-array during in any RAS test cycle.", "Therefore, V pp line noise is minimized, eliminating the need for external V pp supply.", "Also, plate coupling noise, from bit-line sensing during the WL disturb test, is minimized, because the sense amplifiers are set after the first word lines is selected.", "So the bit lines remain in a steady state, as driven in response to data from the first word line.", "Additionally with the decoder of the present invention, after two or more decoders have been enabled, multiple Word Lines (those enabled) may be toggled for AC testing.", "Switching-current induced ground-bounce, that might result from discharging multiple word lines simultaneously, is also reduced by reducing bit line and word line switching during tests.", "Furthermore, the tester can control the number of active word lines, their selection and their activation sequence.", "Thus, the present invention has significant test mode flexibility.", "Prior to fuse programming to replace known defective word lines, the tester can use previous test results to mask out the known bad row addresses.", "Also, after identifying and replacing defective word lines, defective word lines are by-passed by gating the row decoder select signals with redundancy compare signals.", "Thus if a row address matches a replaced WL, then that address is blocked, and not sent to the row decoders.", "Finally, an array including this latched decoder can be stressed for burn in or for reliability analysis by of all word lines or, alternating word lines active for extended periods of time.", "While the present invention is described in terms of preferred embodiments, it is understood that numerous variations and modifications will occur to a person skilled in the art without departing in spirit from the claimed invention.", "It is intended that the scope of the claims include those modifications and variations that fall within the spirit of the invention." ]

[ "TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present invention relates to an injection device and in particular an injector having several automatic functions.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] There are many injectors on the market where the aim is to have high degrees of functionality and automatic features, such as in connection with penetration, injection, setting of dose, priming and covering of the needle after use.", "At the same time there is a demand on robustness, repeatability and reliability regarding the function, which sometimes might be difficult to meet when dealing with complex multi functions involving many interacting components.", "When there further are demands on low production costs, especially for devices that are to be used only once, the picture becomes even more complex.", "[0003] There are in the patent literature numerous solutions to injection devices, the bulk of which never enter the market due to that they do not meet the demands in one way or the other.", "There is therefore a continuous search for solutions that provide the desired functions that at the same time fulfil the functional and/or economical demands.", "[0004] Many devices having multi-functions that work in sequence, such as for example penetration, followed by injection, followed by withdrawal, have a subsequent sequence triggered at the end of a previous sequence, for example when the needle has reached full penetration depth, the injection sequence is triggered.", "[0005] A common design is to have the movement of an action, e.g. an injection stroke, to trigger a subsequent movement.", "To facilitate this in a robust way, tolerances has to accounted for and in that a trigger point will most often have to be set a portion ahead of the absolute end point.", "If reaching the end point it may happen that the displacement of a means that is required to trigger the subsequent action may not occur.", "If, on the other hand the trigger point is set too early in the stroke, the subsequent movement may be triggered so the previous action is not completed within the required time or sequence.", "In both cases there is a risk is that an intended action may become faulty or not occur at all.", "[0006] One attempt to solve this is disclosed in document WO 03/097133 discloses a device having a plunger rod arranged in two parts movable to each other.", "Between the parts a delay mechanism is arranged as a piston/cylinder arrangement with a small bleed hole for evacuating the air when the parts are pressed together, whereby a delay of the movement of the plunger rod during the injection sequence is intended, which should ensure that the medicament container is emptied before the needle is retracted.", "However, since both penetration and injection are performed by a common spring acting on the plunger rod, the delay mechanism is working during the whole penetration and injection sequence whereby there is a pronounced risk that the delay function has terminated long before the end of the injection sequence is reached.", "Further, during the injection operation the retraction spring is tensioned.", "[0007] The document GB 2 414 404 describes an injection device having a reservoir containing highly viscous damping fluid, one strong drive spring for performing both penetration and injection, a weaker spring that is tensioned by the stronger spring during penetration and injection for a needle retraction, and a delay means which is intended to delay the movement of the plunger rod just before the end of an injection, whereby the plunger rod is released from the drive spring and the needle is withdrawn from the injection site.", "The delay means comprises two decoupling mechanisms wherein the first decoupling is activated just before the stopper within the reservoir reaches its end and the second is activated just before the reservoir is emptied.", "The decoupling is however delayed due to the time it takes to empty the reservoir, whereby it is ensured that the remaining contents of a container is discharged before the container is released and returned to the original position.", "However, since the delay starts to act just before the end of the injection there is a pronounced risk that the elastic members of the injection systems, such as rubber compounds or air that by pressure from a plunger rod has become compressed, do not have the enough time to expand to a relaxed state before the retraction is triggered and thereby causing problems with its functionality accuracy and reliability.", "[0008] The document GB 2 414 404 or GB 2 424 838 or GB 2 396 298 describes an injection device comprising one strong drive spring means for performing both needle penetration and injection by acting on a stopper of a syringe, a weaker spring that is tensioned by the stronger spring during needle penetration and injection for a needle retraction, a delay means having a reservoir containing highly viscous damping fluid, which is intended to delay the movement of the plunger rod just before the end of an injection, whereby the plunger rod is released from the drive spring and the needle is withdrawn from the injection site.", "The delay means comprises two decoupling mechanisms wherein the first decoupling is activated just before the stopper within the syringe reaches its end and the second decoupling is activated just before the reservoir is emptied.", "The second decoupling is however delayed due to the time it takes to empty the reservoir, whereby it is ensured that the remaining contents of a container is discharged before the container is released and returned to the original position.", "However, since the delay starts to act just before the end of the injection there is a pronounced risk that the elastic members of the injection systems, such as rubber compounds or air that by pressure from a plunger rod has become compressed, do not have the enough time to expand to a relaxed state before the retraction is triggered and thereby causing problems with its functionality accuracy and reliability.", "[0009] There is thus room for further improvements in the technical area of injection devices with a certain amount of automatically and reliable performed functions.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0010] The aim of the present invention is to provide an injector that fulfils the demands that are put on such devices regarding functionality, accuracy and reliability and which ensure that specific functions, such as injection, are fully completed before a subsequent function is initiated.", "[0011] According to a main aspect of the invention it is characterized by the features of the independent patent claim.", "Further advantageous features are subject of the dependent claims.", "[0012] According to a main aspect of the invention it is characterised by an injection device comprising an elongated housing;", "a container carrier having a medicament container to which a needle is attached;", "penetration means comprising a decoupling sleeve, a preloaded penetration spring means capable of acting on said decoupling sleeve and thereby on said container carrier causing a sliding movement of the container and needle, and penetration holding means capable of holding said penetration spring means in a loaded state;", "injection means comprising a plunger rod arranged to act on a stopper in said medicament container, a preloaded injection spring means capable of acting on said plunger rod for displacement of said stopper inside said container, and injection holding means capable of holding said injection spring means in a loaded state;", "withdrawal means comprising a preloaded return spring means arranged to act on said decoupling sleeve and thereby on said container carrier, and withdrawal holding means capable of holding said return spring means in a loaded state;", "means for initiating a penetration sequence capable of acting on a penetration trigger means which is arranged on said decoupling sleeve for disconnecting said penetration holding means;", "injection trigger means arranged on said decoupling sleeve and capable of disconnecting said injection holding means for initiating an injection sequence when the decoupling sleeve and the plunger rod have moved to a certain position;", "and withdrawal trigger means arranged on said decoupling sleeve and capable of disconnecting said withdrawal holding means for initiating a needle withdrawal when said plunger rod has moved to a certain position;", "wherein the device further comprises a dampening means comprising a compartment containing a volume of highly viscous liquid and defined in part by the outer surface of the plunger rod and an inner surface of a cap, wherein said compartment is arranged with a passage through which the liquid may be forced only when the injection sequence is initiated, such that the volume within the compartment decreases as the plunger rod moves within the container during the whole injection sequence and thereby creating a dampening shear force.", "[0013] According to another aspect of the invention, the passage ends in the interior of the plunger rod.", "[0014] According to yet another aspect of the invention, the passage ends in an annular space created between said plunger rod and the inner surface of the medicament container, whereby said highly viscous liquid is capable of creating a dampening shear force.", "[0015] According to a further aspect of the invention, the means for initiating a penetration sequence comprises an activation button, a penetration sleeve, a lockout sleeve and a needle shield wherein said lockout sleeve is arranged and designed to allow said penetration sleeve to interact with said penetration trigger means for initiating the penetration sequence after said needle shield is pressed against an injection site and said push button is manually operated [0016] The advantage with the device according to the present invention is for one that a dampening of the movement of the plunger rod during the whole injection sequence ensures that a complete injection is obtained before a subsequent step, i.e. the withdrawal of the needle, is triggered.", "This provides an increased reliability regarding complete emptying of the medicament container, without increasing the tolerance and functional demands on the interacting components.", "[0017] The reliability in performing the injection is also increased because the withdrawal spring is not affected at all during neither penetration nor injection, but it rests in its loaded state until the penetration and injection sequences are completed and those spring means are decoupled and only after this is the withdrawal activated.", "This is in contrast with the above mentioned devices which both rely on the withdrawal spring being tensioned because of the force and the movement of the injection mechanisms.", "The counter-directed spring forces, together with friction and tolerance miss-match between co-acting components, could result in an uncompleted injection sequence, i.e. that a lesser dose than prescribed is injected.", "[0018] Because the delaying is performed by highly viscous liquid being pressed through a passage, a reliable and controlled function is obtained.", "The delay mechanism is preferably arranged at the front end of the plunger rod, whereby the passage could end in the interior of the plunger rod.", "However, it is to be understood that the passage may end in other spaces of the injection device, for example in the annular space between the plunger rod and the inner surface of the tubular medicament container.", "In this way the highly viscous liquid could also act as a damper creating dampening shear forces.", "[0019] Grease viscosity and hydraulic diameter, size and shape of the opening of the plunger rod, are main parameters to tune to deliver the intended and desired functionality, the intended function being to achieve a time delay at stroke end so that displacement members of the system are not triggered before desired displacements, such as e.g. delivery of the drug, have been completed.", "[0020] The solution provides a cost effective multi-function device comprising a safe and reliable chain of sequences, thus ensuring that the user receives a proper dose of medicament each time the device is used.", "[0021] These and other features and advantages with the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description and the drawings.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0022] In the following detailed description, reference will be made to the drawings, of which [0023] FIG. 1 is a longitudinal cross-section of an injector comprising the present invention, [0024] FIGS. 2-3 are exploded views of the injector of FIG. 1 , [0025] FIG. 4 shows a detailed view in cross-section of an embodiment of the present invention, and [0026] FIGS. 5-9 show different functional steps of the device of FIG. 1 .", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0027] The device according to the figures comprises a generally tubular outer housing 10 .", "In the front end of the housing, to the right in FIG. 1 , a generally tubular needle shield 12 is arranged slidably in the outer housing.", "When in the non-extended position the needle shield is held in place by protrusions 14 on the outer surface co-operating with ledges (not shown) on the inner surface of the housing.", "Inside the needle shield in the front area of the device a container carrier 16 is arranged.", "Inside the container carrier a container 18 , containing medicament, is attached.", "Container is to be interpreted as comprising syringes, cartridges, ampoules and the like.", "The front end of the container is arranged with attachment means 20 for attaching a needle 22 to the container.", "The rear end of the container is seated with its flange 24 in a holder 26 .", "Adjacent the holder an injection release ring 28 is arranged, which will be described in more detail below.", "A plunger 30 extends into the container with one end adjacent a stopper 32 .", "The rear end of the plunger is surrounded by a decoupling sleeve 34 which is snap-fitted to the container holder.", "The decoupling sleeve is arranged with flexible tongues 36 , FIG. 2 , where each tongue is arranged with inwardly directed ledges.", "In the initial state, these ledges are positioned in a circumferential groove 37 on the plunger 30 .", "The tongues and ledges are held in this position by the injection release ring 28 .", "Inside the plunger an injection spring 38 is arranged compressed between a front wall of the plunger 30 and a wall part 42 of the decoupling sleeve 34 .", "The decoupling sleeve is further arranged with outwardly extending protrusions arranged on flexible arms 44 .", "Abutting the protrusions is a retraction release ring 46 , which will be described closer below.", "A spring 48 , hereafter named penetration spring, is arranged between the retraction release ring 46 and a penetration sleeve 50 .", "At the front end of the penetration sleeve, a retraction spring retainer 52 is snap fitted with the penetration sleeve 50 by outwardly directed protrusions 54 having a straight part and a ramped part, extending into recesses 56 of the sleeve.", "Outside the penetration sleeve a lockout sleeve 58 is arranged.", "At the rear part of the lockout sleeve 58 recesses 60 are arranged adjacent flexible arms 62 of the penetration sleeve, which arms are arranged with outwardly extending protrusions 64 as well as inwardly extending ledges 66 .", "In the initial position these ledges are in contact with a wall of a circumferential groove 68 on the decoupling sleeve 34 .", "The upper part of the arms 62 is further arranged with inclined surfaces 70 .", "At the upper end of the housing an activation button 72 is slidably arranged, having inwardly extending parts 74 , which are arranged with inclined surfaces facing the inclined surfaces 70 of the arms 62 .", "Further a penetration retraction spring 76 is arranged between the retraction release ring 46 and an annular ledge 78 arranged on the decoupling sleeve 34 , FIG. 5 b. [0028] According to the invention it is further arranged with a delay mechanism, FIG. 4 .", "It comprises a cap or cover 100 slidably arranged at the front end of the plunger rod 30 .", "A compartment 102 created by the interior of the cap and the front surface of the plunger rod is filled with a highly viscous liquid, such as grease, oil, paste and the like.", "The front surface of the plunger rod is further arranged with a through-hole 104 forming a passage between the compartment and the interior of the plunger rod, the function of which will be explained below.", "[0029] The device is intended to function as follows.", "When in the initial position the needle shield 12 is positioned inside the housing 10 and held in place by the protrusions 14 acting against the ledge of the housing, FIG. 1 .", "The device can be delivered with a protective cap 106 inserted into the front end of the needle shield surrounding the front end of the container 18 with its container cap 78 .", "The protective cap is removed, whereby the container cap is also removed, and a needle 22 is attached to the container.", "The needle shield 12 is then pushed manually forward until the protrusions 14 of the needle shield enter a recess 80 on the inner surface of the housing 10 , FIG. 5 a .", "The protrusions have such a configuration that they are able to slide over the ledge when the needle shield is extended but prevent a pushing in of the needle shield when they have entered the recess.", "[0030] The device is now ready to use.", "The user places the end of the needle shield 12 against the injection site and presses the push button 72 .", "The pressing of the needle shield 12 causes it to move a short distance inwards until the protrusions 14 of the needle shield abut the upper wall of the recess 80 .", "This movement causes the lockout sleeve 58 to be moved the same short distance since the upper end of the needle shield 12 in the extended position is in contact with the lower end of the lockout sleeve 58 .", "[0031] If the device is withdrawn from the injection site the lockout sleeve and the needle shield are moved back to initial position.", "The movement of the lockout sleeve causes its recesses 60 to be positioned outside of the outwardly extending protrusions 64 of the arms 62 of the penetration sleeve 58 , which enables the button 72 to be depressed whereby the inclined surfaces of the inwardly extending parts act on the inclined surfaces 70 of the arms 62 , causing them to move radially outwards.", "This is not possible when the lockout sleeve 58 has not been moved since the protrusions of the arms then abut the inner surface of the lockout sleeve.", "[0032] When the arms move radially outwards the inwardly directed ledges 66 of the arms 62 are moved out of contact with the circumferential groove 68 of the decoupling sleeve 34 which then is moved forward by the penetration spring 48 acting on the retraction release ring 46 which is held in place relative the decoupling sleeve 34 by the protrusions 44 .", "Thus both the decoupling sleeve 34 , the plunger 30 arranged inside the activation housing, the container carrier 16 connected to the activation housing, the injection release ring 28 and the container 18 are moved forward causing a penetration of the needle into the injection site, FIG. 6 .", "[0033] At a certain depth the injection release ring 28 is stopped by the engagement of protrusions on its flexible arms into slots on the needle shield 12 , which frees the flexible tongues 36 because they pass the ring due to the continued movement of the decoupling sleeve 34 .", "The freeing of the tongues cause them to flex outwards radially, whereby the inwardly directed ledges are moved out of contact with the groove 37 on the plunger.", "The movement of the decoupling sleeve 34 , and thus the penetration, is stopped when the retraction release ring 46 contacts the retraction spring retainer 52 .", "[0034] However the plunger is now free to move by the force of the injection spring 38 , whereby it pushes on the stopper 32 and an injection is performed, FIG. 7 .", "When the stopper has reached almost the front end of the container, the force of the plunger rod will act on the highly viscous liquid in the compartment 102 inside the cap 100 , the force generating a displacement of the cup 100 which in turn makes the grease, or oil, to flow through the passage 104 provided by the tip of the plunger rod, FIG. 4 .", "Grease viscosity and hydraulic diameter, size and shape of the opening of the plunger rod, are main parameters to tune to deliver the intended and desired functionality, the intended function being to achieve a time delay at stroke end so that displacement members of the system are not triggered before desired displacements, such as e.g. delivery of the drug, have been completed.", "[0035] The movement of the plunger in relation to the decoupling sleeve 34 causes the upper end of the plunger to pass the protrusions 44 of the activation housing, whereby they are capable of collapsing inwards, FIG. 8 .", "[0036] The collapsing causes the retraction release ring 46 to pass the protrusions 44 and to be pushed downwards by the retraction spring 76 .", "This causes the container carrier 16 with the container 18 to be pulled into the housing via the decoupling sleeve 34 at near end of injection stroke, and thus the needle 22 to be retracted, FIG. 9 .", "The injection is now completed and the needle is protected inside the housing.", "[0037] The present invention could of course be used for delaying other functions of an injection device such as a delaying mechanism arranged to delay the movement of the penetration mechanism in order to ascertain that the penetration is fully completed before the injection is triggered.", "[0038] It is to be understood that the embodiment described above and shown in the drawings is to be regarded only as a non-limiting example of the invention and that it may be modified within the scope of the patent claims." ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED U.S. APPLICATIONS [0001] Not applicable.", "STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT [0002] Not applicable.", "NAMES OF PARTIES TO A JOINT RESEARCH AGREEMENT [0003] Not applicable.", "REFERENCE TO AN APPENDIX SUBMITTED ON COMPACT DISC [0004] Not applicable.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0005] 1.", "Field of the Invention [0006] The present invention relates to new complexes for co-ordinating a transition metal, in particular lanthanides, and their applications in the medical field.", "[0007] 2.", "Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 37 CFR 1.98 [0008] The unique electronic properties of the lanthanide ions, such as their long life luminescence and their well-defined emission spectrum, turn these compounds into an ideal tool for usage in the medical field.", "[0009] Indeed, the use of the lanthanide complexes, enables to distinguish the fluorescence considered as a background noise and the signal targeted.", "Thus said complexes are often used, in the design of detectors, as spectroscopic and luminescent probes for solving structural and analytical problems and as fluorescence imaging systems.", "[0010] According to the rules laid down by the “International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry”", "(IUPAC), by lanthanide is meant the series of the chemical elements ranging from Cerium (Z=58) to Lutecium (Z=71).", "By including Lanthane (Z=57), these elements are called lanthonoid.", "The expression “rare earth”", "applies to the lanthanoid together with Scandium (Z=21) and Yttrium (Z=39), the latter having similar chemical properties.", "In practice, the designations as lanthanides, lanthanoid and rare earth are used for describing these elements.", "[0011] Generally, the lanthanides form their most stable compounds when they are in +3 oxidation state.", "The electronic structure of the Ln III ions is that of the xenon for the La III and then corresponds to the filling of the orbitales 4f14 up to [Xe]4f 14 for the Lu III .", "[0012] Currently, most studies performed with lanthanide complexes have been oriented towards establishing light-emitting probes including long life visible light transmitters, in particular Eu III and Tb III , or transmitters in the near-infrared spectrum, such as the Pr III , Er III Yb III or the Nd III .", "[0013] However, as the prohibited transition 4f-4f, so-called Laporte prohibition, prevents the direct excitation of the lanthanides, the latter must be performed using certain adequate organic chromophores.", "[0014] In the meaning of the invention a “chromophore”", "is a molecule capable of absorbing the UV/visible light and of transferring to the metallic centre, which, by accepting such energy, becomes “excited”", "to a state capable of transmitting light (aerial effect).", "Preferably a “chromophore”, also called “aerial”, corresponds to an atom moiety liable to partake of long enough a sequence with double links matched in an organic molecule.", "An aromatic cycle carrying delocalisable π electrons will be considered as a chromophore in the sense of the present invention.", "[0015] Besides, for practical reasons in physiological conditions, the lanthanide ions must be incorporated in highly stable complexes.", "Indeed, the efficiency of the energy transfer from the ligand on the lanthanide is decisive for the design of highly performing probes.", "[0016] Moreover, so as to obtain high quantal throughput, non-radiative de-energisation should be prevented, or at least minimised, of the excited state of the lanthanide ion further to an interaction of the metal with the surrounding water molecules.", "[0017] The incorporation of the chromophores in certain polydentate ligands studied to that end leads to greater stability of the lanthanide chelates in solution, enabling greater protection of the metal from the water molecules.", "[0018] However, the tendency of the lanthanide ions to adopt a high co-ordination number and their lack of stereochemical selectivity turn the design of these ligands into a major challenge.", "[0019] A strategy, which has been adopted by different research groups, is based upon a “tripod”", "structure of a ligand in order to organise three trivalent binding units in ennea-coordinated Ln III complexes.", "[0020] This approach has led, in some cases, to an efficient protection of the metal from the surrounding water molecules, but synthesis difficulties make it little interesting.", "[0021] The preparation of the polydentate ligands, enabling the arrangement of four bidentate moieties around a lanthanide ion, has less drawn the attention of the researchers in spite of the excellent luminescence of observed for tetra complex obtained from bidentate chromophore ligands, such as quinolinates or tropolonates.", "[0022] Recently, octadentate ligands including four divalent chromophores have led to lanthanide complexes with energy emissions in the ultra-violet zone (UV) or in the near-infrared spectrum (NIR) which are very efficient.", "[0023] However, the structure of these complexes has not been elucidated as yet, and the fact that the part of the structure of the ligand binding the bidentate units together is highly flexible, involves that the protection of the central metal is far from optimum.", "BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0024] The aim of the present invention is to provide new complexes for co-ordinating a transition metal, in particular lanthanides, which remedy the shortcomings aforementioned, particularly as regards their stability in aqueous medium and their flexibility.", "[0025] Another aim of the present invention is to provide new complexes for co-ordinating a transition metal, in particular lanthanides, which are easy to prepare and which exhibit high luminescence quantal throughput.", "[0026] Another aim of the present invention is to provide new co-ordinating complexes exhibiting chemical and photophysical features liable to be used in the medical and biotechnological field.", "[0027] Other aims and advantages of the invention will appear in the following description solely given by way of example and without being limited thereto.", "[0028] The present invention relates to a complex for co-ordinating a transition metal of the general formula (I) [0000] {[M(L)]X(H 2 O) n } p wherein: M represents an element belonging to the group of the lanthanides, L represents a decadentate chromophore ligand of the general formula (II): [0000] Wherein, [0000] R 1 , R 2 , R 3 and R 4 correspond independently to hydrogen, an alkyl or aryl radical, A 1 , A 2 , A 3 and A 4 correspond independently to a structure of the general formula (III): [0000] Wherein, [0000] U 1 , U 2 and U 3 correspond independently to a C or an N, R 5 , R 6 and R 7 correspond independently to hydrogen, an alkyl or aryl radical, Y corresponds to a C, O, S, P or N, m is an integer corresponding to the number of free valencies of Y, R 8 corresponds independently to hydrogen, an alkyl or aryl radical, X represents a counter-ion, n represents the number of molecules of hydration water, p corresponds to the number of monomers, H 2 O represents the molecules of hydration water.", "[0042] An alkyl radical may be optionally mono- or polysubstituted, linear, branched or cyclic, saturated or unsaturated, in C1-C20, preferably in C1-C10, wherein the substituent(s) are liable to contain one or several heteroatoms such as N, O, F, CI, P, Si or S. Among such alkyl radicals, the methyl, ethyl, propyl, isopropyl, butyl, isobutyl, tert-butyl and pentyl radicals may also be mentioned.", "Among the unsaturated alkyl radicals the ethenyls, propenyls, isopropenyls, butenyls, isobutenyls, tert-butenyls, pentenyls and acetylenyls may also be quoted.", "[0043] An aryl radical may be an aromatic or heteroaromatic carbonous structure, mono- or polysubstituted, formed of one or several aromatic or heteroaromatic cycles each comprising from 3 to 8 atoms, wherein the heteroatom may be N, O, P or S. [0044] Optionally, when the alkyl or aryl radicals are polysubstituted, the substituents may be different from one another.", "Among the substituents of the alkyl and aryl radicals, one may in particular mention the halogen atoms, the alkyl, haloalkyl, aryl substituted or not, heteroaryle substituted or not, amino, cyano, azido, hydroxy, mercapto, ceto, carboxy, etheroxy and alcoxy such as methoxy groups.", "[0045] The present invention also relates to a preparation method of a ligand as described above, characterised in that it includes the reaction of a diamine of the general formula (IV): [0000] Wherein, R 1 , R 2 , R 3 and R 4 are as defined above, and of at least one compound of the general formula (V) [0000] Wherein, [0000] Y, R 5 , R 6 , R 7 , R 8 , U 1 , U 2 and U 3 are as defined above, R corresponds to an alkyl or an aryl, LG represents an outgoing group liable to undergo a nucleophilic substitution from the diamine.", "[0052] The present invention relates moreover to a preparation method of co-ordinating complexes characterised in that it comprises the reaction between a lanthanide salt and a ligand in aqueous medium, as well their usage in the medical field, such as in diagnostic imaging, radiotherapy, and in the design of neutron detectors, screens for X-rays, of the probes for imaging and bio-assays, diodes, optical fibres etc.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS [0053] The invention will be understood better when reading the following description, accompanied by the appended drawings.", "[0054] FIG. 1 is a graph illustration of titration curves.", "[0055] FIG. 2 is a schematic view of an illustration of the molecular structure of a lanthanide complex.", "[0056] FIG. 3 is a schematic view of an illustration of the molecular structure of a second lanthanide complex.", "[0057] FIG. 4 is a graph illustration of the 1 H RMN spectrum of a lanthanide complex.", "[0058] FIG. 5 is a graph illustration of the 1 H RMN spectrum of a lanthanide complex at 333K.", "[0059] FIG. 6 is a graph illustration of the 1 H RMN spectrum of a lanthanide complex at 298K.", "[0060] FIG. 7 is a graph illustration of the emission spectrum of two lanthanide complexes after excitation at 274 nm.", "[0061] FIG. 8 is a graph illustration of the emission and excitation spectra of a lanthanide.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0062] The present invention relates first of all to a complex for co-ordinating a transition metal of the general formula (I): [0000] {[M(L)]X(H 2 O) n}p wherein: M represents an element belonging to the group of the lanthanides, L represents a decadentate chromophore ligand of the general formula (II): [0000] Wherein, R 1 , R 2 , R 3 and R 4 correspond independently to hydrogen, an alkyl or aryl radical, A 1 , A 2 , A 3 and A 4 correspond independently to a structure of the general formula (III): [0000] Wherein, [0000] U 1 , U 2 and U 3 correspond independently to a C or an N, R 5 , R 6 and R 7 correspond independently to hydrogen, an alkyl or aryl radical, Y corresponds to a C, O, S, P or N, m is an integer corresponding to the number of free valencies of Y, R 8 corresponds independently to hydrogen, an alkyl or aryl radical, X represents a counter-ion, n represents the number of molecules of hydration water, p corresponds to the number of monomers, H 2 O represents the molecules of hydration water.", "[0078] According to the physical state adopted (crystallised or dissolved for instance), the complex may include so-called co-ordinating solvent molecules, it is in particular water molecules.", "[0079] According to a particular embodiment of the present invention, the element belonging to the group of the lanthanides is Europium (Eu), or Cerium (Ce) or Terbium (Tb).", "[0080] Advantageously R 1 , R 2 , R 3 and R 4 will be independently hydrogen, methyl or ethyl, preferably they will all be hydrogen.", "[0081] The inventors consider that it is preferable that A 1 , A 2 , A 3 and A 4 are identical, since this enables to keep the symmetry of the molecule, thereby increasing the aerial effect and preventing the spurious energy transfers.", "[0082] It is also preferable that Y is sulphur or oxygen, and in such a case m is equal to 0.", "[0083] Generally speaking it is preferable to choose carbonous aromatic groups, the inventors consider that it is advantageous that U 1 , U 2 and U 3 are carbons.", "[0084] The preferred complexes according to the invention are those for which R 5 , R 6 and R 7 are independently hydrogen or an alkyl radical, such as methyl or ethyl, advantageously they are identical and preferably correspond to hydrogens.", "[0085] One of the advantages of such type of co-ordinating complex lies in their stability in aqueous medium which enables their usage in physiological and biological media and, hence, in the medical field.", "[0086] Calcium, metal known by its significance in certain biological systems, is less complexed than the lanthanides by the ligand of the present invention.", "This selectivity is very significant for medical application.", "[0087] In a particular embodiment of the present invention said ligand comprises four bidentate chromophores connected by an ethylenediamine skeleton.", "[0088] According to a particular embodiment of the present invention, said ligand comprises four pyridinecarboxylate moieties bound by an ethylenediamine skeleton.", "[0089] According to a particular embodiment of the present invention, the ligand including the four pyridinecarboxylate moieties is N,N,N′,N′-tetrakis[(6-carboxypyridine-2-yl)methyl]-ethylenediamine.", "[0090] One of the advantages of the ligands according to the invention and particularly those of type N,N,N′,N′-tetrakis[(6-carboxypyridine-2-yl)methyl]-ethylenediamine, lies in that they include ten electron donor atoms and a “skeleton”", "formed of an ethylene diamine bridge perfectly adapted to the complexing of a lanthanide, in particular Eu, Tb and Ce, but also the lanthanides with emission in the infrared, providing highly effective protection of the central metal with respect to the surrounding water molecules, in particular water molecules of the solvent.", "Because of the protection, the complexes, in particular of Eu III and Tb III with the ligand N,N,N′,N′-tetrakis[(6-carboxypyridine-2-yl)methyl]-ethylene diamine, exhibit long life water luminescence, associated with high solubility and high stability.", "[0091] According to the present invention, the counter-ion X present in the complexes is an element belonging to the group 1A of the periodic table of the elements, and more particularly potassium.", "The way the counter-ion K+ is bound to the complexes of Europium and of Cerium, leads to two different structures, a monomeric structure in the case of the complex with Europium and a dimeric structure in the case of the complex with Cerium.", "[0092] The value of p varies according to the type of complex and represents the number of monomers each forming complexes, p is equal to one for a monomeric complex as it is the case for Europium and p is equal to 2 for a dimeric complex as it is the case for Cerium (see the examples of embodiment).", "[0093] Similarly the value of n is function of the complex considered and of the atmosphere and temperature conditions.", "Typically this number will be ranging between 0 and 20 for a non-dissolved complex.", "[0094] The invention also relates to The preparation of a decadentate chromophore ligand as described above, by reaction of a diamine of the general formula (IV): [0000] Wherein, [0000] R 1 , R 2 , R 3 and R 4 are as defined above, and of at least one compound of the general formula (V) [0000] Wherein, [0000] Y, R 5 , R 6 , R 7 , R 8 , U 1 , U 2 and U 3 are as defined above, R corresponds to an alkyl or an aryl.", "LG represents an outgoing group liable to undergo a nucleophilic substitution from the diamine.", "[0100] Advantageously the man of the art will select LG among most labile outgoing groups and in particular those reacting with amines.", "The inventors consider that Cl, Br, I, -OTf, -OTs, CN may be used advantageously.", "[0101] The moiety R will be preferably selected among the methyl, ethyl, propyl, isopropyl, butyl, isobutyl, benzyl radicals and among the heteroalkyls in particular the radicals used as protective groups of the alcohol functions like the trimethylsiyl (TMS) or terbutyledimethylesilyl (TBDMS).", "[0102] The method according to the invention may be provided in any suitable solvent, in particular organic solvents such as acetonitrile, tetrahydrofuran, chloroform, dichloromethane, carbon tetrachloride, toluene.", "[0103] The preferred operating conditions are easily determined by the man of the art from the substituents that he will have chosen for its compounds, wherein the substitution reaction by an amine is well-known in the art.", "It is preferable to conduct the reaction in the presence of a base to facilitate the reaction of the amine, then to acidify the reactive medium for regenerating the alcohol protected by the group R. [0104] Thus, according to the method, by reaction between ethyl ester of the 6-chloromethylpyridine-2-carboxylate and ethylenediamine, preferably in organic medium, the decadentate ligand N,N,N′,N′-tetrakis[(6-carboxypyridine-2-yle)methyl]-ethylene diamine, also designated in the present invention by H 4 tpaen, is easily obtained in five steps with a final throughput of 26.0%.", "[0105] Schematically, the reaction may be described as follows: [0000] [0106] The preparation of the ligand H 4 tpaen is simple, may be used at large scale and may be easily modified for anchoring the complex with certain functional moieties capable of binding to biomolecules in order to develop markers for luminescence imaging.", "[0107] The ligand N,N,N′,N′-tetrakis [(6-carboxypyridine-2-yl)methyl]-ethylene diamine may be prepared as follows.", "[0108] Under an argon atmosphere, freshly distilled ethylenediamine (250 mL, 3.6 mmol) and anhydrous K 2 CO 3 (2.04 g, 14.8 mmol) are successively added to an ethyl ester solution of the 6-chloromethylpyridine-2-carboxylate (2.95 g, 14.8 mmol) in anhydrous acetonitrile (50 mL).", "After filtration and evaporation of the solvent a yellow oil is obtained.", "[0109] After re-integration in dichloromethane the solution formed is washed twice with water (100 mL) and dried on anhydrous Na 2 SO 4 .", "After evaporation of the solvent, the yellow oil obtained is used without any other purification.", "[0110] For regenerating the acid function, the raw product (2.56 g) dissolved in an aqueous solution of HCl 6M (40 mL) is raised to reflux overnight.", "After evaporation of the solvent up to 5 mL, the solution is cooled down to 5° C. overnight.", "The precipitate is collected by filtration, washed with a solution of HCI M then vacuum dried.", "1.37 g H4tpaen[.", "].6HCI[.", "].5H 2 O are thus obtained with a 42% throughput.", "[0111] The elementary analysis of the H4tpaen[.", "].6HCI[.", "].5H 2 O is as follows: MM=909.33, C 30 H 44 N 6 O 13 CI 6 : C, 39.42;", "H 4.88;", "N 9.24;", "found C, 39.49;", "H 4.90;", "N 9.24.", "[0112] The RMN spectra of the H 4 tpaen are as follows: [0113] 1 H RMN (D 2 0, 400 MHz, 298 K, pH=5): δ 3.57 (s, 4H, NCH 2 CH 2 N), 4.36 (s, 8H, NCH 2 py), 7.48 (d, 4H, CH), 7.77 (d, 4H, CH), 7.84 (t, 4H, CH), [0114] 13 C RMN (D 2 O, 100 MHz): δ=51.6 (CH 2 );", "56.4 (CH 2 );", "57.8 (CH 2 );", "125.8 (CHpy);", "128.4 (CHpy);", "142.9 (CHpy);", "147.4 (Cpy);", "152.0 (Cpy);", "166.4 (COOH);", "172.1 (COOH).", "[0115] The present invention relates moreover to a preparation method of a co-ordinating complex by reaction of a lanthanide salt with a ligand in aqueous medium.", "[0116] Advantageously, the salt of a lanthanide is lanthanide chloride.", "[0117] The ligand will be advantageously as described above.", "[0118] In a particular embodiment of the present invention the lanthanide is Europium (Eu), Cerium (Ce) or Terbium (Tb), advantageously the lanthanide will be selected among the lanthanides with emission in the infrared.", "[0119] The water soluble complexes, obtained from the ligand N,N,N′,N′-tetrakis[(6-carboxypyridine-2-yl)methyl]-ethylene diamine, are isolated with a throughput ranging between 50 and 60% after reaction of said ligand with a hexa hydrated lanthanide chloride, in particular with Cerium or Europium and after adjustment of the pH to 6.", "[0120] By way of example, not limited thereto, the Europium and Cerium complexes may be prepared by reaction between Europium trichloride or cerium trichloride and the ligand N,N,N,N′,N′-tetrakis[(6-carboxypyridine-2-yl)methyl]-ethylene diamine.", "[0121] These complexes may be prepared as follows.", "[0122] A solution of CeCI 3 7H 2 O or of EuCI 3 [.", "].6H 2 O (0.138 mmol) in water (0.5 mL) is added to a solution of N,N,N′,N′-tetrakis[(6-carboxypyridine-2-yl)methyl]-ethylene diamine (0.138 mmol) at a pH of 5, adjusted by the addition of KOH (0.2 M) in water (6 mL).", "The solution thus obtained is stirred at room temperature for 2 hours and the pH is adjusted to 6 par the further addition of KOH (0.2 M).", "[0123] After evaporation of water, the solid obtained is picked up in EtOH (5 mL) and the solution is filtered to eliminate insoluble salts.", "The solvent is evaporated and the residue picked up in water.", "[0124] Slow evaporation over 5 days of the aqueous solution (1 mL) of the solid enables to obtain the complex ([Eu(tpaen)]K) in the form of a white solid and the complex ([Ce(tpaen)]K in the form of a yellow solid with a throughput ranging between 50 and 60%.", "[0125] The chemical and physical features of these complexes are as follows: [0126] [Eu(tpaen)]: 1 H RMN (D 2 O, 400 MHz, 298 K, pD=6.9): δ−2.07 (s br, 2H, H 6 /H 6 ,), −1.11 (s br, 2H, H 4 ′), −0.99 (s br, 2H, H 4 ), 3.48 (s br, 2H, H 5 ), 4.28 (s br, 2H, H 5 ′), 4.41 (d br, 2H, H 3 ), 5.43 (d br, 2H, H 3 ), 5.65 (s br, 2H, H 1 ), 5.79 (s br, 2H, H 1 ), 5.96 (br, 2H, H 2 ′), 6.53 (br, 2H, H 2 ), 8.40 (br, 2H, H6/H 6 ′).", "[0127] [Ce(tpaen)]: 1 H RMN (D 2 O, 400 MHz, 298 K, pD=5.4): δ−2.03 (s br, 2H, H6/H6′), 0.09 (s br, 2H, H 5 ′), 1.18 (s br, 2H, H 6 /H 6′ ), 3.25 (d, 2H, H 4 ), 3.51 (d, 2H, H 4 ), 5.44 (s br, 2H, H 5 ), 7.97 (d, 2H, H 3 ), 8.10 (d, 2H, H 3′ ), 8.45 (d, 2H, H 1 ), 8.91 (t, 2H, H 2 ), 8.94 (d, 2H, H 1 ), 9.04 (t, 2H, H 2 ′).", "[0128] The crystallographic data for Eu(tpaen)] K(H 2 O) 3 .", "4H 2 O: C30H38Eu KN6O15, M=913.7, Monoclinical, spatial group P2 (1)/n, a=11.995(2) b=14.539(3), c=21.407(5) Å, β=106.186(3) V=3585.2(12) Å 3 , Z=4, p c =1.693 g cm− 3 , μ=1.944 mm− 1 , T=298 K. From the 12504 reflections collected, 5133 were unique (R int =0.0192).", "The treatment of the data has converged to R 1 =0.0296, wR2=0.0667.", "Max/min of residual density 0.693 and −0.528 eÅ− 3 .", "[0129] The crystallographic data for {[Ce(tpaen)] K(H 2 O) 3 } 2 .", "16H 2 O, C30H46 CeKN6O19, M=973.95, Monoclinical, spatial group P2(1)/c, a=11.7615(10) b=14.5931(12), c=22.965(2) Å, β=101.640(1) V=3860.7(6) Å 3 , Z=4, p c =1.676 g cm −3 , μ=1.374 mm− 1 ,T=193 K. From the 12929 reflections collected, 7459 were unique (R int =0.0310).", "The treatment of the data has converged to R 1 =0.0430, wR2=0.1340.", "Max/min of residual density 1.055 and −2.462 eÅ−3.", "[0130] Besides, five de-protonation constants [pK a1 =2.8 (1), pK a2 2=3.2 (1), pK a3 =3.9 (2), pK a4 =5.1 (1) and pK a5 =7.8 (1)] may be determined for the ligand H 6 tpaen by potentiometric titration as well the stability constants of the corresponding complexes of Eu III and of Ca II [log β EuL =15.3(3) for the complex of Eu III and log β CaL =8.5 (5)].", "FIG. 1 shows the titration curves for the ligand H 6 tpaen (▴), for the complex Eutpaen (⋄) and for the complex Catpaen (▪).", "[0131] The values of pEu=15.7, pGd=15.0 and pCa=8.5 {−log [M]| free at a pH of 7.4, [M] total =1 μM, and [tpaa] total =10 μM), when they are compared with the value of pEu=14.0 for tetra acetic diamine ethylene acid (EDTA) show that the ligand tpaen forms lanthanide complexes with sufficient stability for their in vivo usage and also show good selectivity regarding Europium with respect to calcium.", "[0132] For potentiometric titration, the solutions of the complex of Eu(III) may be prepared by dissolution of a determined amount of EuCI 3 [.", "].6H 2 O in water.", "The de-protonation constants of H 6 tpaen are given by Kai=[H6-iL] 2-1 /[H 5 −iL] 1-i [H] + , and as already mentioned previously, the values obtained are pK a1 =2.8(1), pK a2 =3.2(1), pK a3 =3.9(2), pK a4 4=5.1(1) and pK a5 =7.8(1).", "[0133] The exact concentration of the ion Eu 3+ could be determined by colorimetric titration in an acetate buffer (pH=4.5), using as a reference a solution of H 2 Na 2 edta and orange xylenol as an indicator.", "[0134] The solutions of Ca(II) could be prepared by dissolution of CaCI 2 in water.", "The exact concentration of the ion Ca 2+ can be determined by colorimetric titration at a pH 12.5 using as a reference a solution of H 2 Na 2 edta and calgonite as an indicator.", "20 mL of a solution of H 4 tpaen (3,10− 4 M), acidified (pH˜2.5) 1:1 Ln:mixture of ligands ([L] 3.10− 4 M), acidified (pH˜2.5) 1:1 Ca:mixture of ligands ([L] 7.10− 5 M) are titrated in a cell with a thermostat (25.0° C.+/−0.1° C.) under Argon after addition of a solution of KOH 0.1 M. [0135] The ionic load was determined with KCl (μ=00.1 M).", "The titrations have been conducted with a Metrohm 751 GPD Titrino potentiometer fitted with a glass pH electrode.", "The electrode system was calibrated before each measurement.", "[0136] The electromotive load is given by the equation E=E°+sp[H + ] wherein E° and s are determined by titration of a known amount de HCl with 0.1 M KOH at μ=0.1 M (KCl), using the zone of the acid for the titration.", "The value used for the ionic product of water was pKw=13.77.", "More than 50 data points have been collected for each experiment.", "[0137] Moreover, as shown on FIGS. 2 and 3 , the crystalline structure respectively of the complexes [Eu(tpaen)]K(H 2 O) 3 [.", "].4H 2 O, and {[Ce(tpaen)]K(H 2 O) 3 } 2 .", "16H 2 O is analysed X-ray diffraction.", "In both complexes, the ion Ln III s deca-coordinated by the four oxygen atoms (the average value for the distances Metal-0 is 2.42 (1) A for Europium and 2.50 (4) A for Cerium) and by the six nitrogen atoms (the average value for the distances metal-N-pyridine is 2.65 (4) A for Europium and 2.72 (1) Å for Cerium and the average value for the distances metal-N-amine is 2.91 (1) Å for Europium and 2.91 (4) Å for Cerium.", "[0138] The number of co-ordinated water molecules present in solution, q, was determined from life time measurements using the Parker equation (q=A Ln (1/τH 2 O−1/τD 2 O−β Ln ) wherein A Tb =5 ms, A EU =1.2 ms, αTb=0.06 ms− 1 and α Eu =0.25 ms− 1 ).", "The quantal throughput Q was calculated using the equation Q x /Q r =A r (v).", "n x 2 .", "D x /A x (v)n r 2 .", "D r wherein x is the sample, r the reference;", "A the absorbance, v the number of excitation waves used, n the refractive index, and D the integral of the intensity transmitted.", "[0139] The complexes of tris(dipicolinate) [Eu(dpa) 3 3− ] (Φ=13.5%, 7.5×10− 5 M in buffer Tris 0.1 M) and [Tb(dpa) 3 ] 3− (Φ=26.5%, 6.5×10 −5 M in buffer Tris 0.1 M) are used as references respectively for the determination of the quantal throughputs of the samples of Eu- and Tb.", "The consistency of the data was checked by measuring the quantal throughput of the complexes of the tris(dipicolinate) relative to rhodamine 101 (Q abs =100% ethanol) and cresyl violet (Q abs =54% methanol).", "[0140] The chemical and physical analyses of the complexes according to the present invention, show that the “arms”", "of the pyridine carboxylate moiety of the ligand N,N,N′,N′-tetrakis[(6-carboxypyridine-2-yl)methyl]-ethylene diamine surround the central metal in a pseudo symmetrical Ce and helicoid arrangement.", "[0141] Both complexes crystallise into a racemic mixture of enantiomers Λ and Δ.", "[0142] The spectra of nuclear magnetic resonance (RMN) of the Europium and Cerium complexes, as shown on FIG. 4 for the case of the Europium complex with the ligand tpaen at 298 K, show that their structure is compatible with a rigid symmetry C2 wherein the four “arms”", "of the ligand remain co-ordinated with the metal during the time taken for obtaining the RMN spectrum (*EtoH).", "[0143] The symmetry observed matches a double-helix chiral structure in solution, similar to that encountered in solid state.", "[0144] The complexes keep their rigid structure in a temperature range between 298-363K, as shown by the 1 H RMN of FIGS. 5 (* DSS;", "# impurity) and 6 (* free ligand), performed respectively at a temperature of 333 and de 298 K for the particular case of the complex [Ce(tpaen)]-in D 2 O. [0145] The presence of a rigid symmetry C2 similar to that described above was also observed for the same temperature range for the complex of La and Tb prepared in situ in deuterized water to a pH of 7.7.", "The high stiffness of these complex in solution, very rarely observed for the lanthanide complexes with a high denticity ligand, suggest that the arrangement of the ten donor atoms provided by the simple ethylene diamine chain is well suited to the formation of lanthanide complexes conferring high and efficient protection to the central metal regarding the molecules of the solvents.", "[0146] As results of this protection, the complex d Eu III and of Tb III with the ligand tpaen exhibit a high luminescence with a long life in water and in deuterized water.", "The life times of the levels Eu(5Do) and Tb( 5 D 4 ) for [Eu(tpaen)]″ and [Tb(tpaen)]″ match the presence of 0.04±0.2 and 0.03±0.2 water molecules co-ordinated respectively in the complexes Eu and Tb.", "[0147] The luminescent properties of the lanthanide ions, in particular Eu and Tb, are hence largely improved by the ligand tpaen.", "FIG. 7 shows the emission spectrum of [Eu(tpaen)] (full line) and [Tb(tpaen)] (dotted line) after excitation of the ligand at 274 nm.", "[0148] An efficient energy transfer from the ligand to the metal is put forward by the resemblance between the excitation and absorption spectra of the Europium and Terbium complexes.", "FIG. 8 shows the absorption spectrum (dotted line) and the excitation spectrum (full line) of the complex of [Tb(tpaen)] in a buffer solution of Tris.", "[0149] The quantal throughput for the complex of [Tb(tpaen)] (Φ=45%) measured relative to the complex of [Tb(dpa) 3 ] 3− in an aerated buffer solution of Tris of concentration 0.1 M, with a 15% experimental error, is one of the highest values mentioned until now.", "The chromophore tpaen also sensitises efficiently the Europium ion whereof the value for the quantal throughput is 7%.", "This value, while smaller than that obtained for the complex of Tb III remains however higher than the quantal throughput of the lanthanide complexes used currently in marketed light-emitting probes.", "[0150] As shown in the following table, the intense luminescence of these ions results from an efficient energy transfer from the ligand to the metal and from a protection of the central metal relative to non-radiative deactivation by the surrounding water molecules.", "[0000] compound λexc(nm) ε(M −1 cm −1 ) τ H2O (ms) τ D2O (ms) Φ H2O tpaen 270 15800 Eu(tpaen) 274 21600 1.70(2) 3.30(1) 0.07 Tb(tpaen) 274 21632 3.0(1) 3.75(1) 0.45 [0151] The life time of the luminescence observed in the terbium complex in water, to the inventors'", "knowledge one of the longest observed until now, excludes the presence of a desexcitation process including the return of energy from the metal towards the ligand.", "This value for the life time is quite compatible with an energy level of the triplet state of the complex [Tb(tpaen)] similar to that divulged recently, (22988 cm −1 ,) for the complex of an octavalent ligand including two pyridine carboxylate moieties.", "The high quantal throughput for the terbium complex matches this value quite well.", "[0152] The co-ordinating complexes according to the present invention exhibit several advantages.", "On the one hand, this direct approach to arrange four divalent chromophores in a decadentate ligand produces highly soluble lanthanide complexes which are stable at a physiological pH.", "On the other hand, the architecture of the ligand leads to a rigid structure wherein the central metal is protected effectively from the interactions with the molecules of the solvent.", "[0153] Moreover, this approach opens a wide variety of perspectives for the development of the stable and luminescent probes in the zone of the ultraviolet-visible, infrared and near-infrared, using these compounds, prepared preferably from chromophores transmitting a luminescence in the zone of the ultraviolet or of the near-infrared for a usage in medical imaging and in bio-assays.", "More generally the medical field, particularly that of the medical analyses seems to be able to benefit from the invention.", "Besides, the compounds as described in the present application may be anchored with certain functional moieties capable of binding to biomolecules in order to develop markers for luminescence imaging.", "The complexes may incorporate recognition functions such as dendrimers or also be bound to peptides, oligonucleotides, polymers, nanotubes.", "[0154] The invention thus also relates to a biomolecule anchored on a complex according to claim, in particular to serve as a luminescent probe.", "The complexes according to claim, because of their properties, may be used in the nanotechnological industry and in particular in nanotechnological devices such as diodes or optical fibres.", "[0155] Naturally, other embodiments, understandable to the man of the art, could have been contemplated without departing from the framework of the invention." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Field of the Invention: This invention relates to consumable hot tops as positioned in the upper ends of ingot molds for maintaining a pool of molten melt in desirable position in the cooling ingot.", "Description of the Prior Art: Prior art hot top constructions have comprised a variety of devices for the intended purpose.", "Several of these have used wedges to position the side board sections of the hot top in the ingot mold.", "See for example U.S. Pat. No. 3,797,801 in which a pair of corner post devices are used to cooperate with the foldable wall sections to produce a hot top enclosure.", "In U.S. Pat. No. 4,121,805 a self adjusting consumable hot top includes shape adjusting sections and wedges for securing them in wedged position in an ingot mold.", "Still other forms of hot tops may be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 3,478,999 wherein the corner portions of the hot top space the side board panels and U.S. Pat. No. 3,165,798 wherein the consumable hot top is formed of inter-engaging portions which are moved into desired relation by tapered wedges inserted at the corners.", "In the present disclosure side board sections of a consumable hot top are formed with novel end configurations designed to receive and be wedged by novel corner pieces, both of which end sections of the side boards and the corner pieces can be formed with relatively simple dies.", "In the prior art, in constructions generally used, the corner pieces or wedges, such as seen for example in U.S. Pat. No. 3,797,801, have their vertical sides or contact surfaces at an angle greater than 90° to the inner surface thereof.", "Such corner pieces or wedges are difficult to form of consumable material because their shape prohibits their ready removal from a die cavity in which they are formed unless a multi-part die is used and operated to permit the formed product to be released.", "Of equal importance is the inherent problem in installing the heretofore conventional corner pieces or wedges between the side boards in positioning a consumable hot top in an ingot mold.", "The mold itself is tapered and often of irregular inner configuration.", "The corner pieces or wedges therefore loosely engage the edges of the ends of the side boards and are not easily retained in the desired position during the simultaneous positioning of the side boards and the corner pieces in the open upper end of the ingot mold.", "With the invention disclosed herein, the abutting ends of the side boards are formed with configurations which tend to confine or limit movement of the corner pieces or wedges and prevent their accidental dislocation from the desired areas during installation.", "The corner pieces or wedges as disclosed herein are formed with their longitudinal side edges at less than 90° to their inner surfaces and are thereby self-retaining in the desired location.", "Additionally, yieldable metal holders, such as sections of wire, positioned transversely of the corner pieces, serve to increase the initial frictional engagement of the corner pieces or wedges against the vertical tapered edges of the side boards of the hot top.", "None of these advantages are found in the prior art constructions.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A corner wedging consumable hot top is formed of four side boards or panels, the vertical ends or edges of which are tapered and shaped with angular configurations which confine four corner pieces in wedging relation to the side boards.", "The side boards or panels and the corner pieces are formed of suitable consumable material and the arrangement enables the relatively quick and easy installation of the panels and wedges in the open upper end of an ingot mold in satisfactory wedging position so as to retain the hot top in the ingot mold during a subsequent pouring of hot metal therein.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a top plan view of a hot top as disclosed herein positioned in an ingot mold;", "FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the corner portions of two of the side boards and one of the corner pieces, with parts broken away, as seen in FIG. 1 of the drawings;", "FIG. 3 is a plan view of one of the side boards of the hot top seen in FIG. 1 of the drawings;", "FIG. 4 is an end elevation of one of the corner pieces or wedges showing the same in the die in which it is formed;", "FIG. 5 is an end elevation of a portion of one of the side boards of the hot top showing the same in the die in which it is formed;", "and FIG. 6 is a top plan view of a corner of a prior art hot top.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT By referring to the drawings and FIG. 1 in particular, it will be seen that the top end of an ingot mold is indicated by the letter M and a consumable hot top is disposed therein and is formed of four side boards arranged in oppositely disposed elongated side sections 10 and 11 and oppositely disposed elongated end sections 12 and 13.", "Each of the side boards 10, 11, 12, and 13 is narrower at its upper end than at its lower end as may be seen in FIG. 3 of the drawings, wherein a plan view of one of the side boards 10 may be seen.", "In FIG. 3 of the drawings, the upper end or edge of the side board 10 is indicated by the numeral 14 and its lower edge by the numeral 15 and its vertical ends by the numerals 16 and 17 respectively.", "Each of the side boards 10, 11, 12 and 13 are similarly formed so that as positioned in the ingot mold M, they will be wedgingly held in position by four wedged-shaped corner pieces 18, each of which may be seen in top plan view in FIG. 1 and in perspective view in FIG. 2 and in end elevation in FIG. 4. Each of the identically formed corner pieces 18 has an inner vertical surface 19 and right angular related side tapering surfaces 20 and 21, the arrangement being such that the corner pieces 18 are larger at their upper ends than at their lower ends so that they may be pushed downwardly between the ends of the side boards 10, 11, 12, and 13 as shown in FIG. 1 of the drawings where they will hold the same in assembled relation to form an effective consumable hot top in the open upper end of the ingot mold M. By referring to FIGS. 1 and 2 of the drawings, it will be seen that the vertical ends of each of the side boards 10, 11, 12 and 13 have angular configuration along their tapered surfaces and each side board has a right angular edge portion 22 on each of its ends extending inwardly of its inner flat inner side surface S along with an outwardly 45° angled surface 23 on each of its vertical tapered ends.", "Still referring to FIGS. 1 and 2 of the drawings, it will be seen that when the corner pieces 18 are positioned in the corners of the ingot mold 10 and between the tapered generally vertically ends of the side boards 10, 11, 12 and 13, they will present an outer curved surface 24 to the corners of the ingot mold so that molten metal will not be able to enter the corner areas of the ingot mold around the hot top and chill therein as has been common in the art heretofore.", "The wedging action is also improved by the configuration of the corner pieces 18 so that the hot top formed therewith will not float on the molten metal poured in the ingot mold as will be understood by those skilled in the art.", "In FIG. 4 of the drawings, a portion of a die 25 may be seen and one of a number of cavities is formed therein in which the corner pieces 18 may be formed by filling the die cavity with a suitable consumable mixture.", "In FIG. 4 it will be seen that the oppositely disposed side surfaces 20 and 21 of the corner piece are vertical and that the outermost portion of the corner piece which is curved as at 24 matches the curved configuration of the die cavity.", "Transverse slots 26 in the die and crossing each of the plurality of cavities therein provide for the positioning of a piece of wire or similar metal which becomes part of the corner piece 18 with the ends of the wire extending outwardly of the sides thereof as indicated at 27 in FIG. 2 of the drawings where the wire support the corner pieces 18 with respect to the side boards during the initial positioning and installation and then distort and form friction holding members when the corner pieces 18 are pushed downwardly between the ends of the four side boards of each of the hot tops as herein disclosed.", "In FIG. 5 of the drawings, a portion of a die 28 may be seen with a cavity partially illustrated therein in which the side boards 10, 11, 12 and 13 are formed by filling the cavities with a suitable mixture of consumable materials as will be understood by those skilled in the art.", "The configuration of each of the cavities in the die 28 forms the end configurations of the side boards 10, 11, 12 and 13 as hereinbefore described.", "By referring again to FIG. 1 of the drawings, it will be seen that when the assembled hot top is positioned in the ingot mold M, the inner corners of each of the side boards 10, 11, 12, and 13 extend inwardly of and in front of the squared corners of the tapered sides of the corner pieces 18.", "Thus in effect the corner pieces are overlapped partially by the inner corners of the side boards 10, 11, 12 and 13 and they cannot therefore fall inwardly into the cavity in the ingot mold M as may otherwise occur when the hot top assembly is being installed.", "A further additional advantage of the construction disclosed herein is the inherent ability of the corner pieces 18 in their wedging relation to the side boards 10, 11, 12 and 13, to exert wedging force against the actual rounded corners of the ingot mold M as well as against the angular surface 23 on the ends of the side boards 10, 11, 12 and 13 and against the corners formed between the angular surface 23 and the right angular end portions 22 of each of the side boards 10, 11, 12 and 13.", "Referring again to FIG. 4 of the drawings, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that the near vertical walls of the cavity illustrated therein actually incline outwardly to provide the necessary drift so that the corner pieces formed therein can be removed therefrom.", "Thus the opposite side surfaces 20 and 21 of the corner pieces 18 are at angles of less than 90° to the surface 19 thereof.", "This shape contributes to the engagement of the corners of the corner pieces 18 against the end portions 22 of the side boards 10, 11, 12, and 13 respectively.", "By referring now to FIG. 6 of the drawings, a typical prior art hot top construction may be seen and it will be observed that the side boards as indicated at 30 and 31 are engaged by a corner piece 32 and that the ends of the side boards 30 and 31 are angularly disposed with respect to the inner surface thereof and the vertical sides of the corner pieces 32 are formed at similar angles so that the innermost surface 33 of the corner piece is substantially narrower than the outermost surface thereof which is curved.", "It will be obvious that the corner piece 32 cannot be formed in a die and that when it is formed and positioned as shown in FIG. 6, looseness in the assembly permits the corner piece 32 to fall inwardly and/or downwardly of the ingot mold in which the hot top is being installed.", "The present invention therefore resides in two substantial improvements in the art, the first of these being the shaping of the corner pieces 18 with their inner corner surfaces being at least as wide and preferably wider than their outer surfaces which are curved and engage the ingot mold and with their respective side portions arranged at less than 90° to the inner surfaces 19 as herein disclosed.", "The second important improvements is in the configuration of the tapered ends of the side board sections used in forming the hot top and wherein each of their ends have right angular end portions extending from their inner surfaces and angular outward extensions therefrom so as to form vertically positioned corners for the retention and location and engagement of the corner pieces 18.", "In summary, the four corner pieces and four hot top side boards disclosed herein are so formed as to advantageously create a hot top when assembled in an ingot mold and of equal importance they are so formed that they can be quickly and inexpensively formed in appropriately shaped die cavities and easily removed therefrom after baking.", "The corner pieces and hot top sections hereinbefore disclosed have been referred to as being formed of consumable and those in the art will appreciate that this can comprise consumable material such as set forth in LaBate U.S. Pat. No. 4,121,805, and specifically a compound consistng of about 15% wood fiber, about 54% dolomite and about 31% sodium silicate.", "Alternately the corner pieces 18 and the side boards 10, 11, 12 and 13 may be formed of a compound consisting of about 15% wood fiber of paper pulp, about 54% dolomite and about 3% sodium silicate together with a known amount of an exothermic reactive material such as thermite." ]

[ "This is a continuation of application Ser.", "No. 945,725, filed Sept.", "25, 1978, now abandoned which in turn is a continuation of Ser.", "No. 795,728, filed May 11, 1977, now abandoned.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to an optical transmission system, comprising an optical wave guide fiber and a coupling element for coupling the optical waveguide fiber to a light source or to a light detector or to a further fiber.", "The coupling element includes a lens which is arranged in front of one end of the fiber, and fiber and the lens have optical axes substantially in common.", "The invention also relates to a coupling element for the optical transmission system and to a lens for the coupling element.", "An optical transmission system is described on pages 341 to 359 of "Phatonics", published by Balkanski and Lallemand, 1973.", "In this publication light is radiated into the core of a fiber via a system of lenses arranged in front of an end face of the fiber.", "The lenses of the system of lenses must be accurately positioned and oriented relative to the core of the fiber, relative to the semiconductor layer junction shown, and relative to each other.", "Notably the axes of the optically cylindrical lenses must intersect the center of the fiber core and should be situated in the plane of the laser junction.", "The mounting of the lenses in the correct position in front of the end face of the fiber is difficult.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the invention is to provide an optical transmission system in which the above difficulties are substantially mitigated.", "To this end, the system according to the invention comprises a lens which is substantially convex, and which has a refractive index which decreases from the center outwards as a function of the radius.", "Because the convex lens is rotationally-symmetrical about any axis through its center, the orienting of the lens in front of the end of the fiber will be simpler in comparison with, for example, the optically cylindrical lens.", "The orientation of such a lens is even more simplified if the lens and the fiber have substantially the same diameter.", "It has been found that the use of such a convex lens offers, in addition to an improvement of the coupling efficiency, a reduction of the dispersion occurring in the fiber in the case of a multimode fiber having a transient-like varying refractive index.", "This can be explained on the basis of the fact that the convex lens has a converging effect, with the result that the light diverging from the light source is converted into a beam of substantially parallel light rays.", "As a result, a smaller number of modes will occur in the multimode fiber, dispersion thus being counteracted.", "The described attractive properties of the lens can be further improved if the refractive index of the lens approximates the value N.sub[.", "].1 ·(2-(r/Ro).", "sup[.", "].2).", "sup[.", "].1/2, in which Ro: the radius of the lens r: the distance from the center of the lens and N 1 : approximates the value of the refractive index of the fiber.", "The diverging radiation of a point-like light source, for example, as described in "Journal of Applied Physics", Vol. 45, No. 11, November 1974, pages 4899 to 4906, arranged in front of such a lens is completely converted into a beam of parallel light rays.", "In the case of a multimode fiber, substantially all light emitted by the source will be conducted through the core.", "If a fiber having a step-wise varying refractive index is irradiated via a lens of this kind, moreover, only a comparatively small number of modes will occur in the fiber.", "An optical transmission system comprising a preferred embodiment of the coupling element according to the invention is characterized in that the coupling element comprises a holder, through which a capillary extends, the lens and an end of the fiber being fixed opposite each other in the said capillary.", "The invention will be described in detail hereinafter with reference to the accompanying diagrammatic drawings.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of an optical waveguide fiber, showing the acceptance angle of an end thereof.", "FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a fiber having a continuously varying refractive index, showing the acceptance angle thereof.", "FIG. 3 diagrammatically illustrates the refraction of light rays in the convex lens.", "FIG. 4 is a sectional view of a coupling element and a fiber.", "FIG. 5 shows an embodiment of a coupling element in accordance with the invention.", "FIG. 6 shows an embodiment of an optical fiber-laser coupling in accordance with the invention.", "FIG. 7 shows a preferred embodiment of an optical fiber laser coupling.", "FIG. 8 shows an end of a monomode fiber in a coupling element for the fiber.", "FIG. 9 shows an embodiment of a coupling for the coupling of the monomode fibers.", "FIG. 10 shows a coupling of a monomode fiber to two other monomode fibers.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 shows a section of an optical waveguide fiber 61 having a step-wise varying refractive index.", "This is diagrammatically denoted at the right of the fiber 61.", "The outer jacket 62 of the fiber 61 has a refractive index N 2 , and the core 63 has a refractive index N 1 .", "The acceptance angle θ, at which the core 63 accepts light which subsequently propagates in the core 63, is determined by the ratio between the refractive indices N 1 and N 2 .", "The acceptance angle θ at the edge 64 of the core 63 equals that in the center 65 of the core 63.", "When the acceptance angle θ is fully utilized when the core 63 is irradiated, the quantity of light energy to be transported will be maximum.", "However, all sorts of propagation modes will occur, as diagrammatically denoted by arrows, which will result in a comparatively high dispersion.", "This is considered undesirable, notably in the telecommunication field.", "FIG. 2 shows a section of an optical waveguide fiber 70 which has a refractive index in the core 73 which decreases as a function of the radius.", "This is diagrammatically shown at the right of the fiber 70.", "The acceptance angle of the fiber 70 is not uniform.", "In the center 75 of the core 73, the acceptance angle will be θ°, if the refractive index in the center of the fiber 70 equals N 1 and the refractive index at the edge 74 equals N 2 .", "However, as the edge 74 is approached, the acceptance angle will continuously decrease to 0°.", "On the edge 74 only light rays which are incident at right angles to the fiber's end face will be accepted.", "Thus, it is advantageous to excite optical waveguide fibers with a beam of parallel light rays.", "FIG. 3 shows a convex lens 1 having a refractive index which decreases in the direction from the center towards its outer wall 3.", "When the lens 1 is irradiated on one side in the point f by a substantially point-shaped light source 2, the light transmitted by the lens 1 will form a narrow, substantially non-diverging light beam.", "The diverging light beam emitted by the light source is converted, by deflection in the lens 1, into a beam of substantially parallel light rays 4.", "If an optical waveguide fiber is irradiated via a lens 1, only a limited number of propagation modes will occur in a fiber having a transient-like varying index, because divergence of the light beam is substantially completely avoided.", "A coupling element 20 shown in FIG. 4 comprises a convex lens 11, preferably a ball lens, having a refractive index which decreases from the center towards the outer wall, and an optical waveguide fiber 7, both of which have a common optical axis 6.", "This has been achieved by the formation of a capillary duct in a holder 8 in which the fiber 7 is inserted on the one side and the lens 11 on the other side.", "Preferably, the capillary duct has a diameter which is only slightly greater than the diameter of the fiber and the lens.", "As a result of the convex shape of the lens 11, here a spherical shape, further orientation of the lens 11 relative to the fiber 7 will be superfluous.", "Between the lens 11 and the fiber 7 there is provided a transparent coupling medium 9 whereby refraction of the light generated by a light source 21, upon departure from the lens 11, and reflections from the entrance surface 10 of the fiber 7 are avoided.", "When a coupling medium 9 is used, its refractive index preferably has the same value as the refractive index of the core of the optical fiber 7.", "FIG. 5 shows a further embodiment of a coupling element according to the invention.", "A fiber 31 and a convex lens 32 are to be secured in a holder 30.", "The lens 32 has a refractive index, which decreases in the direction from the center towards its outer wall.", "The holder 30 is provided with a capillary 33 in which the fiber 31 and the lens 32 are to be accommodated.", "Both the fiber and at least a portion of the capillary are preferably circular cylindrical in shape.", "The fiber 31 and the lens 32 necessarily have substantially the same diameter.", "The fiber 31 and the lens 32 are cemented in the capillary 33 by means of a lens bond.", "The coupling element shown can be used very well as a basis for a fiber/semiconductor laser coupling.", "To this end, the holder 30 is provided with a V-shaped groove 34 which is directed perpendicularly to the capillary 33 which opens into the V shaped groove 34.", "In the groove 34 there is arranged a cylindrical support 35 on which a semiconductor laser 36 is secured.", "The semiconductor laser 36 can be adjusted to the optical axis 25 of the lens 32 and the fiber 31 by the shifting and rotation of the cylindrical support 35.", "FIG. 6 shows a further embodiment of a semiconductor laser/fiber coupling.", "Instead of the separate connection of the fiber 31 and the lens 32 in a capillary 33 of the holder 30 of FIG. 5, a coupling element 20 as shown in FIG. 4 is secured in a V-shaped groove 37 in a holder 50.", "The fiber/laser coupling is further improved in comparison with the coupling shown in FIG. 5. To this end, the laser 38 comprises an additional adjustment facility.", "The laser 38 is mounted on an auxiliary 39 which has a convex shape on the side which is remote from the laser 38.", "The convex portion of the auxiliary 39 rests in a V-shaped groove 40 in a cylindrical support 41, which in its turn rests in a V-shaped groove 42 in the holder 50.", "As a result of this additional adjustment facility, the groove 37 as well as the angle between the grooves 37 and 42 may satisfy less severe dimensional requirements.", "FIG. 7 shows a preferred embodiment of an optical fiber/laser coupling.", "The holder 50 of FIG. 6 is combined with the laser 36/support 35 construction shown in FIG. 5. An additional adjustment facility is realised in that the lens 11 and the fiber 7 are secured in a capillary which is eccentriccally formed in a holder 80.", "The position of the lens 11 and the fiber 7 can be adapted to the position of the laser 36 by rotation of the holder 80 about its center line 81.", "FIG. 8 shows a detail of a coupling element in which a lens 77 having a preferred refractive index variation is mounted.", "The lens 77 and the optical fiber 70 are positioned adjacent one another in a capillary duct of a holder 71 such that the end face of the fiber core is substantially at the focus of the lens.", "The fiber end face and lens are in a portion of the capillary duct which has a substantially constant diameter which is slightly larger than the fiber.", "The lens 77 has a refractive index variation which approximates the formula N 1 ·(2-(r/Ro) 2 ) 1/2 .", "N 1 is the refractive index of the surface material in the outer jacket of the lens 77 and of the core 75 of the fiber 70.", "Ro is the radius of the lens 77, and r is a variable which denotes the shell having the radius r in the lens 77.", "The paths of the various light rays are shown in FIG. 8. The light rays diverge from a "focus"", "on the outer wall of the lens 77 and follow an elliptical path.", "As a result, the light beams extend in parallel when the outer wall of the lens 77 opposite the "focus"", "is reached.", "If the lens 77 is enclosed by a (transparent) coupling medium 79 having a refractive index N 1 , the light rays 72 and 73 will not be subject to further refraction on the edge of the lens 77.", "The parallel extending light rays thus remain parallel.", "The holder 71 is preferably closed by a transparent cover 74.", "The outside of the cover 74 may be provided with an anti-reflective layer 76, if desired.", "The lens 77 and the holder 71 together form a coupling element 78.", "FIG. 9 shows a coupling between two optical waveguide fibers.", "The coupling comprises two coupling elements 78 and a support 44 which is provided with a V-shaped groove 45.", "The coupling elements 78 are secured in the groove 45.", "The coupling is particularly suitable for the coupling of monomode fibers.", "The lenses 77 arranged between the fibers 70 allow a transverse displacement of 3 μm without giving rise to excessive light transmission losses.", "If no lenses 77 are used, an acceptable shift may amount to only tenths of 1 μm.", "Furthermore, the axial distance between the coupling elements 78 is not critical.", "When monomode fibers 70 are coupled without lenses 77 being used, the distance between the end faces of such fibers may not amount to more than approximately 3 μm in order not exceed the same light transmission loss.", "A support 44 may possibly be provided with a second V-shaped groove, which intersects the groove 45 at right angles and which is situated in the same plane.", "A support 46 of this kind is shown in FIG. 10.", "Four coupling elements 78 can be accommodated in the grooves 47 and 48 or some other means for aligning the coupling elements.", "If a semitransparent mirror 49 is arranged between the four coupling elements 78, so that the mirror is arranged at the intersection of the optical axes of the coupling elements 78 and encloses an angle of 45° with the axes, a coupling between a monomode fiber and two other monomode fibers is realised.", "For example, the fiber A is coupled to the fibers C and D and the fiber C is coupled to the fibers A and B. Thus, it will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in this art that the coupling elements 78, which are associated with each pair of coupled fibers, are aligned on a common optical axis.", "This optical axis may be either a straight line or, for example, intersecting lines which by virtue of mirror 49 become a common optical axis.", "The mirror 49 is formed by the interface of two prisms 49A and 49B which together constitute a rectangular block." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Field of the Invention The present invention is for a medicinal information label system, and more particularly, pertains to a resealable pamphlet system having fold out informational panels for dissemination of medical and drug product information.", "Description of the Prior Art Prior art medical printed informational material has been difficult to read, at best, due to a myriad of required informational medical information which must be attached or included on the medical product or drug container.", "Reading of this small print information often requires the use of optical devices such as glasses or magnifying devices.", "Often dosages were improperly interpreted or conveniently ignored because it was difficult to extricate such valuable information.", "Users are often prone to neglect such small and difficult to read information for the above and other reasons.", "Often medical printed informational material was printed in the same small type fashion and included in loose leaf form in a packaging container along with a pill bottle.", "The user was then free to discard the packaging container, along with the informational material, with utter disregard to retaining the information for further reference in the future.", "Had the user the foresight to attempt to retain the informational material, the material could be separated from the medical device or drug container and lost.", "The informational material could also become damaged or dog-eared if left in an unsecured state.", "Clearly what is needed is a resealable product information label system which attaches to a medical product or drug container and which includes a sufficient amount of label material for sufficiently large printing.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The general purpose of the invention is a medical and/or drug container product information label system.", "According to one embodiment of the present invention there is provided a product information label system having a pamphlet suitably attached to the front surface of a planar base member.", "The pamphlet is composed of multiple fold out informational printed paper panels covered by a polypropylene plastic laminate, having an acrylic pressure sensitive adhesive on its underside, which is secured along an area at one side of the pamphlet to the planar base member.", "The other side of the pamphlet secures to the planar base member by an ultraviolet cured release coating which allows the user to easily disengage that side of the pamphlet so that printed matter on the multiple fold out informational panels may be viewed.", "Subsequent to pamphlet viewing, the user can reseal the released side of the pamphlet for future reference.", "One significant aspect and feature of the present invention is a product information label system for dissemination of medicinal or medical product information.", "Another significant aspect and feature of the present invention is a product information label system which attaches to a medical device or medical drug container.", "Another significant aspect and feature of the present invention is a product information label system having a pamphlet attached to a planar base member.", "Another significant aspect and feature of the present invention is a product information label system having fold out informational panels.", "Another significant aspect and feature of the present invention is a product information label system having panels which can accommodate an abundance of suitable text information.", "Another significant aspect and feature of the present invention is fold out panels which secure and pivot about a vertical area or a horizontal area.", "Another significant aspect and feature of the present invention is a product information label system having panels which fold out in accordion style.", "Another significant aspect and feature of the present invention is a product information label system having panels which fold out in tuck under style or bib style.", "Another significant aspect and feature of the present invention is a product information label system having a multiplicity of panels which fold out about a multiplicity of left, right, lower or upper fold areas.", "Another significant aspect and feature of the present invention is a product information label system having a protective polypropylene plastic laminate covering underlying panels.", "Another significant aspect and feature of the present invention is a product information label system having a protective polypropylene plastic laminate with acrylic pressure sensitive adhesive on its back side.", "Another significant aspect and feature of the present invention is the use of an ultraviolet cured release coating on a base member which contacts an acrylic pressure sensitive adhesive on the underside of a polypropylene plastic laminate for purposes of sealing and resealing subsequent to release.", "Another significant aspect and feature of the present invention is the use of an ultraviolet cured release coating on a base member which contacts hot melt glue on the underside of a top panel for purposes of sealing and resealing subsequent to release.", "Another significant aspect and feature of the present invention is a product information label system having panels which fold about a living hinge.", "Having thus described significant aspects and features of the present invention, it is the principal object of the present invention to provide a medical and/or drug container product information label system.", "Alternate embodiments disclose various methods of arranging pamphlet panel foldout members and securing of pamphlets to a planar base member.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Other objects of the present invention and many of the attendant advantages of the present invention will be readily appreciated as the same becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed description when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals designate like parts throughout the figures thereof and wherein: FIG. 1 illustrates an isometric view of a product information label system, the present invention;", "FIG. 2 illustrates a front view of the product information label system including the initial step of accessing information from a pamphlet;", "FIG. 3 illustrates the second step and full extension of the panels for accessing information from the pamphlet;", "FIG. 4 illustrates a conceptual cross sectional view along line 4--4 of FIG. 1;", "FIG. 5, a first alternative embodiment, illustrates a front view of a product information label system including the initial step of accessing information from a pamphlet;", "FIG. 6 illustrates the second step and full extension of the panels for accessing information from the pamphlet;", "FIG. 7 illustrates a conceptual cross sectional view of the product information label system of FIG. 5;", "FIG. 8, a second alternative embodiment, illustrates an isometric view of a product information label system;", "FIG. 9 illustrates a front view of the product information label system of FIG. 8 including the initial step of accessing information from a pamphlet;", "FIG. 10 illustrates the second step and full extension of the panels for accessing information from the pamphlet;", "FIG. 11 illustrates a conceptual cross sectional view along line 11--11 of FIG. 8;", "FIG. 12, a third alternative embodiment, illustrates a front view of a product information label system including the initial step of accessing information from a pamphlet;", "FIG. 13 illustrates the second step and full extension of the panels for accessing information from the pamphlet;", "FIG. 14 illustrates a conceptual cross sectional view of the product information label system of FIG. 12;", "FIG. 15, a fourth alternative embodiment, illustrates an isometric view of a product information label system;", "FIG. 16 illustrates a front view of the product information label system of FIG. 15 including the initial step of accessing information from a pamphlet;", "FIG. 17 illustrates the second step and full extension of the panels for accessing information from the pamphlet;", "FIG. 18 illustrates a conceptual cross sectional view along line 18--18 of FIG. 15;", "FIG. 19, a fifth alternative embodiment, illustrates an isometric view of a product information label system;", "FIG. 20 illustrates a front view of the product information label system of FIG. 19 including the initial step of accessing information from a pamphlet;", "FIG. 21 illustrates the second step and full extension of the panels for accessing information from the pamphlet;", "FIG. 22 illustrates a conceptual cross-sectional view along line 22--22 of FIG. 19;", "FIG. 23, a sixth alternative embodiment, illustrates a front view of a product information label system including the initial step of accessing information from a pamphlet;", "FIG. 24 illustrates the second step and full extension of the panels for accessing information from the pamphlet;", "FIG. 25 illustrates a conceptual cross sectional view along line 25--25 of FIG. 23;", "FIG. 26, a seventh alternative embodiment, illustrates a front view of a product information label system including the initial step of accessing information from a pamphlet;", "FIG. 27 illustrates the second step and full extension of the panels for accessing information from the pamphlet;", "FIG. 28 illustrates a conceptual cross sectional view along line 28--28 of FIG. 26;", "FIG. 29, an eighth alternative embodiment, illustrates a front view of a product information label system including the initial step of accessing information from a pamphlet;", "FIG. 30 illustrates the second step and full extension of the panels for accessing information from the pamphlet;", "FIG. 31 illustrates panels rotated about a living hinge to reveal the reverse sides of the panels;", "FIG. 32 illustrates a conceptual cross sectional view along line 32--32 of FIG. 29;", "FIG. 33, a ninth alternative embodiment, illustrates an isometric view of a product information label system;", "FIG. 34 illustrates a front view of the product information label system of FIG. 33 including the initial step of accessing information from a pamphlet;", "FIG. 35 illustrates the second step and full extension of the panels for accessing information from the pamphlet;", "FIG. 36 illustrates a conceptual cross sectional view along line 36--36 of FIG. 33;", "FIG. 37, a tenth alternative embodiment, illustrates an isometric view of a product information label system;", "FIG. 38 illustrates a front view of the product information label system of FIG. 37 including the initial step of accessing information from a pamphlet;", "FIG. 39 illustrates the second step and full extension of the panels for accessing information from the pamphlet;", "and, FIG. 40 illustrates a conceptual cross sectional view along line 40--40 of FIG. 37.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 illustrates an isometric view of a product information label system 10, the present invention.", "The product information label system 10 includes a planar base member 12 of paper, plastic or other such suitable material which can have printed product information on its front surface 14, or which can be without printing, if desired.", "A pamphlet 16 is affixed to the front surface 14, as later described in detail.", "Pamphlet 16 is composed of multiple fold out informational printed paper panels covered by a transparent polypropylene plastic laminate 18 which is secured along an area 20 at the left side of the pamphlet 16 to the planar base member 12.", "The area 22 at the right side of the pamphlet 16 secures to the planar base member 12 by an ultraviolet cured release coating 24, of FIG. 2, which allows the user to easily disengage the right area 22 of the pamphlet 16 so that the printed matter on the multiple fold out informational panels may be viewed.", "Subsequent to pamphlet viewing, the user can reseal the right area 22 of the pamphlet 16 for future reference.", "The product information label system 10 can be attached, such as by adhesive, to a product, a product container or packaging material.", "FIG. 2 illustrates a front view of the product information label system 10 including the initial step of accessing information from the pamphlet 16, where all numerals correspond to those elements previously described.", "The first step is to manually lift the polypropylene plastic laminate 18 from engagement at the right area 22 with the ultraviolet cured release coating 24, which is located on the planar base member 12, to expose informational planar paper panels 26, 28, 30 and 32, each having product information printed on one or more appropriate surfaces.", "Panels 26, 28 and 30 align in pleated or accordion style, whereby each panel is in direct contact with adjacent panels.", "Panel 32 is secured to the underside of the polypropylene plastic laminate 18, and the remaining panels 26, 28 and 30 are free to be deployed, as depicted in FIG. 3, for informational browsing.", "FIG. 3 illustrates the second step and full extension of the panels 26, 28 and 30 for accessing information from the pamphlet 16, where all numerals correspond to those elements previously described.", "As shown in this illustration, information is accessible on the front sides of panels 26, 28 and 30, the back side of panel 32, and in the area on the planar base member 12 beneath panel 26.", "Of course, information is also accessible on the back sides of panels 26, 28 and 30 when the panels are rotated to the left about the left area 20.", "Also, information is viewable on the front side of panel 32 which is attached to the transparent polypropylene plastic laminate 18.", "Although three fold out panels 26, 28 and 32 are illustrated, any suitable number of panels can be incorporated depending on the amount of informational material to be used.", "FIG. 4 illustrates a conceptual cross sectional view along line 4--4 of FIG. 1, where all numerals correspond to those previously described.", "Illustrated in particular is the method of attachment of the pamphlet members to the planar base member 12.", "A layer of acrylic pressure sensitive adhesive 34 is located on the inside surface of the polypropylene plastic laminate 18.", "The acrylic pressure sensitive adhesive layer 34 fastens the polypropylene plastic laminate 18 at the left area 20 to the planar base member 12, secures the panel 32 to the polypropylene plastic laminate 18, and also contacts the ultraviolet cured release coating 24 located on the planar base member 12 at the right area 22 of the pamphlet 16 to seal the panels 26, 28, 30 and 32 within the confines of the protective polypropylene plastic laminate 18.", "The left area 20 acts as a living hinge 36 for folding out of the panels 32 and 26 (and 28-30) for viewing.", "The use of the acrylic pressure sensitive adhesive layer 34 with the ultraviolet cured release coating 24 allows for excellent sealing and resealing characteristics, whereby the information can be accessed many times while still being able to reseal the pamphlet in a satisfactory manner.", "FIG. 5, a first alternative embodiment, illustrates a front view of a product information label system 40, the present invention.", "The product information label system 40 includes a planar base member 42 of paper, plastic or other such suitable material which can have printed product information on its front surface 44, or which can be without printing, if desired.", "A pamphlet 46 is affixed to the front surface 44, as later described in detail.", "Pamphlet 46 is composed of multiple fold out informational printed paper panels covered by a transparent polypropylene plastic laminate 48 which is secured along an area 50 at the left side of the pamphlet 46 to the planar base member 42.", "The area 52 at the right side of the pamphlet 46 secures to the planar base member 42 by an ultraviolet cured release coating 54 which allows the user to easily disengage the right area 52 of the pamphlet 46 so that the printed matter on the multiple fold out informational panels may be viewed.", "Subsequent to pamphlet viewing, the user can reseal the right area 52 of the pamphlet 46 for future reference.", "The product information label system 40 can be attached, such as by adhesive, to a product or product container or packaging material.", "FIG. 5 also illustrates the initial step of accessing information from the pamphlet 46.", "The first step is to manually lift the polypropylene plastic laminate 48 from engagement at the right area 52 with the ultraviolet cured release coating 54, which is located on the planar base member 42, to expose informational planar paper panels 56, 58, 60 and 62, each having product information printed on one or more appropriate surfaces.", "Panels 56, 58 and 60 align in fold and tuck under style where one panel (or more, depending on the number of panels) is folded and tucked under other panels.", "Panel 60 is folded over and tucked between panel 58 and panel 56.", "Correspondingly, an additional panel at the end of panel 60 would be folded over and tucked between panel 60 and panel 58.", "Panel 62 is secured to the underside of the polypropylene plastic laminate 48, and the remaining panels 56, 58 and 60 are free to be deployed, as depicted in FIG. 6, for informational browsing.", "FIG. 6 illustrates the second step and full extension of the panels 56, 58 and 60 for accessing information from the pamphlet 46, where all numerals correspond to those elements previously described.", "As shown in this illustration, information is accessible on the front sides of panels 56, 58 and 60, the back side of panel 62, and in the area on the planar base member 42 beneath panel 56.", "Of course, information is also accessible on the back sides of panels 56, 58 and 60 when the panels are rotated to the left about the living hinge 64 at the left area 50.", "Also, information is viewable on both sides of panel 62 which is attached to the transparent polypropylene plastic laminate 48.", "Although three fold out panels 56, 58 and 60 are illustrated, any suitable number of panels can be incorporated depending on the amount of informational material to be incorporated.", "FIG. 7 illustrates a conceptual cross sectional view of the product information label system 40, where all numerals correspond to those previously described.", "Illustrated in particular is the method of attachment of the pamphlet members to the planar base member 42.", "A layer of acrylic pressure sensitive adhesive 43 is located on the inside surface of the polypropylene plastic laminate 48.", "The acrylic pressure sensitive adhesive layer 43 fastens the polypropylene plastic laminate 48 at the left area 50 to the planar base member 42, secures the panel 62 to the polypropylene plastic laminate 48, and also contacts the ultraviolet cured release coating 54 located on the planar base member 42 at the right area 52 of the pamphlet 46 to seal the panels 56, 58, 60 and 62 within the confines of the protective polypropylene plastic laminate 48.", "The left area 50 acts as a living hinge 64 for folding out of the panels 56, 58, 60 and 62 for viewing.", "The use of the acrylic pressure sensitive adhesive layer 43 with the ultraviolet cured release coating 54 allows for excellent sealing and resealing characteristics, whereby the information can be accessed many times while still being able to reseal the pamphlet in a satisfactory manner.", "FIG. 8, a second alternative embodiment, illustrates an isometric view of a product information label system 70, the present invention.", "The product information label system 70 includes a planar base member 72 of paper, plastic or other such suitable material which can have printed product information on its front surface 74, or which can be without printing, if desired.", "A pamphlet 76 is affixed to the front surface 74, as later described in detail.", "Pamphlet 76 is composed of multiple fold out or fixed informational printed paper panels secured by hot melt adhesive 78 to the planar base member 72, as illustrated in FIG. 11.", "The right area 80 of the pamphlet 76 secures to the planar base member 72 by an ultraviolet cured release coating 84, of FIG. 9, which allows the user to easily disengage the right area 80 of the pamphlet 76 so that the printed matter on the multiple fold out informational panels may be viewed.", "Subsequent to pamphlet viewing, the user can reseal the right area 80 of the pamphlet 76 for future reference.", "The product information label system 70 can be attached, such as by adhesive, to a product, a product container or packaging material.", "FIG. 9 illustrates a front view of the product information label system 70 including the initial step of accessing information from the pamphlet 76, where all numerals correspond to those elements previously described.", "The first step is to manually lift the top pamphlet panel 82, having a hot melt adhesive strip 91 on the underside, from engagement at the right area 80 with the ultraviolet cured release coating 84 which is located on the planar base member 72, to expose one or more sides of informational planar paper panels 82, 86, 88, and 90, each having product information printed on one or more appropriate surfaces.", "Bottom panel 86 is bonded to the planar base member 72 by hot melt adhesive 78 illustrated in FIG. 11.", "Panels 86, 88 and 90 align in pleated or accordion style, whereby each panel is in direct contact with adjacent panels.", "Panel 82 acts as a top cover and sealing member for the remaining panels 86, 88 and 90, which are free to be deployed, as depicted in FIG. 10, for informational browsing.", "FIG. 10 illustrates the second step and full extension of the panels 82, 88 and 90 for accessing information from the pamphlet 76, where all numerals correspond to those elements previously described.", "As shown in this illustration, information is accessible on the front sides of panels 86, 88 and 90, and the front and back sides of panel 82, which rotates about a living hinge 96 common to panels 82 and 86 at the left area 98.", "Of course, information is also accessible on the back sides of panels 88 and 90 when the panels 88 and 90 are rotated to the left about the right area 80, which acts as a living hinge 94.", "Although two fold out panels 88 and 90 are illustrated, any suitable number of panels can be incorporated depending on the amount of informational material to be used.", "FIG. 11 illustrates a conceptual cross sectional view along line 11--11 of FIG. 8, where all numerals correspond to those previously described.", "Illustrated in particular is the method of attachment of the pamphlet members to the planar base member 72.", "Hot melt adhesive 78 bonds bottom panel 86 to the planar base member 72.", "Hot melt adhesive strip 91 on the underside of panel 82 contacts the ultraviolet cured release coating 84 located on the planar base member 72 at the right area 80 of the pamphlet 76 to seal the panels 86, 88, and 90 within the confines of the top pamphlet panel 82.", "The left area 98 acts as a living hinge 96 for folding out of the panel 82 for viewing.", "The use of the hot melt adhesive strip 91 with the ultraviolet cured release coating 84 allows for excellent sealing and resealing characteristics, whereby the information can be accessed many times while still being able to reseal the pamphlet in a satisfactory manner.", "FIG. 12, a third alternative embodiment, illustrates a front view of a product information label system 100, the present invention.", "The product information label system 100 includes a planar base member 102 of paper, plastic or other such suitable material which can have printed product information on its front surface 104, or which can be without printing, if desired.", "A pamphlet 106 is affixed to the front surface 104, as later described in detail.", "Pamphlet 106 is composed of multiple fold out or fixed informational printed paper panels secured by hot melt adhesive 120 to the planar base member 102, as illustrated in FIG. 14.", "The right area 108 of the pamphlet 106 secures to the planar base member 102 by an ultraviolet cured release coating 110 which allows the user to easily disengage the right area 108 of the pamphlet 106 so that the printed matter on the multiple fold out informational panels may be viewed.", "Subsequent to pamphlet viewing, the user can reseal the right area 108 of the pamphlet 106 for future reference.", "The product information label system 100 can be attached, such as by adhesive, to a product or product container or packaging material.", "FIG. 12 also illustrates the initial step of accessing information from the pamphlet 106.", "The first step is to manually lift the top pamphlet panel 118, having a hot melt adhesive strip 111 on the underside, from engagement, at the right area 108, with the ultraviolet cured release coating 110 which is located on the planar base member 102, to expose one or more sides of informational planar paper panels 112, 114, 116 and 118, each having product information printed on one or more appropriate surfaces.", "Panels 112, 114 and 116 align in fold and tuck under style where one panel (or more, depending on the number of panels) is folded and tucked under other panels.", "Panel 116 is folded over and tucked between panel 114 and panel 112.", "Correspondingly, an additional panel at the end of panel 116 would be folded over and tucked between panel 116 and panel 114.", "Bottom panel 112 is bonded to the planar base member 102 by hot melt adhesive 120 illustrated in FIG. 14.", "Panel 118 acts as a top cover and sealing member for the remaining panels 112, 114 and 116, which are free to be deployed, as depicted in FIG. 13, for informational browsing.", "FIG. 13 illustrates the second step and full extension of the panels 114, 116 and 118 for accessing information from the pamphlet 106, where all numerals correspond to those elements previously described.", "As shown in this illustration, information is accessible on the front sides of panels 112, 114, 116 and the back side of panel 118.", "Of course, information is also accessible on the back sides of panels 114 and 116 when the panels are rotated to the left about the living hinge 121 at the right area 108.", "Also, information is viewable on both sides of panel 118, which rotates about living hinge 122 common to panels 112 and 118 at the left area 124.", "Although two fold out panels 114 and 116 are illustrated, any suitable number of panels can be incorporated depending on the amount of informational material to be incorporated.", "FIG. 14 illustrates a conceptual cross sectional view of the product information label system 100, where all numerals correspond to those previously described.", "Illustrated in particular is the method of attachment of the pamphlet members to the planar base member 102.", "Hot melt adhesive 120 bonds bottom panel 112 to the planar base member 102.", "Hot melt adhesive strip 111 on the underside of panel 118 contacts the ultraviolet cured release coating 110 located on the planar base member 102 at the right area 108 of the pamphlet 106 to seal the panels 112, 114 and 116 within the confines of the top pamphlet panel 118.", "The left area 124 acts as a living hinge 122 for folding out of the panel 118 for viewing.", "The use of hot melt adhesive strip 111 with the ultraviolet cured release coating 110 allows for excellent sealing and resealing characteristics, whereby the information can be accessed many times while still being able to reseal the pamphlet in a satisfactory manner.", "FIG. 15, a fourth alternative embodiment, illustrates an isometric view of a product information label system 126, the present invention.", "The product information label system 126 includes a planar base member 128 of paper, plastic or other such suitable material which can have printed product information on its front surface 130, or which can be without printing, if desired.", "A pamphlet 132 is affixed to the front surface 130, as later described in detail.", "Pamphlet 132 is composed of multiple fold out informational printed paper panels covered by a transparent polypropylene plastic laminate 134 which is secured along an upper area 136 of the pamphlet 132 to the planar base member 128.", "The lower area 138 of the pamphlet 132 secures to the planar base member 128 by an ultraviolet cured release coating 140 which allows the user to easily disengage the lower area 138 of the pamphlet 132 so that the printed matter on the multiple fold out informational panels may be viewed.", "Subsequent to pamphlet viewing, the user can reseal the lower area 138 of the pamphlet 132 for future reference.", "The product information label system 126 can be attached, such as by adhesive, to a product, a product container or packaging material.", "FIG. 16 illustrates a front view of the product information label system 126 including the initial step of accessing information from the pamphlet 132, where all numerals correspond to those elements previously described.", "The product information label system 126 is rotated 90° from the view of FIG. 15 for illustration purposes.", "The first step is to manually lift the polypropylene plastic laminate 134 from engagement at the lower area 138 with the ultraviolet cured release coating 140 which is located on the planar base member 128, to subsequently expose informational planar paper panels 142, 144, 146, 148 and 150, each having product information printed on one or more appropriate surfaces.", "Panels 142, 144 , 146 and 148 align in pleated or accordion style, whereby each panel is in direct contact with adjacent panels.", "Panel 150 is secured to the underside of the transparent polypropylene plastic laminate 134, and the remaining panels 142, 144, 146 and 148 are free to be deployed, as depicted in FIG. 17, for informational browsing.", "FIG. 17 illustrates the second step and full extension of the panels 142, 144, 146 and 148 for accessing information from the pamphlet 132, where all numerals correspond to those elements previously described.", "As shown in this rotated illustration, information is accessible on the front sides of panels 142, 144, 146 and 148, the back side of panel 150, and in the area on the planar base member 128 beneath panel 142.", "Of course, information is also accessible on the back sides of panels 142, 144, 146 and 148 when the panels are rotated to the left about the area 136.", "Also, information is viewable on the front side of panel 150 which is attached to the transparent polypropylene plastic laminate 134.", "Although four fold out panels 142, 144, 146 and 148 are illustrated, any suitable number of panels can be incorporated depending on the amount of informational material to be used.", "FIG. 18 illustrates a conceptual cross sectional view along line 18--18 of FIG. 15, where all numerals correspond to those previously described.", "Illustrated in particular is the method of attachment of the pamphlet members to the planar base member 128.", "A layer of acrylic pressure sensitive adhesive 152 is located on the inside surface of the polypropylene plastic laminate 134.", "The acrylic pressure sensitive adhesive layer 152 fastens the polypropylene plastic laminate 134 at area 136 to the planar base member 128, secures the panel 150 to the polypropylene plastic laminate 134, and also contacts the ultraviolet cured release coating 140 located on the planar base member 128 at area 138 of the pamphlet 132 to seal the panels 142, 144, 146, 148 and 150 within the confines of the protective polypropylene plastic laminate 134.", "The area 136 acts as a living hinge 154 for folding out of the panels 142, 144, 146, 148 and 150 for viewing.", "The use of the pressure sensitive adhesive layer 152 with the ultraviolet cured release coating 140 allows for excellent sealing and resealing characteristics, whereby the information can be accessed many times while still being able to reseal the pamphlet in a satisfactory manner.", "FIG. 19, a fifth alternative embodiment, illustrates an isometric view of a product information label system 160, the present invention.", "The product information label system 160 includes a planar base member 162 of paper, plastic or other such suitable material which can have printed product information on its front surface 164, or which can be without printing, if desired.", "A pamphlet 166 is affixed to the front surface 164, as later described in detail.", "Pamphlet 166 is composed of multiple fold out or fixed informational printed paper panels secured by hot melt adhesive 168 to the planar base member 162, as illustrated in FIG. 22.", "The right area 170 of the pamphlet 166 secures to the planar base member 162 by an ultraviolet cured release coating 176, of FIG. 20, which allows the user to easily disengage the right area 170 of the pamphlet 166 so that the printed matter on the fold out informational panels may be viewed.", "Subsequent to pamphlet viewing, the user can reseal the right area 170 of the pamphlet 166 for future reference.", "The product information label system 160 can be attached, such as by adhesive, to a product, a product container or packaging material.", "FIG. 20 illustrates a front view of the product information label system 160 including the initial step of accessing information from the pamphlet 166, where all numerals correspond to those elements previously described.", "The first step is to manually lift the edge of the top pamphlet panel 172, having a hot melt adhesive strip 174, of FIG. 21, on the underside, from engagement, at the right area 170, with an ultraviolet cured release coating 176, of FIG. 21, which is located on the planar base member 162, to expose one or more sides of informational planar paper panels 172, 178 and 180, each having product information printed on one or more appropriate surfaces.", "Bottom panel 180 is bonded to the planar base member 162 by hot melt adhesive 168 illustrated in FIG. 22.", "Panels 172 and 178 align and fold about panel 180, as later illustrated.", "Panel 172 acts as a top cover and sealing member for the remaining panels 178 and 180, which are free to be deployed, as depicted in FIG. 21, for informational browsing.", "FIG. 21 illustrates the second step and full extension of the panels 172, and 178 for accessing information from the pamphlet 166, where all numerals correspond to those elements previously described.", "As shown in this illustration, information is accessible on the front side of panel 180 and the front and back sides of panels 172 and 178, which rotate about living hinges 182 and 184 common to panel 180.", "Although two fold out panels 172 and 178 are illustrated, any suitable number of panels, including accordion style panels, can be incorporated depending on the amount of informational material to be used.", "FIG. 22 illustrates a conceptual cross sectional view of the product information label system 160 along line 22--22 of FIG. 19, where all numerals correspond to those previously described.", "Illustrated in particular is the method of attachment of the pamphlet members to the planar base member 162.", "Hot melt adhesive 168 bonds bottom panel 180 to the planar base member 162.", "Hot melt adhesive strip 174 on the underside of panel 172 contacts the ultraviolet cured release coating 176 located on the planar base member 162 at the right area 170 of the pamphlet 166, to seal the panels 178 and 180 within the confines of the top pamphlet panel 172.", "The use of hot melt adhesive strip 174 with the ultraviolet cured release coating 176 allows for excellent sealing and resealing characteristics, whereby the information can be accessed many times while still being able to reseal the pamphlet in a satisfactory manner.", "FIG. 23, a sixth alternative embodiment, illustrates a front view of a product information label system 190, the present invention.", "The product information label system 190 includes a planar base member 192 of paper, plastic or other such suitable material which can have printed product information on its front surface 194, or which can be without printing, if desired.", "A pamphlet 196 is affixed to the front surface 194, as later described in detail.", "Pamphlet 196 is composed of multiple fold out or fixed informational printed paper panels secured by hot melt adhesive 198 to the planar base member 192, as illustrated in FIG. 25.", "The lower area 200 of the pamphlet 196 secures to the planar base member 192 by an ultraviolet cured release coating 206 which allows the user to easily disengage the lower area 200 of the pamphlet 196 so that the printed matter on the fold out informational panels may be viewed.", "Subsequent to pamphlet viewing, the user can reseal the lower area 200 of the pamphlet 196 for future reference.", "The product information label system 190 can be attached, such as by adhesive, to a product, a product container or packaging material.", "FIG. 23 also illustrates the initial step of accessing information from the pamphlet 196.", "The first step is to manually lift the edge of the top pamphlet panel 202, having a hot melt adhesive strip 204 on the underside, from engagement, at the lower area 200, with the ultraviolet cured release coating 206, which is located on the planar base member 192, to expose one or more sides of informational planar paper panels 202, 208, 210 and 212, each having product information printed on one or more appropriate surfaces.", "Bottom panel 212 is bonded to the planar base member 192 by hot melt adhesive 198 illustrated in FIG. 25.", "Panels 202, 208 and 210 align and fold about panel 212, as later illustrated.", "Panel 202 acts as a top cover and sealing member for the remaining panels 208, 210 and 212, which are free to be deployed, as depicted in FIG. 25, for informational browsing.", "FIG. 24 illustrates the second step and full extension of the panels 202, 208 and 210 for accessing information from the pamphlet 196, where all numerals correspond to those elements previously described.", "As shown in this illustration, information is accessible on the front side of panel 212 and the front and back sides of panels 202, 208 and 210, which rotate about living hinges 214, 216 and 218 common to panel 212.", "Although three fold out panels 202, 208 and 210 are illustrated, any suitable number of panels, including accordion style panels, can be incorporated depending on the amount of informational material to be used.", "FIG. 25 illustrates a conceptual cross sectional view along line 25--25 of FIG. 23, where all numerals correspond to those previously described.", "Illustrated in particular is the method of attachment of the pamphlet members to the planar base member 192.", "Hot melt adhesive 198 bonds bottom panel 212 to the planar base member 192.", "Hot melt adhesive strip 204 on the underside of panel 202 contacts the ultraviolet cured release coating 206 located on the planar base member 192 at area 200 of the pamphlet 196, to seal the panels 208 and 210 within the confines of the top pamphlet panel 202.", "The use of hot melt adhesive strip 204 with the ultraviolet cured release coating 206 allows for excellent sealing and resealing characteristics, whereby the information can be accessed many times while still being able to reseal the pamphlet in a satisfactory manner.", "FIG. 26, a seventh alternative embodiment, illustrates a front view of a product information label system 230, the present invention.", "The product information label system 230 includes a planar base member 232 of paper, plastic or other such suitable material which can have printed product information on its front surface 236, or which can be without printing, if desired.", "A pamphlet 234 is affixed to the front surface 236, as later described in detail.", "Pamphlet 234 is composed of multiple fold out informational printed paper panels covered by a transparent polypropylene plastic laminate 238 which is secured along left area 242 of the pamphlet 234 to the planar base member 232.", "The area 240 at the right side of the pamphlet 234 secures to the planar base member 232 by an ultraviolet cured release coating 244 which allows the user to easily disengage the right area 240 of the pamphlet 234 so that the printed matter on the multiple fold out informational panels may be viewed.", "Subsequent to pamphlet viewing, the user can reseal the right area 240 of the pamphlet 234 for future reference.", "The product information label system 230 can be attached, such as by adhesive, to a product, a product container or packaging material.", "FIG. 26 also illustrates the initial step of accessing information from the pamphlet 234, where all numerals correspond to those elements previously described.", "The first step is to manually lift the polypropylene plastic laminate 238 from engagement at the right area 240 with the ultraviolet cured release coating 244, which is located on the planar base member 232, to expose informational planar paper panels 246 and 248, each having product information printed on one or more appropriate surfaces.", "Panels 246, 248 and 250 align to each other, whereby each panel is in direct contact with adjacent panels.", "Panel 250 is secured to the underside of the polypropylene plastic laminate 238, and the remaining panels 246 and 248 are free to be deployed, as depicted in FIG. 27, for informational browsing.", "FIG. 27 illustrates the second step and full extension of the panels 246, 248 and 250 for accessing information from the pamphlet 234, where all numerals correspond to those elements previously described.", "As shown in this illustration, information is accessible on the front sides of panels 246 and 248, and the area on the planar base member 232 beneath panel 248.", "Of course, information is also accessible on the reverse sides of panels 246, 248 and 250 when the panels are rotated to the left about the left area 242.", "Also, information is viewable on the front side of panel 250 which is attached to the transparent polypropylene plastic laminate 238.", "Although three fold out panels 246, 248 and 250 are illustrated, any suitable number of panels, including accordion style panels, can be incorporated depending on the amount of informational material to be used.", "FIG. 28 illustrates a conceptual cross sectional view along line 28--28 of FIG. 26, where all numerals correspond to those previously described.", "Illustrated in particular is the method of attachment of the pamphlet members to the planar base member 232.", "A layer of acrylic pressure sensitive adhesive 252 is located on the inside surface of the polypropylene plastic laminate 238.", "The acrylic pressure sensitive adhesive layer 252 fastens the polypropylene plastic laminate 238 at left area 242 to the planar base member 232, secures the panel 250 to the polypropylene plastic laminate 238, and also contacts the ultraviolet cured release coating 244 located on the planar base member 232 at the right area 240 of the pamphlet 234 to seal the panels 246, 248 and 250 within the confines of the protective polypropylene plastic laminate 238.", "The left area 242 acts as a living hinge for folding out of the panels 246, 248 and 250, as well as revealing the area on the planar base member 232 beneath panel 248, for viewing.", "The use of the acrylic pressure sensitive adhesive layer 252 with the ultraviolet cured release coating 244 allows for excellent sealing and resealing characteristics, whereby the information can be accessed many times while still being able to reseal the pamphlet in a satisfactory manner.", "FIG. 29, an eighth alternative embodiment, illustrates a front view of a product information label system 260, the present invention.", "The product information label system 260 includes a planar base member 262 of paper, plastic or other such suitable material which can have printed product information on its front surface 264, or which can be without printing, if desired.", "A pamphlet 266 is affixed to the front surface 264, as later described in detail.", "Pamphlet 266 is composed of multiple fold out informational printed paper panels covered by a transparent polypropylene plastic laminate 268 which is secured along left area 270 of the pamphlet 266 to the planar base member 262.", "The right area 272 of the pamphlet 266 secures to the planar base member 262 by an ultraviolet cured release coating 274 which allows the user to easily disengage the right area 272 of the pamphlet 266 so that the printed matter on the multiple fold out informational panels may be viewed.", "Subsequent to pamphlet viewing, the user can reseal the right area 272 of the pamphlet 266 for future reference.", "The product information label system 260 can be attached, such as by adhesive, to a product, a product container or packaging material.", "FIG. 29 also illustrates the initial step of accessing information from the pamphlet 266, where all numerals correspond to those elements previously described.", "The first step is to manually lift the polypropylene plastic laminate 268 from engagement at the right area 272 with the ultraviolet cured release coating 274, which is located on the planar base member 262, to expose informational planar paper panels 276, 278, 280, 282 and 284, each having product information printed on one or more appropriate surfaces.", "Panel 286 is secured to the underside of the polypropylene plastic laminate 268, and the remaining panels 276, 278, 280 and 282, as well as panels 284 and 286, are free to be deployed, as depicted in FIG. 30 and FIG. 31, for informational browsing.", "FIG. 30 illustrates the second step and full extension of the panels 276, 278, 280, 282 and 286 for accessing information from the pamphlet 266, where all numerals correspond to those elements previously described.", "The product information label system 260 is rotated 90° from the view of FIG. 29 for illustration purposes.", "Panels 276 and 278 extend from the center panel 284 in accordion fold style and panels 280 and 282 also extend in accordion fold style from the center panel 284.", "Panel 286 folds about a living hinge 288 at the left area 270.", "As shown in this illustration, information is accessible on the front sides of panels 276, 278, 280, 282 and 284.", "Of course, information is also accessible on the reverse sides of panels 276, 278, 280, 282, 284 and 286 when the panels are rotated to the left about the left area 270, as illustrated in FIG. 31.", "Also, information is viewable on the front side of panel 286 which is attached to the transparent polypropylene plastic laminate 268 and on the area on the planar base member 262 beneath panel 284.", "Any suitable number of accordion style panels can be incorporated depending on the amount of informational material to be used.", "FIG. 31 illustrates panels 276, 278, 280, 282, 284 and 286 rotated about the living hinge 288 at the left area 270 to reveal the reverse sides of the panels 276, 278, 280, 282 and 284, where all numerals correspond to those elements previously described.", "FIG. 32 illustrates a conceptual cross sectional view along line 32--32 of FIG. 29, where all numerals correspond to those previously described.", "Illustrated in particular is the method of attachment of the pamphlet members to the planar base member 262.", "A layer of acrylic pressure sensitive adhesive 290 is located on the inside surface of the polypropylene plastic laminate 268.", "The acrylic pressure sensitive adhesive layer 290 fastens the polypropylene plastic laminate 268 at the left area 270 to the planar base member 262, secures the panel 286 to the polypropylene plastic laminate 268, and also contacts the ultraviolet cured release coating 274 located on the planar base member 262 at the right area 272 of the pamphlet 266 to seal the panels 276, 278, 280, 282, 284 and 286 within the confines of the protective polypropylene plastic laminate 268.", "The left area 270 acts as a living hinge 288 for folding out of the panels 276, 278, 280, 282, 284 and 286, as well as the area on the planar base member 262 beneath panel 284, for viewing.", "The use of the acrylic pressure sensitive adhesive layer 290 with the ultraviolet cured release coating 274 allows for excellent sealing and resealing characteristics, whereby the information can be accessed many times while still being able to reseal the pamphlet in a satisfactory manner.", "FIG. 33, a ninth alternative embodiment, illustrates an isometric view of a product information label system 300, the present invention.", "The product information label system 300 includes a planar base member 302 of paper, plastic or other such suitable material which can have printed product information on its front surface 304, or which can be without printing, if desired.", "A pamphlet 306 is affixed to the front surface 304, as later described in detail.", "Pamphlet 306 is composed of multiple informational printed paper panels in bound booklet form covered by a transparent polypropylene plastic laminate 308 which is secured along a left area 310 of the pamphlet 306 to the planar base member 302.", "The area 312 at the right side of the pamphlet 306 secures to the planar base member 302 by an ultraviolet cured release coating 314 which allows the user to easily disengage the right area 312 of the pamphlet 306 so that the printed matter on the multiple informational panels, in booklet form, may be viewed.", "Subsequent to pamphlet viewing, the user can reseal the right area 312 of the pamphlet 306 for future reference.", "The product information label system 300 can be attached, such as by adhesive, to a product or product container or packaging material.", "FIG. 34 illustrates a front view of the product information label system 300 including the initial step of accessing information from the pamphlet 306.", "The first step is to manually lift the polypropylene plastic laminate 308 from engagement at the right area 312 with an ultraviolet cured release coating 314, which is located on the planar base member 302, to expose informational planar paper panels 316, 318, 320 and 322, each having product information printed on one or more appropriate surfaces.", "Panels 316, 318, 320 and 322 align in stacked style where one panel, or more, is aligned with other panels.", "Panel 322 is secured to the underside of the polypropylene plastic laminate 308, and the remaining panels 316, 318 and 320 are free to be deployed, as depicted in FIG. 35, for informational browsing.", "FIG. 35 illustrates the second step and full extension of the panels 316, 318, 320 and 322 for accessing information from the pamphlet 306, where all numerals correspond to those elements previously described.", "As shown in this illustration, information is accessible on the front sides of panels 316, 318 and 320, the back side of panel 322, and in the area on the planar base member 302 beneath panel 316.", "Of course, information is also accessible on the back sides of panels 316, 318 and 320 when the panels are rotated to the left about the living hinge 324 at the left area 310.", "Information is viewable on both sides of panel 322 which is attached to the transparent polypropylene plastic laminate 308.", "Although three stacked panels 316, 318 and 320 are illustrated, any suitable number of panels can be incorporated depending on the amount of informational material to be incorporated.", "FIG. 36 illustrates a conceptual cross sectional view of the product information label system 300 along line 36--36 of FIG. 33, where all numerals correspond to those previously described.", "Illustrated in particular is the method of attachment of the pamphlet members to the planar base member 302.", "A layer of acrylic pressure sensitive adhesive 326 is located on the inside surface of the polypropylene plastic laminate 308.", "The acrylic pressure sensitive adhesive layer 326 fastens the polypropylene plastic laminate 308 at the left area 310 to the planar base member 302, secures the panel 322 directly and panels 316, 318 and 320 indirectly to the polypropylene plastic laminate 308, and also contacts the ultraviolet cured release coating 314 located on the planar base member 302 at the right area 312 of the pamphlet 306 to seal the panels 316, 318, 320 and 322 within the confines of the protective polypropylene plastic laminate 308.", "Panels 316, 318, 320 and 322 are mutually secured by a suitable securing member 328 such as, but not limited to, staples, rivets, gluing, stitching and the like.", "The left area 310 acts as a living hinge 324 for folding out, as a unit, of the panels 316, 318, 320 and 322 for subsequent individual viewing of both sides of the panels 316, 318, 320 and 322.", "The use of the acrylic pressure sensitive adhesive layer 326 with the ultraviolet cured release coating 314 allows for excellent sealing and resealing characteristics, whereby the information can be accessed many times while still being able to reseal the pamphlet in a satisfactory manner.", "FIG. 37, a tenth alternative embodiment, illustrates an isometric view of a product information label system 330, the present invention.", "The product information label system 330 includes a planar base member 332 of paper, plastic or other such suitable material which can have printed product information on its front surface 334, or which can be without printing, if desired.", "A pamphlet 336 is affixed to the front surface 334, as later described in detail.", "Pamphlet 336 is composed of multiple informational printed paper panels in bound booklet form having a top pamphlet member 338.", "The top pamphlet member 338, and pamphlet members beneath the pamphlet top member 338, are secured along a left area 340 of the pamphlet 336 to the planar base member 332.", "The right area 342 of the pamphlet 336 secures to the planar base member 332 by an ultraviolet cured release coating 344 which allows the user to easily disengage the right area 342 of the pamphlet 336 so that the printed matter on the multiple informational panels, in booklet form, may be viewed.", "Subsequent to pamphlet viewing, the user can reseal the right area 342 of the pamphlet 336 for future reference.", "The product information label system 330 can be attached, such as by adhesive, to a product or product container or packaging material.", "FIG. 38 illustrates a front view of the product information label system 330 including the initial step of accessing information from the pamphlet 336, where all numerals correspond to those elements previously described.", "The first step is to manually lift the top pamphlet member 338 from engagement at the right area 342 with the ultraviolet cured release coating 344, which is located on the planar base member 332, to expose informational planar paper panels 346, 348, 350 and 352, each having product information printed on one or more appropriate surfaces.", "Panels 338, 346, 348, 350 and 352 align in stacked style where one panel, or more, is aligned with adjacent panels.", "Panels 338, 346, 348 350 and 352 are free to be deployed, as depicted in FIG. 39, for informational browsing.", "FIG. 39 illustrates the second step and full extension of the panels 338, 346, 348, 350 and 352 for accessing information from the pamphlet 336, where all numerals correspond to those elements previously described.", "As shown in this illustration, information is accessible on the front sides of panels 346, 348, 350 and 352, and the back side of panel 338.", "Of course, information is also accessible on the back sides of panels 346, 348, 350 and 352 when the panels are rotated to the left about the left area 340.", "Information is viewable on both sides of panel 338.", "Although five stacked panels 338, 346, 348, 350 and 352 are illustrated, any suitable number of panels can be incorporated depending on the amount of informational material to be incorporated.", "FIG. 40 illustrates a conceptual cross sectional view along line 40--40 of FIG. 37 of the product information label system 330, where all numerals correspond to those previously described.", "Illustrated in particular is the method of attachment of the pamphlet members to the planar base member 332.", "A layer of hot melt adhesive 354 is located on the front surface 334 of the planar base member 332.", "The hot melt adhesive 354 fastens the bottom panel 352 directly to the planar base member 332, and panels 338, 346, 348, 350 and 352 indirectly to the planar base member 332.", "A strip of hot melt adhesive 356 is located on the underside edge of the top pamphlet member 338 at the right area 342 which contacts the ultraviolet cured release coating 344 located on the planar base member 332 to seal the panels 346, 348, 350 and 352 within the confines of the top pamphlet member 338.", "Panels 338, 346, 348, 350 and 352 are mutually secured by a suitable securing member 358 such as, but not limited to, staples, rivets, gluing, stitching and the like.", "The left area 340 acts as a living hinge 360 for folding out, as a unit, of the panels 338, 346, 348, 350 and 352 for subsequent individual viewing of both sides of the panels 338, 346, 348, 350 and 352.", "The use of hot melt adhesive strip 356 with the ultraviolet cured release coating 344 allows for excellent sealing and resealing characteristics, whereby the information can be accessed many times while still being able to reseal the pamphlet in a satisfactory manner.", "Various modifications can be made to the present invention without departing from the apparent scope hereof." ]

[ "TECHNICAL FIELD This invention relates generally to the polymerization of resins containing maleic anhydride.", "More particularly, this invention relates to a process for precipitating resins containing maleic anhydride from organic solvent solutions.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The preparation of copolymers of maleic anhydride with various unsaturated monomers, particularly ethylene and styrene, is well known in the art.", "One of the more common techniques for effecting the polymerization of such copolymers involves solution polymerization.", "Briefly, solution polymerization is a process in which the monomers and polymerization initiators are dissolved in a solvent or diluent at the beginning of the polymerization reaction;", "the solvent or diluent is usually also a solvent for the resulting copolymer.", "A problem that has persisted in the art is the development of a suitable method for precipitating the polymerized product from the polymerization solution.", "One commonly used technique is to precipitate the polymer in methanol.", "This technique has several disadvantages relating to the toxicity, flammability and cost of methanol.", "Additionally the resin produced using methanol generally has a fibrous texture, low bulk density and often exhibits handling problems such as, for example, bridging the extruder hoppers during pelletizing.", "Consequently, considerable effort has been expended to devise suitable and effective techniques for precipitating copolymers of maleic anhydride from polymerization solutions.", "For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,461,108 teaches the employment of certain solvents for the polymerization step, keeping the monomers and in some instances the polymers also in solution during polymerization and then adding to the resulting solution another liquid, which causes precipitation of the polymer products in finely divided filterable solid form.", "The selection of the combination of reaction solvent and precipitating solvent has been characterized as being critical;", "a limited choice of solvent combination appears to exist and no completely satisfactory precipitating solvent has been found for some copolymers (U.S. Pat. No. 3,729,450).", "Furthermore, the solvents tend to be costly and, therefore, must be separated and recovered.", "An alternate approach is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,729,450 wherein copolymers containing maleic anhydride are copolymerized in a solvent for both monomers and the resulting copolymers.", "The copolymer products are then recovered by steam distillation until solvent and other liquid materials are removed, leaving a molten copolymer which is then poured on a chilled metal surface to solidify the polymer.", "The disclosure indicates that the steam stripped copolymers are non-tacky and brittle so that they can be removed from the metal surface and broken into chunks by bending or inverting the chilled surface and allowing the solid material to fall a substantial distance into a container.", "U.S. Pat. No. 4,145,375 teaches a process for copolymerizing styrene and maleic anhydride by the steps of gradually mixing maleic anhydride with styrene in a mass stage under polymerizing conditions to form styrene-maleic anhydride polymer and then suspending the styrene-rich mixture in water, the styrene polymerization is completed as in a conventional mass/suspension polymerization system.", "Following polymerization, polymeric beads are separated from the water and dried.", "The disclosure indicates that after drying, the beads are likely to contain internal moisture and in addition approximately 15% of the bound maleic anhydride may be present in the acid rather than anhydride form, and, consequently, during extrusion, the acid portion reverts to the anhydride with the elimination of water.", "The disclosure indicates that a well-vented extruder is needed to produce a bubble-free extrudate.", "U.S. Pat. No. 3,646,044 discloses a process wherein maleic anhydride and a vinyl monomer, such as styrene, are copolymerized in an aqueous medium containing a water-miscible organic solvent and a free radical polymerization catalyst so that polymerization takes place in the aqueous medium and an acid copolymer precipitates as it is formed.", "The water miscible organic solvent becomes associated with the acid copolymer and settles therewith to form a separate, usually gummy, layer at the bottom.", "An upper aqueous layer is formed which contains very little resin solids.", "The methods heretofore known for precipitating polymeric resins containing maleic anhydride from solution polymerization solvents are not comparably facile when compared to the process of the present invention.", "Likewise, the polymeric products obtained therefrom are attendant with problems not present in the products produced in accordance with the present invention.", "For example, the problems of selecting non-solvent materials that are suitable for the particular polymeric material to be precipitated that may, in any event, be toxic, flammable and/or costly are avoided with the present invention.", "Similarly, the problems of condensing and recovering distilled solvents are also avoided.", "The products obtained with most of the prior art methods exhibit handling problems (e.g., bridging in extruder hoppers) and processing problems (e.g., foamed extrudate products) that are substantially avoided with the present invention;", "the prior art methods require additional processing (e.g., heat treating) to overcome these problems that can be avoided or minimized with the present invention.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention contemplates the provision of a method of precipitating a copolymer comprising maleic anhydride from a solution comprising an organic solvent, the method comprising mixing a solution of an organic solvent and a copolymer of maleic anhydride and a monomer copolymerizable therewith with water at a temperature in the range of about 40° C. to about 100° C. and agitating the resulting mixture for a sufficient period of time and at a sufficiently high shear rate to precipitate particles of said copolymer that are substantially free of internal organic solvent.", "In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the maleic anhydride containing copolymer is constituted of maleic anhydride and styrene.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Further features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the detailed description of the preferred embodiment herein set forth.", "The present invention will be described hereinafter as applied particularly to copolymers of maleic anhydride and styrene.", "It is to be understood, however, that the starting material of the process of the present invention (i.e., the polymeric material to be precipitated) may be any copolymer containing maleic anhydride.", "The maleic anhydride copolymers useful with the process of the present invention are constituted of maleic anhydride and a monomer copolymerizable therewith.", "Maleic anhydride monomers include maleic anhydride, monochloromaleic anhydride and bromomaleic anhydride.", "The amount of maleic anhydride type monomer can vary widely from about 6% to about 50% (molar percent) based on the total polymer composition.", "Preferably the copolymers of the present invention contain about 40% to about 50% maleic anhydride.", "The monomers copolymerizable with maleic anhydride include one or more of indene, isobutylene, diisobutylene, styrene, acrylates such as methylacrylate and methyl methacrylate, alpha-olefins and vinyl acetate.", "The preferred copolymer is styrene/maleic anhydride wherein up to about 80% of the styrene can be replaced by one or more of the monomers listed above.", "Copolymers of styrene/maleic anhydride (1:1 molar ratio) and styrene/maleic anhydride/isobutylene (0.5:1:0.5 molar ratio) are particularly preferred.", "The process of the present invention is particularly suited for use with polymerization processes employing solution polymerization techniques.", "Solution polymerization techniques are well known to those of ordinary skill in the art and, consequently, need not be further described herein.", "A preferred solution polymerization technique that may be used in accordance with the present invention is to effect polymerization in an organic solvent in the presence of a free radical initiator and in the substantial absence of molecular oxygen at a temperature from about 0° C. to about 100° C. Suitable solvents include methyl ethyl ketone, acetone, acetonitrile, toluene and benzene.", "Methyl ethyl ketone is a preferred solvent.", "In accordance with the process of the present invention, the copolymerized starting material is precipitated from the organic solvent employed during polymerization by mixing the solution of solvent and starting material with hot water under high shear agitation.", "The term "hot water"", "is used herein to mean water having a temperature in the range of about 40° C. to about 100° C., preferably about 50° C. to about 60° C. The ratio of water to solution containing copolymerized starting material is in the range of about 20:1 to about 1:1, and preferably is about 4:1.", "Ratios less than about 1:1 generally require agitation at shear rates that are too high to be practical.", "The precipitation step is performed in a vessel of any type equipped with an agitator that is suitable for effecting high shear mixing of water and solutions containing copolymerized starting material.", "Such vessels and agitators are entirely conventional in structure and operation and, being well known to those of ordinary skill in the art, need not be further described herein.", "In a preferred aspect of the invention, baffles are not used to assist agitation due to the fact that polymer tends to build up on the sides of such baffles.", "When baffles are not used, agitation is preferably performed at a sufficiently high rate so that a vortex is formed, i.e., the fluid level in the vessel increases along a radius from a minimum at the agitator to a maximum at the walls of the vessel.", "While not wishing to be bound by theory, it is believed that as the polymerized starting material contacts the hot water, strands or lumps of copolymer are formed with the exteriors of such strands or lumps being softened by the heat from the hot water, the interiors of such strands or lumps containing solvent.", "High shear agitation continually reduces these strands or lumps to particles ranging in size of up to about 1/8 inch in diameter.", "The agitation continually exposes the interiors of these strands or lumps to the hot water resulting in the softening of the polymerized material and removal of interior solvent.", "The softening of the polymerized material provides for a granular exterior appearance and a higher bulk density than would be obtained with colder temperatures.", "Low shear agitation, on the other hand, results in the formation of large particles that contain substantial quantities of interior solvent which, if not removed, cause foaming during extrusion.", "The organic solvent solution containing the starting material can be mixed with the hot water prior to the commencement of agitation or during agitation.", "The precipitation process of the present invention can be employed with both batch and continuous solution polymerization processes.", "In either case the operating parameters of the precipitation process must be established within the foregoing limitations to accommodate the operating conditions of the particular polymerization process with which it is to be used.", "Upon completion of the precipitation process, the polymerized starting material is separated from the solvent and hot water using conventional filtration techniques and then dried using conventional drying techniques.", "Such filtration and drying techniques are well known to those of ordinary skill in the art and, consequently, need not be further described herein.", "The filtered and dried resinous product produced in accordance with the present invention exhibits a granular appearance, the particle size of wich may range from, for example, a fine powder to nuggets approximately 1/8"", "in diameter.", "The material is characterized by a relatively high bulk density which enhances its handling characteristics.", "Resins produced in accordance with the present invention generally can be fed to an extruder or other processing equipment without the necessity of employing forced feeding techniques.", "Additionally, filtered and dried granules produced in accordance with the invention are substantially free of internal solvent and, accordingly, are well suited for extrusion and molding applications for producing polymeric articles that are substantially free of bubbles or foam.", "The polymeric materials produced in accordance with the present invention can be molded, for example, into containers, pipes, rods, films, sheets, fibers, and the like, to be used for storing and for transporting solids, liquid and gases of various types.", "By further illustration of the invention, reference may be made to the following specific examples.", "Unless otherwise indicated, all parts and percentages are by weight.", "EXAMPLE 1 A solution containing a copolymer of maleic anhydride and styrene is prepared from 50 parts by weight of styrene, 50 parts by weight of maleic anhydride, 242 parts by weight of methyl ethyl ketone and 0.5 parts by weight of Vazo-64 (azobisisobutyronitrile, a free radical initiator made by DuPont) using the following procedure.", "The reaction kettle is placed in a heating mantle and equipped with a stirrer and condenser.", "One-third of the total charge of the methyl ethyl ketone and Vazo-64 are added to this kettle.", "The resulting solution is heated with stirring to 80° C. After a few minutes, the feed, made up by dissolving the styrene and maleic anhydride monomers in the remainder of the methyl ethyl ketone, is pumped continuously into the kettle over three hours.", "The remaining Vazo-64 is added in two equal amounts of the reaction mixture during the monomer addition.", "The first Vazo-64 addition is made after one hour into the run and the second after two hours into the run.", "On completion of the feed addition, the reaction mixture is heated and stirred for an extra hour.", "The resulting solution is then cooled to room temperature.", "EXAMPLE 2 One quart of water having a temperature of 50° C. is added to a Model S-61643 Waring Blendor.", "The Waring Blendor has a one-gallon mixing capacity and three operating speeds.", "The impeller is driven by a series wound A.C. motor at no load speeds of 15,500, 18,300 and 20,000 rpm.", "One-half pint of the solution from Example 1 is added to the blender.", "The blender is turned on initially at high speed for 30 seconds.", "The speed is then reduced to medium speed and the mixing is continued for another 30 seconds.", "A vortex is observed during mixing.", "The product obtained is vacuum filtered for 5 minutes and returned to the Waring Blendor for washing.", "One quart of tap water is mixed with the product for two minutes at medium speed.", "The product is filtered and vacuum dried for 15 minutes and then placed in an oven and dried overnight at 55° to 60° C. The product is heat treated at 160° C. for 7 hours then dried overnight at 55° to 60° C. with dehumidified air.", "The resulting resinous product has a granular appearance ranging in particle size from a fine powder to nuggets approximately 1/8 inch in diameter.", "The resulting product is then extruded in a Brabender extruder at 50 rpm using a two-stage vented screw at a temperature of 240° C. A torque of 3,000 meter-grams, an output of 766 grams per hour and a melt temperature of 261° C. is observed.", "The resin is self-feeding and the extrudate is substantially bubble and foam free.", "EXAMPLE 3 The procedure followed in Example 2 is repeated with the exception that the resin is precipitated in water at a temperature of 18° C. The resulting product is a fluffy powder.", "When extruded in a Brabender extruder under the conditions used in Example 2, a torque of 5500 meter-grams and a melt temperature of 252° C. is observed.", "Forced feeding is required to feed the resin to the extruder.", "Significant foaming in the extrudate is observed.", "EXAMPLE 4 The procedure of Example 2 is repeated with the exception that the resin is precipitated in methanol at room temperature.", "The resinous product is observed to have a fibrous texture.", "The resin is extruded in the Brabender extruder in the same manner as in Example 2 with the result being a torque of 5500 meter-grams and a melt temperature of 258° C. Forced feeding is required to feed the resin to the extruder.", "Significant foaming in the extrudate is observed.", "A comparison of Examples 2, 3 and 4 indicates that a resinous product with acceptable handling and processing characteristics can be obtained when it is precipitated in accordance with the present invention in hot water, but not in water at a temperature of 18° C. and not in methanol.", "As advantage of the present invention is that the disadvantages of flammability, toxicity and cost associated with using methanol, as well as other non-solvents, are avoided.", "While the invention has been explained in relation to its preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that various modifications thereof will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading this specification.", "Therefore, it is to be understood that the invention disclosed herein is intended to cover such modifications as fall within the scope of the appended claims." ]

[ "TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present invention relates to a machine tool control device that controls a machine tool such as an NC automatic lathe.", "BACKGROUND ART [0002] One of the correction amounts that are sequentially calculated in a conventional machine tool control device while executing a machining program is a correction amount for correcting a thermal displacement amount of a machine tool.", "For example, there is a machine tool control device that sequentially calculates and uses a thermal displacement amount as a correction value until a saturated thermal displacement amount is reached and uses the saturated thermal displacement amount as a correction value once the saturated thermal displacement amount has been reached (see Patent Literature 1, for example).", "[0003] There is also a numerical control device that includes sequential analysis control means for reading and executing a machining program for machining a workpiece one line at a time and advance analysis control means for preliminarily decoding the machining program in a lump and converting and executing the machining program in a predetermined form.", "The numerical control device controls an operation of a machine tool via the sequential analysis control means or the advance analysis control means (see Patent Literature 2, for example).", "CITATION LIST Patent Literature [0000] Patent Literature 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H10-143217 (see Claims and FIGS. 1 to 3 ) Patent Literature 2: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-341912 (see Claims and FIGS. 1 to 3 ) SUMMARY OF INVENTION Technical Problem [0006] The aforementioned machine tool control device has, however, a problem in that a saturated thermal displacement amount has to be measured or calculated in advance and it is not easy to correct thermal displacement.", "[0007] The advance analysis control means can usually control an operation of a machine tool faster than the sequential analysis control means.", "When the thermal displacement needs be corrected, however, the advance analysis control means has to decode and convert a machining program and create executable data on the basis of a correction value for the thermal displacement (thermal displacement correction value) in each machining cycle of a workpiece, for example.", "Thus, there is a problem in that the advance analysis control means could cause a decrease in processing speed and the thermal displacement cannot be easily corrected while the advance analysis control means is in operation.", "[0008] Thus, a technical problem addressed by the present invention, or an object of the present invention, is to provide a machine tool control device capable of correcting thermal displacement that occurs in a machine tool and avoiding a decrease in processing speed to increase accuracy of machining a workpiece.", "Solution to Problem [0009] According to a first aspect of the present invention, a machine tool control device includes: a sequential analysis control unit for reading and executing a machining program for machining a workpiece one line at a time;", "an advance analysis control unit for preliminarily decoding the machining program in a lump and converting and executing the machining program in a predetermined form;", "and a correction amount calculation unit for sequentially calculating a correction amount for executing the machining program.", "The machine tool control device executes the machining program on the basis of the correction amount calculated by the correction amount calculation unit and controls an operation of a machine tool.", "The machine tool control device further includes: a change amount calculation unit for sequentially calculating a change amount of the correction amount;", "and a mode switching unit for switching between the advance analysis control unit and the sequential analysis control unit.", "The mode switching unit is configured for activating the advance analysis control unit when the change amount is within a predetermined range and activating the sequential analysis control unit when the change amount is not within the predetermined range.", "The advance analysis control unit is configured for executing the conversion of the machining program on the basis of a correction amount whose change amount is within the predetermined range and not re-executing the conversion of the machining program while the advance analysis control unit is in operation.", "[0010] According to a second aspect of the present invention, the correction amount calculation unit calculates a thermal displacement correction amount in accordance with thermal displacement of the machine tool.", "[0011] According to a third aspect of the present invention, the mode switching unit is configured for switching between the advance analysis control unit and the sequential analysis control unit at the beginning of each machining cycle.", "[0012] According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the mode switching unit includes a sequential analysis continuous activation unit for activating the sequential analysis control unit for a predetermined sequential analysis executing period when switching from the advance analysis control unit to the sequential analysis control unit within a predetermined time period after switching from the sequential analysis control unit to the advance analysis control unit.", "Advantageous Effects of Invention [0013] The machine tool control device in accordance with the first aspect of the present invention can increase accuracy of machining a workpiece by switching between the advance analysis control unit and the sequential analysis control unit in accordance with a change amount of a correction amount without measuring or calculating a saturation value of a correction amount in advance.", "Also, the machine tool control device can reduce a machining time needed for machining a workpiece via the advance analysis control unit by avoiding re-conversion of a machining program while the advance analysis control unit is in operation.", "[0014] In addition to the advantageous effects of the machine tool control device in accordance with the first aspect of the present invention, the machine tool control device in accordance with the second aspect of the present invention can easily correct a thermal displacement amount, control an operation of a machine tool, and machine a workpiece highly accurately without measuring or calculating a saturated thermal displacement amount in advance, because the correction amount calculation unit calculates a thermal displacement correction amount in accordance with thermal displacement of the machine tool.", "[0015] In addition to the advantageous effects of the machine tool control device in accordance with the first or second aspect of the present invention, the machine tool control device in accordance with the third aspect of the present invention can control a machine tool in a fast and highly-accurate manner to machine a workpiece highly accurately, because the mode switching unit is configured for switching between the advance analysis control unit and the sequential analysis control unit at the beginning of each machining cycle.", "[0016] In addition to the advantageous effects of the machine tool control device in accordance with any one of the first to third aspects of the present invention, the machine tool control device in accordance with the fourth aspect of the present invention can further reduce the machining time of a workpiece by avoiding frequent switching between the sequential analysis control unit and the advance analysis control unit and thus preventing frequent conversion of a machining program.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS [0017] FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a machine tool control device as an embodiment of the present invention;", "[0018] FIG. 2 is a table illustrating a machining program and analysis modes of a machine tool along a time axis;", "[0019] FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating a control flow of a machine tool control device as an embodiment of the present invention;", "[0020] FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating a control flow of a machine tool control device as an embodiment of the present invention;", "and [0021] FIG. 5 includes a graph illustrating chronological change of a thermal displacement amount, workpiece dimensions, and a correction value and a timing chart of switching analysis modes.", "DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS [0022] A machine tool control device 100 as one embodiment of the present invention will now be described.", "As shown in FIG. 1 , the machine tool control device 100 includes a sequential analysis control unit 110 , an advance analysis control unit 120 , a correction amount calculation unit 130 , a change amount calculation unit 140 , and a mode switching unit 150 , and controls a machine tool M. The machine tool M is supposed to be a machine tool that continuously machines a plurality of workpieces, such as an automatic lathe that machines a bar, and includes a main spindle M 1 , a main spindle Z-axis motor M 2 , a Z-axis ball screw M 3 , a working tool M 4 , a tool post M 5 , an X-axis ball screw M 6 , and a tool post X-axis motor M 7 .", "[0023] On the basis of a pre-stored machining program, the machine tool control device 100 controls rotation of the main spindle Z-axis motor M 2 for moving the main spindle M 1 along the Z-axis ball screw M 3 in a Z-axis direction, and controls rotation of the tool post X-axis motor M 7 for moving the tool post M 5 along the X-axis ball screw M 6 in an X-axis direction.", "This enables the machine tool M to machine a workpiece W. [0024] When the machine tool M machines the workpiece W, heat is usually generated by the rotation of the motors and the friction of the ball screws, for example.", "The heat causes elongation of the ball screws, for example, and that leads to a machining error (thermal displacement).", "To address this problem, the machine tool control device 100 is configured such that the correction amount calculation unit 130 calculates a thermal displacement correction amount as a correction value for correcting the thermal displacement and the change amount calculation unit 140 calculates a change amount of the correction value (correction amount).", "[0025] As shown in FIG. 2 , the correction amount calculation unit 130 sequentially calculates a correction value at a certain interval regardless of machining cycles of the workpiece W. The correction value is stored in a memory such as a register (not shown).", "The correction value is calculated based on the temperature and amount of thermal displacement in the machine tool, for example.", "A method of calculating the correction value is well-known and the detailed description thereof is thus omitted.", "[0026] As shown in FIG. 3 , the change amount calculation unit 140 determines whether a correction value is calculated by the correction amount calculation unit (step S 110 ), obtains the correction value if it is calculated (step S 102 ), and calculates a change amount on the basis of the obtained correction value (step S 103 ).", "The change amount can be calculated by using the difference between successively calculated correction amounts or an average movement, for example.", "[0027] The change amount calculation unit 140 then determines whether the change amount is within a predetermined range of threshold (step S 104 ), and sets an advance analysis flag if the change amount is within the predetermined range (step S 105 ).", "If the change amount is not within the predetermined range in step S 104 , it is determined whether the advance analysis flag is set (step S 106 ).", "If the advance analysis flag is not set, the process returns to the start.", "If the advance analysis flag is set, the advance analysis flag is reset and the process returns to the start.", "[0028] Accordingly, the change amount of the correction value is sequentially calculated on the basis of the correction value, and the advance analysis flag is set or reset on the basis of the change amount.", "Because the correction value is output regardless of machining cycles of the workpiece W, the advance analysis flag is also set or reset regardless of machining cycles of the workpiece W. [0029] The machine tool control device 100 has a sequential analysis mode and an advance analysis mode.", "In the sequential analysis mode, the sequential analysis control unit (sequential analysis control means) 110 reads and executes a machining program one line at a time and controls each of the motors.", "In the advance analysis mode, the advance analysis control unit (advance analysis control means) 120 preliminarily decodes the machining program in a lump, converts the program in a predetermined form, and executes the converted program to control each of the motors.", "The sequential analysis mode and the advance analysis mode are switched and alternately set by the mode switching unit 150 .", "The machine tool control device 100 controls machining of the workpiece W in either the sequential analysis mode or the advance analysis mode.", "[0030] As shown in FIG. 4 , the mode switching unit 150 determines whether a sequential analysis continuation flag, which is set in step S 210 and reset in step S 207 , is set (step S 201 ).", "If the sequential analysis continuation flag is not set, the mode switching unit 150 determines whether the advance analysis flag is set (step S 202 ).", "[0031] If the advance analysis flag is set, the mode switching unit 150 determines whether the sequential analysis mode is set (step S 203 ).", "If the sequential analysis mode is set, the mode switching unit 150 makes the advance analysis control unit 120 execute advance analysis and perform calculation of the advance analysis (step S 204 ), and sets the advance analysis mode (step S 205 ).", "If the sequential analysis mode is not set in step S 203 , step S 205 is directly carried out and the advance analysis mode continues without performing re-calculation of the advance analysis.", "[0032] If the advance analysis flag is not set in step S 202 , it is determined whether the advance analysis mode is set (step S 208 ).", "If the advance analysis mode is set, it is determined whether the advance analysis mode has been set for a certain period of time (step S 209 ).", "[0033] If the advance analysis mode has been set for the certain period of time, the sequential analysis mode is set (step S 211 ).", "If the advance analysis mode has not been set for the certain period of time, the sequential analysis continuation flag is set (step S 210 ), and the sequential analysis mode is set in step S 211 .", "If the advance analysis mode is not set in step S 208 , the sequential analysis mode is set in step S 211 and the sequential analysis mode continues.", "[0034] If the sequential analysis continuation flag is set in step S 201 , it is determined whether the sequential analysis mode has been set for a certain period of time (step S 206 ).", "If the sequential analysis mode has been set for the certain period of time, the sequential analysis continuation flag for continuing the sequential analysis mode is reset (step S 207 ), and step S 202 is executed.", "If it is determined in step S 206 that the sequential analysis mode has not been set for the certain period of time, step S 211 is executed.", "The mode switching unit 150 repeatedly executes steps S 201 to S 211 at the end of each machining cycle of the workpiece W until the machine tool M completes machining of the workpiece W. [0035] On the basis of the above described operation of the mode switching unit 150 , the machine tool control device 100 sets the advance analysis mode when the advance analysis flag is set by the change amount calculation unit 140 and sets the sequential analysis mode when the advance analysis flag is not set at the end of each machining cycle of the workpiece W. [0036] If the advance analysis mode is switched to the sequential analysis mode within a predetermined certain period of time, however, the sequential analysis mode continues for a predetermined certain sequential analysis execution period regardless of the setting of the advance analysis flag.", "Steps S 201 , S 206 , and S 207 constitute a sequential analysis continuous activation unit for continuously activating the sequential analysis mode for the sequential analysis execution period.", "[0037] When the machine tool control device 100 is in the sequential analysis mode, the sequential analysis control unit 110 executes a machining program one line at a time while making correction on the basis of a correction value at the beginning of a machining cycle of the workpiece W (such as a correction value A in FIG. 2 ).", "This enables to correct thermal displacement and the machine tool M can machine the workpiece W highly accurately.", "[0038] When the machine tool control device 100 is in the advance analysis mode, the machine tool M can machine the workpiece W faster than when the machine tool control device 100 is in the sequential analysis mode, due to the program converted by the advance analysis control unit 120 .", "The thermal displacement is corrected and highly accurate machining of the workpiece W is maintained in the advance analysis mode because the advance analysis control unit 120 converts the machining program on the basis of the latest correction value whose change amount is within the range of threshold (such as a correction value F in FIG. 2 ).", "The correction value used by the advance analysis control unit 120 for converting the machining program may be any value other than the above-described latest value, as long as the change amount of the correction value is within the range of threshold.", "For example, the correction value may be the first correction value whose change amount is within the range of threshold (such as a correction value C in FIG. 2 ) or an average of correction values whose change amounts are within the range of threshold.", "[0039] When the advance analysis mode continues, however, the machine tool control device 100 continuously uses the program initially converted by the advance analysis control unit 120 .", "Thus, as shown in FIG. 5 , if the amount of the thermal displacement increases with respect to the correction value used by the advance analysis control unit 120 for converting the machining program and the change amount of a sequentially calculated correction value becomes out of the range of threshold, the accuracy of machining the workpiece W decreases and a machining error increases.", "[0040] To address this issue, the calculation of a correction value by the correction amount calculation unit 130 , the calculation of the change amount by the change amount calculation unit 140 , and the setting/resetting of the advance analysis flag are continuously executed even after the advance analysis mode is set.", "Thus, as shown in FIG. 5( b ), the machine tool control device 100 reverts to the sequential analysis mode when the change amount of a correction value, which was once within the range of threshold, becomes out of the range of threshold even after the advance analysis mode is set.", "The machine tool control device 100 can thus increase the accuracy of machining the workpiece W in accordance with the thermal displacement amount under the sequential analysis mode that is based on the latest correction amount [0041] This enables the machine tool M to maintain the highly accurate machining of the workpiece W. It is thus possible to increase the processing speed of machining the workpiece W by setting the machine tool control device 100 to the advance analysis mode and executing advance analysis, and to keep the accuracy of machining the workpiece W by setting the machine tool control device 100 back to the sequential analysis mode as need arises, without measuring or calculating a saturated thermal displacement amount in advance.", "The range of threshold is thus set as a machining error range that is acceptable with respect to planned dimensions of a workpiece.", "[0042] When the workpiece W is machined in the advance analysis mode, the processing speed increases by a certain percentage per machining cycle of the workpiece W in comparison with the sequential analysis mode.", "Thus, if a cycle time of one machining cycle in the sequential analysis mode is t and a percentage of increase per machining cycle is α%, then the processing time of the workpiece W can be reduce by α*t/100 per machining cycle.", "For example, if the processing speed increases 5% per machining cycle of the workpiece W in the advance analysis mode, then the reduction of processing time per machining cycle is 0.05 t. [0043] On the other hand, when the workpiece W is machined in the advance analysis mode, the advance analysis needs to be executed by the advance analysis control unit 120 before machining the workpiece W. A calculation time needed for executing the advance analysis, T, can be balanced out by machining the workpiece W in the advance analysis mode for T/(reduction of processing time) cycles.", "If the advance analysis mode continues for more than T/(reduction of processing time) cycles, or more than t*T/(reduction of processing time)=T/0.05, the whole machining time can be reduced.", "For example, if the reduction of processing time is 0.05 t as described above, the whole machining time can be reduced by machining the workpiece W in the advance analysis mode for more than t*T/0.05 t=T/0.05.", "[0044] If the machine tool control unit 100 switches from the advance analysis mode to the sequential analysis mode within t*T/(reduction of processing time) after switching from the sequential analysis mode to the advance analysis mode, however, the calculation time T that occurs when switching to the advance analysis mode cannot be balanced out.", "If the sequential analysis mode continues thereafter, the whole machining time will be rather longer.", "[0045] It is guessed that the machine tool control unit 100 switches from the advance analysis mode to the sequential analysis mode within t*T/(reduction of processing time) because thermal displacement is unstable.", "Thus, the mode switching unit 150 sets the certain period of time used in step S 209 as t*T/(reduction of processing time), such as T/0.05, and the sequential analysis continuous activation unit activates the sequential analysis mode for the sequential analysis execution period, regardless of the setting (on/off) of the advance analysis flag, when the machine tool control unit 100 switches from the advance analysis mode to the sequential analysis mode within t*T/(reduction of processing time).", "[0046] This prevents frequent switching between the sequential analysis mode and the advance analysis mode and restricts the increase in the machining time.", "The sequential analysis execution period may be any time period within which thermal displacement is expected to be stabilized, such as twice as long as t*T/(reduction of processing time).", "REFERENCE SIGNS LIST [0000] 100 Machine tool control device 110 Sequential analysis control unit 120 Advance analysis control unit 130 Correction amount calculation unit 140 Change amount calculation unit 150 Mode switching unit M Machine tool M 1 Main spindle M 2 Main spindle Z-axis motor M 3 Z-axis ball screw M 4 Working tool M 5 Tool post M 6 X-axis ball screw M 7 Tool post X-axis motor W Workpiece" ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 11/056,571, filed Feb. 11, 2005 now U.S. Pat. No. 7,379,277, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 09/966,843, filed Sep. 28, 2001 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,867,896), which is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 09/056,975, filed Apr. 8, 1998 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,674,562).", "The disclosures of all of the above-referenced prior applications, publications, and patents are considered part of the disclosure of this application, and are incorporated by reference herein.", "Moreover, the following patents and applications are also incorporated herein by reference: U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 08/238,750, filed May 5, 1994 (now U.S. Pat. No. 5,835,255);", "U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 08/554,630, filed Nov. 6, 1995 (now abandoned);", "and U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 08/769,947, filed Dec. 19, 1996 (now abandoned).", "BACKGROUND This invention relates to interferometric modulation.", "Interference modulators (IMods) are a broad class of devices that modulate incident light by the manipulation of admittance via the modification of the device's interferometric characteristics.", "Applications for such devices include displays, optical processing, and optical information storage.", "The parent application describes two kinds of structures whose impedance, the reciprocal of admittance, can be actively modified so that they can modulate light.", "One scheme is a deformable cavity whose optical properties can be altered by electrostatic deformation of one of the cavity walls.", "The composition and thickness of these walls, which consist of layers of dielectric, semiconductor, or metallic films, allows for a variety of modulator designs exhibiting different optical responses to applied voltages.", "One such design includes a filter described as a hybrid filter which has a narrow bandpass filter and an induced absorber.", "When the wall associated with the hybrid filter is brought into contact with a reflector, incident light of a certain range is absorbed.", "This occurs because the induced absorber matches the impedance of the reflector to that of the incident medium for the range of frequencies passed by the narrow-band filter.", "SUMMARY In general, in one aspect, the invention features an interferometric modulator comprising a cavity defined by two walls.", "At least two arms connect the two walls to permit motion of the walls relative to each other.", "The two arms are configured and attached to a first one of the walls in a manner that enables mechanical stress in the first wall to be relieved by motion of the first wall essentially within the plane of the first wall.", "Implementations of the invention may include one or more of the following features.", "The motion of the first wall may be rotational.", "Each of the arms has two ends, one of the ends attached to the first wall and a second end that is attached at a point that is fixed relative to a second one of the walls.", "The point of attachment of the second end is offset, with reference to an axis that is perpendicular to the first wall, from the end that is attached to the second wall.", "The first wall has two essentially straight edges and one end of each of the arms is attached at the middle of one of the edges or at the end of one of the edges.", "A third arm and a fourth arm also each connects the two walls.", "The arms define a pinwheel configuration.", "The lengths, thicknesses and positions of connection to the first wall of the arms may be configured to achieve a desired spring constant.", "In general, in another aspect, the invention features an array of interferometric modulators.", "Each of the interferometric modulators has a cavity defined by two walls and at least two arms connecting the two walls to permit motion of the walls relative to each other.", "The walls and arms of different ones of the modulators are configured to achieve different spring constants associated with motion of the walls relative to each other.", "In general, in another aspect, the invention features a method of fabricating an interferometric modulator, in which two walls of a cavity are formed, connected by at least two arms.", "After the forming, a first one of the walls is permitted to move in the plane of the first wall relative to the arms to relieve mechanical stress in the first wall.", "In general, in another aspect, the invention features an interferometric modulator comprising three walls that are generally parallel to one another.", "The walls are supported for movement of at least one of the walls relative to the other two.", "Control circuitry drives at least one of the walls to discrete positions representing three discrete states of operation of the modulator.", "Implementations of the invention may include one or more of the following features.", "In one of the three discrete states, there is a gap between the first and a second of the two walls and a gap between the second and a third of the two walls.", "In a second of the three discrete states, there is a gap between the first and the second of the two walls and no gap between the second and the third of the two walls.", "In the third of the three discrete states, there is no gap between the first and the second of the two walls and no gap between the second and the third of the two walls.", "Each membrane includes a combination of dielectric, metallic, or semiconducting films.", "In general, in another aspect, an interference modulator includes a cavity defined by two walls that are movable relative to one another to and from a contact position in which the two walls are essentially adjacent to one another.", "Spacers are mounted to form part of one of the walls to reduce the surface area over which the two walls touch in the contact position.", "Implementations of the invention may include one or more of the following features.", "The spacers comprise electrodes and conductors feed current to the electrodes.", "In general, in another aspect, the invention features an interference modulator comprising a cavity defined by two walls that are separated by a fluid-filled gap.", "The walls are movable relative to each other to change the volume of the gap.", "An aperture (e.g., a round hole in the center) in one of the walls is configured to control the damping effect of fluid moving into or out of the gap as the volume of the gap changes.", "In implementations of the invention, the aperture comprises a round hole in the center of the wall.", "In general, in another aspect, the invention features an interference modulator comprising at least two walls that are movable relative to each other to define a cavity between them.", "The relative positions of the walls define two modes, one in which the modulator reflects incident light and appears white and another in which the modulator absorbs incident light and appears black.", "In implementations, one of the walls may include a sandwich of a dielectric between metals, and the other of the walls may comprise a dielectric.", "In general, in another aspect, the invention features an interferometric modulator comprising a cavity defined by two walls with at least two arms connecting the two walls to permit motion of the walls relative to each other.", "The response time of the modulator is controlled to a predetermined value by a combination of at least two of: the lengths of the arms, the thickness of one of the walls, the thickness of the arms, the presence and dimensions of damping holes, and the ambient gas pressure in the vicinity of the modulator.", "In general, in another aspect, the invention features an interferometric modulator comprising a cavity defined by two walls, at least two arms connecting the two walls to permit motion of the walls relative to each.", "The modulator includes a charge deposition mitigating device includes at least one of actuation rails or the application of alternating polarity drive voltages.", "In general, in another aspect, the invention features an interferometric modulator comprising a cavity defined by two walls held by a support comprising two materials such that the electrical or mechanical properties of the mechanical support differ at different locations in a cross-section of the mechanical support.", "Implementations of the invention may include one or more of the following features.", "The support may include a laminate of two or more discrete materials or a gradient of two or more materials.", "The two materials exhibit respectively different and complementary electrical, mechanical, or optical properties.", "In general, in another aspect, the invention features, a method for use in fabricating a microelectromechanical structure, comprising using a gas phase etchant to remove a deposited sacrificial layer.", "In implementations of the invention, the MEMS may include an interference modulator in which a wall of the modulator is formed on the substrate and the gas phase etchant may remove the sacrificial layer from between the wall and the substrate.", "The gas phase etchant may include one of the following: XeF2, BrF3, ClF3, BrF5, or IF5.", "In general, in another aspect, the invention features a method of making arrays of MEMS (e.g., interference modulators) on a production line.", "Electronic features are formed on a surface of a glass or plastic substrate that is at least as large as 14″.", "times[.", "].16″, and electromechanical structures are micromachined on the substrate.", "In implementations of the invention, the steps of forming the electronic features overlap (or do not overlap) with steps of micromachining the structures.", "Other advantages and features will become apparent from the following description and from the claims.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1A is a perspective view of a double clamped IMod.", "FIG. 1B is a perspective view of an IMod with pinwheel tethers and a damping hole.", "FIG. 1C is a top view of an IMod with pinwheel tethers and a damping hole.", "FIG. 1D is a top view of an IMod with straight tethers.", "FIG. 2A shows a perspective view of a black and white IMod.", "FIG. 2B shows a side view of the IMod in two states.", "FIG. 2C illustrates the thin film structure of the IMod.", "FIG. 2D shows the spectral reflectance function of the IMod in its two states.", "FIG. 3A shows a perspective view of a multi-state IMod.", "FIG. 3B shows a top view.", "FIG. 3C shows a side view of the IMod in three states.", "FIG. 3D illustrates the thin film structure of the IMod.", "FIGS. 3E , 3 F, and 3 G show spectral reflectance functions of a green/white/black IMod, a red/white/black IMod, and a blue/white/black IMod, respectively.", "FIG. 4A shows the relationship between the multi-state IMod's states and the drive voltage.", "FIG. 4B shows the related electromechanical hysteresis curves.", "FIG. 4C illustrates one part of a drive circuit.", "FIG. 5A shows an IMod, illustrating the effects of charge injection, in the undriven state.", "FIG. 5B shows the IMod driven.", "FIG. 5C shows the IMod undriven after charge transfer.", "FIG. 5D shows the IMod with reverse polarity applied.", "FIG. 5E shows the IMod shows a reduced area electrode configuration, which reduces the effects of charge injection, as well as providing a higher resistance to electrical shorts.", "FIG. 6 is a side view of two IMods illustrating a mechanism to alter the spring constant.", "FIG. 7A shows a single material membrane tether support.", "FIG. 7B shows an alloyed or graded material membrane tether support.", "FIG. 8 is a diagram of layers of a modulator.", "FIG. 9 is a perspective view of cavities in a device.", "FIG. 10 is a diagram of a side view of a pixel device.", "FIG. 11 is a graph of the optical response for a cavity which appears black.", "FIG. 12 is a graph of the optical response for a cavity which appears blue.", "FIG. 13 is a graph of the optical response for a cavity which appears green.", "FIG. 14 is a graph of the optical response for a cavity which appears red.", "FIG. 15 is a graph of the optical response for a cavity which appears white.", "FIG. 16 is a perspective view of a fragment of a reflective flat panel display.", "FIGS. 17A , 17 B, 17 C, and 17 D are perspective views of different spacers during fabrication.", "FIGS. 18A , 18 B, 18 C, and 18 D are also perspective views of different spacers during fabrication.", "FIGS. 19A , 19 B, 19 C, 19 D are top views of a static graphic image.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION The optical impedance, the reciprocal of admittance, of an IMod can be actively modified so that it can modulate light.", "One way of doing this (some aspects of which are described in U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 08/238,750 filed May 5, 1994, and incorporated by reference) is by a deformable cavity whose optical properties can be altered by deformation, electrostatically or otherwise, of one or both of the cavity walls.", "The composition and thickness of these walls, which comprise layers of dielectric, semiconductor, or metallic films, allow for a variety of modulator designs exhibiting different optical responses to applied voltages.", "This scheme can be considered a form of microelectromechanical structure/system (MEMS).", "Another way of actively modifying the impedance of an IMod (some aspects of which are described in U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 08/554,630, filed Nov. 6, 1995, and incorporated by reference) relies on an induced absorber to regulate the optical response.", "Such an IMod may operate in reflective mode and can be fabricated simply and on a variety of substrates.", "Both the deformable and induced absorber schemes typically work in a binary mode, residing in one of two states, or an analog or tunable mode, residing in one of a continuous range of states.", "The difference between these two modes is based primarily on the mechanical design of the IMod structure.", "Some applications could use a multi-state IMod that can reside in more than two states based on its mechanics and structure.", "A multi-state IMod can offer several advantages from both an optical performance and digital driving perspective.", "Structural components in MEMS may exhibit residual film stress, the tendency of a deposited film, say of aluminum, to either shrink and crack (tensile stress) or push outward and buckle (compressive stress).", "A variety of factors contribute to the nature and magnitude of this stress.", "They include parameters of the deposition process as well as the temperature of the substrate during the deposition.", "Control of this stress determines, in part, the forces required to actuate the structures as well as the final shapes of the structures.", "For example, a self-supporting membrane with very high residual stress may require prohibitively high driving voltages to actuate.", "The same membrane also may twist or warp due to these forces.", "Actuation voltage, electromechanical behavior, and final shape are important characteristics of IMods.", "Some device applications exploit the electromechanical properties.", "Large area displays, for example, can take advantage of the inherent hysteresis of these structures in order to provide “memory”", "at the pixel location.", "However this requires that the IMods in a given array behave in a nearly identical fashion.", "Since their behavior is determined by the mechanical properties of the materials, among them residual stress, the films must be deposited with great consistency over the area of the display.", "This is not always readily attainable.", "FIG. 1A is an illustration of one IMod structural design, which has been discussed in previous patent applications.", "This design can be described as a “double clamped”", "beam in that it consists of a self-supporting beam go which is supported, or clamped, on both ends 92 .", "When this structure is subject to residual stress, the height of the membrane (the beam) can increase or decrease depending on whether the stress is compressive or tensile respectively.", "In FIG. 1A , membrane 90 is shown in a state of tensile stress, which causes the membrane to shrink in area.", "Because the structure is bound to the substrate at points 92 , the membrane height is decreased due to this shrinkage.", "Conversely membrane 94 , shown in compressive stress, attempts to expand with the end result being a net increase or decrease in height or overall bowing of the structure.", "FIG. 1B shows an improvement to this design.", "In this case, the movable secondary mirror 100 is connected to support posts 104 via tethers 102 .", "The IMod is fabricated on substrate 106 , and incorporates stiction bumps 108 .", "The structure has advantages with respect to residual stress.", "In particular, because tethers 102 are tangential to secondary mirror 100 , residual stress in the material will have a tendency to be relieved by causing the mirror 100 to twist in a clockwise direction or counter clockwise direction if the stress is compressive or tensile.", "This twist is illustrated for a tensile case in FIG. 1C .", "Because a tensile film has a tendency to shrink, the sides of secondary mirror 100 are pulled towards the support posts 104 with which they are associated, while the mirror remains in its original plane.", "The twisting relieves the residual stress of the structure.", "This stress relief occurs after the last step of the IMod fabrication when a supporting sacrificial spacer is removed from beneath the structure.", "Depending on the overall design of the IMod, a certain amount of structural rotation can be tolerated.", "Consequently, minute variations of residual stress across the expanse of a display array are mitigated or eliminated because each IMod rotates to its individual stress relieved position, all without affecting the optical properties.", "The other consequence of this relief is that stress no longer contributes, or contributes much less, to the electromechanical behavior of the device.", "Device characteristics such as voltage and resonant frequency are thus determined primarily by factors such as modulus of elasticity and film thickness.", "Both of these characteristics are more easily controlled during deposition.", "FIG. 1D illustrates another geometry for a stress relieving structure relying on straight tethers 102 .", "In this case, the mirror is rotating clockwise to relieve compressive stress.", "Other tether configurations, including curved or folded, are also possible, Referring again to FIG. 1B , a micro-electromechanical structure has a tendency to stick to a surface of a substrate that it touches during operation.", "Structures that minimize the area of contact between movable membrane 100 and the substrate can mitigate this phenomenon.", "Stiction bumps 108 can provide this mechanism by acting as supports which contact the membrane only over a relatively small area.", "These structures can be fabricated using the micromachining techniques described in the previous patent applications.", "They can also act as bottom electrodes if suitably insulated, and exhibit certain advantages over previously described designs, which will be discussed below.", "In this role they may be referred to as actuation rails.", "These structures may also be fabricated on the movable membrane.", "Referring again to FIG. 1B , damping hole 110 also enhances the performance of this structure.", "When the membrane is actuated i.e., pulled downward, the air between it and the substrate must be displaced.", "The same volume of air must be replaced when the membrane is allowed to deflect back to its quiescent position.", "The energy required to move this volume of air has the effect of slowing the motion of the membrane or damping its behavior.", "Damping is both a detriment and an advantage.", "Minimizing the response time of these devices is important in order to support the necessary display data rates, thus the desire exists to minimize damping.", "However it is also important to bring the membrane to fixed position very quickly in order to reduce the amount of light reflected, over time, which is not of the desired color.", "With insufficient damping, such a membrane can experience ringing, or decaying oscillation, when it is released into the undriven state.", "This should be minimized, and is also determined in part by damping.", "One method of optimizing damping is to provide a damping hole through the body of the membrane.", "The hole serves to provide a supplementary path for the air during the motion of the membrane.", "The force required to displace and replace the air is thus lessened, and the effect of damping reduced.", "Thus choosing the size of the hole during manufacture provides a mechanism for manipulating the amount of damping the IMod experiences, and therefore its response time.", "Stiction bumps, 108 , can also assist in minimizing damping.", "They do so by maintaining a finite distance between the membrane and substrate so that there is a path for airflow, between the membrane and the substrate, when the membrane is fully actuated.", "Another method for optimizing damping relies on control of the ambient gas pressure.", "Any IMod device, as described in previous patent applications, will be packaged in a container that provides a hermetic seal, using an inert gas.", "This prevents the introduction of both particulate contaminants as well as water vapor, both of which can degrade the performance of the IMod over time.", "The pressure of this gas has a direct bearing on the amount of damping that the packaged devices will experience.", "Thus, the damping, and response time, may also be optimized by determining the ambient gas pressure within the packaging during manufacture.", "A key metric of performance in a reflective flat panel display is its brightness.", "Most of these displays achieve color spatially, that is each pixel is divided into three sub-pixels corresponding to the colors red, blue, and green.", "White is achieved by maximizing the brightness of all three sub-pixels.", "Unfortunately, since each sub-pixel utilizes only about ⅓ of the light incident upon it, the overall brightness of the white state can be low.", "This can be resolved by utilizing a sub-pixel structure that is capable of directly achieving a white state, in addition to a particular color.", "In this fashion, the overall brightness of the display can be increased because a sub-pixel in a white state utilizes a significantly higher fraction of the light incident upon it.", "The IMod design described in patent application Ser.", "No. 08/554,630 is capable of reflecting either a particular color or exhibiting a “black”", "or absorbing state.", "This design can be modified to include alternative states.", "FIG. 2A shows a perspective view of an arrangement that is capable of a black state and a white state, and illustrates the previously described tether configuration.", "(The double-clamped membrane of FIG. 1A is also a usable mechanical design though with the mentioned sensitivities to stress.) FIG. 2B shows the IMod in the two states with 204 being the undriven state, and 206 being the driven state.", "In the driven state the IMod absorbs incident light and appears black to a viewer looking through substrate 202 .", "In the undriven state, the IMod appears white.", "FIG. 2C reveals details of the films involved.", "Movable membranes 208 , 210 , and 212 , comprise three films of a metal, a dielectric, and a metal, respectively.", "One example could utilize aluminum of 400 nanometers (nm) thick for metal 208 , silicon dioxide of 50 nm for dielectric 210 , and tungsten of 14.9 nm for metal 212 .", "Dielectric 214 could comprise a film of zirconium dioxide 54.36 nm thick, residing on substrate 26 .", "FIG. 2D illustrates the spectral reflectance function of this IMod design in the two states.", "Curves 216 and 218 reveal the reflectivity of the IMod in the white state and the black state, respectively FIG. 3A is a variation that is capable of three states.", "In this design, the thin film stack of the design in FIG. 2A has been broken into separate movable membranes.", "Membrane 300 is a metal, 400 nm of aluminum in this case, and membrane 302 is also a metal, 14 nm of tungsten for example.", "Because the tungsten is so thin, optically neutral structural films may be required to provide the requisite mechanical integrity, which could be in the form of a supporting frame.", "The air gap between the two membranes functions as the dielectric.", "FIG. 3B shows a top view of this IMod revealing detail of how actuation would occur.", "One complication of this design is that conducting membrane 302 shields membrane 300 from the electric fields produced by the stiction/actuation bumps.", "Lengthening membrane 300 at regions 303 , 304 so that it extends beyond the footprint of membrane 302 allows membrane 300 to “see”", "the electric fields via paths 305 , 307 and thus be acted upon by them.", "The three possible mechanical states, and associated dimensions, are illustrated in FIG. 3C .", "Airgap dimensions 308 and 310 could be 215 nm and 135 nm.", "FIG. 3D reveals detail of the thin films involved.", "Film 320 is a metal, 322 is an airgap which serves as a dielectric, 324 is also a metal, and 326 is a dielectric.", "FIG. 3E is a spectral reflectance plot of the three states.", "For the dimensions indicated, a black state (e.g. state 2 ), a blue state (state 0 ), and a white state (state 1 ) are possible, with the black, blue and white states corresponding to spectral reflectance plots, 334 , 332 , and 330 .", "FIG. 3F shows plots for an IMod with green and white states 336 and 334 , while FIG. 3G shows plots for an IMod with red and white states 340 and 338 .", "Like all IMods, this design exhibits electromechanical hysteresis, though it is more complicated than an IMod with only two states.", "There is a minimum voltage which, when applied, is sufficient to keep one or both membranes in a driven or actuated state despite the mechanical forces which seek to return them to their relaxed positions.", "FIG. 4A is a representative plot showing the relationship between applied voltage and the state of the IMod.", "A minimum bias, Vbias, is required to maintain the IMod in the state into which it has been driven.", "State 1 and State 2 are achieved by the application of voltages V 3 and V 4 .", "The related hysteresis diagram is shown in FIG. 4B , with curve 400 corresponding to the electromechanical response of movable plate 302 of FIG. 3A , and curve 402 corresponding to that of movable plate 300 .", "Vbias resides at the average of the centers of the two curves.", "FIG. 4C illustrates one part of a drive circuit required to actuate such a device.", "Output stage 406 consists of three transistors or other suitable switches that are connected in parallel to three different voltage sources, and the two movable plates of the IMod.", "Driver logic 404 responds to input signals 408 in a way that allows for the selection, via the output stage, of one particular voltage to be applied to the movable membranes of IMod 410 .", "When no voltage is applied, the IMod's membranes move to their relaxed state via mechanical forces.", "Another issue that can be encountered in movable membrane structures is that of charge deposition, a phenomenon illustrated in FIGS. 5A-5C .", "In FIG. 5A , a voltage is applied between movable plate 500 and fixed plate 504 .", "Layer 502 is an insulating film that resides on top of fixed plate 504 .", "If the applied voltage is sufficient to actuate the movable plate and it comes into contact with the insulator, as it does in FIG. 5B , it may deposit charge 506 on the insulator.", "One consequence of this is that the attractive force between plates 500 and 504 is reduced, and a higher voltage must be applied in order to achieve actuation ( FIG. 5C ).", "This condition can be resolved by applying alternating voltages to the structure.", "That is, for every intended actuation, change the polarity of the voltage that is applied such that the deposited charge is canceled out or actually exploited.", "FIG. 5D illustrates the effect of applying a reverse polarity.", "The other alternative is to eliminate the solid insulator and replace it with air.", "FIG. 5E illustrates the use of stiction bumps or actuation rails to accomplish this goal.", "Charge may still accumulate on these structures, but the area is much smaller, and therefore the accumulated charge is decreased.", "Reverse polarity and stiction bumps may also be used together.", "Electrical shorts are another concern for these devices.", "Referring again to FIG. 5A , the surface area of both the movable membrane (top electrode) 500 and the bottom electrode 504 are equivalent.", "When the device is actuated ( FIG. 5B ), pinholes in the insulator, 502 , could lead to electrical shorts and device failure.", "Utilizing a configuration like that shown in FIG. 5E can mitigate this issue by reducing the surface area of the surface electrode so that the probability of a short producing pinhole is reduced.", "The surface electrode, or stiction/actuation rail, serves the aforementioned function of stiction mitigation as well.", "Like stiction bumps, they may be fabricated on the movable membrane instead.", "Another issue that complicates the fabrication of a display based on IMods is the manufacturing of a full-color display.", "Since different colors in an IMod are achieved by the undriven spacing of the IMod, an array with three different colors will have subarrays of IMods with three different gap sizes.", "Consequently, there will be three different electromechanical responses for the driving electronics to contend with.", "The damping holes are one technique for compensating for the variation in electromechanical response from color to color.", "Another technique is to vary the thickness of either the membrane, in the double clamped IMod, or the tether thickness in the tether supported IMod.", "The latter technique is illustrated in FIG. 6 .", "Tether 600 on IMod 602 is fabricated so that it is thinner than tether 604 on IMod 606 .", "With the same bias voltage applied to both, IMod 602 is displaced further than IMod 606 because of its lower spring constant.", "Less force is required to actuate this structure and its mechanical response time is lower, and it is the mechanical response time that tends to dominate.", "This effectively changes the overall electromechanical response of the device and thus provides a way to compensate for spacing variation.", "The same technique applies to the double clamped design only the thickness of the entire membrane, or major parts of it, are varied.", "By way of example, an IMod that is red and therefore has a longer mechanical response time because of the greater undriven spacing, can be fabricated with a higher spring constant.", "This makes it possible to match its actuation time to that of, say, the blue IMod.", "In the tether supported IMod, the spring constant could be determined by lengths of the tether arms.", "A longer tether results in a lower spring constant and a shorter tether produces a higher constant.", "This could be accomplished, in the same amount of total device space, by varying the position along the edge of the movable membrane to which the tether is attached.", "Thus, a tether connected to the center of the membrane edge would have a lower (a higher) than one connected to the nearer (the farther) end, respectively.", "The concept of decoupling the optical properties of the movable membrane from the structural properties was discussed in the previous patent application.", "The fundamental idea is to fabricate a structure with separate elements designed and optimized to provide the required mechanical and structural characteristics and, independently, the required optical properties.", "FIG. 7A reveals more detail about one possible approach.", "In this case the movable membrane, 700 , is selected purely on the basis of it optical properties and membrane tether, 702 , for its advantageous mechanical properties.", "Aluminum, for example, has already been shown to be useful in several IMod designs from an optical perspective, though mechanically it is subject to fatigue and stress fractures.", "A more suitable material might be a dielectric like aluminum oxide, silicon oxide or silicon nitride, which could be used to construct the tether.", "FIG. 7B illustrates a variation on the theme where the tether is composed of either a laminated or graded material.", "In a laminated material, layers 706 and 710 might comprise films of aluminum oxide, providing good mechanical strength, and film 708 could be aluminum, providing electrical conductivity.", "For a graded material, layers 710 - 706 could be composed of a continuously varied material that is deposited so that at the inner surface it is pure aluminum, and at the outer surface it is pure aluminum oxide.", "This approach should be mechanically more robust than the laminate.", "Other manifestations of this technique are possible, including the use of different materials as well as alternate material variations.", "The general fabrication process described in the previous patent applications relies on the concept of surface micromachining, where a sacrificial layer is deposited, a structure is formed on top of it, and the sacrificial layer is etched away.", "One etch chemistry of particular interest utilizes a gas-phase etchant to remove the sacrificial layer.", "Candidates include gases known as XeF2, BrF3, ClF3, BrF5, and IF5.", "These gases have the advantageous property of etching materials such as silicon and tungsten spontaneously, and without the need for a plasma to activate the etch process.", "Because it is a gas phase etch, as opposed to a wet etch, the sacrificial etch step is much less complicated and provides additional flexibility in the kinds of structural materials which may be used.", "Furthermore it facilitates the fabrication of more elaborate devices with complex internal structures.", "Display applications, in general, require the ability to fabricate on relatively large substrates.", "While many finished display devices can be smaller than 1 square inch, most direct view displays start at several square inches and can be as large as several hundred square inches or larger.", "Additionally, these displays utilize glass or plastic substrates that are not found in traditional semiconductor manufacturing plants.", "MEMS, which are primarily both silicon based and fabricated on silicon substrates, have been historically fabricated in semiconductor type facilities.", "However the need to fabricate large arrays of MEM devices on large substrates, a need which is exemplified by an IMod based display, cannot be served using traditional semiconductor manufacturing practices or facilities.", "Alternatively, there exists a large and growing base of facilities that could also be applied to the manufacture of large arrays of IMods and other MEMS.", "This manufacturing base comprises facilities and factories that are currently used to manufacture Active Matrix LCDs.", "The book “Liquid Crystal Flat Panel Displays”, by William C. O'Mara, is incorporated herein by reference.", "These facilities are appropriate because the bulk of the fabrication process is related to the active matrix component, i.e. the thin film transistor (TFT) array that drives the LCD.", "While there exist a variety of TFT fabrication processes, they all share several components which make them amenable to the fabrication of large area surface micromachined MEMS.", "First, the substrate of choice is glass or plastic, which is readily available in large sized formats.", "In addition, key materials deposited include silicon, tungsten, molybdenum, and tantalum, all of which are suitable sacrificial materials for gas phase etchants, as well as tantalum pentoxide, silicon dioxide, silicon nitride, and aluminum, which are suitable optical, insulating, structural, optical, and conducting materials.", "In general, all photolithography, process tooling, and testing are oriented towards large arrays and large area devices.", "Finally, the process for fabricating the TFTs can be utilized to fabricate electronics in conjunction with the MEM devices in order to provide driver circuitry and intelligent logic functions.", "Thus in conjunction with the gas phase etch, Active Matrix LCD fabs and their associated processes provide a readily usable manufacturing vehicle for IMod based displays in particular, and large area (at least as large of 14″×16″) MEM devices in general.", "Two general approaches for fabricating TFTs and IMods or other MEM devices can be described as decoupled and overlapping.", "In the former the requisite TFT based circuitry is fabricated first, and then the IMods are fabricated subsequently.", "A more efficient approach is to fabricate the TFT array and the IMod array in a way that allows the sharing or overlapping of steps in each process.", "A representative TFT process sequence is shown in the following: 1.", "Deposit gate metal (molybdenum or tantalum for example).", "Pattern gate metal.", "Deposit insulator and amorphous silicon.", "Pattern insulator and silicon.", "Deposit display electrode (aluminum for example).", "Pattern display electrode.", "Deposit source/drain/signal line metal (aluminum).", "Pattern source/drain/signal line.", "Pattern silicon.", "10.", "Deposit passivation film.", "A representative IMod process sequence is shown in the following: 1.", "Deposit dielectric/primary mirror (molybdenum or tantalum for primary mirror).", "Pattern primary mirror.", "Deposit insulator and amorphous silicon.", "Pattern insulator and silicon.", "Deposit secondary mirror (aluminum) 6.", "Pattern secondary mirror.", "Etch sacrificial material (silicon).", "Comparison of these two process sequences reveals that steps 1-6 are functional equivalents on a fundamental level and, obviously, located at the same place in their respective sequences.", "This similarity benefits both the decoupled and overlapping processes in several ways.", "First, similarity in materials minimizes the total number of dedicated deposition tools required, as well as the number of etchant chemistries.", "Second, identical location of equivalent steps streamlines the overall process flow.", "Finally, for an overlapping process, some of the steps can be shared.", "The consequence of this is an overall reduction in the total number of process steps required to fabricate both the IMod array and the TFT circuitry, reducing both complexity and cost.", "In general the process and facilities for manufacturing the active matrix component of the AMLCD would appear to be ideally suited for IMod fabrication.", "Any thin film, medium, or substrate (which can be considered a thick film) can be defined in terms of a characteristic optical admittance.", "By considering only the reflectance, the operation of a thin film can be studied by treating it as an admittance transformer.", "That is, a think film or combination of thin films (the transformer) can alter the characteristic admittance of another thin film or substrate (the transformed film) upon which it is deposited.", "In this fashion a normally reflective film or substrate may have it's characteristic admittance altered (i.e., transformed) in such a way that its reflectivity is enhanced and/or degraded by the deposition of, or contact with, a transformer.", "In general there is always reflection at the interface between any combination of films, mediums, or substrates.", "The closer the admittance of the two, the lower the reflectance at the interface, to the point where the reflectance is zero when the admittances are matched.", "Referring to FIG. 8 , reflector 800 (the transformed film) is separated from induced absorber 805 (the transformer), comprising films 804 , 806 , and 808 , by variable thickness spacer 802 .", "Incident medium 810 bounds the other side of induced absorber 805 .", "Each of these thin films is micromachined in a fashion described in the parent patent application.", "Induced absorber 805 performs two functions.", "The first is to match the admittances of reflector 800 and incident medium 810 .", "This is accomplished via matching layer 808 , which is used to transform the admittance of absorber 806 to that of the incident medium 810 , and via matching layer 804 , which is used to transform the admittance of reflector 800 to that of absorber 806 .", "The second function is the absorption of light.", "This is accomplished using absorber 806 , which performs the function of attenuating light which is incident upon it through the medium, as well as light which is incident upon it from the reflector.", "The ability to alter the thickness T of spacer 802 allows the optical characteristics of the entire structure to be modified.", "Referring to FIG. 9 , pixel 900 is shown in the driven state and pixel 902 in the undriven state.", "In this case induced absorber 906 (the transformer) resides on substrate 904 and reflector 908 (the transformed film) is a self-supporting structure.", "Application of a voltage causes reflector 908 to come into contact or close proximity with induced absorber 906 .", "Proper selection of materials and thickness will result in a complete transformation of the admittance of reflector 908 to that of substrate 904 .", "Consequently, a range of frequencies of light 905 , which is incident through substrate 904 , will be significantly absorbed by the pixel.", "With no voltage applied, reflector 908 returns to its normal structural state which changes the relative admittances of the reflector and the substrate.", "In this state (pixel 902 ) the cavity behaves more like a resonant reflector, strongly reflecting certain frequencies while strongly absorbing others.", "Proper selection of materials thus allows for the fabrication of pixels which can switch from reflecting any color (or combination of colors) to absorbing (e.g., blue to black), or from reflecting any color combination to any other color (e.g., white to red).", "Referring to FIG. 10 , in a specific pixel design, substrate 1002 is glass, matching layer 1004 is a film of zirconium dioxide which is 54.46 nm thick, absorber 1006 is a tungsten film 14.49 nm thick, matching layer 1008 is a film of silicon dioxide 50 nm thick, spacer 1000 is air, and reflector 1010 is a film of silver at least 50 nm thick.", "Referring to FIG. 1 the optical response of the pixel is shown in the driven state, i.e., when reflector 1010 is in contact with matching layer 1008 resulting in a broad state of induced absorption.", "Referring to FIGS. 12-15 , the different color pixels are shown in respective undriven states which correspond to the reflection of blue, green, red, and white light, respectively.", "These responses correspond to undriven spacer thicknesses of 325, 435, 230, and 700 nm, respectively.", "Referring to FIG. 16 , a section of full color reflective flat panel display 1600 includes three kinds of pixels, R, G, and B. Each kind differs from the others only in the size of the undriven spacer which is determined during manufacture as described in the parent patent application.", "Induced absorber 1602 resides on substrate 1606 , and reflector 1610 is self-supporting.", "Monolithic backplate 1604 provides a hermitic seal and can consist a thick organic or inorganic film.", "Alternatively, the backplate may consist of a separate piece, such as glass, which has been aligned and bonded to the substrate.", "Electrodes may reside on this backplate so that the electromechanical performance of the pixels may be modified.", "Incident light 1612 is transmitted through optical compensation mechanism 1608 and substrate 1606 where it is selectively reflected or absorbed by a pixel.", "The display may be controlled and driven by circuitry of the kind described in the parent patent application.", "Optical compensation mechanism 1608 serves two functions in this display.", "The first is that of mitigating or eliminating the shift in reflected color with respect to the angle of incidence.", "This is a characteristic of all interference films and can be compensated for by using films with specifically tailored refractive indices or holographic properties, as well as films containing micro-optics;", "other ways may also be possible.", "The second function is to supply a supplemental frontlighting source.", "In this way, additional light can be added to the front of the display when ambient lighting conditions have significantly diminished thus allowing the display to perform in conditions ranging from intense brightness to total darkness.", "Such a frontlight could be fabricated using patterned organic emitters or edge lighting source coupled to a micro-optic array within the optical compensation film;", "other ways may also be possible.", "The general process for fabrication of the devices is set forth in the parent patent application.", "Additional details of two alternative ways to fabricate spacers with different sizes are as follows;", "other ways may also be possible.", "Both alternative processes involve the iterative deposition and patterning of a sacrificial spacer material which, in the final step of the larger process is, etched away to form an air-gap.", "Referring to FIG. 17A , substrate 1700 is shown with induced absorber 1702 already deposited and photoresist 1704 deposited and patterned.", "Induced absorber 1702 is deposited using any number of techniques for think film deposition including sputtering and e-beam deposition.", "The photoresist is deposited via spinning, and patterned by overexposure to produce a natural overhang resulting in a stencil.", "The result is that it may be used to pattern subsequently deposited materials using a procedure known as lift-off.", "Referring to FIG. 17B , spacer material 1706 has been deposited, resulting in excess spacer material 1708 on top of the stencil.", "Referring to FIG. 17C , the stencil along with the excess spacer material have been lifted off by immersing the device in a bath of solvent such as acetone and agitating it with ultrasound.", "Referring to FIG. 17D , the process has begun again with new photoresist 1710 having been deposited patterned in a fashion such that new spacer 1712 is deposited adjacent to the old spacer 1706 .", "Repeating the process once more results in spacers with three different thicknesses.", "Referring to FIG. 17D , the process has begun again with new photoresist 1710 having been deposited patterned in a fashion such that new spacer 1712 , with a different thickness, is deposited adjacent to the old spacer 1706 .", "Referring to FIG. 18A , substrate 1800 is shown with induced absorber 1802 already deposited.", "Spacer materials 1804 , 1806 , and 1808 have also been deposited and patterned by virtue of lift-off stencil 1810 .", "The spacer materials have a thickness corresponding to the maximum of the three thicknesses required for the pixels.", "Referring to FIG. 18B , the stencil along with the excess material has been lifted off and new photoresist 1812 has been deposited and patterned such that spacer 1804 has been left exposed.", "Referring to FIG. 18C , spacer material 1804 has been etched back via one of a number of techniques which include wet chemical etching, and reactive ion etching.", "Only a portion of the required spacer material is etched away, with the remainder to be etched in a subsequent etch step.", "Photoresist 1812 is subsequently removed using a similar technique.", "Referring to FIG. 18D , new photoresist 1814 has been deposited and patterned exposing spacers 1804 and 1806 .", "The entire etch of spacer 1806 is performed in this step, and the etch of spacer 1804 is completed.", "Photoresist 1814 is subsequently removed and the process is complete.", "For example, the spacer material need not ultimately be etched away but may remain instead a part of the finished device.", "In this fashion, and using the previously described patterning techniques, arbitrary patterns may be fabricated instead of arrays of simple pixels.", "Full color static graphical images may thus be rendered in a method which is analogous to a conventional printing process.", "In conventional printing, an image is broken up into color separations which are basically monochrome graphical subsets of the image, which correspond to the different colors represented, i.e., a red separation, a blue separation, a green separation, and a black separation.", "The full-color image is produced by printing each separation using a different colored ink on the same area.", "Alternatively, in a process which we will call “Iridescent Printing”, the different separations are composed of layers of thin films which correspond to the IMod design described here and those in the referenced patent.", "Patterning or printing a combination of colors or separations on the same area, allows for brilliant full-color images to be produced.", "Referring to FIG. 19A , a square substrate is shown with area 1900 representing the portion of the substrate which has been patterned with a thin film stack optimized for black.", "Referring to FIG. 19B , the substrate has been subsequently patterned with a thin film stack optimized for red in area 1902 .", "Referring to FIG. 19C , the substrate has been subsequently patterned with a thin film stack optimized for green in area 1904 .", "Referring to FIG. 19D , the substrate has been subsequently patterned with a think film stack optimized for blue in area 1906 .", "Alternatively, a simpler process can be obtained if only the induced absorber design is used.", "In this process, the entire substrate is first coated with the induced absorber stack.", "Subsequent steps are then used to pattern the spacer material only, using the aforementioned techniques.", "After the desired spacers, i.e., colors are defined, a final deposition of a reflector is performed.", "The brightness of different colors can be altered by varying the amount of black interspersed with the particular color, i.e., spatial dithering.", "The images also exhibit the pleasing shift of color with respect to viewing angle known as iridescence.", "In another example, a reflective flat panel display may also be fabricated using a single kind of pixel instead of three.", "Multiple colors, in this case, are obtained through fabricating the pixels in the form of continuously tunable or analog interferometric modulators as described in the parent patent application.", "In this fashion, any individual pixel may, by the application of the appropriate voltage, be tuned to reflect any specific color.", "This would require that the array be fabricated on a substrate along with electronic circuitry, or directly on the surface of an integrated circuit, in order to provide a charge storage mechanism.", "This approach, though it requires a more complicated driving scheme relying on analog voltages, provides superior resolution.", "It would also find application in a projection system.", "Other embodiments are within the scope of the following claims." ]